I’m picking up where I left off last week, with a look at the top singles on Village Voice’s Pazz & Jop poll, and sitting rather unexpectedly at #7 is Britney Spears’ ‘Till the World Ends.’
Or maybe it’s not so unexpected. For some strange reason, Britney Spears has a rather strong track record with music critics, even more so since she crashed and burned several years ago. Maybe music writers just like a comeback story? Can it possibly be that they like her music?
I was all set to write that another previous weekend artist was showing up on Random Weekends, but then I realized Ben Folds hasn’t gotten the weekend treatment (yet).
I guess I just assumed he had because I’ve featured so many of his songs on the blog, including the entirety of his first album with Ben Folds Five.
Brad Paisley, who had his own weekend series, has decided to make an appearance on Random Weekends.
Today’s song is from Paisley’s fifth album, 2008’s 5th Gear, and it is not a favorite of mine. That album, in general, represents something of a slump for Paisley, falling between his four best records — Mud On the Tracks and Time Well Wasted on the one side and American Saturday Night and This is Country Music on the other.
What am I supposed to think about Lana Del Rey? Having never listened to a single song, I’ve seen her alternately described as indie rock’s next big thing and a vapid, talentless hack. Her striking good looks are admired as icing on top of a very talented cake or dismissed as the only reason she landed a recording contract.
How can all of these things be true?
Charting at #9 on the Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll is Adele’s second smash single, ‘Someone Like You.’ ‘Rolling in the Deep,’ predictably, sits at the #1 spot with a nearly 20-vote lead.
It’s impressive that Adele dominated the charts, the airwaves and critics’ year-end lists. Usually those things don’t happen at the same time. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time a year’s best-selling album was also its most critically acclaimed.
