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26 porcelain
moby

So, as the celebrity he'd really merited for years (although no-one, most of us included, had noticed) descended upon Richard Melville Hall, he finally plucked the most crushingly heavenly track off the now-ubiquitous 'Play', and familiarity made it no less of a glorious single. Sounded great acoustically too, as his live shows would prove, but the combination of that piano and his hauntingly haunted vocals would always be tough to beat. A vindication, and a bit of a classic with it.

27 in a beautiful place out in the country
boards of canada

That kids'-TV-techno tag has always hung pretty snugly rounds the necks of Boards Of Canada, but here they take it off to a mildly upsetting new dimension. Is this what it's like watching Dr Who at the height of a particularly puzzling trip? We suspect so, as it would appear to be some somewhat vague robots encircling a deserted cavern as timidly thunderous clouds gather overhead, before the whole scene shifts to a faintly alien church. It's always the quiet ones you have to watch...

28 is is and the irs
life without buildings

There's bizarre, and then there's Life Without Buildings. In what must be one of the most monumental of years for indie-minded Scots types, Life Without Buildings hit on the unlikely notion that being a cross between Bow Wow Wow and the Blue Aeroplanes was a surefire winner, so totally incoherent poetry, burbled with a side order of vaguely panicky clanging it was, then. Amazingly, they had, in their own way, a point. Curious and more than a little charming.

29 independent women part 1
destiny's child

All the ladies! We buy our own jewellery! Like Charlie's Angels! So stick that up your Puffy and smoke it! Conflicting with the "buy me stuff" sloganeering of 'Bills Bills Bills', 'Independent Women Pt 1' combined its movie backing Angels theme with a Girl Power stance to make the Spices look like 19th century housewives. And more importantly, lush as fuck production and a chorus to swap gender for.

30 groovejet (if this ain't love)
spiller

An inevitable entry, really. After all, hearing Posh reduced to runner-up for once was arguably the musical equivalent of That Portillo Moment, and we all cut more than a carpet superstore's worth of rugs to this over the course of Y2K. Great to hear Sophie's elegant tones getting the audience she was always denied too, and if anything can reunite the Ibiza massive to the indie, well, less massive - as this did - that can only be a good thing. This year's 'Groove Is In The Heart', anyone?

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