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| SHE BETTER WIN. HER TASTE IN MUSIC IS BETTER. AND SHE IS NOT A MADMAN. |
Consider the list below, and disagree with the statement IN THIS LIST YOU CAN SELECT 10 OF THE GREATEST MUSICAL ACTS SINCE 1966 FROM POP TO INDIE TO NEW WAVE TO ROCK TO R N B TO DANCE TO TOP 40. Ridiculously, each of these artists has made a fine work this year - either a song, or a collaboration or an album, or in the case of Beyoncé, a masterpiece of film and music, Lemonade.
ABC
ALICIA KEYS
BARY GIBB
BECK
BEYONCE
BOB DYLAN
BON IVER
BRITNEY SPEARS
CHEAP TRICK
DAVID BOWIE
DRAKE
FOY VANCE
FRANZ FERDINAND
GARBAGE
GWEN STEFANI
HUGH CORNWELL
IGGY POP
JEAN-MICHEL JARRE
FEAT. GARY NUMAN
KINGS OF LEON
LADY GAGA
LEONARD COHEN
MADNESS
MASSIVE ATTACK
FEAT. HOPE SANDOVAL
METALLICA
NICK CAVE &
THE BAD SEEDS
PAUL SIMON
PET SHOP BOYS
PIXIES
PJ HARVEY
PRIMAL SCREAM
RADIOHEAD
RED HOT CHILLI
PEPPERS
RICHARD ASHCROFT
RICK ASTLEY
RIHANNA
ROLLING STONES
STING
SUEDE
TEGAN AND SARA
THE BEAT
THE CULT
THE MONKEES
THE STONE ROSES
TINDERSTICKS
TRICKY
VIOLENT FEMMES
WEEZER
WIRE
YEASAYER
YOKO ONO
1. 'Female Vampire' - Jenny Hval
A disturbing dream pop tune that is compellingly gothic and contemporary, and somehow troublingly beautiful.
2, 'Avoid The Obvious' - The Beat feat. Ranking Roger
Ska is the universal music of simple joys, complex implications, and this new track is as welcome as sun in Notting Hill on a Saturday morning. Delightful.
3. 'Do You Want To Come Over?' - Britney Spears
Sometimes mocked, she CAN BE better than Gaga, and when she does silly-sexy as in this witty, raunchy song, she knocks the ball out of the, uhm, bedroom.
4. 'I Can't Help Thinking About You' - Sting
Sounding like it was 1986, and the Police were still intact, this is a great return to form.
5. 'Oona' - Pixies
The Pixies new album, if by anyone else, would be considered great - but they labour under the same curse as Orson Welles - their first work was of genius, so the new dims unfavourably in comparison; in time this will rank as one of their best, with all the creepy rock and end of times stuff that entails.
6. 'The Spoils' - Massive Attack, Hope Sandoval
The most atmospheric, most haunting, most achingly beautiful dream pop/ chill out track of the year. Major.
7. 'You Want It Darker' - Leonard Cohen
At 82, the Master Voice has penned perhaps his wryest, Donne-darkest lyric. A great song with rich symbolic meaning.
8. 'This Pleasure Needs Pain (Unsympathy)' - Ada
No idea who these people are, but this is a hugely thrilling dance track with ominous BDSM tropes torn from the Depeche Mode playbook - fun and a bit tempting.
9. 'Be Like You Belong' - Foy Vance
A monumentally noble singer-songwriter moment, that sounds like a credo, like an ars poetica, a confession.
10. 'End Of An Era' - Public Access TV
A great garage song, sad in its way, with the line of the year - "they say the kids don't like rock and roll anymore" - get ready to hear about these kids as the "new Strokes".
11. 'Rings of Saturn' - Nick Drake & The Bad Seeds
As black, fine, and brutal as a garrotte made of a funnel web's worst wire, this is one of the best love-death songs ever written, by one of indie rock's broken kings.
12. 'Diamond Heart' - Lady Gaga
I may not be flawless but you know I got a diamond heart... pure Americana pop. Wonderful tough sexy proud stuff.
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