We are rapidly moving towards the end of our countdown. Numbers 50 to 26 tonight.

Albums #25-16. 3 albums by Russian-language artists!

Soryy for the delay y’all, it was caused by The Apocalypse.

But The Apocalypse didn’t actually happen, so we can countinue with our countdown. Numbers 75 to 51 today. Yesm Justin Bieber is in this list twice. If you have a problem with that, you are wrong.

Pop journalism is practically unheard of in Russia. While the rest of the world has countless straight-up pop blogs Popjustice, Muumuse and This Must Be Pop and magazines like Q and Spin that don’t shy away from the occasionally cheesy, stupid and dumb pop songs. But in Russia, due to an ever-growing stigma against pop music, writing about it seriously is a serious challenge.

However, people with passion for pop music and talent do exist over here. Today we’re going to be chatting with Mikhael “Mikey Moscow” Agafonov, known for writing about music and nightlife for Russia’s versions of publications such as Rolling Stone and Billboard, as well as for LA Weekly in the US. He has been writing since the age of 16, and now he is without a doubt one of the most hip and experienced people in the vast world of Moscow nightlife. Because of ability to discover fresh dance music, his parties are always a blast, and his writing skills are as equally strong. So who’s better to talk about the passing year than him? That’s right, readers. Nobody.

Mikhael Agafonov

– Hello, Mikhael. Thank you for agreeing to do an interview with us, it’s a pleasure to talk to someone who can write about pop music without being snobby about it. Do you think it’s a rare quality for music journalists in Russia by the way?

– Hello, Daniel, the pleasure is all mine. Yes, pop music journalism in Russia is definitely not a mainstream genre (and I don’t think it will ever be). Even my editors make a joke or two about my affection with pop sometimes, but all I care about is that I’m one of the few journalists in the game who can explain to you why Girls Aloud is waaaaay better than Sugababes these days and why Ke$ha is one of the only real talents in pop charts.

– Do you think 2012 was a good year for music?

– It was certainly a very important and pleasant year for pop music: there was so much fresh air – after a couple of years filled with smoky EDM beats only. I mean 2012 brought us Lana Del Rey, fun., Gotye and many others – all of these artists mix hooks with much needed indie sensibility. So now we actually have some songs in the pop charts which are not just ‘we’re at the club, yo, hey dj, dancebreakdown, the end’. I have no problem with EDM (in fact I found a new appreciation of it this year while ‘killing it’ on the USA dancefloors), but I like my pop diverse.

– Can you list 5 of your favourite albums this year with a brief commentary on what made them so special to you?

• Marina and the Diamonds – Electra Heart. I love Marina’s evolution. This album is a perfect ‘concept’ album of her pretending to be a popstar (while she’s just too rebellious to ever be one). Plus it’s stuffed with so many hooks, fun, quotes and sarcasm that it could pass as a soundtrack to ‘Heathers 2’ easily if there ever will be one.

• Fun. – Some Nights. I love indie pop (when it’s more pop than indie). And let’s face – ‘We Are Young’ is the best song of 2012. I have never seen all of my pop-hating friends begging me to DJ a song like this then going crazy to it – for the whole year!

• Ke$ha – Warrior. I love Ke$ha, that’s very simple. She’s fun, cool and just doesn’t give a fuck. Unfortunately, her label does, so a lot of times her single choices aren’t as amazing as they could’ve been (I’m still not sold on ‘Die Young’ – that was too lazy). But the album’s great.

• Girls Aloud – Ten. Technically it’s not an album, but just a Greatest Hits collection with 4 new songs, but this is Girls Aloud’s 4 new songs – something we’ve been waiting for 3 years. And they’re great. ‘Something New’ alone is such a mind-blowing pop song that I still can’t believe they really did that. My all-time favorite band never disappoints: that’s why I have tickets to see 3 of their shows in the UK next March.

• Taylor Swift – Red / Carly Rae Jepsen – Kiss. I’m torn between these two, because if you mix them properly, it will end up being a perfect ‘virgin pop’ record. Both albums have this cute late-90s atmosphere which again comes as a revolution in the will.i.am-dominated pop world of today. The hits are obviously great, but ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’ and ‘More Than a Memory’ are equally awesome.

Mikhael Agafonov. Photo by Olga Karabchevskaya.

– You recently did an interview with London-based singer/rapper Mercedes for Shut Your Pretty Mouth magazine. What other up-and-coming artists should we watch out for in 2013?

