Rolling Teenpop 2006 Thread

Jordan Pruitt appears to be a good singer, it's got a nice laid-back acoustic melody, and I even really like the lyrics. The song was featured in the Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM) Read It and Weep, which I liked a lot, and the lyrics basically echo the theme of the movie. Maybe that's causing me to overrate it, I don't know. I think this is one of the best songs I've heard about this fairly universal teen/youth (and even adult) feeling of rejection and lonerness, from a lyrical standpoint. Any other candidates?

Here is the song, does anybody else have any opinions on it?
(Please forgive if the HTML link doesn't work, I know nothing about computers).

As you say, you'd think there'd be loads of songs in this vein. Perhaps you have to go back to the 90s or even the 80s to find them?

Xhuxk to thread.

I forgot to mention, but one thing I really love is the "You don't know how it feels..." aspect to it. Of course, the reason the song works is that EVERYBODY knows how it feels to be on the outside looking in. But that feeling of loneliness can, in my experience, create a kind of self-pity, "Nobody has ever had to face this before me, I'm all alone" feeling. So not saying you don't know how it feels in an accusatory way (a la Tom Petty's "You Don't Know How It Feels to Be Me") but in a self-pitying way. I would guess this feeling is especially prevalent in the more self-centered teen world, which is why I think it works better as a teen pop song than it would in other genres.

Quick research reveals its written by Jordan, Keith Thomas, and Robin Scoffield. Anybody know anything about those people? Also Jordan's next song will apparently be a cover of "We Are Family" which should be interesting. Looks like her album is out on Hollywood records early next year.

Jordan's version of "We Are Family" is streamed on her MySpace page. Weak during the verse, though with good chop-chop funk accompaniment, but something intense happens in the chorus, maybe it's minor chords where you'd expect major [don't know if that's right; this is first listen], prominent percussion, and a real interesting, strange break where she goes both doo-wop and gospel.

F-Kog brought up Kim-Lian, Dutch TV personality whose old 2003 single "Teenage Superstar" reminds me a little of Nikki Cleary and on new single "In Vain" goes teengoth in the chorus.

F-Kog brought up Kim-Lian, Dutch TV personality whose old 2003 single "Teenage Superstar" reminds me a little of Nikki Cleary and on new single "In Vain" goes teengoth in the chorus.

Then I went to the men's section and it was Phil Collins or something. Are they actually getting US radio play?

(Can't tell if the "you" in the lyrics is a friend, the listener, or whom. In verse one I thought it might be Jesus, and that still might be right, but "you're the star you're on tonight" seems to be something you'd tell a friend, not a deity. "Like a neighborhood on a city street/I know the path, it knows my feet" is a good couplet - the second half, anyway, the path knowing the feet [not sure how a neighborhood can be on a street, however].)

(Btw, the one track on the original release that Armato and James helped write was "Sticks and Stones.")

As to Acoustic Hearts of Winter, I have to say I was disappointed. Granted, the two originals are great but couldn't they have:
1) Included more originals
2) Tried to do SOMETHING with the well-known carols they covered
3) At least made some effort to pick lesser known carols that haven't been done a thousand times before?

That said, "Greatest Time of Year" and "Not This Year" are both on the shortlist for top 10 Christmas pop songs of all time. ("All I Want for Christmas Is You" is number one naturally).

Lots of clips from Cow Belles, which was awful.

JoJoToTo: Kelefa Sanneh mentions in his generally favorable review of the new JoJo album that she samples Toto's "Africa."

Platinum Weird does live session on mp3.com. This version of "Crying at the Disco" definitely better than the one on the album. More fuzz-tone, more Yardbirds, more pound pound pound.

Also, as far as I can tell, the Platinum Weird album I reviewed for the New Times NY sub-affiliate didn't actually come out in mid September, as its publicist said it would, but has been postponed until early next year. Don't know this for certain, and am too lazy to find out.

But, in the meantime, Make Believe, the faux 1974 Platinum Weird album, did get released for reals eight days ago, and is available in, like, stores and stuff. Haven't heard it, other than the three tracks that are streamed on their MySpace page, two of which ("Happiness" and "Will You Be Around") are overlaps from the other alb, but in folkier, goopier, deader versions, unfortunately. Another two songs on Make Believe ("Love Can Kill the Blues" and "I Pray") are also on Platinum Weird and from the 30-second Allmusic clips seem to be sung in the same deep, dull round tones, which are supposed to be the fictitious Erin Grace's voice, I guess.

Hollywood's SECRET NEW DIET PILLS! They Melt Pounds FAST - Who's TAKING THEM & Who's Not. (Ashlee one of four women on this cover, think it was Life & Style)

ASHLEE'S HAD MORE SURGERY! Now She's Got New Eyes and a Softer Chin. Friends Worry: "Her Addiction Is Out Of Control" (In Touch, the full cover for her, not counting the sideboxes)

Is Jess jealous? She wants ASHLEE'S NOSE! (sidebox in Life & Style)

Interesting that in the short interview Jeff linked above, Ashlee calls herself "boring." I hope that she doesn't mean boring, actually, but "normal," i.e., not newsworthy. I believe her in "Autobiography" and "Shadow," where she says she has a million subtleties and that there's so much more to her we haven't seen. But these I presume would be human-being normal subtleties, ways of being, the flavor and character of a particular person, rather than celeb-sized melodrama.

Could you say more about "I Live For the Day"? I assume by "structural shapes" you mean chord shifts and harmonic mood changes and the like. The basic song pattern is standard enough: verse, second part of verse, chorus; verse, second part of verse, chorus; break, chorus, finale. Of course, as Lex says, it's MAGNIFICENT (streamed on what seems to be her actual MySpace page), and her "Oh-oh, wanna see you CRAWLin'" at the end is right up there with Jagger's "Black as night, black as coal, I wanna see the sun, blotted out from the sky" in the fadeout of "Paint It, Black" as one of the all-time great song cappers. There are interesting ways that the song throws her from the first part of the verse into the second, or after the first chorus throws her right back into the verse (as opposed to having clear demarcations). And what I call "break" above is actually these extraordinary wails that foreshadow the rocketworks of the finale.

The Veronicas are all business--killer intro; catchy verse; maybe a fake-out feedback thing; reapeat-o girl chorus--back to work.

Lohan demands a certain amount of attention paid. "Live for the..." sets a mood, the verse a situation, Lohan's voice fills with her sense of betrayal, and then the chorus comes not so much as catchy, sing-in-shower pay-off, but as an escalation and first indication of how she feels about what was set up in the verse. (And yes--the chorus repeats the signature line, but each sentence complicates it.)

the first time I heard it, my reaction was, What the fuck was that?

Still searching for Platinum Weird? Best Buy has 'Make Believe' (the '74-style album) packaged along with a disc that is identical to the advance of the '06-style album. Could probably help you locate a copy.

There's a new trend that I don't really understand these days, albums being given limited releases initially and then broader releases later - though I doubt that that's what's happening with Platinum Weird. The Teddybears got a release through indie retailers in late September, but are due to get the release through major retailers in early '07.

The rhythm is pretty much in clave throughout. And the way the vocals are low pitch at the start and given talk-like emphasis (rather than wails and melismas and such) seems very r&b.

The lyric sites have this as "on a city street," but now I think I'm hearing "on a certain street," which makes a little more sense, since you can interpret the line as "Like [being in] a neighborhood, [like being] on a certain street..."

But Jesus isn't just their Savior, he's their Bestest Friend!

The rhythm is pretty much in clave throughout. That is:

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/8482/clavesongc4.png

(Bo Diddley does a lot of variants on this, too, even though he's not Cuban.)