40
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Madonna - What It Feels Like For A Girl
Artist link: 5  6  43
Bit of a quiet year in terms of singles for dear ol' Madge (and will she resemble Anne Charleston in years to come?) But then I'd guess she's pupating again, about to emerge resplendant in Barbour jacket and strides. Nonetheless, WIFLFAG (the second prize in the Windows acronym contest) kept the clamouring public at bay until she blasted their wallets clean on the "Drowned World" tour. Quite a minimal song all in all, but that's more like the English way.
Jason M
No of votes: 5, Score:
28, Highest vote: 4th
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39
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The Charlatans - A Man Needs To Be Told
Has the world gone mad? Tim Burgess a falsetto?? Who would have thought it - you just need to cast your mind back 11 years and you certainly wouldn't. But, supposedly with the help of copious amounts of the white stuff, the Charlatans have a new sound. It's a great song from a great album and Burgess's high pitched vocals work a treat. Just as long as he doesn't start to wear tight leather trousers, the Charlatans will just keep getting better, which is great, even if they are doing it in LA! Ooh, and check out the video - it's pretty cool too! Can anyone tell me how they made it?
Milly H
No of votes: 5, Score:
30, Highest vote: 2nd
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38
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The White Stripes - Hotel Yorba
Artist link: 1  7 14 38
What can I say? From out of.....a very red and white place (I've never been to Detroit) come Meg and Jack (siblings? spouses? who knows and who cares frankly) banging and strumming their way into the UK charts and my heart. They're not exactly what you'd call cutting edge, but somehow their souped up blues (and we have to wonder how they manage to soup anything up with one drum and one guitar) seems to be the sound of now. They produce awesome, huge and incredibly distinctive sounds. There's a reason that Hotel Yorba made them big over here. Get stripey with the whites.
Milly H
No of votes: 5, Score:
36, Highest vote: 2nd
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37
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Westlife - Uptown Girl
Artist link: 1 5 10 33 42
Can these lovely-haired boys do no wrong? Sometimes I wish they would because they're far more interesting when they're messing about! Uptown Girl was their 8th number 1 (including that dismal duet with Mariah "wavy hands" Carey) and not even Bob the Builder could begrudge them that as it
was all for 'charidee mate'. It's become Comic Relief's biggest seller (beating Boyzone - damn) and had a nice video, which introduced us to yet another of Nicky's many haircuts. A MUCH better song than Queen of My Heart, but then that's not difficult really.
Kat B
No of votes: 5, Score:
36, Highest vote: 1st
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36
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Crazy Town - Butterfly
"Come M'Lady, come come M'Lady" sounds more like Parker trying to get Lady Penelope back into her car after a heavy shopping spree in Knightsbridge than a line from this mellow rap workout by Crazy Town. Don't think for a minute that use of the word "mellow" is a criticism either - the sort of "mellow" that would be used in this way would be for pot smoking rap anthems, say. Nope, the simmering bassline is what keeps this baby cool - for some reason I can't help thinking you need to play this in a convertible driving through the Bronx for best effect.
Jason M
No of votes: 6, Score:
21, Highest vote: 1st
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35
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Robbie Williams - Eternity / The Road To Mandalay
Artist link:12 16 29
'Oos a clever boy then? The inveterate popster knows just how to ensure his campaign on pop glides along with all the smoothness of his swinging image. So you have 2 scoops of Bob here - classic ballad Bob with big doe eyes, and quirky countrified Postman Pat Bob (and boy does he come close to singing "womp bomp bomp pomp diddly yomp pomp") heading over the horizon to pastures new. Like the winter shack to snuggle up to Nicole (his black and white cat). I suspect the next stop will be the 80's for Robbie - Wham! covers anyone?
Jason M
No of votes: 6, Score:
23, Highest vote: 2nd
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34
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Feeder - Buck Rogers
Artist link:20
The success of 'Buck Rogers' may well have been in the quiet-loud adrenalin surges or the beauty of a optimistic, well delivered pop thrash. It could even have been in the more-than-achievable life aim of drinking cider in Devon, whether it be from eleven (naughty) or from a lemon (just plain rude). But when Grant confides that he thinks we're gonna make it, you can't help but fall in love with the song somewhere between the top of the pogo and the sticky mosh-pit floor. Whether you take it as a comforting squeeze
of the hand or a congratulatory manly hug, things seem better. If only for a while.
RIP Jon.
Danny G
No of votes: 6, Score:
24, Highest vote: 1st
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33
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Shaggy - It Wasn't Me
The Shagster returned to the UK charts in 2001 with a sweet accordian-based tune. His pal Rikrok has been caught in the act by his ladyfriend and fills us in on all the sordid details several times over in a song-stylee. Between times Shaggy raps his response: the cheeky bugger is trying to persuade his adulturous pal Rikrok to brazen the whole thing out. His coffee-voiced, back-of-the-throat delivery obscures most of what he's saying so check out the full lyrics on the web next time you're in need of a hearty chuckle. The singing / rapping structure works a treat and Shaggy liked it so much he stuck with it for his next couple of singles, neither of which are in anything like the same class, unfortunately.
Harley R
No of votes: 6, Score:
27, Highest vote: 1st
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32
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Pulp - Sunrise / The Trees
With the pop bonanza of "Different Class" a dim and distant memory, you had to feel that the new body of work from Pulp was going to continue along the route of it's darker sibling "This Is Hardcore". When the news that Scott Walker was on board as the producer you knew that it was going to be sweeping and majestic. Sunrise does exactly what it says on the tin, starting out as a mere flicker of sound on the horizon and slowly developing into a full blown dawn chorus. The Trees is a bit more quirky, but then with the choice of producer it's hardly all that surprising.
Jason M
No of votes: 6, Score:
31, Highest vote: 1st
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31
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Super Furry Animals - Juxtaposed With U
What do you mean they've not won a major award yet? It's an aural orgy of Beach Boys, Stock Aitken and Waterman, The Stylistics and The Pixies, what more do you want? The first (and some say the best) release (OK, it was me who said it was the best) from the CD/DVD extravaganza that was "Rings Around The World". There is no celery crunching on this one, but I never liked rabbit food anyway.
Paul M
No of votes: 6, Score:
34, Highest vote: 1st
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Thanks go to the following people for assisting with getting together our comprehensive aide-memoire: Danny G, Paul M, Kat B, Caz T
A MASSIVE THANKS also to all those who slaved over a hot keyboard to produce the write ups: Danny G, Paul H, Paul M, Kat B, Andrew S, Angela T, Isaac H, Milly H, P Shoo, Dan Mc, James B, Ana L, Derek K, Harley R