Hits 21 - 2000 (7): Modjo, Mariah Carey & Westlife, All Saints, U2, Steps

Episode Date: August 28, 2022

Hello again, everyone, and welcome back to Hits 21, the show that's taking a look back at every UK #1 hit single of the 21st century - from January 2000, right through to the present day. Twitter: @Hits21UK Email: [e-mail] Lady (Hear Me Tonight) - Modjo Against All Odds - Mariah Carey & Westlife Black Coffee - All Saints Beautiful Day - U2 Stomp - Steps

Hits 21 Alright there everyone and welcome back to Hits 21. Thank you for waiting for us. First of all, it's been a couple of weeks since we last put an episode out. So, thank you for coming back. So, Hits 21 is where me, Rob. Me, Andy. And me, Lizzie. Look back at every single UK number one of the 21st century from January 2000 right through to the present day.

If you want to get in touch with us, you can find us over on Twitter. We are at Hits21UK. That is at Hits21UK. And you can also email us as well. Just send it on over to Hits21Podcast at gmail.com. Thank you so much for joining us again. Just like our previous episodes, we're going to be taking a look at five UK number one singles from the year 2000. This week, we're going to be covering the period between the 10th of September through to the 28th of October of the year 2000. But before we get going, you know, normally I ask Andy and Lizzie how you both are.

I'm sure you're both doing okay, but we had a strange email come in this week to the hits21podcast at gmail.com to inform us of some rather interesting stats that we weren't aware of. So we just want to give a big shout out to everybody in Slovenia and everybody in Hungary. Not everybody. Not everybody in Slovenia.

Like, we're going a bit too far. Yeah, that is a lot of shout outs. But everyone in Slovenia and Hungary who listen to this show and have pushed us to fourth in music commentary podcasts, in the list of music commentary podcasts in Slovenia, and 16th in the music commentary category in Hungary. Wow.

That's just wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. I wish I knew anything in your language that I could say. I'm so sorry. I was about to say, if any of you are listening, thank you. But we know they're listening. That's the very basis of this conversation. So thank you. And it's just from Stockport all the way to Liubliana or Budapest.

Just can't believe that we've made it all the way out there. Does Budapest by George Ezra ever make it to number one? Because that would be nice, wouldn't it? I will have to consult Wikipedia for that. Yes, it would, Lizzie. Absolutely amazing. So, Andy, Lizzie, how are we both? I'm really good, thank you.

I've had a really uneventful two weeks. The only things that have happened, really, is that I've been on really uneventful two weeks the only things that have happened really have been on holiday 10.30 and started a new job so not really much to be honest not much going on there it's been lovely and I have to slightly embarrass Rob here I have to give you a shout out because I got an amazing

birthday present off Rob who who knows as our listeners probably do from a previous episode that I'm a huge Doctor Who fan for reasons that are complex and many you may have heard that Rob and Lizzie do a Game of Thrones podcast

and now turning it into a House of the Dragon podcast as well Rob got invited to the premiere of House of the Dragon and was lovely enough to use his time at the red carpet to get me a birthday message from Matt Smith, which is genuinely one of the most exciting birthday presents I've ever received.

So I wanted to embarrass you and say thank you, Rob. That was wonderful. Oh, well, you know, you're welcome. I mean, I wouldn't have had anything to say to him otherwise, so why not? Yeah. Should have asked him if he was in the 60th anniversary I've heard rumours. Yes

no spoilers. I wouldn't have known to ask him about that but I have heard from yourself there Andy about that. Lizzie how about you? Yeah not much going on with me. I turned 31 a couple of days ago When did you tell us?

I thought you knew. No. I just make assumptions, I guess. But yeah, that's happened. I've also Happy birthday, Lizzie. Thank you. And I've been in touch with both of you this week because I've noticed that certain songs are starting to follow me around.

Like, It Feels So Good by Cynique has popped up no fewer than three times in the last week or so. I had that last week as well. I had Soneek in a taxi. It came on, a taxi driver put Soneek on. It's always Soneek. Why Soneek? I'm not complaining.

It's a really good song. But there was that moment where I was at the dentist and had to like stifle laughter because it popped up again i was um walking down the street i've um spent a week a couple of weeks ago i spent a week in in london for my for my partner's sister's wedding and i was walking down the street near burnt oak tube station in edgeware in london and seven days was playing out of a shop radio and then at the actual wedding reception about four or five days later the dj played seven days by craig david so that's been following me around i was in asda about three weeks ago when i heard seven Days again while I was shopping, which wouldn't have shocked me that much because I guess, you know...

Were you surprised? Oh, no. And I didn't mind either because it is, you know, it's a number one single, so I kind of understand, like, you know, fair enough. But then immediately after it was Life is a Rollercoaster by Rhoda Keating that was being played in Asda as well so I guess it's just the nature of them being number one singles that they still

get played up to today but yeah they're all big Hits 21 fans they've just come back from Slovenia and it's on all the radio stations over there it's on all the billboards and all the buses Our likenesses have been stolen, the image rights

that we didn't buy, they've been plastered all over the buses and bus stops and billboards and things like that and we're everywhere If you find Life is a Rollercoaster following you around Rob, just don't fight it Fight it Fight it Well without further ado, we are going to get on to this week's episode Fight it. Fight it. Fight it. Fight it. Fight it.

Well, without further ado, we are going to get on to this week's episode. And as always, we're going to give you a selection of news headlines from around the period that we'll be covering on this week's episode. The 2000 Summer Olympic Games take place in Sydney, Australia. The United States finished the games at the top of the medals table with 93 in total, including 37 golds. Great Britain finished 10th in the medals table with 28 medals overall, including 11 golds, one of which was Sir Steve Redgrave's fifth consecutive gold for rowing. Meanwhile, areas in the counties of Kent, Sussex, Shropshire, Worcestershire and Yorkshire were affected by severe flooding following Hurricane Isaac and Tropical Storm Leslie. The floods were

considered the worst to have occurred in England since 1947 and 20 people died as a result of the extreme weather. 10,000 properties were damaged and the repairs ended up costing a grand total of £1 billion. Meanwhile in London, the old Wembley Stadium hosted its final game, a 1-0 win for Germany over Kevin Keegan's England team. Keegan resigned as manager immediately after the match and was replaced by Sven Goran Eriksson. The stadium was then closed down, demolished and replaced by the new Wembley Stadium, which hosted its first matches in 2007.

And Kevin Keegan came over to Man City shortly after that. That's a bit of an overreaction to a 1-0 loss, isn't it, to demolish the stadium? Just can't look at it every game. It's got the stink of defeat on it. Yeah, a bit typical as well. Can anyone name who scored in that game, by the way? Can I hell? Oh, God.

No. It's Dietmar Hamann. Oh, I do remember that name. Who also went to City, right? Yes, he did a few years later he signed for Bolton and then signed for City about two days afterwards saying oh I didn't fancy playing for Bolton anymore who can blame him

yeah very strange the films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows Me, Myself and Irene, Hollow Man Nutty Professor 2, The Clumps Dinosaur and What Lies lies beneath and the bbc broadcasted the very first episode of my family as fuel protests continue across the uk and begin to

affect motorists and businesses around the country sky news introduces its rolling news ticker providing regular updates and on top of this 24-hour news channels see an increase in viewership around this time. Also around this time, the Slate family make their first appearance in EastEnders as the soap passes its 2000th episode, while Ethel Skinner is killed off in a controversial euthanasia storyline. Meanwhile, Emmerdale begins broadcasting five episodes per week. It would start broadcasting six episodes per week between 2009 and 2020, before going back down to five in 2021.

Okay then, Andy, what's going on in the albums charts? Well, Rob, since you asked, it's it's a mix of familiar faces and some extra little bonus cameos for us first of all we have music by madonna following the single of the same name of course which cruises into number one for two weeks and that's knocked off the top spot by radiohead's much-anticipated Kid A, an album which I don't like. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. For our listeners' benefit, I should tell you that once Rob and my husband went to see Radiohead together, and I did the right thing and stayed at home.

Yeah, you're not keen on Radiohead, are you? To be fair, I don't mind them that much anymore, but Kid A, I really, I really don't like Kid A. It's just... Is it all the discordant and squealing saxophones at the end of the National Anthem that you just... The National Anthem is one of those songs that genuinely makes me angry.

It's like, I'm actually... You've genuinely frustrated me with this piece of what can laughably be called music. Anyway. No, they're not that bad. Anyway, after two weeks at the top from Kid A though, All Saints make it to the big leagues with their album Saints

and Sinners. I think we'll all agree that's well deserved. Something gives me a feeling. Something gives me a feeling we might be talking about All Saints a little bit more very shortly. But then finally, they're knocked off by the greatest hits of Texas. That's the band, not the state.

