SWSL Top 20 Singles Of 2004

From The Futureheads to The Fiery Furnaces, Graham Coxon to Nick Cave, 2004 has been another vintage year for the humble single format.

First of all, the honourable mentions:

ABERFELDY - ‘Heliopolis By Night’
BASEMENT JAXX - ‘Plug Me In’
BEASTIE BOYS - ‘Ch-Ch-Check It Out’
GRAHAM COXON - ‘Bittersweet Bundle Of Misery’
THE DEAD 60S - ‘Riot Radio’
FRANZ FERDINAND - ‘Matinee’ / ‘This Fire’
THE FUTUREHEADS - ‘Meantime’
GIRLS ALOUD - ‘The Show’
GOLDIE LOOKIN CHAIN - ‘Guns Don’t Kill People, Rappers Do’
GREEN DAY - ‘American Idiot’
PJ HARVEY - ‘Shame’
THE HIVES - ‘Two Timing Touch And Broken Bones’
THE ICARUS LINE - ‘Party The Baby Off’
IKARA COLT - ‘Wanna Be That Way’
KELIS FEAT ANDRE 3000 - ‘Millionaire’
THE MARS VOLTA - ‘Televators’ EP
MAXIMO PARK - ‘The Coast Is Always Changing’ / ‘The Night I Lost My Head’ (double A-side)
MUSE - ‘Butterflies And Hurricanes’
N*E*R*D - ‘She Wants To Move’
OUTKAST - ‘Roses’
PRODIGY - ‘Girls’
SCISSOR SISTERS - ‘Take Your Mama Out’ / ‘Mary’ / ‘Laura’
THE SHINS - ‘Fighting In A Sack’ / ‘So Says I’
SONS & DAUGHTERS - ‘Johnny Cash’
THE STILLS - ‘Still In Love Song’
THE STROKES - ‘Reptilia’ / ‘The End Has No End’
TV ON THE RADIO - ‘Staring At The Sun’
USHER - ‘Yeah’
WILCO - ‘Spiders (Kidsmoke)’
YOURCODENAMEIS: MILO - ‘Schteeve’
THE ZUTONS - ‘Don’t Ever Think’

And now for the official countdown…

20. SCISSOR SISTERS - ‘Comfortably Numb’
2004 was barely a couple of weeks old when Scissor Sisters shoved a big gay cock up the arse of mainstream pop and spunked out this gem of a cover. A gleeful middle finger to comfortably numb po-faced Mojo-reading Floyd fans everywhere.

19. THE FUTUREHEADS - ‘Decent Days And Nights’
Like Scissor Sisters, spunky - only not in the same “mop it up with a Kleenex” kinda sense. Perhaps not quite as deliriously potent as ‘First Day’ or ‘Carnival Kids’ (the lead track on last year’s ‘1-2-3 Nul!’ EP), but a 2004 highlight nonetheless.

18. FRANZ FERDINAND - ‘Michael’
Indie disco dancefloor thrills courtesy of the latest band to be labelled Glasgow’s finest. More hip-shaking and homoeroticism. If brazenly heterosexual rock means Jet, then I’ll take this anytime.

17. PJ HARVEY - ‘The Letter’
A timely reminder that Polly Jean’s voice is still one of the most bewitching and beguiling around. She could seduce statues.

16. THE STREETS - ‘Blinded By The Lights’
No pretence, no posturing, a vivid portrait of Britain in 2004- this is the urban chronicler Skinner’s kitchen-sink garage at its finest, music utterly of its time in the best possible sense.

15. THE LIBERTINES - ‘Can’t Stand Me Now’
The Libertines have always been a complete mess, and break-ups are always messy - but rarely is it this enjoyable to hear the process on record. All the same, they’re not the messiahs, just a couple of very naughty boys - well, one of them in particular.

14. KELIS - ‘Milkshake’
Jaw-droppingly original pop beamed in from another planet. Still not sure what it’s all about, but it sounds positively filthy. Cold shower for one, please!

13. NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS - ‘Nature Boy’
As delightful as it was unexpected. Neither featherlight ballad nor blood-and-guts melodrama, ‘Nature Boy’ is a Bargeld-less Bad Seeds trying their hand at a charmingly breezy pop song, albeit one about “routine atrocity”. And it wasn’t even the best Nick Cave single of the year…

12. THE FIERY FURNACES - ‘Single Again’
Traditional song meets The Fiery Furnaces. With predictably unpredictable but thoroughly pleasing consequences. And a lot of electro squelching.

