RabbitFurCoat

25 - 12/01/2004 Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out Chart Run: 01-01-02-02-01-02-02-03-04-05-06-09-13-17-20-25-31-40 (18 weeks) Ah, the great wave of indie begins. At the beginning of 2004 this was all over the radio, and became a big hit, reaching #3 in the UK and setting others up for similar success over the course of the rest of 2004. There was no question it was going to the top for me, and 8 weeks in the top 3 shows how much I loved it. I bought their debut album on release and loved it, full of excellent songs and incredibly varied. Take Me Out has remained a huge favourite song of mine. The opening riff and minute long intro is still incredible, before it belts into the catchy sing-a-long hit. I still have to rank it as one of my favourite songs of this type and era, just utterly superb. Franz Ferdinand in general were great too, whilst not hitting the heights of their debut album the rest of their output has remained at least solid with some decent singles on, including this years most recent album, and Alex Kapranos is good to listen to talk, just an excellent band and entry all round. They deserve to have one of the most well regarded songs of the era. 2025 Rating: 10/10 Its three weeks at the top were ahead of previous number ones, so nothing immediately kept off. Maroon 5 - Harder To Breathe and The Strokes - Reptilia were the highest other entries over these weeks.

24 - 05/01/2004 Basement Jaxx feat. Lisa Kekuala 'Good Luck' Chart Run 01-02-02-04-06-07-10-10-12-14-15-18-21-26-34-39 (16 weeks) Released in the first week of 2004, it was a fresh look at the top following the usual post-Christmas chart lull. Basement Jaxx had probably been the mainstream dance act I'd enjoyed the most in the few years previous to this, so was no particular shock their next release would enter at the top, with a vocal I loved provided by US singer Lisa Kekaula. Despite being a reasonably sized UK hit it was released again in the summer and ended up having a slightly worse peak and chart run. I still think they have an excellent collection of singles, and this is definitely one of them. It's not my favourite Basement Jaxx song, but it still sounds great. 2025 Rating: 8/10 Hey Ya! stuck at #2, but there were a few entries towards the top, with UK top 3 hits Boogie Pimps - Somebody To Love and Kelis - Milkshake both reaching my top 10.

+30 Ben Howard - Nica Libres at Dusk 29 Robyn - Honey 28 Christine and the Queens - Doesn't matter 27 Sigrid - Strangers 26 George Ezra - Paradise 25 Let's Eat Grandma - Falling Into Me 24 Metric - Risk 23 1975 - TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME 22 1975 - It's Not Living (If It's Not With You) 21 SOPHIE - Immaterial 20 Janelle Monáe - Make Me Feel 19 Twenty One Pilots - My Blood 18 Billie Eilish - When the Party's Over 17 Freya Ridings – Lost Without You 16 George Ezra – Shotgun 15 Twenty One Pilots - Jumpsuit 14 1975 - Love It If We Made It 13 Arctic Monkeys - Four Out of Five 12 Calvin Harris & Sam Smith - Promises 11 CHVRCHES (feat. Wednesday Campanella) - Out of My Head 10 MJ Cole & Freya Ridings - Waking Up 9 Eminem (feat. Ed Sheran) - River 8 Charli XCX & Troye Sivan - 1999 7 Marshmello & Bastille - Happier 6 Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa - One Kiss 5 Virtual Self - Ghost Voices 4 Ariana Grande - No Tears Left To Cry 3 Muse - Something Human 2 Rita Ora - Let You Love Me 1 Rudimental (feat. Jess Glynne, Macklemore & Dan Caplen) - These Days

As I said on my thread on 2003, a really poor selection here - nothing outrageously placed here. As far as novelty charity covers go I don't mind Spirit In The Sky (but that's faint praise if ever there was some) and I've always had a soft spot for Be Faithful though can't argue that objectively it's poor.

