And in case you're only now catching up, 100-67 and 66-34 are there and there.
33 Go! Team - Ladyflash [YouTube]
Almost like an old friend by now, such are we used to bits of the album soundtracking everything on lifestyle television. Little can dim its Avalanches-meets-B-girl frenzy
32 Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - In This Home On Ice [live YouTube]
Less Byrne, more Jonathan Richman with an ethereal glaze - organ hums, guitar drives, Alec Ounsworth declaims for all he's worth, the melody sounds a tiny bit like The Kids Are Alright
31 Franz Ferdinand - The Fallen [YouTube]
Who knows where they're going next, but You Could Have It So Much Better's campaign should have started with this cocksure glam but still esoteric post-punk place marker
30 Field Music - In Context [YouTube]
How do the Brewises (and Moore) keep doing this? Constructing overpowering tunes from basic implements and harmonies from next to nowhere with subtle touches at every opportunity
29 The Boy Least Likely To - Hugging My Grudge [YouTube]
Impossibly carefree lazy summer in a field-style country dance pop that knows who it's playing to and completely ignores prevailing trends that way. Dreamy but not without clouds
28 Victorian English Gentlemens Club - Amateur Man [YouTube]
Like taking the core elements of art-punk carefully apart and then carelessly cut-and-shutting them skittishly back together as bass undercuts rhythm and vocals cross each other
27 Tokyo Police Club - Nature Of The Experiment [YouTube]
To be young and impetuous in a band post-Strokes is a glorious thing. Here's two minutes of charging, melodically offset post-post-punk with clashing vocals and a guitar scree ending
26 Absentee - We Should Never Have Children [YouTube]
Just the fact a group of children were allowed near this song is disturbing enough without Dan Michaelson's granite-hewn vocal about how we really don't need more of their type
25 Victorian English Gentlemens Club - Impossible Sightings Over Shelton [YouTube]
We have to find synonyms for this sort of thing other than 'artrock' or 'post-punk' in 2007. Disjointed deconstructed whatever with bass and BVs from the Kim Deal School Of Careworn Excellence
24 The Gossip - Listen Up [YouTube]
Of course it's cherrypicked from the ESG back catalogue, all driven bass and cool as soul girl vocals, but when it takes off in one of the three hidden choruses you dare not start moving
23 Futureheads - Skip To The End [YouTube]
Both comfortably Futureheadian and a demonstration of where the album was going - newly acquired space to breathe and think, but still the tight harmonies, groove and stop-start fuzz guitar
22 Young Knives - The Decision [YouTube]
Inscrutable, in a word. Prince of Wales, horses in New Forest and all that long dealt with, so let's instead mention the pulsing bassline, the cross-harmony vocal breakdown and the Pere Ubu echoes
21 Lucky Soul - Lips Are Unhappy [YouTube]
It's always worth remembering that Lucky Soul singles are by and large self-financed and self-released, such are the Motown strings lending weight to the soul stomp and Ali Howard's soaring vocal
20 Jeremy Warmsley - I Promise [YouTube]
Ah, finally. The most stripped-back of Warmsley's work but no less able to jam in the button marked 'affecting'. Long distance pining and loneliness over martial drums and wordless choirs was never so good
19 Final Fantasy - Many Lives -> 49MP [YouTube]
Has anyone called Owen Pallett the North American Patrick Wolf yet? Perhaps it's too obvious a link, what with the electronic burbling, primary looped violin and, er, shouts of "son you should/invest!" from afar
18 Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out Of This Country [YouTube]
As well as introducing "the bee's knees" to the pop lexicon, it's a sweep of Jimmy Webb strings and post-twee internal lachrymosity and perfectly visualised dreams of escape that befits the band's status
17 Clearlake - It's Getting Light Outside [YouTube]
One of our more frustrating bands, occasionally Clearlake will drop an absolute cracker when nobody's concentrating. This selection of rolling drums, creeped out strings, pop melody and lyrical yearning is one such occasion
16 TV On The Radio - Wolf Like Me [Letterman performance - YouTube]
Only downgraded because it sounds so odd in solitude, it's bout as conventional as they get, from declamatory Tunde and thumping beats to soul from Mars to overloaded synths and exploding guitar white noise
15 Guillemots - Made Up Love Song #43 [YouTube]
"I love you through sparks and shining dragons, I do" Now where can you possibly go wrong after that? Fyfe's joy when the song triples speed after a minute, and then steps up a gear again, is infectious
14 Peter Bjorn & John - Young Folks [YouTube]
Everyone's sound of the summer, not least whoever chooses backing music for television, but there's plenty else going on other than whistling, from Victoria Bergsman's honeyed guest role to the double speed tom-toms
