5. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Abattoir Blues / The Lyre Of Orpheus
4. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
3. Brian Wilson - Smile
2. The Arcade Fire - Funeral 1. Kanye West - The College Dropout
Wow, I have twelve of these; I bought 14, but ended up so unimpressed with the Walkmen (sorry, mug, but "The Rat" is the only good song on there) and TV on the Radio (hype to enjoyability ratio is off the effing charts, good Lord) that I sold them both.
Here's how they ranked the twelve I have (ascending order):
Blonde Redhead: Misery is a Butterfly
Elvis Costello: The Delivery Man
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists: Shake the Sheets
The Libertines: s/t
Magnetic Fields: i
PJ Harvey: Uh Huh Her
The Futureheads: s/t
Elliott Smith: From a Basement on the Hill
Loretta Lynn: Van Lear Rose
Modest Mouse: Good News for People Who Like Bad News
Franz Ferdinand: s/t
Arcade Fire: Funeral
Here's how I would rank them (Elvis is exempt from competition):
The Libertines: s/t
Loretta Lynn: Van Lear Rose
Arcade Fire: Funeral
PJ Harvey: Uh Huh Her
Magnetic Fields: i
Blonde Redhead: Misery is a Butterfly
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists: Shake the Sheets
The Futureheads: s/t
Franz Ferdinand: s/t
Modest Mouse: Good News for People Who Like Bad News
Elliott Smith: From a Basement on the Hill
Oooh, that disc is tasty, isn't it? A little jolt of adrenaline, kind of like Franz Ferdinand, but a little spikier. Reminded me of XTC's "White Music".
The Top 5 are :
5. LCD Soundsystem - "Yeah (Crass Version)"
4. M.I.A. - "Galang"
3. Britney Spears - "Toxic"
2. Jay Z - "99 Problems" 1. Annie - "Heartbeat"
Blimey, I haven't heard a single song from the Top 5 !!
Who is this Annie, anyone ? (she's also at # 11 with ... "Chewing Gum").
What's sadly missing from the list is Morrissey's "First Of The Gang To Die", which I thought was a gem of a pop song.
And The Streets' "Dry Your Eyes" should easily be in the Top 5.
If you don't know what is wrong with me
Then you don't know what you've missed
Dry Your Eyes is 42 or something. At least Take me Out is top 10. Nice review:
"The special thing about "Take Me Out" is how much better it is than it needs to be. The vast majority of indie guitar bands would've stretched the song's driving Pixie/Spoon intro for three minutes, added a bridge, and then sat back congratulating themselves. And most of us would've been satisfied, not realizing anything was missing. Only Franz Ferdinand knew that we hadn't yet reached the song's molten core; that we also deserved its glittery inversion of the "Trampled Underfoot" riff, its swaggering mirror-ball chorus and crafty Cupid's-arrow-as-assassin's-crosshairs lyrics. Call it going the extra mile, and savor it accordingly."
Their Britney write-up is also fun:
"Appreciating Britney Spears was the final frontier of shedding my old pop-fearing husk, so laced was her music and persona with the red flags of hitting/slaving misogyny, leering pedophilia, and mannequin sexuality. But the throttled strings of "Toxic" finally scuttled all that kneejerk sociology, being just too damn irresistible a pop song for it to matter what media super-entity it was attributed to. It sure didn't hurt that it was the first Britney single in a while not to parasite off of her persona-- finally, she just acted like an adult, rather than constantly reminding us she wasn't a girl anymore. And mysteriously Scandanavian producers Bloodshy & Avant hung the perfect slinky musical drapery: The aforementioned strings, which swell perfectly to that recurring screeching punctuation, and a sinister surf-guitar riff that made the Alias-inspired video an obvious call. Thanks a lot, Britney, now who the fuck am I gonna irrationally hate?"
I think MBA wrote that!
Apparently Annie is a nordic hit machine, or something.
Personally I think it's good that a lot of these are unknown to us, makes it seem like singles have a purpose. Their top LPs were more predictably Real Music. Long live the single! Agree about Moz, though.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
Sadly lots of people did forget them..it was a tragedy, but this is a real phoenix from the flames story.
Their first album was called 'Cake' in 1990 and was pop at its most sublime. They made two other good records and finally looked to have made it in the uk in 1996, when their single was made record of the week on national radio. The following day, their record company went bust and the distribution contract went with it. The band members were later declared bankrupt and Frank Reader (lead singer and Eddi Reader's sibling) had to hide away for years from debt collectors and shaved gorillas banging at his door.
'Weightlifting' was 8 years in the making, and was part funded by the Scottish Arts Council. Frank and the band had to beg, steal and borrow to get this record made.
Sorry for constantly banging the drum, but 'Weightlifting' is what true pop music is about. It has no filler and it pisses all over most of the competition atm. These boys deserve to do well and I hear that the album is selling quite well for the modest budget. I have my fingers crossed for them.
Doof, I'm gonna buy that record just on your rec, and on your considerable and well-earned reputation of good taste. I remember liking CAKE quite a bit though I never owned it.
JESUS!!!!! I know nothing about modern music!!!!!! I refuse to buy anything modern until I master all of the guitar licks from my Led Zeppelin and Grateful Dead CD's!
Silly me.
