Modern Qualifier 11 – MONDAY HELL DANCING THEME

Our headline group!

A mash-up of two songs you all know, originally performed at the 2002 BRIT Awards. Nominated by Ita S.
Lead single from the 2016 Coconut Oil EP, later a worldwide hit. A Bracket Balancer.
Lead single from 2010’s Body Talk Pt 1. Don’t mention the other version. Nominated by Steffen R-M.
A UK No.1 banger from 2004 I should get on with writing about. Nominated by Graham M.

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Qualifier M11: MONDAY HELL DANCING THEME

KYLIE MINOGUE – “Can’t Get Blue Monday Out Of My Head” (YouTube)

LIZZO – “Good As Hell” (YouTube)

ROBYN – “Dancing On My Own” (YouTube)

THE SHAPESHIFTERS – “Lola’s Theme” (YouTube)

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bartlebooth45

12 May 2023 12:25

Dancing On My Own is one of the best pop songs of the last twenty years. An irresistible soaring disco banger filled with the worst kind of painful yearning. Painful and cathartic all at once. As such, I consider the acoustic sadlad Calum Scott cover a fucking warcrime.

Ed Still

12 May 2023 13:29

Reply to bartlebooth45

Yeah the key to the song is propulsion. What makes these covers fail so hard is that they remove any sense of rhythm because it’s a “sad song”. Forgetting that at it’s core it’s also a sing about dancing!

bartlebooth45

12 May 2023 16:13

Reply to Ed Still

It’s like someone explaining a joke at length. Kills what made it work in the first place.

Tom

12 May 2023 13:52

Reply to Ed Still

This is what takes it out of the realm of the standard “shit John Lewis cover version” and makes it something truly out on its own. Also feel like there’s a particular 21st century horror to a bloke doing it.

Arron Wright

12 May 2023 13:35

Reply to Ed Still

Indeed. When you’re unfortunate enough to hear Scott, “dancing” is far from the first verb that springs to mind.
Whereas this verb is pretty close…

j_e_l

12 May 2023 13:50

Reply to Arron Wright

Oh I had no idea of this terrible cover, according to YT arguments it’s a cover of the Kings of Leon cover

Arron Wright

12 May 2023 12:28

Reply to bartlebooth45

This is not an overstatement.

Arron Wright

12 May 2023 12:27

“Don’t mention the other version.”

If only all those YouTube commenters had taken Tom’s advice here,..

sclv

13 May 2023 04:38

Reply to Arron Wright

there is no other version, you are all speaking nonsense.

j_e_l

13 May 2023 08:35

Reply to sclv

I quite like the Tove Lo version

Arron Wright

12 May 2023 12:56

Reply to Arron Wright

See also: José González v the other Swedes in yesterday’s headline match…

j_e_l

12 May 2023 12:37

Didn’t really understand why Kylie’s great song has been watered down by adding some dreary New Order synths? Didn’t work for me! Liked the Robyn song, it was alright! But I really liked the Lizzo song, so I am voting Lizzo!

SmoothBrain

14 May 2023 12:47

Reply to j_e_l

I think mashups have probably been underrepresented in these polls, some truly creative work out there that defines this era for me. They work best when used to create sweaty dancefloor bangers a la Girl Talk. This one feels pretty pointless though – there’s no big change to the feel of the song from putting Blue Monday in there.

Baltimore Jacks

13 May 2023 15:47

Reply to j_e_l

I’ve been known to enjoy a mash-up now and again. But they do need to do something–amp each other up, reveal something in the other, etc. These two are just sort of, “Yeah, I guess you can fit them together. But why?”

j_e_l

12 May 2023 13:03

Reply to j_e_l

I do remember mash-ups, and yeah this one seems a bit pointless indeed.in terms of being there, it was a thing amongst permanently online internet people 🙂

Tom

12 May 2023 13:08

Reply to j_e_l

There are great mash ups from the time but this was always the how do you do fellow bootleggers of the genre.

David Belbin

12 May 2023 17:09

The Kylie is great but Robyn’s sad banger is my favourite single of this century so I couldn’t take any risks…

Tom

12 May 2023 17:27

I like Lizzo but I genuinely don’t think she’s done anything better than “Good As Hell”, one of those perfect-on-arrival debut singles that tells you everything you need to know about an artist. It’s a Bracket Balancer so I’m not expecting it to progress – and in the fight for second it’s up against a possibly even bigger ball of joy – but I’d be secretly happy if it beat the Kylie mash-up.

jonathanb

14 May 2023 13:15

Reply to Tom

Chris Molanphy described “Good As Hell” as “a parent’s favorite hip-hop song” and “a soundtrack producer’s lazy shorthand for feminism-lite.” He’s not being as critical as those quotes sound; the theory is that it took the more trap-oriented sounds of “Truth Hurts” for Lizzo to cross over from music that olds think the kids like to actual music that kids like. I do think he has a point, but then again: I’m thirty or forty years old and I feel good as hell when I’m all dolled up, so I’m happy to vote for the song for the olds. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Tom

15 May 2023 09:55

Reply to jonathanb

I think he has a point too – Pitchfork were terribly sniffy about her along similar lines – but it’s a feature not a bug. Lizzo to me is at her weakest when she’s getting down with the kids (cf the Cardi B team-up) and the more normie she is the better. Lots of people can make trap-oriented sounds. Only one other person is having hits with live-laugh-love pop and she’s unspeakable so thank heaven for Lizzo.