2023 Rank and Review 23 songs which took in a big range of quality. A trio of my all time favourites to a few that I wouldn't be bothered if I never heard again, but that's probably to be expected given we're going back 22 years to the year I turned 14, with mostly decent stuff in between - 16/23 are good and I still enjoy which is a solid enough ratio. What I've realised is that 2003 was far from a vintage year for music, it's not like there were loads of songs that I charted in the top 10 that I was loving where I think it's a shame I wasn't talking about those instead, popular sounds of the early part of the decade were losing their way, and the wave of indie that'd take over not quite yet hitting. The list of UK number ones is as 'meh' as you can get (although it is definitely better than '04), with only Crazy in Love holding any real fondness for me now. It strikes me as there being a lack of variety in this list, the vast majority being male-fronted indie/rock, but am not too surprised and that doesn't change anytime soon, and whilst their were excellent albums released in '03 that went on to become big favourites of mine (Elbow - Cast of Thousands, The Knife - Deep Cuts and the Ben Gibbard fronted duo of Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism and The Postal Service - Give Up), that just wasn't music that a 14 year old in 2003 was ever likely to hear. Anyway, here's how I'd rank the 23 songs: The Libertines - Don't Look Back Into The Sun Outkast - Hey Ya! Blur - Out of Time Coldplay - Clocks Foo Fighters - Times Like These The Chemical Brothers feat. The Flaming Lips - The Golden Path The Coral - Bill McCai Foo Fighters - Low The White Stripes - 7 Nation Army Linkin Park - Numb Jane's Addiction - Just Because Lemon Jelly - Nice Weather For Ducks Junior Senior - Move Your Feet Muse - Hysteria The Strokes - 12:51 The Darkness - Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End) Metallica - St. Anger Good Charlotte - Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous The Thrills - Big Sur Red Hot Chili Peppers - Fortune Faded Funeral For a Friend - Juneau Stereophonics - Madame Helga Lostprophets - Burn Burn Thanks to everyone who's been reading and interacting with this for the past month, I have enjoyed doing it and nice to see others thoughts. I shall start with 2004 tomorrow, which somewhat shockingly begins with a song sung by an actual woman!

23 - 22/12/2003 Outkast - Hey Ya! Chart Run: 10-08-05-05-03-02-01-01-02-05-07-10-12-11-13-14-16-15-16-20-24-29-35-40 (24 weeks) A rarity in the first few years of a song which took a few weeks to peak at the top. In the UK chart it would gradually fall over the Christmas period before climbing back up and re-peaking well into 2024, but for me it was something I'd barely heard before release and I kept enjoying more and more before it hit the top. Looking back I'm surprised it overtook The Darkness before Christmas, but I did love it. I ended up buying Speakerboxx/The Love Below album, but couldn't ever really get into either of them. It went on to become one of the biggest and well known hits of the decade and deservedly so. It's not something I've ever got bored of and can't see ever happening. It's always sounded great and still does, one of the songs of the decade. Ending 2023 on a high. 2025 Rating: 10/10 Unsurprisingly, it didn't hold anything off the top, with the three previous number one singles taking up the other spots in the top 3 across this fortnight.

I don't even need to look at what else is there when I see Rockstar.

Great that Sainz stayed on the podium. Lando a little unlucky but it's still more his own fault that, he was down there in the first place due to a mistake in quali, going backwards at the start and backwards at the restart. A missed opportunity. Can either of them deal with the pressure? Not the forgone conclusion it looked with 50 points for Max.

22 - 15/12/2003 The Darkness - Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End) Chart Run: 01-02-06-23-34-39 (6 weeks) The UK chart was a big battle at the time, but for me there was only going to be one winner. A pair of number two singles and an album I enjoyed a lot, a Christmas song by The Darkness was always likely to be something I was into and I thought it was fab. Big and bold, it was everything Christmas songs of the past seemed to be. A shame it didn't manage to top the UK chart too. It's gone on to be a Christmas staple of mine, not one of the ones I play the most but always something I put on. Aside from this, not really a band I listen to now - very much of their time. 2025 Rating: 7/10 Songs Kept From #1: ?? - ?? The song at number two had spent the previous 6 weeks climbing up the top 10 and it didn't stop there so I won't reveal now. At #3 it was another of the excellent big releases of the time aiming for the Xmas number one, Proper Crimbo of course!

