Hits 21 - 2005 (3): U2, Jennifer Lopez, Nelly & Tim McGraw

Episode Date: September 24, 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] Now That's What I Call Musings: https://open.spotify.com/show/2BiY89dz9uRlj6nJSI7ucb Vault: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5O5MHJUIQIUuf0Jv0Peb3C?si=e4057fb450f648b0 Piehole: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2FmWkwasjtq5UkjKqZLcl4

Hi there everyone and welcome back to Hits21 where me, Rob, me, Andy, and me, Livy, 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. You can find us over on Twitter.

We are at Hits21UK. That is at Hits21UK. And you can email us too. Just send it on over to Hits21UK That is at Hits21UK And you can email us too Just send it on over to Hits21Podcast At gmail.com Thank you so much for joining us once again We are currently looking back

At the year 2005 This week we are going to be Covering the period between The 13th of February and the 5th of March Slowly eking our way through 2005. Looking back to last week for a second, I thought the poll was going to be tighter, like Toy Soldiers. Just, just managed, it just, just managed to pip goodies to the post. So it's a win for Eminem. Sort of unexpectedly, actually, to be honest. I thought goodies would take it, but I'm not complaining.

So, 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 episode were at number one in the UK. Sailor Ellen MacArthur breaks the solo world record for sailing around the globe. Sailor Ellen MacArthur breaks the solo world record for sailing around the globe. In the B&Q sponsored Castorama boat, she sailed non-stop for 71 days, breaking the previous record by 15 hours. Her record would subsequently be broken in 2008. Three British soldiers are found guilty of abusing Iraqi prisoners. Lance Corporal Mark Cooley, Lance

Corporal Darren Larkin and Corporal Daniel Kenyon were removed from their ranks and respectively jailed for periods between five months and two years. And in the US, the age at which a prisoner can be executed on death row is raised from 16 to 18. Meanwhile, police in Kansas finally capture serial killer Dennis Rader, better known as BTK. Rader had murdered 10 people in the state between 1974 and 1991. The films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows. Meet the Fockers is finally knocked off the top spot by Hide and Seek, which gets to number one for one week.

And then we have Boogeyman for one week. And Eamon Holmes reveals that he will be stepping down from his presenting role on GMTV after 12 years. In TV, it's announced that Star Trek Enterprise has been cancelled, meaning that after 18 consecutive years, there will be no new Star Trek TV shows in production. And in American football, the New England Patriots defeat the Philadelphia Eagles to win Super Bowl XXXIX.

And Kat Deely presents her final episode of CDUK, leaving the show after six years. The episode featured appearances from Green Day and Daniel Bedingfield and finished with a highlight reel of Cat's best moments while presenting the show, including the time when she introduced Britney Spears to Kylie Minogue. What? That's so cool. That's so cool. End of an era. Yeah.

Andy, how are the UK album charts looking at this present moment? Well as ever, our episode this week is covering about five seconds worth of time. So it's not a hugely busy period on the album charts. We've got a few familiar faces. So where we left off last week, we had Keane back at number one with Hopes and Fears. And that's replaced by last year's highest selling album, which gets back to number one for one week, which is, of course, Scissor Sisters by Scissor Sisters, their debut, goes back to number one for one week in the middle of February.

So I've only got one new album to tell you about this week, which is quite a random one, I think, and it only went gold. It's Some Cities by Doves, their third album, which went to number one for just one week. And like I say, it only went gold. So it kind of got lucky at number one there. But yes, very much a mid-naughties indie vibe as ever. We've got some good ones for you next week. Lizzie, how are things over in the States? Well, on the last day of this period, the 5th of march mario was finally replaced at the top of

the singles chart by 50 cent featuring olivia with candy shop another entry in our yet to be named genre for r&v and hip-hop tracks with prominent food related innuendo i've been racking my brains this week not come up with anything so listeners email in please it stayed at number one for nine weeks in the US but it peaked at number four in the UK two places behind Let Me Love You by Mario screw you 50 Cent

over on the albums chart we have three number one albums to discuss this week first up is 17 Days by Three Doors Down which got to number one for one week in the us despite being certified platinum over there the album failed to chart in the uk after that we have the final studio album and the first posthumous album by ray charles entitled genius loves company which was an album of collaborations with the likes of Nora Jones, Natalie Cole and Elton John. It got to number one for one week in the US, was eventually certified three times platinum and was Ray Charles' first US number one album since 1962. It was originally

released in August 2004, but finally hit the top spot after picking up nine Grammy Awards at the 2005 ceremony, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year for Here We Go Again with Nora Jones. In the UK, it got as high as number 18 when it was released here the year prior. And finally this week, we have one week at number one for Oh By Oh Marion. It was certified gold in the US but failed to make the main UK charts despite peaking at number 12 on the hip-hop and R&B albums chart over here. So when you say Mario got hit away from the top spot, did he get hit by a blue shell? I'd slip that one in there, sorry.

