Another Year In Pop: 31

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Some movement in the top ten at last! Kid Rock has turfed Dizzee off the top spot, the Script have whinged their way up to number 3 and Katy Perry's questionable ode to lesbianism is the highest new entry at 4 (its bosh remix is at no.50!), making this week's poll an aptly all-girl affair...

[Poll #1234871]

Comments

V quickly:

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Katy - I can't bear this.

Saturdays - whereas this is great!

Honey - she looks like a cross between Cascada and Sandi Thom, but sounds like RAWK. Daft hand-wringing lyrics but No tick.

Rihanna - as said previously, sounds too much like Eiffel 65 for my liking.

Kylie - botherd. Kylie, sort it out woman :(

Re: Katy

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

She deserves a tick for turfing Kid Rock out of the top spot, as she surely will next week. Man I hate that Kid Rock song.

Re: Kylie

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

This is one of my favourites on X. Sounds like a Lynch-Badalamenti song from the Twin Peaks TV series.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

"too much like Eiffel 65 for my liking"

!?!?!?!

STOP TICKING KATY PERRY

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

SRSLY.

Re: STOP TICKING KATY PERRY

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

the song is shit but it feels like a WATERSHED ZEITGEIST MOMENT. if only Tatu had actually had more blatant song titles.

Re: STOP TICKING KATY PERRY

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

CONCUR. wtf is wrong with people, KATY PERRY FIRST AND FOREMOST.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Sigh. We may have wanted exciting chart turnover but NOT LIKE THIS.

Katy Perry - GNNGGGHH. Where to even begin? Katy Perry is just...wrong and awful, in so many ways. She's so desperate to be a talking point and she's positioned herself cleverly as an American Apparel-style indie hipster who's SHOCKING the MAINSTREAM with her radical sexual politics which are also sending up MAINSTREAM WHORES like Tila Tequila, except, you know, she's not even a hundredth as radical as Tila T (who is not radical either!). "I kissed a girl and I liked it" - so fucking what, Katy? Is that all you've got of interest for us? She tries to be witty but actually comes across as half-witted. I mean, any one of us could reel off a list of mainstream media figures who've used gay imagery in their work or who ACTUALLY ARE GAY and not one of them has been so craven as to disavow her sexuality - in K Perry's case her entire reason for existing as a pop star in the first place - by the end of the first chorus. I mean, I can't believe she even has the nerve to talk about sexual politics when she inserts her BOYFRIEND LOOK I HAVE A BOYFRIEND I AM HETERO AND OK so clumsily into the lyrics (in the most disingenuous way possible! "I hope he doesn't mind it" wtf have you even talked to a straight boy before? maybe you ARE gay after all).

Also, her voice is a horrible one-note bellowing thing and even if she was singing half-decent lyrics her music would still be unlistenable.

Saturdays - cheap-sounding half-hearted hookless electropop about nothing. Would've sounded dated even during the Rachel Stevens era. Video looks even cheaper - what was their budget, a tenner? Why even bother spending half of that on OFFICE FANS with THREE PATHETIC RIBBONS tied to them which actually make me cringe in embarrassment for them? Why must British pop be so unable to shake off the whiff of Topshop? Actually no, Topshop can be totally awesome - that's the Liberty X 'Just A Little' level. This is the bargain bin at Primark.

Honey Ryder - buh? who? Thought it was going to be a KT Tunstall folky thing at first, then it went all portentous and rocky and loud. I think she wants to be Shirley Manson but she fails to attain even Evanescence.

Rihanna - yes, this is great, not Riri at her best but made a lot better by the crazy video. Lyrics are better than the melody which is better than the arrangement. Autotune gimmick sounds lame on Rihanna though. Still, tick.

Kylie - I remember this being the only song on the album I liked. I neither remember it nor can be bothered to go back and listen to it but tick, anyway.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Do you think it's just that you don't like electropop any more? Your comments every time there's an electropop song these days sound like the kind of things I used to say back in the Britpop era when I was an indie fan and eventuallly I just had to admit I didn't really like current indie.

No disagreement w.r.t Katy Perry though!

