Tim's overflowing bounty of 2010 pop riches extravaganza thread

I did mention "Grab Somebody", albeit briefly. It and "Mir" and "Work Dem" are all favourites of mine in that minimal 808 style but I couldn't talk about all of them in detail. Yeah I'm actually afraid to check the Spark original!

I think the "Your Words Matter" release is like the one Ramadanman record from this year I haven't tracked down yet.

oh yeah i did clock the "grab somebody" mention, i was referring to "your words matter" then added "grab somebody" to the sentence and um didn't edit

You're right though in the sense that it deserves more singling out. But I felt like the above post would like a bit overboard Ramadanman fanboy already.

tim i think the prettiness you require in r&b, i require in club music (unless it's some machinic audion ish, obv)

I should temper this statement perhaps: with particular R&B performers it's more like the pretty tracks are the gateway for me to enjoy the rest, it's what I hone in on first.

Which might be the same for you vis a vis club music?

The Cast of Glee - Teenage Dream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E46BhMIRujI

In my world of young people, songs on Glee sit somewhere between a bootleg (in the 2001 sense) and an official remix in terms of legitimacy as songs, which means if they're good and/or popular enough they can overtake the original as a definitive version. What makes a Glee cover version good and popular? I can hold forth on the former and speculate on the latter, but the truth is that I'm often confounded by which ones catch on.

Solo songs are easiest to parse, with the castmember mostly echoing the original performer and standing and falling on how good a job they muster (my favourite effort remaining the fierce version of Jazmine Sullivan's "Bust Your Windows" from one of the earliest episodes). Meanwhile, Glee usually manages good group numbers with songs that radiate what you might call "staged sincerity", because that's exactly the vibe the Glee group are good at giving off themselves by and large. So, while it could never replace the original in my heart, their "Don't Stop Believing" chooses its source material well, perceiving in the idiosyncratic anthem the capacity to become more glassy and architectural (more, in essence, like "We Built This City (On Rock 'n' Roll)") while losing little of its lustre (I have a nascent theory brewing that the mid-to-late eighties was the golden age of staged sincerity that is worth expanding elsewhere).

Far less successful are the too-frequent mash-ups, which reduce everything to a single-entendre by foregrounding the staged spectacle and evacuating the sincerity. In cases of songs with some level of heart, the results can be distressing - combining "Umbrella" with "Singing In The Rain" does active violence to the complex emotional poise of the former song, while drowning the cheer of the latter in theatrics. This is Glee celebrating spectacle for its own sake, but spectacle without the desire to communicate something other than itself is empty, and comes off as self-impressed more than anything else.

"Teenage Dream" falls into the first category of staged sincerity, though it's slightly more complex than that. For one, Katy Perry effectively already is a Glee character who simply happens to exist in real life (though her dodgy singing voice might have prevented her landing such a position), and it's hard to imagine "Teenage Dream" becoming more staged-sincere than its original already is. This is both the charm and for some listeners the shortfall of Katy's version: its slamming, percussive choruses, its sledgehammer-pop sonics, its slightly bittersweet harmonised bridges, all add up to a pop song so monolithic that you'll love it if you love the idea of monolithic pop on principle, and find it wanting if you want pop that sounds remotely like it's by, about and for real people.

The Glee version reintroduces humanity, you could say, though not in the ways you might expect. This all-male version recasts the song as ostensibly smug, smarmy (homoerotic) flirtation in the "I know you want me" vein, a confident peacock strut of vocal dynamics and OTT gestures and moments of deliberate, almost heavyhanded coyness. Beneath this (and you don't have to watch the show to figure this out - in fact I haven't even seen this episode), it's a gesture of friendship based on the ridiculousness of everything it ostensibly is, its peacockiness a kind of inverted truthtelling. And beyond that, in the fingersnapping pop of its rhythm, the sighing sweetness of its harmonies, the "why hasn't anyone done that?" trick of vocally mimicking an EQ filter sweep, it's a celebration of pop's armoury of such tactics, and the way that these have a meaning, a resonance independent from their verisimilitude to reality. "Teenage Dream" is the right choice of song to cover because, like Jessica Simpson's "I Think I'm In Love With You" before it, works as a generic pop song about such tactics. In that regard it doesn't matter whether the flirtation is true or false, what matters is how well it's sold, and good salesmanship is itself a kind of generosity. While spectacle for its own sake is empty, spectacle as a means of reaching out, of crossing a space by means of shared language, can feel like the opposite. Less about staged sincerity, then, and more about the sincerity of the stage.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO >>>>>>>>>>>>>:(

