For a long time I preferred "Berzerk" to Rap God. Does that mean "Rap God" is higher on my list? Clearly, but you'll have to find out how high it got.
"Berzerk" was the first song I'd heard off the Marshall Mathers LP 2 album and I liked it straight away. I love how Eminem likes to use rockier sounds in his music, and the samples from Billy Squier and The Beastie Boys are just awesome. And you just knew that Rick Rubin was behind the track as soon as you heard it. In fairness the sequel to the Marshall Mathers LP does a grand job generally and "Berzerk" was definitely one of the highlights of the album and is one of Eminem's most kick-ass tracks he's ever done.
#24: "Fight for Your Right" - Beastie Boys Release Date: 1987 Director:Adam Dubin and Ric Menello Fun Fact: Highly reputable music poll Triple J, who do many polls on the greatest song in music history, rated this the 38th best song of all time!
Here's a question for you. What do you prefer, video-wise, "Fight For Your Right" or "Sabotage"? I seem to be in the massive minority that not only prefers "Fight For Your Right", but MUCH prefer it. I do like "Sabotage" and it is quite a funny video, but it's never come close to being one of my favourite ever videos. This on the other hand is, and always will be. I just love everything about this video, it's hilarious for a start, from start to finish. I love how bad the acting is at the start of the video, I love how one of the Beastie Boys start bashing a telephone at their head, I love the spontaneous snogging that two of the lads do with the same girl at the party, I love the pie fight, I love the moment when they talk about "your mom bustin'" into the room and it's a random large man, who gets pied, I love the shot at the end of the video with everyone shouting "PAAARTAY!" at the camera. Everything from start to finish in this video is just fecking great, funny, and clever. Watch the video again if you haven't seen it in a while! Note: This is the second and last video from the year 1987 in this list.
Here is the video for your enjoyment!
Click here to see #23 on the list or here for #25!
Welcome to the third edition of the “Old School Game
Review”. The last two games I covered were Sega Mega Drive titles, “Streets of Rage” and "Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe". This time? I'm going back 10 years instead of 20, and talking about a Playstation 2 title. To celebrate the release of the new title in the series, my third Old School Game review is the amazing, SSX Tricky.
Not familiar with the “Old School Game Review”? It’s
basically a gift wrapped game review so in theory it’s nothing new. But what is
different is that before I divulge into the review I talk about what makes this
game so good, and some facts and memories the game gave me. Oh and what counts
as an old school game? My ruling is the game has to be at least ten years old.
When did this game come out? 2001
What console was it released on? Playstation 2
What else was it released on? Nintendo Gamecube, XBox, Game Boy Advance
Compilations? None.
Other interesting facts? Well this game was released less than 10 years ago in the UK... if you bought the Gamecube, XBox or GBA versions. But I bought the PS2 version so that's my excuse! I'm not cheating with my criteria!
Best memories? Probably doing the first course, Garibaldi, with a score of more than 1,000,000 for the first time. I don't know what the official world record is, but this is the biggest score on YouTube at 4.6 million, which is, quite frankly, ridiculous. Still, it's an amazing task to get a score of 1 million. I think my all time record is around 1.3 million, although it's been a very long time since I had the data on my memory card (oh those were the days... when you used memory cards... it felt like yesterday!).
Now onto the review!
For me, SSX Tricky, 10 years later, is still the best snowboarding game of all time.
SSX Tricky is the sequel to the original SSX game, which was released a year earlier as part of the new EA Sport BIG selection, a set of sports games that were unrealistic in style. SSX Tricky was basically SSX 2.0, with many of the tracks and characters making returns from the original games. But labelling SSX Tricky that way and thinking that it's nothing more would be a big mistake. SSX Tricky takes everything that was good about SSX, and mashes it up to make it bigger and better in every aspect.
The SSX game series are, as we said earlier, an unrealistic series of snowboarding games. The main course of the original SSX is a snowboarding race, and you can do tricks on your snowboard to try and give your character a speed boost for every successful trick pulled off. So you raced hard, did tricks off the big jumps and used your speed boost and try to finish the races in first place.
This is not going to end well...