Their greatest hits, all two or three of them, they take the top spot for a week to see us out. And I really must just talk a little bit more about this before we move on, because out of those albums that i've mentioned there so music by madonna kid a saints and sinners all saints and then greatest hits of texas which of those albums do you think sold the most copies i'm gonna say greatest hits by texas texas yeah yeah absolutely right but isn't that just crazy, first of all, the least highest selling of all of those albums is Kid A, which got one times platinum. That doesn't surprise me.

I just think you would think of them as an album artist, really, wouldn't you? I guess. Saints and Sinners got two times platinum. Music got five times platinum. And then Texas got six times platinum. Wow. Texas outselling Madonna. I know that this is the UK, but that is quite remarkable, I think.

Yes, that's what's happening in the UK this week. Anything more bizarre happening stateside, Lizzie? Well, see what you think. Only two number one singles to cover from this period, one of which we've already discussed on the previous episode. Madonna hit number one with music and stayed there for five weeks, eventually going platinum after selling over a million copies in the US and finishing at number 17 on the year-end Hot 100.

Christina Aguilera would then reach the top spot for four weeks with Come On Over Baby which also went platinum after selling over a million copies and finished at number 38 on the year-end top 100. However, it would only reach number 8 in the UK when it was released over here, just behind Nelly at number 7 and the Tweenies at number 6. Meanwhile, in the US albums charts,

it's a much busier period. LL Cool J's album Goat, greatest of all time, finally ended Nelly's five-week reign at number one and would stay there for one week before being usurped by Madonna's Music. That too would only hold onto the top spot for one week and was followed by one week of Let's Get Ready by Mystical, one week of Kid A by Radiohead, and one week of Rule 3 Get Ready by Mystical, one week of Kid A by Radiohead,

and one week of Rule 336 by Jar Rule. All of these albums would eventually go platinum, except for Goat, which only managed to go gold. Oh, sorry, I've been holding in a laugh this whole time, Lizzie, because the way you said that LL Cool J's Goat got to number one, and I just took that very literally and it really tickles me he just really likes goats alright then, let's get on to the songs for this week and the first one up

is this Thank you. Lady, hear me tonight Cause my feeling is just so right As we dance by the moonlight Can't you see you're my delight Lady, I just feel like I won't get you out of my mind I feel love for the first time And I know that it's true

I can tell by the look in your eyes Okay, this is Lady, Hear Me Tonight by Mojo. Released as Mojo's debut single in the UK, Lady Hear Me Tonight is also the lead single from the group's self-titled debut album, which is also their only album to date. It is their first UK number one and also their last, with follow-up singles Chillin' and What I Mean reaching number 12 and number 59 respectively. Lady Hear Me Tonight went straight in at number one as a new entry knocking A1 off the top spot and staying at number one for two weeks. It sold 89,000 copies in its first week fighting off competition from Sky by Sonique which got to number 2, and It Doesn't Matter by

Wycliffe Jean, which got to number 3. In its second week, it held off competition from On a Night Like This by Kylie Minogue, which got to number 2, Natural by S Club 7, which got to number 3, and Ordinary World by Aurora featuring Naeem E. Coleman,

which got to number 5. That was a question on Popmaster a couple of days ago, the honorary world, because it was Aurora covered which 90s Duran Duran hit. So it was quite funny for that to come up. When it was knocked off the top spot, it dropped two places to number three. And by the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 26 weeks. Whew.

Damn. Yeah. Long run. Lizzie, how are we feeling about Mojo? Yeah, this is good. It's clearly very inspired by Bang Alter and that whole roulette scene. Particularly, like, music sounds better with you by Stardust from a couple of years earlier. Like, we've discussed this sort of thing a couple

of times before on the show like with the case of Groove Jet and Don't Call Me Baby and it's occasionally been a complaint of ours that the songs are static and they don't build much from the original conceit but I do think that's very much the point with the whole French touch scene like there's a quote from Bruce Tantum in DJ Mag relating to Music Sounds Better With You which I think sums up the ethos perfectly. He says that the song quote, doesn't do much of anything really nor does it have to. It exists in a state of pleasure giving perfection and I feel like Lady Hear Me Tonight implements that exact same hedonistic idea,

and it does it pretty well for the most part. Like it's got that irresistible Nile Rodgers guitar lick from Soup For One, which never gets old, as well as a slick bass line that I couldn't actually find a credit for, but carries the whole thing really nicely. The one thing that maybe brings my score down a little is its lack of originality. Like for example what I love so much about Groove Jet in particular was how it took

that basic French house concept of a never-ending perfect state and combined it with the sophisticated drama of Sophie Alice Baxter's vocals and lyrics. And even looking ahead like a month or so Daft Punk's One More Time is structurally very similar to this but introduces that incredible extended bridge section which has you practically begging for the beat to kick in one more time. Still I do think this is a really good dance track, and it would be all over my party playlists if I was the sort of person who attended parties or made playlists. And, as I've said before on the podcast, if you're going to copy something,

you may as well copy something good. The worst you'll look is unoriginal, and you might just create an all-time classic in the process. Hmm. Yeah. Interesting. process interesting I like this a lot as well I think it's warm and it's quite romantic

and it's quite I don't know what it is but it's very nostalgic for me, I'm not quite sure what it is I think it really is transportive I imagine that like a lot of first kisses between couples probably happened while this song was playing in a club or something like that especially like abitha summer 2000 that guitar lick is instant it's recognizable the

production is it's tropical and it's smooth it sounds like summer to me i think this being number one in september makes me think that it was played in the clubs in ibiza during july and august and then everyone came home and went out to buy the single during the come down and like you know sorry bud you know it's still gray and rainy and it's still the UK but you know it's nice to see disco going so strong in the year 2000 I just I had before we started this podcast I did not realise how much disco

was still around at this point still going really strong still getting bought but my main issue is that yeah this doesn't really do enough to turn itself into like a record that I really love. It's got that instantly memorable lick and the lovely production, a really catchy vocal line as well.

Like, I'm a big fan of that. But, God, the album version is just like, just go somewhere, please. Introduce something. Just, yeah, go somewhere or finish or finish like if the song's finished that's fine just just you know wrap it up yeah i think that the single version removes a lot of the problems that the album version seems to have left behind like it seems sorry the album version seems to have left a lot of problems in that the single version gets rid of um and i just wish that like the the album version wasn't the only thing you could get on streaming services and he didn't have to go to

like you know youtube to get like the version that would have been played on the radio because when you hear the version that gets played on the radio it introduces itself faster it gets to the point quicker and then it leaves before you get sick of it, whereas the album version just adds 90 seconds on of just nothing. There's no reason to go and listen to the album version over the single version, because it just sounds exactly the same. It's just the same. The only bit of variation that you get and it's one of my it is probably one of my favorite moments in the whole song it's when they just change the bass harmony underneath the guitar slightly and it creates that little moment of unease before it resolves

back around again and the descending triplets at the end of the chorus as well you know and i know that it's true i can't tell but and it goes down and down and down and down. But other than that, it's just the same. You have to really like the... Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do Quite a simple concept, but it's rendered really passionately and quite lovingly as well. And there's a lot of nostalgia in it. I think it captures the whole it's all about tonight slash today feeling that the song tries to put across. You know, it's just three friends who really love each other and seem to have really well established physical boundaries. And they respect those physical boundaries quite a lot and they just seem to be having a great time in a car in a motel having fun you know doing the kind of hedonistic free-spirited things that 19 slash 20 year olds do and it's it's quite a cute and heartwarming

video i thought and i think it enhances the song too i think that there is something quite heartwarming and like i said romantic about the song but i just i just wish it went somewhere else sometimes yeah it's definitely one of the better videos in a week of somewhat ropey videos but we'll come to that in a bit andy what about you uh it's okay it's okay i've got no don't worry I've got more to say than that I think I'm a little bit cooler on it than you guys are to be honest and I think that's largely because of the context I think I'm being a bit unfair on it because we have heard this sort of thing as you both identified we've heard this sort of thing so many times now um in almost every episode with that we've done we've had a song a little bit like this um in that kind of see i

disagree with with the i you are probably right about the origins of it coming from ibiza but i don't think this really sounds like an ibiza song i think it's very much in that category of like cocktails after work at 7 p.m sort of thing and which is i really when i'm saying that out loud that really sounds like i'm criticizing it and it's not because that genre is very successful at this time that kind of what you might call a sort of you know friday at the bar pop kind of sort of thing which is like we've had don't call me baby we've had groove jet we've had don't give up we've had well music Give Up. We've had, well, Music Sounds Better With You. That was a good example, even though we haven't had that.

