LET'S PUSH THINGS FORWARD.....

The first few years of the "noughties" saw me spending increasingly longer amounts of time in my room listening to music, making playlists and compliations on MiniDisc, reading endless music magazines and books (also a lot of astronomy magazines) in favour of going outside. Even on hot Summer days, i would shun the outside world in favour of my music collection. No wonder i was so pale! The odd Sunday or Monday trip to a few local pubs with a couple of friends aside - a few games of pool and a few tunes on the jukebox interspersed with twats playing fucking Coldplay on repeat - i barely went out. My solo night shifts at the local petrol station were similarly accompanied by music and magazine were a welcome distraction from all the local drunks, druggies, and dickheads i had to tolerate. In hindsight, i think the hours i kept resulted in a mild depression for some time, and i developed an obsession with facts and figures, namely reading books like the Guinness Book Of Hit Singles and The Great Indie Discography. My love of music has often been a substitute for friends, a social life, or a partner, and these years were one of those periods. Still, if you're going to have an addiction.....

2001 was probably the last year i would buy a lot of singles, which were now all on cd, in favour of immersing myself in albums. I still had fairly eclectic tastes, but Indie and Rock seemed to dominate my listening habits, and i bought my first (and only) MiniDisc albums - Origin Of Symmetry, the second effort from Teignmouth trio Muse, and Free All Angels by Ash, a return to form (commercially and artistically) after the disappointing Nu-Clear Sounds. There was a lot of Skate Punk, Nu-Metal, and Garage Rock coming from the U.S too, the latter being the first murmurings of a whole wave of new indie music. Bands like Blink 182, Sum 41, Wheatus, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, and Alien Ant Farm would become the soundtrack for a host of disaffected floppy-fringed, baggy short wearing teenagers around the world, spawning a seemingly endless stream of similar (but often poorer) bands over the next few years. I liked and bought singles by some of those bands, but i was in my mid-20's, so i wasn't about to go out and get a load of tattoos and piercings, and start wearing huge shorts and the like! To be quite honest i found the sight of - quite often - grown men dressing like moody skateboarding teenagers ridiculous, none more so than Fred Durst, frontman of tantrum rockers Limp Bizkit, who were huge that year, prompting even me to buy their No.1 single "Rollin'", which i'll admit to having a faint affection for even now. Loud, brash, dumb rock with a distinctly puerile lyrical bent, certainly more entertaining than the wrist-slitting misery rock that was to come over the following couple of years! At the more "pop" end of the scale, Wheatus had two huge hits including the chart-topping "Teenage Dirtbag", a typical tale of the outsider teen chasing the popular girl in school, with an infectious chorus and slightly baggy verses. Following this was a well executed cover of "A Little Respect" by UK synthpoppers Erasure. 

There were also a couple of cracking hits apiece from Blink 182 and snotty Canadians Sum 41, electrifying blasts of punk-pop that delivered some badly needed excitement to my night shift-weary brain! I never bought any albums by those kind of bands, as i felt they would be something of a disappointment over 30 or 40 minutes, and were best suited to the quick fix of a 3 minute single.

Not that we were slacking off on this side of the Atlantic. The two albums i already mentioned were highlights of the year for me: Ash took the buzzsaw powerpop of their debut (1977) and the darker edges of their second album (Nu-Clear Sounds) and channelled it through a new mature pop sensibility to create an collection of songs that would form part of my summer soundtrack. Free All Angels was full of hooks and great pop melodies without being too commercial, and had that essential sweet and sour contrast. No less than 5 singles came from it: the joyous indie rock of "Shining Light" and "Sometimes", the dark punk rock of "Burn Baby Burn", and the orchestral pop of "Candy" (which sampled The Walker Brothers) and "There's A Star". Lyrical themes of love had and lost, metaphors of light, stars, and summer, and time passing abound amongst crunching guitars, crashing drums, and propulsive basslines, topped off with sweet vocal harmonies - Tim Wheeler has never had what you'd call a strong voice, but he somehow carries a lot of feeling, and the backing vocals of Charlotte Hatherley give it a boost. Listening to the album on my new MiniDisc walkman that summer would transport me to a happier, carefree place, an imagined seaside paradise of crashing waves and never ending sunshine.

Origin Of Symmetry by Teignmouth trio Muse was another revelation. More ambitious than their first effort, a mix of widescreen space rock, experimental touches, and the OTT dynamics that they would become renowned for, it blew away all the criticisms that they were mere Radiohead copyists. Sure, the existential angst of Thom Yorkes' lot was there, but ramped up to 11. Backed by the rock solid rhythm section, the dramatic vocals and guitar of Matt Bellamy were given free reign to soar, and songs like "New Born", "Plug In Baby" "Citizen Erased" and " "Hyper Music" did just that. They proved capable of subtlety too, especially on "Bliss", and the cover of Nina Simones' "Feeling Good", both highlights on an album full of spine-tingling music. Muse have remained a favourite ever since.

