My 350 favourite North American songs of the years 2001-2010

 This month, my old friend Uncut listed the 300 Best Albums of its 300-copy, 25-year lifetime. As much as there’s plenty missing and plenty I disagree with, it is unquestionably a list that reflects some version of my own musical experience (naturally, since I’ve been reading Uncut and taking its recommendations for 24 of those 25 years) -  which, in itself, makes a little bit of a change these days.

There is something nuanced and interesting here, which is slightly different from the truth being merely “my taste is esoteric” or “I like bad music”. Since I was a teenager, I’ve inclined myself towards that which is acclaimed. My taste in film, TV and music has always had a self-conscious interest in what others think is good, for better or worse.

And yet, when I look at what seems to be emerging as the most acclaimed music from the start of this century, a lot of what I would have banked on, from both sides of the Atlantic, seems to be getting lost.

It is hard to pin down why – there are factors at play both macro and micro. It was to some extent a pre-enlightenment age, deposed by poptimism and the necessity of rebalancing the canon. It was also an era of transitional technology – moving through tapes and cds and downloads to end up at streaming.

In a way that hasn’t been the case for the last 10 years, it was full of traditional white male groups and voices. Look at the end-of-year lists, look at the festival line-ups. Things have changed a lot since then.

And yet, I realised, both when reading the Uncut list and when recently revisiting my formative years listening to Britpop 93-98, that there is nothing I love so much as moderately successful American indie-rock of the first decade of the 21^th century. Nothing. That’s my musical home. I’ll stick up for it till I die. Lost generation or not.

As much as I love the music of my teens, I nevertheless find the music of my 20s strikes deeper. The songs mean more. Perhaps they reflect my own life more, or just something more grown-up and meaningful, while still, in their way, childlike. I still remember the lightning bolt of Jenny Lewis singing “and if I get pregnant I guess I’ll just have the baby, let it be loved” on ‘More Adventurous’. Such a plain, artless, line, one of the most universal sentiments in all humanity, yet not something you’ll have heard in 99.9% of pop music.

I’ve been listening to The Shins lately – they seem a band that reflect the casual dismissal of the era – “oh yeah, that band from that annoying scene in that annoying film Garden State. What were we all thinking liking quasi-meaningful stuff like that”. Like a lot of the bands, the quite successful bands, there’s a song in TV/film, a brief commercial spike, then commercial and critical decline. The Decemberists, Iron and Wine, The Walkmen, Band of Horses … it happened to all of them.

But, with The Shins, I’ve been reminded what a singular, unusual way of putting together a pop song James Mercer had. “This song will change your life”, she said. It didn’t, but much worse songs have changed lots of people’s lives.

As much as anything else, of course, I love those bands and those songs because I saw them, nearly all of them. You do end up loving bands more if you see them live, I’m sure of it. I’d been to about 10 gigs before 2001, and have been to about 20 since 2010. In that decade I went to, I don’t know, including festival sets, 300 to 400?

And I talked about it with friends, and they made recommendations, and people made tapes, and all that stuff. There’s loads of reasons why I love that decade which have got nothing to do with whether it was good or not, I know. But it was good.

These are the songs I Iove. North American songs, even though there was loads of British stuff I loved too. But I remember, even though I was only 23 or 24, I felt too old for the Libertines and all that, definitely too old for the Arctic Monkeys when they turned up.

Too many excellent Canadians not to include them, too.

And I wanted to make it a solid 10 years, so had a decide if it was more significant to include 2000 or 2010. In the end, 2000 lost out. It’s just a slightly different era for me. I’m still at uni. 2001 to 2010 are, broadly, my adult London years. The most significant miss from 2000 is Lambchop’s Nixon, which I’m very sorry to lose and, I guess, Ryan Adams’ Heartbreaker, which I’m much less so.

It’s not specifically one genre, not specifically moderately successful indie rock, but that will dominate. I feel like I’ve written about a lot of these songs already in this blog – I mean, these songs are basically the heart of the blog – so there won’t be too many remarks along the way …

That’s how it starts …

350        Alexandra Leaving - Leonard Cohen and Sharon Robinson 

349        Bruises- Chairlift

348        Oops (Oh My) - Tweet

347        Mr Brightside - The Killers ... Still in the charts

346        Cold Blooded Old Times - Smog ... Bill Callahan has not brought the magic to me as he has many others, for some reason, but I like a few.

345        Laura  = Scissor Sisters

344        California - Phantom Planet

343        1 Plus 1 - Beyonce

342        No Easy Action - Mark Lanegan ... I like some of the Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell stuff, but that seems somehow more Scottish than American.

341        X Gon Give It To Ya - DMX

340        Not Even Stevie Nicks - Calexico ... Another band I almost loved

339        How She Would Sing The Wildwood Flower - Emmylou Harris ... a Zelig-like icon for the genre

338        Jezebel - Iron and Wine

337        Come On Come On - The Von Bondies

336        Postcards From Italy - Beirut

335        Forget You - Cee-lo Green

334        Elvis Presley Blues - Gillian Welch

333        A Nervous Tic Motion to the Head - Andrew Bird

332        We Used To Vacation - Cold War Kids

331        Goodies - Ciara

330        Mad World - Gary Jules

329        Get The Party Started - Pink

328        Surfer's Hymn - Panda Bear

327        The Gun Has No Trigger - Dirty Projectors

326        Lover Leave Me Drowning - Blitzen Trapper

325        Landed - Ben Folds

324        Hollaback Girl - Gwen Stefani

323        Who's That Girl - Eve

322        Party Hard - Andrew WK

321        Hot In Herre - Nelly

320        Tranquilize - The Killers ft Lou Reed  ... this was an odd, rather fun, song

319        Home - Edward Sharpe and the Zeros

318        100 Days 100 Nights - Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings

317        It Wasn't Me - Shaggy ft RikRok

316        Wendy - Jesse Malin

315        In The Sun - Joseph Arthur ft Michael Stipe

314        Walcott - Vampire Weekend

313        Knife - Grizzly Bear

312        When Johnny Met June - Shelby Lynne

311        The Bucket - Kings of Leon

310        This Isn't Farmlife - The Essex Green

309        Bandages - Hot Hot Heat ... this is the definitive XFM song, for me

308        Fallin' - Alicia Keys

307        Baby Learns To Crawl - Paul Westerberg ... this is a great album actually, 'Stereo/Mono' - could have had more from this

306        Fuck The Pain Away - Peaches

305        Fuck The Universe - Ryan Adams

304        The Great Escape - We are Scientists

303        Kids - MGMT

302        I Gotta Feeling - Black Eyed Peas

301        Revelry - Kings of Leons

300        Ain't No Other Man - Christina Aguilera

299        Big Bird In A Small Cage - Patrick Watson

298        Ride Wit Me - Nelly

297        Breathe - Blu Cantrell ft Sean Paul

296        Gravel Pit - Wu-Tang Clan

295        Mississauga Goddamn - The Hidden Cameras

294        More Than A Woman - Aaliyah

293        Going On - The Flaming Lips

292        Staring At The Sun - TV on the Radio

291        Trick Me - Kelis

290        Why I'm Bullshit - Mark Eitzel ... I saw Mark Eitzel one afternoon at a festival, and he was so brilliant as a performer, but I just never got wholly into his music

289        How Come - D12

288        Blind - Hercules and Love Affair

287        Bad Romance - Lady Gaga

286        Ambling Alp - Yeasayer

285        Jenny From The Block - Jennifer Lopez

284        Wolf Among Wolves - Bonnie Prince Billy

283        Good People - Jack Johnson

282        Boyfriend - Best Coast

281        Maneater - Nelly Furtado

280        We Used To Think the Freeway Sounded Like a River - Richmond Fontaine

279        Old Soul Song (for a New World Order) - Bright Eyes

278        Hung Up - Madonna

277        Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear

276        Monster - Kanye West

275        Undertow - Warpaint

274        I Won't Die Alone - Shelby Lynne

273        Ch-ch-check It Out - Beastie Boys

272        Sweet Escape - Gwen Stefani

271        I Defy - Joan as Policewoman

270        Lola Stars And Stripes - The Stills

269        Tightrope - Janelle Monae

268        Used For Glue - Rival Schools

267        Wherever You Will Go - The Calling ... this feels like a disgraceful thing to quite like

266        Norway - Beach House

265        Get Over It - OK Go

264        Where Is My Love - Cat Power

263        Paint The Moon - The Czars

262        Resurrection Fern - Iron and Wine

261        Penny And Me - Hanson

260        I Don’t Feel Like Dancing - Scissor Sisters

259        I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance - Black Kids

258        When The Deal Goes Down - Bob Dylan

257        Lua - Bright Eyes

256        Dilemma - Nelly ft Kelly Rowland

255        I Need A Dollar - Aloe Blacc

254        Try Again - Aaliyah

253        The Greatest - Cat Power

252        Now It's On - Grandaddy ...there's a funny thing with certain bands I like, where they've come back after an acclaimed album, and I've briefly thought their new single was a step forward, like the best thing I've ever heard, and then that feeling's disappeared after a few days, and you've realised they've just blunted themselves a bit. This and 'Baby Stop Crying' by Spiritualized are good examples.

