Underappreciated songs of the current millenium
Mar 16, 2004 15:28:56 GMT -5
Post by SyrupBoy on Mar 16, 2004 15:28:56 GMT -5
The recent topic about what does and doesn't consitute "good" music (along with the mention of the latest Strokes single) got me thinking about some examples of alternative songs that I think would've been massive hits on the format in a perfect world. That is, a world where alternative radio still plays mostly alternative music. Looking at this week's R&R chart, I would consider only about half of the top 20 to fit this category, which is pretty pathetic. So here's a narrowed down list (in no particular order) of 15 songs that I think got the shaft since 2000, the year I really started paying attention to the decline of the format's quality. At the very least, this will give some of you a sense of what my tastes are so you can better understand my asinine assertions in the future.
Peak figures are Billboard, since I don't have access to the R&R archives.
1) Dandy Warhols - 'Bohemian Like You'
Peak: #28
This song became massive over in the UK after it was used in the promotional campaign for some kind of communications field. Maybe cell phones, I don't really remember. Here it barely managed to crack the top 30, which is a shame because this is one of the smartest, catchiest songs I've ever heard from an alternative artist. By all means, this is the song that should've made the Dandys huge in the US. If The Darkness can approach the top ten with their current foolishness, why not this? And these guys are homegrown too.
2) Stabbing Westward - 'So Far Away'
Peak: #21
These guys made a few unimpressive albums that got them panned by critics for aping NIN, and I guess that's true to an extent. This song, however, is the best single they came up with, and transcends all of that. I especially love the filtered guitar in the forefront. My local alt station that I usually rave about never even added this to their playlist, despite playing everything else SW ever released. Baffling.
3) Bush - 'Warm Machine'
Peak: #38
This is my favorite example of how the format likes to crap on new songs by its favorite gold artists. The first two singles from the Science Of Things album did really well, both going top 5. It was a natural prediction then that Warm Machine would follow suit, seeing as how it's the best of the three. I'll go a step further and say I personally believe this is Bush's best single to date. I must've been asleep the week this cracked the top 40, because I don't remember it.
4) A Perfect Circle - '3 Libras'
Peak: #12
Yeah, #12 is a fairly decent hit, but this one is puzzling to me because 'Judith' was massive, and it seems like '3 Libras' is even more radio friendly. It was the one that caught my ear at least. And yet the debut single from the new album, which is basically a copy of 3 Libras without the melody, went unimpeded to #1.
5) Filter - 'The Best Things'
Peak: #18
A hell of a lot more alternative than 'Take A Picture', and a hell of a lot better too in my opinion. Plus the video featured Kirsten Dunst! What more do you need??
6) BT - 'Shame'
Peak: DNC
I liked 'Never Gonna Come Back Down', which did respectable in the charts, but didn't really take notice of BT until I heard this track. I believe I heard this on radio a total of four times, and it's stuck with me ever since. A stunning, concise example of what BT does best. It was an official radio single, but did any station besides WBTZ actually play this? Maybe he was considered "too british", despite the fact that he's from Washington DC.
7) Matthew Good Band - 'Hello Time Bomb'
Peak: #34
This was supposed to be the single that broke MGB in the states. I think we all know how that turned out. I like 'Carmelina' from the last album better, but I don't think that even was a single. Poor Canadians....although Simple Plan had no problem conquering the US! Go figure.
8) Muse - 'Muscle Museum' & 'Plug In Baby'
Peak: DNC
Take your pick. Both are brilliant, catchy, and made for radio. And both bombed. I hope 'Time Is Running Out' can reverse their bad fortune over here, but part of me remains pessimistic.
9) Harvey Danger - 'Sad Sweetheart Of The Rodeo'
Peak: #27
This is my favorite song on this list. Similar to 'Bohemian Like You', it does everything right. Witty lyrics, outstanding hook, fractured riffs, and I especially love the little organ solo at the beginning. I actually heard this on WEQX the other day, which surprised me a bit since I previously hadn't heard it on the radio in over 3 years. I guess Harvey Danger will be forever considered a one-hit wonder, undeservedly.
10) Radiohead - 'I Might Be Wrong'
Peak: #27
Not the most radio friendly track, I'll admit, but the hypocrisy here is striking. Radiohead's difficult newer material has been hyped to the point where their last three albums have entered the charts at #1, 2, 3 respectively, and yet this #27 modern rock placing is the best support radio can give one of the lead singles. The followup, 'Knives Out', was more radio-friendly, and that one didn't chart at all.
