What's this all about?
Top 40 Countdown
Number of eligible records: 9
⬆ (27) Kygo ft Rita Ora - Carry On
⬆ (25) Ellie Goulding - Sixteen
⬆ (19) Jonas Blue ft Theresa Rex - What I Like About You
⬆ (11) Jax Jones ft Martin Solveig & Madison Beer - All Day and Night
New (39) Mark Ronson ft Lykke Li - Late Night Feelings
New (35) Da Beatfreakz ft Swarmz & Deno - Motorola
New (34) James Arthur - Falling Like the Stars
New (22) Skepta ft Nafe Smallz - Greaze Mode
New (1) Ed Sheeran ft Justin Bieber - I Don't Care
Missing Out
None
Thursday, 23 May 2019
Sunday, 19 May 2019
Top 20 in 1999 Reviewed - Week 20
Here's my weekly look at the Top 20 from 20 years ago. On the basis we'd reach the Top 20 in the Top 40 countdown around 17:30 on a Sunday at the time the plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Sunday.
Here is the Top 40 in full.
Obviously some of the records will be the same as last week so therefore the review will be the same for these. I've indicated which ones are new so you can skip the others if you read last weeks post.
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 top 20 from this week in 1999 with my verdict on each record:
I always questioned what exactly the point was of getting Janet Jackson to collaborate on this track when she does very little. A session singer could have done the same thing for a fraction of the price. However when you discover that $2 million was spent on making the video, that question seems less relevant. By having a well known collaborator and ridiculously expensive video you take the loss (which I've no doubt it was) on this record in the hope it raises your profile and makes you more money in the long term. I didn't own a Busta Rhymes album at the time, now I do, so maybe in a round about way it worked.
Verdict - Good
When I first heard this I thought it was alright. Then I heard it so many times that made me hate it. 20 years later I see it as one of these songs that's a bit too American High School for my liking, even though it was written by a Swedish bloke.
Verdict - Rubbish
First there was Whigfield, then there was Aqua, then came The Cartoons to continue the cheesy Europop from Denmark in the charts. I guess they're probably more blatant that it's supposed to be cheesy crap, but that still makes it crap.
Verdict - Rubbish
One day in 1999 I was in HMV and asked to listen to a CD at the listening post. When I got to the listening post, the man who had just been listening at it told me it's the New Radicals on there, not knowing I'd gone up to the counter to ask for something else. That was the first time I'd heard that name and maybe a couple of weeks later I heard this. I thought maybe it would have been good to have listened to them at that listening post as I quite like it. I still like it today but still haven't heard any other New Radicals tunes, given that after their breakup frontman Gregg Alexander started writing rubbish for Ronan Keating and Sophie Ellis Bextor amongst others maybe it's better that way.
Verdict - Good
The follow up to their self titled debut hit which was their second and final Top 40 hit. I didn't know what this tune was for a while when I first heard it, but wanted to know what it was because I liked it.
Verdict - Good
Texas are one of those bands I just don't get the appeal of. I find their music rather boring and this song is no exception.
Verdict - Rubbish
I often talk about how great the 90s were for music, but when I hear the name Kula Shaker it reminds me there was a lot of crap around in the 90s too. To be fair to Kula Shaker, some of their early hits were quite catchy but this, their final Top 40 hit, wasn't.
Verdict - Rubbish
I ended 1998 watching the death of Tiffany on Eastenders and then going to the pub and wondering why I bother watching Eastenders because it's just depressing. I stopped watching Eastenders from that point, but then a few months later Tiffany comes back to haunt me with this crap. The formula was to take a dreary song by Polish singer Edyta Górniak and in true Eastenders style make it even more depressing.
Verdict - Rubbish
The only solo Top 40 hit from Pete Heller of Heller & Farley. He is also a well known DJ in the House scene. One of the best records of 1999 in my opinion, great tune.
