The reason it's called Hell Week? Look at the artists playing this week ...



Beyoncé, performing Halo



Wynter Gordon, performing Dirty Talk



Pink, performing Family Portrait



No Doubt, performing Simple Kind of Life



Janelle Monae, performing Cold War



Fiona Apple, performing Paper Bag



M.I.A., performing Bucky Done Gun



Adele, performing Melt My Heart to Stone



Chris Brown, performing With You



Britney Spears, performing Everytime

See? Tough week. Songs will be up in a bit - once they are, listen to all ten, rank and comment on them. Rankings due by FRIDAY.

Stans, get your stanning on - it's your time to shine.

Everytime... I love it, but I think something else would have had more appeal to the non-stans.

Hopefully all the Britney and Bey stans came sworm full force - it would provide for some ... interesting results.

And here are the artists playing next week - WEEK 7.

Hilary Duff
(ineligible: Gypsy Woman)
Nightwish *
Vampire Weekend
Arcade Fire *
(ineligible: Keep the Car Running)
Freemasons *
Lil' Kim
Missy Elliot *
(ineligible: Teary Eyed, Gossip Folks)
Lily Allen
(ineligible: Smile, Littlest Things)
Emi Hinouchi *
Usher
(ineligible: Caught Up)

(*) denotes a cherrypick, only the cherrypicker can create a top four.

Top fours are due by THURSDAY.

Surprised that "Everytime" won out, but I voted for it, so...

And hey, can I make a quick FYC for...

Arcade Fire:
WAKE UP

Thanks.

The week that matters.
I'll do mine tomorrow.

Can you fix Emi's name? It's Emi Hinouchi Please...and do you want me to send you direct mp3s or youtube links?

Mp3s, and will do. Feel free to submit for other artist if you know them.

Week 5? Isn't this supposed to be week 6?

You caught me.

But since I'm here, let me do some FYCs!

Hilary Duff

Break My Heart
Where Did I Go Right
Haters
Dignity
Play with Fire

Vampire Weekend
Jonathan Low
Diplomat's Son
Run
White Sky
Horchata
Walcott
A-Punk
Oxford Comma
I Think U'R a Contra

A great week.

Britney Spears, performing Everytime [10] Brilliant. It's so simple, yet effectively fragile. It showcases her true talent. Her most mature ballad yet.
Chris Brown, performing With You [9]
Beyoncé, performing Halo [8] Slightly overwrought, but still amazing, power ballad.
Adele, performing Melt My Heart to Stone [7]
Pink, performing Family Portrait [6]
Janelle Monae, performing Cold War [5]
Fiona Apple, performing Paper Bag [4]
M.I.A., performing Bucky Done Gun [3]
No Doubt, performing Simple Kind of Life [2]
Wynter Gordon, performing Dirty Talk [1]

OH Em Gee...This week is ****ing epic. It's going to be so hard.

M.I.A- Bucky Done gun I am glad this song was picked because it is my top favorite song from her. (10)
Janelle Monae,- Cold War I love this girl. She is such a talented artist. Cold War is a masterpiece. (9)
Beyonce- Halo I seriously want this to be my wedding song if I get married. This song reminds you of that special someone. (8)
No Doubt- Simple Kind Of Life Hearing this song, makes me want No Doubt to come back. I hope they release their new album this year. (7)
Wynter Gordon- Dirty Talk This song is fantastic! This reminds me of the euro dance music craze from the 90s. Her voice also suits the song. (6)
P!nk- Family Portrait One of P!nk's most underrated singles. It deserves more recognition. (5)
Britney Spears- Everytime This is the only Britney ballad that I actually enjoy. I don't really like her ballads. I never seen her as a type of artist to make ballads. (4)
Adele, - Melt My Heart to Stone Her style is so classy in the tradition of the great oldies. They don't write too many of this type of songs nowadays. (3)
Fiona Apple,- Paper Bag I am not that really fond of her music but Paper Bag seems okay I guess, (2)
Chris Born- With You This song sounds way too generic for my liking. I prefer some of his other songs. (1)


This week was very hard.

