Landing in a very common crisis

Continuing my trip up the list of the most streamed songs for each year.  

2007 : Fluorescent Adolescent - Arctic Monkeys


This is an odd track because I know I know it, but I never recognise it from the title - ah yes, it's the "you used to get it in your fishnets" song. It's got QUITE the video with a load of clowns brawling with a load of non-clowns, also featuring flashbacks to one of the clown's youth - and you can tell it's him because he has the same clown makeup on! As far as I can tell, it makes absolutely no sense at all, but is quite fun to watch.

Wikipedia tells me that the main clown is played by Stephen Graham (which is obvious when you're told but I missed it at the time) and the video was directed by Richard Ayaode and is loosely based on the poem "Out of Control Fairground" by John Cooper Clarke - admit it, you didn't know that! It got to #5 in the UK chart at the time but has obviously been streamed an awful lot since - but I'm no clearer to understanding why.

There are no cover versions offered up by Wikipedia, so we go to secondhandsongs.com to find two versions - not two versions by people I've heard of, but two versions in total. Kate Nash does exactly what you'd expect but I've no idea what Winston K does because although there are links out there, none of them seem to work in my region. And YouTube doesn't offer anything more up either, so that's your lot here!

I don't mind this track but it doesn't feel like an obvious winner of the year so I'm interested to see what the competition is. Looking at the year-end chart, the best selling track of the year was Leona Lewis's "Bleeding Love" which I have to admit isn't immediately springing to mind. The rest of the top five was generally more memorable with one notable exception - Rihanna's "Umbrella", Mika's "Grace Kelly", Leon Jackson's "When You Believe" and Take That's "Rule The World". Other tracks of interest from the top fifty are Sugababes (#6), Kaiser Chiefs' "Ruby" (#10) and Take That's "Shine" (#18) and "Patience" (from 2006 but still #30) - and there are an awful lot in there that I don't think I've ever heard.

Looking further down the chart throughout the year, we are offered up The Klaxons' "Golden Skans", The Gossip's "Standing In The Way Of Control", Calvin Harris's "Acceptable In The 80s", Reverend & The Makers' "Heavyweight Champion Of The World" and Scouting For Girls' "She's So Lovely" - I'm definitely recognising fewer and picking less tracks as time moves on. I also doubt the US are going to help us out much, but let's check anyway - the top selling track over there was Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable" (which came out in '06), but apart from that I'm drawing a blank.

I think Rihanna's "Umbrella" has probably stood the test of time the best out of that lot, but when did that ever count for anything? So well done to Arctic Monkeys for their second track to take the year - there's nothing wrong with it, but I can't say I love it.

2006 - Fine, but not an obvious winner
2008 - Meh

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