Best Song of 2004: Heat #6
Jan. 22nd, 2010 12:57 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
katstevens.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
poptimistsThe Gels, Kelis, The Killers and two Frank Ferguson tracks are THROUGH. Let's crack straight on with heat #6!
[Poll #1515036]
Extra ticks this heat go to me,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mrs_leroy_brown, koganbot, friend_of_tofu and credoimprobus.
- 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 Tuesday lunchtime to vote..
[Poll #1515036]
Extra ticks this heat go to me,
mrs_leroy_brown, koganbot, friend_of_tofu and credoimprobus.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
JSL
Date: 2010-01-22 01:02 pm (UTC)Also the Basement Jaxx JC Chasez thing is BLINDING but the single mix is radically different to the alBUM. I am assuming it is the single mix wot we are voting for.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 01:05 pm (UTC)He's 23, he's in the Marines, he'll kill me
Date: 2010-01-22 01:06 pm (UTC)Oh, Harry.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 01:06 pm (UTC)The best NERD song by miles and miles and miles
Date: 2010-01-22 01:08 pm (UTC)She's SEXY!
"Pay attention please, I used to be in a band called Savage Garden"
Date: 2010-01-22 01:15 pm (UTC)(I'd forgotten all about this)
no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 01:17 pm (UTC)Re: The best NERD song by miles and miles and miles
Date: 2010-01-22 01:36 pm (UTC)Barmy brilliance, the thing that NERD have always managed to get into their singles.
Re: "Pay attention please, I used to be in a band called Savage Garden"
Date: 2010-01-22 01:41 pm (UTC)Tush = Push = Tush
Date: 2010-01-22 01:49 pm (UTC)Re: Jaxxsez
Date: 2010-01-22 01:50 pm (UTC)Dragonforce
Date: 2010-01-22 01:56 pm (UTC)Rose, My Rocket Brain!
Date: 2010-01-22 02:01 pm (UTC)It's Laetitia's IRAQ WAR song, so topical again at the mo. Her stance is not quite what you might expect, however.
IIRC the YouTube clip is in mono, so you don't get the "dual mono" brilliance of the record. It's still a fierce slice of indie rock, though. the sound is not typical Stereolab at all, actually.
Re: Dragonforce
Date: 2010-01-22 02:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 02:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 02:06 pm (UTC)Terrible Songs That Threaten To Do Well In This Round No.1
Date: 2010-01-22 02:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 02:12 pm (UTC)Poo-Poo is RIGHT
Date: 2010-01-22 02:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 02:15 pm (UTC)Run (ft. Jadakiss)
Date: 2010-01-22 02:16 pm (UTC)No votes for Lindsay yet
Date: 2010-01-22 02:17 pm (UTC)Re: Terrible Songs That Threaten To Do Well In This Round No.1
Date: 2010-01-22 02:19 pm (UTC)Re: Terrible Songs That Threaten To Do Well In This Round No.1
Date: 2010-01-22 02:21 pm (UTC)Re: Dragonforce
Date: 2010-01-22 02:37 pm (UTC)I don't know this one at all.
OBJECTION!
Date: 2010-01-22 02:39 pm (UTC)Re: "Pay attention please, I used to be in a band called Savage Garden"
Date: 2010-01-22 03:11 pm (UTC)Re: No votes for Lindsay yet
Date: 2010-01-22 03:12 pm (UTC)John Shanks' Grammy year continues
Date: 2010-01-22 03:38 pm (UTC)"Nobody 'Til You." Shanks makes the guitars majestic but then the melody finds its way into thick flowing emotion without drowning out Lindsay Lohan's small voice, which sounds naked in its neediness.
Proofreading note
Date: 2010-01-22 03:40 pm (UTC)Re: Terrible Songs That Threaten To Do Well In This Round No.1
Date: 2010-01-22 03:42 pm (UTC)i don't like it THAT much but its probably one of the best songs on TLB.
also Big & Rich can suck it kthx
Re: John Shanks' Grammy year continues
Date: 2010-01-22 03:48 pm (UTC)Same ol' butts in the ashtray
Date: 2010-01-22 03:52 pm (UTC)Skitzo! Dancer!
Date: 2010-01-22 03:56 pm (UTC)The "Justice Remix" bit is really, really important, because the original is very underwhelming. (And: this was before Justice were so ubiquitous, and were still mixing things up a little; less distortion, more arpeggiators than they're into these days).
You look good when you wear it well...
Date: 2010-01-22 04:08 pm (UTC)Also, move love for Felix's Ready2Wear! It's great. I should YT link it but I'm at work and lazy.
