https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIIxlgcuQRU&feature=kp Despite all the gloss and sheen that permeated the songs of the 00s, that didnt mean there wasnt room for artists to do wonderful things with off kilter guitar music. Or that songs of the heart had to sound conventional. For a song that is essentially a very left field piece of angular art rock to be acclaimed as one of the most beautiful love songs of the decade is no mean feat, but with Maps the Yeah Yeah Yeahs did just that. It launched them into the stratosphere and made even the hardest of hearts fall in love with them. The words are a thing of beauty that could have been written in any decade, Don't stray, my kind's your kind, I'll stay the same. But the killer lyric is Wait! They don't love you like I love you. The tears in the video are genuine, which made Maps (which stands for My Angus please stay, the singer Karen Os then boyfriend) the Nothing Compares to you of its generation. Maps was cocky enough to take the worldly themes of the greatest love songs and frame them in the best song that The Pixies never recorded with Kim Deal on vocals. This was Gigantic made enormous. This is a landmark song of the decade because it told the story of the out there guitar rock of the age within a wonderfully universal narrative. It delivered said tale with a conciseness that would leave their contemporaries scratching their heads in awe.
What makes music fantastic? Star quality, amazing music, breathtaking lyrics and the ability to bring something new to the table, even if that means a new take on the classics. That's what I love to listen to and write about.
As well as writing for What Culture, I occasionally write a blog http://tedney.blogspot.co.uk and sometimes use Twitter, but sparingly @TedneyNash