vya
Member
Posts: 8,776
|
Post by vya on Mar 3, 2013 1:11:47 GMT 1
I've always had a soft spot for "Big Girls Don't Cry" - both the tune and the structure of the song are pleasing, and for the sheen, there is some substance there. By far the best thing she's done, too...although I do agree that the video makes her look insufficiently distraught. But on the radio, that (very rainy) summer, my final one living in London, the only better pop song on the airwaves was the (in some ways musically similar, if emotionally truer) wonderful "Soulmate" by Natasha Bedingfield. Now that really was a record that deserved to be on this list...
Not particularly moved by any of the others of this batch, although "Foundations" immensely preferable to my ears than Plain White Ts or 50 Cent
|
|
Gezza
Member
Posts: 7,846
|
Post by Gezza on Mar 31, 2013 12:53:58 GMT 1
6TH OCTOBER- NO U HANG UP/ IF THAT'S OK WITH YOU- Shayne Ward (1 wk)Though he had a longer career than either Steve Brookstein or Leon Jackson, the writing was clearly on the wall for Ward as early as 2006 when third single "Stand By Me" failed to make the top 10 and even this double A-side (his first release from a second album) had difficulties in even getting off the ground. Originally penciled in as an August release, only "If That's OK With You" was the sole A side but performed poorly at radio and was held back in search of something more commercial. This perhaps explains why the track has a reggae lite feel to it in an attempt to make Ward into a Sean Paul Mk II, in truth that could never happen with truly awful lyrics like "I'm gonna make you feel like you are heaven on earth/ I'm gonna thank your mother just for giving you birth" he was onto a loser from the start, Ward had already been cast as a balladeer and that's what the public wanted and expected. The song is catchy enough but the package as a whole is just dire, a fact that even his good looks can't overcome. So onto "No U hang Up" a far slicker peice of RNB pop which plays much more to his strengths, slowed down pace and an attempt to push Ward as a sex symbol. Ok his personallity which had a whiff of paint drying didn't help (the Beckham complex) but it's smoothly executed in a rather souless pop way, there isn't much sincerity going on here, the kind of thing you know was written for him (as indeed all his songs were) but it's still an enjoyable three minute romp, though you feel kinda dirty after it- but isn't that how you're meant to feel?
|
|
Gezza
Member
Posts: 7,846
|
Post by Gezza on Mar 31, 2013 13:15:05 GMT 1
13TH OCTOBER- LET ME THINK ABOUT IT- Ida Corr Vs Fedde Le Grand (2 wks)I fell out with dance music around 2006 to be honest, it became just "noise" or I got older one of the two. Since the turn of the decade I've started to get back into it but the period 07-10 was bleak for me and this song is endemic of the problem, a reliance much less on tune but on gimmick, throughout the 90s and into the early 00s (trance etc) the melody was always paramount, but with sliding sales it allowed much more "niche" genres of dance to chart, which on the one hand was good as it exposed people to different kinds of music they mightn't have heard before. What is also did however was to convince record labels that there was a genuine demand for hardhouse etc as it charted but on poor sales, a paradox in some respects. I don't state that this is hardhouse of course, but I use it to show the kind of desperate state that dance music was in during these years, and until I listened to this again I had no idea how this went, perhaps the rebirth of pop that occured during this time diverted my attention. Picked up by Le Grand after his No 1 single "Put Your Hands Up For Detroit" it was remixed by him into this version which never troubled the Sugababes at No 1 thankfully.
|
|
Roo.
Member
Posts: 17,888
|
Post by Roo. on Mar 31, 2013 16:30:45 GMT 1
Two awful singles back to back.
|
|
vya
Member
Posts: 8,776
|
Post by vya on Mar 31, 2013 17:32:39 GMT 1
Gosh, I feel for you doing this - "you listen to this so we don't have to".
Don't think I'd ever heard "If That's OK With You" before, and can't say that I hope ever to hear it again. And while "No U Hang Up" is a bit less atrocious, as you say, you feel kind of dirty listening to it...
