13TH JANUARY 2001- THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL/ TOO BUSY THINKIN BOUT MY BABY- Steps (1 wk)

 

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So it's January 2001 and I turned 25, somehow that seems important, probably because you start to realise at that time that you won't always be young and you're maturing in a way you hadn't before. What exactly do I mean and why is it relevant here? Well I mean that whilst you're growing up you come to expect and understand that everything is geared at you, fashion, music, lifestyle, marketing understands that you are the consumer of the future so it gets in quickly, but there comes a time when you realise that suddenly it's not about you anymore. Your mid to late 20's are a strange time, you're still young but you're not "Youff", and it strikes me that in early 2001 Steps are starting to become aware that the clock is ticking on them. There is a shift away from the child friendly dance routines that dominated their output of 1997-2000 (up to "Deeper Shade Of Blue" in fact), and by now only 1 member of the band was now under 25, the constraints of what they were doing are starting to show, they know the market is changing and that simply they will be too old shortly to be marketed to the same audience as they were, yet they were too associated with that audience to know that transition would be nearly impossible.

 

Of course we now know that the factions in the band were quarrelling and the group was slowly coming apart at the seams anyway, but from this record on there seems a genuine step down in the pace of the records, to be honest Steps circa 2001 was probably the period where they were at their best for me. In a year of "you'll be Sorry" and this track they were still turning out good pop records, and this is a guilty pleasure of mine, the build up to the chorus is as sublime a piece of pop as you'd want in 2001, it isn't a song that shouts about its good qualities but rewards for repeated listening, to be snobby about Steps is to misunderstand the audience and the concept of the group, it's not Ivor Novello stuff, it's simple tunes designed to appeal to teens and under, we can look back and regret things we liked at the time but they were all stepping stones to where we got to now and Steps I'm happy to say were definitely one of my stepping stones (geddit?!)

 

Excellent song, really can't wait to see it performed live next month if the This Morning performance of it was anything to go by. It was good to see them move on from Hi-NRG Europop to a great example of Scandipop, Scandi in every way apart from the British act fronting it!

3RD FEBRUARY- POP YA COLLAR- Usher (1 wk)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/03/Usher_-_Pop_Ya_Collar_-_CD_cover.jpg

 

After an explosive introduction to the UK in the form of No 1 "You Make Me Wanna" in 98 Usher was back in 01 with the "8701! album and this lead track.

 

There's a problem here, compare this to Donnell Jones a year earlier and you can see it. There's no depth here, no soul ironically given this has to be classified as Soul/R N B/Pop, a song designed to primarily to prove that the guy can dance, and on that front there is little doubt, but it's the record that suffers, light unsubstantial, and forgettable, indeed apart from the chorus I had little recollection on how this went at all. All of this is, sadly, entirely in keeping with Usher's personality which was always lacking, it's almost like he's running on auto pilot on this one, with a vocal deliverly that seems incidental to be honest, surprising really as he did write it himself.

 

Altogether underwhelming in all honesty, the killer "Yeah" would revive his reputation in my eyes 3 years later but on this one i'll pass.

 

1 Craig David

2 SFA

3 Richard Ashcroft

4 Bloodhound Gang

5 Steps (DSofB)

6 Lock 'n' Load

10 Rank 1

 

The Bloodhound Gang actually only entered at 5 behind Steps, they'd climb to 4 three weeks later. Fantastic longevity, would have been a brilliant number 1 IMO :D

Zombie Nation :D Legendary tune.

 

OANLT :wub: Still the best Kylie song imo.

 

Sky is by far Sonique's best single, and I wish it had topped the charts.

Can't Fight The Moonlight is one of my favourite songs ever and brings back memories of singing it in my mums car before she died in 2003, it's just a really special song for me and my sister so I'm pleased it beat 'One More Time' (though that just brings back memories of school disco's and such for me, pretty much every pop song from 98-02 has some kind of nostalgia attatched to it for me)

10TH FEBRUARY- STUCK IN A MOMENT YOU CAN'T GET OUT OF- U2 (1 wk)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ac/Stuck_in_a_moment.jpg

 

OK, the factual bit, a second single from "All That You Can't Leave Behind", and a tribute to Michael Hutchence in which he and Bono have a conversation about suicide where Bono tries to talk him out of it.

