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

You won't get no desert until you clean off your plate

[koganbot]

OK, without looking at what any of you lot wrote...

I've listened to "That's Not My Name" ten times since yesterday and I still can't decide if it's a tick or not. "cant believe this shit beat rihanna to no. 1. this is truly fucking crap rihanna should be there." So wrote someone on the YouTube thread, and that ought to be definitive but it isn't. And I've listened to "Take A Bow" four or five times (as well as all the times I've heard it before today), and I haven't decided whether it's a tick either. (And most of you will be unhappy with my choice of sure-thing tick.)

So, let's go to it:

Ting Tangs "That's Not My Name": I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS SHIT BEAT RIHANNA TO NO. 1. Reminds me unpleasantly of this St. Mark's Place joint in the early '80s called Club 57 that had godawful Naive Rhythm Nights where stupid white people would play stupidly reductive "rhythmic" music. But this track does have force, some sort of emotional timing, and if it had been the only one of its type in the world ever I might have ticked it for its novelty value. The fact that I listened to it ten times without committing suicide speaks in its favor. Subject For Further Tick Research.

Rihanna "Take A Bow": On "Haunted" which is on the CDS for "Take A Bow" Rihanna does an excellent job of playing Joan Fontaine in the first half of Rebecca, all the burnt-voice psychoneuroses of "Unfaithful" repeating themselves. The spectre of the woman who is present by her absence. "Take A Bow" suffers from not being "Haunted." I used to complain that Rihanna is too much an emotional one-note when she goes into anguish, but I'm realizing that the relative restraint and subtlety of "Take A Bow" make me wish for the single-minded emotional obsessiveness of "Haunted" and "Unfaithful" instead. Why isn't "Haunted" the single? Fact that "Take A Bow" isn't making me consider suicide possibly counts against it. Subject For Further Tick Research.

Taio Cruz "I Can Be": "Sometimes the rain can turn into a waterfall." And other times it can't. NO TICK.

Royworld "Dust": High voice gives this a chance to go shimmering and shiny in its skystrokes. Chance is not taken. TICKLESS.

Lil Wayne "Lollipop": Wayne bumps into blips of lolly. Fellow named Static Major sings sweet nothings. Vocoder. Compared to several thousand recent moments of brilliantly perfunctory Wayne goofiness, this is kind of unbrilliantly perfunctory. But is nice to hear. TICK.

Fall Out Boy f. John Mayer "Beat It": Funny boys bull their way through '80s classic. Compares favorably to Weird Al version. SURE THING TICK.

Re: You won't get no desert until you clean off your plate

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I want to hear 'Haunted' now! Talking of Rihanna's single-minded emotional obsessiveness, did you ever hear 'Cry' (was a UK bonus track on Good Girl Gone Bad) or 'Final Goodbye' (A Girl Like Me album track)? Same thing exhibited there.

Re: You won't get no desert until you clean off your plate

[koganbot]

I quite like "Cry," was one of my reasons for putting the alb in my top ten. Haven't heard "Final Goodbye" (or any of A Girl Like Me except the hits).

Re: You won't get no desert until you clean off your plate

[koganbot]

Wait, I have heard A Girl Like Me about a year and a half ago. (Was confusing it with Music Of The Sun, which I haven't heard.) I remember making a note of liking "Final Goodbye." Am listening now, is the one whose rhythm and sad lilt reminded me of "Greensleeves."

Re: You won't get no desert until you clean off your plate

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yes! I's a fascinating track because what leaps out first is her anguish, and paired with the title you assume the song's about the pain of farewells. Then you listen to the lyrics, and it's actually a declaration of unswerving love and loyalty, so you think, so why the anguish? Then you notice how the one thing complicating the love and loyalty is the narrator's obsession with her own mortality, recurring in every chorus, and THAT'S the goodbye of the title...so beneath the declaration of undying love there's this constant awareness that nothing is undying.

Re: You won't get no desert until you clean off your plate

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

'Haunted' is incredible. Chilling, in fact. RIH-BECCA MORE LIKE.