It did get a bit scary around this time how genuinely huge The X Factor had become - even if you absolutely hated it you couldn't avoid it. The last series I'd actually properly watched was 2009's after which I got a bit sick of it, but I still remember every contestant from the following year and every staged "controversy" even though I didn't watch a single full episode that year! Every Facebook status, every Tweet, every Monday morning conversation was about it - it had got as big as Big Brother had been a few years earlier. And literally every "live" performance of every song would make it zoom to #1 at the soonest opportunity - Simon Cowell could have badly karaoke sung 'Thong Song' and it would have been a #1.

 

Both shows still exist (ridiculously in Big Brother's case, didn't they make a big deal about it "ending" like five years ago?), both still get mentioned but thank god they're not as big as as they were.

It did get a bit scary around this time how genuinely huge The X Factor had become - even if you absolutely hated it you couldn't avoid it. The last series I'd actually properly watched was 2009's after which I got a bit sick of it, but I still remember every contestant from the following year and every staged "controversy" even though I didn't watch a single full episode that year! Every Facebook status, every Tweet, every Monday morning conversation was about it - it had got as big as Big Brother had been a few years earlier. And literally every "live" performance of every song would make it zoom to #1 at the soonest opportunity - Simon Cowell could have badly karaoke sung 'Thong Song' and it would have been a #1.

 

Both shows still exist (ridiculously in Big Brother's case, didn't they make a big deal about it "ending" like five years ago?), both still get mentioned but thank god they're not as big as as they were.

 

You know what was really scary? My school was front and center because we produced Louis Tomlinson of One Direction so towards the final there was an increase in attention given to our school, the day they visited was rather exciting but very surreal having to cross over paparazzi and TV camera's just to get to Maths :D

Week Ending: 11th December 2010

 

Nichole Scherzinger - Poison

 

 

This is just so utterly boring and forgettable – does anyone remember this? I certainly don’t and its bizarre that it managed to go Top Three in December during one of the biggest sale periods in chart history. It’s just boring, and fades incredibly quickly.

 

David Guetta feat Rihanna - Who's That Chick?

 

 

I have to admit that as much as I loved Rihanna back in late 2010, and I did ‘Loud’ is a fantastic album, even I had to admit that the period where she had no less than three songs in the top ten at the same time was overkill.

 

‘Who’s That Chick’ is typically the worst of the three of them, and very much generic Guetta as well. That’s not to say I don’t like it, it’s alright as far as generic dance music circa late 2010 goes

 

Nearly done with 2010 now, hopefully should complete it by Sunday

Edited August 28, 201410 yr by James Silkstone

I've never liked Poison either, don't get the love for it at all.

 

Given the names & the time you'd have thought a Guetta & Rihanna collab would have been an absolute stonewall number 1 but amazingly was not!

Yeah it's just a bit of a nothing track for both Guetta and Rihanna - see also Robbie Williams and Dizzee Rascal a few years later, a combination that back in 2010 you'd think would be a massive million seller, not a low-selling #5 that zooms straight out the chart.

 

Both Guetta and Rihanna released brilliant follow-ups though.

'Who's That Chick?' made the year-end top 40 the following year, so after peaking at #6 it had incredible longevity. More so than 'What's My Name' which made the 2010 year-end but not 2011 despite hitting #1 the second week of January! I love both, personally, and was always amused at the similar song titles :lol:.

Week Ending: 18th December 2010

Willow Smith - Whip My Hair



There will be a few instances in this thread where we’ll end up with songs that are only making an appearance because they were popular on the internet or were ‘novelty’ in some way; Gangnam Style and Harlem Shake being two examples. Luckily Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’ misses out

Of those novelty tunes, I have to admit that Whip My Hair is probably one of the best. Not a song to be taken too seriously, after all it is about whipping ones hair, it was just a fun track to have around Christmas time. Willow annoys me though, especially her smug grins to the camera in the video which seem to read ‘Yeah, I’m 9 and now I never have to work another day in my life’. Still, she’s more tolerable than her brother but I won’t pretend I’m upset she didn’t really pan out for a legitimate career.

"Whip My Hair" - ha, I remember watching that on a massive TV screen at our Christmas do that year and thinking that it was quite surreal. More surreal than the christmas do itself, which was held at Crealy theme park where the temperature was minus 11 and they had to shovel snow off the pirate ship to get us on it.

