Tim's overflowing bounty of 2010 pop riches extravaganza thread

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

Erykah Badu's 'Gone Baby Don't Be Long' is my favorite song on the album, the one that actually has me feeling the astral funk thing she tries to promote, the other songs I've heard don't rub me the right way.

Might be the slap bass... I've got some sort of innate aversion to it.

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.

I think I just prefer an alternate universe where "Bottom to the Top" is a hit, I don't know that I want that vibe transmuted into R&B - or rather, I don't think I want that if the outcome is "Ridin' Solo". Really though it's just the grain of Deroolo's voice and the repetition of the title that gets to me.

"In My Head" was decent. "What If" (at least with attendant video clip) kinda moves me, but I'm always a fuxx for chart R&B that could be played at a funeral.

i don't think i can cosign any positivity towards desrouleaux. it's like that taio cruz song that j0rdan likes, just because it's there and on the radio all the time doesn't mean it has to be called a good pop song.

it's a good tune in search of a bearable singer

Chris Sorbello - So Lonely (Hook & Sling Remix)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXJo434FTxM

The rise of the Guetta-style R&B/dance crossover hasn't substantially changed the sound of metro-gay/suburban-straight (for the two are in fact effectively the same for the purposes of this conversation) clubs, it's just meant that instead of opting for a Freemasons or Thunderpussy remix of an R&B hit the DJ can play the original (the bigger effect, which I might talk about later, has been on commercial radio). It has helped, however, to further divorce these environments from dance music culture, a process which has been ongoing for the past 10 years by my reckoning (perhaps longer: 2000 was when I could start going to clubs). In the gay world, proper clubs or club nights still exist but these feel increasingly the preserve of an ecstasy and crystal meth consuming sub-set. I've continued to use the tripartite breakdown of queer/camp/homo to describe club nights where you're likely to hear either Hercules & Love Affair, Rihanna or a hard house update of Guru Josh. None of these sub-sets is gonna disappear anytime soon, and indeed they remain in a state of constant cross-hybridisation - one of my favourite nights out this year was at an event playing a queer/homo cross of Nitzer Ebb and Adonis and very hard latterday electro-house. Still, camp is probably at its highest ebb in some time, enjoying the extent to which its signature sound now dominates the charts as well.

In this not so brave new world, I suspect what is most likely to suffer is the stuff that codes camp but in more of a thoroughgoing dance music manner, though perhaps the magnetic influence of whatever is successful means that the homo clubs formerly playing hard house et. al. will come around. If so they ought to play this, one of the tracks I've surprised myself by returning to regularly all year. Chris Sorbello is some local chick with a thin, barely there voice that would have stood her in better stead during the highpoint of trance-pop's second coming, but now means she is obliged to join the dots between that and Annie. Even if this is done out of obligation, it works, the frailty of her voice necessitating a delicacy and precision in the song's construction so as to avoid stomping all over her. This stands in stark contrast with most-Guetta pop which - also in part because it's designed for the radio - can rely on the instant-recognition-factor and (usually) belting power of the star vocalist to rise above the clomping, harshly buzzing sledgehammer production. The original of "So Lonely" (best heard in its Club Mix form) is fine perky electro-pop, all shivery arpeggios and whizzing, whirring sound effects and slashing, magisterial synth chords, splitting the difference between house-pop's unsubtle sensuality and trance-pop's bloodless austerity in a manner that an uncountable many have tried but almost always failed to master.

Hook'n'Sling used to be most crude of the crude club remixers, but as with many in their belated-electro-house generation (formerly peddling a club form of the Guetta sound avant la lettre) they have moved on to a kind of belated electro-minimal sound, navigating a space between Benny Benassi and Booka Shade circa 2005; the result is probably the most expansive form of what passes for commercial dance in 2010. I love the restlessness of their remix of "So Lonely", which offers half a dozen takes on the original's wispy melancholy: pulsing, ominous bass; fragile synth chords; stirring strings; insistent minor key arpeggios; a ridiculous accelerating snare-drum breakdown (over a cheesy looped "Say! Say! Say!"); a sudden sideways swerve into a "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of These)" homage (which really shouldn't work at this stage); and then a bringing together of all of these elements in an oddly dreamy finale.

