Binary Friday III

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Pop Trumps is indisposed so for the third Friday running...

[Poll #1154062]

Last week's verdicts:

ARETHA beat James Brown 22-14
REMIX CDs thumped Live Albums 28-10
ORGAN SOLO is the best of all the solos (surely some etc.)
CANADA beat Australia 26-12
AUTOBAHN is king of the road.
FFWD trumps RWD 21-14
THE 70s beat The 60s 23-15
2-STEP just beat Two-Tone 19-18
ROCK beat Soul 23-19
GIRL POWER and RIOT GIRL drew!! and are scientifically identical
"SAFE" thrashed Bland 30-7
PASSION pulverised Fashion 29-7

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of biased in that I just had to review the awful new Guillemots album - the press release says the band wanted to go for an 80s sound, they called it "big pop", and I suddenly realised this is exactly what that terrible Alphabeat group are doing, and then I suddenly remembered a load of horrible naff 80s British pop which I REALLY HATE...I am done with the 80s right now.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I actually really like all that 80s stuff but I definitely wouldn't want anyone to make any more of it.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

It's all a bit galumphing and clumsy for me. I'm trying to figure out what angle to go for re: Guillemots; I can hear what they're going for, and I think they do that really well (hooks aplenty and so on, totally graceless and pointless but those seem to be hallmarks of the genre) but I just HATE THEIR ENTIRE AESTHETIC SO MUCH.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The "does something you don't like well" is a real critic's dilemma I agree. I'd be inclined to turn a review down if I thought a record fell into that, cos I wouldn't see my job as warning people who WOULD like something off it. (but then I have the luxury of a regular column where I can rail more generally against Incorrect Thought in the music industry if needs be)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yeah I was commissioned this one - I think the Grau is wary of people reviewing what they want every week cuz that means all the reviews are always positive so occasionally my editor switches it all up. And I have been VERY positive about stuff I wanted recently.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I know exactly what you mean. There were a few terrible examples of this in the Troubled Diva "Which Decade?" fites the other week. However there were a few pleasant 80s surprises too and even MOAR truly horrible 90s pop representing. So in the end, and slightly to my surprise, I've plumped for 80s today.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

also I like Guillemots new single!

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

The video to that Alphabeat record drove me to an incoherent rage when I saw it on Monday night. There is something thoroughly objectionable about it, but I can't work out what.