Tuesday, 31 December 2024

25 Years Since....December 1999

We've reached the end of the 20th century. It's all downhill from here, but lets enjoy what was happening at the end of the golden age for music:

Paul Van Dyk - Another Way


One thing I discovered in 1999 was that Paul Van Dyk isn't Dutch, he's German. An easy mistake to make given his name, but also because I've always rated the Dutch when it comes to dance music. Then again the Germans know how to make a decent trance record so it didn't really come as a surprise to learn Paul Van Dyk is German given this.

Airscape - L'Esperanza

In the 21st century we had some awful commercial trance music coming out of Belgium, most notably Lasgo. It was good in the 20th century though and this is an example of this. Airscape had another hit a couple of months earlier under the name Balearic Bill which was also decent. No vocals, just straight up trance. 

Artful Dodger ft Craig David - Re-Rewind The Crowd Say Bo Selecta

In the summer of 1999 trance was very much the dance genre of the moment. Based on recent history though I knew this would be the case moving forward. When this record came out it became apparent that 2000 would be the year of UK garage, which it was. I wasn't convinced by this record at first, but it grew on me and I ended up buying the one and only Artful Dodger album which is excellent.

DJ Luck And MC Neat - A Little Bit Of Luck

Another record that indicated that the year 2000 would be the year of UK garage. It also gave a clear distinction between house and garage i.e. house is a genre that's never really done MCs whereas this garage record explicitly had an MC as part of the act. OK the MC aspect of garage did sort of kill it in the end, but this was before that aspect got ridiculous. For me this record was all about the beat kicking in.


Len - Steal My Sunshine

We like to place music into genres, particularly at the turn of the century. This was a time when some people would pick their own sub genre of dance music and hate any other sub genre. Then this tune came out which I can't really place in a genre to be honest. All I know is it's a great tune and united happy hardcore fans with drum & bass fans for example even though it couldn't be any more different than either genre. I could listen to this all day at the time, and often did.
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UK Number 40s: Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster - Rise Of The Eagles (2004)

 


In the early part of the 21st century there were a number of bands who were perhaps more famous for their weird names than their actually music. Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster were one such band. I remember hearing about them at the time, but would struggle to name any of their records.

They had 5 Top 40 hits in total and this was the final one of those. The highest they reached was number 25 with their 3rd Top 40 hit "Mister Mental" which would have been helped by its appearance in the film "Shaun of the Dead".

This record was taken from the same album "The Royal Society". It was followed by a 6 year gap in new music which was the same time indie became hugely popular. By the time they released music again in 2010 the popularity of indie music from a chart perspective had declined.

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Sunday, 29 December 2024

Top 30 in 1994 Reviewed: Week 53

Here's my weekly look at the Top 30 from 30 years ago. The plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Sunday.

Here is the Top 40 in full.

Obviously some of the records will be the same as last week so therefore the review will be the same for these. I've indicated which ones are new so you can skip the others if you read last weeks post.

Once again my opinions are inevitably going to differ from other people, but I'm not trying to convince anyone something is good or rubbish, I'm simply giving my opinion.

So this is the top 30 from this week in 1994 with my verdict on each record:


The Tidy Boys are one of the big names from the hard house scene and behind the Tidy record label. It's quite common knowledge that member Andy Pickles had previous been part of Jive Bunny & the Mastermixers which doesn't do much for their credibility. However both members had previously done this novelty record as 2 In A Tent which was made in collaboration with Stock & Aitken. Not sure which is worse.

Verdict - Rubbish


The 2nd Top 40 hit of the post-Stock Aitken & Waterman era for Kylie Minogue. This missed out on the Top 10 and she would have a Top 10 for the rest of the 90s. I'd say this record was better known for Kylie Minogue getting naked in the video than the song itself. It does sound more like proper music than her previous efforts, but still not to my liking.