Although discreet moments of the track surprise, Hook'n'Sling's approach in general is so familiar that there is no way that it could be considered "surprising"; it's purely functionalist, an application of what the remixers do best to what the song's original incarnation will accommodate. And yet its functionalism is in service of an emotional and emotive product: if "So Lonely" isn't exactly tears on the dancefloor material, than at least its propulsiveness and its dreaminess converge in a space that is as reflective as it is energetic, inviting a kind of retreating into oneself, a focus on physical response as a kind of insulation from sadness. Populist club music can do this in a way that Guetta-pop struggles with, because Guetta-pop (like most chart pop) is music as dialogue, songs of love and desire and celebration from the singer to you, from you to your friends or your next pick-up. "So Lonely" exists in dance music's realm of the one and the many: in the middle of a crowded dancefloor and utterly alone.

deej likes this

Shawnna ft. T-Pain - Nappy Boys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSGIK-eZKBw

I think I am still recovering from the shock of hearing Shawnna's "R.P.M." a horribly belated two years ago. Shawnna's double-time flow when it's on is on, its percussive precision matching the beat with an adhesive closeness that is thrilling just to listen to - to the point that it takes me ages even to pay attention to what it is she's actually saying (see also "Shake Dat Shit". Perhaps the most remarkable thing about "R.P.M." was that Shawnna was even able to go toe to toe with Twista, who it goes without saying is the master of this sort of thing.

Twista isn't on "Nappy Boys" (T-Pain fills in serviceably I guess), but he's loomed large over my 2010 listening generally, not just through his own tracks like "The Heat", but through his clear influence on Yelawolf and also, I suspect, Nicki Minaj. I'm not sure if Nicki is also taking her cues from Shawnna, or if (conversely) Shawnna, watching and envying Nicki's rise, has decided she needs to remind everyone of her own mastery of double-time. Whatever, I love "Nappy Boys": its fanfare-laden arrangement, its ominously graceful beat, but most of all Shawnna's voice, filling every second of the track with increasingly complex, rhythmic, oddly accented rhymes whose content is less important than the sheer joy of its rising urgency and absurdity in tandem with the creeping apocalyptic tension of the arrangement. Though I am frequently snagged on lines like "now they wanna try me like I ain't illuminati", they're not really the point of this song. Shawnna prefers familiar monosyllabic words that she can flex against the beat like bats - bang bang skeet skeet bling bling my ring - and then delight at the resulting collisions.

In the battle between form and content for hearts and minds, form usually loses out: note how quickly the hype around Lil' Wayne became less about his flow and more about the funny words he was using; his own quality took a nosedive when he appeared to accept that explanation of his success. Shawnna, likewise, probably will continue to slip beneath the crossover radar (certainly relative to Nicki) at least in part because her charm is less about her words and more about the way she uses them, the sheer presence of her voice even when she's not in double-time mode. Lex often talks about Ciara singing songs like she dances (and credit to Lex for putting me onto "Nappy Boys" in the first place) and Shawnna here makes me think of a dancer, wowing not with each move in itself but with the control and exactingness of its execution: like, the way she seems to come in one beat to early on her first verse, until you realise this slight stance askew from the beat was what she intended all along. Even the way she increasingly leans on a long-vowel possibly-British nasal accent as the tune progresses is not done with the (content-aimed) persona-swapping dazzle of Nicki but rather as a kind of diagonal twist on her movements, like driving up onto the sidewall of a lane in a car-race arcade game. It would be easy to say that she's the one biting Nicki in this regard - and maybe she is - but even if that's the case she takes that idea and makes it completely her own.

tim you might really like the twista album actually -- some really unconventional stuff on it

nice analysis of rap style too