21 - 01/12/2003 Muse - Hysteria Chart Run: 01-01-04-03-02-05-06-10-13-16-18-21-23-24-26-28-33-37-40 (19 weeks) Entering a place higher than they managed with the album's lead single, Hysteria remains Muse's only song to go right to the top. It felt like they were absolutely huge at this time, and Radio 1 were certainly all over them. This would have been my favourite December release in the run up to Christmas. Whilst I still think Hysteria is a good song, it isn't one of my go-to Muse singles now. They're another band who I perhaps haven't liked as much as I might have done, a couple of albums I really enjoyed with largely the odd tracks from others I enjoyed. From this album, Butterflies & Hurricanes has gone on to be the song of theirs I love most, joining Newborn and Map of the Problematique in my top 3 of theirs, but significant underperformances in my chart at the time! 2025 Rating: 7/10 The Coral remained runner-up to this in both of its weeks at the top, big names of the time charted in the lower end of my top 10 in Black Eyed Peas, Nelly Furtado and Evanescence but the top of the chart remained largely static until the big battle...

I think all the four By The Way singles would have been top 3 for me in 02/03, but yes after that precious little. Think Dark Necessities is the most recent song of theirs I've given any significant listening to, but didn't chart it.

30 Wolf Alice - Don't Delete The Kisses 29 alt-J+ - 3WW 28 London Grammar - Rooting For You 27 Lorde - Green Light 26 Bicep - Glue 25 Wolf Alice - Visions Of A Life 24 War On Drugs - Strangest Thing 23 Arcade Fire - Everything Now 22 LCD Soundsystem - Oh Baby 21 Lorde - Homemade Dynamite 20 Lorde - Perfect Places 19 Jamiroquai - Automaton 18 London Grammar - Big Picture 17 alt-J - Adeline 16 Coldplay - Hypnotised 15 Stormzy - Big For Your Boots 14 Ed Sheeran - Shape Of You 13 Little Mix - Touch 12 Imagine Dragons – Believer 11 MGMT - Little Dark Age 10 Big Thief - Mary 9 P!nk - What About Us 8 Ed Sheeran - Castle on the Hill 7 Carly Rae Jepsen - Cut To The Feeling 6 St. Vincent - Masseduction 5 Dua Lipa - New Rules 4 Harry Styles - Sign of the Times 3 Imagine Dragons – Thunder

Delighted at how well Playing Classics has done so far, was quietly confident of a decent showing.

20 - 24/11/2003 The Coral- Bill McCai Chart Run: 01-02-02-05-06-08-10-09-13-14-15-21-27-31-36 (15 weeks) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOOgUuNPS9I The Coral's jangly indie-pop was a big sound of the first half of the noughties. Whilst they had bigger and more well-known hits with the likes of Dreaming of You and Pass It On, Bill McCai was always the one which I enjoyed the most, and it's hard to imagine that a more upbeat song detailing a person's life who ends up killing themselves exists. RIP Bill. Along with Dreaming of You, Bill McCai will always be my go-to Coral song, it's a song that has always been able to make me smile with its excellent telling of a story. A couple of smaller hits followed in 2005 before 2025 Rating: 9/10 As the big acts began to release before Christmas, this was one of six new entries in the top 11. The new UK number one Will Young - Leave Right Now, and Dizzee Rascal - Jus a Rascal the pick of the others,

Moving swiftly on... 19 - 10/11/2003 Red Hot Chili Peppers - Fortune Faded Chart Run: 01-01-02-03-04-06-07-03-04-04-06-07-07-09-11-12-15-18-21-25-28-34-38 (23 weeks) This was definitely my peak time for enjoying RHCP. I'd loved a lot of By The Way the year before and then as 2003 ended they released a comprehensive best of, which I was all over. Fortune Faded was the lead and it was both a song and album I listened to a lot. Over the years they've gradually become a band I've cared less about, and they're not really a band I listen to much now at all. They still have a fair number of songs that I am fond of, but Fortune Faded isn't one of them. 2025 Rating: 5/10 Songs kept from #1: The Cooper Temple Clause - Blind Pilots It was a busy couple of weeks in the top 10 with new entries aplenty; Basement Jaxx and Dizzee Rascal - Lucky Star and The White Stripes - The Hardest Button being two songs I still listen to now, along with another which went on to climb to the top later. Blind Pilots, however, would have been a much better #1 single, it's a song from this era I still listen to regularly, The Cooper Temple Clause were maybe around a bit too early to have been much bigger but this was their 4th of 5 top 40 hits in the UK (plus a pair of #41s)

18 - 03/11/2003 Lostprophets - Burn Burn Chart Run: 01-02-03-08-11-17-22-23-24-27-27-30-33-35-38 (15 weeks) Oh no. Well I absolutely loved The Fake Sound of Progress, and a return was always likely to be something I was anticipating. Truthfully, I haven't listened to this in years and barely remember it. Listening to the first 40 seconds or so to remember how it goes, I can't even judge it to have much merit as a song - it probably ranks below Madame Helga (the worst song until now) musically anyway. There are a couple of songs of theirs that I had kept as mp3s and wouldn't turn off shuffle, but unstreamable. 2025 Rating: 0/10 Couldn't I have just given The Golden Path yet another week in its 8th week on the chart?!

