2006: The End? - July

One thing that did come to an end in 2006 was Top of the Pops. I watched the final episode which was more going through the archives than playing what was in the charts. I do recall I hadn't watched an episode for some time.

Once again with have lots of indie/garage rock records in there and once again I have no recollection of most of them. One I do remember is the yawnfest that is "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol. They seemed to be very popular at the time and I just didn't get it. All the indie records score the usual zero.

My best record pick is a guitar one though. It's "Tell Me Baby" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers which was the best thing they'd done in a long time. I also liked the sentiment of the video where they give a load of wannabe rock stars to play with them.

A close contender for best record was a sort of dance meets rock record in "We Are Your Friends" by Justice vs Simian, the former being an electronic duo and the latter being a rock band whose members included future electronic duo Simian Mobile Disco.

Future Swedish House Mafia members Axwell and Steve Angello had a hit under the name Supermode with "Tell Me Why" which was their take on "Smalltown Boy" by Bronski Beat and was an era when they were still making good music. Another point in the dance music world goes to Till West & DJ Delicious with "Same Man". Fatboy Slim gets half a point for "That Old Pair Of Jeans", I've always rated him more as a DJ than a producer.

Both rap records this month score something. We have full marks for "Kick Push" by Lupe Fiasco which stood out at the time as one of the better new rap records. There's half a point for "I Love My Bitch" by Busta Rhymes, it's alright but nowhere near as good as his earlier stuff.

R&B wise we have Chris Brown, Gnarls Barkley, Ne-Yo and Rihanna who were all modern rubbish in my mind. All get zero and the latter was a very strong contender for the worst record and on another month I'm sure it would have got that honour.

The worst record though is "Smile" by Lily Allen. Here we have someone breaking through via MySpace, the idea that someone makes music in their bedroom, puts in on MySpace and suddenly they're a superstar. Being the daughter of Keith Allen of course had nothing to do with it. Terrible record and it never stopped getting played at the time.

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: 12%

Here's a look at the chart:

On a par with December 2005 and worse than any other month in 2005, this is still telling me 2006 is the end.