If it is, I am guessing that as we speak he is adding in some code to auto-assign Pyatnitski submissions last place.
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Nope
In sixth place with 5 points
Rhianna - Umbrella
I’m actually nervous multiple people are going to submit this one.
Yeah, I can see that, it’s a great song. The main hook is wonderful, and it has that feeling you can get with slick production that even the tiniest element of music is exactly, precisely correct. The only reason it’s not higher is the Jay-Z intro, which is a bit dull in context and no songs after this one waste even a second. Rhianna herself kills it throughout, and this marks the official start of what I think are extremely good entries.
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^^^
It me.
Lol Bohemian Rhapsody as best pop song.
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In fifth place with 6 points
M.I.A. - Paper Planes
The only one of these I didn’t already know. I was aware of M.I.A. and remember thinking I should listen to her at some point, but I can’t recall what prompted that and it never happened. I came to really love this song, though, and it’s the first one that I sometimes (usually whilst listening to it) thought perhaps should win. It has several elements I always enjoy—a bored sounding female singer, unusual percussion, a choir (though just M.I.A. multi-tracked, I think). I even remembered a few lines from it and I usually pay less than no attention to lyrical content. This is very fine pop music.
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Never heard that Rihanna song. Pretty pretty pretty good.
Great choice, I very nearly chose this
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M.I.A. is me.
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Fun trivia question - what’s the song MIA is sampling in Paper Planes?
I considered Umbrella because that song is awesome; I did not consider Paper Planes but that song is also awesome. Bohemian Rhapsody last place starting to look less bad tbh (I would’ve at least put it above the Paul Simon song though).
What’s that a sample of? I know it really well but can’t place it.
I was actually just about to post that as a trivia question. I had the same reaction when I first heard the song. Drove me nuts. I finally googled it.
Straight to Hell - the Clash
Straight To Hell
OK, I’m putting the ‘podium’ break here. It’s unorthodox but the next four songs could only be ordered after I put them into their own playlist and stuck it on repeat. It felt as if up to here was relatively solid, but afterwards things may have changed depending on my mood.
I don’t believe in ties, though, and I stand by this ranking, so don’t think I’m one of those crybaby snowflake liberals that hands out participation trophies. I mean, maybe the ranking won’t change? Maybe it’s the objective musical truth? Let’s go with that.
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Check out MIA’s first album, Arular, if that song intrigues you. I picked this because it was her hit, but there’s even better stuff there, imo!
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In fourth place with 7 points
Buzzcocks - What Do I Get?
Under 3 minutes, check. Teenage angst, check. Buzzsaw guitars, check. Woah-oah chorus, check. Fits my definition of pop.
Can’t argue with that submission statement and I love Buzzcocks (and not just because I grew up not far from Bolton). I’m sure they’re the punk band I’ve listened to the most and this song is a great example of their work—fast, funny, catchy as hell. Just brilliant.
There were only two tiny flaws I was able to identify and thus condemn it to the foot of the podium. Firstly, the call and response bit is so great that leaving it to a short outro is criminal. Secondly, it isn’t “Ever Fallen In Love”, which would have romped to victory. Still, what a band.
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They had so many great songs - Boredom, Promises, Lipstick etc
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Love Bites was one of my favourite albums back then.
I like 20 dollar better than Paper Planes. But both are very good.