The things you learn when you're scraping together info for a blog post. Somehow, I managed to get through the whole of 2008 without realising that the United Nations had declared it the International Year of the Potato. What, you too? Who was doing promo for the poor spud?!
Harrison Ford returned as Indiana Jones, the fourth film in the series coming nearly two decades after the original trilogy concluded. I'm not sure it was worth the wait.
Grange Hill left our TV screens, having run every year from February 1978 to September 2008. School was never the same.
BRIT Award winners in 2008 included Adele, Arctic Monkeys, Foo Fighters, Kanye West, Kate Nash, Kylie Minogue, Mark Ronson, Mika, Take That and Paul McCartney, the latter apparently having made an outstanding contribution to music. I must check him out sometime. None of them appear in today's selection.
Black Kids kick things off with I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You, a bit of a mouthful, but a very digestible slice of pop rock that sounds very much like an outtake by The Cure, circa The Head On The Door. The song - and debut album - was co-produced by Bernard Butler, but I never got any further than this CD single.
Hot Chip were slow to grow on me and I'll admit that much as I like them now, I still find Alexis Taylor's singing either engaging or irritating. Ready For The Floor is always a winner, though I was surprised to find that it went Top 10...
...much as I was surprised to find That's Not My Name by The Ting Tings got to #1, yet My Delerium by Ladyhawke was 'only' #33 and A-Punk by Vampire Weekend a mere #55.
Returning exactly ten years on from his last appearance in the Decadance entry for 1998 is David Holmes, with the title song of the superb album The Holy Pictures. The Verve also got back together in 2008, and split again after fourth album, the imaginatively titled Forth.
The Verve aren't the only ones to aim high and deliver epic music. MGMT were the spearhead of a new prog/psych rush, swapping acid for heroin and wearing what looked like dayglo swimwear.
The Last Shadow Puppets aka Alex Turner and Miles Kane carried more of Sixties John Barry James Bond soundtrack vibe which meant I bought their debut album before I did the same with Alex's 'main' band, Arctic Monkeys. To date, I've yet to buy any albums by Miles, either with The Rascals or as a solo artist. Sorry, la'.
As if it wasn't bad enough that I missed the International Year of the Potato in 2008, I also missed Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip's song, Letter From God To Man. It's not just the incredible lyrics, the chopped up sample of Planet Telex by Radiohead, or Scroobius Pip's emotive delivery which increases in intensity, it's all of the above.
Making a welcome comeback since they both appeared in the inaugural Decayed 2000 selection a month ago are Róisín Murphy and Alison Goldfrapp,
By 2008, Róisín was promoting her 2nd post-Moloko solo album, the rather wonderful Overpowered, including the fab single You Know Me Better, co-written with Andy Cato from Groove Armada.
Alison and compadre Will Gregory meanwhile released the fourth Goldfrapp album Seventh Tree, which marked a departure from the glitter and glam of predecessor Supernature into more reflective, almost folky territory. Whilst A&E got to #10, follow up single Happiness peaked at #25, which is a shame as it's a gorgeous pop song and a lovely way to wrap up this year's selection.
The end will come tomorrow...
2) You Know Me Better (Radio Edit): Róisín Murphy
3) Ready For The Floor (Album Version): Hot Chip
4) A-Punk (Album Version): Vampire Weekend
5) My Delirium (Album Version By Pascal Gabriel & Tom Elmhirst): Ladyhawke
6) That's Not My Name (U.S. Radio Edit): The Ting Tings
7) Letter From God To Man (Album Version): Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip
8) Holy Pictures (Radio Edit): David Holmes
9) Time To Pretend (Album Version): MGMT
10) The Age Of The Understatement (Album Version By James Ford & Richard Woodcraft): The Last Shadow Puppets
11) Rather Be (Album Version): The Verve
12) Happiness (Album Version): Goldfrapp
3rd February 2008: Made In The Dark (#6): 3
9th March 2008: Vampire Weekend (#55): 4
6th April 2008: Overpowered (#47): 2
13th April 2008: Partie Traumatic (#11): 1
20th April 2008: Oracular Spectacular (#35): 9
20th April 2008: The Age Of The Understatement (#9): 10
20th April 2008: Seventh Tree (#25): 12
18th May 2008: We Started Notrhing (#1): 6
3rd August 2008: Angles (# n/a): 7 *
14th September 2008: The Holy Pictures (#65): 8
23rd November 2008: Forth (#56): 11
14th December 2008: Ladyhawke (#33): 5
* Letter From God To Man by Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip may not have dented the Official Top 100, but it did get to #48 in the UK's Physical Singles Chart. The fact that such a chart even existed probably says more about the dominance of downloads at this point.
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