13 Goodbooks - Walk With Me [YouTube]
A dictionary definition of slow burner: starting off melancholic and almost introverted, then developing an offbeam keyboard-aided tension before lurching into prime indie disco artrock territory. If that doesn't put you off
12 Tilly And The Wall - Reckless [YouTube]
Joyousness writ large, the air-punching exuberance of it being driven by actually not that much - acoustic guitar, buzzing synth, tap shoes, gang vocals. The vocal plateau reached near the end is really something
11 Jeremy Warmsley - Dirty Blue Jeans [YouTube]
Could you fit any more in there? Packing the mix works more than just well for once, though, as lysergic, swooping strings fit next to offbeat drums, skittish electronics, strident vocals and plenty else of good note
10 Guillemots - Trains To Brazil [YouTube]
It took time to grow and make sense, but eventually it became unstoppable. The sheer joy of life encapsulated in stomping energy, rousing rhythmic plateaus and brass fanfares polarised against love and loss. It turned out to be the nearest they've got to normality
9 CSS - Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above [YouTube]
Hipster cachet off the scale, just somebody's in-joke potential similar, but what a calling card. Nearly every line would go well on a T-shirt, the punk-funk-electro-disco bassline is unstoppable and, yes, it actually sounds like a combination of The DFA and Death From Above 1979
8 Field Music - You're Not Supposed To [YouTube]
A full 38 seconds of Gregorian humming. Good start. Then, rapturous left of centre pop dynamics, guitars that jerk around in cotton wool rather than steel bars. Runs out of songs a minute after properly starting, which is where the piano flourishes and jaunty handclaps start
7 Klaxons - Atlantis To Interzone [live YouTube]
We'll say it again - it's as much like rave as Kubb are. The absolute rush, though, is undeniable, tailor made for stock footage sped up of autobahns after dark, schizophrenically switching between 606s, enormous basslines, hyper drums and a good old group shouted chorus
6 Broken Social Scene - 7/4 (Shoreline) [YouTube]
Why couldn't they have made the album as near-chaotically fluid as this? Taut, slow building multifaceted kineticity given a kick into greatness by Leslie Feist's presence, and you'll be hard pressed (outside #10) to find a better closing brass flourish all year
5 The Lucksmiths - A Hiccup In Your Happiness [actually, let us provide you with this one]
Melbourne outfit who put this out a year after the album and instantly won us over. You could say Belle & Sebastian/Magnetic Fields, but that would be to underplay the empathetic swoon and pitch of this understated gem about the positives of heartbreak. No wonder Daniel Kitson penned the liner notes
4 Cat Power - The Greatest [Later With Jools performance - YouTube]
Chan going to Memphis has clearly done her the world of good. The title track saw her share her end of the night barroom deepest melancholic thoughts while the band play the deftest southern soul behind her glorious voice and strings haunt her soul. Even Radio 2 took interest
3 Scritti Politti - The Boom Boom Bap [Myspace]
It's a paen to Green's discovery of hip hop. Or it's a love song to his wife. Or both. Whatever, it's defiantly home-made but sounding as lush as when he used to use expensive studios, velvet soft atmospherics matching slow beats and that honeyed voice before the electronics kick in
2 Jeremy Warmsley - I Believe In The Way You Move [YouTube]
It really does sometimes hit you out of nowhere. We already knew what he was capable of, but when this hit with its offsetting of electronic peaks and burbles with piano, muted brass, mood shifts and caustic, semi-cynical lyrics the effect was mesmerising. Why have you all ignored this?
1 Camera Obscura - Lloyd I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken [YouTube]
Quite plausibly outdoing every single elder sibling band Belle & Sebastian have ever put out at a stroke (discuss), nothing else encapsulated the sheer joy, and joi de vivre (apart from in Traceyanne's worldview, natch), of what a pop single should do this year. You can't help but skip for joy, if nobody's looking, by the final "hey Lloyd..."
Showing posts with label singles of 2006. Show all posts
Showing posts with label singles of 2006. Show all posts
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Sunday, December 24, 2006
The Weekly Sweep presents The Top 100 Singles Of 2006: 66-34
You've probably come to realise how horribly out of step we're beginning to look with this selection. Onwards, then...
66 Vincent Vincent And The Villains - Johnny Two Bands [YouTube]
Roots rockabilly rebels channel the Housemartins as much as Eddie Cochran. Who knew lyrical acidity (though apparently all parties have since made up) could be so cheeringly infectious?
