Anyway: Was this album in production during HSM? And is it a Disney album? Who is writing the songs? I'm curious if this is a product of her (her manager, whatever) impetus V. the Disney machine's. Obviously for each of these Disney stars there's a point where they have to distinguish themselves from Disney - but I hadn't heard anything about Hudgens before HSM, so this sudden departure from the script feels... well... scripted.
― Mordechai Shinefield (Mordy), Monday, 15 January 2007 04:48 (seventeen years ago) link
*Also seen him spelled "Arnthor."
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Monday, 15 January 2007 06:54 (seventeen years ago) link
Kidz Bop - "Chicken Noodle Soup"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bjr-bP-sSgs
(I jest. It's cute.)
― The Reverend Rodney J. Greene is false metal! (R. J. Greene), Monday, 15 January 2007 07:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Monday, 15 January 2007 07:02 (seventeen years ago) link
― Mordechai Shinefield (Mordy), Monday, 15 January 2007 07:15 (seventeen years ago) link
Also, Frank, rereading your initial post in this thread (looking for a possible comment on Hudgens) I noticed you said: "Teen newbie Taylor Swift is on the country stations with teen confessional sounds and concerns and may have the talent to match Aly & A.J. if not Ashlee (yet)."
What I heard from Swift makes this statement really confusing. Obviously you aren't comparing styles, or genres (or even a vocal comparison)... is it just the confessional style?
― Mordechai Shinefield (Mordy), Monday, 15 January 2007 07:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Monday, 15 January 2007 07:28 (seventeen years ago) link
Now that you mention it, her voice strikes me as almost having some of Amy Diamond's phrasing/affectation, the obvious difference being that Ali's way way more subdued (but not bad). I just can't imagine what the general idea behind this production was, since it doesn't seem to be in conversation with any recent music, teenpop or otherwise (maybe background music in a Hallmark commercial, but I bet even Hallmark's moved on to indie rock by now). Do keyboards even have those synth presets anymore? Ditto the costumes in that video...were those all lying around in some wardrobe closet somewhere near the shoot, or did someone actually design them?
(It was "I Like Christmas" that got kicked, can't find the number one most hated of the year yet.)
― nameom (nameom), Monday, 15 January 2007 07:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― nameom (nameom), Monday, 15 January 2007 07:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― nameom (nameom), Monday, 15 January 2007 07:47 (seventeen years ago) link
― Mordechai Shinefield (Mordy), Monday, 15 January 2007 07:50 (seventeen years ago) link
Mordy - Taylor does softer rock than Ashlee or Aly & A.J. or Kelly, but some of her songs make her emotional growth and personal experiences the issue; e.g., "A Place In This World" starts off, "I don't know what I want, so don't ask me/'Cause I'm still trying to figure it out/Don't know what's down this road, I'm just walking/Trying to see through the rain coming down/Even though I'm not the only one/Who feels the way I do." And the chorus - its melody and harmony - runs very close to "Behind These Hazel Eyes." Her vocal twang and the banjo or mandolin running through the chorus of "Should've Said No" doesn't make it any less a wailing rockin' teen rager on the order of Ashlee's "I Am Me." And "Tim McGraw" has smart smart smart lyrics. Not that there's no precedence for this in country: Deana Carter is a singer-songwriter precursor. (Not an age thing; Deana was already in her 30s before she hit with "Strawberry Wine." "Tim McGraw" is a variation on the first-love reminiscence of "Strawberry Wine." Strange that young Taylor is doing a reminiscence song. Also strange that the lyrics may be better than those in any of the hundred other first-love reminiscence songs in country since "Strawberry Wine.") I'll see if I can hunt down some of my December posts on Taylor from the ad hoc rolling country-in-email-exile substitution for a thread.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Monday, 15 January 2007 07:58 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Monday, 15 January 2007 08:08 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Monday, 15 January 2007 08:20 (seventeen years ago) link
― Greg Fanoe (JustFanoe), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:23 (seventeen years ago) link
the jojo album is VERY good, having listened to it all weekend...
― lex pretend (lex pretend), Monday, 15 January 2007 13:33 (seventeen years ago) link
― xhuxk (xheddy), Monday, 15 January 2007 14:35 (seventeen years ago) link
― nameom (nameom), Monday, 15 January 2007 17:54 (seventeen years ago) link
― nameom (nameom), Monday, 15 January 2007 18:06 (seventeen years ago) link
― Greg Fanoe (JustFanoe), Monday, 15 January 2007 18:17 (seventeen years ago) link
I wrote something about her current album here, if you're a)interested or b)very bored.
