Before we look back on the last decade in French music, let's jump back a further ten years and look at Ireland. 
 
At the outset of the 1990s, Irish music seemed to rule the world. U2 and My Bloody Valentine's respective 1991 albums, 'Achtung Baby' and 'Loveless', loomed over mainstream and alternative rock. A few years later The Cranberries found huge success in America and mainland Europe while a wave of northern bands - Ash, The Divine Comedy, Therapy? - cracked the UK charts. By 2000, though, our main music exports were boybands to Britain and since then only Damien Rice has made any significant international impact.
 
French music in the 2000s follows a similar trajectory - starting high but petering out. Daft Punk and Air went into the new decade as figureheads of something called 'Le French Touch' - a mix in varying proportions of indie attitude and dancefloor sensibility. Their first albums of the '00s consolidated their position. In particular, Daft Punk's 2001 record, 'Discovery', has been hugely influential since its release - if only for putting vocoders and distortion onto daytime radio hits.
 
Since then, Air have descended into self-parody and Daft Punk have yet to follow up their underwhelming 2005 album 'Human After All'. But Phoenix have built a steady fanbase in north America without (yet) breaking into the mainstream consciousness, while Justice have also found relative success in the States. And the likes of Birdy Nam Nam and General Elektriks have the potential to find a substantial worldwide audience. It beats Irish boybands and insipid balladeers, that's for sure.
 
Here's our choice of the best French music of the last decade. (We know that Rachid Taha was born in Algeria - he moved to France when he was ten so growing up in the country surely counts for something.) Some of these albums and songs are known internationally, others aren't. Would a similar list for Irish music in 2000-09 be just as strong as this?
 
Albums (click on a title to listen to the album on Deezer where possible)
 
1. Daft Punk 'Discovery'
2. Air 'The Virgin Suicides'
3. Phoenix 'Alphabetical'
4. Sebastien Tellier 'Politics'
5. Saint Germain 'Tourist'
6. Emily Loizeau 'L'Autre Bout Du Monde'
7. Rachid Taha 'Tékitoi'
8. Herman Dune 'Giant'
9. Justice '†'
10. Cocoon 'My Friends All Died In A Plane Crash'
 
Songs (click on a title to watch the video)
 
1. Vanessa And The O's 'Bagatelle'
2. Sebastien Tellier 'La Ritournelle'
3. Amel Bent 'Ma Philosophie'
4. M83 'Kim & Jessie'
5. Alizée 'Moi Lolita'
6. Justice 'D.A.N.C.E.'
7. Daft Punk 'One More Time'
8. Air 'Playground Love'
9. Camille 'Ta Douleur'
10. Cassius 'Toop Toop'

Not for the first or last time on this blog, here's the gloriously catchy 'Bagatelle' by Vanessa And The O's, featuring the jangly guitar of former Smashing Pumpkin James Iha:

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A review of the album 'Sound To Light' by Channel One Review Snapshot: The intriguing and likeable blend of electronica and shoegazing by this Dublin quartet will attract listeners from al...

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Didn't we do this only twelve months ago? 2009 flew. And now we're facing into 2010, which feels a bit freaky - shouldn't we be living in space and wearing jetpacks by now?

It's been a mixed year in French alternative music, as we'll explain below. Still, we've found plenty of great new acts during the past twelve months - hopefully you like some or all of what's been featured here this year. Thanks to everyone who e-mailed and commented during the year - all your feedback, tips and suggestions have been greatly appreciated. And if you only just read, thanks for that too.

So, time to make our annual choice of what we liked during the past calendar year. There's a winner of the Palme d'Or (right) in competition this time around - how will she fare in this, the equivalent award race for French music?

Albums
A disappointing year for long-players in France. Well-known names brought out average records that seemed to settle for consolidation. Hand on heart, only our top two are at Champions League standard - but the others are still worth a listen and genuinely enjoyable despite their modest achievements. (Click on an artist name to visit their MySpace page.)
 
1. General Elektriks 'Good City For Dreamers'
Bursting with a spirit of fun and adventure, the second album by Franco-Irishman Herve Salters is a hugely enjoyable blend of loose funkiness and tight electronica, flavoured with jazzy progressions and Beatles-y pop hooks. At once eclectic and accessible, it should be an international success in 2010.

