Hits 21 - 2009 (5): La Roux, Cascada, JLS

Episode Date: June 23, 2024

Hello again, everyone, and welcome back to Hits 21, the show that's taking a look back at every UK #1 hit single of the 21st century - from January 2000, right through to the present day. Twitter: @Hits21UK Email: [e-mail] Vault: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5O5MHJUIQIUuf0Jv0Peb3C?si=e4057fb450f648b0

It's 21P! Hi there everyone and welcome back to Hits21 where me, Rob, me, Andy and me, Lizzy are looking back at every single UK number 1 of the 2000s. If you want to get in touch with us you can find us over on Twitter, we are at Hits21UK and you can email us too, just send it on over to hits21podcast.gmail.com. At the present time, the end of June and through to the beginning of August 2024. Me and Lizzie and Ed who will be joining us on Hits 21 in the future, we are currently reviewing each episode of the new season of House of the Dragon on the Longest Night Podcast. We're running them concurrently this time, we'll leave a link to it in the show notes.

Thank you so much for joining us again, we are currently looking back at the year 2009. This week we'll be covering the period between the 28th of June and the 1st of August. So we're actually really close to sort of being 15 years on the dot with this period. Not far away at all. Well that's horrifying, thank you for that Rob. Yes, lovely thought to begin with. The poll winner from last week. Bonkers, Dizzy Rascal and Armand Van Helden.

Although when love takes over, there was a strong support behind when love takes over. But Bonkers just, just pipped it in the last couple of days. It is time to press on with this week's episode. In Scotland, an off-duty police officer allegedly captures a video of a black panther near a railway line in the town of Helensburgh. However, while the apparent sighting backed up claims that big cats were present on the west coast of Scotland, other footage later revealed that it was a normal-sized domestic cat. A terrorist attack in Indonesia killed 7 people and injures 53 more, while in Nigeria, Boko

Haram begins a series of deadly clashes with government security forces. Meanwhile, Microsoft unveils Windows 7, less than three years after the release of Windows Vista. And in football news, Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard is found not guilty of assault and of fray after fighting with a man outside a nightclub in Southport. Meanwhile, former Celtic Arsenal and West Ham player John Hartson undergoes a successful round of surgery and chemotherapy after being diagnosed with cancer. and West Ham player John Hartson undergoes a successful round of surgery and chemotherapy after being diagnosed with cancer.

The films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows, Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs for one week, Bruno for one week and then Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince for three weeks. Lady Gaga, friend of the podcast, appears on a German talk show, wearing a coat made entirely out of Kermit the Frog plushies. Meanwhile, Sarah Palin, not a friend of the podcast, resigns from her position as governor of Alaska, leading some to believe that she'll be making a bid for the White House in 2012. She then ran the Tea Party, not Friends of the podcast, a conservative movement within

the Republican Party. And American news anchor Walter Cronkite, who famously announced the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, dies aged 92. And on YouTube, video creator Ray William Johnson passes 100,000 subscribers. He would eventually go on to become the first YouTube channel to pass 5 million subscribers in 2011. Andy, the UK album charts, how are they doing in the summer holidays, I guess, of 2009? Yes, well, we finished on a little bit of a precipice last week, we're right at the end of last week's show one of the new stories

that occurred was the death of Michael Jackson and that is the one and only thing to talk to you about on the albums chart this week. We have two albums at number one during this period, the first of which is Number Ones by Michael Jackson, which went to number one on the 28th of June, just a couple of days after his death, and eventually went ten times platinum. That was number one for one week, of June, just a couple of days after his death, and eventually went 10 times platinum. That was number one for one week, but then for some reason after that, the consensus changed and the essential Michael Jackson took over

and spent seven weeks at number one, going five times platinum. So a full eight weeks altogether for those two combined, this entire period, the British public were sending Michael Jackson to the top. So that's all I've got to talk to you about this week. Lizzy are America feeling the same? No. No? Oh. The Black Eyed Peas may have dominated spring 2009 with Boom Boom Pow but in early July its reign of terror was ended by the Black

Eyed Peas, who replaced themselves at number one with I Got A Feeling. The song was number one in the US for, get this, 14 weeks, giving them a grand total of 26 weeks at number one in the US in 2009. Six months! Yes, six friggin months of this. It was eventually certified Diamond in the US and it also got to number one in the UK, but that is a matter for another episode. For now, we are going to pivot over to the albums chart, where this week we have Lines,

Vines and Trying Times by Jonas Brothers. That's very hard to say. That's a cruel one to read out on a podcast, isn't it? That spent one week at number one in the US and got to number nine in the UK. Then we have Now 31 by various artists. Spent one week at number one. Wasn't released over here for obvious reasons, but it did feature a few previous number ones that we've covered, such as Boom Boom Pow, Right Round, Poker Face, My Life Would Suck Without You and That's Not My Name by The Ting Tings. Oh, well done to them.

