26TH JANUARY- CHASING PAVEMENTS- Adele (3 wks)

 

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After the initial failure of "Hometown Glory" this was the track to introduce the masses to Miss Adele. Back in 2008 she was pitted against Duffy for much of the year with the battle being won squarely by the Welsh singer but the war, well that certainly went to Adele. "Chasing Pavements" is everything that you would expect from an Adele song, it's an intensely personal song written in the immediate aftermath of a split from her then boyfriend it has the requisite amuont of heartbreak and sorrow to touch the soul. For me the real moment happens at 2.47 when there is something approaching real emotion in the voice, the rawness of hurt.

 

The songs best moments are underplayed, it doesn't have the immediate hit of something like "Rolling In The Deep" or the simple classiness of "Someone Like You" nor indeed the glossy production of the "21" era but it's a dignified record plaintive and direct, the orchestration seems to swell and ebb with the emotion of the song and everything is in the right place. It isn't her best single but this is a marker to those who thought that the "21" period is a one off, Adele is an artist for whom it really is all about the voice and whilst she may never be as "big" again she should always be around.

 

Heartbroken and Crank That :wub: I was in primary school at the time of its release, those songs will always remind me of those years :lol:

16TH FEBRUARY- ROCKSTAR- Nickelback (2 wks)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/eb/Nickelback_rockstar.png

 

OK, now at the time this was widely derided as generally speaking "S**t", looking back now I don't think that's quite fair. Nickelback are never a band that I would actively choose to listen to but as a sideways critique of the rock genre and bands in it it does it job with appropriate good humour and nods and winks. Enlisting the "help" of several celebrities to lip synch in the video in another clever idea (the band perhaps knowing that they weren't going to sell the song well on their own) and so we get treated to the likes of Gene Simmons and Nelly Furtado who are in on the joke.

 

So why did it get the slating it got? Firstly I would say that the criticisms that it got attracted more attention than they merited, for a song in this genre to be such a bit hit during a period when rock music was out of favour (and had been for a long time) is something remarkable, also it sold in prodigious quantities. It isn't the most melodic or the most exciting of songs and it struggled in airplay on UK radio which is much more concerned with dance and pop yet it was a hit despite all of this, I don't object to listening to "Rockstar" when it comes on the TV/ radio these days (not that it comes on regularly) perhaps a little distance can cause a re-evaluation here?...

 

Sorry Gezza but 'Rockstar' really is all shades of rubbish. Definitely the most overrated and overplayed song of 2008 - yes even more so than the likes of 'Mercy'. :lol:

I hate Rockstar. Probably in my least favourite songs of all-time chart. Chasing Pavements on the other hand is marvelous

Oh you're a harsh lot! :(

Nickelback are pretty much the worst thing to ever happen to music, partly because they take themselves so seriously (although granted Rockstar wasn't) when they're so godawful. I do like Chad's Hero though :blush:

Okay I wouldn't go that far. :lol:

 

'Far Away' and 'How U Remind Me' are both great tunes.

Some of Nickleback's stuff is good - with How You Remind Me being the obvious standout

1ST MARCH- WHAT'S IT GONNA BE?- HtwoO Featuring Platnum (3 wks)

 

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No prizes for guessing this isn't going to be a glowing review, I'm no fan of this genre but then I suppose it wasn't aimed at 30 somethings whose clubbing days were in the main behind them. H Two O were a due from Leicester who roped in the trio Platnum to provide vocals for this song which did unfathomably well in the charts of March 2008, I can't really find much positive to say about the track and it is perhaps significant that the group didn't trouble the charts again though of course featuring act Platnum did.

 

I know this will have its fans (and almost everything does) but in the cold hard daylight of 2013 this dosn't come of well in valuation, tinny, hollow and much of what was wrong with the charts of the time.

 

Rockstar gets such a hard time on here! :(

 

And fuck the haters, I LOVE What's It Gonna Be. :wub:

22ND MARCH- BETTER IN TIME/ FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND- Leona Lewis (1 wk)

 

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I should start by saying that I loved "Bleeding Love" and the whole "Spirit" era Leona. Undoubtedly the greatest "voice" that was found on the programme, it was perhaps one of the greatest ironies that a show focusing on music was trying to find the "X Factor" which, however much you like Lewis as a vocalist, you would have to conceed she doesn't come across well as a personality. Of course not all popstars are good singers but true superstars are exactly about that "X Factor" which in reality doesn't have that much to do with the singing voice, Lewis is talented but only as talented as the vehicles she's given and certainly Simon Cowell got the big guns in for that debut album, top names like Ryan Tedder, Max Martin, Billy Steinberg are all present and everything seems to have been carefully thought about, the killer launch single (I'm ignoring "A Moment Like This" for now) the image crafted of a talent that has to be handled carefully and a voice to be unleashed. Perhaps the problem with the second album was that it felt too much like a retread but I get ahead of myself here.