2. Birdy Nam Nam 'Manual For Successful Rioting'
The best French electronic album of the year owes a lot to German audio engineering - the clinical beeps and blips, control-freak loops and robotic voices patented by the mighty Kraftwerk. Like their Teutonic peers, the Gallic turntable foursome put humanity and wit into the machinery. A different experience to their live show, but no worse for that.

3. Kim 'Mary Lee Doo'
Our reigning champion returns for a podium finish in 2009. Kim Stanislaus Giani here flavours his '80s-style electro-pop with '60s and '70s references (dig the Fleetwood Mac bassline on 'Solenn') to create an agreeably romantic and wistful vibe.
 
4. Pony Pony Run Run 'You Need Pony Pony Run Run'
... and you need to change your band name! This Nantes trio's dancefloor-friendly indie-pop did the Phoenix thing better than Phoenix in 2009. A pity, then, that no one outside France will ever take seriously a band with such a terrible name.

5. Flairs 'Sweat Symphony'
Perhaps not better than Prince, as Lionel Flairs claims in this album's key track. Still, it's funky, catchy electro-pop that’ll have you grinning and grinding and perspiring.

6. Yuksek 'Away From The Sea'
Down-the-line floorfillers from the new boy wonder of le French touch. Could this be the last hurrah of a tired genre?

7. Get Back Guinozzi! 'Carpet Madness'
Another awful band name to scupper a likeable record of lo-fi indie pop with a touch of reggae rhythm. Any idea what their name refers to?

8. Diving With Andy 'Sugar Sugar'
And yet another nightmare from the baptism font! Juliette Pacquereau's low, melancholic croon complements a charming '60s Gallic pop flashback.

9. Emilie Simon 'The Big Machine'
Ms Simon's previous album hinted at a love of Kate Bush but this record feels like a full-on homage to the great woman - a similar style of piano-based pop songs with hints of showtunes and classical training to them, served on a bed of modern and retro electronica. You probably need to be a Kate fan to like this album - but then, you really should be a  Kate fan anyway.

10. Etienne Jaumet 'Night Music'
The electronic side project from a Breton indie rocker - cool and thoughtful, conjuring up the atmosphere its title suggests.
 
(You might also like: Phoenix 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix'; Charlotte Gainsbourg 'IRM'; Emily Loizeau 'Pays Sauvage'; Sliimy 'Paint Your Face'; Miss Kittin and The Hacker 'Two'; Revolver 'Music For A While')
 
NOT Album of the Year: Plastiscines 'About Love'
What's the French for 'second album syndrome'? After a cracking debut, the all-girl punk-poppers lose their personality, wit and charm by churning out formulaic alt-rock on this follow-up. The lack of imagination and individuality in this album is quite depressing.
 
Roll of honour - albums
2009 - General Elektriks 'Good City For Dreamers'
2008 - Kim 'Don Lee Doo'
2007 - Dionysos 'Le Mecanique Du Coeur'
2006 - Emily Loizeau 'L'Autre Bout Du Monde'
2005 - Camille 'Le Fil'

Songs
Here's where the real action is happening - new acts in provincial cities posting brilliant tracks on the internet. If even half of them release albums next year then 2010 will be a classic for French pop. That said, you might know our winner, even if it's only from further up the page...
 
1. General Elektriks 'Raid The Radio'
It's the double for Herve Salters with this joyous track. You can dance to it tonight; you can whistle it tomorrow - isn't that what a perfect pop record should be?

2. Mataharie 'O Oak' 
A girl with a high, haunting voice sings an enigmatic semi-electro song: another Kate Bush fan for sure. From a promotion-only four-song disc where all four songs are outstanding - this duo from Annecy have the potential for a magnificent album in 2010.

3. Pony Pony Run Run 'Hey You'
Like its parent album, a track that takes the lead from Phoenix - danceable indie-pop shot through with wistful romanticism.

4. Andromakers 'Electricity'
Two girls from Aix-en-Provence who are gradually building up a large following in France with their glacial Au Revoir Simone-style electro-pop: like Mataharie, another pair who should go on to greater things in this coming year.

