Hits 21 - 2004 (6): Usher, The Shapeshifters, The Streets

Episode Date: July 30, 2023

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]

Hi there everyone, welcome back to Hits21 where me, Rob, me, Andy, and me, Lizzie, all 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, or whatever the fuck it's called right now. We are at Hits21UK, that is at Hits21UK that is at Hits21UK You can email us too send it on over to Hits21Podcast

at gmail.com Thank you so much for joining us again. We're currently looking back at the year 2004 This time we'll be covering the period between the 4th of July and the 31st of July Last week's poll winner was a pretty clear winner.

It was Every Time by Britney Spears. I don't think any of us have been in a mood to disagree, I think, with that. I'm pretty much on board with that. No, definitely not. Yeah, fine. Apologies for timestamping the episode, or dating the episode basically immediately, but I don't want in two years time

Twitter to be called X and then not be acknowledged at some point. But never mind. Yeah, I mean, let's see if that catches on, eh? On to this week's episode. And as always, we are going to give you some news headlines from around the time that the songs we're covering in this week's episode

were at number one in the uk marx and spencer's rejects a takeover proposal from business tycoon philip green who already owned bhs and was the chairman of the arcadia group the takeover would have seen m s join arcadia's portfolio which already contained Topshop and Topman, Miss Selfridge, Burton and Debenhams. However, throughout the 2010s and 2020s every single one of those brands was sold to online fast fashion brands. The US Commission investigating 9-11 blames American political leaders for failing to comprehend the gravity of the threat posed by Al-Qaeda. The commission reported that Al-Qaeda was allowed to develop into a real danger to the US and recommended a wide-ranging overhaul of the country's intelligence services.

And Prime Minister Tony Blair nominates long-term ally Peter Mandelson as Britain's next European Commissioner. His appointment represented something of a comeback in politics after he twice resigned from the Labour cabinet in controversial circumstances, once for failing to declare a bank loan and once more after being

accused of using his position to influence a passport application. Exciting stuff going on in the world in July 2004. The films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows. Shrek 2 for two weeks and Spider-Man 2 for two weeks.

And in other Hollywood news, legendary actor Marlon Brando dies aged 80 in Los Angeles. I mean, in terms of the films hitting the top spot, it was exciting in July 2004. That's a double bill for you, Shrek 2 and Spider-Man 2. Whoa. Yeah. Meanwhile, BBC newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky wins the first series of Strictly Come Dancing. And that's... Isn't that weird that it wasn't a Christmas?

It was in the middle of the year? I think they were, like, the only one that did that, I think. Anyway, yeah. Also, the BBC broadcasts a documentary on the British National Party, which results in party leader Nick Griffin being investigated for inciting racial hatred. And the worst news of all, children's TV show Rosie and Jim officially comes to a close when CITV stop airing repeats. No!

No! No! I know. And, oh God, here we go. Britney Spears gets engaged to Kevin Federline six months after annulling her marriage to Jason Alexander. Her marriage to Alexander had lasted 55 hours. She would later divorce Kevin in 2007, eventually marrying Sam Ashgari,

to whom she has been married since 2022. Andy, how are the album charts looking? Yes, well, July 2004 is a fairly decent month, actually, on the charts. You may remember last time, Scissor Sisters had just gone to number one with the highest selling album of the year, their self-titled debut. That is then toppled at the top in the second week of July by another debut, which is Room on the Third Floor by McFly, which produced two of the singles that we've already covered already, Five Colours on Her Hair and Obviously, but it also produced That Girl and Room on the Third Floor itself, the song. all really great songs decent album that nice nostalgia for that one um and then the scissor sisters return to number one for one week before

being toppled by someone we've not talked about before the streets with a grand dunk come for free it'd be nice if we had an opportunity to talk about the streets at some point but I just can't think of a way Lizzie, how are things in America? Quite busy in America actually. I'll start with the singles chart as I always do, where we finally got a break from Ushermania in the second week of July when Fantasia

who was the winner of American Idol Season 3 took the top spot with her debut single, I Believe. Despite selling over 140,000 copies in its first week on the charts in America, the single was never released in the UK, but you might know her as a guest on The Simpsons in 2005, where she voiced Clarissa Wellington in the episode A Star is Torn. After that, Byrne returned to the top spot for one more week before Usher replaced himself at the top of the charts again with Confessions Part Two. It stayed at number one for two weeks in America but only

got to number five in the UK when it was released as a double A-side with My Boo in November of that year. So going over to the albums charts, we've got a couple of albums to discuss. First of all, we've got Jadakiss, who got to number one for one week with his album Kiss of Death. Despite going gold in the US, it only got as high as number 65 in the UK. After that, G-Unit member Lloyd Banks topped the charts for two weeks with The Hunger for More. It sold almost half a million copies in its first week atop the charts and eventually went platinum in the US

but it only managed to get as high as number 15 in the UK. And finally this week, we have one week at number one for Jimmy Buffett and his 25th studio album License to Chill. Oh, no. Yeah, he's not naming any restaurants there.

Like, despite his enormous success in America, this is his only album to date to reach number one on their albums chart. And it didn't chart at all in the UK. But, you know, despite that that as of 2023 forbes estimates buffett's net worth to be just over a billion dollars so i can't imagine he's all that fussed about us brits anyway do you know i wonder if license to chill was at any chance at the top at the same time that burn by usher was because it would be a great contrast of like this week on the chart we all have to get behind songs about extreme temperatures.