And if I had heard "Let Me Think About It" before...let's just say I'd completely forgotten, even about its existence. A pity, as there are some decent elements in the song (some of the sung vocals, anyway) that could have had something memorable made out of them. And it is, at least, refreshingly short.
|
|
borneoman
Member
love is tough, when enough is not enough
Posts: 34,344
|
Post by borneoman on Apr 1, 2013 9:28:58 GMT 1
I had the same problem with dance music, it lost all its appeal but I think it was a quality problem... in the last couple years dance music is making a comeback for good thanks to SHM and Calvin
|
|
Gezza
Member
Posts: 7,846
|
Post by Gezza on Apr 1, 2013 18:26:51 GMT 1
Gosh, I feel for you doing this - "you listen to this so we don't have to". Thanks - yes I don't think I quite knew what I was undertaking when I started this series 2 years ago!
|
|
Gezza
Member
Posts: 7,846
|
Post by Gezza on Apr 1, 2013 18:27:25 GMT 1
27TH OCTOBER- VALERIE- Mark Ronson Ft Amy Winehouse ( 1 wk)How long did this seem to be in the charts for? I seem to recall it seemed like an eternity, Ronson was back for a second time in 07 at the runner up spot this time with tabloid regular Winehouse in tow. Obviously the original was by The Zutons who had hit the top 10 just the year before, but in the year in which Ronson was probably the second most successful producer in the land after Timbaland it gained a new popularity and a new peak thanks in no small part due to his choice of collaborator. It was Winehouse who first covered the track on Radio 1's Live Lounge and put it onto her deluxe version of "Back To Black" before Ronson got in on the act, Winehouse is absent on the video incidentally due to her touring commitments rather than any other dubious reason which the press printed at the time. It's significantly a chirpier version than the Zutons (though no better) and bussles along nicely, perhaps being slightly more assessible to the general public for it, Winehouse turns in a very good vocal performance which countered the already ample tales of drink and drugs that surrounded the singer by the time 2007 had finished and the notoriously unpredictable live performances had commenced. Ronson and Winehouse never got as near as again to the top spot, in all fairness this isn't a bad epitaph to either's pop career.
|
|
Roo.
Member
Posts: 17,888
|
Post by Roo. on Apr 1, 2013 18:39:28 GMT 1
21 weeks top twenty for Valerie, so it really was around forever back then. Brilliant cover though, and I'm sure The Zutons don't mind how popular it got either...
|
|
Gezza
Member
Posts: 7,846
|
Post by Gezza on Apr 1, 2013 18:39:45 GMT 1
3RD NOVEMBER- RULE THE WORLD- Take That (4 wks)Gary Barlow basically writes two kinds of ballads and success or failure stands on which route he chooses. Firstly good verses with a chorus that disappoints as it just never really arrives- "Greatest Day" is a prime example of this (though ironically it was a No 1) this is much akin to Barlow on autopilot- it's a genre that he is clearly adept at and can write in his sleep, that doesn't always mean it's a success. Fortunately "Rule The World" is in the other camp, where the chorus isn't an afterthought it's the focus, and my what a chorus. Rousing, uplifting and anthemic RTW hits every spot just right and has just a whiff of "modern classic" about it which suggests that it will age well and still be on the radio in some 20 years. It's use in the film "Stardust" seems rather incidental here and indeed Take That were still, by 2007, clearly very happy to be back together and back from the pop wilderness, lyrically it never sounds too full of hyperbole though its gestures are slightly excessive, catchy but not cheesy, and sincere without being gushy, Barlow seldom gets it AS RIGHT as he does here, in many ways it's his "Back For Good" for the NEW Take That, a song that you sense he had up his sleeve for a planned reunion many years ago, that fact that it's so good makes up for his less than enamouring attitude as an X Factor judge- MORE exposure is not always good Gary......