5. Lunamira 'Quietly Burning'
Okay, so they mightn't really be a lovey-dovey boy-girl duo the way their online presence suggests. But this gorgeous little pop song is as smouldering and romantic as its title. If ever you have a slow set at your indie disco, this is the one.

6. Phoenix '1901'
'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix' turned out to be a disappointment: this brilliant single and its successor, 'Lisztomania', were the only exciting tracks on it. '1901' is quintessential Phoenix - it seems to go nowhere but by the end you've been smitten.

7. Kap Bambino 'Bluescreen'
Slightly lost on an album of Crystal Castles-style techno-banging, this track is a throwback to post-punk new wave synth-pop, with a thudding bassline, icy keyboard parts and actual singing from irritating shouter Caroline Martial.

8. The Sophia Lorenians 'Locomotion' 
A fabulous bit of retro-tastic '70s soul-pop: falsetto crooning, shimmering guitar shards and a hint of Philly strings. 
 
9. Underground Railroad 'Pick The Ghost'
Following on from their fine 2008 album 'Sticks And Stones', the UK-based trio returned with an EP of more top-quality Sonic Youth/JMC-esque indieness.

10. Charlotte Gainsbourg 'Vanities'
Our favourite Palme d'Or-winning neighbour served up a mixed bag of an album this year. The Beatles-y feel-good numbers felt laboured but this cold and distant track showed that Serge's daughter still has her pop wits about her. Next time around, she should head to Scandinavia in mid-winter and make a full album like this: the frostiness suits her.
 
(You might also like: Kim 'Solenn'; Chicros 'What's New Today On TV?'; The Wendy Darlings 'Suffer Girl'; Flairs 'Truckers Delight'; Freddy McQuinn 'Chasing Rainbows'; Diving With Andy 'Merry Dance')

NOT Song of the Year: Charlotte Gainsbourg 'IRM'
Palme d'Or? Damn poor! A tuneless and self-indulgent 'Tomorrow Never Knows'-style dirge that had us panicking - had the ultra-cool Ms Gainsbourg made a bags of her new album? Fortunately, the rest of Charlotte's Beck-collaboration was better than this awful title track.  

Roll of honour - songs
2009 - General Elektriks 'Raid The Radio'
2008 - M83 'Kim & Jessie'
2007 - Pravda 'Body Addict'
2006 - Vanessa And The O's 'Bagatelle'
2005 - Camille 'Ta Douleur'

So there we are: General Elektriks is our grand champion this year. Here's the new official video for 'Raid The Radio':

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Have you checked out the CLUAS writers' choice of top 40 albums for 2009? The clear winner was the excellent 'Hospice' by The Antlers, with silver and bronze going to Grizzly Bear and Fever Ray respectively. Read the full list and then let us know what you think of it.
 
Our various French counterparts have also been choosing their favourite long-players of the year - and the print, web and radio media have more or less settled on the debut album by The XX.
 
In the French press, Les Inrockuptibles, the most influential music and culture magazine in the country, gave their prize of best album 2009 album to the erstwhile foursome, now a trio.
 
For second place Les Inrocks picked 'The Turn' by Fredo Viola. The what by who? Well, it's the debut album by a London-born, New York-residing singer-songer who mixes folk, post-rock and a pinch of electronica. The record was shortlisted for this year's Prix Constantin, France's equivalent of the Mercury or Choice prizes, as it was released on French label Because. (It's an okay record but hardly one you'd put forward as the second-best of the whole year.)
 
Coincidentally, Les Inrocks' third place went to another Because release - 'IRM' by Charlotte Gainsbourg. 'Merriweather Post Pavillion' by Animal Collective was fourth and Phoenix's 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix' was fifth.
 
St Vincent, The Antlers, Dirty Projectors and The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart were passed over by Les Inrocks but Passion Pit, Grizzly Bear, Bill Callahan, La Roux, Alela Diane, Sonic Youth and DM Stith are among those who made the final cut. You can read through their full Top 50 list here or here. (The print edition of Les Inrocks extends to a Top 100.)
 
