21. Juju – ‘Punks’ / ‘Mogera’
I am still yet to be fully convinced by dubstep, but am in that stage where I can be very definitely impressed by songs from the scene. ‘Punks’ is one such song. There is no skitter-clatter percussion, no wobbly bass, and it’s all the better for it. This is straight ahead dance music (in that you can dance to it, rather than any synonym with house) that takes a satisfying while to kick in and has what sounds like Method Man samples dotted here and there. It’s probably not him, but the fact I think it is speaks well for it. I really need to hear the new Appleblim release. ‘Mogera’ is less eventful, but I guess the android voice getting dragged through an electric hedge is pretty cool.
22. Trivium – 'The Rising'
OK. I had been alternately ignoring and hating this band for the last few years, but something happened; something so wrong that it had to be right. I blame getting digital cable, and the likes of the Kerrap! channel exposing me to them, but I am softening in my stance towards this band. ‘The Rising’ is something I should hate: retro metal that, rather than improving on the likes of Metallica and Anthrax, just isn’t as good. It’s catchy, though, and the riffs have that Black Album swagger to them (not to mention a fine Hetfield impression), mixed with a bit of Danzig faux-darkness. In fact, he reminds me a bit of a ‘Hetfig’ kinda figure. Jury’s out on this one.
23. Björk – ‘Earth Intruders’
Rate Your Music tells me this was a single, but Amazon doesn’t seem to have it (and RYM tells me there have been three singles off Volta thus far). Wikipedia tells me it reached number seventy-eight in the UK charts, which can probably attributed to the fact, like Outkast’s ‘Ghettomusick’ in 2003, nobody knew it was out. Anyway, the song itself is quality, with one of those off kilter but still poppy choruses The Knife seemed at one point to have made their own. This is one of many Timbaland-produced singles that will turn up somewhere in this list in 2007, but it’s likely to be the highest on account of it’s far and away the oddest, and we all know Timbaland excels when he takes a stroll off the tracken beats. Err, did that work? I think not.
24. Three 6 Mafia feat. Chamillionaire – 'Doe Boy Fre$h'
This takes me back to the nineties; what a great epic sample this has. Nicely urgent rap tune with those high frequency ‘I Got 5 on it’ tintinnabulations and that Max Headroom stammer that helped ‘Stay Fly’ become one of the better rap songs of 2005. You know when you and the boyz are out on a mission, and you haven’t been there before? That sweaty palms, what’s-going-to-go-wrong feeling? Then you turn to the other side of the back seat, and you got a homie with you? No, neither do I, but when it comes to street life tunes, Chamillionaire’s voice has that kind of flinty but warm reassurance to it.
25. Nine Inch Nails – ‘Survivalism’
This is a strange one. At first, it seemed as though the man Reznor was rather stuck in a rut: there is no mistaking who this is, as the signature electro-guitars carve his niche that bit deeper. As the song goes on, though, I am reminded of ‘Do Something’ by none other than Britney. Not that this sounds anything like this song (it doesn’t) but because, like the Britney tune, it sounds like the artist gone weird, and that’s really the only way I can put it. This is far from his best single ever, but it may well be his most off-kilter. The hook sounds slightly out of time, the song lacks the grandeur of a ‘We’re in This Together’… it’s just a tad too reminiscent of ‘The Perfect Drug’, sans exquisite piano movement.
26. Bill Callahan – ‘Diamond Dancer’
I never listened to enough Smog back in the day. I should have, as I remember being really impressed when the rude Selectadisc glasses man in Nottingham told me the great music I was listening to was none other. So Bill has ditched the [smog] name and gone out under his own, and I like this. A cursory listen to the album failed to thrill, but this suggests I give it more goes. ‘She was dancing so hard / she danced herself into a diamond’ is a great line, and Callahan’s voice is just weighty and world-worn to make it work. He sounds like a cowboy version of Richard Hawley. The backing is a tad stodgy and samey, and there is a faint aroma of 70s MOR about it, but the quality is there.
