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

Will have to dig back through the vid links when I have time...

As for the Ting Tings, I guess I say it all in the blip up there... I can see why it wouldn't be some people's thing but it seems weirdly self-evident to me why it would be some other people's. I mean it is just stupidly rich with hooks: the main guitar thing, the "ame, ame, ame" bit, the way she pops back out to declare "They call me HELL," plus obviously "STAY-CEEEE" which is great. And yeah, the forest of stuff in the last minute. This is turning into Tom Ewing's review of "Sugar Sugar" sort of, but it's one of those kind of songs, two and a half minutes about nothing at all that just keeps layering it on higher and higher. I would put "Stand and Deliver" in this lineage as well. The Ting Tings are no Ants but it's a great single.

idk kev, fleet foxes to me operate as "indie rock" only in the way that the term has shifted in this decade. they certainly aren't indie rock like deerhunter is indie rock or jay reatard is indie rock or even mgmt is indie rock. the album leaves me a little bit cold - but oftentimes so does much acoustic folk - but i certainly wouldn't call them bland. they are musically sparse and their ideas are immediately graspable. just because skeletal lamping has crazy musical shifts and lyrics about being a tranny doesn't make it any more or less "bland" - it's just an aesthetic choice. if anything i think their reliance on open spaces and vocal harmonies makes them quite interesting - and their music, in this day, almost daring - even if i think the songs sometimes fall flat.

i'm not sure i directly disagree with anything you just said, jordan, but i think my main problem with them is that they are so aesthetically driven rather than song-driven. that's the thing that pisses me off, actually, for me they're all style no substance. it's the same feeling i get for some "lol we're lo-fi!" band that cops the cool aesthetic technique of the moment but forgets to write songs. i can totally see why some people might like them, and the dudes have fine voices for sure, but it's just not something i'm able to engage with at all.

and yeah about skeletal lamping, that rec means more to me than any album in a long time, and the reason i like it is a lot more than the just zany structures (not that that's what you were implying, just saying). hopefully it'll place in the album poll; maybe i'll write musically a blurb.

but ANYWAY, sorry to hijack this guys, great job musically keep it coming :)

hey, that's why i am posting the results here and not on another website.

for me they're all style no substance

i can totally see why some people might like them, and the dudes have fine voices for sure, but it's just not something i'm able to engage with at all.

i basically agree completely w/ u here, i'm just trying to get to the bottom of why - even though we seem to be on the same wavelength re their music - i find them "pleasant" and you find them completely detestable. also i wasn't breaking your <3 for skeletal lamping and your hate for FF down solely to the structure of the music, i just thought that you might be conflating the respective structures with blandness and non-blandness.

it's fine to dislike f. foxes (and i have the same issue with them that you do re: songwriting) but i don't think repping of montreal instead is some kind of paradigm shift.

or put another way, i think of montreal are incredibly boring but i don't tell everyone this whenever they are mentioned on a thread. ppl are pretty aware of your dislike of f. foxes, k3v. i'm not sure you want to be copping the lex's ILM posting style in this regard.

27 - Alphabeat - Fascination
111 points, 7 votes, 2 #1 votes
52 in P&J, 47 in p4k

Is it wrong of me to love "Fascination"? Their schtick would annoy if the hooks weren't so strong. The way the chorus lifts into the "Wo-ah Wo-oh-ah" bit is pretty magical.
― Tim F

i just saw the Fascination video. hated it (and them) for the first 30 seconds but was completely won over by the end! the band's puppy-dog sincerity would make them very punchable if the music didn't follow-through with its complete lack of irony - pretty rare for such an obvious 80s throwback. the groove is undeniable and the build-up during the 'say the word' bit is absolutely glorious. great song!
― jabba hands

to be fair lex has like 3 years of anti-indie trolling history, whereas kevin's hating of fleet foxes has occurred in like two threads over the course of a few months

The Fleet Foxes song reminds me most of the sixties revival bands that occasionally come out of Liverpool. It's a bit better than straight Merseybeat, I can hear that the folk, Appalachian, gospel or whatever influences are there, and there are some nice moments - but it's been done before, doesn't amount to more than the sum of its parts, and so is too close to pastiche to be worth my time (xp obviously)

xpost i feel like it's more than two threads but this is true--i guess i just don't get why one would use this message board to neg something more than like once or twice.

"Fascination" should be much higher - BLISS BLISS BLISS.

Fascination: agree with what Tim and jabba hands say. I really, really don't like those first thirty seconds - not one for simplified upbeat hooks, me - and I wish there was a bit more going on there. But it develops really nicely after that when it gets a bit more complicated. I was going to say that both 'Boyfriend' and '10,000 Nights' are far better, but on second thoughts that's probably just because they have much stronger starts. Good band.

i've been meaning to listen to alphabeat for a while now. "fascination" is a fine, fine song

Gang Gang Dance I like. I really like the drums in the first half - lots of nice triplets and the percussion track interacts with the other strange elements really well. It brings to mind the Cassie track a little bit for that reason, the busyness of it. I'm most enjoying the laid-back dance tunes here. Not my usual sort of thing, so this poll is great news for me

It's only just struck me, but has anyone ever noticed the similarity between 'White Winter Hymnal' and certain passages of the Habanera from Carmen? (Check out this from about 1.23-ish in)

this has to have been said before, but alphabeat remind me of a more upbeat new pornographers. "fascination" in particular is reminiscent of "the bleeding heart show", though the former is much better imo

They're weirdo kids TV presenter types that's for sure. About as sexy as Steps.

