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’ →

29 April 2010 That's OMG as in "oh my gosh" and not "oh my God", just in case you were worried about Usher and Will.i.am blaspheming against their creator - conservative Christian corporate America. Jesus wept. No such considerations of offence against taste or intelligence, of course. 'OMG' tends more towards Will.i.am's dumbed-down EDM inanity … Continue reading Usher ft. Will.i.am – ‘OMG’ →

22 April 2010 In a world where Ben & Jerry's had an ice-cream called Black and Tan, and Kia once named a prototype car the Provo, it's clear that international creative agencies don't have little ol' Ireland on their market research to-do list. Still, I like to amuse myself by thinking that at least one … Continue reading Glee Cast – ‘Gives You Hell’ →