Britney Spears Everytime

Stanning, stanning, stanning and stanning. My obsessive fan tendencies aside, I genuinely believe there's enough brilliance packed into my track for it to warrant a ranking at or near the top of my list. This is perhaps the most personal moment in Britney's entire discography, and the all the soul revealing really pays off in the form of a heartbroken ballad. More of this, darling. (10)

No Doubt Simple Kind of Life

Gwen Stefani is someone I tend to forget about as a songwriter. Thankfully, BOTB has helped me see the error in my ways and forced me to recognize the brilliance of her work. Gwen perfectly reflects the somber nature of this song's instrumentation with lyrics that at times border on heartbreaking. This conflict between family life, settling down and career obligations is not the sort of thing I'd normally be moved by, but the feeling of being torn is communicated so genuinely that I'm absolutely captivated. (9)

Wynter Gordon Dirty Talk

If the phrase “Cherry pop, tag team. Can you make me scream?” was the only brilliant thing this song had going for it I could excuse its undeniable floppage, but fact is, this is one of the best written **** anthems to appear in years. "I am no angel," Wynter sings, and despite the fact that her singing isn't nearly as breath heavy and gutteral as you'd expected to find in a track as sexually charged as this one, there's a real smoothness to her voice that's completely intoxicating and, in a sense, seductive. The way that she glides between notes is very sexy. Dirty talk indeed. (8)

Janelle Monae Cold War

I don't know for certain what you're fighting for, Janelle. There's a bit of an ambiguity to these lyrics that I don't like, but that also allows me to easily come up with my own interpretation of the track. Lines like "I'm trying to find my peace.*I was made to believe there's something wrong with me, and it hurt my heart,"*lead me to believe this is*something about feeling like an outsider and fighting for that right to be an individual. I guess I can get down with that theme, but I'm really here for the musicality. (7)

Beyonce Halo

A saccharine, adult contemporary ready ballad made special by a perfectly nuanced vocal performance from Beyonce. Tedder brings some of his tired production techniques to the table, but there's an aural/spacey aspect to certain elements of the track that are especially pleasing, enhance the sweetness of the message and play into the heavenly/angelic aspect of halos. (6)

Adele Melt My Heart to Stone

I identify with this this account of one-sided love in that I can relate it to an instance in my life where, after dating someone for a long time, there came a point where I was "the only one in love." I think Adele is an expressive singer, but ultimately the lackluster backing track can't compete on any level with her talents as a vocalist. I keep waiting for everything to kick into overdrive, for those sweeping strings to crescendo and my tug at my heartstrings. This never happens. (5)

Chris Brown With You

Boo, boo, all over the world tonight, all over the world tonight, boo boo, shawty, cutie, mama. Romance at it's most juvenile, but ultimately this Stargate confection is too sweet and too catchy to be denied. Chris Brown has better, but not bad. (4)

Pink Family Portrait

Does she actually preface this song by saying "This some deep ****," between the introductory uh-uhs? If you're going to label your track "deep ****", you had better deliver something incredibly profound. Pink fails to do so with this on-the-outside-we're-a-perfect-family-but-we-got-issues-at-home-yo number, offering nothing that would set this scenario apart from the fairly standard "the parents fight and it's uncomfortable" tale that accounts for the huge divorce rates in the United States. The account is deeply personal to Pink, I'm certain, but the content isn't exactly heavy hitting or "deep" in any way. (3)

Fiona Apple Paper Bag

I wonder how many anorexic teenage girls think of this as a pro-ana anthem? I appreciate the cleverness Fiona employed in writing this and giving us this message that "hunger" or desire for someone hurts, but starvation "not having that someone" is sometimes better than having a relationship that can't live up to it's promise. Stylistically, this is so not my cup of tea, and skillful songwriting aside, I have a hard time appreciating this. (2)