Verdict - Good
Whatever happened to Fierce? This was their second Top 40 hit and it narrowly missed the Top 10. It took until their fourth single for them to score their first Top 10 hit and then they promptly disappeared off the face of the earth. It's definitely of it's time, but then that's a good thing.
Verdict - Good
Prior to hearing this tune, "Red Alert" to me was one half of Red Alert and Mike Slammer, a Rave duo who did "In Effect" in the mid 90s and who ran Slammin Vinyl. This was the second hit for Basement Jaxx and the one that made the masses start to take notice. Perhaps a bit overplayed at the time but a good tune.
Verdict - Good
When Fatboy Slim and Armand Van Helden went head to head in 1999, who actually won? I have no idea but the chart battle was clearly won by Fatboy Slim who made number 2 with this (vs Armand Van Helden at 18). This was the final single from his "You've Come a Long Way, Baby" album and a great tune to hear out loud with your hands in the air.
Verdict - Good
By the time this tune charted I'd heard it a lot and I remember it appearing on Dave Pearce's Dance Anthems on Radio 1 pretty much every week. I also remember Phats & Small presenting the show themselves one week when Dave Pearce was on holiday. Despite it being overplayed though I have good memories of this tune, despite the lyrical content of someone being down it's a feel good Dance record. Funnily enough "Feel Good" was the name of their next hit.
Verdict - Good
Despite the band members being in their mid-30s by this point, The Offspring seemed very American high school to me in this era. This was their follow up to "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)" and to be honest I just found it irritating.
Verdict - Rubbish
Just under a year before Chicane topped the charts with his collaboration with Bryan Adams he remixed "Cloud Number 9" by Bryan Adams. The result is a record that is more Dance and less guitar than your typical Bryan Adams song. It's alright, but it's nothing special.
Verdict - OK
TLC were big in the mid 90s with their "Crazy Sexy Cool" album and then for me at least they just disappeared until this came out. It was a great comeback though, and the funny thing is that had Xscape not broken up the year before it could have been an Xscape single given Kandi and Tiny of the group were two of the writers.
Verdict - Good
I remember knowing quite a few people at the time who loved the Stereophonics and I just didn't get it. One man in particular who used to wear a Stereophonics hat all the time would say Pop Music has no skill because everything gets written for you, Dance Music has no skill because DJing is easy, but the music he listens to is written by the bands themselves who can play instruments and play together and that takes skill. Fair enough, but if using your skills of writing songs, playing instruments and playing together produces something that sounds like this then what's the point?
Verdict - Rubbish
This was their third single in a row which was an old song they ruined. I've since discovered all the songs on their final studio album were covers.
Verdict - Rubbish
Ever wondered what happened to Nomad, who did "(I Wanna Give You) Devotion" in the early 90s? Well one of it's members, Steve Mac teamed up with another songwriter, Wayne Hector, to write this the debut hit of Westlife. A complete change of direction then, but I guess it helped pay the bills.
Verdict - Rubbish
The only UK number one for American boy band Backstreet Boys, written by a couple of blokes from Sweden, one of whom was the writer of "Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears. I guess it's not too bad.
Verdict - OK
If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 10/20, or 50%. Quite an evenly balanced Top 20 then.
Here is the Top 40 in full.
Obviously some of the records will be the same as last week so therefore the review will be the same for these. I've indicated which ones are new so you can skip the others if you read last weeks post.
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 top 20 from this week in 1999 with my verdict on each record:
20. Busta Rhymes ft Janet - What's It Gonna Be?!
I always questioned what exactly the point was of getting Janet Jackson to collaborate on this track when she does very little. A session singer could have done the same thing for a fraction of the price. However when you discover that $2 million was spent on making the video, that question seems less relevant. By having a well known collaborator and ridiculously expensive video you take the loss (which I've no doubt it was) on this record in the hope it raises your profile and makes you more money in the long term. I didn't own a Busta Rhymes album at the time, now I do, so maybe in a round about way it worked.
