poptimists | Best Song of 2005: Heat #4

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2000s

Best Song of 2005: Heat #4

Kanye, Gorillaz, Daddy Yankee and the Chemical Brothers qualify for the next round. Kanye also wins the run-off from Heat #2. But guess what? Yes, ANOTHER run-off follows heat #4, which is FULL OF BANGERS.

You get SIX TICKS over the three bits of the poll, unless you told us all your new favourite (and why) from the last heat. 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 2006 (unless I think of something else to do in 2006).

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 #1530858]

Extra ticks this heat go to

justfanoe,

credoimprobus,

mesearch,

koganbot and me.

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Even M Mayer could not make them anything other than utter crap

PLUS ONE!

nooooooooooooooes!!!

it's alright actually :)

Nooooo I like it! It's so ridiculous and over the top. And the other dude sings for most of it.

The lyrics to 'In Public' are enough to make you think Nas never consumated his relationship with Kelis:

"The pussy or the mouth, that is the question
Like Shakespeare but my erection is the case here
I ain't got time to drive you all the way home
But instead I can slide you to a club bathroom or a restaurant men's room
Then I can zoom in your womb."

full of mash more like

Lindsay and Ashlee rage back:

Lindsay goes beyond brat to tiger claws. And Ashlee's at her most Courtney. I was playing these five times a day at the end of '06.

Still wish the line was "that you are desperate and I am in sight." Sigh.

I tried to do (http://www.cureforbedbugs.com/2006/10/boyz-ii-men-changed-my-life-and-i.html) some musical analysis on the Lindsay song a couple years ago:

So one technical feature of a lot of rock confessional is that it's modal music where major/minor is in flux. That means that the use of thirds is crucial. "Rush" (pretending it's in C for now): "Don't let nobody tell you" gravitates around the fifth in the minor scale (in C minor it's G) and the major third in the major scale (in Eb major it's G). But when they come down to what should be the root (essentially V-I, traditional harmonic resolution), that Eb makes the resolution minor (V-i), because they hit the minor third.

"I Live for the Day" does something unexpected by setting the chorus in an indirectly related key, from B minor to E minor/G maj and carrying over the vocal melody. In the chorus, the vocal rhythmic pattern (and to some extent the melodic pattern, it's a third below Kelly C.) is "Since U Been Gone," "I-live-for-the-da-ay," with the second "syllable" in the extended "day" resolving in a similar way. Imagine what "Since U Been Gone" would sound like if, instead of blasting GOOOOONE, Kelly had patterned it like this: "Since U Been Gone! Since U Been Gone! I can breathe..." (she does do this with a double track at some point, but it's not the primary melody). It would be a bit more desperate, more frantic, less immediately cathartic. That's what Lindsay's doing here. And -- didn't notice this until yesterday -- there's an almost imperceptible key change at the end, up a whole step to F#min/A maj, so that the intensity has been increased considerably (it's the classic climactic modulation that takes the song over the top) but covertly.

Plus Lindsay KICKS ASS.

Not so into the Ashlee, but the Lindsay's got something. It surprises me that my opinions ends up being this way round!

Is the Lindsay just seeing a desire to see an ex-lover destroyed, or is it seeing an ex-lover destroyed so that they'll finally feel bad enough to love Lindsay again? It seems like the former is the text but I can't help but feel that the latter is a subtext? But I haven't fully attended to the lyrics on one playthrough.

Better than expected, anyway!

Yes, in general Ashlee whomps Lindsay, but not this time. This is the best Lindsay track other than "Nobody 'Til You." Also, I go with choice B, "seeing an ex-lover destroyed so that they'll finally feel bad enough to love Lindsay again?"* because everything Lindsay does is ultimately about Lindsay. This is one of the ones she didn't help write, however (it is Desmond Child and Andreas Carlsson and a couple others); but presumably the people writing are writing for her persona.

In other news, Lindsay Lohan reportedly moving to UK (article itself includes refers to her by title as well as name: Troubled Actress Lindsay Lohan).

*Though that doesn't necessarily mean that Lindsay will love him/her back, just that she wants to be wanted.

Embedding disabled for Ciara (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIBwQI4UzpA) but doooods I think this was my first encounter with crunk proper. Vote for her you guys! </lex>

Blocked in the USA, but here she is on VEVO:

SMITHMONGER VS KOBI, PEOPLE. Not on youtube, but this place at least has a full preview (and there are approximately 50 000 other mp3 stores with previews of various length of it a google away if that particular one doesn't work for you). Thing is abs BANGING: seriously filthy bass, 8-bit effects, awesome vocal loops (esp the cut-up one). JUST LISTEN TO IT SERIOUSLY.

