Another Year In Pop: 36

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

For once there's a reasonable number of new entries this week, phew. Who'd have thought we'd be nostalgic for the turbulent charts of the early 2000s? But are any of these fresh new hits good enough to quench the pop thirst we developed over the summer drought?

[Poll #1255714]
Rest of chart news: Katy Perry's still at number one, and look - what's this? Paper Planes has popped up at no.69! About blimmin' time if you ask me.

Congratulations are also in order to THE TING TINGS who won this year's Lex 20p Indie Prize by a clear margin of 5 whole votes. Why not go and watch their most recent video? I think it's pretty good!

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

'Paper Planes' is being re-released in October so...omg, an actual proper-sized hit for MIA is imminent. LOLZ. I guess those trailers for that film are being shown here now?

Pussycat Dolls - yes, this is excellent and unstoppable, I love the way it gets even heavier in the chorus.

Gym Class Heroes - The-Dream's production and his contributions are really gorgeous: his production seems to be a washed-out electro haze and really full-sounding at the same time. Sadly the Gym Class Heroes totally ruin it by being SO RUBBISH AT EVERYTHING ESPECIALLY RAPPING, seeing their horrible smug faces in the video didn't help matters. Makes me want to listen to The-Dream's album instead.

Steve Mac - wtf no, gross

Duffy - still not even the slightest semblance of a personality here

Bryn Christopher - horrid bellowing voice/boring song

NKOTB - omg they are SO OLD, they're even too old for me to remember them the first time round :o Still, pleasant enough summer jam, works in the same way as the Jesse McCartney album from earlier this year except from the otjer end of the age spectrum

Flobots - wtf no, gross. Why does this sort of hip-hop chart here and not Young Jeezy? I wish backpackers and students would die

STAND UP TO CANCER - hahahahahahaaaa such a divafest. Why does Fergie of all people get so many lines? Also, love how Beyoncé never stops acting like she's the lead singer. Best bit = Mary J on the bridge, worst bit = TashBed totally fucking up her line. Sadly the song is no good, barely even a song, and really it's not ENOUGH of a diva-off: I was anticipating all of them trying to out-bellow each other at the climax, and that didn't happen. Not even any kettle sounds from Mariah :(

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

*MJB on the middle eight not bridge, duh. no one does a middle eight quite like Mary J!

also I'd probably really love 'Summertime' if there was any of it left :(

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

I heard the Duffy song on the radio and it took me about 90 seconds before I realised it was her. I rather like it anyway - voice is fine, Craig Armstrongy strings v nice. Could've been a great Gabrielle single 10 years ago.

30 my arse

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

I quite like the Pussycat Dolls record, easily their best chorus thus far. But I am worried that if Nicole Scherzinger grows up any more she'll start looking ready for retirement. Is there an older-faced woman in pop? Even the ones a lot older than her don't somehow look it.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

yes, the pineapple express trailer is on over here now, i saw it about 8 times the other night (i was watching back to back south parks on paramount 2 which i guess is the film's core demo...)

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

PCD - definite tick! This is great and ridiculous and fully deserved to win a video award last night.

GCH - this is alright, I guess? Travis is rapping just a leetle bit too slowly. I am invoking the Boney Joan rule here in that I love it when Kanye raps really slowly (like on Flashing Lights) but everyone else is bobbins at it.

SM - what the HELL is going in this video :( Normally if you said 'irish jig plus filter house' I would be full of CHEER but JEBUS DO NOT WANT. It's so limp and muddy compared to eg Samim's 'Heater'.

Duffy - this well reminds me of Terence Trent D'Arby's 'Sign Your Name Across My Heart' but without the spookiness. She looks good in trousers though! This is a much better video than the sobbing-inna-taxi one. Actually I've decided I like this. Tick!

Bryn - hahahha the tags on his youtube video are "Pop Soul r&b quest smiling smile motown stax retro". Song is pretty turgid in a sub-Gnarls Barkley way, video disappointing. Better than David Jordan though! Keeping trying Universal, you'll get there eventually.

NKOTB - ARF they have to flash their names up in case we don't recognise them! Joey and Jordan look SO OLD and Donny and Danny look like ROBOTS. Song's bobbins.

Flobots - lame.

Cancer lasses - bwahahaha there's a great vid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfbxxd01mzk) where light shines out of each of their heads as they sing! Mary J's blonde highlights dazzle everyone else until Mariah's HUGE FACE right in the middle takes over... No tick though.

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Just the one tick for me (I don't think I've heard any of the others), but PCD's 'When I Grow Up' is absolutely brilliant. It's been required listening on my iPod for a couple of months now.

Are Scherzinger and Hamilton the new Posh'n'Becks?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Also re: Gym Class Bobbins, I don't understand why this particular The-Dream collab has charted highly, when LL Cool J's superior 'Baby' languishes in the nether reaches of the charts. 'Baby' is basically a rewrite of The-Dream's own (excellent) 'Shawty Is Da Shit' with a (much) lazier chorus (two words! over and over again! well done The-Dream) but this is OK because LL turns in a rather wonderfully confused performance with a GREAT twist in the final line. The line "I'm really not sure if her breasts are fake/Cuz wit whipped cream on 'em, they taste just like cake" makes me go UHHH WHAT?