|
|
Gezza
Member
Posts: 7,846
|
Post by Gezza on Apr 1, 2013 18:50:21 GMT 1
1ST DECEMBER- HEARTBROKEN- T2 Featuring Jody Asyha (3 wks)You'd expect me to be less than bowled over by this and you'd be right. Asyha's vocals sound like she was around 10 or 11 (she was 18 at the time) which are the only thing remotely endearing about this, it's the kind of thing you expect to hear coming from that gang's flat that Liam is currently covorting about with on Eastenders (I'll never get that reference years from now if I read this back but hey-ho). Then again this kind of music isn't aimed at my age range, nor was it at the time (I was just into my 30s) so perhaps that shouldn't surprise me, but neither is it a song that I hear much now and the fact that it spent 3 weeks in the No 2 position suggests it was bigger than I recall even at the time, so nothing good to say about this really- a damp squib to end 2007 sorry....
|
|
Roo.
Member
Posts: 17,888
|
Post by Roo. on Apr 1, 2013 18:53:54 GMT 1
I actually hated both these songs when they were out...
Obviously I've changed my mind on Rule The World and I don't honestly know why I disliked it so much at the time, other than not being all that keen on New Take That in general, but Heartbroken I can't even remember any more and for that I'm grateful.
|
|
borneoman
Member
love is tough, when enough is not enough
Posts: 34,344
|
Post by borneoman on Apr 2, 2013 8:57:23 GMT 1
didn´t know Amy covered Valerie first and then Robson stole it for his album!!!!!!!!! this should have been a #1, great cover! same with Rule the World. I´m not the biggest Gary Barlow fan, kinda the opposite, but he can write some pop anthems (The Flood, Patience, Rule the World), although 90% of what he writes is crap (Run for Your Life, Shame, Greatest Day,...). Why did they go against Bleeding Love? This would have been #1 if released any other week
|
|
Gezza
Member
Posts: 7,846
|
Post by Gezza on Apr 14, 2013 12:14:17 GMT 1
12TH JANUARY 2008- CRANK THAT (SOULJABOY)- Soulja Boy Tell Em (1 wk)This is rather a curious entry now looking back, a poor sales climate post Christmas saw this make No 2 on sales of less than 20k, it was of course rather notorious at the time not only for the dance craze it inspired but when it was revealed just what "supermaning a ho" actually entailed (look up for urban dictionary to find out!). At just 17 one has to wonder how much supermanning he'd done by that stage which makes the track unintentionally amusing and far removed from some of the misogynistic tracks that still emerge from the genre. Yes it's not going to win awards for lyrucal greatness but it was catchy enough in a cold January to make us interested, but it never really convinces, Soulja Boy's later 2008 track "Kiss Me Thru The Phone" seems to be delivered with much more sincerity- let's mark this down to teenage bravado then it's kinda endearing...
|
|
Gezza
Member
Posts: 7,846
|
Post by Gezza on Apr 14, 2013 12:28:51 GMT 1
19TH JANUARY- PIECE OF ME- Britney Spears (1 wk)So Britney's back (b****!) and thematically it's a case of as you were- specifically her relationship with the media. Though it isn't commented on much Spears is probably one of the most self obsessed singers in pop these days, count up how many songs have a self biographic theme, here Spears is not reaching out to a new audience. Indeed this is aimed fairly and squarly at her existing fanbase, nothing wrong in that and indeed "Piece of Me" isn't a bad record even if it rely's too much on production and gimmickry for my personal taste, it's just that its rather Britney by numbers. Robo-pop Britney (as she's been termed) is synonymous with her output post 2007, a time when mainstream pop did indeed move with her, curious then that her success in this period has been rather patchy, but underneath the exterior this is another song that unconvinces. "You wanna piece of me" she asks, but you fancy if anyone said "yeah let's have it" she'd cower, much of her state of mind through this period had already been chronicalled very publicly (including an awful VMA performance of "Gimmie More" which was ill-advised) and the sentiment of the record is based on the idea the best form of defence is attack, I would argue that perhaps it would have been better to take a leaf out of early Britney and release something more in the vein of "Everytime" but that's just my opinion. We are therefore in something of a paradox, a song about her and her relationship with the press isn't actually as personal as it should have been
|
|
vya
Member
Posts: 8,776
|
Post by vya on Apr 14, 2013 12:44:20 GMT 1
Oh, I quite forgotten that Soulja Boy Tellem record. Absolutely atrocious, of course, and, erm,...thanks...I think...for expanding my vocabulary of "urban slang".
