Best and worst for week ending 22nd November
Best. Number 11. LADY GAGA - "BAD ROMANCE"
Lady Gaga is curious anomaly as something in the music world that is stupendously popular, yet simultaneously of good quality and intrigue. Her tracks may not exactly contain the most wondrous prose or harmony, but she creates damn good catchy pop, of which "Bad Romance" is yet another example of that special kind of genius that Gaga seems to naturally harbour. The chorus here is yet again a ridiculous earworm, and she also continues to slot in covert self-referencing that only Gaga would have the appealing egotism to throw into the mix. The track has an interesting rhythmic quality and some curious timbres, such as the eerie synthetic harpsichord during the intro and outro, and it also has a vague Latino quality deep within its midst. With a fanatically stylised video sporting a cast worthy of The Mighty Boosh, this is another Gaga gem within the rough that is the top 40.
Worst: Number 31. DAVID GUETTA FT AKON - "SEXY CHICK/BITCH"
Whilst Guetta's popularity seems to swell continuously, his musical merits are still considerably lacking within this release. The timbres that saturate this mix are dull and over-used, whilst Akon's lyrical contributions would appear to have derived from the dawdlings of some mentally defunct, embarrassingly sleazy simpleton who has the vocabulary and charisma of an Indonesian pirate. I additionally do not approve of the manner in which Akon (and indeed the RnB/hip-hop world generally) throws the word bitch around so gratuitously it becomes a pseudonym for women everywhere. It is not ok, it is offensive. Whilst Guetta has personally self-proclaimed his stylistic similarities to uber-producers such as N.E.R.D and Timberland, ultimately this track examples perfectly that Guetta is a DJ, not a producer or a musician, and perhaps he should fuck off back to Ibiza, where his particular brand of nondescript euro dance should remain in full hibernation.
