The JAMMS – It’s Grim Up North (Part 1)
N. says
This record is ten minutes long (exactly). On it, Bill Drummond reads out the names of (approximately) 70 towns in Northern England over a beserk techno backing, containing bursts of train s[…]

Jimmy Cliff – “Many Rivers To Cross”
A conversation I had about Many Rivers To Cross today.
Me: Have you got a copy of Many Rivers To Cross by Jimmy Cliff.
Her: Yes. It’s great.
Me: You couldn’t play it down the phone to[…]

Orange Juice – “Rip It Up”
Edwyn Collins and company fake the funk. What’s so appealing about Orange Juice (and Dexy’s, and ABC) is the “let’s pretend” element – they know they’re not a &#82[…]

THE FT TOP 100 SONGS
84. Pulp – “Babies”
The genius of “Babies” is that the harder you try to make sense of the story the less sense the song seems to make: and the more you think about the song the less the story matter[…]

THE FT TOP 100 SONGS
85. Teddybears STHLM ft Mad Cobra – “Cobrastyle”
If I was a real music journalist I would look forward most to the part of the job where you make up new genres! I think I would make up a genre which would includ[…]

THE FT TOP 100 SONGS
86. Janet Kay – “Silly Games”
What Humans Hear:
Ah, that’s a nice and gentle little bit of reggae. Oh and what a sweet voice. A bit high but – oh – she’s not happy. What a wistful way wit[…]

THE FT TOP 100 SONGS
87. Roxy Music – “Virginia Plain”
Here’s a parlour game: take a famous debut single and imagine what you’d think of it if that act had released nothing else, ever. Roxy Music’s arch travelogue […]

THE FT TOP 100 SONGS
88. Subway Sect – “Ambition”
Sarah says
What’s the matter, Vic? “I don’t write any words you get in rock songs…I like those words – that seem out of place in a rock song.” It&[…]

THE FT TOP 100 SONGS
89. REEL 2 REEL feat THE MAD STUNTMAN – “I Like To Move It”
This had a previous life as “Jazz It Up” by the Erick Morillo Project, a funky disco-house number which no doubt kept many a party rollin&#[…]

THE FT TOP 100 SONGS
89.5 Skeletal Family – “Promised Land”
The first of more than forty goth records in the top 100, this track was unanimously agreed upon by everyone at Freaky Trigger in some pub around Christmas. Two even sporte[…]