(my favourite effort remaining the fierce version of Jazmine Sullivan's "Bust Your Windows" from one of the earliest episodes)

nononononoNONONONONONONONONONONONO TIM HOW CAN YOU

glee is definitely one of my least favourite things ever, fuck glee fuck it forever

maura on glee otm: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2010/12/the_20_worst_so_17.php

Yes but the "Loser" cover really was awful (as were all of the funk episode performances). By no means am I saying Glee is an umambiguous force for good.

i'm saying it's an unambiguous force for BAD - every single thing i've heard from it has been completely dreadful, and it never ever seems to end

that cover of "bust your windows" is just so hollow, so light-entertainment

Happy Christmas Lex,
Love from the cast of Glee.

concur that glee is vile - posting this song might just have been actually unforgiveable had tim not pulled out his best blurb in ages for it. props!

haha oh my god that video is disgusting though.

Undisputed - Terror

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=iv&v=UMtjUolsB3M&annotation_id=annotation_48856

A few years back, trying to get at what it was that changed about drum & bass almost irrevocably in about 1997, I started to talk about "rhythmic danger", which is a pompous phrase for something that I wish I could pin down better. The idea is relatively simple: jungle's syncopated beats that really gripped you, that commanded your limbs and confounded your senses, weren't merely the most complex or the most dense or the most chopped-up; a relatively simple beat or spacious beat could do the same amount of damage, because the real issue is the extent to which the groove plays with your expectations, and a slight deviation on a straightforward idea can do that fully as well an overtly complex idea (it should go without saying therefore that what changed in d&b at this point was that grooves began to adhere ever more closely to people's expectations rather than play with them).

UK funky, with its variously extensive and short journeys away from the house groove, gets this better than I would have imagined possible back then, because if you could define UK funky rhythmically it would have to be as the genre-wide application of this idea to house beats. Unlike 2-step, it has no separate or distinct rhythmic matrix which people can positively identify (and then relax, safe and comfortable with that identification) - funky becomes more thoroughly and effectively itself the more it dodges your expectations and sneaks past them. Undisputed get it particularly well perhaps because they're so happy to be craftsmen rather than artists. "Terror" is in the exact same mould as the previous "hit", 2009's "Sunglasses": a stomping 4X4 kickdrum, staggering metallic synth riffs that provide the main counter-rhythm, a disappointingly generic vocal sample, and the exact same clattering bongo loop in the background. Really, "Terror" is more in the way of a remix, its only real purpose as a standalone track being to explore a slightly different kind of groove.

"Terror" is in fact more straight-footed than "Sunglasses", the synth riff mostly mirroring the 4X4 kicks but for a little spurt of energy at the end of each bar. Counter-intuitively, the beat sounds even more off-centre and perverse than "Sunglasses", and none more so than when the bongo loops fall away and all you're left with is a 4X4 kick, mirroring synths, and that slight end of bar disruption. It's as if, the closer Undisputed get to the utter simplicity of a 4X4 groove, the more writ large and ominous is that capacity for deviation, the more inevitable and meaningful its arrival. Over five minutes the tune explores this idea in a series of only slightly deviating iterations. This ought to get boring, but I find Undisputed's grooves get more involving the more thoroughly you immerse yourself in their world of changing same. My favourite means of listening to this tune is in the context of a 25 minute mix of their own productions they put together for BBC 1xtra earlier this year, where the originals and (only marginally different) VIP mixes of "Terror" and "Sunglasses", together with a host of likeminded beats, are mixed together in a fabulously endless paean to the 4X4 beat and what breaks away from it.

