We were once some musical game – thats still archived here – but soon we will post an amazingly better version of that at meltinpop.com.
We then concluded the decade along 10 posts and approx. 100 songs.
We now might be just an ordinary music blog. not sure yet. working on it. enjoy in the meanwhile.
All Saints – Pure Shores
The Aplleton sisters brought the looks, Mel brought the cool and Shazany brought the talent. The ultimate uk all girl pop band with William Orbit, From the Beach soundtrack, this remains a truly classic pop gem.
Sugababes – Freak like me (this is the richard x remix)
The brits love their girl bands and know how to work them – sugababes, the least charismatic band in the biz – no matter how often they change line up- still manage to put excellent hits out there from time to time.
Robbie Williams – Rock DJ
The face of uk pop in the last two decades williams continued to provide super hits, be super british cool about it, and move to america.
Kylie – love at first sight
In the year 2000 Kylie put the “COME” in “Comeback”.
Britney Spears – Toxic
Britney Spears – Slave For you
as the decade turned Brit became riper, sexier, and dirrrtier, mixing the max martin with the pharrel. even tho haunted by paparzzi to some degree of meltdown she is still on top of the game releasing excellent singles in 2009 as well. Why her? No one seems to know.
Justin Timberlake – what goes around comes back around
Justin Timberlake – Rock your body
Britney’s Ex Became just as big as her with Michael Jackson (r.i.p) influenced massive hits
Madonna – Hung Up.
Godmather to brit and jt + A brain.
kept on roaming the high slots of the pop charts – tho this decade marks the beginning of her falling out of relevance.
Lady Gaga – Papparazzi.
First come the gays, then come the girls, then comes the rest of the world, so said Samantha, and here we are with possibly another type of Madonna successor? -gaga dominates with contagious hooks, intelligence, and a business smart completely out there wierdy image that all the other pop stars themselves admire. She preffers to call it art, Let’s just call it top notch pop hooker.
the Ting Tings – shut up and let me go.
Fresh young and blonde – that’s not my name was huge, and this one is just as excellent.
La Roux – Doing it for the kill
This success marks the voyage the electro eu sounds made from 00 to 10′ – from the alternative to the mainstream. a movement that will surely grow in the decade to come as traditional song structures and lyrics and electronica blend together naturally.
2000 was the year of the timbaland, dark child and dre’s prodigys, and also saw the emergence o a huge latin trend, but other then a disturbing version of shakira – non of that really survived to see 2009. oh, and this classic bit:
Estelle – American Boy
In the R&B Scene hip hop and current pop were melted down together perfectly
Rihanna – S.O.S
A Caribbean trend brought Rihanna (and lumidee) to mainstream mainland. Pon De Replay.
Beyonce – Baby Boy (w Sean Paul)
Very few things are Just in this world – and Beyonce being the biggest pop star in the world right now is one of them.
Beyonce – crazy in love
Her collaboration with Bf/Rap emperor Jay-z
Mary j. Blige – steal away
Mary j. Blige – mjb da mvp
Older, Wiser, and she knows it, Respect.
Alongside bilal, and jaguar wright, two of mjb’s/puffy/aaliyah-timbaland more distant musical children are
Alicia Keys – No One
from her latter album.
Kelis – Trick Me
With a spicier attitude.
N.E.R.D – Truth Or dare (w Kelis n Pusha T)
Pharrel’s crew, that had a massive influence on the mainstrm pop-r&b sound of the decade.
Ultimate cross between rock and urban sounds, “In search Of” is easily one of the best and most defining albums of the decade.
Missy Elliott – One Minute Man
The fattest woman rapper in every sense of the word.
Kanye West – All Falls Down
The biggest mainstream Rap phenomen of the decade – with the amazing “College Dropout” and with countless hits to follow; too bad he became an asshole.
Couple of european tunes worth mentioning
Lady Soverign’s – 9 to 5
clever funny lyrics, remixed to death cool tune.
Seeed – Ding
Germany’s awsome HipHop/dancehall/rap crew, this is taken from a great half english half german album called “Next!”
Streets – Blinded by the lights
rap-pop crossover UK phenomenon mike skinner adding a new sound with honest rapping about girls, drugs and txt msgs. Sort o lily allen with pants.
Lily Allen – The Fear
Lily Allen – Not Fair
Honest cute lyrics about boys, drugs and txt msgs. sort of mike skinner with a skirt. cheers.
Emiliana Torrini – Unemployed in summertime
Emiliana Torrini – Me and Armini (album version)
another down to earth beautiful girl – with a talent in the sky, iceland’s emiliana torrini.
Forget about bjork and sigur ros – this is simple, lovable, and still scandinaviously amazing.
M.I.A – Galang
srilanka london america brazil – some of the funkiest world music beats and bitz around this decade.
Quality Pop superstardom however was owned elswhere -
Gwen Stefani – Serious
in 05′ “no doubt”’s gwen goes solo and releases the love angel music baby album, in which pretty much every track had chart crushing single potential.
the Gossip – Heavy Cross
Spotted – new woman pop icon on the block, Beth Dito, working with Rick Rubin. These guys might be around for a long time.