– Mercedes is very cool, yes. I say A*M*E is the one to watch as well.  Amelia Lily’s releasing an album in the spring – I loved her singles this year, so I’m very excited (she’s bringing back this cool girly pop rock from the early 2000s which was gone for a while). My good friend Maya von Doll (from SohoDolls) is also releasing an EP and I know it will be a killer. The Veronicas should be back – their 2007’s ‘Hook Me Up’ is still my #1 pop record. Surely there’s always something good to come from Azealia Banks. And, well, ARTPOP. I just pray it won’t be as overhyped and serious as ‘Born This Way’. I really hope Gaga will get her fun back. It was gone for too long!

– This year was pretty bizarre because nothing changed dramatically – Adele is the most popular artist in the world once again despite not really doing anything, the likes of David Guetta and Pitbull are relatively successful and Christina Aguilera is still a certified flop even with at least 10 million people watching The Voice every week. Should we expect any drastic changes in 2013 or everything will remain the same?

– God, I hope so. I don’t want anyone to flop, but I certainly love changes – pop world seems too calculated too often, so any sudden success (like Lana Del Rey’s rise to fame or ‘Call Me Maybe’ phenomenon) is good in my book. What I’d like to see in the future is smaller talented artists getting more recognition (The Voice has actually boosted profiles of great artists like Juliet Simms and Charlotte Sometimes – both of them I know from 2010). And then I wish big artists will take more risks. For example I liked Pink’s latest album a lot, but it felt too safe – and we do know she’s capable of doing so much more. So if Adele suddenly wants to record a rock ballad or David Guetta plans to release a ‘Diamonds’-like dance-free song, I’m all in. And we also need Britney. Pop’s no good without her.

Mikhael's personal website is mikeymoscow.com

]]> https://synthinfinity.wordpress.com/2012/12/23/we-need-britney-pop-is-no-good-without-her/feed/ 1 dsshklyar Mikhael Agafonov Mikhael Agafonov. Photo by Olga Karabchevskaya. https://synthinfinity.wordpress.com/2012/12/23/top-35-albums-of-2012-35-26/ https://synthinfinity.wordpress.com/2012/12/23/top-35-albums-of-2012-35-26/#respond Sun, 23 Dec 2012 15:33:21 +0000 http://synthinfinity.wordpress.com/?p=92

SO. The world didn’t end on 21st.

Which means that, if Britney’s ‘Till the World Ends’ became your motto, you have approximately 4,5 billions of years worth of dancing ahead of you until it ends for real. Then again there’s Rapture, and who knows when will that happen?

That also means that our yearly countdown will continue. Today we switch to albums. Don’t forget to read commentary on every item on the list by clicking on album covers!

So this has been a good year for music.

If the world doesn’t end today (and it seems more and more unlikely with each passing minute, it’s already 22nd in Australia anyway), by December 31st I’m going to post a list of my favourite singles, albums and tracks of the year here, on SynthInfinity. Today is the first part of the reveal – Best Singles of 2012, #100 to #76. If you’re interested in my musings on each track, don’t forget to check the comments section of the gallery.

Thank you for reading and make sure to come back everyday to see more of the reveals during these last 10 days of December!

The following things are impossible to resist:

1. Britishney.
2. That stupid minimal repeatative beat.
3. The “ooooeeeeaaaa-eeeooeeeaaaa” hook is lame, but so fucking catchy.
4. “I wanna SCREAM and SHOUT and LET IT ALL OUT” sung by Brintey, whose only lines on X Factor seem to include “You killed it sweetie” and “I didn’t get it” said with the world’s most bored and uninterested face EVER.
5. The general feeling that it probably took 5 minutes to quickly throw this together in Fruity Loops.

It’s this year’s The Time (Dirty Bit), and I, for one, fully embrace it.

Watching Lana evolve and grow throughout this year was an interesting experience. She went from a Pitchfork-approved indie darling to nation’s laughing stock following her performance on Saturday Night Live to a worldwide superstar in space of one year – basically in this short period of time she achieved what most artists take decades to. With the release of her new EP, Lana seems to have finally come to terms with her own status and personality. The question is: how did the music hold up?

It’s easy to expect Lana to fizzle out. She’s been recording music since at least 2005, and she has literally hundreds of unreleased songs in her catalogue. Lana get criticized at a lot for sticking to her Gangster Nancy Sinatra schtick, and you have to  admit, it does get a bit weary sometimes. For the most part, her songs explore the following themes: love, being crazy, being crazy in love. Also, love.