M.I.A. Bucky Done Gun

I was planning to intentionally low-ball her before I listened to the track cause, quite frankly, I hate her, but actually I don't have to cheat the system and give her a lower-than-deserved score. This is horrid and fully deserving of the last spot on this list. (1)

Britney Spears - Everytime
So much emotion in one song, and the video is amazing. I love that she has a very beautiful ballad like this and it was sung so gorgeously. (10)

Pink - Family Portrait
Great song by Pink. She has much more beautiful songs, but this one is amazing on its own. (9)

No Doubt - Simple Kind Of Life
Gwen delivers with this song, I like it. (8)

Chris Brown - With You
I remember the day when I love this song, but now I don't think so. But I still think it's a very good song, I'm just so tired of it. (7)

Wynter Gordon - Dirty Talk
I think I have her song Surveillance (or something like that) and I love that song, but not this one. I like this one but it's not really a song that can make you love her. (6)

Adele - Melt My Heart To Stone
I don't know why but I never get into her vocals, but I can tell she's good. I just can't get into her, same with this song. (5)

M.I.A. - Bucky Done Gun
Not really horrible but her vocals annoy me. Ugh. The song is good, it's just the vocals. (4)

Beyonce - Halo
I liked this song at some point, but now I hate it. I prefer Already Gone. And the Charice version. There's just something here that I don't like. I think it's overdone. (3)

Fiona Apple - Paper Bag
WTH is this. I have her song Sleeps With Butterflies or something like that and I like it, but this one isn't working. (2)

Janelle Monae - Cold War
I've been hearing a lot of buzz about this girl, and I don't get it. The track is bad. (1)

FYC for Hilary:
Happy
Someone's Watching Over Me
Burned
The Getaway
Shine

This is a tough week - my bottom three are pretty easy, but deciding who comes out on top is crazy hard. Any other week (especially last week, or the next week up), at least five of these songs would be my ten-pointer.

Beyoncé - Halo

I Am ... Sasha Fierce was a decidedly uneven album, and it's main fault lies with the ballad section. Simply put - Beyoncé is not like any other singer on the market - usually that's taken as a compliment, but it does have a downside. The downside is this - Bee has her own very special relationship to concepts like soul, emotion and genuine feeling; this makes most of her ballads extremely trying to get through. She can't pull off the everywoman, unless the tempo's raised substantially. (Irreplaceable excluded.)

Luckily, "Halo" doesn't ask her to do this. She finds an ideal partner in Ryan Tedder, who's most convincing crafting gigantic landscapes, for gigantic presences to fill. (This explains why a song like Already Gone, which dares to dabble in sincerity, largely doesn't work.) This is a song meant for nothing less than a supernova, a true icon. It takes its largely meaningless lyric and raises it to heights that are ultra-diagenic, i.e., they have nothing to do with the "true meaning" the lyric is meant to possess. This is why it - and Beyoncé's shimmering, fully possessed performance work so well.

P.S. Points to Bee from removing the filler middle 8 at the core of the original demo, having nothing there but her whistle, and returning to the enormity of her voice, sends this song into the stratosphere. [8]

Wynter Gordon - Dirty Talk

I'm not going to deny that this song isn't catchy, but it's also the dictionary definition of "generic." In a week like this, with bonafide classics, it really cannot compare. [1]

Pink - Family Portrait

Back when this song was released, it was borderline treason to be on ATRL and not to love it (and the whole Missaundustood [spelling off purposefully folks] project as a whole). Nine years later, taken away from the fuzzy haze of nostalgia, Pink strikes me as the Noughties answer to Alanis Morrisette - shockingly obvious lyrics and generally off production meant to appeal to all the confused young girls out there. With the release of ****in' Perfect, it's clear that she's still up to the same damn tricks. To which I say ...

