Rolling Teenpop 2006 Thread

yeah that's a perfectly sensible position even if I disagree with it.. (...except... Ray of Light? JUSTIN's Ray of Light? Really?)

i don't really think of it as dark and would agree that 'cry me a river' is darker than anything here, though i know what tim means by intense - there's something in the loving attention to texture throughout which is very overwhelming, the way each sliver of sound seems completely perfect. i disagree that it forfeits energy and fun, too, but it's a different kind of fun: slicker, more poised, less bouncy and innocent. i actually think 'rock your body' is the worst justin single to date though i do like it, but to my ears 'lovestoned', 'sexyback' and 'chop me up' are more than its equal in terms of dancefloor fun.

i could see an argument in saying the justified singles are superior to the fs/ls ones, though bear in mind we've only had two of the latter (and i think 'my love' is the best yet, but then i would). and i'm not usually one to rate consistent albums over albums with great singles - but fs/ls is just such a coherent statement that it makes justified seem even more singles-and-filler than it did at the time.

bearing in mind that i also think erotica is, like, madonna's PINNACLE (and by extension pop music in general's pinnacle), we may have to put this down to never-the-twain-shall-meet differing tastes.

Do you really not like "Rock Your Body" so much?

both erotica and fs/ls are cumulatively dark rather than song-by-song dark (though erotica much much more so, in that 'in this life' and 'bad girl' are much more staring-into-the-void than anything justin tries to do, and erotica explicitly deals with death as well as sex - justin's crack song, as good as it is, is not quite so bleak). but yeah, the darker moments somehow infect the less overt songs and make them dark by proxy.

the most successful dark moment on fs/ls is the '...comes around' coda! i'm not so keen on 'what goes around' because i feel it does absolutely nothing to build on the template already perfected by 'cry me a river' and 'nowhere', but the coda just sounds so...vitriolic and vengeful, and totally makes the song.

Tim's comparison's good, but I heart Erotica and _hate_ FS/LS.

"My Love" is OK. But then again, I only really liked "Rock Your Body" off the first one because it was such a joyous ray of technicolour exuberance. But at least Justified had actual SONGS ON IT.

Why are you trying to reason with me on this? My JT hate is well documented and rather irrational.

I've only heard three tracks from the Timberlake - this won't stop me from jumping into this convo when I get the chance, but I have a lot to do in the next five days. Haven't even done my song of the day yet. It'll probably be JoJo's "This Time," prod. by Scott Storch, may be even better than Brooke's "About Us" and Paris's "Jealousy" and Storch's two big Chris Brown hits. Almost up there with "Baby Boy." Very minimal when it comes to songishness: beats, chanting, talking, sweet keyb plinks, orchestral hums, quick doubled-up harmony voices inserted as beats, microseconds at a time.

Anyway, there's this one with before/after-surgery Ashlee pics along with surprisingly sober assesments from plastic surgeons.

Her chin is partially gone, along with the bump in her nose. She's plumping her lips with, one assumes, collagen and has had her brows lifted. She's 23 and getting Botox.

Right now, she basically looks like nobody, an anony-bot Maxim-ready girl thing. But that's right now--at this rate, she's a couple surgeries away from Jackson-ville.

Rarely has 'prettiness' been so eerie.

OK Mark, now that you're here, what do you think of Aly & A.J.?

One track I do like a fair bit is "Like That" - it has a hook like a playground chant. It's sweet. The retro stylings (a la Disc 2 of the Xtina album) in her two co-writes are also at least interesting.

Incidentally, UK edition has a different running order to the US one, as well as the usual bonus tracks. One of these is "Leave (Get Out)"! The fact that the presence of "Leave" is prominently mentioned on a sticker on the CD cover suggests Universal don't have much confidence in the new material.

Listening to Nelly Furtado's "Say It Right": Far more beautiful than "Maneater" or "Promiscuous," and the producer touches (is it Timbaland?) are a lot less intrusive and irritating (seems to me they should be less intrusive still, but that background "hey" is designed for poignancy and draws the involuntary pang from me). Furtado is riding her own ache too consistently, but she doesn't oversing it. And juxtaposed against the dirty-oil-drum sound of the toms, the ache aches evocatively.

"one sided" on now. beat sorta resembles "it's like that" by run-dmc.

which reminds me: am i the only person who thinks the beat of the first track on justin's new album sounds like "another one bites the dust"? except "another one bites the dust" was a way livelier song. (talk about minimalist art-funk moves: 1980 ruled, with queen's hit and "emotional rescue" both trying so hard to be the flying lizards.)

"Love You, Hate You" grabs me right at the start by ripping "Love On a Two-Way Street" by the Moments, one of the loveliest songs in human history. Way cute Akon-doing-"Lonely" chipmunk effects, too.

"Incognito" is another favorite, I guess. Popcorn popping all over the room, and the way Brooke talks "in the back of the club" reminds me of some Pet Shop Boys song -- "Left To My Own Devices," maybe??

i love 'say it right' too, even more than 'all good things (come to an end)' which is the new c martin-penned furtado single.

it's funny, i hate coldplay but have loved unequivocally virtually every r&b song which takes its cues from coldplay/is written by chris martin: these furtado ballads, jamelia's 'see it in a boy's eyes', that brandy album...

The music doesn't dance, it doesn't rock.

i don't think it sets out to do either though - the fact that several of the songs are very danceable seems incidental to the overall aim of the album, which is to be this gorgeously textured, lush, sprawling thing which isn't necessarily meant to do anything active to.

but pitbull "jealouso" > pet shop boys "jealousy" i think (though in general the new pitbull album isn't as great as it seemed on first couple listens, or as i claimed it was on the rolling hip-hop thread at the time. it'd be less oppressive if it were half as long, though there are a few great tracks. his remix album money is still a major issue from last year is still his best record. though the new one's still easily one of the best hip-hop CDs i heard in 2006.)

in other news, the highest review on this page (the "30") was by me:

http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/federlinekevin/playingwithfire

Or maybe doesn't; I dunno. NEVER believe me when I predict something will make my top 10, until I actually submit said top 10 somewhere. (Kick out Hold Steady because I voted for them last year and their new one's less good? Kick out Kentucky Headhunters because it compiles the best tracks from their last 3 albums? Hmmm...) Either way, Paris's "Heartbeat" sounds a lot like Cyndi's "Time After Time."

Slumber Party Girls album is yet more evidence for the detrimental effect of Destiny's Child math-r&b "complex vocal rhythm" tedium bullshit on teen-pop/dance-pop catchiness, or lots of it is anyway, but I'm starting to kind of like "Carousel," "Summer's Gone," and the fake Miami Sound Machine track, whichever one that is (High School Musical had one of those too.) (Slumber Party Girls' one is probably "Salsa"; just a guess. I was in the other room at the time. Some other promising titles include "Bubblegum," "Eavesdroppin'," and "The Texting Song." "I Got Your Back" and "Back To Basics" were a couple of the Destiny's-style ones, I think. Lalena says "Dance Revolution Theme" is the least revolutionary sounding revolution song she's ever heard.) ("Eavesdroppin" on now - sounds kinda funky!)