251        Million Dollar Bill - Whitney Houston

250        Danger! High Voltage - Electric Six

249        Empire State Of Mind - Jay-Z ft Alicia Keys

248        Welcome To The Black Parade - My Chemical Romance

247        The Wound That Never Heals - Jom White

246        The World Spins Madly On - The Weepies

245        Congratulations - MGMT

244        Sing Me Spanish Techno - The New Pornographers

243        We Are Gonna Be Friends - White Stripes

242        12.51 - The Strokes

241        Jumpers - Sleater-Kinney

240        Losing My Edge - LCD Soundsystem

239        I Love You Creedence - Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

238        The Man Comes Around - Johnny Cash

237        Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - The Flaming Lips

236        Faster - Janelle Monae

235        Black Sheep - Metric

234        What - Brendan Benson

233        I Envy The Wind - Lucinda Williams

232        Love Rain - Jill Scott

231        In Too Deep - Sum 41

230        Let The Distance Keep Us Together - Spoon, Bright Eyes etc

229        Soldier Girl - The Polyphonic Spree

228        16 Military Wives - The Decemberists

227        Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine - The Killers .. until I was fooled by the rocks that she's got

226        My Doorbell - The White Stripes

225        Alice - Tom Waits

224        Drops Of Jupiter - Train

223        Stronger - Kanye West

222        Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes

221        No One Knows - Queens of the Stone Age

220        Stay Positive - The Hold Steady

219        Mary - Scissor Sisters

218        In The End - Linkin Park

217        Not The Tremblin' Kind - Laura Cantrell

216        Cry Me A River - Justin Timberlake

215        Blonde On Blonde - Nada Surf

214        Rill Rill - Sleigh Bells

213        Poses - Rufus Wainwright

212        The New Cobweb Summer - Lambchop

211        Oh No - Lavender Diamond

210        Wrote A Song For Everyone - Mavis Staples

209        Laura Laurent - Bright Eyes

208        Broken Boy Soldier - The Raconteurs

207        Mushaboom - Feist

206        Don’t Give Up On Me - Solomon Burke

205        A Line In The Dirt - Eels

204        Lay Your Head Down - Keren Ann

203        Trouble - Ray La Montagne

202        Alternative To Love - Brendan Benson

201        Steady Rollin' - Two Gallants

200        The Crane Wife Pt 3 - The Decemberists

199        Lost Cause - Beck 

198        Do You Realise? - The Flaming Lips

197        She Heightened Everything - The Pernice Brothers

196        Imitation Of Life - REM

195        You Are What You Love - Jenny Lewis

194        I'm Like a Bird - Nelly Furtado

193        What a Wonderful Man - My Morning Jacket

192        Oxford Comma - Vampire Weekend

191        Don't Know Why - Norah Jones

190        Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt - We Are Scientists ... i kind of feel this may be one of those albums that came and went with people kind of enjoying it but noone really thinking it was anything special, and if people listened back to it now, they'd think "wow, that was actually pretty great"

189        Love Story - Taylor Swift

188        I'm Still Here - Tom Waits

187        That’s That - Cass McCombs

186        Penny And Jack - The Essex Green

185        Milkshake - Kelis

184        Waiting On A Sunny Day - Bruce Springsteen

183        Feeling No Pain - Josh Rouse

182        Wolves - Bon Iver

181        A Drop In Time - Mercury Rev

180        Complicated - Avril Lavigne

179        The Freest Man - Tilly and the Wall - should it be 3 es in Freeest?

178        You and I are a Gang of Losers - The Dears

177        Abel - The National

176        The Great Salt Lake - Band of Horses

175        Gold Day - Sparklehorse

174        Hey There Delilah - Plain White Ts ... got a lot of time for this kind of sappy cack

173        Mykonos - Fleet Foxes

172        Anyone - Joan as Policewoman

171        So Jealous - Tegan and Sara

170        Locked Inside - Janelle Monae

169        Someone Great - LCD Soundsystem

168        Runaway - Kanye West

167        New Slang - The Shins

166        Juveniles - The Walkmen

165        Eventually - Brendan Benson

164        On The Radio - Regina Spektor

163        Ash Wednesday - Elvis Perkins

162        Times Like These - Foo Fighters

161        1 Thing - Amerie

160        Round Eye Blues - Marah ... i noticed the Marah album i like is actually from mid-2000 but I just can't bring myself to remove this

159        I Miss You - Blink 182

158        John Wayne Gacy - Sufjan Stevens

157        Turn On Me - The Shins

156        Under Control - The Strokes

155        Modern Girl - Sleater-Kinney

154        Single Ladies - Beyonce

153        Barely Legal - The Strokes

152        The Absence Of God - Rilo Kiley

151        When The Brakeman Turns My Way - Bright Eyes

150        Flightless Bird, American Mouth - Iron and Wine

149        Queen Of Denmark - John Grant

148        What Light - Wilco

147        We Don’t Own It - Joan as Policewoman

146        So What - Pink

145        Po' Boy - Bob Dylan ... this is a very funny song

144        Frankie's Gun - The Felice Brothers ... as is this, in a way

143        Time To Pretend - MGMT

142        Hotel Yorba - The White Stripes

141        Maybe Tonight - Nicole Atkins

140        Brother Sport - Animal Collective

139        Judy - The Pernice Brothers

138        Pictures Of Success - Rilo Kiley

137        The Mercy Seat - Johnny Cash ... i really think Cash takes this to the next level from the Cave original, though now i think Cave takes its to a whole new level

136        U Got Ur Cherry Bomb - Spoon

135        No One's Gonna Love You - Band of Horses

134        White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Foxes

133        Independent Women Pt 1 - Destiny's Child

132        Please Think Well Of Me - The Weepies

131        Hope There's Someone - Antony and the Johnsons

130        Leaving New York - REM

129        Work It - Missy Elliot

128        Myriad Harbour - The New Pornographers

127        Hard To Explain - The Strokes

126        Forgot About Dre - Dr Dre ft Eminem

125        So Sorry - Feist

124        Firework - Katy Perry

123        I'm A Broken Heart - The Bird and the Bee

122        Round And Round - Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti ... think this is the most right-wing guy here

