TOTW26: A-ha - Foot of the Mountain

Plenty still to chose from this week:

Dan Black - Symphonies

a-ha - Foot of the Mountain

Paloma Faith - Stone Cold Sober

Green Days - 21 Guns

Pussycat Dolls - Hush Hush; Hush Hush [It's piss poor sampling, but it's quite catchy because of the song they've sampled. Annoying]

The one I'm choosing sounds like another Keane single, but pre their Perfect Symmetry album. Instead, it's by yet another come-back band. Foot of the mountain is a simple, well written pop song. Occasionally, you just need that in a song.

Technorati Tags: Dan Black,A-ha,Paloma Faith,Green Day,Pussycat Dolls

UPDATE: Sorry guys, this post was scheduled to appear at 11:17 last Sunday. I've just realised it didn't, so something broke somewhere. Hope you didn't miss it that much!

2002

It's not as easy as I thought finding the 5 best selling singles of a given year. Even for a modern year like this, loads of the "Top 5" are just people's opinions. Still, I think that this is right.

What's clear from 2002 is that we're at the start of the reality talent show era. So, we have Gareth Gates crucifying a classic Jimmy Young song and Will Young at the top. Still, at least Will Young is now producing decent-ish records and showing talent. Whatever happened to Gates though? At least Elvis makes it!

2002

Technorati Tags: Will Young,Gareth Gates,Enrique Inglesias,Nelly,Kelly Rowland,Elvis Presley

TOTW25: The Yeah You's - 15 Minutes

Much later than planned, a difficult call to go for a catchy debut single by The Yeah You's. It's a classic pop song, with a familiar sing-along chorus, various themes, building chords and other old-fashioned approaches that'll make it a hit

Bubbling Under:

James Morrison - Nothing Ever Hurt Like You

Benny Andersson Band - Story of a Heart

Bat for Lashes - Pearl's Dream

a-ha - Foot of the Mountain

Take That - Said it All

Technorati Tags: The Yeah You's,James Morrison,Benny Andersson Band,Bat for Lashes,A-ha,Take That

TOTW24: Lionel Richie - Forever

A very strange selection for TOTW today.

There's logic behind it though - I've been listening to very little music this week. The exception was driving back to work on the Monday morning, when I was able to listen to Lionel Richie performing live on Radio 2.

How sad can you get, Lionel Richie.

However, as he performed All Night Long I was playing steering wheel bongos and singing out loud all the way along the M6 motorway. It's addictive. Thankfully, it's more than just me that thinks he's not all that bad to listen to - see also Akon who popped in to perform Just Go with the legend.

From the same album, Forever is a thoroughly enjoyable RnB song. So much so, that my flat mates did not recognise as it being by Lionel Rich Tea - which bodes well. It's entirely harmless, as well written as you'd expect from someone who's written so many memorable tunes, and distinctive.

Doesn't increase my "cred" by any means - but it's still worth it. No official video I'm afraid, but this'll do:

Lionel richie - forever
Uploaded by k1303sandra - Watch more music videos, in HD!

Technorati Tags: Lionel Richie

Miike Snow

I recently got an e-mail with this weird "viral" video.

The clips come from the dodgy "cult" 80s TV Show, 'Manimal'. Never heard of it either? It only ever made 8 episodes, I wouldn't worry about it, it's hardly CHiPs...

The music however comes from Miike Snow, who is definitely more of an American act than anyone who's made it over here in Blightly. The three guys who make up the group with their electronic pop are actually mainly Swedish, with only one yank in the line-up.

The tunes are very familiar, with melodies that remind me of One Republic amongst others (see Silvia to see if you agree with that one). But it's the accompaniment that makes the group stand out a bit from the crowd. Stand out track is Song for No One, even though with those opening cars I'm left thinking Vampire Weekend.

Personally, it doesn't stand out that much for me to be crawling with enthusiasm. But as decent background music for radio playlists, it's perfectly in the ball park. Worth a listen.

Medi & The Medicine

I'm no Londonner, but some of you certainly are - so it's time for a gig tip.

Tomorrow (That's Friday), hot new band (I've always wanted to say that) Medi & The Medicine are performing at the Raison d'etre show at Pigalle.

Pigalle being the appropriate place, because the band have made it big in Paris if not yet this side of La Manche. Given I'm a dedicated francophile, all the more reason to go. Time Out have also recommended the gig as a "Clubby session with a jazz/reggae/Afro-jazz/worldbeat feel".

But it's one band that's been tipped to me - and I am immediately impressed. There's a variety of sounds on their myspace, from the sooth acoustic Gone too far to the sing-along dance-crazy I know what you did, all are well written and easy on the ear.

Even though I can't be at Pigalle on Friday, there really is a reason to be (see what I did?) there...

An opportunity

Just a few days ago, I picked The Noisettes as my TOTW, and as a result featured their latest video.

For their next video, they're trying something different. Teaming up with Nokia and the launch of the Nokia 5800 Comes with Music on Orange, 50 fans of the band will film the video using said camera phones. The final result will be the video for Saturday Night.

If you want to be one the chosen few involved in making a music video (in a totally different style to "extras wanted to feature in a club scene"), then http://www.shotbyfans.com/ is the place to do it at. The filming will take place "somewhere" in London this coming Monday (15th June), and further details are also available on facebook.

If you do apply and get chosen - please let me know how it went, and good luck!

1968

Time for a top 5 again!

The biggest selling single is somewhat predictable - not forgetting it's B-Side of Revolution.

The No2 may be a bit more difficult to recall - but it's got a very memorable chorus to refresh your memories!

No5 is definitely a black spot though...

1968

Technorati Tags: The Beatles,Mary Hopkin,Louis Armstrong,Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,Des O'Connor

TOTW23: Noisettes - Never forget you

I was going to do a fairly detailed post this weekend on the two songs that have come to my attention - Jarvis Cocker's Angela and Never forget you by the Noisettes.

But, I'm a day late, and I'm still short on time, so it's not coming. So, here's a song by a band that does try to fill that Amy Winehouse shaped void.

Technorati Tags: Jarvis Cocker,Noisettes

May Last Chance: Empire of the Sun

Much as I like Tommy Sparks and it's funky beats, the multitude of remixes that Empire of the Sun managed means that that gets the nod from May

Technorati Tags: TOmmy Sparks,Empire of the Sun

One eskimO

Building on the gorillaz theme, here's another cartoon band. Indeed, the animation is created by Passion Pictures who also did the "original" cartoon band.

OK, chosen one sounds very James Blunt-esque, which loyal readers will know is far from a selling point. I even thought I'd be saying the same about kandi, but it developed into a decent and quite moving duet with some extremely familiar sounding vocals (the female being Candi Statton). In short, if you think gorillaz singing guitar based slow ballads, you're getting on the right track, if not quite totally there.

It's different, but good. And so it should be - produced by Rollo out of off of Faithless, it's got the unique trait that the 10 tracks in the album that was out on Monday ("All Balloons") form a story not just with the songs (which is quite rare in itself nowadays) but also with the videos. It's an animated musical perhaps, just without the complete absurdity of the average Disney cartoon.

The "real people" behind the project is a two piece - Kristan singing and Adam on drums (interview here). Their live performances - and I'm genuinely hoping to catch them at V this year - are a mix between the visuals and themselves, so they are clearly more than just a gimmicky cartoon and can genuinely play their instruments.

I think this album should start to make an impact. We'll certainly see.