Another Year In Pop: 21

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Not that I'm unhappy to see it, but - Snap??

[Poll #1194434]

Comments

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Cus of the advert with Brains dancing to it, innit?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I know so little!

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't know about it if I hadn't been to my parents' house last week and thus been exposed to television.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I mentioned it last week!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

This sentence means nothing to me! Strange goings-on in the nether reaches of the chart too - DJ Sammy's 'Heaven'? Run DMC's 'It's Like That'?? Are these in adverts too?

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I honestly have no idea whatsoever. The Brains thing I only know about cus it was on my parents' telly when they were watching ...idk, Dan Cruickshank's architecture thinger or something.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Dude - GUITAR HERO and ROCK BAND for the latter.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

And Aerosmith's 'Dont Want To Miss A Thing'. Crikey.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Snap - worthy re-entry off back of advert. I wub this song many times over.

Ting Tings - WAY better than the other song! I actually found myself tapping my foot along to this yesterday.

Gusto - terrible rehash of funky house classic (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-NZk7P1nUI&feature=related). The new vocals are awful - the Freemasons mix is slightly better in that it sounds more like the original with a bit more vworp. Also the video isn't even a proper Benassi. BOO.

Alphabeat - I don't like this at all. They have lost all the perkiness of the first single and it just feels all wrong. Video is rub too.

Not heard Zutons, heard 2 secs of Fratellis on an advert and it sounds awful (ie not even catchy).

Happier news: Ashlee still climbing!

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Caught a bit of the Zutons last night. Predictably awful.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I am willing to tapSTAMP my foot on the Ting Ting singer's HEAD. I hate them so much.

Sadder news: this was the week of Ashlee's physical release so this, unfortunately, is probably it for her :(

[koganbot]

That Gusto's original is stunning. I had no idea. How did they manage to botch the new version so thoroughly?

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

NO TICK:
Alphabeat -ugh ugh ugh why is this band meant to be saving pop music or whatever? They sound like the crapper echelons of Eurovision.

Fratellis- like Kat I have only heard about two seconds of this in an advert but it sounded like a castrated version of 'Chelsea Dagger' so NO.

Zutons- it is the Zutons of course I am not ticking it. On the other hand, Bloke From The Zutons has grown his hair and actually looks sort of attractive in the video. Woman From The Zutons is still frighteningly thin, however.

Ting Tings- technically I haven't heard this but I am going to say it's crap. Is it the one on the iTunes advert? If so it is definitely crap.

Gusto- absolutely dire re-rub of a song that was never my favouritest thing ever.

TICK:
Snap- this song is evidently amazing. I feel somewhat wrong ticking it, though, like I'm cheating because this song has been amazing for bloody years and I just feel like there ought to be something new and good to tick. Or something.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

It's not the iTunes one, no. It's the one where she goes "and the drums, and the drums, and the drums" etc etc.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Man alive Alphabeat are poor.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

OK so this chart is completely WVS but this other Ting Tings song is like COMPLETELY INDEFENSIBLE CRAP.

I mean it's supposed to be some sort of tribute to having an amazing experience in a club but it can't have been that amazing if the best they can do is this shrill, clunky bullshit. I mean trying to phonetically imitate strings etc with her HORRIBLE ANNOYING SHRILLY MANNERED VOICE is bad enough (aaagh that EEE-EEE-EEE bit) and then when she goes AND THE DRUMS AND THE DRUMS AND THE DRUMS unto infinity...god, you just want to kill. WORST SONG EVER.

And they're called THE TING TINGS for fuck's sake.

Seriously. I dare anyone to defend them.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

They are incredibly annoying! Yet, I like it. What are you gonna do? WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT THE LEX.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The eee-eee-eee bit is the worst I agree. Worse than the big hit.

Bad The Kids, no biscuit.

that said, fbook rants about them are v cathartic:

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

May 20

Alex is hating on the Ting Tings. what an awful band.

Sara M4n4r4 wrote
at 3:28pm on May 20th, 2008

please god don't get me started. the stupid fake intonation in every word, the boy girl schtick, the name, OH GOD THE NAME, the closest boring hos will get to dance music, her stance, the guy, the boringness of it all, how much of the hate may just be directed at the girl as i have just proved but they're both OH GOD

Alex M4cphers0n wrote
at 3:47pm on May 20th, 2008

she really really shouldn't say her name isn't stacey either cuz that just makes me think of the ferg and how she is 1000x the popstar that the ting tings chick will ever be. god it's so AMATEUR. and that 'great dj' song which people say is even better cuz it's about dance music is EVEN WORSE, she goes "and the drums and the drums and the drums" about a million times in her stupid voice and you want to kill her. if the best paean to dance music you can do is a lame annoying indie pop inconsequentiality you prob don't love it that much in the first place, right? also dude is just as hateable. HATE.