And then we have Black Summer's Night by Maxwell, One Week, got to number 66 in the UK. And finally we have Leave This Town by Daughtry, One Week, got to number 53 in the UK. And that's it from me. Alright then, thank you both very much and we will press on and get on with our first song this week which is this I've been there, done that, messed around I'm having fun, don't put me down I'll never let you sweep me off my feet I won't let you in again The messages I've tried to send My information's just not going in Burning bridges, short to shore

I break away from something more I'm not turned on to love until it's cheap Been there, done that, messed around I'm having fun, don't put me down I'll never let you sweep me off my feet This time, baby, I'll be Burning you through Okay, this is Bulletproof by La Roux. Released as the second single from their debut studio album titled La Roux, Bulletproof is La Roux's third single overall to be released in the UK and their first to reach number

one. However, as of 2024, it is their last. Bulletproof went straight in at number 1 as a brand new entry knocking David Guetta off the top of the charts. It stayed at number 1 for one week. In its first and only week atop the charts, it sold 80,000 copies, in a week where there were no other new entries or climbers in the top 10. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Bulletproof fell two places to number three.

By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 25 weeks. The song is currently officially certified platinum in the UK as of 2024. Andy I will let the listeners in on a secret you have been chomping at the bit to discuss bulletproof bylaroob so have the floor. Thank you yeah just a little bit yeah because it's funny I was saying to Robin Lizzie earlier I was like oh I like I feel like I'm just gonna gush about this and I shouldn't do that really. We're a critical analysis show, we engage with things from the lens of 15 years later and we look with a wry smile at the songs of years yore. But no, you both just enabled me and said go on, gush about it.

No, we're pop fans primarily. Yeah, so I love everything about this and I always have and I try to find anything that I don't like about it, anything that I don't love about it and I've come up with nothing. The list of things that I adore about this song is kind of boundless to be honest. It just kind of struck me at the time as something so fresh and so interesting. I have so many of the same feelings towards it as I did around Bonkers last week. There's just so much going on in the background of that song and this like is just beyond that. I mean I liked Bonkers

but I love this. The production is gorgeous. All those synths that are pitched at this place that could be really kitschy because a lot of it sounds like sort of 80s like tetris noises almost like it's really really glumpy glumpy synths but it takes it to this kind of cool odd place which kind of feels a bit like OMD or something like that which I really like because I kind of grew up on that stuff and then you get Ellie Jackson's voice against it which is really really powerful in the song. I think one of the main criticisms that tends to get thrown at LaRue is the kind of shrillness, if you like, of that voice. And for a while I sort of thought the same, but recently when I've been listening to this I've thought, you know what, that actually helps the

song, that she comes in with such power. It gives a song that could be really clinical and space-agey and like just very cold. It gives it an edge, it gives it an authenticity, a rawness that I think you know you feel a sense of genuine anger coming out of that voice, you feel a sense of righteousness and I think the thing I love about this song the most is that it comes straight in with a wallop that it's one of the few songs I could think of where the verses go as hard as the choruses where she comes straight in with that bit and that mess around and you know it's like as big as the choruses really there's just no messing about with this that it's gorgeously produced it's really well performed and I really love I really

love the sound of that chorus as well, where there's multiple vocal lines layered in there and the synths become a bit more warm and fuzzy in the middle there, where it's kind of like on the word bulletproof, you feel like you're getting a hug, you feel protected, which is obviously the sense that it's trying to put across, that like you'll be okay, you know, we'll be bulletproof next time. I just think it succeeds on every level and I think it's a really shining example of the kind of interest in electronic music you could get around this time.

And I compare it so favorably to some of the other stuff we've got coming up, which is like entirely electronic as well. This is just like the peak of what you can achieve with that I think. I absolutely adore this song. It helps as well that as much as I just love it for itself it does also have a nice little memory attached to it for me as well. That way back in 2009 when I was 17 I erm well it wasn't like wasn't the very first

crush I'd ever had. I'd had like silly little boyfriends before but I erm I I this was the first time I really fell for someone in 2009. I really like had a big, big crush on this person. Built myself up for months and months to like, should we hang out? Do you want to like go for coffee sometime? We did. And then the next day, I built myself up and was like, so should we go out? Are we dating? And the guy kind of shut me down quite harshly and it was a bit of a slap in the face. I don't hold a grudge, we were both 17 year olds, that happens, teenagers not good at communication, totally fine, but it broke my heart at the time, I was really really upset and I comforted

myself with this song, I listened to it for ages and I was like yeah I don't need no man, the next time I'm gonna be better, I'm gonna be bulletproof next time and it really kind of comforted me this song and got me through not a breakup but got me through a broken heart in that moment. So that's a lovely little memory to look back on that it did actually comfort me and give me that warm fuzzy feeling. Yeah I have nothing but good things to say about this I think it's probably my favorite song that we're going to cover this year and it's just gorgeous I just love it I'm going to stop gushing now I'll hand over the floor yeah. Well fuck that guy your hour's not his

and we're very happy about that. Oh it's okay he was 17 he's okay it's was 17. He's okay. It's alright. Yeah, I'm only teasing. I'm only teasing. Yeah. Yeah, I concur with you, Andy. I think this is great. Like a lot of songs coming out this year. I think it perfectly captures that moment just before the turn of the decade as the kind of wild west of the internet and mobile phones kind of begins to come to an end and the uniform designs of things like social media and smartphones start to come into play. Bulletproof I searched the internet all week for this advert because typing in Bulletproof Leroux advert doesn't really come up with much, I really had to go looking for this but Bulletproof was used on an advert for the Samsung Genio

