The Alternative Number Ones: Big Audio Dynamite II’s “Rush”

In The Alternative Number Ones, I'm reviewing every #1 single in the history of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks/Alternative Songs, starting with the moment that the chart launched in 1988. This column is a companion piece to The Number Ones, and it's for members only. Thank you to everyone who's helping to keep Stereogum afloat.

An extremely British, deeply amelodic voice honks out bittersweet but contented lines about the fruits of a chaotic life. Behind that voice, there's a big, shuffling drumbeat and a guitar that does some catchy things. But wait, no, that stuff went away. Now it's someone playing a piano. Except now the piano is gone, and it's a different shuffling drumbeat, bigger this time. Now there's a weird echo-wriggle organ that sounds just like the one that's on the song that they sometimes play on the other radio station, the one about the teenage wasteland.

But wait! Oh shit! Now everything is coming back, all at once! The British guy just keeps on bleating at me, as if he hasn't noticed all the weird things that have been happening behind him. Sometimes, the radio plays a different version of the song where all that stuff goes away and now we're listening to something that sounds like one of the skits from the De La Soul album, and then the song suddenly comes veering back in out of nowhere. They don't play that version very often, so it's special when they do.