[2]

No Doubt - Simple Kind of Life

Take away the strings, and you have a late 90s alt-rock masterpiece. I'm glad people are recognizing more and more Gwen's songwriting abilites; she's one of the few people in pop that has a truly distinctive writer's voice. It can be strained, awkward, but when it hits, it hits. [THAT LAST VERSE. "Sometimes I wish for a mistake." Like, how does that ...like who does that? I'm crying right now.] In any given week, this would be my surefire number one, but something - or someone's standing in its way. [9]

Janelle Monae - Cold War

I held Janelle off for the LONGEST time. I saw her live in 2008 and was largely UNBOTHERED. Her over-ebullient praise in the year 2010 drew ire, also. When I first saw the Cold War video, my first reaction was similar to the gif I posted above. Somehow, some way, this track (and the album at large) grew on me. I love how insurgent her vocal is; it makes the lone moment of sweetness truly powerful. [5]

Fiona Apple - Paper Bag

Oh, Jon Brion. I think the Apple/Brion partnership was one of the best of the past fifteen years, and I hope it continues - they really get each other. The sound of this song is so full, so lush, and it aids - adds color to Fiona's typically acerbic writing. She's never been so simultaneously witty and vulnerable; "He said it's all in your head/and I said so is everything/but he didn't get it" is unbelievable. [7]

M.I.A. - Bucky Done Gun

Funny how time flies; when we originally played this game, M.I.A. was a champion, now she might not make it to the next round. That's why it's such a breath of fresh air to hear her when she was just starting, still hungry, still on her third-world savior tip. The Rocky sample still goes hard, and her "rhyming" provides just as much energy. Man, Arular changed a lot of things in this game. [6]

Adele - Melt My Heart to Stone

One of the only 19 - era tracks that doesn't reek of Winehouse, I love the production - how it knows when to back off, and when to kick in (the gorgeous bridge). I just wish the song had more spirit. [4]

Chris Brown - With You

Oh, when Stargate's pseudo-folk affectations ruled R&B (and therefore pop) radio. It's really hard to listen to this after ... you know; for what it is, Chris acquits himself fairly well. But it's as bland as bland can get.

And the Jordans line has always rubbed me the wrong way. [3]

Britney Spears - Everytime

It's funny that I mentioned it earlier, because I don't think there's a current pop singer who's more suited to ballads than Britney is. It's not because of the range of her voice, but because of how sincerely she feels it. (Well, pre-2004 Britney, but let's not go there.) Some of the production really gets on my nerves now (that yo-yoing effect in the background does my head in), but that last part - "At night I pray/that soon your face will fade away" - that's arguably the finest, most stirring thing Ms. Spears has ever contributed to pop music. [10]

Beyonce - Halo - 3

Okay, it's time for me to just say it: I do not like "Halo". At all. To me, the song is overblown and bland. Yes, Beyonce does sound good here at times, but other times, she sounds like she's oversinging for the sake of trying to sound "powerful". And besides, Tedder used this beat and sound better with "Already Gone". Oooooh, yeah, I just went there.

Wynter Gordon - Dirty Talk - 1

Oh yay, another girl singing about being a ****. NEXT.

Pink - Family Portrait - 4

I cannot believe that ATRL is just so willing to bash this song now when, at its peak here, EVERYONE seemed to love it. But I guess time hasn't been too kind to this song. It's also a shame that this song wound up being part of a surprisingly difficult week to rank. It probably would have been higher other weeks.

No Doubt - Simple Kind of Life - 8

This song just reminds me of a time when life didn't have nearly as many complications, and I can't help but love the song because of it. But let's not forget about what Bart said: Gwen Stefani really can be a fantastic songwriter when she TRIES to be. To me, Gwen's songwriting can be absolutely painful (gee, I wonder what songs might fall under that label, HOLLABACK GIRL), but when she hits, like she does with "Simple Kind of Life", it's just magic.