Touch which is one of the first phones of the late 2000s to start looking as though the rest of the world was playing catch up with Apple and iPhones. It was that weird kind of period where Windows phones were about to become really popular as well where we were moving away from number keypad to QWERTY keyboards on touch screen phones and things like that. And if you watch the advert, it's kind of like this, you know, nervous look out into like a, you know, a slightly high tech future

that we're not fully prepared for yet, but Apple and Android will, you know, dominate that market and corner it very, very quickly. But you still have Nokia Samsung and a load of other ones like trying all these new designs like what are the future of phones gonna look like until Apple just say they're gonna look like this and no one's gonna make any no one's gonna make any different designs now this is what phones will look like forever because if you think about all the phones in the

2000s that we went through the ones that look like lipstick the ones where you could either flip top and go up and down or you could twist it up to reveal the keypad and all these different weird designs that you get, loads of product placement in music videos and you know songs being used in adverts and stuff and then it's literally just Apple coming along and going right, it's just going gonna be a whole screen and that's the future Whereas bulletproof is in that weird kind of two-year period where we were leaving behind things like Bebo in myspace and coming towards things like Facebook and Twitter and It sounds like we're heading away from eight bit technology and analog technology as we head to digital a Smart future, you know that this music sounds high-tech and futuristic and an analog technology as we head to digital, a smart future.

You know, this music sounds high tech and futuristic. And that's, you know, this next thing I'm gonna say is it is used as a pejorative sometimes, but I don't mean it this way, but it does sound like a turn of the decade stock ringtone. This, the- Yeah. The- That's not a pejorative. I just think that it very much, as much as it's an

80s thing, it very much sounds of its time in the late 2000s, it has a lot of retro-futurist appeal, which makes up for it feeling in some places a little bit underwritten, I think, the writing doesn't really encourage this to progress, it sort of leaves it to the vocals To carry quite a lot of the momentum forward which is fortunate because Ellie Jackson lead singer. I agree with you Andy I think she really brings it. She has a different sort of voice for pop right now. Yeah employs it in all sorts of interesting ways even down to the things like the Do you like when she's matching up with the synths in the background all the stuttering and she kind of hop skip jumps away through a lot of the verses I agree with you that the verses are just as resonant if not more resonant than the chorus I always think that about

reach out I'll be there I always think the verses go harder than the chorus in that but it along with their sort of like the wall in the background as well that makes it all feel like the verses are really chest pump, you know like fist pumpy and you know chest throbbing and stuff. Love the chorus too but those verses go hard. It's so rare though isn't it for songs to do with a verse is like just as big and I really wish more songs did it like there's so few that I can think of and I think The Edge of Glory by Lady Gaga does that where it comes in with a really great verse. There's just not that many and I really wish more songs would do it like really use your verses because it transforms the song it

just makes it all killer all the way through it's great. But I think that just to kind of wrap up it does really remind me and I think it is nicely indicative of that weird summer in 2009 where a new type of world was emerging and we were kind of nervously peering over into the 2010s. Like this doesn't make me feel all emotional and despondent in the way that the fear does but songs like Bulletproof are, they're proof that pop as a whole is always tacitly aware of the shape of the next five years. You know, I kind of wish that like the frosty paranoia of In For The Kill had been the number one instead, but I am more than happy that we had a chance to discuss this because I do think it is

really evocative of its actual time despite all its 80 signifiers down to like the hair on the cover or the new romantic aesthetics and things like that. I think that what we have here is kind of like the 80s in a vacuum but processed just as we're about to turn from one decade into the next and I'm very keen on that. Lizzie, how are you? I'm quite surprised that this was successful as it was to be honest. I knew she was kind of being talked... I keep saying she, like they, there's two of them. It's a classic case isn't it of banned up person, I think a lot of people make that mistake. Yeah, I know they were big in the NME circles and they were being talked up as this next big thing yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah particularly the vocal style against the background like Ellie Jackson's vocals are a bit flat but it is kind of the style of British indie vocals at the

time a bit like something like Lily Allen on smile but this is more like Mars via Brixton it's that that sort of weird clash of styles which does make for something quite compelling. I do really like the synth solo towards the end as well. I think that sort of is needed to elevate it to that next level. I actually don't love the verses as much as you. I feel like there's a weird sort of hoedown aspect to them. They feel too jerky. I sort of... I like a bit of distant coldness in my synth tracks. I'm thinking of something like I Feel Love by Donna Summer where it is just this pounding synth track

but you've got this heavenly vocal over it. Whereas Ellie Jackson's style is more like something like dancing on my own. Is that the kind of thing you prefer? Yeah, something like that. This is going into sort of Worzles territory a bit if you're not careful. But yeah, the chorus is a killer, that will become a theme this week as you'll see. And yeah, it's sort of pointing the way forward and I'm surprised as well that there's not more of this. I can see maybe why something like In For The Kill didn't take off in the charts as much, particularly in the chorus like doing it for the frill like it goes a bit too much into that shrill territory but I think this is the right balance so yeah I don't love it as much as you but I think it's really good.