17 - 06/10/2003 The Strokes - 12:51 Chart Run: 01-01-02-02-03-07-09-16-19-23-28-28-29-31-35-40 (16 weeks) I remember hearing The Strokes a lot on Radio 1 after the release of their debut album. I liked their singles but hadn't really got into them, and truth be told never really did - they're good, I enjoy listening to them, but have never been a band I turned to a lot. 12:51 isn't the immediate song you'd think of for them, but was taken in by the hype of the time. It's still good, but I'd rather I were talking about one of their other two hits that charted highly for me (Repitilia - #6, Juice Box - #4). 2025 Rating: 7/10 Nothing else released in these two weeks was a top 10 hit.

30 Bastille - Good Grief 29 Chase & Status (feat. Tom Grennan) – All Goes Wrong 28 xx – On Hold 27 Blossoms - Charlemagne 26 1975 - Somebody Else 25 Christine And The Queens - Tilted / Christine 24 Hannah Diamond - Fade Away 23 Mystery Jets - Bubblegum 22 Röyksopp (feat. Susanne Sundfør) - Never Ever 21 Christine And The Queens - Saint Claude 20 Kungs vs. Cookin On 3 Burners – This Girl 19 Porter Robinson & Madeon – Shelter 18 1975 - The Sound 17 Bon Iver - 8 Circle 16 Car Seat Headrest - Fill In The Blank 15 Jorja Smith – Blue Lights 14 CHVRCHES (feat. Hayley Williams) - Bury It 13 Little Mix - Shout Out To My Ex 12 Two Door Cinema Club - Bad Decisions 11 Mike Posner – I Took A Pill In Ibiza (Seeb Remix) 10 Black Honey - All My Pride 9 Charli XCX - Vroom Vroom 8 Sheer Mag - Nobody’s Baby 7 Paradis - Toi Et Moi 6 Sia - Unstoppable 5 DNCE - Cake By The Ocean 4 Ariana Grande - Into You 3 Jain - Makeba 2 Mitski - Your Best American Girl 1 Dua Lipa - Hotter Than Hell

01 (02) Water From Your Eyes - Playing Classics (01) (06) (1 week) 02 (01) White Lies - In The Middle (01) (07) (2 weeks) 03 (03) Wolf Alice - White Horses (03) (05) 04 (04) Tame Impala - End of Summer (04) (06) 05 (07) Wolf Alice - The Sofa (05) (08) 06 (05) FKA twigs - Perfectly (02) (08) 07 (06) Self Esteem - Cheers To Me (01) (09) (2 weeks) 08 (14) Sprints - Beg (08) (03) 09 (22) Ninajirachi - Infohazard (09) (03) 10 (08) The Hives - Legalize Living (08) (07) 11 (11) Baxter Dury - Schadenfreude (11) (04) 12 (09) Ebbb - Manners (09) (05) 13 (17) Idlewild - It's Not The First Time (13) (04) 14 (19) Wisp - Black Swan (14) (03) 15 (16) Little Simz feat. Yukimi - Enough (15) (05) 16 (10) Cerrone feat. Christine and the Queens - Catching Feelings (01) (12) (1 week) 17 (28) Metronomy - Heartbreaker (SHERELLE's Bed Shaking With Metronomy Remix) (17) (02) 18 (13) HVOB - Abyss (04) (12) 19 (12) Soulwax - Run Free (09) (08) 20 (21) Nine Inch Nails - As Alive As You Need Me To Be (20) (04) 21 (27) The Hives - The Hives Forever Forever The Hives (21) (03) 22 (15) Blankenberge - What You Know (15) (05) 23 (31) Tourist - Outside (23) (02) 24 (18) Little Simz feat. Michael Kiwanuka & Yussuf Dayes - Lotus (01) (14) (4 weeks) 25 (35) Florence + The Machine - Everybody Scream (25) (02) 26 (26) Alison Goldfrapp - Strange Things Happen (26) (04) 27 (44) Chalk - Pain (27) (01) 28 (20) Hot Chip - Devotion (13) (07) 29 (23) Mount Palomar feat. Karla Chubb - L'Aliment (02) (11) 30 (34) SG Lewis feat. London Grammar - Feelings Gone (30) (03) 31 (42) Slow Crush - Covet (31) (01) 32 (38) The Temper Trap - Lucky Dimes (32) (02) 33 (24) Jamie XX - Dream Night (20) (06) 34 (45) Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers - MOTHER (34) (01) 35 (25) Panic Shack - Pockets (07) (08) 36 (32) Young Fathers - Lowly (11) (11) 37 (30) Self Esteem - The Deep Blue Okay (01) (20) (7 weeks) 38 (37) TTSSFU - Call U Back (25) (06) 39 (47) Oliver Sim - Obsession (39) (01) 40 (33) Ethel Cain - f*** Me Eyes (17) (08)

