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

Childlike wonder springs into existence at the point that you become aware that it is not something you can access.

yeah, although i think the misleading term here is probably 'childlike.' we're really talking about wonder, period. and i guess that's where people (like, maybe, air france, and definitely, say, flaming lips) go wrong for me in sort of stipulating innocence or at least naivete as a precondition for wonder. or, more precisely, fetishizing the particular variety of wonder that arises from imagined innocence or naivete. as a grown-up, i can still experience wonder, including in music, through avenues that don't require any nostalgia at all. ornette coleman comes to mind (who arguably also fetishizes a kind of innocence, but it's of a more rigorous sort).

Geogaddi is the best example I can think of of ambient electronic music that mixes childlike wonderment with anxiety, confusion and fear. That said, I'm not sure I want Air France to become more sinister.

tipsy otm re: innocence and naivete, that's what i was trying to get at

Here we are, counting down the top 20:

20 - Jordin Sparks And Chris Brown - No Air
139 points, 11 votes, 1 #1 vote
75 in P&J

Oddly for an American Idol winner, on her own material Jordin usually performs most strongly when she realises that her baby-Mariah voice actually works best prosecuting baby-Janet material (see for example current single “One Step At A Time”): fluttery and almost ostentatiously pretty, with Jordin’s voice never resting on a single note for more than a moment – with Janet this is done to obscure her vocal limitations, with Jordin it’s a choice.

“No Air” is a bit risky therefore, with Jordin lingering lugubriously over heartbroken notes and phrases like she’s been shot in the chest. But death-fixated pop songs are the exception to every rule, and this suicide note is simply gorgeous, a deep pool of intoxicating emotion perfect for every wallower. Chris Brown also does fantastic, understated work, his gentle, yearning delivery providing a trace paper outline of a hidden mountain of regret.

If the song is devastated, the arrangement is utopian, all twinkling starlight tinkles and the most graceful stuttering kickdrum. The chorus, when the two get wrapped up in suffocating clouds of cumulus synthesiser is probably the largest moment in pop this year, like two giant space babies finding each other in a Hollywood remake of 2001: A Space Odyssey redone as a romance. And we haven’t gotten to the fabulous artificial strings in the last two minutes, then that absolutely desolate, almost discordant harmonised moan, and then the stadium drums come in, and, oh… words fail, truly they do.
-Tim F

I really don't get this list at all, I'd expected that to be much higher. I have no idea what's going to place where in the upper reaches of this, except Milli and Rolex.

Unexploded Bomb = Kings of Leon - Sex On Fire.

wow, i had not even heard of this song until right now, but tim you just sold it to me like a million times over.

think Happy House is top 5.

Tim otm above, re. the performance/production. unfortunately, the song itself isn't particularly memorable.

"No Air" - no, sorry, I just don't hear it. At all.
(But Tim F's description makes me wish that I did...)

whoops I wanted to post my favorite remix of No Air:

Benny Benassi remix

Hope its not the only Chris Brown mention here.

JS won American Idol? It seems odd that it hasn't been mentioned once in marketing her over here, although I guess it might have hindered her a little bit with the rnb audience (i have nothing to back this up though). Love the song.

I thought it was pretty heavy, but then I don't really pay that much attention to marketing unless I'm really into something already since I don't own a radio or television.

No Jeezy yet, I hope we haven't split the Recession vote by nominating too many tracks.

fuck a song - that remix is infinitely preferable!

xp's

I'd imagine "Blind" is up towards the top too. And I hope all the Crazy Cousinz votes didn't go to "Bongo Jam" and we still get "Do Ya Mind".

I assume American Boy will be top10 as well.

If it wasn't I would really wonder at the point of this site.

My guess for the top five would be some combination of A Milli, Blind, Wearing My Rolex, Time To Pretend and maybe Paper Planes, depending on how many people voted for it as a 2008 release. Otherwise replace it with American Boy or Love Lockdown.

if it's gonna be that boringly predictable how about we just stop at 11?

Machine Gun top ten or not?

because it's just a ruse and los campesinos! are actually going to fill all 10 spots.

Blackout Crew for #1.

Awesome thread, y'all - old school ILM material!

I still don't understand how so many people whose taste I otherwise respect find "American Boy" tolerable.

still surprised u hate on it this much

its really annoying

yeah, that

i like the beat OK, but the vocals do nothing for me (and the will.i.am version isn't any better).

still surprised people find it annoying

Estelle's vocals are really shrill, and the lyrics are really stupid when not completely cringeworthy. The melody is catchy, but not pleasing, and so just sits in your head being annoying forever after you hear it. Kanye is as cloying and smug as he's ever been. The way the beat is arranged discards any sense of flow it had in "Impatient". Basically, this song is garbage. I hate it more than Katy Perry.

I'm pretty sure I would love any r'n'b song that dropped Ribena though

Are most of the (non-british) people who like "American Boy" anglophiles to some degree? I find anglophilia offputting in general (which certainly isn't to say I hate English music or English people or Englishness, just Americanos who get b0nerz about such things) and this song triggers that revulsion.

Estelle's vocals are too airy to be shrill.

No, they are absolutely ear-damaging.

to me there's just something about the way her accent manifests in that song that is really bothersome to me - also the chorus "i really want tooooooo/ come kick it with yooooouuu" is like the dictionary definition of 'annoying' to me

i'm not an anglophile in the slightest (and really have trouble relating to a lot of brit music), but something about the breeziness of 'american boy' is enjoyable to me.

Yeah, that goes back to what I said about being catchy, but not pleasing. Catchy + ugly is more or less the worst combination of adjectives in music. Otm about her accent, too.

(was an xp)

I also hate how cute this song tries to be about the fact that Estelle is British. It's like I understand that there are cultural differences between the US and UK, you don't need to fucking Big Bird this shit for me.

yeah i wish it struck a kind of idk jetsetter tone - with estelle in the position of power - but instead it just makes her seem really doltish and ditzy

on listening closely for the first time in a while, what i really like about it is actually the progression--it's a little jazzy/loungy and seems a little atypical for an r&b hit. it's not totally successful because, as michael mcdonald would point out, they did not go 100% smooth.

jetsetter OTM--that's what i want this song to be.

yeah that is annoying generally (see also Sway's love of the Union Flag) but i blame the US involvement in these things just as much for that too. it's Kanye who wanted to drop in more UK refs and make a deal out of that too. xposts

No, they are absolutely ear-damaging.

okay so basically the problem here is that you are insane (not because she represents the epitome of amazing singing or anything but because she's basically the vocal equivalent of a fangless Ashanti and somehow your brain has managed to translate "barely audible" into "shrill, piercing")

19 - Grace Jones - Williams' Blood
142 points, 12 votes, 1 #1 vote
(7 votes, 81.5 points for Aeroplane Remix)
1722/429 in P&J

Aeroplane Remix

both brilliant

yeah ftr even tho rev is obv challopsing, i think he's going overplaying how bad her vocals are - they are just mildly annoying but annoying enough - very mosquito trapped in your car

What about the greg wilson one? (I haven't heard it but am v curious)