Apologise to the listeners now i'm sorry this is my level deal with it thank you both very much for those reports we are going to get right on then with the songs that we're going to be looking at this week and the first of those that's up is this. tough you think you've got the stuff you're telling me and anyone you're hard enough you don't have to put up a fight you don't have to always be right let me take some of the punches for you Listen to me now I need to let you know

You don't have to go it alone And it's you when I look in the mirror And it's you when I don't pick up the phone Sometimes you can't make it on your own Okay, this is Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own by U2. Released as the third single from the band's 11th studio album titled How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own is U2's 40th single overall to be released in the UK, and their 6th to reach number 1, or or seventh if you count LMC vs U2.

However, this is their last number one and the last time that we'll be discussing U2 on this podcast. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own went straight in at number one as a brand new entry knocking Eminem off the top of the charts. It stayed at number one for one week. In its first and only week atop the charts, it sold 30,000 copies, beating competition from Wooden Heart by Elvis Presley, which got to number 2, Soldier by Destiny's Child, which got to number 4, Black and White Town by Doves, which got to number 6, and Angel Eyes by Regav, which got to number 7. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own fell 6 places to number 7. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 12 weeks.

The song has never received any official certification from the British phonographic industry. Lizzie, you can kick us off this week with Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own. I think this is okay. I like it better than Vertigo, definitely. But I don't like it as much as Beautiful Day. It kind of seems more in that Beautiful Day mould where it's a big inspirational, like, it's a definite stadium number.

I feel like this is the sort of thing that would make a lot of sense if you saw it live. It would feel a bit like... No, you know certain bands where fans of them will say, oh, I want to see them live, and it was like a religious experience, and it's more than just pop music, that stupid music you like. But I can imagine that, yeah, it would be quite sort of engaging and, yeah, quite, like, reach down into you and sort of talk to something you didn't know was really there.

As you listen to it on its own, though, I don't, it doesn't quite hit the way I think it's trying to. Like, as far as I can gather, from what I've read, I think it's a tribute from Bono to his dad, maybe. I know it went through a bit of a journey reading about it, where they, you know, it had gone back to All You Can't Leave Behind, which was their 2000 album.

And they felt like it wasn't ready and they worked on it wasn't ready, and they worked on it and worked on it, and eventually, five years on, here we are. And it does sound like it's, you know, it's had a lot of work on it, if that makes sense. It sounds like a song that's taken five years to make. It's very, like a lot of U2, it's all perfectly produced, not a note out of place. And it's all about Bono being able to soar above it and make it this big, expansive experience.

And while I think, again, as I say, I do like it, but it has its issues issues I think it's too long for one I think there's a middle bit that seems a bit aimless and tacked on that I could have done without and yeah overall there's just there's not something like beautiful day that I kind of cling to in my memory and I think yeah it is it has a strong hook and a strong kind of riff that I can hang on to I think it's just this there's something there about it I definitely don't think this is a bad song but there's just maybe something lacking and I find it kind of hard to look past like overall I'd say it's like a mild thumbs up but I wouldn't see myself going back to this in the same way that I might can see myself going back to Beautiful Day because I have much fonder memories of that and I have

basically no memory of this I'm afraid.. Okay, Andy, how about you? I pretty much entirely agree with Lizzie, to be honest. I'm probably slightly more critical, but I find it hard to be too critical because of the context of it, that you do feel some heart has gone into this and you definitely agree, I definitely agree, sorry,

that there has been work that's been put into this, that you feel like this is an important one for Bono, at the very least. But I'm not sure it's a compliment, really, to say that it's had all of that work, because it still kind of just comes out with not enough meat on the bones, I think,

because it's quite funny, actually, that some of the comments that are made about this, in terms of the making of it kind of sum up U2 as a whole for me, that the Ed said he found the song a bit cloying. Like, yeah, you're in U2. It is a bit cloying. And then...

Yeah, of course. And then they said they felt that the chord progressions were a bit too predictable. Like, yeah, you're in U2. This is what you signed up for so it's just and that's not always a bad thing either it's not always a bad thing and especially when you want to do a song like this that's kind of straight down the line you know bare in your heart which I think I think does work for this the problem is though that it does make it sound quite generic

and for all the work that has gone into this you know this five-year history that it's had it does sound quite a lot like several U2 songs that have come before particularly still haven't found what I'm looking for it's that kind of generic clangy stadium rock sound that I just can't really get into to be honest and I completely agree that this is probably great live and it's probably really stirring and I get that but I'm not listening to this live and neither will 90% of the audience ever hear this live I just think at this point you two are a band that are made for being on the road and made for those stadiums which you can tell from Vertigo and you can tell from Beautiful Day as well and that's

what they're going for at this time and they're not really so much recording artists anymore as they are professional touring artists which there's nothing wrong with that nothing wrong with that at all but I do think that comes across really clearly in this song that it's just quite sort of wall of sound without much else to propel it to be honest and I definitely wouldn't say I dislike this song

