VIDEO CLUB: Ne-Yo, Martina Topley-Bird, Nelly & Fergie Ferg

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

We haven't had one of these for a while!

We all know Ne-Yo is amazing, right? Here he is, femme fatale fixation still firmly in place, with a NEW SINGLE hurrah - less lyrical oddities this time round but love the 4/4 beat (but more banging than 'Because Of You') and almost Balearic guitar. Great video, too.

The likes of Róisín Murphy and Alison Goldfrapp tend to find favour round here, but what of that other leading lady of trip-hop, Martina Topley-Bird? I've always been easily seduced by her voice - her new album The Blue God is v good indeed, and the best moment is the lead single 'Carnies'. (NB: her new single 'Poison' has a Van She remix which will be of interest certain elements of this community.)

And last - we have touched upon the Nelly & Fergie single before, but the video has only just appeared and it's TERRIFIC, totally crunk. Fergie really works it during her rap, and Nelly is clearly v keen to show us just how much he's buffed up. According to the year in pop polls only seven of us like this - I am charitably going to assume this is because you have not heard it, rather than because you have terrible taste.

Comments

[koganbot]

I've never paid much attention to Ne-Yo and wouldn't recognize his voice. Male r&b guys tend to get lost for me, even though suddenly a track or two (by, say, Lloyd) can hit me hard. "Closer" isn't hitting hard but is reaching me, the drive of the 4/4 helping to prevent the voice from burying itself in the arrangement. (And if I were listening to the r&b differently or better I might be more likely to feel the vocalists as interacting with the arrangements, rather than suppressing themselves.) Anyway, this doesn't quite push it for me with the voice, but agree with Tom that it could be a grower. And Ne-Yo does an interesting thing that I think of as more typical in current r&b than in current not-so-r&b: in the part where he sings "I can feel her on my skin" he's singing less typical notes (rather than hanging out with the standard dos, mis, and sols). Or I think he is (haven't actually analyzed the notes).

I don't know if I've previously heard Martina Topley-Bird. Seldom has heard a Ms. Topley-Bird, and the skies are not drippy all day. Not to imply that her singing is drippy. "Quirky," more like, in the current quirky manner. I wouldn't have thought of this as trip-hop if Lex hadn't used the word, but I'm an ignorant American. I think I like this, the slow half-hesitation half-drawl in her singing. Appropriately, the repetitive little blip note gives this an amusement-park feel.

I don't remember if I ticked "Party People" but I'm guessing not, though my problem this listen might be somewhat due to the weakness of a YouTube rip. The vocals get lost in pale murk, only really grab me when Fergie grabs the spotlight and starts talking. About two-thirds of the way through the rhythm suddenly hits me as forceful, and I'm thinking this track might have worked better if the vocals had been suppressed even more and the bottom augmented. Seems neither fish nor foul, but tracky tracks like this can have a delayed impact.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Did you ever hear Tricky's stuff in the 90s? Martina Topley-Bird was his singer and muse.

I think I was won over by Ne-Yo when I first started paying attention to his songwriting credits - it's quite a list (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ne-yo#Songwriting_credits) - which in turn made me pay attention to his songwriting in general, esp his often odd and v individual lyrics and imagery. 'Addicted' off his last album is probably my favourite. Cis and I did a WICKED karaoke 'So Sick' in Tokyo.

[koganbot]

I might have a cassette of Maxinquaye somewhere, though if so it's buried somewhere I can't find it. Presumably our heroine is musing all over it, though the track that remains in my memory is the one where he's cocking his rifle, which I don't remember having a Topley-Bird type.

that would be 'Strugglin''

[(Anonymous)]

...don'tcha know. she was fully present...

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

This is probably my favourite Tricky track, and Martina is superb on it - 'Ponderosa' (http://youtube.com/watch?v=ekpn4mmv9L0).