poptimists | Some fresher, some older

I was going to start this with the video to Keri Hilson's new single -- the not-so-much-great-as-aggressively-likable Knock You Down with Ne-Yo and K-West -- but natch by this point the only upload left is the official one, which may or may not be viewable in yr location. (It is, either way, as endearing as the song itself is, ie WELL PLENTY.)

Instead, something a little older for a starter:

Mr Scruff videos are always worth the price of admission; this one, for last year's excellent Music Takes Me Up, features singing fruit!

(For those who may not be familiar with the awesome of previous Mr Scruff efforts: see eg Sweetsmoke (PIES!) and Honeydew.)

Moving on, some more last year's fare: the lead single for E-40's The Ball Street Journal, Wake It Up; a lush and chintzy number, featuring a terribly pretty Akon hook.

(People may remember E-40 from few-years-back Tell Me When to Go; he also had an track from the same album on the Stomp the Yard soundtrack.)

And a somewhat fresher one in between! The new(ish) one from Ron Browz of Pop Champagne fame, Jumping Out the Window:

More melodic, much improved autotune trickery*, hookier, and with fab underlying doomy bass! Ruddy amazing, in short. (I first heard this one in a random mp3 blog's embedded player, and instantly went scrambling for said player to see OMG WHAT THAT WAS.)

*) anecdote goez: Pop Champagne was made two days after mr. Browz had had Autotune installed, and was his first ever time playing around with the program. Which would be why the 'tuning sounds kinda crap, as catchy as the track nonetheless is, haha.

Back to older stuff for Speedin' with Rick Ross:

In which mr. Ross recruits Runners for some properly epic production and R. Kelly for smashing hooks (wait for that middle eight!)

And in closing, an album track from Ryan Leslie's recent self-titled, Just Right; this was briefly discussed in comments here a while back:

It's ALL about the twinkly, sparkly synth plinks. And the incredible tension in the monotone of the first part of the verses, and the harmonies in the chorus, AND AND AND. Best track on the alb by horselengths (and I say this as someone who loved the album!)