Unfortunately, Paradise, like its predecessor, doesn’t stray too far from this formula. Lyrically it’s the same old tale about devoting herself to her one and only man (admittedly she likes them older) or getting crazy and living to the fullest. Lots of driving involved too. She does throw in a couple of interesting and creative lines, like the already infamous “My pussy tastes like Pepsi-Cola” lyric from Cola. Gods & Monsters is quite well-written too, with lines as perplexing as “Like a groupie incognito posing as a real singer life imitates art”. But for the most part Paradise is filled with uninspired lyrics that we’ve all heard before. Here is a random selection, for example:

1. I’m tired of feeling like I’m fucking crazy, I’m tired of driving ’till I see stars in my eyes [Ride]
2. We get crazy every Friday night, I drop it like it’s hot in the pale moonlight [Body Electric]
3. Ah he’s in the sky with diamonds and he’s making me crazy [Cola]
4. You make me crazy, you make me wild
5. Drive fast, I can almost taste it now [American]
6. I drive fast, wind in my hair [Burning Desire]

Pretty lame, huh? Well, somehow, Lana makes it work. This is where we get to Lana’s main selling point – her vocals and delivery. She makes the most mundane, dull lyrics sound enchanting. Her sultry, velvety voice hits the right spot between sounding completely bored, stoned and sexy.

Perhaps the best example of this is Cola, the highlight of Paradise and one of her best songs to date. Starting off with haunting strings, it grabs your attention right away and never lets go. It’s like the music equivalent of holding your breath for 4 minutes and somehow enjoying it. Lana combines all of her vocal techniques in this song. She sounds seductive. She sounds high. She coos and almost murmurs incoherently. Even her crazy opera-like weird vocal passages make an appearance. Cola is an ode to all things Lana Del Rey – getting crazy, getting high, losing control and, of course, fucking – and damn, who wouldn’t want to get lost in that fantasy world of hers? It also projects a strong visual image, and given the fact that Lana announced that it’s going to be a single we’re in for yet another amazing video.

Another highlight is Bel Air – an airy, ethereal, stripped-down ballad. It’s pastel shades brought to life using music: tender and sweet, although with an underlying subtle sense of melancholy. Lana’s songs have never been short on atmosphere, but this song is simply drenched in it.

Ride starts off rather dull but is saved by a beautiful chorus and a soaring middle-8. Gods & Monsters treads a dangerous line between sounding haunting and just plain boring, but Lana’s delivery makes it work, even though its structure is criminally uneventful. The cover of Blue Velvet feels a little unnecessary, but it does its job quite nicely. American takes us back to the Lizzy Grant days, and while it’s not the most exciting journey, it’s good enough. Yayo made its first appearance during the Lizzy Grant days too, and it’s a nice way to show that her songwriting abilities developed way before she adopted the Lana Del Rey persona and the help of professional producers.

Now, Body Electric is probably the most disappointing song on the EP. Not because it’s bad, although it does hit a bit too close to self-parody (lyrics like “Heaven is my baby, Suicide’s her father, Opulence is the end” are as genius as they are stupid). It’s actually delicious: distant pounding drums, brooding strings, general atmosphere of slowly going mad. Unfortunately, when compared to the live version it sounds lifeless. Body Electric is a great song because it makes Lana almost batshit insane on stage, but the studio version feels flat.

Finally, Burning Desire, which is a bonus track on the iTunes edition of the EP, is an unusual offering from Del Rey, harking back to electronic-focused songs like Brite Lites. “Have to touch myself to pretend you’re there” sings Lana over subtle electronic beats, gentle strings and plinking piano notes. In the middle-8 the song quite literally reaches its climax with Lana going all out-of-breath falsetto.

As the final breaths of Burning Desire fade away, Paradise ends. In spite of everything that has been thrown at her during these last 12 months, Lana proves that she’s not a one-trick pony. She is serious songwriter, and she sure as hell deserves all the success she’s getting. There is however one troubling thing: where does she go next? Born to Die and Paradise are both great records that showcase her talent very well, but more of the same will probably not suffice next time. But for now Lana Del Rey remains one of the most exciting and talented artists in the world. There is no doubt about that.

9/10

Paradise is also available as Born to Die: Paradise Edition. It is out Novermber 13 on Interscope.