Comments on: 2009 in Review: The Year’s Stars on 45

By: Doc Pickles

Doc Pickles — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:24:53 +0000

Autotune the news is my favorite meme of the year, I’m really impressed with a lot of their newstunes, but I think I like the idea even more. And the single tear of the angry gorilla.

By: malstain

malstain — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:43:56 +0000

On the female-named dude-band tip, note also the metal bands Priestess and Baroness.

By: peli grietzer

peli grietzer — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:35:52 +0000

plus, i love how ‘fifteen’ takes the abstinence anthem format and makes it about how the worst disease that you can get from sex is inertia

By: peli grietzer

peli grietzer — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:08:36 +0000

really good take on swift. also, i think there’s some glint of that creeley kind of quality in her, where you get this really nice sense of writing-as-thinking-through — a sense of process or effort. similarly, i’d say that while she’s just adequate with metaphors she has an uncanny gift for metonymy, for communicating a rich world through cleverly selected bits and pieces. that’s (maybe) why the grandly metaphorical ‘love story’ is kind of cringe-inducing but ‘teardrops on my guitar’ is her best songs and one of the most metonymy-heavy pop songs of recent years. plus, well, my admiration is partly proleptic — she already mastered basic pop lyricism at 18, so i can’t wait to see where the next 10 years will take her.

By: zoilus

zoilus — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:05:59 +0000

I prefer Swift to Lambert too, Peli, by a pretty far shot, but I think Lambert has her powerful moments. As for what Swift has going for her as a writer, I guess it would be a keen sense of emotional space? Her narrative timing is really good, and so is her sense of proportion - it comes across that what’s going on is a young person’s dilemma, that it’s not the most grave thing in the world, but that it matters a lot to the protagonist of the story - and it all adds up to the listener empathizing and sharing in the mourning or celebrating or striving going on in the song.

By: peli grietzer

peli grietzer — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:11:08 +0000

it’s funny — i really want to hurl myself guns a-blazing against the critical praise of paisley and lambert as lyricists and say that everyone’s just automatically giving them a million points for even trying; but i myself am pretty damn excited about taylor swift and on paper it’s hard to say what exactly she has going on for her as a writer other than good intentions, so i guess maybe paisley and lambert just have some remarkable vibe that i’m not getting.

By: andrew

andrew — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:47:22 +0000

big up the Vibez Cartel pick. Such a good Ne-Yo beat, without Ne-Yo’s saccharine song on top!

By: Misha

Misha — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:05:53 +0000

early influence - Das Damen?