AYIP Supplement August 2008: Masks and Whips and Microphones

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

After a quiet July, August got us back to over twenty #41-#75 hits on the UK singles charts. These are tabulated below, with youtube links except for where I couldn't find any (Nicki Bliss??). WHATEVER WILL YOU TICK?

[Poll #1259801]

Four of July's 11 tracks are ahead of the 30% mark as of the now, a pretty good proportion actually. Three of them are Ladyhawke's "Paris Is Burning", The Feeling's "Turn It Up", and Goldfrapp's "Caravan Girl". But way ahead in front, and indeed leading the whole thing, is "I Know Ur Girlfriend Hates Me" by Annie (from Bergen), with an impressive 81.8%!

No disqualifications occurred this month.

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

That LL Cool J song is SO LIMP. I know that sloppy mush has been LL's meal ticket for the last twenty years but DUDE this is so poor.

I still love that Bob Sinclair song though.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I love 'Baby'! Have you heard The-Dream's album? It's basically a rewrite of the terrific 'Shawty Is Da Shit' - not quite as good (the chorus is ridiculously lazy, and there's no "it was Keisha, it was Sonya, it was Tanya, it was Monique" bridge) but LL himself sounds brilliantly confused on it. Total injustice that the Dream production actually doing well on the charts is that hideous Gym Class Heroes track.

'Stryderman' is an object lesson in how to do pop-grime well, as opposed to eg lazy Daft Punk samples. Tinchy's really been on a roll this past year or so.

I'd heard good things about Florence & The Machine but that track is unlistenable, borderline Nash almost.

'How We Do It (Around My Way)' is really good schaffel-r&b which keeps its lightness and isn't overwhelmed by the beat, but I prefer 'Girls Around The World' and 'I'm Wit It' off his (very good) album.

People need to stop ticking BWO.

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I do not understand BWO's appeal at all. It just sounds horribly dated, and not in a good way.

'You Wot' is great, really good fun bassline track. Think they just left it about six months too late before releasing it.

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

I shall tick BWO bcz they make me laugh. When I hear them, I have a vision of Mr. A. Bard trying to genericise pop to a place where there is nothing left but references and allusions to other pop. (I realise & appreciate this is not a lexish project, but it has anatolian appeal I'm afraid!)

Being Swedish, he obviously does this by combining ABBA with someone else, in this case Madonna:

ABBA 1) Title.

ABBA 2) "Take the chance on me"

ABBA 3) At 2:00 in vid, Voulez-Vous riff

Madonna 1) "Dance, dance, dance to the bourgeoisie" = reference to her "Music", than which I can recall no earlier reference to the "bourgeoisie" in a pop lyric.

Madonna 2) "You're confessing on the dance floor", well duh ect.

I've missed a lot I'm sure, but the thing here is surely we are the lab rats. Or something.

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

M2) "Dance all night with the bourgeoisie" rather.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

But even then the references are clumsy and hackish rather than subtly meta! I mean that bourgeoisie line barely scans and makes no actual sense. Even Rachel Stevens did this better.

Also would that BWO dude had learnt something from Abba and Madonna about how to make pop sound good.

[koganbot]

I'm considering ticking BWO, despite my disliking both singer and lyrics. I like the melody and I think the rhythm and instrumental flourishes are powerful. That said, I haven't actually ticked and probably won't. To do so would feel like ticking Alphabeat, which I have done once but only on behalf of a remix. Equally borderline are DJ Q (voices good but all the "fun" sounds are not only distracting but undercut the force of the track), Boys Like Girls (I get zinged nicely by the harmonies in the chorus, but I hate the nasal dorkboy sound of the voices, and ticking these guys would feel like ticking the Jonas Brothers), and LL (the track sounds too diffuse; also, as I've said, I'm in giggle mode when it comes to hip-hop/r&b lovemen).

[koganbot]

I honestly can't tell if Florence & The Machine is supposed to be a comedy act or not.

I'm starting to feel that way about Lloyd, too. I deleted most of his album incl. "How We Do It" but actually the song sounds fine today. But I have trouble listening to black male seduction songs with a straight face anymore. skyecaptain thinks that I'm laughing with the deliberate self-mockery. But actually I'm not laughing, I'm grimacing. And I can't tell if the mockability is deliberate or not.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Well, to an extent all r&b is about selling the cliche, but Lloyd's cliches really are so cliched (and by his standards as well as the genre's). I think the more wtf comedy moments are worse than the standard loverman stuff though ("have my baby"? EW) - BUT I also think he still gets away with the selling because his voice is still pretty mesmerising, it's got this tantalising mirage quality to it which no one else really has.

Seems as though 2008 has been more about r&b boys and aging divas than girls; or at least, the girls aren't releasing albums (CASSANDRA VENTURA). Roll on Jazzy and J-Hud.