My Top Tracks For 2008 25 Through 21: What do you call a quadriplegic on the wall?

[koganbot]

My tracks of the year, 25 through 21

25. Santogold "L.E.S. Artistes"

Bohemian seeks formula that will make her self-sufficient, wonders if art's brief candle will be of enduring value once flame flickers out.



24. Britney Spears "Kill The Lights"

Harassed woman blots out sun.



23. Ashley Alexandra Dupré "What We Want"


Untrusting soul puts faith in the beat.


22. CSS "Rat Is Dead (Rage)"

Screams, laughter, fear, and happiness are hard to distinguish for newly liberated, fast-driving woman.



21. Gwen Stefani "Early Winter"


Icicles discovered on sun.

Comments

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Art!

What do you call a quadriplegic at your door?

[koganbot]

Matt?

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Yes.

I'm on the fence about what "L.E.S. Artistes" actually means, though I think it's a great song. I keep filtering everything she says through the lens of her "ad copy" comment, though "Artistes" seems to be more about her misgivings about herself, not art in general.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Haha surely it is the quintessential song for A&Rs pissed off with their jobs and colleagues! It seems to be a pretty accurate reflection of someone who moved to NYC to "be creative", and realised 90% of people in arts/media/entertainment are wankers, and ended up having to get an industry job to pay the bills, and hating everything around her.

I think she has misgivings about herself in the song - she admits that she only "left my home to disappear, is all" - but she also has faith (or at least hope) that if she can find the right path to pick in the industry minefield, she can succeed. It's a great lyric, I think.

[koganbot]

I hadn't taken the lyrics to necessarily be about her, but I hadn't taken them to necessarily not be about her, either. I was thinking of them as being about a type.

Also, I wonder if Santogold is being deliberately ambiguous with the song title: "artistes" rather than "artists": does she think the former is just a fancy word for the latter, or is she making the distinction between, say, jugglers, actors, comedians, and the like (who are usually the ones who get called "artistes") as opposed to the sorts who get talked about in fine art programs?

I haven't given a lot of thought to the lyrics or read anything she's said about them, however.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

"Artistes" seems another mini-jibe at those people's pretensions. It seems like a pretty personal song to me, though I can imagine a lot of people of that "type" identifying. Really, it's the perfect "walking home after a bad day at the office wondering what the hell you're doing it all for" song, which is a subject which pop doesn't deal with as much as it could...it's full of the things you'd love to say to colleagues' and business associates' faces, but can't. And then the extra layer of disillusionment and hostility, because no one entering the creative industry ever thinks it'll be like that, and - best and most honest of all - the admittance to herself that she doesn't even know why she's here, "I left my home to disappear is all".

Weirdly I was saying on ILM the other day that even though I think 'LES Artistes' is bang-on lyrically, I don't even know what her other songs are even about apart from a hook here or there, she's not one for enunciating. And she comes across as a div in interviews.

[koganbot]

Hadn't ever seen the term "div." Contributors to Urban Dictionary seem to agree that it's a stupid person or an idiot, but disagree as to the source of the term, one saying it originally designated the person whose prison work is to put cardboard dividers into boxes (because too dumb to do anything else), others as originating from the name of a mental institution (Deva Hospital) or in "individual needs child."

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

It is an insult from my childhood days and I am endeavouring to BRING IT BACK right now. I hadn't really thought about the etymology but this might be a good question to throw open to the UK floor at some point!