Tom Ewing
10
Mar 14
PWC14: Group F Match 2 (Nigeria, Iran, Argentina, Bosnia-Herzegovina)
The second Group F match finds Nigeria (managed by Cis) in pole position, riding a wave of appreciation for African pop. Charged with getting past them are Iran (Wichita Lineman) and Argentina (Chris B) with Bosnia-Herzegovina (Scott M) needing points quickly.
As usual, you have two votes between the four tracks. The poll is below the cut, and so is the Group D results, with a second team exiting the tournament….
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9
Mar 14
HANSON – “MMMBop”
The word “manufactured” is the most enduring and potent slam on pop music, suggesting music as sheer product – assembled by formula, made by people interested only in money. But what the opposite – more desirable – quality would be is rather less clear. Artisanal pop – hand-crafted for love or art’s sake – is generally what’s meant. There’s a second opposite shadowing that one, though – implicit in the m-word even if it lurks there unintended: not artisanal but natural. An idea of pop as something simple, something that comes easily – think of Paul McCartney supposedly waking up with the melody to “Yesterday” in his head, convinced he couldn’t have thought of it, it seemed so primal a tune. Most people know enough about music to realise such instances are absurdly rare, if they happen at all, but the idea still appeals.
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7
Mar 14
Popular ’61
There’s a few big Popular entries coming up so I’m giving myself a spare day’s breathing space, which means it’s time for a year poll. To be moved to its proper place in a week or so.
I give every record on Popular a mark out of 10 – this is your chance to say which of the number ones of 1961 you’d have given 6 or more to. This year got three 9s from me – “Johnny Remember Me”, “Blue Moon” and “Moon River”. At the other end “Wooden Heart” and “I Reach For The Stars” got lumped with a 2. As ever, discuss the year in general in the comments…
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Mar 14
PWC14: Group E Match 2 (France, Honduras, Ecuador, Switzerland)
Group E’s second game sees France (managed by Jessica) looking for the win that will see them through to the knockout phase. Giant-killers Honduras (Kat) will be trying to build on their fine early start, with Ecuador (Megan) and Switzerland (Mullah Rezmat) hoping for improved second-game fortunes.
Click through for the tracks, the poll (pick 2 of 4), and results from Group C.
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ETERNAL ft BEBE WINANS – “I Wanna Be The Only One”
All through the pre-Spice 90s, if you wanted a girl group, it was R&B you looked to, and the reason you looked there was En Vogue. Like the Spice Girls, they were immediately successful and widely copied. They mixed high-gloss beats with rich, harmony-driven soul and used it to deliver short, potent empowerment slogans. They were exhilarating, they seemed exactly right for their times, and their imitators and successors ultimately led to one of pop’s grandest and most inventive eras. And, like any great American band, they received the dubious compliment of a British knock-off: Eternal.
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4
Mar 14
State Of Decay
THREE #1-#5 (Image Comics) by Kieron Gillen, Ryan Kelly and Jordie Bellaire
Kieron Gillen, Ryan Kelly and Jordie Bellaire’s THREE is a political comic on every level. The level on which it got most of its publicity was a right-to-reply in a conversation conducted between comics – Three is an a riposte to Frank Miller’s Thermopylae epic 300, almost an unauthorised sequel. Stressing this may have enhanced its impact – comics fans like sequels – but might also have held it back, downplaying the extent to which Three works for someone (like me) who has never actually read 300, and how much further it goes than the simple “your fave is problematic” style callout its early press positioned it as.
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3
Mar 14
PWC14: Group D Match 2 (England, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Italy)
England (managed by Ronald) top Group D at the moment – sparking tabloid frenzy back home – while Uruguay (Matthew), Costa Rica (Pete) and Italy (Andrew Hickey) will be looking to stop their momentum. It could be a closely fought group, with mind games aplenty as several managers have played down their chances of progress.
Four tracks, two votes – the poll is below the cut, along with the latest Group B standings.
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2
Mar 14
OLIVE – “You’re Not Alone”
“You’re Not Alone” walks a line between the mind-expanding and the tediously polite, a nexus point for a handful of mid-90s trends and ideas. There’s trip-hop in the mildly skippy beats, or at least what was left of trip-hop after all the scuzzy, stoned, party-friendly elements had been siphoned off elsewhere. There’s the well-groomed soul of the Lighthouse Family in the songwriting – particularly the drab verses: when I started my business career, the Lighthouse Family had already become the conference call and lobby music of choice, and they were more than fit for purpose. And there’s Everything But The Girl’s “Missing”, too, a dance track whose yearning, thoughtful tone had earned it plenty of post-club usage. As the rave generation settled into their mid-20s and beyond, the music of the chill out room found its way out of the club and into the home.
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28
Feb 14
GARY BARLOW – “Love Won’t Wait”
Few figures from 80s pop could match Michael Jackson for popularity and cultural weight. Perhaps only one, and she had also found the 90s harsher going than anticipated. Madonna’s apparent decline was more respectable than Jackson’s, but less interesting: intriguing grapples with R&B, pleasant soundtrack ballads, sales drifting downwards, and finally a solid, unrevealing, turn on a revived Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. “So what happens now?” her final single from that project asked. The answer, in 1997, was cloudy. Meanwhile one of her demos from a scrapped LP ended up in Gary Barlow’s hands, giving Madonna her first number one song in seven years.
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27
Feb 14
PWC14: Group C Match 2 (Japan, Cote D’Ivoire, Colombia, Greece)
Group C’s second game finds a confirmation that David Cooper Moore has been given the Colombia manager’s job full-time after impressing with his urgent substitution in Game 1. He’ll be looking to build on a point, while Japan (Patrick St Michel) and Cote D’Ivoire (Garry McKenzie) seek to capitalise on strong starts. Rounding out the group is Greece (Billy Dods) – yet to find the net. All of that could change with your votes!
4 tracks, 2 votes, below the cut – as well as news of our first ELIMINATION.
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