Verdict - Rubbish


This was the follow up to her biggest hit "Sweetness" that I'm not sure I actually remember. It's going with that pop music tradition of releasing your depressing song for Christmas. Not sure who exactly they were trying to appeal to here, but certainly not me.

Verdict - Rubbish


M People were back with a new album called "Bizarre Fruit" which this was the lead single from. There's nothing bizarre about this record though, just sticking to the tried and tested dance pop formula that proved to be successful for them. Not for me though.

Verdict - Rubbish


The Top 40 debut for Sheryl Crow which did have quite an impact, though some seemed to be more into Sheryl Crow herself rather than her music. When these conversations were going on I knew the song but didn't know what Sheryl Crow looked like. Not a bad record and certainly better than the shite she did in years to come.

Verdict - OK


I hated this record at the time. Bon Jovi had become the rock band for people not into rock music and releasing this ballad which became their biggest hit didn't do them any favours in that respect. A few years later though I realised that I actually like this song. I knew someone who had their greatest hits and I borrowed it just to tape this song which then got regularly played in my car. 

Verdict - Good


When I was a Honeyz fan I was asked by a few people whether I liked Eternal. I know where they were coming from with that question, but the answer was no. I've always lumped them in with the naff things of the 90s such as Andi Peters. I don't think I've heard this one since the 90s, but it's more boring than I remember it being. I guess it hasn't aged well.

Verdict - Rubbish


1994 goes down in dance music history as being the year of jungle. This however translated into just 3 Top 40 hits with this being the 3rd. It's clearly more of a commercial jungle record, but served as a good access point to the more underground music that I was trying to discover at the time. 

Verdict - Good


I first came across this record via someone singing it at school. I heard her singing the "be my baby" part initially thinking she was trying to sing "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight", but it wasn't long before I was hearing this everywhere. Once the hype had died down I remember hearing it on holiday a couple of years later for the first time in while and was thinking how badly it had aged already, it was sounding far too slow.

Verdict - Rubbish


I remember playing a name the tune game where it wasn't the original artists singing on the clips. One of the clips was "All I Have To Do Is Dream" which I identified and gave the artist as the Everly Brothers. Turns out I was wrong, the artist was Cliff Richard With Phil Everly. Quite why you were supposed to identify the cover when it's some random singing it I don't know. Anyway that's a good enough reason for me to hate this record, but I can't say I've ever liked anything I've heard by Cliff Richard.

Verdict - Rubbish / Rubbish


The majority of eurodance music that I've heard is shit. That's not to say I'm anti-eurodance, if a eurodance record is made well then it can be a really good record. This is an example of one of those records. No idea what exactly makes this so much better than your average eurodance record. I own the album and I remember it helping me through a stressful journey down the A1 one time.

Verdict - Good


This was the final Eternal hit before Louise left the group. With the exception of their final hit when they were just a duo and their popularity had dwindled, this was the lowest charting Eternal single. As a trio they never failed to reach the Top 10. It's probably the most obscure Eternal record and probably the worst one too which is really saying something.

Verdict - Rubbish


Babyface was on songwriting duties for this record and I think you can tell that Babyface has something to do with it. I like Babyface, he's a writer and producer I really rate. Part of his talent though is to write both decent records and crap records for pop singers. This one very much fits the latter category. 

Verdict - Rubbish


I remember at the time learning that this was a cover of a 60s number one by The Equals. When I asked my mum if the original was a reggae tune she said no, there was no such thing back then. Well actually there was. I also remember people singing the "CD collection of Bob Marley" part thinking that was just a piss take not realising that was actually part of the lyrics. I think it's also worth pointing out that this also features Ali and Robin Campbell from UB40 who I think do more singing in it that Pato Banton. Anyway its a good bit of reggae pop.

Verdict - Good


This was the 4th Top 40 hit for PJ & Duncan. Their music career began on Byker Grove but their debut single "Tonight I'm Free" which they did on the TV show failed to make the Top 40. Their music career soon picked up though. Around this time though PJ & Duncan had left Byker Grove and it was all about Frew and Barney DJing. Onto this record and I never liked it at the time, but listening to it again after all these years I'm realising how awful it was.