65 The Boy Least Likely To - Be Gentle With Me [YouTube]
Like skipping through a field in your girl's dreams, or something. They did this 'live' on GMTV, and their country-disco-pop should have been huge. It wasn't.
64 Midlake - Young Bride [YouTube]
The album touched too many Eagles/Fleetwood Mac bases to really hit home, but the single's Grandaddy meets Neil Young melodic touches were a subtle career best
63 ¡Forward, Russia! - Nine [YouTube]
"CONJECTURE!" Clashing time sigs, about three choruses and a heap of intricate rapidfire guitar riffs and hi-hat. Breaks down and builds back up once every thirty seconds or so too
62 Get Cape Wear Cape Fly - Chronicles Of A Bohemian Teenager Pt 1 [YouTube]
Good lord, look at that title, but at least Sam Duckworth justified it with trumpet breaks, considered lyrics and that big fist-in-air singalong near the end
61 Mystery Jets - You Can't Fool Me Dennis [YouTube]
None more English dark pastoralism, sounding a bit like the Smiths with the speed turned down a notch or Village Green Preservation Society Kinks in inverse
60 Rakes - All Too Human [YouTube]
Once they sorted the pulse overload first mix out it revealed itself as one of the year's steadiest growers, complete with metronomic rhythm aimed squarely at two for a quid nights
59 Futureheads - Worry About It Later [YouTube]
Perhaps the best encapsulation of the change from first album to second - a more streamlined version of the jerky blueprint, but there's the harmonies, and the riffs and the insistence
58 Tapes N Tapes - Cowbell [YouTube]
Appears to be built around the rhythm of Pixies' Nimrod's Son, but then turns into a happier Violent Femmes or more concise Modest Mouse. Working to a theme, then
57 Editors - Munich [YouTube]
Even a year on Chris Urbanowicz's wall of screeching Bunnymen guitar still makes the hairs on the back of our neck stand to attention
56 Clinic - Harvest [YouTube]
Again, you know what it'll include - offbeat drums, vocal moans, piercing organ - but lifted by almost hip-hop rhythms and the return of the tribal element
55 Maccabees - Latchmere [YouTube]
Actually is about a swimming pool, which as well as being perhaps illegally parochial might be a stroke of minor genius. Builds up a head of steam and then clings on for dear life
54 Animal Collective - Grass [YouTube]
A full year after the album comes the standout track, one that tries to sound relatively linear for a bit then gives up and goes skitteringly haywire
53 The Hidden Cameras - Awoo [YouTube]
Joel Gibb and co still find album consistency elusive but they can pick a strangely uplifting single alright, whatever "the curd of my own written qualities" is exactly
52 Brakes - Hold Me In The River [live YouTube]
Biting Undertones guitars frame Eamon Hamilton going all political, after an oblique fashion, as they attempt to pummel the listener into submission again in under two minutes
51 Young Knives - Weekends And Bleak Days (Hot Summer) [YouTube]
Battering away at your subconscious with a chainsaw riff and, well, harmonic shouting. Why didn't it turn into the summer's great vocal hook? Curse you, Automatic!
