dead flowers (sanitation workers)

Alpha's really onto something below, posting such pop-darkness in the middle of the summer. That track, "Love the Way You Lie," is numero uno right naw (on iTunes at least...). And I think it makes sense that July-to-August sounds like house music of Usher, like suffering plus a beat you can dance to. "The (traditional) Summer Song," the unadulterated fiesta and fluff-fun song of 2010 has been "California Gurls," and, to me (to me), though it hasn't shed any of its "(traditional) Summer Song" merits per say, it's just (was always just) too boring to keep with post-4th (the only thrill of it to me [to me] was that one phrase about "the Golden Coast" and that's sort of a scrap). Perry said in 2009 that this album, Teenage Dream, would be "heavily influenced by Ace of Base" (doy). This makes sense, as 90s revival--middle 90s revival (bright, bold prints)--is on blast and K. Perry has (in this flurry of "California Gurls" and Russel Brand-lover press) pushed it harder than most other famous people. We haven't heard the rest of the record yet (won't till late August---the whole thing's been timed so nicely), but this one single we're working with, the "(traditional) Summer Song" does not put me in mind of Ace of Base at all (it's more like, as mentioned last month, The Spice Girls). Ace of Base songs are/were (sometimes Island-inflected) dance narratives about loneliness, religious rebirth, deceit, CRUEL SUMMERS. They weren't self-consciously frothy and comique in the manner of Perry. Self-serious Gaga has aped them well, (legit Goth) Britney Spears has totes channeled them, as have many many many Europeans (before, during, since). Such a Euro, La Roux, whose single "Bulletproof" may have outpaced "California Gurls" at the clurrrbs this month (I'm just postulating), has put out a total album of summer-darkness jams (which are really ALL-SEASON jams, a link between rotty August and barren February). Here's dos de los-----------