Verdict - Rubbish


There was a brief period of time when the Riverdance was big. Never been a fan of dancing myself so I ignored it the best I could. But given it's popularity they couldn't resist releasing a single from it. The fact it's all about watching the dancing rather than listening to the music though suggests the music isn't really up to much, which it isn't.

Verdict - Rubbish


When I first became a raver I had to educate myself about it. Most of that in the early days came from a friend who was into it and remember him telling me it was a proper rave tune. It originally came out in 1992 but didn't enjoy commercial success until 1994. I liked it at the time, but I truly appreciated how good it was when I heard it for the first time in a while on Dave Pearce's Dance Anthems around 98/99 time.

Verdict - Good


The follow up to "Saturday Night" which sounds just like "Saturday Night". Unsurprisingly the 2 writers of "Saturday Night", Larry Pignagnoli and Davide Riva also wrote this along with Annerley Gordon though quite what the latter added to it I don't know. Anyway I never liked "Saturday Night" so therefore I don't like this.

Verdict - Rubbish


At the time I remember thinking that whilst Mariah Carey had a surprisingly uplifting record at Christmas, Gloria Estefan was the counter to that with this record. Not sure why exactly I was making the comparison of Gloria Estefan and Mariah Carey. It is however a rarity in that it's a Gloria Estefan hit of the 90s that I actually remember, for the wrong reasons though. 

Verdict - Rubbish


I hated this song at the time but also bought the CD single. The latter came a few years later when I saw it going cheap in Cash Converters and I'd come to realise that I actually like Bon Jovi and sod the fact they're not exactly cool. I no longer own said CD single and probably just listened to it once. That tells you all you need to know. Probably more famous for having Cindy Crawford in the video than the actual song.

Verdict - Rubbish


This failed to reach the Top 40 when first released in 1969, but it succeeded the second time around thanks to it featuring on the Guinness advert. It gave Louis Armstrong his first Top 40 hit since 1968 and had he still been alive he would have been 93. It meant at this point in time he had the longest UK Top 40 career having first charted in its first year in 1952. It was just about the only record that regularly appeared on Radio 2 at the time that I actually liked.

Verdict - Good


Power Rangers was a huge kids TV show at the time, but I was too old for it. This is the theme music to the TV show. Matt Aitken had come out of retirement and reunited with Mike Stock, but not Pete Waterman. From this description there can only really be one verdict for this record.

Verdict - Rubbish


Zig and Zag were puppets on The Big Breakfast. I remember them singing the chorus to this acapella on an episode. I never though in a million years it would get turned into an actual song. We have Simon Cowell to thank for that. I'll concede it's better than all that nonsense the X Factor winners would sing, but that's not too difficult. Produced by Erick Morillo, though he'd already been known to do cheesy music too by this point.

Verdict - Rubbish


We were almost a decade into Jimmy Nails Top 40 career but this was just his 3rd Top 40 hit. At this point all his Top 40 hits had made the Top 5 but he hasn't made the Top 5 since. It's taken from the TV series of the same name which starred Jimmy Nail. It's a pleasant enough record without being something I'd go out of my way to listen to.

Verdict - OK


I remember going on holiday in 1995 and going to a restaurant the first night which was almost empty. As I dined it became apparent why nobody went there. The restaurant manager seemed to love this song, playing it multiple times that evening and encouraging diners to get up and dance to it with him. Needless to say I never went back. A boring depressing record.

Verdict - Rubbish


I used to regularly go to a pub quiz where the first round was always music clips where we had to give the artist title and year. There would be a common theme between the clips and one time it was number one hits of the 90s in which this appeared. Obviously the artist and title wasn't a problem, but the year wasn't so straightforward. On one hand it entered the charts in 1994 but it topped the charts in 1995, so which year was he wanting? I can't remember which one it was now, but it was different to the one I gave. That association makes me hate the song even more than I did previously. 