(the above youtube link is actually for Part 1 of that BBC 1xtra mix. "Terror" starts at about 3:20, and mixes straight into the attendant VIP mix at about 4:30)

In my world of young people, songs on Glee sit somewhere between

A+

I've been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980 album, Duke. Before that, I really didn't understand any of their work. Too artsy, too intellectual. It was on Duke where, uh, Phil Collins' presence became more apparent. I think Invisible Touch was the group's undisputed masterpiece. It's an epic meditation on intangibility. At the same time, it deepens and enriches the meaning of the preceding three albums. Christy, take off your robe. Listen to the brilliant ensemble playing of Banks, Collins and Rutherford. You can practically hear every nuance of every instrument. Sabrina, remove your dress. In terms of lyrical craftsmanship, the sheer songwriting, this album hits a new peak of professionalism. Sabrina, why don't you, uh, dance a little. Take the lyrics to Land of Confusion. In this song, Phil Collins addresses the problems of abusive political authority. In Too Deep is the most moving pop song of the 1980s, about monogamy and commitment. The song is extremely uplifting. Their lyrics are as positive and affirmative as, uh, anything I've heard in rock. Christy, get down on your knees so Sabrina can see your ass. Phil Collins' solo career seems to be more commercial and therefore more satisfying, in a narrower way. Especially songs like In the Air Tonight and, uh, Against All Odds. Sabrina, don't just stare at it, eat it. But I also think Phil Collins works best within the confines of the group, than as a solo artist, and I stress the word artist. This is Sussudio, a great, great song, a personal favorite.

first time on ilm huh

think the interesting thing is that i guess you could say the 'sunglasses'/'terror' line (along with mad one's 'house girls' series) is the very rare example of a kind of successful dubby versioning in funky - the undisputed tracks this year have drawn their anthemic value not only directly from their own slamming efficacy but also diffusely, descending on sets like some sinister fog, through the cumulative myriad minor alterations of and musings on by other producers in the scene.

most notably the dumplin, champion and andy jay & s-tee 'sunglasses' remixes, or (my personal fave) the greyman mix of 'terror'.

Yeah this is spot on, though the rarity of it is the flipside of how awful this tendency probably would become if it was a widespread thing.

i've been playing the storm queen track over-and-over the past few days. thanks for pointing it out, tim.

usually long dance tracks wear out their welcome with me (since i'm listening on headphones, not while dancing). but this track does what the best dance songs do for me; constantly evolving, adding elements one moment, dropping out elements the next moment. one good example -- that change-of-pace at the 4:00 mark -- is, like lex said above, thrilling.

Lurker reporting, just wanted to say that this has been very interesting read even if some of this stuff is way too advanced for me (Ramadanmanetc, Glee) keep them coming.

Oh and the Lee Foss is sensational!

Lloyd - Lay It Down

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSkRBCPRf8Q

When people talk about Trey Songz having little to no personality I've always thought to myself that the accusation makes more sense to me if applied to Lloyd. It's not that I dislike Lloyd and it's not that he's anonymous - in fact it's the opposite on both counts. Lloyd's pinched, nasal vocals are instantly recognisable, giving most of his material a kind of yearning quality or, alternately, a lightness of touch that is in each case distinct from all the other male R&B singers of the day. If you could draw a line in the sand with all of them on the one side (R Kelly, Usher, Chris Brown, The-Dream, even Trey and Jeremih, even Jason fucking Derulo) and Lloyd on the other, the division would be in Lloyd's seeming inability ever to sound weighty.