Andy, do you want a final word to gush about it a bit more? Um, not really. Except that I revisited the album last year and the album actually has really aged well. There is a lot more of this sort of thing on the album. It's pretty solid throughout. So I would encourage people to go back and listen to that first album. La Rue kind of instantly declined after 2009, partly because the bubble just kind of burst, but they also made quite a lot of enemies on the way up. They were really, really outspoken about other pop stars, so I don't know if that had something to do with it, but that first album, it's a really, really nice 40 minutes of this sort of thing, so I would recommend it. Yeah,

I won't gush any further. it's just great, I love it. I remember quite liking the second album, actually, Trouble in Paradise, Uptide Downtown, Let Me Down Gently, those were both pretty big deals on the music blog sphere, the kind of pitchfork adjacent stuff around sort of 2014. It reminds me of the one year, because I have had Spotify premium for 13 years, and 2014 was the one year that I didn't have,

I didn't use it, I got an iPod. And that album reminds me of going back to an iPod for 12 months. Do you think, again, might become a running theme in this episode, do you think this is a response to Lady Gaga, particularly from British labels who are thinking, oh shit, we're behind on this one.

We need something to kind of pitch into that position. You're right that it's- Oh, this is vaguely synthy. Oh, this'll do. You're definitely right that it'll be a theme in this episode. I kind of want to hold that thought, to be honest, because I've definitely got some things

on another song about that. But yes, to some extent, I think people want to hold that thought to be honest because definitely got some things on another song about that But yes to some extent I think people want something to sound Quirky and electronic led by women. I think that's pretty much the basic formula. So to that extent, yes But I think there's a much more clear example of that coming up later. Yeah yeah, I mean it's it's kind of like, you know, when the Arctic Monkeys came out and Sort of the enemy in that realized, oh, we're actually not ahead of the curve on this one, we need to hype up all these lads in Fred Perry's and Plimsolls, like it's the next big thing, and they never were going to be, but I feel like Leroux maybe deserved better than they got? I think so, yeah. I think they came along at the right time, so probably got more exposure than they would

have done a few years ago. But yes, things were just moving so fast at this time that I feel like people moved on very quickly. True. It was really nice of them to get a number one at least. Alright then, we will move on to our second song this week, which is this. Watch me getting physical, out of control There's people watching me, I never miss a beat Still the night, kill the lights, feel it under your skin I'm trying to keep it tight, cause it's pulling you in Bit up, you can't stop, cause it feels like an overdose

This ain't over, oh Evacuate the dance floor Overdose Okay. Okay, this is Evacuate The Dancefloor by Cascada. Released as the lead single from their 3rd studio album titled Evacuate The Dancefloor. Evacuate The Dancefloor is Cascada's 8th single overall to be released in the UK and their first to reach number 1, however as of 2024 it is their last. Evacuate the Dancefloor went straight in at number 1 as a brand new entry knocking Larue off the top of the charts. It stayed at number 1 for 2 weeks! stayed at number 1 for 2 weeks. In its first week atop the charts it sold 61,000 copies beating competition from Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson which climbed to number 2 and Billie Jean by Michael Jackson which climbed to number 10. And in week 2 it sold

64,000 copies beating competition from Diamond Rings by Chipmunk and Emily Sandé, which got to number 6 and I Got A Feeling by Black Eyed Peas which climbed to number 10. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Evacuate The Dancefloor dropped 1 place to number 2. By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 18 weeks. The song is currently officially certified Platinum in the UK as of 2024. Lizzy, Cascada, how are we feeling?

It's a bit of a mixed bag this one. I'll start with what I think is good. Obviously that chorus is an absolute killer and it lodges itself in your head almost immediately and refuses to leave. I would genuinely put it among the strongest and most assertive choruses that we will come across this year. And it wouldn't sound entirely out of place again in a Lady Gaga song, I don't think. It's also a very good title, it's another in a long run of great song titles with the word dancefloor in them. See also Murder on the dancefloor and I bet you look good on the dancefloor. There are a few unfortunate issues that I feel could have been ironed out here though. First up, it's too loud overall which detracts from some otherwise pretty good synth textures

that have a real crunch to them and a real bite, especially in the chorus, like the der, der, like, it's all good, but when the drum beat comes in, it just kind of drowns everything out. It feels like it takes centre stage and everything has to go behind it and yeah maybe that works in clubs but when you're listening on a pair of shitty headphones it just sounds like shit and that's problem one. The other problem is like the verses are odd in that they're kinda forgettable for the most part but then it segues into that weird horror style part which I don't think really fits, you know, the kind of descending chords where it comes, where she starts high and like, kinda comes down.