11) Oasis - 'Stop Crying Your Heart Out'
Peak: DNC
I remember reading a best of 2002 rundown in Spin magazine that included this track, followed by the question of why it bombed here and the remark "Wake up, kids! Do you really wanna hear Nickelback at your friggin' prom?" It made me laugh, but hey Spin, did they really have a chance to decide otherwise? I can count the number of reporting stations that played this amazing song on my fingers. Maybe even one hand.
12) The Strokes - 'Hard To Explain'
Peak: #27
'Last Nite' was pretty cool, 'Someday' was also pretty cool and also strikingly similar to 'Last Nite', but 'Hard To Explain' tops both of them. It's got something few Strokes songs can boast - an original sound. And I guess that's also why it failed at radio.
13) Doves - 'Caught By The River'
Peak: DNC
WBTZ loved this track, as they have all the other Doves singles, so much that they played the 6 minute album version in regular rotation. For the rest of the country, there was a nice little 4 minute radio edit that got ignored....even though they made an appearance on Letterman to promote it. This is Doves' "Champagne Supernova", and I guess that means it's about seven years outdated. A damn shame.
14) Blur - 'Crazy Beat'
Peak: #22
That peak is deceiving, because I can only think of a handful of songs that raced up the charts and then fell off the radar as quickly as this one did. About a month after it peaked, no one was playing it. I think I noticed that it received 1 whole spin last week. It's amazing that a song with Clash influences and Norman Cook production can work so well, which this one does, but even more amazing that hardly anyone cared.
15) Bleu - 'Get Up'
Peak: DNC
This one is tied with Guster's 'Amsterdam' as the catchiest single of 2003 on my list. I expected Strokes-like success from this song at the very least. Sigh.
Honorable mentions go to the following: REM 'Bad Day', Eve 6 'At Least We're Dreaming', The Flaming Lips 'Do You Realize??', Guster 'Amsterdam', Soundtrack Of Our Lives 'Sister Surround', Cave In 'Anchor', Depeche Mode 'Freelove', Bush 'Headful Of Ghosts', Green Day 'Poprocks & Coke', Silverchair 'The Greatest View', Our Lady Peace 'Life', Stereophonics 'Mr. Writer', Spacehog 'I Want To Live', Grandaddy 'The Crystal Lake', Elliott Smith 'Son Of Sam', Fiona Apple 'Fast As You Can', Foo Fighters 'Stacked Actors', Chris Cornell 'Preaching The End Of The World'.
Thoughts, flames, and solicitations welcome.
Peak figures are Billboard, since I don't have access to the R&R archives.
1) Dandy Warhols - 'Bohemian Like You'
Peak: #28
This song became massive over in the UK after it was used in the promotional campaign for some kind of communications field. Maybe cell phones, I don't really remember. Here it barely managed to crack the top 30, which is a shame because this is one of the smartest, catchiest songs I've ever heard from an alternative artist. By all means, this is the song that should've made the Dandys huge in the US. If The Darkness can approach the top ten with their current foolishness, why not this? And these guys are homegrown too.
2) Stabbing Westward - 'So Far Away'
Peak: #21
These guys made a few unimpressive albums that got them panned by critics for aping NIN, and I guess that's true to an extent. This song, however, is the best single they came up with, and transcends all of that. I especially love the filtered guitar in the forefront. My local alt station that I usually rave about never even added this to their playlist, despite playing everything else SW ever released. Baffling.
3) Bush - 'Warm Machine'
Peak: #38
This is my favorite example of how the format likes to crap on new songs by its favorite gold artists. The first two singles from the Science Of Things album did really well, both going top 5. It was a natural prediction then that Warm Machine would follow suit, seeing as how it's the best of the three. I'll go a step further and say I personally believe this is Bush's best single to date. I must've been asleep the week this cracked the top 40, because I don't remember it.
4) A Perfect Circle - '3 Libras'
Peak: #12
Yeah, #12 is a fairly decent hit, but this one is puzzling to me because 'Judith' was massive, and it seems like '3 Libras' is even more radio friendly. It was the one that caught my ear at least. And yet the debut single from the new album, which is basically a copy of 3 Libras without the melody, went unimpeded to #1.
5) Filter - 'The Best Things'
Peak: #18
A hell of a lot more alternative than 'Take A Picture', and a hell of a lot better too in my opinion. Plus the video featured Kirsten Dunst! What more do you need??
