2002: The Good Old Days? - March

The music of this month takes me back to a time I had a housemate who was always watching TV in the living room and often flicking through the music channels. The only music channels we had were MTV Hits, The Box and VH1 Classic so given to of them were very much hits of the moment some of these records featured a lot.

The best record is "Break Ya Neck" by Busta Rhymes. When I got into rap I saw myself as team west coast and the first east coast rapper I bought an album of was Busta Rhymes. When I saw Dr Dre had produced this it made me feel more comfortable about that. Of course I now know none of that really matters, it's a great record and one that few if any would be able to rap along to.

One thing most of the rap and R&B records I like this month is that I own them on CD one way or another. I have the Busta Rhymes album, "Chocolate Factory" by R Kelly which "The Worlds Greatest" appears on the bonus disc, "Songs in A Minor" by Alicia Keys which contains "A Woman's Worth" and I bought the "Shoulda Woulda Coulda" single by Beverley Knight because I loved that tune but wasn't overly keen on her other stuff. The only exception was "Lovely" by Bubba Sparxxx.

The best of the dance records was "Close Cover" by Minimalistix which I came close to buying on vinyl at the time but decided against it because it was on Ministry of Sound records who I saw as being too commercial. Yes I really was a music snob in those days.

There were 3 garage records this month once again. It was a mixed bag, there was a decent record in "B With Me" by Mis-Teeq which was their final garage single. There was "Time After Time" by Distant Soundz which was OK but nothing special. Then we had "Oi" by Platinum 45 featuring More Fire Crew which is really an illustration of garage turning into grime. Not for me.

Although it's clearly a piss take and was very much overplayed at the time I do like "Me Julie" by Ali G and Shaggy. The fact Ali G refers to Beyonce as the lead singer of Destiny's Child rather than by her name takes me back to a better time when nobody really knew what her name was.

The Pet Shop Boys enter their guitar phase with "Home and Dry", not a popular move for some but I quite like it. I don't ever remember it on the music channels though, maybe they were considered too old by this point. One record I very much remember on the music channels was "Love Foolosophy" by Jamiroquai which is a great record.

All that's left is the worst record which is "Been There Done That" by Smoke 2 Seven. They were one of many short lived girl groups at the time and this was always appearing on the music channels. Me and my housemates didn't really see eye to eye when it came to music but we all agreed about how shit this was.

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: 26%

Here's a look at the chart:

We've improved but 2002 is yet to be convincing as the good old days. 2003 and 2004 are looking better at the moment.