Amy winehouse – Back to Black
Front woman of the whole bluesy soul retro movement of the decade, alongside duffy and earlier joss stone. Winehouse however had the mark ronson, the addiction and the scandals to go along – (and the song “rehab” ) - spanning one of the sad/ackword/funny websites of the decade – www.whenwillamywinehousedie.com
Israel’s mainstream music scene this decade sucked quite bad – there were some good songs of course, but in general with pour connection to any trends in the rest of the world.
The only mainstream israeli artists that seem to be able make the cut here are these:
Efrat Gosh – Tamid Kshe ata Ba
Efrat Gosh – Paam Bachaim
Not everyone has to be a singer-songwriter. sometimes, an excellent singer is just fine.
Both of these are from her debut, written mostly by Yoni Bloch and Barak Feldman.
Paam Bachaim is an Amir Lev cover – I think this cover makes it one of the best israeli songs ever.
Idan Richel – Medabrim Besheket
From his debut. In a TV interview, Raichel said his best reward would be that his songs will be credited in the future as “composer: traditional (amami)”
Crossover between world music and israeli mainstream, some think it’s too mainstream, i think it’s done with rare talent. He combines mellow pop with ethiopian/african influences, gaining international success as ‘world music’ as well.
Ehud banai – Blues Cnaani
Oldie but Goodie – still the best folk around, a rare song dedicated to meir ariel of course.
Notable mentions go to Amir Benayoun and Dikla for making quality arabic music, Assaf Amdurski and Ivri Lider, for musically producing current sounding stuff, Dana intl, and the Pik sis for trying to do fashionable quality pop and Eviatar, Rona, and some others for writing a few pop-rock jems.
The only fine pop to really make it into mainstream, while still being trendy and cool, is Emily Karpel, so here is the vid for Tipa:
Morrisey – Irish Blood English Heart
coz moz lyrics are still in top form, even tho he lives in los-angeles. just try changing the country names…
Razorlight – America
Loathing for American superficiality has never been so simple. from their good self-titled album.
Idlewild – American English
Some more loathing. This time from Scotland.
Coldplay – Don’t Panic
All contracted in American dreams are Coldplay, their success and mediocrity make us sick, but their sometimes exceptional songwriting, along with their trademark pianos made us cave in.
Snow patrol – Shut your eyes
for the Irish
Placebo – Days before you came
European poprock make-up trio with excellent drums-guitar action.
Franz Ferdinand – Take Me Out
for the Scottish
Panic! at the Disco – Northern Downpour
Americans which put emo/glam rock on the map against their wish.
Evanescence – My Immortal
Occasionally, metal gives you diabetes instead of cat tails. this is as AmeriKitsch as it gets, and for us that’s just f.i.n.e.
John Frusciante – Going Inside
Ex R.H.Chilli.Peps guitarist got out of the H, and into making a new album every couple of months. This is from the excellent “to record only water for ten days”.
Twilight Singers – Anne Mae
Ex Afgan Whigs frontman greg dooley formed the twilight singers for a more sophisticated serving of those same heart wrenching tunes. even galgalz caved in infront of “king only”.
The Breeders – Overglazed
Ex Pixies bassist kim dill and co, didnt have their last splash yet.
Grandaddy (The Sophtware Slump) – Miner at the Dial-a-View
The Indie Dears
Blonde Redhead – In Particular
American rock trio.
White Stripes – Fell In Love With a Girl
Married, Divorced or Brother & Sister? Who know, Who cares. Tight cool rock tunes, this one with one of the best videos of the decade by one and only Michel Gondry.
Cold War Kids – We Used To Vacation
Bunch of kids doing good rock good.
PJ Harvey – Good Fortune
PJ Harvey – Shame
In the 90’s it was all sorrow, 2000’s stories from the city found pj in love and in a good mood, and with an excellent album, she continued to be successful all along the decade, later releasing Shame.
Andrew bird – Skin is my
American talented musician and song-writer combining violin, whistling, guitars, mandolins to produce experimental melodies.
Nick Cave – No More Shall We Part
Prince of Down Under Pianos, no more shall we part was a great album, cheers ups nicks.
Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal
Fleet foxes are one of the only bands in the last years that delivered a full, complete and cohesive album.
MGMT – Time to pretend
Oracular, Spectacular. New fresh retro and moving all in the same time.
YeahYeahYeahs – Maps
true, karen o’ and co supplied some of the best ass shaking tracks of the decade, with heart throbbing beats n’ guitars, still, this ballad is one that stand out above the rest.
Bloc Party – Kreutzberg
true, bloc party supplied some of the best head smashing tracks of the decade, with heart throbbing guitars n’ beats, still this ballad is one that stand out above the rest.
Death Cab for Cutie -A movie script ending
From “The photo album”, original american pop rock with lyrics worth listening to.
This is before talented Ben formed The Postal Service, another gem of this decade.
TV on the Radio – Staring at the Sun
Another gang from Brooklyn doing indie-rock/jazz/electro combinations.
