Another Year In Pop: 19

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Madge is still at the top, and Coldplay get into the top 10 despite giving their single away for free! Some people have no sense when it comes to economics, do they?

[Poll #1186504]

Comments

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

I ticked the only three songs I know, Kylie, Ne-Yo, and Sara Bareilles. I will go back and listen later.

I really love "Love Song". It's one of the best plucky piano female songs of the decade! There's a pretty good chance it will be in my top 10 of the year.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

GOOD

Ne-Yo - pick of the week, I absolutely love this and indeed it has been on poptimists before (http://community.livejournal.com/poptimists/575729.html) - don't be afraid to click on that link if you're even contemplating "not heard any", new music doesn't bite you know...anyway it's rapidly becoming one of my favourite singles of the year, Balearic bliss teetering on a high wire, paranoia and pleasure.

Wideboys & Shaznay - hurrah bassline. I don't think I love this quite as much as T2/H2O/Delinquent/TS7 etc but it's terrific anyway, whomp whomp propulsive.

Santogold - this finally grew on me once I started thinking of it as another version of 'Outta My Head' (which is one place above it!), and I like the Karen O tinge to her vox (the comparison is fairly meaningless otherwise though). Downloaded the album at the weekend, looking forward to it...

BAD

Kylie - completely unmemorable and blah. lazy.

Coldplay - this isn't THAT bad, but it is still bad. wtf is with that awful guitar riff which seems completely out of place?

Sara Bareilles - this IS that bad. shudder. when I checked it out a couple of weeks ago it really reminded of something really terrible but I can't even remember what that was now.

Pigeon Detectives - this is pretty certain to be that bad, so didn't bother

BENEATH MY DIGNITY TO EVEN MENTION

The disgusting football one

NB

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Ne-Yo's impending album is called YEAR OF THE GENTLEMAN and I cannot wait.

[koganbot]

Have you had a chance to listen to LiLo's "Bossy" yet? (Written by Ne-Yo and Stargate.) Is being bad-mouthed even by Lohan fans, but I like it.

Depressed that Ashlee is slipping down the charts after only three weeks (though that's three more weeks than "Outta My Head" ever got here in the U.S.).

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

No it's still really impressive - the physical release (which normally triggers the biggest climb for a single, eg the Kylie from No 49 to No 10 this week) isn't until the 19th so the fact that it's charting on downloads alone so far in advance is fantastic. I'd expect Ashlee to bibble around her current position next week, and then climb the week after. To where, who knows - I've no idea how much support 'Outta My Head' is getting - but I'd guess top 20.

I listened to 'Bossy' once and didn't really feel it one way or the other, a couple more listens will reveal all I guess. I was a bit alarmed by the Hilarity Duff track though and am glad it is only in character.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Coldplay - Hahaha Chris Martin has found Phil Collins' old microphone! It's not actually terrible by any means, but I can only assume they want to make as much $$$ as the Eagles have, and are going to achieve this by listening to 'Witchy Woman' over and over again. Best bits: quiet breakdown at the end is a good contrast with the prairie-rock that's gone before. I don't think the riff is catchy enough to Ronson-ise (cf God Put An Smile On Yr Mug) but I am interested enough to want to hear this again and see what I can get out of it. Surprising tick.

Kylie - I like the spoken intro! She should do more spoken bits. Over minimal techno perhaps. I can't help wishing she'd sung that Hot Chip song instead. I can't fault the Minoguester on her vocal, she's nailing every note but the notes themselves aren't v inspiring. At least she looks good in this video, but nothing is ever going to be as good as 'Come Into My World', is it? :-/

Footballism - Oh dear, it's that time of year isn't it? Good rhyme with 'wishing' and 'mission' though! Excellent use of bewildered footballers staring at a microphone in the video + references to team members to help trivia fans remember who was playing in this particular match in twenty years' time. Good 'der-der-der-der's as well! If I had any vague interest in Cardiff City FC I would probably tick this, but as it is, I don't.

