Rolling Teenpop 2007 Thread

I wrote something about her current album here, if you're a)interested or b)very bored.

"Authentic soul" tedium for grownups with "good taste"

yeah she's pitched as this to various quarters because that helps her shift units. doesn't mean that's what she is.

and her single is about not being able to stop drinking or taking drugs, apparently, so that makes her Billie Holiday

no one's claiming she's billie holiday, and the single isn't so much about how she can't stop drinking boo hoo, it's that she's not going to stop drinking fuck you. ie what hazel said. (a side point about the drinking: i think we're pretty much past the moral censure of famous women who get pissed, in the uk, apart from the more right-wing newspapers. when chaz church and girls aloud go on benders, it's reported luridly, but there's a sense of "good strong healthy specimens of british womanhood" about it all. with amy winehouse it is different because...well she's probably approaching lohan levels of self-abuse here. there's no "apparently" about any of it, girl does need help.)

And what makes her authentic is that her singing strains all the life out, so see, she's obviously on her last legs and therefore highly moving.

the singing in 'rehab' is jaunty and jolly and cocking a snook at everyone who thinks she should be on her last legs! at no point does winehouse even try to move us with tales of alcoholism - the booze is incidental to what she does try to move us with, the heartbreak and vague self-loathing. she succeeds because she's genuinely witty - not waving a big HELLO I'M COMEDY sign around a la lily allen or mike skinner, but smart and self-aware and self-deprecating and assured. listen to the way she sings the couplet "i don't ever want a drink again - ooh, i just need a friend", the wink-wink at the audience of the first line undercut so effectively by the pathos of the second. and 'you know i'm no good' - which is basically my favourite song right now if only because it's a spot-on depiction of a situation i was in a while back - is all about how harmed/harmful she is, but it's full of references to, like, chips and pitta and stuff.

Jan 15, 2007 - Top 30: Usual suspects, plus new Ashley Tisdale at 30 with "Be Good to Me," "Kashmir"-pop. Corbin "Sacre" Bleu at #1 for the second or third consecutive week. Only major airplay discrepancy are two Keke Palmer tracks and Slumber Party girls climber "Countdown." Mailbag: Prude-rap wannabe and former incubatee Lil' Josh KICKED at 53%. Incubator: LAX (as in "Strap on your seatbelts and hang on, because LAX is cleared for take off."), very Cheetah Girls. (Last week was milk carton cover girl Britney Christian, does-a-body-good campaign crossover rock + power ballad "Make It Go Away" which might be about milk's power to combat calcium deficiency.)

but unlike others of that ilk, joss stone et al, both lauryn and amy i think are much better than that. (not that i think there's anything wrong with coffee-table diluted soul: i love me some sade.)

americans might not pick up on amy's dry humour but they'll probably pick up on the "boozy british chick" thing, which is if not humour than certainly black comedy.

1. eat more magenta colored foods
2. do a better job of protecting the rain forest.
3. finish composing my opus.
4. try to watch ALL the star wars movies in one day.
5. kick it old school by learning the running man
6. end my relationship with flava flav.
7. remember that my dog has feelings too.
8. respond to my hate mail more promptly.
9. create a DVD series that involves tai chi, chai tea, and tie-dye.
10. FINISH MY DAMN RECORD.

Open call for submissions for the March issue of Bunnies and Traps. Direct all mail to submissions at bunniesandtraps dot com. Just sayin'.

When I was in like 9th grade-ish, the two songs that were absolutely massive in my school, apart from the obv. Savage Garden, Spice Girls, etc. were "Barbie Girl" (by Aqua) and "Tubthumping" (by Chumbawamba). In the bus on the way to school, my friends and I would memorize the words to "Tubthumping" and sing it on the way there. I'm sure the driver was thrilled. Both still sound great to me today. Never heard another Chumbawamba song, though I'm kinda curious if they are any good. Aqua, I know, released a great followup single called "Lollipop (Candyman)", which I've seen Frank talk up and which my friends and I also loved. Anybody heard any other Chumbawama or Aqua know if they are any good?

Admittedly, I dunno if this is teenpop, but Frank on one of the Pazz & Jop Poptimist polls posted a link to Jimmy Ray's "Are You Jimmy Ray?", which I literally cannot stop listening to. Just wanted to post it here in case any of you missed it there and don't know it. The song almost defies description, but is great.