I really, like, one more time, I'm really glad you mentioned that, Lizzie. You and I have talked about this, haven't we? Yeah, yeah, yeah. When I first listened to this, I say first listened to this, it's the first time I'd ever sat down and listened to this song because I don't think this is the type of song that people really do sit down and listen to. It's more ambient than that isn't it and and when i sat down and listened to this i was like well this is just one more time like it's a it's the same song like it's a parody

and i was staggered to discover that this was released first not not much earlier obviously but it did technically come out first and i think we we've agreed with that it must one more time must have been around at the time because yeah that forward step is so huge for dance music and for not not the disco but it's it's for this sort of thing one more time is such a huge step forward and this is very very similar and i i don't feel like i can authentically give this song the credit of doing some of those things first, like the breakdown in the middle, especially because the breakdown in the middle seems like a very deliberate thing they've done here, which doesn't work.

They've not got enough substance for it. It's just the chorus said again. Whereas in One More Time, they do loads and loads of different versions, different vocal lines where no two lines are the same. You can sing along all the way with that one more time breakdown in the middle. Whereas this is just, let's just repeat the vocal sample again and take away all the instruments. You can just literally do that in cubics if you wanted to. And that doesn't work for me at all.

So it's like an inferior version of one more time. But that's a high bar, to be fair. Yeah, and that would be my main criticism of this as you've both said um it's it's it's not enough material to stretch out across what is a very long running time um the first minute has pretty much everything that there is in this song um and the i literally just get a sense of them just copying pasting dragging first chorus next verse next verse chorus I'm picturing there Moe and the Simpsons with the shotguns of this is how you turn one minute of music into five minutes it's still decent song it's still okay and you're

absolutely right that you still hear this all the time that you do hear this on playlists you hear it at parties all the time and so it does have a certain ring of, you know, of legacy there, of authenticity there, and it is genuinely popular and in that very crowded genre around at this time, it seems to stand out. So I will give it credit for that and it's not that bad at all. A few things on this, just a few little random points. First first of all you may remember that when we talked about don't give up i claimed to not know that i claimed to have not heard it before whereas now i think maybe i did know it and i'd just forgotten because of confusion in my head because i always thought that the singer on

this was brian adams i always thought that that oh this is a Brian Adams. I always thought that, oh, this is a dance song with Brian Adams singing on it. I think maybe I'd got that confused with Don't Give Up, but I'd forgotten that Don't Give Up existed. So that's... The other thing as well, I did a bit of a deep dive on... Are we saying

Mojo or Mojo? I always thought it was Mojo. I think it's Mojo. Yeah, but i did a not that deep a dive but i had a quick look at them um and they they really were very very briefly around they only released five singles the last one was in 2003 they split up very abruptly this was their debut single got number one which in itself is is very very notable but here's something that you were talking about the album version of the song rob and the album failed to chart in the uk

which i think that this is a stat for us to look into i wonder how many artists have had a number one single and then the accompanying album has not charted at all that must be that must be a very very short list that's quite that's quite crazy i think that it failed to make the top 100 well guess what i'm doing this week i thought you'd like that one i thought you'd like that challenge yeah i think like with sorry to interrupt let's say just with like with the exception of daft punk i think that's pretty par for the course when it comes to dance records. Maybe. As in, like you say, you hear it in a club,

and you go out and immediately buy the single. But yeah, I don't really think of it as an album. Yeah, but to not even chart. To not even chart, you're talking about even at this time, less than 10,000, 15,000 sales, which is, at this time, than 10 15 000 sales which is at this time that was more than achievable you know so um i i do think that's that's very strange indeed um but yes r.i.p mojo you were you were very brief but you've hung around in the memories forever

um i think we can call this a verifiable one hit wonder which is always a lovely thing to see absolutely yeah yeah all right then next up is this which is always a lovely thing to see absolutely alright then next up is this How can I just let you walk away Just let you leave without a trace When I stand here taking every breath with you You're the only one who really knew me at all How can you just walk away from me

When all I can do is watch you leave Cause we shared the laughter and the pain And even shared the tears You're the only one who really knew me at all So take a look at me now Cause there's just an empty space There's nothing left here to remind me Just the memory of your face

So take a look at me now Cause there's just an empty space And you coming back to me Is against the odds And that's what I've got to pay This is Against All Odds by Mariah Carey and Westlife. Released as Mariah Carey's 28th single overall in the UK and Westlife's 6th overall single in the UK, Against All Odds is a cover of Phil Collins' original ballad, which reached number 2 back in 1984.

This is Mariah Carey's second number 1 in the UK after Without You reached the summit in 1994. For Westlife, this is their sixth consecutive number one in the UK. Against All Odds went straight in at number one as a new entry, selling 110,000 copies in its first week, knocking Mojo off the top spot. It stayed at number one for two weeks fighting off competition from Kerncraft 400 by Zombie Nation which got to number two for fucks sake. Stupid British public. Yeah. Something Deep Inside by Billie Piper which got to number four and Most Girls by Pink which got to number five. In its second week at the top it held off competition from

Body Groove by Architects featuring Nana which got got to number three, and Tell Me by Mel B, which got to number four. When it was knocked off the top spot, it fell one place to number two. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 15 weeks, but this is not the last version of Against All Odds to reach number one during this decade. Oh, we're so treated. There is a god. Discuss that when that happens. So, I'm going to go first, because I don't think

I hate this as much as you two do. So, I will say I don't hate this, but I also just don't enjoy it. Don't have much to say, don't want to say much about it. Not a massive fan of the original but like the original song is written from the perspective of a guy going through a divorce that he doesn't

want. Like he's pleading with his wife, it's sung from a desperate place, maybe even like a naked and pathetic place and and Mariah doing this, like, I'm not against it, you know, we are not that far away from Celine Dion doing a fine job of taking an Eric Carman song and turning it into something for herself. Thanks to Bridget Jones, there are some people who probably think that that version of Celine Dion's version is the definitive one, so fair play to her for that one. I'm not even against turning this into a duet, like maybe have it as a couple singing at each other about the experience that they're going through, but no. Like, it's just a vehicle for Mariah, I think, and a bit of a placeholder to keep her in the charts

while they wait for her next album to be finished and Westlife it feels like they kind of play a similar role in this Westlife are really popular so okay fine we'll just put them in fair enough like and the thing that kind of struck me is that this didn't even chart that well internationally like it never charted in the States didn't reach the top five anywhere else except Portugal and Norway like it just feels like it was a particular moment in the UK and nowhere else and I don't know why we weren't spared um because honestly by the end like I'm not against Mariah Carey doing what she wants with her voice and stuff but those whistle tones at the end are excruciating they're so

hard to listen to because she hits the note but just oh it's very scratchy and yeah it's I don't hate this but I don't really like it either so Andy have at it

well you were right Robin that you certainly don't hate it as much as I do I mean first of all I have to pull you up on duet, it's not a duet It's a sextet True, very very true Right so this I don't just hate this song, I think it might be

My least favourite song that we've ever done I really Just, I can't find Anything good to say about this at all. So to be fair, for my personal sensibilities, we're already onto a real loser here right from the start because I hate Against All Odds, I hate the song. And, you know, it's also, I hate the original just inherently

because I think it's a really dull song. It's very kind of languid and bleh but it's also one of those songs like Can't Take My Eyes Off You or White Christmas or New York New York or something like that that's been covered about a million times but unlike those songs this doesn't have the kind of unique quality that that make it a classic this is just one of those songs that i don't understand why it is such a sort of karaoke classic to be honest i don't i don't understand this song's popularity at all um but that's just my personal taste but then we have the combination as well of westlife and mariah now i, I'm not a fan of Mariah anyway.

I just don't like either her as an artist, don't really like the sound of her as a person, to be honest. Not a Mariah fan at all. You know my feelings on Westlife in that they're not that bad, but when they're boring, they're really, really boring. And, you know, Mariah on this song, she's insipid and whiny all the way through westlife are lifeless to the point of mere total absence from the song like you forget they're in the song sometimes um which is quite quite interesting really and together mariah and

westlife someone's's created this chemical formula of who are the two most boring people we could possibly combine, give them the worst song we can think of, and make this horrible, unholy new union of the three worst elements you could possibly put together. Mariah, Westlife, and a Phil Collins cover.

Christ alive. Yeah, so all of that would be okay if it was delivered well, if it did something interesting with it, if it spiced it up, but it doesn't. This is a straight cover, which the only thing they do to it is do this hugely over-the-top production to it.