It feels like these verses aren't finished. They needed a bit more time to really match up to what they'd created with the chorus which is something memorable and compelling and then you get the knockoff Eminem after the second chorus who really doesn't help matters i don't know what he's called let's call him Ominom it is Carlprit like Culprit Carlprit yeah Carlprit like is, Carl Pritt yeah. Carl Pritt? Like is that Carl Pritt? With a space? No no all one word like culprit but with the name Carl as in Lenny and yeah. Oh no. We'll file him under Ray Vaughan and Colby Adonis I guess yeah. They do this in wrestling sometimes where they'll get someone who looks like a famous gimmick

and just sort of send them out like Oh, you look a bit like him. You're tall as well. You've got long hair. Go on You could be him and then you sort of get that moment where the crowd sort of buys into it for a minute And then they sort of realize wait a minute. You're not the Undertaker. What's going on? They're a bit of swiz but you can't deny that chorus is brilliant and I wish the song around it Was better served to support it. Looking back on Cascada I think it's one of the crimes of the decade that every time we touch didn't get to number one So at least Cascada are honored at the end of the decade with this

But this doesn't have the deep sense of euphoria that every time we touch had but I think it contains just about enough energy to evoke an atmosphere very quickly and then it manipulates the atmosphere as it goes along because this immediately jumps from like massive laser synths that sound like they're echoing around an empty warehouse, right into that strangely kind of minor verse where she's on about killing the lights and things getting under your skin and all that, you know, but the verses are very just dance in more ways than one. There are so many textures and sounds crossing over from that song. The way the synths behave in the chorus is also really just dance. But also that something that kind of makes it a little bit interesting I suppose

is that there's this sense that someone, whoever this protagonist is, has partied a bit too hard but is simultaneously willing to let themselves go even further and disappear underground, as the song says, sort of like they're melting into the floor and like Lady Gaga had more fun with that with Just Dance but you can you know the the connection is there I think this is inferior to a lot of Cascada's kind of mid-2000s material because there was a sense of drama and history in something like Every Time We Touch that just isn't present here like every time we touch that it just isn't present here. And I would also just hard cut that rap verse which adds nothing. And I had honestly forgotten was part of the song until this week.

It's dreadful. Doesn't match the atmosphere of the song. Doesn't say anything new or illuminating within the song. It's just there to create an illusion of variety which feels hollow and pointless in the cold light of day. On the whole, I think also the song feels a bit too large. It's like it's compensating for its lack of genuine emotion by just kind of turning everything up. But it did work on dance floors towards the end of the decade, and Cascada was so tried and tested at what they do that this winds up by default at worst of just sort of being a pretty good version of what it is.

Like it knows what it wants to be, it is exactly that and it was successful on those terms so fair enough. Andy Cascada. Yeah, I'm not that hot on this to be honest. I don't deny, as Lizzie said, I don't deny that it's a good chorus. I do deny though that it's a brilliant one. I don't think it's like anything that special. I do think it's catchy and it does, you know, hit hard and sells the song. But I think there's just a little bit of a feeling of genericness about all of this, to be honest. In some places it feels very generic,

in some places it feels weird and tonally off. I agree with a lot of what both of you have said. Those minor things that turn the lights, don't like that at all, that's very strange. It reminds me of that song. Do you remember that song, Things Go Bump in the Night by All Stars? It felt a bit like that, like a sort of Halloweeny thing, which was weird.

Yeah, very strange. And I also think that COD M&M thing is just so bad, such a terrible idea. I did for half a second. Why did they do that? I did for half a second, really only half a second thing. Wait, what? M&M? Yeah, me too, yeah. Because he comes in with Guess Who's Back and I thought that you're clearly signposting that really. And that was really cringy. I think it's hard to give people the context who weren't there at the time how funny it was in Friday by Rebecca Black when that random dude turns up with his R.B. Rebecca Black and it's because it was such a cliche in songs like this for

something like that to happen where some random dude comes in for about 20 seconds saying nothing of any value to add to the song before throwing back to the female singer and it was just such a cliche and yeah it was very funny to see that pop up here. I agree completely with comparison to Lady Gaga but I would be a little bit more harsh. I definitely see the similarities with Just Dance, but to me, this sounds exactly like something that would have been an album track on the fame. It wouldn't have been a single. I think it goes to show the high quality of Lady Gaga at this time that she wouldn't have

led with this. There's actually a song called Money Honey on the fame that I think sounds a lot like this that is really really similar And there's a few others as well that that our album tracks, which are basically just there as filler It's a really long album the fame There's a lot of stuff there as filler that sounds a lot like Evacuate the Dancefloor So I don't think that's particularly given high praise to it really I think Just Dance is infinitely superior and Pokerface is on another planet But this is fine. It's nice to see Cascada get a number one. I'm not sure I agree that

it would have been amazing to get every time we touched a number one, but I do think it's one of the kind of beneath the surface stories of the decade that we haven't covered because they've never got a number one before. That Cascada like have a real following and we're really, really big with teenagers of our generation. My sister grew up on all this kind of stuff. She bought all the Clubland CDs. She loved this kind of stuff. All stuff, not just Cascada, but like Kelly Lorena and Scooter and all them.

I just constantly get my walls bombarded with that in the early noughties. So it feels like Cascada should have got a number one back in the early noughties and this feels really, really late for them. But it's a different sound really. This is not the kind of thing that Cascada were known for. They were known for their pushy pushy pushy pushy, you know, DJ Sammy kind of big beat manifesto kind of sound. And this is clearly Ape and Lady Gaga, which is not their usual wheelhouse. So yeah, it's nice to see them get a number one because they were quite big throughout the decade, but it's a bit of a sort of odd one to have this appear as their number one

because it's not particularly representative of why they were quite beloved really. But this is okay. I wouldn't go any further than okay to be honest. I do think it's quite generic and that's all that I really have to say about it to be honest. It's fine, I see why it was successful. It definitely fulfills the formula of what it takes to make a successful pop hit in 2009. I just think that formula is quite bare and quite open here, so I can't get too excited about it, but it's alright. Yeah, I feel like they wouldn't play this in heaven and hell.

