Rolling Teenpop 2006 Thread

"My Love" is OK. But then again, I only really liked "Rock Your Body" off the first one because it was such a joyous ray of technicolour exuberance. But at least Justified had actual SONGS ON IT.

Why are you trying to reason with me on this? My JT hate is well documented and rather irrational.

I've only heard three tracks from the Timberlake - this won't stop me from jumping into this convo when I get the chance, but I have a lot to do in the next five days. Haven't even done my song of the day yet. It'll probably be JoJo's "This Time," prod. by Scott Storch, may be even better than Brooke's "About Us" and Paris's "Jealousy" and Storch's two big Chris Brown hits. Almost up there with "Baby Boy." Very minimal when it comes to songishness: beats, chanting, talking, sweet keyb plinks, orchestral hums, quick doubled-up harmony voices inserted as beats, microseconds at a time.

Anyway, there's this one with before/after-surgery Ashlee pics along with surprisingly sober assesments from plastic surgeons.

Her chin is partially gone, along with the bump in her nose. She's plumping her lips with, one assumes, collagen and has had her brows lifted. She's 23 and getting Botox.

Right now, she basically looks like nobody, an anony-bot Maxim-ready girl thing. But that's right now--at this rate, she's a couple surgeries away from Jackson-ville.

Rarely has 'prettiness' been so eerie.

OK Mark, now that you're here, what do you think of Aly & A.J.?

One track I do like a fair bit is "Like That" - it has a hook like a playground chant. It's sweet. The retro stylings (a la Disc 2 of the Xtina album) in her two co-writes are also at least interesting.

Incidentally, UK edition has a different running order to the US one, as well as the usual bonus tracks. One of these is "Leave (Get Out)"! The fact that the presence of "Leave" is prominently mentioned on a sticker on the CD cover suggests Universal don't have much confidence in the new material.

Listening to Nelly Furtado's "Say It Right": Far more beautiful than "Maneater" or "Promiscuous," and the producer touches (is it Timbaland?) are a lot less intrusive and irritating (seems to me they should be less intrusive still, but that background "hey" is designed for poignancy and draws the involuntary pang from me). Furtado is riding her own ache too consistently, but she doesn't oversing it. And juxtaposed against the dirty-oil-drum sound of the toms, the ache aches evocatively.

"one sided" on now. beat sorta resembles "it's like that" by run-dmc.

which reminds me: am i the only person who thinks the beat of the first track on justin's new album sounds like "another one bites the dust"? except "another one bites the dust" was a way livelier song. (talk about minimalist art-funk moves: 1980 ruled, with queen's hit and "emotional rescue" both trying so hard to be the flying lizards.)

"Love You, Hate You" grabs me right at the start by ripping "Love On a Two-Way Street" by the Moments, one of the loveliest songs in human history. Way cute Akon-doing-"Lonely" chipmunk effects, too.

"Incognito" is another favorite, I guess. Popcorn popping all over the room, and the way Brooke talks "in the back of the club" reminds me of some Pet Shop Boys song -- "Left To My Own Devices," maybe??

i love 'say it right' too, even more than 'all good things (come to an end)' which is the new c martin-penned furtado single.

it's funny, i hate coldplay but have loved unequivocally virtually every r&b song which takes its cues from coldplay/is written by chris martin: these furtado ballads, jamelia's 'see it in a boy's eyes', that brandy album...

The music doesn't dance, it doesn't rock.

i don't think it sets out to do either though - the fact that several of the songs are very danceable seems incidental to the overall aim of the album, which is to be this gorgeously textured, lush, sprawling thing which isn't necessarily meant to do anything active to.

but pitbull "jealouso" > pet shop boys "jealousy" i think (though in general the new pitbull album isn't as great as it seemed on first couple listens, or as i claimed it was on the rolling hip-hop thread at the time. it'd be less oppressive if it were half as long, though there are a few great tracks. his remix album money is still a major issue from last year is still his best record. though the new one's still easily one of the best hip-hop CDs i heard in 2006.)

in other news, the highest review on this page (the "30") was by me:

http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/federlinekevin/playingwithfire

Or maybe doesn't; I dunno. NEVER believe me when I predict something will make my top 10, until I actually submit said top 10 somewhere. (Kick out Hold Steady because I voted for them last year and their new one's less good? Kick out Kentucky Headhunters because it compiles the best tracks from their last 3 albums? Hmmm...) Either way, Paris's "Heartbeat" sounds a lot like Cyndi's "Time After Time."

Slumber Party Girls album is yet more evidence for the detrimental effect of Destiny's Child math-r&b "complex vocal rhythm" tedium bullshit on teen-pop/dance-pop catchiness, or lots of it is anyway, but I'm starting to kind of like "Carousel," "Summer's Gone," and the fake Miami Sound Machine track, whichever one that is (High School Musical had one of those too.) (Slumber Party Girls' one is probably "Salsa"; just a guess. I was in the other room at the time. Some other promising titles include "Bubblegum," "Eavesdroppin'," and "The Texting Song." "I Got Your Back" and "Back To Basics" were a couple of the Destiny's-style ones, I think. Lalena says "Dance Revolution Theme" is the least revolutionary sounding revolution song she's ever heard.) ("Eavesdroppin" on now - sounds kinda funky!)

I still think that latter day Curve were the top guns of goth-girl pop--especially the seldom doted-on The Gift.

Not that I have anything against sheen in principle. I haven't worked out yet what I find off-putting about Beyoncé's sheen. She's a great songwriter and producer, and I think she's done a good job of making her co-stars sound good. I love Sean Paul on "Baby Boy." And I certainly put Beyoncé on the like side of the like-dislike ledger.

I wouldn't say that JoJo's "The Way You Do Me" is better than "Ring The Alarm" (both Beatz 'n' Garrett tracks) - maybe I wish "The Way You Do Me" were more of a "song" than a track - but I'm more willing dance and snuggle and giggle with it.

Funny thing is that I find JoJo's and Brooke Hogan's voices fairly characterless, and that doesn't seem to be a flaw. (It's not a virtue, though, and Paris alb is way more forceful in all sorts of ways.)

Bunch of versions floating around the net of Nelly Furtado doing Gnarls' "Crazy," BBC one being the best*. Nelly F. is a subject for further listenings and ponderings. A trouble I have with her is that she only seems to do one mood per song - I'm achy on this one, I'm flighty on that one, etc. - though again I don't see why that should necessarily be a flaw. Can't say there were a lot of variations in the mood and texture of the Kingsmen's "Louie Louie." Maybe Nelly wears out the mood before the song is finished. Anyway, she's almost moodless on "Crazy," and I think that helps, let's the song sing itself through her.

*Most ridiculous is the duet with Charlotte Church, but I can't say it's devoid of fun. (Bear in mind that I'm the person who loves the Celine Dion-Anastacia version of "You Shook Me All Night Long.")

(ILX search is broken, but as far as I can tell, unaccountably there's never been an "Explain Me Charlotte Church" thread. So, explain me Charlotte Church.)

Or maybe I just mean worthy of Weezer before they started to suck? Somebody else decide. (I'm definitely not saying it's near the level of "Saturday Night" or "Rock N Roll Love Letter," I'm sure of that.)

And yeah, that Charlotte Church clip was wtf?-worthy for sure. Wow.

Oh No! "The All New Charlotte Church Show"