Best Song of 2001: Heat #5

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Alicia put up a good fight but eventually the smaller-eyed singer won out - Bedingfield is THRU THIS. Britney, Jay-Z, Blu Cantrell and the White Stripes join him, with Nelly Furtado scraping through in 5th.

What's up next? Missy, Mariah, Martine and Mis-teeq await your ticks in Heat #5...

• You get a maximum of TEN TICKS over the three bits of the poll. The top five will go through to the next stage.



• If you want to change your vote (or tick too many by mistake), you can edit your votes by clicking on 'Poll #12345' then 'Fill Out Poll'.



• UK chart placings given in brackets.



• You have until Tuesday lunchtime to vote.



• Rep for your favourites in the comments! Youtube embeds very welcome.

[Poll #1437699]

Comments

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Oh shit, I know this is a super-tough heat. I have to narrow my ticks down from about 15. But...

Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby - THERE'S SOMETHING YOU NEED TO KNOOOOOWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!



Also: "giving you more carats than a rabbit"!

(the vid IS the Dub-a-holics version, despite what it says - uploader made a mistake)

Re: THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

i think i actually prefer the original but in any form this gets a TICK from me.

[mrs-leroy-brown.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is going to sound super-silly, but I'm SO HAPPY, like, genuinely joyous, that the Stripes made it through! :D :D :D

hallelujah, pharoahe monche'll do ya

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Those not ticking this are WRONG:

Re: hallelujah, pharoahe monche'll do ya

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

i even like the remix with craig david!

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Presenting, my favourite (and most poptimistic) music video ever:

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

ooh, i'm not sure if i can vote for something, just because of its video (i was wondering why it had been nommed)

[koganbot]

My my, I only ticked three on my first pass. I remember almost none of these, including the Missy's. ("Remember" being the wrong word for what's probably a lot of British pop and garage that I've never heard.) Am listening to Leslie Carter right now, who's got the endorsement of Metal Mike and of skyecaptain and it's... I don't know... recalls an era of cheap synthesized island beats and nasal vocals, and is not bad at all, the style has its integrity, and the track is insinuating its way into me, but doesn't really come through with personality and hooks, at least not yet.

[koganbot]

"Let Me Blow Ya Mind," which I ticked though it's not nearly as good as "Who's That Girl?," is one of the few hip-hop tracks that's based on a 12-bar pattern - not that it's 12-bar itself, only 8, and not that it's a blues, but blues is what helped generate the pattern.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

'I Got 5 On It' would be another yes?

Manu Chao "La Primavera"

[koganbot]

Lj won't let me do the embed, so here's a link for "La Primavera."

Re: Manu Chao "La Primavera"

[koganbot]

Is a deliberately slight bit of hypnosis, which I find hypnotic.

I dream filthy, my mom & pop mixed it with the Trini rum and whisky

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

My favourite thing about Foxy Brown was her penchant for slipping into patois and acting as one of the best conduits for reggae/dancehall crossover in popular hip-hop, and Broken Silence is SUCH a terrific album. The way she says "gyyaaangsta" is so amazing, the way she lets her mouth curl disdainfully around the vowels, emphasising the JA accent.

Poor Foxy. I wonder if she's still deaf/in jail/getting randomly attacked in the street :(

Re: I dream filthy, my mom & pop mixed it with the Trini rum and whisky

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Oh this is good, title too generic for me to have remembered, I'll switch out one of my votes for the front-runners I think.

what I need from you is not available in stores

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

For a while, J-Lo really was the best singles artist on the planet, wasn't she? My favourite thing about this video is how you just KNOW she demanded some assistant scurry along behind her picking up all the bling she cast off.

Such an immense pop song too, I love that BOOMING beat and that weird bouncing bassline and those amazing backing vox in the second verse - "you don't understand..."



Why are people ticking 'Lady Marmalade', btw? I mean...I don't hate it, it's impossible to hate, but it's just a shonky cover of a standard, right, nothing more and nothing less? There's so much similar stuff which is more deserving in this heat...

Re: what I need from you is not available in stores

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

I ticked 'Lady Marmalade' precisely because I felt there was nothing more deserving. Actually, I think I prefer the Pink/Lil' Kim/Mya/Christina version to the Labelle or All Saints versions.

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

This is an exceedingly weak heat, hence I find myself ticking the likes of Feeder.

'Nasty Girl' is my least favourite Destinys Child single.

Further to The Strokes debate in the previous heat, I can conclusively confirm that 'New York City Cops' > > > 'Last Nite' > > > 'Hard To Explain'.

At least there's 'Lapdance', 'One Night Stand' and 'Let Me Blow Ya Mind' to redeem this heat.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I'm finding it hard to get excited about the songs I can remember on this poll, but on a first glance it seems like the ones new to me (eg Foxy Brown) are pretty good!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

You might think it unlucky that two good but kinda minor Missy singles show up in the same heat, but I wonder if it's going to end up unlucky for all the people who aren't Missy since they're both in the frontrunners.