SSX Tricky builds on this in a much bigger way. Much bigger. You see, you can still race against the other competitors, there's a "Race" mode for that. You can still use your tricks to gain speed boosts as well. But... the tricks are bigger and wilder than what was available in the original game. Not only that, but if you store your speed boosts to the top of the bar, the song remixes to include "It's Tricky" by Run DMC and you have access to what are called Uber Tricks. Uber Tricks are what make SSX Tricky special. They're incredibly flamboyant, melodramatic tricks on your snowboard that take a while to pull off, but look absolutely awesome. You also score much more points for pulling these off as a reward.
You'd be mistaken to think that so much emphasis on tricks in this game means there would be an actual trick orientated game wouldn't you? Well there is. On one end you have the "Race" mode, and on the other you have the "Showoff" mode. The purpose of "Showoff" is to, well, show off your tricks. More accurately, it's purpose is to give you the opportunity to get the biggest score tally possible. "Showoff" mode has big coloured icicles across the course, and doing tricks successfully through these icicles gives you a multiplier on the score given for the tricks done. The colour codes are yellow for a double multiplier, orange for a triple multiplier, and red for a quintuple multiplier. These icicles are pivotal for getting the highest scores in "Showoff" mode.
So you have "Race" mode and "Showoff" mode. You can access these options through "Single Player" and "Multiplayer" mode. But if you start from scratch only have access to a few tracks. To unlock more tracks you have to play the "World Circuit" mode. With "World Circuit" mode you, one by one, take on the courses in either "Showoff" mode or "Race" mode, it's completely your choice. With "Showoff" mode, you have to get a certain score to get either a Bronze, Silver or Gold award. Getting at least a Bronze will unlock the next track on "World Circuit", and it will also be available on "Single Player" and "Multiplayer" modes. For "Race" mode on "World Circuit" you will have to race the track three times, and will have to finish in the Top 3 in each race to qualify for the next one. After the third race, your placement will have to be in the Top 3 again to get a medal - Bronze, Silver and Gold again.
Getting a medal in "World Circuit" gives your character skill points to develop the attributes that are important to SSX Tricky - Edging is your sharpness for turning corners, Speed is your, erm, speed, Stability is how hard it is for you to get knocked off your snowboard and Tricks is how quickly you can do your tricks. If you get a Bronze medal you get two points to add to your attributes, four for a Silver, and six for a Gold.
There's the checkpoint! Caution signs? Booby traps? Hmm...
The characters in SSX Tricky are brilliant. You have lots to choose from, and you have to unlock a good few of them by getting gold medals in "World Circuit". All the characters specialise in different methods of SSX - some are very good at tricks, some are very good racers. There are 13 in total and all have different personalities - Moby and JP are arrogant players from England and France respectively, where as Marty and Kaori are quiet and shy players from Germany and Japan respectively. My favourite character however is Psymon, who is completely nuts but says some of the funniest and random lines in the game like shouting "French toast and syrup!" at the top of his lungs mid jump.
Another thing about the characters in this game is that for the only time in the entire series for SSX, there's an al-star cast who do the voices. You have Lucy Liu who does Elise's voice, of Ally McBeal and Kill Bill fame, Billy Zane who does Brosi and is famous for his roles in Titanic and Twin Peaks, David Arquette who does Eddie, famous for his role in the Scream film series, and singers Bif Naked who plays Zoe and Macy Gray who plays Seeiah. This all-stellar cast of voice actors to a great job and add to each character's personality really well. It's arguably one of the best jobs done by a group of celebrities in a video game in honesty.
The controls are quite slick in SSX Tricky, and once again are an improvement on the original SSX. You can use the D-pad or the analog stick to move your character and can sort this out in the Settings menu to change it to your preferences. You move with either, and you flip or turn your board with the D-pad, and with the shoulder buttons you can grab your board. You can press multiple shoulder buttons to do more complicated grabs with your board, which usually give you more points. Combining a turn or flip, or both (to make your character twist diagonally) and multiple shoulder buttons gives you by far the most points apart from the Uber tricks available if you fill your boost bar to the top. Regardless of how many combos you do, how many flips and turns you include, it's important to make sure that your character is as vertical as possible for landing, otherwise your character wipes out on the course, making your score not count on that 'trick'.
