UK Number 40s: Forward Russia - Nine (2006)

 

When a nationality or country is in a band name it almost inevitably means the band in question don't come from the country in their name. This is the case with Forward Russia who were a British indie band who hailed from Leeds.

In their early days all of their songs were numbers which was in the order the songs were made in. Quite similar to what Mansun were doing in the 90s with their EPs. The difference though was that Forward Russia only had 2 Top 40 hit with this being the 2nd. It followed "Nine" which made number 36.

This may explain their lack of chart success then. When "Twelve" came out people were looking for "One" and then when they discovered their Top 40 debut was called "Twelve" they started looking for "Thirteen" when they were looking for this. After that they must have just given up.

Top 30 in 1999 Reviewed: Week 6

Here's my weekly look at the Top 30 from 26 years ago. The plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Sunday.

Here is the Top 40 in full.

I've decided against repetition from previous weeks moving forward so will only feature the records I'm reviewing for the first time.

Once again my opinions are inevitably going to differ from other people, but I'm not trying to convince anyone something is good or rubbish, I'm simply giving my opinion.

So this is the records new to the top 30 from this week in 1999 with my verdict on each record:

26. Mercury Rev - Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp

Mercury Rev were one of those bands I'd heard of but not knowingly heard any of their music. This was mainly because a lot of people at university seemed to like them. The intro to this record sounded quite promising, it has similarities to "Strings of Life". It very quickly gets boring though.

Verdict - Rubbish

19. Leilani - Madness Thing

Leilani is just one of several long forgotten pop singers we'll encounter in 1999. This was her big hit which was followed by a minor hit that scraped into the Top 40 and by the end of the year nobody remembered her. There's nothing to like about this record at all, it's terrible.

Verdict - Rubbish

11. Placebo - Every You Every Me

This was the final Top 40 hit of the 90s for Placebo, but they had many more in the 21st century. It was on the soundtrack to "Cruel Intentions" which was a pretty big film at the time. It suits the film in that it sounds like the sort of rubbish you'd get in these American high school films at the time.

Verdict - Rubbish

10. Inner City - Good Life (Buena Vida)

It had been over a decade since Inner City made the Top 40 with "Good Life". It had become one of the all time anthems, and with dance music being as popular as it was in 1999 it was given a makeover. It works well and reminds me that I never went to Ibiza in 1999 even though I wanted to.

Verdict - Good

9. Garbage - When I Grow Up

I'm finding myself still humming along to it even though the song has ended. Garbage are really proving themselves to be a sort of forgotten gem of the 90s in that their music sounds a lot better now than I remember it being. Another decent record from them.

Verdict - Good

8. The Divine Comedy - National Express

The biggest hit for The Divine Comedy. By this point I knew to expect the subject matter to be pretty random, but even then a record about a bus company seemed very odd. What was even weirder was the lyrics about the jolly hostess selling crisps and tea. I've never been on a National Express that has had one of those. Always loved this record.

Verdict - Good

4. Dru Hill - These Are The Times

The penultimate Top 40 hit to date for Dru Hill and their final one by themselves. It also became their highest charting by themselves. It was written by Babyface who was no longer as prolific with writing Top 40 hits as he'd been a couple of years earlier. It was also written by Damon Thomas and this was his first Top 40 hit as songwriter. It completely passed me by, but retrospectively I think it's pretty solid.

Verdict - Good

1. Armand Van Helden ft Duane Harden - U Don't Know Me

I remember this seemed to be around for a while before it actually charted. I may have even taped it off the radio before then, I certainly did at some point. It wasn't really a surprise that it did top the charts given how popular it was. I also remember considering it to be old by the end of the year.

Verdict - Good

If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 14/30, or 47%. Another big improvement.

Dutch Top 40 1995: Week 6

These were the new entries in the Dutch Top 40 that never made the UK Top 40:

TNT - Better Than Better

Just the one record this week, but it's a hardcore record. It's not one I ever knew at the time which is a bit of a surprise as it doesn't sound like a record that would be too commercial sounding to play at a rave. It was the sole Dutch Top 40 hit for TNT.