Is this like the Barbenheimer of 2004? Yeah, the Barbenheimer is the... Another reference to state this episode. Busher. The Busher week. Or shit. Thank you very much, both of you, for those reports. We are going to move on to our songs that we're covering this week. And the first on our show this week is this.

But I don't understand why. She's burning me to hold on to this. I know this is something I gotta do. But that don't mean I want to What I'm trying to say is that I love you, I just I feel like this Is coming to an end

And it's better for me to Let it go now And hold on and hurt you me to let it go now. And hold on, it hurts you. I gotta let it burn. It's gonna burn for me to say this. It's coming from my heart. It's been a long time coming. But we done been fell apart.

I really wanna work this out. Man, I don't think it gonna change ya. I do, but you don't. Think it's best we go our separate ways Tell me why I should stay in this relationship When I'm hurting, baby, I ain't happy, baby But there's so many other things I gotta deal with I think that you should let it burn

When the feeling ain't the same in your body Don't want you, but you know Gotta let it go Cause the party ain't jumping like it used to Even though this one grew Let it burn, gotta let it burn Deep down you know it's best for yourself But you hate the thought of being with someone else But you know that it's over Let it burn Okay, this is Burn by Usher. Released as the second single from his fourth studio album titled Confessions, Burn is Usher's 11th single to be released in the UK and his second to reach number one. This is not the last time we'll be chatting about Usher on this podcast

either. Burn first entered the charts at number 98, reaching number one during its second week on the charts, knocking Fly off the top spot. It stayed at number one for two weeks. In its first week atop the charts it sold 49,000 copies beating competition from The Show by Girls Aloud which got to number two, Chocolate by Kylie Minogue which got to number six, Flawless Go To The City by George Michael which got to number 8, and Bubbling by Blue, which got to number 9. In its second week at number 1, it sold 31,000 copies, beating competition from That's Alright by Elvis Presley,

which got to number 3, Move Your Body by Nina Sky, which got to number 6, and Never Felt Like This Before by Shaznay Lewis, which got to number 8. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Burn fell two places to number three. By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 13 weeks. The song is currently officially certified platinum in the UK.

So Andy, Usher, Burn. Yeah, not my favourite this It's certainly no abject failure or anything like that but I do think we're very much riding on Usher's name with this to be honest because I don't think it has the kind of character or elements that you would expect to turn into a big

hit. Okay yes it's definitely that straight down the line 2004 R&B sound and I will say that Usher's voice is very good on this. He's obviously a very talented vocalist, but he really doesn't know how to restrain himself, and the thing is, before I listened to this for the first time, I was like, I can vaguely remember this, but I can't really remember how it goes, and then I listened to it, and I was like, that's why I can't remember how it goes because Russia can't stay on the tune for more than half a second it doesn't go like anything um at times it's the imagery I'm going to paint for

you is a story that um my husband's family liked to tell me about when he was a kid which was when he went on a little spinny roundabout in a park as a kid, and they got it spinning so fast that he just went flying off at the speed of about 30 miles an hour. And he was fine. He was fine. So they all laughed their heads off about it, and it's a popular family tale now. And that's this song, in that I fear that that's what's going to happen at any moment, that he is throwing in so many lyrics

and little ad-libs and little harmonies over the tune that I'm just like, this song is going to completely lose control of itself. It doesn't need to be that complicated. Like I say, it could be a very decent straight down the line R&B song. And Usher clearly knows what to do with this material.

But you can kind of overwork things. And this does really, really feel overworked and it it just kind of offended my taste a little bit because i'm very much in a sort of less is more phase at the moment and this is not less is more this is let's throw more and more stuff at it and let's have him crooning away throughout i do think it's got quite a cheesy sound to it as well, like it's kind of, I don't know, the kind of hand claps and clicks and, you know, that kind of Dilemma by Nellie and Kelly vibe is kind of quite strong with this one. Yeah, it's not for me, to be honest, and like I say,

there's a lot of good elements to it, and I think there's definitely a better song packed in there if it was performed differently and had better production put on it but I think this is really cheesy it's really of its time and it's really overworked and kind of probably got to number one just because it was Usher who had an absolute banger earlier in the year happens all the time nothing to be you know particularly critical about but no not for me this one to be honest no okay lizzy how about you well for me at the time this was older sister music like not least because i have a vivid memory of my older sister playing this song on repeat one afternoon and me trying and failing to drown it out not that the song is bad or anything but either she was a massive Usher fan or she was

going through some relationships yet or both but neither of which were something I had a frame of reference for at that point and again it's not like I hated Usher at the time or anything like that I quite liked Yeah because it reminded me a bit of Get Low that was on the Need for Speed Underground soundtrack. And even then, I recognised him as an extremely good-looking guy with a very distinctive singing voice. And I do definitely like this a lot more than I used to, but like you, Andy, I don't love it either. Like, Usher is clearly a great singer and he's a decent lyricist,

and he combines that with quite an engaging dynamic flow that you certainly don't hear on ballads from the likes of Westlife and there's even a couple of moments here that actually remind me a little bit of Craig David from our earlier episodes in terms of like his flow and some of his lyrics like the best moment of the song for me is one that I find particularly reminiscent of Craig David. It's been 51 days, umpteen hours, I will be burning till you return.

