EG | Social: Early verdict on Pet Shop Boys ‘Elysium’
I’ll let my iTunes speak for itself. These figures represent 6 days of listening (apart from Winner and Invisible of course).
(i.e. It’s an utter triumph)
I’ll let my iTunes speak for itself. These figures represent 6 days of listening (apart from Winner and Invisible of course).
(i.e. It’s an utter triumph)
This author sums up exactly why I find Spotify a bit of an unruly, inelegant mess when organising music.
The UK Chart Midweeks will be out shortly. After the divisive Closing Ceremony, expect to see these five cracking the upper regions in the Official Chart next Sunday.
Who doesn’t already own this, one wonders?* Already a UK No. 6 (1975), No. 1 (1980) and No. 3 (1999), the track appeared in the Ceremony as a mix of Lennon’s vocal and those of the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Choir and the Liverpool Signing Choir. Wikipedia tells us that it is one of the most covered songs of all time and that Elton John once changed the lyrics to take the pee out of his very wealthy pal, Lennon:
Imagine six apartments
It isn’t hard to do
One is full of fur coats
The other’s full of shoes
Expect to see it inside the Top 20.
Cheeky George did what no other artist did and performed his new one – a rather decent bit of electronic pop which has little to do with the Olympic theme. The usually forthright George hasn’t let his Twitter followers and critics in on whatever deal was cut to give him such a massive global platform for the track, but you’ve got to admire whatever ballsy negotiator he had.
With the negative feedback, he’s gotten a bit testy:
Please join me in telling them to fuck off ! It was my one chance on tv to thank you all for your loyalty and prayers, and I took it. X
— George Michael (@GeorgeMichael) August 14, 2012
But perhaps, as he Tweeted directly after his performance, it’s mission accomplished:
White Light EP debuts at NO.2 on itunes album chart !! THANK YOU ALL :))
— George Michael (@GeorgeMichael) August 12, 2012
Just inside the Top 10 for George I think.
This has been threatening to go big for a long time. Originally creeping into the Top 40 in 2008, the track has already had Olympic exposure with it’s use by the BBC during the Beijing Olympics. It’s been used in all sorts of emotive places since then (a MacBook ad, part of the Official BBC Children in Need Medley which reached No. 1 in 2009, Sky’s Earth Day promo, etc). A big but gentle anthem from the unassuming Manchester act, it should comfortably get the Top 10 slot it finally deserves.
#savethesecret pleaded the organisers, but the rumours abounded that Kate Bush might finally return to live performance for the Closing Ceremony. With the release of Running Up That Hill with new vocals just hours before the broadcast, the speculation increased. It wasn’t to be. Instead the track was played to accompany one of the more striking set pieces. Unfortunately for Kate and the US, broadcaster NBC went to commercial infuriating many a Bush fan.
The original version made No. 3 in the UK in 1985. There’s a chance that this new version might join it in the Top 5.
Along with Pet Shop Boys’ West End Girls, Scotswoman Sandé managed to feature in both Opening and Closing Ceremonies. Her version of Abide With Me memorably accompanied Akram Khan’s solemn dance piece for the bereaved of the 7/7 bombings and relatives of those in attendance. She was back two weeks later performing extracts from Read All About It on a couple of occasions.
The track was a 2011 No. 1 for Professor Green and Sandé, with her Green-free version appearing on her debut album shortly after. Her solo version also charted lower down in the chart a few times this year.
Top 5 on Sunday is fairly safe.
* Amusingly, I just checked my iTunes and guess what? I don’t have it.
Hed Kandi have released Ibiza 10 Years and say it ‘has the biggest tracklist to date showcasing global icons on the frontline of house music’.
The public see it differently.
Punters don’t tend to hold back online when they don’t like something (read ‘below the line’ on almost any site to see how quickly things get nasty). Most of this bile is more therapeutic for the writer than it is of any great interest to the general reader. This little review on iTunes UK greatly amused me though.
There’s something wonderfully passionate about the scorn that this reviewer has for the Hed Kandi compilation. S/he is quite simply offended by the lazy selection and one gets a real sense of quiet fury of this latest betrayal.
Long may his/her passion for music continue.
Text
‘Shed Kandi’ by Audio Rebel
11-Jul-2012
Two stars out of five.
I am surprised that anyone who has been to Ibiza & fully experienced Hed Kandi being smacked-up to the eyeballs will even remember anything. This compilation, however, will be for those who’ve never been, don’t actually recall going or aren’t a serious clubber. Whoever compiled this tracklist very likely was under the influence of some Class A substance when their boss scribbled in crayon on a pizza box to ‘fink up sum choons’ that an 18 year old Essex builder would like to play in his Volkswagen Golf.
After just one day, Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange is sitting atop the US and UK iTunes.
Coming out wasn’t such a bad move after all.
Of course, this stunning debut television appearance on Fallon didn’t exactly hurt either.
10 years ago on this forum, I suggested that the PSBs were beyond pop and were artists in the most sincere sense of the word. Tonight showcased that in a way that their live shows often do, but this time to a mass audience who never really understood. How gratifying to imagine the heathens finding the whole experience weirdly arcane. The audience at Earl’s Court betrayed all of the body language redolent of the fanbase during Performance in 1991: slack-jawed bemusement. What *are* we watching? From Drico on Pet Shop Boys Community Message Board
See previous post. Especially No. 5.
They rocked. And didn’t the new tracks, Love Etc and All Over The World, sound pretty good too?
(iTunes has 30-second snippets of the new album available now)
The iTunes madness of u***g a*******s on vaguely rude words that started in the Irish store has now spread to the UK store. The heads over at Popjustice are having a g*y old time finding r**e words to p**y with.
I note that Sex On Fire is no longer on the blacklist, but Kanye West’s L**e Lockdown is. The evil, insidious Céline Dion is one tragic victim of the asterisk attack with sensitive iTunes users being protected from her wanton use of that four-letter word. Similarly, the kids are shielded from that brassy Cecilia Ahern’s flagrant disrespectful use of the offending word in the audiobook of PS: I L**e You.
Meanwhile, you can download most of Anal Cunt‘s back catalogue unrestricted. Hooray!
It seems that ‘love’ is truly a four-letter word in Appleland.
Silly b******s.
UPDATE: A***e have broken their silence. It’s a database glitch and they’re not sure why it’s h*******g it seems. What japes!