Poptimists Tracks Of 2008 PART FOUR

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The hairy cornflake returns with Nos. 20-11 of your favourite tracks of the year.

20. GIRLS ALOUD - "The Promise"

Perhaps a lower-than-expected showing for perennial Poptimist darlings GA - their retro-themed video is not embeddable.

17=. MARIA DANIELA Y SU SONIDO LASSER - "Duri Duri"

This year the chart's been particularly good for niche enthusiasms getting a welcome shot of publicity. Here's sometime Podcast Panellists MDYSSL with some very bouncy pop.

17=. LILY ALLEN - "The Fear"

It's not even out yet! Though, unlike Cassie, it will be.

17=. KLEERUP ft MARIT BERGMAN - "3AM"

It's not just Robyn who gets to voice moody Kleerup tracks you know.

16. BEYONCE - "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)"

If you liked it then you should have embedded it.

15. ALPHABEAT - "Fascination"

Sign of the music biz times (if true): Alphabeat have apparently been dropped by their UK label because their FIFTH single off their album flopped. Remember them this way! (NB the Bimbo Jones remix picked up a fraction of the points here).

14. RIHANNA - "Disturbia"

Last year's runaway winner makes a decent showing again.

13. HOT CHIP - "Ready For The Floor"

They really are trying to look like Buggles in this video, aren't they?

12. SOLANGE - "Sandcastle Disco"

Solange Knowles outpolls her sister, even if she hasn't outsold her.

11. KANYE WEST - "Love Lockdown"

Non-embeddable warriors! Kanye might feel hard done by here to be honest since SEVEN different people voted for this. If we were doing it solely on mentions he'd be at #5.

What powerhouse kept him out of the Top 10? Check back tomorrow when ALL will be REVEALED (and then at the weekend for the monster list of everything).

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I'm very surprised at some of these! I thought GA, Kanye and Hot Chip would place higher.

[hoshuteki.livejournal.com]

Oh, I would have voted highly for the Lily Allen track if I'd known it was 'eligible' as it were...

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Wasn't even aware of that Kleerup track. Is this what poptimists pay attention to instead of hip-hop? It's not very good, a dull song made more dull by the Casio preset production and her incredibly lifeless performance. She seems more interested in the idea of melancholy than actually, you know, singing as though she feels it.

This is the first time I've heard Maria Daniela &c too - this is not what I was expecting! It sounds like it's about to go into maiahiiii maiahaaa at any point (a bad thing). Lest anyone think I'm a total grump, I have discovered one amazing song in this rundown - the Veronicas! '4eva' passed me by when everyone raved about it so I never bothered with this, but 'Untouched' is rather special.

I like 'Ready For The Floor' OK but am pleased it's not higher. Can't think how this would end up as an elite song, it's not that it's bad but it's just...not as good as so many others.

Am guessing Solange suffered from vote-splitting? 'Sandcastle Disco' is better than 'I Decided' (and the bloody Freemasons mix had better not have got any love), though as I didn't vote for either I can't complain.

The news of Alphabeat getting dropped may have made my day :D

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

(Speaking of hip-hop: ONE hip-hop track so far (Lil' Mama)? ONE? Despite this being a stellar year, singles and albums wise? Oh, poptimists.) ("It's not big in the UK" doesn't wash as an excuse given half of these!)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

GENERAL POPTIMIST WARNING: Stay WELL AWAY from the Freemasons' remix of "Sandcastle Disco": it's poor even by their recent, radically lowered, standards.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I've still never heard Taylor Swift. I probably should at some point.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Presumably she benefited from non-splitting, unless you think that she's got another song in the top ten?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

"Ready For The Floor" I in the end didn't vote for (I thought it wouldn't need my support) but it's my favourite indie song of the year, by which I mean it's the song this year which does 'awkward vulnerability' best. I assume others got off on that too.

Glad you like the Veronicas!

Solange didn't suffer MUCH from vote-splitting. Again, I didn't vote for her, but I was pleased to see this one do well: it got some buzz over the year but not as much as it deserved.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Someday someone is going to have to explain this "awkward vulnerability" thing to me as it pertains to stuff like Hot Chip (as opposed to the Cassie-esque vulnerability that I like).

'Sandcastle Disco' should've been the lead single - once 'I Decided' established that the Solange Knowles project wasn't a commercially viable thing, it did get forgotten about somewhat.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

This is the first stretch in which I like all 10 of the songs, even if I don't like all of them that much.

Girls Aloud sounded better when it became a big hit and you heard it in supermarkets. Maria Daniela I think escapes the Numa Numa trap through sheer weird enthusiasm. Lily Allen I enjoy when it's on and then when I try to remember it I always get something else. Kleerup is solid but I'm with Lex - why this? Bouncy is growing on me. Alphabeat bludgeoned me into reluctant submission. Rihanna sounds to me like the bonus track it essentially is, but it's OK. Hot Chip are quality twee. Solange and Kanye I wuv.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

(what's kanye then?)

(ok, so this album might be emoelectro, but he's still hip hop, right?)

Results 1 - 10 of about 9,770,000 for kanye hip hop.

Results 1 - 10 of about 6,100,000 for kanye not hip hop.

looks conclusive to me...

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

'Ready For The Floor' wasn't even the best Hot Chip single this year - one of my Top 10 votes went to them for 'Hold On'.

I've got a funny feeling that Kings Of Leon might make an appearance in the Top 10. I know they scored big points from me, I can't imagine that no-one else voted for them at all, and they haven't featured from 67-11.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Kanye is a (former?) hip-hop artist who has made an album which is not hip-hop in the slightest!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes, the tracks he's appeared on so far have not been hip-hop by any stretch of the imagination.

He has made guest appearances on tracks as a rapper this year though, and it's possible one or more of those may appear tomorrow.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Me too! I just made a mental note: "that's a 2009 track, vote for next year". Same goes for all of her great MySpace demos.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

ditto (ish). lukewarm on most of these. low end: still find alphabeat a bit rub. top end: i've been spotifying (?) that solange track some.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping that your imagination is faulty, but then I am applying the same "logic" to MGMT.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Of these, I only voted for GA. I think that means more of my Top 10 won't make it than I anticipated.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Ha it would be a MAJOR upset if one of those didn't make it!! "One or more" though - omg has 'Put On' made it? Tenterhooks! And as I assume 'A Milli' has made it, poptimists may well have redeemed themselves hip-hop-wise.

Andrew's comment below has put some sudden FEAR into me regarding MGMT though :/

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I used to think like this until the Cassie fiasco. Now I vote while I can, before the artist's entire career gets lost behind the sofa.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

i think yr logic is sounder with KoL than MGMT, i think we're looking at three pretty high votes (or equivilent over more voters) for top ten and i can see MGMT getting like one 12 or 10 and several 5/4/3s, whereas i guess ben is the only KoL voter as they haven't turned up yet...

...but then we are rather unpredictable this year, aren't we?

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Am guessing Solange suffered from vote-splitting?

My favourite Solange tracks are all non-singles, and with one exception I decided not to bother voting for things that weren't singles.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I think most of the Lily points came from Americans, who understandably won't necessarily tie British tracks to their release dates!

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Haha no I meant that I'm going "I can't be the only person who voted for Time To Pretend!"

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Certainly there seem to me to be more surprises than last year - but then hardly anyone had heard of "See You Again" before it went Top 10...