2003: The Good Old Days? - January

When I started looking at the charts from the start of 2005 we were in the era of indie domination. As I started going back into 2004 I saw that what came before the indie domination was lots of rap/R&B in the charts. 2003 has taken us back to an era where there's lots of dance music and in January we seem a world away from any sort of indie or rap/R&B dominance.

There were just 5 indie records entering the Top 40. One of those records gets half marks which is "Time For Heroes" by The Libertines, a band whose music I'm enjoying more than I thought it would.

All the rap records get full marks, helped by the fact there were just 2 of them. We have "React" by Eric Sermon & Redman and "Made You Look" by Nas. As for R&B, well there wasn't any.

Onto the dance music then and this gives us the best record which is "Love Story (Vs Finally)" by Layo & Buskwacka. It's a mash up of "Love Story" by Layo & Bushwacka and "Finally" by Kings of Tomorrow, both records I like.

Missing out on best record is "True" by Jaimeson. This was the first time since May 2002 that we had a garage record in the Top 40 having been a pretty prolific genre chart wise in the couple of years prior to that. 

We also have some decent records from Audio Bullys with "We Don't Care" and from John Silver with "Come On Over". Neither were contenders for the best record though.

I've mentioned on previous posts my dislike for a lot of the vocal trance records coming out around this time. There's a few of them this month and none get any points. It does however seem appropriate to pick a vocal trance record as the worst record this month. That honour goes to Oxygen ft Andrea Britton with "Am I On Your Mind". I picked it because it's the one with the worst vocals.

The remaining record to get full marks is a bhangra record which is "Mundian To Bach Ke". Not your usual chart record but it was big at the time. It came shortly after the BBC Asian Network went nationwide and I'm sure this would of helped. 

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: 25%

Here's a look at the chart:

That brings us to the end of 2003 so time to answer the question was 2003 the good old days? I would say no. The early part appeared to be heading in the right direction but as mentioned previously the final Top 30 of 1993 was the worst in the 90s to that point with a score of 32%. We never got as high as 32% in 2003. The question is will 2002 get there?

UK Number 40s: Lacuna Coil - Our Truth (2006)

 

A number of years ago I went on holiday to Italy and there was an Italian gothic rock band called Lacuna Coil who were being played everywhere. I'd never heard of them and just assumed they were a band big in Italy and nowhere else. The area I was staying in was popular with locals as well as tourists.

Whilst that assumption wasn't too wide off the mark, it turned out that Lacuna Coil had already had a solitary Top 40 hit in the UK with this record. With a female singer in Cristina Scabbia they sounded like an Italian Evanescence.

They narrowly missed out on the Top 40 with their next single which was a cover of "Enjoy The Silence" by Depeche Mode which made number 41. 

Uk Number 40s: Nickelback - Far Away (2006)

 

Nickelback were perhaps the biggest of the 21st century grunge revival band. With this record their Top 40 career had already outlasting that of Nirvana and they weren't far off outlasting the run of other big 90s grunge bands.

Like original grunge band Pearl Jam did, they left the grunge sound behind. Unlike Pearl Jam though they had basically become a pop band with this record. There was no longer the novelty of having a Nirvana for the 21st century. That said even when they first came around a lot of their fans were female and too young to really embrace Nirvana at the time. It therefore made sense to make music to target that demographic as that's who they were appealing to anyway.

It worked out in the end for them with their next single "Rockstar". It reached number 2 becoming their biggest Top 40 hit which stayed in the charts for a long time.

Top 30 in 1999 Reviewed: Week 5

Here's my weekly look at the Top 30 from 26 years ago. The plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Sunday.

Here is the Top 40 in full.

I've decided against repetition from previous weeks moving forward so will only feature the records I'm reviewing for the first time.

