RabbitFurCoat

84 - 03/07/2006 The Pipettes - Pull Shapes Chart Run: 01-01-01-01-02-03-05-07-09-10-13-15-19-20-21-24-29 (17 weeks) The summer of 2006 there were some brilliant releases, both singles and albums, and The Pipettes appear towards the top of both of these with debut album We Are The Pipettes being released two weeks after Pull Shapes. The band had a couple of earlier UK chart hits in the previous 9 months to this, but hadn't really hit my radar, certainly not enough to chart them anyhow, so Pull Shapes was their debut. The Pipettes were a unique band that didn't really seem to fit anywhere - they were very much part of the indie scene and the likes of 6 Music and XFM would play them, but they weren't like a normal 'band' - three female singers in polka dot dresses who didn't play instruments (all done by their backing band The Casettes), and whose songs were very poppy and could've been massive with a very different audience, I'm convinced that in another world and/or time they could have absolutely smashed it, but wasn't quite to be. I absolutely adored Pull Shapes, it became one of my favourite ever pop songs, listened to it and them so much and never got bored of it. A couple of years later I entered it in my first BJSC and it remains my joint most successful entry, finishing runner-up. They didn't really last much after this, another album followed in 2010 but there were line-up changes, only one of this trio were still there (who wasn't in the original 2003 lineup - an indie Sugababes!), and both Gwenno and Rose Elinor Dougall of the most known line-up have gone on to release plenty of solo material, the latter most recently as The Weave with partner and Blur member Graham Coxon. We Are The Pipettes isn't something I listen to often, but always get a huge dose of warm nostalgia when I do, always brings me back to a certain time and full of short, catchy pop songs. Pull Shapes is still the standout and is all kinds of fabulous - still a favourite of this era. 2026 Rating: 10/10 Songs kept from #1: Guillemots - Made Up Love Song #43, Rogue Traders - Voodoo Child, Gnarls Barkley - Smiley Faces Guillemots run at #2 ended up being behind two separate songs, Voodoo Child made it a full pop top 2 for Rogue Traders the week after, and Gnarls Barkley followed-up smash hit Crazy with Smiley Faces, good but nowhere near the same quality, and #2 now feels rather generous. 3rd July 2006 was an excellent week for releases. Lily Allen would take the UK topper with Smile (#6), whilst The Pipettes were joined in the top 3 by the indie-dance smash We Are Your Friends by Justice vs Simian (#3), and Jamie T debuted with Sheila (#8). Elsewhere, Razorlight returned with the somewhat disappointing In The Morning (#14), and Paolo Nutini gave us Last Request (#24). Standout releases from the other three weeks here are Plan B's Mama (Loves a Crackhead) (#5), Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars (#3), Ray LaMontagne - Trouble (#6), and the first release of what would be one of my favourite albums of the year and an underrated gem of the era, The Long Blondes - Weekend Without Makeup (#4).

I couldn't have told you in which year the medley was going to appear, but it's a brilliant overall piece of work, just really clever and full of wonderful nostalgia, whilst using good songs without being too annoying on them - would probably rank as my favourite charity number one single, though it's hardly a high bar. Without remembering everything to come I think it'd be a top 10 contender for me, and Holiday would likely be a couple of places ahead - fine but easily the weakest of his trio of big hits of this time. Nothing else has appeared that I care for at all.