Janelle Monae - Cold War - 5

I was going to say that I really do appreciate this song and leave it at that, but while listening to it again, it hit me that this song is just a faster-paced and female "Going On" by Gnarls Barkley! That song is awesome, and I like this song, but it just feels dirty to rate this song too high knowing this information.

Fiona Apple - Paper Bag - 7

I can't say that I'm surprised that Fiona's music is so decisive here. It's REALLY hard to get into Fiona's music, I can attest to this. But then came "O' Sailor"...and I finally got the appeal. "Paper Bag" just follows that awesome with more awesome. What I'm trying to say is...keep trying. Eventually, you'll find that Fiona song that causes that epiphany within you. And you'll fall in love with this song after having that epiphany, too.

M.I.A. - Bucky Done Gun - 9

Guess I'll have to be the one to defend this classic (that's right, CLASSIC). This song was the song that hooked me to the true greatness that is M.I.A. More than any other artist, her music simply does not allow for boundaries. More than any other song in her discography, "Bucky Done Gun" shows off the limitless aspect of her music. There's so very little structure to be found here, but that is the song's charm. Well, that and M.I.A.'s hypnotic vocals. I can understand people hating this song, because it's just so ******* crazy. But I adore it.

Adele - Melt My Heart to Stone - 6

Shame that Adele will have NO chance of getting very far because of this song's reception among the general population here. And I don't even really disagree that much. This song doesn't have the punch of 21-era Adele nor the pure brilliance of "Chasing Pavements" Adele. But I really enjoy the simplicity of this song at the same time. Adele's voice is just...a breath of fresh air in a sea of mediocrity, and the sole acoustic guitar is really all that is needed as a backdrop here. Hell, I could just listen to acapella Adele all day. Any successful musical backdrop would just be gravy.

Chris Brown - With You - 2

You know what? Fine, I'll avoid the "woman beater" talk one time and just say this: there's only one Chris Brown song that I even remotely like...and it's not this one.

Britney Spears - Everytime - 10

Here's something that's going to shock you: every song in my Britney top four this week would have been my ten pointer this week, and this song was one of them. I guess I really am secretly a stan of Queen Brit Brit after all...eh, maybe not going to go THAT far, but there's no denying that her music has always been a part of my life, and "Everytime" is Britney at her most respectable and most powerful. If this really is the response to JT's "Cry Me A River"...well, I won't say that she won the war, but at least she went down swinging.


And ****, is next week going to be hard or what? Arcade Fire, Vampire Weekend, Lily Allen, Nightwish, hell, even the right Duff song could make things tough for me. I'm anxious to see what songs made the cut.

I think I'll play for the first time

Let me know if I screw this up I fought over Beyonce, Pink, and Britney's placement. I ended up with this order, but it was VERY close.


Britney Spears - Everytime [10]
Beyonce - Halo [9]
Pink - Family Portrait [8]
No Doubt - Simple Kind of Life [7]
Adele - Melt My Heart to Stone [6]
Fiona Apple - Paper Bag [5]
Wynter Gordon - Dirty Talk [4]
Janelle Monae - Cold War [3]
MIA - Bucky Done Gun [2]
Chris Brown - With You [1]

FYC's for Hilary Duff:

Any Other Day
I Wish

Very, very good week.

Fiona Apple - Paper Bag [10] Fiona is a lyrical genius, and the production on this song is top notch. One of my all time favorites of her's.
Adele - Melt My Heart to Stone [9]This was my favorite song from 19. I adore the lyrics, and can very much relate.
Pink - Family Portrait [8]
No Doubt - Simple Kind of Life [7]
Janelle Monae - Cold War [6]
Beyonce - Halo [5]
Britney Spears - Everytime [4]
MIA - Bucky Done Gun [3]
Chris Brown - With You [2]
Wynter Gordon - Dirty Talk [1]