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

[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.