Deep Magic From Before The Dawn Of Poptimism
A thing I have sometimes threatened to do is write about poptimism. This is not exactly that - at l...
2025-08-31 16:43:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Tom Ewing posts
WESTLIFE - "You Raise Me Up"
(#1021, 4th November 2005)
Winning the Nobel Peace Prize is an immense and serious honour. A sign of one’s arrival in the top tier of international statesmen, perhaps, or recogniti...
2025-08-07 23:03:19 +0000 UTC View PostARCTIC MONKEYS - "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor"
(#1020, 29th October 2005)
“Don’t believe the hype” says Alex Turner at the start of the “I Bet..” video. “We have no influences” he says in one of their dozen...
2025-06-22 23:51:24 +0000 UTC View PostSUGABABES - "Push The Button"
(#1019, 8th October 2005)
A third album with the Heidi-Keisha-Mutya line-up, a fourth number one: for a group whose membership shuffles are notorious, you can lose sight of how consi...
2025-06-11 10:37:02 +0000 UTC View PostPUSSYCAT DOLLS - "Don't Cha"
(#1018. 17th September 2005)
If “DARE” at No.1 felt like a lairy fluke, “Don’t Cha” feels coldly predestined, a branding project whose success was engineered by all...
2025-03-28 12:45:27 +0000 UTC View PostGORILLAZ - "Dare"
(#1017, 10th September 2005)
It’s an irresistible coincidence that ten years after the “Battle Of Britpop”, Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn met again at the top of the charts. ...
2025-03-01 23:03:58 +0000 UTC View PostOASIS - "The Importance Of Being Idle"
(#1016, 3rd September 2005)
When I heard the news Oasis were reuniting, my first thought was, “thank God, an angle on the ‘Idle’ entry”. It’s not impossible that this might...
2024-11-14 23:05:36 +0000 UTC View PostMcFLY - "I'll Be OK"
(#1015, 27th August 2005)
I still find McFly hard to appreciate, but in the comments for their previous No.1 I linked a piece which made the strongest case I’d seen for them as son...
2024-10-31 23:33:16 +0000 UTC View PostJAMES BLUNT - "You're Beautiful"
(#1014, 23rd July 2005)
“Proof that one song is all it takes” says James Blunt’s Twitter biography. He knows what he’s known for, and in his post-superstar era he’s played ...
2024-10-03 20:14:51 +0000 UTC View PostIt's A Crazy Situation
I've suspended September billing (again lol), and can only apologise for the lack of updates. But here's a little preview of the "Importance Of Being Idle" Popular entry - some thoughts on the ...
2024-08-31 22:12:06 +0000 UTC View PostWhat I'm Up To (August 2024)
Hello! And hello to more of you than before - thanks to extremely generous recommendations from Andrew Hickey and Centuries Of Sound I have about 50 more patrons than I did a week ago. Welcome, all...
2024-07-31 20:35:04 +0000 UTC View Post2PAC ft ELTON JOHN - "Ghetto Gospel"
(#1013, 2nd July 2005)
The pattern for recent hip-hop Number 1s on Popular - Nelly’s pair being the best example - has been the chart-topper as a kind of medal for services rendere...
2024-07-30 14:26:19 +0000 UTC View PostCRAZY FROG - "Axel F"
(#1012, 4th June 2005)
In 2004 I took on the worst project of my professional life; worst in the sense that it was miserable and time-consuming and also in the sense that I did it ve...
2024-07-27 15:35:07 +0000 UTC View PostOASIS - "Lyla"
(#1011, 28th May 2005)
The long twilight of Oasis is reaching its end, at least in Popular terms. The 00s took them from the kings of English rock to a drab fixture and finally a run...
2024-07-12 15:25:34 +0000 UTC View PostAKON - "Lonely"
(#1010, 14th May 2005)
This is going to be one of those annoying reviews which takes the billion-view signature hit of a highly successful artist and picks away at production choices...
