Des Lynam: Evening. A great night of action in prospect here, five songs vying to go through to the second round of this inaugural Singles Jukebox End-of-Year Best-Off, only two places available Of Course. Fistful of top contenders in the mix here, headed by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs — “Heads Will Roll” was the second-highest scorer in the regular season, carding an 8.46 back in June. Vistoso Bosses, on the other hand, only turned up three weeks ago, but “Delirious” found a firm place in the hearts of the jury – with a helping hand from a certain Mr Boy. Then there’s the surprise package from Denmark, Medina — “Kun For Mig” shook up the Jukebox top ten all the way back in April, but can it still do the business in the bleak mid-winter? Louche smoothie Maxwell’s been winning over the fans and the pundits all year, and ”Bad Habits” carded an impressive 7.31 in July — the kind of score that forgives anything, in my experience. Last but not least, Florence and the Machine — Brit Award winner, Mercury Music Prize nominee, and now a shot at reaching the knockout stages of the world’s premier December-based pop music tournament. She’s got the love, but has “Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)” got the legs to last the course?
We cross live to the stadium now, where Kent’s finest, Iain Mew, is all set to get us underway.
Iain Mew: Group 2 is an easy win for “Heads Will Roll” (5 points). Its foreboding synths sound like a sci-fi RPG villain’s theme, it turns glitter into an apocalyptic signifier and it’s massively enjoyable from start to finish. It also single-handedly turned me round on a group who I never really thought much of. “Kun For Mig” is a much less instant hit, but sinking slowly into its deep bass and melancholy alike remains a great feeling (3 points). “Delirious” is so light, almost weightless, that it totally passed me by on first listens, with only the (actually quite likable) Soulja Boy bit making any impact. What I missed: it’s incredibly, addictively pretty and doesn’t really need anything else (2 points). That really strong top three leaves Maxwell and Florence Against the Machine (0 points), and I’m not particularly keen on either. I didn’t already give Maxwell a [3] for sounding ridiculously cluttered and grating (and for being unnecessary alongside Bat For Lashes), though, so he gets fourth place (1 point).
STANDINGS: Yeahs 5, Medina 3, Bosses 2, Maxwell 1, Florence 0
Al Shipley: “Bad Habits” (5 points) is the default favorite here, although honestly it doesn’t have shit on “Pretty Wings,” and Medina is a close second (3 points) just by virtue of having a pretty appealing voice. This Florence thing…man you guys like women singing synth pop, huh? I mean, I guess I do too (2 points), but not all the time. The Vistoso Bosses song would be greatly improved if the monotone zombie boyfriend part played by Mr. Tell ‘Em (1 point) was removed. Don’t know why people are still paying attention to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, kinda hoped all that would be over by now; that lady’s singing is almost as stupid as her haircut (0 points).
STANDINGS: Medina 6, Maxwell 6, Yeahs 5, Bosses 3, Florence 2
David Moore: Medina’s chilling ode to loneliness on the dancefloor (I presume that’s what it’s about, not speaking Danish) has been a slow burn all year, and ultimately I decided to let it (5 points) trump reliably unstoppable dorm-dance-indie from Yeah Yeah Yeahs (3 points). There’s nothing particularly inventive or revelatory about “Kun for Mig,” but there’s a kind of desperation in it that’s haunting, and the perfunctory English lyrics only reinforce the feeling that something special is happening almost imperceptibly in the original version. FloMac tries her best to “haunt,” too, but her poetry trips over itself and this original version of “Rabbit Heart” feels a bit too leaden (2 points). I prefer the dumbed-down and day-glo’d Jamie T. remix, which makes you wait so long for the chorus that you unconsciously start craving it—in the original the repetition starts to dilute everything, there’s too much stuff cluttering up that build to the chorus climax. I have even less to say about Maxwell than Vistoso Bosses—just find everything he’s done this year dull but also haven’t paid enough attention to him to formulate why and won’t try to now—but ultimately I think his song is slightly prettier (1 point) than theirs (0 points), and in the end whoever gets the pretty points gets the dubious honorable mention distinction.
