2007 - My Euphonical* Romance - Fraser McAlpine
Oh God, these Top 5 lists are so hard to write! And it's not just the need to try and find a definitive shortlist (with the emphasis on SHORT) of songs from a year which has been chock-full of amazing treats - 'Tambourine' by Eve, 'Timebomb' by Beck, 'Gum' by Cornelius and 'My Manic and I' by Laura Marling all deserve to be in the list and they are not. There's also the problem of co-ordinating personal choices with those of the other ChartBlog writers, to avoid needless repetition.
First Hazel nicked one of my total faves of the year, ('Atlas' by Battles, if you're interested), then Nickie nicked another (anything by the Wild Beasts, we love those fellas), so before Steve gets his final list in - I'm reliably informed he's cramming more songs in than he is allowed, frisky little sprite that he is - I'm going to get this lot up VERY quickly!
Los Campesinos! - 'You! Me! Dancing!'
'You! Me! Dancing!' squeaks ahead of its nearest rival, 'Precious Time' by the Maccabees, even though both songs have clever animated videos and both bands have done a lot to drive a stake through the heart (to use proper over-dramatic NME-speak) of post-Libertines/post-Coldplay consensus indie. There are two reasons for this. The first is that 'You! Me! Dancing!' has one of the best introductions in modern popular song, and the second is the sheer giddy thrill you get from whacking the song up as loud as your headphones will go and bombing around town.
Los Campesinos! have an album out in the New Year, and it's going to be BRILLIANT.
My Chemical Romance - 'Teenagers'
Imagine if 'Cigarettes And Alcohol' by Oasis was camp. Imagine if it was part of a Britpop musical, put on in the West End, with a massive chorus-line doing high-kicks and jazz-hands and the old soft-shoe-shuffle and everything, only in gas masks and fishnets, in an echo of decadent Berlin from the 1930s. OK, now imagine the lyrics are no longer about getting wasted in order to avoid the disappointments of modern life, but were actually a call to arms across the generation gap, a way of saying that no-one is more confused or scared by teenagers than teenagers, apart from the parents of teenagers, or the people who run the local corner shop or off-license. Got that?
It would suck, wouldn't it?
This is great though. Rabble-rousing protest rock with a heart, a brain, a sense of humour and two shapely pins...all the better to do the high-kicks with, my dears.
Operator Please - 'Just A Song About Ping Pong'
Pop moves in mysterious ways, its wonders to perform. Here's a troupe of misfit Australian teens in day-glo capes, who happen to have a grasp of sparky pop dynamics which you just can't teach in schools. This is so stuffed with memorable moments, from the tongue-twisting opener (handclaps!) to the massive rifferama (played on a defiantly un-metal Rickenbacker guitar, doubled up with a not-even-ROCK violin) and a drummer who looks fresh out of nursery, that it's possible to overlook the genius zen of a lyric like "if I know you're running then I know you're hiding", because you're still reeling from the entire band yelling "CHEATER! LIAR!" in your ears.
Amy Winehouse - 'Love Is A Losing Game'
I was entirely torn whether to go for this, which is pure heartbreak in CD form, or something from the CRIMINALLY OVERLOOKED Siobhan Donaghy album. And it's not even as if you could call it between either artist as to who had the harder year. Amy's was far more high-profile, sure, but at least she gets to keep making records, if she wants to, and who's to say whether Siobhan will or not?
Having said that, and even though it feels like something of a betrayal, I'm going to have to go with the tabloids, the paparazzi, Jools Holland and everyone else who has been caught up in Hurricane Winehouse this year, and plump for the song which stopped me short the first time I played 'Back To Black', and every time since. A song which you can't actually listen to more than a couple of times in quick succession, in case the sun refuses to ever come up again or something. Have you noticed how many of the other choices on this list are happy and upbeat songs? Here's why.
McFly - 'Transylvania'
And finally...I have no good reason to be this nice to McFly in 2007. I mean they did do a brilliant interview for ChartBlog, back in April, but then there was the whole How To Destroy McFly debacle, which resulted in actual death-threats from McFly fans and the formation of the ChartBlog Street Team as a kind of defence.
Worst of all, they released this amazing, wayward song as a double A-side with a cover of 'Baby's Coming Back' by Jellyfish. Which sort of implies they bottled it, just at the point when their crazed vision should have been given full reign, even if it meant a blip in their sales chart or something. Nevertheless, a song this good and this mad can't be denied, so I'm just going to have to give in and admit the McFly Street Team were right all along (apart from all the mean things they said, obv).