On the radio, listeners to top indie show C'est Lenoir on France Inter also went for The XX in their poll result ahead of gloomy French chanteur Dominique A, Grizzly Bear, Soap & Skin and Wild Beasts. (The show's presenter, Bernard Lenoir, selected Soap & Skin over The XX in his own personal choice.)
 
And on the web, The XX was also the pick of Sound Of Violence, the French blog that specialises in UK (and Irish) music. Interestingly, the other podium places in their top ten went to The Horrors (NME's top album of 2009) and Muse, with Kasabian making number five.
 
So, what conclusions can we draw from this? Well, the small French alt-music community appears to have much the same taste as their Irish brethren and, em, cistern. That said, they seem to follow the UK music press and scene more avidly than the US scene, hence the dominance of The XX across the board and lack of consensus on American albums.
 
Also: to judge by these results Irish acts are not making much of an impact in France. Adrian Crowley's 'Season Of The Sparks' made number 58 in the Les Inrocks Top 100 (thanks to Nat for pointing that out - we had only seen the online Top 50), having received high praise in the magazine the week before. Will any Irish acts do better in 2010?
 
Our favourite moment from The XX is still their gorgeous cover of Womack and Womack's 'Teardrops':

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When I started the Sound Waves Blog three years ago, my intention was to explore music, surfing and their interrelationship with each other at a time when Ireland's own surf culture was on the brink of exploding into the mainstream. Looking back on some of the topics dealt with over those years,I'm surprised at the diversity of the material covered and the number of musicians spotlighted in the postings; many of whom are equally at home on daytime radio as they are on alternative rock shows. In a nutshell, surf culture has become so absorbed into the mainstream of Irish popular culture in the last year or so that it has become increasingly hard to find something distinctive about Irish surf culture that is worth highlighting; perhaps the best example of this absorbtion into the wider culture is Ross O'Carroll Kelly's hilarious take off of the AIB Surf Adverts in the Irish Times.

One question I did not grapple with on the blog however was why did surfing get so big in Ireland at this point in history and why were Irish surfers being increasingly drawn from the ranks of lawyers, accountants, and the financial services ? Sure, the increased wealth of the Irish played a part, surfing only developed originally in Hawaii because the natural wealth of the islands was so great that the Hawaiians discovered the concept of free time away from work, but more than that I think that surfing might have offered an escape for people away from an increasingly frenetic and corrupt corporate culture in Irish professional life; perhaps surfing represented to the frazzled professional some cold water Eden where mobile phones could not go. Who knows?

If I was to choose the tipping point for the changes that I have documented in this blog then that point would be Jack Johnson's 2006 concert in the Point Depot. For myself however, this wave of change closed out in another live music event, the 2009 Cois Fharraige, in Kilkee. Returning home after those concerts, I felt that the time had come for new directions. Personally, I was tired of being an interloper on the West coast, putting up with the seemingly endless driving, lousy food, over priced digs and the increasingly crowded and unfriendly line ups. I got back to Dublin, sold off my surf boards and with the money purchased myself a 12 foot Hawaiian shaped stand up paddle board. Now I spend every available spare moment on the water just minutes from my home, rather than hours in my car, and I get on with my life instead of putting it on hold.

See you in the water.

Jules Jackson

 

 

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Were you at Yann Tiersen's show at Vicar Street in Dublin in 2003? Brilliant, wasn't it? If you saw Tiersen that night then you also saw an indie group from Brittany called The Married Monk - they were his backing band that night. We recommend their 2001 album 'Rocky' - spelled 'R/O/C/K/Y' to make sure that absolutely no one bought it.

A member of The Married Monk, Etienne Jaumet (right), has branched off into electronic side projects. One of them, Zombie Zombie, is a duo featuring him and one of the Herman Dune brothers, Neman. But now Jaumet (pronounced 'Joe May') is releasing music under his own name - an EP called 'Entropy' back in July and now an album called 'Night Music'.

Jaumet's brand of familiar electronica - Moroder-esque rhythms here, Kraftwerk-flavoured synths there - is hardly trail-blazing. But, as with those two illustrious influences we mentioned, the trick of electronica is to make robotic sounds feel human and soulful. Jaumet succeeds: 'Night Music' is warm and thoughtful, conjuring up the atmosphere its title suggests. It's too good to die as sonic wallpaper in trendy wine bars and boutiques.

