BBC's Sound Of 2009

At HMV's Christmas piss-up, Grundy commissioned me to do a blog - ok, he didn't pay me or anything, he just told me he wanted me to. That's good enough for me, ok? - in which I listen/watch/check out the BBC's Sound Of 2009 Longlist, and give my opinions on the acts selected. He wrote one himself - http://grundygrundy.blogspot.com/2008/12/bbc-sound-of-2009-longlist.html and wanted to know what mine would be like if I did one. So, now that I'm done with stressful assessment writing and my exam, I feel I can devote enough time to this project, so here goes. The bands are listed in the order I listened to them in. The songs I listened to by them are in brackets.

1. The Big Pink. (Too Young To Love)
How can a meeting of My Bloody Valentine, and classic Chemical Brothers sound this boring? This is really unimaginative stuff.

2. Dan Black. (Yours)
Ok, both songs so far have sounded like they were made in the mid-late nineties. This one is obviously influenced by Big Beat. Like The Big Pink tho, it just sounds like a pale imitation of it's influences, and a bit like something you'd find on a more recent Chemical Brothers album.

3. VV Brown. (Crying Blood)
Ok. Looks like 2009 is actually going to be the revival of the nineties. Another heavily Big Beat influenced song. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out Norman Cook produced this. Another pretty boring song.

4. Empire Of The Sun. (Walking On A Dream)
That's the guy from Sleepy Jackson!! This might be good.
Oh dear it sounds like MGMT.
I fucking hate MGMT.
Go back to doing Sleepy Jackson please.
And stop looking like Adam Ant's bastard offspring.

5. Florence And The Machine. (Dog Days Are Over)
Ah, these are the lot that have already been confirmed for a Brit award. New Band Most Likely To Line All Our Wallets or something.
How does it sound?
Oh, I've heard this before.
They sound just like Bat For Lashes.
But shit.

6. FrankMusik. (3 Little Words)
Electro-pop. Very 80's. This is exactly the kind of song that is kind of annoying now but will grow on me after a while and kind of already is. When I started writing that sentence I wasn't liking it, but by the end of it I had a smile on my face. Hang on, I'm gonna listen to it again.
Yeah, I like this one.
Best song so far by miles.

7. Kid Cudi. (Day 'N' Nite)
Not really sure what to say about this one. It's the kind of slightly bland chart oriented urban club tune that'll probably be pretty big. It's not good or bad really, it just exists.

8. La Roux. (Quicksand)
Electro-pop again. This time it is actually just annoying and not very good. In fact it's incredibly annoying.

9. Lady GaGa. (Just Dance)
Looks a bit and sounds a bit like Christina Aguillera. American pop. Awful lyrics. Unimaginative backing track. Another song on this list that is just pretty boring. And it's too long.

10. Little Boots. (Meddle)
She's got a Tenori-On!! Bitch, I want one of those!!
Reminds me of someone, but I can't remember who. I kind of like this one. It's a bit like how Florence And the Machine, from earlier in this list, should sound. Pretty simple piano and beats based song, with a little stylophone too, that's pretty good.

11. Master Shortie. (Dead End)
"I lay low like a futon."
Nice funky backing track. Pretty talented UK MC. This is a good track.

12. Mumford & Sons. (Feel The Tide)
This guys voice is fucking annoying. It's not particularly bad or anything, just annoying. Which is actually a really good account of the song in general.

13. Passion Pit. (Sleepyhead)
This is a cross between MGMT, TV On The Radio, Avalanches, early Lo-Fidelity Allstars, with some Italo synth and some US R&B style let's-sample-a-voice-but-put-the-pitch-up-really-high. It's a fucking mess.

14. The Temper Trap. (Sweet Disposition)
The guitar intro sounds a bit too close to U2's "Where The Streets Have No Name" for my liking. In fact they carry on sounding a bit like U2, but without the grandeur. U2 if covered by TV On The Radio. It sounds pretty bland, which is probably why TV On The Radio have never done a cover of a U2 song.

15. White Lies. (To Lose My Life)
Sounds like a goth Killers. Chorus sounds like a rubbish Editors. It's very easy to see why those are the 2 bands the BBC article compares White Lies to. This is shit.


Well if that's the sound of 2009, then 2009 is going to sound four-fifths BORING. Grundy did a top three at the end of his post about this. I will steal that idea and do the same now:

1. FrankMusik
2. Master Shortie
3. Little Boots

And they are the only three that I actually liked. Everyone else was either a bit boring, or a bit shit. I think Grundy was hoping I would do a more interesting post than this, but the fact is there just isn't a lot to talk about here. I've already forgotten most of the acts, because they're just not very good. Most of them are simply inoffensive and bland. Here's to a pretty dull 2009 then, if this list is to be believed.

If you want to check the list out yourself, it's here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7758169.stm