2003: The Good Old Days? - December

In my January 2004 post I mentioned it being the beginning of the mid-00s indie boom given the number of prolific bands making their Top 40 debut in the first couple of months of the year. This becomes more evident when you see there was only 2 indie new entries in December 2003. One was "Bill McCai" by The Coral which rang a vague bell and I found myself enjoying it. The other way "Hysteria" by Muse which wasn't my cup of tea.

Many of the new entries were either pop or Christmas music and they all collectively score a big fat zero.

The most prolific more specialist genre was rap music, however only one of those records was any good. That was the double a-side "Clap Back / Reigns" by Ja Rule, the former being the only single from his more underground "Blood in my Eye" album and the latter being from his previous "The Last Temptation" album to give it more commercial appeal. Other offerings from G-Unit, Jay-Z, Nelly and Black Eyed Peas are very much of the rubbish commercial variety.

R&B wise we have a decent record in "You Don't Know My Name" by Alicia Keys. If we stretch the definition to blue-eyed soul we have another decent record in "You Make Me Feel Brand New" by Simply Red, not as good as the original but a decent cover nonetheless. The rest of the R&B records were rubbish.

Dance music was lacking in both quantity and quality this month. Just 3 of the new entries were dance records and of these just "Cry Little Sister (I Need U Now)" by Lost Brothers featuring G Tom Mac gets half a mark. The other 2 were Room 5's other hit "Music And You" which is commercial fodder and "Feelin Fine" by Ultrabeat, a watered down version of the happy hardcore record by Unique.

The only other record to get full marks is "It's My Life" by No Doubt which has appeared before (or after chronologically) as part of a double a-side which I described as a decent cover. We also have half a mark for Iron Maiden with "Rainmaker", not enough in the drumming to give it full marks.

Onto the worst record then which goes to Ozzy and Kelly Osbourne with "Changes". I'm sure even Ozzy's big fans would agree this is crap.

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: 13%

Here's a look at the chart:

It's presumably the Christmas slump again. Still time for improvement.