Poptimists Tracks Of 2008 PART 2

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Here's #s 40-31 of the poll: will it be as controversial as yesterday's Funky House Wars? Only YOU can decide :)

re. embedding: I've decided to keep on with the embedding where possible - people seem to like it on the whole. Apologies to anyone for whom this is an inconvenience - if it's a problem it's apparently possible to turn embeds off in your LJ settings.

And now - onwards!

40=. MARIAH CAREY - "Touch My Body"

The winner of our Video Of The Year poll is, of course not embeddable.

40=. KYLIE MINOGUE - "The One"

A late flurry of votes for this one showed the poptimists haven't quite given up on La Minogue yet.

39. CIARA - "Echo"

Not even out yet! Late-leaked forthcoming maybe-single from Ciara's new album.

38. THE FEELING - "I Thought It Was Over"

The doyens of Mumpop made a muted comeback. I don't recall this lead single doing especially well in the weekly polls, but clearly those who liked it liked it a lot!

37. ALPHABEAT - "Boyfriend"

The majority of the votes here were for the original, not the Pete Hammond remix, so here it is.

36. ANNIE - "Songs Remind Me Of You"

I don't think Annie's comeback album even got a release - this track was mentioned as a standout by most who heard it.

35. DAVID ARCHULETA - "Crush"

Soulful prettyboy ballad which hasn't hit in the UK yet. Poptimists tends not to give this kind of thing nearly as much love as its girly equivalent, so I'm interested in what people think.

33=. LITTLE BOOTS - "Stuck On Repeat"

The "I Feel Love"-biting original is nowhere to be found on YouTube (your skillz may be better than mine here) so this link is blogosphere favourite Little Boots performing it in her pyjamas at a home keyboard.

33=. BEYONCE - "If I Were A Boy"

If she were a boy she might be less famous and maybe her songs would be embeddable.

32. SEPTEMBER - "Cry For You"

Europop is back! (Not that it ever went away.)

31. NOAH AND THE WHALE - "5 Years Time"

Somewhat of a surprise to me, I must say.

No.s 30-21 tomorrow! (at a slightly later time, I have a meeting in the AM)

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Noah and the FAIL man that song grates on me summat chronic :(

Glad Kylie and The Feeling got a look in - surprised that Mariah wasn't higher though?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Maybe people felt the video crown was accolade enough :)

Agree on Noah and the Whale - I had somehow avoided it until I had to source the video, and it is awful! This is what happens when no real Belle And Sebastian music comes out I guess - those votes have to go somewhere ;)

[martinv.livejournal.com]

Argh even for a twee-lover like myself Noah and the Whale are horrific and grating. I feel I must point out that I was not one of the guilty voters here.

Little Boots though, excellent. Also the rest of the list is shaping up nicely.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

There might have been an element of Mariah vote-splitting - actually I think it benefited 'Touch My Body' that 'Side Effects' and 'I'm That Chick' were never singles, as they're the two really classic Mariah tracks this year.

The Princess is here!!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

CICI!!!!!!

Really didn't think that would show up and very pleased that it did - thought that Cici votes would be split between the various leaks ('High Price' and 'Work' especially). Especially as I never got round to putting 'Echo' on poptimists. This was my No 5 and it's such an amazing rush - it's just delectable, like if a patented Cici street dance routine was crossed with a rollercoaster ride. Favourite bit = just after the brilliant line "speakers thumpin' hard to that 2pac and 50 track, they runnin' to the corner yellin' who dat, who dat" suddenly the backing vox go UP again for "run that back!".

Re: The Princess is here!!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard this before and it's excellent - I like it more than "High Price". I think this might have big Poptimist crossover appeal, it's very frothy and pretty, a bit like Cassie's "Ditto". Almost a shame it's showed up in this year's list!

[ijgrieve.livejournal.com]

Noah & The Whale was one of mine (somewhere in the middle of my top 10). Definitely the summer song of 2008 IMO.

Bit disappointed that Alphabeat's entry isn't 'Fascination', but then again I didn't vote for it.

Annie is OK. The rest don't float my boat.

Noah and the Whale

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

This is the song from that mobile phone advert, right? I am genuinely surprised to find that it wasn't written by an ad agency.

Re: Noah and the Whale

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

I also have an intense dislike of Alphabeat. I am feeling like Lex today!

