Pop Boy's Belated Best of 2006 So Far List...

In all the excitement of Muse and Lily Allen simultaneously taking over the charts making us all proud to be British, (and the World Cup) we've only gone and forgotten to make any posts! Silly us! Anyway, I've got a big'un for you now, it's my top 60(?) songs (singles and album tracks) of 2006 so far now that we have officially reached the half way point.

01 - Muse – Supermassive Blackhole
Borrowing every page from Goldfrapp's book, giving it a manly, rugged edge, replacing the satin chic of Frapp. It has been a great year for music, just look at the list below, but this was number one by a long shot. You just can't go wrong with a bit of electro-goth-rock-pop and people dressed in weird owl costumes.

02 - Lily Allen – LDN
I've lauded this as the song of 2006 for a long while but then Muse came along and ruined that. That's not to take away from Lil Lily's homage to the big smoke. Though it is scathing, it can't help but fill you with a certain amount of pride. And, on a superficial level (when you ignore the lyrics) the breezy "Sun is in the sky" refrain and tinny jauntiness of the song make it adorable and totally, overwhelmingly endearing.

03 - Rihanna - SOS (Rescue Me)
I'm glad that this list isn't full of Americans, because Americans are crap. And although 'SOS' is very much an American sound, Rihanna herself is from Barabados, which makes it OK to love her. Everyone knows about this song I think, and the fact it has a 'Tainted Love' sample bouncing underneath it, which only adds to the aceness, as Rihanna's nods to the brilliance of pop music. It's been a bad year for vapid R&B music (which is a good year for the rest of us) but Rihanna has here made a song which calls Blige et al. to step up their game and embrace the brilliance of pop.

04 - The Pipettes – It Hurts To See You Dance So Well
Pure pop. Indie scenesters will claim the Pipettes as their own as they release 7" singles and started off doing small gigs, but the sound is irrefutably pop. It's also irrefutably brilliant. The Pipettes, Rihanna and Muse have all proven that to be brilliant in 2006, you have to use pop music.

05 - Lily Allen – Smile
The current number one. And nothing makes me more smug than this. I know I'm not the only one who thought Lily was brilliant and probably wasn't the first to say it, or even the loudest, but that doesn't take away from the fact that I'm very happy that the new era of pop is upon us and it's so clever and original it's making dull indie bands look cliche. And whatsmore, it's British, with an undeniably British sound.

06 - Miranda Lambert - I Wanna Die
OK, this is American. And it's from 2005. But technically, it hasn't been released over here yet, which means it could still be a single of 2006 (here's hoping). Anyway, it's just too ace to ignore. In the same way that Lily Allen and Pipettes have created an entirely British sound, Miranda Lambert has a country-pop single that's a slice of pure Americana. Plus she proves that just because you're American doesn't mean you have to make crappy music.

07 - The Kooks – She Moves In Her Own Way
Continuing the theme of "to be brilliant in 2006 you have to be a bit pop" we have the Kooks, who teeter so dangerously between being indie and being pop that at any they could fall off the tightrope and either become as crap as Babyshambles or as brilliant as V. OK, they are unlikely to become V, but they are a boy band. There are four of them, they all seem to have an 'image', you can dance to their songs and lead singer Luke Pritchard is total fangirl fodder with a celebrity ex-girlfriend (Katie Melua). Seriously, 'Oooh La' or 'You Don't Love Me' will be released with them dancing in the rain on a beach in full boyband-ness.

08 - Orson - No Tomorrow
Both Orson and The Feeling have obvious influences in dull-80s-rock (Hall & Oates and the like), despite sounding totally different. Unfortunately, combining pop with crappy music doesn't always work and The Feeling and Orson are both a bit rubbish. But, Orson did pull it off for a bit with this piece of genius. Next time though, they should copy better 80s people, like Blondie or Duran Duran.

09 - Nelly Furtado – All Good Things
The final song on Nelly's career-defining album 'Loose', which I reviewed in my last proper post. Written by Chris Martin, but lacking his 'stamp', and instead smacks of Nelly. The song uses Nelly's folksy song and meanders, wandering around aimlessly.

10 - The Kooks – Niave
The Kooks must be good (haterz) if they are in my top ten twice, eh? (even if ti did happen entirely by accident). I think 'Niave' was the song that won a lot of people for them and really opened people's eyes to their aceness. And obvious to see why this (a song about the confusion of young love - I think) succeeded where 'Sofa Song' (about missing Katie Melua - a feeling not many of us have I'm sure) and 'Eddie's Gun' (about failing to get an erection) both failed.

11 -Nerina Pallot – Everybody’s Gone To War
I did used to really love this song. Then I went off it a bit. Then I loved it again. Then I bought the album and felt robbed. Then I loved it again. When I first wrote about this someone said Nerina is actually British, from Jersey. That made me go off her as she's obviously whored away her British identity by singing in an American accent, producing an American sounding song. But anyway, this is a pop-song (no matter where it's from) that goes all political. And political-pop is often disasterous (as Band Aid proves). However Nerina found the correct balance, making a song that does have a political message, but is more importantly a great pop song.

12 - The Kooks – Crazy
Gnarls Barkley's 'Crazy' is almost definitely the greatest selling song of 2006, infact, it's the greatest selling single of the 21st Century bar Band Aid isn't it? But, to be honest, it's a bit crap isn't it. It's good but not really good enough for the mass-jizzing it got. However, the Kooks added their own touch to it (as did Nelly Furtado and Terri Walker) and have unlocked much of the magic to it that was missing on the original and subsequent covers. The focus in the Kooks version is much more the lyrics, which are hidden beneath Ceelo's vocals on the original, and Luke's squirming his way through the song makes the song uncomfortable and a little bit more 'crazy'.