PS: Nickie's full list is as follows...
Steve's will be up tomorrow. See you then!
Hazel Robinson's Review of 2007
Steve Perkins's Review of 2007
====================================
* Euphonical - Pertaining to, or exhibiting, euphony; agreeable in sound; pleasing to the ear (Webster's Dictionary)
Comments
I was very close to chucking one of mine out for some Siobhan Donaghy but then in the end I decided to just send it in its original, slightly confused, form.
Los Campesinos are ACE. I wish more people would realise this fact. I'd never seen that video before, either and wish I had- it's similarly brilliant to the song.
Just as well I sent my list in early or you'd've found me nicking McFly, too, if I'd realised 'Transylvania' was this year not 2006. :D
ps: I thought I was the only person that liked 'Gum' by Cornelius! Hurrah.
['Gum' by Cornelius is to brilliant song endings what the Los Campesinos! song is to brilliant introductions. A benchmark. Once the song is over it seems to leave a cloud of smoke in its wake. I think also if I'd had to do the list one week later, Laura Marling would've been in it. That's how volatile a situation this is! - Fraser]
Ok, my top 5.. I decided to write it on this blog as Fraser is the only one to have included Teenagers.. oh and this isn't just singles
1) Teenagers - My Chemical Romance
2) Me Against the World - Madina Lake
3) The River - Good Charlotte
4) The Kill - 30 Seconds To Mars
5) With Me Tonight - The Used
That was really hard.. no real stand out 5.. I tried to keep it to one song per band or it would have all come from 2 bands more than likely, perhaps 3 at a push. Doesn't seem to be any big variations in my choices.. I may have to come back and alter that list me thinks
I love the Los Campesinos!
Can't wait for their album, as you said, it will be BRILLIANT.
Its a shame McFly did a double A-side with Transylvania, but I think that's more to do with their bad management. It's an oddly wicked pop song though.
Alrighty well I've been delayed with the whole Christmas and New Year gigs.. Happy 2008 everyone by the way :P.. so only just came up with a reasonably suitable seeming top 5 :P And I'm still not happy with it! 5 is too small a number :( Posting it in Fraser's because he included most of the songs I like... even though I still don't get the entire Los Campesinos thing.
My Chemical Romance - Teenagers
Ingrid Michaelson - The Way I Am
Operator Please - Just A Song About Ping Pong
30 Seconds To Mars - The Fantasy
Atreyu - Two Become One
I also want to include Fiest.. because I love 1234. And various other songs. And I'm not sure about the 30STM song.. though I love it.. And Ingrid has another song called Keep Breathing which is just as good as The Way I Am in its own way.. meh!
Right, I'm a bit late with this, aren't I? I'm not committing totally to this list, either, as I'm just as likely to have forgotten what my favourite song of last year was!
The Hours - 'Back When You Were Good'
My Chemical Romance - 'Teenagers'
Eliot Minor - 'Jessica'
Take That - ummm, can't decide which one...
Amy Winehouse - ummm, ditto
Avril Lavigne - 'When You're Gone'
That doesn't feel representative AT ALL, but never mind!
Some quality choices there by my fellow commenters (is that the right word?). My Top 5 are as follows:
1. Linkin Park - What I've Done
2. Good Charlotte ft M. Shadows & Synester Gates - The River
3. Avenged Sevenfold - Critical Acclaim
4. 30 Seconds to Mars – The one about a map of the world, I think it’s called ‘Map of the World’ or possibly ‘Yesterday’. . . no wait that was The Beatles. Help! Lol, that was another Beatles one.
5. Gallows ft Lethal Bizzle - Staring at the Rude Bois
It's been another good year for music and I'm hoping for some of the same from 2008.
Kat: Is that Atreyu song a cover of the Spice Girls one??
Yes!!
naw I'm just kidding, 'course it's not.. though LOL at the thought. It's on their myspace page as 'When Two are One' but seems to use both names? Confusing.
And yeah, From Yesterday is a good song.. but I awesomely love the start to The Fantasy :P
Ah, that would have been soo good. I reckin the changed it to 'When two are one', so people (like me) wouldn't associate it with the Spice Girls.
'From Yesterday'! Thats what I meant, Ilove it. Yeah, you're right the intro to 'Fantasty' is pretty rad. Ilove a good intro me.