NOW 66

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Hello poptimists, it's time to once more celebrate the great institution that is NOW compilations, giving your mum the chance to discard the popular music of a full six-month time period using only a handy two-disc/tape compilation since 1981.

We do this, like all things, with ticky boxes. Today we are ticking songs from NOW 66, released early in 2007, I think. Over the next indefinite time period I will be posting the rest of the compilations up to the current one for your ticking pleasure. Click the tag if you'd like to peruse back-issues of the NOW polls, the Hall Of Fame created from the polls is viewable in the userinfo.

[Poll #1226975]

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I ran out of texty-box space! Seamus Haji does sort of dancehall/bhangra crossover stuff. It's not bad.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

O rite. This makes more sense- I have to admit I was vaguely suspecting him to be a NOW Music employee.

Whups

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Obv. that Feeling song is 'Love It When You Call' -I thought I'd checked for typos but clearly that one passed me by.

Re: Whups

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Also Razorlite is actually 'Before I Fall To Pieces.' I apologize for slightly glib attitude there, will buck my ideas up for next poll.

Re: Whups

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Haha which is the Timberlake song?

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

this may be Girls Aloud's worst showing in a NOW poll ever.

where have half the acts on this one gone? we don't seems to have heard from them since...

Re: Whups

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yeah it could be any of about half his singles! I assumed it was 'What Goes Around...Comes Around' which was tiresome at the time b/c of all the OMGZ critical/indie love when really it was just Timba's 393382282th rewrite of 'Cry Me A River' but in retrospect, and especially when placed in this company, was definitely Any Good At All.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I feel this is something to be profoundly thankful for!

(I think the answer is that given the timing of this poll most of them are in the middle of the usual two-year gestation period for their next album)

Hmmm

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I can see why Tom didn't poll this before. The relevant weekly chart polls and comments are still very fresh in my mind. Not enough time has elapsed yet to re-evaluate some of these, I fear.

(I still filled in the poll though)

Re: Whups

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

'What Goes Around Comes Around' -I did worry in case that was a bit cryptic.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I thought the GA covers might have aged well. YouTube corrected me.

Re: Whups

[koganbot]

Yeah, I wasn't sure but ticked anyway.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Also, re: my post about sl4g pop the other week, 'Easy' fits quite well into the genre. I still can't listen to it due to the profound unease that grips me during the verses.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Well I also think that a dirty secret of the Nu Indie is that it's shortened the band turnover cycle even more than in the high days of manufactured boybands etc. One album and a flop follow-up (if that) is pretty much yr lot these days I think. It was ever thus in the world of indie but the difference is that now the one successful album is an actual success, it's just that hardly any of the acts seem able to build up a loyal fanbase - probably because they're so incredibily identikit. How did the second Fratellis record do?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

"I Think We're Alone Now" is pretty good but still a bit pointless given how iconic (and endlessly revived) the Tiffany versh is.

[koganbot]

I wonder if "Too Little Too Late" will beat the measly ten votes it got in A Year In Pop.

Re: Hmmm

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes I'm not sure how much "re-evaluation" has gone on, it will be interesting to compare these numbers to the AYIP polls though!

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

i don't think anything is going to improve Walk This Way unless personkind suddenly evolves and no longer needs ears...

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

"Perfect" is the song here that's aged best - totally crept by me in winter 06/07, probably because it got the season wrong. Glad to see it leading the poll - at this early stage.

Biggest shift in Poptimists over its 3-year lifespan: huge ever-growing love for emo.

Re: Hmmm

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Though the reason I didn't do the poll was inertia really! If the first word you have to type is "Mika" it doesn't exactly fill you with motivation.

[koganbot]

Wait, I checked and it eventually got 15 votes, for a dominating 29%!

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

surely "how did the second fratellis record dododo, dododo, dodo-dododo"?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised to see Winehouse doing so badly - I remember near-unanimous approval for 'You Know I'm No Good' at the time. Maybe the realisation in retrospect that it is about cheating on her bf with BLAKE INCARCERATED has dulled it for some.

I just relistened to 'Irreplaceable' for the first time in ages and, you know...wow. It is so, so perfectly crafted and delivered. I am still unable to say the phrase "to the left" without adding another.

[infov0re.livejournal.com]

Re: the emo thing; I think the thing I'm finding with most of the half-decent emo I've got/listened to is that it is marginally less disposable than the ultra-disposableness of nu-indie that you describe earlier. Like, the first Fall Out Boy album is totally listenable, even now; it doesn't feel like it was written to burn out, even though that feels like an aesthetic that would fit the scene.

By contrast, the idea that the Fratellis have another album - or that the View might even release a second one - seems baffling, given how little investment I have in those tracks. They say nothing to me about my life, as it were.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Badly. But better than they'd been doing in 2007, actually.