Yet Another Year In America October 14, 2010

[koganbot]

First up is a single in which some girl's getting her trophy or something and Taylor Swift doesn't think the girl deserves it so Taylor barges in and takes the trophy away.

Taylor Swift "Speak Now": Starts in Katy Perry retro style 'cept Taylor plays it extra light, neither sighing nor sorrowful, melody with quick rises and dips almost like operetta, the bride fluffy like pastry and so is the song, background boopity-boops and uninvited Taylor slinking back among the curtain folds, lurking, ready to pounce. TICK NOW.

Kanye West ft. Pusha T "Runaway": Kanye and Pusha sing-song pseudo-self-deprecatingly while instruments growl on their behalf. RUN A BORDERLINE TICK.

Waka Flocka Flame ft. Wale & Roscoe Dash "No Hands": A slow slosh on the borderline between hypnotic and soporific. NO TICKS ON THE BORDERLINE.

Will.i.am & Nicki Minaj "Check It Out": Lousy interminable singing though w/ a couple of nicely dreamy moments from Nicki, who's also got a rap somewhere in here that's too guttural to have her usual buoyancy. DRAG IT OUT/NO TICK.

Glee Cast "I Want To Hold Your Hand": Slow ballad treatment that gets actual respect from me for letting the melody stand starkly away from its usual context and function. Goes for a bit of crescendo and payoff at the end that's unnecessary, stretching out what should have just been a gentle here-and-gone, but a nice job, and wise not to attempt a spectacle. I WANT TO TICK YOUR HAND (BORDERLINE).

Glee Cast "One Of Us": Joan Osborne's unintentionally nonsensical bit of pretentiousness always had a good melody, and the Glee people do a decent job of delivering the bullshit as if it meant something; they should've given Lea all the verses, but the big choral gestures are fine and the soft landing at the end is more poignant than the song deserves. TICK OF US (BORDERLINE).

Comments

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

"Speak Now" is really nice, but Taylor's voice sounds different -- is it just me or is it deeper? Maybe a pitch shift to avoid YouTube takedown on the version I heard? There are shades of Marit Larsen in the verses, and she sounds more authoritative than usual on the chorus. (The snippet of "Mean," whose lyrics look kind of atrocious, tbh, also reminds me of Marit.)

[askbask.livejournal.com]

What do you think of Waka's other singles?

[koganbot]

I like "Hard In Da Paint" a lot, grabs you by the shoulders and starts pulling you around, and in the meantime you can laugh at the vocalists. And that and "No Hands" are all that I remember hearing.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

"Bustin' At 'Em" has a similar charm, and the rest of the album consists of lesser versions on the template.