83 - 12/06/2006 The Fratellis - Henrietta Chart Run: 01-01-01-05-07-07-11-14-19-23-22-27-33-28-31-38 (16 weeks) Reaching the end of the first half 2006 with the 15th song to hit the top, a much higher turnover than previous, largely due to the increased amount of music I was aware of, but not with a song that contributed to that turnover, as it spent three weeks at the top. The Fratellis had debuted in the top 10 a couple of months earlier with Creeping Up The Backstairs, and begun to show that the new wave of indie bands that could be successful was not slowing down. Henrietta was their first UK chart entry and was something I loved straight away. I'd go on to adore its parent album, Costello Music, and played it loads. It would go on to produce a further three top 10 hits for me; Chelsea Dagger (#3), Whistle For The Choir (#7) and Baby Fratelli (#10) I did have a period where I got very bored of The Fratellis, a combination of how massive Chelsea Dagger got and how bored I got of hearing it, plus the immediate drop off in quality in what they next released, but in the last few years I've begun to recognise that Costello Music is a gem of an album, probably helped by their renaissance in the second half of the previous decade. Henrietta is a great song from it, and takes me back to just how much I enjoyed it, and them, back in 6th form. 2026 Rating: 8/10 Songs kept from #1: Muse - Supermassive Black Hole, Guillemots - Made Up Love Song #43 Muse's return was predictably big but couldn't quite make the top, Supermassive Black Hole is still a song I enjoy but not towards the top of their output, whilst Guillemots were getting more attention and re-released their two main songs. I'd charted Made Up Love Song #43 9 months earlier, but I begun to enjoy them more with later releases and a re-release gave it the position it deserved - I'd absolutely have given it a week over Henrietta now. Other highlights in these three weeks were The Zutons with Valerie (#3), and a third top 10 of the year for Belle and Sebastian with White Collar Boy (#4).

01 (01) Metric - Victim of Luck (01) (08) (2 weeks) 02 (09) Brigitte Calls Me Baby - Slumber Party (02) (02) 03 (06) Adult DVD - Real Tree Lee (03) (04) 04 (03) The Orielles - Tears Are (03) (07) 05 (02) PVA - Okay (02) (08) 06 (07) Damon Albarn feat. Grian Chatten & Kae Tempest - Flags (06) (05) 07 (05) Brigitte Calls Me Baby - I Danced With Another Love In My Dream (05) (05) 08 (04) Arctic Monkeys - Opening Night (01) (10) (4 weeks) 09 (12) Metric - Time Is a Bomb (09) (04) 10 (17) Lykke Li - Lucky Again (10) (04) 11 (08) Fred Again.. & Jamie T - Lights Burn Dimmer (02) (08) 12 (15) Young Fathers - Don't Fight The Young (12) (05) 13 (19) Lava La Rue - Scratches (13) (04) 14 (14) Temples - Jet Stream Heart (14) (05) 15 (10) Paris Paloma - Good Girl (08) (09) 16 (28) Death Cab for Cutie - Riptides (16) (02) 17 (11) American Football - Bad Moons (07) (06) 18 (31) Lauren Auder - No Outline (18) (02) 19 (13) James Blake - Death of Love (06) (09) 20 (25) Genesis Owusu - STAMPEDE (20) (03) 21 (27) MUNA - So What (21) (03) 22 (22) Whitelands - I Am No God, An Effigy (22) (05) 23 (16) Radio Free Alice - Rule 31 (01) (12) (2 weeks) 24 (**) Chalk - Béal Feirste (24) (01) 25 (34) Muse - Be With You (25) (02) 26 (18) pôt-pot - 22° Halo (05) (10) 27 (21) Nothing - Cannibal World (21) (06) 28 (38) Soulwax - Perfect We Are Not (28) (02) 29 (41) Jungle - Carry On (29) (01) 30 (20) Daughter - Not Enough (03) (12) 31 (24) Bat For Lashes - Carried My Girl (24) (03) 32 (47) Tom Misch - Echo From The Flames (32) (01) 33 (23) Art School Girlfriend - Doing Laps (15) (07) 34 (29) James Blake - I Had a Dream She Took My Hand (20) (06) 35 (26) Gorillaz feat. Bizarrap, Kara Jackson and Anoushka Shankar - Orange County (04) (12) 36 (**) Future Islands - Find Love (36) (01) 37 (30) Apparat - Hum of Maybe (11) (09) 38 (35) Jessie Ware - Ride (31) (06) 39 (32) Pulp - Begging for Change (25) (07) 40 (33) Robyn - Talk To Me (06) (12)