It's like that kind of quick sort of wordplay, which I'm sure Craig David took from somewhere else, but it's the closest reference point I can sort of point to. And he was huge in the UK, and he probably still is in 2004. I'm not saying that Usher was directly influenced by Craig David or anything there's just a neat little similarity there that I picked up on and that moment is a clever way of introducing some of the internal conflict in the song as well

where it seems to jump ahead a few months for the second verse with Usher reflecting on the breakup and regretting being the one who made that decision even though from what I can tell the writing was kind of on the wall if he was having those feelings in the first place but unfortunately we never get any kind of conclusion for that dilemma. The song seems to just peter out during the bridge where Usher gives us a bit of exposition and then he does a couple of whoo-hoo-hoos before going back to the chorus one last time so that lack of payoff is disappointing especially on repeat listens.

And the production is a bit too straightforward for its own good, where it lacks any sort of creative touches to make it more engaging. So instead of burning out, this song just kind of fades away, which is a bit of a shame, really. But I'll give it a mild thumbs up overall. But, yeah, it feels like a missed opportunity. Hmm. Yeah. Well, the first thing that kind of struck me

when I was listening to this in preparation, it's like, you know, I said last week that we're in a bit of a micro phase at the moment where soft, slightly moody R&B rap crossover ballads about breakups seem to be all the rage at the moment because we had Mario Wynans last week and then we had Eamon the week before. And this isn't...

The funniest thing is that this isn't even the first soft, slightly moody R&B rap crossover ballad about breakups to open with a little whispered monologue either because we had Mario Wynans last week where it's like the, oh man, I can't believe this man. And if you're counting it, we had Frankie with,

you made me do this. There's two sides to every story. But I think that this is the best of the group because I think my biggest issue with Eamon and the Mario Winans versions was that like not enough happens to justify their run times

I mean that was my biggest issue with Mario Winans maybe my biggest issue with Eamon was the lyrical content that felt like it just stopped sympathising with him after a point whereas with this there's so much more going on. Like, in the first 30 seconds, you get those soft laser pad things.

You know, the... Whatever noise it is that's getting made. I like that. I was struck by that, actually. Yes, I'm quite proud of that. That could have gone really badly wrong, but it sounded okay. But you get usher's like breathy vocals that i don't understand what and you get the strings and the twinkly little

acoustic guitars and usher comes in with his more typical smooth vocals closer to what he's actually like than the uh than yeah was this is his song for the ladies after all um and in the second verse he switches up the atmosphere starts having a conversation with his own conscience um changes up the rhythm and the melody because it's the because the feeling ain't the same for myself calling her your name and nothing like that is in the first verse everything's rephrased slightly and the story moves on a stage and he's doubting himself and he's regretting his decision. And he goes a bit further in the final verse saying that he's caught between his decision, keeps layering different ad-libs over each chorus. Like, it's nice. I think that after hearing something as sparse as Mario Wiener's last week, it's nice to hear something as dense as this.

But as you said, Andy, I think it gets a little overstuffed i think it overplays its hand i think it adds in too many uh extra little parts just to keep things fresh because as you were saying lizzie the the composition builds to a point and then at the point where there needs to be some kind of release it just kind of you know the the soft like bit. It just feels like they didn't really know what to do. And so it's just a way to bring the final chorus back in. But yeah, I think beyond that as well, it's a little bit polished for me. And I'm also just not that emotionally struck by it.

I find myself talking about the song rather than around it. All I'm really doing is repeating what you can hear in the song, I feel like it's not that evocative or impactful for me, which is strange, because I do mostly like this, it's like more than a slightly mild thumbs up, and I own this album, and I played it a lot, like the first half of this album is stacked with hits, like you get yeah, and you get throwback, and you get throwback and you get this and you get caught up and you get confessions and confessions part two it's a good first half of the records a lot of hits there second half don't think i could recall anything from it um

but it's just strange that this hasn't stayed with me much over the years until now like you know I played Confessions a lot it was I didn't buy it for myself but it was bought for me because I was really into it and it's strange to look back and sort of forget the second half of the record um completely but I guess that was the problem really that it's a bit front-loaded um Confessions but you know it was a massive deal and everybody loved it um i do think andy you were right that this feels like it's been dropped quite nicely into a hype train basically and so it gets to number one uh on that alone but yeah this is this is pretty solid overstuffed and doesn't leave me feeling that emotionally satisfied towards the end but like

i think two-thirds of it are pretty pretty like almost pretty great um it's just that kind of last third that's like oh well it didn't really add up to much in the end did it um but yeah it's it's pretty good i sometimes think about when i'm listening to songs i'm sometimes think about how many tracks are there on the mix you know know, if I was looking at this in Logic or something, what would it look like? And with this, it's just like, there would be an absolute ton, wouldn't there? Like, there's just so, so much.

And it's not necessary for something like this. I kind of think about the poor producer who must have worked really hard on this, and like far harder than was ever needed, to be honest. Okay then, on to our second single this week and it is this Looking back I know I was walking around in disguise It's a fact I was just a lost soul, I needed a guide

And the moment that you came to change my life You made my day You fired up my heart and made me smile You and I know that I'm a different person, yeah Turn my world around I'm a different person, yeah Turn my world around

I'm a different person Yeah Turn my world around Alright, this is Lola's Theme by The Shapeshifters. Released as the lead single from their debut studio album titled Sound Advice, Lola's theme is the Shapeshifters' first single to be released in the UK and their first to reach number one. However, it is their last. Lola's theme went straight in at number one as a brand new entry knocking Usher off the top of the charts. It stayed at number one for one week. It stayed at number 1 for one week. In its first and only week at number 1 it sold 52,000 copies beating competition from Some Girls by Rachel Stephens which got to number 2, See it in a Boy's Eyes by Jamelia

which got to number 5 and First of the Gang to Die by Morrissey which got to number 6. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Lola's theme dropped one place to number 2. By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 25 weeks. The song is currently officially certified platinum in the UK, so two platinum sellers so far this week. Lizzy, Lola's theme by Shapeshifters, how do we feel? I'm still heartbroken that we don't get to talk about Some Girls. Right? Oh god.

