"Fireflies" at number one. Ack. Or shrug. Top three tracks ("Fireflies," "Whatcha Say," "Down") are mediocre sugar goo, number four ("Party In The USA") at least
tries something and is in your face with the rawness of Miley, though it took a
bootleg Miley-Biggie mashup to make this sound really good, and number five ("Run This Town") is dull for the luminaries involved, but fortunately Rihanna puts on the dark sorrow voice she uses so well. "Paparazzi" at six is a definite grabber that genuinely engages with Sounds And What They Do, even if GaGa never seems to quite know what she's on about. (To be fair, the boring sugar pop at one-two-three also engages Sound; problem is that it settles for one good element and has nothing worth adding from there.) Number seven ("Meet Me Halfway") has its own engagement with Sound, though not engaging me as much as the last couple of BEP hits did. Number eight ("3") is more sugar slime but this one successfully gets under my skin, number nine ("I Gotta Feeling") is ol' Sound-engaging BEP hangin' around, and on number ten ("Sweet Dreams") an awesome pro wrestles with Sound and self, even if she's still something of a cipher.
So while the top of the ten is pop and r&b sweetening itself to death, there is creativity jiggling just underneath. July through October has been the worst Top 40 of the decade, but not altogether dire.
( Ke$ha )( Usher )( Glee Cast )( Gucci Mane )