Sara M4n4r4 wrote
at 3:57pm on May 20th, 2008

i always see threads on the internet that say 'guys can you reccommend me any bands indie ones please :) i'm out of new music cos i'm a dull twat lol' and people ALWAYS reply with 'i'm in to the ting tings atm and *insert other lame dance homage yet terribly indie so not that much of a homage at all* bands. so funny. one of the girls who did that music request post said 'r&b fans need not apply' bitch please?! why don't people know how to have fun?!?!?!?!? WHITE PEOPLE

Sara M4n4r4 wrote
at 3:58pm on May 20th, 2008

oh and the drums thing LOL i know right? she does that awkward pose to go with her accent. i saw that video in the ULU and i wanted to die. THEIR NAME WTF

[mippy.livejournal.com]

"(aaagh that EEE-EEE-EEE bit)"

This is the very bit that makes me want to remove my eardrums.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Not ticking Snap in accordance with The Rule on reissues/revivals.

So Don't Like Any it is for now (although I may tick Ting Tings once I've heard it). The 30-second sample of their alBUM on The R1 Chart Show sounded most promising.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Poor old Andy Abraham could only get to #67 btw, which speaks volumes.

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. That Ting Tings song must be onto its third re-release now, no?

Have happily ticked Snap, one of the great dance tunes of all time, especially because of the rapping, and the line "I'm serious as cancer..."

Have ticked Zutons, although I think this is a bit weak by their normally-high standards. I sense that Winehouse's success with 'Valerie' may have knocked their confidence a little, so they've gone for the predictable singles choice to try and cash in, rather than taking more of a gamble with something a little more "interesting".

Fratellis? Have they not been wiped off the face of the planet yet? Grrr.

Special Alienation Week On The Charts

[koganbot]

The new tracks are struggling from alienation but haven't found a way to make the alienation a strength rather than an escape clause. I'm just as confused as last week as to whether the Tings Tings are a Tick Tick. They've clearly got something but I don't know if I want it. Maybe I should get the album just to work this out.

I have the same policy as Jeff on reissues, but it results in one of my rare "DON'T LIKE ANY"s for a week that I actually found pretty interesting. If "Rhythm Is A Dancer" hangs on for a month or so that might mean its presence is to be reckoned with. Surely there are some people hearing it for the first time? Not just tots but elders who were never part of the original target audience and are now seeing the advert? And of course the past is part of the present, but I still don't feel right ticking.

Alphabeat "10,000 Nights": The presentation is really weak. "Pop" in quotation marks. But Annie and Robyn and Teddybears STHLM are all in quotation marks too, but that doesn't mean they equate pop with the absence of all force and character. Is the problem with Alphabeat that they're committed to the weakness more than to the music? That seems like a dumb assumption for me to make. This is actually a good song, a vaguely Motown melody run through a toothpaste machine, given SAW fullness and then having the fullness bleached out, fullness changed to paleness. I Don't Get It! And I WON'T TICK IT.

Fratellis "Mistress Mabel": This is a weird combination of harried and jaunty. There is noise buried among the chords, as if doom were in the background ready to overwhelm it. But (1) the melody isn't a particularly interesting "it" in the first place, (2) the overall sound is unpleasant. But the sound is interesting enough for me to wonder what I might think if I were exposed to the band further, say if I were to start dating someone who loved them. This probably shouldn't be my main motive for getting into a relationship, however. TICKED NOT.

Zutons "Always Right Behind You": More quotation marks. This is roughened where Alphabeat are bleached out, but the result is similarly distanced. And the song is pretty good, and the slide has moments of bite in the instrumental break that have nothing to do with distance. TICKS ARE SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW BUT NOT FOR THIS SONG.

The Ting Tings "Great DJ": Voices not quite in sync, not quite musical, the result is somehow insistent. Closest to a tick, but... POLICY NOT TO TICK ON THE BORDERLINE.

Gusto "Disco's Revenge 2008": I'm listening to the Freemasons' edit. Where the rest of today's tracks sounded distanced, this sounds generic, but the arrangement isn't at odds with the power of the genre. Still, do I give a shit? NO TICKS FROM THE INDIFFERENT.

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

Alphabeat are a rubbish Lacrosse.

I'm so full of hate these days.

I don't want to be in a world where "Rhythm is Dancer" is re-released. I'm as serious as cancer about this.