RSRCH

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Hello everyone, I'm doing some impromptu research.

[Poll #1264707]

As I said above, it's not a test so don't get too neurotic about it, I'm just curious. Feel free to discuss The State Of Pop In 2008 further in the comments, if you want. Linking to YouTube videos and that is very much encouraged; get on a soapbox.

Comments

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Bubble Under Albums:

-Like a good half of Sam Sparro's alb, which takes a few mundane everyday activities and tries to turn 'em into sex jams.

-Xtian pop artist Krystal Meyers's 10-track album is solid, not overlong by any stretch, and has only a select few retch-worthy inspirational messages that are otherwise too vague to come across. Meanwhile her production is maybe the tightest of any teenpoptype album I've heard this year.

-Max Tundra's new alb does seem overlong, but it has a lot of great tunes, esp. the one-two of "Will Get Fooled Again" and "Which Song" (the one that should win my heart -- "Glycaemic Index Blues" -- hasn't stuck yet).

-Y'all seriously need to listen to the new CSS album a few times. Seriously.

-Supergrass is the most consistent rock album I've heard this year that isn't the CSS album, lots of fun with Blur-style ambiguous bandwagon hopping/parody. Requires 1x low expectations for full impact.

-R. Kelly's new alb is about as good as his last one, which means it isn't as good as it should be but has a handful of great ones ("Son of a Bitch" -- Anthony spot on on this one, don't think anyone commented on it -- "Might Be Mine," "Make a Baby," and "At the Same Time").

-Alex Moulton is like Daft Punk doing one of those Nike mix thingies before Discovery came out. (A-Trak's actual Nike mix isn't really worth checking out.)

Show Your Work

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Sam Sparro's is probably 2007 anyway. A few tracks:

Krystal Meyers - Make Some Noise (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJEe618YvXk), Shine (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNcjzOmCWi0), Beautiful Tonight (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxKUTtDUnPM), Feel So Good (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDjVcm1mPuA) -- the last one is like a heartbeat away from being about sex, if only she were saying "I think I found a new love / in my loins" instead of "in my lungs."

CSS - Move (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvUW-dkviak) and Left Behind (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSJ8TkMDIHs&feature=related)

Supergrass - Diamond Hoo Ha (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EPHk16mO20)

R. Kelly - Might Be Mine (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du-UStoWF3Y)

Re: Show Your Work

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Tell me more about this Krystal Meyers. She has a pleasantly Frou Frou touch to her music, only less twee and more icy, in the sense of the untouchable scandipop fey, not in the emotionless sense.

Re: Show Your Work

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Well, I think she definitely does not hit the depths of what I called "evangelist existentialism" that Aly and AJ do in songs like "Blush" (and maybe even something like "Rush," though I don't know if it's sufficiently "evangelist").

But one thing that makes her interesting (contextually anyway) is that she's fully within the Christian pop circuit, and has no serious pretensions of being a non-Christian artist in the way that Aly and AJ do.

"Make Some Noise," the Katy Perryesque one, was co-written/produced by Vitamin C, but the other ones are from Christian music producers. They have a very similar aesthetic to the teen-dance stuff that's been somewhat popular with Disney cross-platformers (Vanessa Hudgens, Jordan Pruitt, maybe Ashley Tisdale). But if you listen to the lyrics of that one, you get a sense of her social sphere -- the song seems to be either (1) about young evangelists not being like the evangelists on the far right that get most attention (the more optimistic reading) or (2) about secular culture stereotyping and misrepresenting Christian culture generally. ("Don't need hypocrisy to open up our eyes" -- not clear if this means some Christians are hypocritical, but we aren't [which isn't true anyway] or Christians in general are not hypocritical; this is just attributed to them by secular people who don't know them.)

I think the best tracks on here are more dance-confessional than Scandifey, but I definitely hear it in "Make Some Noise."

Re: Show Your Work

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

And yet she's done a Eurythmics cover? I thought they'd be straight out the window for Srs Xtians.

I think I'll definitely give this a download, from the bits I've YouTubed; surprised she's not trying for a breakout with this one, the four songs I've heard are quality but fair play to her, I s'pose.

Re: Show Your Work

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Here ya go (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?qjrmwjihh5n).

She sort of is breaking out -- this one was released on Sony and has a higher profile than her previous songs/albums, I think. I'm wondering if the biggest story of 2008 is that it's the YEAR THAT CHRISTIANITY BROKE.

Re: Show Your Work

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Quite possibly. That album is superb, incidentally; much better than Miley's, for all I don't really want that to be the case. I shall write about it presently.