40 From 40: 2004

2004 was a year when things were upturned. Britney got married twice, the first cracks in that impregnable facade, though this was also the year of Toxic so nobody pried too deeply yet. That clearly wasn't something going to be afforded to Pete Doherty, whose charge to the front pages took hold as he left the Libertines, checked into and then fled a growing number of rehab clinics for crack addiction, got arrested a lot, formed Babyshambles, made the possibility of his playing gigs somewhere into a spectator sport and was voted top of the NME's Cool List to boot. Up the top end of the industry U2 re-established themselves as the biggest band in the world while their heir apparents Coldplay saw their disciples emerge into their own spotlight, just as the Libertines were with Razorlight pitched as the land's coolest band. That state of affairs was one grime, fresh off Dizzee's Mercury win in 2003, was very willing to ignore and go on its own way (until grindie happened, but we do not speak of grindie), Wiley and Lethal Bizzle emerging and Channel U doing on a Sky platform what SBTV would later do to greater acclaim online. The Streets proved the white trojan horse connecting the underground to the charts, a necessity in a year that despite finding house room for Scissor Sisters was more interested all told in Peter Andre's comeback, Eric Prydz, Natasha Bedingfield and the Eamon vs Frankee 'battle', a kind of Roxanne Wars for people who find swearing hilarious. No wonder Top Of The Pops was shunted off to its BBC2 Sunday night morgue towards the end of the year. Band Aid 20 happened at the end of the year to put the tin lid on a lot of things, not least Dizzee's crossover from urban to showbiz. It was also the year John Peel died, and despite everything that's happened since in the way we consume and learn about music the spiritual gap is still apparent. In solidarity with everything we learnt from him, here's a playlist of forty songs we like to think are eclectic in his honour but are actually all whitebread indie that he'd shake his head at.




Evil Nine feat. Aesop Rock - Crooked
Soulwax - NY Excuse
Saul Williams - List Of Demands (Reparations)
Kelis - Millionaire
Wiley - Wot Do U Call It?
The Go! Team - Bottle Rocket
Rachel Stevens - Some Girls
TV On The Radio - Dreams
Electrelane - The Valleys
Johnny Boy - You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve
Annie - Heartbeat
The Long Blondes - Giddy Stratospheres (original version)
Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
Les Savy Fav - The Sweat Descends
Bloc Party - Helicopter
Death From Above 1979 - Romantic Rights
The Walkmen - The Rat
Mission Of Burma - The Setup
The Fall - Theme From Sparta F.C.
Mclusky - Without MSG I Am Nothing
yourcodenameis:milo - All Roads To Fault
Modest Mouse - Ocean Breathes Salty
Blonde Redhead - Equus
Sons And Daughters - Johnny Cash
The Golden Virgins - Renaissance Kid
Morrissey - First Of The Gang To Die
Graham Coxon - Bittersweet Bundle Of Misery
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - There She Goes, My Beautiful World
Hope Of The States - The Red The White The Black The Blue
Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
British Sea Power Allied With The Ecstasy Of Saint Theresa - A Lovely Day Tomorrow
Stars - Your Ex-Lover Is Dead
The Mountain Goats - Slow West Vultures
Clinic - Circle Of Fifths
The Futureheads - He Knows
Interpol - Evil
Art Brut - Formed A Band
65daysofstatic - Retreat! Retreat!
Sufjan Stevens - The Dress Looks Nice On You
Handsome Boy Modeling School feat. Cat Power - I've Been Thinking


Previously among the 40: 1972, 1976, 1979, 1983, 1986, 1987, 1991, 1994, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2008