Lambert, Cyrus, Keith top critic's ballot

[koganbot]

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2007:

1. Miranda Lambert Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Columbia Nashville)
2. Travis Tritt The Storm (Category 5)
3. Gretchen Wilson One Of The Boys (Columbia Nashville)
4. LeAnn Rimes Family (Curb)
5. Brooks & Dunn Cowboy Town (Arista Nashville)
6. Various Artists Schultze Gets The Blues [soundtrack] (Normal Release)
7. Black Angel O' Santa Barbara (Outsiders)
8. John Anderson Easy Money (Raybaw/Warner Bros.)
9. Toby Keith Big Dog Daddy (Show Dog Nashville)
10. Taylor Swift Sounds Of The Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection (Big Machine)

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2007:

1. Miley Cyrus "See You Again" (Walt Disney)
2. LeAnn Rimes "Nothin' Better To Do" (Curb)
3. Taylor Swift "Teardrops On My Guitar" (Big Machine)
4. Miranda Lambert "Gunpowder And Lead" (Columbia Nashville)
5. Reba McEntire f. Kelly Clarkson "Because Of You" (MCA Nashville)
6. Gretchen Wilson "You Don't Have To Go Home" (Columbia Nashville)
7. Sarah Johns "The One In The Middle" (BNA)
8. Toby Keith "High Maintenance Woman" (Show Dog Nashville)
9. Gretchen Wilson "One Of The Boys" (Columbia Nashville)
10. Tim McGraw "Last Dollar (Fly Away)" (Curb)

TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2007:

1. Neil Young Live At Massey Hall 1971 (Reprise)
2. The Stanley Brothers The Definitive Collection (Time Life)
3. -
4. -
5. -

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS OF 2007:

1. Toby Keith
2. John Anderson
3. Travis Tritt

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST FEMALE VOCALISTS OF 2007:

1. Taylor Swift
2. LeAnn Rimes
3. Miranda Lambert

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST LIVE ACTS OF 2007:

-

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST SONGWRITERS OF 2007:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Miranda Lambert
3. Rivers Rutherford

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST DUOS, TRIOS OR GROUPS OF 2007:

1. Brooks & Dunn
2. Black Angel
3. Little Big Town

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST NEW ACTS OF 2007:

1. Ashley Monroe
2. Sarah Johns
3. Rissi Palmer

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST OVERALL ACTS OF 2007:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Miranda Lambert
3. Travis Tritt

COMMENTS:

Sorry Geoffrey, I waited until the last minute and have no real time for comments. "See You Again" qualifies as country not 'cause of Miley Cyrus's last name or her Tennessee heritage but because of the reverbed rockabilly guitar and the way her raw throat takes on a menacing half-ballad melody worthy of Johnny Cash. And she makes my number one because of the way she brings her goofy sweetness to this, with lyrics that are essentially about shyness - exuberantly about shyness!

Happy New Year.

Frank Kogan

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I keep trying to think of things other than "it's good" to say about it but it's that sort of song which eludes my critical faculties (a good thing, probably, it means I keep going back to it to try to figure out what its deal is). I think the Fergie/Gwen-esque Alice-in-Wonderland stylings fit her well, but you kind of need a monster song to really work it, a 'What You Waiting For?' or 'London Bridge' (though when I first heard 'London Bridge' I dismissed it as 'My Humps' redux). Um, the chorus is basically Ashlee doing a bunch of goofy voices?

I think she has a pretty good chance of success though, I think she's rebuilt quite a bit of cred with a certain audience over the past few years due to association with Fall Out Boy boy. They're the Jay and Beyonce of the emo world.

[koganbot]

"Outta My Head" is flopping completely on U.S. radio - only got one station (in Phoenix) willing to give it spins, and it's fading even there. So, unless Radio Disney picks it up - and they've got absolutely no motive to, as Ashlee's not on their label - or the video becomes a hit on TRL*, I think the song is over, at least in the U.S. It could do well in Britain or Australia or Japan. I wouldn't be surprised if her ability to keep her record contract depends on overseas markets.

Of course, Christmas/New Years is a strange time on radio, so maybe we won't know until mid January.

*the MTV website is impossible for me to figure out, so I have no idea how it's doing on TRL.

At some point I should go back and really peruse what Shipley wrote about Rolling Teenpop on the Hilary Humbert thread, though honestly I'm not likely to do this. I looked back briefly the other day and he wasn't as nasty as I'd remembered. My guess is that the man is more obtuse than malicious. Rather like Simon Reynolds. In any event, Al actually responded reasonably well and civilly to being cursed out.

[koganbot]

Notice that as soon as I said I wasn't going to start a new teenpop thread, the usual ilX bores bolloxed everything up by starting a "U.S. charts/talk about pop thread," as if that somehow got the concept. A good way to further turn ilX into uselessness.

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

http://ilx.wh3rd.net/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=60815

[koganbot]

Ah, I didn't see that. Apparently, noboby else did either.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I couldn't believe the cheek of it - more than their dumbness and shitty taste what they keep failing at is basic fucking human interaction (which, yes, applies through a computer screen). You don't get to snark and sneer at a thread for a whole year (inc fucking calling the people on it paedos! and this goes as much for the people who sat back and laughed at the people saying it, as the people who actually said it) and then wade in at the last minute and think you can dictate how it's gonna be next year. Uh-uh. Shit does not work like that.

Al Shipley hates all music, basically. Even on the r&b thread he was always saying how wack stuff was, and every positive thing he ever said about anything was always given so grudgingly. Boring opinions and writing, too, as I recall from the Stylus jukebox.

Happier things! 'Outta My Head'! Growing on me with each play. At first it feels...tossed off, something Ashlee did in her spare time, and you think "why is THIS the lead single?", and then you can't get it out of your head. It kind of wrongfoots you, in a good way. I like that she seems to have a really definite aesthetic she's going for, and she's working the hell out of it (the video really added to the song when I saw it).

I can't imagine any new track making an impact in December, though I don't know how things usually are in the US. I don't think she has that residual lack of cred here - she was well received when she did Chicago, anyway - but increasingly it seems as if all but a handful of US stars don't bother with this benighted island any more anyway. I've just discovered that Nelly released a new single in the US in AUGUST, and it's terrific, and...nothing over here. Not even an attempt to release it.