Poptimists Poll 08 Ketchup*

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The results of the Poll so far:

ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Kanye West - 808s And Heartbreak
Runners Up: Santogold - Santogold; Scooter - Jumping All Over The World

MOST HORRIBLE POP THING: Katy Perry
Runners Up: Scouting For Girls; The charts being rubbish.

MOST INTERESTING POP THING: "Wearing My Rolex"
Runners Up: Katy Perry; Beyonce and Sasha Fierce; Autotune

VIDEO OF THE YEAR: Mariah Carey - "Touch My Body"
Runner Up: Blackout Crew - "Put A Donk On It"

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Madonna
Runners Up: Britney Spears; Morrissey

*sorry Mark!

At lunchtime tomorrow I'll close the leagueofpop@gmail.com inbox to Top 10 Tracks submissions, and then tomorrow evening I'll post the stragglers - those tracks which got more than one vote but didn't make the top 50. The main countdown will run all next 'working' week, and at the weekend the grand list of every single thing submitted will go up. Get your bitching fingers ready!

Comments

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

"dense sonic thickets"??? i think you've been hanging around music writers too much ;)

i was listening for the first time to this yesterday, and it didn't grab me in the same way that the solange album did (also listened to for the first time yesterday), i do think that the "classy" "smooth" soul thing is somewhat of a stumbling block for me...

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

hang on though surely solange is a million times more "classy" "smooth" soul than erykah!!!! half the album is straight-up minnie riperton pastiche, we even have an 'ode to marvin' in there! while otoh new amerykah is all radio static and patchwork samples and sudden stop-starts and references to genres all over the map and frightening backing vocals coming out of nowhere - it's hardly a smooth listen.

don't see what's wrong with "dense sonic thickets" either.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

s'a bit "sonic catheeeedrals of sound" reynoldsian to my mind is all...

solange has more different bits perhaps? so one song sounds like 60s soul, one sounds like 90s pop, one sounds like radiohead on an acid trip etcetc, whereas the badu all had similar sonic ticks in each track (i must admit to not having sat down and given it my entire attention, so this could be underplaying it) and no radiohead on acid.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

"dense" = it is layered and kinda heavy and there is a lot there
"sonic" = it is sound
"thickets" = an analogy which fits how it hears to me, lots of unexpected and varied stuff going on which, when you push it aside, reveals even more stuff, and it all seems like it sort of grows organically. out of her mind! and it is all ALIVE obv.

idk the solange is pretty much ALL 60s soul until she goes off on her batshit tangents in the last two proper songs (which are actually the weakest bits of the album b/c she isn't the black bjork she wants to be, she's an eccentric, poutier minnie riperton) - whereas pretty much every erykah track ends up in a hugely different place to where it started, you're never able to tell what's coming next. 'me' starts off as the most neo-soul track on the album and ends with erykah singing in unison to an insane trumpet line; 'the cell' is a massively catchy funk jam which ends up in acappella girl group harmonies; 'twinkle' is full of terrifying voices and radio static; et cet. and no radiohead on acid = hurrah!!