//////////////shawty got poll poll poll poll poll poll poll (part I: 2008 TRAX)\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

that's the only version of that song on youtube, if there's embeddable video from somewhere else i'll post it.

also, teaser: the next track had the lowest average score. cue zings

back to "hot n cold", i dislike it because - even for a pop tune aimed at 12 year olds - it's so stiff and brittle, whereas great dance music is often... fluid. "hot n cold" doesn't really move, and i don't see how anyone could really move to it

I'm a sucker for all those cookie cutter Dr. Luke tracks so I'm good with "Hot N Cold," although it mostly just reminds me of that Paris Hilton single that had a much better lighter groove with the same kind of melody.

Oooooh results thread yeah!!! The equivalent thread last year introduced me to a lot of neato stuff...nothing I know yet (I've heard "Hot n Cold" maybe once?) so I'm stoked.

back to "hot n cold", i dislike it because - even for a pop tune aimed at 12 year olds - it's so stiff and brittle, whereas great dance music is often... fluid. "hot n cold" doesn't really move, and i don't see how anyone could really move to it

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― your infinity in you is mad lifted (J0rdan S.), Monday, February 2, 2009 6:41 PM Bookmark

This is my problem with 90% of the pop-qua-pop out right now. They all seem to crib house beats, but don't throw in any of the syncopated elements present in most house, so the songs just thod-plunk-thod-plunk along in a really blocky, boring way.

Listening to "Low" right now - not bad but I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to hear it again despite some good moments ("like a pornography POSter") - I hate to invoke this trope but it's kind of a "heard all these tricks before" listen for me.

also listened to "poison dart" before that and apparently already forgot about it by the time I wrote the post. Which sounds like a slam but it's just the honest report. Didn't make a huge impression on me - I haven't read any of the Bug related threads, not sure what I was expecting...people love that album, what's the bullet-point argument for this person/group?

xp: Naw, that's basically what it is. It's basically one of those songs that takes a few disparate things happening in its genre ("This Is Why I'm Hot" bleeps, post-crunk beats, T-Pain Hooks) and fuses them together, so the "all these tricks before" feeling is justified. Thing is, when done right, that sort of thing can be totally sui generis (cf: "Lollipop", which pulled a neat trick of pinching the double-time "This Is Why I'm Hot" beeps from "Low", but slowing the beat back down to the original half-tempo), but in this case is just kind of hackish.

43 - MGMT - Kids
82 points, 9 votes
56 in P&J

The bullet-points will make it sound boring, but The Bug album basically = mammoth pissed-off industrial dancehall. Try "Skeng on for size.

Kids an average score of 9.11, the lowest in the top 50. Incidentally, the track with the highest average is a couple down.

MGMT have great singles!

so stoked about this poll, too bad there won't be a rap one this year...

42 - TV On The Radio - Family Tree
83 points, 6 votes
118 in P&J

family tree is pretty stunning...i can't really get past "family tree". i dont really even know what the lyrics mean but they kill me anyhow. easily the most beautiful song they've written, esp when the drums come in.
― J0rdan S

i am hoping that at least one aeroplane remix ends up on here. i have fears of vote-splitting though.

i combined remixes with the originals so as long as the remix and the original got at least one vote, the points would be pooled together. so there shouldn't be any vote splitting. see #48.

sorry i should've been more specific. i meant vote-splitting amongst all of the remixes that were nominated because i think there were at least four and i had to force myself to pick only one.

that mgmt song is great.

Flo Rida is the only one I've heard so far. Keep 'em coming!

yeah i had never really listened to MGMT mostly because my taste doesnt match up w/ the kind of ppl who usually stunt for them (not here just in gen.) but i v much enjoyed that tune

they're a good singles band. shit live tho.

okay, last one for tonight. this next track had the highest average score, 16.7.

41 - T.I. - No Matter What
83.5 points, 5 votes, 1 #1 vote
127 in P&J, 27 in p4k

no matter what is total hall-of-fame stuff
-tipsy mothra

interesting, i like that song but really didn't feel compelled to make room for it on my ilx ballot.