Yeah. I mean, thankfully this is great too. I'd be a bit more miffed if Some Girls was held off by Burn. But yeah, with regards to Lola's theme, I sometimes feel like I'm missing the point when I try to analyze a song to pick out certain themes and moods and signs of the time and that feels like the case here because sometimes a song just sounds good and this fits that description completely I think because like I mean let's be honest this is original like a match in a box of matches but it's also bright bold exuberant and most of all catchy as fuck like I complained about make love last year because it followed that kind of disco house formula a bit too closely and you could arguably make the same points about Lola's theme in that it

heavily samples an 80s deep cut and mostly doesn't stray too far from it but I think what really sells this is Cookie's fantastic vocal performance and like um I don't think we ever came up with a name for it but you know the where we pick out an individual moment, like we did with Beautiful, the delirious bit? For me, it's the, You and I know they are. Yes, yes. Ah, brilliant.

And yeah, again, I think it's hard to really come up with much in the way of analysis for this song, just because I think I've already kind of said it it just sounds great it's impossible to I won't say it's impossible to not like because I'm sure there are some people who don't like this and that's fine but to me this is just like an irresistible slice of dance pop and that's all it really needs to be yeah you really kind of took the words out of my mouth with that lizzie about it being almost impossible not to like that i feel like this is just a song that everybody can agree on surely you know there's not been many that we've

had so far that i'm like well who could dislike this really like it's not to say it's the greatest thing ever but you know it i sometimes think about, you know, with Rotten Tomatoes for movies, that, like, it doesn't mean that everybody thinks it's the best movie ever made. It's just, if everybody likes it, it can get, like, 100%. And I feel like this is a song where you would get, like, that 100% score of did you like it or not. But it doesn't mean it's, like, the greatest thing ever. But it's just one of those ones that everybody kind of enjoys and sings along to a little bit and a couple of reasons why I mean really fantastic use of a sample it's just so bursting with energy particularly that brass underneath the strings

that just kind of makes me dance in my seat even as I'm singing it to myself now it's definitely those vocals make a big difference that's just so effusive and so full of life. Interesting that we've had two examples just this year of how what could be a fairly generic mash-up dance track is really elevated by a really great female vocal because we've had Take Me to the Clouds Above and this as well. I think I mentioned at the time that I feel like those two songs, they really sit in a very similar space, not just because of that same kind of commonality with that but also like the

the kind of places in which you hear this and take me to the clouds above i would say are pretty much the same where it's like you know i kind of in a bar on a friday night but not in a club or you might hear it at like a summer carnival or something or you might hear it at like a summer carnival or something or you might hear it at like a barbecue it's just nice pleasing pop music that makes you feel like um it makes you feel like it's summer i think you couldn't really release this at any other time of year than in the summer months to be honest it's kind of got that vibe about it yeah it's just it's just really a really nice song that it kind of does most of what it can do in the first half to be honest and I was

kind of ready for it to finish when it did but I really kind of wouldn't have anything else bad to say about that it's just a really really fun really nice song and I was really made up when this came along because you know I had really complex feelings about Usher

with Burn, and then it was like, no, these are run complex feelings. This is just, yeah, it's just really good. So yeah, yeah, it gets a big thumbs up from me. Really like this. Who's Lola? Who's Lola? Really nice theme.

Oh, I know this, actually. Go on, who's Lola? So Lola is the wife of one of the shapeshifters. Oh, well, there we go. Yeah. I think Lola's theme, it strikes me as being something that was like a working title that stuck. Yeah.

Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, like, you know, at the beginning it was like, oh, yeah, we'll call this Lola's theme because it makes me think of her. And then by the end of it, they're like, oh, no, I'm really attached to this. I think Lola's theme would be a great name for the song and it feels like that's how quite a lot of things end up where it's like you give it a working title and then it's like oh no i actually like that you know i've spent six months with it it's kind of found a home in my soul so it will stay there with that it's like why don't we actually call it the Ketchup Song, guys? Yeah, exactly.

I feel like maybe that had a similar genesis. It's kind of like Groove Jet in that sense. Yes. Yeah. I don't have much to say about this beyond what you two have said. Like you said, Andy, it's a great sample flip that Johnny Taylor track it's a class feel-good summer dance anthem it's really successful because it finds that close relationship between disco and house and soul and it just sits there and has a wonderful

time with it the singer who also called out Liz uh cookie i think her real name is janet or janet rasmus or something like that yeah uh or yeah in the shadows um she brings it and it sort of belongs alongside the likes of ride on time or don't leave me this way or groove is in the heart you know that kind of thing that kind of you know, that kind of thing. Mighty Company. Oof, lovely. Yeah, that kind of uplifting, courageous, positive, bright, you know, the place where, like I said, Disco House and Soul all meet. And like you were saying, Andy,