Re: Noah and the Whale

[thenipper.livejournal.com]

Semi-interesting article on the passing of the twee ad fad here:

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/crblog/change-the-record/

If I Were a Boy

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

Only number 33???? That's a bit of a shock - I think it's the best thing she's ever done (solo-wise) - for me easily the stand-out vocal performance of the year (such control, such emotion) on quite an understated yet beautiful song. And for once the public have it right - it's now her bestselling song in the UK.

Re: If I Were a Boy

[ijgrieve.livejournal.com]

Yeah I was expecting it to be higher as well.

Re: If I Were a Boy

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I pretty much agree but I'm not sure some people ever got over it being a ballad in the first place. And I can't complain, it was my No 12 so I didn't vote for it :(

Little Boots / Annie

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

I see she's made the BBC's "Sound of 2009" poll (actually - is that worth a separate thread / poll of its own?), so she may move beyond being just a blogosphere fave (and the song may even get to be a hit).

I personally think Meddle is much stronger than Stuck on Repeat though.

Also - that Annie song is ace, hadn't heard it before - is the album worth tracking down?

Re: Little Boots / Annie

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The album got a mixed reaction among most pop fans but I liked it. A lot of the tracks aren't really playing to her rather distanced strengths though.

Re: Little Boots / Annie

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

'is the album worth tracking down?'

yes imo

i really like Meddle too. it's probably a better song than SOR but the latter's got great SYNTH DRAMA. at least they're totally different from each other. still doubt she'll chart but would be nice.

Re: Little Boots / Annie

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

'Songs Remind Me Of You' is great (apparently it was recorded a couple of years ago) but the rest of the Annie album = mixed bag of Girls Aloud demos and a couple of attempts to rewrite 'Chewing Gum'. It's not great.

Re: Little Boots / Annie

[koganbot]

It's a Richard X track, whereas some of the rest are Xenomania (apparently; I haven't seen a list of producers) or, anyway, not Richard X. Album is definitely worth tracking down, though who knows what final form the release will take, assuming there is one (according to the not-always-reliable Wiki, she's been dropped by Island). I was one of those people with a mixed but fascinated reaction to the album, since she seems to be deliberately playing against her strengths*. There are a number of garage-rock tracks (garage-rock as in Them and The Shadows Of Night) - that is, with garage-rock accompaniment, while Annie tries to find Annie-like things to do with her mouth.

*Unless she doesn't know her strengths.

Re: Little Boots / Annie

[nunya-b.livejournal.com]

the annie album is very worth tracking down but i don't think it will look the same at all if it ever gets a release. she's doing boutique singles with richard x again (single "anthonio" comes out soonish on his own label) so the actual album will probably be quite different.

and for what it's worth, i like the girls aloud "rejects" on the album- "sweet", "loco", "bad times", "my love is better" i all listened to many times this year.

Crush

[misspelledwerd.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow! I didn't expect Archuleta to show up. Who else loves "Crush"?

It's kinda like Jordin Sparks' "Tattoo," but I like it even better!

Re: Crush

[koganbot]

Soulful prettyboy ballad which hasn't hit in the UK yet. Poptimists tends not to give this kind of thing nearly as much love as its girly equivalent, so I'm interested in what people think.

Oh, I like "Crush" (far more than any Archuleta performance on that TV show), but I don't think there is a girly equivalent - maybe introspective acoustic ballads by someone like Pink, except they're usually not as pretty - given that girls tend not to sing soulful prettyboy ballads. I'd say that this is better than the run-of-the-mill prettyboy ballad but that a decade ago it would have been dime-a-dozen anyway. For some reason, such tracks are not as well-written nowadays. Which isn't to say that there aren't other good ones these days, though the prettyboy stuff still seems to work better when it's given a dance beat: e.g., the new Menudo's quite good "Lost."

Re: Crush

[koganbot]

You must see this, if you haven't:

Le plus horrible jour de ma vie

Re: Crush

[mostlyconnect.livejournal.com]

I would have voted for it if I'd have heard it this year!

I really miss this stuff as a part of the pop landscape.

Re: Crush

[koganbot]

Is co-written by Emanuel Kiriakou, who co-wrote Nick Lachey's "What's Left Of Me."

Re: Crush

[poptasticuk.livejournal.com]

I was going to ask the same question! He was no.2 in my chart. Have you got his album?