"Piece of Me": obviously not Britney's best, probably not her worst: she did rather more interesting and appealing "robo-pop" stuff later on, but it came nowhere near to making no 2 in the charts
|
|
borneoman
Member
love is tough, when enough is not enough
Posts: 34,344
|
Post by borneoman on Apr 14, 2013 13:56:47 GMT 1
oh man just checked "supermanning a ho" on urban dictionary!!! not sure if I´ll fully recover from learning this!!!!!
the Black Out era was Britney´s worst in my opinion. And I agree her songs seem self-centered but then again she does not write her own songs so others must write with her in mind then?
|
|
|
Post by thehitparade on Apr 14, 2013 15:48:22 GMT 1
It is interesting that Britney does so much self-referential stuff given that she's not writing it herself so it's clearly a management decision. I find it a bit tawdry, especially circa 2007-8 given her mental state at the time. But I do like 'Piece Of Me' because it's such a good track musically.
|
|
Gezza
Member
Posts: 7,846
|
Post by Gezza on Apr 28, 2013 13:17:11 GMT 1
26TH JANUARY- CHASING PAVEMENTS- Adele (3 wks)After the initial failure of "Hometown Glory" this was the track to introduce the masses to Miss Adele. Back in 2008 she was pitted against Duffy for much of the year with the battle being won squarely by the Welsh singer but the war, well that certainly went to Adele. "Chasing Pavements" is everything that you would expect from an Adele song, it's an intensely personal song written in the immediate aftermath of a split from her then boyfriend it has the requisite amuont of heartbreak and sorrow to touch the soul. For me the real moment happens at 2.47 when there is something approaching real emotion in the voice, the rawness of hurt. The songs best moments are underplayed, it doesn't have the immediate hit of something like "Rolling In The Deep" or the simple classiness of "Someone Like You" nor indeed the glossy production of the "21" era but it's a dignified record plaintive and direct, the orchestration seems to swell and ebb with the emotion of the song and everything is in the right place. It isn't her best single but this is a marker to those who thought that the "21" period is a one off, Adele is an artist for whom it really is all about the voice and whilst she may never be as "big" again she should always be around.
|
|
Gezza
Member
Posts: 7,846
|
Post by Gezza on Apr 28, 2013 13:30:40 GMT 1
16TH FEBRUARY- ROCKSTAR- Nickelback (2 wks)OK, now at the time this was widely derided as generally speaking "S**t", looking back now I don't think that's quite fair. Nickelback are never a band that I would actively choose to listen to but as a sideways critique of the rock genre and bands in it it does it job with appropriate good humour and nods and winks. Enlisting the "help" of several celebrities to lip synch in the video in another clever idea (the band perhaps knowing that they weren't going to sell the song well on their own) and so we get treated to the likes of Gene Simmons and Nelly Furtado who are in on the joke. So why did it get the slating it got? Firstly I would say that the criticisms that it got attracted more attention than they merited, for a song in this genre to be such a bit hit during a period when rock music was out of favour (and had been for a long time) is something remarkable, also it sold in prodigious quantities. It isn't the most melodic or the most exciting of songs and it struggled in airplay on UK radio which is much more concerned with dance and pop yet it was a hit despite all of this, I don't object to listening to "Rockstar" when it comes on the TV/ radio these days (not that it comes on regularly) perhaps a little distance can cause a re-evaluation here?...
|
|