it feels like it could be played at any kind of place where there's a group of people. It doesn't have to be a specific setting. It just has to have at least 30 people in the vicinity so it could be a carnival which i think is where the music video is isn't it she's um the woman who's singing in the video in the microphone is the sort of like the compare and also the person who presses the button on like a tea cups ride yeah a fun fair um and so yeah that makes total sense i think they they really really understood um the the kind of aesthetics that come out of the song

uh when you when you're listening to it i think it leans a little too heavily on that brass sample after a while sometimes i wish the chorus did something other than repeat the, I'm a different person, yeah, like, I wish it did something else sometimes, but it's an effective hook, so I can see why they would want to repeat it, but yeah, this is great, I am a fan of it, I'm glad that I was able to go back to it and be like, no, this is great, like, because it feels as if, you know, now we're getting to number ones I remember happening and songs I remember happening. And this felt like it reached, like Lola's theme felt like the country paused for a second

to listen to it in a way that they didn't with Burn. It felt like everybody knew this and everybody liked it. Like you were saying, Andyy it would be 100 on rotten tomatoes but not necessarily with a maximum score of 10 you know it would be like you know with the general public it would be like sat at like 7.5 at worst but everybody likes it because whenever anybody hears it they just so it it's proof that the i'm a different person thing is totally like you know it is irresistible a few months ago actually

you can find this on Google Rylan on his Radio 2 show has this I forget what it's called this is karaoke orioke I forget what it's called now but he gets guests in to sing songs from previous years

and so there's a video of um rylan uh performing it with another singer um and they have a great time in the studio uh he's doing a lower octave sensible sensible yeah yes um and there's people in the comments going god is this radio too fodder now i'm getting old etc et cetera, et cetera. So, yeah, I imagine this was great for people, like going to uni and stuff and having their first nights out. I imagine this is probably what it reminds people of the most.

But, yeah, no, I am a fan. I am a fan. My main overriding memory of this, because I remember this came up when I was at the end of year 7 and we had like a year 7 disco and we were all singing along to it and one of my teachers was stood by me and was like oh it's I'm a different

person and the teacher turned to me and said I really thought it was I'm a depressant and it was like learning to be happier I'm a depressant not even enough syllables but she really thought that and it just tickled me, it always stuck with me

the other thing about this is that I do agree that it doesn't really like you said Rob, that it doesn't really kind of go to many places and it kind of plays it safe, but I feel like you get much lower effort these days, this is more high effort than you might get just the simple fact that it

bothers to have a verse at all i feel like that might not happen at all these days that would not be a given that it could just be the same kind of loop all the way through with that chorus because it's such a strong chorus the fact that it stops to have those rise and falls is not something to take for granted so i do give it credit for that but then i do agree with your point that like it would be nice to go further and make it into a proper pop hit rather than just a dance hit. But that's me, I'm a pop head.

You know, whatever. All right then. The last song up for us this week is this. In one single moment your whole life can turn round I stand there for a minute staring straight into the ground Looking to the left slightly then looking back down The world feels like it's caved in, proper sorry frown Please let me show you how we could only just be for us

I can change and I can grow or we could adjust The wicked thing about us is we always have trust We can even have an open relationship if you must I look at her, she stares almost straight back at me But her eyes glaze over like she's looking straight through me Then her eyes must have closed for what seems an eternity When they open up she's looking down at her feet Dry your eyes, mate

I know it's hard to take But her mind has been made up There's plenty more fish in the sea Dry your eyes, mate I know you want to make her see How much this pain hurts But you've got to walk away now, it's over Okay, this is Dry Your Eyes by The Streets.

Released as the second single from his second studio album titled A Grand Don't Come For Free, you heard about it before, Dry Your Eyes is The Street's sixth single overall to be released in the UK and his first to reach number one. However, this is the last time we'll be discussing Mike Skinner on this podcast. Dry Your Eyes went straight in at number one as a brand new entry, knocking The Shapeshifters off the top of the charts.

It stayed at number one for one week. In its first and final week atop the charts, it sold 55,000 copies, beating competition from Satellite of Love 04 by Lou Reed, which got to number 10. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Dry Your Eyes dropped one place to number 2. It initially left the charts in October 2004, but re-entered the chart at number 92 in 2013 as of 2023 it has spent a total of 14 weeks inside the top 100 but the song is currently officially certified platinum in the uk so it's a triple platinum week this week i think it's been a while since we've had one of those um all all three songs this week very I think it's been a while since we've had one of those. All three songs this week,

very vivid memories of them. And I think quite a lot of the country would remember them very strongly as well. Andy, The Streets, Dry Your Eyes, how do you feel? Yeah, I definitely really like this. It's one that I didn't give a huge

amount of attention to at the time, but I always appreciated. I mean, I had to really because it was really big. It felt like people really connected with this. And there are kind of a few reasons why. First of all, it is just genuinely really well put together. Really nice. Once again, a really nice sample lying at the heart of the song.

That sort of strings bit. I know we talked earlier in the week about where that sample was from. Can someone help me with that? I can't remember where it was from. There's a bit of debate over it, isn't there, Lizzie? Yeah, because apparently it's from a piece of library music from about 1999, but can't officially find it. So who knows? Someone out there might know. Wherever it's from, it's really nice, and it's a nice sort of tone setter for the song. And it's just well put together in general.

