A New Decade In Pop: Week #36

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Olly Murs aka 'the one who came 2nd in last year's X Factor who looked a bit like Will Young and wore a hat' is at #1.

[Poll #1615573]

Dudes the LAST EVER POPTIMISM is this Friday! You know the drill - Horse Bar, free, 7-12ish, POPMAGEDDON.

Comments

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

I don't want to like Katy Perry. She's evil. And not in the good way.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Is Pepper and Piano in association with the literary pig?

Lex 20p prize voting?

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Status update? Mercurys are tomorrow night! Lex prize due to be awarded Friday!!

[koganbot]

New to me and more or less new to the world:
Lee Hyori ft. Garry "Swing"
ChuCha Santamaria Y Usted "Dipsi Daiver"
ChuCha Santamaria Y Usted "Fiebre Tropical"
Jazmine Sullivan "Holding You Down (Going In Circles)"
Donae'o "I'm Fly"
Mumiy Troll "Polar Bear"
Swedish House Mafia ft. Pharrell "One"
Epik High "Love Love Love"
Fake Blood "I Think I Like It"
Fefe Dobson "Stuttering"

This is the first time Jazmine Sullivan has really hit me, though I always stand up alert when I hear her, since voice and material are usually such an interesting mismatch.

New to me but not new to the world:
Conchi Cortés "Yo Tengo Un Novio To (Ton Que Ton)"
IU "Sorry Sorry"
The Smiths "Rubber Ring"
Actitud María Marta "Así Esta La Cosa"

[koganbot]

Olly Murs "Please Don't Let Me Go": Unlike a lot of white-boy reggae, this doesn't glory in its staidness; nonetheless, it's hopelessly staid, mildly pleasant, walking around half-perplexed like a dorky everysong, which it is. BORDERLINE NONTICK.

Katy Perry "Teenage Dream": In both this and "California Gurls" Katy embeds herself in an atmosphere rather than being her former grating self. "California" felt right, Katy in the haze; this one's all out of balance, not misty enough in the verse, then the chorus revving up too much but Katy not revving with it. Fairly plodding, actually, though with enough of a melody to get this over the tickline, just barely. BORDERLINE TICK.

Pepper & Piano "You Take My Heart": She should sing the song, rather than singing her voice, since so far her style hasn't coalesced, but for the first half this is a reasonably decent, pleasant glide. BORDERLINE NONTICK.

Adele "Make You Feel My Love": Adele's a quirk girl who actually has interesting quirks, but this sounds like she's applying her voice to the song without ever having gotten familiar with it; so the song sits there being assayed, like the classic it isn't.* NO TICK.

*Not to denigrate the song, which Dylan wrote to sound generically classic-like (sorta "Let It Be Me" with the highlights sanded off) so that he could lay it in a mood and then start twisting it around like silly putty.

Kanye West "Power": The song's a pisser, Kanye darting this way and that, flamboyant yet uneasy, buoyed from beneath by a dirgey chant that refuses to stay a dirge. TICK.

Lil Wayne ft. Drake "Right Above It": They give the beginning to Drake, who, while not being completely leaden, is relentlessly unimaginative, emphasizing every damn line on the four. Wayne, meanwhile, lives in his own time, as usual, but that time doesn't take over the song as it should, so this feels as if Wayne's stepped aside while the instruments carry the dull relentlessness forward. And "Wake up and smell the pussy" - like, that's supposed to be wordplay? A drag. NO TICK.

August awesome aka Things Everyone Should Listen To

[credoimprobus]

In case anyone remembers this old edition of Hitz from Finland (not hugely likely, haha), this one is her out of that lot going solo, so understandably I'm pretty bloody excited about it all! Also, it is BRILLIANT:



(Laura's voice has changed a lot since the Kemopetrol days -- lost its old characteristic huskiness, gained a lot in power and clarity instead. Which explains how I managed to hear both of the singles she's released this year without recognising her voice, heh...)


And I may have put Phoenix in the poll box but honestly, these three are neck and neck in the dubstep/whatevs camp:



(Just a clip, but the full track is up at the label soundcloud. Also ftr: FACT mag pretty much otm about it.)





(And if I wanna cheat a bit there's also this one, which I technically heard in June but didn't catch properly onto until last month (thx to intermittently getting the vocal hook stuck in my head and being driven crazy by not remembering what it was from, heh).)