Didn't know both 'Fascination' nor 'Until we bleed' before this thread, but love them both dearly already. Especially Fascination sounds like Katrina & The Waves warped into 2008 somehow. Nice!

26 - Ida Maria - Oh My God
116 points, 9 votes, 1 #1 vote
66 in P&J, 79 in p4k

Well, #26 has broken the careometer, hasn't it?

it's a pretty great song

I rated "Oh My God" high on my ballot, having only just heard it for the first time a day or two before, thanks to the nomination thread. It remains headsticky and sharp, a great example of milking a ton of energy out of a limited premise and very few lyrics. The drummer deserves bonus credit here, although clearly the center of this thing is Ms. Maria, whose Nico von Bjork style is a kind of guaranteed win. Good song.

I quite liked it too

The other stuff of hers I've checked out doesn't crackle as well, but "Oh My God" does set the bar kind of high...

Sorry to be negging everything in this thread, but "Fascination" is completely killed by it's flat, lifeless production. The tune and performance are fine, but sonically, it just seems....there. Something like that really needs to jump out of the speakers to be effective.

Yeah, the rest of the album is decent at best, but this song is a force of nature. xp

25 - Erykah Badu - The Healer
117 points, 9 votes, 1 #1 vote
110 in P&J

;_; why didn't I vote

..."Fascination" is completely killed by it's flat, lifeless production...Something like that really needs to jump out of the speakers to be effective.

Have you only ever heard it via Youtube? Because it sounds amazing in my car.

Rev - Huh - I think it's pretty punchy but I guess I sorta see what you mean. I could maybe live with the piano being a little louder, and the drums sometimes. But lots of things jump out of the speakers to me, mainly in the vocals! "WOAH OH WUH UH OH!"

And goddamn, the way the chorus roars back in after the whole "the word is on your lips" section - that right there is all I really ask of music from the Beatles to ABBA to this here. Flutters my heart, it does.

The problem with that Ida Maria song is there's so little to it and her shtick is so limited that it goes from Oh My God (this is great!) to Oh My God (STFU) within about three minutes.

I first heard it on mp3. xps

I'm not sure it's something I would go for even if I didn't think the production was poor. A bit white-bread for my tastes. (n/sfj)

I guess my problem with the production is that it sounds like everything is crammed into the mids, with no high or low end or space between instruments.

"it sounds like everything is crammed into the mids, with no high or low end or space between instruments."

not that it should change your dislike, but I think this is not only true but very deliberate.

"Fascination" feels like one of those songs which at first sound great, but pretty soon you forget about them. A lot of instant, ear-grabbing hooks, but it kinda lacks the sort of melodic and sonic sensibilities that make an evergreen pop song. A fun piece of fluff nevertheless.

24 - Beyonce - Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)
120.5 points, 12 votes
3 in P&J, 23 in p4k

Single Ladies will still be played years from now in chick-flick ads and at weddings to introduce the bouquet toss
-dmr

So Single Ladies is one of those singles that suddenly makes sense as being amazing aaages after it gets released I think.
―I know, right?

wooooo erykah badu

Wow, 24? I thought for sure this would rank higher. Top 12 at least.

hey musically once you stop for today can you post the results so far in list form?

single ladies is pretty divisive on ilm

I found Alphabeat till I heard fascination on the radio earlier for the first time in forever and it just clicked why it was so fun. So i'm happy it placed. xpost.

was the healer actually a single? because for an album track, i think that 24 doesn't seem too bad.

I'd have thought that Single Ladies was a dead cert for the top ten, if not the top five. Not, like, three places above Alphabeat.

single ladies is pretty divisive on ilm

Right. The home of contrarianism.

ah idk about that - i mean the haters say that's it's just a retread of b'day tracks and it can be certainly read as that, because it basically is. the rest of us, i think, thing that's a b'day track as a massive pop single

yeesh - the rest of us, i think, thing that it's a b'day track as a massive pop single

I rated "Oh My God" high on my ballot, having only just heard it for the first time a day or two before, thanks to the nomination thread. It remains headsticky and sharp, a great example of milking a ton of energy out of a limited premise and very few lyrics. The drummer deserves bonus credit here, although clearly the center of this thing is Ms. Maria, whose Nico von Bjork style is a kind of guaranteed win. Good song.

― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, February 4, 2009 9:55 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

Okay, I like 'Oh my God', but Nico von Bjork?! What kind of comparison is that? Is it even related to this song?