Presenting the first of many random, pointless and infuriatingly arbitrary 2003 Awards of my own: Biggest Drop-Off In Quality Between Consecutive Singles 2003. I can't be arsed to put these in order, so here are our three winners...
Electric Six: 'Danger! High Voltage!' > 'Gay Bar'
The Darkness: 'I Believe In A Thing Called Love' > 'Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)'
These are pretty similar really: in the first songs, I detected a genuine love and talent for the genre which it was widely assumed the bands intended merely to pastiche. I don't give a damn what anyone else says: 'Danger! High Voltage!' is a disco tune to me, because it makes me dance. Similarly, with its swooping melodies, smart lyrics and crazed, ultra-passionate falsetto, 'I Believe...' is as good a love song as I've heard this year. Yes, it's silly - that's why it works, silly. Because it captures so well the hysterical, happy daftness that characterizes being in love.
Sadly, both these songs, which are easily in my top 25 singles of the year, were followed by singles that seemed to prove that the bands' critics were right: they are joke bands, they are just being ironic. I'm not saying that's my verdict, I'm just saying that's the conclusion one would reach on the basis of 'Gay Bar' and 'Christmas Time' alone. Neither is devoid of a catchy tune, but yuck, the knowingness of it all. And yuck to the locker room humour.
(Mind you, having changed my mind about 'Gay Bar' roughly four times this year, I reserve the right to do so again.)
The White Stripes: 'Seven Nation Army' > 'I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself'
To be honest I don't even think 'Seven Nation Army' is that great. But I can't deny that it's a half-decent, hummable tune, with a couple of really nice moments (falsetto again). I wish I could deny it, actually, not just because Jack White is almost definitely a cock, but because 'I Just...' is so staggeringly bad, and it's easier to have a consistent opinion of a band's output in a year. Cuz 'The Hardest Button To Button' = just blah, really. Like eating a piece of dry wholemeal bread that's a bit stale.
Which is kinda how I feel about The White Stripes circa 2003 full stop. So many boring rock mags are picking Elephant as their album of the year. It makes me suspect that I was right to dismiss it after a brief initial listen, but I wanna ask: is there anything on this record that matches the joyous pop fizz of 'Hotel Yorba' or 'Fell In Love With A Girl', or the sense of fun of something like 'Little Room' or 'I Think I Smell A Rat'? Have I got it wrong, does Elephant have redeeming features? Because to be honest, I keep forgetting that I actually like about half of White Blood Cells a whole lot. Yes, I'm reacting badly to media hype, something I keep telling other people off for. But I'm finding it harder to be a White Stripes unhater every day...
Electric Six: 'Danger! High Voltage!' > 'Gay Bar'
The Darkness: 'I Believe In A Thing Called Love' > 'Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)'
These are pretty similar really: in the first songs, I detected a genuine love and talent for the genre which it was widely assumed the bands intended merely to pastiche. I don't give a damn what anyone else says: 'Danger! High Voltage!' is a disco tune to me, because it makes me dance. Similarly, with its swooping melodies, smart lyrics and crazed, ultra-passionate falsetto, 'I Believe...' is as good a love song as I've heard this year. Yes, it's silly - that's why it works, silly. Because it captures so well the hysterical, happy daftness that characterizes being in love.
Sadly, both these songs, which are easily in my top 25 singles of the year, were followed by singles that seemed to prove that the bands' critics were right: they are joke bands, they are just being ironic. I'm not saying that's my verdict, I'm just saying that's the conclusion one would reach on the basis of 'Gay Bar' and 'Christmas Time' alone. Neither is devoid of a catchy tune, but yuck, the knowingness of it all. And yuck to the locker room humour.
(Mind you, having changed my mind about 'Gay Bar' roughly four times this year, I reserve the right to do so again.)
The White Stripes: 'Seven Nation Army' > 'I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself'
To be honest I don't even think 'Seven Nation Army' is that great. But I can't deny that it's a half-decent, hummable tune, with a couple of really nice moments (falsetto again). I wish I could deny it, actually, not just because Jack White is almost definitely a cock, but because 'I Just...' is so staggeringly bad, and it's easier to have a consistent opinion of a band's output in a year. Cuz 'The Hardest Button To Button' = just blah, really. Like eating a piece of dry wholemeal bread that's a bit stale.
Which is kinda how I feel about The White Stripes circa 2003 full stop. So many boring rock mags are picking Elephant as their album of the year. It makes me suspect that I was right to dismiss it after a brief initial listen, but I wanna ask: is there anything on this record that matches the joyous pop fizz of 'Hotel Yorba' or 'Fell In Love With A Girl', or the sense of fun of something like 'Little Room' or 'I Think I Smell A Rat'? Have I got it wrong, does Elephant have redeeming features? Because to be honest, I keep forgetting that I actually like about half of White Blood Cells a whole lot. Yes, I'm reacting badly to media hype, something I keep telling other people off for. But I'm finding it harder to be a White Stripes unhater every day...
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