Another Year In Pop: 13

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Britney! Jeezy! Blunty! Snoopy! Probably not the best song called "Heartbeat" ever recorded!

[Poll #1163384]

Last week Estelle got more best votes than Madonna (just about) and One Night Only got more best votes than Sam Sparro (just about - tho someone voted Sparro best and nobody voted ONO best).

Comments

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

have you c0cked up the poll? it says i'm not allowed to see it after voting...

...admittedly i was only going to vote for "not heard any"...

and there was me thinking that i was keeping up with modern pop for once...

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Try again - I cocked it up by posting it in my own journal first but I've now made that entry public so it should work here if I understand the LJ kobolds properly.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

ah yes, that's better :)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Usher ft Young Jeezy (official charts company says its YJ, all I can find is Chris Brown tho) - anyway this is TERRIFIC, lovely shimmering synth'n'b epic, I'm surprised it's not higher and maybe it will be! Easy tick!

James Blunt always sounds so creepy when he's singing about women. WHICH IS ALWAYS! No tick even if the song was above average, which it isn't except by his standards.

I'm too British this week for Snoop. No tick.

T-Pain is good too! Very skittery busy hip-hop, the kind of thing that got Outkast so many nindie fans so if you liked them then listen to this! Hearty tick.

Britney - yes, obvious tick, far from the best next single but not the worst either. Very mournful and cold despite lyrical sentiments. Big tick.

Scouting For Girls uses the same opening trick as the Big Black "Heartbeat" (it's not a very unobvious trick). I think this is SFG's best record yet, thoroughly non-obnoxious, if it was McFly it would get a decent haul of ticks I think and it will get one from me now!

Snoop video: worth a punt!

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

The song is good too! I like Snoop-through-a-vocoder and the whooshy-washy synths.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I listened to Usher the other day and was underwhelmed. It might be a grower though.

Snoop - kinda awesome! Tickety tick.

Blunt - LAME, esp after 1973 was pretty good. I think he should do an album of lounge covers, he's sleazy anyway so he might as well put it to good use instead of feigning sincerity.

T-Pain - GREBT! Blimey how have I not heard this before just now? Good spot re: Outkast, it's the squirrelly guitar sample that makes it! Gravity-defying breakdancing in the video (http://youtube.com/watch?v=Xoew5aoOuTY) too :)

The Britney video is SO TERRIBLE as previously discussed - I think the song is in the bottom half of the album but that's still pretty good going. Tick awarded for the lovely gay disco remix here (http://youtube.com/watch?v=l7KE3c2Htr0).

SFG - Hi dere we have ONE idea and are going to flog it until you puny mortals submit to exactly the same chorus AGAIN AND AGAIN. :(

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Usher - yeah this is pretty great, I think it's gotten a lot of stick but I don't get why; maybe because people really expect Usher to reinvent pop every time he releases a lead single (classics like 'Pop Ya Collar' and 'Yeah' will get you that kind of rep), and this may be a bit of a retread of eg Bobby Valentino and other shimmer'n'b hotness, but it's still effective. Love the bass synth rumbles.

Rhyming Slang - I did not bother

Snoop - aw man this is still so awesome and brilliant. Heard it in a club for the first time on Friday, everyone went nuts. Such fun. Must hear the new Snoop album. I love the way Snoop's persona is genial gentleman gangsta these days, flirting with Barbara Walters etc all the while wearing the most fantastically beatific smile (stoned out of his gourd).

T-Pain - haha big ups Step Up 2 The Streets soundtrack, I've noticed a lot of random cuts off it charting in the nether regions of the chart recently (Cassie among them! 'Is It You?' is already at No 55!). This is great, jittery and catchy. Not as good as 'Buy U A Drank' or his turn on 'Shawty Get Loose' (WHAT IT DO (DO)! TEDDY TO THE PIZZAIN!) but those are v high standards he's set.