I think this year was probably the last time i bought any music from the local record shop, Frank Sissons, where i had been a customer since i was about 12. I was surprised that it was still open as it wasn't cheap in there now, and most people would go into Nottingham to buy a TV or stereo. I could feel that the place was starting to wind down, and within 3 years it would be closed for good, people blaming the demise on the new Tesco superstore (which i would end up working at). There was only one other local shop that sold music and that was Martins - part of the McColl chain - which also stocked most of the magazines i read, but most of the CDs on sale were commercial chart pop shite. I'm not 100% certain, but i think the last purchase from Sissons was Manic Street Preachers new album, Know Your Enemy, on which they shook off the MOR tendencies of the last album and attempted to regain some of their earlier fire and spirit, with mixed results. At 16 tracks long, there were a few experiments - the best being the Beach Boys-influenced chamber pop of "So Why So Sad", and the worst being the Nicky Wire-sung lo-fi disaster "Wattsville Blues", with varying results in between. They did regain some of their punk/rock and roll energy, especially on the Stooges-channelling "Found That Soul", which was released as the first single in tandem with "So Why So Sad", a publicity stunt to see if they could take the top 2 chart positions that week (they charted at 9 and 8, respectively), "Dead Marytrs", and the closing "Freedom Of Speech Won't Feed My Children", an attack on American foreign policy. The soulful "Let Robeson Sing" stood out for me as a heartfelt but understated track. There aren't many double albums out there that can be described as filler-free, and Know Your Enemy could have done with losing 4 or 5 songs.

Aside from the world of rock, i found myself unexpectedly drawn to the world of alternative hip hop when a band appeared in the form of fictional animated act Gorillaz, masterminded by none other than Damon Albarn of Blur. Created with comic book artist Jamie Hewlett, and including collaborators such as hip hop producer Dan The Automator, rapper Del The Funky Homosapien and Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads, Gorillaz eponymous debut album took in influences from rap, hip hop,dub, electronica, punk rock and Latin music, and it was a huge success, due in no small part to the accompanying videos for the singles, particularly "19-2000" and "Clint Eastwood".

Quirky singles from Missy Elliott ("Get Ur Freak On"), I Monster ("Daydream In Blue", which shared a sample with "Squares" by The Beta Band), and the bonkers "Frontier Psychiatrist" from The Avalanches also made it into my collection. The debut album from The Streets - aka Mike Skinner - was something of a surprise favourite, a blend of alternative but very English Hip Hop and electronica that took in influences from The Specials, US Rap, and indie, and channelled it through the emerging sound of UK Garage. Lyrically it told tales of life in modern working class Britain - specifically the Midlands, where Skinner hails from -, such as council estates, crap pubs, kebab shops, signing on, but shot through with a dry wit. "Weak Become Heroes" and "Let's Push Things Forward" were standout tracks.

Spiritualized followed up their epic Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating In Space album with an equally ambitious album, with the gospel and blues influences turned up to 11. Let It Come Down (packaged in idiosyncratic artwork) featured a gospel choir and full orchestration to create a wall of sound which is best heard through headphones.

There were other ambitious albums that year, especially Rings Around The World by Welsh psych-indie band Super Furry Animals, featuring an eclectic array of genres mixed in with their familiar oddball sound  - techno, death metal, punk, Philly soul,  jungle, prog - and included Paul McCartney on "celery and carrot" on one track, an echo of the Beach Boys "Vegetables" from Smiley Smile. The album was also released in Surround Sound on DVD. It's a collection of songs that take repeated listens to really open up, and the lyrical themes of the pollution of Earth and space, sung in the bands amazing harmonies. The opening track, Sidewalk Serfer Girl, is a fair indication of the albums' eclecticism.

Towards the end of the year, an echo of Britpop past appeared. Pulp released what was to be their final album, We Love Life. Shunning the pop sound of the past, it was an album full of acoustic and orchestral textures and a pretty low key affair. The themes of nature running throughout were symptomatic of Jarvis Cockers' shunning of the celebrity lifestyle, and persuading former sixties idol and now acclaimed avant-garde artist Scott Walker to produce the record was proof that commercial returns were far from his mind. Songs such as "The Trees", "Birds In Your Garden", and the leisurely trip through Sheffield that is "Wicker Man" were a far cry from the anthemic "Common People", but that was to the bands credit. The two part opener "Weeds/Weeds II (Origin Of The Species) was part celebration of the underclass, part critical comment on celebrity - "Do your funny little dance", quips Cocker at one point, presumably in reference to his stage invasion at the Brit Awards in 1996 during Michael Jacksons' dodgy "messiah" performance. It's a reflective album and a slow burner, but worth the effort.

This reminder of a time when British indie bands were a dominant force in music, just 6 years before, dovetailed with a slowly emerging resurgence in punk and post-punk influenced indie bands on both sides of the Atlantic....... to be continued.........