Another Year In America December 17, 2009
Dec. 17th, 2009 09:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
koganbotA couple of not quites and a just barely:
Ludacris f. Shawnna "How Low": Bending with the times, this veers club and novelty, but doesn't forgo Atlanta's dark bass. Good timing and lots of variety, so it uses a kid's voice without being dependent on it. But only Shawnna takes this close to feeling. BORDERLINE NONTICK.
Timbaland f. Justin Timberlake "Carry Out": Three problems: (1) This isn't actually about Chinese food, and the fast-food metaphors are worthlessness on the order of "Your way, foreplay, before I feed your appetite"; (2) Timbaland can't rap, but does. (3) Timbaland can't sing, but does. Fortunately, when he escapes his own voice, he reminds me that few people do tunes and timbres better than he does. Pockets of beauty in a mixed bag. BORDERLINE TICK.
Kris Allen "Live Like We're Dying": Kris is all-round lite, which is fortunate here because the song would otherwise be straining hard for heavy rock-soul meaningless meaningfulness. Instead it's an OK tune with nice, nonemphatic singing, and the overweight lyrics are ignorable. But the tune's only OK, so BORDERLINE NONTICK.
Ludacris f. Shawnna "How Low": Bending with the times, this veers club and novelty, but doesn't forgo Atlanta's dark bass. Good timing and lots of variety, so it uses a kid's voice without being dependent on it. But only Shawnna takes this close to feeling. BORDERLINE NONTICK.
Timbaland f. Justin Timberlake "Carry Out": Three problems: (1) This isn't actually about Chinese food, and the fast-food metaphors are worthlessness on the order of "Your way, foreplay, before I feed your appetite"; (2) Timbaland can't rap, but does. (3) Timbaland can't sing, but does. Fortunately, when he escapes his own voice, he reminds me that few people do tunes and timbres better than he does. Pockets of beauty in a mixed bag. BORDERLINE TICK.
Kris Allen "Live Like We're Dying": Kris is all-round lite, which is fortunate here because the song would otherwise be straining hard for heavy rock-soul meaningless meaningfulness. Instead it's an OK tune with nice, nonemphatic singing, and the overweight lyrics are ignorable. But the tune's only OK, so BORDERLINE NONTICK.
