Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Sept 10, 2012 17:36:26 GMT 1
Ok here we are the final part of my review series added to on an ad-hoc basis, and covering the latter end of the 00s. Please share your own thoughts so I'm not writing this thing to myself in this lonely part of the forum! I'm definitely NOT doing 2010-15 when it comes around So we start off in 2005 a dark time chart wise with god awful sales and a fair amount of bile, but it soon bucks up I promise!....
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Sept 10, 2012 17:48:09 GMT 1
22ND JANUARY 2005- EMPTY SOULS- Manic Street Preachers (1 wk)Talking of god awful sales this sold just 12k to make this position during a cold January 2005 and a song that passed me by entirely (I figured I never needed to know how it sounded as it would bomb down the charts the following week, and I wasn't wrong moving 2-26) but more importantly it was beaten by Elvis Presley for the title of 1,000th No 1 hit (by the by I'm not reveiwing any of the Elvis' re-issues as they were all No 1 hits originally and I can't be arsed). Written by the band as a response to the September 11 attacks the lyrics were changed for the single release from "collapsing like the twin towers" to "Collapsing like dying flowers" though quite why remains a mystery given its theme. Anyway not a bad song actually (and I surprised myself there) given that I'd stop listened to them around 2000. With a piano line not dissimilar to a Coldplay track (or should that be the other way around) it does actually grow on repetition and not something I'm going to say often in 2005- all in all not a bad start!
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Sept 10, 2012 17:57:41 GMT 1
05TH FEBRUARY- ONLY U- Ashanti (1 wk)Let's be honest this is all about the sample, in this case Club Nouveau's "Why You Treat Me So Bad" from 1986, over which a pretty generic vocal is laid. Not AWFUL I grant you but neither is it inspired, Ashanti remains for me one of about 20 singers who are pretty interchangeable, quite why this failed to overhaul an Elvis re-issue but Ciara succeeded a week before is a slight mystery. Anyway this won't be converting anyone to the cause of RNB, having said that if it's your bag I'm sure you'll love this!
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borneoman
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love is tough, when enough is not enough
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Post by borneoman on Sept 10, 2012 19:04:49 GMT 1
I think this was the first album by the Manics that I didn't buy, they kinda lost it for me, although the singles were not bad... Empty Souls is kinda nice but it's like a watered-version of past singles...
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Sept 13, 2012 19:23:12 GMT 1
2ND APRIL- LET ME LOVE YOU- Mario (1 wk)Oh guilty pleasure alert. There is NOTHING special about this i know, but it's sung with something reaching sincerity and genuine emotion, and altogether it's quite touching really. I can overlook the fact that it's co-written by Ne-Yo (I see he's re-using his old song titles now) and it spent 9 wks at No 1 in the US, I'm not sure I like it THAT much but it's certainly nice to hear it again after all these years. The fact that "Amarillo" was crushing all opposition at the top means it was never liekly to go one better than No 2 here but I like this- sorry!
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Sept 13, 2012 19:41:19 GMT 1
23RD APRIL- SOMEWHERE ELSE- Razorlight (1 wk)Ah Johnny Burrell- a man who clearly believed very much in himself to the point of winding up almost everyone with his huge ego but for my money the first album certainly didn't merit his own hype. Having said that "Somewhere Else" is the first song that they released that I LOVED! I'm a sucker for a lot of guitar driven pop (I don't even mind Ed Sheeran!) and this track was the first glipse, for my money, that he was capable of delivering songs that fitted the hype. Released as the first single from the deluxe version of their album it's much more Boomtown rats than Bob Dylan, posturing full of attitude and utterly self assured. There was a lot better to come from Razorlight, but that big mouth of Borrell always put me off truly loving the band, and that's a shame on reflection, if only they'd let the music do the talking they could have been so much bigger, 2008's "Slipway Fires" proved a step too far and the band continue to work on a fourth album in an attempt to do a Maroon 5-esque resurrection. Hopefully he's learnt a lesson from all the noughties but some lessons are never learnt. Still, let's recall this for what it is, a little cracker!