50 Mew - Why Are You Looking Grave? [YouTube]
Not the same without J Mascis' world-weary croon clashing with Jonas Bjerre's skyscraping on the album, but dreampop with dynamics precisely between Mum and Arcade Fire works in all contexts
49 Klaxons - Gravity's Rainbow [YouTube]
Had they not emerged at the same time Angular Recordings were trying to launch New Rave, we'd be hailing this as the best anyone's offered in the lo-fi DFA-esque art-disco pantheon
48 Rumble Strips - Oh Creole [YouTube]
Perhaps the closest we'll get to a proper soul revue - not in the modern sense, obviously, but in the restrained build-up to Stax brass and Charlie Waller's huge vocal
47 Tapes N Tapes - Insistor [YouTube]
Does that drumming ever let up? Intense two-step hoedown lo-fi that once started is virtually impossible to halt. It's a tiny bit like the Pixies, you'll be surprised to hear
46 iLiKETRAiNS - Terra Nova [YouTube]
That it's about Captain Scott is almost secondary given its intensity in the Mogwai-with-vocals way nobody's pulled off quite so well
45 Spinto Band - Oh Mandy [YouTube]
The summer's leftfield anthem, at last their previous Pavementisms fade into blue sky floating joyful dreaminess. Best mandolin in ages too
44 Mew - Zookeeper's Boy [YouTube]
Nearly breaking in America, which seems odd for a band who continue to sound like a complex stratospheric mind meld of the Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine and the Icicle Works
43 Guillemots - We're Here [YouTube]
Fyfe's got a way with life-affirming enormo-scale not-quite-anthemry, hasn't he? This time the sense of seizing the day is enveloped in swirling Talk Talk strings that eschews Embrace
42 Metric - Monster Hospital [YouTube]
"I've been bad!" Emily Haines fitfully declares, and you can well believe her. There's certainly something evil about the scratchy guitars and dancerock dynamics
41 Kid Harpoon - Riverside [YouTube]
No, there's definitely something in the Medway water to produce all this talent at the same time. The switch from grizzled to falsetto vocals mirrors the unsettling lyricism
40 ¡Forward, Russia! - Twelve [YouTube]
The reservoirs of energy live ¡FR! run off finally make their way to the front of a recorded mix, amid M C Escher guitars and of-the-moment backing
39 The Pipettes - Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me [YouTube]
We knew they were good for what they do, but until Gwenno's second chorus vocals take off and take the mini-wall of sound with it we hadn't anticipated how good
38 Emmy The Great - Secret Circus [Myspace]
2007's going to be a big female singer-songwriterly year and thus a huge one for Emmy on the basis of her gorgeous, glorious first single's forceful development and intelligent heart
37 Voxtrot - Mothers Sisters Daughters And Wives [live YouTube]
Good to hear the weird electronic percussion effect from the Flying Lizards' Money again. Also good to hear someone doing something forceful with the artrock building blocks again
36 Battle - Tendency [Myspace]
From the Cure playbook of course, but red-eyed intensity, metronome drumming and the odd synth/chiming guitar crossfade easily overcome all post-punk cliche accusations
35 Klaxons - Magick [YouTube]
The Cardiacs revival starts here? Maybe not, but it's three from three for Klaxons singles that'd be great soundtracking late night empty motorway drives. Listen to those clattering drums
34 The Pipettes - Judy [YouTube]
Not lyrically masterful, but a neat distillation of teenage angst and longing amid swooning harmonies and strings. Doesn't sound overtly disposable and is all the better for it
66 Vincent Vincent And The Villains - Johnny Two Bands [YouTube]
Roots rockabilly rebels channel the Housemartins as much as Eddie Cochran. Who knew lyrical acidity (though apparently all parties have since made up) could be so cheeringly infectious?
65 The Boy Least Likely To - Be Gentle With Me [YouTube]
Like skipping through a field in your girl's dreams, or something. They did this 'live' on GMTV, and their country-disco-pop should have been huge. It wasn't.
64 Midlake - Young Bride [YouTube]
The album touched too many Eagles/Fleetwood Mac bases to really hit home, but the single's Grandaddy meets Neil Young melodic touches were a subtle career best
63 ¡Forward, Russia! - Nine [YouTube]
"CONJECTURE!" Clashing time sigs, about three choruses and a heap of intricate rapidfire guitar riffs and hi-hat. Breaks down and builds back up once every thirty seconds or so too
62 Get Cape Wear Cape Fly - Chronicles Of A Bohemian Teenager Pt 1 [YouTube]
Good lord, look at that title, but at least Sam Duckworth justified it with trumpet breaks, considered lyrics and that big fist-in-air singalong near the end
61 Mystery Jets - You Can't Fool Me Dennis [YouTube]
None more English dark pastoralism, sounding a bit like the Smiths with the speed turned down a notch or Village Green Preservation Society Kinks in inverse
60 Rakes - All Too Human [YouTube]
Once they sorted the pulse overload first mix out it revealed itself as one of the year's steadiest growers, complete with metronomic rhythm aimed squarely at two for a quid nights
59 Futureheads - Worry About It Later [YouTube]
Perhaps the best encapsulation of the change from first album to second - a more streamlined version of the jerky blueprint, but there's the harmonies, and the riffs and the insistence
58 Tapes N Tapes - Cowbell [YouTube]
Appears to be built around the rhythm of Pixies' Nimrod's Son, but then turns into a happier Violent Femmes or more concise Modest Mouse. Working to a theme, then
57 Editors - Munich [YouTube]
Even a year on Chris Urbanowicz's wall of screeching Bunnymen guitar still makes the hairs on the back of our neck stand to attention
56 Clinic - Harvest [YouTube]
Again, you know what it'll include - offbeat drums, vocal moans, piercing organ - but lifted by almost hip-hop rhythms and the return of the tribal element
55 Maccabees - Latchmere [YouTube]
Actually is about a swimming pool, which as well as being perhaps illegally parochial might be a stroke of minor genius. Builds up a head of steam and then clings on for dear life
54 Animal Collective - Grass [YouTube]
A full year after the album comes the standout track, one that tries to sound relatively linear for a bit then gives up and goes skitteringly haywire
53 The Hidden Cameras - Awoo [YouTube]
Joel Gibb and co still find album consistency elusive but they can pick a strangely uplifting single alright, whatever "the curd of my own written qualities" is exactly
52 Brakes - Hold Me In The River [live YouTube]
Biting Undertones guitars frame Eamon Hamilton going all political, after an oblique fashion, as they attempt to pummel the listener into submission again in under two minutes
51 Young Knives - Weekends And Bleak Days (Hot Summer) [YouTube]
Battering away at your subconscious with a chainsaw riff and, well, harmonic shouting. Why didn't it turn into the summer's great vocal hook? Curse you, Automatic!
