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koganbotRihanna still reigns, but beneath her is mediocrity.
Jack Johnson "You And Your Heart": Johnson's demeanor is mid-level pleasant, normal guy, someone I might like as a neighbor, nod to him in the courtyard, but not really what I want from art. Descending guitar line has an eerie half-dissonance; if he'd been willing not to fill it and smooth it out with chords he might have kept my attention. Lyrics seem blind to their own strategy, pointing out the negative effects of not pointing out the positive. BORDERLINE NONTICK.
Jamie Foxx ft. Justin Timberlake & T.I. "Winner": Strong horns, blobs of beauty, sweet harmonic payoff, cartoon suspense, dramatic piano plinks - lots to listen to. Hard to say what's missing: sense of purpose, direction, an instinct for impact, when to push and when to pull back? Feels like people just hitting their marks. That they provide a lot of marks doesn't make this more gripping, even if the marks are tried and true. BORDERLINE NONTICK.
Spose "I'm Awesome": Fakes us out at the start with deep-voiced Houston menace, then becomes self-deprecating northeast white rap that's obvious rather than penetrating, "Smoke weed but I can't roll blunts" as interesting as it gets. Detestable, stupid, but not utterly ineffective, the "I'm awesome" chant making it easy to fun along with. BORDERLINE TICK.
Iyaz "Solo": Rotem couldn't even come up with a half-viable hook for this diluted sugar water, which got an emphatic nonresponse from downloaders, keeping this in the lower reaches while its DeRulo-Sean-Iyaz-Cruz-Kingston brethren went top ten - which seemed to indicate that listeners at least want something. But this track has hung around for two months and finally edged into the Top 40. What if it goes higher? NO TICK.
Jack Johnson "You And Your Heart": Johnson's demeanor is mid-level pleasant, normal guy, someone I might like as a neighbor, nod to him in the courtyard, but not really what I want from art. Descending guitar line has an eerie half-dissonance; if he'd been willing not to fill it and smooth it out with chords he might have kept my attention. Lyrics seem blind to their own strategy, pointing out the negative effects of not pointing out the positive. BORDERLINE NONTICK.
Jamie Foxx ft. Justin Timberlake & T.I. "Winner": Strong horns, blobs of beauty, sweet harmonic payoff, cartoon suspense, dramatic piano plinks - lots to listen to. Hard to say what's missing: sense of purpose, direction, an instinct for impact, when to push and when to pull back? Feels like people just hitting their marks. That they provide a lot of marks doesn't make this more gripping, even if the marks are tried and true. BORDERLINE NONTICK.
Spose "I'm Awesome": Fakes us out at the start with deep-voiced Houston menace, then becomes self-deprecating northeast white rap that's obvious rather than penetrating, "Smoke weed but I can't roll blunts" as interesting as it gets. Detestable, stupid, but not utterly ineffective, the "I'm awesome" chant making it easy to fun along with. BORDERLINE TICK.
Iyaz "Solo": Rotem couldn't even come up with a half-viable hook for this diluted sugar water, which got an emphatic nonresponse from downloaders, keeping this in the lower reaches while its DeRulo-Sean-Iyaz-Cruz-Kingston brethren went top ten - which seemed to indicate that listeners at least want something. But this track has hung around for two months and finally edged into the Top 40. What if it goes higher? NO TICK.
