2003: The Good Old Days? - August

In the summer of 2003 I remember having the view that old music had a certain charm but would always be beaten by new music. I clearly don't have that view anymore, but did the charts support that viewpoint?

Let's begin with the best record which was "Barcelona" by D Kay & Epsilon & Stamina MC. I would say drum & bass was in a pretty good place at the time and was a fan of the more melodic sound that didn't really exist in its infancy. Likewise we have another melodic but different drum & bass tune in "Complete" by Jaimeson which I like.

Much of the dance music of August was decent. There was the lesser known Layo & Bushwacka record "It's Up To You" which is good. QFX were in the Top 40 for the first time with their 90s classic "Freedom". I'm also a fan of "I'm In Heaven" by Jason Nevins which samples "Human Nature" by Michael Jackson. The only dance records I didn't like were the vocal trance ones and the one where P Diddy jumped on the dance music bandwagon.

I would have described myself as more or a rap and R&B fan at the time though. Rap wise the only American record comes from Fabolous with "Can't Let You Go" which I liked enough to buy his album. From the UK we had "Fix Up Look Sharp" which wasn't so good.

Looking at the R&B records I can tell I was a fan of the genre because of records I sort of liked at the time even though they're shit. Most notably was "Never Leave You (Uh Oooh Uh Oooh)" by Lumidee which is just a few drums with crap singing over them. Likewise there was "Breathe" by Blu Cantrell, same backing track as "What's the Difference" by Dr Dre but instead of good rapping over it we have crap singing.

I do however still like "Frontin" by Pharrell and I'll never forget it being on the video jukebox in the pub at the time and seeing my mates reaction when Pharrell started singing in a squeaky voice. I also still like "In Love" by Lisa Mafia even though I feel like I shouldn't. Then there's "Snake" by R Kelly which is decent.

Pete Doherty was in the headlines a lot around this time as I recall for his off stage antics and I remember thinking I didn't know any Libertines records. However after listening to "Don't Look Back Into The Sun" just now I've concluded it's actually a decent record.

More Britpop hangover music in charts with "Never Going Nowhere" by the Bluetones which isn't a bad record.

What is a bad record is "Chooza Looza" by Maria Willson which is the worst record. She had another song I remember better called "Mr Alibi" which it turns out failed to make the Top 40. She was a sort of British Avril Lavigne and promptly disappeared afterwards.

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: 23%

Here's a look at the chart:

Hardly a score to imply that the modern music of the time was the best but still better than the modern music is crap era that followed.