Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

"Can't You See What You've Done To My Heart And My Soul, This Is A Wasteland Now" ouch Interpol managed to deliver another devastating emotive jab of top notch indie but this time something was different. In Slow Hands Interpol realized they could turn their often beautiful but remarkable rough around the edges sound into rousing festival sized anthems. Interpol would developed rapidly from here on in producing not only powerful albums but anthemic singles to match. Hear It Here

It's easy to forget that after bombast and brilliance of Helicopter and She's Hearing Voices that it was infact the tender and fragile So Here We Are that thrust Bloc Party towards superstardom. Built around a simple and effecting riff Kele laid down some gorgeous ethereal vocals to create a song that felt less like a single and more like a moment in time preserved perfectly. It's seems like a long time since this track hit the charts but Bloc Party have rarely surpass it. Hear It Here.

Looking back In My Place seems like a curious choice for the first single from the career defining A Rush Of Blood To The Head. Yet looking back now the tracks understated beauty and unparalleled control of melody shines through. Chris Martin vocally and lyrically is wrenching desperately it's a track that screams out with emotion, it's a tidal wave of pent feelings being released at once, yet the track is sublimely well controlled and conveyed. Shrewd songwriting of the highest order. Hear It Here

Topping Boys & Girls In America was an impossibility, and the Hold Steady sounded too damn good to change tack, so what was a band to do? Well Craig Finn return full of urgency, dispencing "Life's Most Valuable Lessons" left and right, meanwhile the band beefed up their sound creating tryanical walls of sound. Stay Positive was a track that grabbed you, it was a mix of a narratives and social commentary but every line spoke volumes and felt vital. This track also contained one of the most powerful musings on the music industry that I can remember; "There's Gonna Come A Time, When The True Scene Leaders Will Forget Where They Differ, And Get Big Picture, Because The Kids At The Shows Will Have Kids of Their Own, And The Singalong Songs Will Be Their Scripture". Hear It Here

After years of being the troubled boy in the corner Flex was the first sign that Dizzee would trade in his tragic social detailing and become the nations biggest feel good party starter. The was a wonderful light hearted to charm to Flex best displayed by it's opening salvo; "I Love It When I See A Pretty Girl Winding, I Can Even Watch A Butters Girl Winding" the rode to Dance Wiv Me started here. Hear It Here

Who'd of thought with this soulful little ditty with it's country stomp vibe would managed to set indie disco across the nation alight? It seemed improbable but six years Lily Allen would take the cooky country stomp and conquer the world all over again. Hotel Yorba brilliance lies not only in it's bizzare dance-ability, but in it's contradiction, it's all things to all people, it's a charming little throwaway, it's a torn emotion longing, it's escapism from drudgery, it's aspirational or it's a two minute nursery rhyme goof. The fact is this track works on every level and that's why it's brilliant. Hear It Here

Some tracks just hit you like a freight train, Dominos while beautiful simplistic has incredible power, I remember when I first heard it I did a double track, your absorbed by the music it pulls you it with it's warp sonic delights. While Dominos is not actually one of The Big Pink's best tracks, it makes an impact and a mark like no other, it feels like a drug it warps your mind and leaves you begging for more, luckily The Big Pink had much more to offer than just a few catchy singles. Hear It Here

The Eminem Show would be Eminem's last great album and it's hard to think of a more emotive or powerful track than the heartbreaking Sing For Moment. It was the perfect marriage of Eminem's most poetic and proactive lyrics and the divine sample of Aerosmith's Dream On. Steven Tyler provides the perfect chorus and Joe Perry's solo is a work of art. "They Say Music Can Alter Moods And Talk To You" with that one line Eminem said more than I ever could. Hear It Here

Some artists are so distinctive that the second you hear their voice you know it simple couldn't be anyone else. M.I.A was so unique, in 2005 she sounded almost too different to everything else going on, and when she played Glastonbury that year it was as if she was in glorious technicolour and everyone else was in monochrome. The real skill of her music and of Pull Up The People is how disarming her raps are, their carefree and almost child like, they sound free as a bird even when their carrying the weight of the world, and that is no mean feat. Hear It Here

Some tracks get chronically overplayed and Good Life suffered this fate in 2007 it was too good and too inescapable. Looking back now it seems like a remarkable charming aspirational feel good anthem, as time wore on Kanye's bragging would begin to grate massively, but on the Good Life he felt earnest heartfelt and reminded the world why we fell in love with him in the first place. A brilliant ground breaking video didn't hurt either. Hear It Here.

