poptimists | A New Decade In Pop: Week #24

It appears that a football tournament is happening.

[Poll #1578296]

If this lot strikes you as less than inspiring, remember you can go back and vote for any of the chart hits so far this year (click 'Poll#12345' then 'Fill Out Poll' to change your answers).

1 Lady Gaga ft Beyonce - Telephone
2 Wiley & Chew Fu - Take That
3 Kelis- Acapella
4 Florence & The Machine - Dog Days Are Over
5 Rihanna - Te Amo
6 Lady Gaga - Alejandro
7 Alicia Keys - Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart
8 Glee Cast - Don't Stop Believin'
9 Vampire Weekend - Cousins
10 Marina & The Diamonds - I Am Not A Robot
11 Tinie Tempah - Pass Out
12 Selena Gomez and the Scene- Naturally
13 Florence & The Machine - Dog Days Are Over
14 Diana Vickers - Once
15 Alicia Keys - Empire State Of Mind (Part II)
16 Florence & Dizzee - You Got The Dirtee Love
17 Black Eyed Peas - Rock That Body
18 DJ Zinc ft Ms Dynamite - Wile Out
19 Ellie Goulding - Starry Eyed
20 Jay-Z ft. Swizz Beatz- On To The Next One
21 Rihanna - Rude Boy
22 Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Bittersweet
23 Timbaland ft Justin Timberlake - Carry Out
24 Naughty Boy presents Wiley ft Emelei - Never Be Your Woman
25 Lady Antebellum - Need You Now

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That word "new"...

Well yes. We haven't polled them already this year so they get included.

:-D

I enjoy this definition.

I bought 'Vindaloo' on CD single the first time round.

You missed out Terry Venables belting out "If I Can Dream" at #23.

Indeed I did. I wonder if anyone will notice if I 'forget' to include it next week?

ARGH I thought I combined the Florence scores and took the other one out. Ignore the 2nd Florence, people!

Renders the entire exercise pointless if you just put in the ones you like.

I can assure you that it was mere oversight the first time. Whether I can be bothered to correct it is another matter (whether I can be bothered continuing these polls when only a handful of people vote in them is yet another).

I always enjoyed you and Kat et al. commenting on the songs. Maybe if you resumed some old participants would return and a few new would arrive.

Or we could find a better use of our time elsewhere rather than flogging a dead horse? If I have something to say about a song I've usually already done so at Singles Jukebox.

Speaking for myself, these polls are valuable because they force a response even when I don't think I have anything to say.

But there's no poll forcing you to do the US charts and you manage those perfectly well!

Poptimists is becoming depressing for me to run (because of the lack of response) and soon I'll be spending my days somewhere less soul destroying than this office and won't need (or want) the distraction of running polls (hence not starting the 2006 polls as I know I won't finish them).

If anyone else would like to take over and inject some enthusiasm I would very much welcome it.

Er, speaking of doing the U.S. charts...

I'll do it.

While Potimists doesn't have much of a buzz at the moment, it sure has more of an audience than any other blog or outlet of mine!

We can start the 2k6 polls this week. Send me your spreadsheets!

Hooray! I shall email them over shortly.

Err what is your email address? :)

My email address is thomas DOT mark DOT lawrence AT-SYMBOL-THINGY gmail DOT com

I'm not rating the re-entries (even though a couple were new to me; in their day I might have ticked "3 Lions" on the borderline but not the other two).

Dizzee Rascal and James Corden "Shout": Dizzee sounds strained in the verse and this doesn't click until "Shout" itself shows up, but from there the gang shouts are reliably thrilling while, amazingly, the hint of sadness in the melody penetrates all the rah-rah. Accidentally touching, thanks to Tears For Fears songwriters Orzabal and Stanley. TICK.

Tinie Tempeh ft. Labrinth "Frisky": "Rap going pop" doesn't capture what's happening here any more than it captures what's happening w/ Ke$ha, DeRulo, GaGa, BEP, et al. in the States: party pop is being reinvented as a bright bubbling dance mess, and it's pretty damn interesting (though I wish competing messes like hyphy and jerk also got chart representation*). "Frisky" doesn't capture late-night haze and aggression as well as "Pass Out" did, but it does a fine job of making blips and burbles and slow screws and fast pat-downs sound like party favors. A barely distinct soul voice arrives near the end - "it wanna feelin' yeah" is what I get - providing a sudden ache while a comfortable voice in the lower register cheerfully assures us that we're frisky. TICK.

Shakira ft. Freshlyground "Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)": A reasonable flow and bounce and Shakira's gargle is reliably trilling, but the melody and overall effort is surprisingly meh. NO TICK.

(See what I did there?)

*Cali Swag District's "Teach Me How To Dougie" is rising through the lower reaches in the U.S., stretching all the way up to 81 in the Hot 100 (26 in hip-hop/r&b). Not that it's sound is a mess (is even sparer than most jerk, actually), just that it's bass and brattiness deserve their place in the general social cacophony.

it's = its

Oh god, these are all universally awful.

On the plus side, that top 25 of the year so far is a fantastic list. Give yourselves a pat on the back, Poptimist people.

Shout: Bit hectoring really. Quite faithful to the original, admittedly, but never sure whether that's good or not in a cover. No tick.

Frisky: Musically I very much enjoy this. There's a bit where it all stops about a minute in, and I'm a sucker for them (c.f. "Supervixen", or at least the bits of "Supervixen" where Shirley Manson isn't singing). However, I also very much dislike Tinie Tempah's voice - is nasal the word? not sure. But it can have a tick. I'm evidently in a generous mood this week. Almost too generous.

3 Lions: One of those songs that seems to have been around forever, less a song written more a song discovered somehow. Tick, perhaps a sentimental tick but a tick nonetheless.

World In Motion: oh go on then. Not on par with New Order's best or even second-best work, but still pretty good. Tick.

Vindaloo: is it dumb, clever, cleverly dumb, clever clever, aiming for clever but ending up dumb? I don't know, it makes my head reel to be honest. No tick.

Waka Waka (This Time For Africa): dislike the car alarm in the background. No tick.

(am basically nicking

koganbot's format wholesale - 's a good format)

Now that the epic, all-consuming Pop World Cup at Freaky Trigger is over, people might have more time to vote here…

Can we get to see the guest book?

Hadn't heart 'Shout' before because I assumed it was very boring indeed, but there's a bit more fire in this one than is usual for event songs. I probably won't seek it out again, but it's not bad. Which leads to..

"Waka Waka" - the melody is pleasant and so is Shakira's voice, but it's a few steps short of being engaging or genuinely catchy, nothing pops out..I wish it got more up in my face with aggressive exhuberance.

"Frisky" - I would love to writhe around in that black sand material they've got in the video. Song goes a bit overboard towards the end and I enjoy that.

Vindaloo - This is a footie song as well? Oh it's an old one. I don't think it's particularly funny.

A New Decade In Pop: Week #24

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CONFESSION

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Bright bubbling mess

I got off the proofing bus too early

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