but you know it's it's very long and it's very kind of in one place all the time and I've heard several U2 songs that are quite like this before so it gets a kind of thumbs in the middle from me that I'm like yeah I appreciate this and it's something a little bit more personal than we've been used to in you know previous times we've covered you too but it's kind of you know formulaic straight out of the box you two to be honest i might be being a little harsh but it just didn't grab me as much as i should have really okay well uh as for me uh this is a surprisingly heavy one for me in terms of what the song actually means uh to me uh so i'll discuss the song first and try to divorce it of any context

from my life and just try to take it on its own merits. Like U2, I think it's a fairly middling ballad that is, I think, elevated by quite personal lyrics about Bono's kind of difficult relationship with his father, who was dead at this point. He died of cancer a few years prior. Because I think all the lyrics about them butting heads because they're basically the same person i actually found them quite sad um this whole thing about him seeing and hearing his dad within his own actions you know like it's you when i look in the mirror etc this feeling that like your dad didn't also like didn't like you as much as he should because bono dared to be the apple that didn't fall that far from the tree um sort of heartbreaking i think but him still being able to see through

that though and say to his dad like i love you and you don't have to go through presumably chemotherapy alone and things like i know we don't talk but would you listen to me if i sang it instead um because i think it's actually a song about the dangers of the way that men are socialized to not really deal with their feelings and not really talk to each other um and how bono has managed to kind of break that cycle through music and singing which is what he's doing with this very song, even if it's too late. But it's just a shame, I think, that the arrangement around him is not quite pulling the weight. I kind of like that it's sparse, and I like that it takes a while to kind of accelerate and go through the gears. But like a fair portion of the album that this is from,

and I've listened to this album a lot in my life um for reasons i'll go into in a minute um i think you can feel the influence of bands like coldplay and keen yeah where the bands seem to you too they seem to retreat into pretty flat instrumentals that sound huge but don't really land like you were were saying, Andy, they sound like a group of experienced touring musicians who have done nothing but play in arenas for 20 years by this point. The Edge's guitar work is really lovely in spots, but I'm unsure about the way that the song presents itself overall. The weird sort of intimate but globby production on the drums and the bass, where the actual quality of the playing sort of feels questionable sometimes, because of how they've been made to sound in post, especially

really early on with the bass, where it just feels like it's suddenly going, like it's peaking, almost, like, right in your ears, but I think then once the song enters its later acts, like, it sheds a lot of the globy kind of swollen perspectives that the producers seem to have the song in uh in the beginning stages and it feels more like a u2 song um i think admittedly this kind of later era u2 where they've lost any kind of post-punk or even slightly experimental uh sensibilities that they still had around the late 90s that it's all kind of gone they're just now they're delivering stuff that's like straight down the late 90s that it's all kind of gone. They're just now, they're delivering stuff that's like straight down the line,

pretty middle of the road. And I think that without Bono's lyrics and vocals elevating this, I can't really see how this stays around in my memory. And I'm a little bit surprised that it made it to number one as well, especially with Destiny's Child

releasing a single that week. But, you know, I think U two being still capable of getting number ones in 2004 is probably the strongest argument i could make that the period between 2006 and 2008 kind of changes everything um because sorry we're in 2005 and U2 are still top of the charts and when you get to 2009 I think they have one top 10 single but like No Line on the Horizon is the first time

I think I ever listened to U2 and thought you no longer sound current pop has moved very quickly away from you and I think Get On Your your boots was like the best attempt that they had i'm not even sure where that got to but it was the first time i think that they really sounded like dads like i think they just about avoid sounding like dads on how to dismantle an atomic bomb but you can feel them going that way and no line on the horizon and then the oh god the total misfire of um songs of innocence

like thinking oh yeah everyone's still gonna want a u2 album on their phone or ipod or whatever my mom's a huge u2 fan and she still hasn't listened to that album out of protest if you want a bit of evidence for how poorly that went um but I think this song and the album, they mean so much to me because it was there when I first realized around this time in 2005 that my life had, or that life in general has chapters. Because my parents were huge fans of U2 all through like the 80s and the 90s. parents were huge fans of U2 all through like the 80s and the 90s um my mom kind of dropped off a little bit around like Zoropa and pop and things like that but you know they were still pretty you know clued into what they were doing um and so when this album came out we listened to it as a family for months on end they you know converted it to tape and then it was played in the car. I remember on my 11th birthday, which my birthday falls in June, so a little bit after the song was number one and they were still

getting charted singles with stuff like All Because of You and obviously there was Vertigo but also City of Blinding Lights which I think is the best song on the record. I remember the three of us going down to London for the day on my birthday in 2005, my 11th birthday, and we listened to it all the way there and all the way back several times. And so it became a big, you know, it was a big part of my life during the last few weeks of primary school. And I remember on my last day of primary school, the year was over, so I was allowed to stay up a little bit later than usual, of primary school. The year was over, so I was allowed to stay up a little bit later than usual, you know, watch TV, play video games, whatever. And maybe it's because I was tired that I got a bit emotional, but I remember listening to this song and another which was City of

