Just a girl who kissed a boy who...

[koganbot]

These two songs feel similar - Vanessa Hudgens' "Say OK" and Hope Partlow's "Sick Inside" - though "Say OK" has a bit of a freestyle thing going on with it (but not nearly as much as the even better "Don't Talk"), while the arrangement to "Sick Inside" is poised between clave and country. Notice who's in the "Sick Inside" video. ("Say OK" vid probably won't play in Britain, so here's a link to another clip of it.)

"Vanessa Hudgens - Say Ok (Official Music Video)" (Watch on YouTube)

"Hope Partlow - Sick inside (Zac Efron)" (Watch on YouTube)

Comments

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

What did you think of the new Ashley Tisdale, Frank? I quite like it, although as with all the HSM alumni it feels like there's not enough somehow.

[koganbot]

Only heard the first single, which I disliked and made me not approach the album. Also, as a singer she doesn't quite get it; she seems like an actor singing rather than a singer singing. The only person these days who can put across actorly mannerisms without undercutting the musicality is Demi Lovato. That said, Tisdale got a song in my top ten a couple of years ago, so I really should check the new one out.

"It's Alright, It's OK" is, you know, OK, but what I dislike is that it's this big rocking blaring superpop like Avril's "Girlfriend," which I thought was a step backwards for Avril, though I like that one a lot more than "It's Alright, It's OK." I do think that Lovato could probably have done a killer version of "It's Alright, It's OK," not to mention "Girlfriend."

What do you think of the Partlow? She has a good range of notes and an easy way of moving through them, but her voice has character, not in the sense of growls and grit or the goddamn quirks of all the Amy 'n' Tashbed imitators, but a real distinct timbre, not hard exactly, but a nasal twist that won't fade away and makes her instantly recognizable. Unfortunately, she got dropped from her label within seconds of her album being released, and now she's part of an indie pop duo whose music doesn't seem right for her, though my guess is that it's exactly what she wants to do.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I downloaded it, despite not liking her previous stuff, just because I rather liked her expression on the cover. I need to listen to it a bit more but I sort of like that she's going a bit dirty. It feels more Cobra Starship than Avril Lavigne, to me, although that's partly because they also have a song called 'Guilty Pleasure;' I sort of like the acting cus its so transparent you can hear her being neurotic about herself behind it.

Partlow is a sort of very tentative tick from me; she sounds quite generic to me but there is something a little special about it, at least. I guess she sounds more like male teenpopper than a female one somehow? Which is interesting. I mean, not in terms of pitch or anything but there's something faintly masculine about the song. Or well, teenpop masculine, whatever the fvck that is.

...Oh actually, I really love the sudden DRAMA in the middle eight, wish there was more of that in the rest of the song.

idk, I have a bit of a problem relating to these blonde teenagers; it's no doubt Teenage Goth Me resurfacing but nevertheless.

Teenpop antiquarian

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

If you're interested, I wrote about about the new Tisdale (which I've only heard twice or so and then deleted, though not intentionally, just a hard drive crash) here. Basically it sounds like a 2004 cash-in on c. 2000 teenpop done in 2009, which makes it weird but also weirdly unpleasant to me; there may be interesting messages in there (I mention "Hair" specifically, which is about as close to real-life-sex-talk as, e.g., the Veronicas get, not that innocent), but I'm a bit put off by all the GOOP.

Re: Teenpop antiquarian

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Well, the picture's actually from c. 2008-9, anyway:



Yeah, I think she's, if not masculine, at least aggressively sexual here, not coy at all, which has more in common with the post-Avrils than the 2000 bubblegum stuff (this is why I place it somewhere sonically in the middle of the decade, with aspirations to have been popular previously, like a career that stalled for three years, so the demos are tucked between the hipper-sounding and newer-sounding stuff). But even Britney was getting a harder sound by c. 2001.

Re: Teenpop antiquarian

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

(something pussycat dollzish about the pic, plus that font, even though it's ripped from "America's Sweethearts," I think, still feels contemporary for Ashley's particular genre, whatever the fuck that is these days. Has anyone even bought this thing?)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

As opening lines go, "I'm just a girl who / gets the boy who / is in love with someone else" is pretty fucking great. As is the next one! "I didn't mean to / feel the way I do / It just happened by itself" - the halting line breaks work so well.

That V-Hudge song seems to be off her first album, which means it passed me by when I listened to it way back when. It's nice (tho) as you say, no 'Don't Talk'.

[koganbot]

Actually, it's "kissed a boy who," and it is great. Writing is credited to Jason Deere and Kevin Kadish. Jason Deere's name I recognize from a whole shitload of country credits, though none are coming to mind this second except for SHeDAISY's hilarious "Lucky 4 You (Tonight I'm Just Me)," which I nominated in the best of 2000 competition last month.

[koganbot]

Here's my favorite Hope Partlow track, "Everywhere But Here":

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2088o_everywhere-but-here_music