50 Mew - Why Are You Looking Grave? [YouTube]
Not the same without J Mascis' world-weary croon clashing with Jonas Bjerre's skyscraping on the album, but dreampop with dynamics precisely between Mum and Arcade Fire works in all contexts
49 Klaxons - Gravity's Rainbow [YouTube]
Had they not emerged at the same time Angular Recordings were trying to launch New Rave, we'd be hailing this as the best anyone's offered in the lo-fi DFA-esque art-disco pantheon
48 Rumble Strips - Oh Creole [YouTube]
Perhaps the closest we'll get to a proper soul revue - not in the modern sense, obviously, but in the restrained build-up to Stax brass and Charlie Waller's huge vocal
47 Tapes N Tapes - Insistor [YouTube]
Does that drumming ever let up? Intense two-step hoedown lo-fi that once started is virtually impossible to halt. It's a tiny bit like the Pixies, you'll be surprised to hear
46 iLiKETRAiNS - Terra Nova [YouTube]
That it's about Captain Scott is almost secondary given its intensity in the Mogwai-with-vocals way nobody's pulled off quite so well
45 Spinto Band - Oh Mandy [YouTube]
The summer's leftfield anthem, at last their previous Pavementisms fade into blue sky floating joyful dreaminess. Best mandolin in ages too
44 Mew - Zookeeper's Boy [YouTube]
Nearly breaking in America, which seems odd for a band who continue to sound like a complex stratospheric mind meld of the Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine and the Icicle Works
43 Guillemots - We're Here [YouTube]
Fyfe's got a way with life-affirming enormo-scale not-quite-anthemry, hasn't he? This time the sense of seizing the day is enveloped in swirling Talk Talk strings that eschews Embrace
42 Metric - Monster Hospital [YouTube]
"I've been bad!" Emily Haines fitfully declares, and you can well believe her. There's certainly something evil about the scratchy guitars and dancerock dynamics
41 Kid Harpoon - Riverside [YouTube]
No, there's definitely something in the Medway water to produce all this talent at the same time. The switch from grizzled to falsetto vocals mirrors the unsettling lyricism
40 ¡Forward, Russia! - Twelve [YouTube]
The reservoirs of energy live ¡FR! run off finally make their way to the front of a recorded mix, amid M C Escher guitars and of-the-moment backing
39 The Pipettes - Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me [YouTube]
We knew they were good for what they do, but until Gwenno's second chorus vocals take off and take the mini-wall of sound with it we hadn't anticipated how good
38 Emmy The Great - Secret Circus [Myspace]
2007's going to be a big female singer-songwriterly year and thus a huge one for Emmy on the basis of her gorgeous, glorious first single's forceful development and intelligent heart
37 Voxtrot - Mothers Sisters Daughters And Wives [live YouTube]
Good to hear the weird electronic percussion effect from the Flying Lizards' Money again. Also good to hear someone doing something forceful with the artrock building blocks again
36 Battle - Tendency [Myspace]
From the Cure playbook of course, but red-eyed intensity, metronome drumming and the odd synth/chiming guitar crossfade easily overcome all post-punk cliche accusations
35 Klaxons - Magick [YouTube]
The Cardiacs revival starts here? Maybe not, but it's three from three for Klaxons singles that'd be great soundtracking late night empty motorway drives. Listen to those clattering drums
34 The Pipettes - Judy [YouTube]
Not lyrically masterful, but a neat distillation of teenage angst and longing amid swooning harmonies and strings. Doesn't sound overtly disposable and is all the better for it
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
The Weekly Sweep presents The Top 100 Singles Of 2006: 100-67
Yep, we're nothing if in it for the hilariously overarching long haul this Festivus. A single qualifies if we have evidence it was properly released on any format from 7" upwards, and lead tracks from EPs count. No, not 'tracks', you'll notice, that would have been far too complicated.