Verdict - Good
19. Britney Spears - Baby One More Time
When I first heard this I thought it was alright. Then I heard it so many times that made me hate it. 20 years later I see it as one of these songs that's a bit too American High School for my liking, even though it was written by a Swedish bloke.
Verdict - Rubbish
18. The Cartoons - Witch Doctor
First there was Whigfield, then there was Aqua, then came The Cartoons to continue the cheesy Europop from Denmark in the charts. I guess they're probably more blatant that it's supposed to be cheesy crap, but that still makes it crap.
Verdict - Rubbish
17. The New Radicals - You Get What You Give
One day in 1999 I was in HMV and asked to listen to a CD at the listening post. When I got to the listening post, the man who had just been listening at it told me it's the New Radicals on there, not knowing I'd gone up to the counter to ask for something else. That was the first time I'd heard that name and maybe a couple of weeks later I heard this. I thought maybe it would have been good to have listened to them at that listening post as I quite like it. I still like it today but still haven't heard any other New Radicals tunes, given that after their breakup frontman Gregg Alexander started writing rubbish for Ronan Keating and Sophie Ellis Bextor amongst others maybe it's better that way.
Verdict - Good
16. Cassius - Feeling For You (New)
The follow up to their self titled debut hit which was their second and final Top 40 hit. I didn't know what this tune was for a while when I first heard it, but wanted to know what it was because I liked it.
Verdict - Good
15. Texas - In Our Lifetime
Texas are one of those bands I just don't get the appeal of. I find their music rather boring and this song is no exception.
Verdict - Rubbish
14. Kula Shaker - Shower Your Love (New)
I often talk about how great the 90s were for music, but when I hear the name Kula Shaker it reminds me there was a lot of crap around in the 90s too. To be fair to Kula Shaker, some of their early hits were quite catchy but this, their final Top 40 hit, wasn't.
Verdict - Rubbish
13. Martine McCutcheon - Perfect Moment
I ended 1998 watching the death of Tiffany on Eastenders and then going to the pub and wondering why I bother watching Eastenders because it's just depressing. I stopped watching Eastenders from that point, but then a few months later Tiffany comes back to haunt me with this crap. The formula was to take a dreary song by Polish singer Edyta Górniak and in true Eastenders style make it even more depressing.
Verdict - Rubbish
12. Pete Heller - Big Love (New)
The only solo Top 40 hit from Pete Heller of Heller & Farley. He is also a well known DJ in the House scene. One of the best records of 1999 in my opinion, great tune.
Verdict - Good
11. Fierce - Dayz Like That (New)
Whatever happened to Fierce? This was their second Top 40 hit and it narrowly missed the Top 10. It took until their fourth single for them to score their first Top 10 hit and then they promptly disappeared off the face of the earth. It's definitely of it's time, but then that's a good thing.
Verdict - Good
10. Basement Jaxx - Red Alert
Prior to hearing this tune, "Red Alert" to me was one half of Red Alert and Mike Slammer, a Rave duo who did "In Effect" in the mid 90s and who ran Slammin Vinyl. This was the second hit for Basement Jaxx and the one that made the masses start to take notice. Perhaps a bit overplayed at the time but a good tune.
Verdict - Good
9. Fatboy Slim - Right Here Right Now
When Fatboy Slim and Armand Van Helden went head to head in 1999, who actually won? I have no idea but the chart battle was clearly won by Fatboy Slim who made number 2 with this (vs Armand Van Helden at 18). This was the final single from his "You've Come a Long Way, Baby" album and a great tune to hear out loud with your hands in the air.
Verdict - Good
8. Phats And Small - Turn Around
By the time this tune charted I'd heard it a lot and I remember it appearing on Dave Pearce's Dance Anthems on Radio 1 pretty much every week. I also remember Phats & Small presenting the show themselves one week when Dave Pearce was on holiday. Despite it being overplayed though I have good memories of this tune, despite the lyrical content of someone being down it's a feel good Dance record. Funnily enough "Feel Good" was the name of their next hit.