Blinding Lights. They're not back to back on the album, but they're very close together. And City of Bling lights would be vault material if we were discussing it and if it had got to number one um but i remember sitting on my bedroom floor and i had a little one of those cd stereos that kind of looked like an ant's head with a handle and you could like it was portable you could take it everywhere and i remember it hitting me in that moment when i was listening to this song and City of Blinding Lights the primary school was like over and the whole weight of it hit me and I just just started crying and I'm not really I can't really explain it to this day I remember my mum

coming in because I think she heard me and she asked me what was or did I go out onto the landing I think I went out onto the landing and I sat on the stairs and i remember my mom looking at me and asking what was wrong and i think i said something along the lines of like i can't believe i'm never gonna see some of those people ever again and i was like 11 years old and i don't know why i was thinking about that kind of stuff but this was what was playing, and this whole album was around when I realized that life has chapters, and that the first one, my first chapter of my life was done,

and there was nowhere else to go but forwards, even if I wanted to or not, which is a really strange thing to, it's a really strange significance that this album has, because it's like... It has City of Blinding Lights, which I really like, and I'm positive towards this and Vertigo, and there's a song on there called Love and Peace or Else,

which is a little bit different for them at that point. It's a bit like, what if you too tried to be ZZ Top? But then the whole second half of the album is just these like really quite dull soft rock ballads that don't like Yahweh, oh god, and Original of the Species, and all these yeah just totally not U2, the sign of them kind of going slightly over the hill, and then they are you know way over the hill by the time of no line on the horizon um but i think this is the last time that you two sound current and i think

it's appropriate this is their last number one because i think it was the last time they ever had a chance um of getting close to one um do we have anything more to say about you two or the song itself because you know last know, last chance, so. I guess the only, I mean, first of all, that was a very touching story. Thanks for that, Rob. Yeah. The only other thing I would add is that,

I can't remember which one of you said it, but comments about them seem to be a little bit inspired by Keane and indie music. That definitely stands out to me of this whole era and a little bit after this with you two of what i know of it that it starts sounding like the kind of thing that keen or even like the zutons might come out with for some of their songs um or like embrace or something yes yeah yeah this kind of feels like the period in time where they stopped becoming trendsetters and became trend followers.

And that's not a bad thing because they've been around for like 20 years at this point. There's nothing wrong with that. But yeah, I would sort of agree with you, Rob, that this is the moment where I would describe U2 as no longer particularly relevant. This is where the needle starts to turn on them, I think. And I think it's something we've already kind of discussed but there's also a bit of luck i think in that they've just kind of come in at this tail end of like an era in chart music where like like every song we cover this week elvis is at number two or number three spoiler alert yeah and it just kind of speaks to the fact that you can have everyone buy your single on the first week and it gets and that'd be enough to get to number one and then nobody

ever buy it ever again yeah yeah you do end up around this um sort of around the mid-naughties where there were some bands who managed to get top 40 singles because like 1500 people bought a cd if they could convince enough people by like internet guerrilla marketing basically. And so yeah, just this little short period, sort of like the early mid 2000s where like it's just before they start counting downloads. And even then when they start counting downloads,

the sales don't really boost up that much. They kind of go back to roughly average levels. So yeah, 30,000 copies copies for youtube's last ever number one and it's enough so we will move swiftly on and the second song that is going to be up this week is this Yeah. Bye. A little more than I should be So let yourself go and get right with me We can get right We can get right We can get right We can get right We can get right We can get right

We can get right In my head In my head All right, this is Get Right by Jennifer Lopez. Released as the lead single from her fourth studio album titled Rebirth, Get Right is Jennifer Lopez's thirteenth single overall to be released in the UK and her second to reach number one and this is not the last time that we'll be discussing Jennifer Lopez on this podcast. Get Right went straight in at number one as a brand new entry knocking U2 off the top of the charts. It stayed at number 1 for one week. In its first and only week atop the charts, it sold 50,000 copies, beating competition

from Surrender by Elvis Presley, which got to number 2, Hush by LL Cool J, which got to number 3, How We Do by The Game and 50 Cent, which got to number 5, Sunrise by Angel City, which got to number 9, and Cradle by Atomic Kitten, which got to number five sunrise by angel city which got to number nine and cradle by atomic kitten which got to number 10. good to see you again when it was knocked off the top of the charts get right dropped one place to number two by the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 17 weeks the song is currently officially certified gold in the UK as of 2023. So Andy, Jennifer Lopez and Get Right, go ahead. It's definitely a big week for artists I just don't particularly vibe with in a non-specific way. You two have always just been a bit bland to me and I'd say the same of J-Lo to