121        Everybody I Know is Listening To Crunk - Lightspeed Champion

120        Eternal Life - Joan as Policewoman

119        14th Street - Rufus Wainwright

118        I And Love And You - The Avett Brothers

117        Kathleen - Josh Ritter

116        Cosmia - Joanna Newsom

115        Is There A Ghost - Band of Horses

114        Many Shades Of Black - The Raconteurs

113        Lost In The Plot - The Dears

112        With Arms Outstretched - Rilo Kiley

111        One Armed Scissor - At the Drive-In

110        When I See Your Eyes I Swear to God That Worlds Collided - The Young Republic

109        The Daily Growl - Lambchop

108        Van Occupanther - Midlake

107        Marry Me - St Vincent

106        Radio Cure - Wilco

105        The Engine Driver - The Decemberists

104        Sad Eyes - Josh Rouse

103        This Year - The Mountain Goats

102        Gold Lion - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

101        Toxic  - Britney Spears

100        Kissing The Lipless - The Shins

99          NYC - Interpol

98          Chicago  - Sufjan Stevens

97          Takeover - Jay Z

96          In The Backseat - Arcade Fire

95          Standing in the Way of Control - Gossip

94          Santa Maria de la Feira - Devendra Banhart

93          Furious - Joan as Policewoman

92          Not About To Lose - Ron Sexsmith

91          Naked As We Came - Iron and Wine

90          Bloody Motherfucking Asshole - Martha Wainwright

89          Halloweenhead - Ryan Adams ...interestingly, have only included Ryan Adams songs which are nasty

88          Blue - Lucinda Williams

87          In The New Year - The Walkmen

86          The Middle - Jimmy Eat World

85          Love Love Love - The Mountain Goats

84          Bloodbuzz Ohio - The National

83          Ms Jackson - OutKast

82          Patience - Micah P Hinson 

81          Roscoe - Midlake

80          Wake Up -  Arcade Fire

79          Bang - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

78          England - The National

77          Impossible Germany - Wilco

76          Does Not Suffice - Joanna Newsom

75          Where Does The Good Go - Tegan and Sara

74          Ashes Of American Flags - Wilco

73          Even Tho - Joseph Arthur

72          Fidelity - Regina Spektor

71          Better Son/Daughter - Rilo Kiley

70          Mahgeetah - My Morning Jacket

69          Les Artistes - Santogold

68          The Spirit of Giving - The New Pornographers

67          Young Pilgrims - The Shins

66          New York, I Love You But You're Bring Me Down - LCD Soundsystem

65          Umbrella - Rihanna ft Jay Z

64          Fistful Of Love - Antony and the Johnsons ft Lou Reed

63          Sprawl II - Arcade Fire

62          New American Language - Dan Bern

61          Rise To Me - The Decemberists

60          You Broke My Heart - Lavender Diamond

59          New Partner - Will Oldham

58          Funeral  - Band of Horses

57          The Late Greats - Wilco

56          Irreplaceable - Beyonce

55          Inside Of Love - Nada Surf

54          Slaveship - Josh Rouse

53          Coversation 16 - The National

52          Love Is All - The Rapture

51          99 Problems - Jay Z

50          Godspeed - Jenny Lewis

49          Charlie Darwin - The Low Anthem

48          Workingman Blues - Bob Dylan

47          Oxygen - Willy Mason

46          Cheated Hearts - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

45          Lose Yourself - Eminem

44          Good Intentions Paving Company - Joanna Newsom

43          Get Yr Freak On - Missy Elliot

42          Casimir Pulaski Day - Sufjan Stevens

41          I Am Trying To Beak Your Heart - Wilco

40          A Whole Lot Better - Brendan Benson

39          If I Could Only Fly - Merle Haggard

38          Snow Is Gone - Josh Ritter

37          More Adventurous - Rilo Kiley

36          Sons And Daughters - The Decemberists

35          The Dark Is Rising - Mercury Rev

34          Saint Simon - The Shins

33          Float On - Modest Mouse

32          The Honey and the Moon - Joseph Arthur

31          Such Great Heights - The Postal Service

30          I Was Made For Sunny Days - The Weepies

29          Mr November - The National

28          Branches - Midlake

27          Us  - Regina Spektor

26          Massive Night - The Hold Steady

25          Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

24          Rebellion (Lies) - Arcade Fire

23          Emily - Joanna Newsom

22          Crazy In Love - Beyonce ft Jay Z

21          First Day Of My Life - Bright Eyes

20          Dinner At Eight - Rufus Wainwright

19          Mississippi - Bob Dylan

18          Don’t You (Forget About Me) - Micah P Hinson

17          Angela Surf City - The Walkmen

16          No Children - The Mountain Goats

15          Take Me Anywhere - Tegan and Sara

14          Losing You - Randy Newman

13          Hummingbird - Wilco

12          Lithuania - Dan Bern

11          Danny Callahan - Conor Oberst

10          My Girls - Animal Collective

9            Jesus Etc - Wilco

8            Rise - Josh Rouse

7            The Trapeze Swinger - Iron and Wine

6            The Rat - The Walkmen

5            Family Affair - Mary J Blige

4            I See A Darkness - Bonnie Prince Billy OR Johnny Cash

3            Bryte Side - The Pernice Brothers

2            In California - Joanna Newsom

1            All My Friends - LCD Soundsystem That's how it ends.

B93: Football thoughts

I can't summon up anything major so I'm going to throw some bullet points away on some footballing matters.

• If you're a professional footballer and you  miss a penalty by doing anything other than attempting to hit the ball hard into the corner of the goal, you deserve blame. Furthermore, if you score a penalty by doing anything but hitting the ball hard into the corner of the goal, you should be told to next time stop fucking around and kick the ball hard into the corner. Every single professional footballer has the technique to do that. Penalties are a preposterous ego trip/con where footballers suddenly think they're chess players, not people whose greatest gift is being able to strike a football hard and true.
• Football would be so much better if penalties were only worth half a goal. Penalties are the biggest problem with modern day football, nearly always a far greater reward for the situation they are caused by than is merited. So they become the aim in themselves. Genuinely, if Spurs have won 1-0 with the only goal being a penalty, I don't really count is a proper win. So, yeah, people will start committing more professional fouls. Fine. Half-goal. Move on.
• International goalkeepers should be picked purely on international form. Ludicrous that people talk about Pickford, who has always been magnificent for England, being dropped on his Everton form. Likewise, this is what happened with Paul Robinson, and see what happened there, and, likewise, Joe Hart, an ok club keeper and terrible England keeper, held on to the position for far too long. Pickford should be England Number 1 until he makes several bad mistakes for England.
• Guardiola does not deserve to be called a great manager, like Ferguson, Mourinho, Klopp, Wenger, Mancini etc. are. Maybe a great coach, but ultimately, by his own choices, what he has done as a manager with three of the most well-resourced teams in the history of football is par, if that.
• The Nations League is genius. Most football decisions of the last three decades have been bad, but the Nations League is perfect as a way to make international football not be boring, but equally, just not get over excited about. When England were in the Nations League semi-final, it was moderately exciting, which was very pleasant.
• Spursy isn't an actual thing. It's a perfectly good joke, but I think a lot of people think it's an actual thing. Spurs have, historically, won 8 FA Cup finals out of 9 appearances. They have not blown a premier league title, they were never on top in the closing stages of the league. The year they were second to Chelsea, they won 12 of their last 13 games in the league. Champion form, it's just Chelsea didn't falter. They've beaten Man City twice in the last minute in big games, reached Champions League final in last minute, generally in the last 15 years or so, won more games late than lost, I'm quite sure. They have lost big games late, but so does everybody. "Lads, it's Tottenham" is about that specific place in the pecking order they have, with less successful clubs being envious and the real top juggernaut clubs just knowing they've got the edge and putting the nearly-club in its place. But Spurs were a medium-sized club who had 15 years of mediocrity, who then had a period of sustained good achievement, almost achieved the absolute top without doing anything obscene to get there. For all the frustrations, I'd rather be a Tottenham fan over the last 10 years than any team except Liverpool and Leicester.
• VAR's still fine. Getting a bit better. Not perfect, but ok. 

My 200 Favourite British Songs June 1993-June 1998

I often return to this era. I can't help it. I'm not the only one who returns to it. There are no shortage of regular, quasi-revisionist retrospectives of Britpop, or Cool Britannia, or whatever thy call it, but I do feel they all tap the same cliches and fail to do justice to the music. They always ask the people who were close to the action, who were too invested, or scarred, who have an angle, a point to prove, a distance to keep.

They don't seem to ask people who were just simple, as-yet-undamaged fans, unless it's fans of Oasis saying it was one big moment of history, man.

There's a point to be made. Just that it was good, actually, the music, whatever it was. Not bad. What's the best way to really say the music was, whatever the limitations history and context puts on it, good? And no more limited, no more inbred, really, than any specific moment in time.

I thought, initially, I'd make a list of favourite albums of the era, because albums are a good way to show depth in strength. But I, obviously, just wouldn't be able to justice to a lot of artists. I didn't buy many albums then, in truth. Couldn't afford to. I bought compilations, made my own tapes, listened to the radio, read NME, listened to NME comps, borrowed from friends, watched music TV, and bought what I thought was the cream of the crop. That's how it worked back then. Now I listen to so many more albums than I did then, but I don't think I really know the music of now anywhere near as well.

For those years, I really know the songs but not the albums, so songs it will be. I'm calling it my 200 favourites, though there'll be a bit more sculpting to it than that. If it were really my 200 favourites of that five year period, there'd be 25 Blur songs and 20 Super Furry Animals songs. And it would probably look as mundane and narrow as most people think the era is anyway.

So I'll pick carefully. Firstly, there'll be a maximum five by any artist. And there'll be a place for songs I loved then, now and every year in between, a place for pop songs I scorned at the time, for cool stuff I didn't really understand, and for overtly of-its-time stuff I'd left behind which, when I think of it, gives me a bit of a heady rush.