In fact, tell you what, while we're waiting and whiling away these hours, why not leave guesses as to what will be number one in the comments box before it's revealed on the 30th December? We won't tell you if you're right, there's no prizes in it, but we're keen to see if our leanings can be second guessed by the casual browser yet. Here's a clue - it's none of these...
100 Amy Winehouse - Rehab [YouTube]
This week's pop culture punchbag stays inches this side of self-parody, but check that Stax arrangement
99 The Pipettes - Pull Shapes [YouTube]
Not the great poptimist moment of many claims, but still impossible to stop. Wanting some more very much on-menu, but is it OK to say both vinyl B-sides were better?
98 The Gossip - Standing In The Way Of Control [YouTube]
Rumbles like a steam train, pummels like Jack Dempsey. Surprise Jonathan Ross appearance understandably got plenty talking, and not just Look At The Fat Bird
97 Pull Tiger Tail - Animator [YouTube]
Fratellis-esque rapid decline hasn't been completely removed from the agenda, but fine Maximo-esque jitters to be getting along with
96 Blood Red Shoes - You Bring Me Down [YouTube]
There's only two of 'em! Jagged but knowing how to control its dynamics, we're strangely reminded of a calmer Cay
95 Rumble Strips - Hate Me You Do [YouTube]
Welcome the second hand soul vision. But as Kevin Rowland said at the time, it's merely taking (post-)punk attitude to Stax soul and Charlie Waller has plenty of both
94 Gnarls Barkley - Crazy [YouTube]
Organic sounding hip hop shouldn't be as big as it was, but that chorus was as undeniable as Danger Mouse's beats ever are
93 Liam Frost and the Slowdown Family - She Painted Pictures [Myspace]
The personable Mancunian could have been a contender if he had more broodingly gorgeous moments such as this
92 Infadels - Love Like Semtex [YouTube]
Actual new rave when Klaxons were in nappies, darkly menacing synths meets slashed guitar meets energetic bald man
91 SixNationState - Keep Dancing [YouTube]
Like The Coral with their skunk supply replaced with PCP, energy to spare and jumpy Tex-Mex rhythms to go
90 Archie Bronson Outfit - Dead Funny [YouTube]
Lasciviously hypnotic blues-punk from bearded south-westerners. "Just get your head down"? What are you suggesting?
89 Editors - Blood [YouTube]
Just re-releasing the same tiny pool of singles over and over again doesn't suggest great imaginative depth, but we still liked thi
88 Sparks - Dick Around [YouTube]
Completely over the top amateur symphonics meets rock guitar meets oblique imagery, as per
87 The Crimea - Lottery Winners On Acid [YouTube]
Wasn't it supposed to be their year? Ah well, this Flaming Lips-esque psych-janglepop wasn't destined to shift supermarket units
86 Dananananaykroyd - Some Dresses
Somewhere between At The Drive-In, linear Sonic Youth, early Pavement and a right shambles. Unhelpfully, they've just lost their singer
85 I'm From Barcelona - We're From Barcelona [YouTube]
Self-asserting three chord chorality was rarely so much fun. Music to throw a child's party to, albeit one not in the most stable of nuclear families
84 Jamie T - Salvador [YouTube]
Driving, brooding, rumbling post-Arctics New Wave hybrid delivered like the rootless reincarnation of Ian Dury
83 Brakes - All Night Disco Party (remix) [YouTube]
They've just extended it a bit and put some squelches underneath! A particularly impossible track to completely ruin, though
82 Les Incompetents - How It All Went Wrong [YouTube]
Well, it all went wrong quite badly by the end, but at least they had one moment of touching oddball faux-shambolic indie greatness
81 Archie Bronson Outfit - Dart For My Sweetheart [YouTube]
Lasciviously hypnotic blues-punk from bearded south-westerners. Again. Except this time Sam Windett's singing as if his immediate future depends on it
80 Maximo Park - I Want You To Stay [live YouTube]
The last single from A Certain Trigger, the cocksure pleading was still comprehensively lapped by the Field Music/J Xaverre B-side remix
79 Larrikin Love - Edwould [YouTube]
Brash headlong charge at the punk-reggae crossover point that keeps on keeping on so forcefully that not even a fiddle solo stops it
78 Mystery Jets - The Boy Who Ran Away [acoustic live YouTube]
Percussion break of the year, and the lie given to the idea that the Jets are New Prog instigators - this is as much oddball pop as anything
77 Arctic Monkeys - The View From The Afternoon [YouTube]
In through leading the Who The Fuck Are...? EP and coruscatingly detailing a night out from excitement soup to drunk declaration nuts
76 Larrikin Love - Happy As Annie [YouTube]
Well, that twist kind of puts a dampener on the day. More louche Albion-seeking rudeboyisms with no small amount of self-mocking ("my accuracy is quite unnerving")
75 Ensemble - Disown Delete [YouTube]
Chan Marshall's voice, when used in the right setting (hello at this point to Faithless) can melt hearts. The twisted velvet electronic backing here is the right setting.
