9 September 2010 Mark Sheehan, guitarist with The Script, died in April 2023, only six months ago as I write this. The Script's brand of U2-influenced earnest, melodramatic, stadium-sized soft rock has been hugely successful, and 'For The First Time'—whose video stars Eve Hewson—is on-brand in that regard. It's not a genre of music that … Continue reading The Script – ‘For The First Time’ →

2 September 2010 Party-anthem EDM-pop beds in for 2010 and beyond. Following in the designer loafers of designer loafers Flo Rida, David Guetta and Taio Cruz, here again is Katy Perry, America's sweetheart of the spring-break mechanical-bull rodeo. 'Teenage Dream' aims less for saucy-postcard and more schoolgirl-diary, or at least a grown-up's contrivance of same: … Continue reading Katy Perry – ‘Teenage Dream’ →

26 August 2010 Oh, so they were making generic US whoop-holler EDM for the Tesco piped music in 2010, were they? (Genuine question: at that time I was still living in France, where all my local supermarkets played uncensored versions of the sweariest US and UK chart hits.) To call 'Dynamite' EDM-by-numbers implies it goes … Continue reading Taio Cruz – ‘Dynamite’ →

5 August 2010 Flo Rida, like an anti-intellectual faction of The Black Eyed Peas, and David Guetta, court jester to the crass blingerati partying while the world economy burned: between them, the ambient noise of our 2009-10 charts. Now, in that era's depressingly familiar synergy of inanity, they've joined forces for a 'collab'. And when … Continue reading Flo Rida ft. David Guetta – ‘Club Can’t Handle Me’ →

29 July 2010 If in 2010 you were only consuming the latest pop sounds by whatever you overheard on TV stings or a passing radio—and it happens to us all—chances are you still knew the bleepy Charleston of 'We No Speak Americano'. Electro-this-that-and-the-other was having a moment at the end of the '00s and into … Continue reading Yolanda Be Cool & DCUP – ‘We No Speak Americano’ →

22 July 2010 Rihanna doesn't have a writing credit on this track, but she had been a high-profile victim of male domestic violence and abuse before 'Love The Way You Lie' was released. As a result, the chorus lyric she sings is uncomfortable. Still, it's her choice and her lived experience, and they're complex things, … Continue reading Eminem ft. Rihanna – ‘Love The Way You Lie’ →

24 June 2010 Our 2010 number ones from the States have so far been notably conservative: the tweeness of 'Fireflies'; the strategic corporate alliance of 'Telephone'; the wholesome high-school musical of 'Gives You Hell'; the hip-hop-hooray EDM of 'OMG'; the soccer-parent nostalgia of 'Hey, Soul Sister'. Had '00s poptimism congealed into ick? Did the economic … Continue reading Katy Perry – ‘California Gurls’ →

27 May 2010 The last time we had a Romanian act at the top of the Irish charts, Enigma with 'Return To Innocence', they were embroiled in a copyright claim over a trad-sounding element. The same thing happens here for Edward Maya: the distinctive accordion line in 'Stereo Love' wasn't a folk-hand-me-down in the public … Continue reading Edward Maya and Vika Jigulina – ‘Stereo Love’ →

20 May 2010 Inevitably, Lady Gaga's influence comes to market. 'All Night Long' is clearly a record that loves 'Just Dance' from its dance-centric lyrics to its robotic-verse-melodramatic-chorus EDM architecture and back around by its house party video. Alexandra in her video (below) also throws some Gaga-esque Weimar-cyborg shapes. If only Gaga herself had followed … Continue reading Alexandra Burke ft. Pitbull – ‘All Night Long’ →

13 May 2010 Really, this is from as late as 2010? In my mind I had carbon-dated 'Hey, Soul Sister' to the late '90s and early '00s, when Matchbox Twenty and the Goo Goo Dolls stalked the Earth. Also: really, this is the same band that did the blustery, pretentious soft rock hit 'Drops Of … Continue reading Train – ‘Hey, Soul Sister’ →