These are the years when I'm 15 to 20, you know what I mean. There'll be some average music that really strikes the secret chord, and I'll not hide from it here. Even at the time, I thought I was too cool for the ersatz nostalgia of The Day We Caught the Train by Ocean Colour Scene, but it turns out I wasn't. It turns out it was talking about me, taking the Piccadilly line home from school on one of the last days of school in summer 1996.

That's why the list needs to be 200, to include specific stuff but make it clear I've got, you know, discernment. At 153 - it's Female of the Species by Space. But at 3, it's ... you know ... something a bit better.

What do they say about the B*****p era anyway? That's it's a monoculture, a misogynistic, jingoistic, unimaginative monoculture. And that's what everyone who was a part of it now says. Oh, we hated it, they say. We felt so uncomfortable with it, our sold out tours, our top 20 singles. 

They don't get to not be a part of it, because they were a part of my experience if it, just another boy reading the NME, ready to be into music. 

It fell into my lap - I, a limited, overly serious teenager, who liked, or thought I might like, Madness, The Jam, The Beatles, Blondie, Queen, Bob Dylan and Bowie.  Apart from Queen, those artists were all writ large over the time, they were all completely welcome and intrinsic. Of course I was going to like it.

There was a boy at school I'd talk with about music, a boy who was genuinely musical, and cool in his way, and had a femininity to him I was nowhere near, and he was into Portishead, Tricky, Bjork, Garbage, Madonna, and he'd indulgently tell me if he happened to quite like a Blur single. and maybe, if I'd been five years older, that's the stuff I'd have been into, but because I wasn't at the time, I find it hard to retrospectively go back to it and love it. I love the 2002 Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man album, but somehow the business of not being into Portishead at the time stays with me. There we go.

So, where do we begin? Well, five years is a nice round time period, being the centre of the decade depending on how you look at it. We're missing the first Suede album, we're actually missing Modern Life is Rubbish, just about (which is handy for narrowing down the Blur selections, because, jesus, Blur were good then, as we'll get to). 

I wanted to make sure Weller's Wild Wood was within the time period, because that's a very significant album for my joining things up, and there were quite a few things in the first half of 1998 I also wanted to make sure were in.

So, this is the era and it will contain everything. It will contain some oddities. Common People usually tops these lists, but it will be nowhere near the top of mine. I'm no nearer to loving it than 27 years ago. Nor the Spice Girls. Still won't admit that.

I will, of course, have missed plenty. The odd classic unsung single and many great album tracks. It's British, so no Nirvana obviously, also no Cave or Imbruglia, no U2 or Air, but yes to Ash and the Divine Comedy. I've been through plenty of lists, been through the Now albums, and the Top 10 singles. This is my truth. Don't tell me yours. That came out in September 98, so too late, anyway. 

I'll write little explanations here and there, when the mood takes me.

200. Free As a Bird - The Beatles

Cracking little Britpop band, the Beatles. Funny production, mind. Couple of hits and then what happened to them ...

199. Heather - Slushfund

Not the Beatles. The band I went to see when I was at school. Friends with the drummer. Couple of pretty good songs, actually.

198. Back for Good - Take That

What an enormous deal this was! I mean, wasn't it?

197. Walk Like a Champion - Kaliphz ft Prince Naseem Hamed

I think I could find 198 songs I like better than this if I was being wholly serious, but there we go. This is Prince Naseem Hamed, when he was still a walking legend. Didn't crack the Top 20, mind.

196. No God Only Religion - Spiritualized

195. Everyone Says You're So Fragile - Idlewild

Just to show that the era extends to early Idlewild. Idlewild would become very good, I think.

194. Black White - Asian Dub Foundation

This was great. I only remember hearing it in snatches, in passing, and thinking "This is great!"

193. Things Can Only Get Better - D.Ream

Or, on the other hand, can they get worse?

192. Dream on Dreamer - Brand New Heavies

191. Tubthumping - Chumbawamba

I mean, to be honest, I hate this, there's no way I like it more than any Idlewild song, but I just feel it's a bit obligatory.

190. Rocks - Primal Scream

189. Just a Step from Heaven - Eternal

I find I've quite a soft spot for quite a few Eternal singles.

188. Line Up - Elastica

187. A Girl Like You - Edwyn Collins

I love Edwyn Collins in general but, funnily enough, I never really loved this song. Certainly evocative, though.

186. Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve

Another big Number 2.

185, Meet Ze Monsta - PJ Harvey

It happens to be the fact that my favourite songs by this great artist fall either before or after this time period.

184. Patio Song - Gorky's Zygnotic Mynci

183. Setting Sun - Chemical Brothers ft Noel Gallagher

182. Love City Groove - Love City Groove

This was a terrible song, but it plays around in my head, so it's here.

181. Your Woman - White Town

This was a cool song to go to Number 1 really. 

180. Smile - The Supernaturals

One of those slightly insufferable post-Britpop songs which is, you know, quite fun really.

179. Sorted for Es and Whizz - Pulp

178. Candy Pop - Bis

177. Weak - Skunk Anansie

176. Karmacoma - Massive Attack

175. Lucky You - Lightning Seeds

174. You Gotta Be - Des'ree

Quite nice, the Des'ree songs, weren't they?

173. Ten Storey Love Song - The Stone Roses

172. One Night in Heaven - M People

171. In the Meantime - Spacehog

170. Dreams - Gabrielle

169. One Night Stand - The Aloof

168. Tattva - Kula Shaker

I can't conceive of hearing this song in any but one month of my life, but it exists and there's, I suppose, an alternative world where it didn't seem instantly ridiculous.

167. Strangers When We Meet - David Bowie

Bowie did weird stuff in the 90s and this was a nice song.

166. Insomnia - Faithless

165. Dog's Got a Bone - The Beta Band

An early highlight on their inevitable, unsabotageable path to global superstardom.

164. What Do I Do Now? - Sleeper

163. Tricky Kid - Tricky

162. Female of the Species - Space

161. The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind) - Bucketheads

Before they were Lords.

160. Wonderwall - Oasis

Fuck it, I could have put this at Number 1. Doesn't really matter, does it?

159. Missing - Everything But the Girl

158. She Cries Your Name - Beth Orton

157. Beautiful Night - Paul McCartney

156. Not so Manic Now - Dubstar

155. Staying Out for the Summer - Dodgy

Dodgy's reputation did not endure, but this has a wistful sweetness to it. And Dodgy, describing East 17's 'Stay Another Day' in their guest appearance on the Time Out singles reviews, introduced me to the phrase "sappy cack" so I've always had a soft spot for them.

154. Don't Be a Stranger - Dina Carroll

153. For Whom the Bell Tolls - The Bee Gees

152. Se a Vida e - Pet Shop Boys

151. Travelling Light - Tindersticks

150. Don't Come Home Too Soon - Del Amitri

One of the better football songs of the era.

149. Open Up - Leftfield

148. Boom Shack-a-Lak - Apache Indian

147. Upfield - Billy Bragg

146. A Thousand Trees - Stereophonics

Beloved of Bob Dylan, the Stereophonics. Have never really understand how their early songs were poignant and promising and everything thereafter just seemed so blunt. But I genuinely liked this.

145. Heroes - Roni Size and Reprazent

144. Looking for Love - Alison Limerick

143. 12 Reasons Why I Love Her - My Life Story

142. 7 Seconds - Neneh Cherry and Youssou N'Dour

Cos there's a miiiiilion voices ...

141. Marblehead Johnson - The Bluetones

I always thought this was a very good, somewhat overlooked, song.

140. Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out - Freak Power

Bit of fun, after all.

139. History - The Verve

Bit overrated this, but it's ok.

138. Remember Me - Blueboy

137. I Was Born on Christmas Day - St Etienne ft Tim Burgess

136. Just Looking - ~The Charlatans

135.Wandering Star - Portishead

134. Trouble - Shampoo

133. Kiss from a Rose - Seal

It was either this or Over My Shoulder by Mike and the Mechanics, you know. 

132. Untouchable - Rialto

Rialto were one of those "oh, this is good" bands for whom nothing really took off.

131. Alright - Supergrass

I have a renewed fondness for this. It has a timelessness not all the big songs of the era have.

130. Roy - Animals that Swim

"That Presley was the dumbest shit I ever met"

129. No one Speaks - Geneva

128. Independent Love Song - Scarlet

127. Fine Time - Cast

126. The Rockefeller Skank - Fatboy Slim

125. Just When You're Thinking Things Over - The Charlatans

There are a lot of Charlatans songs that are as good as each other, but I always rather loved this one.

124. Local Boy in the Photograph - Stereophonics

123. Common People - Pulp

Well, there we are, sorry.