Gorillaz - Orange County, James Blake and Jungle, the last one tight decision with Muse Also good: Charli, Ladytron, Mandy/Indiana, Gorillaz-Moon Cave

82 - 05/06/2006 Jim Noir - My Patch Chart Run: 25-21-17-21-11-01-05-10-16-23-30-32-38 (13 weeks) A rarity of a song which took a while to climb to the top, spending 5 weeks outside the top 10 before jumping to #1. Jim Noir (stage name inspired by Vic Reeves, real name Jim Moir) is the persona of Alan Roberts (I can see why you'd change it), a multi-instrumentalist who plays all parts on the recorded versions of his songs and released his debut album Tower of Love at the end of 2005. He was pure 6music and evening XFM, jangly poppy electronica which had largely catchy, simple yet effective lyrics. His previous single Key of C had spent a couple of weeks in the bottom of the chart earlier in the year, but the charm of the more upbeat My Patch won me over and I ended up completely taken in by its catchiness and would go on to purchase his album, as well as his next one upon release in 2008. My Patch and follow-up Eanie Meany were both small UK chart hits (#65 & #67) so he had a brief limited success. I've not listened to much of Noir in the last few years, his music was very much of a time, but My Patch still exists on some limited playlists of mine. It was nice to hear it, and have a temptation to listen to some of his other songs again, as I haven't listen to Key of C or Alright in a long time now. 2026 Rating: 7/10 County Girl dropped to #2 during its one week reign at the top, but it was a period for songs climbing to peaks as Gomez, a few years from their late 90s heyday, climbed 13-03 with the excellent indie pop gem Girlshapedlovedrug, whilst The Automatic's monster hit entered at #6 before climbing to #4 the week after. The big worldwide smash of the time Maneater was a top 10 (#08) hit for Nelly Furtado, but the standout release of this week which I've listened to by far the most overall is The Mourners of St. Paul's (#21) for Liam Frost & The Slowdown Family

I've long said that 2009 was a great year for the UK charts, and probably the last time I liked anywhere near as many songs and acts that did well, however I suspect this list won't show much of that. No great loss so far - Barry Islands In the Stream is indeed dreadful, I always had a bit of a soft spot for all of Kay's number ones to some extent but even with liking the show the Gavin & Stacey one truly dreadful

81 - 22/05/2006 Primal Scream - Country Girl Chart Run: 01-01-02-02-04-05-09-10-12-13-18-22-27-26-33 (15 weeks) In 2006 I was unfamiliar with Primal Scream's work, their bigger hits had largely come in the first half of the 90s and not much of their late 90s/early 00s output was likely to hit the radar of someone going through secondary school. I definitely remember Rocks being played as their biggest and most mainstream hit, but that would have been it and its indie rock sound wasn't that representative of most of their work. County Girl became their first UK top 5 hit - an incredibly rare feat for a band to have their biggest hit two decades after first making the chart, and it was back to their indie sound to take advantage of the 'in' sound of the time. It feels like it was made for my tastes as a 17 year old and I love it, incredibly uplifting and catchy. I've become far more familiar with Primal Scream's work in the intervening years, but this kind of sound I've become less bothered about and so many other bands do it better, so whilst I still do enjoy listening to them, it's more the Screamadelica album, Kowalski, Kill All Hippies etc. than this. 2026 Rating: 6/10 Country Girl aside, it was a relatively quiet couple of weeks with Jenny Lewis the #2 for both of them, and The Futureheads taking #3 in both weeks with Skip To The End, the first single from their second album, a decent song but not something I go back to much now.

A shame to finish 2nd bottom, but a fairly respectable points tally for a song in such a position, and very nice to get a 12! I had so many potentials for this but ultimately wanted to send something from when I first properly got into this kind of music and it had its chart peak - Clor felt like a good choice in that it was from the dancier side of the indie movement but their success was minimal. Absolutely adore my top 2 - The Faint a bit of a blast from the past I don't really listen to but Agenda Suicide is one of 3-4 songs of theirs which I love, and that remix of I Didn't See It Coming was a great discovery, enjoy the original a lot but Richard X certainly hit the remit of making it more for the indie disco!

