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PopGAF |OT4| asdfjkl;asdfjkl;

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Aguila

#ICONIC
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WELCOME. This is the fourth Official Thread of the PopGAF community. Here, we focus on the discussion of almost everything that revolves around popular music (which, tbh, can sometimes not be so popular). If you are new here, pick some faves, introduce yourself, and join us in stanhood.

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Music. The heart and soul of PopGAF. Its what keeps us moving. Its what makes the world go round.
I will be constantly updating the collages underneath this banner with monthly music releases. Click on the art to listen or to preview the item in some form. "BZ" signifies a "buzz" track. The numbers indicate official release dates. (Yellow = General) (Red = US) (White = UK)

This Month In Pop

ALBUMS & EPs
August
September
October
November
December
January

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SINGLES
October
November
December
January



MUSIC VIDEOS
October
November
December
January






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The community. The mind and body of PopGAF. We have survived this long. Check out the WALL OF STARS to see the members who have made great contributions here. Look further down and see which member are banned ;_;
Currently, PopGAF is going through its first ever Grammy Awards, hosted by Marius.

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WALL OF STARS: In order to get on this prestigious wall you must earn stars. There are currently four types of stars. The following are the main ways to aquire each kind of star:
Silver Star: Post a short review for an album, performance, music video, etc. / Contribute an interesting point in a discussion (a nice big paragraph at least)
Gold Star: Post an in depth review for an album, performance, music video, etc. (a good opening or closing statement can save you from a silver star) / Contribute an interesting point in a discussion (essay format kiii) / 2 Silver Stars = 1 Gold Star
Platinum Star: Organize and host an event for PopGAF / 4 Gold Stars = 1 Platinum
Diamond Star: tbd
*This started in OT3. I reconverted some stars, but any stars earned for OT2 will remain the same.

Top Poster
Soulscribe: Queens Of Pop (S) | Lotus Review: Part 1 (G) & Part 2 (G) | Unapologetic Review: Part 1 (G) & Part 2 (G) | Soulscribe's Top 50 Modern Albums: Intro ~ 50-41 (G) ~ 40-31 (G) ~ 30-21 (G) ~ 20-11 (G) ~ 10-6 ~ 5-1 (G) ~ Author's Notes | Soulscribe's Top 20 Gaga Songs: 20-11 (G) ~ 10-4 ~ 3 ~ 2 ~ 1 (G) | Soulscribe's Top 20 Princesses of Pop: 20-16 ~ 15-11 ~ 10-6 ~ 5-4 ~ 3 ~ 3 ~ 2 ~ 1 (Artemesia won the guessing game. Yay!)
Second Row
Nemesis_: Reviews From OT2 (G) | Vows Review (G) | The ArchAndroid Review (G) | Created a PopGAF/Plug.DJ script for NeoGAF (G) | Hosted and organized the PopGAF Grammys (P)
Marius_: PopGAF Olympics in OT2 (G) | Red Review (G) | Take Me Home Review (G) | Hosted and organized the PopGAF Grammys (P)
Pupi18: Lotus Review (G) | Unapologetic Review (S) | Take Me Home Review (S) | Paradise Edition Review (G) | Utopia Review (G) | 2012 Flops (S) | Death in Music 2012 (S) | Ten Review(G) | 2012 Year In Review (G)
inthezone: Radio updates/analyses in OT2 (G) | Unapologetic Review (G) | ITZ's Top 10 Favorite Albums: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (G)
Wafflecakes: Take Me Home Review (G) | Warrior Review (G) | Red Review (G) | Up All Night Review (G)
Third Row
Leona Lewis: Queen of Memes in OT2 (G) | Halcyon Review (G)
Royalan: Red Review (G) | Pop / R&B Outliers (G)
botty: Lotus Review (G) | Botty's Top 5 Songs Of 2012 (G)
Trigger: Top poster in OT2 (G) | Top Poster in OT3 (G)
Crumpet Trumpet: This Week in Pop Posts (G) | Presented Several BOPS for us in OT3 (G)
Fourth Row
DMeisterJ: Unapologetic Review (G) | Danity Kane Retrospective (G)
Godelsmetric: Ten Review (G) | Lotus Review (G)
cory64: Madonna's Top 20 Singles (G) | Compact Disks & Creative Discographies - Annie (S) | Compact Disks & Creative Discographies - 4 (S)
Servbot24: Warrior Review (G) | Unapologetic Review (S)
moulels: Take Me Home Review (S) | Lotus Review (S) | Paradise Review (S)
Fifth Row
drewface: drewface's Top 20 Gaga Songs: 20-15 ~ 14-6 ~ 5-1 (3x S)
Fey: Top 20 Madonna Singles: 20-11 ~ 10-1 (3x S)
Artemisia: Born To Die Review (G)
Supermanisdead: Girl On Fire Review (G)
Wilsongt: The Spirit Indestructible Review
Sixth Row
<+)O Robido O(+>: Unapologetic Review (S)
Cynosure: Unapologetic Review (S)