Mariah does her whistle notes at the end, which are just as unlistenable as they are every other time she does it. And it has an undeniable what we will later define as an X Factor winner's single quality to it, you can very easily see that one coming down the line

and I think that really struck me actually because I'd forgotten about that when I listened to it and I found myself thinking this really sounds like an X Factor winner single it's like oh, oh yeah so damn you Louis Walsh absolutely not a fan at all

I hate this song, I never want to listen to it again and in fact I'm never going to listen to it again, you can't make me I've decided I should tell you what I'm getting for your birthday next year it ain't a video of Matt Smith I should tell you what I'm getting for your birthday next year It ain't a video of Matt Smith I'll tell you that much If you get me this for my birthday

Then you'll get a punch in the face for your birthday You're getting a compilation of covers Against all odds Lizzie how are you feeling about it? Yeah two really bad number ones for Mariah because I really don't like Without You either. That song has a dark history and fucking Mariah doesn't save it.

It just makes it even worse. And this is a really strange choice for a duet cover. I totally agree with Andy. I'm not a huge fan of the Phil Collins original either but it makes sense as a kind of sibling track to In The Air Tonight as both tracks were written around the time of his breakup with Andrea Bertarelli but then he kind of tweaked the lyrics to go into some film which I don't think did very well but yeah that's the whole story behind that and like In the Air Tonight it's a bleak song full of self-pity and desperation like full to the brim with melodrama

and therefore impossible to approach from a neutral perspective I think. I mean a Mariah Carey cover does make perfect sense because she already had form for doing these big, belting, nuclear-scale covers of old ballads like Without You and like I Wanna Know What Love Is. But like you, Andy, I've never loved Mariah Carey's music either because it always struck me as technically very adept but overly pristine and polished and a bit soulless really so in come Westlife and there's a problem straight from the outset there's five of them five near identical pretty boys who've clearly never been through a divorce they're all like 20 21 at this point they the singing a divorce anthem at an accomplished solo singer not with Mariah Carey at Mariah Carey

who was still going through a divorce of her own at the time it's a pointless addition to a song that doesn't need any more embellishment and it doesn't help that Mariah Carey as much as I don't really like her she's clearly in a league of her own when it comes to singing ability.

Yeah, she outshines all of them, to say the very least. Yeah, and it just highlights the total lack of emotional range in Westlife's performance. So, you know, they get to the big belt-off with Mariah at the end, which is always going to be a losing game for Westlife. It's like picking a fight with a jet engine. You're not going to win. And it even sounds like Mariah's phoning in by the end.

And rather than the emotional exhaustion you feel after listening to the Phil Collins original, even though I'm not a huge fan of it, you get a sense of a very long very awkward recording session with two similarly successful but otherwise diametrically opposed artists and that's where I bring in the video

have you both seen this video? oh god this video is ridiculous it's just like it's terrible it feels like it was made just to prove to me that, yes, they were in the studio together. Yeah. It just feels like 20 years down the line,

they knew that I was going to listen to this and think, these were never in the same studio, were they? And then, no, it turns out they were. They just sound like they have no chemistry. It's ridiculous. Which is even worse. And Brian was staring at her tits the whole time. All five of them, and this one...its the whole time. All five of them.

And this one, this one woman and all five of them. It's like the couch meme. It's crazy. I know. I know. And it's clear that they got her for like 15 minutes. It's like,

you, you must not be within two feet of Mariah Carey. You must refer to her as Miss Carey, not Mariah, not Mariah Carey, Miss Carey. If you, if you overstep any of these contract boundaries, then our session will be terminated immediately.

It's like there's no chemistry between them at all. It's clear that they've never spoken outside of this room. And, yeah, it's just a miserable time for everybody. It's like, who needed this? Who asked for this? There's who needed this who asked for this there's a thousand people who went out and bought it but do you not think

that seriously it doesn't even sound like a duet really the only way it becomes a duet is Mariah has to just full on stop singing for a while in order for it to become clear that there are other people on this like it doesn't feel like a duet. It makes you feel more like

these backing singers are a bit eager, aren't they? It doesn't come across as a shared load at all. It comes across more like they're carrying her on a golden throne, which really is what's happening, but it's pathetic to witness. It's horrible. Oh, dear.

Well, from the ridiculous to the sublime. Nights when we're beach walking, always silent, never talking. Then you call my name and I know inside I love you. Sail away, I miss you more until you see the shore. There I will be waiting, anticipating Each moment is new But we need some more men Each moment is cool

But we need some more men I wouldn't wanna be anywhere else Reason on the map I wouldn't wanna be anywhere else but here I wouldn't wanna change anything at all I wouldn't wanna take everything out on you No, I know I do Every time I fall Okay, this is Black Coffee by All Saints. Released as All Saints' seventh single overall in the UK,

Black Coffee is All Saints' fifth number one, and it is also their last. The group would disband in 2001, then reunite between 2006 and 2008, and then get back together once more in 2013 but they would never reach the top of the charts again. Black Coffee went straight in at number one as a new entry selling 89,000 copies in its first week knocking Mariah Carey and Westlife off the top spot. It stayed at number one for one week

fighting off competition from Silence by Delirium which got to number three in demand by texas which got to number six could i have this kiss forever by whitney houston and enrique iglesias which got to number seven and the way i am by eminem which got to number eight when it was knocked off the top spot black coffee fell two places to number three, and by the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 21 weeks. So some sanity restored at the top of the UK charts. Lizzie, how are we about Black Coffee? Yeah, love this one.

It's another excellent number one from all things, and a real shame that this is the last time they'll come up on the podcast they they have another top 10 hit after this one before their first breakup and then they have one more during their first reunion but yeah aside from that this is it like you do get the feeling that they might have still been topping the charts alongside you know the sugar babe and girls allowed if they'd stayed together after 2001, unlike another girl group that we're going to encounter on our next episode. You know, it still looked to me like All Saints had some energy and some spark left, and none of them have been bitten by the solo career bug that killed so many other pop groups around this time.

But yeah, the song, like something I said when we covered Pure Shores a few episodes ago applies here as well, like William Orbit makes great use of the juxtaposition between light and dark, or between sweet harmonies and a sense of danger. This is that exact same formula, but the danger here is much more apparent than on Pure Shores, like whereas on that track it's introduced like towards the end of the song in the form of that huge bridge section you know I move it, I feel it. Black Coffee introduces that friction straight away with Shaznay Lewis's almost robotic vocals and the kind of squelchy, bassy, bleeping sense as the only backing. And then it kicks into the pre-chorus with those gorgeous harmonies and laid-back guitars.

And then you get the classic William Orbit broken synth lines under the lush harmonies in that gorgeous chorus followed by the same verse from the beginning but paired with like a more yearning soft sweet synth backing it's beautiful but then you get like we first you get another outing for the chorus with some added synth and guitar layers of which are filled and then just when you think the song is done like it almost fades out and it just stops for a second and the verse comes back with an even more threatening sounding instrumental than the opening like all throbbing synths and pounding guitars and the occasional swoon of vocal harmony buried under a layer of distortion which which almost tricks you into thinking that the song might kick back into full gear again until it gracefully fades out just before it bursts open at the seams.

It's a really small detail, but it's easily one of the most thrilling moments that we've covered on the podcast so far. It's up there with, as I've mentioned before, that huge bridge section from Pure Shores. So yeah, I'm really gonna miss talking about All Saints on the podcast, but they captured lightning in a bottle not once, but twice, and both in the same year. It's incredibly rare for most pop acts to do that even once, but who knows? Maybe we'll find our next All Saints along the way. There I will be waiting,

anticipating. Ah, beautifully put. Yeah, this is the good stuff, innit? All Saints and William Orbit, back again to fuck up my life with a pop song and maybe change my life at the same time

um this uh i think this is really really glorious uh yeah i don't think it's era defining and iconic in the way that pure shores is but it's still a really gorgeous song it's it's kind of hazy and wistful and like you say slightly threatening there's an edge there you're not quite sure where it's going to go and there's a real release with the chorus because it feels like they come back into a kind of like a major mode away from a slightly more you know night swimming beach so the there's a very kind of minor mode in the verses and then it uplifts itself yeah the more i listened to it the more i started wondering if this is like a fresh interpretation of it i don't know why but i kept thinking of like pop psychedelic pop songs from the 60s it's just rendered and performed like a 21st century

pop song but when i hear that opening that night night swimming, beach walking, always silent, never talking, it makes me think of groups like Jefferson Airplane. Yeah, yeah. I can see that. I mean, even like, you know, Beautiful Stranger, Madonna, which was another William Orbit, that's another reinterpretation of that 60s psychedelia aesthetic, because she did that for Austin Powers, right? Yeah.