Really difficult to vote when there are a few songs that I already know really well and in most cases love, tried to mix up votes to give some discoveries a deserved amount of points.

01 (01) Arctic Monkeys - Opening Night (01) (08) (4 weeks) 02 (02) PVA - Okay (02) (06) 03 (04) Metric - Victim of Luck (03) (06) 04 (05) The Orielles - Tears Are (04) (05) 05 (03) Fred Again.. & Jamie T - Lights Burn Dimmer (02) (06) 06 (18) Brigitte Calls Me Baby - I Danced With Another Love In My Dream (06) (03) 07 (09) American Football - Bad Moons (07) (04) 08 (10) Paris Paloma - Good Girl (08) (07) 09 (06) James Blake - Death of Love (06) (07) 10 (14) Damon Albarn feat. Grian Chatten & Kae Tempest - Flags (10) (03) 11 (07) Radio Free Alice - Rule 31 (01) (10) (2 weeks) 12 (08) pôt-pot - 22° Halo (05) (08) 13 (21) Adult DVD - Real Tree Lee (13) (02) 14 (11) Daughter - Not Enough (03) (10) 15 (15) Art School Girlfriend - Doing Laps (15) (05) 16 (21) Temples - Jet Stream Heart (16) (03) 17 (12) Gorillaz feat. Bizarrap, Kara Jackson and Anoushka Shankar - Orange County (04) (10) 18 (28) Metric - Time Is a Bomb (18) (02) 19 (27) Young Fathers - Don't Fight The Young (19) (03) 20 (13) Apparat - Hum of Maybe (11) (07) 21 (34) Lykke Li - Lucky Again (21) (02) 22 (24) Nothing - Cannibal World (21) (04) 23 (20) James Blake - I Had a Dream She Took My Hand (20) (04) 24 (37) Lava La Rue - Scratches (24) (02) 25 (26) Pulp - Begging for Change (25) (05) 26 (17) Robyn - Talk To Me (06) (10) 27 (32) Whitelands - I Am No God, An Effigy (27) (03) 28 (41) Bat For Lashes - Carried My Girl (28) (01) 29 (16) Milky - Just The Way You Are (Mall Grab Remix) (16) (05) 30 (19) Olivia Dean - Baby Steps (01) (11) (2 weeks) 31 (43) Genesis Owusu - STAMPEDE (31) (01) 32 (35) Jessie Ware - Ride (31) (04) 33 (23) SAULT - Chapter 1 (13) (09) 34 (22) Anna Prior - Silence (14) (07) 35 (**) MUNA - So What (35) (01) 36 (30) Charli XCX - Always Everywhere (22) (05) 37 (29) Tom Misch - Sisters With Me (11) (08) 38 (33) The Twilight Sad - Waiting For The Phone Call (03) (12) 39 (25) Harry Styles - Aperture (10) (09) 40 (36) Tourist feat. Real Lies - Love In Silence (01) (15) (3 weeks)

80 - 15/05/2006 Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins - You Are What You Love Chart Run: 02-02-01-02-02-04-06-09-09-10-14-19-22-28-31-34-37-35-40-37 (20 weeks) In the early part of 2006 there were some brilliant acts and albums I discovered from internet forums that realistically I wouldn't have come across otherwise, Stellastarr* and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah have already been discussed here with their #1 and #2 singles, and now we come to Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins. I was familiar with Jenny Lewis' band Rilo Kiley's big single Portions for Foxes from 2005, but not to the extent I'd have come across Jenny's solo work and her album with The Watson Twins, Rabbit Fur Coat (always feels weird seeing/writing it with spaces!). First single Rise Up With Fists had made the top 10 in March, and the album was something I listened to a lot from then on that anything else released as a single was likely to chart higher, however the standout from it was the next single and You Are What You Love went all the way to the top, 5 weeks in the top 2 and one of only three 2006 releases to get to 20 weeks on the chart. With its country and folk influences it wasn't something I normally listened to, but this was one of the more poppy accessible songs on it. When BuzzJack was first created from the ashes of CoolClarity I was mainly focussed on its rival site so didn't sign up with usual usernames, changed to the name of the album I was listening to most and kept it. Rabbit Fur Coat isn't something I listen to very often now, however I do always love it on the rare occasions I do, and You Are What You Love is still great and gives warm feelings of nostalgia. 2026 Rating: 9/10 A position switch with Hoppípolla saw it take the #2 spot in this week. Only a couple of entries this week, with a climb to a top 10 peak for a somewhat underrated generic indie band Boy Kill Boy with Suzie being the most notable thing happening.