122. Sweetness - Michelle Gayle

It is officially established now that Sweetness by Michelle Gayle is a better song of the Britpop era than Common People by Pulp.

121. Round Are Way - Oasis

120. Reverend Black Grape - Black Grape

119. Down that Road - Shara Nelson

118. I'm Not Alone - Bernard Butler

117. Firestarter - The Prodigy

116. Three Lions - Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds

115. Save Our Love - Eternal

114. Broken Heart - Spiritualized

There's a lot from this phenomenal album I can't quite detach from itself, but I do love a bit of Broken Heart.

113. She's the One for Me - The Beta Band

112. Slam Dunk (Da Funk) - 5ive

I don't think I'm serious, but I do just love the title of this song, at the very least.

111. Kings of the Kerb - Echobelly

110. Lift - Radiohead

109. Teardrop - Massive Attack

108. Connection - Elastica

107. Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead

106. Sometimes - James

105. Milk- Garbage

104. Let's Get Ready to Rhumble - PJ & Duncan

103. Wake Up Boo - The Boo Radleys

102. Wild Wood - Paul Weller

101. Jesus to a Child - George Michael

100. Babe - Take That

Getting to the serious stuff, now.

99. You've Got a Lot to Answer For - Catatonia

98. Return of the Mack - Mark Morrison

He's back. The Mack! He's back! As if he never went away, he's back, he's back, he's back today, the Mack.

97. You Do - McAlmont and Butler

Remember the name!

96. Lost Myself - The Longpigs

95. Caught by the Fuzz - Supergrass

94. Fireworks - Embrace

Ok, brace yourselves, we're entering post-britpop dadrock central.

93. The Day We Caught the Train - Ocean Colour Scene

I don't know why the decision was made that Ocean Colour Scene were beyond the pale, but it was. 

92. The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get - Morrissey

This fucking guy. I'd say this title has turned out not to be true.

91. Going Out - Supergrass

90. Inbetweener - Sleeper

I rewatched the rather stilted 'Britpop Now' special from 1995, and it was a little uninspiring, but it certainly struck me that this stood out as a tune.

89. Creep - Radiohead

It kind of doesn't fall within the time frame, but just about does.

88. A Little Soul - Pulp

87. Sour Times - Portishead

86. Space Cowboy - Jamiroquai

85. Born Slippy - Underworld

84. For Now and Ever - Super Furry Animals

83. Road Rage - Catatonia

82. Come Out 2Nite - Kenickie

81. Time Passes - Paul Weller

80. Stay Together - Suede

79. Fighting Fit - Gene

78. Shine - Aswad

The crowd is roaring, Ian Wright's scoring.

77. Funky Days are Back Again - Cornershop

76. Ladykillers - Lush

75. You Made Me Forget My Dreams - Belle and Sebastian

They just poured out of him back then.

74. Summertime - The Sundays

73. Even After All - Finley Quaye

When I think of this, it seems to have a huge sadness to it.

72. Pull the Wires from the Wall - The Delgados

Some of their best work was still to come. The Delgados were so good, but really they're Scotland 96-01, not Britain 93-98.

71. Don't Look Back - Teenage Fanclub

This is a great album. You could pick 5 or 6 from it.

70. Never Ever - All Saints

I remember this was on the radio the day Michael Hutchence died. I was in a car from Edinburgh to Derbyshire. I said to myself "one day, I'm going to call this my 70th favourite song of the half-decade which is drawing to a close".

69. Waking Up - Elastica

68. El President - Drugstore

67. Renegade Master - Wildchild

66. Girl from Mars - Ash

65. Walkaway - Cast

Again, just an inexplicable soft spot for this one.

64. Faster - Manic Street Preachers

63. Lazarus - Boo Radleys

62. Protection - Massive Attack

61. Beetlebum - Blur

60. Slight Return - The Bluetones

59. Stay Young - Oasis

This was the b-side to a much worse song and the last good Oasis song.

58. Karma Police - Radiohead

57. It's Alright - East 17

This is just joy isn't it? Just silly silly joy.

56. Speak To Me, Someone - Gene

55. Always - Erasure

This song reminds me of a Wednesday night, watching Sportsnight, seeing highlights of Jason McAteer scoring a hat-trick for Bolton.

54. She's Got Spies - Super Furry Animals

I don't know what to do with the Furries, really. Like I said, if I was really choosing my actual 200 favourite songs of the era, then every single song from Fuzzy Logic and Radiator, and a bit extra, would be there. I'm not really sure if I mean She's Got Spies. it could be Hometown Unicorn, or Mountain People, or any of them.

53. A Life Less Ordinary - Ash

Ash had such a rollercoaster, so quickly. I don't even know if this song was part of their first up or their first down.

52. Monday Morning, 5.19 - Rialto

51. Sunflower - Paul Weller

There used to be a way I'd say "Wild Wood is a really good album" which I could tell, even then, was marking me out as a bore for decades to come.

50. Glory Box - Portishead

49. This is Yesterday - Manic Street Preachers

48. Sun Hits the Sky - Supergrass

I remember a lovely little NME article in the summer of 1997 saying that if Supergrass were bad, like Oasis, not good, like Supergrass, the lyric to this would be "Sun hits the sky and I don't know why".

47. Still Life - Suede

46. This is a Low - Blur

45. Ocean Drive - The Lighthouse Family

Honestly, I don't care. I'd have Stars by Simply Red if I could.

44. Life Becoming a Landslide - Manic Street Preachers

Loved this, loved it, for a while.

43. Lazy Line Painter Jane - Belle and Sebastian

42. For the Dead - Gene

I warn that things are now going to stop being a little bit eclectic and fun and tail towards a certain kind of thing I like. It was fun while it lasted though I guess.

41. No Surprises - Radiohead

No surprises.

40. Give Me a Little More Time - Gabrielle

Ha ha! Except this one!

39. Live Forever - Oasis

38. Nothing Lasts Forever - Echo and the Bunnymen

37. Everybody Knows That I Love You - The Divine Comedy

36. Bluetonic - The Bluetones

Perhaps this is the "ultimate" "Britpop" "song" for all the good and bad that implies.

35. He Thought of Cars - Blur

34. Demons - Super Furry Animals

33. Yes - Manic Street Preachers.

Yes way.

32. Something Changed - Pulp

I just love this song. In that this is my favourite Pulp song by a large mile, I think you can tell that I am not a cool, quirky fun guy.

31. The Wild Ones - Suede

30. The Man Don't Give a Fuck - Super Furry Animals

29. The Drugs Don't Work - The Verve

The Verve were such a big deal for a wee while. They emerged from a brief hiatus like they were already the biggest band, and everyone fell for it. The album Urban Hymns was a huge seller. I found it pretty boring really, but this song still works, just seems to have a real empathy to it.

28. The Deal - Stephen Duffy

27. Sweeping the Nation - Spearmint

26. Verisimilitude - Teenage Fanclub

25. Punka - Kenickie

Kenickie seemed like they were so close to being massive. Perhaps the world is a better place for that not happening, but this song is such fun. How can you top this?

24. Kung Fu - Ash

Or this?

23. All This Useless Beauty - Elvis Costello

One for the dads.

22. Get Me Away from Here, I'm Dying - Belle and Sebastian

21. My Wandering Days Are Over - Belle and Sebastian

This may be the most perfect B and S song.

20. Ain't that Enough - Teenage Fanclub

Some of this music is, for me, so precisely placed. This is East Sands in St Andrews, autumn 97, bit of sun.

19. Best Days - Blur

It's weird that I've got two songs from The Great Escape and neither of them is The Universal (in truth, I had the universal at about 80 but had to shunt it out cos that was too much blur). The Great Escape is the only one of Blur's run of four albums in less than four years from 93 to 97 which is not perfectly realised, the one which is self-evidently faulty. But it has some great, great songs on it. Blur were just really an excellent band then.

18. Faded Glamour - Animals that Swim

17. Olympian - Gene

16. End of a Century - Blur

End of a Century is, in a way, the start of it all for me, when I knew that the modern music would be a good fit for me.

15. La Tristesse Durere - Manic Street Preachers

14. On and On - The Longpigs

13. Brickbat - Billy Bragg

12. Slide Away - Oasis

Although it is convenient to remember Oasis as having been bad, in fact, Oasis did Slide Away, and were not bad.