Which I feel like might have closed by this point. Yeah, it's been closed for about a year or two by this point, unfortunately. Never mind. We will move on to our third and final song this week, which is this. You could be the end of me and that I should do the things that I wanted to How could I, without you, without you, oh, oh Cause you're the only one I let in Tell me how to stop this feeling spreading I'm hoping somehow that you know Oh, oh, oh Let's just get back together We should've never broke up

They're telling me that my heart won't be again We should've stayed together Cause when you left me and stopped They're telling me that my heart won't be again Won't be again It's killing me Hey, hey, hey Alright, this is Beat Again by JLS. Released as the lead single from their debut studio album titled JLS, Beat Again is JLS's first single to be released in the UK and their first to reach number 1 and it isn't

the last time we'll be coming to JLS on this podcast. Beat Again went straight in at number 1 as a brand new entry knocking Cascada off the top of the charts. It stayed at number 1 for 2 weeks. In its first week atop the charts, it sold6,000 copies, beating competition from Poppy Holler by Chicane which got to number 7 and I Know You Want Me by Pitbull which climbed to number 9. And in week 2 it sold 68,000 copies, beating competition from Supernova by Mr Hudson and Kanye West which got to number 2 and Sweet Kanye West, which got to number 2, and Sweet Dreams by Beyonce,

which climbed to number 9. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Beat again dropped 1 place to number 2. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 33 weeks. The song is currently officially certified platinum in the UK as of 2024. I expected that to be way higher. I expected this to be like 2-3 times platinum because you know, it's JLS but apparently not. Er Andy, beat again, JLS, how are we feeling?

Well I feel beat again to be honest honest, because remember when we talked about Boom Boom Pow, Rob, and you said that song just kind of broke your brain and you just could not come to an opinion on it because it just baffled you. I mean, not quite to that extent, but I'm sort of like that with this song, to be honest, where I've just been like, is this really, really bad? Is this actually brilliant? Or am I overth really bad? Is this like actually brilliant?

Or am I overthinking it? Is it just nothing really? Like it's kind of all three. So I'm not quite sure how to approach it to be honest. There are parts of this that I really like. There are parts of this that I think are like so bad. And there's a lot of kind of whatever, just fine, you know, standard boy band schlock in the middle

I'll start with the good. I've always been really fond of JLS And fond is exactly the word I would use because like I didn't actually like like them in a musical sense Like I never bought or downloaded anything of theirs. I didn't vote for them when they were on the x-factor But they just come across as nice adorable young men who have this Air about their entire career. That's like they are good singers and they're very popular They've been very successful and they have credibility. But like there's just didn't That episode of the Simpsons with Pucci they use a phrase We're trying to describe why he failed when they say the overall crumminess of Pucci That's the phrase I'm gonna use the overall crumminess of Poochie. That's the phrase I'm gonna use, the overall crumminess of JLS. Where like there's just something a bit

rubbish about them. There's just an air of them not ever quite being the finished package and being kind of like baby's first boy band that they never quite get out of. I think a lot of it stems from them having some nuclear cringe moments on the X Factor, the most famous of which of course being the Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas! Which they never evolved though. And then they also in their later career continued to make some absolute hashes of decisions,

like when they did The Club is Alive, when they launched their range of condoms, you know they made some really, really funny decisions, which made it very hard to take them seriously. But they clearly, every time I've seen them, they clearly are lovely people. Well, three of them are lovely people. And I can't help but be very fond of them. So it kind of breaks my heart that I do have to criticise this because it's not very good really. And the lyrics, the actual story of this song, the idea of this is like hilariously bad. It's really kind of not okay to be honest

that these lyrics are like basically, I've just been basically told by a doctor that I'm terminally ill. So can we briefly get back together because my heart's gonna stop beating soon. It's just it's very very maudlin and very strange like if you're gonna do that then make it a big weepy power ballad, go into the melodrama of it. Don't do this kind of funky r&b dance number about oh I've just been to see the doctor and he told me I've not got long left so can we get back together? It's just really odd and goes in way way heavy on that topic I

don't like the idea of it at all and I know I'm overthinking that you're not supposed to think about the lyrics because this is this is boy band stuff it's made for a mass mass mass mass market so you're not supposed to think about it but you know I'm trying to kind of engage a bit critically here and those lyrics are really really bad I will say though that they do all have individual voices particularly Aston I think stands out like you you do get a sense of character from them and I think the song itself is really catchy it has really been stuck in my head more than the other two all week.

And again, I really like the warmness of those synths in the chorus. It does the same thing as Bulletproof where the synths kind of get held for a minute against that beat again. And it's just nice. So I think it's got some really nice production on it. It's another song this week that's clearly, clearly aping someone else. This is trying to be like Usher sort of thing really and it's quite nakedly obvious but if it ain't broke don't fix it. This kind of stuff is popular and they were very popular so kind of good luck to them really but yeah it's pretty kind of bad overall but I kind of can't help but really enjoy it and I just can't settle an opinion on it really.

