Another Year In Pop: 9

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Stagnation in full effect at the top end of the chart, with the entire Top 6 non-movers and the next four just shuffling about a bit. Is there anything going on at the back? See for yourselves!

[Poll #1148002]

Comments

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

got a bit excited at the prospect of ticking all four but not feeling the Leona sadly.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

# of new entries in first 9 weeks of 2007: 68 (7.6/week)
# of new entries in first 9 weeks of 2008: 51 (5.7/week)

Record industry contraction? Download effect? Fluke?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Oh man all my comments got eaten - very quickly:

ALPHABEAT: First time I've heard them I think. Disappointing back-to-1983 power pop done with enough gumption to get a tick.

DELINQUENT: Obvious to me now that all bassline for the next 6 months will get a tick. Combination of delicacy and wub-wub bass works a treat.

GIRLS ALOUD: Tick witheld for releasing the worst track on the album as a single.

LEONA: Big ballad, big chorus, happy to tick this on the promise of seriously anthemic ghey trance remixes to follow.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Leona - hmmm dunno about this. My beef is kind of the same as with that last Alicia Keys single: her vocal is less gasping but there's hardly any variation in the main melody, just an "aaaeeeaeaeaeeieiieaaaaaa" around the same old notes all the time. They should have pumped up the backing vox (the 'allll get better in time' bits) and given it some depth. Can't find any remixes on youtube yet :(

Alphabeat - I love this, mainly because of their perky faces. The dude looks a bit like Morten Harket was presenting Playschool, ie lovely. I'm sure I'll get sick of it soon but awwww they're so cute.

Gels - It sounds much better if you haven't listened to all the best tracks on the album just beforehand. Oh go on, tick.

Delinquent - ah this was on video club, wasn't it? Yep, tickety tick.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

YES:

Delinquent and Kcat - awesome obv, deserves to run away with the win. The most 2-step of the bassline hitz thus far - love the plucked guitar line, love that Kcat sounds like she's in some sort of blissful reverie, omg is this BALEARIC BASSLINE?? It's beautiful regardless.

Leona - I thought this was OK when I youtubed it a week or so ago, which is exactly what I thought when I first heard 'Bleeding Love'. Over the 5000 years 'Bleeding Love' spent at No 1 I gradually realised that it wasn't merely OK, it was in fact a classic pop song of epic proportions, so I'm hoping 'Better In Time' does the same. (It's a double A-side with another song called 'Footprints In The Sand' which is genuinely rub, though.)

NO:

Girls Aloud - this is the first GA single EVER which isn't "any good at all" :( It's just very boring.

Alphabeat - making office parties gayer doesn't make them any more fun ffs. Galumphing, clumsy, offensively jolly. Awful. You're all going to tick this and not Delinquent, aren't you? :(

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

You're all going to tick this and not Delinquent, aren't you? :(
Not me! These 80s pop revivalists are leaving me cold too. I'm not really feeling that BWO single either. Sorry, Jessica.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Hurrah!

I've hated BWO longtime and am irritated to find them in the top 75.

OMG though what is that I see at No 98 - wtf BENGA AND COKI'S 'NIGHT' IS IN THE TOP 100. How did that happen???!!! Amazing but...wow. I wonder if it will go any higher!

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

Girls Aloud - this is the first GA single EVER which isn't "any good at all" :( It's just very boring.

You are stupid.

Also, how can you not think this is funny? "My love for you is epic! I cry! I fall! Why won't you talk to me? I must tell you how I feel! Um...but I can't speak French, sux."

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

oh it's probably funny but the music just lopes along clumsily. I'm over Girls Aloud like Cheryl should be over Ashley.

[miss-newham.livejournal.com]

The first time I heard Alphabeat I thought it was a song from 'High School Musical'. But that's all right!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

It reminds me of post-Bucks-Fizz Eurovision contenders, mostly. There are worse things in life than sounding a bit like Belle And The Devotions* - but there are plenty of better things too.

*or whoever.

[miss-newham.livejournal.com]

I know a bunch of Danish teenagers and they are VERY EXCITED about Alphabeat, which is terribly endearing.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

It is unfortunate that the only one I haven't yet heard or ticked is the Leona. Which I am sort of meant to be writing a review on, like, yesterday.

Anyway. Alphabeat wildly underwhelm me most of the time ('10,000 Nights Of Thunder' sort of massively pisses me off) but 'Fascination' hit me at a weak point in Woolies the other day so that's alright, the Delinquent ft. KCat is between 'quite good' and 'amazing' as far as I can remember although admitedly I haven't actually listened to it for awhile and the Girls Aloud is alright, although I always skip it when listening to the album and if they don't release 'Girl Overboard' or 'Damn' soon I will pretty much explode.

[umlauts.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the Alphabeat album is rather underwhelming. Only half of it's good, the rest is kind of functional but dull.

NOTE RECORD COMPANY PEOPLE: If you get a hit with "Fascination", please do not release "10000 Nights" as the follow-up. For god's sake, "What Is Happening". That is all.

I remain the only person who thinks that "Can't Speak French" is the obvious third single on Tangled Up, and I can't be arsed explaining why. I can't bear to listen to any of the songs off it past "Control Of The Knife" so I must be an old curmudgeon by now but THERE ARE NO TUNES IN THE SECOND HALF.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

I think if I'd heard Alphabeat before I saw the video I would like it a lot more. In the video they look like Belle and Sebastian / Franz Ferdinand Glasgow indie hipster c*nts, which jars with the era which the song is harking back to and makes what could have been a pleasant romp sound hollow to me. I realised the other day that Vampire Weekend sound like Orange Juice, reimagined in a post-B&S world.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

i played felicity then oxford comma on saturday to kind of make this point. unfortunately miss_newham didn't follow "you can call me al" with "cape cod kwassa kwassa" later in the evening...

[(Anonymous)]

Hah, I said "Haircut 100" the first time I heard Vampire Weekend. But Orange Juice'll do.

Re: I SEE THROUGH YOUR MINISTRY OF TRUTH

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

erm ah um

Re: I SEE THROUGH YOUR MINISTRY OF TRUTH

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

were you thinking of ticking it will?!

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

would a 'which one do you like best' option make these polls better? GA always do well as common denominator (ala LCD in hip critic polls) but i'd probably say Delinquent is better. weird week tho.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

That is a very simple, obvious, good idea! I will incorporate it from next week, so Westlife X can get their due.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

is it just me or have less people been voting in these recently? songs are struggling to get above 20 these days.

also, all I ever see is love for bassline, but this...just doesn't ever translate into ticks :(

[koganbot]

Girls Aloud "Can't Speak French": Um, what funky music? Where's the spirit, where's... oh, I give up. No tick.

Alphabeat "Fascination": The voices are pale, unaffected boring. Then they get all excited towards the end, which is irritating. No tick.

Delinquent f. Kcat "Destiny": This is a nice but run-of-the-mill disco track w/ rubbery beats. Which is enough for a tick, I guess.

Leona Lewis "Better In Time": Good basic emotional voice, not finding a melody to get emotional about, however. No tick.

My Destiny: 3 tickworthy versions

[tjanik.livejournal.com]

2-step (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCjclWGkHY8), 4x4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9e3SP6nVfE) and 2007 bassline remix (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny49cXj_CyU)