3RD AUGUST- AUTOMATIC HIGH- S Club Juniors (1 wk)

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6d/Automatic_High_single.jpg

 

Whilst "One Step Closer" was an attempt to rewrite "Don't Stop Moving", "Automatic High" is the junior version of "Reach" only really quite lame. After the guilty pop pleasure of the debut this one passed me by almost unnoticed and I still struggle to recall it. The verses aren't all that bad but it leads to a chorus that is basically non existent, praise be for a summer slump in sales that provided little competition to this release that it slips into this thread but really save yourself some time and don't bother with the listen.

 

 

17TH AUGUST- IN MY PLACE- Coldplay (1 wk)

 

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31Q6DHS3GAL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

 

U2 were cracking in the 80s weren't they?, you know that hunger for success, the stadium anthems, the point where critical praise meets commercial sales and virtually everyone loves you. Then of course you start to believe your own press, you have a lot of money and a lot of time on your hands, and obviously having believed you are some kind of messaih you start doing benevolent deeds and urging people much poorer than you that they should also be thinking of others. Slowly most people start to think you're a bit of a hypocritical fool who's out of touch with reality and that you'd still be just as good as you started out if you cut the crap and rembered the music. The Bono syndrome.

 

What has all this to do with "In My Place"? Well it's a perfect of illustration of HOW the band got to be so big, a cracking tune with emotional lyrics describing, well, nothing and everything really, a trick employed to great effect by Gallagher et al at the height of their powers, we do, it would appear, love male writers who try to describe feelings but can't because they/re blokes and don't really like talking about their feelings. The awkward clumsiness of the track speaks to everyone precisely because it is about no one specific, or a specific situation, perhaps the ticket to commercial success? At any rate Coldplay were by 2002 at the point where everything they touched was coming up gold and before Martin caught the "Bono" syndrome and you had to seperate the music from the man who pens the lyrics.

 

Such a "divorce" is dangerous, it starts to question authenticity and becomes the point where a band starts to sell because of its history rather than the output. This isn't to say I don't like Coldplay now, they still make the odd tune I love it just seems slightly like the band are a retred of U2, which might make their current album something like "Zooropa" a creative experimentation, an attempt to take a detour, to maintain relevancy (not unsuccessful in that respect). At any rate as far as this track goes it's a stunner, full of emotional fragility (in an oddly sterile way) that kind of catches you in headlights for a bit, it's a blast from the past that reminds you of WHY you loved them....once.

 

Automatic High is real crap, I really wasn't a fan of S Club Juniors at all. It doesn't have anything even resembling a chorus, it's a verse followed by a bridge that leads to nothing! Shakira's Underneath Your Clothes entered at #3 behind it, that should have been in this thread instead :(

But Coldplay were only just starting in 2000 - had you really tired of them that much by just the lead single from the second album, Gezza?!

But Coldplay were only just starting in 2000 - had you really tired of them that much by just the lead single from the second album, Gezza?!

No I'm saying that I loved coldplay up to and including "X & Y", "Viva" was a little too much bombast and not enough TOOOOONS for me personally. The last album is the first I haven't bought, not that I dislike "Paradise" but it just isn't inspiring me enough to buy the album for some reason, the first 3 albums are virtual perfection though.

No I'm saying that I loved coldplay up to and including "X & Y", "Viva" was a little too much bombast and not enough TOOOOONS for me personally. The last album is the first I haven't bought, not that I dislike "Paradise" but it just isn't inspiring me enough to buy the album for some reason, the first 3 albums are virtual perfection though.

Ahhh! I wasn't sure reading the post, as you mentioned them up to 2000. I actually agree with you to a certain extent.

Ahhh! I wasn't sure reading the post, as you mentioned them up to 2000. I actually agree with you to a certain extent.

I know- I've edited that to 2002 now! I love the emotional fragility of "In My Place" it's just enormously endearing, part of that charm is not what the song is (as I posted its not actually about anything really if you read the lyrics) but the "gap" it leaves, it does enough to suggest such fragility and allows you to fill it with some meaning pulled from your own memory.....I'm writing another review now! :o :D

I know- I've edited that to 2002 now! I love the emotional fragility of "In My Place" it's just enormously endearing, part of that charm is not what the song is (as I posted its not actually about anything really if you read the lyrics) but the "gap" it leaves, it does enough to suggest such fragility and allows you to fill it with some meaning pulled from your own memory.....I'm writing another review now! :o :D

I always preferred The Scientist and Clocks over In My Place which I still don't LOVE as much as other Coldplay tracks.

I always preferred The Scientist and Clocks over In My Place which I still don't LOVE as much as other Coldplay tracks.

 

Agreed, I hear those two far more nowadays than I do In My Place, so maybe they could've done bigger things had they been released first :(

Agreed, I hear those two far more nowadays than I do In My Place, so maybe they could've done bigger things had they been released first :(

Against the mighty "Colourblind" at No 1 - unlikely :cry:

Always found "Clocks" very overrated and "The Scientist" doesn't push the same buttons with me that "Fix You" does, so I was actually really pleased that "In My Place" was the biggest hit on the album. Great song.

 

Your idea of "Mylo Xyloto" being their "Zooropa" actually makes a lot of sense if you extend the analogy:

 

Parachutes = The Unforgettable Fire (the big creative breakthrough - obvious for Coldplay since it was their full début)

A Rush Of Blood To The Head = The Joshua Tree (commercial high point and maybe the best pure distillation of their "sound")

X & Y = Rattle & Hum (overblown remake of its predecessor, albeit with some great moments)

Viva La Vida = Achtung Baby (the great reinvention)

 

Let's hope their "Pop" moment doesn't come next :lol:

Against the mighty "Colourblind" at No 1 - unlikely :cry:

The second week of it though :(

 

At least Colourblind is better than Crazy Frog which stopped Speed Of Sound <_>

 

Are you going to do beyond 2004, btw, Gezza?

