Yet Another Year In Pop: 24

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Cor! Bumper crop this week (even if one is a remix version of another one), including a new number one from Ms Lott.

[Poll #1416020]
Lower reaches watch: quite awesomely, the full-length mix of Clubbers Guide Summer 2009 somehow counts as a chart-eligible mp3, and has made it to no.97!

Poll reminder: You've got until tomorrow lunchtime to vote in Heat #3 of 2000 - loads of contenders vyeing for the 5th place spot (we might need a tie-breaker here).

Comments

WHAT

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

That Pixie Lott single is RUBBISH and the video makes no sense AT ALL; she's sneaking out to bang him not have some faux-empowering girls vs boys fite which obvs the girls must win because otherwise that would be abusive whereas her knocking out some skinny model dude is FINE. ARGH.

In other news;
David Guetta & Kelly is a bit by numbers but likeable enough.
Actually quite like Paparazzi against my better judgement.
Linkin Park is surprisingly listenable; they seem to have stopped trying to be U2 again, thank god.
Battlefield is a marginal tick because it's GOOD but it's not as good as it's going to be made out to be.
Hush Hush is v. good, tick; also has M C Escher bit in video so highly approvable etc.
I think I'm going to have to admit I quite like Kasabian.
Saturdays good but they all look too scrawny in the video, which detracts from potential s3x1n3ss.

LOTT THE FUCK?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Amy Winehouse has done so much damage to pop by being too much of a flake to make any new music :(

Battlefield is teenpop goes Quo really: it's as stoopid as the genre gets but in a very likeable way.

Re: LOTT THE FUCK?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I thought 'Battlefield' would grow on me, or rather bludgeon its way into my heart, but it's actually done the opposite. Ticked it but it's VERY marginal. It leaves me kind of cold...the loudness seems forced somehow, as opposed to 'No Air' where it was a logical consequence of the song.

Re: LOTT THE FUCK?

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Re: Battlefield, whenever I try and remember how it goes I keep humming the chorus to 'Energy' by Keri Hilson instead.

Re: LOTT THE FUCK?

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

w0rd. STOP P1SS1NG ABOUT IN THE C4R1BBEAN AMY AND MAKE SOME NEW MUSIC IN A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT STYLE OR SOMETHING ALREADY. I'm not really sure she's ever going to get another album out tho, so sadface about that. Still this does not excuse anyone liking that Pixie Lott b0ll0cks. God when will this terrible musical phase end?

It is, very much so; if there was ever a power ballad by numbers it'd be that but that said power ballads are, obv., GREAT so it's a tricky one.

Re: LOTT THE FUCK?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I really hope that story about Amy doing a reggae album and Island telling her to redo it has some truth to it - if this thing exists then there's always the possibility of the label changing its mind, or for it to ~emerge~ in some form. Even if the grain of truth is that she just wants to go in a reggae direction but hasn't done anything about it yet...I think if she gets it together that can be pretty fruitful.

Sadly the only actual concrete Winehouse recording news is that she was flown out to LA at great expense to spend a day in the studio with Snoop Dogg as they were both v keen to work with each other - and they just ended up getting too stoned to move and making no actual music :(

Re: LOTT THE FUCK?

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

A horribly cynical part of me really, really wants the reggae album to emerge just because I am doing PR for a reggae act for some unearthly reason these days. Argh must do some of that one day. The rest (which is the vast majority) of me just wants it to emerge in the hope she doesn't just die. :/

Re: LOTT THE FUCK?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

also: RETWEETED THAT!

OK, Pixie Lott, I have been forced to turn my attention to you

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

OK, so...let's be real. She's not great. On reflection, not actually as awful as Adele or Duffy, but it seems worse because she's following them. And the "electro" "tinge" is really embarrassing, like some old person trying to be down with the kidz except worse because she IS a kid. Really though I wouldn't mind her EXCEPT.

How is it that this girl has got a No 1 out of nowhere? (And Adele and Duffy before her.) OK, so "soul voices" are in. Riddle me this: why has Jazmine Sullivan's UK press campaign apparently stalled, with none of her singles to date so much as breaking the top 100? ('Dream Big' even had an electro tinge of its own!) What, precisely, does Pixie Lott offer that Jazmine Sullivan doesn't? Why isn't it Jazmine Sullivan - who frankly outclasses Lott/Adele/Duffy in just about every area, songwriting and vocals and production and interesting ideas and everything - getting No 1s out of nowhere?

Elsewhere: 'Hush Hush' is AMAZING, I prefer the full-on balladry of the album version but the awesome video definitely warmed me up to the mental tripartite remix. It even makes the shameless 'I Will Survive' interpolation (which is rubbish on record) sound great. Also, lol @ thre remix being retitled 'Hush Hush; Hush Hush' WITH A SEMI-COLON, and being credited to The Pussycat Dolls ft. Nicole Scherzinger.

Um, should I bother with Airi L and Lenka?