Britney - yeah obv, it was one of my immediate favourites off Blackout and this hasn't really changed; it's prob my 5th favourite? The ravey synths are majestic on headphones and the galloping beats really propel it along. And the "heart beating like an 808" line = pop moment of 08.

SFG - did not bother fuck off.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

must say this is a pretty vintage week for singles, all in all and ignoring Blunt and SFG.

Also: Estelle and Flo Rida - when was the last time the top 2 was this good? Oh probably Leona and T2 actually.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Speaking of T2 I see "Gonna Be Mine" has completely failed to go Top 40 - is there some kind of release date shenanigans afoot or is this bassline's first (completely unjust!) failure?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I've absolutely no idea! Bizarre to say the least - it's been physically released, I'm sure I saw it on some sort of R1 playlist...I think crediting it to Addictive was a mistake (b/c no one knows who they are), I don't think it went through T2's PR company and wasn't the 'official' follow-up to 'Heartbroken'. Dunno what went wrong though!

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

It's actually one of the few records to have failed to improve its chart position on physical release. And apparently it was getting quite heavy rotation on TV music channels too so I'm mystified.

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

Funnily enough this is the first Usher single I've ever liked. I hated those other singles of his you mention.

Have you heard the Snoop fix that features Robyn?!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I don't really recall ever hating any Usher single. He's about as classic as classic can be.

I have heard the Snoop/Robyn remix - I hate the woman but she can bring it on occasion. I didn't want to mention it through fear of loads of people saying the only like it because of her, which would be just WRONG and INFURIATING.

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

Funnily enough I love Robyn but hate that remix. Much prefer the version which just has Snoop on.

What's Wrong?

[koganbot]

So far there's an annoying lack of hatred for Scouting For Girls. They're a stupid mess, whereas Blunt is merely a fairly sweet singer who has trouble taking the sweetness beyond dullness (his track was a borderline nontick for me).

[Comment transferred from freakytigger's journal.]

Re: What's Wrong?

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I think everyone's failing to bother to look up the SFG, since they're such an obviously hateful collective of jaunt-mongery. The mere idea that that band are getting A-list Radio One play time makes me want to disown music. I mean, 'Heartbeat' isn't quite as unmitigatedly awful as that 'She's So Lovely' song and I actually sort of like that one about Elvis not being dead but UGH it is all still HORRIBLE.

My brother wanted the SFG album for his birthday. :( :( :( I got him the original As Heard On Radio Soulwax, instead.

Re: What's Wrong?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Blunt's voice is nails-on-blackboard terrible though.

(I don't actually know which is worse as I am endeavouring never to hear either if I can help it)

[koganbot]

Usher f. Young Jeezy "Love In This Club": Who gives a fuck if you wanna make love or where you want to make it! What a bore. And a mildly irritating one at that. But this is serviceably pretty. Better than that, actually. Reluctant TICK.

James Blunt "Carry You Home": Nicely noodling guitar, voice adds little squibs of frosting, but the prettiness isn't enough to sustain its three-and-a-half-minutes of fame. Borderline NONTICK.

Snoop Dogg "Sensual Seduction": The parody love man is more engaging than Usher, the real one. (Snoop is a subject for further thought from me. Strange that he's doing so well with a song that sidesteps his great strength as a rapper with a deeply menacing gorgeous voice. And, given his voice, possibly the best a rapper has ever had, simultaneously affable and chilling, I wonder why I don't generally like his music more. I've had a hits CD of his sitting around half-listened to for about three years now.) TICK.

T-Pain f. Teddy Verseti "Church": Light and hyperkinetic. Funny. TICK.

Britney Spears "Break The Ice": Sexy, insinuating, strange. MAMMOTH TICK.

Scouting For Girls "Heartbeat": An oversinger, various tunes and beats cluttering this up, a total mess, attempts at emotion spurting this way and that. Buried in here would be an OK pop song, if you had someone else singing and you didn't surround him with this frenetic, danceless hurdy gurdy. Terrible. NO TICK.

[comments transferred from freakytigger's journal]