Best Song of 2004: Heat #4

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Christina Milian and Jay-Z just beat Scissor Sisters in the heat #2 run-off, they join MIA (phew - poll deletion avoided!), Annie, The Knife, Basement Jaxx and Art Brut in the next round.

Today there's some familiar faces and some new kids on the pop block. Who will triumph in heat #4?

• You get SIX TICKS over the three bits of the poll, unless you played the investigation game on the previous heat and told us all your new favourite (and why). Put your new favourite in the box below and get an extra tick for the next heat - do it for five or more heats and get an extra nomination for 2005.



• The top five in each heat will go through to the next stage. Make sure you rep for your faves in the comments!



• If you want to fill in the 'best song I only heard today' box later, change your vote (or tick too many by mistake), you can edit your votes by clicking on 'Poll #12345' then 'Fill Out Poll'.



• You have until 5PM THURSDAY to vote. This is because it's my work xmas lunch on Friday and we're outta here at 12.01pm. Heat #5 will be posted up in January.

[Poll #1499286]


Extra tick this heat goes to friend_of_tofu. Use it wisely!

Comments

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

My nominee this round is "I Looked All Over Town". Very sad and very pretty indie. Here it is:



For good measure, here is "Hypocrite", catchy and rockin teenpop:

Sailor Moon! Rainbow Bright! Anime, Avril lite! Pro Tools all the way! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!

[koganbot]

"Some will look at me and vomit
But I will look how I want to"

You bunch need to stop complaining about this round and tick "Hypocrite," is what I think.

Re: Sailor Moon! Rainbow Bright! Anime, Avril lite! Pro Tools all the way! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

I nearly did but, ah, too few ticks to go round.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Yes, would have been my seventh tick.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I think Hypocrite is going to get my Lemar tick.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

No massive big hitters for me (except the Rasmus obv!) here really - my ticks are negotiable if anyone wants to persuade me away from Jolene or Lemar (have heard both too many times really).

Perhaps I should ask a bonus question: what's the worst Girls Aloud cover that doesn't feature the Sugababes? I think Jump is worse than I'll Stand By You - better use of Nicola.

[hoshuteki.livejournal.com]

I think their "Teenage Dirtbag" cover (live) was remarkably pointless, and "See the Day" is just boring, so I'll concur with "Jump".

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

IAMWTC re: 'See The Day,' boring boring boring boring.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

noooo, jump is arguably their best cover.

[hoshuteki.livejournal.com]

I quite like "Girls on Film", though it's pretty pointless since they don't really do much with it.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

whereas jump has a better VWUBVWUBVWUB bassline than the original

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

Jump is easily their best cover for me

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Well, obv, Peaches + Ig! Match made in heaven. It even has a great video.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

I am biased on the bonus question by being one of the very weird people who doesn't really like GA at all. But 'Stand By You' is a particularly unlikeable cover of a not-terribly-good but inexplicably-popular song, so I'd say it's worse than 'Jump'.

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

A hard one for me, this - very little that I care deeply about, quite a bit that I like.

finnish gothpop

[infov0re.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's the Rasmus, who pretty much faded without trace from the UK, with their One Hit. And: as a pop song, I'm quite fond of it; it's catchy and you can kind of sing along.

Terrible video, though. Terrible, terrible video.

Re: finnish gothpop

[credoimprobus]

Oh, man, I have ENORMOUS DEPTHS OF HATE for this one, because it wasn't so much played to death over here as its rotting, squidgy zombie corpse was dragged interminably across our airwaves. And it was the prelude to years and years of every damn consequent The Rasmus single getting the same treatment, uurgh. Y'ALL ARE LUCKY TO'VE HAD 'EM AS A ONE HIT WONDER ONLY, SERIOUSLY.

(I do get why people like it so much, though, because I liked it a whole lot until the whiff of airplay decomposition finally overwhelmed what awesome it may have had, heh.)

Re: finnish gothpop

[koganbot]

Apparently this track is neither written nor produced by Max Martin, but you could've fooled me. Timberlake or Carter with guitar crunch is what this sounds like - is what Max should be doing with Iraheta or Avril, rather than the coagulated goo he keeps throwing at us these days when he wants to get loud.

(On the other hand, this is total schlock.)

Re: finnish gothpop

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

It's not goth. Really. Not even gothpop.

Re: finnish gothpop

[richaod.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and that extreme poserish quality is what makes me instantly throw my arms up in hate - it's like if Evanescence or HIM incorporated pseudogoth wristslitting imagery, but didn't even bother to back it up with even mildly dark songs in minor keys. Ugh.