Verdict - Rubbish


The Top 40 debut for Boyzone, the Irish version of Take That. After they had a few hits it became apparent that Ronan Keating has quite a deep singing voice but he's pretty high pitched here and you can kind of sense he's struggling to sing like that. Like many Boyzone hits it's a cover that just sounds like a karaoke version of the original.

Verdict - Rubbish


This was the 5th Top 40 hit for Oasis and biggest hit to date, possibly helped by the fact every man and his dog had the "Definitely Maybe" album but this never appeared on an album. Although it's clearly a different song, I can't help but think of it as a blatant rip off of "I'm Free" by the Rolling Stones and it's almost surprising Jagger and Richards didn't take legal action given it doesn't take much for them to do that. Instead it was Neil Innes who took legal action for it's resemblance to one of his songs. I never got Oasis though, doesn't appeal to me at all.

Verdict - Rubbish


Every Christmas time these days you'll find this back in the Top 40. It tends to be the first Christmas record to reappear in the charts and is often the highest charting of the Christmas records too. This is its original run in the charts where it was denied the top spot by East 17. It's a surprisingly upbeat record for Mariah Carey but that doesn't mean its any good.

Verdict - Rubbish


I once sang this at karaoke one summer and the DJ questioned why I was singing a Christmas song at that time of the year. The answer is simple, it's not a Christmas song. Yes it was Christmas number one and year the bells at the end may give a hint of Christmas, but the song was about Tony Mortimer's brother after he'd taken his own life. Anyway like with pretty much all the East 17 hits, I like it and it's one of my favourite ever Christmas number ones.

Verdict - Good

If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 8/30, or 27%. 2 rubbish records in and 2 out.
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Friday, 27 December 2024

Top 30 in 1997 Reviewed: Week 52

Here's my weekly look at the Top 30 from 27 years ago. The plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Friday.

Here is the Top 40 in full.

Obviously some of the records will be the same as last week so therefore the review will be the same for these. I've indicated which ones are new so you can skip the others if you read last weeks post.

Once again my opinions are inevitably going to differ from other people, but I'm not trying to convince anyone something is good or rubbish, I'm simply giving my opinion.

So this is the top 30 from this week in 1997 with my verdict on each record:


The Propellerheads were big in 1997 and then just disappeared off the face of the earth afterwards. With it came the excellent "Decksanddrumsandrockandroll" album which I own and is one of my all time favourites. It gave Shirley Bassey her first Top 40 hit for nearly 25 years and she wasn't done yet.

Verdict - Good


Ever thought that Bryan Adams and Mel C was a bit of an odd collaboration when it happened? Well this is where it probably all began. His usual songwriting sidekick Robert John "Mutt" Lange had been replaced by Eliot Kennedy for this record, the man who composed "Say You'll Be There" by the Spice Girls. He was also co-writer on said collaboration. It's pretty dull.

Verdict - Rubbish


I was aware this record was from the "Trainspotting" film and that said film was out in 1996. I was therefore wondering why this wasn't released until the end of 1997. Turns out the film and soundtrack were so popular they released a second soundtrack of records that failed to make the first. I'd say there's a good reason this didn't make the first.

Verdict - Rubbish


The 2nd half of 1997 was a good one for The Verve. They had 3 Top 10 hits including a number one having never been in the Top 10 before. That was pretty much it for them though, no hits in 1998 and then they split up in 1999. They did reunite and have a final comeback single in 2008 though. This ones as boring as the others.

Verdict - Rubbish


The 4th and final Top 40 hit to date for The Seahorses and just as a reminder, they were a band who completely passed me by. It came just 7 months after their debut, so a very brief Top 40 career. I do question whether I was living under a rock in late 1997 as there's so many records that passed me by, or did the sheer quantity of Top 40 hits mean some would inevitably slip through the net. 