If you're racing, you can knock characters over by pressing the analog stick either left or right depending where they are to your character. Be warned though, characters often target you for revenge in the races if you continue to attack them. But if you knock a character flat off their board by using this technique, you're rewarded with a full boost bar straight away which can be useful. Your characters also have relationships with each other - some are friends with you while others are your enemies. For instance, Psymon fancies Zoe, so they are considered friends. Luther is a bully and picks on the cute Kaori a lot, so they're enemies. Your relationships can get better or worse depending on your actions on the track, if you hit them a few times they'll target you in the next few races for revenge. On the grand scheme of things this isn't that important but it all adds to the game that is SSX Tricky.
One of the finest parts of SSX Tricky is the pretty damn good soundtrack. "It's Tricky" by Run DMC as mentioned before, is the title track of the game, and the original song and the remixed versions on the game all make the game that much better. It's a fabulous song and thoroughly works with the style of game SSX Tricky provides. There are also some good electronic dance and rap songs on the soundtrack too, and Bif Naked, also mentioned before, has a track on here. A few tracks by Mix Master Mike of the Beastie Boys are also featured, and Mix Master Mike is also a secret character in the game... if you use cheat codes. Over the gameplay are parts of commentary provided by Rahzel, who is a beatboxer, who does a fantastic job of putting over the action and doing some random beatboxing once in a while. He did a similar job in the original SSX too.
Luther (top right) is totally going to land that trick. Eddie's afro is impressive huh?
As you play through "World Circuit" you unlock snowboards and character costumes to customise your character's look. The snowboards are all in different shapes, and each character has a preferred board type. Some boards are best for tricks, others for races and some for in between. If a character uses a board they're unfamiliar with, they usually struggle a little more with this board, but do get access to a different set of Uber tricks if they fill their boost bar up. Once again it all adds to the game that is SSX Tricky. If you get a gold in every "Race" and "Showoff" track on "World Circuit", you unlock a chrome outfit, which looks pretty cool.
If you ever want to take a breather and try things out in your own time you can always use the "Practise" mode. You can do it in either a "Race" mode style, but without any other competitors on screen so you're taking the track on in your own time, or you can practise certain tricks on one large jump. The latter also includes a tutorial to help you do certain tricks that are compiled in each characters individual "Trick Book". The "Trick Book" is a tick sheet of sorts, to fill up to hone your skills of performing tricks. If you complete a character's "Trick Book" you unlock that character's best snowboard in the game.
Overall "SSX Tricky" is an amazing game. It pains me to know this game didn't sell very well. It's completely unjustified. For me, even 10 years later, "SSX Tricky" is by far not only the best SSX title in the series, but the best snowboarding game ever created. It mixes fine snowboarding racing, and over the top tricks. It has a brilliant soundtrack and the characters are all great and will appeal to lots of different players. "SSX Tricky" gets so many things right it's almost perfect. It really deserved more people to play this grand game, but with the new SSX game just coming out, at least new players will get a taste of a new, fresh title to play. But if you ever want to get a retro SSX title (I feel old typing that, it was 10 years ago though), this is the one to get. "SSX Tricky" trumps every snowboarding title out there before this release, and arguably, after.
Rating: ****1/2 stars
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Hello, and very Happy New Year to you all! Welcome to the sixth edition in a series of
reviews of a year in music. So far I have covered all the 2000s together as the
Noughtie series,
and so far monthly, the year 1999,
then 1998,
followed by 1997
and 1996 and then last month, 1995.
Just in case you’re not familiar with it, here’s the format.
It will be done in five parts. I'll do a brief history of what happened in that
year, followed by my five favourite albums of the year, then what I think the
five best videos are. I'll then do a Top 10 most impactful (still refraining
from using the word important) songs from that year. To wrap it up, I'll do my
favourite songs in a mixtape format. So now that you know where I'm going with
this, let's get to it!
We’re half way through the decade now. 1995 was a great year
for albums, but I think 1994 will be even better. Let’s see if I’m right.
Brief History of the
Year 1994 in Music
Kurt
Cobain, lead singer of Nirvana, commits suicide. The band disbands shortly
after.
