Yet Another Year In Pop: 7

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

NOES yr eyes do not deceive you it is SEVEN new entries - except two of them aren't "new", just forgotten from previous polls, and also is that Fray song really new? Who can even tell?

[Poll #1350130]

BUBBLING UP: My Chemical Romance's version of "Desolation Row" and Saint Etienne's "Method Of Modern Love" are nestling outside the 40. New Mum MIA is back in the chart with Paper Planes. Miley is creeping up w/Fly On The Wall but may yet end up in the clutches of Anatol_Merklich.

Comments

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

hmmm, i think this might have to be my first DON'T LIKE ANY of the year. i've heard the morrissey a few times and i'm still not sure if it's Any Good At All...

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I like it, but as a single it feels very slight and exposed really - prefer it nestled among other songs on his LP.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

i'm still not entirely convinced by this Return To Form...

...mind you a lot of this has to to with Petridis's review in the graun on friday, haven't actually, y'know, listened to it or anything so obvious...

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

ahem, T.I. and Justin!

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

see i knew you were going to say that. haven't heard it though.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

My first really enthusiastic tick of the year for T.I. and Justin! 'Dead And Gone' is just huge, massive, EPIC. There's just so much going on emotionally - the way T.I. takes stock of his situation is clear-headed verging on light-headed, and despite his need to explain and apologise, and despite the broiling catharsis, he winds up in this very sanguine, je ne regrette rien frame of mind - like he's at peace with himself, or the world, or both - like he's finally worked out what the secret to life is. Obv that lavish beat* helps - horns! piano! strings! drama! - and this is easily Justin's finest vocal performance in years. At the end, I picture T.I. walking alone, away from the camera, into the sunset.

*producers were Rob Knox and Justin Timberlake, apparently. Don't know who Knox is and haven't been aware of any specifically Timberlake productions previously...

The others all exist on the boring-through-to-repulsive scale, with Morrissey nestled firmly at the latter end. God, he makes me sick. Apart from N-Dubz who are OK, as previously discussed, but who are definitely liable to being unticked given that I haven't actually gone back to 'Strong Again' of my own volition since I first heard it...

Oh, and I went back and ticked Lily Allen. I admit it, 'The Fear' is a great pop song.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

emotional climax of 'Dead And Gone' = when, after mostly talking in hypothetical or generalised situations, T.I. pulls it right back round to what he's specifically been going through and mentions his dead best friend by name (not sure, but I think this is the only time he says Philant's name on the album, though obv that ghost hangs heavy over the whole thing - will have to check this) - "who would've thought I'd never see Philant no more? Got enough dead homies, I don't want no more..."

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

A complete ditto from me on the T.I. front - this was (prematurely, it now turns out) one of my top 10 in the 2008 poll, and I'm delighted to see the British public for once having enough taste to send this into the charts before a video has even appeared. Absolutely epic track, the shuffling beat and horns really drive it forward, plus I'm always a sucker for strings and piano, and here they really help drive the song forward. Fantastic vocal performances from both here. If you haven't heard it yet, go listen, this is fantastic.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

OIC, this is why my miley review has never been used. this is cheering as i thought i had merely totally lost all conception of what makes a semi-readable review.

all of these new entries are absolutely unmitigatedly rubbish and/or i haven't bothered to listen to them. i heard 'gives you hell' a minute ago whilst covering a breaking local news story about seeds at a garden centre and can honestly report the breaking local news was at least 500,000x more interesting.

Taylor UK Hype Kru

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

In not Bubbling Under news, "Love Story" has slipped out of the Top 100 this week. However, the UK hype machine seems to be gathering pace. She was in London yesterday to do a days worth of "International press", culminating in a nice, relaxed appearance on Radio 1's 'Switch' programme last night. Apparently the crowd outside was bigger than for any other live guest on the show thus far. "Love Story" is now playlisted by both Radios 1 & 2, so they're clearly going for across the board appeal. Either that or they're still not sure who the target demographic over here is.

The single is out in two weeks time and the album (with new cover art) in three.

Re: Taylor UK Hype Kru

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

She's also been all over 4Music and TMF during the day - this should do well in half term week innit.

Fray

[koganbot]

is that Fray song really new?

No. We did it two weeks ago.

[koganbot]

Already posted in the last couple of weeks as to why I reject the Rejects and tick the Dubzies.

The Prodigy "Omen": This seems to aspire more toward Buster Keaton's "Haunted House" than Robert Wise's "The Haunting," has a good comically dark hook, but the tech scratches undercut it. NONTICK.

Morrissey "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris": His voice is heavier than I expected, unfortunately. "In the absence of your smiling face/I travel all over the place." Well, that's funny as deliberate badness, but it's still bad. "Only stone and steel accept my love." An opening here for great, comic, exuberant despair; I wouldn't say the music is up to it, but I like the intent, so... BORDERLINE TICK.

T.I. f. Justin Timberlake "Dead And Gone": Niggas don' know what to do so they throw their arms around Paris they just start shootin'. No news here, but done effectively. TICK.

The Killers "Spaceman": Vast silliness - deliberate silliness, right? - right? - lopes along nicely, though the music is too crowded, making this sound uncommitted, as am I. TENTATIVE NONTICK.

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Major closure omission error in N-Dubz video: one of the dubs is wearing DEATHSHEAD CAP, and there's a guy with SKELETON SUIT in audience, latter person should obv have put on former garment at end.