11. The First Big Weekend - Arab Strap

10. Tiny Tears - Tindersticks

TOP TEN TINY TEARS TINDERSTICKS, POP PINDERSTICKERS

9. Lucky - Radiohead

8. The State I Am In - Belle and Sebastian

It is weird that, after Radiohead, it's Belle and Sebastian that may just be the most influential of all these bands. I mean, probably not, but maybe.

7. I Would Fix You - Kenickie

6. Dry the Rain - The Beta Band

All these last six are, if you will, "epics". All of them have just been central to my life at a certain point.

5. Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space - Spiritualized

4. A Design for Life - Manic Street Preachers

I'd take this over any of the songs on The Holy Bible - I understand why others wouldn't, but this song just never loses its power with me.

3. A Brimful of Asha - Cornershop

The Norman Cook remix of this song is good. It doesn't bastardise it or destroy it, it just streamlines it, turns it into the kind of thing that could bedeck the top of the hit parade. So I suppose not that many people checked out the original. But for me, the original, unmixed Brimful of Asha, is a magical, precious thing, joyful, educational and epic.

2. Ice Hockey Hair - Super Furry Animals

From the middle of 1998. hardly part of the era at all, but I couldn't not include it. This is the true history. This is the perfect moment it was all leading to.

1. Yes - McAlmont and Butler

Really, I belong to this generation, Generation Yes by McAlmont and Butler.

So there we are. I started and then stopped compiling this a few weeks ago when I realised that, of course, it would end up being completely pointless, that it would all end up being obvious and unrevelatory, that it would not, nor could not, ever persuade anybody that the era wasn't exactly what they thought it was.

But then I started again, because fuck it. There's my Top 10 and what does it matter? Well it slightly matters that most (most not all) of the artists are sui generis and not archetypally laddish, albeit they are mostly lads, I know.

It matters that these are grand, grand songs, and life is richer for them.

Song 96: Jessica

Remembering this song has given me pause for thought.

It's by Adam Green, who was one half of Moldy Peaches. It's a crooned, scornful ballad about the TV star Jessica Simpson. I rather liked it for a while.

I remember playing it once to Juliette and she said "that's a really cruel horrible song", and it is. I'd had a bit of a blindspot to its cruelty.

I was generally quite good on post-millennial cruelty, whether it was The X Factor or the tabloid treatment of Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse. Obvious, mainstream, punch-down cruelty, I was pretty good at disdaining and steering clear of.

This seemed like indie, impersonal, cruelty. An irony-laden critique on the vacuity of celebrity. So I was ok with it, I guess. But the words are pretty horrible really. And it turns out Jessica Simpson was one of the many early 2000s female celebrities who, just below the surface, was having a pretty horrendous time of it.

Nowadays, Adam Green would be vilified on the twitter for the cruelty of a song like this. And the circle would keep turning.

Twitter is funny for the cruelty. Obviously, there are the many many vindictive shitheads and the poisonous mobs etc, but there's a real brand of good guy cruelty too, which can trip you up, where people who seem generally funny, good-natured and well-intentioned will direct their banter at someone who isn't necessarily a lord of a darkness, but maybe just a quite annoying person, and it will escalate and escalate and you'll suddenly think "god, this is all just cruelty" and that's how maybe I feel about the Jessica Simpson song, but also, in a weird way, maybe it's just ok to be cruel in an impersonal way after all. Maybe Adam Green no more thought, nor was required to think, about Jessica Simpson as an actual human being than the funny tweeters do about the target of their satire, and really that's fine, and it's better to treat the world as if it's not connected at all rather than completely connected, otherwise most of our actions and utterances are carelessly cruel.

B90: Mysteries

I have another London memory. A nice, strange one. I already wrote a little post about the South Bank, but not specifically about the National Theatre. 

Mostly, when I went to the National Theatre, it was to the Olivier and the Lyttelton. But around, I think, Easter 2000, a group of us went to see The Mysteries at the Cottesloe (now Dorfman), which is much more of a ruddy bloody brave space than the more traditional and grand Olivier and Lyttelton.

I was not entirely a willing attendee, had been a little dragooned into it. It was the story of the Bible. It was three plays in one day - morning, afternoon and evening. For the story of the Bible.

But it was a version of the medieval plays adapted by Tony Harrison, who I was already a fan of. The first play began, I guess at around 10.30am, with a stark naked Adam and Eve (played by Joanna Page, I've just looked up, years before Gavin and Stacey). I guess that woke everybody up.

The cast was distinguished, some still there from the acclaimed, original, 1985 production. Jack Shepherd, David Bradley, Don Warrington, Sue Johnston, Trevor Laird, William Gaunt - all faces you'd recognise if you saw them.

And it was musical, and the music was folk. John Tams, a folk musician/actor perhaps best known for being the folk singer in 'Sharpe', was the co-ordinator.

So, actually, I found myself hugely enjoying it. But it was hard work, and there was a lot of standing and sitting on the floor. And I'm very bad at sitting on a floor. 

I was in the middle of my biggest period of musical discovery, only having started buying CDs rather than tapes (there was a much bigger selection of CDs available by the late 90s) a year or so earlier, I was soaking up the history of rock and folk which didn't go straight down the middle.

So, that was a big Nick Drake time for me, and going from that, a big Fairport Convention, Richard and Linda Thompson time.

'I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight' and, particularly, 'Walking on a Wire' from 'Shoot out the Lights' were massive for me that year - Linda Thompson's stunning, clear voice. I'd read about them all a lot too - Linda Thompson who'd had a relationship of sorts with Drake himself (he might as well have been a mix of Greta Garbo and Elvis as far as I was concerned). She'd been married to Richard, and I knew about the legendary misery of their last tour, and how she'd pretty much disappeared from music after that, indeed, she'd had a condition which meant she couldn't sing. I knew all that.

And yet, here she was, unmistakeably, singing, accompanied by John Tams at this mystery play.

I think we must have had a pint at lunch after the first play. A big mistake for me at that time, not yet in control of my rapid nauseating headaches. So, during the second one, especially with all the sitting on the floor, I began to take a turn. Yet, at one point, out of nowhere, Linda Thompson, who'd just sang a song, was sitting next to me on the floor.

That's it really. It was just so surreal - a person, who, at that moment where I was learning so much about music history and treating it as almost mythical, and not yet understanding that people are just people who get on with their lives, could not have been more iconic to me, just sitting on the floor next to me.

Sadly, I couldn't last the pace. I remember the second play ended with the crucifixion, and the band played the magnificent Richard and Linda Thompson song 'Calvary Cross' and I was able to enjoy that, but then, in the second break, it was clear I needed to go home. So I never found out how the Bible ends.

2021, will you think about us?

Each year, despite my better judgement, I write a little about the music I've listened to in the year. Some years, there are many songs and albums that reach out and grab me, and I write enthusiastically and at length, while some years, for whatever reason, there is very little that quite takes me there. This has been one of those years.

I've still been listening to 'Song For Our Daughter' by Laura Marling and 'St Cloud' by Waxahatchee, both from 2020, more than almost anything from this year - particularly the latter, which I would simply say is one of my three favourite albums of the century, and an endlessly rewarding, involving masterpiece of perfect songwriting.

I still have listened  to a lot of new music, I always do, but often not with my full attention, or sometimes asking myself questions like "do I like this?", "what pat phrase would i use to describe this if I was asked?" and "am I feeling anything?"

Looking at the year end aggregator on albumoftheyear.com, their consolidated Number 1, by some distance, is 'Sometimes I Might Be Introvert' by Little Simz, which is very pleasing and extremely good on her. The singles 'Introvert' and 'Woman' were among the few songs that were genuinely thrilling this year, and the first few times I listened to the album, I certainly thought "yes, this is it, this is the universal masterpiece the year's needed" and I don't, per se, disagree with that now, I just haven't kept on listening to the album as much as I thought I would.

Still, it's a wonderful-sounding, beautiful, skilled and heartfelt record, and deserves all the praise it's getting.

There've been significant, well-reviewed albums by several of the artists who've been the bedrock of my listening for the best part of thirty years, like Damon Albarn, Gruff Rhys, Paul Weller, Manic Street Preachers, James Yorkston and Nick Cave, but again, none of them, as whole albums, quite did it for me for more than a couple of weeks. Not a slight on any of it, more just a reflection on my listening. Saying that, I do love the song 'Albuquerque' by Cave and Warren Ellis, and I love the chorus line of Gruff's 'Loan Your Loneliness' where he sings "Loan me your unholy lowly loneliness" and it's just such a classic piece of Gruff Rhys silly-brilliant lyricism set to a a good tune that it is, in and of itself, one of my favourite things of the year.

