BBC Radio 6 Music recently ran an open poll in which listeners were invited to vote for the station’s “greatest hit” from a shortlist of 100 tracks released over the past decade – since 6 Music’s conception back in 2002. Coldplay’s “Clocks” topped the official poll, leaving some tweeters a little disgruntled – and prompting some of us here at Nanu to consider what we would have done differently. The full list can be scrutinised here.
A Spotify playlist of our top choices, plus the three tracks mentioned most frequently, is available
What do you think should have topped the list? Leave us a comment and let us know your thoughts.
ELYSE JAMIESON
Seven Nation Army – The White Stripes
Emotionally, “Take Me Out” was the very clear turning point in my life, but on musical merit and innovation I feel that “Seven Nation Army” has to take the crown. Unfortunately for the purposes of this article, I can’t really pinpoint why. The thumping bass? The punchy drums? The scratching vocals? Perhaps it’s the fact that Meg and Jack generally make so much noise for two such small humans? Most likely it’s because it’s the epitome of “angular”, my favourite mid-2000s indie rock journo adjective. It’s still jerky, it’s still loud, and it’s still interesting.
2. Take Me Out – Franz Ferdinand
3. Hey Ya! – OutKast
4. Juicebox – The Strokes
5. Rehab – Amy Winehouse
RICHARD HANRAHAN
I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor – Arctic Monkeys
An impossibly good list of tracks. Trying to choose the best had to come down to recognition: not because they are the best tracks, but because the biggest hits grab you by the balls and neglect to let go until you are bruised and your heart beats to that tune. Or is that relationships? I forget. Anyway – I chose to treat this as if I were at the best indie club night, and there really was only one track that I cannot get enough of, and that was the Arctic Monkeys. Remember in the old days when they gave their album away – record labels didn”t sit up and pay attention until the fans demanded they were big, and now they are probably the most influential British pop outfit since the Beatles. Bold claim, but they are such a talented group of lads it isn”t undeserved. They inhabit the natural rut of brilliant British song-writing so charmingly that you cannot get sick of hearing what they have to say (however much DJs tried by overplaying this song – it still makes me want to dance). What”s more, they have a voice that isn”t usually heard, and tell a story in 3 minutes without a single lyric feeling out of place. Plus, in a club I like a song you can”t realistically kiss to, but which still makes you want to try. The perfect anthem for every rock and roll relationship that started in a dirty basement somewhere.
2. Such Great Heights – The Postal Service
3. Crazy – Gnarls Barkley
4. No One Knows – Queens of the Stone Age
5. Galvanize – The Chemical Brothers
ALEX GUSHURST-MOORE
Love You Better – The Maccabees
Despite being initially overwhelmed by the task of whittling down a somewhat selective list of 100 songs to five, the BBC have succeeded in choosing a collection that really resonates with moments from the past decade of my life (old as I am), and picking out the key moments wasn”t at all hard once I”d been swallowed up a little. So, following a dawdle down memory lane, I finally came up with the five songs that each defined a mood for me. I toyed with Metronomy as my top song, it having been slipped onto my iPod by my brother before I went to live abroad and then listened to on repeat for quite some time (before he could get his mucky paws on my music again). However, foremost in my mind as I sit in my shambolic university kitchen is my most recent foray into academia, coloured completely by the discovery of The Maccabees. Now I know they”ve been around for aeons, but bear with me in my middle age as I jump on the bandwagon just as it”s hurtling out of the station. This song strikes a chord in particular, and if you do pardon the sentiment, reminds me always to be the person that smiles the most, laughs the hardest, and loves the best: what a precious lesson to be reminded of as I begin adult life.
2. Heartbreaker – Metronomy
3. Welcome to Jamrock – Damian Marley
4. Tessellate – alt-J
5. No One Knows – Queens of the Stone Age
FINLAY NIVEN
Maps – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
If it wasn”t for Show Your Bones I may have never got into music the way I have. In 2006 I heard Maps for the first time and fell in love. I wanted more music like this and as luck would have it I was able to listen to the original Fever to Tell and brand new album Show Your Bones. Before this point in time I was only really interested in music that was released before I was born: David Bowie and The Beatles were on a pretty constant loop on my iPod. I pretty much ignored pop music being released at the time. The combination of the brilliant opening and strong vocals from Karen O make “Maps” very difficult to ignore. Though I didn”t think it at the time, it was by discovering the rest of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ material that then led me to seek out the other music that has shaped my taste since.
2. Such Great Heights – The Postal Service
3. Golden Skans – Klaxons
4. Fix Up, Look Sharp – Dizzee Rascal
5. Midnight City – M83
SAM BRADLEY
Mykonos – Fleet Foxes
Unlike the actual island – an idyllic destination in the Aegean Sea – “Mykonos” is not a favourite of the gay clubbing scene*. Instead, it”s one of Fleet Foxes” finest tracks – beautiful, delicate and hypnotic. With its gorgeous harmonies and folk rock melodies, it is perfectly representative of the band”s catalogue as a whole.
*Of course, there may be DJs on Mykonos that are massive Fleet Foxes.
2. Hometown Glory – Adele
3. Take Me Out – Franz Ferdinand
4. Sophia – Laura Marling
5. All My Life – Foo Fighters
ANGUS NIVEN
Such Great Heights – The Postal Service
This was super difficult. Narrowing down lists has always been something I struggle with, at its most conceptual level. This particular list really irked me: how can you reduce 100 of the greatest songs which you grew up with and categorically love to five and eventually choose one? Well I did it with difficulty and short lists (three to be precise: “Short List”, “Shorter List” and “Shortest List”). This brutal, wine-soaked process lead to the list you see and “Such Great Heights” on top. I love this track. I listen to it every time I get a new pair of headphones with all the boopa doopa and whatnot. The track has remained high on my agenda of things I want my ears to hear on a regular basis and so it tops this list which I previously thought to be insurmountable. The rest of the tracks are good, great even, but “Such Great Heights” is incrementally better due to the aforementioned boopa doopas and headphone commitments.
2. Maps – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3. Chicago – Sufjan Stevens
4. Midnight City – M83
5. Time to Pretend – MGMT