Record of the Year 2018: Eminem - Fall

I mentioned in my yearly reviews how in some ways the charts have come full circle. This also applies to picking a record of the year, with a very limited choice in recent years.

Fortunately, Eminem's music was still popular enough to get into the charts and it wasn't so much a question of which record I'm going to pick, it's more which Eminem record I'm going to pick.

I decided to go for "Fall" which was one of 3 hits from his surprise album "Kamikaze" which came just 8 months after his previous album "Revival". The album is a reaction to the critics of his previous album.

My main criticism of Eminem's music in recent years is having crappy pop singers such as Rihanna, Beyoncé and Ed Sheeran feature on his records. Fortunately they're nowhere to be seen on this record, or on the "Kamikaze" album for that matter.

Following this release, I was reading articles about how Eminem's lyrics have no place in 2018, but I would disagree. Maybe it's because I'm a youth of 20 years ago rather than of today, but we need so called dinosaurs like Eminem to keep people of my age entertained because the rubbish the youngsters are coming up with certainly isn't.

Record of the Year 2017: NF - Let You Down

Thanks to starting my Top of the Pops posts at the beginning of 2017, I've heard pretty much every Top 40 hit of the year at least once. I knew that picking a record of the year would be tough given the amount of rubbish there was.

The fact I'm not a fan of Ed Sheeran or Drake eliminated a chunk of possibilities straight away. Looking at the genres away from generic pop, electropop, folk-pop and all that nonsense, it wasn't going to be an R&B record as there hasn't been a good one made for around 15 years, Indie generally isn't my cup of tea and when it's only representatives are the Gallagher brothers post Oasis hits it certainly isn't. Normally there's at least one decent Dance record, but this year it was mostly weak and pathetic and the rest was irritating.

That leaves Rap music, which narrows somewhat when you eliminate Drake. Many of the modern rappers sound like they're trying to sound like 50 Cent or Lil Wayne, which is never a good thing. As I went through the list of Rap records of the year, there were some candidates which fell a bit short.

There was "Bad Things" by Machine Gun Kelly ft Camila Cabello, great backing track but the rapping was too slow and too much singing for my liking. Then there was "Mask Off" by Future, sounded good but was a load of meaningless drivel. Also in the running was "1-800-273-8255" by Logic ft Alessia Cara & Khalid but that was ruined by the featured artists.

Towards the end of the year though came this. Good backing track, good rapping and no shitty singers ruining the track.

I would like to tell you more about NF, but I'd never really heard of him before I picked this record so I'd just be giving extracts from his Wikipedia page, so if you want to know more you're better off reading about it here.

Record of the Year 2016: Craig David ft Big Narstie - When the Bassline Drops

To tell you the truth, I more or less picked this as my Record of the Year for 2016 quite early on in 2016. Initially after hearing about the big comeback of Craig David I thought I'd give this a listen. At the same time my yearly chart reviews had just begun and I was conscious that I'd have to pick a record for the more recent years where I knew very little of the music getting into the charts. Every time I listened to a new chart hit in 2016 I asked myself the question "is it better than this?" to which the answer was always no.

Craig David of course made a name for himself back in 1999 as vocalist on "Re-Rewind The Crowd Say Bo Selecta" by the Artful Dodger, though some thought he was the Artful Dodger. This was also the record which taught the mainstream public what UK Garage was.

His solo chart career began with a UK Garage record, "Fill Me In", but after that none of his solo singles were actually UK Garage. I did like a few of his singles that followed, but found certainly once he came back with his second album that his music suffered from what I call "British R&B Syndrome". Generally speaking, the British can't do R&B nearly as well as the Americans can and a lot of British R&B ends up sounding like the poundland version of it's American counterpart. There are some exceptions, but Craig David wasn't one of them.

By 2008 his chart career looked to be finished until he made his successful comeback with this record 8 years later.

In my opinion, the reason why this comeback was so successful was because he finally made another UK Garage record. It was UK Garage that made him a household name in the first place, but given the lack of UK Garage he made after his initial breakthrough, you could say this is the record that people had been waiting 16 years for him to make.

Record of the Year 2015: Galantis - Runaway (U & I)

Picking a record of the year is getting more difficult, if anything because the number of Top 40 hits is giving me less records to choose from. The days of a more interesting Dance record getting into the charts are long gone and in 2015 it would appear you'd have 2 choices, either background music or cheese.

I decided to go for cheese and decided my favourite was "Runaway (U & I)" by Galantis.

