i can recall only two of this week's new entries in the top 40. perhaps i'm not keeping up or perhaps "shooting star" by flip and fill (in at number three?!) has been made up by bored radio one website employees; or even some crazy musician hackers putting their best mp3.com tune in the official sales chart! you guys! elton john at number four: i assume this is a commercial radio thing. my dislike for commercial radio is probably mostly irrational; i'm sure they play some if not all of the good tunes radio one plays, but i like radio one's semi-myth of playing the freshest, newest, most upfront tunes - the idea that if i turn it on i will be hearing something essential, something that i must hear and have an opinion on. this is bollocks really, but its fun to buy into anyway.

i love following the weird inconstencies of the playlist and trying to work out the angle they're pushing ("mop have a top five hit, middleground hiphop is obviously under-represented! we must have the beatnuts and dilated peoples on daytime radio!") - the second-guessing game they're playing with the nation's youth. this is something that doesn't really happen with commercial radio. it may be that, say, southern fm (or even radio two)'s playlist is closer to what people actually want to hear at any given time, but where's the fun in that? radio one tries (and of course fails) to represent every real or imagined music-centered youth sub-culture in the country whether the people who make up these sub-cultures are listening or not - a bizzare thing to even attempt, which is what leads it to being so riddled with conflict and contradiction. it is also the thing that makes it so fascinating for anyone with tolerant ears and an interest in what everyone else is listening to. shame about the djs though.

anyway, the two tunes i actually do recall: "work it out" still doesn't hit with any particular force, an unnecessary excercise in retro funk minus any squelch or sweat or depth of sound. its not an unpleasant listen, beyonce's voice is fun, but remember the big single off the last austin powers soundtrack was "beautiful stranger" ("work it out" obviously would have been better if was produced by william orbit). "aerials" is way too sane in comparison to other system of a down singles; it has what might be armenian strings; it has a pretty good doom-riff; it ultimately sounds too much like an album track instead of something special, but the bearded singer really knows how to make nu metal-style constipated emoting sound fun!