You know, good chorus, good use of kind of what you might call mainstream rap, rap that your mum won't be terrified of you listening to in the middle. Yeah, so there's that for starters. Second of all, we all just go nuts for regional accents in songs, don't we? And I think particularly in the noughties, we've got a big one coming around the corner in 2005 for a regional accent that helps them make it big and there's definitely that as well but i do think there's something to this for like this being a song for men that they don't have to be ashamed of liking um and a song that's about men

showing emotions which is just like unheard of at this time. And I don't want to reduce it down to that, because it is genuinely a good song. It's not just about that, but I think what it stands for really stands out against the landscape. I think particularly in this year, it really benefits from context, because we've had quite a few songs in recent years that we've called out for kind

of toxic masculinity traits we've had amen for starters and we've also had who's david we've mentioned that a few times going back a little bit further we called it out with any one of us by gareth gates this idea that like it's your god-given right to keep on trying to fight to get your woman back until she says yes. And if she doesn't say yes, then she's being unfair to you. And this song takes a different perspective of like, you know, it's really sad that you've broken up. But me being your friend here to support you is saying, look, it's over. Accept it. It's OK for you to cry about it and be sad. And that's a really positive thing.

It's a really healthy thing. It's a thing that a lot of particularly younger men need to hear. That, you know, you don't lash out and you don't get all nasty with it. It makes such a nice palate cleanser from Eamon and Frankie, I have to say. That there's no kind of

ill will expressed in this. That it's not coming from a nasty place. It's coming from that genuine sense of grief that you feel with a breakup um and just that kind of casual really down-to-earth phrase of dry your eyes mate that you know these are things that people actually say to each other like plenty more fish in the sea yeah it's a stupid cliche but it's what everybody says to each other when you have a breakup so it just has the thing you connect with of like, yeah, this is something that we can all understand

and something that feels real and doesn't feel like it's pushing you towards, you know, a particularly aggressive point of view. It feels like it's a song that you can just sit with in a breakup. And I really love stuff like that. It's one of the reasons I really love, this is a wildly different comparison, but it's one of the reasons I really love the album Gaslighter by The Chicks because it takes such an honest, raw view of what it's like going through a long-term breakup and a divorce in that case that, you know, doesn't shy away from the kind of humiliating feelings that come with it.

that come with it and I just really really appreciate that and yes I'm not like unaware that there are other songs by the streets that you know are far more light-hearted and definitely buy into the more obviously masculine side of things but this is just a nice vulnerable piece of music that is well produced well structured has a catchy hook and just sends out a calming message which I think is very much needed on the 2004 landscape. So yeah, big thumbs up. Lizzie, how about you? Yeah, I love this song. I agree with a lot of your points, Andy.

And yeah, I agree that it's so rare and refreshing to hear a breakup song like this, especially after something we've covered recently, where the coping strategies that they've shown have been unhealthy at best and nasty at worst. I think this one does something really interesting, particularly in the chorus. You know that second-person narrative that Skinner uses here like dry your eyes mate I know you want to make her see how much this pain hurts it's interesting because I feel like there's two ways you can read it and it's never quite clear which is the the true intent like the person speaking could either

be a friend of Skinner who's doing their best to like ground them and comfort them or it could be Skinner himself trying to reconcile with his own feelings revisiting the breakup in his own head over and over again and not allowing him the kind of catharsis that crying can give you like both readings are upsetting in their own way. I'm sure we've all been that friend, trying to help someone in need, even though there's nothing you can really do to accelerate the grieving process.

And I suspect some of us have also tried and failed to put a brave face on it, not even allowing yourself to grieve. And I think overall it's very evocative of that feeling of shock that comes from the sudden end of a relationship, which is obviously helped out by the music video and its very specific sense of inner-city loneliness. It's the same sort of feeling I get from something like

In McDonald's by Burial or stuff by Dean Blunt. It's all like fluorescent lighting and wet concrete, nothing to do and nowhere to go unless you have the money for it. And the way home is as lonely as home itself, especially if your mind is racing and there's nothing to keep you company in the dead of night, which, depending on the time of year, might be 4pm or 4am. And it's those liminal moments like the night bus, the laundrette, the takeaway, the local Tesco Express. Those are the places where grief can kind of hit you the hardest because there's more space for your mind to wander back to it it speaks to Skinner's talent as both a writer and a producer that he can evoke those feelings in what is a very stripped down song for the most part it's just his deadpan vocal over

the same two chord guitar loop and a barely there drum arrangement and then event like occasionally the strings coming in during the chorus for some brief comfort as well as in the intro and the outro but anything more than that would have been too cluttered this is a song that excelled like you say andy because of how straightforward and honest and genuine it is. Like, don't get me wrong, there's a couple of really minor downsides here. Like, one of my favourite parts of the song on the album version is where it abruptly stops in the middle of the song and the string sample from the intro comes back in

with Skinner talking directly to us in a way that it almost resembles like an Alan Bennett monologue like I'm just standing there I can't say a word because everything's just gone I've got nothing absolutely nothing it's a brilliant moment but what the single edit does is it kind of spoils the flow of the song by putting that section at the start to me that doesn't really make any sense because it's a moment of like crushing realization almost an emotional climax and to have it at the start when we don't really know the story just I don't know I know it's a really minor, like, issue, but I just thought it was worth pointing out, there's also a couple of slightly clunky lyrics as well, like the not gonna fucking

just fucking leave it all now part, which I don't think is in the single or the video, but, you know, I can forgive those, because I think this is an incredibly effective song otherwise and if you need any evidence of that last point just go and check out the music video on YouTube and then go and look at the comments because it's full of people like Skinner or Skinner's character in this song you know dealing with heartbreak as best they can some some of them commenting very recently, others having commented many years ago. The reality of everyday life has changed a lot since 2004, but heartbreak is timeless. It feels just as horrible like every time you experience it. And sometimes it never fully goes away, but it does get get easier especially if you can surround yourself with the people and

the things that you love and it's important to remember as well that it is okay to cry but you've just got to walk away wonderful comments yeah no it's very beautiful yeah thank you very much just to get in on one point because i find that really interesting about the dual readings of it that it could be an internal monologue or it could be a friend comforting you. And they are kind of equally valid as readings of it. And they're kind of equally meaningful because especially from a modern perspective, you know, we I feel like most of us now understand the concept of self-care. But that is not really a thing in the early noughties. Certainly the is not really a thing in the early noughties.