I can't remember how I first heard this but I do remember it entering my head one day and turning to Google to figure out what the tune was.

Maybe it wasn't that difficult to choose after all, I think this is the only Top 40 hit of 2015 that I've gone out of my way to listen to, so on that basis maybe it was the only contender for record of the year.

Record of the Year 2014: Frankie Knuckles - Your Love

This is probably the easiest choice I've had to make when picking my Record of the Year. The sad thing about it though is the only reason I have this available to choose is because of the tragic death in 2014 of Frankie Knuckles.

This was originally released in the UK in 1989 but failed to make the Top 40. Frankie Knuckles was one of the DJs there at the birth of House music in Chicago as a regular DJ at the Warehouse nightclub and this was arguably his biggest tune at the height of the Acid House era.

He did manage to have three Top 40 hits in the 90s and remained a big name on the DJ circuit.

Aside from the age difference, what differentiates this from the EDM in the charts in 2014 is that this was innovative. It was taking risks doing something which hadn't been done before at least in a mainstream sense. Some of the EDM from 2014 is ok, but none of it is what I'd call ground-breaking and therefore none of it is anywhere near as good as this record.  

Record of the Year 2013: Daft Punk - Get Lucky

Back in the 90s and early 00s Daft Punk were one of those Dance acts who were seen as being credible by the purists whilst being commercially successful at the same time. By the time "Get Lucky" came out though, many were accusing Daft Punk of selling out.

Whether they were or not, the resulting music is pretty good. Ok it's not as good as their earlier material and they follow the David Guetta/Calvin Harris formula of getting "names" to feature, but it really is a breath of fresh air compared to the likes of David Guetta and Calvin Harris.

I did find the choice of vocalist somewhat baffling. Pharrell Williams is a producer who did a bit of singing and rapping presumably because he wasn't content with staying in the background, but the reality is he isn't a very good vocalist so why get him to provide vocals for a tune he didn't produce? That said if you're a good vocalist then you're wasted singing on Dance records so maybe it was a good choice.

It was the first Daft Punk Top 40 hit in 8 years and the only chart success Pharrell had in the previous 7 years was vocalist on a Swedish House Mafia single, which is probably where Daft Punk got the idea from. It became their first number one and only Top 40 hit from their "Random Access Memories" album which was just their fourth studio album and still their latest album to date.

Record of the Year 2012: Public Enemy - Harder Than You Think

With Drum & Bass being big in the charts in 2012 and being a Drum & Bass fan myself, it would have made sense for me to pick a Drum & Bass record for my record of the year. However whilst some of those records are alright, I asked the question are any of them better than "Hard Than You Think" by Public Enemy? to which I answered no.

The record itself is actually from 2007 but didn't chart until 2012 when it was used for the coverage of the Paralympics. It was the first Top 10 for Public Enemy and was their first UK Top 40 hit in 15 years.

In an era where many rappers had gone Electropop it was good to hear that proper Hip Hop was still being made by the likes of Public Enemy. That's what makes them so great, they haven't changed their sound to appeal to the masses unlike many other musicians across the spectrum do once they become successful.

The fact it gave them a Top 10 hit perhaps showed that there was still a lot of demand for proper Hip Hop for the masses and that you don't have to go down the Pitbull or Flo Rida route to sell lots of records.

Record of the Year 2011: Martin Solveig - Hello

Around the end of April 2011 me and some friends were in a taxi when this came on the radio. I said that it was the only commercial record of the year to date that I actually liked. After listening to several 2011 hits when doing my research, I've concluded this is as good as it gets.

A bit like some of the EDM records coming out towards the end of 2010, this was a bit cheesy but I quite enjoyed it. Even cheesier was the video, where Martin Solveig plays a tennis match at Roland Garros against fellow French DJ Bob Sinclar, giving their DJ Mag rankings at the start of the match and featuring appearances from tennis players Novak Djokovic and Gael Monfils. A longer version of the video exists which shows the two DJs preparing for the match.

One could see this is a good illustration of where Dance Music went wrong with the DJ rankings and celebrity appearances etc, but take all the nonsense away it's an enjoyable tune. The reality is that by 2011 a mass underground following of a Dance record wasn't enough to get it in the charts, so commercial EDM is pretty much all you're going to get.

I could have picked a record from another genre, but 99% of the other tunes were rubbish in my opinion and the other 1% were candidates but I didn't think they were quite as good as this.