Verdict - Good
7. The Offspring - Why Don't You Get A Job?
Despite the band members being in their mid-30s by this point, The Offspring seemed very American high school to me in this era. This was their follow up to "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)" and to be honest I just found it irritating.
Verdict - Rubbish
6. Bryan Adams - Cloud Number 9 (New)
Just under a year before Chicane topped the charts with his collaboration with Bryan Adams he remixed "Cloud Number 9" by Bryan Adams. The result is a record that is more Dance and less guitar than your typical Bryan Adams song. It's alright, but it's nothing special.
Verdict - OK
5. TLC - No Scrubs
TLC were big in the mid 90s with their "Crazy Sexy Cool" album and then for me at least they just disappeared until this came out. It was a great comeback though, and the funny thing is that had Xscape not broken up the year before it could have been an Xscape single given Kandi and Tiny of the group were two of the writers.
Verdict - Good
4. Stereophonics - Pick A Part That's New (New)
I remember knowing quite a few people at the time who loved the Stereophonics and I just didn't get it. One man in particular who used to wear a Stereophonics hat all the time would say Pop Music has no skill because everything gets written for you, Dance Music has no skill because DJing is easy, but the music he listens to is written by the bands themselves who can play instruments and play together and that takes skill. Fair enough, but if using your skills of writing songs, playing instruments and playing together produces something that sounds like this then what's the point?
Verdict - Rubbish
3. 911 - Private Number (New)
This was their third single in a row which was an old song they ruined. I've since discovered all the songs on their final studio album were covers.
Verdict - Rubbish
2. Westlife - Swear It Again
Ever wondered what happened to Nomad, who did "(I Wanna Give You) Devotion" in the early 90s? Well one of it's members, Steve Mac teamed up with another songwriter, Wayne Hector, to write this the debut hit of Westlife. A complete change of direction then, but I guess it helped pay the bills.
Verdict - Rubbish
1. Backstreet Boys - I Want It That Way (New)
The only UK number one for American boy band Backstreet Boys, written by a couple of blokes from Sweden, one of whom was the writer of "Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears. I guess it's not too bad.
Verdict - OK
If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 10/20, or 50%. Quite an evenly balanced Top 20 then.
Saturday, 18 May 2019
My 25 Favourite Albums: High Contrast - High Society
When I first got into rave music in the mid-90s it was around the same time it split into Happy Hardcore and Drum & Bass, yet it was what I knew to be the "rave sound" that got me into the music rather than either of those genres.
As the years went on, both genres in my mind were moving further away from that "rave sound". Happy Hardcore became basically faster Clubland music and Drum & Bass seemed more of an Urban genre than Dance.
My preferred genre in the 90s was Happy Hardcore, but by the early-00s I was listening to more Urban music so started to prefer Drum & Bass out of the 2, but was more into Rap and R&B.
By 2004 I was getting more into Dance music again. My view was Happy Hardcore was good for the fast tempos with harmonies, and Drum & Bass was good for the drums and the bass.
Then I heard "Racing Green" by High Contrast. It was like the tune I had been waiting for since the 90s had finally arrived. Instead of choosing between the harmony or the beat, you could now have both.
High Contrast was a name who had started to appear at events like Accelerated Culture and Slammin Vinyl in the early-00s but that's all I really knew about him. Then one day I was browsing at the record shop and found this particular album which had "Racing Green" on it and I bought it.
It begins with "Lovesick" and from the off you can tell that the harmonies of "Racing Green" weren't a one off, more so when the breakdown begins and once the beat kicks in I knew this would be a gem of an album.
Then you have "Tutti Frutti" which sounds like it has some LTJ Bukem influences in there, then comes the title track which features Dynamite MC from Reprazent which is followed by "Brief Encounter", another excellent track. The tune that made me purchase this album is next, so far I like every track and mean really like.
