2002: The Good Old Days? - August

As an R&B fan in 2002 one thing I would do was try and convince myself that some R&B records were good when they really weren't. Examples from this month included "Rainy Dayz" by Mary J Blige & Ja Rule which I even bought the single of and "Addictive" by Truth Hurts. I even tried to like "Boys" by Britney Spears because it feature Pharrell Williams.

I hindsight I don't like any of these records and I don't consider any of the R&B records from this month to be any good.

Rap on the other hand was generally much better. The rap records this month remind me of going to HMV that summer with an old college friend who spend over £100 on CDs there. One CD I remember him buying was the latest Cam'ron album, one I would have bought myself if I'd had enough funds based on "Oh Boy" which is the best record of this month.

I also remember him buying the solo album by Romeo from the So Solid Crew. That wasn't on my want list partly because I wasn't a fan of the So Solid Crew but I had to concede his self titled solo debut single was good. An album I did buy that day was "In Search Of" by Nerd which contained the single "Rock Star". A record featuring Pharrell which is genuinely good.

Plenty of dance music entering the Top 40 this month and most of these records do contribute points. The problem is too many are average rather than good. The best of these dance records is the experimental "Starry Eyed Surprise" by Paul Oakenfold. 

From the punk world we have "My Friends Over You" by New Found Glory which I'm surprised to discover was their only UK Top 40 hit. They always seemed a bit too poundland Blink 182 for my liking, but this was a record of theirs which I did like.

Plenty of candidates for the worst record but this month it goes to the Sugababes with "Round Round". My immediate reaction when I heard it was that it was shit. Then I heard it out and about all the time but what stands out is the slow bit in the middle which really doesn't work in that environment.

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:

Too many average records keeps the score down for August. We're on a par with August 2003 so there's still hope 2002 will be better in the earlier months.