Yet Another Year In Pop: 37

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

The festival season is over and the music industry is officially back from holiday as we have FOUR new entries in the top ten! Pixie manages to beat the others to the top spot, meanwhile U2's ongoing battle regarding thinking up original song titles continues...

[Poll #1457309]

Remember you can go back and change your answers to any of the previous chart polls for this year - click on the tag '2009', then click 'Poll #123456' then 'Fill Out Poll'.

Comments

[koganbot]

Ticked five of seven, which is a fine percentage but everything seems surrounded by chill.

Pixie Lott "Boys & Girls": Early '60s protosoul, given a Girls Aloud shine. "It acts as the second single from her forthcoming debut album," says Wikipedia, and it does sound like it's honing its act without quite being the thing itself - which of course can be better than the thing itself if, say, you're the massively smart Rolling Stones and it actually is the early '60s, but... BORDERLINE TICK.

Mika "We Are Golden": Woulda been somewhat catchy enough to get near the borderline if it had a singer who could manage more than mere gestures. I mean, his falsetto goes over the top if your top is only an inch from the floor. Lyrics invoke teens running free but also running from running while the lyrics run from knowing what the fuck they're about. Sorry, we are not stardust, we are not golden, and if there's a devil's bargain at issue it sure ain't conveyed here. NO TICK.

Mini Viva "Left My Heart In Tokyo": The emotional distance here is courtesy of the actual Xenomania alienation machine, which adds polish and then hires a couple of young women to go through the motions of scraping it off. There's some subtextual drama, appealing elements that refuse to appeal, a powergame or something, and I'm intrigued but not really moved. BORDERLINE TICK.

Muse "Uprising": Just as self-conscious as the Xenomania but enjoying itself a hundred times more, as the boogie at the bottom makes fun of the extravagance on top. TICK.

Shakira "She Wolf": All the tracks seem so knowing this week, without necessarily knowing anything that's worth shit, but this is pretty entertaining, Shakira deliberately encasing her gargling vibrato in a benign ditty, giving just the most darling little wolf howl. TICK.

U2 "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight": His "go crazy" falsetto is as weak as Mika's. This track is meaning to mean a lot, but it fails at making anything seem at stake. Strange how it nods at, you know, Springsteen, or U2, without seeming to know how to try anymore. NO TICK.

Livvi Franc f. Pitbull "Now I'm That Bitch": "Hi, my name is... you won't remember." Great start, another hurt tough girl, chilly little sprinkles, and an equally hard bass line. But this doesn't know how to build from there, and so far she's just another singer, what's her name, someone or other. BORDERLINE TICK.