2011 In Pop: MARCH

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Adele's been on top for most of March, with a brief break last week to allow the Lead Pussycat to have a go being #1. Otherwise it's been pretty quiet compared to February!

[Poll #1723702]

* ????

Lower reaches watch: 'Regulate' got to #45 (RIP Nate), 'The Chain' popped in briefly at #81 for the new Formula 1 season, The Strokes' new single missed out on the top 40 and this week Miss 'R!B!' Rebecca Black makes it to #61!

February's poll saw Rihanna's sordid filth get a large proportion of the vote while The Vaccines did not get much love at all. Also two people ticked Noah and The Whale, which means that song is now in my head AGAIN. CHEERS GUYS.

Comments

[fireholly.livejournal.com]

All my whining about March wouldn't fit in the boxes, so here we go, ANNOYING OPINIONS, in poll order:

I absolutely love Fighting Fire. It's so brilliantly minimalist and I love the mix of that grotty, claustrophobic backing and the cold, airy vocal. I love how the percussion sounds like it's come out of a freeware drum VST made by a student in the dark. I love the weird unbalanced chorus which doesn't sound like a chorus and which doesn't do the 'whoo huge amounts of top end have gatecrashed this track to tell you to get down' cliché. It really stands out as one of the best pop tracks this month, IMO, because it takes the formula and does it so damn weirdly.

Who You Are really annoys me, because there is a really, really good song in there and it's just not able to come out and I can't express exactly what's wrong but I can hear it and it's so frustrating. I have to admit I disliked Jessie J's other stuff too, but I do admire her genre range - that she was able to do a Rihanna-like, follow it up with a bubbly pop song and then with a ballad - and I am desperately trying to let her convince me to like her, but it just isn't happening yet. (The Illuminati conspiracy theory nearly convinced me, though. Nearly. (http://vigilantcitizen.com/musicbusiness/jessie-js-price-tag-its-not-about-money-its-about-mind-control/)) I do think the message of Who You Are is heartfelt and genuine, though - the words make it clear she knows what she's talking about when she describes depression.

I like Heart On My Sleeve and I think it's great by X-Factor Winner Ballad standards - it's gorgeously composed and Olly Murs's voice is genuinely fantastic - but I kind of wish I didn't because it makes me feel like a bad pop snob.

Till The World Ends is an awesome song by any standards, but I can't believe they picked that for the second single on Femme Fatale. I'll admit I was blown away when I first heard it, but in context with the rest of the album, it's not a song, it's an overture - it's so huge and floaty and open and Britney basically states the manifesto of the album in it, and we don't even hear the chorus until about the two and a half minute mark, just before the breakdown/buildup. There were so many much more single-able tracks on the album (SEAL IT WITH A KISS. I WANNA GO. CRIMINAL. COME ONNNNN GUYS), so I'm just kind of weirded out that they went with Till The World Ends.

I think it's a natural law now that everything the Black Eyed Peas do is awesome.

now to Don't Hold Your Breath which emphatically does NOT GET MY TICK because it is MY LEAST FAVOURITE POP SONG THIS MONTH (particularly annoying because I actually like Nicole Scherzinger herself). It sounds rote. Trite. Dated. Phoned in. I know Born This Way sounded like it was from 1998 but that doesn't mean anyone else should do it. Even the lyrics are so desperate to get the catchphrase in (http://www.scribd.com/doc/266102/KLFThe-Timelords-How-To-Have-A-Number-One-The-Easy-Way) (go to page 34) that they sound childish and limply passive-aggressive - 'if you think I'm coming back, don't hold your breath'. There are literally two things I like about this song out of EVERYTHING - one, the break where it's just percussive breath noise, and two, the fact that at least one godawful phoned-in pop dance music cliché wasn't fallen into and so her voice isn't robo-Tuned to uninspired hell.

Okay, sorry. Just needed to get that off my chest.

The most surprising thing about the Peter Kay/Susan Boyle duet is just how well Peter Kay's voice stands up, even when compared with hers which is obviously astonishing. It's also nice to see Geraldine again!

I'm actually kind of disappointed by the Katy Perry/Kanye duet, even though I like it. I think I like Kanye best when he's Auto-Tuned and Katy's hogging it here. It's got an honestly great chorus though, and I'm positive it's going to be the background of every TV trailer ever from here on until 2012. And 'Tell me what's next/ Alien sex?' is definitely the best lyric of March 2011.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Hello there fireholly! I quite like N-Scherz's out-of-breathness but I can see how it could be annoying.

I just listened to the Black Eyed Peas track for the first time and HURRAH they have let Fergie actually SING on it for once. F everyone's I (if you are wary of BEP output) it is more in the 'Meet Me Halfway' vein than a 'Dirty Bit' vein, and features zero Depeche Mode samples. I love Fergie's gentle high notes! The end bit where it goes all schaffle can bugger off though. As can Apl and Taboo. Basically my requirement for another Fergie solo album has not diminished ONE BIT: