UK TOP 40 POLL: 21/02/1998

I know it's two polls in a week, but this top 40 is just too fucking hilarious not to poll. Urusei Yatasura vs Lilys for me. lol indie.

this one's pretty bad. Air French Band win.

UY in the top 40, didn't know about that! it is their best song.

How did that bluetones song go? Idle curiosity, not a burning desire.

Something of an Oasis/Stereophonics whining synchronicity: "All around the woooooooorrrrld, gonna spread the woooooorrrddd, tell 'em what you heeeeeeeeaaarrd" vs "Local Booooooyyyyy in the photograaaaaaapppphh todaaaaayyyyy"

Hurricane #1!

"Perfect Day" stayed about for fucking ages, huh?

Was that the Hurricane #1 track that was adopted as an official anthem by The Sun?

The rumour that went around our school was that Wildchild had really bad epilepsy and he died when he had a fit and hit his head on a coffee table.

i'm minded to vote 'Renegade Master '98'. that or air french band.

yes that hurricane £1 was indeed adopted by the sun.

pretty rubbish top 40 right there.

How did that bluetones song go?

"just remember this time that you've only got seven days". I only remember it because it was on the 2 hour tape we had to loop on the TVs in the Blockbuster I worked in at the time.

must have been the guantanmo bay branch

oh yeah, it was another of those days of the week songs.

Various Artists! Perfect Day! A golden moment of genre-defying musical collaboration and harmony!

You're going to reap...

just what you sow.

REAP

REAP

REAP

never forget!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TG-JQ1KVTM

Jools Holland for Prime Minister!

Wildchild!

WITH THE MILFORD HAVEN
WITH THE MILFORD HAVEN

Barbie Girl, OF COURSE YOU FOOLS.

^^^ lol ilx

cleopatra is probably the truest ilx vote though.

It was truly music for kids on the bus before buses were invented.

Wes - Alane

is this song or what few lyrics it has in French? trying to think of the last African language song to make the top 40

23. Jay-Z Featuring Gwen Dickey - Wishing On A Star

Was every Jay-Z single release in the UK fucking abysmal up until "Big Pimpin'"?

"Never Ever" by the longest of stretches.

Natalie Imbruglia, because she's hot in the video.

Camisra - Let Me Show You

^don't remember this at all

you saw that Spaced clubbing episode? it's all over that

i thought 'angels' was later, we'd have had to suffer it for a bit less time if it was :(

it will be Christmas #1 any year soon

"A Nanny In Manhattan" was a great incongruous crossover hit, like the indie "On A Rope" or something

i would say your credibility is now in tatters but...

Was every Jay-Z single release in the UK fucking abysmal up until "Big Pimpin'"?

-- Dom Passantino, Wednesday, March 5, 2008 11:50 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

no.

Captain Save-A-"Heartbreaker"

i like 'Sunshine'

"A Nanny In Manhattan" was a Levi's crossover but better than Stiltskin, I'll give it that.

Oh, I missed "Never Ever". So, next time my cache is cleared, that one.

I was all Usher vs Air but I voted Air cos of the keyboard solo.

"Angels". Just ahead of "Mulder & Scully".

Nanny In Manhattan was shit, but can someone fill the gap in my mind between Babylon Zoo and the Lilys in the Levi's canon?

Renegade Master ftw.

cleopatra is probably the truest ilx vote though.

OTM

Nanny In Manhattan was shit, but can someone fill the gap in my mind between Babylon Zoo and the Lilys in the Levi's canon?

-- Matt DC, Wednesday, 5 March 2008 13:54 (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Smoke City? Clinic?

"Encore - Le Disc Jockey"

don't remember this. jacques lu cont-style attempt to latch on to the 'french house' buzz?

isn't Aaron Carter like 80 years old now

yeah 'Underwater Love' with Prince Buster's 'Whine And Grine' after that.

jacques lu cont-style attempt to latch on to the 'french house' buzz?
more like a pretty weak rip of Sash

"Encore - Le Disc Jockey"

don't remember this. jacques lu cont-style attempt to latch on to the 'french house' buzz?

Nope - the follow-up single by the woman that did the singing (such as was) on "Encore Une Fois".

I heard "Underwater Love" in a bar the other week.

Why on earth would someone willingly choose to play "Underwater Love" in 2008?

i always quite liked it. maybe their video for 'joga bossa' is on youtube, featuring a cameo from Ronaldo iirc.

