Playlist and Top 5 : September 7, 2010

Here's the playlist from Sunday's show : You Me At Six - Stay With Me (Hold Me Down)Example - Last Ones Standing (Won't Go Quietly)Eurythmics - Here Comes the RainOrchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark - If You Want ItRumer - SlowI Blame Coco - QuickerDonovan - ColoursTremeloes - Even the Bad Times Are GoodThe Fab Four Freakout : Beatles - Three Cool Cats (Decca demo)Beatles - Baby It's You (Please Please Me)Beatles - Run For Your Life (Rubber Soul)Beatles - For No One (Revolver)Beatles - In My Life (Rubber Soul)Wombats - Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves)Hoosiers - Sarajevo (The Illusion Of Safety)Kinks - Low Budget (Low Budget)Adele - Make You Feel My LoveMylo - Destroy Rock and Roll (Destroy Rock and Roll)Zen - Hair...and this week's top 5 songs in the UK :5). Flo Rida ft. David Guetta - Club Can't Handle Me (-2)4). Eminem ft. Rihanna - Love the Way You lie (-2)3). Taio Cruz - Dynamite (-2)2). Katy Perry - Teenage Dream (new)1). Olly Murs - Please Don't Let Me Go (new)TOP 5 ANALYSIS and REVIEWThe old guard begins to drop out this week, and two new songs enter the top 5 at numbers one and two respectively. There's another new song at the top, which continues the rapid pace of turnover that's been evident throughout the year in the UK. At number five, and inside the top 5 for six weeks now, Flo Rida's paean to being too awesome for the "club" drops two places. This song is a perfect example of the transatlantic sound nowadays - it's a hybrid of R&B, rap, and EuroTechno that seems to have caught on not only in England (where it's actually been around for years), but in America as well. This song is climbing the charts in the USA, currently at number 16. It's smooth, it's hooky, and has that distinctive deep sound that most Guetta-produced songs have. It didn't seem as if the rough-edged Flo Rida would be a match for this, but he carries through with panache. On the England Swings scale of 1-10, this gets an 8.Once again, I won't go into another diatribe on the inferiority and just plain nastiness of the Eminem and Rihanna track STILL in the top 5 in the UK. I'll say this, though - clinky acoustic guitars, morose strings, and a clattery drum track are the only real backing on this rant. I didn't like it to begin with, and nothing has changed my mind over time, even the fact that the song has topped the American charts for seven weeks. That's expected from the USA, but there's no excuse for the British to have kept this track around so long. They should know better!I'm going with a 2. Now, our erstwhile Yank-sounding Taio Cruz, British by way of Nigeria and Brazil, has also managed to keep his track "Dynamite" high in the American charts at number 3, which, coincidentally enough, is the position he has in the UK this week as well. That's a drop of 2 from his number one hit last week. Again - and much like the above Flo Rida - we've got a crossover track with a techno beat and R&B overtones. That's the way to go nowadays! I'm betting most Americans have no idea that Taio is British. It's nice to see an English artist with success in the USA that's not, y'know, Leona Lewis or James Blunt. I give Taio a 7 for this track.Now we come to the new entries - one of them is also an American hit, and the other is someone that the USA has never heard of. Katy Perry has a second smash this year with "Teenage Dream". If anything, the chorus of this song is even stronger than that of the previous "California Gurls". Plus - no Snoop Dogg. Katy is, in some ways, coming off as Gaga Lite with her second album. See tomorrow's blog for a full review of the album, but for now, let's give this song a 7. Now we come to the number one song in the UK this week, and this will take a moment of explanation for anyone not in England, Scotland, Wales, and possibly Ireland. There is a show called X Factor in the UK, which is similar to American Idol in many respects. Singers vie for the title each year, and there is inevitable chart success around the end of the year as the contest ends. This year, the winner was Joe McElderry, a wisp of a middle-of-the-road performer that made a just-after-Christmas number one with a remake of Miley Cyrus's "The Climb". The runner-up of X Factor this year was Olly Murs. "Please Don't Let Me Go" is his debut single, and it's not nearly as bad as it could have been. The winner of the contest almost always ends up scoring with a sappy, Simon Cowell-chosen ballad, but anyone else in the contest can actually be a little clever and explore other musical styles. Thus, Olly becomes a reggae-lite star with this song, and while it's no great shakes, it's not obnoxious and overproduced. It's actually a bit breezy, with an adequate vocal, and even an old-timey vinyl feel at the beginning. I'm giving Olly a 6.5.Album review tomorrow!