According to the track list on the back of the CD, "Natural High" is next. However it's in fact "Angels And Fly" that follows which I find rather irritating if I'm honest, but I guess no album is perfect. "Natural High" does comes next and we're back to form again.
Next up is "The Persistence Of Memory" which is a bit more like your regular Drum & Bass tune, I don't know if it uses the same sample as "Valley of the Shadows" by Origin Unknown but it has the phrase "31 seconds" in it. Then it's "Twilights Last Gleaming", which if you've ever seen High Contrast play you'll know, it's the "have you heard" one.
There's a bit of Reggae influence next in "Only Two Can Play" which features Spoonface. The final official track is "Yesterday's Colours" which is probably more suitable for home listening than the dancefloor, although you still have the breakbeats it's more mellow sounding.
We end with a bonus track called "The Basement Track" which sounds a bit like a Drum & Bass version of "The Launch" by DJ Jean, though there's more to it than just sounding like a blatant rip off.
There often comes a time where fans of a genre will say it's not as good as it used to be. I first got into rave in 1994, this was 10 years later. In the case of Happy Hardcore, I liked some of the new material at the time but didn't think any of it was anywhere near as good as it was in the mid-90s. In the case of Drum & Bass though, I thought this album was better than any of the Drum & Bass I listened to in the 90s, that's how much I like this album.
Thursday, 16 May 2019
Top of the Pops: 16/05/2019
What's this all about?
Top 40 Countdown
Number of eligible records: 6
New (34) Bugzy Malone - M.E.N 2
New (18) Hardy Caprio ft DigDat - Guten Tag
New (15) Logic ft Eminem - Homicide
New (9) Shawn Mendes - If I Can't Have You
New (4) Lewis Capaldi - Hold Me While You Wait
(1) Stormzy - Vossi Bop
Missing Out
None
Top 40 Countdown
Number of eligible records: 6
New (34) Bugzy Malone - M.E.N 2
New (18) Hardy Caprio ft DigDat - Guten Tag
New (15) Logic ft Eminem - Homicide
New (9) Shawn Mendes - If I Can't Have You
New (4) Lewis Capaldi - Hold Me While You Wait
(1) Stormzy - Vossi Bop
Missing Out
None
Sunday, 12 May 2019
Top 20 in 1999 Reviewed - Week 19
Here's my weekly look at the Top 20 from 20 years ago. On the basis we'd reach the Top 20 in the Top 40 countdown around 17:30 on a Sunday at the time the plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Sunday.
Here is the Top 40 in full.
Obviously some of the records will be the same as last week so therefore the review will be the same for these. I've indicated which ones are new so you can skip the others if you read last weeks post.
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 top 20 from this week in 1999 with my verdict on each record:
Verdict - Good
Some dismissed this as being a novelty record at the time thanks to Flat Eric, the puppet who appeared on the Levi's adverts containing this tune. However, if you simply listen to the tune it's not cheesy at all. Mr Oizo is also a successful French House DJ on Ed Banger Records.
Verdict - Good
The 3rd single from The Honeyz which was their last before Heavenli left the group. When they released their repackaged "Wonder No.8" album it included CD-Rom videos for all their singles to date apart from this, and the official video isn't on YouTube either. But at least we have the audio, it's possibly my favourite Honeyz single.
Verdict - Good
When I first heard this I thought it was alright. Then I heard it so many times that made me hate it. 20 years later I see it as one of these songs that's a bit too American High School for my liking, even though it was written by a Swedish bloke.
Verdict - Rubbish
Here we have the beginning of Eminem's chart career. I could take or leave this record at the time, though I did find the line about what Spice Girl he wanted to impregnate quite amusing. The following year I got into Eminem's music when he released "The Marshall Mathers LP" and I bought "The Slim Shady LP" at the same time and that's when I really started to appreciate this tune.
