The Singles Jukebox

Electrik Red’s “So Good” only managed to score 5.00 in the regular season, but it’s made the second round – only to come up against DJ Quik & Kurupt’s big drummy juggernaut, which scored 8.06. On paper, it shouldn’t have a prayer – but on the internet…

Martin Skidmore: I like the Electrik Red album, but this track has bizarre out of tune moments that I find intolerable, whereas Q&K’s track is the one of the most exciting singles of the year.

Tal Rosenberg: Both of these songs are hypnotizing, but I prefer the aggressive diva-dubstep of Quik and Kurupt to the ballroom bump of Terius, Tricky and Electrik Red. The former just has the tighter grip.

David Moore: Ooh, shit, damn. See, this is how you have fun without breaking a sweat — I’m guessing this pairing will agonize a few folks ’round here but y’all should know in your heart of hearts that “So Good” just feels right. (Even Erika, who probably doesn’t want to vote for this on principle but will because she already compared it to TLC and you can’t take that back.) Nasty but classy, a come-on and a shakedown, frivolous and essential. SO GOOD.

Erika Villani: This doesn’t seem like a fair fight. “So Good” is a bouncy warm-weather track with a couple of clever lines (I believe I called it “pleasant enough” back when we first reviewed it, and I haven’t changed my mind since then). But “9xs Outta 10” stomps and flickers, bullies but also haunts — making “So Good” compete against this is like throwing an adorable baby into a boxing ring.

John Seroff: Even though “So Good” has some pleasantly residual old jack swing flavor, holding it up against Quik and Kurupt’s monumentally gothic tongue twister is like pitting a child’s red balloon versus a Congolese nail fetish.

Briony Edwards: Electrik Red wins because of its lovely pretty tune, and the like-silk vocals, and the fact that they look like they like to have a jolly old time.

Jonathan Bradley: Kurupt directs Quik’s orchestra like a conductor, ushering the cut-up vocals along with his mesmerizing, shifting flow. It’s an impressive performance, and I feel disappointed to have to relegate it to second place behind Electrik Red. But 2009 has been The-Dream’s year, and none of Kurupt’s wordsmithery can compare to the simple ecstasy of “So Good” and its “Ooh… shit… damn” hook.

Iain Mew: A very close one. “9xs Out of 10” and its shifting structure feels like it’s doing something new and exciting in a way that “So Good” definitely doesn’t. But Electrik Red’s languid cooing is that bit more irresistible.

Rodney J. Greene: Okay, now Swygart is a bastard. These are maybe my two favorite songs in this whole round. Both Kurupt and Naomi are breathless, but not in the same way, or for similiar reason. Young Gotti is because he just spit nineteen assonant words in a row before even taking a moment to consider refilling his lungs. Ms. Allen is because ooh, *gasp,* daaamn she found a man who can walk the walk, run the run, and fuck the fuck. Sounds like he could probably fly the fly, too, while he’s at it. After successive bouts of running around like a headless chicken after first concacts with the mash-stomp beat, the forbodingly operatic cut-and-pastes dropped, and each successive flurry of rhymes, “9x’s Outta 10” doesn’t seem quite as exciting when you know what’s going to happen, whereas there’s no resisting the charming afterglow of ER’s technicolor funk.

Chuck Eddy: Claims of Electrik Red’s greatness are even more unfathomable to me than claims of The-Dream’s, and possibly even a practical joke everybody’s been playing on me that I’m too naïve to figure out. ”9xs Outta 10,” by contrast, was easily the best song about probability released all year.

Frank Kogan: Stop-start motion, and when it stops, nine times outta ten, it’s gon’ start again, and my ears and eyes are w/ Quik and Kurupt as they jerk forward, and when it stops, nine times outta ten, it’s gon’ start again, and my ears and eyes are… Meanwhile, on the Electrik side, a leftover woman finds a man’s bed irresistible and has a bed of sound to coo atop; I respect this but don’t actually care about it, except for the cooing, and when it stops…

Martin Kavka: Every time I hear “So Good,” I want to know why The-Dream and Tricky Stewart don’t let even Naomi Allen, much less the other girls, have any personality. Every time I hear “9xs Outta 10,” I strain to find new superlatives, and just give up.

Doug Robertson: Electrik Red are just too in thrall to Kelis to win this contest and, while Quik and Kurupt wear their influences on their sleeves, they at least taken them from a number of different sources and so manage to at least create the illusion of originality.

