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2004 – Tekitoi

March 24th, 2019 · Posted by Skuds in Music · No Comments · Music

Yes I am looking to ‘world music’ for this year’s entry on the playlist. Not that I bought a lot of it this year. All I can think of is Angelique Kidjo’s Oyaya! album and Rachid Taha’s Tekitoi album. The Kidjo album was continuing her homage to Latin music. I really prefer her more African albums but absolutely love the track Congoleo on this one. I had a few odd Rachid Taha tracks on compilations but this was the first album of his that I bought. The track that got most attention was his cover of Rock the Cassbah, but there are quite a few strong tracks on it, not least the title track which I chose for my playlist.

I did get to see Rachid Taha play live in the summer at the Croydon World Party. I took the kids up there while Jayne was at work. I thought it might broaden their minds a bit, but even if they didn’t take to the music there were lots of entertainments and food. I’m not sure what they made of Taha, but they did really enjoy seeing Rodrigo y Gabriela, as did I. I immediately went out and bought their old albums that I had missed out on. The whole day was brilliant, even the journey because we got to go on the Croydon trams.This was the year that saw an explosion of bands influenced by British 80’s post-punk and especially Gang of Four. There were albums and singles from Futureheads, the Killers, and Franz Ferdinand and a couple of singles from Kaiser Chiefs with the Departure and the Bravery waiting in the wings. With so many name-checks for them, Gang of Four themselves re-formed towards the end of the year. Who can blame them for wanting to jump on this bandwagon that they did so much to insire in the first place?

Scissor Sisters released an album and came out with a dance version of Comfortably Numb, which might have upset some Pink Floyd fans but I loved it. The Streets followed up Original Pirate Material with A Grand Don’t Come For Free, a concept album (!) which was very good, arguably much more mature than OPM, but not as exciting to me. Faithless had an album called No Roots that contained the powerful song Mass Destruction that could easily have been 2004’s song on this playlist.

This was the year I finally got Green Day. I had heard the name for years but never touched the music, apart from having hte single Warning. And then they released American Idiot (another concept album, sort of) and I was converted. Likewise, I had been hearing about Tom Waits for ages and finally decided to find out what the fuss was all about and bought Real Gone and did not regret it at all.

Other albums I bought and enjoyed were Morrissey’s You Are The Quarry, Eminem’s Encore (as entertaining as ever) , The Zutons debut album and Peachtree Road by Elton John. It didn’t sell very well or have any hit singles on it, but it picked up where Songs From The West Coast left off, continuing his return to the feel of his 70’s work.

There were some decent singles out in the year too, apart from those on the albums I mentioned. There was 99 Problems from Jay-Z which finally got me to realise that he was much more than Hard Knock Life, My Band from D-12, where Eminem continued the pretence of trying to be just a member of the band and not the reason most people were even listening to them in the first place, and Vertigo by U2, possibly their last great single.

There were some other singles that benefitted from very watchable videos – Time is Running Out by Muse with its Dr Strangelove vibe and Call On Me by Eric Prydz with its leotard-clad eye candy.

Catchiest single of the year was probably Gasolina by Daddy Yankee, which introduced us to the reggaeton genre.

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