Another Year In Pop: 24

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

A very static top 20 this week - although last week's highest new entrant Morrissey has totally disappeared out of the top 100 already! Mint Royale are still at number one, milking it for all it's worth.

[Poll #1205575]

Comments

I know you're only sorry you got caught

[koganbot]

Speaking of country covers of r&b, I don't think I've mentioned in poptimists the Taylor Swift version of "Take A Bow," caught here in a fan phone vid. I completely love this. Painfully out of tune in spots, but I'm feeling this version a lot more than Rihanna's. The thinness of Taylor's voice adds an extra hurt to the sarcasm and sorrow.

Hear the girls in the audience shrieking.

(Don't know what went wrong for me with the Rihanna version. It's not as if Rihanna's an inexpressive singer, but the fullness of the arrangement neutralizes her expressivity. I had to hear Taylor's version to find out what the song was about.)

Re: I know you're only sorry you got caught

[koganbot]

What I wrote about "Take A Bow" on rolling country:

What interests me about Taylor's "Take A Bow" is that I was riveted by the lyrics of a song I'd up to then totally ignored. I tend to pay only cursory attention to r&b lyrics, though Rihanna is usually an exception. (The lyrics to "Disturbia" are quite disturbia, though enjoyably rather than disturbingly so.) Anyway, in Rihanna's "Take A Bow" the whole arrangement neutralized its effect, too full or something, so the song passed me by. But with Taylor singing it, it's suddenly in the world of adolescent infidelity and sarcasm and pain. So it's "You Can't Do That" and "Should've Said No," etc. And now I may find a way to go back and appreciate the original, now that the song's got my attention.