Poptimists Tracks Of 08 PART THREE

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Nos. 30-21 of your tracks of the year.

And a special bonus round of applause to two tracks from last year's Top 10 which qualified again this year: Miley Cyrus' "See You Again" would have come between #25 and #26, and M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" between #24 and #25.

30. ELBOW - "One Day Like This"

This got a grand total of two votes when it came up in the weekly polls. Obviously they both liked it a great deal. Or its Mercury nomination (and omnipresence on sports and TV highlights reels) has swung others behind it!

29. ASHLEE SIMPSON - "Little Miss Obsessive"

No official video of this seems to exist! Here are some pictures of Ashlee.

28. LEONA LEWIS - "Bleeding Love"/"Bleeding Love (Moto Blanco Remix)"

The two mixes got equal votes from you, so I went with the MB one here because it's a bit less familiar.

27. CASSIE - "Thirsty"

Another unreleased R&B gem - big up the Cassie Hype Kru.

26. LIL MAMA - "Shawty Get Loose"

This is the lowest-placed track to be named by four different people! It's also not embeddable, which is a shame as the video is very entertaining.

25. NE-YO - "Miss Independent"

Halfway through! The Prince of Polite outlines what he looks for in a wumman.

24. ASHLEE SIMPSON - "Outta My Head (Ay Ya Ya)"

Second appearance for Ashlee. Audio in this vid might be a bit crummy.

23. THE TING TINGS - "That's Not My Name"

This year's big indie crossover (and divider of poptimist opinion) - don't call them embeddable.

22. H2O ft PLATNUM - "What's It Gonna Be"

Bassline's biggest hit of 2008 gets its reward.

21. KANYE WEST - "Say You Will"

Six-minute cyber-weepie album track storms Poptimist poll shocker! This is not actually a video, obviously.

Tomorrow, things get see-ree-us as we enter the Top 20.

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

It's still really bizarre to me that it ended up as the lead track (the track listing I have starts with 'Welcome To Heartbreak', which thematically and sonically is the perfect opener, and 'Say You Will' is like track 9 or something).

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I think it works brilliantly as an opener - just pitching straight into "WHY WOULD SHE MAKE CALLS OUT THE BLUE?", it's like, Jesus, Kanye, I've only just got here, give me a minute to get my coat off, but no, Kanye needs to start getting stuff off his chest RIGHT AWAY.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Hmm I can see that but it just seems strange - 'Welcome To Heartbreak' seems almost designed to open the album. I like 'Say You Will' but it hangs around for at least two minutes longer than it should (ie when the song stops, the song should STOP).

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

No no that's good too! It's like this huge blurt, then a huge awkward pause and finally you-the-listener say to Kanye, "OK, why don't you start from the beginning then?" and we get "In the night I hear them talk..."

(NB you were right about the rubbishness of "Street Lights")

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

It works on a conceptual level but when listening with ears the second half of 'Say You Will' is just really boring!

'Welcome To Heartbreak' is the most stately track on the album - the cello! the drums! the piano! really, the cello! - it's swiftly becoming my favourite of them all. It reminds me a bit of THE KNIFE.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

It's featureless musical tundra but I love it! It goes on just long enough, it's particularly good trudging through the Arctic night music, I'm finding.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Weirdest 808s factlet that I've just discovered: the terrible live Pinocchio thing was included on the album at Beyoncé's insistence (http://www.thehiphopchronicle.com/2008/11/12/kanye-west-808-hearbreak-album-review/).

(I was trying to find out if a third single had been decided, and if so wtf it would be - there isn't one yet, though apparently 'See You In My Nightmares' has already charted in the US and Canada.)

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Yes, important to actually walk and listen to the second half of that song. It's like the opposite of music to blog by! Which I appreciate on a conceptual level while sitting in front of a computer and on a non-conceptual level when I'm walking through the Arctic tundra that is where I usually walk.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

agree that 'Say You Will' is a bit too long but it's def the right thing to open with imo but i think Love Lockdown should be track 3 also

this album is down in history as the first i listened to on Spotify