Yet Another Year In America November 4, 2010
The retail season is vroomin' up the hillside. Four women, a couple of guys, a new girl and the panorama wide open.
Ke$ha "We R Who We R": Terrific little bit of dance pastry, the lightest Ke$ha's ever been, the music claiming no consequence beyond what it is - which doesn't mean it has no consequence, since of course it does, the twinkling dance of the dissolute mattering plenty as it wafts mistily through our imaginative night. The lyrics, on the other hand, are incongruously anthemic and, disappointingly, reduce themselves too much to signifiers, demanding consequence rather than creating it. She declares an "us" rather than allowing one to discover itself. But that doesn't make the music less delicious, the wasted waif finding her way to fluff. WE R WHAT WE TICK.
Willow "Whip My Hair": The whipping part whips us around nicely and slides easily into an r&b melody that evokes turn-of-the-millennium r&b mystery with a touch of later-in-the-decade Rihanna sadness. So when this slides just as easily back into all the hair whipping, emotions feel released. I TICK MY HAIR BACK AND FORTH.
Taylor Swift "Sparks Fly": His allure slams her like a stormburst, she falling like a house of cards, her waver sounding nice and sweet, and a mild rockingness keeping this flowing and rolling. Too undifferentiated, though, so starts rolling into dullness until rescued at 3:15 when Taylor kills the volume and runs the chorus without the rock. We then hear a subtext of longing and sadness, the ache that all this chemistry was supposed to remove, "Drop everything now/Meet me in the pouring rain/Kiss me on the sidewalk/Take away the pain." Up 'til then the sound and words had been too easy in announcing an electric danger that the music didn't make us experience. But when Taylor goes quiet we suddenly feel the real peril, her fear that he won't drop everything for her and that, even if he does, sparks won't fly and won't overwhelm her. Wish the song counterpoised the two dangers better, the fear of the spark and the fear of no spark - like, for instance, Aly & AJ being right, being wrong, being weak, being strong, and all afire etc., in "Rush" and "Blush" and "Chemicals React." Nonetheless, TICKS FLY, eventually.
Kanye West ft. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Bon Iver, & Nicki Minaj "Monster": Producer Kanye West gives this a compelling, insinuating trashcan shuffle that in turn gives ferocity to his rapping, right out of the gate, though his intensity fades. Jay sounds like a buffoon, Ross and Iver are barely there, so this becomes the Waiting For Nicki Show - and fortunately she IS a show, a tour of monsters and voices, alter egos arguing, mock terror and extreme bliss, a motherfuckin' TICKSTER.
Taylor Swift "Innocent": An advice song, the analogue in Taylor's storytelling being "Tied Together With A Smile," except "Tied Together" is much more powerful, Taylor's advice to her friend being urgent but floating away in futility, a helpless Taylor pressed against the glass watching her friend disintegrate and get fucked over. At least that's the sense I get from it. Whereas "Innocent" floats away in platitudes, "Today is never too late to be brand new." Fortunately, Taylor's voice communicates plenty of regret, as if the regret were her own; and she doesn't oversing the uplift, "Innocent" not sounding nearly as facile as it reads. You feel the fear when she says the monster is catching up. Beautiful fear, though the singing is maybe too delicate, paradoxically making the words seem too weighty... The lines about things being easier back in the lunchbox days/firefly days are actually more interesting if, instead of being about Kanye, we think of them as being about Taylor, about her potential for loss, the days of possibility superseded by stumbling actuality. This way, the affirmation that no, wait, possibilities are always alive is Taylor trying to sing away the prospect of a shutdown. TICK.
Katy Perry "Firework": Katy's good intentions don't make this good music, or even passable; I'm not blaming the melody per se but rather the the dance-oriented inspirational power-ballad style being wrong for the tune and even more wrong for Katy's voice, which in trying to get big becomes a lame, strained disaster. NO TICK.
Chris Brown "Yeah 3x": Everything else aside, Chris's voice has never been either strong or distinctive, but back on "Run It," long ago, he was able to circle and swoop lightly while not undercutting the mournfulness of Storch's dark crunk lite. Outside such a setting he tends towards nothingness. This track has some good fragile house riffs and a fairly catchy melody, both courtesy Chris himself. Maybe his actual talent is songwriting; as this is, even a Derülo or an Iyaz could've gotten more out of it. NO TICK.
Order of preference: Ke$ha, Nicki, Willow, Taylor 2, Kanye, Taylor 1, Jay-Z, Katy, Chris. Impressive week, as even second-level Taylor is hard for anyone else to beat.