74 Sparks - Perfume [YouTube]
Essentially it's a big list of types of perfume and the girls they remind Russell of, but the scratchy riff over the usual kitchen sink is the winner
73 Mystery Jets - Diamonds In The Dark [YouTube]
A re-recording from the album that for once actually is better than the original, Stephen Street adding just enough summery streamline
72 Jamie T - Sheila [YouTube]
See, this is why Treays' last two singles have disappointed us - they're just not all over the place enough. Dark near-rap, skanking, cheap keyboards and Betjeman together?
71 Goodbooks - Leni [YouTube]
Their most straight up and down publicly released moment so far, but with unsettled bass and keyboards pulling the straight line indiepop melody askew
70 Misty's Big Adventure - Fashion Parade [YouTube]
Grandmaster Gareth with a right cob on, essentially. Crucially it's as funny as it is cynical, and a joyous horn blast never hurt anyone
69 Lucky Soul - My Brittle Heart [YouTube]
Immensely lilting Greenwich Motor City gorgeousness - and see, Leona? Ali Howard's got something like your kind of voice, and she does something with ut
68 Kanye West - Touch The Sky [Letterman performance - YouTube]
First listen: obvious sample, game needs lifting. Second listen: airpunching testification. And did anyone make a more rocket-fuelled entrance onto the big stage than Lupe Fiasco here?
67 Luke Haines - Off My Rocker At The Art School Bop [YouTube]
Haines wanted it to sound like Girls Aloud; Richard X instead made it sound like Italian disco dragged backwards through a Cabaret Voltaire hedge
In fact, tell you what, while we're waiting and whiling away these hours, why not leave guesses as to what will be number one in the comments box before it's revealed on the 30th December? We won't tell you if you're right, there's no prizes in it, but we're keen to see if our leanings can be second guessed by the casual browser yet. Here's a clue - it's none of these...
100 Amy Winehouse - Rehab [YouTube]
This week's pop culture punchbag stays inches this side of self-parody, but check that Stax arrangement
99 The Pipettes - Pull Shapes [YouTube]
Not the great poptimist moment of many claims, but still impossible to stop. Wanting some more very much on-menu, but is it OK to say both vinyl B-sides were better?
98 The Gossip - Standing In The Way Of Control [YouTube]
Rumbles like a steam train, pummels like Jack Dempsey. Surprise Jonathan Ross appearance understandably got plenty talking, and not just Look At The Fat Bird
97 Pull Tiger Tail - Animator [YouTube]
Fratellis-esque rapid decline hasn't been completely removed from the agenda, but fine Maximo-esque jitters to be getting along with
96 Blood Red Shoes - You Bring Me Down [YouTube]
There's only two of 'em! Jagged but knowing how to control its dynamics, we're strangely reminded of a calmer Cay
95 Rumble Strips - Hate Me You Do [YouTube]
Welcome the second hand soul vision. But as Kevin Rowland said at the time, it's merely taking (post-)punk attitude to Stax soul and Charlie Waller has plenty of both
94 Gnarls Barkley - Crazy [YouTube]
Organic sounding hip hop shouldn't be as big as it was, but that chorus was as undeniable as Danger Mouse's beats ever are
93 Liam Frost and the Slowdown Family - She Painted Pictures [Myspace]
The personable Mancunian could have been a contender if he had more broodingly gorgeous moments such as this
92 Infadels - Love Like Semtex [YouTube]
Actual new rave when Klaxons were in nappies, darkly menacing synths meets slashed guitar meets energetic bald man
91 SixNationState - Keep Dancing [YouTube]
Like The Coral with their skunk supply replaced with PCP, energy to spare and jumpy Tex-Mex rhythms to go
90 Archie Bronson Outfit - Dead Funny [YouTube]
Lasciviously hypnotic blues-punk from bearded south-westerners. "Just get your head down"? What are you suggesting?