Portishead – Machine Gun
Their late 90’s “Dummy” was very popular as music to make-out to in our highschool.
Beth Gibbons and the guys packed themselves with explosive beats for “third” – one of the best comeback albums of the decade.
Tricky – Five Days
His mid 90’s “Maxinquaye” was very popular as music to go-all-the-way to in our highschool.
00’s saw tricky recycling himself to boredom, but BlowBack was still a fine album, and in this song he collaborates with the one and only Cindy Lauper.
(same lauper that in the early 80’s possibly supplied one of the popular diy songs, she bop.)
Zero 7 – Destiny
They had potential, with Sia, a wonderful singer, but unfortunately only one good album, after that, – zero 7 dissolved into thin, well, Air.
Kate Bush – How to be invisibile
When originality is your thing however, you last forever, quirky kate bush’s “aerial” comeback album, as well as her older tracks remixed and covered again and again, proves kate’s superiority over the kid’s tables.
Bat for Lashes – pearls dream
Another member of the over weird over theatrical over talented women’s faternity.
Yet, Beautiful music.
Bang Gang – Something wrong pop strings enhanced intimate impossible to choose one track from this album so i went with the title track, composed by iceland talented bardi johansson (also lady&bird). This and Torrini’s are the ultimate crossover albums between iceland’s too alienish bjork, mu’m, amina etc’s interesting sounds, and the rest of us ordinary folks.
stars – on peak hill
from the beautiful “nightsongs”.
Unfortunatelly other then the comebackep ep Their latter lps were not even half as great.
Chicks on Speed (Will Save Us All) – Glamour Girl
Ever changing ensemble of alternative dudes doing Electroclash, performance art, costume design and what not.
M83 – Up!
french electronic one man band mercenery and breathtaking songs
Arcade Fire – Keep the Car Running
It is one annoying bunch of theatrical people, but they do make amazing music.
Start the way with some elegant dancing, sponsored by the dance to the mainstream quality duo moloko, this was remixed again and again, for all the right reasons. love this vid.
photek – mine to give – satoshi tomiie mix
If photek and satoshiie dont make you happy, i dont know, i dont know.
Brother Brown feat. Frankee – Under the Water [Deep Dish Underpressure Remix]
One of the Best songs to hear on E until this day.
H-foundation – tonight
H foundation were the soundtrack to one night in which we learned more about chemistry and biology then 12 years in the israeli education system. Beautiful night, beautiful track.
Diplo – Diplo Rhythm
The baile sound of that excellente diverse album – and the soundtrack to the hottest party i have ever had the pleasure of being at.
Tiga and Zyntherius – Sunglasses at Night
keeping track of tiga was a pleasure along the decade.
+tom middlton’s cosmos mashup w blue moday for this was a major upper.
Felix da Housekat – madame hollywood – Tiga remix
gigolo records, electroclash titans meet with fun lyrics
Friendly Fires – (ft. au rovire simone) Paris – Aeroplane Remix
A tribute to hypem, A tribute to our own dying party days, as aeroplane gave a great set at the block this year … with a dash of drugs qort of sex and some crime to top it all, great mesibat siyum.. We will always have partis.
Bringing a completely new sound into the scene, Brother and Sister Olaf and Karin are melting catchy pop with a spice of retro, dark lyrics and even darker attitude all wrapped up in innovative sounds and structures, surrounding that unbelievable voice and singing of Karin drajer.
Deep Cuts was their breakthrough LP, with it’s biggest hit “heartbeats” getting worldwide success due to a cheesy acoustic cover version by fellow swedish jose gonzales for a sony bravia commercial. The only good thing it proved was that simply great songwriting is in the basis of every good thing.
“silent shout” hit a darker note, non the less perfect.
this year Karin embarked on an even darker project – her solo act fever ray, while bro Olaf writes music for the royal danish theatre.
Royksopp – What else is there
for a lot of people the phenomenon known as the knife started here, when karin sung on this beautiful royksopp track.
Tho Melody A.M. Is their best in making the most out of chillout, the norwegian duo still managed to offer something interesting in every album.
oh. and some of the best videos ever:
Hot Chip – Over and over
British electro pop heroes
Daft Punk – One More Time
French electronica duo from back in the 90s embraced by the mainstream and what not.
Hercules and Love Affair – Blind
A masterpiece of emotion and movement
Ladytron – Destroy Everything You Touch
El-El-El-electro. “Seventeen” was also smashing.
Fischerspooner – Emerge DFA ver
electroglory
Primal Scream – Swastika Eyes
From the much appraised punk-rock inspired “comeback” album, featuring guests such as chemical brothers, new order, my bloody valentine..
Radiohead – Idioteque
NO, the world cant take even one more written word about kid a!
Bjork – Pagan Poetry
The Icing on the scandinavian cake, this digital age masterpiece of a song intwines old with new, analog with digital and words with binary.
This is kind of bjorks goobye to mainstream, as since from there on she went this decade on to being too avnat-garde to listen to, even for you.