Verdict - Good
Verdict - OK
Oh dear, this is just awful. The who's who of shit music at the time doing a medley of Abba songs. Either you like Abba, therefore you'd want to hear the actual Abba songs, or you don't like Abba and therefore you're unlikely to like these covers which are made to sound the same. You could say it was to cater for the fans of the featured artists on this record, but when Erasure, who I like, did their Abba covers a few years earlier I hated it.
Verdict - Rubbish
Verdict - Good
First there was Whigfield, then there was Aqua, then came The Cartoons to continue the cheesy Europop from Denmark in the charts. I guess they're probably more blatant that it's supposed to be cheesy crap, but that still makes it crap.
Verdict - Rubbish
I don't ever remember this being a single. I do however own TQs "They Never Saw Me Coming" album so have known this for many years. It's not the most obvious choice for a single as it's arguably the most controversial track on the album, but then again maybe that's the reason he decided it should be a single.
Verdict - Good
I always questioned what exactly the point was of getting Janet Jackson to collaborate on this track when she does very little. A session singer could have done the same thing for a fraction of the price. However when you discover that $2 million was spent on making the video, that question seems less relevant. By having a well known collaborator and ridiculously expensive video you take the loss (which I've no doubt it was) on this record in the hope it raises your profile and makes you more money in the long term. I didn't own a Busta Rhymes album at the time, now I do, so maybe in a round about way it worked.
Verdict - Good
I vaguely remember Cast still being around in 1999 and thinking they were past their sell by date, even though I wasn't much of a fan in the first place. I'm surprised this reached the Top 10, though it did drop out of the Top 40 two weeks later.
Verdict - Rubbish
Texas are one of those bands I just don't get the appeal of. I find their music rather boring and this song is no exception.
Verdict - Rubbish
By the time this tune charted I'd heard it a lot and I remember it appearing on Dave Pearce's Dance Anthems on Radio 1 pretty much every week. I also remember Phats & Small presenting the show themselves one week when Dave Pearce was on holiday. Despite it being overplayed though I have good memories of this tune, despite the lyrical content of someone being down it's a feel good Dance record. Funnily enough "Feel Good" was the name of their next hit.
Verdict - Good
Prior to hearing this tune, "Red Alert" to me was one half of Red Alert and Mike Slammer, a Rave duo who did "In Effect" in the mid 90s and who ran Slammin Vinyl. This was the second hit for Basement Jaxx and the one that made the masses start to take notice. Perhaps a bit overplayed at the time but a good tune.
Verdict - Good
Verdict - Rubbish
When Fatboy Slim and Armand Van Helden went head to head in 1999, who actually won? I have no idea but the chart battle was clearly won by Fatboy Slim who made number 2 with this (vs Armand Van Helden at 18). This was the final single from his "You've Come a Long Way, Baby" album and a great tune to hear out loud with your hands in the air.
Verdict - Good
TLC were big in the mid 90s with their "Crazy Sexy Cool" album and then for me at least they just disappeared until this came out. It was a great comeback though, and the funny thing is that had Xscape not broken up the year before it could have been an Xscape single given Kandi and Tiny of the group were two of the writers.
Verdict - Good
Verdict - Rubbish
Ever wondered what happened to Nomad, who did "(I Wanna Give You) Devotion" in the early 90s? Well one of it's members, Steve Mac teamed up with another songwriter, Wayne Hector, to write this the debut hit of Westlife. A complete change of direction then, but I guess it helped pay the bills.
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 11.5/20, or 57.5%. Not as good as last week but still not a bad score.
Here is the Top 40 in full.
Obviously some of the records will be the same as last week so therefore the review will be the same for these. I've indicated which ones are new so you can skip the others if you read last weeks post.
