Side 1 of a cassette compilation that never was, travelling through the 2000s.
Guitars are back! Back!! BACK!!!
Not that they ever go away, but the press likes to enforce a death/rebirth cycle when it comes to guitar-based music and based. It's nonsense of course, and completely disregards the dizzying array of other popular genres and the blending and mashing up of most of them by creatives. Does it even sell column inches? Who cares?
Today's selection is quite guitar-heavy, for all that. U2 were back (along with that man Jacknife Lee) with one of the best songs they'd released in years, even if the rest of the album couldn't match up.
Beastie Boys were also back, revisiting the rap rock golden age of (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!) with Triple Trouble, thanks to a rifftastic remix by Graham Coxon.
New kids on the block, all delivering fresh and exciting music, included Art Brut, The Vines, Bloc Party and Franz Ferdinand, whose debut album got my vote for one of The Top 20 Greatest Eponymous Albums Of All Time over at No Badger Required.
Aside from Jacknife Lee, another producer who seemed to be everywhere was Mark Ronson, here popping up with a remix of AIR, featuring Chicagoan rapper Che Smith aka Rhymefest. Licenced to Ill(inois), you might say.
After last week's guest appearance with wife Beyoncé, Jay-Z is back in his own right with Dirt Off Your Shoulder. Another example of the creative ways that labels would deal with the F's, MF's and N's that peppered rap music in order to get it played on the radio. Not so easy to sing along to, I can promise you.
Another returning guest star from last week is Jake Shears, this time in his day job as front person with Scissor Sisters. What a breath of fresh air they were. A cover of Pink Floyd in the style of Bee Gees' disco pomp, it shouldn't work, but Comfortably Numb is glorious. And there was plenty more where that came from.
After my contrived attempt to ensure that Andrew Weatherall appeared in every year of my 1990s series, a welcome return for Lord Sabre under his own steam, with old mucker Keith Tenniswood as Two Lone Swordsmen. Sex Beat is a cover of The Gun Club's 1981 song and a surprise UK Top 25 hit in August 2004.
The opening and closing songs of today's selection represent artists that I didn't connect with at first, but later grew to love.
Gwen Stefani fronted No Doubt, who had a #1 in 1997 with Don't Speak, an atypical ballad compared to the pop/rock/ska that was their stock in trade. I wasn't a fan. However, Gwen's solo single What You Waiting For? is up there with the best pop songs of the decade and her album Love.Angel.Music.Baby. had lots to enjoy, even if not quite at the same stratospheric level.
I'm astounded that What You Waiting For? only got to #4, losing out to Girls Aloud, Destiny's Child and Lemar from Fame Academy. No Doubt? No justice, more like!
2004 closes with Slow Life by Super Furry Animals, which I was reacquainted with during the summer thanks to The Robster's must-read series on SFA singles, featured at The Vinyl Villain.
I'd strongly recommend that you read the entire series from end to end, it's amazing. Here's an extract from The Robster's post on Slow Life:
It was the third and final single from Phantom Power,
but its release, in April 2004, was far from conventional.
It, along with its two b-sides, was initially available digitally
only from the website of Placid Casual, the band’s own independent record label,
which suggests that Epic may have been reluctant to release it themselves,
possibly due to its length.
They did, however, put out a single-sided 12” promo.
It then featured as a CD single in the special limited edition of
the Phantom Phorce remix album in its own slipcase sleeve.
Needless to say, it didn’t chart due to the nature of its release.
In the opening paragraph, The Robster writes that Slow Life "really does stand up as one of the finest moments of their existence" and, even in the truncated edit featured here, he is absolutely right.
Decayed is now at the halfway mark and has hopefully demonstrated that the first decade of the 21st century had plenty to offer, musically speaking. Can 2005 hope to keep up?
1) What You Waiting For? (Album Version): Gwen Stefani
2) Alpha Beta Gaga (Mark Ronson Vocal Mix): AIR ft. Rhymefest
3) Vertigo (Jacknife Lee 7"): U2
4) Triple Trouble (Graham Coxon Remix): Beastie Boys
5) Formed A Band (Album Version): Art Brut
6) Comfortably Numb (Album Version) (Cover of Pink Floyd): Scissor Sisters
7) Ride (Album Version): The Vines
8) Take Me Out (Album Version): Franz Ferdinand
9) Helicopter (Original Version): Bloc Party
10) Dirt Off Your Shoulder (Radio): Jay-Z
11) Sex Beat (Remix) (Cover of The Gun Club): Two Lone Swordsmen
12) Slow Life (Edit): Super Furry Animals
18th January 2004: Franz Ferdinand (#3): 8
25th January 2004: Scissor Sisters (#10): 6
14th March 2004: Winning Days (#25): 7
4th April 2004: Bang Bang Rock & Roll (#52): 5
25th April 2004: Phantom Power (# n/a): 12
16th May 2004: The Black Album (#12): 10
1st August 2004: From The Double Gone Chapel (#22): 11
15th August 2004: Talkie Walkie (#44): 2
19th September 2004: To The 5 Boroughs (#37): 4
31st October 2004: Silent Alarm (#26): 911th November 2004: How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (#1): 3
21st November 2004: Love.Angel.Music.Baby. (#4): 1