― Hazel Robinson (Moggy), Monday, 15 January 2007 18:21 (seventeen years ago) link
― zebedee (zebedee), Monday, 15 January 2007 18:26 (seventeen years ago) link
"Authentic soul" tedium for grownups with "good taste"
yeah she's pitched as this to various quarters because that helps her shift units. doesn't mean that's what she is.
and her single is about not being able to stop drinking or taking drugs, apparently, so that makes her Billie Holiday
no one's claiming she's billie holiday, and the single isn't so much about how she can't stop drinking boo hoo, it's that she's not going to stop drinking fuck you. ie what hazel said. (a side point about the drinking: i think we're pretty much past the moral censure of famous women who get pissed, in the uk, apart from the more right-wing newspapers. when chaz church and girls aloud go on benders, it's reported luridly, but there's a sense of "good strong healthy specimens of british womanhood" about it all. with amy winehouse it is different because...well she's probably approaching lohan levels of self-abuse here. there's no "apparently" about any of it, girl does need help.)
And what makes her authentic is that her singing strains all the life out, so see, she's obviously on her last legs and therefore highly moving.
the singing in 'rehab' is jaunty and jolly and cocking a snook at everyone who thinks she should be on her last legs! at no point does winehouse even try to move us with tales of alcoholism - the booze is incidental to what she does try to move us with, the heartbreak and vague self-loathing. she succeeds because she's genuinely witty - not waving a big HELLO I'M COMEDY sign around a la lily allen or mike skinner, but smart and self-aware and self-deprecating and assured. listen to the way she sings the couplet "i don't ever want a drink again - ooh, i just need a friend", the wink-wink at the audience of the first line undercut so effectively by the pathos of the second. and 'you know i'm no good' - which is basically my favourite song right now if only because it's a spot-on depiction of a situation i was in a while back - is all about how harmed/harmful she is, but it's full of references to, like, chips and pitta and stuff.
― lex pretend (lex pretend), Monday, 15 January 2007 22:22 (seventeen years ago) link
Jan 15, 2007 - Top 30: Usual suspects, plus new Ashley Tisdale at 30 with "Be Good to Me," "Kashmir"-pop. Corbin "Sacre" Bleu at #1 for the second or third consecutive week. Only major airplay discrepancy are two Keke Palmer tracks and Slumber Party girls climber "Countdown." Mailbag: Prude-rap wannabe and former incubatee Lil' Josh KICKED at 53%. Incubator: LAX (as in "Strap on your seatbelts and hang on, because LAX is cleared for take off."), very Cheetah Girls. (Last week was milk carton cover girl Britney Christian, does-a-body-good campaign crossover rock + power ballad "Make It Go Away" which might be about milk's power to combat calcium deficiency.)
― nameom (nameom), Monday, 15 January 2007 22:25 (seventeen years ago) link
― lex pretend (lex pretend), Monday, 15 January 2007 22:29 (seventeen years ago) link
― xhuxk (xheddy), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:29 (seventeen years ago) link
but unlike others of that ilk, joss stone et al, both lauryn and amy i think are much better than that. (not that i think there's anything wrong with coffee-table diluted soul: i love me some sade.)
americans might not pick up on amy's dry humour but they'll probably pick up on the "boozy british chick" thing, which is if not humour than certainly black comedy.
― lex pretend (lex pretend), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:39 (seventeen years ago) link
― xhuxk (xheddy), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:44 (seventeen years ago) link
― lex pretend (lex pretend), Tuesday, 16 January 2007 13:53 (seventeen years ago) link
1. eat more magenta colored foods2. do a better job of protecting the rain forest.3. finish composing my opus.4. try to watch ALL the star wars movies in one day.5. kick it old school by learning the running man6. end my relationship with flava flav.7. remember that my dog has feelings too.8. respond to my hate mail more promptly.9. create a DVD series that involves tai chi, chai tea, and tie-dye.10. FINISH MY DAMN RECORD.
Open call for submissions for the March issue of Bunnies and Traps. Direct all mail to submissions at bunniesandtraps dot com. Just sayin'.