Re: STOP TICKING KATY PERRY

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

surely you would not like 'The One' now as it is one of the Harris tunes (aims to match level of 'I Believe In You' but doesn't really get there)

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

I mean, I can't believe she even has the nerve to talk about sexual politics when she inserts her BOYFRIEND LOOK I HAVE A BOYFRIEND I AM HETERO AND OK so clumsily into the lyric

UGH NO. This is my least favorite assumption that people make about this song. Boyfriend =/= hetero.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

All female entries this week. I expect that's probably happened before when there have only been 3 or 4 entries but maybe this is the most yet?

Would like to see a new all (or mostly) girl group that aren't in Sugababes/GA vein but could be successful.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I don't see any reason why Danity Kane couldn't be successful. If they were promoted anywhere at all.

[nunya-b.livejournal.com]

-The Saturdays song I think is very catchy, very squarely aimed at the kind of person who would not recognize "Situation" at all, and it is really great in that respect because it is sing-along, mildly atonal in the verses, and then paired with a chorus that sounds like top-flight girl-band stuff. I am probably overanticipating this but I think it would be great to drunken karaoke along to- but I also know it's the weakest of the Saturdays' material (Up, Keep Her are both better and slated to be singles) so my opinion is altered by context clues.

-The Kylie Minogue song is amazing, full stop. It is amazing to the point that the Freemasons mix (usually the highlight of any singles release package) makes the song duller.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

The backing to the Kylie is dreamy and pleasant minimal house (which I totally love as a genre), but her vocal sounds so clumsy over the top - the 'love me love me love me' and 'i'm connecting to you' bits really clank. I want her to swoon and sail over the top and let out a proper "MEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" instead of lots of little "Me"s. I know she has it in her to make this song really great but instead she's tied down to an awful robot melody. Dudes there are other musical structures than one note per word!

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

very squarely aimed at the kind of person who would not recognize "Situation" at all,

Er. Hi dere :)

[koganbot]

Katy Perry "I Kissed A Girl": Gag, what makes me care about this woman? (Well, her having Cathy and Luke and Max on board may help in the ensnaring.) I've been writing about her hither and yon, said this a few days ago on rolling country:

"I Kissed A Girl" elicited instant hatred from everyone I know except Xhuxk, and I'm someone I know and it elicited instant hatred from me too, my reasons being that she's loud, stupid, obvious, coy, and grating, and more homophobic than not (literally "homophobic"* in that she's desperate to make sure we understand that this doesn't mean that she's a LESBIAN). But at least two of the haters - me and Nia - nonetheless like the song. (If you look at my list of adjectives, none of them preclude the music's being good.) Also, she's just a few years away from her days as a god-loving, faith-needing evangelical Christian singer, proclaiming that her faith will prevail over her sins and tribulations, while in the music she's a raw-voiced, dance-oriented Alanis. I'm a sucker for the massively conflicted, which she most certainly is.

This is a TICK, damn it.

(*That is, in this case, afraid of her own desire.)

Saturdays "If This Is Love": Ack, what totally lame, nonexistent singing. Wispy and whispery but totally missing the sensuousness that such whispers are supposed to imply. Best thing is the Yazoo sample, which Heidi Montag used a lot better. NO TICK.

Honey Ryder "Numb": Big-bosomed, er, big-voiced emoter sings her deep heart out w/ guitars loud in support of her feelings. Would be good in a Stevie Nicksical way if the melody were even half-interesting and the band weren't playing with webbed hands. "Honesty is a pain you might have to inflict on me." I INFLICT NONTICKS ON YOU.

Rihanna "Disturbia": I've written about this a zillion times too. Flicks sugar bits of disturbance that tingle on the skin. One of the songs of the year. I AM TICKING YOU TONIGHT.

Kylie Minogue "The One": Is this re-entry for the Freemasons remix? They seem to be losing last year's magic. Warm mouthwash vocals on a blah song get overwhelmed by beats coming up from underneath. NO TICK.