A drawback if you're looking for weightiness - the actual spite or leering hunger or genuine pain that any of those others can pull off or at least nobly attempt on occasion - and to be honest over an entire album I'd want at least a little bit (which is why "Blind" and "Unfortunate" are the secret key track on the new Trey Songz album). In small doses though Lloyd's music can give off the kind of laughing gas buzz that his own voice sounds augmented by - needless to say gaseous and insubstantial, this music doesn't want to tie itself to your heartstrings only because it never ever wants to be tied down. Of course Lloyd has done romantic songs and paranoid songs and lusty songs and cocky songs, but in each case the attraction comes less from the actual transmission of the tune's nominal vibe and more from the formal loveliness of the facsimile, like stained glass windows depicting events you vaguely register as having once been considered important.

All of which is true except and until the case of "Lay It Down", which renders my above paragraph, if not incorrect, then subject to a substantial caveat. Trampling and even boorish where so much of Lloyd's music is as smooth and assured as good hired help, "Lay It Down" is like a secret successor to Chris Brown's "Yo (Excuse Me Miss)" - juvenile but kind-hearted (if you can remember ever thinking of Brown that way), simultaneously clumsy and cute in its puppy-like fumblings. Lloyd sings in a kind of top-of-his-lungs screech (if Lloyd has lungs? Top of his throat at any rate) over a reassuring arrangement that is unusually organic and conservative for him - as if to further prevent his habit of merging with the typically airy, amorphous backing music - and shouting "lay your head on my pillow!" with an insistent enthusiasm that by rights ought to destroy forever any chances of successful seduction - which of course is precisely its charm.

Male R&B often can feel preternaturally mature, albeit on a line of "maturity" that runs from consummate to chauvinist, the only constant being the performer's aura of having worked out how to cater to your every need, or at least each of your needs that he considers worth caring about. What I've wanted more of is precisely that overgrown pup vibe that characterised "Yo", yes, but also "Shawty Is Da Shit" and a good half of the first Jeremih album. It's not that this stuff is entirely absent; more that I think R&B has the capacity to provide such a marvelous evocation of young love, its awe and its awkwardness, that it seems a shame there isn't more of a cottage industry of this stuff.

I'm not sure whether Lloyd can actually transform himself into a performer in this area - could he muster a "With You" or a "My Sunshine"? Could he manage that complexion of innocence? - and with several albums under his belt maybe it's too late to start trying. Maybe it's safest to stick with his patented product line of helium seduction. But if so "Lay It Down" will remain a great one-off, and never more so than when Lloyd launches into quasi-yodelling, "Oh lay oh lay oh lay", as if the more bold, the more ridiculous, the more humiliating his daring, the more inevitably and hard you will fall for him. Will this strategy succeed or fail? Don't tell him. It's more endearing if he doesn't know either way.

Jason fucking Derulo

love how when TIm finally takes out the "*" from "F*cking" or "F***ing" it's in a damn worthy context

Would like to say that's the plan but in truth it has more to do with whether I'm posting from work.

Anyway truth is that Derulo's "What If" is a tune, though not enough to erase the memory of "Watcha Say" or "Ridin' Solo".

Lloyd's pinched, nasal vocals are instantly recognisable, giving most of his material a kind of yearning quality or, alternately, a lightness of touch that is in each case distinct from all the other male R&B singers of the day...the division would be in Lloyd's seeming inability ever to sound weighty.

lloyd = the male cassie, innit. and that's why i have tendencies to #lloydfanclub at times. though i never managed to get into "lay it down"! it's certainly got nothing on the young goldie ep.

i still can't even comprehend how the glee performance of "teenage dream" was shoehorned into a television episode

that said, i love the original song & that performance -- i think it's funny & perverse to think of an outside source having to make a KP song this: "ostensibly smug, smarmy (homoerotic) flirtation in the 'I know you want me' vein"

i'm not even #cassiefanclub & even i'm clutching my pearls at the idea of lloyd's prissy voice being able to convey in its softness even half of what cassie can muster just by stepping into the booth

personally i think "lay it down" has a great beat but is pretty underwritten as a song & man lloyd's whole "air being let out of a balloon" thing is OTT in a way that makes me wince

it was more evident on his older stuff - you/get it shawty/girls around the world/young goldie