Verdict - Rubbish


The final Top 40 hit of the 90s for Paul McCartney which was originally recorded in 1986. It was produced by Jeff Lynne and features Ringo Starr on drums. It takes a while to get going but once it does it turns out to be one of the best solo records he's ever done.

Verdict - Good


When I saw Hot Chocolate performing this on Top of the Pops in 1997 I thought there must have been renewed interest in this record due to the Clock cover. Turns out that wasn't the case. Instead it was because it was used in the film "The Full Monty". It's overplayed and a bit cheesy but I do quite like it. That's the song, never seen the film and unlikely to ever watch it.

Verdict - Good


This was the 3rd number 3 for the Backstreet Boys. They'd also had a number 2 prior to this and all 4 of these record were the ones that had been written by Max Martin. An early sign that by the time I'm writing this post only Paul McCartney would have more Top 40 hits to his name as songwriter.

Verdict - Rubbish


Sheryl Crow makes it into double figures with this being her 10th Top 40 hit. It was the theme tune to the James Bond film of the same name and was the first since 1983 not to make the Top 10. It's generally no better or worse than those that did make the Top 10 in between.

Verdict - Rubbish


The post-Louise era of Eternal was more or less finished by this point, but the solo career of Louise carried on. It was probably helped by the fact that by this point she was the girlfriend and soon to be wife of footballer Jamie Redknapp. The is a karaoke version of the Average White Band record.

Verdict - Rubbish


I remember this record being played for what I think was the first time on Children in Need. It's a novelty line dancing mixed with eurodance record. Of course this turned out to be many hits for Steps. It goes without saying this song is shit. As a side note I have no problem with the cheesy holiday rep type image they're portraying here, it serves a purpose I suppose. The issue is them now being stuck up celebrities complaining about it but are happy to still milk it with their nostalgia tours.

Verdict - Rubbish


Watch out 911 there's a new British boy band in town and their name is also a number. This was their Top 40 debut and they had the Swedish songwriters Denniz Pop and Max Martin behind this. There was certainly a gap in the market for them, the bad boys from the south to counter the clean cut boy band from the north like East 17 were to Take That. They were no East 17 though.

Verdict - Rubbish


Another football song for Man Utd and it wasn't even around the FA Cup final when that normally happens. Instead they release a record in the middle of a season when they weren't the champions.

Verdict - Rubbish


Lutricia McNeal is from America but she relocated to Sweden and launched her music career. Then the Swedish songwriters started taking over the pop world and this, her debut Top 40 hit became a worldwide success. It's always irritated me for some reason. 

Verdict - Rubbish


This record was written by Carole King and apparently she originally wrote it for Aerosmith. I could almost imagine that now I'm listening to it, Aerosmith had their fair share of ballads after all. As Celine Dion recorded it though the guitars are pretty quiet aside from the solo and it just sounds very contained. 

Verdict - Rubbish


Elton John wasn't the only one to chart with a tribute song to Princess Diana. Chicken Shed which is a theatre group in London had this record. It was sung by the children of the theatre group. It never reached the heights it was expected to.

Verdict - Rubbish


When New Kids On The Block made their 2008 comeback with "Summertime" they were completely slated by a friend of mine for being a group of middle aged men trying to be a modern R&B group. As a result I decided to buy him that single for Christmas as a laugh. I can only imagine other people had that same train of thought when buying their Christmas presents in 1997 by buying their friends this record. Even at the time it was universally accepted that it was shit.

Verdict - Rubbish


When it comes to dreary ballads, few can claim to be as prolific as Barbra Streisand and Celine Dion so it only seemed logical that they would do a collaboration. To top it off they did a song written by Walter Afanasieff, the man who wrote many of Mariah Careys records and Linda Thompson and David Foster who wrote "I Have Nothing" by Whitney Houston. I'm really struggling to think of anything that can sound worse.