 

Anyway I love both of these tracks, BIT bops along plaintively with enough sincerity to convince and Lewis manages to escape the traditional ballad (though it's hardly dance music here) to produce something which demonstrates there could be more to her than just becoming a balladeer, though of course FITS is a return to that territory. It perhaps proved a chart point though, namely that double A Sides were now a thing of the past after the split of sales in the digital age cost this the No 1 spot. The problem is just what can do with that voice? and somewhere between album one and two Cowell et al just couldn't answer with anything that conclusive, an inevitable drift lead to increasing public indifference, whilst Lewis may have the vocals of your Dion, Carey and Houston what she lacks is the "attitude" and however a painful point of history it makes we like our diva's to be just that- Sande take note....

 

 

You mean A Moment Like This Gezza? :P I absolutely ADORE What's It Gonna Be, was my big tune of my final year of uni, so infectious. The Leona double a-side is great but certainly not my favourite single of hers.

Man I love What's It Gonna Be, reminds me a lot of Year 11 at school

 

Better in Time is probably my favourite Leona song after Forgive Me

"Rockstar" gets stick because of who it's by largely, it's perfectly fun but except for one inexplicably good breakthrough hit ("How You Remind Me", obviously) the rest of their output is turd of the highest order. Exactly the kind of over-earnest post-grunge tat that the pop punk explosion in the US (and Britpop over here) set out to destroy in the same way that grunge initially did for glam metal but somehow the odd band always manages to survive.

 

Can you tell I don't like them? :P

Can I just point out as a Leona fan that the difference between Spirit Leona and Echo Leona is the fact that between the two album campaigns Leona was given more creative control and wanted to go down the uncommercial pop/rock-lite route. Her music taste was not just the Whitney/Mariah/Celine music Cowell would have us believe. :P

 

Having said that, the label clearly thought 'Happy' would recreate the success of 'Bleeding Love'. I personally prefer the former however.

Edited May 11, 201312 yr by SceneofSIXCrimes

5TH APRIL- LOW- Flo Rida Featuring T-Pain (2 wks)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/36/Low_fr_tp.JPG

 

So it's April 2008 and onto the pop landscape enter a certain Flo Rida, I must admit that at the time I rather thought he would end up being a one hit wonder, along the lines of Chamillionaire in 2006 but hats off he's proved me wrong. There are, I believe, two schools of thought on Flo Rida, a competant rapper who has a knack of choosing the right sample, or an unoriginal popstar who inexplicable seems to swim whatever pop tide comes over the charts, I have to say that I don't mind a bit of Flo, though a whole album might be pushing it!

 

"Low" isn't his finest moment though, it's true that it all depends on the sample for me, he's got a lot in common with the likes of Pitbull in that respect, this is catchy I don't deny that, but it's the injection of a bit of "machismo" that makes "Low" slightly mindless rap music. It panders slightly too much to the stereotypes of the genre to be anything other than commercial rap by numbers, that's sad as in his poppier moments are infinitely better- unpopular opinion alert- I quite like "Club Can't Handle Me" and "Wild Ones". I doubt his mark on popular music will be a large one, but equally "Low" wasn't really an indication of where he was heading, thankfully.....

 

19TH APRIL- BLACK AND GOLD- Sam Sparro (3 wks)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a6/Samsparroblackandgoldsingle.jpg

 

I haven't listened to this in a while and you know it's rather a cracker, for a song that is allegedly about god and spirituality put to a dance beat it's not half bad. I suppose if you are only going to have only one top 40 hit in the charts then better make sure its a good one and Sparro doesn't disappoint, it has a snappiness and an electro pop feel to it, in some ways indicitive of the rise of the genre over the next few years, the pulsating synth in the background creates tension and momentum into the track, Sparro's vocals are never imposing or remarkable and in an odd way it's track about the music and not the singer or the words, the music and composition is actually much more interesting than either.

 

In a world of "popstars" where it becomes about personality this is a refreshing change, an old fashioned pop tune with enough of 2008 about it to be unashamedly of its year and time. Not for Sparro the Guetta-esque build up to the chorus, or the vocal gimmickry of say the Black Eyed Peas, an utter lack of pretiousness is an endearing quality and proves that a good song doesn't need any flavour of the day!

 

Gezza, do you mind if I make a thread like this for the current decade after you've finished this? :D

Finally a #2 hit that I actually bought on CD Single. "Black & Gold" was really refreshing at the time, I was pretty disappointed that it spent 3 weeks at No 2 without climbing to the top spot.

 

He had one more hit with "21st Century Life" and then a feature on a Basement Jaxx single in 2009 ("Feelings Gone") and that was it. Shame, as I love his voice!