Once again my opinions are inevitably going to differ from other people, but I'm not trying to convince anyone something is good or rubbish, I'm simply giving my opinion.

So this is the records new to the top 30 from this week in 1999 with my verdict on each record:

30. Sebadoh - Flame

Sebadoh are to Dinosaur Jr. what Megadeth are to Metallica. They were formed back in the 80s by then Dinosaur Jr. member Lou Barlow who was then kicked out of Dinosaur Jr. This was the only Top 40 hit by Sebadoh and the only record I've ever heard of theirs. My conclusion is that another similarity they have to Megadeth/Metallica is that their music is nowhere near as good as Dinosaur Jr.

Verdict - Rubbish

29. Monifah - Touch It

It's amazing how much one misremembers things particularly when it comes to music they've not heard for years. My memory of Monifah is that she was a rapper similar to Missy Elliott. Turns out she was an R&B singer. What hasn't changed though is my memory of this record not being any good.

Verdict - Rubbish

23. Duran Duran - Electric Barbarella

Duran Duran in 1999? This record was actually from 1997 and only released in America initially. By the time this record came out in the UK in 1999 they had been dropped by their record label. Given how much their popularity had dwindled by this point and they were down to a trio it's a wonder this made the Top 40 at all. Least of all because it's not very good, but I can say the same about some of their more successful records.

Verdict - Rubbish

22. Hole - Malibu

This was the fourth and final Top 40 hit to date for Hole. It's actually quite surprising they were having hits around this time given the Nirvana connection and the fact a number of people I knew who listened to them in the early 90s were slating them by this point. That's not to mention others saying the Hole were only big because of Courtney Love being married to Kurt Cobain. Purely from a music perspective though, this is crap.

Verdict - Rubbish

18. Humate - Love Stimulation

Here we have some German trance music from 1993 that's been remixed by German DJ Paul Van Dyk. It was the only Top 40 hit for Humate, the same could be said of a number of trance records from around this era. 

Verdict - Good

12. Three Drives - Greece 2000 (Remix)

They may be called Three Drives but there's only 2 of them. The record may be called "Greece 2000" but they were Dutch and this was a remix of a record from 1997. One of many trance records to make the Top 40 in 1999 and this is one of the decent ones.

Verdict - Good

10. Gay Dad - To Earth With Love

In 1999 it was well documented that guitars were out and turntables were in. Then along came Gay Dad, a band described by the music press as the saviours of British rock. The "saviours" they speak of were a band of music journalists and their mates. They got their Top 10 hit out of it, but how many people actually remember them? All hype and no substance.

Verdict - Rubbish

5. Busta Rhymes - Gimme Some More

With Busta Rhymes now well established and no doubt rich, it was time for spending lots of money for a fancy video for your record. Fortunately this was also backed up by a decent tune which sees Busta Rhymes rapping quickly and in a way that few others could. 

Verdict - Good

4. TQ - Westside

In the late 90s the lines between rap and R&B were getting more blurred and this is evident in this record. It is essentially a rap tune that is sung rather than rapped and is therefore an R&B record. I always loved how dark this record was and liked it enough to buy the "They Never Saw Me Coming" album on which this appears and it's a great album.

Verdict - Good

2. Terrorvision - Tequila

We've already had "Malibu" enter the charts this week, now we have "Tequila". This time it's a rock band making a dance record courtesy of a Mint Royale remix. I remember being pretty shocked at Terrorvision making a record like this when I first heard it. It became their highest charting single to date.

Verdict - Good

1. The Offspring - Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)

The Offspring were a band I got into briefly in the mid-90s but then I got into rave and quickly forgot about them. A few years later here they were topping the charts. Lead singer Dexter Holland now had short hair, like a lot of long haired musicians from a few years prior now had. The music was cheesy American high school movies type nonsense, not for me.

Verdict - Rubbish

If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 11/30, or 37%. That's quite some improvement.