the charts are stagnating again.

Yes, bloody impressive, amost swaggartian.

indeed

"I dunno which Christina Milian song they're talking about, may not have heard it."

the godhead 'dip it low', prolly.

Okay if Rihanna was to just go on and on and break Bryan Adams' record, would anyone outside ILM, Popjustice and the BBC Entertainment site actually notice?

i don't think the long run is a sign of stagnation. it felt more stagnant when there were 52 no. 1s a year.

i would get tired of it if it weren't for that dynamite jay-z intro.

waaht - way to praise the weakest link in the chain. it's so pointless.

nah it seemed pointless at first but it's so important and integral to the song's greatness. he's like a town crier sent out in advance to ready everyone for the impending splendour of the song. plus, gives one time to get to the dancefloor innit.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sarcasm

xpost

hahahahahaha

no lex, it's shit. the song is brilliant, but fucking hell jay almost ruins it.

can't believe Fergie is number 2 with THIRD single from last year's album

he's like a town crier sent out in advance to ready everyone for the impending splendour of the song.

he is doing the job of a radio dj.

there's no way jay almost ruins the song. even if you don't like it it's easy enough to ignore! and it's not it itself which is good, it's the way it gives you time to prepare yourself.

love the lovely fergie ferg, happy she's doing well. it's cos she's supporting timberlake right now innit

nah it seemed pointless at first but it's so important and integral to the song's greatness. he's like a town crier sent out in advance to ready everyone for the impending splendour of the song. plus, gives one time to get to the dancefloor innit.

i wouldn't say it's integral - the song would be fine without any male vocal presence ala 'Irreplaceable'. i do like the idea of putting a little rap at the start as announcement/warning but not if he's not going to re-appear again later on in the song - and the rap itself seems uninspiring and phoned in (as with several other Jay-Z appearances on tracks over the years inc. 'beware of the boys' and the linkin park stuff)

i would actually quite like it if kate nash topped the charts for 8 straight weeks; it would give me carte blanche to never take any sort of singles chart seriously ever again, and be pretty vocal about it too.

possibly Madonna's best single ever.

he's like a town crier sent out in advance to ready everyone for the impending splendour of the song.

offtm

steve it's all about the increase in satisfaction gained from both you and your dancing partner being ready, umbrella in hand, on the dancefloor for the line "you had my heart", rather than scrambling for position midway through the first verse

i mean obviously it's the least good bit of a song with no actual bad bits

i don't have a dancing partner :/
also i don't think i would ever dance with an umbrella - leave that to the aphex twin

kate nash = borderline crush of shame

"lil miss sunshine" makes up for the pointlessness of the intro.
It seems almost a certainty that Timbaland and Keri Hilson(!) or Groove Armada and Mutya will knock Rihanna off if not this week then next week, but I don't mind Umbrella's dominance at all. We've had the wettest summer in history and this song is the perfect soundtrack.

a-m and i did some rather wonderful contemporary interpretative dancing to 'umbrella' centre stage in the vip tent of the wild in the country festival the other weekend

timba and keri?? i love that song alone amidst the dreck which is the rest of the timba album, doesn't seem very number one-ish though. groove armada and mutya does, though it's not as good.

kate nash = just jack without the testicle

dare i ask what louis thinks of 'umbrella'?

off to youtube it is!

actually, i think i might be able to appreciate it. i've discovered, during my work as a chart-pop reviewer for my radio station, that it's possible to give a song a great review even if it isn't my sort of thing, if it does its job well and provides a decent pop experience. i've been known to hand out 5-star reviews to the likes of norah jones and the rapture on this premise. i will admit, quite a lot of stuff still gets one star and a devastating putdown.

All of Jay's guest appearances bore me lately. He should just call his next album "Still Rich as Fuck," because that's basically all his verses are about now, and that was a lot more fun to listen to coming from a guy scrapping his way to the top than from a guy who owns a basketball team.

timbo and keri at number 4 with cd release 2 weeks to go. groove and mutya at number 16 with cd release 2 weeks to go. Timbo and keri seems more likely, even though it doesn't sound number oneish (whatever that means).

Roman Abramovich is phoning in an intro to the next Beyonce single.

But Louis The Rapture are great!