be honest. So yeah, it was not the most inspiring week for me this this one though is interesting because it has that hook to it and I'm gonna make a comparison with goodies from last week that if you don't like that hook you are screwed that it lives and dies on that and unfortunately I don't like that hook I find it it's no it's not it's not actually annoying in itself I just think it's really high in the mix really really high in the mix um to the point where it seems to be louder than JLo's vocals a lot of the time and that's partly because she has quite thin not particularly powerful vocals and she sings in that kind of

breathy kind of way but also it's just badly mixed um so yeah that's a getting that straight out the gate that's my big down point for this song that it's just it's it's too heavy on that i shouldn't have done that that was awful but you know what i mean um yeah i think that's probably my big downside of the song but otherwise it's okay um again referring back to goodies last week and referring forward to pussycat dolls in the future another one of those really where it's kind of sort of indistinctly kind of vaguely intimate and sexual that it's got that kind of vibe to it that hips don't lie as well will take forward i think that um similarly quite annoying quite loud hook from Hips Don't Lie,

it's probably in some way inspired by the one from this. Yeah, it was fine. It's okay for a J-Lo song, who I really, like I say, I just don't vibe with in general. I like On The Floor, and I'm looking forward to getting to that. Spoilers. But other than that, she's just not an artist I really connect with, and I'm really hoping that one of you two can enlighten me because I had the same problem last time we discussed JLo.

This is only the second time and I've already kind of run out of things to say about her. But yeah, this is actually, of all the songs we've covered this week, this is the one that has stayed in my head the most. But in kind of a frustrating, irritating way rather than a catchy way. But I can totally see why this got to number one. I can totally see why people got into this. This is not hugely for me, to be honest. Convince me, though. I'm open-minded on this one.

Someone convince me. I don't think you're going to have the strongest advocates to answer against you here. Fair enough. Lizzie, how do you feel about Get Right we have crazy and love at home yes yeah um yeah I mean that's like the biggest problem I have with this song is that it's okay in its own right but it reminds me of a much better song. And it's like, well, why am I not just listening to that? Also, interesting that you mentioned goodies,

because this, again, is another song that has a tangential link to Usher. He's everywhere, isn't he? He is, he is. So Usher did a song called Ride, which had basically the same beat and the same, I want to say the bridge was pretty much the same, just some lyrics changed about. I think he wanted to get a writing credit on this

but they didn't give it to him, so he was a bit miffed. Yeah, he passed on the beat didn't he? He did, yeah. So yeah, interesting that he comes up again. It is, I guess it's from 2004, and 2004 was the year of usher so i suppose it only makes sense but yeah i think with the production here by is it rich harrison

yeah yeah same guy who did crazy in love oh yeah did crazy in love and did one thing again two better songs because i think one of the big things about those is that they do have those big hooks and the big sound the big soul samples but they also have more presence in the vocals which as you say Andy I don't think Jennifer Lopez quite has she does have that quite kind of breathy and quite I don't want to say she's got a soft voice but she doesn't have um an instantly impactful like memorable one either yeah and i'm actually not like i'm not criticizing her voice per se like i quite like a sort of breath no no no you know kind of no she's a good singer yeah yeah yeah but it's like not for this sort of thing

i think this is not quite her domain and yeah i think maybe with another artist i think it could have lifted it slightly but i think there's also something just a bit lacking in the song overall and also i do agree that i think the the beat is kind of well the hook is kind of high in the mix particularly on the chorus where you you just hear it looping and in the background you can't unhear that from the soul power 74 sample it's just like every so every every bar is like like she's on a spring like zebedee just bouncing around so yeah um i mean that's all i've got to say about it and i thought there must be some more i can try and get from this so i thought we'd ask the kids of 2005 what they think about this because i don't know if either of you remember um but news round used to do singles reviews i do remember this

yeah yeah and they got kids to sort of comment in so they did their own kind of review uh they gave this one news round out of five wow that's harsh just a bit um so there's um the first question they thought is will you still be humming it next week probably but only because the tune is annoyingly repetitive ah but then when we get to the kids so we've got like Alicia, 11, in Tildley, who says, I think J-Lo should stick to her typical R&B music, though the beat makes it individual. David, 13, from Kefili says, It's one of those songs you know is rubbish,

but you can't help loving it. I can't get it out of my head. And I'll finish this off because we'll be here all day otherwise we've got tulsi who's 11 from waltz hall who says i really like this song it's one of her good songs and wiki to boogie to at a party exclamation point oh that last one's quite adorable these are all the kids she would have just graduated school with Rob and like well that's a way to segue back to you what did the kids

of 2005 think about it your way yeah honestly I barely remember but I did just want to say that like of those three reviews the last one felt really genuine like someone who really likes J-Lo and is just like well I love it and then the first two are like the kind of things love it. And then the first two are like

the kind of things that would be said by the kind of kids who would send a review of something to Newsround at the age of 11 and 13, and I was one of those kids. Yes, a feeling seen there. Yes, felt very seen for a second there. I'm in this

photo and I don't like it. I thought I really liked this photo and i don't like it um i thought i really liked this but i don't um i'm only mildly positive towards it because i think like having basically the same atmosphere as crazy in love or one thing because of course rich harrison i think it exposes exactly the same thing that you said lizzie where like j where like Jennifer Lopez doesn't have much character as a singer compared to her major contemporaries. I just find the experience to be enjoyable, but sort of flat. And I think it's the flatness that kind of caught me off guard because I like the brass sample, even if it really grates after a while. And I like the kind of forceful percussion. It reminds me a little bit of something that Timbaland might do, just with the slightly onomatopoeic effect that it has. And I think the...