We were saying this a few weeks ago and I'm also, well more specifically I'm reminded of Three-Fifths of a Mile in Ten Seconds by Jefferson Airplane and I'm also reminded of The Zombies, Maybe After He's Gone where it

goes for a slightly, you know like the slightly mysterious verse at the start of that and then it jumps into something quite hopeful where it's the, Maybe after he's gone, she'll come back. And yeah, so you go from those quiet, mysterious beginnings into this hopeful, uplifting chorus. And I started thinking about this when I heard off in the right channel, there's that same clean, twanging guitar that's in Beautiful Stranger. It's just way off to the right channel there's that same clean twanging guitar that's in beautiful stranger it's just way off to the right hand side it's just the do do do do do do do do do and you

could just hear it over there somewhere and you can't quite place it in your mind's eye about where it actually is and yeah it's yeah it feels like there's all sorts of things to unpack and lots of little puzzles to unlock and I one moment in the song that really stands out to me from a memory I have of this from years and years and years ago is the timbre and quality of the vocal track when I think it's um Shaznay where she says the word breeds and it's the oh yeah yeah it's new breeds a moment and it sounds really robotic and like it clips slightly but then it gets pulled back by like this slightly this little sonic wave that just appears over the word it's like a breed and it's something that always sticks out in my head and i remember it from being really small and i think it's one of the first kind of

new pop songs i ever listened to as a kid and then had a moment that really small and I think it's one of the first kind of new pop songs I ever listened to as a kid and then had a moment that jumped out at me and it was like, I'm interested in that and I want to know more and yeah, I don't think it has the kind of I don't think it's iconic and era-defining in the way that Pure Shores is

but it doesn't have to be for me to really like this I realise that we didn't mention that you two definitely want to put Against All Odds in the pie hole, right? Oh, yes. 100%. So, to contrast that, I want to put this forward

for the vault. I'm slamming it right in. Me too. Yeah, go on then. Might as well. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Might as well, yeah. Oh, yeah, go on then, Andy. Give us your full thoughts. Okay, well, yeah, I'll put it in the vault.

But I don't love it as much as Pure Shores, but that, I mean, that is a really high bar. There are people in the world who I don't love as much as Pure Shores. No, seriously, it's really, really good. I completely agree with so much of what you guys have been saying. I was briefly considering then pretending that I hate it, but I thought, nah, it's never going to work, is it? You know me better than that.

What's interesting is that as a kid, I don't have any memory system. Well, sort of doing that, I vaguely remember the video very slightly but I was never into this I'd completely forgotten how it went unlike Pure Shores which was very vivid for me and I think that was because as a kid this was honestly just a bit too weird for me, it's a bit too complex

for me that it doesn't conform to normal formulas of pop music I think something that really is true is something that i've seen said by a couple of the critics and by neil hannon from the divine comedy who talked about this song is very influential for girl bands in the future that there are a lot of girl band songs in the noughties that make an effort to be deliberately sort of weird and strange

and have odd lyrics and really make you think of it. I'm like, what's that about? And that this is the genesis of that, that this is a song that is really quite bordering on avant-garde in a few places. And then you get stuff like Freak Like Me by Sugar Babes. You get Biology by Girls Aloud. You get all those girl bands that appear towards the end of the noughties,

like the Noisettes and the Veronicas and stuff like them, who have some really inherent oddness to them. And I do think this is a real genesis of something here, that although this is their swan song, this is very much handing the baton over as to where girl band music will go over the next decade. And that's one of the highest compliments I can give it really is that it has a genuine the tangible legacy this song which is absolutely wonderful and i love as an adult now who can actually absorb this i love the strangeness of this i love that when this starts for the first i would say almost the first

minute but certainly the first 30 or 40 seconds, you really don't know where this is going. Nothing matches with anything else at first. And when you hit that first chorus which just washes over you and feels so lovely and just feels so lovely and smooth,

it's just lovely. Then it takes you away and when it continues to just go back to different strange aspects of the song, you've already been taken away with it and you just enjoy the journey. I do think it very slightly overstays its welcome at the end, just a little bit too much repetition at the end. But that is literally like the tiniest nitpick. And that's probably the only thing that keeps it from being as good as Pure Shores to me,

that I feel like I want Pure Sh shows to carry on for another five minutes whereas with this song it's like yeah okay i'm good for you to finish now um another thing that i've just sort of been thinking about literally right here while we've been talking about against all odds is that this song is kind of like a through the looking glass of against all odds but first of all in the obvious way that this is really great and that's really bad, but like you've got a boy band there, you've got a girl band here. They're doing the most white bread,

white boy, you know, extremely entry level pop music. And here you have the absolute limits of what you can do with boy band, girl band music here. Very, very interesting musically. Sonically, so different to each other

that I just have to celebrate the variety of the year 2000 in music, even though I hate against all odds, I just think it's a testament to the strength of the British pop charts at this time, that you can go from trudge like that to excellence

like this in just one week. And they also both have very strange titles that aren't immediately obvious to you. Why is this called Black Coffee? I can't figure that out. There's a lyric. No, I know there's a lyric, but why that? Why that? Why would you pick that as the lyric?

I don't know. Is it very popular with brewers of coffee or something? Or is it just cashing in on the kind of water cooler moment sort of it? Like, oh, let's do a song about coffee. I don't know. It's a really, really strange thing. Andy, what would you call it? If you were to be choosing the title for this track?

I might call it anywhere else or something like that. But to be fair, Pure Shores. in the title for this track. I might call it like anywhere else or something like that. Yeah. But to be fair, Pure Shores, the phrase Pure Shores is never actually spoken in that song, is it? I don't think the phrase Pure Shores does.

So that's just, yeah, it's just, yeah, another very interesting thing about the song. Marvelously well produced, of course. And strangely, considering how much we disliked that song, I'm getting a lot of Madonna's American Pie in this. I think if you were to strip away the vocals

and just listen to certainly the choruses, there's a lot of similarities there. I know they're both William Orbit, but I'm getting a lot of that. And it just goes to show that the quality of a song combined with good production, they make something that is more than the sum of its parts, really. Yeah, love it, love it. Not sum of its parts really um yeah love it love

it not a perfect song but i absolutely love it um without doubt my favorite of the week yeah really really great you i mean you mentioned biology there i was actually thinking sound of the underground oh yeah yeah yeah yeah well i i mean this is a topic for another time but i think the strangeness of sound of the underground is why they broke out more than one true voice and what that's what got them started but i was literally just about to say like one of Sound of the Underground is why they broke out more than One True Voice and that's what got them started I was literally just about to say One True Voice or the Against All Odds

That is such a good comparison, Black Coffee vs Against All Odds, that is that isn't it? Girls Aloud vs One True Voice That is so interesting in the 2000s The other thing I also quite like about this is that if you were to just read the lyrics

without the full context of the song, it's just kind of nice and sweet. It's why it sounds so... The contrast between the lyrics and the tone. Like, night swimming, beach walking, always silent, never talking. Then you call my name and I know inside I love you. Sail away, i miss you more

until you see the shore there i will be waiting anticipating and then it's like daydreaming chain smoking always laughing always joking i remain the same did i tell you that i love you brush your teeth and pour a cup of black coffee out i love to watch you do that every day the little things that you do and yet it is all wrapped up in this very kind of like it's suspenseful and like she's about to attack somebody it's just yeah it's I've always loved the contrast between the two it's wonderful all right then next up is this. There's no room, no space to rent in this town, you're out of luck. And the reason that you had to care, the traffic is stuck.

And you're not moving anywhere, you thought you found a friend. You thought you found a friend To take you out of this place Someone you can lend a hand In return for grace It's a beautiful day Sky falls you feel like Okay, this is Beautiful Day by U2. Released as U2's 31st single overall in the UK, Beautiful Day is U2's fourth number one overall after Desire, The Fly and Discotheque all reached the summit between 1988 and 1997. It is the lead single from the band's 10th studio album, All That You Can't Leave Behind. Beautiful Day went straight in at number one as a new entry, selling 104,000 copies in its first week. It knocked All Saints off the top spot and stayed at number 1 for one week,

fighting off competition from Kids by Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue, which got to number 2, for fuck's sake, Doom's Night by Azido DeBase, which got to number 8, and Who the Hell Are You by Madison Avenue, which got to number 10. When it was knocked off the top spot,

Beautiful Day fell two places to number 3 and drifted out of the charts after 20 weeks. Then, in 2012, the song re-entered the charts, peaking at number 86, and as of today, it has spent a total of 22 weeks inside the top 100. 100. I will go first on this one. I think, I mean, as much as I was a bit sad that this beat Kids by Robbie and Kylie to number one, which is an amazing song that I absolutely love, I also really, really like this. I don't think I like it enough to put it into the vault, I don't think I like it enough to put it into the vault, but it's close. This song is just It's just weirdly to me This is just the premiership when the BBC lost the rights to the Premier League and match of the day Wasn't on TV on Sunday mornings. It was the premiership

between 2001 and 2004 and every time this song finishes, I just expect Des Lynam to start talking. Because he was obviously the guy who presented it. And yeah, so every time I hear the song fade out, it'd be just Des Lynam going, and it's been a thrilling weekend of action in the Premier League. I just always associate it with Wayne Rooney's first ever goal against Arsenal.