One other observation I wanted to make though before I hand over is I don't know this this probably won't be the first week this has ever happened but it jumped out to me this week that all three songs because they're very noticeable for what they do with the electronic instruments and I think this might be a rare week where I don't think we've had a single real instrument on any of the songs that have appeared this week. Like every song we've had this week has been entirely made by synthesizers and keyboards. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I'm really, really not saying that's a bad thing, but that's just the way things are going. And I don't know how many other weeks we could say that about that we've not had a single real instrument all week apart from voices.

So, yeah, very much the sound of the future this week. And it's nowhere near as exciting as bulletproof. But I kind of think it's a little bit more fun than Evacuate the Dancefloor, to be honest. So, yes, don't know if that's a hot take, but I'll hand over from there. Lizzy, read again. How are we feeling? Oh, I mean, I'm just glad that it's not another ballad from the X factor We've had so many it's like, oh my oh my god a track where you can notice the BPM. Yay

a BPM above 20. Yeah Yeah, exactly. But that's I mean god that's more or less all I have even though like the lyrics to this are mad granted I can't really attack JLS for the lyrics because they are essentially mascots for Steve Mack. And what I noticed when I was reading the lyrics, just in isolation, was that I can sort of imagine these being a Westlife song. Yeah. Oh, yeah, but Westlife would never do anything with half as much energy as this Well, no, of course But like if you if you just chop and change bits like, you know the if I died

Would you come to my funeral? Would you cry? I feel like that is something that they would put on an album and you'd have like people shown up to the gigs And be like yes Brian McFadden When you said that then I instantly got transported back to Hero by Enrique. If I dance, would you ask me to dance? You know, and we talked about that at the time, didn't we? That there was this trend at the time of men dying in the songs. Like, before I die, let me tell you, I love you mostly in car crashes.

And it's come back here. Yeah, yeah. Thinking about it in that sense it's a really weird way to launch a band it's like if you launch a band with seasons in the sun like oh by the way i'm dying yeah do you want to buy my record cheers i feel like jls went on to do better things but they also went on to do worse things this is just like slap bang in the middle. But yeah, what an odd way to kick off a new group, but again, at least it's not a bloody ballad. Just up top, I'm going to say I really don't like JLS. Like, there's one song coming this

year and some in future episodes if it's 21, where I genuinely think they've released some singles which must be among the worst of the decade. I just think their music was so confused about its intentions and target audience that they wound up lacking any kind of concrete identity. It's like their team couldn't decide if they were NSYNC Reborn or Boyz II Men Reborn or if they were actually a turn of the decade club pop act and in the end they never quite latched on to something That would see them break America or have the impact of something like One Direction Shortly afterwards, but so much of this kind of pop isn't really about longevity. It's about striking while the iron's hot and

Mean Andy you were kind of saying before but JLS were huge hmm like Absolutely huge you were saying Andy that you worked in of saying before, but JLS were huge. Like absolutely huge. You were saying, Andy, that you worked in a toy shop around this time and these guys were so famous that people would queue around the block to get their hands on the JLS action figures

for days at a time. I can give you a bit more data on that actually. That yeah, people used to queue every morning because we used to get deliveries every morning. This was in 2010 to be fair, so they had a bit more behind them by then but the Astons were so sought after that in my three four months working there I never even saw an Aston doll they they were never ever there the Marvins were the second most popular that was the one that the disappointed Aston fans would say, oh I'll get Marvin instead. The JBs were some people's choice and the Arriches,

you couldn't give them away. So that's kind of where they lay, unfortunately. Yeah, it's, you know, they get four number ones in a 15 month period after their debut album which obviously was also huge. This was an example of the X Factor empire starting to add more and more names to the roster, more and more people to have short pop careers and then long steady TV careers. I think they judged this just about right. This at the very least is showing that the X Factor can produce a singer or an act who doesn't just perform ballads. You know this is pretty fast and by comparison to most X Factor stuff, actually a bit dangerous. You know this is the kind of music that sends 12 year old girls absolutely feral.

Like listening to this I'm reminded of what Neil Kulkarni said about the best live audience he has ever seen, which was an E17 gig in 1995. Because the devotion this kind of boy band stirs in people can't really be understood outside of the love bubble that it creates. You sort of have to be on the inside to understand why this family friendly level of dangerous boys works so well, and I think the X Factor launching them with something a bit racier and a bit up to date than usual was the right way to go. I'm not massively keen on this, I think a lot of the lyrical content is really gross and guilt trippy in a way we've not had since like Eamonn or Busted. And again I'm kind of struck by another song this year feeling a bit underwritten and a bit cut and paste. I think there are four vocalists on this, but there's no real attempt at harmonies

or giving one of them a bit of a solo or anything like that. The instrumental starts off quite sparse and robotic and doesn't really change. The final chorus barely feels like a final chorus because it's literally just the first chorus, Control C, Control V, like at the end of the song on whatever equipment they're using, whatever software they're using to make the song and that chorus, not chorus, and that lyric, I need you back in my arms, I need love CPR. Oh my god, distractingly, distractingly corny. One of the best and worst lyrics we've ever covered on his 21.