Xhuxk, you have to understand that the British charts now are terrible, so Amy comes on like a fresh breath of deliberately stale air. So far I find her singing way too mannered - and not mannered as "classy," but mannered as in she's trying to slur like Dorothy Parker. (Which may be exactly how she talks, but it still comes across as mannered.) But her Sade groove is, at least, a groove, in contrast with so many clompy British rock bands keeping it real by keeping it clompy. (Maybe one reason the Arctic Monkeys did so well is that they came on as good ole clompin' blokes but actually propelled the rhythm.)

You say this as though it were a bad thing! This line alone sold me the album. I'm grabbing a copy to listen to the first chance I get. Frank, I'm actually curious where you've heard Parker read -- I found a bunch of mp3s of her, but I'm always in the hunt for more. I love her voice. It sounds drenched in scotch and Lucky Strikes.

I liked the first Aqua album a lot- my little brother had a copy on tape and it used to get quite a lot of play in my mum's car on the way to/from school. There's a great song on there about a sort of fairytale princess who's generally making a mess of things.

I'm going to look up Toy Box now.

My hangover made me deeply confused as to what was going on with that Hilary Duff advert. Doesn't quite sound like there's a 'Come And Get It' in the air, to me but it does all sound rather promising, certainly.

Chumbawumba were horrible greasy agit-punks, e.g. they did an album called 'Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records', who occasionally did some rather sweet pop things -- I'm still fond of a song called 'Someone's Always Telling You How to Behave' which sounds a bit like Dubstar, or a more electronic Frazier Chorus.

i fucking hated chumbawamba. dreadful.

i have been recording the new record.

THERE! it was said. laugh you fools! curse you and your fists that shake and slam down on the table to disrupt my can of iced tea that sits on the table. i shant cower I say! i will rue the day! i might be your criminal. but at least im the one who calls you to remind you of the fact that everyone is jealous of you. if those calls mean nothing, dare i say, i will gladly withdraw and bend my head down as i count to three for the machete to come swopping over his head and slice into mine.

im scared of my brain.

I have yet to give Ms. Winehouse my full attention, knowing only two of her songs*. So far I like reading Moggy's description of her voice more than actually listening to the voice.

*Not counting her duet with Charlotte Church on "Beat It," which is a massive train wreck.

(Any Brits here want to make the case for "to"?)

Co-written with DioGuardi and whom else? So far Kara's always had someone helping with the music. (Maybe Hilary's helping with the music!) Thing is, Kara, appealing and ubiquitous as she is, has had almost all of her great moments with John Shanks on board. Great exceptions that jump to mind would be Kylie's "Spinning Around" (written with Paula Abdul and a couple more people), Kelly Clarkson's "Hear Me" (with Clif Magness, who seemed the key player on that one), Paris Hilton's "Jealousy" (w/ Scott Storch!), and Paris Hilton's "Not Leaving Without You" (w/ Greg Wells). In general, her work with Wells, while producing some good stuff (Lindsay's "Confessions of a Broken Heart" and "Who Loves You," for instance) isn't as good as the songs with Shanks (Lindsay's "First" and "Nobody 'Til You"). And of course, Kara's supreme moments with Hilary - "Come Clean" and "Fly," two of teenpop's supreme moments - are with Shanks producing and co-writing. Her own band, Platinum Weird*, has four songs with Shanks in on the writing credits, and those are four of the six tracks that are OK or better.

Don't know if "dance" is her strength (isn't Shanks's strength, either); I don't really think Kara's done a lot in that direction, other than her four with Paris (the other two are "Screwed" (w/ Wells) and "I Want You" (w/ Rotem, Gibb, and Bogart)). Mike Spencer was the producer on "Spinning Around." If you want to count Gwen Stefani's "Rich Girl" as dance - and why shouldn't you? - she's one of the cast of thousands in the writing credits, but I don't think she had a lot to do with the overall sound on that one. Her writing for Celine Dion has been OK but not amazing. (Um, there's been some good stuff with Anastasia too; don't remember how dancey it is.)

*On the regular Platinum Weird album, that is, not on the pseudo-throwback album w/ "Erin Grace," which I haven't heard.