I'll definitely be voting on the last day. A strong list, unsurprisingly. Will do another listen over the weekend to narrow down and then final one on Monday.

79 - 01/05/2006 Sigur Rós - Hoppípolla Chart Run: 01-01-02-04-05-11-13-14-14-18-18-22-27-33-33-39 (16 weeks) Hoppípolla was originally released at the end of 2005, it was a song I was enjoying a lot and was a decent sized hit for me, spending 7 weeks in the bottom half top 10, at some point occupying all five positions within it. Then, in early 2006 it was chosen by the BBC to soundtrack the adverts for new David Attenborough show Planet Earth, which would be one of the channels biggest hits of the year. It gained traction and re-entered the UK chart before getting another official release at the beginning of May where it would re-peak at #24. It was a song I'd grown to love more and took advantage of its re-release to give it the peak it deserved, spending a fortnight at the top and over a month in the top 5. I never really got into Sigur Rós particularly, I've only ever charted one other song of theirs, but this was just always so beautiful with the most wonderful vocal. Over the years I've continued to enjoy Hoppípolla and have always found it absolutely gorgeous, although it has recently taken on new meaning, as it was the song my partner and I picked to have playing during the birth of our daughter. Well, a gorgeous instrumental version of it, performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. A gorgeous instrumental piece of a song about going back into childhood and 'jumping into puddles' seemed so beautifully appropriate. 2026 Rating: 10/10 In a sign of moving to a time where releases didn't peak on their release date, there were three number one singles which also first charted on this week, one of which was #2 for a fortnight before switching with Hoppípolla. After Snow Patrol the previous week, it was the turn for another big act to come back with something disappointing. Red Hot Chili Peppers had three top 2 singles previously and I adored the By The Way album, but Stadium Arcadium was an awful album and Dani California would reach only #18.

78 - 24/04/2006 The Raconteurs - Steady, As She Goes Chart Run: 01-03-05-05-12-16-24-30-37-37 (10 weeks) A third number one on which Jack White would sing, as he formed a new band The Raconteurs, of which Steady, As She Goes was their first release. As with most White Stripes albums, there was an excellent song on it which they released as a single. I took to it very quickly at the time and it certainly seemed an obvious number one single for me. A couple of much smaller hits followed, which would follow the pattern of Stripes' albums, but Broken Boy Soldier is something I've grown to love nearly as much as this. Steady, As She Goes isn't something I've listened to as much as it probably merits, as it still sounds absolutely excellent, and up there with anything Jack White has made in his other guises. 2026 Rating: 9/10 A few big notable releases this week of which charted but perhaps less well that I'd have expected or hoped. Arctic Monkeys followed up two number ones with The View From The Afternoon (#6), the other half of The Libertines vocalists (Carl Barat) charted with post-Libertines work with Dirty Pretty Things and Bang Bang You're Dead (#5), but me liking it was short lived and seemed more out of hype than it being genuinely good, and Snow Patrol released a relatively weak lead single to follow so many excellent ones from Final Straw in You're All I Have (#12).

