My Pazz & Jop Ballot, part one

[koganbot]

Here's my Pazz & Jop ballot as I just submitted it; I've got a week to write comments. If I write any, I'll repost this with the comments added. Also, as far as I'm concerned the year doesn't end until December 31, so I'll post expanded lists then, and for all I know the order and contents of my top tens might also have changed.

Frank Kogan's Pazz & Jop Ballot 2008

SINGLES
1. Rihanna "Disturbia" (Island)
2. Ashlee Simpson "Outta My Head (Ay Ya Ya)" (Geffen)
3. Ashlee Simpson "Little Miss Obsessive" (Geffen)
4. Heidi Montag "No More" (no label)
5. Robyn "Who's That Girl?" (Konichiwa)
6. September "Cry For You" (Robbins)
7. Annie "Songs Remind Me Of You" (Island)
8. Britney Spears "Break The Ice" (Jive)
9. Buraka Som Sistema f. Pongolove "Kalemba (Wegue Wegue)" (Fabric)
10. V.I.C. "Wobble" (Reprise)

ALBUMS
1. Danity Kane Welcome To The Dollhouse (Bad Boy) 13 points
2. Willie Nelson Moment Of Forever (Lost Highway) 13 points
3. Scooter Jumping All Over The World (All Around The World) 12 points
4. Ashlee Simpson Bittersweet World (Geffen) 11 points
5. CSS Donkey (Sub Pop) 11 points
6. María Daniela Y Su Sonido Lasser Juventud En Éxtasis (EMI Mexico) 10 points
7. Vanessa Hudgens Identified (Hollywood) 9 points
8. Santogold Santogold (Downtown) 8 points
9. Britney Spears Circus (Jive) 8 points
10. Buraka Som Sistema Black Diamond (Fabric) 5 points

Comments

[koganbot]

Actually, we overlapped twice, since "See You Again" was my number two single last year. A lot that's on your singles list will make my expanded list. (Have never heard of Sister Sin, however.) There seems to be more than one version of the Buraka Som Sistema album floating about, and it's hard to tell if they're really promoting it (their Portuguese label is affiliated with Sony BMG, but if this album is getting any kind of push anywhere other than Portugal, I'm not seeing it; maybe they're waiting for the new year). Also, it was borderline for me, is terrific for three songs or so but then tends to get real dry (though good) in a techno "savor the beats" way. (Compare to Scooter, who come off as the techno AC/DC.) A problem is that Buraka Som Sistema don't really have a lead vocalist, so they rely on guests. Wish they'd use Pongolove more.

On your albums list, I haven't heard the Ross Johnson, Rose Tattoo, Woodbox Gang, Tonic Rays, or New Bloods.

A problem is, when I compare albums to decide how they rank, everybody else sounds slow once I play Scooter.

Did you hear the Nappy Roots album, Humdinger? It would probably appeal to you in a Knux kind of way (both groups show evidence of liking OutKast and Kanye).

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

The Humdinger is AMAAAAZING and of all the excellent late-doors albums I heard, is the only one to have actually cracked my top 10 (which is all but set in stone now). There is not one song on it which is less than awesome. I keep caning it, expecting the cream to rise to the top, except it's all rising.

[koganbot]

After only a couple hearings: the tracks are excellent but the vocals sometimes fall into too much placidity. Had a similar problem with the Knux, and, to tell you the truth, with Kanye and OutKast themselves, sometimes, which must seem strange since they'll often, quite obviously, be rapping with blatant energy. So I'm not totally sure what I mean. But yes, the Nappy Roots alb is good stuff. I've got an older one of theirs somewhere that I remember liking, though obviously I didn't stick with it.

Did you hear the Knux album?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I hear the vocals as less placid, more laconic. It fits with their small-town background, anyway, the pace of life going slower and all that. 'Small Town' is one of the most evocative tracks I've heard this year, you can almost taste the rural air.

(I didn't really like that Knux track which cropped on poptimists so didn't investigate further.)

[koganbot]

I resist "Small Town" since I listen to a lot of country where I feel like I'm getting battered to bits by that theme.* Main problem I have with the song is the singing, which is dreadful. I like the rapping, even if the words are sentimental cliché. My favorite voice is the funny high-pitched one.

*I like Miranda Lambert's "Famous In A Small Town" in that it's a send-up of the sentimental small-town song. "Whether you're late for church or you're stuck in jail, hey, word's gonna get around." Even better is "Dry Town," about one of the drawbacks of a particular type of small town.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Did you ever hear Bubba Sparxxx's country-tinged "hick-hop" album from a few years back?

