Yet Another Year In Pop: 20

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

The Peas finally nab their 2nd number one, Eminem and Shontelle scrape into the top 40. Plus, what do you get when a duck attempts re-entry? Geddit? RE-ENTRY.

[Poll #1402250]

Lower reaches watch: this week's bizarre re-entry is Dizzee Rascal's Fix Up Look Sharp at #78. Any ideas?

Comments

[koganbot]

Sorry Bill, but I don't usually tick re-entries unless there's something special and potent in the story of its re-entry. Ticked the other three, however.

Black-Eyed Peas "Boom Boom Pow": Mesmerizing, weird, strangely gorgeous, in-your-ear irritating, hilarious. Totally unexpected chart domination in the U.S., the best thing to happen to the charts this year. BOOM BOOM TICK!

Eminem "Beautiful": The sample is wooden, but Em himself is less deliberately robotic and distant than on "We Made You" and "3am." This is very borderline; what's making it potentially tickable is the line about being a hard act to follow, meaning others will have trouble following him but even more meaning he never could figure out how to follow up on his original brilliance. Chorus is clumsily obvious in both its message and sound, though. VERY BORDERLINE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT TICK.

Shontelle f. Akon "Stuck With Each Other": Starts portentous with the chords from Iggy's "Passenger," then a mid-level r&b girl is sweetly vulnerable, and Akon's more heavy-handed poignancy fails to squeeze the life out of things, for once. This is a grower, now provides reliable sway-with-the-rhythm moments. You guys should give it more of a chance. TICK.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Agreed on the chorus, which is really stupid (though I like when he actually tells people what his shoe size is, and when he gives up the metaphor -- "I mean, you don't really have to do that, I guess"). But this is the one track that I kind of like how the overall blandness (or maybe just "distance") interacts with the words. The song sounds like it's wheezing along with him, and even he kind of loses the effort after those first few verses, despite the fact that it's about six-seven minutes long! But his Marshall Mathers flow is fully intact and it seems like he says what he needs to say in about two verses.