Verdict - Rubbish


In 1996 we saw the beginning and end of the Top 40 career of singing actor John Alford. Then at the end of 1997 we had this, the Top 40 debut for another London's Burning actor Steven Houghton. A poor cover of a poor record.

Verdict - Rubbish


The biggest selling single of all time thanks to it being a charity record and a tribute to Princess Diana. I can picture the video clip of loads of people piling into the record shops as soon as it opened with one woman going and picking up a massive pile of CDs to buy. This blog is all about the music though and not the sentiment and musically it's not to my liking.

Verdict - Rubbish / Rubbish


Mase had already had a couple of Top 40 hits as featured artists on Puff Daddy records, but this was his first Top 40 hit in his own right. It's also his best known hit. The chorus samples "Bad Boy" by Miami Sound Machine which was also they name of the record label he was on. Lots of crap came from that record label.

Verdict - Rubbish


When I went to Helter Skelter for the millennium, I was looking forward to the Vibes and Live Lee set which was the last of the night. It was a bit of an anti climax though when the first record he played was a happy hardcore version of "Baby Can I Hold You". "Shooting Star" is one I never knew until I started listening to Popmaster where they like asking questions about it.

Verdict - Rubbish


I was watching Live & Kicking in 1994 and Natalie Imbruglia was a guest on the show having just left Neighbours. She was asked if she was planning to launch a music career to which she said no which shocked Andi Peters. 3 years later here she is launching a music career and I was shocked. I wasn't shocked to find it was shit though.

Verdict - Rubbish


This was the turn around point of Robbie Williams solo career which went from strength to strength after this. I was dismissive of him as a solo artist least of all because I didn't like Oasis who he was trying to imitate. This record though is completely different and I had to concede it's actually quite good.

Verdict - Good


I remember someone telling me there was a song about Barbie that had just come out which had some sexual references between Barbie and Ken. I thought he was taking the piss, but then I heard this. When I heard they were from Denmark, the same country as Whigfield, it made more sense. Remember the lyrics "I need you inside me tonight"?

Verdict - Rubbish


When this record came out I was shocked. It was a Janet Jackson song that I actually liked. Remember I was listening to nothing but rave at the time so I really didn't want to like this record even though it is a dance record. Then a friend of mine who was into rap and drum & bass bought this single which made me feel a bit better about liking it.

Verdict - Good


When the All Saints first came about I was amazed to find that I liked their debut Top 40 hit. I was even more amazed to find I also liked this, their follow up. It's one of those records I'd felt I'd heard before but hadn't. As a result of me liking these first 2 singles I went on to do something I'd not done in a long time, bought an album that wasn't rave which was their debut album.

Verdict - Good


If you were watching the BBC in late 1997 then you would have heard this record many times. It seemed to be on between every TV show. It's a long list of singers who would sing a line each and I got absolutely sick of it.

Verdict - Rubbish


1997 brought us what was the latest hugely popular kids TV show, Teletubbies. I've never watched an episode myself, I was far too old for it. Obviously with Christmas just around the corner this record made a ideal Christmas present for parents to buy their young children and hence it topped the charts.

Verdict - Rubbish


The 6th Top 40 hit for the Spice Girls and their 6th number one. Even at the start of 1997 you would have put money on the Spice Girls getting the Christmas number one that year no matter what the record was.

Verdict - Rubbish

If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 6/30, or 20%. A poor end to a poor year.
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Thursday, 26 December 2024

Queen

A few years ago a relative of mine who I've only seen very occasionally throughout my life asked me if I was still a Queen fan. I was somewhat surprised by this question given I was a Queen fan for around a year or so around 1991/92. Maybe I saw them more regularly in 1992 than any other year.

Queens Greatest Hits album is the biggest selling UK album of all time selling 7 million. That means over 1 in 10 people in this country own it, not to mention those who had a copied tape like I did. Their final concert with Freddie Mercury was in front of 120,000 people in Knebworth which came a month or so after they did 2 nights at Wembley Stadium. Even without Freddie Mercury they're still popular enough to play The O2. Yet even Brian May and Roger Taylor will tell you, they've never been a cool band to like.

