Stereophonics were part of the Britpop explosion back in the 1990s and have kept going with a bunch of loyal Brits and Anglophiles as fans. Not me, though “C’est La Vie” is a goodie, Otherwise, I have seen the state of the charts and I am fast asleep.
Justin back on top and of 10 songs, 9 are EDM, and one, “Fight Song” is so bad it should be illegal. The complete domination of the singles charts by dance is scary, it is ALL dubtstep and house and while I like both to a degree, who can take a steady diet?
Much like the charts for the past couple of years, this is a strangely characterless state of affairs. The incredible homogenization of the charts means that the only curveball you ever get, the occasional OMI, comes from Youtube. It’s a pity.
What is it with the singles charts? It’s like watching paint dry, a tiny move at the top (Bieber drops to third, the two Weeknd’s move up a peg) and Ed has his third hit off X… you remember X, it dropped FIFTEEN MONTHS AGO. It might well be a bitch to get anything to hit big in the music world of 2015 but if it does -watch out, folks, because nothing else has moved an inch. Meanwhile, expect nothing but the weekend for months to come.
This is weird, Lana, Keith, Kurt and Gary? I’ve dismissed all of these guys recently but a specific song has hit my pleasure zone and who am I to deny it? In a perfect world. Garfunkel and Oates would write the lyrics to all of Lana’s songs. My only problem with G&O is when they make nasty noises like gagging on dick and being nauseated by pussy. It sounds terrible over earphones.
everything that has been building since Drake took over from Weezy(or at least Frank Ocean and the rest of Odd Future) is boiling over and hip hop as art form is completely undeniable after so much rough and tumble Rick Ross-y gangsta. The concept is simple: we are assholes yes, but we know it. There are worse ideas out there. The Five Finger Death Punch maybe the best hard rock album of the year not nailed down by Titus Andronicus.
Listening to A Ha while deciding on a grade, I had chosen a “C” and was ready to move on when my PC froze but the album kept playing, and the last time I’ve hated a song I couldn’t get rid of was when I was riding a very busy subway and couldn’t get my hands to my IPOD to stop a Smashing Pumpkin’s album for twenty minutes. Truly cast in steel from hell.
Here is a funny quote for you pop pickers, Sigala on writing “Easy Love”: “This is so amazing. I had no idea this would ever be a Number 1 record. I wrote this song in my bedroom on a Sunday evening after a couple of beers. I had no idea it would go to the top of the charts!” In case you haven’t heard the song, the reason it is so funny is because the song is a pretty straightforward remix of “ABC”. It’s like adding drums to “A Hard Rains Gonna fall” and claiming you wrote it in a quiet hour at home.
Really, Justin Bieber’s first number one, with 375,000 downloads, also entered the charts at # 1. Though I can’t quite hear it, it is a soft focused romantic ballad -one Selena Gomez, he cried while singing it, though quite how many times you can whine about a break up, I don’t know. A huge success for Bieber, after three years of relentlessly bad publicity, two huge hits in a row. Who said there are no second acts?
Meanwhile, except for “New Americana”, Halsey is way too manufactured to be taken seriously, but there is a huge difference between a manufactured popstar who is ignored and one who is a huge hit. Half white, half black, hip hop production on Americana songs and attitude with a soupcon of Lorde and a little more than that of Lana Del Rey… hey, apparently it worked, with 115,000 units (of which 97,000 are pure album sales), any other week it would be # 1.
This ended up being the summer of neo-soul, the triumph of three artists: The Weeknd, Miguel and Travi$ Scott, and despite the help of Max Martin with the Weeknd, all three artists sound entirely unique. I can’t wait to hear the new Darlene Love next Friday.
The relentless hype surrounding Halsey is beginning to work against her, how long can Apple Play ram her down our throats (two weeks among new releases, why?) , and how long before her lack of traction becomes a problem. Or will she break? A story of modern pop.
The definition of homogenized. Remember 1978 when the UK and the US charts couldn’t have been more different? That isn’t happening any more. This is as characterless as any chart on the planet, it is the aural equivalent of the the global economy, bereft of individuals of any sort, it just sits there.
Tell Your Friends – The Weeknd – I love the intro, it kinda shudders in and than Abel does broad and swift and small and minor brushstrokes in a self portrait that sounds like two parts deduction with a chorus that doesn’t soar it more likes shakes on the beat.
R. City? Fair to middling brother songwriters, who’ve cooked up mid-album stuff for the likes of Miley, and top 10 hits for Sean Kingston and the Pussycat Dolls? I am not crazy about the “Do That To Me One More Time” rip, so just tip your hat to Dr. Luke signing up Adam Levine and walk on by.