Certainly the phrase is not a thing in the early noughties. And I feel like this song is quite a good advert for self-care, of like, you can just comfort yourself, and you can say, oh, it's okay, there's plenty more fish in the sea. You can say those things yourself. You don't need to go and, like, go around and fix someone's car to delay your grief or something you know it's just you can just sit with it on your own and it's kind of revolutionary really um yeah it's it's it

kind of is almost a bit of a cliche these days to talk about men's mental health as being something that's under discussed because it's out there now like you know it's something that is talked about quite a bit now and rightly so but it really does bear repeating that back in 2004 this was just not on the agenda at all and it's brave to come at it from this angle um so yeah i really really appreciate everything you said there lizzie that was really meaningful yes lovely definitely around this time i agreed that this was like the height of that sort of lad culture, the sort of alpha male sort of like show no emotion, it's just lads, it's just banter. This is kind of the peak of that.

And yeah, to have this song that is just like, yeah, sometimes this happens and it's okay to feel the way you do, but yeah, it's just not easy to go through and it's okay to feel the way you do but yeah it's just not easy to go through and it's okay to be emotional about it Women don't expect any help on a Thursday Something you said actually Andy

before has fired off something in my mind that I was going to put in my notes but i thought was maybe going down the wrong track and then i thought maybe so i've not written any notes about this so apologies if it's a bit kind of scattered um but what you said about like there's a sense of like i mean obviously because it's done by Max Kinnett, but there is a sense of, like, male despair in this. And I don't know... I mean, obviously, when you get broken up with,

it's hard and it's difficult, and you always feel rubbish and useless about yourself and stuff like that. But there's a particular type of... I mean, maybe it's informed by the rest of the record, which is that, you know, A Grand Don't Come For Free, obviously the title is a bit like, oh, it's a by the rest of the record, which is that A Grand Don't Come For Free, obviously the title is a bit like, oh, it's a story about fame, but the actual concept of the record is that he loses £1,000,

physically, literally loses the cash, and he spends most of the album trying to get it back via various means, like betting or trying to meet up with somebody in a club and stuff but getting like getting stood up and and this is the point in the album where the relationship ends um with simone who is the the girlfriend character in this i actually have the single um which on the album is like the first part of their relationship which is could well be in um i was in i was in a charity shop in salford shopping city about six years ago and i walked in and yeah well you know um and it was there for 99p, the CD single for Could Well Be In, which is the, I saw this thing on ITV the other week,

said if she plays with her hair, she's probably keen. And that's the beginning of their relationship, and this is the end. But there is a sense of, like, Mike Skinner is a particular type of bloke that lives underneath the women don't expect any help on a thursday yorkies are for men only etc you know that kind of mid-naughties lad culture um he mike skinner's the guy who really exists behind those people they're just as broken and upset and have feelings of worthlessness all the time and it so well communicates this feeling of like because i mean again like i don't want to get all scattered and stuff and say something wrong because i've not written notes about this and i've not thought

it through much except since andy you just mentioned it there but there is this sense of like when uh that the line um with that line with the softness she's blessed with it's this kind of maybe it's a bit patron i don't know if it's patronizing or whatever because obviously i always like it when uh stories about women layer them more than just being like these perfect angelic beings who can do no wrong etc but when you're the type of bloke that Mike Skinner is or the type of bloke that Mike Skinner's playing when a woman a soft and careful and caring woman comes into your life it suddenly gives you this sense that it's hard to describe but it's just a feeling that kind of really comfortably lives in your chest

because you sort of think oh who would ever look at me and then somebody does look at you and then you have this amazing relationship with them and then because of your dysfunction and the things that you can't get right and the things that you can't change about yourself that softness and the care and it all goes when she ends the relationship and you go back to like you were saying lizzie walking around a snooker hall walking around a laundrette walking around a pub sitting in your living room with a can looking at the tv because there's nothing else to do except sit with your dog and think about all the things that you did wrong and i'm not saying that like you know women don't do that but it's something that i think that comes through in

what mike is saying in this song and how he performs it that there is this this sense of like you know for a bit there i didn't feel like a useless bloke and how he performs it that there is this this sense of like you know for a bit there i didn't feel like a useless bloke and now i do again and there's nothing i can do about it um which is the thing that always really struck me when i was watching the music video as a kid i have really vivid memories of watching this music video and waiting for it to come around again on the music channels um because if you've experienced what this song details you'll know that there's nothing else out there i i think anyway no song no film or tv show or book at least to my knowledge that captures that feeling in the same way that

this does at least in a 21st century context. I think it is the ultimate breakup anthem, at least from a male perspective. This feeling of wanting to fight against it, because as boys, I think that's what you're kind of taught to do. You're taught to fight against negative things that happen to you. If you use your, you know, maleness and if you just fire up that testosterone, everything will be fine. That's how you solve your problems. You don't solve it by wallowing and being emotional and sitting with your feelings, goddammit.

