Entertainment For Lively Minds
Download the Word readers’ Festive Fifty of 2008
WORD readers have spoken and it’s a landslide for Elbow in our first Festive Fifty poll. Before Christmas we asked you to vote for your five favourite songs of 2008, be they single, album track or newfangled InterTube recording. While Fleet Foxes, Goldfrapp, Nick Cave and the mighty Half Man, Half Biscuit all did well, it’s astonishing that we received at least one vote for every single track of Elbow’s album The Seldom Seen Kid. So as well as making One Day Like This your song of the year, you’ve made your album of the year pretty clear too.
Want to hear the Fifty and see if you’ve missed any? You can preview and download all the songs in this valuable document of the year in music via THE WORD’s download store. Or rather, 49 of the 50 – Finally Did You No Wrong, Go Home Productions’ mashup of CeCe Peniston and the Sex Pistols, is copyright-challenged, but you can see it here.
Mykonos is not on the Fleet Foxes album
Fascinating list but you should give Fleet Foxes more credit than you have as they have three tracks in the top eight which is more than Elbow. Also Mykonos is not on the Fleet Foxes album but on the Sun Giant EP which came out before the album.
Otherwise, great initiative and let's come back at the end of 2009 to do the same thing again!
Foxy
The Foxes get plenty of credit on the Festive Fifty page itself. And thanks for the heads-up on the Sun Giant error - duly amended.
downloading from oz
can i download these from australia or will it be limited like the applestore that only allows me to buy from the extremely limited selection at apple australia?
No
I'm afraid we're subject to the same geographic restrictions that most download retailers suffer from. Sorry.
*shakes fist at sky*
No Martha Wainwright?
Really suprised she doesn't feature. Surely its not just me who voted for her!
I did too
Probably different song though. I went for You Cheated Me. There should really have been a chart showing act most voted for regardless of track chosen. Perhaps someone could arrange this? After all the trouble we went to to think of five new songs, it's the least they could do.
I went for the other one
Bleeding all over you, is the title i went for. Such a great cd. We must have split the vote between us!
Blimey
Three of those I voted for made the top 50. That's a better strike rate than I got in the end of year poll for the webzine I write for!
Not especially Peely, but hey...
Only had two....
but they were in the top 10. Was shocked to know I only had copies of 11 of the 50.
34 out of 50
Guess I'm reading the right magazine then! That would be a 'very high' compatibility on last.fm. Shame these guys don't scrobble to it. The Word last.fm page is in a sorry state....
i reckon...
As Elbow's biggest fan, I'm pleased to note that they now have the recognition they have deserved for so long. Well done, viewers!
I can't quite understand the inclusion of Radiohead's Recokoner in this list for 2008. I downloaded In Rainbows, along with everyone else, in October 2007. Whilst I like the track, it's not even the best song on the album, Weird Fishes, House of Cards and Jigsaw Falling etc being the standouts. Can someone explain this?
Also: Girls Aloud, The Promise. I don't doubt the superiority of this group compared to their Cowell-managed peers, but surely not this song? I Can't Speak French is much better.
As they say at times like this, discuss.
Me reckoner
I think Reckoner was released as single in 2008 so qualifies whereas album (including physical CD) and other singles were all 2007.
Possibly because it was ubiquitous big hit The Promise was noticed by many who had not heard album and didn't plan to hear it all. It may feature better tracks but these were less well known so not picked. I think it a top track, alhough since someone in these parts pointed out the similarity to the Blankety Blank theme tune I have found it has lost a modicum of it's charm.
Only five out of 50 actually owned...
...from only three albums: Goldfrapp, Portishead and Byrne-Eno. And the last of those is the only one I'd rate as exceptional.
Oh, and the track that came in at No 2: Time To Pretend by MGMT. I'd never even heard of them before, which shocked me.
I have heard most of the other stuff but I simply don't like it. So judging by this list I must be reading the WRONG mag.
Luckily, I still enjoy reading it. But I urge the Hepworth-Ellen team to start yet another a new one before the Elbow and Fleet Foxes mob start to drag The Word down the way Oasis fans did with Q and something else insufferably dull (can't remember what or who) did with Mojo.
Working title? I suggest Curmudgeon.
Festive 50 - The Fabulous Artisans absent?
Surprised not to see the Fabulous Artisans making an appearance in the Festive 50, particularly the songs Queens Park and Return. I seem to recall them making quite a strong presence in the voting. Otherwise, well done Fleet Foxes and Elbow!
not the wrong mag surely
You'd only reading the wrong mag if that's all they write about. Not a problem with the Word. All this shows you is where people overlap in their taste - not the extent of it. A lack of exceptional albums on the list probably reflects the lack of really exceptional albums last year (there were some very good ones but...). I think the Elbow album's merely OK, am utterly ambivalent about Fleet Foxes, MGMT etc.
The top 50 should only confirm to the Word folk what they already know (though if it occasions a bigger article on James Yorkston I won't complain). The outliers should be more interesting, I'd hope they're at least idly sifting through them to see if there's things for them to pick up on...
Sorry Lads, you're bores!
Whose smart idea was it to christen this a "Festive Fifty"?
There will be many who looked forward every year to the John Peel FF for inspiration of new music missed, the shock of something wonderful from nowhere, the anticipation of the placing of your own votes (if ever), the bewildering popularity of Cinerama.
Yet starved of an FF since 2004, we are now presented with what can only be described as a glot, a mid table MOR yawnathon, lacking in range and imagination.
3 Fleet Foxes and 6 Elbow is truly depressing, the latter whose uplifting, Glastonbury moment schtick, most recently soundtracked to Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe "12 blokes pissing on a hill", will soon be washed away to distant memory by the wave crescendo of a new Doves album. Give me strength. The ting tings! Girls aloud in the Top 10?!
Given the breadth of music introduced and featured during the year and the quality of the writing, the magazine deserves better from its readership - perhaps you'll get more votes next year - but its still your fault for calling it the "Festive Fifty", recognising the gap, yet so failing to fill it.
Fabulous Artisans
HMMMMMMM I was also a bit surprised at the non appearance of the Fabulous Artisans!! They seemed to have quite a few entries ...yet NO mention. Good list apart from that though