ILM Top 100 2000-2004: TRACKS

No. 85

Points: 166
No. of votes: 10
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: THE STREETS
Title: THE IRONY OF IT ALL
Label: Locked On
Year: 2001

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/tracks/theironyofitall1.jpg http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/tracks/theironyofitall2.jpg

One of the highlights from 'Original Pirate Material', Mike Skinner's amusing social commentary on the hypocrisy and double-standards surrounding the culture of drinking and smoking in society...the beauty being it transcends that to touch on class and character divides (middle class student vs about-town hooligan), with the change in music highlighting the conflict and contrast further but the tongue always remaining in cheek. It may not be the most inspired, radical observation to make but that doesn't make it any less true. And more importantly, it's bloody hilarious (as is the video natch).

No. 84

Points: 168
No. of votes: 9
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: BLUR
Title: OUT OF TIME
Label: Parlophone
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/tracks/outoftime.jpg

(ILX server too busy again for search results...help!)...I don't know, perhaps this will be considered one of the most surprising appearances in the list for many. Something you either love or loathe? If it CAN stir one of those emotions in you then it can't be all bad. What I do like about it is some of the effects - Albarn's ghostly echoes of himself when 'feeling the sunshine' a confused mix of relief and despair, the subtle change in tone of the track as it turns, slowly, that corner from A to B, it's disregard for conventional song formula (when is a verse not a verse? can a bridge be a bridge if there is no chorus? if a tree falls in the forest but only Damon Albarn is there to hear it, does anyone still give a shit?) and the way it somehow ends with a cool sun peeking out from the grim overcast nature of the previous three minutes. I don't know how relevant it is that it's a Blur song...it seems to be trying not to be a Blur song, or even a song at all, which can be construed as intriguing, five out of every ten seconds...wait I've got it. If a tree falls in the forest ON Damon Albarn, THEN this song would make sense. Maybe THAT's why it's here.

good description steve. I liked Out of Time a lot.

i was going to ask you to write something about it ;) that was a struggle - I think I like it more than the Grandaddy one but these two are my least favourite tracks in the list so far (and I can't help thinking I'm not alone here).

I quite like the Silver Jews one tho, having only heard it for the first time just before I posted it.

The Blur single is the first genuinely shit record to make an appearance here. Otherwise this is a great list so far.

It's hard to believe that Blur have done so little in the noughties. We've had Gorillaz, that one shitty non-album single and Think Tank. I'd forgotten "13" was in 1999.

Why hard to believe? They've had the usual problems for a band who've been going for around 15 years.

Holy shit, there's a video for "The Irony Of It All"!?!? God that's a great song.

i've got the video - if anyone wants to download it, gmail me and i'll work something out

No. 83

Points: 173
No. of votes: 8
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: BLACK DICE
Title: THINGS WILL NEVER BE THE SAME
Label: Fat Cat
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/tracks/thingswillneverbethesame.jpg

From the pictured album Beaches & Canyons, just under 10 minutes long, tall, dark waves of...something else. Emoceanal, you might say, if you're looking for a slap.

Comments: This (album) rules, straight up. It could use a little more variation, but the screaming feedback/drone/noise/electronic bleeps n' blips make a great soundtrack to being stoned out of your gourd, going to sleep, or driving late at night. The only complaint I've ever heard by someone I've played it for is that "YOU PLAY THIS ALL THE TIME. I AM SICK OF IT. IT SOUNDS LIKE ELEPHANTS DYING." by my girlfriend... Ian Johnson

not so much "i expected more", but just that I was about to say something like "Coffee and TV" would have been a better choice - that's if it had come out this decade. Sure, Blur are nowhere close to what they used to be back in the day. However the fact that "Out Of Time", a middling song by anyone's standards, is their best effort from the last four years, well it's a bit of a shame really.

'Out of time' is my favourite Blur record. I'm not a fan, though.

"The Blur single is the first genuinely shit record to make an appearance here."

Grrrrrrrr.....

