Friday 6 November 2009

Two annoying men and some questionable accents

Five more songs from the noughties that just missed out on making my top 100;

Mika - Grace Kelly - 2007

One of my favourite artists of 2007, Mika isn't quite as good/to my taste anymore unfortunately. Still, the song that started it all off, Grace Kelly, is a pop classic, and one of the most instantly catchy songs I've ever heard. From the moment I heard hit, I knew it'd be huge as it was completely different to everything else around in 2007. He is of course rather annoying which is probably why the short lived novelty around him has now worn off.



James Blunt - You're Beautiful - 2005

From one annoying man to another, well spoken ex army boy James Blunt launched the singer/songwriter boom of 2005-2007 with You're Beautiful. Parodied to high heavens since, it's hard to take this song or singer seriously anymore, but I absolutely loved it when it came out, and I still do now. A really nice song, I was a bit gutted when it only went to #12 on its first week of release in the UK as I thought it deserved to be a bit bigger than that. Little did I realise that it would become a world conquering/radio dominating hit in the next few months to the point that almost everyone who loved it at first now hates it.



Kate Nash - Foundations - 2007

Officially the unluckiest song of the decade, this spent five weeks at No.2 in the UK, never quite reaching the top despite being just 16 copies behind Rihanna's all conquering summer washout anthem Umbrella. I wish I'd have known, I would have gone and downloaded it 17 times! A post Lily Allen ode to a faltering relationship, Kate Nash has a very distinctive accent, even more common than Lily but her tunes are very much more pop/indie than the ska-pop of Lily's debut. I found Foundations charming, and the great lyrics only added to the effect. Literally as I'm typing this I've just realised how much the new Chase & Status song End Credits sounds like this...



Ruslana - Wild Dances - 2004

Over to the first Eurovision song in the countdown, Ukraine's second entry to the contest came in 2004 courtesy of their biggest star, the Shakira like tribal oddity Ruslana. The first time I heard this was a couple of months before the contest, before I had heard most of the other songs, and straight away I went and put money on the song to win, I was absolutely blown away by it and it was so different to everything else that it seemed like the obvious victor despite strong opposition from the hugely overrated (in my opinion) Lane Moje from Serbia-Montenegro. The song did triumph and later went on to appear in the popular Grand Theft Auto game on the fictional Vladivostok FM. The only song that she's done since that's caught my attention was the very odd T-Pain collaboration, Moon Of Dreams!!!



Missy Higgins - Steer - 2007

One of my many acquired tastes, Australian singer/songwriter Missy Higgins is one of the biggest stars over there, famed for her distinctive native accent in her singing voice. The Sound of White, her debut album, is one of my favourites of recent years, and the follow up album, Where I Stood, whilst not as good, did have a clutch of excellent songs on it. The album's first single, Steer, was typically uplifting guitar led radio friendly pop and still never fails to make me smile when I hear it.

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