Return of The International Pop War. Ian at Bleeding Ears has brought back the feature that inspired the Freaky Trigger anti-Charlotte Raven comparison of the charts of 2000 and 1981 here . OVer the next couple of weeks he will be taking the UK and US charts to task to see which is better. And – three days in – the UK is winning 2-1, huzzah! There is something particular unsatisfying about the Top 40 best selling records of the year list which Ian has decided to base his one on one death match on. It will unfortunately miss out much of the novelty and one week wonders of the UK charts. But the project is as arbitrary as any similar kind of exercise, really does not mean anything and is subject to the vagaries of taste. All this does not stop it from being excellent reading.
That said I already want to call a stewards enquiry on the Janet vs Crazy Town bitch fight. He may well be right about the crystilline qualities of the Janet record but Crazy Town. “Come my lady, come come my lady” is a lyrical treat which will stay with me to the end of time. And not just because of a certain karaoke rendition. Still to have the UK winning 3-0 at such an early stage would probably remove some of the excitement. Go UK!