Rammstein
form, becoming one of industrial metal's finest acts.
Green
Day release "Dookie" and are arguably responsible for the punk
rock revival of the mid nineties.
After
many other names, Muse is the name three young English boys decide to call
their band. Five years later their debut was released, starting a very
successful music career.
Oasis
release "Definitely Maybe", at the time becoming the quickest
selling debut album of all time.
System
of a Down also start their career, becoming one of metal's biggest bands
of the Noughties.
My Top 5 Albums of
1994
#5 – “No Need to Argue” by The Cranberries
Released: 3/10/94
Rating: **** stars
Stand-out tracks: “Dreaming My Dreams”, “Ode to My Family”,
“Daffodil Lament”
In the 1996 review The Cranberries’ next album, “To the
Faithful Departed” was listed as #4 in my favourite albums, and while this is
ranked #5 for albums from 1994, this is my favourite Cranberries effort. 1996
wasn’t the best year for albums where as there was some really strong
competition in 1994, from Oasis and Beck who both missed out on my Top 5 (with “Definitely
Maybe” and “Mellow Gold” respectively).
This is a great album, it’s definitely my favourite album by
the Irish band, and it’s probably their most popular and most widely praised
piece of work. And while “Linger” gave the band a lot of worldwide notice, it
was inevitably “Zombie” that helped this album sell over 7 million copies alone
in the US, and become the song that the band are most famous for. But it’s not
just “Zombie” that is good on this album, from start to finish this is an
alternative Irish rock clinic, and Dolores O'Riordan’s vocals are as beautiful
and striking as they ever were. This is definitely the album to get if you want
to try and get into The Cranberries as it’s a damn solid album.
#4 – “Let Love In” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Released: 18/4/94
Rating: **** stars
Stand-out tracks: “Red Right Hand”, “Jangling Jack”, “I Let
Love In”
“Let Love In” was the first time really that Nick Cave was
really taken seriously and favourably with both critics and fans. When he was
with The Birthday Party, he had the fans on his side yet the band eventually
ceased to exist and they weren’t taken seriously, they were just considered a
nutty post –punk band. For a lot of the eighties when he formed The Bad Seeds,
he never really made much of an impact, especially as his new band was such a
contrast in comparison to the crazy and frenetic style of his old band, his
fans didn’t take to The Bad Seeds straight away, and while he was critically
more well received, he still looked like he was floating around, not cementing
any style of clarity in terms of what his music was about and what he wanted to
achieve.
But with the release of the super cool and sexy “Red Right
Hand”, people started to notice. The man matured. The music was toned down and
smooth. The lyrics were just excellent (I mean they have never been bad, but
critically they were much better received). “Let Love In” started cementing
what would be one of the best underground careers Britain has seen. Nick Cave
has never really made hits, he’s never really sold records. But the critics
love him and their cult fans love him even more. And “Let Love In” really
started the whole thing off, even if I much prefer “The Murder Ballads” to it.
#3 – “How to Make Friends and Influence People” by
Terrorvision
Released: 18/4/94
Rating: ****1/4 stars
Stand-out tracks: “Alice What's the Matter?”, “Oblivion”, “Pretend
Best Friend”
Released on the same day as Nick Cave’s “Let Love In” above,
was the best piece of music Terrorvision ever produced. Now Terrorvision is a
hard band to categorize, because they have mixed so many genres into their
music. This is their hardest album, it’s their most creative and a lot of the
more hardcore fans think it’s their best. But they didn’t have the most success
with it, album wise the follow-up “Regular Urban Survivors” fared best with the
single “Perseverance” getting the band their first Top 5 hit.
But in 1999 they released their song “Tequila”, which got to
#2, and took away all the coolness the band had away, and was a
dancy/party/pop-rock track that felt like a lot of 1-hit wonders. A lot of
people remember “Tequila” now when they think of Terrorvision, and while I can
listen to the track on a good day, it’s a damn shame that this album has pretty
much been forgotten about as it was so good. “Alice What’s the Matter” and
“Oblivion” are two of the coolest songs in the early nineties, they’re so
fricking awesome and deserve so much airplay but get none. If you want to see
the serious and hard edge that Terrorvision once had, the best side of
Terrorvision, get this album, you won’t be disappointed.