Same here.

anyway, some teasers for #40:

-it had the same number of points as "No Matter What"
-it did not appear on P&J or p4k's list

yeah im with you guys - i liked it immediately but it never really held me

family tree is incredible, dunno if i voted for it tho

still think it was the best song t.i. released last year. it's an ATL "freebird," lighters-in-the-air sort of thing. plus he seems like somewhat less of a dickhead than on a lot of other songs on the album.

production is def great but idk that song always felt like it was 7 mins long to me

so's "freebird". (well, 9 mins. and t.i.'s is only 5 mins, really. but it does have that kinda epic sweep.)

i like 'no matter what' but if i voted for a t.i. track from last year - and i can't remember whether i did or not - it would've been 'let my beat pound' by a million miles.

also stop fronting, 'whatever you like' was easily the most fun t.i. single of 08. irresistible.

whoop whoop for crazy cousinz btw - let's hope there's more uk funky to come.

mgmt are so boring i can't even h8.

That Crazy Cousinz tune is dope, but for some weird reason it bothers me that the vocals say "to play my congo". Congo is a country, did you mean to say bongo or conga?

Btw, does anyone know if the "sometimes I wake up in the morning" male vocal bit is sampled from somewhere? The title of the tune says "featuring Calista", but I assumed Calista is the female vocalist on it...

i can't stand the katy perry, if only because it acts like it is a smarter piece of pop music, and yet she has to do this ridiculous breakdown to inform us she is singing about someone who's bi-polar. like, wow, really? the song would be perfectly fine without that, it's just like she feels she is singing for retards who wouldn't get it (hot OR cold? how could he be two? that's mental katy!).

"Bongo Jam" is my only track pick to surface thus far, although "Entropy Reigns..." came close.

Yes, Calista comes in later. She was a contestant on Big Brother's Celebrity Hijack on E4 in early 08, and a snatch of "Bongo Jam" was featured on her introductory VT.

'Kids' is a strange one. I hate the intro melody when it's on its own (it's fine as part of the chorus and/or smothered in syths), the beat is the dullest thing ever and the two solos are just awful - but the whole has really grown on me. I'm a sucker for that kind of nostalgia I guess, especially with a nice understated melody

I had to go back and check where I'd put Family Tree on my list. High.

Kids < Time to Pretend

Kids > Everything else MGMT have done except Time to Pretend

I think "Electric Feel" is miles better than both of those (though no MGMT came close to my list).

great day today, 2 of my top 3 are in the 30s.

40 - Cassie - Official Girl
83.5 points, 6 votes, 2 #1 votes

Official Girl is a bit More Than A Woman, but way more concise, same feeling of lift though and maybe a little slinkier than the usual Cassie track.
― I know, right?

That should have been way higher. It's so... streamlined, like it flies along with so little effort.

Happy to see Bongo Jam in there but I have a feeling the only funky house track that'll place any higher will be Do You Mind.

I'd expected that MGMT song to place much higher as well but I'm happy it didn't.

It might just be the youtube clip (it's the first time hearing it) but Official Girl sounds like it's been mixed incredibly badly? Does it actually sound like that? Because if there is a version where the drums sound crisp, and the voice blends better with the beat etc., I might be interested in hearing it again.

Sad this isn't a little higher but yaaay all the same. Prolly my fav Danja production.

xpost, yeah, I'd think hearing a non-YouTube version (one in which you can actually hear the bass) might help bring it all together for you.

Prolly my fav Danja production.

Think it might be mine too.

This was my #1.

prolly my least fav Danja production

The Lil' Wayne-less version is so much better. Sucks that I can only find it on YouTube!

It might just be the youtube clip (it's the first time hearing it) but Official Girl sounds like it's been mixed incredibly badly? Does it actually sound like that? Because if there is a version where the drums sound crisp, and the voice blends better with the beat etc., I might be interested in hearing it again.

― a hoy hoy, Tuesday, February 3, 2009 11:37 AM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

no, the beat really does suck.