11. THE WALKMEN - ‘The Rat’
“You’ve got a nerve” - who has? The Strokes, for daring to release singles far inferior to ‘The Rat’ and yet undeservedly laud it over their NYC brethren? Tense, nervous, agitated, insistent and angry.

10. THE RADIO DEPT - ‘Why Won’t You Talk About It?’
Listening to this is the equivalent of putting on a thick oversized fluffy jumper knitted entirely out of the strands of feedback and fuzz from The Jesus & Mary Chain’s Psychocandy. If you’re a regular visitor to this site, then you’ll know this must categorically be A Good Thing.

9. GRAHAM COXON - ‘Freakin Out’
Brattish, nihilistic, solipsistic, agoraphobic gutter-punk of the highest order. Does anyone else have difficulty believing that this man had a hand in writing ‘Country House’?

8. RACHEL STEVENS - ‘Some Girls’
No, no, no, no, NO! What were you thinking of, Ms Stevens?! And you, Mr X?! Don’t you know that Comic Relief singles are supposed to be shit, and not lip-smackingly splendid electro-pop!

7. INTERPOL - ‘Slow Hands’
No more lurking in the shadows for Paul Banks and company. ‘Slow Hands’ was a bold and strident step into the light.

6. MORRISSEY - ‘First Of The Gang To Die’
So, what’s all the fuss about this Morrissey character, then? Ah, NOW I see… It’s difficult to say whether even a totally cleaned-up Pete Doherty would constitute a more remarkable rehabilitation than this.

5. THE ICARUS LINE - ‘Up Against The Wall Motherfuckers’
One of those songs where the title says it all, really. The bassline is as ugly as sin (think Lemmy and Ann Widdecombe’s lovechild) and the whole thing’s as blunt and brutal as getting repeatedly struck in the face with a car jack. As they say - no pain, no gain.

4. NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS - ‘Breathless’ / ‘There She Goes, My Beautiful World’ (double A-side)
Forget ‘Breathless’, as gorgeous as it is - this was all about the Abattoir Blues track it was paired with. A majestically tempestuous and tumultuous triumph, and most probably the only single released this year to make reference to both Nabokov and Johnny Thunders.

3. KELIS - ‘Trick Me’
Delectably minimalist r ‘n’ b that fast grew into the biggest fattest burrowing earworm of the year. About dirty low-down no-good men and their deceiving ways and not about magicians, sadly - but most definitely magic.

2. BRITNEY SPEARS - ‘Toxic’
Postmodern bricolage par excellence or just a bloody marvellous pop song? Does it really matter? Ubiquity did nothing to dull its dazzling sheen.

1. FRANZ FERDINAND - ‘Take Me Out’
Even when nominally writing about Franz Ferdinand’s ‘Darts Of Pleasure’ for last year’s list, I couldn’t help drifting off and talking about ‘Take Me Out’, earmarking it as a frontrunner for this year’s top spot. Well, here we are, and here it is. Absolutely nothing’s changed since then, except for the passing of twelve months of inferior singles releases. Still a glorious marriage of arty Strokes new-wave and fringe-waggling disco stomp a la Blondie, and without a doubt my favourite single of the year.

A reminder of the SWSL Top 20 Singles Of 2003:

1. JOHNNY CASH - ‘Hurt’
2. THE RAVEONETTES - ‘That Great Love Sound’
3. BEYONCE FEAT JAY-Z - ‘Crazy In Love’
4. MICHAEL ANDREWS AND GARY JULES - ‘Mad World’
5. THE DELGADOS - ‘Hate’
6. ELECTRIC SIX - ‘Gay Bar’
7. JANE’S ADDICTION - ‘Just Because’
8. MEW - ‘Comforting Sounds’
9. THE WHITE STRIPES - ‘7 Nation Army’
10. OUTKAST - ‘Hey Ya!’
11. INTERPOL - ‘Say Hello To The Angels’ / ‘NYC’
12. THE DARKNESS - ‘Growing On Me’
13. YEAH YEAH YEAHS - ‘Date With The Night’
14. THE STROKES - ’12:51’
15. THE FUTUREHEADS - ‘1 2 3 Nul!’ EP
16. FRANZ FERDINAND - ‘Darts Of Pleasure’
17. RADIOHEAD - ‘There There’
18. HOT HOT HEAT - ‘Bandages’
19. THE RAPTURE - ‘House Of Jealous Lovers’
20. THE CORAL - ‘Pass It On’