Record of the Year 2010: Tim Berg - Seek Bromance

At the beginning of 2010 I decided to test my hypothesis of the charts being full of rubbish. Each week I would listen to the new entries of the Top 40 on YouTube to see if I liked any of it. A few weeks into the year there was literally nothing I liked. The Dance music, or EDM as it was now better known was particularly bad and eventually I lost the will to live and gave up.

However towards the end of the year there were 3 commercial Dance records that were taking my liking, this my record of the year, "I'm In Love (I Wanna Do It)" by Alex Gaudino and the Axwell remix of "In the Air" by TV Rock. As the latter failed to reach the Top 40 it was between this and Alex Gaudino and I decided this was slightly better.

It began life as an instrumental called "Bromance" which in my opinion was better. However as vocals had now seemingly become a necessity for commercial success, the vocals to "Love U Seek" by Samuele Sartini were added to create "Seek Bromance".

This would be his only UK Top 40 hit as Tim Berg but he would go on to be better known as Avicii, one of the biggest EDM DJs of the modern era. It certainly made me feel old when I saw he was born in 1989. After retiring and then making a comeback, he sadly died in 2018. Whilst the tunes he made as Avicii weren't really my cup of tea I've always been fond of this record.

Record of the Year 2009: Chicane - Poppiholla

In the days before EDM, Trance was probably the most ridiculed genre of Dance music aside from Happy Hardcore. Given the DJ Sammy type crap of taking the vocals from and old song and put some generic Trance riff behind it that was all over the charts in the early 00s you could maybe understand why.

However if you look beyond the cheese there was some genuinely good Trance music out there. One man who was there throughout the popularity of Trance in the charts was Nicholas Bracegirdle aka Chicane.

This was the last Top 40 hit for Chicane and was arguably the last Trance Top 40 hit too. Ironically this is effectively a Trance version of an older record, "Hoppiholla" by Sigur Ros. Unlike DJ Sammy and co though, he takes the main riff as the sample rather than the vocals and it works, there's nothing cheesy about it at all.

This came at a time when most of the Dance music in the charts was what went on to become known as EDM and was therefore pretty dreadful, so it was really good to hear this whilst that was going on.

I don't know whether it was intentional or not, but the videos for "Poppiholla" seems to be a response to the video for ""Hoppiholla". In "Hoppiholla" we have groups of OAPs up to no good doing things you would normally associate with young trouble makers. In "Poppiholla" we have a hooded man who people assume to be a thug, but at the end of the video he runs a ridiculously long distance to save someone from bricks falling on their head.

Record of the Year 2008: MGMT - Kids

For the first time in my Record of the Year selection, I've chosen an act who are younger than me. MGMT are a duo and both members are younger than me. It was inevitably going to happen sooner or later and given I was nearer to 30 than I was 20 in 2008 maybe the time is about right.

This was a record I heard quite a bit at the time and identified it as a tune I like so found out what it was via the internet and continued to listen once it's popularity had died down. I also discovered a Soulwax remix which I also thought was really good.

This was actually the final of three hits for MGMT reaching number 25 in late 2008. It then re-entered the Top 40 at the start of 2009 peaking at number 16 this time. I thought I'd give some other tunes of theirs a listen, but this is the only tune of theirs I've heard that I actually like.

Record of the Year 2007: LCD Soundsystem - North American Scum

By 2007 my knowledge of music in the charts had dwindled so I've picked a record I don't remember being a hit, although it only made number 40.

I may have owned the self titled LCD Soundsystem album by 2007 and bought the follow up "Sound of Silver" album a year or two later which is how I heard this record for the first time. However I started to appreciate it much more when I went to see "Shut Up and Play the Hits" at the cinema. This was a film that revolved around the farewell concert for LCD Soundsystem at Madison Square Gardens in 2011 and this tune stood out as being one of the highlights of the concert where they had Arcade Fire doing backing vocals.

The film made me realise just how good LCD Soundsystem were as a live act and I was gutted that I never got to see them play. Fast forward to 2017 and I went to see a reformed LCD Soundsytem in concert which was great but sadly they didn't play this track. It was one of just two Top 40 hits for LCD Soundsystem, the other being "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House".

Record of the Year 2006: Solu Music featuring Kimblee - Fade

One of the inevitable difficulties I'm going to have picking my record of the year as we get more modern is finding a record I actually like. My memories of chart music in 2006 was that most of it was poor and by the time Top of the Pops ended I'd discovered YouTube and found myself listening to older music most of the time.