I think "Out of Time" is pretty gorgeous, actually, not in a OMG way, more like in a OTM way. I'm not sure even I know what I'm trying to say with that statement, btw.

"...that one shitty non-album single..."

I would have voted for Music Is My Radar if it had been nominated.

No. 82

Points: 180
No. of votes: 13
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: TWISTA (FEATURING KANYE WEST & JAMIE FOXX)
Title: SLOW JAMZ
Label: Atlantic
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/tracks/slowjamz.jpg

There are huge tunes and then there are HUGE TUNES, tributes and TRIBUTES, cheeky digs at Michael Jackson and CHEEKY DIGS AT MICHAEL JACKSON. This is a kitchen sink affair that not only incorporates the aformentioned elements but adds comedy bongos, sexy low female voices talking, sexy high female voices talking, laid back smooth soul chorus, classic sunshine flavour of bygone eras and breakneck rhymin' from debutant Twista to result in one hell of an anthem. In fact it packs so much into such a small space you might even be left wondering what the fuss is all about just because your ears 'blinked' for that one moment. Apparently though it's all about the Collipark remix. Now, with Vandross being cool again, how long for the Ray Parker Jr and Oran Juice Jones comebacks?

And it's the second genuinely shit track to appear here.

Not enough Grandaddy hate! ;)

How can anyone hate "Slow Jamz"?!?! Dom you're mad.

I can't believe anyone could pick out any one Grandaddy song from the rest of their fucking boring songs to nominate or indeed vote for.

Don't listen to Dom, Slow Jamz is amazing.

No. 81

Points: 180
No. of votes: 7
No. of #1 votes: 3

Artist: SHELLAC
Title: A PRAYER TO GOD
Label: Touch & Go
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/tracks/aprayertogod.jpg

Comments: This is the story of Steve losing his girlfriend, but it also manages to show an unseen side of Shellac. Steve is plaintive, almost humble, initially but manages to conceal his feelings of betrayal. When he turns to the man his ire rises, culminating in the plea for his death that dominates the track. That said, his spite is kept restrained till it can be kept in no more, and explodes over the penultimate repetition leaving a shattered man making one last desperate effort. Closes with 'Amen'. Quietly. I actually prefer the cover by Maestro Echoplex, but this is the song to play to people you want to convert to Shellac. aldo cowpat

I loved "Out of Time". It took a while to grow on me but the sound of it is great, so much space and 'atmosphere' (to get cliched). That blurb by Steve was OTM.

Glad to see my nomination ("Things Will Never Be The Same") made it. I can't remember if that #1 vote was mine.

No it wasn't, so you had me worried I'd missed yours for a second there! I'm sure he won't mind me revealing that it was the lovely Jon Williams who enjoys oceanic elephant death the most.

No. 80

Points: 184
No. of votes: 12
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: JAMELIA
Title: SUPERSTAR
Label: Parlophone
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/tracks/superstar.jpg

Comments: Common sense suggests that if you laud enough British R&B hopes one of them will end up producing a great single. Plucky Jamelia's breakthrough hit is pretty unassuming, it was only after hearing it about a dozen times that I realised how much I loved the chorus, and it still feels like a sturdy bit of craft in the midst of all these more spectacular pop triumphs. It's a reliable banker for the party DJ too, even if it never raises the roof. But perhaps we should take a moment to appreciate the modest, hard-working pop song - and give three hearty cheers for British engineering excellence, too. Tom Ewing

yay for plucky Brits! I think Tom's blurb slightly underrates "Superstar" though, it's not just a sturdy run-of-the-mill pop tune.

I'm going to be making a big 3CD compilation of this lot.

Wouldn't one mp3 disc do the trick?

yep, it's all in hand

No. 79

Points: 198
No. of votes: 9
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: THE DISMEMBERMENT PLAN
Title: FACE OF THE EARTH
Label: Desoto
Year: 2001

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/tracks/faceoftheearth.jpg

From the pictured album Change, more charged but staid indie fodder for those that find they like it.

