A New Decade In Pop: Week #15

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Scouting For Girls are still at number 1. Oh well! Elsewhere N-Dubz get included in this poll after my shameful oversight last week, and a certain part of the internet manages to get Half Man Half Biscuit to #56. Well done there!

[Poll #1550179]
Pop World Cup: Still time to go and vote for Slovenia! in the last round of the group stages. South Africa, Netherlands, Spain, Ghana, New Zealand and France are through - who will join them? (Seriously though, restore some Balkan pride and vote for Umek!)

Gnashville: And there's still some Decade In Country action going on in Heat #2. Go and have a listen, otherwise Taylor Swift will CRY.

Comments

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Blimey but that Taio/Ke$ha song is PANTS. I heard it the other day and it was proper rub. Songs about sending dodgy pix thru your cameraphone = ONLY FOR V-HUDGE.

DON'T LIKE ANY

[koganbot]

First DON'T LIKE ANY in a while, N-Dubz's generic pang being the only thing that even tempts me.

Is there a British TV tie-in for "I'd Rather Be With You"? Otherwise, why is a two-year's-past U.S. dullard of a nonhit suddenly scoring in Britain?

Joshua Radin "I'd Rather Be With You": Quietly pleasant-like platitudes. A valentine, a half talent. NO TICK.

N-Dubz "Say It's Over": How do you find the words to say it's over? From pop songs, perhaps. "The thrill is gone," for instance. Or, "It's over," even. Allmusic claims 1,263 entries for "It's Over" itself, not to mention "It's All Over" (387), "It's Over Now" (367), and "It's All Over Now" (485), though many of those are surely duplicates. But really, this shouldn't be that difficult. There are always old stand-bys, "It's not clickin'," "It's not workin'," "I'm married," "I'm gay," "I'm not gay," "My other girlfriend/boyfriend is moving in with us," etc. Or even "Sorry," as in the Paramore vid. Borderline pang. BORDERLINE NONTICK.

Paramore "The Only Exception": I think the lyrics are trying to tell us that she doesn't believe she loves this guy but that she's going to tell herself that she does anyway because something about him makes her want to believe she does and maybe saying so will make the faith and love real - so maybe she does love this guy. Well, I want to like or even love Paramore, since they've got commitment and talent and sex appeal and passionate fans; but their melodies and pacing usually go wrong, stretching them out too much or repeating beyond usefulness, this song being no exception, unfortunately. Maybe they're just not very smart. I would have ticked "Brick By Boring Brick" had it not shot a brick on the singles charts. It had a pretty good pop hook even if it couldn't jump from the rock stations to the pop. BORDERLINE NONTICK.

Taio Cruz ft. Ke$ha: Taio's singing is devoid of expression or force and there's nothing in the arrangement to turn this thinness into a virtue. Up until Ke$ha's entrance the pushy fuzz-funk bass is the only life here. When Ms. Jack 'N' The Vomit finally does show, her brattiness isn't given enough of a spotlight to rescue this. Waste of the bass. NO TICK.

Re: DON'T LIKE ANY

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I agree Taio is the weakest link in this song, but I think the bass is definitely Any Good At All. Ke$ha is Not Annoying, which is an improvement for her in my opinion.

Re: DON'T LIKE ANY

[koganbot]

If I were really doing "Any Good At All" I'd tick everything. My cut-off is "a bit above average," hovering somewhere around a 6 on the Jukebox.

[askbask.livejournal.com]

I like Paramore. I don't love them and I can't connect emotionally, but I think they're so good at their CRAFT that when all the pieces come together, which they probably will do as a part of them growing up, I'll come to love them.

I think "The Only Exception" is without a shadow of a doubt the weakest track on their newest album. They've got another ballad called Misguided Ghosts - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnGYZC7_ReU - which has a stronger melody.

The best hook belongs to "Looking Up"; but the blunt autobiographical lyrics about the band's internal struggles are unfit for a single release, unfortunately. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ksis7ebyTlA
I get really into a select few lines on the album. Here: "God knows the world doesn't need another band, oh oh oh oh, but what a waste it would've been". Caught between raw sincerity and the calculated coolness of bratty young rockers. A teary group hug and, then, joking it away to relieve the awkwardness.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

This probably deserves a post of itself - I think a lot of poptimists only really know 'Misery Business' because of that video where she cuts the other girl's hair off (well not *her*, but you know what I mean). Perhaps... a POLL?

Use somebody

[koganbot]

I like Paramore's cover of Kings Of Leon's "Use Somebody."

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

You know what - I've listened again and I've decided 'The Only Exception' is worth a tick. I will do a post on this tomorrow!

Re: DON'T LIKE ANY

[meserach.livejournal.com]

The song is basically a slightly more trancey version of Benny Benassi's "Satisfaction", right down to the rather embarrasingly try-hard video.