[koganbot]

The week of restraint and repetition, played for intensity: deny the release and let the song build. And the results are almost all on the borderline, tracks better than the people fronting them.

The Pussycat Dolls "When I Grow Up": Soft gritty voices against a thump, rising anticipation, track sticks to its thump, this is really intense the way the track refuses to resolve. So, will it be intense enough to maintain itself? No, 'cause the singing isn't maniacally compulsive enough. Would still garner a tick but the breaks toward the end are just a distraction. I appreciate the attempt here, might reverse myself later, but right now this is a BORDERLINE NONTICK.

(Here by the way is where pop actually has something to learn from old punk, in that people like Lou Reed and Mark E. Smith really knew how to milk the repetition, had an instinct for when to vary and when to stay put.)

Gym Class Heroes f. The-Dream "Cookie Jar": Well, the lyrics are a goof, but The-Dream - and with his generic sweet vocals you can't predict when he's going to be amazing and when he'll be a bore - is quite mesmerizing, as his sweetness brushes against the beat; and the repetitive rap in the chorus is effective, "can't keep my hands my hands my hands my my my." The problem though is then the rapping in the verses is just awful. HALF A TICK, but that's not an option, so this gets one.

Steve Mac "Paddy's Revenge": Starts like a novelty dance track run through the pickle slicer, but devolves down away from the ethnoid cutesiness and into actual dance intensity and ominousness; problem is that it doesn't do this quite enough. I think the rest of you are being unduly harsh in that this could have been sticky and unbearable but isn't. But I can't say that I'm ticking it myself. BORDERLINE NONTICK.

Duffy "Stepping Stone": Love her voice, and her face isn't so bad either. Another track that's going for quiet intensity, strong in the refrain, though she needs to be more... not sure what, simultaneously more delicate and harsher? (Like Taylor Swift, who's never tried anything like this?) She gets across, even if just barely, mainly because the track sticks to the principle of repetition better than "When I Grow Up" does. BORDERLINE TICK.

Bryn Christopher "Smilin'": Hah, like Kat I thought of Terence Trent D'Arby this week, though in relation to different tracks. Not that Bryn rates with Terence, but this song is the type that Terence would have absolutely nailed: pretty and intense, the voice straining against a good tune that restlessly changes its chords. Best song of the week. Problem however, as some of you point out, is that this guy can't sing. But his effort fits the song, and the song is good, so BORDERLINE TICK.

New Kids On The Block "Summertime": Anemic. NO TICK.

Flobots "Handlebars": Gave this what I suspected was a too generous borderline tick when it hopped on and off the American chart last month. Nondescript at the start, lyrics are obvious while pretending to be subtle - absolute power corrupting the early joy and innocence of kiddie accomplishment etc. - but this manages to build to actual anger and fire even if it does read like a freshman essay. I'm not with it as much this week, maybe 'cause it has better competition. BORDERLINE NONTICK.

Artists Stand Up To Cancer "Just Stand Up": Putting aside the Worthy Cause, this is silly and fun, here's my voice, no my voice, no MY voice, etc., Miley coming across most distinct if not most competent. With an even half-catchy song I'd have enjoyed this a lot, but writer Babyface doesn't deliver. The only thing that hits my feelings is when Fergie brings this down to our theme of the week, which is repetition and intensity, "You got it in you, find it within you," Fergie grinding the words into the floor with her heel. Otherwise, this is strangely amateurish. NO TICK.

[ijgrieve.livejournal.com]

I ticked Pussycat Dolls, Steve Mac and Flobots. The last of those is excellent, one of the best top 40 hits for a while (since Weezer). Steve Mac is just the right side of good-cheesy/bad-cheesy. Pussycat Dolls is just a good pop song.

'Cookie Jar' was borderline; the rest didn't get a second listen.

[koganbot]

Wow, on the basis of those lyrics I'm searchin' for the LL.

[koganbot]

Oh, and I'm still totally ambivalent about the Ting Tings, though I'm thinking that if I was willing to tick the ambivalent-worthy GCH track, I oughta go back an tick all the Ting Tings. At least Katie doesn't have Travis's horribly weak, pedantic slowness. But then Katie's exuberance makes her vastly more noticeable. I'm still not sure.

[juliandahling.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm weird, but I voted for GCH... :D I agree with the statements about the rapping. BUT I still liked the track better than Pussycat Dolls. Maybe I'm just too.... huh. Never liked them.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I don't understand why this particular The-Dream collab has charted highly, when LL Cool J's superior 'Baby' languishes in the nether reaches of the charts

Travis McCoy = much, much fitter than LL Cool J these days, sry2say. Also there's something kind of more likeable about him, despite the fact he's dating Katy Perry.