Fortunately there were still a handful of decent tunes in the charts in 2006 and I've picked one which was originally recorded in 2001, quite appropriate in a funny way.

It was actually the Grant Nelson remix that hit the charts reaching number 18. Many people who liked the original hated this remix but I actually like it. It's one of those tunes you can dance to in the club to and chill out at home too. From a Dance music perspective I was favouring the more soulful sounding records at the time and this fit perfectly.

Solu Music are an American duo who are Howie Caspe and Dano Nathanson and this was their first single in 2001. Their last single came out in 2006 but according to their website their back in 2018 after an extended break.

Record of the Year 2005: Mylo - In My Arms

I've already picked a record that Mylo sampled for a previous record of the year and now for 2005 I'm picking a record by Mylo himself.

Of the singles from his excellent "Destroy Rock & Roll" my personal favourite is "In My Arms". It samples "Waiting For A Star To Fall" by Boy Meets Girl and "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes. Unlike many of the other Dance records sampling old records at the time, this was more of an instrumental sample than a vocal sample, with just the "In My Arms Baby" line being sampled from the Boy Meets Girl record. The result is fantastic, it sounds like a proper tune in its own right rather than a blatant rip off or a blatant mash up.

If you haven't heard the album I seriously recommend you take a listen, it is definitely one of the best albums ever released in my opinion. I would say the other three singles to be taken from the album, "Destroy Rock & Roll", "Drop the Pressure" and "Muscle Car" are probably my three least favourite tracks on the album, that's how good the album is.

Unfortunately he is yet to release a follow up album but still remains active in the DJing world. He also posted some new music through social media a year or 2 ago which is also worth checking out.

Record of the Year 2004: Armand Van Helden - My My My

It goes without saying that as long as Dance music has existed in the charts a sizable chunk of it has been cheesy vocal rubbish. However towards the late 90s there was just as much of the good stuff as there was the cheese, mainly because there was so much Dance music in the charts.

By 2004 there was much less Dance music in the charts and the bulk of what was left was cheesy vocal rubbish. If I was to pick a Dance tune without any vocals, my choices would be "Rocker" by Alter Ego and...actually that's it. In fact that particular tune was a strong candidate, but in the end I decided to pick "My My My" by Armand Van Helden.

It was late 2004 that I was getting back into Dance music again after a period of predominantly listening to Rap & R&B and this was one of the tunes that did get me back into it. The difference though was that in the past I thought the faster the music the better, now the tempo of House music sounded just right for me.

Many of the Dance tunes of 2004 heavily sampled old tunes and this was no exception, sampling "Comin Apart" by Gary Wright. However the tune it samples is one I'd guess not too many people know and when I listen to the tune it samples it makes me want to listen to this tune, so it's a job well done in my opinion.

This reached number 15 in the charts and was rereleased two years later when it reached number 12.

Record of the Year 2003: Wayne Wonder - No Letting Go

Channel U is best remembered for it's UK urban music which usually consisted of about 50 people in the middle of a council estate seemingly being recorded on a home camera. There was more to it than that, particularly in the early days and it's playlist included quite a few Dancehall and Reggae tunes. Amongst these was my record of the year for 2003, "No Letting Go" by Wayne Wonder which often appeared on Channel U in the summer of 2003.

It had an immediate impact on me and was a tune that would get me on the dancefloor on a night out at the time. I bought the album "No Holding Back" shortly afterwards too.

I'd first come across Wayne Wonder in 1996 when he was featured artist on "Something Different" by Shaggy but heard no more from him until 2003. I suspected he'd be four or five albums into his career by this point but no, this was in fact his eleventh album.

His music career began as a 13 year old in 1985 and his debut album came out in 1989. Seven more albums have followed since, the last being in 2014 but these appear to have made little impact.

Its a shame his time at the top came and went like it did, but then the other big Jamaican star of 2003, Sean Paul, who I also quite liked at the time has made some pretty terrible music in the last 10 years, so maybe it's just as well Wayne Wonder can be fondly remembered instead of go down that road.

Record of the Year 2002: Dilated Peoples - Worst Comes To Worst

Those of you who regularly read this blog will know that I like my dance music and that during the mid to late 90s I listened to nothing but dance music. However whilst there were some genuinely good dance records in the charts in 2002, a lot of it was becoming a joke with cheesy trance rip offs of 80s tunes etc.

