No comments on FT blogs anymore, so I have to explain myself a little. TTT’s purpose is to indulge myself and give you some download ideas for those spare file-sharing moments, so a little context won’t be a bad idea.
Sean Paul‘s ‘Like Glue’ is out here in a few weeks; it’s his best pop single though doesn’t quite roll like ‘Get Busy’ did. Baby‘s ‘What Happen To That Boy?’ is pared-down hip-hop with a very creepy brrrrrrr noise. Madonna‘s ‘Gambler’ is a bit of a ‘lost’ single and a great reminder of how exciting she sounded when she started making records. ‘You Said No’ is surely Busted‘s masterpiece, a disco rejection epic with a wonderful chorus.
Tim Finney recommended ‘Sweet To The Belly’, Vybz Kartel‘s Summer heat dancehall antidote. Outkast‘s ‘Hey Ya’ has Dre 3000 going quirk-rock — very infectious. A.R.E. Weapons‘ ‘Hey World’ is my favourite indie record this year — a handclaps’n’synths monster and youth lament that’s at once preposterous and affecting. The Capleton single I downloaded from an ILM recommendation and it’s awesome — Capleton toasting over Marley Marl’s ‘The Symphony’ beat, uplifting stuff.
The Pet Shop Boys you know — ‘Being Boring’ is the elegiac lead-off to their ‘grown-up’ album and wears its 13 years well. Bubba Sparxxx — ‘Deliverance’ was rightly tipped by Jess here — it lures you in with an addictive chorus and then spins you a tall gothic tale of Bubba’s redemption. Eurythmics — ‘There Must Be An Angel’ is simply one of the prettiest records of the 80s. The Darkness — ‘Get Your Hands Off My Woman’ still won’t budge from my brainstem or stereo — eye-popping pop-rock bombast getting the balance between jokey and witty precisely right.