I first knew Queen the band in 1989 when they had a hit with "I Want It All". I'd heard other songs of theirs before without knowing who it was, my music memories begin in 1987 so their prior hit "Who Wants To Live Forever" would have been just before my time. To this day, "I Want It All" is one of my favourite Queen songs and is arguably their heaviest hit. What I found quite baffling was seeing a rock band where only one member had long hair.

It was the death of Freddie Mercury at the end of 1991 though which turned me into a Queen fan. None of my school friends shared the same sentiment though, I was ridiculed by many for liking them.

During my time as a Queen fan I recall a school assembly where the teacher was talking about music. I don't know whether he was talking from the perspective of a school boy or teacher in the 70s, he seemed a bit old to have been a school boy then. He said all the kids were into the Bay City Rollers, they were the cool band. There was however one person who bucked the trend because he was into Queen. A bit like me in 1992.

The people I knew who did like Queen were older people which makes sense given they were around before I was born. In another school assembly the Deputy Head said he liked Queen which wasn't something I wanted to hear. What really made me feel embarrassed to be a Queen fan though was learning the organ player at church liked Queen.

Aside from establishing that Queen were uncool, what really stopped Queen from being my favourite band was asking myself the question: Is Queens music better than Guns N Roses music? The answer was no and then I became a Guns N Roses fan instead. At the time I didn't consider it a possibility to like both, so I now hated Queen.

These days you can simply categorise Queen as being Classic Rock which is a generic term. They never really fitted any specific genre. You could just about say that "I Want It All" is hard rock, but follow up "Breakthru" certainly isn't. Given they never stuck to one style, their music is a mixed bag. 

As we entered 1993 and I was into the more modern rock music I started having piano lessons, well Guns N Roses do have Dizzy Reed. My teacher was the daughter of the church organ player who was maybe 18 or so. Turned out she was into the more modern rock music too, but this time I wasn't put off because she wasn't as uncool as one might expect a church organ players daughter to be. I think there's a lesson to be learned here.

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2003: The Good Old Days? - July

Now we're going back in time to find when the charts were half decent it's unlikely we'll run into a month when there are no decent new entries in the Top 40. There are decent records in July 2003 but none of them would even be contenders for best record if they were released in many other months.

The record I've picked is "Magic Fly" by Minimalistix. The original version from the 70s by Space lends itself to a trance makeover and this does the job. We also have a remix for "Tour De France" by Kraftwerk which doesn't sound all that different to the original really which is no bad thing.

Elsewhere in the dance world we have a solid effort from Paul Van Dyke with "Nothing But You" and fellow Germans Scooter have another typical Scooter record which is always welcome. The rest of the dance music isn't great, mostly cheesy vocal trance which is fast becoming 2003s answer to modern crappy EDM music.

Much better on the rap front, 3 records and 3 points. This includes "21 Questions" by 50 Cent which is possibly the only record of his I like. Eminem's "Business" is one of the better tracks on his "The Eminem Show" album thanks to Dr Dre's production. We also have the Joe Budden debut "Pump It Up" which grew on me at the time.

Just the one decent R&B record this month which comes from Tyrese with "How You Gonna Act Like That". The worst record is an R&B one which is "Crazy In Love" by Beyonce. It was played to death at the time and made people notice the lead singer of Destiny's Child had a name, unfortunately.

No marks from the indie genre which includes Britpop hangover records from Blur and Ocean Colour Scene. 

In fact I've mentioned all the records which get full marks so needless to say it's been quite a disappointing month.

Here's a list of the records with the best on top, worst at the bottom and the good ones in green, OK ones in amber and rubbish ones in red (and in no particular order):

Score: 18%

Here's a look at the chart:


At this halfway stage I'm inclined to say 2003 wasn't the good old days but lets see what the first half of the year brings.

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