In 2002 the genre I was mainly listening to was Rap, so appropriately I've picked a Rap record for my 2002 record of the year.

This was the debut UK Top 40 hit for Dilated Peoples, but they weren't a new act by any means. They formed in 1992 and had their breakthrough album "The Platform" in 2000 which I owned by this point.

This tune came from the follow up album "Expansion Team" and featured Guru from Gang Starr. This was different from most of Rap music in the charts this year and it was good to hear something which sounded like it was from the underground rather than rappers showing off how much money they'd now got which was the case in many Rap records in the charts.

They would have one further Top 40 hit with "This Way" but have remained relevant in the Hip Hop community ever since. I saw them in concert around four years ago and they were excellent, definitely worth going to see if you haven't already.

Record of the Year 2001: Zero 7 - Destiny

It's been a tough choice to pick my record for 2001 with so many to choose from, I've changed my mind countless times over the past couple of weeks or so, but I've decided my record of the year for 2001 is "Destiny" by Zero 7.

My main reservation about picking this record is that I can think of several Zero 7 tunes which are better, but this was their only UK Top 40 hit so is the only one I could pick. Their debut album "Simple Things" is probably my favourite album from 2001 so it's quite logical to pick a track from that album as my record of the year.

There are two vocalists on this record. There was Sia Furler who had already scored a Top 10 hit the previous year with "Taken For Granted" but would have to wait another ten years to score her next Top 40 hit when she would become a household name. The other singer was Sophie Barker who has also had a solo career of her own.

Zero 7 would release another three albums, the most recent of which came in 2009. They appear to still be active, although they haven't played live for a number of years but have played some DJ sets in that time.

Record of the Year 2000: New Vision - Just Me & You

My record of the year for 2000 charted in January of that year, but I first heard it back in the summer of 1999 where Pete Tong would play it on his show. What I remember most about this tune was being the second record he played on a show coming live from Café Mambo in Ibiza, in between "Rendez Vu" by Basement Jaxx and "The Launch" by DJ Jean.

I taped that particular show and listened to it many times, but whilst the Basement Jaxx and DJ Jean tunes would chart around the same time, this record didn't. Given how big Dance music had become by this point I expected it to chart, if anything because it was the stand out record of the show to me and thought surely many others would think the same. As time went on it looked like it wasn't going to happen.

Then one cold December night when I was changing the tape in my car I heard this on the Radio. There were a few more occasions that followed when I heard it again, but I didn't realise at the time that it actually charted in January 2000 reaching number 23.

New Vision was a one off project between Albert Cabrera and Samuel Morales. I tried to find out whether the latter is related to David but couldn't find anything. According to his discogs page he had a couple of records under his own name in 1988 and 1989, then a couple as Sam Savon in 1991 and a further one in 1997, with this being the last thing he released. Albert Cabrera on the other hand was part of several groups and also collaborated with David Morales which suggests Samuel could have been related.

In a way it feels a bit odd picking this for 2000 as it very much brings back memories of 1999 for me, plus I think this works better as a summer record. As the Top 40 is the criteria I use though, 2000 it is. At least I don't have to decide whether of not this is better than the Masters at Work record I picked for 1999.

Record of the Year 1999: Masters At Work - To Be In Love

The first time I heard of Masters At Work was in the mid 90s when I was sent a list of available tapes from a company called "The Edge" under the "American House" section alongside Farley Jackmaster Funk amongst others. Little did I know I'd already heard one half of Masters At Work, Kenny Dope with his Bucketheads project.

Around the same time I heard the other half of Masters At Work, Louie Vega with his Lil Mo Yin Yang project alongside Erick Morillo. Both Kenny and Louie then had hits under the name Nuyorican Soul in 1997 and Louie Vega had a hit alongside Marc Anthony in 1998 called "Ride on the Rhythm". It wasn't until 1999 though that I heard an actual Masters At Work record for the first time which was "To Be In Love".

It was quite an exciting moment for me to finally hear music from I name I'd heard for a few years and I wasn't disappointed. At lot of the dance music in 1999 was starting to get harder and faster, particularly with the rise of Trance, but this completely bucked the trend being a bit slower and more soulful.

I started to appreciate it a lot more a few years later when I basically wanted to listen to some soulful house music and this fit the bill perfectly. When I purchased the Masters At Work collection I couldn't stop listening to it, in particular the disc with this record on so it only seems appropriate I make this the record of the year for 1999.