#2 – “Portrait of an American Family” by Marilyn Manson
Released: 19/7/94
Rating: ****1/2 stars
Stand-out tracks: “Dope Hat”, “Cake and Sodomy”, “Lunchbox”
Marilyn Manson’s debut album was great. What I love about
“Portrait” is that it’s obviously low budget, it’s obviously raw and while a
lot of people see these as negative traits I think Manson did a great job with
what he had. Trent Reznor’s work on the production was appreciated of course,
and evidence of that really is in the demos and cassettes and early music clips
that Manson released after he got even bigger than he was in 1994. The old
tracks and rare clips are in awful condition and the music is atrocious.
Looking at that a stage, a stage that Manson was in up to 1993, and comparing
it to the actual release of “Portrait”, shows the jump in quality and the
effort is there for anyone to see if you want to listen to those demos and
stuff.
“Portrait” isn’t really an industrial metal album; it’s more
an industrial rock album, with a lot of raw punk and post-punk elements. It’s a
slightly different sound to what Manson was then to release, an inferior sound
in the end, but it’s still a great listen, and there are some great tracks on
here. Of course, the best was yet to come for Manson, and I’d only recommend
you get this if you have heard some of his later work and want to hear more of
“The God of Fuck”. Because in the end “Antichrist Superstar” is THE Manson
album to get if you want to start somewhere.
#1 – “The Downward Spiral” by Nine Inch Nails
Released: 8/3/94
Rating: ****3/4 stars
Stand-out tracks: “Piggy”, “The Becoming”, “March of the
Pigs”
Was it ever in doubt what I would put down as the #1 album
of 1994? Ever since I’ve been doing this Yearly Music Review I couldn’t wait to
get to 1994 because of how good the music was this year. And NIN’s finest
effort is possibly my favourite album of all time.
If you’ve been reading my Yearly Music Review every month
I’ve always talked of the three albums on top of a large pillar of albums when
it comes to my favourite albums of all time. There’s this, and the two Manson
efforts, “Antichrist Superstar” and “Mechanical Animals”. I always change up
what is my favourite of the three but I can never make a decision on what it
truly is. I just can’t. But regardless, this album is definitely on top of the
mountain for me, and when it comes to industrial metal, you’d be hard to find
an album to top it.
The Downward Spiral is a classic metal album, it’s
considered one of the biggest and best albums of all time and rightfully so.
When Trent Reznor released “Pretty Hate Machine” back in 1989 I don’t think
anyone expected him to be considered the pioneer of industrial metal going into
the nineties. But that’s exactly what happened. If you like your metal, even if
it’s not distinctly industrial metal, this is a must listen. I don’t care if
you disagree, you must hear it!
My Top 5 Music Videos
of 1994
#5 - "Basket Case” by Green Day
“Basket Case” isn’t an amazing video, but it’s one of those
videos that are enjoyable to watch and you can respect the effort the director
put in. Set in an actual mental institution (it was abandoned), the band act
like patients throughout the video, apart from in the actual sections where
they play the music, in these scenes they’re the actual normal performers of
Green Day. The video was actually shot in black and white, and all the colours
were added in afterwards, which explains the green irises that Billy Joe
Armstrong has, and the odd colour schemes in the hospital. It all works out
well and as I said, it’s not amazing, but it’s definitely a cool little video
to watch.
#4 - "Sabotage” by Beastie Boys
Spike Jonze directed this video (and the one at #2 in this
list) and he did a damn good job. The video is basically homage to 1970’s
American Cop shows like Starsky and Hutch and Hawaii Five-O. All the band
members play as cops and do decent looking stunts (I don’t know if they were
stunt doubles mind) and just kick a lot of 1970’s ass. The video is a parody,
but it’s more homage than parody as it’s not a funny video really, it actually
looks quite cool. Danny Boyle actually says that this video inspired the
opening to “Trainspotting”, now that’s praise for the quality of the video.
What more can I say? They have awesome moustaches!