[koganbot]

I was wrong, "The One" isn't a re-entry; still sounds like luke-warm soup, in either version.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

k perry - pfft to radio 2s reckid of the week last month.
saturdays oh it's the SITUATION song. easy if not great tick
lotta fagina - close, reallay close, but no
ree anna - another ok-ish tick
kyles - is this a re-release, or did they just play this a lot when the album came out. again OK tick.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

This is the first official release for 'The One', yes - I guess it must have just got played on the radio a bit.

situation

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

this seems to be the 'identity' single for Yazoo in the americas (aka YAZ), yes? where here it's probs Only You. was it a hyowg hit in the US of stateside and CaNaDa?

Re: situation

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I'm not a fan of Moyet's voice and I've never really liked 'Only You' at all. It sounds too...Sesame Street-y? Like she might as well be counting up to 10 instead of singing whatever she's singing?

He'll prevail in the midst of all my sin and temptations

[koganbot]

FYI, here's Katy Perry in 2001 as a 16-year-old trash-blonde electro-rock-pop dance-oriented evangelical Xtian. Her voice was just as rough back then.

[koganbot]

This is the first time in a month I've ticked more than one.

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

I cannot in good conscience tick Katy Perry thus I am abstaining.

[credoimprobus]

Augh, Katy Perry. I am so conflicted about that song -- on the one hand, I really like it on a purely musical level, and (unlike most folks round here, it seems) really like her voice; but on the other I (as many others) have issue on SO MANY LEVELS with the handling of the topic, which fact has put me increasingly off the song with each successive time I've heard it. And the video, ugh! Her vocal performance at least delivers some proper drama, sells the possibility of some real confusion going on behind all the posturing...and then in the video she comes in with her smirky, knowing, nudge-nudge wink-wink manner and stomps all over the very idea that anyone might take it seriously. (And dere god the pussycat at the beginning. YOU ARE SO VERY SUBTLE, KATY PERRY, YES YOU ARE.)

I think if this had come up in the poll a month ago when it was still fresh to me (and I had not yet had some misheard lyrics corrected for the worse), I would have ticked it With Reservations on musical merit, but by this point my politics will no longer let me do so in good conscience. TICK WITHHELD FOR OVERWHELMING AMOUNTS OF FAIL.

I ticked a girl but I don't have to like it.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

koganbot's right that this is a subpar Max/Luke(/Dennis) number, but subpar Max/Lukes consistently get "any good at all" points. Which frustrates me, but there it is.

I'll repeat what I've said before -- carpetbomb sarcasm doesn't absolve someone of responsibility for the shit that comes out of their mouths. While girlboymusic is right that "boyfriend = hetero" is too simplistic, it's also not too simplistic to say that this one is banking on a general homophobic impulse to fear being gay (and avoid thinking or talking honestly about it) and use it as a weapon -- and it's not like this is the only time she does it on her album. And its repressive narrowmindedness alongside its clumsy wink-nudging makes it nastier than the narrowmindedness by itself, which might have actually been interesting -- it's the "comedy" that makes the leap to hetero sort of understandable; I just can't rationalize that this might be a song about a girl whose sexuality is actually changing, because it's too damn smug. It's a hateful, ugly little song with a beat you can almost dance to. The tick that makes you feel a little sick.

Re: I ticked a girl but I don't have to like it.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yeah the way this crops up repeatedly (or...at least twice, I haven't heard anything beyond this and 'Ur So Gay') makes you go HMMM, or at least it would if you weren't busy going AAARGH.

You know, the vague homophobia really isn't what offends me about this - it's definitely there, but, you know, I like dancehall, I can't talk. And I think it's a really potentially interesting angle. But the presentation is so stupid and smug and muddle-headed and STUPID and STUPIDSTUPIDSTUPID.

[andthatisthat.livejournal.com]

Katy Perry - nothing in this world could convince me to tick this song. It is awful and so is she.

The Saturdays - it's not earth-shattering, but it's grown on me. 'Up' pisses on this from a great height, though. TICK.

Honey Ryder - have not heard this.

Rihanna - have not heard this yet either. Oops.

Kylie - Lovely, but am cross with her for releasing a complete pile of guff as the first single from X and saving the best song from it as a last-ditch download-only no-video-sorry single. TICK, BUT WITH RESERVATIONS.