A New Decade In Pop: Week #43

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Sorry this poll's a bit late! My quest for gainful employment has got in the way somewhat. Bruno Mars is at #1 thanks to Matt-in-the-Hat singing it on Kiss Factor last week, Cee-lo is down to #4 but I expect it'll pop straight back up again seeing as EVERYONE sang it on X Factor this week.

[Poll #1637016]

Lower reaches watch: party time for Jona Lewie whom is still in the kitchen at #81 thanks to an awesome Ikea advert!

Comments

[koganbot]

The Wanted "Heart Vacancy": Ach! A boyband sounding like a bunch of old, gruff respectables.* Nothing against the old and gruff (I say in an old and gruff voice), but liver spots all over your vocal cords are nothing to emulate. NO TICK.

*Yes, "respectable" can be a noun, says Merriam-Webster.

Katy Perry "Firework": Katy shoots sparks from her breasts in solidarity with cancer patients and the gays. That's in the vid. No sparks from her voice, though, which is unexpectedly wan, Katy trying to be a real singer, what a mistake! "Boom boom boom, even brighter than the moon," does make me smile, however. NO TICK.

Jay Sean ft. Nicki Minaj "2012 (It Ain't The End)": Speaking of wan, Jay with a fine light voice and a sweet tune manages to drift into nothingness, and Nicki sounds atypically dutiful. NO TICK.

N-Dubz "Best Behaviour": So let's AutoTune ourselves up and see if we can run with the pretty boys? The result is pretty, the chorus lasting a couple lines too long, the prettiness evaporating into the background. NO TICK.

Nelly "Just A Dream": The simple guitar picking that this starts with sounds massive next to all this week's vapor. But this track gets caught in the year's AutoFuzz, the rhythmic insistence in the chorus - "thinkin' 'bout HER, thinkin' 'bout ME, thinkin' 'bout US, what we gon' BE" - being barely enough to pull this up out of the surrounding goo. BORDERLINE TICK.

Diana Vickers "My Wicked Heart": "Weird" Halloween haunting whispers, which to be fair are what her voice is most capable of, get superseded by genuinely and unintentionally weird, partied-up prettiness, winking little background blippity boopity whoops, and engulfing overdubs. Strange throw-everything-at-the-wall shenanigans these are, but worth a tick for making me go "Um." Don't know how she does it. BORDERLINE TICK.

Taylor Swift "Mine": Gee, I wonder what Taylor Swift is up to these days? No one really talks about her anymore.... OK, I'm feeling nostalgia for when she was the fast-streaking teen with the thin wavey-but-resilient voice from nowhere that only Jimmy Draper and I were onto. Now Jimmy's off her, and I'm thinking of her as merely reliable, have been underrating her reliable beauty. But still, loud guitars on the chorus here engulf too much of the beauty. TICK, but this should be better.

Skepta ft. Preeya Kalidas: Hard grime mixed into this year's molasses-beef stew. NO TICK.