Another Year In America February 5, 2009

[koganbot]

The Taylor Swift album finally falls from number one to number two. The Bird And The Bee enter at 78. Meanwhile, on the singles chart, something happens, somewhere, probably. Possibly.

Lil Wayne "Prom Queen": OK, what's happening is Autotune, for the thirtieth (or three hundredth) consecutive week. A sketch of a voice, a blob of an accompaniment, I can't make sense of the decision not to put more dance in the blob (really, once upon a time people danced to rock music, really), but this has a tune and Wayne's got his usual panache even if the lyrics just go through the TV high-school motions. TICK.

Soulja Boy Tell 'Em f. Sammie "Kiss Me Thru The Phone": Soulja Boy gets sensitive. The orchestra is convincingly stately, but nothing in the vocals commands attention. I hate to say it, but this sounds phoned-in. NO TICK.

Katy Perry "Thinking Of You": Katy gets sensitive, kinda. She kissed the wrong guy. She didn't like it. The singing is obvious, of course, big NUANCE here, emotional crack in her voice there, but Katy's singing is actually the only thing that keeps this half afloat. NO TICK.

Jamie Foxx f. T-Pain "Blame It": This is some silly zeitgeist. The syllables do silly breakdowns, the words do silly rhymes (butt/what?), Autotune makes the world fizzy, sensitive soulfulness becomes light and funny. Borderline, but I'm smiling. TICK.

Comments

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

I really like "Kiss Me Thru the Phone," in a way because it sounds so much like a track that someone else produced and stuck on Soulja Boy's album somewhat against his will (although I wouldn't give Soulja Boy that sort of "cohesive album statement" integrity bull -- he seems like a more the merrier type). Anyone could have done a better verse than Soulja Boy on this one, and yet the sheer blunt goofiness of him saying "I miss you I miss you / I really wanna kiss you but I can't," followed by his cell phone number as a hook (old news, but also jammed in so awkwardly that you can't make out the number, which I also like!) makes it very Soulja Boy, for lack of another adjective.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, I'm not really finding any redeeming qualities in "Prom Queen." I've listened to it a few times, in high and low quality, and frankly I can't even tell the difference -- the whole thing is a mush of rock tropes I don't even like, and Wayne's Autotune is a little too in the mush to rise above the track even on pure WTFness, as it does on (worse but more interesting) another track, "Piano Man."