30
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Jet - Are You Gonna Be My Girl
Jet were the scene-stealers from the wave of Aussie bands who snuck through the wormhole generated by The Vines in 2002. Are You Gonna Be My Girl strutted like it owned the radio stations on which it appeared, with its boxer-briefs full of stop-go sleaze and Lust For Life. The song’s devilish intent and first class rock and roll posturing is underlined as Nic Cester sidles up to the speaker and drawls the question in question, sounding as if he is 100% sure of the answer already.
Danny G
No of votes: 10, Score:
61, Highest vote: 2nd
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29
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Radiohead - There There
Artist link: 17
I swear they're sounding more and more like Jeff Buckley from his posthumous "Sketches for my Sweetheart the drunk" album. Its my favourite Radiohead track since OK Computer. A 5 minute march in and then out of cacophany. Displays whats best about Radiohead, the balance between aggressive guitar and desperate vocal, combining to hypnotic effect.
Paul M
No of votes: 10, Score:
68, Highest vote: 1st
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28
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Justin Timberlake - Cry Me A River
Artist link: 10  11  20
As Britney continues her slide into madness and chaos, her ex continues on his stratospheric rise to stardom. And how - whether it be the upbeat pop numbers, or ballads like this, Justin is winning mass appeal. Pop ballads can sometimes be a bit heavy handed on the production, leaving you to feel like you've had syrup syringed into your ears for the past 4 minutes. This is not the case here, the production by Timbaland keeping the song sounding relatively positive inspite of the lyrical misery.
Jason M
No of votes: 11, Score:
38, Highest vote: 2nd
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27
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Elton John - Are You Ready For Love?
I've always liked old Reggie, and it's heartwarming to know that songs from the 70s by talented singer-songwriters that have flopped can be hits again. Can they re-release 'Thunder in my heart' by Leo Sayer again now, please? Anyone?
Andrew S
No of votes: 11, Score:
45, Highest vote: 1st
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24
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The Coral - Pass It On
Artist link:18
Pass It On is a reflective moment where a young man’s sub-conscious spills intimately into the foreground of his mind and the conversation. The soundtrack to his musing swings with a shy charm as the torch is passed on and on, until our hero gets another connection with his inner-most... but more important than that, Pass It On proved that The Coral could write mini-classics without sounding like Showaddywaddy.
Danny G
No of votes: 12, Score:
63, Highest vote: 1st
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23
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T.a.t.U. - All The Things She Said
There are certain things that can be done to assist in publicity of a band. Tatu have got the novelty of an Eastern Bloc background as a starter, then there's the fact they are a pair of teenage girls, good, but clearly all of this pales into insignificance when the (carefully orchestrated) marketing suggested they were lesbians. The noise of middle England could clearly be heard stampeding to dust off the Basildon Bond stationery and write to complain. All of this certainly helped build up quite a head of steam, so all that was needed was to make the song as conspicuous as possible and who better to get to produce it than Trevor Horn? The result being a particularly catching piece of power-pop that is about as hard to ignore as all the subsequent (bad) publicity they had leading up to Eurovision.
Jason M
No of votes: 13, Score:
55, Highest vote: 1st
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22
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Electric Six - Danger! High Voltage
Artist link:16
The first twenty or so times I heard this I thought the shouty feller was saying 'Danger! Danger! Advantage!'. So I got to imagining a game of Extreme Tennis, refereed by the robot from Lost in Space, with electric shocks administered to the players every time they lose a set... well that's the kind of misunderstanding you get when you're listening to the office radio. Anyway, the real lyrics are pretty funny: 'Fire in the disco, fire in the Taco Bell' (or 'Taco Bill' according to the guy's absurd hysterical/precious annunciation): I guess in many ways it's a camp follow up to 'Firestarter'. Squelchy funk guitar and an wittery X-Ray Spex-style sax solo makes this a song that will entertain you if not actually change your life.
Harley R
No of votes: 13, Score:
68, Highest vote: 1st
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21
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The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
Artist link:44
It was my enormous pleasure to see them live this year and it was by far the best gig of my life. Simple songs injected with squechly and whoosing noises is always a recipe for success. The 2nd single from the Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots album and I didn't have a clue what it was all about. Evil Robots? Maybe it was a paean to Battlestar Gallatica.
Paul M
No of votes: 13, Score:
72, Highest vote: 2nd
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Thanks go to the following people for assisting with getting together our comprehensive aide-memoire: Danny G, Kat B, Caz T, Isaac H
A MASSIVE THANKS also to all those who slaved over a hot keyboard to produce the write ups: Danny G, Caz T, Paul M, Kat B, Andrew S, Angela T, Isaac H, P Shoo, Liza H, Dan Mc, Kevin B, Harley R, Karen G
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