50
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Arcade Fire - Keep The Car Running
Artist link: 33
This is a real band (up to 10 members!) with lots of real instruments (even a xylophone!) and real talent (live performances as proof!) and they're Canadian (so stop blaming Canada!)! Wow, novelty! Listening to 'Keep the Car Running' will make you want to throw the latest 'X Factor' winner off the nearest bridge. Seriously though, finally, it is nice to hear a track (and album) that is so thoughtful, so natural, so harmonic, so melodic, simply enjoyable to listen to from start-to-finish. Close your eyes, listen, you'll think you're in heaven being serenaded by a choir of angels with attitude.
Jane B
No of votes: 8, Score:
52, Highest vote: 2nd
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49
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Gwen Stefani feat. Akon - The Sweet Escape
I have a confession to make... I don't particularly like Gwen Stefani. I didn't like No Doubt's stuff and all the posturing and preening that is the staple food of Ms S just isn't my thing; but then she released "The Sweet Escape". I can't explain what it is about the song that makes it great; maybe it's the melody, the lyrics, the bonkers gold-tinged video, or possibly it's the input from Akon, who knows? Whatever the mystery element is, it's taken what could have been quite a shouty, pouty track and turned it into something that washes over you like a tsunami of chocolate (dark, not milk). I think I've been converted...
Kat B
No of votes: 9, Score:
35, Highest vote: 4th
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48
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Robyn with Kleerup - With Every Heartbeat
The first time I heard this I thought Kate Bush had hooked up with some hip techno outfit but it turns out that the overwrought singing voice belongs to Swedish comeback kid Robyn. This collaboration with fellow Swede Kleerup has that spaciousness and slightly clunky, home-made feel that makes cheesy continental dance music a more appealing prospect than its UK or US equivalents. There's a lightness of touch in the way the song builds upon its relentless marching beat, and there's a beautiful string break half-way through. The song is about moving on from a failed relationship (and in fact the whole 'Robyn' album is one long 21st Century rewrite of 'I Will Survive'). Lots of potential for positive sentiments here, so it's a shame Robyn elected to make the key lyric an invitation to Feel Her Pain. But that's the 21st Century for you.
Harley R
No of votes: 9, Score:
42, Highest vote: 2nd
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47
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The Pigeon Detectives - Take Her Back
A Leeds indie rocker band with the famously terrible name, do short, high energy songs for jumping around to, coming in at a time when this type of music was sorely needed. They liken themselves to The Buzzcocks and their gigs have become notorious for crowds stage invading, and general mayhem. This jerky burst of a song about the joys/worries of casual sex with people of varying ages, is light on the morals and big on the chorus. It is funny and with familiar situations, so get pogoing, shout the words, and remember those amorous moments.
Kathy R
No of votes: 9, Score:
43, Highest vote: 2nd
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46
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Rihanna - Don't Stop The Music
Artist link: 1  24 36  39
The Umbrella-ella-ella lady returns and proves that she has more than one good hook up her sleeve by unleashing this mindlessly catchy track on the world. The paranoid half of me suspects she's using some fiendishly clever NLP-type mind trick, and that by repeating the title of the track over and over she is subliminally persuading everyone to keep listening to her songs and buying her music. The rational half of me has a sneaking suspicion that it's actually just a great track plain and simple, and that I've spent too much time watching Derren Brown. Either way, it's wormed it's way inside my mind and I can't get it out of my head.
Greg B
No of votes: 9, Score:
46, Highest vote: 2nd
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45
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CSS - Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above
For those who don't know, Death From Above are a band - so while the song is still about getting your rocks off, the audio encouragement is dance-punk loops from Toronto rather than the thuds of spree-victims hitting the carpet on the next floor up. CSS were arguably the band of the year, probably the live band of the year and almost certainly the highlight of the summer festivals. The marquees rocked with 2007's best bassline and when the lights strobed during the Fisher Price heavy metal of the middle eight, it was the signal to avert your gaze from Lovefoxxx's latest bizarre catsuit and party like it is 1999 at the Rio Carnival. You can't help but wonder just which lottery the hairy guy won to spend 11 months of the year on such a nubile Brazilian tour bus. Maybe he has fitted webcams and is the brains behind an adult website we are yet happen across. I hope so. I think they could show me mad love.
Danny G
No of votes: 9, Score:
46, Highest vote: 2nd
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43
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Feist - 1234
You know, such song writing efficiency is rare genius indeed; not only has Leslie Feist recorded a toe-tapping, warm-hearted, go-getting tune, she has also, at the same time, released her first project aimed at improving the level of basic arithmetic for kindergarten children. And you know what else? It takes a certain kind of indescribable cool to be approved as the soundtrack for one of Apple's iPod Nano marketing campaigns. Such high praise can only be bestowed on a very select musician, with very select qualities. Describing these traits is a futile struggle, but one might say that Leslie is a lively, spirited, energetic kind of gal. Oh, if only there was a word for it!
(This review brought to you courtesy of the Microsoft WordTM thesaurus.)
Elliot H
No of votes: 9, Score:
54, Highest vote: 1st
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42
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Fall Out Boy - This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race
"Sing, until your lungs give out" - well, would you? But, this being emo, you can guarantee that several million disaffected youths will take up that very call to arms, and do just that. So it may be ironic then, that this song is Pete Wentz voicing his frustrations about the emo scene. Still, the pissed off teens this is squarely aimed at have bigger fish to fry - no-one loving them, working out how to make their weekly allowance stretch to the amount of eyeliner they need, the cost of texts to their newly found similarly disaffected Facebook friends, etc etc. But then, so what if they fail to change the way that da yoof tick, the song does bloody well without the barracking. The chorus of kids is reminiscent of "Another Brick In The Wall" (yes, this is me showing my age now), but if there's one thing emo knows how to do, it's pump a song full of adrenaline, light the touchpaper and watch the crowd explode in response.
Jason M
No of votes: 9, Score:
56, Highest vote: 1st
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41
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Beyonce & Shakira - Beautiful Liar
Not since Brandy and Monica's "The Boy Is Mine" has there been such a successful song about a cheating rat of a boyfriend. However, rather than fight about it in a petulant manner which you may have expected from the divas known as Beyoncé and Shakira, they've decided to shake hands and gang up on him instead. Disappointingly, the video didn't involve the two of them inflicting a slow and painful death on the cheater - possibly via the use of shoes with impossibly high heels and some thumb licking - just some serious booty-shaking; yeah, that'll teach him! The women of the world, I believe, have finally found a worthy karaoke successor to "I Will Survive".
Kat B
No of votes: 9, Score:
58, 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, Greg B, Lorraine W
A MASSIVE THANKS also to all those who slaved over a hot keyboard to produce the write ups: Danny G, Kat B, Isaac H, P Shoo, Dan Mc, Harley R, Emyr I, Greg B, Lisa S, Veronica S, Elliot H, John M, Kathy R, Jane B, Jake U, Lisa K, Scott
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