Dueling Apps: Pandora vs. Last.fm, Round Four — Lily Allen
My best iPhone music app experiences are currently with Pandora and Last.fm. I downloaded Pandora almost instantly once I got the phone, but I was pointed to Last.fm by a friend this past weekend, and since the two services are fairly similar in format and functionality, I decided it would be interesting to take one artist each day and build stations for them on each service. I will list the first 10 songs Pandora and Last.fm deliver for each artist, and then assess which service offered the best response.
Today, let’s try out StaticBlog fave Lily Allen. Pandora, it’s not me, it’s you:
1. Lily Allen, “Not Big.”
2. M.I.A., “Paper Planes (Diplo Street Remix).”
3. Lenka, “Trouble is a Friend.”
4. Duffy, “Mercy.”
5. Lily Allen, “I Could Say.”
6. Jem, “Come On Closer.”
7. Kate Nash, “Foundations.”
8. Regina Spektor, “Hotel Song.”
9. Lily Allen, “Smile.”
10. Kate Nash, “We Get On.”
Pro: Three strong Lily Allen tracks frame the rest, which is a combination of art-pop, alt-hip-hop, adult-alternative and one brazen Allen imitator. This seems to capture the general spirit of Allen’s music and works well for casual fans looking for an easy mix with the occasional interesting outlier.
Con: There’s an unfortunate tendency for these services to gear their music mixes chromosomally: there are perfectly good songs by Mike Skinner that could mix well with Lily Allen — when “Allright, Still” came out, I thought she sounded like the female answer to The Streets anyway. And seriously: enough with Kate Nash. It’s like having the Knickerbockers show up on your Beatles station.
Now, it’s time for Last.fm to knock ‘em out:
1. The Veronicas, “Untouched.”
2. Amy Winehouse, “Back To Black.”
3. Polaroid Fame, “Wanna Know.”
4. The Saturdays, “Why Me, Why Now.”
5. Ashley Tisdale, “What If.”
6. Alesha Dixon, “Breathe Slow.”
7. Ashlee Simpson, “L.O.V.E.”
8. Annie, “Happy Without You.”
9. The Arctic Monkeys, “Teddy Picker.”
10. Taylor Swift, “Change.”
Pro: Erm… Annie is superb, Wino and the Arctic Monkeys aren’t exactly crap, and Swift is just fine in the right context, but…
Con: This is the worst list of this entire experiment — the kind of toxic disaster that can cause one to lose complete faith in the entire enterprise. And the longer Last.fm played, the more low-grade teen pop blared out, including Miley Cyrus and more Ashley and Ashlee. This isn’t just a calamity because of this blog’s fealty to Allen — there is something intrinsically wrong with how Last.fm is grouping music here. Plus, there was no Lily at all. Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea.
Advantage: Pandora by an epic long shot.
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