13 - Panic! At The Disco - Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Off Her Clothes
I wrote about my love of emo-pop band Panic! a bit before they hit the big time with 'I Write Sins Not Tragedies' and their album 'A Fever You Can't Sweat Out' which of course, makes me the fucking dog's bollocks. This is definitely the best song in the emo-arsenal with tortured cries of "dance to this beat" and "let's get these teen heart's beating... faster and faster". Quite simply, in 2006, emo is cool. All that are scared or doubtful just get left behind. And with titles like that, how can they not be the coolest thing ever?

14 - Cat Power – The Greatest
Despite being released as a single in 2005 (I think), I omitted this from my list for the first quarter in April because I thought it was ages old. But it's actually from a 2006 album of the same name. This song was performed on Jools Holland a few weeks ago and my Dad informed me that it was proper old-fashioned-blues. I didn't even know I liked proper old-fashioned-blues. But I guess I do. Most of the songs in my list so far have been energetic, but the appeal of this song is perhaps how drained it is. One imagines Miss Power just collapsing from exhaustion after finishing this song.

15 - Nelly Furtado – Afraid
Another stomper and 'must-get-a-single-release' song from 'Loose'. The chorus sticks in my mind until forever no matter how much I try to shake it out. And it's ace. This song features a rap from Timbaland and is one of the more Timbaland influenced songs on 'Loose'. I put an mp3 of this song on my last post, so if you haven't heard it, help yourself.

16 - Lily Allen – Knock ‘Em Out
The Lily Allen charm offensive works again. Being a 'regular' on the *cough* 'booming' Telford club scene the story Lily tells is one that I find very easy to relate to. Whether it's straight women (who are usually middle aged and/or blind) chatting me up or seedy guys chatting up my girl friends, there's that horrendously awkward moment when you don't quite know how to react to a proposition. It needed celebrating.

17 - Similou – All This Love
How cool are we? I'm sure a lot of people have been listening to this the end of last year when it was released in Sweden. I think it was posted on Into The Groove. Then it pops up nine months later on Radio 1. And I figured, even though I loved it in 2005, I can rekindle my love for this song again. Obviously it wasn't made in 2006, but it has sound that is not quite of this time. It sounds like it's from the mid-80s but then also sounds just a bit like it's from the future, the next direction of the 80s phase music's been going through for years now, perhaps? Which ever time it's from, there's nothing wrong with a bit of Swedish dance pop.

18 - Nelly Furtado - Maneater
There've already been two songs in the chart for Nelly Furtado so far, so I'm running out things to say, her album is called 'Loose', it's ace, buy it. It makes no sense that 'Maneater' is all the way down at number 18, but I suppose that's just how close the top twenty is, as on any any other day this might be number 6, or number 10 or even number 2 (like I said, Muse is way out in front). 'Maneater' was number one, successfully knocking Gnarls Barkley off the top and becoming the first of three top-notch pop number ones ('Hips Don't Lie' and 'Smile').

19 - The Pipettes – Pull Shapes
Here the Pipettes drown themselves in strings and turn 50s retro-pop and create an infectious, charming pop song that seems timeless in so much as it could belong to any time but also that it is lost in any time. It's so infectious that as I write this I can't help but nod my head and tap my feet. I'd be clapping my hands tooif that didn't mean I had to type with my elbows.

20 - Sugababes - I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
I'm going to see the Sugababes on Friday, in Shrewsbury. If they don't perform this song I'm going to storm onto stage and beat Keisha myself. This song is the ultimate, a B-side to 'Red Dress' that mixes indie's new toys with pop's only surviving warriors of the recent culling. Indie done the pop way.

OK, I've given write ups for 20 songs now. There are 60 songs. If I did a write up for all of them it'd go on for far too long, you'd get bored and I'd run out of things to say. So just scan your beady eyes up and down thsi list...

21 - The Pipettes – Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me
22 - The Rogue Traders – Voodoo Child
23 - Madonna – Sorry
24 - Infernal – From Paris To Berlin
25 - Men, Women & Children – Dance In My Blood
26 - Black Eyed Peas – Pump it
27 - The Fratellis – Creeping Up The Back Stairs
28 - Pink Nasty – Burn
29 - Performance - Surrender
30 - Dirty Pretty Things – Bang Bang You’re Dead

31 - Nelly Furtado – No Hay Igual
32 - Sugababes – Red Dress
33 - The Modern - Discotheque Francais
34 - Feist - Mushaboom
35 - Lorraine – I Feel It
36 - Morrissey – You Have Killed Me
37 - Paolo Nutini – Last Request
38 - Arctic Monkeys – Fake Tales Of San Francisco
39 - Pink – Cuz I Can
40 - Robots In Disguise – DJs Got A Gun

41 - Pet Shop Boys – I’m With Stupid
42 - The Modern - Industry
43 - Panic! At The Disco – But it’s Better If You Do
44 - Oakenfold – Faster Kill Pussycat
45 - Pussycat Dolls – Buttons
46 - The Pipettes – Judy
47 - The Modern - Suburban Culture
48 - Madonna – Get Together
49 - Pink – Centrefold
50 - West End Girls – It’s A Sin

51 - Paris Hilton – Stars Are Blind
52 - Fall Out Boy – Dance, Dance
53 - Nylon – Losing A Friend
54 - Panic! At The Disco – Time To Dance
55 - Pink – U & Ur Hand
56 - Loo & Placido – Horny As A Dandy
57 - Men, Women & Children – Lightning Strikes Twice In New York
58 - Pet Shop Boys – Minimal
59 - Frank Popp Ensemble – The Catwalk
60 - Mystery Jets – The Boy Who Ran Away

That was fun wasn't it? As always, if you want to congratualte me on my brilliance or shout abuse at me, there's the comment box in which to do it.