Not that I'm enunciating that properly, but that does get stuck in your head. Yes. I'm unsure about that brass sample that comes in when she says that as well because it's like and it's like this weird noise that appears behind her um speaking of weird noises that appear behind jennifer lopez in the mix i similarly to you lizzie was completely distracted by the um or whatever noise that is that appears every four beats every four bars like yeah it feels totally out of place for the song I've no idea why they

couldn't just replay the tenor sax and then just get rid of the you know just interpolate rather than sample I really don't have a clue um i do also like the decision at the very end to have that little girl sing the song the hook at the end which is nice but because it's an emotional hook but it's right at the end when the song is over and i don't know i just think for all the noise that it makes and for how bright it ostensibly is, I actually find it just kind of adequate and kind of flat and, you know, for something that should be so full of life and colour, it just doesn't feel that way. I was really struck by, like, how not bothered I was by it, like, not, like, it's, it's not offensive and it's's like i dislike it i i'm broadly fine with it but

i don't know it just kind of struck me as a missed opportunity i think you know because it is it's a great sample to use but i just think they never move away from it and so it always feels static it just feels so static the only other sample they get is the other one that is equally slightly irritating the sort of like the just from whatever other song it was or whether that's been played in or if it's from the same track i'm not sure it's from soul power yeah yeah from the same i just i don't know i just i'm struck by how just kind of playing the whole experience feels and i do think a lot of it has to do with the fact that jennifer lopez like jennifer lopez could not do crazy in love and she could not do one thing but beyonce and amory could walk onto this track and make something bigger from it

i think because absolutely yeah beyonce does something kind of similar later on with something like love on top you know a similar kind of feel. And, I mean, Beyonce's whole thing with that is like, especially at the end where it's like, here's four key changes that I can match perfectly. You know, come at me sort of thing. Whereas I just don't think Jennifer Lopez has the kind of vocal dexterity.

I just, I can't put my finger on what it is that just doesn't lift with JLo. And I think it's just that she has no kind of specific sound or style of her own. There are a few artists I can think of who are as reliant on a catchy hook in the mix or a catchy sample. I like On The Floor, and that's probably by default my favourite JLo song. But that is entirely because of that sample of the Lombardo. Spoilers again for six years in the future but i just think she is the least of it with the

songs it's it's the songs that are relatively catchy and then she is a bit of an icon because she's like stunningly beautiful and she kind of has a a-list celebrity story going on but i think musically there's just so little there with j-lo she's really really um just one of the pack and i think without that context of the time of like oh yeah she's j-lo i think if you were to show her music to like young people now they just would not understand why she was big at all um and who could blame them there's definitely a couple of people like that who i can think of later on. I think at least with JLo,

she represented quite an underrepresented community in pop music. There wasn't, like, it seems weird to say it now, but there was not a lot of, you know, Hispanic representation in pop music in the early 2000s. But yeah, later on, I'm thinking of people like, this may be unfair, but I'm thinking of like,

someone like Katy Perry, who never quite found their own voice. And once they disappeared from pop, they vanished without a trace. Okay, on to our third and final song this week, and it is this. I think about it over and over again And I can't keep it, you're immune with him And it hurts so bad Cause it's all in my head

I think about it over and over again I replay it over and over again And I can't take it, I can't shake it, no I can't wait to see you Wanna see if you still got that look in your eyes That one you had for me, before we said our goodbyes And it's a shame that we, gotta spend our time being mad about the same things Over and over again, over and over again

But I think she's leaving, but I think she's leaving Oh man, she's leaving And I don't know what else to do Can't go on not loving you Cause it's all in my head I think about it over and over again And I can't keep it, you're in unity And it hurts so bad Cause it's all in my head I think about it over and over again Okay, this is Over and Over by Nelly featuring Tim McGraw.