#3 - "Parklife” by Blur
I love this video. It was one that I remember vividly from
my childhood, and it’s one that describes Britain very well in a nutshell. I
love the role Phil Daniels fills, both in the vocal verses and the double
glazing salesman character he portrays. I love the fact that Damon Albarn is so
placid about everything that goes on around him, and you have to give credit to
Alex James for cross dressing in the video. I also love the spoof done by Harry
Enfield and Paul Whitehouse on the TV show “Harry and Paul”, where Whitehouse
plays Phil Daniels and Nelson Mandela, played by Enfield, sings along to the
song in silly fashion. But this is about the original video, which is still great
to watch today.
#2 - "Buddy Holly” by Weezer
Spike Jonze has to be one of the best music video directors
ever. He did this cracker, he also did “Sabotage” above, he did “It’s Oh So
Quiet” by Bjork, featured last month, he did “Praise You” and “Weapon of Choice” by Fatboy Slim, he
did “Wonder Boy” by Tenacious D. “Buddy Holly” has to be up there with his
best, it’s amazing how well done this video is, with old footage from the great
1970s show “Happy Days” merged with footage of Weezer playing at “Al’s Bar”; it
looks so authentic and real but the truth is it’s all edited clips of the show.
The only genuine new footage was Weezer playing, Al the barman, who made a
cameo in the video, and Fonzie, who was a body double and they used editing for
his appearance as well. But if you didn’t know all that you would still be
guessing to how they managed to pull it off, which is full credit to Spike
Jonze in the end, and his career flourished from here.
#1 - "Closer” by Nine Inch Nails
What can I say about this video? Collectively, it’s possibly
Nine Inch Nails’ best video, and the song is considered the most popular the
band has done. The video mixes allsorts of controversial elements, especially
back in 1994, including a monkey, perceived to being tied on a wooden cross, a
decapitated pigs head turning on some weird metal instrument, a diagram of a
woman’s vagina and Trent Reznor, mastermind of the band, wearing lots of
leather and S&M and being tied up. All of these controversial images however
are beautifully crafted onto early 20th century film and the video
has been set in a very old laboratory. To block out the controversy for when
the video was viewed before the watershed they often put “scene missing” signs,
to keep with the flow of the video. It’s truly a magnificent video and fits the
song perfectly, not to mention good for you ladies who fancy Trent Reznor, who
is in the buff in the second half of the video and tied up.
The Top 10 Most
Impactful Songs of 1994
As I said, I'm NOT calling it the 'important' list, although
it's more than just popularity as well. Anyway, here are the 10 songs of the
year. It's an unbiased list.
#10 - "Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” by Urge Overkill
This song was actually recorded two years earlier on an EP,
but was released as a single in 1994. Why? Well if you’ve heard the song before
you will know that it was featured in the classic 1994 movie Pulp Fiction. That
film, and the scene in which the film was in, propelled this song to reach #37
in the UK charts. That’s not high really, but considering no one had heard of
Urge Overkill before or really since, it says something of the song. The song
is a cover version of the original by Neil Diamond, and is just fantastic. Urge
Overkill will always be known for this cover, and because it’s featured in such
an important film in history, their name will be cemented for a long time to
come.
#9 - "Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys
Getting to #19, “Sabotage” was the Beastie Boys’ first Top
20 hit in the UK for seven years (when "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right
(To Party!)" and "No Sleep till Brooklyn" were released, jeez,
now I feel old as I might cover these songs on this site soon!). The Beastie
Boys often take long breaks between their albums and come back with a bang, and
a usual change of direction. They often play between the lines of rock and rap,
and this was a transition to a more rock environment, with extensive usage of a
bass and drums and less rap-style vocals. It’s a decent track, and the video as
mentioned above was great, and the song is still considered one of their best,
getting decent airplay today.
#8 - "Zombie” by The Cranberries
“Zombie” got to #13 in the UK charts and is actually a
protest song against the bombing attacks of the IRA in Northern Island. But the
song regardless of its protest origins, became The Cranberries’ biggest hit,
not chart wise (that honour goes to “Salvation” and “Promises”, which got one
place higher at #13) but popularity, longevity and in terms of airplay, this is
their greatest song, surpassing “Linger” released a year earlier. The song got
to #3 in the Irish charts so the song shows its strength on the big green
island to the west. “Zombie” incorporates everything good about The
Cranberries, the hard edge their alternative rock has, Dolores O'Riordan’s
iconic vocals, her howls, and proves why they’re arguably Ireland’s best import
in the past twenty years.
