Another Year In Pop: 20

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Madge is knocked off the top again - this time not by German hyperbosh but by some shouty indie-pop! Meanwhile, Ashlee and Santogold are still climbing, Chanelle Off Big Brother's debut single goes in at no.63 and Snap's 'Rhythm Is A Dancer' pops up at 71 due to this...

[Poll #1190243]

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

GOOD

Weezy F Baby - yeah this underwhelmed me when I first heard it b/c I thought he'd toned down his flow tooo much, and Weezy of all people didn't need to jump on the T-Pain Autotunewagon, but it's really grown on me - I love the decadent slow-as-molasses tempo, and the way Weezy's voice sort of wobbles in and out of the thick background fug. Surprised that "lovely lady lumps" took this long to become a hip-hop meme. "Lil' mama had a swag like mine/She even wear her hair down her back like mine" A+. Totally hyped for Tha Carter III!

Rihanna - hadn't realised she'd got a new single out! I like this, you start off thinking it suffers by so obviously recalling 'Irreplaceable' - plus it's impossible to see a song called 'Take A Bow' and not think of the best Madonna ballad ever - but it's pretty good. Not as completely devastating as 'Cry' though.

Taio Cruz - yeah, definitely the new Seal. I'm not completely sold on his style but I like how committed he is to it. There's a terrific remix of this with Estelle but the Delinquent refix is disappointing :(

BAD

Fall Out Boy - oh christ I was hoping it wasn't a cover :( Actually worse than the drunken Winehouse version. Ugh I have just been reminded of that time Alien Ant Farm desecrated 'Smooth Criminal' :(

Royworld - blahzzzzzz

Ting Tings - whuh? No 1? How? This is annoying and characterless at the same time. It's like they've put just enough effort into it for it to grate slightly, but not enough to convey any sense of who they are or why they're shouting. Like, so you're not Stacey or whoever, but you're not making me care about who you are. Also saying you're not Stacey is a mistake cuz that just makes me think of the Ferg and how she is 1000x the pop star that the Ting Tings chick will ever be, and how she could have totally pulled something like this off.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

also ~*they're called "THE TING TINGS" ffs*~

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

"Take a Bow" - A horrible choice for a single. Extremely disappointing. And the best Madonna ballad is "Live to Tell".

"Lollipop" was #1 in America a couple weeks back. As minimalist rap goes it's pretty good, but I'm not too crazy about it. Bad week.

[koganbot]

Weezy F Baby

Thought it was f. Static Major (who has since died due to aneurysm, according to wiki).

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

It is - he's singing the "shawty wanna thug" bit, yeah? though it's all so vocodered you can barely tell - I don't think he's an official credit though. It's not on the promo copy anyway.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Also, RIP: he's been involved in some of my favourite tracks of the past decade.