The Top 10: Songs on Albums That Don’t Sound Like the Others

You know when you buy an album on the strength of one song and discover that the rest of it is completely different? Ten of those

The Clash’s 1979 album, and yes, it was closer to the Second World War than to today

This one was Owen Bennett’s idea. He nominated the first and helped to choose the others. We tried to choose good tracks on good albums, because it would be too easy to find a dud track on a good album or the other way round.

1. “London Calling” by The Clash is completely out of step with the rest of London Calling. “The title song is spikey, almost post-punk; the rest is brass and ska,” said Owen.

2. “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” on The Bends by Radiohead. Will Harris bought the album on the assumption it would be like it, and it wasn’t.

3. “Hey There Delilah” sounded like nothing else the Plain White Ts did on All That We Needed. Nominated by David Levesley.

4. “Queen Bitch” by David Bowie is “too rocky to be on Hunky Dory: it’d fit better on Aladdin Sane”, said Chris Dillow.

5. “Stairway to Heaven,” Led Zeppelin IV. From David Sutherland.

6. “More Fool Me” on Selling England By The Pound, Genesis. Nominated by Devil’s Advocate.

7. “Tusk” on Tusk by Fleetwood Mac. From 4RosesPete.

8. “Lady Jane” on Aftermath by The Rolling Stones. “Dulcimer rocks,” said Roger McCormick. Also nominated (by Tony McCabe): “I Just Want To See His Face” from Exile on Main St.

9. “Supermassive Black Hole” from Muse’s Black Holes and Revelations. “Grimy disco number buried amongst histrionic guitar fluff,” said Tom Doran.

10. “Interstellar Overdrive” from Pink Floyd’s Piper at the Gates of Dawn. “The rest of the album is (mainly) Syd’s short hippie songs but not this,” said John Rogan. Best of four Floyd nominations, the others being “Several Species of Small Furry Animal Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict”, Ummagumma (nominated by Collectable Jules); “Money,” Dark Side of the Moon (“Great song, totally incompatible with stoned reverie,” said Scorpster); and “Wish You Were Here” on Wish You Were Here (Paul Frame).

Bubbling under the Top 10: “I Want to be a Christian” on Hit the Highway by The Proclaimers (nominated by Andrew Graystone); “Pain For Pleasure” on All Killer No Filler by Sum 41 (“it’s like a Guns N Roses parody on an album of pop-punk,” said Jon Stone); ”Nothing Looks the Same in the Light” on Wham’s Fantastic (Miriam Rice); “Closing Time” by Leonard Cohen from the album The Future (D Leddy); “Killing Me Softly” cover on Fugees album The Score (William James) and “Stoneage Dinosaurs” on Cardiacs’ mini-album Big Ship (“everything else is frantic and mad and in the middle of it is this powerful adagio of lament; grossly under-appreciated,” said Paul T Horgan).

Colin Rosenthal nominated “the obligatory ballad on just about any heavy metal album ever”. That just about covers it.

Next week: Unrealistic Clichés in TV Dramas, such as the speed of sound seeming the same as the speed of light when things blow up

Coming soon: Company Origins, such as Samsung, which started in dried fish and noodles

Your suggestions please, and ideas for future Top 10s, to me on Twitter, or by email to top10@independent.co.uk