Kit

12 May 2023 22:18

Reply to Tom

I agree she has not done anything better BUT she was three albums deep at this point! This is an earlier standalone single on similar themes that [*checks*] I still enjoy (BC link), and one from her more hippity-hopping days.

vinnycrackers

12 May 2023 18:03

I was sure Robyn had my vote but I forgot what a BANGER Lola’s Theme is – and it needs the votes!

Arron Wright

14 May 2023 19:07

Reply to vinnycrackers

Literally the only strike against Lola’s Theme (my second favourite UK #1 of 2004) is the song it kept at number two.

Lady Elevator

12 May 2023 18:11

Reply to vinnycrackers

I thought the same! I don’t think I really appreciated it at the time, but it sounds great now. I’m sure Robyn will do just fine without my vote.

Ed Still

12 May 2023 23:31

Reply to Lady Elevator

Exactly the same, I actively disliked it at the time, but it sounded absolutely fresh here. Turned my world around.

RobertK

12 May 2023 18:43

Voted Lizzo, honestly liked it best on this pass. I’m a little over Dancing at this point, and generally think Call Your Girlfriend is the album’s biggest banger (insert “why not both” gif, I know).

Leo Breebaart

13 May 2023 10:16

Reply to RobertK

I’m not over ‘Dancing’ yet, but if I had to choose I’d probably give the nod to ‘Call Your `Girlfriend’ as well, if only for the lyrics, which when taken at face value (as I prefer to do) are some of the most empathetic in all of pop music, showing of course pretty much the other side to the ‘Dancing’ story. Lesser artists would have made ‘Girlfriend’ a gloating song — but once of the reasons Robyn’s songs speak to us so much is that she won’t take that easy way out.

rabbitfun

13 May 2023 13:43

Hi there, the lokpolokpo person you may know from the Tw*tt*r polls here! Finally found my very-little-used old FT account and decided to reactivate it.
Easy vote for the glorious post-disco-boogie sampling dance pop of The Shapeshifters.

rabbitfun

13 May 2023 13:53

Reply to rabbitfun

Sample source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXsqEuyQ_n0
Johnnie Taylor • What About My Love (1982)

(let’s see if this works)

Tom H

13 May 2023 16:44

Right, finally had a chance to have a look at the new site!
Not heard the Kylie mashup before – only it isn’t really a mashup really is it? Kylie with a hint of New Order, it’s ok but doesn’t add much
Anyway, Shapeshifters was a welcome blast from the past

SmoothBrain

14 May 2023 13:34

Feels like dancing on my own will go far, it’s probably THE universally loved club jam of this century, at least amongst people I know. However I’ve gone with Lola’s theme here which is a lifelong favourite and euphoria inducer.

Tom

15 May 2023 09:57

Shapeshifters fans may be interested to know that the Patreon version of Popular (which is 2 number ones head of the regular edition) has reached Lola’s Theme! I suspect anyone interested enough already knows this but you never know.

Cumbrian

15 May 2023 13:33

I’ve made this point in the Musk Rats domain before but it bears repeating, given that, on one level, they’re sort of about the same thing, I found it interesting that while I sympathise with Robyn, I think Brandon Flowers’ Mr Brightside is a whiny prick.
In short, this is how you do it properly.

Mitchell Stirling

15 May 2023 14:34

It has been over a decade now, and I’m still no closer to understanding why, of all of the artists and songs that sound like it from the 21st Century, it is ‘Dancing On My Own’ that is the 20th best song of all time (Rolling Stone 2021) never mind the 4th best song of 2010 (Pitchfork).
Lizzo for me.

Sarah

16 May 2023 11:48

Ha, blimey, I pressed vote for Lizzo with a bit of a sigh thinking, well, obviously it will be way out there in the lead so this might be a bit of a wasted vote… sort of still is, but for a different reason, eh.
Was thinking that people might have eased off on Dancing On My Own a bit, but I guess not! Tickets still sold out for the sad boi hours disco and Lizzo’s cake stall and bouncy castle is nice and uncrowded – more bouncing time for me I suppose (although watch out for pointy nails on bouncy castle I guess)

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Modern Qualifier 11 – MONDAY HELL DANCING THEME

Qualifier M11: MONDAY HELL DANCING THEME

Modern Qualifier 12 – KICKBACK LAHLA DON BAKA

Modern Poll Day 4 Playlists

The Discourse