35. Dive - Boogie

What the hell was this? I have no recollection whatsoever...

All Saints, narrowly beating the euro invasion.

charts such as this always remind me of NME's uber-rubbish "WHY BRITISH MUSIC IS GOING UP IN SMOKE" cover: the panic of one particular subcult when they realised that their tastes weren't going to be mainstream forever

-- February Callendar, Wednesday, 5 March 2008 22:48

Bounced back though, unfortunately.

It's an absolutely brilliant song, keeping true and good real music's flame going in an otherwise terrible year.

-- Geir Hongro, Thursday, 6 March 2008 06:30 (4 hours ago) Bookmark Link

'Hey, what pop culture success can we exploit in order to prop up our own careers?'

'The X Files is zeitgeist gold this year'

'So if we say something about Mulder and Scully...'

'Yes! Do it! Put them in the title! Say it 50 times throughout the song! He-he-he-he, we can't lose'

i don't normally read ILM so i thought people were joking about geir

'The X Files is zeitgeist gold this year'

'So if we say something about Mulder and Scully...'

'Yes! Do it! Put them in the title! Say it 50 times throughout the song! He-he-he-he, we can't lose'

You people pay way too much attention to the lyrics. The only thing I hear is a great tune, and most of all a great chorus, sung by a characteristic female voice who thankfully sounds not even remotely close to Aretha Franklin, Lolletta Holloway or Martha Wash - three singers whose influence I despise.

You person pay way too much attention to nonsensical notions such as cerys matthews being in any way at all a better vocalist than franklin/wash/holloway now. it's just fucking sad.

She's different. And I am sick of female soul singers. Surely, Aretha Franklin is a great singer, and was an original and all that. But I am terribly sick of the influence of disco singers such as Wash and Holloway. I can tolerate that way of singing as long as it's males doing it, but I absolutely detest the female "gospel" vocal style. It's all over the charts and has been for the past 30 years. I am sick of it!

after ten+ years the internet is sick of you moaning about it. it is sick of it!

"Never Ever">>>>>>>>>>>>>rest of chart

the intro always put me off

from catatonia to soul singers in three posts

White soul can be an irritant when it's THE ORTHODOXY, as in 1987 or now. But Hongro somehow even manages to make the Winealikes sound good.

Bodrick III is all too right (I very nearly said that myself: should have done). Thing is, I reckon the post-Britpop, pre-resurgence-of-corporate-"indie" period was far, far better for the UK charts than most have ever been willing to admit, so I found the general poorness of this chart unsettling. I guess I always preferred 99/00.

Britpop was good for the UK charts. Everything else since the mid 80s has been bad for the UK charts.

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/4139/geirbotey8.jpg

wiv da ill behaviour

Hongro on fire on this thread.

unfortunately not literally

great lilys track but nowhere near their best, worst bluetones single up to that point (though they did get worse), hurricane #1 wtf, not a great urusei 45 but it's not like their good ones were especially commercial. what was the point of catatonia? they should have split after the first album

it's actually a shame that lilys single got so popular because heasley clearly felt so much pressure as a result - the great tunes that came to him so easily before disappeared in a puff of smoke come later releases.

charts such as this always remind me of NME's uber-rubbish "WHY BRITISH MUSIC IS GOING UP IN SMOKE" cover

Oh I remember that issue, it was at the peak of Steve Sutherland's 18-month long hissy fit following the realisation Britpop was over and we weren't going to get a new Oasis. I remember him being the regular pundit on XFM's Sunday singles review thing, where he slagged off pretty much every single record for not being the Sex Pistols.

Say what you want about Conor McNicholas, Sutherland's attitude was a million times worse.

XFM should bring back their Sunday singles review show but replace Stickboy with Lex, who will slag off pretty much every single record for not being Paris Hilton.

I paid sixteen quid for an import copy of The Lilys' album, thinking it would be good, like their single. It stank. I never made that mistake again, well, not 'till I bought Franz Ferdinand's second album anyway.

hmm.. i don't even think this album was available on import, was it? certainly the rerelease after the single was a hit only came out on che in the UK so i don't see how that was likely.

unless you're referring to the major label followup, which was a little light on decent songs.

Well. NME were wrong. Travis went huge in 1999, Coldplay went huge in 2000 and in 2004, Keane arrived.