On second album Sam's Town the Killers discovered their balls, sorry for being so crude but it's true, even a sweet little ballad like Read My Mind was sonically Beefed up and felt positively epic. Rather than simply penning great songs to fill dance floors Brandon Flowers was beginning to great songs period, huge epics that carried on the US great history of broad brush strokes emotive song writing. Read My Mind was the type of songs that could effect you on a deeply personal level and yet united thousands across the world in song at the same time. Hear It Here

In 2001 Britney was beginning to seem like old hat, so out went sweet and innocent and in came sticky and sexy. It would take her almost five years to realize that being morose and sex obsessed suited her much better than "heart felt" pop balladeering. Pharrell wrote the perfect song, they conjured the perfect video and Britney stepped up to the plate with as much sas as she could muster and hit a home run with ...Slave 4 U. Hear It Here

How would we DJ were it not for Short Circuit it seems like every DJ at one time or another has used the epic hook from this track if only fleetingly. Yet despite the many remixes Short Circuit still works best as a stand alone art house piece, musically it hopes around so brilliantly starting as a dance floor smash before calming down into a sublimely measured post euphoria chillout piece. These Boys never dissapoint. Hear It here

"Hey, Don't Write Yourself Off Yet, It's Only In Your Head You Feel Left Out Or Looked Down On" arrrh how sweet, Jimmy Eat World would of course go onto to say that you should just be yourself, to be proud of who you are and just stick with it. Now had this track been released five years later they'd surely have been labelled "emo fags" but like for Jimmy Eat World they hook the world good, and they hooked us young on their infectious pop punk melodies. Proof that sunshine pop-punk doesn't have to be a parade of knob gags. Hear It Here

The was so much anticipation for the Arctic Monkeys that when Alex Turner fired out the immortal line "This Bird Said It's Amazing, Oh So All That's Left....Is The Proof That Loves Not Only Blind But Death". That was the moment when the world collectively wet their knickers, when we all realized that something very special indeed was going on with these four lads from Sheffield. Reading Festival and I Bet You... would follow but this is the moment when the hype reach fever pitch. Hear It Here

While Chris Martin will never be compared to the likes of Alex Turner as one of this generations great song writers, Martin's lyrics after all are about as subtle as brick to the face, there can be no argument that the man knows how to create a moment. He did exactly that when he effectively debuted Fix You to world at Glastonbury creating one of those unforgettable Glastonbury moments. Fix You was perhaps the ultimate tear jerker pitched to perfection, deeply emotional music made for the world's biggest and most open stages. Hear It Here

While Ian Brown's solo career for the most part has been largely forgettable and oft regrettable he did manage to stumble upon one last moment of genius that even the Stone Roses would have been proud to embrace. F.E.A.R while occasionally over simplistic, hits more often than it misses and with a powerful yet understated

orchestral arrangement it has a subtle power. Hear It Here

By 2008 the world had given up on Metallica as anything other than a live attraction, why they were timeless on stage, they were fast becoming the dancing dads at the wedding in the studio, but then out of nowhere with a little help from Rick Rubin they emerge revitalised and ready for battle. The Day That Never Comes was a sprawling epic with big epic sweeps and huge riffage and then in the second half it happens, the chains are undone and yes Kirk Hammett for the first time in seemingly eternity lets his guitar sing, or more preciesely scream bloody but beautiful murder, and you know what? It was worth the wait. Hear It Here

Give me a D, now give me and Arkness, yes once upon a time that was would actually get a huge reactions in arenas and stadiums across the land. The biggest surprise is that six years of turmoil and ridicule later and this track still sounds amazingly good. Yes perhaps Justin vocals aren't as "fun" as they once were but there's not doubting that this is a track that will thoroughly rock your socks, and it remains one of the greatest pieces of retrospective rock ever penned. Hear It Here

"He's A Friend And He's A Friend, And He's So Proud Of You, He's A Friend And I Knew Him Before You, He's A Friend And We're So Proud Of You, Your Famous Friend Well I Blew Him Before You" oh yes who hasn't enjoyed belting that ridiculous line out at one time or another. Simple put this is the best pure pop song Franz Ferdinand ever wrote (and there's alot of competition) what it lacks up for subtly it makes up for with spades of knowing tongue in cheek humour. Hear It Here