Year In America October 16, 2008

[koganbot]

Britney jumps to number one, Carrie and Abel make the long trek to the Top 40, and Akon and Weezy finally have a week where no one invites them in as guests, so they invite each other.

Britney Spears "Womanizer": A tick, but I feel at a distance from this: has the same niggling, disturbing dance crud and hedonism as Blackout but brightened up and therefore not nearly as gripping or unsettling. TICK.

Saving Abel "Addicted": "I want to take my love and hate you 'til the end." Well, that's honest, but not very eloquent. This has grind-it-out force, but the adenoidal singing is a drag. NO TICK.

Carrie Underwood "Just A Dream": Heart-wrencher, best cut on Carnival Ride, Carrie's blatant wail the right thing for a big blast of grief. TICK.

Akon f. Lil Wayne "I'm So Paid": The same prettiness Akon's done a hundred times, a bit lighter than usual and sprinkled with auto-tune. OK to have on, though it doesn't stay in the attention. NO TICK.

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

the trouble with 'Womanizer' is that it is 'Ooh Ooh Baby' with slightly more mental production (those drum fills are pretty immense) but less of a song, hardly any melodic variation and that terrible lazy chorus. I mean that hilarious bit in 'Ooh Ooh Baby' where she goes BABY BABY BABY BABY like a million times works because it just sounds like druggy babble and it's not the chorus! you can't do the same with WOMANIZER WOMANIZER WOMANIZER.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yeah as I said on tumblr (I think it was tumblr) it just ends up sounding like it could mean anything, it removes any consequence (good or bad) from him being a womanizer womanizer womanizer womanizer womanizer. Still like it tho.

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

See, to me it sounds like a siren, like her womanizer alarms are ringing -- it's the only part of the song where I feel like he might be dangerous. The rest is like being forced to stand there at the edge of the dance floor while your friend has some drunken un-clever conversation with a guy who wronged her back in college.

[koganbot]

Also, "Ooh Ooh Baby" isn't even in the top eight or nine songs on Blackout.

less of a song, hardly any melodic variation

I agree, but I also think this argument is a good candidate for the Boney Joan Rule, since I can think of a lot of better songs that have way less melody, and so can you (The-Dream's "Ditch That" jumps to mind immediately). I'd say the difference is that "Ditch That" is mesmerizing in its repetition, its lack of variation being compellingly oppressive. (And this gives what variation there is a big impact.)

But I agree with Tom that "Womanizer" is still pretty good.

That it jumped so fast to number one is probably a sign that Britney has been rehabilitated in the public/tabloid mind. She's "sane" now. (Assuming that going to trial rather than taking a plea on a driving-without-a-valid-license charge is sane. Of course, it doesn't make sense that California is wasting its time on this charge, given that Britney did have a valid Louisiana license, Cali just saying that she'd lived in CA so long that she should have had a Cali license too. Maybe there's more to the case than that. I only read the People squib.)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I think 'Womanizer' lacks melodic variation in exactly the place it needs it, the chorus, because the verses are really melodic (haha 'Happy Together' again) and set you up for a full-throttle chorus which never arrives.

Isn't the jump to No 1 symptomatic of how singles consumption works now? It seems like every time I check out the US chart, the record for biggest jump to the top has been broken. And 'Gimme More' had a similar huge jump, and was her highest-placing single in the US for aeons, and she definitely wasn't sane then. I do think she's been "rehabilitated" in the public/tabloid mind - as have all our girls gone wild, really, none of them are doing much hell-raising these days - though. Have no idea what to expect from Circus at all.

[koganbot]

Well, the three choices for hits are jump and then quickly fall (like Clarkson's "Never Again" last year, and Britney's first two Blackout singles to a smaller extent), jump and hold on (like T.I. right now), and build slowly (like Miley's "See You Again" and Pink's "U and Ur Hand" last year). So we'll see what happens to "Womanizer." But "Gimme More" didn't jump as long or as high. And it was a lot better than "Womanizer," and Britney was much more in the news then than now.

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

Carrie Underwood is great! Though I think "So Small" is my favourite song from Carnival Ride.

I am listening to Megan McCauley.

[koganbot]

OMG, Megan McCauley. "Tap That" (like, Salt N Pepa go metal), "I'll Pay You To Shoot Him" (like OMG).

[weasel-seeker.livejournal.com]

I'm feeling Insomniatic and thus youtube and mp3s have led me to discover Taylor tracks leaking. Title track to Fearless is out and about and is quite good, and White Horse is more fairy-tale stuff...ballady with some interesting cello and sharp guitar playing off against each other.

The funniest thing I've heard her do might officially be Permanent Marker on youtube, but apparently it's not showing up on this album. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. But so far, this is making itself out to be a more consistent album than the first, even if none of the tracks have hit me as hard as the best ones off of s/t.

[weasel-seeker.livejournal.com]

I'm mildly disappointed, but at least no longer confused that the Love Story lyric is not, in fact, "Romeo, save me. Good Charlotte, tell me how to feel."