Released as the second single from his fourth studio album titled Suit, Over and Over is Nelly's 12th single overall to be released in the UK and his third to reach number one and this is not the last time that we'll be discussing Nelly on this podcast. Over and Over went straight in at number one as a brand new entry knocking Jennifer Lopez off the top of the charts. It stayed at number one for one week. In its first and only week atop the charts, it sold 42,000 copies, beating competition from Marie's The Name by Elvis Presley, which got to number three, Wake Me Up by Girls Aloud, which got to number four, Locked Up by Akonoud which got to number 4, Locked Up by Akon which got to number 5, Oh My God by Kaiser Chiefs which got to number 6, Hounds of Love by Future Heads which got to number 8

and Caught Up by Usher which got to number 9. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, over and over dropped one place to number 2. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 15 weeks. The song is currently officially certified silver in the UK as of 2023. So, Andy, Nelly and Tim McGraw, take it away. Best of all, wow, Kaiser Chiefs are here and Oh My God was out this week and this got number one. What is going on people of 2005? Jesus. I could almost leave it at that to be honest just out of protest because Kaiser Chiefs

were like one of my first great musical loves but anyway. Yeah, this. I'm going to slightly repurpose Ernest Manpain into like brooding man thoughts because it's not really even pain it's not really any kind of pain

that's being expressed in this because nothing's being expressed in this it's just kind of hit Nelly's internal monologue for like four and a half minutes and it just goes nowhere, it literally goes nowhere, like it never ever moves

out of first gear. And yes, that over and over again hook is a little bit catchy, and so it gets a couple of points for that, but it just does not develop at all. And there's not really any kind of angst to it. It doesn't have that kind of factor of, oh, getting caught up in a story in the way that Nelly has done in previous songs, or that you might have got from like Craig David or things like that that kind of storytelling back and forth through the choruses and through the verses that's just not there it's just like oh I think about this thing yeah and because it's Nelly who's like big at the time and seems to you know just be able to sell records just on his name alone you get a a song like this, which is just damn boring.

Really, really boring. And I just have nothing to hook onto with it at all. Again, I'm going to criticise its length. I got like two minutes into this and I was like, oh, come on, this can wrap up now. And then I looked at my phone and was stunned that it was only halfway through it was like oh my god uh yeah yes not a fan of this one unfortunately I don't think it's like the worst thing in the world because I still you know like nearly 20 years on instantly recalled that refrain that over and over again I'm not really sure again

like I've said in previous songs I'm not really sure that that's a good thing that that's stuck in my head 20 years on but I feel like that's really the only thing the song has going for it that it's just a sort of stream of thoughts a stream of consciousness that we are assumed to find interesting because it's a big star saying it it's like no no this is filler this is an album track at best. It's not a single. And there we go. I'm done with it. Lizzie, how about you? I'm surprised you've said this isn't quite earnest man pain, because I think it has the most

earnest man pain combination of line and delivery that we've ever covered. There's not enough of anything in it to quote for it to qualify as pain it's just everything's at like a two out of ten energy level so it doesn't qualify as man pain to me but go on but it but it's got that and it hurts so bad like that is like distilled man pain to me. Yeah, totally agree with you. This just never gets going. I feel like I've been a bit of a Nelly apologist on the podcast. Like, I really liked My Place,

but I just thought the lyrics were a bit crap. I really liked Dilemma, but I just wish there was a bit more to the story, particularly Kelly Rowland's side. With this, I just don't care. I do not care because there's no effort gone into it at all. Like, there's no story. There's nothing to hang on to. I'm not thinking, well, I'm not even thinking, well, why has she left you i'm thinking well i know why she's left you because you're a boring bastard if this is anything to go by and yeah i just i can't be doing with this it feels like this feels wrong to be a big uk hit this is the sort of thing that

if i told you that this was number one for 15 weeks in america you would believe me and yet this only got to number three in america and it is the most heavily like american style like nelly pitching for the country crowd like he's a little bit country he's a little bit rock and roll and it just like that that stuff never flew over here so why have we got it now and like maybe it's just all of nelly's fans combining with tim mcgraw's 10 fans over here and like like say with this period you can just pip into number one if you sell like 30 000 copies but again i just can't imagine like i can't imagine a young person listening to this because it is such a it's a dad divorce song and we've already had one too many of those this year and yeah i just i can't get on with this at all. I think it's slow and it's boring and it's ponderous.

It doesn't go anywhere. It takes ages in going nowhere. I don't see the point. I think it's just, I'm sorry, this is crap. I really don't like it. You know that thing you said about how, well, maybe just all Nelly fans buying it and there we go, that um the thing you said about how i'll maybe just just all nelly fans buying it and there we go that's the end of the story that's that is the thing that keeps sticking

in my craw sticking in my mcgraw if you will i'm gonna say you're tim mcgraw that's the thing that keeps annoying me because i mean random comparison i'm gonna make here but i vividly remember thinking this is when when justin bie's album Changes came out which was the one after Purpose which had What Do You Mean and stuff on and then he released Changes which had Yummy and a couple of other ones and I remember listening to that album and it was

one of the laziest most uncreative dullest pop albums I have ever heard and I remember thinking you know if this was your first or even second album this would not even quiver the charts, not for one moment. This is just, you are lucky that you were where you are in your career to be able to get away with an album like that. And that's how I feel with this, that if this was on Nelly's first album,

if he was getting started and he released something like this, boom, stone dead. And he's lucky to get away with something like this, that he's got that kind of star power. And I don't like that. I don't like rewarding phoning it in. And I'm not having a go at Nelly fans for it, because everyone's got their fans who buy everything they do. And, you know, maybe before you buy it, you don't know what it sounds like. This is still the physical age for a lot of people. But no, I just don't like that as a phenomenon like oh here we've got a number one by Nelly here who's just boring us to death but it's Nelly so give him number one I just don't like it