 

Strip that ridiculous notion out of the song and this is actually an enormously tender song, a bit "tough love" but that's ok, it's like when a good friend sits you down and gives that talk that you don't like but you need to hear. This thankfully isn't Bono the moraliser, or soppy Bono, and best of all NOT political Bono, but just an ordinary guy trying to shake someone from depression. On that level it works and it's an arresting piece of pop theatre simply because of the personal nature, thre are only a few great 00s U2 moments and this is one of them but this is a song that is fantastic IN SPITE of itself rather than BECAUSE of itself and by the time the mid 00s came around if you liked a U2 song it was despite Bono who is himself rather a drawback to their image where once he was an asset. Sometimes, just sometimes, there are reminders of the greatness, of how U2 got to be where they are and this is one of them.

 

17TH FEBRUARY- TEENAGE DIRTBAG- Wheatus (2 wks)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/69/Wheetus_Teenage_Dirtbag_UK_Single_Cover.jpg

 

US whiney indie rock or subversive sly knowing and mocking pop? Well that depends on your opinion but for me I've always quite liked "Teenage Dirtbag", it's meant to be mocking of the genre, I hope, the triumph of the underdog, it must be a joke, after all whoever thought of taking an erasure track ("A Little Respect") and turning into the same genre has to have a sense of humour, the joke might have worn thin quickly but this is a little gem and I confess I bought it at the time.

 

The "everything but the kitchen sink" approach to the chorus delivers and certainly the longevity and sales it generated in 2001 proved I wasn't the only one, it isn't one of the greatest No 2 hits of the year (there's one up next) but I'd say this one passes with me. Enjoyable fun but don't look too deep.

 

Much love for "Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of". I thought U2 in the 2000s were a fantastic singles band if nothing else - not a single poor release, I even liked "Get On Your Boots" :kink:

3RD MARCH- MS JACKSON- Outkast (1 wk)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/37/Ms._Jackson.jpg

 

Written by Andre 3000 as an apology to his ex's mother for hurting her daughter this is an amazing song. His ex was none other than singer Erykah Badu so the song has a very public resonance in addition to a personal message, the video is naturally brilliant, a whole managre of animals and creatures joingin in with the track as the duo's house virtually falls apart around them. It's all meant to be symbolic naturally, the rain and thunder being indicitive of the stormy relationship that the couple had but Andre pledging to stick by his daughter and be there for her throughout his life, quite touching really and all of course rapped up in a delicious melody.

 

Much attention is naturally paid to the much bigger hit (contemporarily speaking) of "Hey Ya!" but THIS has always been the greatest of their work in my opinion, taking a genre like rap and showing that it does have more sides to it than just sex, guns, and violence, feels slightly subversive in a delicious way. There's also a generous amount of pathos in it "Ms. Jackson my intentions were good I wish I could/ Become a magician to abracadabra all the sadder Thoughts of me" and "You could plan a pretty picnic/ But you can't predict the weather, Ms. Jackson" the undercutting of the traditional male posturing was quite refreshing back in 2001.

 

A strong narrative with something we can all relate to, showing that thinking about the message can reep vast rewards and a song that just gets better as the years go by.

 

 

28TH APRIL- LOVIN' EACH DAY- Ronan Keating (1 wk)

 

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There is something quite cold and calculating about Ronan, it's why, as a popstar, he's hard to warm to somehow, like he'd have to check with his career plan before you could be friends. Fortunately on this occasion he has a song written by the excellent Greg Alexander, former frontman of New Radicals and writer of "Inner Smile" by Texas, a song with an infection rate greater than the common cold so he's onto a winner. Don't get me wrong the song could have been so much better delivered by someone with convinction and a more deft pop hand, but even Ronan can't spoil the loveliness of the song (though it's last of his releases that he doesn't spoil or waste).

 

Relentlessly upbeat and positive the track is life affirming, anyone familar with Alexander's work will attest to the fact that he is always at his best and most commercial writing such songs so Ronan got very lucky with this gem I shan't be so glowing when next we meet.

 

13TH JANUARY 2001- THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL/ TOO BUSY THINKIN BOUT MY BABY- Steps (1 wk)