STANDINGS: Medina 11, Yeahs 8, Maxwell 7, Florence 4, Bosses 3
Alex Macpherson: Three superb tracks here! Vistoso Bosses came up with a stellar take on my favourite kind of pop song, and I can’t count the hours I’ve spent absent-mindedly losing myself in “Delirious” (5 points) this year. There’s little I’d rank it below. I’d be surprised if I heard from them again, which is both sad but somehow…right. On the other hand, the next two are from two acts with Proper Careers who made two of 2009’s best albums. “Heads Will Roll” (3 points) is the most obviously anthemic track on It’s Blitz, moving between its disparate sections with beauty and ease; Karen O’s vocals are somehow both convulsive and propulsive, twisting and turning in on themselves without ever losing forward momentum. I’ve found that Maxwell’s BLACKsummer’snight works best as an album qua album; I rarely pull its constituent parts out to listen to by themselves, and if I do it tends to be “Cold” or “Help Somebody”. None of this detracts from the fact that “Bad Habits” is basically perfectly crafted and relegating it to third place (2 points)hurts me, seriously. “Kun For Mig” is still as pleasantly ignorable as it was the first time round, with the Booka Shade breakdown still the best bit, though I was wrong to think that an English version would help me actually care about it (1 point). As for Florence, she’s not as hateable as La Roux or the various female twee irritants that we’ve been plagued by this year (0 points), but… look, she’s basically a C-rate Sophie B Hawkins, right? And Hawkins only had a handful of songs worth a damn anyway, and you can probably iTunes or youtube “Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover” if you really want to listen to it.
STANDINGS: Medina 12, Yeahs 11, Maxwell 9, Bosses 8, Florence 4
Martin Kavka: When I first saw the songs in this group, I wailed in despair at having to rank them. Except for “Heads Will Roll” (1 point), these are all songs from which I learned and re-learned Pop’s Great Lesson: love makes you flush reason down the toilet, and teaches you that a life of making good choices is a life that forbids you from, you know, actually living. Maxwell was the best instructor of 2009 (5 points), edging out Medina (3 points) and Florence (2 points), and in “Bad Habits” he can’t decide whether he should embrace his physical responses to a woman or resent her for driving him to abandon. Yet perhaps such melodrama misses the point that self-abandonment might be not just a good thing, but the best thing in life. If Maxwell is wrong (and on many days I think he is), Vistoso Bosses would be at the top of the heap. It’s a crying shame that Interscope cravenly added that Soulja Boy rap (0 points), though.
STANDINGS: Medina 15, Maxwell 14, Yeahs 12, Bosses 8, Florence 6
Pete Baran: A controlled group, either subdued or going through the motions — albeit with panache — from the get go. Of the songs in this group the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s is the most controlled and clever pop song (5 points). Flo has energy and delivery, but there are two songs folded into one here and I am not sure that it has legs beyond the impressive histrionics (3 points). Same is true for “Kun For Mig” — everything works in this song but I am not quite sort what I am going to do with it (2 points). Clearly a dance mix which makes use of its awesome breakdown is required. Vistoso Bosses is sweetness incarnate (even with super sap Soulja Boy on there) but it is flat on a dancefloor (1 point); they sing it with the suggestion that none of them understand the word delirious. As for Maxwell, he has always impressed me with his soul credentials, but generally bored me with the tunes. This is better than a lot of his stuff (0 points), but still doesn’t electrocute me with fun.
STANDINGS: Medina 17, Yeahs 17, Maxwell 14, Bosses 9, Florence 9
Ian Mathers: The Soulja Boy-less version of “Delirious” is neck and neck with “You Belong With Me” for my song of the year, so it was never not going to take this division for me (5 points), even with that tacked on verse at the beginning (it’s not bad, but anything in the song that’s not the chorus is kind of a waste of time). Then I’m in an odd position, because those Florence + The Machine and Yeah Yeah Yeahs singles are both great, but neither of them are the best single the band’s produced this year. Honestly, in a “Zero”/”Drumming Song” showdown I don’t even know who I’d pick, but as much as I like “Heads Will Roll” it’s far from the second best song on It’s Blitz! (2 points) and “Raise It Up (Rabbit Heart)” is nearly as great as “Drumming Song” so it gets the edge (3 points). I don’t care much about Maxwell (0 points) or Medina (aside from thinking both singles have been overrated by our lovely Jukebox writers); I neither like nor dislike either song, but “Kun For Mig” has a better beat and is shorter, so it wins (1 point).