sounding very some dude right now bro xp

i realize at the outset the possible hypocrisy of criticizing "lay it down" for being underwritten while going on to praise robin thicke's "sex therapy" -- which of course interpolates "it's my party" for it's hook -- but i really do think that "sex therapy" is a much better version of "lay it down" -- you get the same effect from the drums, but i think that "sex therapy" is more... sufficiently languid -- the whole song feels like a release to me, from production (massage parlor synths, twinkling keys, guitar squiggles) from vocals (thicke is a much better high voiced vocalist, obv) where there's something very pinched & stuffy to me about "lay it down"

sounding very some dude right now bro xp

― lyrics is weak ... like clock radio similes (deej), Sunday, December 26, 2010 3:53 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

you should've waited for me to post about the drums first

i also take offense to the idea that "lay it down" is as good as the lovebird stuff from chris brown's early career!! esp "yo (excuse me miss)" which is like top 20 single of the whole decade

I think R&B has the capacity to provide such a marvelous evocation of young love, its awe and its awkwardness, that it seems a shame there isn't more of a cottage industry of this stuff.

this is otm & let us all mourn the death of vistoso bosses as well as the fact that "delerious" wasn't a huge hit

wtf is ramadanman 15 years old?

this is otm & let us all mourn the death of vistoso bosses as well as the fact that "delerious" wasn't a huge hit

did yall hear kourtney heart's "my boy" this year or

i only repped for it tirelessly

i did, it's good but "delirious" is >>>>>>>>>>>

ramadanman's in his 20s. his real name's dave btw.

yeah "delirious" is >>>>>>>>>>> but "my boy" made my p&j ballot this year too!

that's a young looking dude -- "work them" is kind of the fucking shit, jesus

i found a new metric of quality in 2010 that's based on how long it takes me, if at all, to close out a youtube to download a HQ mp3

hahahaha yes

FTR "Lay It Down" isn't as good as "Yo (Excuse Me Miss)" but then Chris 2010 isn't Chris 2005 so what am I gonna do.

In general I'd be hesitant to say that he's the male Cassie precisely because I have doubts about his range emotionally, my favourite Cassie tunes are either colder or warmer than anything I've heard Lloyd do.

OTOH the context in which Lex uses it above strikes me as spot on, particularly in terms of parlaying limited vocals into a strength.

why people gotta hate on 'riding solo' all the time, do you all not like the idea of an alternate universe where lil boosie is an r&b star or something.

agree with jordan for the most part re 'lay it down' (up until he brings 'sex therapy' into it, idk what that's all about) although that underwritten quality works quite well on the radio where it basically turns into some drunken shanty. however where i have a choice in the matter i usually give my ears a rest and and turn it down so i can put on fabolous & lloyd's 'real playa like' from 2007 instead - you should all do the same, cos shit is real.

i realize at the outset the possible hypocrisy of criticizing "lay it down" for being underwritten while going on to praise robin thicke's "sex therapy" -- which of course interpolates "it's my party" for it's hook -- but i really do think that "sex therapy" is a much better version of "lay it down" -- you get the same effect from the drums, but i think that "sex therapy" is more... sufficiently languid -- the whole song feels like a release to me, from production (massage parlor synths, twinkling keys, guitar squiggles) from vocals (thicke is a much better high voiced vocalist, obv) where there's something very pinched & stuffy to me about "lay it down"

― BIG SANTA aka the sleighdriver (J0rdan S.), Sunday, December 26, 2010 4:56 AM (11 hours ago)

good post

do not really get the "underwritten" point though - are you talking about the hook? or the verses? chorus is pretty irresistable and i really love the energy of the verses ("tell your friends you ain't going out tonight / imma get that shimmy on and work that body right) - like i think tim says it's earnest in a sort-of-corny but still totally endearing way. he really rides the beat well too, especially when he picks it up in the second half of each verse. & if you do not f/w the yodeling at the end then you are totally fucking up imo

best part of the song is the end:

so i can work it, work it,
WORK IT, WORK IT
*yodels*

awesome post btw tim

*irresistible

yeesh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq--g4zIuNA