The second week of it though :(

 

At least Colourblind is better than Crazy Frog which stopped Speed Of Sound <_<

 

Are you going to do beyond 2004, btw, Gezza?

I'm going to check out the songs see if I can be positive about enough of them?? In every decade there's good and bad but if I start hating more than I like then the thread would be a bit of a downer :lol: but then where else could I write a review of Lee Mead's "Any Dream Will Do"? Decisons, decisions.............

Let's hope their "Pop" moment doesn't come next :lol:

"Staring at the sun" aside an AWFUL album!

I had forgotten about this thread! Blame your girl group/boy band thread for distracting my interest. :D

 

And what a time I picked to view it again! I really despised 2002, at least at the upper reaches of the charts. Probably the first year since I started following music five years before that, where I really felt a bit out-of-touch with what was popular. There was a definite notable decrease in the number of singles I bought compared to 1999-2001, and most of the songs I bought in this year didn't get anywhere near the top 10. Most people cite the reality TV domination as the nadir of the year, and while that was BAD, at least it came out with a few good songs - it was the awful move to more "urban-pop" acts, probably a consequence of the rise of garage years before that I found completely without merit. The likes of Liberty X and Blue were just horrendous attempts to market pop with a bit more coolness (while in reality having none), and then of course the worst came with *shudders* Blazin' Squad.

 

For the record, the success of Scooter was once again almost ENTIRELY down to The Box, where it was a hugely popular song - I think it was in the Boxtops chart for about three or four months, at least two of those before the rest of the public caught on (hence its low entry down the top 10 before climbing up). So basically The Box got it into the top 10 and then once it was there, OH DEAR. The success of almost any novelty-ish song from about 1996-2004 can be blamed on The Box to be honest (it's no coincidence that they died out a bit after that - well, except for Swagger Jagger). Anyway, I absolutely frickin' DESPISED it at the time and don't think much differently of it now. Another thing I hated about in the charts in 2002 was all these shitty eurodance songs.

 

S Club Juniors - yuck, yuck, yuck!! Hated them. Maybe their songs WOULD be more liked if they were sung by someone else but then they wouldn't have their kiddy, paper thin voices over them so it's a bit of a pointless argument IMO. Just a bad, cynical concoction. I am in agreement that Automatic High was their worst though. Ironically the first single of theirs I actually liked was their last one - Don't Tell Me You're Sorry, but clearly I was alone on that as it was a relative flop.

 

I actually have no thoughts on the Coldplay, Oasis OR Red Hot Chili Peppers tunes - sorry, but they're so inoffensive to me they're just there. All have done miles better. I'd be rather useless if I was running this thread to be honest, wouldn't I? :D

 

EDIT: Sorry for this rather long post! I was just posting my thoughts on the songs but it ended up being more like a rant! :D

Edited April 16, 201213 yr by superbossanova

I had forgotten about this thread!

 

How COULD you SB :D

 

2002 wasn't a great year by anyone's standards to be frank (though far better than 03 in my opinion but that's to come (sadly) having said that my favourite No 2 of 2002 is definitely still to come!

 

Oddly I felt that 2003 was a MAJOR improvement. In fact, 2002 is the only year from 1997-2005 that I don't love, which is rather strange. I have a big soft spot though for R&B music as much as a lot of older people see it as trash, and the summer which really felt like the "summer of R&B" with the likes of Wayne Wonder (:heart:), Blu Cantrell, Beyoncé, etc. really holds a lot of memories for me. Plus I felt the pop of 2003 was much better than 2002 (I'll christen this "the Sugababes affect"), and rock music was on the upswing commercially again which made things a bit more varied than 2002 IMO.

Oddly I felt that 2003 was a MAJOR improvement. In fact, 2002 is the only year from 1997-2005 that I don't love, which is rather strange. I have a big soft spot though for R&B music as much as a lot of older people see it as trash, and the summer which really felt like the "summer of R&B" with the likes of Wayne Wonder (:heart:), Blu Cantrell, Beyoncé, etc. really holds a lot of memories for me. Plus I felt the pop of 2003 was much better than 2002 (I'll christen this "the Sugababes affect"), and rock music was on the upswing commercially again which made things a bit more varied than 2002 IMO.

You may want to look away from this thread then............... :( :lol:

You may want to look away from this thread then............... :( :lol:

I've just checked and there are about SEVEN #2 singles from 2003 that I full on love, and a few more I like. I don't really know your music taste though so it's hard to tell which ones will get slagged off and which you'd be more kind to. I kind of have a rough idea but... we'll see. :thinking:

 

Luckily Wayne Wonder only peaked at #3! That is honestly probably my favourite song of 2003. It makes me go all fuzzy with nostalgia inside. :D

I loved the eurotrance fever in 2002, definitely my highlight of the year. Lasgo, Milk Inc, Orion Too, 4 Strings, Matt Darey, Lange, Sylver, Flip & Fill, N-Trance, Dee Dee, etc. It also made me despise songs like "Lazy", shitty Radio 2 house fodder. However I didn't care for Scooter, they were popular in Europe sincer the mid 90s, and I never saw the appeal.

 

I do prefer the pop music of back then, because I dont feel like every song sounded the same. You had dance-pop, urban-pop, pop-rock, latin-pop - although this was more a continuation from previous years, rather than the beginning of an era.

 

2002 is the last of my favourite years for music (1997-2002). It was also the first year I truly started loving R&B and urban music in general (which had been growing since 2000): Missy Elliott, Tweet, Truth Hurts, Ja Rule, Brandy, etc...