But this, like you were saying, Lizzie, it proposes this idea, and Andy, you were saying Lizzie it proposes this idea and Andy you were saying too it proposes this idea that like the only thing you can do is sit with your feelings you can't fight against what's happening to you it's an inevitability it is out of your hands you have no control over this and I often think you know like my lyrics, I've mentioned this before, my favorite lyrics are the ones that express sentiments very simply. You know, the Beach Boys, sometimes I feel very sad. I've mentioned this one before. And I think Dry Your Eyes has one that matches it,

which is just the, you've got to walk away now, it's over. Because it's something that, it's a sentiment that doesn't just live within the lyrics, but it's in his performance as well the special kind of despondency as he goes through the various stages of grief and reaches the point of begrudging acceptance at the end of it

it's a really really effective tale across the course of well with the single version three and a half but what the album version four and a half minutes and the way that you follow the relationship throughout the album and then it kind of dumps you at the end because this is the penultimate track and then you have empty cans afterwards track yes empty cans is great with the like the the alternate double ending thing is fantastic um amazing yeah those first two records for me are just you know like you were saying lizzie comparing

it to burial and dean blunt and things like that i do think that the streets um original parent material and a grand don't come for free they belong in this collection of works from about 2001 to 2006 where the hangover of cool britannia lives in these in in these records um because original private material the front cover is just of that high rise that non-descript high rise that looks very similar to i think the apollo house in peep show yeah and the high rises that are the background and the backdrop for boy in the corner by dizzy rascal you know there's all sorts of great texts from around that period

that without actually referencing it directly, get to the heart of, like you were saying, Lizzie, the fluorescent lights, the wet concrete, the, like you say, the bus home at three in the morning. Yeah. When there's nothing else going on. Because now I feel like you could probably fill your head with social media and smartphones and stuff

but before smartphones it was just tech speak and you might be able to play Snake on the bus on your way home at 3 in the morning but if your battery's flat, like it is in A Grand Don't Come For Free because he's waiting at the bus stop

and there's no battery on his phone that this is what you're stuck with just your own thoughts and nasty horrible feelings um it isn't a perfect 10 for me because he's not the most convincing singer i think when you get to the chorus it requires something a little more skilled than mike skinner is capable of and i i say only slightly more um i think that the next album as well that he does hardest way to make an easy living i think that's a bit underrated but it's weakened by him trying to go more melodic based on this song's success yeah unfortunately this feels like negative foreshadowing

for what comes later because I think it's a decent track, but it's a bit diminishing returns when you get to stuff like Never Went to Church and it really exposes that he's not the best singer when he is actually trying to be a bit more melodic. But I do think this is wonderful. I have loved it since the day I first heard it,

when I was like nine years old or ten years old, and at least half a decade away from experiencing the feelings in this song. But then I actually experienced them in my teenage years, and it's like, yep, I get it. Like, I totally get it. And Lizzie, you were talking about the YouTube comments under this song earlier. There's one particularly that was only made recently that looks at the video in a different way to most people.

And it's about, I don't know if you saw it just from watching the video this week, but that guy talking about him being part of the stolen generation in Australia. Yeah, yeah. And how his relationship with dogs is what's got him through being single until he's in his early 50s and saying that like you know relationships will come and go but it's always dogs that will be unquestionably loving and i always think about

the last shot in the video where the dog just, like, finally, after sitting and watching him throughout the whole video, finally sort of jumps on him because he knows that something's wrong, and he doesn't know what, but he can sense it anyway. Reminds me of one of my favourite David Berman quotes in, I think it was an Avalanches song, where he says,

you can live a long, long time off the love of a dog, which I think is was an Avalanche's song where he says you can live a long long time off the love of a dog which I think is really beautiful and yeah just I always think of that when I see that video yeah and this guy's comment just brought it all like brought the video back to my head in like a really strong way I'd never really

considered the role of the dog in the film in the video until sort of like this week you know he's there and he's a friend but it's like he's more than that um but yeah no i think this is really really excellent one of the best number ones of the 2000s one of my favorite number ones of all time um yeah it's yeah really quite something i've just got one more thing about the dog actually which i've just thought of yeah and that you know you were saying that by the end of the song he's kind

of got to the begrudging acceptance and i think the dog is quite symbolic of that it's like he's sort of wandering around this empty city thinking that there's nobody there who loves him but he kind of gets home and realises that he's been there all along it's the dog you're my best friend now etc etc yeah okay so before we go we're just going to check whether Burn

by Usher is going into the piehole or the vault for anybody it isn't for me Andy what about you no bank average that one yeah and lizzie yeah same not for me cool um lowless theme andy is that going in the pie hole or the vault yes i think that's definitely vault material for me yeah okay yep it is for me too and lizzie yeah just about just about for me too Okay, a unanimous vaulting Nice one

And dry your eyes by the streets Lizzie, is that going in the vault? Definitely Yeah, it is for me as well And Andy? Yes, definitely, yeah So two unanimous vaulters this week Excellent

A good positive week The good times are back after a fairly middling couple of weeks. That is it for this week's episode. Thank you very much for tuning in. When we come back, we'll be covering the period between the 1st of August

and the 4th of September 2004. We're almost into 2005 and we're almost at our Christmas episode and all the great things that come with the end of every year so thank you very much and we'll see you soon. Bye bye See ya