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

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

Womanizer - I think I'd have liked this a lot more if it hadn't been for the awesomeness of what came before. Compared to the last album, this one just couldn't help but suffer in comparison. Still thought this'd be higher though.

Funky House - as far as I'm concerned, the reason Funky House hasn't generated as much excitement as Bassline is that's a whole lot less bonkers and therefore a hell of a lot more boring. It just doesn't sound very fresh or new to me at all.

Put a Donk on it - gutted this isn't higher. First time I heard it, I liked it but thought it was just a novelty song. Instead I found myself loving it more with every listen - it's just a great fun pop record, and certainly deserves a higher placing.

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Really? I thought 'When I Grow Up' was going to get a lot more love than that. And 'Womanizer', even though I didn't vote for it myself. I am genuinely surprised.

DONK!

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

i agree, although i did only end up giving it a handful of votes.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The Veronicas track pushed its way into my Top 10 on one hearing - magnificent use of strings (if lacking a bangin donk) and the tumbling half-rap is one of the most thrilling moments all year.

Britney - I liked it well enough, but it's no way a top 10 track IMO so 50 seems right, if not generous.

Blackout Crew - highly likeable, as lockedintheatti says.

Daveigh Chase - I think it's good that this kind of moment can get into the chart but without specific context I'm left a little baffled.

Pussycat Dolls - solid but they never seem to grip me the way they do some of you.

Ida Maria - not my thing but I can see why people would enjoy it. Unlike Black Kids, which IS more my thing just done REALLY SHITELY.

Paleface and Kyla - this is lovely, I think: spacious and haunting.

NINDIE!

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

black kids ended up being my 11th choice and thus missing out from teh carsmile jury, but Ida Maria got a couple from me, although judging from what i heard the other day the rest of the album is SHOCKING and moany and boring, whereas ILYSMBWYN is clearly Joan Jett meets the Waitresses Uptown for the Noughties.

Boo Tube

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

PLEASE can we not have ANY video embeds for the #40-#1 posts please. It slows down page loading on my computer terribly. Links to vids are surely fine if ppl want to explore the songs further.

Re: Boo Tube

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Does anyone else have strong feelings about this? I like the video embeds but I'm happy to give them up.

womanizer

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

i know how far out of the poptimist assesment on this i am -- i prefer womanizer significantly more than anything on the last album. srsly.

:-/

Re: Boo Tube

[martinv.livejournal.com]

Video embeds are great. I'm far more likely to bother checking out a video if I don't have to leave the page 10 times on each post...

Re: Boo Tube

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

The YouTube playlist is a good compromise. Minimises clicking between pages to watch vids while stopping the discussion page freezing for minutes on end.

Re: Boo Tube

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The YT playlist is a good idea but I'm a little wary of putting them together at work. I can put one together the night before and make it private till I post the post, if YT allows such a thing...

Re: DONK!

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Donk has grown on me signficantly in the last couple of weeks (esp as I BOUGHT it to test out Amazon mp3!) but not enough to make my top ten alas.

Re: Boo Tube

[martinv.livejournal.com]

You can set this up by going to Journal>Viewing Options.

Then there is a tickybox which says:

Video placeholders
Replace videos embedded in journals with a placeholder icon

This would solve any slow-loading issues...

Reasons this poptimist has not warmed to Funky House:

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

1) It's funky
2) It's also house.
3) It's funky house: hasn't there been a subgenre called this for the last decade? I mean Bassline is a daft name, but at least it's a new one.

Re: Reasons this poptimist has not warmed to Funky House:

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

Yes, there has been funky house for a looooong time, not sure why they couldn't think up a better name.

[ijgrieve.livejournal.com]

Ida Maria got 1pt from me; I didn't vote for any of the others in this section.

I'm glad Blackout Crew isn't higher - it has those horrible shouty garage vocals that I hate. I thought 'When I Grow Up' would be higher. Others I'm not

Re: Reasons this poptimist has not warmed to Funky House:

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I thought this time out it was just called 'funky'?

FAO Big Love fans -

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I have only seen the first season. If I look at that vid, will I spoiler myself?

Re: FAO Big Love fans -

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I believe it's from the second season, I don't know if it has spoilers in though.

Re: Reasons this poptimist has not warmed to Funky House:

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I think this is right actually.

The idea is that it's an evolution of the existing sound of funky house, so it doesn't need a shiny new name.

Re: Reasons this poptimist has not warmed to Funky House:

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

It does seem like bad pop not to mark the rise to prominence with a new moniker though! Is it just that this used to be done by NME/Smash Hits/MM and this situation doesn't apply any more (I really have no idea if the fans of funky would care if EG Mixmag decided that tomorrow it would be called "Francis")

Re: Reasons this poptimist has not warmed to Funky House:

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

On the other hand 'emo' is in fairness 15 years old, so shut up Andrew.

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

My current best guess is that four or five of my picks will wind up top 50, and one other one ("Fly on the Wall") already showed up as an hon. mention. I'm really unsure what to think about Cassie though, I suspect serious vote splitting.

Re: Boo Tube

[koganbot]

I'd say keep the embeds, though perhaps I'm being selfish.

Re: Boo Tube

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I agree - it used to KILL my computer. have added more RAM since then so it's not an issue personally but it has always bugged me that people don't consider this. if you're too lazy click a link, and then back, or click "open in new tab" or whatever, too fucking bad, you're the one missing out innit.