My main problem with this though, is that it is a bit slight. I'm basically fine with it for the first minute, but when it shows pretty upfront that it's not gonna bother with moving forwards and it's just gonna keep doing the same kind of thing over and over. I lose interest very quickly. At least it tries to introduce that thing at the end where it's like the, oh baby please don't let me go. And it, there's every now and again it feels like it kind of, they run out of ideas but instead of trying to come up with an idea they just go whatever because there's even that bit where the I need you back in my arms bit where it's like they do the I need you back in my arms I need love cbr because it's getting so cold and then instead of adding the fourth lyric

in they go oh and it just means that that bit doesn't go anywhere and it hasn't gone anywhere and there's bits like that kind of all over the song. The main thing though is that I will never forgive this song for appearing on a playlist in the communal bathrooms of a campsite I stayed on in Cornwall the following summer in 2010. Every morning when I went to brush my teeth, this song was playing, same time every day. It really got into my back teeth and every time I hear those opening bars Every morning when I went to brush my teeth, this song was playing, same time every day. It really got into my back teeth and every time I hear those opening bars, there's part of me that just wants to brush my teeth in peace while 50 year old men walk around me

clutching their bathroom bags while being far too okay with walking around a public space with no clothes on. Like that's, and like trying not to look in the mirror or behind me or around me, just eyes shut, ears closed off to JLS. Sleeping with your eyes wide shut maybe. Yes, exactly. Just trying to get my teeth clean so I can run out of there for several reasons. A lot of this episode kind of has a bit of an overlap with a holiday I took in August 2009, but I will save that for next week because on that holiday all that was on the radio was I got a feeling by Black Eyed Peas, Supernova, the Mr Hudson Kanye West one and another one which we're

covering next week, Tinty Strider, the Never Leave You one. And while I was on that holiday on the sort of like lower west coast of Scotland, funnily enough, I was in Greenock from which you can see Helensburgh if you look over the water. And so I could have seen that big cat around this time, right from the beginning. But I went and saw Half-Blood Prince in a cinema in Greenock near Weems Bay and Largs in Scotland. But I'll save that for next week because that Tinty Strider song next week is that holiday to me for many, many reasons. Around this time, I think this was the holiday I kind of realized with stuff like Beat Again and Evacuate the Dance Floor that like I was sitting in the back of the car forcing my parents to put

Radio 1 on because I wanted to listen to Radio 1 but also kind of knowing that everything on Radio 1 like I just hated everything on Radio 1 in August 2009 but I was still insisting that we sit and listen to it all day because I want to know what's up with the charts. And although Beat Again doesn't like hack its way into my school for another 12 months, it's part of that whole thing. So I'll just drop a mention for it now and then I'll get into it a bit more next week. Do we have anything more to say about JLS or any of the songs we have covered in this week's episode? Yeah, I just want to say that

I completely agree with the point you made, Rob, about that bit that needs an extra line and that really jumped out to me in a different place. I feel like that post-chorus, the, be it again, it's killing me, and then there's just nothing in that fourth bar. Hey, yeah. It just, it just hangs. Yeah. Yeah, it does that fourth bar. Heck yeah. It just, it just hangs. Yeah. Yeah, it does that a lot.

It's an issue with the whole song, isn't it? And I didn't realise that that happened in other places other than there. And you're right, it is littered all over the song. It's strange songwriting. Very odd. It just, as you say, it just feels unfinished. So I've maybe been a bit kind to it, to be honest, because you both made a lot of very valid criticisms about this. I can't quite take the Nostalgia Glasses off,

and I don't know, I just feel like I'm sort of kicking a puppy when I'm being mean to JLS, to be honest. So I can't really be too nasty, but whatever. Sort of, they're all wealthy, who cares? We've had so much worse than this, though. We have had so much worse. Oh, yeah Yeah, yeah, but that's not a good enough metric It's not good enough in pop to be not as bad as something else. Does it be F.U.R.B. by Frankie?

Yes, if it is then it's a 10. Yeah All right then Andy bulletproof evacuate the dance floor and beat again. How are we feeling? Well bulletproof is indeed Bulletproof in that there is not one thing wrong with it as far as I can tell. So it is being absolutely catapulted into the vault. As for evacuate the dancefloor, there's no need to evacuate the vault or the pie hole because it's not entering those spaces. And as for beat again, well, in its mission to achieve the vault it has been beaten again, but it's not going to the pie hole either. So yeah, that's it for me.

All right Lizzy, Leroux, Cascada, JLS. This week I am not doing anything with any of them. I'm not putting any into the vault nor the pie hole I'm afraid. It's interesting. Okay. La Rue, bulletproof, just sneaking into the vault, just about. I'm very pleased to have come back to that. Evacuate the dance floor, yep I'm fine with that going in the middle and the same with Beat Again. Beat Again teeters over the pie hole, but it's not so terrible that it belongs in there. I don't think so.

That is it for this week's episode. Thank you very much for listening and when we come back we will be continuing our journey through 2009. We will see you then. Bye bye. See ya. Bye bye! See ya! Bye bye! That's money, honey When I'm your lover and your mistress That's money, honey When you touch me it's so delicious That's money, honey Baby when you tell me the pieces

That's money, honey That's M-O-N-E-Y So sexy