Yet Another Year In Pop: 13

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Gaga is still on top; Noisettes, AR Rahman and Metro Station enter the top 10; Lily Allen's current singles sit side by side at 16 and 17.

[Poll #1374776]

Lower reaches watch: Miley Cyrus' 'Climb' is doing just that, Gels Alahd and Nickelback jump 80-odd places each and the return of Formula One motor racing to the BBC prompts the re-entry of Fleetwood Mac's 'The Chain' at no.94.

Top 10 watch: Last week you lot voted Taylor Swift as your favourite song in the top ten. Taylor got more than twice as many votes as 2nd-placed TI despite that dreadful dress she's wearing in the video. Well done Taylor!

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Noisettes - rinky-dinky keyboards, twee amateurish girly vocals. I feel we have been here before. WTF do people see in this shit? It's not even that catchy.

'Show Me Love' - ughhh endless annual reissues of classic dance tracks, why are there so many of these? This doesn't ruin it I guess, and at least there's a great Geeneus funky house remix doing the rounds too.

Lily Allen - I don't find the lyrical sentiment that obnoxious, really, but the execution is pretty ham-fisted. "I think you're really mean, I think you're really mean" - Lily, you are supposed to be a wisecracker and a wit, this is just not good enough! I want bons mots and caustic, unanswerable put-downs, not playground taunts. Also the line about the wet spot is just a bit "ew, TMI".

KIG - AWESOME, finally. WATCH ME CONFUSE THE DANCE NOW. You have not lived until you've done this.

White Lies - bog standard indie, terrible singer

J-Hud - an odd choice of single - 'My Heart' and 'I'm His Only Woman' are much better - but it's OK I guess

Asher Roth - the actual worst single of the year is upon us, what an abomination this is :(

misanthropic mondays, cont.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

The Noisettes' success confuses me. They were once quite good but now sound like the shitting Ting Tings, although I suppose that is in fact what sells these days and I am simply not down with the kids/middle aged record buying public.

Don't like KIG, Lily Allen annoys me almost beyond belief and mystifies me as a single when she could have released solid-gold amazing 'Everyone's At It' but seems to have decided to go with 'annoying and cutesy' instead to, idk, tap into the perceived American market or something/not appear too srs bsns. White Lies can fvck right off, as can Steve Angello & Laidback Luke if that's a cover of the Robyn S. Asher Roth embarasses me ob behalf of THE WORLD.

Jennifer Hudson, on the other hand, is brilliant. Thank god.

That dress Taylor wears in the 'Love Story' video REALLY ANNOYS ME. It's so... drippy. Like it was going to be sexy and then went 'oh shit, this is Taylor Swift' and wussed out and just looks crap in either direction. It simultaneously appears to be falling off (but not in a seductive manner, just in a 'that's an awkward fit' way) and yet also incredibly restrictive due to massive corset making her look like a child and also it's clearly some form of shift and she's actually FORGOTTEN TO GET DRESSED. I really don't care that much about popstars' sartorial decisions but that dress is just so annoying! It may actually be why I don't like that song at all, aside from the fact it's also boring.

mediocrity rules part billion

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

Noisettes: 4 (probably a decent remix in this somewhere but meh)
Angello/Luke: 3 (sometimes i like updates of classic tunes see Out Of Office 'Break Of Dawn' last year but this no good)
Lily Allen: 4 (meh, should've released 'F*ck You' obv)
KIG: generous 6 just cos of a couple of superior remixes (problems with the original are pretty much the same as i had with 'Bongo Jam' given it's pretty much the same track altho i warmed to it a little. would be OK hearing this in a club tho, just no desire to hear it any other time)
White Lies: 2
J-Hud: 5 (Fraser T Smith remix also a 5)
Asher Roth: 2 (got about 5 seconds in, heard them advocating Miller Lite...does that still exist?!)

WHERE IS POP I LIKE? :( I probably don't have as much interest in pop generally than i did a couple of years ago now but still

[koganbot]

Maybe my problem with the Noisettes, Angello, White Lies, and even Jennifer is that I'm not hearing these tracks in their respective home contexts, an environment where they make sense; they seem botched, the parts of the music not comfortable with each other, not jelling. While oddly enough, Lily's track, which is all about elements not jelling, connects vastly better to the music in the music.

The Noisettes "Don't Upset The Rhythm": The rhythm is a big hunk of what's wrong with this, actually, reduced funk with no roll to it, rigid and sexless. For a moment the melody seems to be working its way towards the floating sadness of Gnarls' "Crazy," but it doesn't achieve much of a mood one way or another. Obviously I'm missing something, since tracks don't jump high on the list for no reason. NO TICK.

Steve Angello & Laidback Luke f. Robin S. "Show Me Love": Again, I'm baffled. Despite the riff being even more upfront than on the original, and the beat steadier, this feels as if the riff and voice are being forced to run an obstacle course. The original had a mystery mood, desire and loneliness on the dark dance floor. The pushy beats here simply subtract that. NO TICK.

Lily Allen "Not Fair": Comic, offhand delivery, but the voice and tune deliver an underlying melancholy. I like Dave's suggestion in Jukebox that this is addressed to God*. Why doesn't life quite work? TICK.

K.I.G. "Head, Shoulders, Knees N Toes": Wish it were these guys doing the Robin remix, since they take this immediately to the night's mystery. Simple dance instructions, but the voice is tense, has a hint of menace. TICK.

White Lies "Farewell To The Fairground": The tune goes aloft while the rhythm tries to pulverize it. Another song I just don't get. NO TICK.

Jennifer Hudson "If This Isn't Love": I suppose I'm just rebelling against the week's zeitgeist, but smooth voice versus jagged beats isn't working for me today. NO TICK.

Asher Roth "I Love College": I know I'm not going to get you to agree with me, but this vocal has total authority, slow and sly while the sway of the music pulls us in. ("Us"? Well, I doubt that many people's reaction to this is indifference.) TICK.

*Dave later retracted this in the comments, since it's not literally true, but it's right anyway. Think of the album as being addressed to life and to Lily's struggle to not give up on it. When people talked about one of her songs being about God, I'd initially forgotten "Him" and thought they were talking about "He Wasn't There." She's so pleased she never gave up on him. But given the songs that preceded "He Wasn't There," do you think she - whoever that is: the narrator? Lily? - is deluding herself? (By the way, in case the song isn't fiction, might it be about her dad? I don't know that family's story.)

[koganbot]

(Oh, by the way, whenever I listen to "I Love College" I do then go out and rape comatose women, despite the song's admonition not to, but I don't know if that's the song's fault.)

Here boy: go fetch a stick!

[koganbot]

Oh, and since I don't think anyone actually followed my Gillette links in the Jukebox comments to "Not Fair," here she is. You will like her:

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Noisettes - they used to be angular, gritty and... well, indie - and nobody gave a toss about them except me (a bit, and not enough to actually buy their album or anything, even when it was £3 in Fopp). Now they do car adverts, sound like M People, and have had a big hit. Good for them. A nostalgic tick.

Enthusiastic ticks for Lallen and KIG. Marginal tick for J-Hud, but I reckon it's a grower. Slightly embarrassed tick for 'College', but it confirms all my worst fears about 1st year Uni students, so on that score is probably the most honest song in the 40.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I should upload the video of Lytton dancing to KIG!