Delighted to have made it in, and great set of results for the songs I voted for too, with only my 1 pointer missing out!

Thanks Severin, nice to have you on board. I imagine it would be satisfying to learn 7 Nation Army even if it is simple, just such a good riff. I will give those two Jane's Addiction songs a listen

14 - 18/08/2003 The Libertines - Don't Look Back Into The Sun Chart Run: 01-01-01-03-04-07-08-10-09-10-11-13-17-16-22-25-30-36-36-35-39 (21 weeks) Nearly a year after the release of their debut album Up The Bracket, The Libertines returned with their biggest chart hit to date, narrowly missing out on the UK top 10 for the first time. There was definitely more hype about this one and it sounded good on the radio. I'd enjoyed what I'd previously heard but it wasn't until this release that I really had any investment into The Libertines. Over the years, there aren't many bands I've listened to as much as The Libertines. They're rightly so influential of this period of music and really helped pave the way for the domination of this sound in years to come, their 2002-04 output all stands up so well, and Don't Look Back Into The Sun is as good as they get. 2025 Rating: 10/10 Songs kept from #1: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Stop The top 3 was all new and remained unchanged for three weeks, with Good Charlotte at #3 with The Anthem. Stop is an absolute belter, and BRMC have gone on to become a big favourite, if it had been a #1 it would rank high in my end of year list for 2003 but with the way I did my chart at the time three weeks behind The Libertines is ultimately a correct outcome.

3 listens completed, voted. Got to be a contender for my earliest ever!

+30 Tame Impala - Let It Happen 29 Everything Everything - No Reptiles 28 Big Moon - Sucker 27 Jamie xx & Romy - Loud Places 26 Wolf Alice - Silk 25 Everything Everything - Distant Past 24 Chemical Brothers (feat. Q-Tip) - Go 23 Maccabees - Spit It Out 22 Grimes - Flesh Without Blood 21 Muse - Psycho 20 Tame Impala - The Less I Know The Better 19 Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Ballad of the Mighty I 18 Everything Everything - Spring / Sun / Winter / Dread 17 CHVRCHES - Clearest Blue 16 Taylor Swift - Style 15 Skrillex & Diplo (with Justin Bieber) – Where Are U Now 14 Grimes - Kill V. Maim 13 CHVRCHES - Leave a Trace 12 Taylor Swift - Wildest Dreams 11 Jamie xx (feat. Popcaan & Young Thug) - I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times) 10 Disclosure - Magnets (feat. Lorde) 9 Coldplay - Adventure of a Lifetime 8 Mark Ronson (feat. Bruno Mars) - Uptown Funk 7 Walk The Moon - Shut Up And Dance 6 Little Mix – Black Magic 5 Calvin Harris (feat. HAIM) - Pray To God 4 Florence & The Machine - What Kind of Man 3 David Zowie - House Every Weekend 2 Lost Frequencies - Are You With Me 1 Mumford & Sons - Believe

I'm sure the Fastest Lap point would have had an effect on Max's Grand Slam record as that was in place for his domination period but not for other drivers. There were plenty of races over the last few years where a driver with a gap has pitted with two laps to go and successfully gained it, wouldn't be surprised if there were at least a couple that prevented one from Max.