Because that was ITV when ITV were covering Premier League games. That is the defining goal I think of that era of the Premier League of Wayne Rooney's 16 years old scoring a last minute winner against Arsene Wenger's Arsenal team who eventually went on to be the Invincibles. So it really is a time and a place for me. I kind of know that... I know you two are less keen on this one than I am, but I do have a big soft spot for you two. And aside from a couple of misstepssteps like Rattle and Hum and Pop, U2 are, I think U2 are a

really consistent band from like 1980 all the way through to about 2004 and this was their second big reinvention because the first era went from Boy to Rattle and Hum, their second era went from Act on Baby to Pop and now this is their third era this is where their third era begins like they had their first top 10 hit in 1983 with new year's day and i had a look at the top 10 from that week and tried to see if any other artists could land a number one in this era that we're covering right now so joe jackson probably not echo and the bunny men they didn't uh the mighty war they didn't laura branigan and kajagoogoo the bell stars i don't think so like phil collins had a number one at this moment but it wasn't him uh eddie grant's electric avenue got to number

five around this time but it was a remix like you get my point you two have got a lot of staying power because they know how to keep refreshing themselves and they know how to keep updating that what their sound is and the approach that they take and i think this is a really good song to come back with after three years kind of out of it a little bit um i understand why this can be filed away next to things like dakota and sex on fire and stuff like that i think this is vastly superior to both of those songs i think this because it finds new ways to phrase itself constantly the verse melodies are always slightly different every chorus has got a slightly different ingredient it continues to rise and rise and rise throughout and just to expand on my point about the choruses it starts with them it's a beautiful day sky falls you feel like but then the second chorus is it's a beautiful day don't let it get

away and then you get touch me take me to that other away And then you get Touch me, take me to that other place And then you get the Re-he-he-heach me And then at the end of the song You get What you don't have, you don't need it now And it just, it keeps finding New things to come back to

And Sorry, new things to make you want to come back to And there is a reason to keep listening to this song all the way to the end it finds a new emotional climax every sort of 30 seconds or so this has some of the edge's best guitar lines on a u2 song and like i know that bono's a cock who loves his own voice more than his own mum but like he's a superb singer and he's a great songwriter and i think that beautiful day is a good example of why we'll still be talking about you two on this podcast up until about 2004 2005 which is 25 years after they started out as a group which

is a really impressive feat for a band of their era they They're definitely in a lull now and I think they started drifting off with No Line on the Horizon and then they get a massive slap in the face about how not popular they are anymore when they put Songs of Innocence on everybody's phones without asking but right in this moment in the year 2000 there's still a pretty big commercial act and fair play to them and i do i do maybe the nostalgia is playing a part in how much i like this song because youtube were always my parents favorite band collectively and i spent a lot of time as a kid listening to you too um i've got memories of being four or five years old going on a holiday to ireland and listening to U2's Best Of between 1980 and 1990 which is a really good greatest hits record um but yeah just every time I go back to this I think is it nostalgia kind of

playing tricks on me but then I think no there's lots of ingredients to this that I think even if I just heard it now I'd be a bit like yeah this is cool uh so Andy what about you? I'm gonna completely take off from that story that you told about the premiership because I have the exact same backstory with it, but maybe perhaps more intense version of it. And that was the one, that year that the premiership was on instead of Match of the Day, which this was the theme tune to, that was like the one year of my childhood where I randomly was really,

really into football. And the very first match I ever went to was that match, Everton v Arsenal. I was at that match. No way! Wow. Yeah. I'm in shot on the footage.

You can see me. It was a very magical moment because Arsenal were top of the league at that time and my dad said, oh, you can go to a match, which one do you want to go to? So I picked Arsenal because I thought, I want to see all the stars. Went to that one and this random kid came out

who scored an amazing goal and I got completely swept up in the jubilation at the end of the match and it was an extremely lovely memory. Obviously, me being a kid and putting so much meaning on that. Went home and watched the premiership that night to watch it back and so this song kind of became a sort of happy memory for me in itself and i got a a little bit not obsessed with the song but it became a bit of a like favorite of mine um not for anything to

do with the song itself it was just a nice happy memory. And it was the reason why I bought Now 47, which this was on. Also, Lady Hear Me Tonight was on that, and Rock DJ as well, and Black Coffee, I believe, was on that as well. That was a good Now album, though. But yeah, I was really, really into this, and even to this day,

even though, spoiler alert, I don't really like this song, even though I'm not that hot on it now it does still bring back a really lovely memory with that um and yeah the very first note i've got here is the premiership and the second note is way rooney um so that's just interesting um i i have i'm gonna use a phrase that you use robin that you two are consistent. And I would agree, but I don't think we mean the same thing. I think they are consistent.

And I think they are consistently five or six out of ten in almost every song that they do. They're just not for me. They're just not for me. I think there's something inherently a little bit dull about you two, to be honest, especially in the noughties, I think. Something to do with Bono's vocal style possibly something to do with their production as a band I just think there's something a little bit

tinny a little bit undercooked a lot of the time this this is I do think this is one of the better U2 songs possibly the best U2 song from the noughties but it's a little bit like picking my favourite type of vanilla ice cream it's vanilla it's never going to be chocolate like Steps, it's never going to be All Saints giving us something really strange like rum and raisin or one of those

gourmet ones that's got botanicals in it or something it's you know, it's just it's okay you're never really going to rise beyond the ingredients to be honest It's, you know, it's just, it's okay. You know, you're never really going to rise beyond the ingredients, to be honest. Yeah, so I don't have a huge amount to say about the song itself, other than the nostalgia, which really covers everything,

except that it is a little bit dull, I think. But it's okay. For the second time this week, my headline is, it's okay. It's okay. I don't like the lyrics at all i think the lyrics this is a really specific bugbear that i have which is when bands that have an awful lot of money talk about how beautiful the world is and talk about amazing things they've seen which us poor proles will never ever ever see and they talk about it like oh yeah you know when you see that thing isn't that nice i'm

like no i'm listening to this at my desk at work i don't know what the world in green and blue looks like i've never seen china right in front of me i'm not a freaking boat i've never seen that and just all i just don't like i don't like that bridge section lyrics at all it's like see the oil fields at first like where are you, how have you got access to an oil field? See the bird with a leaf in her mouth? So you're so close to the bird that you can see the leaf, and so close to the bird that you've managed to determine the sex, which for some birds is physically impossible.

Like, what type of bird is it? Is it like a tiny... Because if it's a tiny little bird with a leaf in its mouth, that's really cute, but you better not hope it's not like a bald eagle or something that you're close enough to see the contents of its mouth it's the last thing you'll see before you die it's just I don't like those lyrics at all it's like oh look at

all these wonderful things in the world that they've probably had the chance to see that man will never will shame you can't see them in Luton yeah it's just I hate you often get them on bands second or third albums where they've broken out they've got to go on tour around the world

and then they do a song about all these wonderful things I've seen and it's like whatever you're just showing off you're just bragging about the fact that you can go jetting off and looking at the coastline of China and I can't that's what pisses me off a little bit that's what pisses me off a little bit about

what's it Rattle and Hum. Because that whole album is like, oh, we just love America. Isn't America amazing? It's like, yeah, but you're lucky enough to kind of drive around. Yeah. I mean, it's not a big issue for me. I'm being overly harsh here, and it's a perfectly decent song. There's just something more... I guess it's a bit of a stereotype with U2

isn't it that they're a little bit up their own arses a bit and I do think there's some truth to that and I can never really look past it to be honest but it's okay it's by no means a bad song it's a solid like 6 out of 10 for me this one it's yeah got very happy memories for me as a song it's just

okay yeah lizzie yeah i've actually got um a different nostalgia attached to this one because i don't i'm all right in saying that i don't think either of you followed um wwf or wwe at the time right no i didn't know okay because i know that a lot of wrestling fans do listen to this podcast. Hello, by the way. And it was around sort of late 2001, they used this song on the promo video to hype the return of Triple H, who'd torn his quadricep in a match like a couple of months earlier. So he tore his quadricep in the middle of the match and went on to finish it, even though he's fucking limping around.