Re: Dragonforce
Date: 2010-01-22 04:12 pm (UTC)10. Dragonforce - "Once In A Lifetime": This is...metal. Of some sort. I think. The opening guitar solo alone gave me a migraine and then it got really really fast and made my stomach feel queasy, and then a man started screeching. This is the only one I couldn't get to the end of - I even stuck the Celtic bobbins out, through a sense of duty - so apologies if this turns into hott r&b in the last minute. But I think someone must have submitted the wrong track :( 11th place - LOSE - massive defeat for
And in turn Lex gave Jel Ashlee's "Coming Back For More," scored second place and three points with it. (Yes it is insane that I remember this.)
Re: Rose, My Rocket Brain!
Date: 2010-01-22 04:20 pm (UTC)She was beautiful, she had everything and more
Date: 2010-01-22 04:36 pm (UTC)Re: Dragonforce
Date: 2010-01-22 04:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 09:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-22 09:42 pm (UTC)This one prob isn't going to pull much (if any) ticks, but I don't carrrre because Y HELLO THAR IIO 2.0, aka this was the moment they became the act responsible for my favourite frickin' album of the entire past decade:
And here's Freeform Five remaking a Felix da Housecat track to ridiculously catchy & banging effect:
Re: You look good when you wear it well...
Date: 2010-01-22 11:37 pm (UTC)Re: Terrible Songs That Threaten To Do Well In This Round No.1
Date: 2010-01-23 03:45 pm (UTC)Re: He's 23, he's in the Marines, he'll kill me
Date: 2010-01-23 03:48 pm (UTC)(and by way of adding a little crap pop gossip, I can confirm that McFly fly premium economy, after sharing a plane with them to Mexico last year)
Re: She was beautiful, she had everything and more
Date: 2010-01-23 04:03 pm (UTC)"I was six years old when my parents went away" -- that's the FIRST LINE of the song and she gets a world of hurt in, since her parents were right next to her the whole time. Kelly Clarkson sings about her parents' (perceived) weakness, but Ashlee gets at something that's simultaneously harsher and kinder -- because part of her critique of her parents' here (as it relates to them preferring her better, older sister over herself) is really a critique of herself, too: she never realized that she had the power to be her own person until she reached the cusp of adulthood. Which is a story that resonates with me, because I was Jessica in my family. Ashlee is singing the emotional story of my sister's adolescence, and I can't think of another song that's ever been written that's quite like it.
This also sets the stage for the Big Story of Autobiography, which is that Ashlee is finding her life a little easier to bear with each passing day, barring the occasional relapse. Not much easier, and I think on the whole things are still a fucking mess, but it's the point in your life where you realize that the quality of your life is improving -- not because of any one transformative change, but because you understand yourself and your life better than you could when you were (a bit) younger. I seem to constantly go through cycles of this, but there's a definite break between adolescence and post-adolescence where I could at least see, e.g., that my feet were on the ground even though I'm stuck. In "Shadow," every day is getting a little worse, we're left to imagine, without much description, what it might have felt like (and I can assume that a lot of people felt it themselves, whether they were the Ashlees or the Jessicas in their family, or something else altogether) to slowly lose yourself, or realize you never really "knew" yourself, and then slowly build it up again. (Taylor Swift does the same thing, but she's too harsh on herself at 15, when she was probably more grounded than she'd like to admit.)
And there are such odd little formalist flourishes in the song, "livin' in / livin' in / livin' in / the shadow..." at the end, waltzing down the scale with a slight bluesiness, the "Dear Prudence" guitar line, that blended-in string section, whom Ashlee regarded lackadaisically at the recording session with a yawn.
The directness of it is maybe enough to put someone off (what initially scan as cliches are too specific, too dead-on, too integrated into the song's details to remain so), but it wins me over easy, "mother sister father sister mother, everything's cool now" -- no hint of "it could be dad or boyfriend or Jesus" ambiguity here, an exact little portrait, a potentially embarrassing one. Ashlee encompasses the guilt, "I've got more than anyone should," but also puts herself out there, "it used to be so hard being me." Which you might relate to, but you might not want to (who's she to say it's hard being her, what about [insert people with more obviously difficult lives]!) and she understands that and already pre-empted the criticism, though she's probably as unsure what she means by "more than anyone should" as someone leveling the criticism in the first place.
Re: Run (ft. Jadakiss)
Date: 2010-01-25 06:02 pm (UTC)Yay this is grebt!
Re: She was beautiful, she had everything and more
Date: 2010-01-25 06:09 pm (UTC)But thx for writing all the above! It convinced me to give it another go :)
Re: Skitzo! Dancer!
Date: 2010-01-25 06:17 pm (UTC)I'm cool wi that!
Date: 2010-01-25 06:22 pm (UTC)