Ke$ha "We R Who We R": Terrific little bit of dance pastry, the lightest Ke$ha's ever been, the music claiming no consequence beyond what it is - which doesn't mean it has no consequence, since of course it does, the twinkling dance of the dissolute mattering plenty as it wafts mistily through our imaginative night. The lyrics, on the other hand, are incongruously anthemic and, disappointingly, reduce themselves too much to signifiers, demanding consequence rather than creating it. She declares an "us" rather than allowing one to discover itself. But that doesn't make the music less delicious, the wasted waif finding her way to fluff. WE R WHAT WE TICK.
Willow "Whip My Hair": The whipping part whips us around nicely and slides easily into an r&b melody that evokes turn-of-the-millennium r&b mystery with a touch of later-in-the-decade Rihanna sadness. So when this slides just as easily back into all the hair whipping, emotions feel released. I TICK MY HAIR BACK AND FORTH.
Taylor Swift "Sparks Fly": His allure slams her like a stormburst, she falling like a house of cards, her waver sounding nice and sweet, and a mild rockingness keeping this flowing and rolling. Too undifferentiated, though, so starts rolling into dullness until rescued at 3:15 when Taylor kills the volume and runs the chorus without the rock. We then hear a subtext of longing and sadness, the ache that all this chemistry was supposed to remove, "Drop everything now/Meet me in the pouring rain/Kiss me on the sidewalk/Take away the pain." Up 'til then the sound and words had been too easy in announcing an electric danger that the music didn't make us experience. But when Taylor goes quiet we suddenly feel the real peril, her fear that he won't drop everything for her and that, even if he does, sparks won't fly and won't overwhelm her. Wish the song counterpoised the two dangers better, the fear of the spark and the fear of no spark - like, for instance, Aly & AJ being right, being wrong, being weak, being strong, and all afire etc., in "Rush" and "Blush" and "Chemicals React." Nonetheless, TICKS FLY, eventually.
Kanye West ft. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Bon Iver, & Nicki Minaj "Monster": Producer Kanye West gives this a compelling, insinuating trashcan shuffle that in turn gives ferocity to his rapping, right out of the gate, though his intensity fades. Jay sounds like a buffoon, Ross and Iver are barely there, so this becomes the Waiting For Nicki Show - and fortunately she IS a show, a tour of monsters and voices, alter egos arguing, mock terror and extreme bliss, a motherfuckin' TICKSTER.
Taylor Swift "Innocent": An advice song, the analogue in Taylor's storytelling being "Tied Together With A Smile," except "Tied Together" is much more powerful, Taylor's advice to her friend being urgent but floating away in futility, a helpless Taylor pressed against the glass watching her friend disintegrate and get fucked over. At least that's the sense I get from it. Whereas "Innocent" floats away in platitudes, "Today is never too late to be brand new." Fortunately, Taylor's voice communicates plenty of regret, as if the regret were her own; and she doesn't oversing the uplift, "Innocent" not sounding nearly as facile as it reads. You feel the fear when she says the monster is catching up. Beautiful fear, though the singing is maybe too delicate, paradoxically making the words seem too weighty... The lines about things being easier back in the lunchbox days/firefly days are actually more interesting if, instead of being about Kanye, we think of them as being about Taylor, about her potential for loss, the days of possibility superseded by stumbling actuality. This way, the affirmation that no, wait, possibilities are always alive is Taylor trying to sing away the prospect of a shutdown. TICK.
Katy Perry "Firework": Katy's good intentions don't make this good music, or even passable; I'm not blaming the melody per se but rather the the dance-oriented inspirational power-ballad style being wrong for the tune and even more wrong for Katy's voice, which in trying to get big becomes a lame, strained disaster. NO TICK.
Chris Brown "Yeah 3x": Everything else aside, Chris's voice has never been either strong or distinctive, but back on "Run It," long ago, he was able to circle and swoop lightly while not undercutting the mournfulness of Storch's dark crunk lite. Outside such a setting he tends towards nothingness. This track has some good fragile house riffs and a fairly catchy melody, both courtesy Chris himself. Maybe his actual talent is songwriting; as this is, even a Derülo or an Iyaz could've gotten more out of it. NO TICK.
Order of preference: Ke$ha, Nicki, Willow, Taylor 2, Kanye, Taylor 1, Jay-Z, Katy, Chris. Impressive week, as even second-level Taylor is hard for anyone else to beat.