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 top 20 from this week in 1999 with my verdict on each record:
20. Tilt - Invisible (New)
One of the big Trance records of 1999 featuring Dominique Atkins from Grace on vocals. This brings back memories of listening to Pete Tong and Judge Jules on the radio at the time.Verdict - Good
19. Mr Oizo - Flat Beat
Some dismissed this as being a novelty record at the time thanks to Flat Eric, the puppet who appeared on the Levi's adverts containing this tune. However, if you simply listen to the tune it's not cheesy at all. Mr Oizo is also a successful French House DJ on Ed Banger Records.
Verdict - Good
18. The Honeyz - Love Of A Lifetime
The 3rd single from The Honeyz which was their last before Heavenli left the group. When they released their repackaged "Wonder No.8" album it included CD-Rom videos for all their singles to date apart from this, and the official video isn't on YouTube either. But at least we have the audio, it's possibly my favourite Honeyz single.
Verdict - Good
17. Britney Spears - Baby One More Time
When I first heard this I thought it was alright. Then I heard it so many times that made me hate it. 20 years later I see it as one of these songs that's a bit too American High School for my liking, even though it was written by a Swedish bloke.
Verdict - Rubbish
16. Eminem - My Name Is
Here we have the beginning of Eminem's chart career. I could take or leave this record at the time, though I did find the line about what Spice Girl he wanted to impregnate quite amusing. The following year I got into Eminem's music when he released "The Marshall Mathers LP" and I bought "The Slim Shady LP" at the same time and that's when I really started to appreciate this tune.
Verdict - Good
15. Fun Lovin' Criminals - Korean Bodega (New)
Sounds like a typical Fun Lovin Criminals record. That's no bad thing but I can't say it has much of an impact on me either.Verdict - OK
14. Steps, Tina Cousins, Cleopatra, B*Witched And Billie - Thank Abba For The Music
Oh dear, this is just awful. The who's who of shit music at the time doing a medley of Abba songs. Either you like Abba, therefore you'd want to hear the actual Abba songs, or you don't like Abba and therefore you're unlikely to like these covers which are made to sound the same. You could say it was to cater for the fans of the featured artists on this record, but when Erasure, who I like, did their Abba covers a few years earlier I hated it.
Verdict - Rubbish
13. The New Radicals - You Get What You Give
One day in 1999 I was in HMV and asked to listen to a CD at the listening post. When I got to the listening post, the man who had just been listening at it told me it's the New Radicals on there, not knowing I'd gone up to the counter to ask for something else. That was the first time I'd heard that name and maybe a couple of weeks later I heard this. I thought maybe it would have been good to have listened to them at that listening post as I quite like it. I still like it today but still haven't heard any other New Radicals tunes, given that after their breakup frontman Gregg Alexander started writing rubbish for Ronan Keating and Sophie Ellis Bextor amongst others maybe it's better that way.Verdict - Good
12. The Cartoons - Witch Doctor
First there was Whigfield, then there was Aqua, then came The Cartoons to continue the cheesy Europop from Denmark in the charts. I guess they're probably more blatant that it's supposed to be cheesy crap, but that still makes it crap.
Verdict - Rubbish
11. TQ - Bye Bye Baby
I don't ever remember this being a single. I do however own TQs "They Never Saw Me Coming" album so have known this for many years. It's not the most obvious choice for a single as it's arguably the most controversial track on the album, but then again maybe that's the reason he decided it should be a single.
Verdict - Good
10. Busta Rhymes ft Janet - What's It Gonna Be?!
I always questioned what exactly the point was of getting Janet Jackson to collaborate on this track when she does very little. A session singer could have done the same thing for a fraction of the price. However when you discover that $2 million was spent on making the video, that question seems less relevant. By having a well known collaborator and ridiculously expensive video you take the loss (which I've no doubt it was) on this record in the hope it raises your profile and makes you more money in the long term. I didn't own a Busta Rhymes album at the time, now I do, so maybe in a round about way it worked.