Week Ending: 25th December 2010

Matt Cardle - When We Collide



This is alright, I’m not gonna lie as X Factor Winners songs go this is probably second to Alexandra Burke’s “Hallelujah”. It’s not as good as the original, I’ll never love it but it’s better than “When You Believe” at least

Trashmen - Surfin' Bird



The above Family Guy joke was funny once. Once. It got dull by the end of that episode, and I blame it for the resurgence of this nonsense

Biffy Clyro - Many Of Horror



Now, here is the original and far more superior version that’s here because of Cardle and not it’s own brilliance which is annoying. I’ve been a pretty big fan of Biffy since late 2007 when I stumbled upon “Who’s Got a Match” and then the absolutely amazing “Mountains” the next year made me a true fan

Of the singles from ‘Only Revolutions’, this one is easily my favourite. It’s just so moving and powerful, probably their best song ever actually

Michael Jackson feat Akon - Hold My Hand



I honestly feel that at this point in time, the Jackson family were just generally selling off Michael’s unreleased tracks to anyone who would buy them

‘Hold My Hand’ is a cheese fest, it’s listenable though and it’s sweet. But, goddamn it it’s way too cheesy for my liking and I’d honestly prefer Jackson to be remembered as the brilliant artist he was in the 80’s than this constant attempts at keeping him relevant after death

I mean, it’s not like anyone’s really going to forget him in a hurry anyway is it?

And that is an end to 2010!

 

2011 will begin within a week or so, and in the meantime I'm just about to start March 2000 on my blog reviewing every top ten hit of the 2000's

 

Thanks so much to everyone who has commented and read so far!

Poor Surfin' Bird...I think I'm alone in thinking that original Trashmen song is something rather joyous, a quirky-as-hell party track that had never charted here and the campaign should have focused on giving a previously obscure song a chart position it deserves after being helped by a memorable episode of Family Guy.

 

But by coming a year after the Rage Against the Machine campaign it came across to many as an inferior, immature copy, getting ignored quickly and now every time it's mentioned its with rather hushed embarrassment - I think a certain vocal group of obsessive, rather young online fans didn't help at the time, hyping it up to be THIS HUGE THING when it was always nowhere near Matt Cardle in the midweeks. Without all the hype I think it would be remembered more fondly as a fun festive novelty song, certainly it got played at a lot of Christmas parties that year with everyone doing the Peter Griffin dance.

'When We Collide' was just typical X Factor cheese - 'Many of Horror' is leagues ahead. I don't have anything against Matt Cardle - in fact I loved his rendition of 'First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' on the show - but oh dear what a nothingy cover! Absolutely INSANE how big X Factor and Rihanna were right now!

 

Oh gosh 'Surfin' Bird' :lol: Me and my dad were stuck on the roads for 6 hours for what should have been a 1 hour journey due to really heavy snow and radio 1 played it no more than THREE times :lol: It was quite funny at first in a Chaccaron kind of way, but now I'm kinda over it.

 

'Hold My Hand' was really nothing special, cheesy as you say. AKON of all features as well. Luckily his Xscape material would be FAR superior!

So, a year has nearly passed and I've FINALLY decided to kick start the 2011 reviews. So, here we go:

 

01/01/2011

Katy B feat Ms. Dynamite

Lights On

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/35/Lights_On.jpg/220px-Lights_On.jpg

 

Katy B's second top ten single is a bit of a non-entity to tell you the truth. Whilst it certainly is a track that one could find pleasantly melodic, it doesn't really work as a dance song for me, it's more of a rather upbeat easy listening track. I've never really known what kind of star Katy B has wanted to be, and I don't think she herself has truly known the answer to that either, and it makes for an all together messy though not exactly poor discography.

 

There's very little I can find to say about 'Lights On'. As nice as it was to have confirmation that Miss Dynamite was still with us, I actually find her verses to be the worst aspects of the song and kind of hard to decipher what the hell she's actually on about. I first heard this track being played at an Xmas party which was held on either the 22nd/23rd December 2010, and I didn't pay much attention to it. Mainly because the song on before that had been 'Whip My Hair' which had resulted in a mass rush to the center of the room, and this certainly chilled the place out somewhat after that.

 

Overall, a rather chilled track that is a pleasant listen but if it's not fierce enough to be a dance record nor mellow enough to be an easy-listening one. Not a mess per say, but a definite confusion.

