Another Year In Pop: 48

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

We have a new #1! Take That go straight in at the top spot, Beyonce's down to 2.

[Poll #1307186]

*I think this originally charted last year so still counts for poll purposes? No obligation to tick it, anyway.

Xmas watch: As well as Mariah, people have been buying enough copies of Wham!'s 'Last Christmas' to bump it up to 67, and the Pogues & Kirsty climb up to 44.

End times watch: the karaoke version of Leona Lewis covering Snow Patrol is still lurking in the low 50s :( :(

EDIT: Oh I've 4rsed that up good and proper haven't I? Of course I mean 'Greatest Day' for the first option of the second question.

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

TAKE THAT - blusters and crescendoes to incredibly boring effect, they may as well be Snow Patrol

SAME DIFFERENCE - far too naff and perky for me - was never a huge fan of the Steps/S Club style of plastic kids' TV pop, and do not welcome its return. Also they're REALLY creepy

MCFLY - emo voice done unconvincingly turns out to be even worse than emo voice done properly, not that either are good things

RIHANNA - we turn in desperation to the 949333349th single off Good Girl Gone Bad for a tick! Actually this is really good; I'd dismissed it when GGGB came out as maybe the 7th time the Timbas had written this song - this is still correct but it's still a good song, and the lyrics/Rihanna's performance give it character of its own. Favourite bits = the smoky "Damn!" which kicks off the second verse, the line "the only problem is that you was using me/in a different way that I was using you". LOL @ "ft. Justin Timberlake", though. The video is good, in a stylised and sort of cliched way. Amazingly, there are still potential singles on GGGB! Including all three of my non-brella favourites ('Lemme Get That', 'Good Girl Gone Bad', 'Cry').

GEORGE SAMPSON - wtf is this nonsense, it isn't so much a "song" as...oh god it's just too depressing. It has precisely the same artistic merit as the karaoke version of Leona.

MIMI - obv

MADGE - one of the worst tracks on a mostly-embarrassing album. Her listen-children diction on this is particularly unbearable. I note that there is a Thin White Duke remix on the b-side, I wonder if JLC has done his sow's ear/silk purse thing here?

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

TT - it's almost exactly the same as Rule The World (which was great) and I would quite happily listen to either of them again. Even if the video is in no way christmassy enough. Btw Howard is currently the hottest if the M&S advert is anything to go by.

Same Diff - I know it's a bit shite but I can't help myself. I like their simultaneously cheerful/creepy faces and want this sort of thing to continue with added rollerskates kthx.

McFly - aww bless em, even if Harry wasn't so awesome then this would still get a tick for catchiness. As with Same Diff it's comforting to know that some popstars still like to enjoy themselves.

Rihanna - ARGH will this album not DIE? if this had been 'Lemme Get That' then I would have ticked it but I'm just sick of her.

George - hahaha if I was him this is exactly what I'd do. Magpie tastic bosh-up made for showing off yr dancing skills to. Tick for effort.

Mariah - well yes obv.

Madge - VERY POOR.

My pick for fave song in the top 10 was pretty close between Bouncey, GA and Britters - the girls just edged it because it's the one I've heard least in the last fortnight and so would like to go and look it up right now.

[andthatisthat.livejournal.com]

NO NOT ROLLERSKATES HAS THE X FACTOR TAUGHT US NOTHING? D:

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

"the karaoke version of Leona Lewis covering Snow Patrol"

Oh is that what it is? The title "Run (In The Style Of Leona Lewis)" made me think it was some sort of joke-indie, maybe partly because I've never seen Leona Lewis run.

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

Am having a weird reaction to "The Boy Does Nothing." First exposure to it was Simon Amstell reading it to Alesha on NMTB, and for some reason I thought it would be brilliant. Then I actually heard it and was disappointed. But now, looking back on it, I feel like, you know, surely it actually was brilliant and I was just mistaken?

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

"If I were a boy" just gets better and better on every listen, doesn't it? I was a bit meh at first but it's now my favourite Beyonce ballad by quite some margin.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Ditto...it's quite basic, but she really sells it. Like, the chorus melody is just the verse melody pitched up an octave, but the way she shifts her own vocal approach really makes for some contrasting emotional territory.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING?! Go back and tick 'Do Ya' right now. I know the 'Stay With Me' cover on the other side is rubbish but you can't hold that against the song. It's BONKERS and AWESOME and ONLY HAS CHORUSES. And it only lasts two and a half minutes so it's not even taking up much of your time.

I cannot condone Beyonce's gender posturing. It was all very well with Ciara but I feel B should know better by now.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

is "Do Ya" a Move/ELO cover? If so, it will get a tick regardless of quality.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

It isn't, no but it does have zombies in the video if you find that persuasive?

[ijgrieve.livejournal.com]

Quite a few ticks this week - far better than last.

McFly is just about the stand-out; agree with piratemoggy on that score.
Take That reminds me of Snow Patrol as well, strangely enough - but I still like it just about enough for a tick. Other Take That pretty similar.
Same Difference sounds like a slightly above-average song from Eurovision. Tick.
Finally Mariah Carey, obviously. One of the greatest Christmas songs of the century.

Cake and Circuses

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Kat's error in the second half of the poll had a curious echo in zavvi yesterday. As of yesterday evening, their flagship Oxford Street store had in stock precisely 0 copies of the new Take That and the new Britney alBUMs. (I gather they get their CDs via Woolworths' distribution service which, for understandable reasons - i.e. the company's in administration - isn't at its most effective at the moment.)

So, in a "there's no bread, let 'em eat cake" scenario, zavvi unboxed their unsold copies of TT's Greatest Hits and used them to plug the vacant spaces on the 'top sellers' shelves where The Circus was supposed to go (it's #1 in the zavvi chart even though they hadn't sold a copy of it!). A similar solution was applied to deal with the absent Britney CDs. Arf.

[andthatisthat.livejournal.com]

Katy Perry is my current favourite song in the Top 10, and I hate myself for it. :(

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

But the YE-EW bit is amazing. Even I have to admit that. :(