The Mercury Prize was won by Arlo Parks' 'Collapsed in Sunbeams', one of the few albums I did have a strong opinion on, if, "no, really, that's a bit meh, that's interesting-debut-EP quality, not award-winning-debut-album quality" counts as a strong opinion.

I really like the album 'Jubilee' by Japanese Breakfast, and have gradually warmed to 'Ignorance' by The Weather Station, but more through perseverance than inspiration.

I didn't listen to Sheeran, didn't listen to Adele, but I did listen to ABBA, and I've never been anywhere near an ABBA fan, but I found something so endearingly true to itself, in all its naffness and knack for the tune, about the album that I've actually ended up listening to it more than most others.

My favourite song, one of the songs that really felt like it had a sense of occasion, was the one-off 'Like I Used To' by Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen. Felt like a hit. Probably wasn't, in the scheme of things, a hit.

And my favourite album definitely wasn't a hit. I can, for once, fairly proudly say that I'm going to be out on my own on this one. I've not seen this album going around the lists at all, but it really deserves to.

Stephen Fretwell, a Scunthorpe-born songwriter who briefly looked like he was going to be the next big thing in the sad white boy boom of the early 2000s that was reduced to a husk by Blunt then eaten alive by Sheeran, who is only known to most folk for being the forlorn voice of the theme music to 'Gavin and Stacey', who released a couple of albums then disappeared for a decade, came back into my consciousness this year with a couple of somewhat heartrending interviews, then put out, to a small handful of gently supportive reviews, an album ironically called 'Busy Guy' which was, whilst sounding like he'd been hermetically sealed since this spare, sad, solipsistic stuff was all the rage, a giant leap from his previous work, a full, mysterious expression of a real, adult life by someone with that rare ability where the song, the simple song itself, is enough, and the rest, all the other stuff they do these days, is irrelevant. 

I know, I sound like a proper old man music bore, but sometimes someone hasn't thought about anything else but the songs, and the songs are memorable and intriguing and actually make you, someone who used to feel something all the time when listening to music, feel something.

So, that's my album of the year, and I'm actually right, despite what anyone else might say.

I listened to loads of other albums, but I don't think I've anything interesting to say about any of them, so, without further ado, before I start telling you my favourite artists of the year were actually The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel, here are the songs and albums.

SONGS

1. Like I Used To - Angel Olsen and Sharon Van Etten

2. The Long Water - Stephen Fretwell

3. Albuquerque - Nick Cave and Warren Ellis

4. Introvert - Little Simz

5. Loan Your Loneliness - Gruff Rhys

6. Got Me - Laura Mvula

7. I Have a Love - For Those I Love

8. White Dress - Lana Del Rey

9. Hard Drive - Cassandra Jenkins

10. Thumbs - Lucy Dacus

ALBUMS

1. Busy Guy - Stephen Fretwell

2. Sometimes I Might Be Introvert - Little Simz

3. Jubilee - Japanese Breakfast

4. An Overview on Phenomenal Nature - Cassandra Jenkins

5. Voyage - ABBA

6. We're All Alone in This Together - Dave

7. Ignorance - Weather Station

8. Pink Noise - Laura Mvula

9. They're Calling Me Home - Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi

10. The Wide Wide River - James Yorkston and the Second Hand Orchestra

Song 95: This Feeling

I heard this song again recently and I thought it juxtapozes pretty well with 'She's a Jar' by Wilco, the last song I wrote about, which came out in 1999. 'This Feeling' by Puressence was a single from mid-98. They were a Manchester band, and this was their most successful single, peaking at Number 33 in the UK charts. It had some, though not a vast amount of, airplay.

This Feeling

I remember hearing it on the radio a few times and I suspect maybe a flatmate owned the single, though I never did. The album received ok reviews but, back when money was scarcer and decisions on music were more weighted, not enough to tempt me to buy it.

I didn't hear the song again, I don't think, for close to decade but then, as often happened, in the age of downloads, you could suddenly go, oh yeah, I liked that song, that'll do for 79p. And I've listened to it now and then since then.

It's one of my favourite post-Britpop singles. I read a little interview with James Walsh, the lead singer of the much-maligned Starsailor, recently, and he good-naturedly pointed out that journalists now like to make out that it was all such a wasteland in those few years and everyone was just waiting around for the Strokes, but it wasn't like that at all. Whatever the legacy of the indie music of that time, a lot of it did do well and people were genuinely excited by it.

For my own part, though I see the likes of 'Deserter's Songs' and 'Summerteeth' (from 98 and 99) as major and lasting shifts in my music taste from Britpop to Americana, it's not like I wasn't listening to Ooberman, Ultrasound, Idlewild and whatever else.

Defining next-big-thing thinking in British music at that time, I reckon there was a sense of mashing together Oasis and Jeff Buckley. There were lots of attempts at epic ballads, there were big emotions. Travis and David Gray were the first things, then the apotheosis came with Coldplay, and the reckoning came with the aforementioned Starsailor.

And, in all of that, I reckon Puressence's 'This Feeling' was a very superior shot. It's formulaic, but it shakes and soars in all the right places. The voice is very good. It's a choirboy voice like Tom Chaplin from Keane but with far more oomph. In fact, it strikes me that I can imagine this being a Keane song - which I imagine is rightly offputting to most, but, still, in a way, is true.

I realise I haven't really sold this song, but it really defines an era for me, a messy student era when there was more going on than the history books tell us.

Song 94: She's a Jar

I'm not sure I've ever written about this song before, though it's a significant song for me. This is the second track on Wilco's 1999 album 'Summerteeth' and so, in fact, the second Wilco song I heard, since 'Summerteeth' was the first Wilco album I listened to, though my interest had been piqued by a 1997 review of 'Being There'.

Mercury Rev's 'Deserter's Songs', from late 1998, saw the start of my shift from Britrock to Americana, but Wilco turned out to be the one I would hold on to longer. They remain one of my favourite bands and I would say that they are a) one of the two best live bands I've seen, and b) the band with the strongest catalogue of the last 25 years.

I think I'd heard 'Can't Stand It', the single and opening track, before I'd bought the album. It's quite sharp and poppy, good enough, tacked on the album because the label needed a single. Otherwise, 'She's a Jar' would have been Track 1, and that would have been quite a start.

She's a Jar

I'd never really heard anything like it before, strange as that sounds in retrospect. There's a great darkness to Wilco between 97 and 2004 (some would say in their recording prime) which hasn't been there since, however much they've continued to make fine records and put on glorious live shows. On 'Summerteeth', that darkness is allied to a musical sweetness that is unnerving, and 'She's a Jar' is the epitome of that.

Jeff Tweedy sings these short, associative, phrases, strumming on an acoustic, while all manner of sweet keyboard orchestrations and mellotron wobbles go on behind him. There are a lot of Dave Fridmann productions around that time (Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, Delgados etc) and this is the nearest Wilco get to joining that, woozy and rich and beguiling. That's the Jay Bennett influence - this could be Bennett's finest moment.

Lyrically, it's a mix of obscure and brutally straightforward, in a way that is involving and moving. I'd go so far as to say it's one of the greatest lyrics ever written. The most notorious moment is the "twist" ending when Tweedy turns the refrain "she begs me not to miss her" to "she begs me not to hit her", one of the few genuinely shocking moments in a song you'll hear.

I remember once playing it somewhere on a boombox (it's one of the last albums I ever bought on tape) and someone came into the room and told me to turn it off cos it was shit and depressing, which is just the reaction you want from certain people sometimes.

Anyway, I've seen Wilco a few times and they've played this a couple of times, and the live versions have been phenomenal. There are a handful of truly beautiful Wilco songs, and 'She's a Jar' is the darkest of them, and still, just about, my favourite. 

I'd say it's alongside Like a Rolling Stone, More Adventurous and a handful of others as one of the most seminal (in the correct sense of the word) songs in my music taste, one of those moments of "this is it, this is how I want a song to make me feel", and I've never really got tired of it.

B89: the last verse

I've been pretty obsessed with Simon and Garfunkel lately - with them together, and individually, apart. As much as I've always liked S&G and not been averse to Simon's solo work (we had 'Me and Julio...' as our wedding dance, after all) some greater admiration and fascination has embedded this year which hasn't been there before.

I wonder when the last time they spoke was, when the last time they thought about recording together was, how it went sour each time it went sour.

I don't know what precisely has prompted it. There were a few cool TV programmes about them, Simon's doing this audiobook thing with Malcolm Gladwell, I probably felt sufficiently incensed by the sentiment of that sour as fuck article saying Simon would only be a footnote to the Beatles and Dylan.