Imaginary Life – Worriers – Indie rockers who have managed an album brimming with tunes and hooks and smarts and shenanigans; just past her first decade in the business, Lauren Denitzio has emerged as a major songwriter
A beautiful evening with beautiful songs by a man at the peak of his powers at 67 years of age. Given all the ways James Taylor’s life might have gone, his brother Alex, sweet baby James pop, died of a drug overdose decades ago, that James could have lived through it all and reached this place better than ever? It is a testament
Sure, this is all over the damn place but that’s because there is no centrifugal force in pop, it is all on the fringes with pop EDM , country and hip hop vying for the charts and EDM winning by a hair. Later on I’ll figure favorites among the favorites but in pure pop for now people form? The Weeknd is unbeatable.
Admittedly. I don’t much care for the Disturbed album but it is lengths better than that terrible Bryan album. Bryan is the sort of guy Bob Lefsetz points to as the future of popular music because he sells a lot of copies and channels Toto. Having said that, is it worth noting that after a 30 plus year old album and Taylor Swift, a country album is my fave of the week.
Oddly enough, the week in songs doesn’t hold together as well as the week in records, my top three records goes Yo La Tengo, The Weeknd, and either Beal or Monk Parker, The Weeknd has so many strong SINGLES in it it could take over this list but a great single is not a great album. The dark alt country band Mnk Parker are a complete revelation.
If you can get past the godawful name, you are left with an album probably as inconsistent as the songs we’ve heard from Jess Glynne this year. Incidentally, and then there was one from 2014, only Sam is left to represent. Incidently, far be it for me to kick at children but if I was to I’d start with Bars And melody.
I just listened to Rachel one more time to make absolutely certain it is the piece of absolute garbage I believe it to be. The cupidity is bewildering and the heartstring manipulations are all so stupid, I can’t believe people take it seriously. Fight Song? Life Song? Awful
Fetty Wap has three songs in the top eleven, so that is it… the last time I bet against even ever. O keep pn saying he is gonna bomb and he keeps on having hits. I would make the world’s worst A&R man, when it comes to pop I’m happy if I hit 50%. Otherwise, so little movement!!!
Here is the way soul works, if millions upon millions of people love your songs, they give them soul and the songs return it. Max is such a gifted songwriter and producer he has an alchemic relationship with his audience. They hear sublimely what he hears upfront.
What is with Ed, you ask? I doubt the NBC special would have had much effect on sales, however a discount to a dollar a holla might certainly have had a rush of sales. Remember, sales doesn’t equate to money earned: that depends on price of course.
This is a terrific list of songs, the only Bryan Adams song I’ve ever loved on topped, NxWorries right after, swell EDM pop, along with Paak’s best Dre track, a terrific “ABC” remix, the return of Jess, a hot r&b singer, post punk UK 79 style and a rapper dead too soon at 42.
Tay, Ed, Sam and may Florence, 40% of the charts, is stuck like glue and meanwhile everything else cuts and runs every two weeks. Fortunately both Sam and Tay are great great albums and everything else here is not. By the way, sorry about Cilla, who I loved, but listening to that greatest hits, well, it could have a lot more hits to be honest.
The Jess Glynne single is really good, her best since “Hold My Hand”, and this one is nearly as good that one. I thought Jess was gonna get the song of the summer over here and it was no go, this one should absolutely do the trick
The Valley – Miguel – I could have sworn this song was going to blow up big, I don’t see why in a market with The Weeknd all over the charts, Miguel isn’t there as well. This sex song is a classic, it is as good as Justin Timberlake at his best – A
Why has Miguel not hit pop yet? I like the Weeknd fine, and I’ve seen both Miguel and the Weeknd live on stage and the Weeknd was much better. However, Wild Heart is a great album and I really surprised it had no traction. I’ll take “The valley” over “The Hills” and I actually really like “The Hills”.
I promise you that given the choice between embracing Luke and loathing him, I’d much prefer to love the wee tyke, if only out of respect for the zeitgeist but it can’t be done. If the Spring Break stuff was Jimmy Buffet for 30 something college kids, the new one is moribund drag country for bores hitting 40 and their first divorce. It is awful and one OK song, “Strip It Down” doesn’t come close to saving it.
a terrific week, every song here is excellent and “In Time” and “Girls From Texas” is so good I regret not bothering to catch Lyle at Lincoln Center last week. As for FKA twig? A flat out masterpiece that EP -I adore the woman. Herb Eimerman has a great EP about to drop, and I’ll review it soon) but this song with its terrific Byrdsy intro is beyond great.
The new Dre does not compare with the old Dre -this kitchen sink stuff, this throw every sound in the world at Compton, I dunno, it goes from fresh to stupid before you know what’s hit you. But at least it isn’t Frank Turner -the man who gives paradise postponed a bad name.