Ah, Steps. I think I discussed my feelings on them in some length when gooddelta (was it?) did the Steps rate a few months ago - a group who stole my heart with the all-conquering one-two double combo of One For Sorrow and Heartbeat, quickly ascended into the leagues of my favourite acts with Step One being one of my most played albums in late 1998 and early 1999, and then - well, you know how it is when you're 8 years old. Brand loyalty is hardly a concept you're familar with, every act is only as good as their last release, and Steps were simply no longer delivering the goods. They had to go. From 1999 onwards, it was rare for me to be interested in any Steps song, and It's The Way You Make Me Feel didn't exactly break that tradition. In fact, this is exactly the kind of song that put me off them something rotten in the first place - file next to After The Love Has Gone with the tag of shameful ABBA-pilfering and stuff it somewhere in the back of the cupboard. Back then, I just found this boring and lacking in energy, and at a time when there were plenty of songs in the charts I could go to like Britney Spears' "Stronger", Destiny's Child "Independent Women", B.O.N. "Boys", and even rap songs like Wu-Tang Clan "Gravel Pit" or the gripping narrative of "Stan", this (in comparison) was weedy and never once captured my attention. Over a decade later, and I would only describe it as a bit sickly, laugh at Lisa Scott-Lee's woefully inept vocal parts, and move on happily. My loss, perhaps.

 

3RD FEBRUARY- POP YA COLLAR- Usher (1 wk)

This single, or rather this period, actually presents us at a rather interesting time in Usher's career. No longer was it 1997, when he was the new kid on the block, the cute teen heart-throb, etc, and the (at this point) ever-evolving R&B genre was also no longer like it was in 1997. So it was time for him to grow up and try and reposition himself in an ever-changing market, right? Well, yes, but perhaps hooking up with the man who had produced some of the biggest R&B hits of the preceding two years (No Scrubs, Bills Bills Bills, There You Go, etc) for the first single from your new album wasn't the most clever way of doing it in retrospect. The result, however, is a decent enough club-styled track. While I agree that Usher surprisingly doesn't quite have the charisma or swag to pull off a "shake 'em off" anthem like this, the underlying production is suitably bubbly, with electronic bleeps, hand-clap percussion and rousing synth-strings, ultimately all coming together nicely and doing enough to keep me interested for the track's duration. For whatever reason, however, this failed to take off at all on US radio, not even making it into the top 50 on Usher's holy stomping ground: the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. So therefore it was perhaps a blessing in disguise that an album leak (back in the days when this was still a new concept) caused Usher to re-write numerous tracks on the album and redirect the entire feel of the record. And lo and behold, six months later he was back on top with U Remind Me, and, in America at least, Pop Ya Collar was swept under the rug like it had never happened, not even making it onto the US edition of 8701. Still, as career derailing singles go, it's not too bad, is it?

 

10TH FEBRUARY- STUCK IN A MOMENT YOU CAN'T GET OUT OF- U2 (1 wk)

I'm at a bit of a loss of what to say on this one. A song that never entered my own little bubble at the time, a song that I, again, no doubt found boring - but unlike Steps wasn't rammed down my throat on the music channels constantly, so hardly registers in my memories of the time. With a typically U2-esque chart run, I imagine I simply dozed off into my own little daydream the few times I heard this on the chart show or otherwise.

 

Having had a brief reappraisal just now with a more maturer mindset (I would hope!) than then, I can't pretend I think much different. Some nice guitar and drum work, and an interesting melancholy touch to the proceedings buried in the instrumentation, but Bono's voice has always been a bugbear of mine on these kind of "U2 ballads" anyway. Nice enough but can't say I've changed my opinion much from a whole 11 years ago.

 

17TH FEBRUARY- TEENAGE DIRTBAG- Wheatus (2 wks)

Ah, now in stark contrast, this is one you could hardly ignore at the time. It was everywhere, wasn't it? And you don't have to look very far to see what made it such an all-conquering radio hit. It's the anthemic, sing-a-long chorus that seems to crash in at full pelt after the more pleading, diary-styled feel of the verses - that is, of course, what caused this to be one of the biggest hits of the year. And, like many bands of this ilk, Wheatus here only had one big pop hook (that they wrote themselves, anyway!) in them before falling into obscurity, but all credit to them for at least making a song that, going by its brief revival last year, has lasted much more than I would ever have anticipated at the time. In summary, exactly as you said: enjoyable fun and nothing more or less, and one I also liked (although I didn't buy it, actually - for some reason I hardly bought any singles in the first few months of 2001, which went against the general pattern I had developed by then so there must have been some reason why that I can't quite remember...)

 

More later! As I've written more than enough for now... :lol:

Edited March 12, 201213 yr by superbossanova

"Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of" followed by "Teenage Dirtbag" and "Ms. Jackson"? I think SIAMYCGOO is brilliant but it's probably the weak link of that trio - Dirtbag is completely anthemic and Ms. Jackson is both anthemic AND incredibly smartly written. New album now please, Outkast.