Comments: (All I could find was:) Face of the Earth by the Dismemberment Plan is about your lover disappearing in front of your eyes in a sci-fi stylee...Tom Ewing

Is that a mistake?

i want to see all the nominees again, but the pages seem to have come down. is there an active link?

No. 78

Points: 201
No. of votes: 10
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: ANDREW WK
Title: SHE IS BEAUTIFUL
Label: Mercury
Year: 2002

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/tracks/sheisbeautiful.jpg

Is she ever. The guitars nag and push more than the rock cliches they reference by being more stripped down harmonically and melodically and more beefed up sonically to the point of being this mass of pop texture. More of a 'real tune' here but not so much so that it's not still something you could beat your head inwards to. Sundar Subramanian

Ah, I knew this list would run aground somewhere.

That comment was from here

No. 77

Points: 202
No. of votes: 14
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: UNDERWORLD
Title: TWO MONTHS OFF
Label: Junior Boys Own
Year: 2002

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/tracks/twomonthsoff.jpg

What if you listen to the full length version of this from the A Hundred Days Off album right now? What will it do, if anything? I am listening to it as I write, looking for that same feeling I got when I first heard the radio edit on Radio 1's Essential Selection (again and again a crucial source for hearing the big tunes by the big guys first) over two years ago now. Instant satisfaction. A perfect moment (and I was just kotching at home not doing anything in particular except thinking about where to go later that night). Being able to attach a memory like that to a track always seems to be a major factor in shaping your view of it's quality. On a technical level this is classic Underworld - the influence of Darren Emerson lingering - a broad, nagging, simplistic synth hook (inviting inevitable comparisons with Stardust's 'Music Sounds Better With You', Pete Heller's 'Big Love' and other copycat anthems) suggesting a desire for a 'hit' as much as a return to margin. But add the tumbling bells, the somewhat incongruous, observational speech extracts and a more straightforward, obvious message of love from Karl Hyde and you've got a Summer banger with mass appeal. And I can still get that feeling.

Note: I was not inferring that Stardust and Pete Heller were the copycats

SHE IS BEAUTIFUL SHE IS BEAUTIFUL

Were you implying it?

i was nothing it

I thought "Out Of Time" was the only decent song on that album.

In "She is Beautiful" when he sings "I ain't got nothin' to lose (nothin' to lose)..." - that moment is the greatest Mary Chain tribute ever.

thats the one

The hybrid guitar/bass solo from "Battery in Your Leg" and the moment that Albarn first goes falsetto in a track the name of which I have momentarily forgotten (or perhaps never bothered to learn) are the only items from Think Tank that truly passed muster for me, and I am a Blur Fan. I like a few songs from the album, but my head and heart aren't in agreement like they usually are with matters Blur.

I'm guessing everything I voted for bar the 'Babes is coming up next week (yes, I didn't vote Jamelia. I can only really get into it anymore by watching the video, which South African sat-TV luurrrrrrrrrvvvves).

I am a Blur fan and 'Out Of Time' is merely average.

No. 76

Points: 205
No. of votes: 10
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: THE STARS
Title: ELEVATOR LOVE LETTER
Label: Setanta
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/tracks/elevatorloveletter.jpg

Sixpence None The Richer meets Dubstar uptown.

Comments: (It made m tear up) especially the "... I'll take her home after midnight, and if she likes I'll tell her lies, of how we'll be in love by the morning" part. I'm welling up thinking about it right now. Spencer Chow

Outed as a tweeist.

That song is also great because of it's portrait of lonely longing lovelorn media professionals who lament "my office glows, all night long, it's a nuclear show, and the stars are gone".

why did I forget to vote why did I forget to vote why did I forget to vote argh argh argh

if people want to provide comments, gmail me telling me what kind of stuff you'd like to write a paragraph or three about and I'll pick one of the remaining tracks for you (to then be approved or rejected by you). it will speed up the process.

in other news, I THINK I HAVE MADE A MISTAKE! it's not catastrophic at all but it will mean I need to recount votes for one track and the eponymous album it's form. If the missing points remain missing then everything from 86 upwards will move up one place and what would've been 75 will now be 86. Argh. And sorry.