Other things:

Not my nom but I love it long time, and so must REP -- Sticky-produced grime classic Hype Hype:

Xzibit and early-days K-Hil; also BANGING:

The Smithmonger & Kobe is on Spotify, and it's ace - probably the second best new thing (to me) in this heat. Surging relentless drive, filthy is the word for sure. I only regret that my computer speakers have such a powerful subwoofer that cranking this track up on them would probably cause STRUCTURAL DAMAGE - it still sounds pretty intense even on crappy headphones, as right now... Anyways, I'll probably sub a vote out from one of mine that's safe purely for solidarity purposes.

SLK sounds like most of the Sticky stuff I've heard, which is to say it sounds GREBT and also hyper-mega-manic. Good but not tuned to my mood at the moment.

I also like the Xzibit thing, more for Keri's contrib but still.

I gave Xzibit a seoncd listen, this time via the video, and it improved! It probably helped that the comedic nature of the video helped me feel better about not knowing what the hell "mean muggin" is supposed to mean exactly and just enjoy it.

Urban Dctionary informs me that "mean muggin" is looking at someone in an angry way. The More You Know!

Hype Hype is AWESOME dude! Thx for linking :)

Possibly my favourite Kanye song.

"Helena" has a very (very) hesitant tick from me right now but I could waver elsewhere. I've decided not to tick "Hollaback Girl," but here's a HILARIOUS kiddie version from Girl Authority.

http://open.spotify.com/user/meserach/playlist/658kcsmCwtIVlKmlZf5aTJ

Missing:
They Might Be Giants - Here Come the ABCs
SLK - Hype Hype
Baxendale - I Built This City For You (Michael Mayer mix)
The Pipettes - I Like a Boy in Uniform (School Uniform)
Lindsay Lohan - I Live For the Day
Lee Ann Womack - I May Hate Myself In The Morning
Roisin Murphy - If We're In Love

The Pipettes at their most directly FUN. You'll love it or you'll hate it.

Here's Kieron Gillen (www.kierongillen.com), of comics, videogames crit and general writer-thinks mini-fame, giving Had-Fi's Hard to Beat 2nd place in his top 40 of 2005 (http://gillen.cream.org/wordpress_html/?p=1114). I have nothing to add!

2 - Hard To Beat – Hard Fi
As I said at the start of this particular exercise, I had no idea what was going to be at number one – or even at the top end – until I finished it. And I suspect that Hard To Beat has gained more from the last eight months than any other song in this chart, which found itself being reached for any time I stumbled in a strange street at a strange hour of the day during those six strange months in the middle of 2006. Hell, at one occasion I was literally doing the shouting at strangers routine from Spaced to it, bouncing between road and kerb, throwing shapes and not caring…

I dunno. I’m sorry. You have to care too much to not care like that, and I’ll cherish that.

Understand Hard Fi are an entirely forgettable, sludge-grey band. Which makes Hard To Beat such an anomaly – a structure which leans on the basis of that ska, before draping every colour of the universe over it. It’s like walking into the strange dusty cupboard in some relatives place and finding yourself in a club at 2.50 am with only the people who care about caring there. Even elements like the absolute basic crassness of the lyric rubbing against the songs waves of sonic-eroticism are key – it’s a macho-posturing record which sounds enormously fey, with Hard-fi seemingly unaware of it. Like the hardest guy you know wearing a pink shirt because it’s in fashion, it’s both inspiring and hilarious.

It’s not just a record which makes me want to turn around dramatically, hoping someone’s behind me.

It’s a record which makes me believe if I do so, someone will be.

My experience with this record just now:

*it comes up on Spotify as I listen to my playlist*
Me: "I have no idea who these guys are"
* listen for a bit *
Me: Man, what is that voice?
* listening *
Me That's either the most annoying voice in the world...
* listens a bit more *
Me: ...or the most heartbreaking
* listens *
* cries *

* entire album now has me floods what the hell damn *

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Best Song of 2005: Heat #4

Baxendale?????

Re: Baxendale?????

Re: Baxendale?????

We're gonna build this city again!

no subject

no subject

I live for the day, I live for the night, that you are desperate and dying inside

Re: I live for the day, I live for the night, that you are desperate and dying inside

Re: I live for the day, I live for the night, that you are desperate and dying inside

Re: I live for the day, I live for the night, that you are desperate and dying inside

Re: I live for the day, I live for the night, that you are desperate and dying inside

Wheeeee-awwwr WHEEEEE-AWWWR

Re: Wheeeee-awwwr WHEEEEE-AWWWR

BAD! NOW DIG IT

Re: BAD! NOW DIG IT

Re: BAD! NOW DIG IT

Re: BAD! NOW DIG IT

Re: BAD! NOW DIG IT

Gone

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Spotify

SCHOOL UNIFORM!

Like a fist, can't resist you

Anthony and the Johnsons

Re: Anthony and the Johnsons