2000 was a bit of an odd year for me. For me, it was the beginning of the end for dance music... it was the sound of a bubble getting bigger and bigger before that inevitable burst in 2001. I remember one week in 2000, I came out of HMV with achey arms from the amount of vinyl I bought! I thought to myself "these good times are gonna come to an end one day..." and so it did.

 

Unfortunately, I was one of the thousands that bought Zombie Nation... I thought it was great for about a week! 2001 so far IMO is a string of utter tosh (only Usher's "Pop Ya Collar" gets a partial approval). I've always disliked U2, Outkast annoyed the utter hell out of me and don't even get me started on Ronan Keeting and Steps!

Edited March 14, 201213 yr by ScottyEm

21ST OCTOBER- KIDS- Kylie Minogue & Robbie Williams (1 wk)

 

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I know I'm a Kylie fan, but there is something emminently unloveable about "Kids". It Should work on several fronts, that uplifting chorus, teaming up with just about pop's biggest star of the time, some cheeky and suggestive lyrics, even a raunhy video, but it all seems a bit forced. Always feeling more like a Robbie record than a Kylie song might account for it, but what I suspect is also at play here is that the whole thing seems to misunderstand the sexual appeal of Kylie. As previously mentioned the relaunch of Minogue in 2000 was aimed in part at the FHM crowd which probably led to her appearance here, but Minogue's appeal has always seemed steeped in a much more innocent appeal, and alluding to oral sex (for example) seems just somehow not right.

 

"Kids" seems like a retrospective step back to "Impossible Princess" and that Indie/ Rock experimentation that the public had by and large failed to connect with, I think this is the kind of song that Minogue would have liked doing but there isn't a lot of connection or sexual chemistry between Williams and Minogue for two stars who had traded on the sex appeal of their public persona's for many years and that's what probably rings untrue here. It's almost like they have to do this duet to fill a contractual obligation in some bizarre divorce ritual for former lovers, proof that not everything on paper can turn out to be music gold.

 

Strictly speaking, proper Kylie fans "hate" this song and I am most certainly no exception. The simple fact I have an intense hatred of Robbie (perhaps even more so in 2000) sadly eclipses my love for Kylie. "Kids' is, like Gezza has correctly pointed out, a typical Robbie track where Kylie is merely a guest vocalist. Like almost all Robbie singles, shockingly vile and this era of his is probably his worse.

 

Oh god, I feel sick now...

 

OOOoo thanks for all the comments guys- nice to know I'm not alone in here!

23RD JUNE- ALL I WANT- Mis-Teeq (1 wk)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3d/Mis-Teeq_-_All_I_Want.jpg/220px-Mis-Teeq_-_All_I_Want.jpg

 

So we're still plugging on the Garage/ 2 step vibe that had raging since the emergence of the likes of Shanks & Bigfoot back in 1999, a nice enough tune but of course really it was only ever about Dixon's rapping which was always attention grabbing. I was never a fna of the genre, and whilst this is packed with a healthy dose of pop, it suffers by association in my eyes, though it's produced by some production genius's Stargate (who are still around to this day producing the likes of Rihanna and Ne-Yo) its curiously empty of much feeling and substance listening to it now.

 

Vocals are paper thin (let's be honest here) and once you've heard the Dixon rap then would normally satisfy any curiosity you might of had about the record, it hasn't aged very well to be fair, but if it wasn't your bag then it won't be now.

 

21ST JULY- PURPLE HILLS- D12 (2 Wks)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/11/D12_-_Purple_Pills_-_CD_cover.jpg

 

Rap is by its very nature desgned to be confrontational and controversial baring in mind its roots, and certainly the original version of this titled "Purple Pills" contained a litany of reference's to drug use which had to be changed before the single release and thusly a censored version had to be released called this.

 

Though D12 were inevitably thought of and promoted as an Eminem side group (a fact the band would parady in later hit "My Band") that's doing a grave injustice to the other members of the band who have clearly put in as much effort to the band as he had (though Eminem produces the track has 7 writing credits) and D12 were around pre the Eminem solo career, but for all this, and like the record that went before, it ain't gonna convert the layman who has already made his mind up about the genre. Indeed this is far from the best work they did (In my opinion that would be the excellent "How Come" ) and it's too light on melody to really grab a pop head like me though being held off by the offensively dull and bland "Eternity" made it look considerably better than it probably is in retrospect.

 

Eternity could be seen as bland (I rather love it myself) the other A side, The Road To Mandalay, is a Robbie classic imo.

Eternity could be seen as bland (I rather love it myself) the other A side, The Road To Mandalay, is a Robbie classic imo.

 

:blink: