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

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

'Prom Queen' might be one of the worst things I have ever heard in my life, I hate it and the whole Rebirth "rock album" concept so much.

[koganbot]

Ah, but there's so much worse worseness, even right in front of us.

[koganbot]

How's L.A.?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

LA is...very rainy. Spent yesterday out in the desert dodging TORRENTIAL downpours on the 'Dead And Gone' shoot. Haven't even managed to go out much as I'm still kinda on London time and both the PR and I pass out w/exhaustion at like 9pm. Flying home this afternoon, so it's a "must come back to do this properly" situation.

[koganbot]

both the PR and I pass out w/exhaustion at like 9pm

I do this anyway, and then wake up at 2 in the morning, creating a never-ending cycle. But I'm supposed to go out tonight!

[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."

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

i just heard that lil wayne thing; bears unflattering resemblance to 'chop suey' by system of a down. sounds like an inverse of those weird chopped'n'skewed remixes where people made, say, papa roach sound crunk a few years ago.

that said, i quite like it in a 'that's sort of interesting in its badness' way.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

actually on the second lesson i've decided i quite like it. weezy sounds quite death metal in his strangulations. lyrics a bit emo but overall: strangely good. not quite rock, not quite hip hop, it's more in that sort of UNKLE-type electronica area.

[koganbot]

Yeah, my first reaction to "Prom Queen" was "No!" but then I compared it to the other three nothings on the list (one of which I ticked anyway) and decided it had enough something in it to warrant a tick. (That logic never got me to tick the Ting Tings, however.)

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

it's definitely got something to it. i think i possibly like how little sense it makes; the lyrics don't go with the riffs, the riffs don't go with each other, lil wayne's voice doesn't go with any of it and yet it's all been mashed together.

mmm, the katy perry is so bad it's embarassing. there's the epic WWI-themed video, too, (well possibly it's meant to be WWII but it seems to feature trenches, so overall confused) which is just ...well, awful beyond belief.

the ting tings are just very, very annoying though. whereas this lil wayne venture has an air of vague underdoggery about it, since he's trying to break into a new genre or whatever, they're just irrationally successful bores.