A New Decade in Pop: Week 38

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Whoa, hey dudes, I totally forgot katstevens is on holiday! Here is yr chart poll.

[Poll #1620919]

Comments

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I do actually know what 'Impossible' sounds like but whenever I try to think of it I just get the Kelly Clarkson song of the same name. Ack!

I am guessing 'Sing For The Deaf' is a charity effort- it seems to be in connection with Must Be The Music, which for the overseas Poptimists reader is a show that attempted to put the credibility back in music contests with her from Texas.

Die Antwoord seem highly relevant to my interests but I'm still retaining my reviewer's objectivity on them.

The Manics seem beyond comment, now.

Enter The Ninja

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Wait, hang on; I thought Die Antwoord were glam metal? This is racially/culturally awkward rubbish.

Re: Enter The Ninja

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Die Antwoord are scary and not in a good way. They're like a schlock horror film that takes itself too seriously (even if it isn't, IYSWIM).

[many-from-one.livejournal.com]

Even if I was predisposed towards Die Antwoord, any liking for them would have been crushed into the ground by endless Spotify adverts featuring the particularly high bit of the song.

Whereas I do have a soft spot for Maroon 5.

[koganbot]

Ah, don't want to get in the habit of not commenting on these, so away we go:

Shontelle "Impossible": Lovely, beautifully sad, would be competing for my top ten if someone with actual personality, like Rihanna, say, were singing this, but here it is as is, the vocals swaying back and forth while the keybs gracefully pull the rug out from under happiness. TICK.

Example "Last Ones Standing": OK, we've got Drama Synth World, then doggedly sincere rapping, then an OK pretty tune that would be too blank even for Taio or Iyaz or Jason, as life drains out of our veins. Last one standing gets to use Autotune. NO TICK.

Manic Street Preachers "(It's Not War) Just The End Of Love": It's not an arm's race, either, just someone causing a scene. Reasonably tuneful clatter, with flourishes and some dude waving his voice like it's Kip Winger's hair; unfortunately it's not Kip's voice, and the tune gives out. NO TICK.

Maroon 5 "Misery": Nifty little guitar funk, sorta half-adequate overmodest singing where I'd wanted beauty, it's all nice enough. BORDERLINE TICK.

Missing Andy "Sing For The Deaf": Rather pretty, the meaningful vocals are only somewhat strained, the potentially annoyingly marble-clattering chorus is held down to a pretty good sing-along. Could use gobs more joy, however. BORDERLINE NONTICK.

Die Antwoord "Enter The Ninja": A-well-a everybody's heard about the bird, bird bird bird, the bird's the woord, Ninja Bird! BORDERLINE TICK.

Iyaz "So Big": Isn't discernibly different or prettier than any of the rote pretty Iyaz-Cruz-Derülo tracks I generally don't tick. I must be in a good mood. BORDERLINE TICK.