y year in songs (old and new)

Massive Attack – Special Needs

The first thing I remember about the year, musically-speaking, is being at a party in January or February, and this video being on MTV a lot. It’s not very good, of course, but while intoxicated, I found the creepy–cloning-video-plus-stoned-groove combination overpoweringly eerie. A prime moment, even if it’s a weak single.

50 Cent – In Da Club

Great, great, great. Holidaying near Venice, staying in a chalet on a campsite. We were a group of Irish students: ruffled a few feathers among the neighbouring German families with our drunkenness and loudness. This culminated in a particular night, where we staged a mini-party among the 12 of us, and I cordoned off the stereo from my fellow holiday-goers to play this track on repeat. I may have gone on all night, but was stopped by an irate father barging in to say “Quiet down and shut the shit up!” We continued the party down on the beach, sans stereo, and sans 50 Cent.

Future Sound of London – Lifeforms (Disc 1)

I think of this disc as being just one piece of music, although there are distinguishable tracks. I give this two hearty thumbs-up - being a sucker for washy ambience and all that – and it was a deserved disc-man-fixture throughout the year. Disc two is a proggy pile of poo, so it’s been gathering dust throughout 2003.

Cliff Richard – Wired For Sound

I first heard this song on that "pop up video" programme that used to be on Channel 4. Didn't make a great impression, but for some reason, the melody stayed with me, and I grew to like it without hearing it again.

One weekend, I'm at home, my mother is listening to RTE radio 1. It plays mainly Garth Brooks records, so I'm not really expecting anything good to come on. But then: Cliff arrives!

I haven't heard it in a long while, and I'm so excited to hear it that my voice goes up a pitch when I screech: "OHMYGOD! It’s WIRED FOR SOUND!" And the song is even better than I remembered - easily the best thing the great Sir Cliff has put his name to. A magic moment: pop at its most powerful.

The Sleepy Jackson - “Don’t You Know”

I reviewed the Sleepy Jackson album, and said that “Good Dancers” was easily the best song on it. I wuz wrong – it can’t touch this glorious Mountain of Poignant Songwriting. My favourite Big Weepy Ballad of the year, only the All American Rejects’ “Swing” challenged it in the tearjerking stakes.

And Kilian’s most-played and favourite song this year…

Notorious BIG – “Warning”

This is a real tour-de-force, and I encountered it for the first time this year. It’s just the thoughts flying around Big's head when he gets word that some old acquaintances are coming to rob him, now that he's become so wealthy.

The track's real masterstroke is the opening exchange between Big and his chum on the phone (the chum being Big with a vocal treatment). The pal has already told him some folks are coming to get him, and then reminds Big of some folks he used to hang with ("Remember them niggas from the hill up in brownsville / thatcha rolled dice with / smoked blunts and got nice with").

Big remembers, but says nah, they wouldn't do anything bad. His pal cuts in quickly - he didn't say it was them, it was just that those chaps introduced him to the real villains!

Great attention to detail - instead of the pal ringing up and immediately revealing the identity of the attackers, the exchange takes an unnecessary detour. It's much more conversational and unforced this way.

An odd personal observation - the "sss" sound that Big later uses at the end of "dang-er-usss" sounds curiously effeminate to these ears - most definitely at odds with the macho tone of the track. I prefer not to bother listening to the short skit after the song, where the two robbers arrive on Big's property and get shot. I prefer to think of "Warning" as the sound of Big psyching himself up for a violent conflict, without any real ACTION.

That’s my personal song of the year. I hope to encounter something as good– new or old – in 2004.