So, that's our final suggestion for a French music gift this Christmas. Now we're busy making a list and checking it twice: our Best French Music of 2009 - and of 2000-09 too, when we reveal who's been naughty or nice in the world of Gallic tunes. But that's for next week...

With a bit of luck the snow is melting from the runways of Paris and your correspondent will be able to get home to Ireland tomorrow morning for the holidays. If you're travelling somewhere for Christmas, home or away, get there safely and have a good time. Here's the title track from Etienne Jaumet's 2009 E.P., 'Entropy':

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Franco-Irish relations are at a bit of a low point these times. (No need for us to go into the why of it here.) Fortunately, 2009 will end with some good news from France for one of our best-loved performers.

'Season Of The Sparks' by Adrian Crowley, full-time singer-songer and part-time festival curator, has got a rave review in the current issue of Les Inrockuptibles. This is excellent news for Crowley - Les Inrocks is France's biggest-selling and most influential music and culture magazine. Crowley lived in Toulouse for a while some years ago, so no doubt he'll be especially pleased by this notice. (Carly Sings and Duke Special have previously got the rave from Les Inrocks too.)

Obviously you'd like to know what the handballers are saying about our man. Well, we should point out that Les Inrocks has a very florid and pretentious style. That said, we've translated for you the entire review of Richard Robert from Les Inrockuptibles:

The enchanter

Dazzling in writing and execution, Irishman Adrian Crowley joins the circle of songwriters who are as impressionistic as they are impressive.

By the magic of an alchemy for which the formula escapes us, certain musicians gather in their hands all the beauty that enchants the lives of us music-lovers and mould it into a form at once immediately familiar and totally unheard-of. With his writing of pedigree and his baritone timbre, Irishman Adrian Crowley (already on his fourth album) joins this exclusive category of enchanters. With its classic dimensions (ten tracks, 36 minutes), its disdain for the spectacular and its unshakably balanced tone, 'Season Of The Sparks' will hardly rock the songwriting world to its foundations. However, it causes a considerable effect which lingers long after its final notes have faded away.

It is a miracle of equilibrium and elegance that few collections of songs are able to provoke, a unique mix of melodic clarity (established in the enchanting 'Summer Haze Paradise' and later confirmed in already-classic songs like 'The Wishing Seat', 'Liberty Stream' and 'Season Of The Sparks'), harmonic finesse and instrumental draughtsmanship, heightened by an art that is consummate in its execution.

Sensitive in his lyrics, Crowley's attention to natural elements finds its full expression in the organic and hazy textures that adorn his ballads in a minor key: electric guitars unravelling in unreal threads ('The Beekeeper's Wife', 'Squeeze Bees'), strings streaming like autumn rain ('The Three Sisters', 'Swedish Room'), echoing synthesisers covering each song in a shimmering veil...

Adrian Crowley crosses these special lands with a deceptively impassive voice that at times evokes the warm richness of Bill Callahan. And when he finally disappears after a final moment of grace (the suspenseful 'Pay No Mind') he leaves the obsessive memory of a fantastic wizard bewitching our consciences by means which he'll keep a secret until the end.

(original review by Richard Robert/Les Inrockuptibles, translated by Aidan Curran)

Well! Fair play to him - let's hope this is the beginning of great success for him here in France. You can listen to these enchanting tunes on Adrian Crowley's MySpace page. Here's the video for 'The Wishing Seat':

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Somadrone and Twinkranes (live in Mill Street Studios, Dublin) Review Snapshot: Twinkranes fused frenetic drumming and looped bass, while Somadrone saturated the studios with a luminosity of noise...

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Here are the names of real French bands currently doing well on the Paris indie scene: The Bewitched Hands On The Top Of Our Heads; Jil Is Lucky; (Please) Don't Blame Mexico. Leading cultural magazine Les Inrockuptibles awarded their CQFD prize for most promising new act of 2009 to The Popopopops. An electro DJ/producer called Julien Brambilla, featured lately in The Guardian and therefore gaining serious UK exposure at a swoop, decided he needed a stage name and so he's calling himself Danton Eeprom.

