Rolling Teenpop 2007 Thread

Wow, I was wrong! The links work!

Well "I know, right?", the short answer is that I have no idea. But looking over that tracklist, I see a lot of probable break-up songs, which if nothing else is a stark break lyrically from album one. (And one I'm not too happy about, though "Potential Break Up Song" has really great lyrics). My guess is the album will have a lot more "Potential Break Up Song"s than "Rush"s

I don't think they'll go in a "Break-Up" direction simply because it's not the kind of music they usually write. I imagine that they're basically singer/songwriters (guitar and piano-based) with a rock edge coming (primarily) from a more hard rock sound in Christian rock. This is basically speculation, but I imagine there are major secular <i>and</i> Christian rock influences in terms of how they write their songs (not to mention their parents, also Xtian folk/rock types if I remember correctly). So I'd bet that they view electro as something of a diversion. They aren't particularly eclectic anyway (so far), and their best songs are actually kind of hard and oppressive ("Rush," "I Am One of Them," "Not This Year"). If they have "serious things to say" (and I think they do), they'll probably use guitar-based rock to do it, with maybe the occasional foray into a piano ballad. But I could be wrong.

(Then again, titles like "Bullseye" and "Like Whoa" suggest they're lightening up a little. But "Division" and "Closure" could be heavy...hm, no idea, really.)

Hey, Jessica P to thread...what's yer take on DJUMBO? Haven't listened yet myself but I never really got into Chipz aside from like two songs. (Are there any big Eurobubbledance types that they've missed over on this site?)

I'm curious to see the Jukebox take on "Potential Breakup Song." I just sent in a review that said that I like "Rush" better, but that "Breakup" is still pretty fun.

(If a whole lot different from what I imagined from Aly & A.J., given "Rush.")

i am talking to aly & aj in three quarters of an hour, for 10 minutes. i will ask them whether 'the potential breakup song' is a NEW DIRECTION or not - though i love 'rush' as well; they're good doing fizzy electro bubblegum AND moody popgoth, as long as they do it with some vigour, which they don't always on into the rush

have i said before that what i love about TPBS is how lyrically sharp it is? entire situation, dissected and laid out for the boyfriend with no bullshit, in 3 minutes, her position made absolutely clear, but with a twist of hope at the end.

Lex, if you can't talk about it here don't worry bout it, but how long is your piece and how general is the focus?

it'd be nice to have when/(if!) it will run confirmed first!

(was going to be published today but aly & aj couldn't do interviews last weekend) (just as well given the endless parties i found myself at)

(it will be short and general though)

jaymc I can tell you for a fact that TPBS got at least one 9/10 in the Jukebox...

At this point, I'd say TPBS is around my 3rd or 4th favorite A&A song:

Not This Year, Rush, TPBS, Speak for Myself, Greatest Time of Year, Shine, Chemicals React, Protecting Me...approx. that order for me.

jaymc I can tell you for a fact that TPBS got at least one 9/10 in the Jukebox...

I think it will do fairly well then, since I gave it a 7, and I can't imagine that dabug didn't write a blurb.

Ah, but dabug was busy having a strange argument about "My Humps." Still time to review it? I'll send in my score anyways and see what happens (8-ish).

HAHA their favourite band is HEART

(they were lovely, kind of alternated between being as pat and corporate-positive as ciara, and being really quite perceptive)

So - will PBUS be their 'state of mind' or what?

oh yeah i did ask that - yes they are experimenting much more sonically, synths and beats and so on, and excitingly i think aly said WALL OF SOUND

(and i asked them what their favourite song this year was - it was UMBRELLA-ELLA-ELLA-AY-AY-AY)

(also: in 10 years' time they are SO going to be the mega-rich songwriters behind whatever teenpop act needs songs in 2017)

Kara's of the future!

Whoah... Esmee sings Timberlake (wait 'til the end)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69Grnh7Qin8

Uh, did anything more, er, controversial come up at all?

(xpost)

Never a truer word spoken by Justin there. (Also, I was completely distracted by the guy in the mirror during that vid.)

Lex - which publication *might* this be for? If you can say.

For any curious onlookers, Stylus Jukebox review of "Potential Break Up Song" is http://stylusmagazine.com/jukebox/?p=550 . Average score was 6.71, BUT it received a higher score from the teenpop denizens. (Do Martin Skidmore, Jonathan Bradley, or Hillary Brown post here?)

Thank you lex, this is what I wanted to hear!

Greg, if by "here" you mean the Teenpop thread, then no. If you mean on ILM in general, then ... Skidmore used to post on ILM a fair bit, but I haven't seen him around in the past year or two. Hillary Brown used to post very sporadically, but I think she's amenable to teenpop if threads entitled In Praise of... Pretty Ricky and Why hasn't Avril's "Together" been released as a single? are any indication. I don't think I've seen Jonathan Bradley here at all, unless he's using some screen name I don't recognize.