― nameom (nameom), Thursday, 18 January 2007 00:46 (seventeen years ago) link
― nameom (nameom), Friday, 19 January 2007 01:27 (seventeen years ago) link
― Greg Fanoe (JustFanoe), Friday, 19 January 2007 02:04 (seventeen years ago) link
― Greg Fanoe (JustFanoe), Friday, 19 January 2007 02:06 (seventeen years ago) link
When I was in like 9th grade-ish, the two songs that were absolutely massive in my school, apart from the obv. Savage Garden, Spice Girls, etc. were "Barbie Girl" (by Aqua) and "Tubthumping" (by Chumbawamba). In the bus on the way to school, my friends and I would memorize the words to "Tubthumping" and sing it on the way there. I'm sure the driver was thrilled. Both still sound great to me today. Never heard another Chumbawamba song, though I'm kinda curious if they are any good. Aqua, I know, released a great followup single called "Lollipop (Candyman)", which I've seen Frank talk up and which my friends and I also loved. Anybody heard any other Chumbawama or Aqua know if they are any good?
Admittedly, I dunno if this is teenpop, but Frank on one of the Pazz & Jop Poptimist polls posted a link to Jimmy Ray's "Are You Jimmy Ray?", which I literally cannot stop listening to. Just wanted to post it here in case any of you missed it there and don't know it. The song almost defies description, but is great.
― Greg Fanoe (JustFanoe), Friday, 19 January 2007 02:18 (seventeen years ago) link
― Mordechai Shinefield (Mordy), Friday, 19 January 2007 02:50 (seventeen years ago) link
Xhuxk, you have to understand that the British charts now are terrible, so Amy comes on like a fresh breath of deliberately stale air. So far I find her singing way too mannered - and not mannered as "classy," but mannered as in she's trying to slur like Dorothy Parker. (Which may be exactly how she talks, but it still comes across as mannered.) But her Sade groove is, at least, a groove, in contrast with so many clompy British rock bands keeping it real by keeping it clompy. (Maybe one reason the Arctic Monkeys did so well is that they came on as good ole clompin' blokes but actually propelled the rhythm.)
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Friday, 19 January 2007 07:38 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Friday, 19 January 2007 07:39 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Friday, 19 January 2007 07:46 (seventeen years ago) link
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Friday, 19 January 2007 08:03 (seventeen years ago) link
You say this as though it were a bad thing! This line alone sold me the album. I'm grabbing a copy to listen to the first chance I get. Frank, I'm actually curious where you've heard Parker read -- I found a bunch of mp3s of her, but I'm always in the hunt for more. I love her voice. It sounds drenched in scotch and Lucky Strikes.
― Mordechai Shinefield (Mordy), Friday, 19 January 2007 09:31 (seventeen years ago) link
― lex pretend (lex pretend), Friday, 19 January 2007 09:45 (seventeen years ago) link
I liked the first Aqua album a lot- my little brother had a copy on tape and it used to get quite a lot of play in my mum's car on the way to/from school. There's a great song on there about a sort of fairytale princess who's generally making a mess of things.
I'm going to look up Toy Box now.
My hangover made me deeply confused as to what was going on with that Hilary Duff advert. Doesn't quite sound like there's a 'Come And Get It' in the air, to me but it does all sound rather promising, certainly.
― Hazel Robinson (Moggy), Friday, 19 January 2007 12:56 (seventeen years ago) link
― Greg Fanoe (JustFanoe), Friday, 19 January 2007 14:18 (seventeen years ago) link
Chumbawumba were horrible greasy agit-punks, e.g. they did an album called 'Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records', who occasionally did some rather sweet pop things -- I'm still fond of a song called 'Someone's Always Telling You How to Behave' which sounds a bit like Dubstar, or a more electronic Frazier Chorus.
― alext (alext), Friday, 19 January 2007 15:32 (seventeen years ago) link
― Mordechai Shinefield (Mordy), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:32 (seventeen years ago) link
i fucking hated chumbawamba. dreadful.
― lex pretend (lex pretend), Friday, 19 January 2007 17:01 (seventeen years ago) link
i have been recording the new record.
THERE! it was said. laugh you fools! curse you and your fists that shake and slam down on the table to disrupt my can of iced tea that sits on the table. i shant cower I say! i will rue the day! i might be your criminal. but at least im the one who calls you to remind you of the fact that everyone is jealous of you. if those calls mean nothing, dare i say, i will gladly withdraw and bend my head down as i count to three for the machete to come swopping over his head and slice into mine.
im scared of my brain.
― nameom (nameom), Friday, 19 January 2007 23:15 (seventeen years ago) link
I have yet to give Ms. Winehouse my full attention, knowing only two of her songs*. So far I like reading Moggy's description of her voice more than actually listening to the voice.
*Not counting her duet with Charlotte Church on "Beat It," which is a massive train wreck.
― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Saturday, 20 January 2007 01:20 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 20 January 2007 01:39 (seventeen years ago) link