//////////////shawty got poll poll poll poll poll poll poll (part I: 2008 TRAX)\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

or listen to the radio? xp

wot planet u on?

xps

Yeah yeah, I know. My loss.

Now I'm scared to say anything for fearing of showing myself up even more, but here's something subcontinental about it, is there not?

Dude, don't worry about it. We're a forgiving bunch unless you drown someone.

Don't feel bad - I've heard maybe five or six of the big chart hits of 2008. My clock radio only gets good reception on oldies stations and I just never think to go out of my way to check out stuff, even though obv. I like pop pretty well!

16 - Hot Chip - Ready For The Floor
144.5 points, 11 votes, 1 #1 vote
12 in P&J, 3 in p4k

I still can't figure out precisely (linguistically) what it is that underlying 8-bit synth glide in 'Ready For The Floor' does to me, but it feels quite awesome.
-William Bloody Swygart

Heh, practically the only ones I've heard so far are ones that I actually voted for xp - which makes this poll a far more interesting and enriching experience, obviously.

About 'Love Lockdown' though, what is it that I'm picking up to make me think of Indian music? Is it just the drum pattern, or is it the bass sounding like a tabla, or is it something else entirely?

I didn't think much of 'Ready for the Floor' when I first heard it - much as I'd like to like Hot Chip, there's often a kind of archness about them that I find quite offputting, this seeming like a prime example. But now I find it quite sweet and sincere. Maybe it's just the lack of effects on the vocals. I really like the video too

The problem with Hot Chip is that for archness to work you have to actually be clever.

Well, one of their problems.

it sounds too brittle for me (and not in a good way).

That, too. For a group that seems intent on making beat music, they seem to have a remarkable lack of... beats.

Sorry if it seems like I'm just negging on everything in this thread, btw. Most of the songs I haven't commented on are crazy awesome.

I'm amazed people like this enough for it to place so high (on this and other year-end polls). I can't get through the first minute.

Back to Erykah Badu (no.24 or thereabouts) - this was the last thing I had on last night, just once, and it sounded amazing. Today I can't see what the fuss was about. Actually, that's not fair, it's very haunting and I do like it, but it could virtually be a Kate Bush tune (I'm thinking something off The Dreaming, maybe 'Leave it Open'). No bad thing, but I find it strange that it should be so exalted

not to be a dick but it takes a special kind of white person to make a beat as inept as the one in 'ready for the floor.'

^It's a great song but probably needs to be heard in context of whole album

xp

looooooooool

xpost

loool CAD

haha xp

yeah I love Erykah/New Amerykah/"The Healer" but I never did get why everyone is SO crazy for that particular song (it won the 'best song on new amerykah' poll by a large margin) as opposed to, say, "Soldier" or "That Hump"...

"ready for the floor" is a really sweet song - "you're my number one guy/ number one guy/ number number one one one one guuuyyyyy"

There was a time in very early 2008 when Ready For The Floor felt like a genuine pop moment, in the the UK at least. It went top three over here, there were stories that Kylie tried to get it for her album. Those moments when an oddball band suddenly go from indie/hipster concern to actual High Street disco-friendly pop are still comparatively rare. I still wish it had actually gone to Number One because the last minute or so would have been perfect at the end of chart rundown shows.

Of course, then other ILM hobbyhorses like Wiley and Dizzee Rascal and MIA all had massive hits, and it stopped looking like such a novelty. I still love the song though, and its clunkiness works in its favour like a lot of the best Hot Chip songs. When they don't work, however, they can be awful, but the feeling that they're stumbling across great pop as much by accident as design, that the wheels could just come off at any point, comedy clown car style, is part of their appeal.

15 - MGMT - Electric Feel
151 points, 12 votes
(2 votes, 27.5 points for Aeroplane Remix)
18 in P&J

Aeroplane Remix

"electric feel" reminds me of something from the first two PRINCE albums, but with more production. I love when it comes on in the car.
― nicky lo-fi

electric feel is the type of song prince would have written for the family (screams of passion) or shiela e or someone in the mid 80s.
― titchyschneiderMk2

btw idk how you guys are tripping off the beat - it's got a great bounce to it

and yeah it's a great pop song, the vocals are what make it anyway

"electric feel" = awesome. I don't really get their other songs but thats a great one.

The bounce is more in the synths and the bass than the beat though, they're what carry the song, the beat is almost an afterthought.

(Sorry, I'm still on Hot Chip, meh to MGMT. Although the Aeroplane remix of Electric Feel is great, just transforms it texturally and harmonically).

well i guess i consider the synth and bass part of the 'beat' - but yeah i mean the synth pattern that comes in a minute in or whatever and powers the whole song

MehGMT

I still think Electric Feel is amazing. Shame about most of the album.

"electric feel" is a great disco ballad, str8 up

and yeah it's a great pop song, the vocals are what make it anyway

― your infinity in you is mad lifted (J0rdan S.), Thursday, February 5, 2009 1:15 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I don't like the vocals either tho. :-/ Dude sounds so meek. I guess one thing about the two Hot Chip songs I've heard that I do like ("Playboy and "Shake a Fist") is that he parlays this meekness into sounding kind of spooked.

yeah the meekness is the point and the attraction though - i mean the vocals are supposed to sound soft and vulnerable. i couldn't really imagine a more 'strong' voice singing hot chip songs

he's no Jonathan Richman.

man i had not taken MGMT seriously but both the songs that placed in the poll totally rule.

"Electric Feel" still sounds like an outtake from Midnite Vultures to me. I understand the Prince touchstones, but it doesn't swing at all.

but it doesn't swing at all

Yes, exactly. 'Electric Feel' is really plodding and crude-sounding. I can't stand the singer's manner either, or maybe I just don't like his face.

what does 'swinging' have to do with it - it's obviously supposed to move vertically not horizontally

by which i mean that i think it's supposed to be a lighters up anthem with a great bassline not some like sweaty dance workout

"Electric Feel" is the least of the three singles to come from the album, but still cool...I guess. "Kids" is my favorite of the three, though, so what the hell do I know.

yeah i guess i don't think electric feel is trying to swing and i think hot chip is.

man i had not taken MGMT seriously but both the songs that placed in the poll totally rule

yeah, me too

maybe I just don't like his face

im going to use this as my defense as much as possible from now on.

"why don't you like joy division???"
"maybe i just don't like his face...ever think of that?"

also, agree that electric feel doesn't swing, ergo is somewhat useless. time to pretend was my no 1, and i don't think i picked any other mgmt tunes.

the vocals are supposed to sound soft and vulnerable (re. Hot Chip)

That's as may be, but to me it's more feeble and wimpy. I can't stand the beat either (as previously referred to). I keep thinking the proper beat is going to come in, but it doesn't. Not that I want some great big dance beat to come in, but something a bit more solid.

what does 'swinging' have to do with it - it's obviously supposed to move vertically not horizontally

I guess the way it's constructed is intentional but I just don't like the rhythmic effect. It sounds leaden too me. No bounce.

yeah i guess how it could be seen as leaden, but i think that just means your misconstruing the intent of the song. like i said i think it's basically a ballad - you don't dance to ballads. unless you're slow dancing, and i think you could slow dance to "electric feel"

also i think the bassline is pretty bouncy

It doesn't come across as a ballad (not the song but the arrangement). It's got this big heavy downbeat, 4 beats to the bar feel to it, which is what I don't like.

good for walking and high-fivin