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Post by andrew07 on Sept 13, 2012 21:15:39 GMT 1
Love "Empty Souls", I'm pretty surprised that got to No.2 back then, one of their understated songs I bought the reissue of Razorlight's album, after Somewhere Else had came out, and a couple of friends were peeved because they bought the album first time round, without that track.
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borneoman
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love is tough, when enough is not enough
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Post by borneoman on Sept 15, 2012 9:19:01 GMT 1
not a big fan of Razorlight and Borrell's superego never understood their appeal, especially America... and what's up with Neyo almost using the same song title... not very resourceful
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Sept 19, 2012 19:24:59 GMT 1
7TH MAY- SIGNS- Snoop Dogg Featuring Justin Timberlake & Charlie Wilson (1 wk)Imagine, if you will, a kind of "The Girl Is Mine" for 2005 and you're about there. Justn's chorus's concerning a guy who thinks a girl likes him whilst Snoop's verses try to woo (if that's the word) towards him with the promise of recreational drugs etc, I wonder if that ploy ever works? Then in comes The Gap Band's Charlie Wilson to calm every thing down and tell the pair to be thankful for what they have (ladies at home presumably), he's also here, one suspects, so that Snoop could get permission to sample Wilson's bands track "Early In The Morning". I know I shouldn't like anything Snoop Dogg puts his name to, and up until the track I had successful avoided buying anything that he had ever made but this one got me. A healthy slice of pop thanks to Mr Timberlake makes it much more accessible than his previous efforts, and a judicious use of samples makes this a rather radio friendly funk/rap combo that actually works, far better (dare I say it than "The Girl Is Mine" which is cringe worthy even at the time I'd wager). Surprisingly good!
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Sept 19, 2012 20:00:30 GMT 1
21ST MAY- FEEL GOOD INC- Gorillaz (1 wk)As if to illustrate the ridiculous steps taken by the OCC in the mid 00s the chart run of "Feel Good Inc" was 22-21-22-20-2 thanks to the band's decision to release 400 7" singles to HMV enabling the song to chart for 4 weeks on the strength of a physical format being linked to the download single. Once a full release was granted the track rocketed from 20-2 and the OCC changed the rules to mean that formats must be available to all retailers, it is therefore a song which genuinely changed chart rules. That aside, a little help from De La Soul see them score their biggest hit, and I know this is probably an unpopular opinion but the Gorillaz were a "group" which always left me cold oddly. I think it might be due to their first single "Clint Eastwood" which stuck around for forever and which I grew to loathe, "Dare" was a definite step up, and although I don't hate FGI it isn't a song I would choose to listen to again. There is something very clever about the band, not in a good way, but in a kinda superior clever way, like the cool kids at school who are only firends with other cool kids, perhaps it's a joke that I just never got, I gotta give it to them for "On Melancholy Hill" though- TUNE.
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Post by andrew07 on Sept 20, 2012 11:32:46 GMT 1
Feel Good Inc was ok but DARE was way better. I'm with you on On Melancholy Hill but my fave single of theirs is Stylo, shame that didn't chart.
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borneoman
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Post by borneoman on Sept 20, 2012 21:57:37 GMT 1
opposite for me, prefer Feel Good Inc to DARE and my fav might be Clint Eastwood
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TheThorne
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Post by TheThorne on Sept 20, 2012 22:49:13 GMT 1
opposite for me, prefer Feel Good Inc to DARE and my fav might be Clint Eastwood DARE is the best for me especially with the video best thing Shaun Ryder has been involved in since 'Pills,Thrills' for me and yes they are a bit too clever at times but thats Damon I think and how he is these days,hes not really the bouncy shellsuit geezer anymore,even if he pretends to be on stage hehe.
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Post by Earl Purple on Sept 21, 2012 0:36:32 GMT 1
This is the point Gamliel was born and Without Gravity timed it perfectly to release a song called Beautiful Son which stormed to #1 in my chart to be the chart-topper of the decade for me.