And it almost destroyed his leg. And it was at the time it was kind of like, will he ever come back? And so, yeah, they played these promo videos that showed his whole path to recovery. It's all on YouTube. But yeah, that's where my nostalgia for this song comes. And I'm guessing quite a few other people as well. In terms of the song itself, I think it's decent. It's the kind of thing I tend to avoid the plague.

In many ways, this is YouTube by numbers. The lyrics are pretty standard, uplifting stadium rock fare. Bono does his usual trick of starting with a low vocal on the verses and then hitting those high notes as the song climaxes, like on With or Without You, for example. That's the first one that comes to mind. And I do like the production of this in the early stages. I think Brian Eno and Daniel Lenoir make this song sound much more

melancholy which adds this bittersweet vibe to the whole song while working around the quite sparse four chord rock arrangement and it also rescues the song from the kind of fist pumping oblivion that some of U2's later hits fall into but my problems with the song turn up about halfway through you know when Bono starts like bellowing at the top of his register while the edge hammers out a pretty bog standard guitar riff with the volume turned up to 11 and the song gets a bit too big for its own good and like there's a brief moment where the song slows down. You mentioned that bridge section. It's stripped all the way back to Bono and some little twinkling synths.

But then the chorus just kicks back in again, like an airplane taking off just over your head, which is represented in the video with an airplane taking off just over U2's heads, because who needs subtlety? But yeah, I feel like it's the sort of song that a lot of other stadium rock bands would kill to have in their back catalogue. Like, it's clichéd by U2 standards, for sure,

but it's immediate, it's memorable, and it has just enough tricks up its sleeve to carry it to the finish line but like for me the the main thing holding it back is U2. I think the stadium rock thing is is a good point that I think listening to it on an album is is not the form it was designed to be heard and really is it that I do actually you've just reminded me actually that I remember what seeing them do this at live 8 Back in whenever that was 2005 and that was actually really good And I do think it translates very well to a huge crowd. I think there's something about it It's anthemic if you like and imagine it would yeah like we will rock you

Yeah, and I agree with you that you I that I think that's a very possessive point that probably a lot of bands would kill to have this in their back catalogue. But then that just makes me think maybe some other bands would have done better with this because there are some decent ideas here. Yeah. I think the thing with this, for me, is that out of all the number ones that you two end up with is that this for me is the one that makes sense because i don't understand why i mean desire is a good song but like i don't understand why desire got to number one in the 80s for you too but like

still haven't found what i'm looking for didn't get to number one or when the streets where the streets have no name didn't get to number one. Or where the streets have no name, didn't get to number one. Or just, you know, something else. And it's like with The Fly as well. Like, I like The Fly. Act On Baby is my favourite U2 album. But One didn't get to number one? Like, it's just so strange that One didn't get to number one,

but The Fly did. And, like, discotheque? Who the fuck remembers that? Like, you know? There's a song from this album which't get to number one but the fly did and like discotheque who the fuck remembers that like you know there's a song from this album which only gets to number two um have you heard stuck in a moment you can't get out of yeah yeah yeah it gets number two in 2001 and that's a really good song because it's personal like bono wrote it about uh michael hutchins and you can tell that there's a lot more raw feeling in there than there is with this one

but even from the 90s it's just like discotheque gets to number one but the sweetest thing doesn't and after this, not to spoil it, but Vertigo gets to number one but City of Blinding Lights doesn't it's just it always feels slightly weird whereas with this

it does feel like yeah okay I can see why this one was number one it does feel a little bit like every time you two have had a number one it's kind of like everyone sees the bigger hit that should have been number one as a bit like QI's obvious answer

where it's like no no let's not go you know for the obvious one it's this one instead whereas this one it feels like the obvious answer was worn out. And I'm only slightly wounded about what you two have said about it. I love that though, when that happens with unusual number. It makes you realise that real life

is not a history book, that you don't immediately put these lines in the sand of, oh, this is a great one, so it gets number one. Elton John's a bit like that i think um the only until candle in the wind well the diana one until that version of it the only number ones that elton john had ever had was sacrifice and don't go breaking my heart yeah that's right yeah you know sacrifices that's such a random i know that's had a bit of a revival but that's such a random one yeah but while we're on youtube i will say that one of my favorite quotes about anybody ever was um robert smith of the cure talking about bono um and talking specifically about one where he's like he says i bloody ate

bono he says he drives me up the fucking wall and he's so up his own arse and stuff like that and then he said and then he went and wrote one, the bastard as if to sort of say like Jesus I have to sort of like something he's done now yeah well Michael Stipe said about this song like it's one of those songs I wish I'd written

yeah he has that power yeah alright then last up on our episode this week is this Thank God for the weekend

Now is the time For feeling alright Come and taste the spice of life. Tonight doesn't matter. Come and feel the groove. Let it into you. You know what you gotta do Every Friday when my work is done I get my party on I call a few friends of mine Make sure I'm looking fine I know we're gonna have a real good time, yeah Everybody clap your hands

Get up and dance We're gonna storm all night now Everybody move your hands, get a look and dance, we're gonna stomp all night now. Everybody move your feet, get up and feel the beat, we're gonna stomp all night now. Okay, it's Stomp by Steps, released as the third single from their third studio album, Buzz. Stomp is Steps' eleventh single single overall and their second to reach number one after Heartbeat, double A side with Tragedy, hit the summit in 1998. Stomp went to number one straight away as a new entry selling 52,000 copies in its first week knocking U2 off the top spot. It stayed at number one for one week, holding off competition

from Who Let The Dogs Out by The Baja Men, which got to number 2, Body to Body by Samantha Mumba, which got to number 5, Sunset, Bird of Prey by Fatboy Slim, which got to number 9 and Music is My Radar by Blur, which got to number 10. When it was knocked off the top spot, Stomp dropped four places to number five, and by the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 12 weeks. Boy, that was not a stayer, was it? Lizzie, what do we make of Stomp?

Does it make you want to stomp all night now, or whatever they say? Yeah, I think Bag It Up might have some competition for the gayest number one thing we've covered so far. I mean, like I said earlier with Mojo, if you're gonna copy something, you may as well copy something good. And it's nice to bookend this week's selection with another track that samples Chic. This borrows heavily from Everybody Dance and is

smart enough to know not to fuck with the formula, as you'll still find the bouncy rhythm guitar, the glossy string arrangement and the slick bass riff. The problem with comparing the two becomes apparent with the production though, as Stomp sounds so much cleaner and so much smoother than everybody dance you know where the double-timed hi-hats and the hand clapping on the choruses and Bernard Rogers incredible bass riffs take 10th stage and I think they've also like they've either pitched it up or sped it up but it sounds like... Do you remember Simpsons Christmas Boogie? Do I remember Simpsons Christmas Boogie? It's the sky blue.

Yeah. But, like, yeah, this is decent, for sure. Like, both Stomp and Everybody Dancer songs about dancing and clapping your hands and having a good time and not much else, but if you get the formula just right, that can be all you need to create a passable disco pop track at worst or an all-time classic at best. I feel like this sits somewhere in between those two poles for me. It's better than just okay, but doesn't

quite reach high enough to achieve true greatness. I'm going to go next on this one, Andy, because I saw you dancing to this the other night at your 30th. Oh, God. I figured you'd be wanting to have the last say on this. So I have a question for Steps, which is, hey, guys, ever heard of bass frequencies? Yeah, yeah. Some low in the mix.

Yeah, they're really useful. They tend to give songs a bit of meat and a bit of heft. Yeah. Maybe use them sometime, because this sounds really fucking thin. Like, I can hear the bass, but it's treble-ier than most Joy Division songs, which is some going. But yeah, it just sounds like, like like you say it just feels like it can't land it just i don't know what it is but like you can hear the bass you can hear the melody

but then you're like okay can i feel it though like i feel like i'm supposed to feel bass in the center of my head not like go searching for it with my ears it just feels like like it's coming out of some dodgy radio or like coming out of laptop speakers it just sounds so thin and it's such a shame because this is a banger this is so good the song itself is so good

it's a bit late 70s early 80s ABBA but much cheesier the verse even nicks the melody from Lay All Your Love On Me I mean this is steps this is steps you know but you go from

what is it thank God for the weekend which is I wasn't jealous before we met and it's exactly the same but then it loads in those kind of early 2000s vocoder voices. The, um, in the background.

