Another Year In America July 30, 2009
Aug. 2nd, 2009 07:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
koganbotDemi debuts atop the album chart, while Keri and Taylor climb the singles indefatigably but BEP won't give way.
Jay Sean f. Lil Wayne "Down": A generically pretty tune that's not all that pretty, the singing just plain wanky, AutoTune not disguising the wank. Tedium. NO TICK.
Mario f. Gucci Mane and Sean Garrett "Break Up": Great! An acapella doo-wop harmony version of "A Milli"! Would that were true, actually. This song's got potentially effective parts but they're at total cross-purposes, the chants cutting off before building suspense, the raps sounding exhausted, the melodies barely saying hello to the beats. NO TICK.
Rascal Flatts "Summer Nights": Southern band finds a perfect midwestern groove, with beers poppin' and everymen rockin', the night comfortable and the party sweet. TICK.
The Ting Tings "That's Not My Name": 26 months after first release and 14 months after it peaked in the U.K., "That's Not My Name" enters the Billboard Top 40, and I'm as ambivalent as ever. The bass drum's crude but the accompanying beats give it swing, while the woman singer does a little-girl hissy-fit chant about bizzers not bothering to get her name right - not all that compelling, or maybe it is. Kids'll like this and sometimes I do too. BORDERLINE TICK.
Beyoncé "Ego": Bouncy pretends that the way to her heart is through her body; song's a gag about dicks and pussies, deliberately exaggerates its self-confidence to I don't know what effect - not quite funny, not quite dominant, not quite at ease, not quite ill at ease. I wish this were better, because Beyoncé is self-consciously uncertain as to what her talent is for, and that's a potentially fruitful uncertainty in a superstar, but not this time. NO TICK.
Jay Sean f. Lil Wayne "Down": A generically pretty tune that's not all that pretty, the singing just plain wanky, AutoTune not disguising the wank. Tedium. NO TICK.
Mario f. Gucci Mane and Sean Garrett "Break Up": Great! An acapella doo-wop harmony version of "A Milli"! Would that were true, actually. This song's got potentially effective parts but they're at total cross-purposes, the chants cutting off before building suspense, the raps sounding exhausted, the melodies barely saying hello to the beats. NO TICK.
Rascal Flatts "Summer Nights": Southern band finds a perfect midwestern groove, with beers poppin' and everymen rockin', the night comfortable and the party sweet. TICK.
The Ting Tings "That's Not My Name": 26 months after first release and 14 months after it peaked in the U.K., "That's Not My Name" enters the Billboard Top 40, and I'm as ambivalent as ever. The bass drum's crude but the accompanying beats give it swing, while the woman singer does a little-girl hissy-fit chant about bizzers not bothering to get her name right - not all that compelling, or maybe it is. Kids'll like this and sometimes I do too. BORDERLINE TICK.
Beyoncé "Ego": Bouncy pretends that the way to her heart is through her body; song's a gag about dicks and pussies, deliberately exaggerates its self-confidence to I don't know what effect - not quite funny, not quite dominant, not quite at ease, not quite ill at ease. I wish this were better, because Beyoncé is self-consciously uncertain as to what her talent is for, and that's a potentially fruitful uncertainty in a superstar, but not this time. NO TICK.