Verdict - Good
9. Cast - Beat Mama (New)
I vaguely remember Cast still being around in 1999 and thinking they were past their sell by date, even though I wasn't much of a fan in the first place. I'm surprised this reached the Top 10, though it did drop out of the Top 40 two weeks later.
Verdict - Rubbish
8. Texas - In Our Lifetime
Texas are one of those bands I just don't get the appeal of. I find their music rather boring and this song is no exception.
Verdict - Rubbish
7. Phats And Small - Turn Around
By the time this tune charted I'd heard it a lot and I remember it appearing on Dave Pearce's Dance Anthems on Radio 1 pretty much every week. I also remember Phats & Small presenting the show themselves one week when Dave Pearce was on holiday. Despite it being overplayed though I have good memories of this tune, despite the lyrical content of someone being down it's a feel good Dance record. Funnily enough "Feel Good" was the name of their next hit.
Verdict - Good
6. Basement Jaxx - Red Alert
Prior to hearing this tune, "Red Alert" to me was one half of Red Alert and Mike Slammer, a Rave duo who did "In Effect" in the mid 90s and who ran Slammin Vinyl. This was the second hit for Basement Jaxx and the one that made the masses start to take notice. Perhaps a bit overplayed at the time but a good tune.
Verdict - Good
5. Martine McCutcheon - Perfect Moment
I ended 1998 watching the death of Tiffany on Eastenders and then going to the pub and wondering why I bother watching Eastenders because it's just depressing. I stopped watching Eastenders from that point, but then a few months later Tiffany comes back to haunt me with this crap. The formula was to take a dreary song by Polish singer Edyta Górniak and in true Eastenders style make it even more depressing.Verdict - Rubbish
4. Fatboy Slim - Right Here Right Now
When Fatboy Slim and Armand Van Helden went head to head in 1999, who actually won? I have no idea but the chart battle was clearly won by Fatboy Slim who made number 2 with this (vs Armand Van Helden at 18). This was the final single from his "You've Come a Long Way, Baby" album and a great tune to hear out loud with your hands in the air.
Verdict - Good
3. TLC - No Scrubs
TLC were big in the mid 90s with their "Crazy Sexy Cool" album and then for me at least they just disappeared until this came out. It was a great comeback though, and the funny thing is that had Xscape not broken up the year before it could have been an Xscape single given Kandi and Tiny of the group were two of the writers.
Verdict - Good
2. The Offspring - Why Don't You Get A Job? (New)
Despite the band members being in their mid-30s by this point, The Offspring seemed very American high school to me in this era. This was their follow up to "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)" and to be honest I just found it irritating.Verdict - Rubbish
1. Westlife - Swear It Again
Ever wondered what happened to Nomad, who did "(I Wanna Give You) Devotion" in the early 90s? Well one of it's members, Steve Mac teamed up with another songwriter, Wayne Hector, to write this the debut hit of Westlife. A complete change of direction then, but I guess it helped pay the bills.
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 11.5/20, or 57.5%. Not as good as last week but still not a bad score.
Thursday, 9 May 2019
Monday, 6 May 2019
Record of the Year 2014: Frankie Knuckles - Your Love
This is probably the easiest choice I've had to make when picking my Record of the Year. The sad thing about it though is the only reason I have this available to choose is because of the tragic death in 2014 of Frankie Knuckles.
This was originally released in the UK in 1989 but failed to make the Top 40. Frankie Knuckles was one of the DJs there at the birth of House music in Chicago as a regular DJ at the Warehouse nightclub and this was arguably his biggest tune at the height of the Acid House era.
He did manage to have three Top 40 hits in the 90s and remained a big name on the DJ circuit.
Aside from the age difference, what differentiates this from the EDM in the charts in 2014 is that this was innovative. It was taking risks doing something which hadn't been done before at least in a mainstream sense. Some of the EDM from 2014 is ok, but none of it is what I'd call ground-breaking and therefore none of it is anywhere near as good as this record.
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