Let's get the last week of round one started. Songs will be up in a bit.



Girls, performing Laura



Alicia Keys, performing Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart



Weezer, performing Troublemaker



Roisin Murphy, performing Let Me Know



BOA, performing Obsessed



Taylor Swift, performing You Belong with Me



Ciara, performing Oh (featuring Ludacris)



Feist, performing 1234



Phoenix, performing Too Young



LCD Soundsystem, performing All My Friends

We have more "rock" acts playing this week than at any point of the competition, so it should be interesting to see who makes it to the next round - which will be unveiled Sunday. So, that means that all rankings are due SATURDAY.

Ciara, performing Oh (featuring Ludacris) 10
Alicia Keys, performing Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart 9
Taylor Swift, performing You Belong with Me 8
Phoenix, performing Too Young 7
Roisin Murphy, performing Let Me Know 6
BOA, performing Obsessed 5
Weezer, performing Troublemaker 4
Feist, performing 1234 3
LCD Soundsystem, performing All My Friends 2
Girls, performing Laura 1

I have to say that this week is even tougher than last week.

I didn't think that was possible.

omg

Girls, performing Laura- 1
Alicia Keys, performing Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart- 7
Weezer, performing Troublemaker-3
Roisin Murphy, performing Let Me Know- 10
BoA, performing Obsessed- 9
Taylor Swift, performing You Belong with Me- 4
Ciara, performing Oh (featuring Ludacris)- 8
Feist, performing 1234-6
Phoenix, performing Too Young- 2
LCD Soundsystem, performing All My Friends- 5

We can't move on to the next round unless people vote for this week.

Promote.

I'll have rankings tomorrow. I'm just so not interested in listening to these today cause none of these tracks came from Femme Fatale.

I feel you sister. Britney always comes first.

Just give me those beautiful writeups - I think you'll like Laura.

Roisin Murphy Let Me Know

"Let Me Know" and the other singles from Overpowered came as a great relief to someone like me, who, though very much impressed by Roisin's skills as a songwriter, was beyond perplexed by the oddity of her solo debut, Ruby Blue. As content as I think Roisin was to continue on releasing Ramalama-like tracks, and as well-received as that style may have been by pretentious-music-critiquing types, I have to bow down to the label heads who (I assume) pushed her down a more approachable and commercially viable (nobody was here for it, though) path. Overpowered strikes a perfect balance between Roisin's clever songwriting and some of the housier moments of her earlier career with Moloko. "Let Me Know" is definitely the best of both worlds. Andy Cato of Groove Armada pumps wonderful and bouncy energy into the track, mirroring the cheeky idea of hooking up with a former lover for no strings attached bedroom romps, but as with all things Roisin does, there's more to "Let Me Know" than what meets the eye ear. "Happier now than I've been in the past," she sings, implying this whole I-won't-freak-you-out-by-being-clingy-and-emotional-if-we-hook-up idea, but her insistence that everything is alright is contrasted by lyrics such as "It might be sweet, if we could meet, along the way, that could be ok," which can read so deeply sentimental and seem so completely desperate that it's hard to believe she'd walk away from casual sex completely undisturbed. So, let her know when you're lonely, babe, cause she's feeling pretty lonely herself and she'd like to see you again. Breaks my heart. (10)

Alicia Keys Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart

I've never really been on the Alicia Keys bandwagon, having always thought of her talents as a songwriter and abilities as a vocalist were greatly over-praised. So basically I was mind****ed the second I heard "Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart", which takes some of the things I hate about Alicia's style and mixes them with other things that I think of as very un-Alicia-like to create a really stirring and special musical moment. I've always felt there was a certain sloppiness to Alicia's singing (she always sounds slightly over or under pitch, and there's a certain strained quality in her tone that I've never found pleasant or felt suited most of her tracks) that somehow works to her advantage with this song. The breathiness of those verses, the way that she sings a majority of the track in a fairly understated fashion, and even her natural inclination towards pitch problems (Is it just me? I have the same complaint of Mary J. Blidge.) enhance the emotional aspects of this song. It's great. (9)

