A Year In America November 27 and December 4, 2008
Good girl gone better with every listen.
The Fray "You Found Me": Slushy, the verses a mumble, the guitars then swelling for generic uplift, and Isaac's lips still getting in the way of his words. Pretty tune, though. NONTICK.
Jim Jones & Ron Browz f. Juelz Santana "Pop Champagne": Impressively, the Autotune manages not to add sheen to the voice. Giant bass bombs splatter the landscape, seemingly from a different song. When the raps finally show up, they're an actual surprise. Oh! A hip-hop song with rapping? THIS IS A DISCORDANT MESS! For which it gets a TICK.
Rihanna "Rehab": Burnt bronze throat, the dance moving slowly, the song exhaling little puffs of pain. DEEP TICK OF DARK EMOTIONS.
Ludacris co-starring T-Pain "One More Drink": He drinks and drives, everything's in sight, in better sight, seeing the world's girls through booze-colored glasses. The Ying Yang Twins do this a lot better, but this is good-humored enough. Borderline TICK.
Kanye West f. Lil Wayne "See You In My Nightmares": More adventures from throats of sadness, Wayne matching Kanye autotune to autotune, this getting more insistent as it continues (though actually this is one of the more so-what tracks on 808s & Heartbreak). Borderline TICK.
The Fray "You Found Me": Slushy, the verses a mumble, the guitars then swelling for generic uplift, and Isaac's lips still getting in the way of his words. Pretty tune, though. NONTICK.
Jim Jones & Ron Browz f. Juelz Santana "Pop Champagne": Impressively, the Autotune manages not to add sheen to the voice. Giant bass bombs splatter the landscape, seemingly from a different song. When the raps finally show up, they're an actual surprise. Oh! A hip-hop song with rapping? THIS IS A DISCORDANT MESS! For which it gets a TICK.
Rihanna "Rehab": Burnt bronze throat, the dance moving slowly, the song exhaling little puffs of pain. DEEP TICK OF DARK EMOTIONS.
Ludacris co-starring T-Pain "One More Drink": He drinks and drives, everything's in sight, in better sight, seeing the world's girls through booze-colored glasses. The Ying Yang Twins do this a lot better, but this is good-humored enough. Borderline TICK.
Kanye West f. Lil Wayne "See You In My Nightmares": More adventures from throats of sadness, Wayne matching Kanye autotune to autotune, this getting more insistent as it continues (though actually this is one of the more so-what tracks on 808s & Heartbreak). Borderline TICK.