Hilary has been co-writing every song with Kara Dioguardi ( Gwen Stefani, Pussycat Dolls , Kelly Clarkson...) so each song is very personal to her. She has been working with some excitng producers and mixers such as Richard "Humpty" Vission (The Killers, Sting, Usher), Tim and Bob (Madonna, Destiny's Child, Will Smith) and 4 time Grammy winner, Manny Marroquin (John Mayer, Alicia Keys, kanye West.

No idea where the production input is coming from yet ("Play with Fire" is Vission, I think?). But my impression so far is that the writing credits are all Duff/DioGuardi...has a nice ring to it, too. DuffGuardi...

"With Love" goes for official ads to mainstream radio February 6th 2007. With Love was recently released to Radio Disney on the week of January 15 sometime.

According to Wiki, the forthcoming album is called Confessions of Love. And the RD bit is accurate, "With Love" was surreptitiously slipped into voting eligibility some time in the last week or two. ("Play with Fire" was never made eligible through voting or otherwise.)

So maybe the post-Paris DioGuardi gets dance? And Hilary Duff has an edge of being ultra-adaptable -- she's got a kind of charming anonymity that I think might fit this kind of music nicely (and I like what I've heard so far). The fact that her voice fits songs like "Fly" and "Come Clean" so well actually seems a little counter-intuitive to me, and maybe effective in part because you're not expecting to be moved by a performer who's most striking trait is, arguably, being such an excellent chameleon.

They've got a very strong Chicago punk sound (The Academy Is..., Plain White T's) which makes their TRL status (or whatever status now that TRL is gone) more a coincidence. Or a broad appeal. Except that there is something very teenpop about their sound - the rushed delivery of super-articulate lyrics, the pop hooks. They remind of a highschooler I know who is quite intelligent, and very precocious, but comes off as a little precious because of it. There's something similar with Fallout Boy. Plus, they've got the word 'Boy' in their name. ;) Anyway, obviously this isn't traditional teenpop, though are they that far off from Meg&Dia, Avril (new album coming out!), or Duff?

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0037,eddy,18135,22.html

(I'd reviewed Tubthumping in the Voice a couple years earlier, but I can't find it in the web archives.)

They stand out from a lot of the rest of emo by actually being quite funny (MCR, for instance, take themselves more seriously than it's possible to believe) and also being a lot more normal-looking than most bands (MCR again) and, well, they got Babyface to produce their most recent album on the basis Pete Wentz (bassist/lyricist) liked the Josie and the Pussycats soundtrack. The new album is very ace, on that note- it's extremely pop with lots of clapping and sing-a-long moments etc. and as one of my friends pointed out, the single sounds like *NSync.

I mean, to me, the difference between them and Aly and AJ is that Fall Out Boy sound slightly more pop (Aly and AJ have some metallic moments, imo) and neither A nor A has ever got her cock out on the internet.

But I thought "Another Dumb Blonde" is THEE Cher cyborg effect Hoku song? Idolator even said so.

It's a teasing slice of kiss-off pop, and its smart-chick spirit isn't even marred by the vocoder drops that plagued so much of Billboard's Hot 100 during the post-"Believe" era.

Thing with that M2M line, "may not have the blonde hair you like," is that at the time Marit was the (smart) blonde! So the question is whether or not Marion sings that line. Actually, I think they BOTH sing it. (Although their wording kind of ruins my argument, because Marit could very well have blond hair without having the blond hair "that you like.")

And of course by the time Ashlee comes along, she needs to HIDE her (naturally) blond hair for fear of being tagged "light n' frivolous" (Stephen Thomas Erlewine called I Am Me "going goth by going blonde," except he follows that up with a totally dumb (not blonde) line like "no matter how hard Simpson tries, no matter how foreboding the surface, beneath it all she's still light and frivolous.") I can't figure out whether or not Marit is naturally light- or dark-haired, but if it's the former that's another example of blonde self-hatred.

Anyway, the song can be streamed here, apparently (though I'm not positive that E-40 is on this version, since I haven't listened):

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=43383393

Ashlee Wants Robert Smith from the Cure

When she returns to recording pop, Ashlee says she want the Cure's Robert Smith to help with her comeback. After he came to her last performance as Roxie Hart in 'Chicago', she says,"Robert Smith from the Cure came to my last show in London, and I don't know if I was more excited about him or that it was the last show! "To work with Robert Smith would be an honour."