STANDINGS: Yeahs 19, Medina 18, Maxwell 14, Bosses 14, Florence 12
Chuck Eddy: Clearly the women win here — especially the ones who like *Alice In Wonderland.* Hey, I’m a Grace Slick fan, too! But Florence sounds like she has considerably more fun pulling rabbits out of hats (5 points) than Karen O does chopping heads off (3 points). (Their ’09 albums were probably equally overrated overall.) As for Vistoso Bosses, I guess I’m just not charmed enough by their theoretical cuteness (1 point) to ignore how meh their voices sound; though maybe I’d be more charitable if Soulja didn’t drag them down. And I’d probably like Maxwell more if he made instrumental albums (0 points).
Chuck Eddy also gave Medina 2 points, but he doesn’t like to talk about it.
STANDINGS: Yeahs 22, Medina 20, Florence 17, Bosses 15, Maxwell 14
Andrew Brennan: “Rabbit Heart” is better than everything else in this group (5 points) because it has one of the most powerful and beautiful choruses of 2009. The synth progressions and vocal delivery in “Heads Will Roll” are great, and I love how all the different layers and textures work together. It isn’t the anthem that “Rabbit Heart” is (3 points), but it’s better than the rest: “Kun for Mig” is a bit too repetitive for its own good — the minimal backbeat and synth work, and I like the Everything But The Girl vibe, but its lack of sophistication puts it in third here (2 points); “Delirious” isn’t bad, but it also isn’t good — the Soulja Boy rap in the beginning is really off-putting, and overall the song is just boring (1 point); and Maxwell… blah. This (0 points) starts out whiny and slow, then it dials up a ‘lo-fi’ tropical feeling that I’d probably enjoy more if it lacked the vocal.
STANDINGS: Yeahs 25, Medina 22, Florence 22, Bosses 16, Maxwell 14
If we were to end it here, Medina would go through by virtue of having scored higher in the regular season. We have one vote left.
But first –Lord Cut Glass didn’t manage to qualify, but he’s still the people’s champ, so here’s “Look After Your Wife”:
Tremendous. But now, back to the action. Medina vs. Machine. Deciding who goes through to the second round, it’s…
Tom Ewing: I’ve listened to “Rabbit Heart” more than any other song this year — to my somewhat shock — so the least it deserves is an admission that YES FLORENCE I LOVE YOU or at least I love this song and its absurd Joseph Cambell histrionics (5 points). Midas is King! Raise it up! Vistoso Bosses on the other hand is quite new to me but is so gorgeous and tender on first listen that it (3 points) muscles out “Heads Will Roll” which is only my fourth favourite thing on It’s Blitz! (2 points) anyhow. “Off with your head! Dance till you’re dead!” is the hook line of my year mind you. Medina is poised, sad Europop that will get admiring 8 out of 10s as long as there’s a Jukebox, and good for it (1 point). Maxwell? I like it but I like the album as a whole: the “it’s not you, it’s me” of single reviewing (0 points).
1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Heads Will Roll” – 27 points
2. Florence and the Machine, “Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)” – 27 points
Yeah Yeah Yeahs finish top by virtue of getting a higher score in the regular season
3. Medina, “Kun For Mig “ – 23 points
4. Vistoso Bosses ft. Soulja Boy, “Delirious” – 19 points
5. Maxwell, “Bad Habits” – 14 points
Well. Well well well. Another six finishes like that, and my theoretical grandchildren will never be hearing the end of it. Florence’s finishing flourish propels her into the last sixteen at the expense of the plucky young Dane, and is very nearly enough to topple Karen O and chums — on this kind of form, who knows what she might do? At the same time, the closeness of this finish can’t bode well for the snazzy New York outfit’s chances in the later stages, particularly in light of T-Swizzle’s cakewalk earlier today. Poor Vistoso Bosses never really got going, but they’ve an awful lot of future to look ahead to; as for Maxwell… well, who’s saying we’ve seen the last of him?
Tune in tomorrow to see if “Zero” leaves a bigger impression on the voters in Group 3, and whether “Fifteen” can continue Her Serene Blondeness’ domination of our hearts in Group 4. Also – lesbians, ninjas, and MSG up the wazoo. Keep it locked, kids…
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