A New Decade In Pop: Week #44

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

A certain Geordie strumpet with unfeasibly bounteous hair is straight in at #1. No, it's not Jimmy Nail.

[Poll #1639748]

Lower reaches watch: Shakespear's Sister have turned up at #64 because of this, and those of you who predicted 5-9 vaguely Halloween-related choons in this week's top 100 have the right to feel rather smug (Ghostbusters, Monster Mash, Thriller, Monster + Beautiful Monster, and a song by the Wombats with 'Vampires & Wolves' in the title).

Comments

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

I hate that Rihanna song. It makes my tummy turn over. I am gonna be the only one aren't I?

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

The thing is, I don't like it either (RiRi's vocal is TOO MUCH FOGHORN) but I have been humming it for the last fortnight NON STOP ARGH. Stupid Stargate and their stupid catchy song. Alas I realise this makes it 'any good at all'.

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

Booooooooooooo! It does stick in the head somewhat but it's like the fireworks song, it actually hurts my ears, WHY SING LIKE THAT? WHY???1

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

for a brief, confused moment i thought shakespear's sister might be back because of this:

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

confusingly the Newman and Baddiel "WHAT DO I PAY YOU FOR?" version doesn't appear to be on youtube...

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK

Still think Cher should have had half her face as Winona and half as Johnny for the different bits:

[infov0re.livejournal.com]

Stuck on the M40, I listened to the entirety of the top 40 for the first time in god knows how long. This means I was somewhat horrified, and also am now well qualified to answer this.

I still don't know if the Haddaway-sampling Eminem/Lil Wayne is good or not. The Peter Andre is fucking terrible, I know that.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I felt confused re: Haddaway sample for some time but have decided that I enjoy the mental image of LW/E having an emotional moment to What Is Love too much for it to be wrong.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Only Girl In The World is AMAZING, especially the foghorn aspect- it's Rihanna singing into a hairbrush with 'Heartbeat Bosh vol. 5' on in the background! Plus Rihanna only really does love songs from a distance.

Chezza: dyeing yr hair does not a goth make.

[mcarratala.livejournal.com]

The Rihanna song doesn't sound like her at all. Shouting Rihanna=bad (unless she suddenly decides to cover The Mekons Where Were You?).
Promise This is a) abysmal and b) reminds me, in a way, of Posh/Dane Bower's Out Of Your Mind, or whatever it was called.

[koganbot]

Pretty miserable, this week.

Cheryl Cole "Promise This": Cheryl sounds bizarrely attenuated, struggling for impact... no, not even struggling, I'm struggling, my ears straining through blips and bass to unsuccessfully imagine some emotion within the thin, scraggly lead voice. The chant is as unmesmerizing as any I've heard. NO TICK.

Rihanna "Only Girl (In The World)": Superb pop melody, with Rihanna uncharacteristically delicate and anonymous, as if Britney style were filtered and bleached down to gorgeous tendrils. Unfortunately, that's only in the verse. The chorus is sledge-slugging beats and bass and I need to hold my head. My score is an average. BORDERLINE TICK.

Tim Berg "Bromance": Little plinking piffle to accompany soft-focus flowers in a low-budget Asian flick. Then, rather than maintaining the insanely, teeth-stingingly thin prettiness of the start, the melody is redone less effectively as trance. Merely nice. TICK.

Peter Andre "Defender": Sounds like a voiceless actor playing Justin Timberlake's frightened ghost in an unreleased Disney movie from 2003. However, a visit to Wikip reveals that you guys have been enduring this particular brand of voicelessness for almost two decades. (And the record shows that I gave "Behind Closed Doors" a pained borderline tick back in 2009.) NO TICK.

Devlin ft. Yasmin "Runaway": The cadence fascinates me, since this guy seems determined never to finish a line on the beat. Not quite interesting enough to distract me from the wet earnestness of this. BORDERLINE NONTICK.

Eminem ft. Lil Wayne "No Love": Haddaway sample punctuates Wayne's regret and aggression beautifully; Em shows up late with his own aggression, and speed, though at a distance, his old ebullience and authority locked into a suitcase and dumped in a coffin and then into the river, Haddaway being what drives this home. TICK.

James Blunt "Stay The Night": Sincere and wistful, shadows touching shadows and all that and hoping for more. Not awful. Not interesting. I've heard far worse. BORDERLINE NONTICK.

Ironik ft. Jessica Lowndes "Falling In Love": By-the-numbers nice-guy rap. NO TICK.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Peter Andre's peak:



Just kidding. His real peak was 'the acorn':

[koganbot]

Clearly between the time of the bottom vid and the top, Katie was secretly assassinated and replaced by an android.