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Visit PopGAF in our Plug.DJ rooms: POP GAF | Vocalists
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Find gifs to use in these accounts: Koodo | Second | Marius_ | Nemesis_ | Pupi18 | botty | Aguila
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Previous Official Threads: OT1 | OT2 | OT3

I think it's high time I use my first post to introduce something.

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INTRODUCING the POPGAF USER SCRIPT.

  • Jump to your latest unread post in PopGAF OT4
  • Easy and quick access to the (new) Plug.DJ room
  • STYLISH LOOK to match NeoGAF
  • Compatible with FireFox, Safari and Chrome
To install: UserScripts.org

To install on FireFox: You need to install GreaseMonkey first, then install the script from UserScripts
To install on Chrome: You can either install TamperMonkey or manually drag and drop it to the extensions window.
ie. Save the script to your computer, navigate to Menu -> Tools -> Extensions and then drag and drop the saved script to the extensions menu.​
To install on Safari: You have to follow a weird process that you can find at SimpleHelp.net

If you have Internet Explorer you don't deserve to use this tbh, sorry.

Platinum star deserved tbh

NOTE: This is only going to work for OT4. I will update as each new OT comes along.


OT4 SPONSORED BY:

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Majmun

Member
Aguila should get a platinum star for creating the previous thread, IMO. It was amazing and always up to date.

I'm glad he's doing the new OP again.
 

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
GODELSMETRIC REVIEWS...

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LOTUS

The album begins on an interesting note, with what essentially amounts to a 3 minute introduction, 'Lotus Intro'. It's a good song, though obviously introductory, and as such doesn't much bear listening independently of the album. But if you expect the relative creative risk of such a thing might be indicative of the album in general, then you'll be disappointed. 'Intro' segues into 'Army of Me', which Xtina has called 'Fighter 2.0' in interviews, which gives you a pretty decent idea of what to expect. It's a decent enough song but it feels like a lack of effort. This is a common theme on Lotus, and perhaps to be expected after Bionic: playing safe and avoiding musical risks. It's kind of a shame, and the more cynical part of me feels it also retroactively makes Bionic seem like a calculated attempt at stepping sideways rather than a genuine attempt at experimentation.

The lack of effort and creative risk-taking is exemplified by good but ultimately disposable songs like 'Around the World', 'Sing for Me', 'Best of Me' and the album's main ballad, 'Blank Page'. The album is fairly long and lots of tracks feel like filler: they should have been trashed in favour of fewer, better songs. There's also a lot of mid-tempo work on Lotus; 'Cease Fire' is a Rihanna-esque song with a staccato verse and chanty chorus that's quite good, and 'Circles' pinches drums from 'Kashmir' and that broken mic effect that was popular about ten years ago. They're both actually good--less filler and more of these would have made Lotus into a pretty damn good album.

'Make The World Move', the CeeLo Green collaboration, is fun enough but never reaches the kind of highs that you'd hope. The album's best track is 'Red Hot Kinda Love', a funky little number that I couldn't help but have a dance to. It wouldn't have sounded particularly out of place on something like Nicola Roberts' solo efforts. 'Let There Be Love' is completely generic dance-pop but because it's a sound that works, it's a track that stuck with me. I won't remember it this time next year, but it's fun. 'Your Body' has been discussed to death here already. For what it's worth, it's a good song, but not amazing, and it takes no risks. In this way, it's a microcosm of the album as a whole.

Lotus is a decent album, but it's rarely anything else. I suspect that it won't earn any gongs in end of year recaps, but it doesn't deserve to either. I've gotten a decent amount of use out of some of the songs.

3 out of 5
 
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