01 (01) Arctic Monkeys - Opening Night (01) (07) (3 weeks) 02 (03) PVA - Okay (02) (05) 03 (02) Fred Again.. & Jamie T - Lights Burn Dimmer (02) (05) 04 (07) Metric - Victim of Luck (04) (05) 05 (10) The Orielles - Tears Are (05) (04) 06 (08) James Blake - Death of Love (06) (06) 07 (04) Radio Free Alice - Rule 31 (01) (09) (2 weeks) 08 (05) pôt-pot - 22° Halo (05) (07) 09 (15) American Football - Bad Moons (09) (03) 10 (17) Paris Paloma - Good Girl (10) (06) 11 (06) Daughter - Not Enough (03) (09) 12 (09) Gorillaz feat. Bizarrap, Kara Jackson and Anoushka Shankar - Orange County (04) (09) 13 (11) Apparat - Hum of Maybe (11) (06) 14 (25) Damon Albarn feat. Grian Chatten & Kae Tempest - Flags (14) (02) 15 (20) Art School Girlfriend - Doing Laps (15) (04) 16 (18) Milky - Just The Way You Are (Mall Grab Remix) (16) (04) 17 (12) Robyn - Talk To Me (06) (09) 18 (38) Brigitte Calls Me Baby - I Danced With Another Love In My Dream (18) (02) 19 (13) Olivia Dean - Baby Steps (01) (10) (2 weeks) 20 (24) James Blake - I Had a Dream She Took My Hand (20) (03) 21 (30) Temples - Jet Stream Heart (21) (02) 22 (14) Anna Prior - Silence (14) (06) 23 (21) SAULT - Chapter 1 (13) (08) 24 (27) Nothing - Cannibal World (24) (03) 25 (16) Harry Styles - Aperture (10) (08) 26 (28) Pulp - Begging for Change (26) (04) 27 (34) Young Fathers - Don't Fight The Young (27) (02) 28 (**) Metric - Time Is a Bomb (28) (01) 29 (19) Tom Misch - Sisters With Me (11) (07) 30 (23) Charli XCX - Always Everywhere (22) (04) 31 (44) Adult DVD - Real Tree Lee (31) (01) 32 (35) Whitelands - I Am No God, An Effigy (32) (02) 33 (22) The Twilight Sad - Waiting For The Phone Call (03) (11) 34 (50) Lykke Li - Lucky Again (34) (01) 35 (31) Jessie Ware - Ride (31) (03) 36 (26) Tourist feat. Real Lies - Love In Silence (01) (14) (3 weeks) 37 (**) Lava La Rue - Scratches (37) (01) 38 (32) Dapnhi - Hang (26) (05) 39 (29) Gorillaz feat. Omar Souleyman & Yaslin Bay - Damascus (02) (13) 40 (36) Holybones - These Are The Rooms (01) (16) (2 weeks)

77 - 17/04/2006 The Flaming Lips - The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song Chart Run: 01-02-06-10-09-11-10-17-18-20-22-28-32-39 (14 weeks) The Flaming Lips had a big early hit on my chart, featuring on The Golden Path with The Chemical Brothers, and followed it up with another #1 single when they returned. The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song became their 6th, final, and highest charting UK hit at #16 (going one place higher than The Golden Path (#17), which had also gone one place higher than Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots - Part 1 (#18)). It was a fun indie bop which I enjoyed a lot for a brief period, and was rare in being a song of theirs I did, their Yoshimi album is good but they're not a band I've got into much. They had three more minor solo hits for me, and one more top 10 in 2017 with Vessels. The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song isn't something I listen to very often now, but it was a nice enough reminder of it, they're just not a band I've ever got into much. 2026 Rating: 7/10 Songs kept from #1: Infernal - From Paris to Berlin The big Eurodance hit of the summer gets an unlikely runners-up spot here, surprised myself in checking! It was another all new top 3 with Australian rock band Wolfmother rounding it out with Dimension. Without having checked all the future ones, probably what I'd now consider to be the weakest top 3 of the year.