Also, this is what I said about PBUS, since the blurb got cut:

Having only been familiar with “Rush,” in which Aly & A.J. wail their wholesome little hearts out about the pangs of first love, I’m surprised at the cynicism here. Not only do they cheerily lash out and act petty like the privileged daughter of a British comedian, but they underscore their alienation by slathering their voices in AutoTune! I think I prefer the raw eagerness of “Rush,” but this song’s fizzy, go-get-‘em bounce does have a certain charm.

The Lily Allen reference might've been a stretch, i.e., she's obviously not the only singer whose relationship woes make her petulant in a chipper sort of way -- although I think she'd also be attracted to the title "Potential Breakup Song."

"Rush" is not about the pangs of first love, it's about drug use, as proved by Mr. Dabug

In relistening to it this morning, it also made me think of religious ecstasy: seeing the light and embracing Jesus.

<i>"Rush" is not about the pangs of first love, it's about drug use, as proved by Mr. Dabug</i>

Damn, I say some crazy shit sometimes. When'd I say that (I really don't remember!)?

Frank wrote a lot more about "Rush" on last year's thread, I think, and he was probably fairer to it than I was until I revisited Aly & AJ later in '06 (around the time "Chems React" came out I guess). I like A&A better when they really throw me for a loop, like in "I Am One of Them" and "Not This Year." They've got the wide-eyed intensity of Christian rock (that I've listened to) -- the overwrought ecstasy embracing Jesus-y stuff, but totally undercut by crippling self-doubt and a hint of skepticism (or general confusion). Needs more monkeys, tho.

Stupid tags. Jonathan posts over at Bedbugs occasionally, don't know if he's on ILM at all.

I could have sworn I saw you write that somewhere Dave but maybe it's an interpretation I just made up myself. I mean COME ON "Into your head/into your mind/out of your soul/race through your veins/you can't escape/you can't escape" - That just sounds like drug lyrics or early punk lyrics or something.

i'm pretty sure the averaged score should have been 6.85. um.

NO Ross that's 6.86 you fool!

OK, the Hilary video for Stranger is one of the most incoherent videos I've ever seen. Well, no, but seen lately. There is Hilary as "gypsy woman." There is Hilary as J-Lo. There is a dinner party. There might be nudity at one point (under the covers). I'm not sure what's going on. Actually, it looks like someone took a movie starring Hilary and mixed it up randomly over "Stranger" a la YouTube montage.

As an angst connoisseur I'm impressed that over in Jukebox an Aly & A.J. track entitled "Potential Breakup Song" could be seen as being insufficiently anguished in comparison to the duo's other work.

Also, though I obviously disagree with his rating, I like Jonathan's reference to Aly & A.J.'s "Stepford delivery." There is something strangely out-of-it - but in a good way - in the grain of their voices. I think it was Greg who once called the voices "pinched" and I'd add to that "steely" - they're not cold or inexpressive, but there's this hard, glinting tone that pretty much ensures they never could quite sound sentimental.

I think I'd have given it a 7, so 6.7 or whatever seems fair. I've listened to it quite a lot this week and I think it's a bit too fast, brisk, kind of yapping at me almost. On the one hand I like this - like they're hustling Mr Bad Boyfriend out the door, no time for ifs or buts or answering back. On the other hand I feel like they're hustling ME out the door with him and onto whatever the next track on my MP3 player is.

Also discussed over on Jukebox:

Lady Tigra

Jordin Sparks

The Reba version of "Because Of You."

Greg, is Jordin's studio version of "I Who Have Nothing" as good as her March AI performance? (I thought the March beat the May, 'cause in May the accompaniment got too ambitious with the strings.)

(And I'm meh on the Lady Tigra, which sounds strangely unemphatic. There are a couple of better tracks on her MySpace. And a couple of worse.)

And for those who don't know, here's The Rules Of The Game No. 1: Joining In, the first installment of what will be an ongoing twice-a-week column I'm writing for the Las Vegas Weekly. You're all encouraged to send me your thoughts on it (or post them there).

I'm all over the Lady Tigra one, I got a little over excited last week and listened to it about a million times!

FK, you can hear the recorded version of "I Who Have Nothing" here. I still prefer the March version, mostly because of the strings and that looooong note near the end...

Oh, and here's a song from some old Jordin demo with a slideshow of family pics.

Yeah, the "Stranger" vid makes no sense as a video for that song. The song goes "You treat me like a queen when we go out," and the whole point is the difference between the public warmth and the private callousness. Yet in the video he's not treating her like a queen in public, he's flirting with other girls or ignoring her, or acting pissy. The lyrics provided a great plot for a video; I don't see why they didn't follow it.

The video for LeAnn Rimes' "And It Feels Like" was a much better piece of breakup cinema.

Like It Or Leave It

Whoa whoa whoa. What's that about? I kinda hope it's not a relationship...

In their in-store performance they mentioned that they were doing a lot of playing around in the studio.

Maybe they're talking about THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Er...actually, I just came here to post about a nice power-teenpop OST for the upcoming Nancy Drew Soundtrack. Kinda digging the Joanna tune on there, "Pretty Much." Don't know if the Liz Phair song was on one of her post-Matrix albums.

Uh...who is Katie Melua? Voice sounds familiar...