A New Decade In Pop: Week #37

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

A-Burke at number one! That's four new #1s in as many weeks. What is this, 2001? Also plenty of stuff from TV talent shows in today's poll:

[Poll #1618230]

Thanks everyone who came to The Last Ever Poptimism on Friday (and thanks to anyone who attended over the last five-and-a-bit years)! A club is only as good as it's crowd, and you were very very awesome.

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Embedding disabled but the Alexandra Burke (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyBq21FtL1s) video and song is combination hideous and laughable. WHY A-BURKE WHY

A question

[meserach.livejournal.com]

Is this song about w4nking or not? I kind of want to listen to it more closely but in honesty I am kind of afraid to do so

DOUGIE DON'T GO INTO THE WOODS!!!

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Whereas the McFly vid is combination Twilight + H0TT DRUMMER OMG

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

See, I really wish the video to this song was them dressed as Lady Gaga. Or well, dressed at all.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

NB: this does not stop it being an AMAZING song. It combines the fine-tuned subtlety of the McFly sledgehammer with massive fvck-off beats and has a brilliant middle-eight breakdown. V GOOD TICK.

Turn my Swag What?

[meserach.livejournal.com]

What version of Turn My Swag On is this? Has it shown up in the chart for any reason other than the girl named Cher from X-Factor doing it in her audition?

Re: Turn my Swag What?

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I guess it's a karaoke version that's available on iTunes.

Re: Turn my Swag What?

[koganbot]

It's a remix that seems to be a mashup, legal apparently, of Soulja Boy Tellem's "Turn My Swag On" and Keri Hilson/Lil Wayne's "Turnin' Me On," taking the minimalist tension out of each of them, making both worse.

Don't know if this stream works in the UK, but this is where I heard it:

http://new.music.yahoo.com/greg-street/tracks/turn-my-swag-on-feat-soulja-boy-keri-hilson--217889438

Re: Turn my Swag What?

[koganbot]

Well, apparently there's a Keri Hilson version of "Turn My Swag On" too, that's been remixed here and yon, and that's the version that Cher did, and Greg Street may have mixed that one with the Soulja Boy Tellem version; so maybe that's the only version ft. Keri Hilson that iTunes has got, so when X factor viewers went looking for Keri, they got Greg. Here's the Keri Hilson version:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8oc0p_keri-hilson-turn-my-swag-on-remix_music

Re: Turn my Swag What?

[koganbot]

(As a matter of fact, I have a vague recollection that the Lex and I once discussed the Keri Hilson version on lj, unless it was you and I, about a year and a half ago.)

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Consider my Linkin Park vote a protest about Drummer Boy being a massive disappointment.

[koganbot]

Your putting this under flock was inadvertent, right?

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Yes. Thanks Frank!

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Jeebus, I have heard precisely none of all the new entries in September. Meanwhile, Capital is still playing Fat Em's "You've Got The Love" and songs of similar vintage hour after hour. Get with the 2010 programme, dears!

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

oh wait, haf heard Katy B but that's only thanks to Lex.

[koganbot]

Alexandra Burke ft. Laza Morgan "Start Without You": The year isn't getting any less weird. I've been referring to the "current r&b-dance-pop amalgam," but this track is barely amalgamated, just a coalition of elements thrown together by RedOne, none of which take over or get any more interesting when they collide (as opposed to the even more bizarre Loick Essien thing that I just reviewed favorably for the Singles Jukebox). NO TICK.

Script "For The First Time": Staid reediness and financial angst. NO TICK.

McFly "Party Girl": Good tune, overwhelmed by guitar rush and hot dance beats that are too relentless for the vocals to hold onto, but this is still a TICK.

Emma's Imagination "This Day": With potential for a flighty fey poetry-girl take on country, this merely arrives at precious singer-songwriter pseudo-significance, though light enough not to sink utterly. NO TICK.

Alesha Dixon "Drummer Boy": Drummer boy equals pummeled song. NO TICK.

Greg Street "Turn My Swag On": Don't even know what version they're buying, and if he's mashed the Soulja and Keri "Swags" I haven't been able to find it streamed, though I've found him doing a Soulja-Keri mash that combines "Swag" and "Turnin' Me On." As I said upthread, I don't think the "Swag"-"Turnin'" mashup works. But I like the Keri "Swag" enough (which gets rare uneasiness and pressure out Keri's usually slick voice, and is the version that inspired X-Factor Cher hence the sales) that I might like the Greg Street "Swag"-"Swag" mashup, if it exists. NO TICK (provisionally).

Pictures "Tears": Weak (at least on the live clip), falling way short of the song's potential drama. NO TICK.

The xx "Islands": I share Xhuxk's impatience with the not-thereness of the singing, and the extraordinary two-line setting created by guitar and bass don't make the not-thereness right. But the setting and the tension are extraordinary. TICK.

Linkin Park "Catalyst": Classic Linkin Park drama and tunefulness and ridiculous overbearingness funneled into cheap beats 'n' synths in a way that's quite fun, even if it does go on too long. TICK.

Typos

[koganbot]

pressure out OF Keri's usually slick voice

THE Catalyst

[askbask.livejournal.com]

There's not enough tunefulness in the Linkin Park song, the overblown drama of the production would work better with a catchier song. Listening to Linkin Park taking small steps away from their roots got me thinking about Paramore again* and what teenagers like to connect with now as opposed to ten years ago when they're looking to vent frustration and angst. There's a lot of drama with both bands, but where Linkin Park are operatic about it Paramore search in more claustrophobic spaces.

*Happens quite often.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Please do expand on Paramore! I still like 'The Only Exception' rather a lot. Also piratemoggy de-lurked to do her investigatory post about Cascada, didn't do her any harm :)