76 - 03/04/2006 Gnarls Barkley - Crazy Chart Run: 01-01-04-03-04-04-04-05-07-16-17-18-24-29-36-40 (16 weeks) The second of three #1 singles shared with the UK Chart comes in the form of smash hit Crazy by the duo Gnarls Barkley. I was definitely caught up in the hype and absolutely loved the song, how it came from nowhere, set history for being the first song to reach #1 on downloads alone and was the longest running #1 for a good few years! Cee-Lo Green had such a good voice suited to this type of music and worked really well with Danger Mouse's production. I did buy the album at the time and definitely had a period of loving it. It feels like Gnarls Barkley were very much a thing that was of their time, given how huge Crazy was it didn't feel like I heard it in the years that passed as much as other stuff, and this song aside there have been very few times I've felt compelled to listen to them since. It's still a great song, but I don't love it as much as I did back in '06. 2026 Rating: 8/10 Songs kept from #1: Franz Ferdinand - The Fallen, Islands - Rough Gem A pair of absolute bangers here. Franz Ferdinand had a hugely successful debut album campaign, but struggled to follow it with their second album. I do really like You Could Have It So Much Better, but it was a poor choice of singles. Do You Want To (#11) and Walk Away (#15) both towards the bottom of it and neither close to matching the peaks of their previous singles, but the album's best song was still to come. Released as a double A side with L Wells The Fallen was unlucky to arrive on the same week as Crazy, I'd rank it #2 behind Take Me Out in their back catalogue. It was a big couple of weeks for releases, with the first week being an entirely new top 5, with #3-5 consisting of Belle and Sebastian - The Blues Are Still Blue after getting into their album of that year, a blast from the past with the self-titled single Wigwam by Wigwam, a short lived duo consisting of Blur's Alex James and Betty Boo! The Zutons rounded it off with the lead single from their second album, Why Won't You Give Me Your Love. Other great entries into the top 10 were Death Cab for Cutie - Crooked Teeth, and The Fratellis first ever entry, Creeping Up The Backstairs.

I'm not sure I'd choose to listen to any of these, so hard to know how to play this, however I'd probably say Jack Penate is the best of the bunch so will vote to save it.

An Honest Mistake by miles. Maybe Tomorrow is fine, but it's not up with their best work, and even of their slower more mellow (boring) songs they have better to choose from. An Honest Mistake is a true underrated gem of the era.

75 - 27/03/2006 Kanye West feat. Lupe Fiasco - Touch The Sky Chart Run: 02-02-02-01-06-08-12-15-20-24-25-30-32-37 (14 weeks) Each of Kanye West's first five singles charted at a higher position than the previous one, briefly broken by Heard Em Say falling short of the top 10 at the end of 2005, before Touch The Sky took him to the top spot for the first time. His Late Registration album was one I had purchased when it came out, but like a lot of rap albums I never really got into it and thought it was overly long and quite boring, but it had a great set of singles on it, with Touch The Sky being the final one of them, a song definitely amongst the most catchy and accessible of Kanye's, with Lupe Fiasco providing a great chorus to it, and after three weeks of being the runner-up made it to the top before a bumper release week which saw new entries in the whole top 5. It's safe to say my listening to Kanye West has reduced with each passing year, still some great (largely early) songs, but a somewhat odious character I haven't given him much time for a while now. Touch The Sky is fine and still catchy but not a top tier song of his. 2026 Rating: 7/10 Songs kept from #1: The Kooks - Naive Naive was the fourth single from The Kooks debut album to chart for me, and entering at #2 it became comfortably their biggest hit, they would chart twice more from their Inside In/Inside Out album but never again. That initial run of singles are still ones which I listen to, I think Naive was definitely overplayed in various settings over a period of a couple of years, but I do think it's great now.