Far be it from your correspondent to pose as some sort of communications expert, but we spot a serious flaw here in French bands and their plans for world domination. The tunes might be good, the look sharp, the live show tight. However, Jacques le Frenchman then ruins it all by calling his band something so awful that no one outside France will ever take them seriously or have a listen. (We should point out that most young French people speak English quite well.)

For instance: you might quite fancy some Gallic retro-pop or dancefloor-friendly indie. But there's no way you'd take an uninformed gamble on bands called Diving With Andy or Pony Pony Run Run, right? Right. Could they not have run the name past an English-speaking friend first? Perhaps some enterprising young anglophone here in Paris should set up shop as an English-For-Pop-Music teacher or consultant. (Hmmmm...)

All this is inspired by yet another decent French act let down by slack work at the baptismal font: Get Back Guinozzi! (The exclamation mark is theirs. Because calling your band just 'Get Back Guinozzi' would have been ridiculous.)

Anyway, the defendants: GBG! are from Toulon in the south of France. At their core is a duo, Eglantine Gouzy and Frederic Landini (right), but they have three bandmates for live shows. Landini is a prominent music promoter - his MIDI project stages an impressive annual festival in Toulon every summer and next February they're bringing The XX down south. GBG! are currently based in London and signed to FatCat Records.

Their first album has just come out - it's called 'Carpet Madness' and it's quite good. If you remember your Venn diagrams from maths class, GBG! make lo-fi indie pop that would be the intersection of the sets The Moldy Peaches, The B-52s, Cibo Matto, Belle And Sebastian and '60s reggae-pop. Gouzy, with her accented and simplistic vocal delivery, is an acquired taste. But so is Guinness and you had no qualms about putting in the effort to acquire that one. Their poppy cover of 'Police And Thieves' briefly recalls the stale joke that is Nouvelle Vague but still (just about) works. On the whole, this album has a lot of genuine charm and energy, plus a love of melodic indie pop.

Check out tracks from 'Carpet Madness' at the Get Back Guinozzi! MySpace page. Here's the video (note: contains kitsch '70s nudity) for the best song on the album, 'Low Files Tropical':

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Typically at this time of year CLUAS is full democratic flight with polling booths wide open for readers to submit their votes to find the top albums of 2009. However, this year we've decided to not do a readers poll. And why not? It's simply because of the utterly mad amount of time it takes to tot up the thousands of votes we get.

Fret not, as there will still be a CLUAS poll this year. The last few weeks the CLUAS writers have been busy voting for their top 10 albums of 2009 and tomorrow (16 December) the results will be published. As always the CLUAS writers have stepped up to the plate and their votes collectively deliver an intriguing, diverse, credible and occasionally surprising top 40. I was pleased as well to see that, despite the intense competition from non-Irish releases, a total of five Irish albums released in 2009 made it into the top 40. Which ones? You'll see tomorrow.

In advance of the poll here's a quick overview of the numbers behind this year's writers poll:

• 23 writers submitted a list of their fave albums of the year.
• 202 votes were cast (an average of just under 9 albums voted for by each writer)
• 131 different albums albums got a vote, of which...
• ...89 albums were voted for by only one writer leaving us with...
• ...42 albums that were voted for by 2 or more writers.
• Breakdown of number of writers who voted for an album that made the top 40:
  
  • Number of albums voted for by 5 or more writers --> 3
  • Number of albums voted for by 4 writers --> 3
  • Number of albums voted for by 3 writers --> 10
  • Number of albums voted for by 2 writers --> 24

One thing I can already say is that the album that topped the poll did so by a healthy distance. It was voted for by over a third of all the writers who voted (8 out of the 23). That there would be broad agreement among the writers on the top album of 2009 is quite a surprise considering the massive number of different releases (131) that secured a vote in the poll.

Hang in there until tomorrow to see which album topped the poll. The only hint I'll offer is that it is NOT one of the following two 2009 releases (both of which just missed a place in the, er, coveted top 40, they being placed 41st and 42nd placed in the poll):

• Mark Eitzel 'Klamath'
• Arctic Monkeys 'Humbug'

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