6) BT - 'Shame'
Peak: DNC
I liked 'Never Gonna Come Back Down', which did respectable in the charts, but didn't really take notice of BT until I heard this track. I believe I heard this on radio a total of four times, and it's stuck with me ever since. A stunning, concise example of what BT does best. It was an official radio single, but did any station besides WBTZ actually play this? Maybe he was considered "too british", despite the fact that he's from Washington DC.
7) Matthew Good Band - 'Hello Time Bomb'
Peak: #34
This was supposed to be the single that broke MGB in the states. I think we all know how that turned out. I like 'Carmelina' from the last album better, but I don't think that even was a single. Poor Canadians....although Simple Plan had no problem conquering the US! Go figure.
8) Muse - 'Muscle Museum' & 'Plug In Baby'
Peak: DNC
Take your pick. Both are brilliant, catchy, and made for radio. And both bombed. I hope 'Time Is Running Out' can reverse their bad fortune over here, but part of me remains pessimistic.
9) Harvey Danger - 'Sad Sweetheart Of The Rodeo'
Peak: #27
This is my favorite song on this list. Similar to 'Bohemian Like You', it does everything right. Witty lyrics, outstanding hook, fractured riffs, and I especially love the little organ solo at the beginning. I actually heard this on WEQX the other day, which surprised me a bit since I previously hadn't heard it on the radio in over 3 years. I guess Harvey Danger will be forever considered a one-hit wonder, undeservedly.
10) Radiohead - 'I Might Be Wrong'
Peak: #27
Not the most radio friendly track, I'll admit, but the hypocrisy here is striking. Radiohead's difficult newer material has been hyped to the point where their last three albums have entered the charts at #1, 2, 3 respectively, and yet this #27 modern rock placing is the best support radio can give one of the lead singles. The followup, 'Knives Out', was more radio-friendly, and that one didn't chart at all.
11) Oasis - 'Stop Crying Your Heart Out'
Peak: DNC
I remember reading a best of 2002 rundown in Spin magazine that included this track, followed by the question of why it bombed here and the remark "Wake up, kids! Do you really wanna hear Nickelback at your friggin' prom?" It made me laugh, but hey Spin, did they really have a chance to decide otherwise? I can count the number of reporting stations that played this amazing song on my fingers. Maybe even one hand.
12) The Strokes - 'Hard To Explain'
Peak: #27
'Last Nite' was pretty cool, 'Someday' was also pretty cool and also strikingly similar to 'Last Nite', but 'Hard To Explain' tops both of them. It's got something few Strokes songs can boast - an original sound. And I guess that's also why it failed at radio.
13) Doves - 'Caught By The River'
Peak: DNC
WBTZ loved this track, as they have all the other Doves singles, so much that they played the 6 minute album version in regular rotation. For the rest of the country, there was a nice little 4 minute radio edit that got ignored....even though they made an appearance on Letterman to promote it. This is Doves' "Champagne Supernova", and I guess that means it's about seven years outdated. A damn shame.
14) Blur - 'Crazy Beat'
Peak: #22
That peak is deceiving, because I can only think of a handful of songs that raced up the charts and then fell off the radar as quickly as this one did. About a month after it peaked, no one was playing it. I think I noticed that it received 1 whole spin last week. It's amazing that a song with Clash influences and Norman Cook production can work so well, which this one does, but even more amazing that hardly anyone cared.
15) Bleu - 'Get Up'
Peak: DNC
This one is tied with Guster's 'Amsterdam' as the catchiest single of 2003 on my list. I expected Strokes-like success from this song at the very least. Sigh.
Honorable mentions go to the following: REM 'Bad Day', Eve 6 'At Least We're Dreaming', The Flaming Lips 'Do You Realize??', Guster 'Amsterdam', Soundtrack Of Our Lives 'Sister Surround', Cave In 'Anchor', Depeche Mode 'Freelove', Bush 'Headful Of Ghosts', Green Day 'Poprocks & Coke', Silverchair 'The Greatest View', Our Lady Peace 'Life', Stereophonics 'Mr. Writer', Spacehog 'I Want To Live', Grandaddy 'The Crystal Lake', Elliott Smith 'Son Of Sam', Fiona Apple 'Fast As You Can', Foo Fighters 'Stacked Actors', Chris Cornell 'Preaching The End Of The World'.
Thoughts, flames, and solicitations welcome.