Re: finnish gothpop

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

*nod*

There's something very frustrating about that - not least the completely reductive nature of the pose. It reduces all emotional complexity to a simplistic equation of hand-forehead-stapler.

Argh. Yes, I was trying not to think of HIM. Fuck you Simon Price, HIM are rubbish!

finished with gothpop

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Well that's 2'57" of my life I'll never get back (I turned it off a minute early)

Go take a cold shower or something

[koganbot]

The argumentative Yolando Perez gets into another spat, this time with a guy who's hitting on her.

Re: Go take a cold shower or something

[koganbot]

Yolanda Perez. I left my proofreading hat at the laundry, it seems.

Re: Go take a cold shower or something

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Don't think this is as good as the one from the other heat but I love her high-speed rapping on the verses.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Who on EARTH nominated Lemar? I realise I work in a shopping centre so my views on this sort of thing may be slightly stronger than most people's but WHY?

Rasmus = V GOOD, TICK. Dun dun dun der der dun dun dun dun dun der der dun dun etc.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Ooomb, oomb, oom-ba-ber um-um
ARP, ARP, ARP-a-dar-arp-ar
Ooomb, oomb, oom-ba-doom-ba
I'VE BEEN WATCHEEEEEENG

High as a dinosaur, high as giraffe cooch

[credoimprobus]

(oh E-40 I love you.)

Only a single rep for this heat, but it is AN WHOPPER:



Absolutely HUGE beat; production (courtesy of the mighty Rick Rock) crowded and kind of totally insane. It's kind of like a punch to the face, except in a good way! (no really)

[martinv.livejournal.com]

Why does everyone love the Rasmus so much? Is it an "ironic" thing? Awful song.

[redcommieapples.livejournal.com]

I can't believe "I Believe In You" isn't safe in this heat, especially when the lazy cover of Jolene is! The gorgeous ballad version of this song made me fall in love with it all over again.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

I think it's Jack not totally failing on the high notes that endears me to 'Jolene'. I'm a bad person, I'm afraid - I took Kylie off to put The White Stripes on! Mainly because I really love the chorus of 'I Believe', but find the verses weak. Way below par for Kylie, I feel.

[mrs-leroy-brown.livejournal.com]

win win win like like like :D

For me, the passion of his Jolene is what totally slays me. I won't take your man, Jack!!!

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that Jojo is running away with this heat, but I sense something is deeply wrong if Ce'cile doesn't make it through. She doesn't have to destroy all contenders or anything, it just feels like a sure thing.

Anyway, thanks to justfanoe and koganbot for repping Skye Sweetnam. I will instead rep Christina Milian's "I Can Be That Woman," which might be the most perfect pop song ever constructed -- you could loop this for infinity and eventually see the face of God. Haven't had time to test this theory yet, unfortunately.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Oh man this song got on my nerves so much - that noise that sounds like Mario has tried to jump over a mushroom but has fallen down a hole and it's game over GRATES MY VERY SOUL :(

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if I'm more surprised that I didn't hesitate for a second to tick "Just Lose It" by Eminem, which I once gave a ZERO star review, or that it might actually make it through this heat! I could write about this song at much much length but won't do so at the moment. If Relapse had something like it I think the album would make more sense -- there's a certain self-consciousness to "Just Lose It" that almost elevates it to performance art.

Jook Gal (Head Gawn)

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

My favourite track on the Coolie Dance rhythm - better even than the Nina Sky one that's coming up later. It has a video too hurrah!

Re: Jook Gal (Head Gawn)

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhh yes this one. I think I prefer the Nina Sky with its lovely (oboe?) melody hook though, soz!

I'll Be There

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Well. we've posted all of Emma's other videos off Free Me, so we may as well complete the set. After the bad hair day of "Crickets Sing...", this time she's gone all arty on us. Passes les gauloises!

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I've just realised that JoJo JoJo has a double song title there! Serve me right for not proofreading my polls but perhaps she is getting double the ticks as a result? :)

In my Sean Paul suit and ting

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Dudes, have you all forgotten about Sean Paul channelling Althea & Donna?

Re: In my Sean Paul suit and ting

[redcommieapples.livejournal.com]

yes yes my favourite Sean Paul song ever. How this is languishing at 4 ticks is beyond me.

In my Sasha suit and ting

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Not very interesting factoid: originally, Sasha was the credited artist and Sean Paul was the "ft."

I like this but I did get tired of it quite quickly once it became a UK hit.