I've not heard Umbrella either.

kate nash looks kind of girlish.

she is a girl

lex, this song has extremely noticeable distortion guitar. how has it passed the censor's scissors?

actually, it's a lot better than quite a lot of the chart singles i've heard recently. nice keyboard work, decent tune, the occasionally interesting vocal sample, and the aforementioned guitar. not bad!

actually, i was complemented by a man from the distributing company for my Rapture review. i have to say, the song was a heck of a lot better than I expected, and my review reflected my enthusiasm.

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/reviews/the-rapture/pieces-of-the-people-we-love.htm

maybe R Kelly and Usher can be #1 - it's probably not out until 2009 but the video is quite funny. song is quite bad tho, makes you wish they were just having an actual argument, swearing etc.

meanwhile i'll never understand how the same people who would take me to task for not having heard obscure old music, will proudly boast not only that they haven't heard the biggest current radio hit around, but that they're not interested because modern pop music simply isn't good enough for them any more

i mean, it's not as if i listen to radio ever, but do you not have the slightest curiosity about what the new single from a woman with a proven track record of great singles sounds like?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Mark WILD" <m✧✧✧@wild✧✧✧.c✧✧>
To: "'A.J. Mill'" <sa✧✧✧.m✧✧✧@cur1✧✧✧.c✧.u✧>
Subject: FW: check this out
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 11:38:45 -0000

We liked this reaction to The Rapture. Kudos to whoever wrote it!

_____

From: Kr1st3r Gr33r [mailto:kris✧✧✧@wild✧✧✧.c✧✧]
Sent: 14 March 2007 15:45
To: D4v1d B4rcl4y; M4rk W0rk W41nwr1ght; D4v3 R0b3rts
Subject: check this out

Look at this reaction from one of the student radio stations to the new
Rapture single:

The digitised, skeletal percussion that opens 'People Of The Pieces They
Love' provides the framework for a magnificently minimal four minutes' worth
of electronic pop. With vocals that don't ostentatiously slather themselves
all over the song, the synth textures are allowed to dominate, and this is
where it becomes apparent that unlike most charting disco-pop bands. The
Rapture actually put some sort of an effort in creating a subliminally
enjoyable experience, a subtle and nuanced creation that relies as much on
the modulation of tone as the sexuality of its lead singer. Not to say that
the song doesn't have any immediacy to it; far from intellectualising the
whole process into soulless beat-making the Rapture start POTPWL with the
simplest of three-note baselines, gradually adding short, unobtrusive guitar
samples, backing vocal chants and wobbling synth lines until the vibrating
tension reaches an apex and the live drums can kick in, again without
massive fanfare but pungently enough to raise the track another level. The
bassline throws a couple of curveballs, the synths fragment into a brief
outro, and the song ends without fuss. The Rapture, on the strength of this
song, aren't here to sloganeer or jump on any passing fad, they're here to
give us music that we'll enjoy, music that bears repeating, and above all
music that does all the right things. 5 out of 5. CUR, CAMBRIDGE

*bask*

Not really, Alex, because my tastes at the moment are diverged massively from chart pop / r'n'b, and with no direct interface with chart pop I've no motivation to keep up for the sake of keeping up. I've abandoned the semi-journalistic impulse to know EVERYTHING that's going on, and instead I'm just investigating deeper the kinds of things I'm already interested in.

Also Louis totally beware of PR people 'praising' you. Just, y'know. Watch out.

Also Louis if you like that you'll LOVE the !!! album.=, which is like The Rapture's last album stretched out on psychedelics.

thanks for the tip...but what are these dangers you speak of?

is the danger that thoughtless praise will be received well but an intelligent criticism will be rejected by PR companies?

You are joking, I hope.

Well, there is that, but I was thinking more that they'd start hawking all types of untold shit at you in the hope that it's up your street, like 13 Senses' PR woman keeps pestering me just because they supported Embrace once.

?

just seeking a bit of clarification, that's all. apologies if i don't quite live up to your vast cranial intensity.

xpost to he of little patience

I've abandoned the semi-journalistic impulse to know EVERYTHING that's going on, and instead I'm just investigating deeper the kinds of things I'm already interested in

i can kind of understand this, because i pass over a mass of stuff without listening too, but i would be a bit afraid of my tastes settling into a rut then.

never ever give your phone number to PRs if you can help it.

but i would be a bit afraid of my tastes settling into a rut then

But Lex, don't you have a fairly well-established set of sonic preferences? (I'm not saying this is bad, I have mine after all.)

Ahem.

everybody has them

Hurrah for us.

even i've heard 'umbrella'.

Yeah but I live in the sticks, innit.