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

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.

good good. i can never usually tell when it comes to youtube.

39 - Matias Aguayo – Minimal
84 points, 7 votes
(4 votes, 51.5 points for DJ Koze Maxi Version)
126 for DJ Koze Mix in P&J

DJ Koze Mix

yeah, what's the big deal? sounds like by-the-numbers rnb with a lame-ass singer up top to me.

xp

The beat definitely doesn't sound by-the-numbers to me. I think it's quite odd, starting with the way the kick drums throw the whole thing off-kilter. I mean, I know, "OMG syncopation, big deal", but I think Danja is doing something really fun here.

Again, hearing it not on YouTube helps immensely, I think, and completely agree with Lou about the Wayne-less version being much better.

uh, the linearity of it is really cool. agree it would be nice to hear a version without lil wayne. i think the last guest rapper spot i really liked was jay-z in "umbrella" and it had more to do with his delivery than what he was actually saying.

yikes, I'm typing "I think" a lot this morning xpost

no me hace pumpin pumpin pumpin

crap i hate it when you are watching a youtube clip in a thread and then you post and goodbye song

re: "Official Girl"- Basically Danja's little vocal bit makes me melt and it reminds me of (not as good but still) Aaliyah.

i like "official girl" a lot because of its weightlessness and its urgency

Aaliyah as a pretty vacant stepford rnb singer?

Yeah, the "not as good" part is definitely because of the vocals. What sounds similar to me is the production--the "quite odd" beat Maciej described reminds me of how Timbaland arguably saved his weirder stuff for Aaliyah.

intersting list guys

Aaliyah as a pretty vacant stepford rnb singer?

― (a mess0 (Ioannis), Tuesday, February 3, 2009 9:35 AM Bookmark

Yeah, basically. "Me & U" was awesome because Cassie & R-Les pushed the icy, vacant robot aspect as far as it could go (the amazing production didn't hurt), but everything she's done since has been kind of nonexistant.

I don't know, I think Cassie does this sort of wistful sweetness thing ("Not With You," "Official Girl," "Kiss Me,") just as well as she does the detached ice-queen.

has she ever shown any personality, like, at all?

tbf it's not exactly part of her job description

38 - Half Man Half Biscuit - National Shite Day
86 points, 6 votes, 1 #1 vote

Jesus, there is so much righteous anger in that vocal performance (and in the playing), awesome
― country matters

OK, after several listens, and some reflection, I've decided that the second verse of "National Shite Day" (the tale of Stringy Bob) is the best 90 seconds of music that will be released this year. The pathos. The damaged tragicomic humanity. The rest of the album's pretty fucking brilliant as well. They have this...infectious knack. Singalong. Fierce.
― Just got offed

I think she's very sweet and likeable on "Is It You?", but I guess that depends on what qualifies as personality for you. xxpost.

FUCK YES

entire poll redeemed ;)

my (country matters') quote was actually in reference to a different HMHB song, but it totally applies here too :)

weakest track yet. sorry, Louis.

I was going to say that I thought house and techno were going to be virtually unrepresented this year but I'd forgotten about Minimal. Even if the original is better than the DJ Koze version.

Dodgy live recording, Ioannis! The instruments are all wayyyy crisper and fiercer on the recorded version (or of you're actually at the gig).

Actually you can make out most of it, put it down to a lack of understanding of British culture :P

haha--that's probably very true.

"Even if the original is better than the DJ Koze version."

^^ cosign.

I'd never heard that Kelley Polar song before (or indeed anything by him) and it's excellent. Thanks ILM.

37 - Lil Wayne - Got Money (Ft. T-Pain)
90.5 points, 7 votes
120 in P&J

got money' is really underrated, sure the beat is pop-cheesy and you've got t-pain in the chorus AGAIN but weezy rides it pretty nimbly, something's constantly piquing your interest (handclaps, "i'm a great dane", umbrella riffing &c)
― lex pretend

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/3600/07c845c9c76cxb7.gif

Ugh who the fuck put all those unwanted additional vocals over Bongo Jam? Rub.

I like and voted for the Cassie track. It's the constantly overlapping vocals that do it for me, they keep you on your toes all the way through. The guest rap is pretty rubbish, agreed - much encouraged by the suggestion that there's a Wayne-less version somewhere.

I really like Minimal. What is it, Brazilian?

Chilean.

Wayne-less O.G.:

hey re: official girl, the wayneless version is indeed far superior, and yeah the youtube is super poorly mixed-sounding and makes it sound way too cluttered. besides the great hook what i like about the song is how clean it all sounds; the production makes it super spacious and for me enhances the sentiment the song's trying to get across...it strikes me as really innocent and sincere and good-willed.

Thanks. It did occur to me that the vocal arrangement might be a way of covering up the weak singing that I'm always hearing about. It's great anyway, I can't think of another track that does so many different things with its vocals

enjoyed the screamer in the lil wayne video

36 - Ting Tings, The - That's Not My Name
91.5 points, 8 votes
28 in P&J

Don't fancy the girl at all but I think "That's Not My Name" is a really fun song - heard it at a club a few weeks ago at just the right time in my personal dance buzz and it really nailed me somehow. Just got me all skittery. I like how they marshal all this production drama as the song goes on, even though there's absolutely no content to back it up - it really works, IMO.
― Doctor Casino

haha i knew something was up when the video was for birdman's "100 million" instead of "got money"

xpost

i don't some songs on this list but i understand why people might be inclined to enjoy and vote for them. the ting tings - i just don't get it.

tings tings = transvision vamp '08

(i like that song)

I did give a couple of points to their other one, but I don't see the appeal of this at all either