Yet Another Year In Pop: 34

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Another number one for David Guetta - this time it's Akon helping him out.

[Poll #1448129]

REMINDER: Tomorrow the 2000s polls resume with a vengeance - you have until tomorrow lunchtime to make up your mind about Wyclef and Andrew WK. Remember, if it's a tie then I get the deciding vote...

Comments

[koganbot]

Esmee Denters "Outta Here": This is like five months old, isn't it? 'Tis a song that Rihanna or Jordin would nail; but Esmee is just some nobody (sorry, even if you're a YouTube sensation, you sound like a nobody) doing a song that sounds like something Rihanna or Jordin would do a lot better. And you know what? I kind of love it. Because I tend to love anything that sounds like Rihanna or Jordin might want to do it. TICK.

Just Jack "The Day I Died": Prosaic, almost unmusical, emphasizing the mundane in order to find little bits of the emblematic and the extraordinary in it, except that the effect is thoroughly mundane and not very musical. NO TICK.

Sean Paul "So Fine": He uses a heavy dancehall voice to hack out melodic vocals that, despite their heaviness, aspire to the delicate feel of the original early '60s Jamaican attempts to capture the floating style of r&b vocal groups like the Impressions. Doesn't pull it off here, unfortunately, the heaviness being too clumsy and the song is nothing special; still, I like the style. BORDERLINE TICK.

Kasabian "Where Did All The Love Go?": Harmonies lightly ladled atop good, punchy petulance, though there's a Casbah break I could do without. TICK.

Lady GaGa "Lovegame": Unapologetic infantilism that's compelling enough in its infantile way. TICK.

(I realize that a lot of the antagonism towards this woman is based on her apologetics, but from evidence of her singles, the apologetics never affect her music.)

The Temper Trap "Sweet Disposition": Singing that tries weightlessness but just achieves blank tedium. Vacuous whoosh, I suppose in the mode of Coldplay or U2 but can't manage even an approximation of their broad, airy sweep. NO TICK.

[koganbot]

Question: Where did all the love go?

Answer: It was just a game.