Poptimists Tracks Of 2008 PART ONE

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

THE MAIN EVENT! These are #s 50-42 of the Top 50 as voted for by you (there's a tie at #40 so we'll see those tomorrow). Thanks to the miracle of embedding disabled by request you'll have to investigate some of these away from the comforting womb of LJ - sorry, it's The Man's fault.

50. BRITNEY SPEARS - "Womanizer"

Something of a fall from grace for poptimists favourite Britney: the nudie video to her song about a machine that makes women can be found here.

49. BLACKOUT CREW - "Put A Donk On It"

A lesson we can all learn.

47=. THE VERONICAS - "Untouched"

Imperious, desperate teenpop.

47=. DAVEIGH CHASE - "The Happiest Girl In The Whole USA"

Something of a surprise entry, this isn't a single or even released track, it's a performance from TV drama Big Love, which I had never heard of. I will leave it to its nominators to explain the context (tho you can get the gist on Wikipedia)

45=. PUSSYCAT DOLLS - "When I Grow Up"

Embedding disabled on all PCDs' videos, here is this one.

45=. BLACK KIDS - "I'm Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You"

It strikes me that Universal are shooting themselves in the foot a bit by refusing to make the video from nindie pan-flashers Black Kids embeddable! Hear its jaunty retro-jangle here.

44. PUSSYCAT DOLLS - "I Hate This Part"

Them again! Beating its fellow Pussycat track by a whisker - here the girls get a bit more sensitive.

43. IDA MARIA - "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked"

A scratchy vid that takes me back to the halcyon days of Mambo Taxi etc. Not much talked about on Poptimists, it seems to me.

42. PALEFACE ft KYLA - "Do You Mind (Crazy Couzinz Remix)"

For whatever reason, funky house hasn't caught the poptimist imagination the way bassline did last year (though actually I think only T2 showed up in last year's poll). I like Kyla, she has an honest face.

Check back tomorrow for #40-31!

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

"horrible shouty garage vocals"???

[ijgrieve.livejournal.com]

You know what I mean.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yes, I just take issue with your dismissive and reductive description of them.

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

I must admit I'm mystified too!

[ijgrieve.livejournal.com]

Well, 'Put A Donk On It' is I think a pretty clear example of what I mean.

The tune, as a club banger, is OK (though nothing that would ever get close to a Top 10 of the year), but aargh the vocals suck so badly (e.g. from 1:17 in the embedded video). Takes me back to 2000 in a bad way.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The vocals on "Put A Donk On It" are more like 50s and 60s regional novelty records than most garage!

garage as in garage band?

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

the vocals are a kind of weird mask to the subtlety of the arrangement actually -- it's a more cerebral record than it pretends to be (in a classical music sense)

Re: garage as in garage band?

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

Really? In what way? (I have no technical music knowledge which would help me properly understand what you mean by a classical music sense)

Re: garage as in garage band?

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i kind of just mean in a "theme and variations" sense really -- it works by development of a single musical idea (="donk") in difft contexts, and it's more deliberately (if cheekily) developmental than the vocal would clue you in to

(i'd have to listen a lot more carefully to discover if the structure was more complex than this)

[martinv.livejournal.com]

Or the Chuckle Brothers, if you ask me...