Re: OK, Pixie Lott, I have been forced to turn my attention to you

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I just think Pixie Lott is AWFUL. AWFUL. I can sing better than that and I functionally can't sing except in a Marilyn Manson sort of way. SERIOUSLY WHAT IS THE POINT?

And v. good point re: Jazmine Sullivan. Radio 1 WTF?

Also, unrelatedly, if mainstream BBC radio doesn't pick up on 'Cry For Freedom' I am going to THROW ALL OF MY TOYS OUT OF THE PRAM.

Re: OK, Pixie Lott, I have been forced to turn my attention to you

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I mentioned this on Twitter yesterday but Pixie appears to have made the OCC forget the existence of Billie Piper (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8099529.stm) :(

I quite like the song though!

Re: OK, Pixie Lott, I have been forced to turn my attention to you

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Um...I thought Gabrielle did it too!

Re: OK, Pixie Lott, I have been forced to turn my attention to you

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

She debuted at no.2.

Re: OK, Pixie Lott, I have been forced to turn my attention to you

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

What, precisely, does Pixie Lott offer that Jazmine Sullivan doesn't?

IDK, a discernible chorus or any sort of structure at all to her music?

Lenka is like, if you thought Yael Naim just wasn't twee-ly uplifting enough? Then this is the song for you.

Re: OK, Pixie Lott, I have been forced to turn my attention to you

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

you think 'mama do' has more structure than 'dream big' or 'hurricane' (which, incidentally, could blast battlefield off the face of the musical earth) or 'call me guilty' or 'fear?' 0_0

Re: OK, Pixie Lott, I have been forced to turn my attention to you

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

Obviously, yes.

I mean, I don't dislike Jazmine. But busting on Pixie Lott for being unoriginal and mediocre while offering Jazmine up as an underappreciated, truly unique diamond in the rough, when there are at least five radio stations in New York City that play songs identical to Jazmine's every minute of every day? Disingenuous. She's got good production, yes, and she's lyrically tight, yes -- but Chrisette Michele, and Jill Scott, and Mystic, and even Alicia Keys manage to do what she does without the Alanis-style run-on lines. They're as much a part of a pack as Amy/Duffy/Adele/Pixie. (Meanwhile, the one female R&B singer I would say is really original is Solange, who's telling stories I honestly haven't heard before, or in ways I haven't heard before, and she can't even manage to crack the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Top 10 in the US -- something Jazmine has accomplished three times already, IIRC.)

Re: OK, Pixie Lott, I have been forced to turn my attention to you

[petronia.livejournal.com]

The Pixie Lott song is not "good" but it is memorable - I heard a snippet on the radio in a shop yesterday and immediately knew it was "that one video I watched off Tumblr with the slap fight". And it forced my attention.

The subgenre is white-girls-with-"soul"-voices, though? I mean it's difficult not to come to that conclusion.

Re: OK, Pixie Lott, I have been forced to turn my attention to you

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but...what's so wrong about black girls with "soul"/soul voices, that they don't get this sort of budget/promo/mainstream acceptance?

Re: OK, Pixie Lott, I have been forced to turn my attention to you

[meserach.livejournal.com]

I confess I have ticked the Pixie at least for the moment. I am honestly not sure why. It is possibly because of my enduring love for songs that go "uh oh uh oh" at any point.

Re: OK, Pixie Lott, I have been forced to turn my attention to you

[meserach.livejournal.com]

Okay, woke up in a cold sweat and unticked it again.

It's... well, I don't HATE it, clearly.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHAHA I am listening to The People vs. Huw Stevens and THE PEOPLE want Girls Aloud. LESS OF THAT MGMT, HUW.

Actually Huw Stephens is alright & this is obvs. off topic but anyway.

Edit: actually since the people demonstrably want Pixie Lott as well think this argument may be more me stabbing myself in the foot than anything. BUT ANYWAY.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Why am I ticking Katy Perry concerts and Lady Gaga singles enthusiastically? World = Topsy Turvy. (This is my fave Gaga song by some distance tho.)

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

It's the old 'beginning to fancy your captor' thing. Media saturation has ensured I even vaguely like that James Morrison/Nelly Furtado thing in a sort of 'OH ALL RIGHT, IF YOU DON'T BEAT ME AGAIN' way.

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

Nearly every tick I made this week was accompanied by the thought, "I hate that, but it's actually pretty good."

Why does love always feel like A BATTLEFIELD? (A BATTLEFIELD!!! A BATTLEFIELD!!!)

[meserach.livejournal.com]

GET YOUR ARMOUR

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

Quite a rare good week!!

Just watched the whole of the 7 minutes 45 second Lady Gaga video!

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

A good week, ticks for Pixie, Jordin and the Pussycats.

Battlefield is my favourite song of the year thus far. I find it ridiculously addictive. That vocal is insanely brilliant.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

ticked Pixie Lott because the T2 and Donae'O remixes are any good at all

easily the best Saturdays song so far, generous tick - would like this to be a bit more Richard-X'y guess that's what they're going for

[spazhammer.livejournal.com]

am i alone in thinking that the pixie lott song sounds like (it should be) a saturdays b-side?