This has been a tradition since the land before time and Snapchat. While I’ve taken a long break from pop music blogging (the commentary still very much lives on in Twitter), I’m usually tempted to come back to this increasingly unfamiliar Wordpress interface every year and rank, hyperlink and embed my personal favourite tracks of the last 12 months. This year for the first time, I will be blogging with emojis. #downwiththekids
I imagine it’d be nice to scroll back through the passage of time one day to see that once upon a time, Carly Rae Jepsen overtook Robyn as the gays’ new queen of Bubbling Under pop. Once upon a time, Halsey was the flavour of the moment. Popstar of the Future Troye Sivan made an album (how traditional!). They sent troops to Syria but couldn’t extract a record from MKS. Nobody has time for the games Rihanna‘s playing anymore. And two unfuckwithable singer-songwriters in their 20s called Adele and Taylor Swift scrapped everyone’s life force with their massive-selling, Spotify-shunning, numerically titled albums. And where you were when you heard Zayn had left 1D?
Never mind. Here are 30 songs that I really, really liked this year.
Spoiler alert: At some point you might say, this list is really crap. Why isn’t Lana on here?
I left y’all scratching at the post a little last week because I took my ass on a little vacaycay to Brisbane.
Bitch, you should’ve seen me lounging on the beach in an island that was practically deserted on a Monday arvo. I was having a Mariah moment frolicking in the sand, trying to look cute for my Instagram photos. But hey, I am back now and here comes your chart feed – which might cover some things I didn’t get to touch on last week.
This has been a good week for Robbie Williams who scored his first simulatenous UK #1 album-and-single action in 11 years. Elsewhere, the following chart showboaters can’t complain either: Taylor Swift, Calvin Harris, Little Mix, Of Monsters and Men, The Wanted, and to a certain extent, Christina Aguilera. SAY!
Pull up a seat. The beginning of what’s set to be Taylor Swift‘s global chart massacre has begun.
The young country superstar has made clear she’s a force to be reckoned with on the Australian, UK and New Zealand album charts this week with her newest offering Red debuting straight at #1 in these territories. Check out the damage after the jump.
Elsewhere, it’s been a good week for Brandy, Mika, Labrinth and Emeli Sandé, Kelly Clarkson and – heck – even Girls Aloud is back on the charts.
Well this is a really good value Chart Feed compilation, I have to say. Well, as good as it can be without Girls Aloud and Brandy to really discuss, of course. So until then, you just have to deal.
This has been a good week for our Aussie pop prince Guy Sebastian and songbird Delta Goodrem, new girlband sensation Little Mix and triumphantly, Taylor Swift matches Adele‘s US digital song chart record.
More flash in the pan sellers falling off the charts just as quickly as they came. You really come to appreciate what Adele‘s 21 achieved last year in anchoring the music industry, don’t you?
This week the sun shines on K-pop star PSY and his incredible viral single ‘Gangnam Style’. Guy Sebastian, Matchbox Twenty, Flo Rida, Ne-Yo and TobyMac also come through with the goods.
Remember back when it was kinda uncool to be “launched from a reality TV show”?
Well, it would seem that if you can escape that stigma with class and some bloody awesome creative ventures, you’re guaranteed to be embraced by the masses in the way Guy Sebastian and Jessica Mauboy were this week.
Elsewhere on this Chart Feed, it has also been a good week for the Spice Girls, Emeli Sande, Rita Ora and Flo Rida.
I am not sure how I should be feeling after watching Delta‘s new video ‘Dancing With A Broken Heart’. I mean, should we be feeling empowered by the song, aroused by the sexual faces she’s serving, or feeling sorry for the crestfallen characters sharing the clip with her?
The Australian pop princess keeps falling short of ‘excellent’ when it comes to this new single. I’ve noted in my review that it’s not so much about her so-called foray into dance music that’s causing me to shift uncomfortably in my seat, but rather the basic-level effort that has gone into the song. I was half-hoping that the video would help pick up its grades but sadly, I’m left furrowing my brows even harder than before.
Director Hannah Lux Davis – who has done videos like Anjulie‘s ‘Stand Behind The Music’ and Breathe Carolina‘s ‘I.D.G.A.F.’ – fires a fast-faced juxtaposition of Delta serving various modes of ethereal elegance with flashes of three different story lines of characters overcoming brokenness.
There doesn’t appear to be a cohesive connection between Delta and these characters, which is generally not a problem because we understand that popstars need to focus on serving modelesque beauty in music videos, not come for Oscars. However, in the context of ‘Dancing With A Broken Heart’ and the “empowering message” I think it is trying to deliver – it is concerning when you have such a drastic visual contrast between Delta’s magical world and these characters’ grim, pedestrian-looking lives.
On the whole, this great disconnect between Delta – who you see basking in her symbolic elements of water, wind, light and fairy sparkles – and these poor suffering folk really renders a whole new level of awkwardness to the story.
Is she singing for them or for herself? Is she shown as being able to relate to these characters? If so, how can we believe her?
Perhaps right now you’re giving me the side eye for over-analysing a pop music video, but you can’t say that this wasn’t the intention of the clip.
If Delta had simply filmed this video with her just doing graceful movements in the water and floating around with various new age symbolisms, we wouldn’t be here discussing ‘Dancing With A Broken Heart’ at such length.
Visually, I think there were some real keepers in this reel. Delta looked especially stunning in the scene where she is rocking a ponytail and that burgundy bedspread – it’s no wonder they chose that to be the single cover artwork. It’s a shame that the video’s rapid-cut editing and blurring of shots denied us the pleasure of taking in more of her beauty.
Between her leaning against the door frame looking sexy/despondent in a blast of red and blue lights, the disparate story lines, and the blatant lack of actual dancing, ‘Bathing With A Broken Heart’ has failed to give us a visually exciting and thematically appropriate Delta music video.
Footnotes:
Delta‘s ‘Dancing With A Broken Heart’ is set to make its ARIA Top 100 debut tomorrow. The single has interestingly also been released in the UK.
Feed Limmy 