The Charlie Puth (he is the bloke who has been singing the Wiz Khalifa hook all year) song has been around for a month or so and I loved it then, a little tired of it now. Meghan Trainor sounds really good as well/ Though at the top there, it makes the entire chart a little more interesting. 1D? Yeah, when it isn’t selling it sounds a lot worse.
Nothing here thrills me much, it feels like one of the worst summers in immediate memory for singles, albums are OK, as always all over the place but not a terrible year. Still, the singles have had too many weeks like this. Still, congrats to One Direction, who seem cpable of rebounding from anything that is thrown at them.
I realize The Descendants is a piece of crap but as far as pieces of crap goes it is solid enough, really. The songs are catchy and silly and compared to, say High School Musical, it is genius. PS # 1 with 42,000 EAUs? Come in music business, your time is up.
A strange week, that seems stronger on paper, Iris and Dre new releases, surprising and should be year making, are neither quite where we want them to be and though Worriers are better than expected and Danny Brown, Lil B and Chance The Rapper, and Melanie Martinez are pleasant surprises, they don’t quite make up for it.
I really read this one wrong, I’ve had a pretty bad year reading the charts (I thought Demi would be the song of the summer) and I predicted 1D disaster last week and instead they have one of their biggest hits ever, I’d be surprised if it isn’t at the top of the US Charts next week. Plus the fans are as maniacal as ever (hits me as though Zayn was not a fan favorite).
Those Led Zep boys must be regretting streaming as we very speak, with these two decades old albums, and not even fan favorites,and with a deluxe version that isn’t so ‘luxe at all -especially Presence, which has nothing much going on, still entering the Top 10, Also, not crazy about the Maccabees but I’ve seen a lot worse at # 1
Lil Dicky ended an average album so strongly that if I ever get the chance I will listen more closely, and both Romano and the Mynabirds are revelations for me. Didn’t know one and not crazy about the other, they both came through.
The Jill Scott album sucks big time, and in real sales? 58K units move so lets all agree, it’s over man. Mean, I am damned if anybody understands how Billboard crush the numbers. Nothing personal but it sure feels like BS to me. For instance, Lamb Of God have 50K equivalence unites but with pure album sales equal 47,000. Meaning… what? That there numbers were only upped by 3K due to streaming? So, metal fans don’t stream. Like I said, difficult to believe.
Desire – Dej Loaf – Not only is this very sexy, and very smart, it rhymes hard, the beat is perfect, it is the best woman rap around headlining her new EP it is a self-portrait and a dream of the future. Trill chill, indeed
Young Fathers – Central Park SummerStage – July 25th – They were sweating from the heat and seemed disappointed in the size of the audience, and daylight doesn’t appear to three piece rap and alt’s natural habitat: and they were still magnificent. That version of “Shame”? That was worth it.
A better month for songs than I thought when you consider two of the weeks were more or less wash outs. Two absolute revelations, Alice Glass and Dej Loaf, who have nothing in common except extreme originality. I have heard nothing quite like them and I like Dej now the way I liked Nicki Minaj circa “Monster ergo very very much. One more name: Daniel Romanov: he sounds like other people, but in a very good way.
The Most Lamentable Tragedy Of – Titus Andronicus – Whatever doubts you may have about this 29 song rock opera song cycle detailing the ebb and flow of manic depression, if only for its sheer audacity you will hear nothing more important this year. Plus, cmon, what price “Dimed Out”? It dimes out and then some.
Another nothing special week crashes to a close, Ella has a great voice and she is fabulous live, she is the go to gal for modern EDM soulfulness -not very significant here, but I guess she is just a gun for hire. That whole scene is as good as its best songs. Whether it is Emile, Sam, Ella, Jesse or anyone else.
Bugzy Malone is new to me but I love rap with an English accent, Tinie Tempeh, Wiley, all those guys and add this one. First rate rapper and quite different to the Drake sample dark stuff that rules here.
Try Me – Dej Loaf – Her first hit, and it is really great: some of that Drake darkness, but from a woman, and a really great drum shuffle powering the song. This isn’t one of her great lyrics (if you head the EP, she can really write), but it is sure good enough) – A-
I was listening to DS2 again and maybe I underestimated it, my problem with rap is the aggressive silliness of the sex drugs and money world has grown so old, bad lyrics throw me out of sound I really like: “flip flops I just had some bitches and I made ’em lip lock, I just took a piss and I seen codeine coming out, We got purple Actavis, I thought it was a drought”
Can I call em or what? I claimed the new Fetty Wap wouldn’t follow “Trap Queen” into the charts. Follow it? It blasted through from # 87 to # 7 in one week and I still can’t hear the hook. Where is it? Not the metronome or the handclaps or the “ands”? I guess the vocal, with its elongated syllables may be doing it.