Like Andy said, you only get these voices around this, like, specific two or three year period of pop music. I think the last one we get, it doesn't get to number one, but the last one we get is One Step Closer by S Club Juniors. Where you get the, um, number one but the last one we get is one step closer by s club juniors where you get the but like it just has so much sheen it's like everything has a very modern feel in this but the sheen is far too much like there's a shop in the arndale in manchester called monkey and it used to be i used to live near the arndale yeah you can see where i'm going with this and like it it's the nearest shop to the entrance of the arndale that i lived near to between 2012 and 2018 and monkey turned up around sort of like 2017 and i remember when it first

turned up but i remember walking down the corridor for it's the greg's entrance of on of the arndale and you walk up and you see monkey for the first time and i thought i was getting a migraine or something like that because it's just like it's all glass and all lights and everything reflects off of everything else and it's just like it honestly's all glass and all lights and everything reflects off of everything else. And it's just like, it honestly, it sounds like a sword being pulled out of its sheath in a cartoon. Where it's like, and it just, it looks like how that sounds. And this song is no different. But like, what a chorus.

Like, using claps as part of the lead hook. It's a great idea. Everybody clap your hands. Get lead hook, it's a great idea, everybody clap your heads, get on up, and it's wonderful, um, universal message about wanting to let go and have a good time, um, again, disco, it's part of this big disco rehabilitation, um, it's a great song that's spoiled by shocking super thin production and I'm so annoyed that like it sounds like this because steps were making bangers for absolutely ages and I'm glad that like I mean I know they were always big in the gay community but I'm glad that like the gay community is kind of keeping them keeping them going

because like you know H and Claire and all them what they're like they deserve paychecks for the rest of their lives for the kind of stuff that they did I think and I'm really really glad and Faye obviously getting on Strictly Come Dancing and doing really well she won actually didn't she? no she didn't did she finish second or third that year?

I can't remember who won that year but she didn't win but I'm really glad that they have a decent legacy and that album that they came back with about five years ago that had Scared of the Dark on it I remember listening to that and it was sort of like, oh yeah, this is great, I love this stuff but

it's just a shame, it is just the production it's so bad that it does prevent me putting it in the vault but it's a cracker, it is a proper cracker I'm well into this Oh, I'm glad you like it so much i i i really love this as well you are right about it being well this is funny actually because when you talk about it being big in the gay community me and lizzie had a really funny conversation

about this where i felt like i'd been seeing through a glass window where i said oh this song is still played in gay bars all the time. And then Lizzie was able to name immediately what's the one gay bar that I go to all the time, which is Via in the Village, because they play that every night there. And I felt very, very basic. But yeah, I really do love this. Just to talk about my relationship with Steps.

They were, well, I guess after the Spice Girls, they were the next big thing for me as a kid. They came in between Spice Girls and S Club. S Club had, by this time, S Club had taken over completely. So this was not that big a song for me. But Steps, in general, were huge for me. I had a thing where, oh, cringing even saying this, I used to teach

all of my family and friends all the dance routines for each song um and my sister um having one eye on the future as she so often did thought it'd be funny to videotape all of those and so there's still quite a lot of videos floating around of me addressing the new year's party teaching them the moves to tragedy or to one for sorrow or something like that um my favorite was lisa um which was a poor choice uh because i think the the i've really enjoyed this re-emergence of lisa scott lee recently on um tiktok and stuff like that where people have been revisiting that um documentary series she did, Totally Scott Lee, where she tried to launch her solo career. And there's this clip that's gone quite viral of her finding out that her song has only hit...

Is it number 26? Her song has only hit 26. And she just, for a whole minute, just says to the camera, like, that's shit, isn't it? 26. That's really shit, isn't it? And it's so, so funny. She is quite a cringy figure,

so she wouldn't be my favourite in Steps anymore. BH, probably. But yes, they were quite big for me as a child. But like I say, S Club had taken over for me about this time, so I was never really that into Stomp. But as an adult, I absolutely love this. It is so energetic and enthusiastic that it almost feels like it's about to just lose control completely and spin away like it's it's

going to bubble gummy um with it but it manages to just about remain in charge of itself um i completely agree with um what lizzie said about how if you're going to do it then do it with what was the phrase you used? I don't want to paraphrase you if you're going to copy something you may as well copy something good that's the one, thank you very much it's a very inventive, very tasteful reimagining of the song

while still keeping its spirit, still keeping its overall feel it's the kind of thing that if i had done um everybody clap your hands then i would probably feel like this had done it justice i wouldn't feel too annoyed about this having happened um it's yeah it's lovely this is something that steps do really really well which is pastiches of earlier artists of earlier songs that it's it's interesting you mentioned abba rob because one for sorrow is pretty much a straight cover of winner takes it all with different lyrics um and do you know what they released as a non-album single about

six seven eight months before this lay all your love on me so that must have been the genesis of those lyrics there maybe they had some fairly unimaginative song writers who just got that in their head but yeah they um that it is a real thing of steps really that they'll reference other artists who are who are very big in their era and it works for them they they really fly that flag quite proudly of being kind of the modern day abba bringing disco to a modern audience bringing bubblegum pop from the 90s through to a 2020s audience uh these days which is what they're doing and I think that's really great um I don't think this is Steps's best song but I think is it

their most fun song I think maybe it is it's it's it's really it is a banger and I always put this on at parties because it gets people dancing, including me apparently, it gets people dancing at parties, it's great I really really like it it's not the greatest song in the world but it's really really fun and I'm looking forward

to dancing to it in surely no more than a week because that tends to be what happens, so yeah of course it's big weekend this weekend isn't it it is it is yeah just on that note actually before we finish

for a bit of fun I've been doing a bit of a running joke throughout this I've been doing a bit of an easter egg throughout this to celebrate Manchester Pride if anybody spots what it was, then let us know and I will shout it out. If not, you'll never know. You'll never know what I did. Even I didn't spot it.

I mean, you texted us about this before that you were planning to do this and even I've been looking and I can't find a... Well, you're never gonna. You can't find a through line. You're never gonna know. Never mind. Someone will. Some bright spark will notice what it was. Hopefully someone points it out. Am I right in saying that this is the last time We see Steps on the podcast I think it may well be

Because they're very 90s aren't they I think they split up in 2001 For the first time anyway Yeah they have a couple of number twos after this And then You know I'm always talking about the phenomenon Where certain songs feel like they're far bigger hits

than they are because they're big in the gay community but they're not in the straight community Scared of the Dark, I really thought that might have been like a number 2 and number 3 hit that got to number 37 it's just, these songs just permeate more in the gay community Do you know what always stuns me about Steps is that

5, 6, 7, 8 didn't even get to the top 10 No, no Everybody knows that song But it got to like number 14 or something like that This is one of those ones where the memory cheats Where I do actually sort of remember it And it was not that big at the time Tragedy was far bigger

One for Sorry was far bigger 5, 6, 7, 8, that kind of stuck around And it was a grower over the years Yeah, that wasn't that big at the time. Yeah. I mean, I only ask because in 2000, they got in a bit of trouble. Have you heard of this? Where they were condemned by an anti-fascist group for making inflammatory remarks regarding Britain's asylum seeker policy.

What? Yeah. Oh, you could have dropped that before we gave through all that praise on them. I thought I'd lure you into my trap. Anyway, so apparently,

because they've denied this, but apparently, in an interview with Sunday Express, Lee stated that, quote, I think there should be more jobs for English people.

Claire asked, quote, why are we paying for all these people to come into the country anyway? In the interview, Lisa also called for the return of capital punishment. Well, that's totally Scott Lee. Yeah, I mean, they've denied it since, but I thought I'd remind people of that little fun fact. That's like that infamous newspaper cutting where all the

Spice Girls talk about their politics and some of it you wish you hadn't seen some of the stuff they say. There's an absolute scorcher coming up for Blue when we talk about Blue. There is an absolute scorcher coming up in 2001

for Blue. I bet it Lee, isn't it? Lee's always the one. Yeah, he's always Lee. Anyone who's listening, don't be tempted to Google it. It comes around at the right point. It is a fantastic interview that I cannot wait to tell people about. So, looking ahead to the next episode, just because Lizzie and I are off doing House of the Dragons stuff at the moment

for the next 10 weeks each of our episodes are going to be every other week so for the next 5 episodes it'll be not next Sunday but the Sunday after and then when House of the Dragons finished, the first season of it anyway, we'll be back to our

weekly schedule and we'll finally get out of the year 2001 next time we're going to be covering the period between the 29th of October and the 2nd of December oh it's nearly Christmas now we're nearly there

in the year 2000 I just wanted to say as well that next week because we're coming to the end of the year, being able to do five songs every single week, that's going to to be doing three singles and then it's all systems go for our Christmas race episode, the race for Christmas number one. All reindeers go

I guess. Oh I love that. But yeah so thank you very much for listening this week. We really hope you've enjoyed listening. And again, hello to everybody in Slovenia and Hungary. Absolutely everyone, all several million

of them. Thanks, everyone. Bye-bye. See ya.