2005: The End? - August

August was a pretty quiet month by 2005 standards with just 35 new entries in the Top 40 which was the lowest so far. That was a good opportunity for the majority to appear on Top of the Pops, but that never happened with just 16 appearing.

It was also quieter for the indie/garage rock genre where I count 8 records of which 3 appeared on Top of the Pops. 2 of those appearances came from Supergrass and Super Furry Animals, both 90s bands having their final Top 40 hits. The only points the genre gets is half marks for "Fuck Forever" by Babyshambles, a record I did not know but it's not bad.

The most likely source of points though were from dance, rap and R&B so let's look there.

We'll start with the best record which is "Feel The Vibe (Til The Morning Comes)" from a pre-Swedish House Mafia Axwell i.e. when he was actually good. Another contender for best record was Goldfrapp with "Ooh La La" but I know they have a better record later in the year which is likely to be best record for that month. The final point in the dance music world is the cheesy but fun "Fading Like A Flower" by Dancing DJs & Roxette.

The remaining dance records came from Martin Solveig with "Everybody", not my cup of tea but better than the future EDM rubbish he'd put out. There's Uniting Nations with "You & Me" which I was surprised to find wasn't on AATW records which tells you everything. Finally there's "Little Love" by Lil Love, a pre EDM Alex Gaudino doing something that's not that bad but not exactly good.

Rap wise there's points for Eminem and Snoop Dogg with singles taken from their 2004 albums. We also have the worst record which is "9 to 5" by Lady Sovereign. A British rapper making her debut and just sounds a complete joke of a record.

R&B wise it's just the one point for "Obsession (No Es Amor)" by Frankie J which had been a hit the previous year for 3rd Wish and both versions featured rapper Baby Bash.

Bucking the trend by improving with age was Bananarama who were back for the first time in 12 years with "Move in My Direction" which I actually don't mind. I can't say the same for fellow 80s group Madness whose cover of "Shame & Scandal" shows they were way past their best.

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: 24%

Here's a look at the chart:

We have the best month of the year so far, I wasn't expecting that. What I will say is the smaller quantity of new entries this month compared to previous months means each good record carries more weight which will help the score.