Best single of the last 25 years

OK, point taken, it is a supremely boring question, isn't it? Maybe Tom should retire this one due to lack of interest. I'll enter the fray with my pop mind freshly honed and incisive - after a pint or two.

No no I am planning to answer but it needs a bit of thought!

Heart - "Crazy On You"

Yeah it's an incredibly difficult one to just answer. "Party Fears Two"? "Soon"? "This Charming Man"? "Second Language"? "Lords Of The Null-Lines"? "The Train (Come On Ride It)"? "Welcome To The Terrordome"? "Are You That Somebody"?

What I will say however is that from the skim I gave the Uncut list it looked like the best of its type I'd seen in a long time, drawing together a lot of different areas without seeming incredibly tokenistic.

This raises an almost "sociological" question: why do people buy singles? I mean, why should anyone waste his money on a disc containing only a couple of tracks? (ev. along with remixes you don't really care for...). If the artist/band in question made a good album go for it (buy a couple of singles less). If the single is the only good song he made... well, then he doesn't really deserve our attention...

Eps tough are another kettle of fish. The Best ones I bought (at least recently) are All Most Heaven by Will Oldham and Rian Murphy and Slow Riot... by Godspeed you Black Emperor...

Wild card answer:

Warren G and Nate Dogg - "Regulate"

Cinematic in the style of the best westerns. Hero is surrounded by desperados and is about to go down when his friend shows up and rescues him. Hero and compatriot head off to find some women.

Combine that some with some funk elements, Michael McDonald's "I Can't Forget", and a couple of marginal rappers at their best and you have a great single.

Um....Simone...are you sure you're reading the right webpage? ;)

OK seriously, I like singles more than albums mostly - there's by definition no filler, they can give you a concentrated idea of what an artist is about, they're often catchier (which I like), they give you as much opportunity as albums do to cause a splash and make a statement. And besides, so many of my favourite ever records are singles that there's a romance about them which there isn't for me, album-wise.

The other reason to buy singles is to keep up on genres whose best work isn't done at album-length. Traditionally this has been 'black' music - soul, hip-hop, reggae, disco, dance music, doo-wop...but you could just call it 'non-rock' music, since it seems to me most of the best country records were made for single-track radio play. And UNCUT's list makes a convincing argument that indie and alternative music, too, is a singles medium. In fact I can't currently think of a single genre other than jazz and some kinds of experimental music where I'd rather listen to albums than singles.

Of course albums give a longer and more convenient listening time, but MP3 playlists and compilation tapes and jukeboxes increase the listener's involvement in the music in terms of decisions sequencing etc. Which I also think is good.

Ok Tom, you might have a point ;-) You wrote that singles are usually catchier and that's mostly true but I don't think that "catchiness" is necessarily a good thing. In my experience catchy tunes tend to grow monotonous after just a couple of listenings. That's the reason why many people (including me) mantain that mainstream music is mostly rubbish: you listen it once and you find it catchy but it grows boring shortly after...and its intrinsic shallowness surfaces. In fact I was just wondering what sort of e-zine Freaky Trigger is... I mean, I love the features because they're funny and witty but you seem to focus almost without distinction on, say, All Saints and Lou Reed which is quite weird! Maybe my attitude toward music is wrong because I tend to dismiss chart-pop. Some people are into "high-brow" music (take the folks at pitchforkmedia for example) and some other are into "mainstream" but you seem to take interest in both of them which is not very common. Anyway, if you are into mainstream I can understand why you buy singles (the albums are usually crap) but there are many indie albums (not only experimental and jazz) that are good from start to finish (ok, some songs are not as great as others but that doesn't mean that they are fillers). So again, when it comes to these albums and that latter kind of music why waste money on singles? They are terribly overpriced: if the whole album costs 12 £, the single should cost 2£ at most but you end up paying about 4£ becuse the packaging is a fixed cost (along with other reasons...;-).

Simone.

teen anthems - "i hate oasis"

That Uncut list was good as you say, Tim; David Stubbs at his most objective-but-still-passionate. There were a few consensual high entries that I'd happily never hear again (Fool's Gold, Teen Spirit) but I'd find it hard to find fault with about 90% of the entries. Spot on to select "No Good (Start The Dance)" over the obvious and tired choices from the Prodigy's "rock'n'roll" period.

Simone, there's no need to be baffled at FT's wide range of material covered; that's what many of us like about it. I suspect you do, underneath.