it really really annoys me when that happens and this is probably the clearest example so far I think of that well yeah I agree it's kind of hard really to know what to say I actually completely forgot about this until 2019 when old town road was a hit and people were trying to get their friends to remember that lil nas x and billy ray

cyrus hadn't been the first rap and country crossover hit and people look back at this as if it was just as if it was like a fine example of such a thing uh when it isn't. Like you two, I find this to be very drippy and insipid, and I have zero sympathy for either of their plights in the song, because they are just... That's that one guitar sample playing over

and over again, like some fucking Lighthouse family record. Hey, leave Lighthouse family out of this. They're much better than this. Sorry, no, that is yeah that that is uh lifted is fine lifted is fine but it is just the and didn't didn't and didn't didn't it's just the whole song um and just nelly occasionally going oh oh oh yeah and just also nelly can't sing and i don't know why they make him sing oh the, the fucking, she's leaving. He is kind of out of tune, isn't he?

She's leaving. It's terrible. He's way out of tune. Yeah. Well, his strength was always in his kind of nursery rhyme singing. Yeah, and kind of like. So like. It's like a kind of simple, like, I don't know.

Yeah, just like a sort of nursery rhyme simple tune not like trying to belt it out like he's doing here and it hurts so bad i can't go on not loving you i don't want to go too hard on like you know men expressing their feelings and stuff because i've literally just in this episode been talking about how like you know men are socialized to not do that and then when they do that it becomes uncomfortable but like i would say that i am aware enough of that problem in order to be comfortable recognizing when men are expressing their emotions and it still just does not work for me because of the way that it is executed and the way that it's delivered and i totally agree andy that like there is a sub-genre here of earnest man pain and like you were saying though lizzie like why was this not

the opposite way around with us in america like why was this not really popular in america for like why was it not number one for nine weeks while over here it gets to like number 16 or something exactly it just feels tailor-made for that kind of chart run and chart record but no we just have to sit and talk about it i just yeah it's one of those where like i kind of remember the music video where it's like oh they're experiencing the same day but like not the same and they wake up and they press their alarms and they get on a plane and all this and it's like oh the life of a musician on tour god so hard like that sort of thing and i'm just yeah i could buy that story if it was delivered any more convincingly but i just i

don't get this it just feels so like tim mcgraw can't be arsed and so like if this feels like something tim mcgraw would think up 10 albums in when he's like oh i don't have to please anyone it just feels like yeah let's get nelly in you know like why not yeah have a bit of fun like you know get the old white country fans into like this guy who has a plaster on his face because oh you know that just yeah i am not remotely interested in this you know tim mcgrory on this is the sound of being paid up front that's what i would oh yeah yeah and it's a shame as well because around this time it was nowhere near as successful um but the there was a hip-hop artist um bubba sparks who did an album called deliverance uh around this time yes um which i think is a much better example of hip-hop and

country kind of crossing over um and it's a bit of a shame that nothing really i don't think anything really made it to be that successful in this country. But yeah, there's some lovely songs on that record, like the title track, like Jimmy Mathis. So yeah, it's just a shame that that wasn't like a, you know, a more kind of prominent example of country rap at the time, if you will. But do we have anything more to say about over and over again i would just like to say that hindsight is a funny old thing and when dilemma came along um way back in 2002 i was pretty harsh on it and was like oh this represents everything i don't like about the early noughties now we've got this honestly i I criticise Dial Emma for being kind of boring and doesn't go anywhere and uncreative.

I mean, it's like a day in the life in comparison to this. Yeah, maybe it was a bit harsh on Dial Emma. Yeah, so I just wanted to have that on record. I think we're conveniently ignoring the finest moment in country rap, which was Hoedown Throwdown by Miley Cyrus from Hannah Montana the movie

would we define that all summer long thing by Kid Rock that's got this kind of country-ish sound Jesus Christ yeah, forgotten about that sorry no, I know

it's alright, I can rip it to shreds when we get there um so sometimes you can't make it on your own is that going in the pie hole or the vault for anybody no no no not not me either it just misses out on the vault for me um get right by jennifer lopez i'm not putting that anywhere no me neither i am going to put over and over. I am going to put it in the pie hole. So easy, straight out the gate. Just like straight in. What about you two?

Yeah, pie hole. I wasn't going to, but I've decided as I've been talking about it. Yeah, pie hole. Yeah. Pie hole for me too. Oh my God. It's a triple pie hole. We're going to have to go into into the hits 21 archives for just a second

to find out when that last happened i've got your own it was just lose it so not that long ago okay then not quite as much of a momentous occasion as i thought so that is it for this week's episode thank you very much for listening when we come back we will be continuing our journey through 2005 thank you very much and we'll see you next time bye bye bye bye see ya