 

Edited April 9, 201510 yr by James Silkstone

08/01/2011

Jessie J

Do It Like a Dude

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bc/Do_It_like_a_Dude_cover.png/220px-Do_It_like_a_Dude_cover.png

 

I'm no Jessie J fan, though my reasons for disliking her came along post-2012 and really have very little to do with her 2011 output. That said, "Do It Like a Dude" is a fairly trashy and unpleasant sounding record to me. I remember at the time Jessie J was very much being touted as the next big thing after winning the BBC'S Sound of 2011 poll, and I remember thinking that if that was the case then the year ahead was one I was not going to enjoy musically (2011, by the way, has ended up probably being my favourite year for music this decade. It's also the best year of my life, but more on that later).

 

Whilst I certainly appreciate the message of the song, I don't think it makes J come across as all that likeable. She's always had a quirkiness to her but here she just seems to turn it up to 11 and just comes off as odd and slightly unhinged. It certainly got people talking about her at the very least, I remember this track being widely discussed in my Year 11 classes at the time and my little sister, then in the midst of her "Paul's Boutique" phase (anyone who gets that,reference yes it was an awful time), was utterly obsessed with this as well and when Katie is obsessed with something, she's bloody obsessed with it.

 

I don't know what it is about this record that I find so unpleasant, but it just rubs me the wrong way for some reason.

 

Edited April 9, 201510 yr by James Silkstone

I really liked Light On at the time but I find it really boring to listen to now.

 

And apart from Bang Bang I've never liked Jessie J.

Lights On is just the easy hit single from a varied album, one of the safest and poppiest songs she did. It felt like something of a letdown after Katy On A Mission, and for me it wasn't until I saw her live that summer that the song really worked - her vocals of this sounded brilliant in the sunshine, especially the flowing verses. For me Katy's biggest surprise was three years away, when she released the best song of her career out of absolutely nowhere, but that's long in the future!

 

Jessie J has one good song. And this ain't it. It was the first really big single of the year and made me rather worried of things to come - surely the rest of 2011's #1s wouldn't be this bad. All that hype about being the next big thing and she comes out with this tuneless piece of crap?

 

I remember a few posts on Buzzjack around this time from people who'd heard her follow-up single, and were immediately proclaiming it as a future #1 in the making...

Lights On is just the easy hit single from a varied album, one of the safest and poppiest songs she did. It felt like something of a letdown after Katy On A Mission, and for me it wasn't until I saw her live that summer that the song really worked - her vocals of this sounded brilliant in the sunshine, especially the flowing verses. For me Katy's biggest surprise was three years away, when she released the best song of her career out of absolutely nowhere, but that's long in the future!

 

Jessie J has one good song. And this ain't it. It was the first really big single of the year and made me rather worried of things to come - surely the rest of 2011's #1s wouldn't be this bad. All that hype about being the next big thing and she comes out with this tuneless piece of crap?

 

I remember a few posts on Buzzjack around this time from people who'd heard her follow-up single, and were immediately proclaiming it as a future #1 in the making...

 

Haha, I definitely agree that 'Lights On' would have benefited more from a summer release than being released during the middle of what in my memory at least seemed like a polar vortex.

I absolutely LOVE reading these so please keep it up this time, I've read every single one and although I don't always agree (DILAD is one of Jessie's best), they're always a great read!

22/01/2011

JLS feat Tinie Tempah

Eyes Wide Shut

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bf/JLS_featuring_Tinie_Tempah_-_Eyes_Wide_Shut_thumb.jpeg/220px-JLS_featuring_Tinie_Tempah_-_Eyes_Wide_Shut_thumb.jpeg

 

In hindsight, JLS were actually a pretty terrible band. I've gone back through their greatest hits recently was surprised by just how much crap they dared release to the general public. There's no excuse for tracks like 'The Club Is Alive' and a lot of their ballads fall completely flat - 'Everybody In Love' which want to be anthem SO badly but fails and, well, you can go back and see what I made of 'Love You More'. But, despite their overall terribleness, quality wise JLS actually had a pretty good 2011 for me and it all started here with possibly the best song of their entire career.

 

'Eyes Wide Shut' is the kind of boyband love song that I just adore, it's not them sitting looking all doe-eyed and serious singing a slow song about how beautiful they find someone's wrinkes. It's upbeat, optimistic, sweet without being too corny and actually sounds genuine....you know, feelings and actions that being in love actually inspires. The beat to this is probably the best of their careers and not even Tinie Tempah manages to slow down the pace, his verse being a personal favourite of his for me. For me, this track is everything that 'Everybody In Love' wanted to be so badly - particularly near the end of the track where we reach the 'everybody everywhere put your hands in the air' which really does feel rather anthemic and is probably the best singular moment of JLS's entire career

 

Do I miss them? No. Do I think they could've been a lot better than they allowed themselves to be? Hell yes.