He's sure written a lot of great songs, Paul Simon, and yes, there's that funny thing which he himself has acknowledged astutely enough that he's never been and can never be cool, and, somehow, though probably there's no difference to most people, there'll always be something that means Simon and his fans are seen as ... prissy ... compared to others, rightly or wrongly.

That's long since stopped mattering, of course. Simon's solo career is as much of a triumph as his fabled group work. He has kept on making good albums - I enjoyed 2016's 'Stranger to Stranger' a great deal (indeed, it may well be that it was that album, late in the day as it was, that made me appreciate Simon the solo artist).

Still, the funny truth lingers. His mother said it herself - "You have a nice voice. Arthur Garfunkel has a fine voice". So Simon sang lead, or they harmonised, sang top and bottom, and it all worked beautifully, and there were many wonderful, occasionally prissy, songs.

Then he wrote this song that he knew was better than what he usually wrote, and he also knew that it was one for his friend to sing. So he gave it to his friend, and his friend and their producer, Roy Halee, persuaded him, against his better judgement, that it needed to be bigger, that it needed to have a third verse which soared, so it is that the most famous, most beloved thing Paul Simon's ever written is "LIKE A BRIDGE OHVER TROU-U-BLED WATER, I WILL EASE YOUR MI-I-I-I-IND" and really that bit belongs mainly to Art Garfunkel, and that must be a little bit annoying.

There are intriguing clips on youtube - them together being interviewed on Letterman in about 1983 talking about their new tour and album together which of course never got made, because they got sick of each other. Them on stage for a successful tour in the early 2000s, before they got sick of each other again in the early 2010s. Garfunkel lost his voice then, though it's come back in some form. Simon has retired from touring.

Perhaps, who knows, they're friends once more, safe in the knowledge they won't have to be Simon and Garfunkel again.

Anyway, I made a Paul Simon playlist once before, but this will be a better one:

Song for the Asking - S&G

American Tune - PS

America - S&G

My Little Town - PS&AG

Old Friends/Bookends - S&G

Still Crazy After All These Years - PS

Kodachrome - PS

The Only Living Boy in New York - S&G

Stranger to Stranger - PS

Leaves that are Green - S&G

St Judy Comet - PS

The Sound of Silence - S&G

The Boxer - S&G

Kathy's Song - S&G

You Can Call Me Al - PS

Graceland - PS

Slip Slidin' Away - PS

Homeward Bound - PS

The Late Great Johnny Ace - PS

Something So Right - PS

Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard - PS

Mrs Robinson - S&G

B88: Tucson is in Arizona

I've watched all of Get Back now. It's been quite an overwhelming experience, & I can only say it's one of the best things I've ever seen. There isn't room for much more critical analysis than that. I was taken aback by some of my emotional responses. The Beatles are not, after all, the band of my generation, though my generation is, perhaps, by virtue of Anthology, Free as a Bird, Britpop etc, the last to wholeheartedly embrace them en masse. I don't know if that's true, but it doesn't feel like the Beatles have been anywhere near as connected to this decade as to the 90s and turn of the century - till now. [I mean, it's still the Beatles, it's not like the Beatles industry has gone quiet, but maybe you know what I mean ...]

Anyway, I'm already blathering more than I intended. I'm here to make a list, primarily. I'll, for once, let other people make the points. Just two things:

1) holy shit, McCartney and Lennon could sing. I guess we've seen McCartney very impressively still able to sing all his songs deep into his late 70s and got used to it being a slight struggle, but, back then, it was no struggle. His voice was immense and limitless. Likewise Lennon - even though he's messing about so often, disinterested sometimes, when he goes for it, it's magnificent. Obviously, George is a fine singer too. I think the fact that the Beatles were incredible singers is something I've slightly taken for granted.

2) Yeah, the songs. Their last couple of years is not my favourite Beatles period, but they're all concocting songs which are standards 50 years later. Even Ringo. Sometimes, I wonder, are these songs particularly memorable because they're the Beatles and they've just had more chance to be memorable than other people's songs? And I suppose there is that, but hearing John tinkering away at "On the Road to Marrakesh" which will later become 'Jealous Guy', I'm reminded that I didn't realise 'Jealous Guy' and 'Instant Karma' were by John Lennon until I was about 19. I'd heard them on the radio growing up and just thought "wow, those are powerful". I mean, those guys just wrote and sang powerful songs powerfully. And it's Lennon that's the one that's visibly struggling for inspiration, yet he's still got 'Don't Let Me Down', 'Across the Universe', with 'Come Together' and 'The Ballad of John and Yoko' on the way, not to mention 'God', Instant Karma', 'Working Class Hero' and 'Imagine'.

So I'm just going to make a big old Beatles song list, and I'll stop when I run out of songs I love. I'll include solo work, though I am not an aficianado beyond pretty basic hits and classics when it comes to solo material.

The numbering's all over the place really, and I've missed plenty. I'm actually not that great on the earliest albums ... We Can Work It Out being my favourite is a real point of principle for me.

1. We Can Work It Out
2. Penny Lane
3. Instant Karma
4. And Your Bird Can Sing
5. For No One
6. Happiness is a Warm Gun
7. In My Life
8. Revolution
9. A Day in the Life
10. All Things Must Pass
11. Here There and Everywhere
12. Live and Let Die
13. Yesterday
14. Got to Get You Into My Life
15. Ticket to Ride
16. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
17. Jealous Guy
18. Come and Get It
19. Drive My Car
20. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
21. Strawberry Fields Forever
22. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
23. Watching the Wheels
24. I Am the Walrus
25. Maxwell's Silver Hammer
26. Band on the Run
27. She's Leaving Home
28. Oh Darling
29. The Long and Winding Road
30. God
31. Helter Skelter
32. I Feel Fine
33. Girl
34. Across the Universe
35. Let it Be
36. I Want to Hold Your Hand
37. Get Back
38. My Brave Face
39. Eleanor Rigby
40. Please Please Me
41. Something
42. Why Don't We Do it in the Road
43. Woman
44. When I'm 64
45. Sexy Sadie
46. Tomorrow Never Knows
47. She Came in Through the Bathroom Window
48. The Ballad of John and Yoko
49. Hey Jude
50. Two of Us
51. Magical Mystery Tour
52. Hey Bulldog!
53. I've Got a Feeling
54. Come Together
55. Yellow Submarine
56. Here Comes the Sun
57. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
58. And I Love her
59. Blackbird
60. She Loves You
61. A Hard Day's Night
62. She Said She Said
63. Michelle
64. Maybe I'm Amazed
65. The Fool on the Hill
66. Good Day Sunshine
67. From Me To You
68. I'm Looking Through You
69. Free as a Bird
70. Imagine
71. Baby You're a Rich Man
72. Nowhere Man
73. Bungalow Bill
74. Paperback Writer
75. Martha My Dear
76. Pipes of Peace
77. Nobody Told Me
78. Hello Goodbye
79. My Sweet Lord
80. Golden Slumbers
81. Carry that Weight
82. Don't Let Me Down
83. Everybody' Got Something to Hide Except Me and y Monkey
84. Help!
85. Norwegian Wood
86. You Never Give Me Your Money
87. Coming Up
88. What is Love
89. Old Brown Shoe
90. Polythene Pam
91. Within You Without You
92. Day Tripper
93. With a Little Help from My Friends
94. Mull of Kintyre
95. All My Loving
96. Isn't it a Pity
97. Octopus's Garden
98. All You Need Is Love
99. Lady Madonna
100. Jet
101. Taxman
102. Gimme Some Truth
103. We All Stand Together
104. Can't Buy Me Love
105. Love You To
106. Ob La Di Ob La Da
107. Ebony and Ivory
108. Dance Tonight
109. Give Peace a Chance
110. Dear Prudence
111. Happy Xmas
112. Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite
113. If I Fell
114. Dig a Pony
115. Rocky Raccoon
116. Mother Nature's Son
117. If I Needed Someone
118. Fixing a Hole
119. Rain
120. Julia
121. Eight Days a Week
122. The End
123. I'm So Tired
124. I Want to Tell You
125. Real Love
126. Because
127. Getting Better
128. Here Today
129. Let Me Roll It
130. Wah-Wah
131. I'm Down
132. The Word
133. Lovely Rita
134. Jenny Wren
135. I'd Have you Anytime
136. Birthday
137. Photograph
138. Misery
139. Just Like Starting Over
140. Love Me Do