ILM's Top 77 Tracks of 2014

her complete cultural appropriation/naivety act is the thing that really grates, and I really think she doesn't understand why it's bad

what's this referring to? her culturally appropriating ancient egypt???

the pervasiveness of cultural appropriation should not exempt it from being identified or critiqued especially in its most flagrant or harmful iterations xp

that whole Jessie Ware album is a huge grower. i voted for, i think, both 'want your feeling' and 'cruel' but i doubt either will place.

if u want to see the worst of katy perry's cultural appropriation see her "this is how we do" video or her horrendous tweets around that time

jessie ware made a disappointingly patchy album but its relatively few highlights were so so good and i'm happy to see one of them here. "champagne kisses" feels like an instant ~classic, in a "this is exactly what you imagined peak jessie ware would be", and it hits all its spots, but my vote went to "tough love"

what's this referring to? her culturally appropriating ancient egypt???

― Mordy, Tuesday, January 20, 2015 1:42 PM (3 seconds ago) Bookmark

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/11/katy-perrys-geisha-style-performance-needs-to-be-called-out/281805/

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/26/katy-perry-geisha-performance-american-music-awards-fuss

oh okay - a different song. i thought this was about dark horse.

I would have given this a pretty high ranking on my list if not for my "no album/track artist crossover" rule

the thing that really makes katy stand out re cultural appropriation (a pretty underthought concept that deserves to be interrogated btw) is that she does it constantly

Jessie Ware's album is def patchy but I can't stop listening to it. Love "Champagne Kisses" – those one-note bits are a helluva hook.

it really shocks me that "champagne kisses" has not been made a single yet. like what are they THINKING

http://i.imgur.com/ZzvnEMl.png?1

(another moment of katy perry appropriation)

when Ware hits the high notes *swoon*

braids?

the appropriation of cyberpunk culture?

Thought we would have waited until Iggy Azalea places for this convo but hey let's go

Yay! Don't understand the people who say Tough Love is patchy. I voted for the album, which I think is consistently very good and often excellent.

braids?

― prolego, Tuesday, January 20, 2015 1:45 PM (4 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the appropriation of cyberpunk culture?

― Van Horn Street, Tuesday, January 20, 2015 1:46 PM (1 second ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

r u guys english or something

braids?

― prolego, Tuesday, January 20, 2015 1:45 PM (15 seconds ago) Bookmark

In case yr not taking the piss, baby hairs and cornrows

Is it me or this list so far is very pop, even by ILM standards?

I love the bass synth on Champagne Kisses. It wobbles just enough to sound like a kettle drum.

Oh fuck, "Fancy" is coming up later on.

"Say You Love Me" is garbage – her first garbage song – and the middle stretch settles into this midtempo slump that is fetching if you're in the right mood or are cooking while it's on.

unknown british posters should have a union jack emoji next to their user names

Pitchfork on "Champagne Kisses":

"The same could be said of the album’s most clichéd lyrical moment, the BenZel-produced “Champagne Kisses”, which sounds more like a Miguel B-side than the two Tough Love songs the R&B singer actually contributed to—namely, the mushy “You & I (Forever)” and sexting-my-exes anthem “Kind Of...Sometimes…Maybe”, the latter of which functions as the album's highlight."

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19913-jessie-ware-tough-love/?utm_campaign=search&utm_medium=site&utm_source=search-ac

i was gonna say don't worry about "fancy" then i remembered "bluured lines" placed

fuck, the way "champagne kisses" SWELLS tho

"Say You Love Me" is garbage – her first garbage song

this song is great

unknown british posters should have a union jack emoji next to their user names

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, January 20, 2015 1:47 PM (17 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

mods

the thing that really makes katy stand out re cultural appropriation (a pretty underthought concept that deserves to be interrogated btw) is that she does it constantly

― lag∞n, Tuesday, January 20, 2015 12:44 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol yeah, it's like she rode in on the edginess of "i kissed a girl" and then since then has had a geisha moment, a backup dancer with novelty asses moment, and constantly does stupid music video/lyric puns that are about as good as the worst dad jokes

and then she released that "how we do" song

Have honestly never heard of QT or PC music before. On first listen, this is close to my reaction:

Not sure why it solicits so much reaction from either side.

'say you love me' is kinda the 'automatic' of this album, which is to say i think it's a bit generic and completely misses all of JW's strongest talents but she manages to carry it for me and i kinda love it.

Her first garbage song was Wildest Moments. First and only, imo.

i guess it's "cliched" lyrically but i love the urgency of:

whooo's fault is this
that i'm crazy about you

Her first garbage song was Wildest Moments. First and only, imo.
--Johnny Fever

crazy talk here man

i had difficulty choosing between "champagne kisses" and "tough love" and i ended up choosing the latter, i kinda regret that

"champagne kisses" has far fewer words in it than you think and is not really about them anyway so calling it clichéd is weird to me

i agree with alfred on the album and the garbageness of "say you love me", sympathetic to omar l's "automatic" comparison except i don't like that either

I didn't need to look at the credits to spot Sheeran's contribution. She settles for a R&B/gospel setting in which she's not comfortable...? Idk. The song isn't memorable either.

idk don't particularly want to wade into the big cultural appropriation debate but i do feel that it's just part of the lingua franca of pop. or at least dressing up in videos and photoshoots. everyone from xtina to janet to madonna to nicki has done it at some point. the really awful examples deserve to be called out (like gwen's harijuku girls or iggy in general) but you're gonna have problems if you see it as an issue everywhere.

"say you love me" has great lyrics & also one of the best vocal performances of her career

Just say you love me, just for today
And don't give me time 'cause that's not the same
Want to feel burning flames when you say my name
Want to feel passion flow into my bones
Like blood through my veins

the thing that really makes katy stand out re cultural appropriation (a pretty underthought concept that deserves to be interrogated btw) is that she does it constantly

― lag∞n, Tuesday, January 20, 2015 1:44 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm. just do a GIS if this people pointing this out about Perry in particular is surprising to you.

I love "Say You Love Me" until the last minute or so when the choir joins in, but there's still enough good there that it made it on to the lower level of my ballot.

Want to feel burning flames when you say my name
Want to feel passion flow into my bones

but I don't go for her for burning flames or bones!

I voted for "Tough Love" but not "Champagne Kisses"

it's pretty much her only shtick! xxp

I feel like her being "sexy" is somehow appropriating non-christian background people lol

idk don't particularly want to wade into the big cultural appropriation debate but i do feel that it's just part of the lingua franca of pop. or at least dressing up in videos and photoshoots. everyone from xtina to janet to madonna to nicki has done it at some point. the really awful examples deserve to be called out (like gwen's harijuku girls or iggy in general) but you're gonna have problems if you see it as an issue everywhere.

― prolego, Tuesday, January 20, 2015 12:52 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^truth

maybe the problem is calling it "cultural appropriation" when sometimes all she's really doing is enacting an extremely old racist trope

hey guys how about the bridge in champagne kisses where she sings in this very narrow and intense way

all i want is your love
don't give in

I feel like her being "sexy" is somehow appropriating non-christian background people lol

― mh, Tuesday, January 20, 2015 1:55 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

at EMP last year somebody delivered a fervent defense of Katy Perry as singer-songwriter and Christian escapee. It wasn't persuasive.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, January 20, 2015 10:35 AM Bookmark

iirc the woman who delivered this and I got in some pretty heated discussion at a party that weekend because she was handwaving racist bullshit and spouting biphobic nonsense.