Feist 1234

There's something about the acoustics of this track that I find very interesting. Live music isn't really my thing, but here we have Feist performing on a track that doesn't sound particularly studioized, in fact, I'm taken aback each time I revisit this track by the fact that I think it sounds quite a bit like a live performance, and that, shockingly... I don't hate it. And of course, part of my love for this must be attributed to the songwriting itself (which I was prepared to compliment Feist for, but after further investigation I find that someone else is responsible for the bulk of it), which I think of as somewhat gloomy and is therefore right up my alley. The accompanying music is oddly joyful, and while I'll sometimes lambast certain songs for seeking out intentional juxtaposition, it doesn't bother me so much here. (8)

Phoenix Too Young

A sleek sounding, somewhat 80s inspired, number. I quite like this. (7)

Girls Laura

Based purely on the 60s surfer rock aesthetic, I'm inclined to like this quite a bit. There's an obvious nod to The Beach Boys, yet there's also a modernness to this track that, at least to my ears, reminds me a bit of Rooney's first album and their updated take on beachy themes. Can't say I love dude's voice. (6)

Weezer Troublemaker

I don't know whether to love or hate this, though I suppose I'm leaning more towards love. Rivers' lyrics are banal and downright annoying, yet they're brilliantly done in the sense that they create this perfectly sarcastic jab at people who aren't inclined to use their noggins. The song sort of annoys me. It might have something to do with the fact that it was part of a looping playlist at my old job. (5)

Taylor Swift You Belong With Me

Yes yes yes, she's the world's greatest teenage songwriter who isn't an actual teenager and hasn't been one for a number of years, yadda yadda yadda. Fact is, Taylor Swift can write a fantastic country midtempo aimed at tweens and teens. She must be applauded for this skill, which will hopefully only develop further and evolve as she matures, but there are obvious shortcomings in the full Taylor Swift package. Issue number one: her tiny voice and general lack-of-skill as a vocalist. Working in certain genres I think this issue could be disguised, but here she is pouring her heart out on single after single of teenage heartbreak and her squeaky voice just couldn't seem any more out of place. I want to sew her mouth shut by the time she gets to the "You belong with mee-eee-*breath*-eee," bit. If you don't have the chops to sustain your voice for that extended period of time, I'd prefer you just cut your losses and end the note sooner than expected. I'm not here for unintentionally choppy delivery from asthmatic little girls who lack breath control technique. Super cute song, though. (4)

Ciara Oh

Ciara's delivery is so utterly unremarkable, yet it's tracks like "Oh" and "1 2 Step" that made Ciara a star and gave her a unique musical perspective amongst her peers. Her forays into more pop oriented music perhaps seemed like the best idea for her struggling career, but I don't think people are/were done with crunk CiCi, provided the material is/was any good. And truthfully, that's been the issue with some of her more urban singles as of late; they just can't compare in terms of quality to the **** she was doing in the mid-noughties. This is Ciara in her element. As usual Ludacris turns in an effective guest verse. (3)

LCD Soundsystem All My Friends

Not bad. Forgettable. (2)

BoA Obsessed

I have an issue with the way BoA's voice sits within the overall mix of track. It seems to overpower the other elements at work here. "Obsessed" is, for me, one of the weaker moments on her English language album, sounding a bit like a Britney demo, but not even a good Britney demo ala the Blackout era. This is something an unknown songwriting/production team would have submitted for The Original Doll and it would have, in fact, never been played for Britney. (1)

This was a really solid week. I do not hate any of these tracks. In a normal week, BoA, Ciara and Taylor all would have fared better. I really didn't expect to enjoy the guitar-driven "rock" tracks as much as I did.

Toughest week yet, and it's fitting that I close it out. I don't even have to listen to eight of the songs - that's how rich it is.

Obsessed - maybe I've been listening to Femme Fatale too much, but the opening reminds me of "I Wanna Go." I think I'd prefer this if she was singing in her first language. 2

Troublemaker - I actually like this more than most latter-era Weezer I've heard, but, man, can it not compare to the rest of this week. 1

It's so hard for me to rank the rest of them, you guys have no idea lol:

Too Young - 10
Laura - 9
Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart - 8
Let Me Know - 7
1234 - 6
Oh - 5
You Belong with Me - 4
All My Friends - 3