74 - 27/02/2006 Stellastarr* - Sweet Troubled Soul Chart Run: 01-01-01-01-03-07-07-07-10-12-13-15-16-14-20-22-25-27-39 (19 weeks) 74 entries in to find one which was totally influenced by a member of this site, and as explained in his Q&A thread about the asterisk, @dandy*. Stellastarr* had charted once previously for me, a solitary week at #36 in early 2004 with My Coco, but neither the song or the band really registered with me, I probably heard it once and saw it had been released. With the impending release of their second album Harmonies For The Haunted, Dandy* was singing of their praises and the comparisons with the likes of Editors and contemporaries of Interpol they were an easy sell to me. I listened to their debut album a lot in 2006, never fully got into their second as much but Sweet Troubled Soul was an excellent anthemic single that was deserving of its run at the top. They're a band I've held a lot of fondness for over the last 20 years, their self-titled debut is still brilliant and I'd be more likely to listen to something from that, but Sweet Troubled Soul is still a great song - I probably listen to its follow-up Lost In Time more now, though didn't chart that at the time (maybe it wasn't actually released?) 2026 Rating: 8/10 Songs kept from #1: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - In This Home On Ice, ? - ? Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is a blast from the past. They were hugely hyped online and I was very much caught up in that in the early part of the year, their album hit the UK top 40 and its still something I have a fondness for, In This Home On Ice is a great single. The other three weeks the top 2 was the same, and the runner-up would move to the top and replace Stellastarr* at the end of March. The week it was released it was one of 10 songs that entered in the top 20, and it was a superb week for releases. The top 4 were all new and songs I still enjoy to some extent - Graham Coxon following up an album that produced a #1 for me with Standing On My Own Again and UK indie band of minor success The Rakes with All Too Human, one of two songs of theirs I still love to listen to all knocking Goldfrapp down 1-5, with #6 being Better Together by Jack Johnson, which had been a favourite of his 2005 album, which rounds out a rare top 6 of songs I still really enjoy. In the other three weeks highlights were Pendulum - Hold Your Colour, Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins - Rise Up With Fists, KT Tunstall - Another Place To Fall and Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Gold Lion falling short at #3, and I'd prefer to be discussing that next.

73 - 13/02/2006 Goldfrapp - Ride A White Horse Chart Run: 01-01-05-04-05-06-09-13-13-15-19-23-29-30 (14 weeks) Replacing Fall Out Boy after just a week at the top were Goldfrapp with the third single from their album Supernature. Ooh La La reached #2, and Number One followed it at #3, so the set of top 3 positions was completed with their next entry. Supernature was an album I remember buying in the January sales as I'd enjoyed the first two singles from it. In the first few listens Ride A White Horse was comfortably my favourite song on it, so was delighted it was picked as the next single and was an easy #1. The second half of the noughties was definitely my peak Goldfrapp listening years, and I've struggled to care about much they released after that (one charting hit post-2008, 11 entries until 2008) but there are still a few of their earlier songs which I like, and Ride A White Horse is certainly towards the top of that. (also remembered the poster on here that got really bitchy about Goldfrapp being sell-out rubbish following their first couple of albums). 2026 Rating: 8/10 Songs kept from #1: The Magic Numbers - I See You, You See Me & We Are Scientists - It's A Hit A couple of other 'third singles from 2005 albums now' with The Magic Numbers getting another high charting entry with I See You, You See Me - a much more mellow single than their others that I still absolutely love. Like Supernature, the We Are Scientists album was one I'd only recently got, and It's a Hit became the biggest hit from it. The second of these two weeks was the first big release week of the year with comfortably the most charting songs towards the top with positions #4-6 taken by Corinne Bailey Rae, Maximo Park and Madonna with debut Put Your Records On, the fifth charting single from A Certain Trigger, I Want You To Stay, and the UK #1 Sorry.

A reasonable peformance for my own entry, plenty of placings and away from the very bottom. Pleasing top end voting for 5 of the top 6 including my 2nd-4th. Thanks for hosting Addy and congratulations Matto, good work!

Still have a bit of scepticism about how these regs will turn out, but race was good after quali - just can't get over drivers slowing down on straights for quali laps, a dreadful spectacle. The top 4 do look well clear at the moment, hard to see the rest not fighting out for the small points.