Sunday 8 November 2009

Ladies you're damn right, you can't read a man's mind

Another five songs that missed the top 100 of the decade by a whisker;

Zero 7 feat Sia - Somersault - 2004

One of the most underrated groups of the decade, chillout dance act Zero 7 have had some relatively large albums but their singles have all been rather unfortunate flops. 2001's Destiny and In The Waiting Line are near perfection and this 2004 comeback single Somersault, featuring recurring guest vocalist, Australian Sia Furler, absolutely blew me away, and still does now. Gorgeous song.



Girls Aloud - Love Machine - 2004

From one extreme of 2004 to the other, Girls Aloud's finest hour at that point came with the brilliant and completely unexpected pop classic Love Machine. A UK No.2 single, it definitely deserved to be a chart topper for the girls and is now seen as one of their signature songs along with Sound of the Underground, Biology and The Promise. Great lyrics, great energy, excellent video. Perfect pop.



The Corrs - Would You Be Happier - 2001

Onto what I feel is one of Irish family band The Corrs' most underrated singles. Best Of contractual bonus track singles are rarely seen as exciting songs with Madonna's Celebration, Robbie Williams' Radio, Britney Spears' 3 for example hardly going down as classics in the grander scheme of things. The Corrs launched their 2001 Best Of with the most out and out pop single that they'd ever produced. Complete with a rather random video of the band experimenting with different images, I found the song to be absolutely excellent. They obviously didn't feel the same way as following on from the release, the single was never performed live at concerts and left out of all future hits compilations...



Serebro - Song #1 - 2007

Russia's finest Eurovision hour came just two years ago in 2007 before they criminally went on to win the following year with a far inferior song. Either way, thrown together at the last minute girlband Serebro produced a song worthy even of the Girls Aloud/Sugababes canon which was feisty, fresh and instantly infectious. It finished 3rd in the contest but was my favourite from that year.



Malena Ernman - La Voix - 2009

Over to Sweden's flop Eurovision entry from this year now, although this will always relate more to me as the triumphant Melodifestivalen winner as opposed to an ESC failure. Having gone to Sweden and seen Melodifestivalen live for the first time this year, the quality of the show was incredible, the production values were through the roof, but nothing was more stunning than Malena Ernman's reception. When she was announced as the winner, the crowd went wild, and she thoroughly deserved it for her techno-opera-pop song which owes more than a little to Nessun Dorma. So uplifting, so brilliant, no moment this year comes close to screaming this at the top of my lungs with thousands of other people in the vast Globen arena, it will always be a winner to me.


3 comments:

  1. Oh, FANTASTIC to see that you've finally realised Serebro were easily the best from 2007 <3 Your obsession with Koldun bemused me at the time :(

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  2. Koldun may have topped my chart, but Serebro hung around far longer, and finished 9th in my 2007 end of year compared to about 17th or something for Koldun...I still think Work Your Magic is excellent but it wasn't in my top 137 (yes I've added six songs :p)

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  3. same situation this year actually when Lovebugs were #1 (before dropping to #8 the week after) and Malena was stuck at #2 for the thirty fifth time without ever topping the chart :( my only #1/2 regret of the year so far...

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