Popjustice
  • Home
    • Briefing archive
  • Features
  • Playlists
  • Get Popjustice emails
  • About Popjustice
    • About
    • Popjustice: Est 2000
    • The Popjustice Twenty Quid Music Prize
  • Contact
    • General contact details
    • Submit music
  • Forum
Recent Posts
  • New Music Friday: Julia Michaels has purchased, or hired, a chainsaw
  • New Music Monday: Griff's Black Hole is super, and massive
  • New Music Friday: Let's kick off 2021 with some KLF
  • The Top 45 Singles Of 2020
  • New Music Friday: Mae Muller doesn't want to be dependent
Hello! In theory you should only be seeing this if you're using a mobile or tablet. How's the site looking? If anything's wonky click here and tell us so we can fix it. Thanks! x
Popjustice
  • Briefing
  • Features
  • Playlists
    • New Music Friday: The Popjustice Edit
    • Big Hit Energy
    • 21st Century Pop
    • 2018% Solid Pop Music
    • Full archive
  • About
    • About Popjustice
    • Contacting Popjustice
    • Send music
    • Popjustice: Est 2000
    • The Popjustice Twenty Quid Music Prize
  • Forum
  • The Briefing

'Hallelujah': let's just agree it's better than Bono and move on

  • December 17, 2008
  • Popjustice

Things we don't want to hear any more about until 2009: "Isn't Alexandra's version of 'Hallelujah' pointless/amazing, isn't it pointless/amazing that Jeff Buckley's version is back in the Top 3, isn't this a victory/a totally hollow victory for real music etc etc".

The fact of the matter here is that the best ever version of 'Hallelujah' was by Jeff Buckley and the worst ever version of 'Hallelujah' is Bono's. Every other version of 'Hallelujah' between now and the end of time will sit somewhere between those two record­ings.

As for whichever 'crusades' are currently running regarding the Buckley version — appar­ently there's one in The Sun — we fail to grasp how any of this is a 'real victory for real music over Simon Cowell's plastic pop rub­bishzzzzzz' given that none of it would be happening without The X Factor. "Readers! Let's really teach Simon Cowell a lesson and show him that he's powerful enough to get Jeff Buckley in the Christmas Top 5 without lifting a single finger." "Oh and let's show that The X Factor is manip­u­lat­ive and not about music by making people buy a song not because they like it but as a token of their dislike for something else." LOGIC FAIL.

The 'victory for real music'  brigade are really making no sense at all with this whole 'Hallelujah' business — what we have here is a victory for the ability to write melodies which are good enough for an X Factor winner's debut single. Cathy Dennis can do that, you know. She can also write songs like 'Toxic'. Did Leonard So-Called Cohen write 'Toxic'? No. (Subs please check) What has been estab­lished here is that Leonard Cohen could, if he wished, pitch some songs for the next Westlife album.

"Oh but it's the lyrics that make it so sub­vers­ive." Yes. Very sub­vers­ive. Considering nobody even knows what they actually mean. (??!) Well done everyone.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA048pcITlA

(As an aside, is it just us who finds any sort of 'crusade' to get a track 'back in the charts' com­pletely embar­rass­ing?)

  • bono
  • cathy dennis
  • jeff buckley
  • Leona Lewis
  • Leonard Cohen
  • simon cowell
  • The X Factor
  • westlife
Previous Article
  • Songs

Jamie Knight — 'Run'

  • December 17, 2008
  • Popjustice
Have a read
Next Article
  • The Briefing

Is this still the worst Christmas song of all time?

  • December 17, 2008
  • Popjustice
Have a read
Pop as in popular
  • 1
    New Music Friday: Julia Michaels has purchased, or hired, a chainsaw
Further listening
Greatest hits
  • 100 Questions with Sky Ferreira
  • Max Martin interview: "I’ve begun to feel that, well, I kind of know how to write a song now"
  • Nicola Roberts interview: "I feel like I discovered the singing again"
Further reading
  • 1
    New Music Friday: Julia Michaels has purchased, or hired, a chainsaw
  • 2
    New Music Monday: Griff's Black Hole is super, and massive
  • 3
    New Music Friday: Let's kick off 2021 with some KLF
  • 4
    The Top 45 Singles Of 2020
  • 5
    New Music Friday: Mae Muller doesn't want to be dependent
  • 6
    New Music Friday: There's a big one from Royal & The Serpent
Est 2000. Still going.
Socials

 Spotify
 Facebook
 Twitter
 Instagram
 Soundcloud

'Quick links'

About Popjustice
Contact Popjustice
Sign up for the news­let­ter
Submit music
Est 2000
Twenty Quid Music Prize

Playlists

21st Century Pop
New Music Friday: The Popjustice Edit
2018% Solid Pop Music
The Sound Of Popjustice
Playlist archive

© 2020 Popjustice Ltd. Scrolled to the bottom now you're here
  • Privacy, Ts & Cs, cookies etc
  • Corrections

Input your search keywords and press Enter.