89 Editors - Blood [YouTube]
Just re-releasing the same tiny pool of singles over and over again doesn't suggest great imaginative depth, but we still liked thi
88 Sparks - Dick Around [YouTube]
Completely over the top amateur symphonics meets rock guitar meets oblique imagery, as per
87 The Crimea - Lottery Winners On Acid [YouTube]
Wasn't it supposed to be their year? Ah well, this Flaming Lips-esque psych-janglepop wasn't destined to shift supermarket units
86 Dananananaykroyd - Some Dresses
Somewhere between At The Drive-In, linear Sonic Youth, early Pavement and a right shambles. Unhelpfully, they've just lost their singer
85 I'm From Barcelona - We're From Barcelona [YouTube]
Self-asserting three chord chorality was rarely so much fun. Music to throw a child's party to, albeit one not in the most stable of nuclear families
84 Jamie T - Salvador [YouTube]
Driving, brooding, rumbling post-Arctics New Wave hybrid delivered like the rootless reincarnation of Ian Dury
83 Brakes - All Night Disco Party (remix) [YouTube]
They've just extended it a bit and put some squelches underneath! A particularly impossible track to completely ruin, though
82 Les Incompetents - How It All Went Wrong [YouTube]
Well, it all went wrong quite badly by the end, but at least they had one moment of touching oddball faux-shambolic indie greatness
81 Archie Bronson Outfit - Dart For My Sweetheart [YouTube]
Lasciviously hypnotic blues-punk from bearded south-westerners. Again. Except this time Sam Windett's singing as if his immediate future depends on it
80 Maximo Park - I Want You To Stay [live YouTube]
The last single from A Certain Trigger, the cocksure pleading was still comprehensively lapped by the Field Music/J Xaverre B-side remix
79 Larrikin Love - Edwould [YouTube]
Brash headlong charge at the punk-reggae crossover point that keeps on keeping on so forcefully that not even a fiddle solo stops it
78 Mystery Jets - The Boy Who Ran Away [acoustic live YouTube]
Percussion break of the year, and the lie given to the idea that the Jets are New Prog instigators - this is as much oddball pop as anything
77 Arctic Monkeys - The View From The Afternoon [YouTube]
In through leading the Who The Fuck Are...? EP and coruscatingly detailing a night out from excitement soup to drunk declaration nuts
76 Larrikin Love - Happy As Annie [YouTube]
Well, that twist kind of puts a dampener on the day. More louche Albion-seeking rudeboyisms with no small amount of self-mocking ("my accuracy is quite unnerving")
75 Ensemble - Disown Delete [YouTube]
Chan Marshall's voice, when used in the right setting (hello at this point to Faithless) can melt hearts. The twisted velvet electronic backing here is the right setting.
74 Sparks - Perfume [YouTube]
Essentially it's a big list of types of perfume and the girls they remind Russell of, but the scratchy riff over the usual kitchen sink is the winner
73 Mystery Jets - Diamonds In The Dark [YouTube]
A re-recording from the album that for once actually is better than the original, Stephen Street adding just enough summery streamline
72 Jamie T - Sheila [YouTube]
See, this is why Treays' last two singles have disappointed us - they're just not all over the place enough. Dark near-rap, skanking, cheap keyboards and Betjeman together?
71 Goodbooks - Leni [YouTube]
Their most straight up and down publicly released moment so far, but with unsettled bass and keyboards pulling the straight line indiepop melody askew
70 Misty's Big Adventure - Fashion Parade [YouTube]
Grandmaster Gareth with a right cob on, essentially. Crucially it's as funny as it is cynical, and a joyous horn blast never hurt anyone
69 Lucky Soul - My Brittle Heart [YouTube]
Immensely lilting Greenwich Motor City gorgeousness - and see, Leona? Ali Howard's got something like your kind of voice, and she does something with ut
68 Kanye West - Touch The Sky [Letterman performance - YouTube]
First listen: obvious sample, game needs lifting. Second listen: airpunching testification. And did anyone make a more rocket-fuelled entrance onto the big stage than Lupe Fiasco here?
67 Luke Haines - Off My Rocker At The Art School Bop [YouTube]
Haines wanted it to sound like Girls Aloud; Richard X instead made it sound like Italian disco dragged backwards through a Cabaret Voltaire hedge
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