Ne-Yo - Hmmm, dunno about this. It starts off really promising, but just when you think Ne-Yo is going for a new bosh direction it splutters and chokes, then takes ages to pick back up again. Are there any decent remixes of this with a nice meaty bassline? I'm not going to tick it otherwise.

Pigeons - Lacklustre start isn't filling me with confidence. I would rather listen to 'What Do You Want From Me' by Monaco kthx.

wideboys - Default Damager Power To The Shaznay! This was good when the Lex posted the video the other month and is still good now. Best bit: milk-bottle echo noise in the chorus, "Hold, tight, think I might be losing my control..." This easily stands up to the awesome Sound Of Bassline stuff, tickety tick.

Santogold - I've heard this song four times now and I still don't get it. 'Creator' has brilliant texture and phrasing and momentum and eye-rolling awesomeness, but this is plodding and uninspiring sub-Hot Chip burbling that even a great video can't save. No tick.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

'This was good when the Lex posted the video the other month '

I am not the Lex!

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Sorry dude! :)

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

I don't mind really, also worth it to see that maidmarian avatar

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

also it is 1xHONOUR to be mistaken for me :D

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Whoops, forgot Sara Bareilles. Aha, is this the new KT Tunstall? Oooooooooo she has a chorus! This is very much like the Feeling and indeed, I like it. She doesn't have the annoying vocal inflections of Gnash or Thom or whatsherface out of the Pretenders, and this is a GOOD THING as it means I don't get all distracted and can hear the melody and the backing properly without forming an instant dislike based on the artist alone. I think this will a) not go away this summer b) grow on me immensely. Tick.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I actually really like that 'Closer' remains light and untethered - a lot of the new wave of 4/4 r&b does this, it adds to the dreamy lushness of it all, and it fits with that gorgeous guitar. I think too much more bass or boshing would clunkify it a bit.

Dadgaragey-O

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

I don't really associate 'Daddy-O' with current Bline stuff as it's slower and less wibbly with it's bassline - it really does sound like it's just bounded in from May 1998. This can be both good and bad. Still think the chorus needed some work but like it anyway.

Clodplay

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

only heard the itunes clip but Martin's decision to add such descriptive marvels as "snow....WHITE snoooow" does it no favours

Why is this so lame?!?!

[koganbot]

Coldplay "Violet Hill": An instrumental wash, halfway between prettiness and static. Then a post-Dylan meaninglessly meaningful voice that's so bad as to be beyond laughable, you just want him to stop. But I like the melody and I like Dylan voices even done terribly, so maybe I don't want him to stop. I still don't get how this guy managed to write a great - if ridiculous - Nelly Furtado song. In any event, this is several miles below any kind of tickiness, and er, I'M NOT HELPLESS, I CAN TURN IT OFF. Whew. (NO TICK.)

Kylie Minogue "In My Arms": Static and fuzz and the melody and beat are 1983 but astonishingly tepid for an evocation of that era of promising girl squeaks. Then the chorus jumps us to SAW 1987 river of sound, the original Kylie era, but still half-assed. Why is this so lame?!?! UNTICKED.

James Fox "Bluebirds Flying High": Is this the least-rousing sports anthem in history? There's an attempt at Sir Elton clompstomp, but not nearly enough stomp in the clomp. TICKING MECHANISM IS GETTING RUSTED FROM DISUSE.

Ne-Yo "Closer": Bright springtime but w/ obsession and fear worming its way into the fizzy green. Nice. A TICK, finally.

Pigeon Detectives "This Is An Emergency": Strong roll of sound. Brit-emo, which isn't emotional enough for yours truly, but is a TICK.

Sara Bareilles "Love Song": Ha! We Murricans finally join the vanguard of boring Tashbed knockoffs, as this has been enervating U.S. radio for months now. NO TICK.

Wideboys f. Shaznay Lewis "Daddy-O": If this is bassline (or even if it isn't) it needs the bass to be far more intrusive and disruptive, since the tune upfront just isn't tuneful enough and the voice isn't distinctive enough to hold the spotlight on their own. TICKY-NO.