Matt Cibula: By far the most difficult second-rounder for me — love both these, but Electrik Red stays down to earth while the other…well, it just comes out of a funky future that will never come about.

Alex Macpherson: Two incredible songs which have been integral to my 2009; I probably admire “9xs Out Of 10” more but have jammed “So Good” more, so this goes to Electrik Red on the basis that I’ve voted one Quik + Kurupt song through already.

Ian Mathers: I kind of hate to send two songs to the third round by the same group (although due to the vagaries of the brackets, Quik & Kurupt aren’t the only act that I’ll so bless), but not only is the still gobsmacking “9xs Outta 10” one of the most impressive, overwhelming rap songs I’ve ever heard, it’s against a song I honestly can’t remember since we covered it.

Mallory O\’Donnell: While the Electrik Red might be nearly as derivative as Quik’s “Grindin'” rewrite (minus, of course, that lovely looping vocal), it’s far more enjoyable to actually listen to.

Tom Ewing: “9xs”, once the shock of the newness has worn off, feels a bit like having your knuckles rapped repeatedly. It’s kind of meant to, but still. “So Good” I reviewed idiotically back in the day so I’m going to vote for it to make amends.

Jordan Sargent: “9x’s Outta 10” set the stage for the best expirimental rap record of the year by being truly left field and bewildering. It’s a rather perverse -— and brilliant -— study in minimalism and structure, with Quik’s beat snaking and clattering around Kurupt’s measured and incrimental raps. That said, “So Good” is nothing short of stunning, maybe the best match of content and sound this year. All songs about great sex should be this breathless and shimmering.

Alex Ostroff: While it’s impossible to distill the appeal of Electrik Red into one song, “So Good” is the closest you’ll get — it exquisitely captures the tension between propriety and loss of control, class and vulgarity, confident swagger and the pleasure of being caught off guard, that lies at the heart of the record. Don’t mean to be a hater, but oooh shit. Damn.

Andrew Casillas: Seeing as “9xs Outta 10” may be the best rap single of the year, I’ve gotta give it the win over something the-Dream likely wrote as he was waiting for the valet to bring the Maybach around.

Michaelangelo Matos: Rap single of the year, no contest at all.

Pete Baran: One of those angular rap tracks where your interest flicks endlessly between the beats, breaks and the lyrics, every now and then the words are just stupendous, it’s the complete package.

Al Shipley: This should be a tough choice, since these are the lead singles from my two favorite albums of the year, but it actually isn’t; “So Good” all the way.

Edward Okulicz: The Electrik Red album is great fun, meshing successful commercial R&B with a couple of the more left-field WTF tendencies of some of my favourite flops – you can hear the spirit of Brooke Valentine’s bizarrely unsuccessful album in some of its more glorious moments. “So Good” is a damp squib as a single though, if this were “We Fuck You” it might walk it, but, hey, it’s up against “9xs Outta 10” so maybe not. Still as thrilling, vital and downright odd as the first day I heard it, it’s still perhaps the rap single I’ve felt most comfortable loving un-self-consciously as a pop fan; on the strengths of its amazing sonics, otherworldly wordplay, fierceness and raw dancefloor-crushing appeal, this is hard to go past.

Alfred Soto: In the battle of the nuevo old school jams, “9x’s Outta 10” takes the prize for rocking the bells like LL over Electrik Red’s Vanity 6 routine.

VOTES

“9xs Outta 10” – 18 (Martin Skidmore, Chuck Eddy, Frank Kogan, Anthony Easton, Martin Kavka, Michaelangelo Matos, Andrew Casillas, Pete Baran, Ian Mathers, Doug Robertson, Edward Okulicz, John Seroff, Alfred Soto, Anthony Miccio, Renato Pagnani, Erika Villani, Matt Cibula, Tal Rosenberg)

“So Good” – 13 (Iain Mew, Alex Macpherson, Cecily Nowell-Smith, Mallory O’Donnell, Jessica Popper, Al Shipley, Tom Ewing, David Moore, Jordan Sargent, Alex Ostroff, Rodney J Greene, Briony Edwards, Jonathan Bradley)

We do like our goliaths.

NEXT – Round 2 finally gets a fork shoved right into it, as Dirty Projectors and Yeah Yeah Yeahs face off for the last spot in the quarters…