Having Gorillaz as his birthday UK #1 would have been far better than what was probably there. Can't remember what actualy was but I think at least it wasn't Crazy Frog.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2012 2:34:49 GMT 1
That Dare video I'll never forget, mainly because James Masterton kept referring to "Being stuck in a basement with Shaun Ryder's head" in his chart commentary if we were not aware of a particular song in that weeks chart.
tw*t.
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Sept 30, 2012 23:32:53 GMT 1
4TH JUNE- SPEED OF SOUND- Coldplay (1 wk)Modern convention would have you believe that the "X & Y" period is not one of the greatest in the history of Coldplay, the point at which they became overblown and all U2-esque, and certainly Martin's own pronouncements on third world debt only lent credence to such an opinion. It's also true that much of the beauty and the subtlety of the first two albums had ben pushed to one side in favour of out and out stadium fillers but I content that "X & Y" is actually far more personal than it at first appears. Take "Speed Of Sound" for example, a drum beat heavily influenced by "Running Up That Hill" (can that ever be a bad thing?) and Martin's voice sounding almost like an instrument itself in the bridges, a wall of sound in the chorus remininsent of a Phil Spector production and absolute twaddle for lyrics. There aren't many bands who can count such a fine line as singles as this "Fix You", "Talk", and "Hardest Part" in their cannon, for me this is their greatest period before it all went south. Some singles are pure gold post this but the albums as a whole become patchier affairs with less attention to the whole, perhaps an acknowledgement that whatever you produce will sell by the million or the laziness of wealth kicking in. Either way "Speed Of Sound" is great, though lacking the sublimer qualities of "In My Place" it more than makes up for it in convinction and sheer dogged determination that you WILL be impressed by it! Showmanship can be irksome (note Robbie Williams) but here it isn't out of place (yet) and Coldplay were still a band who were still clearly enjoying themselves before the hungover kicked in.
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Gezza
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Post by Gezza on Sept 30, 2012 23:45:34 GMT 1
18TH JUNE- THE CITY OF BLINDING LIGHTS- U2 (1 wk)How appropriate that U2 should be next, who were, on the evidence of this, retreading former glories, this time with an outtake from "Pop" not an album known for its high standing with critics or fans. This is pretty much all that you would expect from a U2 song who had, and indeed still are, dining off their stunning work in 83-92 period with varying success. "City Of Blinding Lights" is therefore a one trick pony of checklist componants- rousing stadium anthem (tick) punching Bono lyrics (tick), radio friendly rock for US airwaves (tick), if it ain't broke then don't fix it, the problem was that it was, by now, starting to break. In truth the cracks had shown since 1997's "Pop" and were getting wider throughout the 00s, the peril of working in a musical cul-de-sac that has become inescapable. Tired and bored with repetition, this is the sound of a band that don't know anything else but similarly have nothing else to say and after 25 years plus of being around I suppose what else is there to say? They'll be back in 06 but it's another retread, I know how that hamster feels now...
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borneoman
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love is tough, when enough is not enough
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Post by borneoman on Oct 1, 2012 16:37:02 GMT 1
I always say that U2 should have given up in 1993 after that, their albums became just an excuse to go on tour, which is where the big $$$ is I disagree with you in regards to X&Y. For me here is where they totally lost it and especially with Speed of Sound, imho, the wrost thing they´ve ever released... Hardest Part and Fix You are ok-ish but the album was a huge disappointment (imho) after the first two
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Post by andrew07 on Oct 2, 2012 2:35:41 GMT 1
Speed Of Sound was basically a rehashing of Clocks. Same tune, different lyrics. This is definitely where they started to go downhill, very much like U2 have. I and many others I know all agree that U2 haven't made a good album since Achtung Baby, and they definitely should have stopped long ago.
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Post by greendemon on Oct 4, 2012 17:11:26 GMT 1
'talk' and 'lost!' are the only things coldplay have produced since AROBTTH that are even worth listening to, IMO.
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