Santogold "L.E.S. Artistes": Not quite as outta her head as I want her to be, but I love her gawky colt of a voice as it dodges poison guitar darts. TICKY OF WONDERFULNESS.

Re: Why is this so lame?!?!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I really wish I could remember who Bareilles reminds me of - it wasn't Tunstall or Bedingfield though neither comparison is off-base

HANG ON I SUDDENLY REMEMBER

Vonda fucking Shepherd or whatever her name was. The one who did the Ally McBeal theme track.

AAAARGH.

Re: Why is this so lame?!?!

[koganbot]

Hah! I never heard the Ally McBeal babe, though I do know she did a cover of my FAVORITE SONG IN THE WORLD (when I was nine years old), Skeeter Davis's "The End Of The World." I've been afraid to listen to any other versions of that track, though they're all over. (Well, have heard Brenda Lee's version, which was OK, but Lee was going jazz in the phrasing to avoid sounding too much like the original which only proved how good the original was, in that it forced Lee to evade it.)

When I said "Tashbed" I was using her as a stand-in for the whole "quirky" Brit coffeetable singer-songwriter trend: Tashbed, Tunstall, Amy, Duffy, Adele, Nash, Cilmi (though obviously they all have their own subterritories, and Cilmi is Aussie), Tashbed getting to be the leader of the coffee klasch here, and probably the best - or at least the most genuinely twisted - though I like all of them at least a little. I even said something nice about Nash once. (Cilmi's album is really disappointing though. So far she's only got one good song.) (Not sure why I don't include Lily Allen in that crew, since she's surely an influence on some of 'em, but she seems to be her own genre.)

I've found two more Duff tracks where she's in character as the bad Russian pop singer, and unlike the one I linked for you and those two tracks are truly terrible.

Re: Why is this so lame?!?!

[koganbot]

klasch = klatsch

[weasel-seeker.livejournal.com]

Sarah Bareilles: Solid chorus, decent voice, although the piano part feels, to my ears at least, like a Sarah Slean rip. Sweet Ones or Lucky Me or something. One of her radio tunez. Maybe a touch of Gavin DeGraw-y production about it all bland-ish pop with guitar piano rootsiness and a bit of swing. Not seeing the TashBed comparison, besides the vague meta nature of the song-about-songwriting thing. My like for this song would increase fivefold if it were addressed not at a beau but instead at her RECORD LABEL. (Not gonna write you a love song. You need one. You tell me it's make or breaking this if you're on your way.) TICK.

Coldplay: I feel like they decided after X&Y it was time to be "challenging" hence guitar fuzz and plodding echo and one melody that repeats over and over and over. The one thing Coldplay ever had going for me was their restraint/fragility vibe on some of their earlier stuff. At their best, the repetitive riffs and/or plodding build can be kind of mesmerizing (see: Clocks, God Put a Smile, Rush of Blood). Not the case here. UNTICK.

Santogold: TICK. The album is still sinking in, but this works in ways I can't quite articulate. Although the red paint attacks in the video are just plain weird.

Ne-Yo: Heretofore unaware of him, except as writer of Irreplaceable and various other pop tunes (that was him, right?). Initial thoughts at video: do we really need another MJ clone? Aren't Usher, Justin, Chris Brown, etc. etc. etc. enough? But, propulsive beat, synthy goodness, and thus, although something about his singing voice feels off to me, TICK. Should be a grower.

Pigeon Detectives: This song is a less propulsive Citizens of Tomorrow by Tokyo Police Club, except without the MASSIVE riff, and instead of being about robots taking over the planet and hilariously killing you in front of your entire family, it's about...well, I'm not sure. How they aren't here to reflect you? And this is an American scene? OH! Emergency. That makes more sense. NO TICK.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

After actually listening to Scooter, I'm modifying my Pardon vote to "Pardonnay."