UK music is good again.

all's well that ends well

All's well that ends with one single outside the top twenty over a year ago.

Travis was fired from the BBC in 1993.

White soul can be an irritant when it's THE ORTHODOXY, as in 1987 or now. But Hongro somehow even manages to make the Winealikes sound good.

Bodrick III is all too right (I very nearly said that myself: should have done). Thing is, I reckon the post-Britpop, pre-resurgence-of-corporate-"indie" period was far, far better for the UK charts than most have ever been willing to admit, so I found the general poorness of this chart unsettling. I guess I always preferred 99/00.

-- February Callendar, Thursday, 6 March 2008 02:22

I had some schmindie mates at the time (99-00) who would moan about how there was nothing going on, how the music scene was dead. I'd counter that there were loads of exciting developments in the various strains of dance music, hiphop, r'n'b, electronica, whatever... They'd just brush that off dismissively with an attitude of: "If it ain't four or five whites dudes playing geetars, it ain't shit." The very idea that maybe something like dance music was worthwhile was ridiculous and you were an ignorant, trendy, pill-munching monkey to think so.

hmm.. i don't even think this album was available on import, was it? certainly the rerelease after the single was a hit only came out on che in the UK so i don't see how that was likely.

unless you're referring to the major label followup, which was a little light on decent songs.

-- electricsound, Thursday, 6 March 2008 12:33 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Link

I dunno Jim, I just looked in HMV, and whatever-it-was (I seem to remember a browny-beige cover? It was a good few years ago) was what they had, with an "import" sticker on it. I bought it on spec, and it was a big, big let down which I traded in pretty qucikly. The b-sides on the CD single of "A Nanny in Manhattan" were pretty good now that I think of it. One of them had a portastudioish beach boys meets xtc meets todd rundgren thing going on, if that makes any sense, which I like/d a lot. That track was probably the deciding factor in stumping up import price for the CD. I'm pretty sure I traded it for a couple of actual Todd Rundgren CDs at the used record store, funny how trivia like this sticks in your mind.

Was "A Nanny In Manhattan" written for the Levi adverts, or was it an old song of theirs reappropriated?

Also, when did "THIS BAND ARE DOING THE LEVIS ADVERT" stop being a big deal? I'm sure, I dunno, Glasvegas or someone would kill for the kind of publicity fucking Clinic used to get.

I figure it must have been reappropriated - the version on the advert is heavily edited to the point where the structure of the song is completely changed.

I remember hearing "Nanny In Manhattan" on Radio 1 in the evenings a few months before it was on the ad. Think it was a minor "hit" in indie circles, that's why it got picked up for the campaign.

when did "THIS BAND ARE DOING THE LEVIS ADVERT" stop being a big deal?

Approximately 30 seconds into Spacemen.

Oh shit that leaves out Flat Eric.

http://www.amazon.ca/Levis-Advert-Collection-Various-Artists/dp/B00005JCQ6

Fucking hell, Boss Hog? They were desperate by the end.

Who on earth would buy such a product?

Stiltskin pwned.

Dude must have made crazy money from the two months he was lead singer of Genesis, though.

I am actually interested in Geir's opinion on this subject.

Stiltskin pwned.

Also Dusty Springfield and Sam Cooke.

for a long time the worst selling song-featured-in-Levis-ad was probably Biosphere's 'Novelty Waves'

Air - Sexy Boy

I am actually interested in Geir's opinion on this subject.

Phil Collins leaving --> Not neccessarily a bad thing
A grunge singer taking his place --> Obviously a very bad thing

Tony Banks wrote some great songs for that last album, which wasn't too bad and maybe even their best since 1983's self titled album. But Ray Wilson sounded WRONG WRONG WRONG!

Tim Finn taking Phil's place - now that would have been something!

Usher.

Tim Finn taking Phil's place - now that would have been something!

-- Geir Hongro, Friday, 7 March 2008 07:34 (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Like he'd do that.

Hypothetic maybe, but their voices are kind of alike, and he isn't musically completely different from Genesis, at least what Genesis did in the 70s.

And obviously he hasn't had any commercial success since he was briefly a member of Crowded House anyway.

Apart from that top ten album he had just over three years ago

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

These are some good results. Well done all!

Urusei Yatsura were evening session faves that sounded a bit like Pavement, right?