2024-06-30 18:57:29 +0000 UTC View PostPREVIEW: Dan Dare And The Dame
Here's a little bit of Work In Progress for you from the first entry in the upcoming 2000AD blog. I've chosen this cos it's actually (well, tangentially) about pop music as well as comics... 2024-06-29 17:08:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Fit And Working Again aka What I'm Up To (June '24)
Hello lovely patrons!
This is a catch-up post, covering present circumstances and future plans, including a NEW PROJECT and a shift I'm going to try in how I structure my blogging work (which...
2024-06-13 20:53:51 +0000 UTC View PostTONY CHRISTIE ft PETER KAY - "(Is This The Way To) Amarillo"
(#1009, 26th March 2005)
The success of Elvis’ reissues - a promotional gimmick which actually managed to hack the charts - made a strong case that the new pop of 2005 simply wasn...
2024-04-24 12:41:11 +0000 UTC View PostMCFLY - "All About You"/"You've Got A Friend"
(#1008, 19th March 2005)
McFly’s biggest hit, crossing the 500k sales barrier partly because it was the official Comic Relief single. The Carole King cover is doing most of the har...
2024-04-15 10:54:55 +0000 UTC View PostWhat I'm Up To, March/April '24 (Aardvark Aftermath Special)
Hello friends!
I was going to share one of these updates at the end of the month as usual, but it would just have been "I've been doing nothing except the fucking Cerebus blog p...
2024-04-14 11:30:29 +0000 UTC View PostBENSON BOONE - "Beautiful Things"
Part of the Patreon-exclusive set of posts looking at current No.1 hits, even though there's been another one since this.
My day job involves analysing advertising, and one of...
2024-04-14 10:41:10 +0000 UTC View PostBEYONCE - "Texas Hold 'Em"
I’ve been faffing around on this one for ages - it was Number 1 for five weeks and now isn't and I still didn't write it. I finally realised I needed to just get the thing done before I ...
2024-03-29 11:33:04 +0000 UTC View Post#Let5D0It - The Shortlist
I promised (myself if nobody else) that I'd post my "final 100" contenders for Arron Wright's upcoming #Let5D0It challenge on Bluesky - my 50 favourite singles from 1954 to 1976.
What I'm Up To, February '24
Hi! A monthly round-up of the activities YOUR patreon pounds are funding - and a general check-in. I'm well, happier and healthier than I was last month, and I hope you are too. Also! I went to New...
2024-03-01 18:11:55 +0000 UTC View PostSTEREOPHONICS - "Dakota"
(#1007, 12th March 2005)
“Dakota” has a curious reputation. A lot of music fans I know see it as Stereophonics’ best song. That in itself is hardly unusual. But many of those p...
2024-02-28 23:11:09 +0000 UTC View PostYour Mom Called, I Polled Her (The World Cup Of 2023 Last 16)
With the 2023 poll nearly over I thought I’d run down the Peoples Pop Last 16, maybe even rank them. I came to almost all these new at the start of the poll so it’s just been the last month tha...
2024-02-02 12:24:00 +0000 UTC View PostWhat I'm Up To, January '24
I want to do a monthly update post filling you in on where I am with various personal projects, including the ones you signed up to help me complete(!) This will hopefully be a regular check-in. Al...
2024-01-31 22:26:58 +0000 UTC View PostNOAH KAHAN - "Stick Season"
This is the first of a series of Patreon-exclusive posts which are notes on current No.1s, intended to go up while they're actually at No.1. They won't show up on FT and I'm not prejudging myse...
2024-01-13 16:53:01 +0000 UTC View PostNELLY ft TIM McGRAW - "Over And Over"
(#1006, 5th March 2005)
There are meetings between genres where creative sparks fly and new hybrid forms can be glimpsed, like undreamed-of particles in a supercollider. There are al...
2023-11-30 13:07:05 +0000 UTC View PostJENNIFER LOPEZ - "Get Right"
(#1005, 26th February 2005)
There is a 2005 single, a huge hit, which many will tell you is producer Rich Harrison’s masterpiece. On it, cut-ups of funk breaks are rearranged at ob...
2023-11-27 13:43:04 +0000 UTC View Post