Both of em are in the ten best tracks listed, but it would also be somehow a shame if they both went through.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

OMM >>>>>> Lick Shots but the latter is still good - however I am wavering over giving its tick back to Bextor...

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Grump grump :-)

Um...

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

WHERE IS LA ROCK 01??????? You nominated it, Kat.

Re: Um...

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Oh dear :( It got missed off my spreadsheet somehow (I guess I assumed I had already put it in!) I shall bung it in at the start of the next heat.

Spotify

[meserach.livejournal.com]

http://open.spotify.com/user/meserach/playlist/728oQKdQYVhfzn2q5bf6WU

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Open to a lot of new ones, since the ones I know already I don't feel very passionately about. Leslie Carter's is teenpop fun on an archeology of the recent past tip, but I wouldn't make huge claims for its actual greatness (Though for half-mumbled choruses well-enunciated in a pop song, "Ooh, hey, what, it's like wow" is up there with "uh huh...OK...whazzup...SHUT UP").



What got me into this song is the semi-tragic story behind Leslie's career (Carter sister, filmed having many a bipolar breakdown on oddly disturbing reality show House of Carters) as told by Metal Mike (http://www.villagevoice.com/2002-11-19/music/tween-pop-suppressed/) in the Voice.

Otherwise I've been convinced on Manu Chao (wow) and Mos Def. J-Lo really should make it through this one, though I'm not going to rep particularly hard for it.

Mis-teeq

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Not their best single obv but I love Alesha's middle 8 on this. And the video has the 2-step remix at the end:



However WORST bit of acting ever at the end of this. 'hey guys, shall we listen to the new album?' WHY NOT IT IS A PROMO VIDEO AFTER ALL

Re: Mis-teeq

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

i LOVED this - best fake Destiny's Child song ever. those strings :D

So danceable too.

Nothing To Do With Me

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

This is the one where the lyrics entirely comprise lines from Chris Morris's "Jam"/"Blue Jam". Possibly the weirdest Stereolab song ever. It's probably not on YouTube, but I'll have a look later.

Maladie

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

This one stands for all the brilliant rap Francais that came out in 2001. X Raisons is definitely one of my favourite albums of the 00s.

Again, "Maladie" isn't on YouTube as far as I can see, but I think I shared an mp3 of it on poptimists a few years back. If it's on the Spotify playlist, do go listen if you can.

Re: Maladie

[meserach.livejournal.com]

It is on the Spotfy playlist, I can confirm.

Data 80 - Love Was Made For Two

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Ah, this one is on YouTube. Gorgeous record!

Re: Data 80 - Love Was Made For Two

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

i like 'You Are Always On My Mind' and 'No More Lies' by them too

Squarepusher's going to give you what he's got.

[infov0re.livejournal.com]

And experiment with very fey two-step beats at the same time. Well, I quite liked it, but you'd better be ticking some other stuff (Oh No, for starters) above this.

Re: Squarepusher's going to give you what he's got.

[zcesl53.livejournal.com]

i nomnated this, and that embed is not squarepusher. It is some second rate indie rock thing. This is squarepusher -

although it really doesn't sound right coming out of my tinny laptop speakers

repping

[zcesl53.livejournal.com]

only one vote so far :-(

Re: repping

[koganbot]

I like this. Don't know yet if I'll vote for it, since I won't really have time to get to know it in the next 24 hours, but thanks for posting.

AND SALMA HAYEK BRRIIIINGS THE REST!!!

[redcommieapples.livejournal.com]

this should be voted for for bringing the guffaws.

Re: AND SALMA HAYEK BRRIIIINGS THE REST!!!

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

'Liquid Dreams' = way more TMI than 'Inner Smile', I'll give you that...

J-Lo > Bextor

[meserach.livejournal.com]

It's my supposition here that "Love Don't Cost A Thing" is a better song than "Murder on the Dancefloor", and is thus more deserving of the fifth qualifying spot. Accordingly, I am ditching my tick for the latter.

"Murder on the Dancefloor" is a fun track, make no mistake. But is it as epochal, as defining, as "Love Don't Cost A Thing"?

Re: J-Lo > Bextor

[meserach.livejournal.com]

Of course if this action ends up giving the fifth place to the Strokes then that will be irony++.

NYC Cops

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I think I probably would have ticked this if the chorus wasn't so weak. It was my fave track off Is This It at the time because it had a great verse riff, but all I could remember before listening back just now was the sappy playground-bully-taunting chorus vocal. J Casablancas might as well have been going 'nyah-nyah-ni-nyah-nyah' with his fingers wiggling. It's not exactly 'Fuck Da Police' is it? Why Oh Why couldn't this song have had the chorus like 'Last Nite' instead :(

[credoimprobus]

Uurgh if there's something these heats are doing well, it's making me Not Regret skipping on keeping up with the SFA after the emphatic 'eh'ness of Guerilla. How did they go from one of my favourite songs of the 90s to this rub? :[

(On the + side for this heat, though, Lapdance = a lot better than I remembered!)