Smash Your Head - It's kinda wacky listening to Girl Talk outside of an album format, as undoubtably some magic is lost. But I love the worlds he creates, the bridges he builds between all different categories of pop. Without him, I would have never known that Juicy, Tiny Dance, the theme song to the O.C. and Check on It could all work together. I think there is a method to his madness, and I'm all for it. [5]
My Happy Ending - This song didn't really work for me in the summer of 2004, and it still doesn't work for me now. How ... can you get paid as a songwriter and rhyme dead with ... dead? In the same verse -THE FIRST VERSE - no less. It always troubled me that the quieter, more honest Don't Tell Me comparatively flopped, and that MHE saved the album campaign - should have been the other way around. [1]
Man, this is just so 2004, isn't it? And not in a good way. The transition into middle 8 is smooth, but I can't help but remember that Ashlee, Hilary and Lindsay did this kind of thing so much better back then.
M - I listened to it once, and all I can remember is this - I've never heard Ayumi sound better. I prefer my Ayumi more rhythmic (if she makes it to the next round, her second track is a doozy), this is very ... pretty? Better than Avril, at least. [3]
Waking Up in Vegas - Ah, Katy. Has there been a pop star I've dragged more mercilessly across this forum? I don't think. But even a frozen clock is right twice a day, and Waking Up in Vegas is the ace in the hole. I like what Patrick said - this is unapologetic about its narrative, and I don't think Katy's ever sounded better. I hate to say it, but this might be my number one for the week. [6]
Excuse Me - Not one of my favorite tracks from
Love Me Back. It's Jazmine in straight from the throat territory, a road that she's tred one too many times. It's a testament to her power that this pastiche of 70s soul still works (kinda sorta.) [4]
Golden Age - I knew the vocals of Tunde Adebimpe and crew would be a tad too understated for ATRL! (
They sometimes are for me too.) But everytime I hear this song - or, more to the point, that climatic chorus - I remember Pitchfork's review of
Dear Science. This is shitfire hot. [8]
Million Different Ways - Wow, the fall of 2003. I remember I LOVED this song back then, when I was as big of a Sugababes stan as you can get. But, months later, I revisited it and realized that the production was off - something was a little too muddled, messy, subdued. I do wish that the chorus continued the climax the bridge started, but I must say it's great to hear these three voices back together. Mutya leading it off with THAT voice, Keisha doing the second verse no one cares about, Heidi and her middle eight. I miss them.
[7]
Points to Sigsworth for that middle eight, though - I've always thought that this track owes a knowing debt to dancehall; in another world, Sean Paul's on the remix.
Breathe Me - Like, how can you hear this and not think of the SFU finale? I cried like a baby watching that. But I think one has to be in the mood to hear this - waiting for her to stop whispering and start belting is trying, to say the least. The trick ending at 3:10 is unfair, to say the least. [2]
Cool - What a breath of fresh air. I'll concede that it doesn't really go anywhere, but when the song is this good, is that a complaint or just an observation? Kworb once pointed the breaths she takes, and once you hear that, you can't un hear it. But still, I love the way she tackles the lyric - tentatively, but with purpose. Who knew that the end of relationship could produce so much joy?
And that video. Sorry, but I can't forget that video. How could a then 35 year old woman look so convincing as a teenager? What is she, a witch? :30rockreference: [9]
Music Gets the Best of Me - Occupying the same refracted hothouse/disco universe of Kylie's "Love at First Sight" (admittedly, a superior song), MGtBoM touched me as a fat, gay music-loving teenager - and it still does now. I was just thinking about the changes in Sophie's life since she made this track; she's now married with children. Assuredly her feelings have changed; maybe now she emphasizes the irony of the lyric. But I believe, when she performs it, that it still must make her react. I know it does to me. [10]