Next year I shall make an effort to get into country: I feel by resistance to it is unjustified at this point.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

*my resistance

[koganbot]

I got my book contract because an acquisitions editor read what I wrote in my comments to my Country Critics Music Ballot 2003 about Bubba and David Banner et al. (Posted it on ILM, where he read it.)

Resistance is quite understandable, but if you can get by it, you'll find an incredibly rich world of artistry and emotion. You can ease yourself in by starting with Taylor Swift, who's basically Ashlee South, even if not yet as good as Ashlee. Also, listen to Miranda Lambert who thinks of Ashlee as a great singer and songwriter, according to Chuck, who interviewed her boyfriend, Blake Shelton.

Taylor writes in realistic detail about her struggles with romance, while Miranda writes expressionistically about wanting to blow it all up with fire.

When you're ready for it, I'll post a country set on my MySpace playlist.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yeah my resistance isn't much more than not really "getting" the little I've heard (as opposed to disliking it), and the general premonition of weariness at the thought of plunging into a whole new genre, set of rules, set of artists and so on.

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

I tried listening to the Nappy Roots album on Rhapsody; seemed too much like work to get all the way through (especially compared to the Scooter and Buraka Som Sistema albums, which I also finally listened to on Rhapsody, and liked enough that I wound up putting both of them in my year-end top 50, though strangely I thought the Scooter album also got a little too atmospherically techno-beat-savory toward the end, before it got more Tuetonic sprockety at least, and I'm not sure I think the Buraka Som Sistema album is as front-loaded as you seem to.) As for Nappy Roots, I definitely liked the countryish going-back-to-Georgia small-town tracks better than the tracks where they tried to get thuggish around the strip pole, which mainly just pissed me off, as most raps getting thuggish around the strip pole do these days. (Even the Knux ones, which seem to be making fun of the concept, if I'm reading them right. Also not sure I hear as much Kanye or OutKast in either the Knux or Nappys as you seem to; I mean, I hear OutKast's rock-guitared "Gasoline Dreams" in the Knux's guitars, but I also hear Fishbone, Rammellzee, Coolio, the Coup, the Cars, Steve Miller’s “Abracadabra,” Prince’s Controversy, and the Prodigy, all of whom have a lot more to do with why I like the record. Still, if there's an album that made my top 10 this year that I may wonder in a couple years why I put it there, I do have a slightly queasy feeling that *Remind Me In 3 Days* may be that album. But I voted for Ashlee Simpson last time she made an album, and her one this year disapppointed me in comparison, and I still think its first half was a lot better than its second half. And I liked having a hip-hop album in my top ten, so I don't mind, really.)

[koganbot]

a little too atmospherically techno-beat-savory toward the end

I agree with this, actually, but they get three-quarters of the way through before this becomes a problem.

I assume that's a logged-out you below who's commenting on Lex's calling Scooter a joke act. You're right, but that is just Lex's tendency to make broad statements before necessarily knowing what he's talking about. (Of course, I never do this.) Remember, Lex is the guy early in 2007 on Rolling Teenpop who was complaining that American teenpop was too humorless and we were trying to get him to (1) listen more to the music he claimed to be talking about, since it was loaded with humor, and (2) also recognize that this music (the rock confessional teenpop) was giving way to HSM stylings or to dancepop anyway. So, anyway, he's not someone who thinks that having a sense of humor makes you a joke. (I'd say that out-and-out comedy acts do tend have lousy music, but there are plenty of exceptions.) As for the lowest-common-denominator thing, I would say that Scooter aren't the most subtly plumed animals in the menagerie.

For what it's worth, I thought Nappy Roots getting thuggish around the strip pole was very much making fun of the concept. But also agree that it's still a dull concept, and unfortunately they weren't making fun of the dullness. In fact, I think there's a basic dullness to the sound of their voices but that there's a lot of power in the beats and instruments. But I think that about the Knux too, whom I haven't listened to enough recently. Both groups are good-humored, but they're not uproariously funny. I like the Knux's "Cappuccino" more than anything on the Nappy Roots and more than anything on the Nappy Roots.

[koganbot]

like the Knux's "Cappuccino" more than anything on the Nappy Roots and more than anything on the Nappy Roots.

I am repeating myself repeating myself. What I meant to type was:

Er, I like "Cappuccino" more than anything else on The Knux album and more than anything on the Nappy Roots.