#7 - "Buddy Holly” by Weezer
Weezer are an odd band, and I say that with affection. They
seem to be here with us all the time, yet manage to slip by us often. We don’t
appreciate Weezer like we should, they have consistently released good singles
with very good music videos yet their success in the charts never match how
good they are. I’m not saying they’re the best band in the world, but they’ve
been constantly good now since 1994. When “Buddy Holly” was released. It’s odd
to think of this song being as old as it is, but it shows how good Weezer have
been for so long. And the song’s credit truly is only once since, have Weezer
had a higher charting song (that was “Beverly Hills”, which got to #9, their
only Top 10 hit). “Buddy Holly” got to #12 and the song combined with the
video, are make it one of the most memorable songs of the nineties.
#6 - "Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden
Also getting to #12 in the UK charts was Soundgarden’s
biggest hit, “Black Hole Sun”. 1994 is arguably the death of grunge, due to the
death of Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, as well as the fact that the punk revival was
kicking in around this time. “Black Hole Sun” is odd though, in terms of why
it’s such a big hit, the songs lyrics are odd and the video is freaky. It does
have a relatively catch chorus however. This isn’t personally a song I like,
nor do I like the band, but there’s no doubt at all that Soundgarden’s “Black
Hole Sun” is a song that has remained popular throughout the last 17 years and
deserves a place on this list as one of the biggest songs of 1994.
Oasis released five singles in 1994 and it was hard choosing
one for this list, but I’ve gone with “Live Forever”. It was the band’s first
Top 10 hit, getting to #10, and charted well in the US, Spain and Ireland.
“Cigarettes and Alcohol” and “Whatever” did chart higher than this, and were
also released in 1994, but I think this song has been played more than any
other song released that year, it’s more fondly thought of and also, it’s
lyrically considered better I’d say too. It’s just a great Oasis song (although
personally I prefer “Supersonic”), one that won’t go away anytime soon.
#4 - "Basket Case” by Green Day
“Basket Case” was Green Day’s biggest hit in the UK for 10
years, getting to #6 in our chart (“American Idiot”, the song I placed as the
#1 song of the Noughties, you can read that here, got to #5). It’s a great punk rock song, and I mean
it when I say punk rock, I don’t care if modern punk is considered inferior to
the originals of punk in the seventies, I consider this one of the best punk
songs ever made. The song naturally deals with paranoia, and it’s a personal
song for Billy Joe Armstrong when he was dealing with his diagnosis of a panic
disorder. It just sounds great and is fondly thought of by the Green Day
faithful and general modern punk fans. In short, it’s a classic.
For all the hype that was to come in the next few years in
the battle between Blur and Oasis, in 1994 Oasis were just getting noticed,
where as Blur had already established themselves slowly through the start of
the decade. And while I prefer “Parklife” personally, there’s no denying that
“Girls and Boys” is the bigger and more “impactful” of the two, getting Blur
their first Top 5 hit (it got to #5) and setting them up for their illustrious
career throughout the nineties. “Girls and Boys” the song stands well today, it
sounds fresh and it’s so amazingly catchy – there’s no denying this song sounds
good. The video looks amazingly dated though, but you can’t win them all!
#2 - "Closer” by Nine Inch Nails
This isn’t me being biased when I put my favourite band’s
most popular song at #2 of the most ‘impactful’ songs of the year. I try to
consider alternative genres equally with rock and indie, and when it comes to
industrial metal, and songs from that genre, there’s no bigger song. “Closer”
became an underground classic, a metal bar staple, a piece of genius to the
people of metal and alternative dance music. It’s still played extensively
today and sounds just as good now as it did then. The controversy of the video,
along with the fantastic chorus of “I want to fuck you like an animal”
definitely helped the song reach as high as #25 in the UK charts, a high that
Nine Inch Nails would not beat for another eleven years (with “The Hand That
Feeds”, that got to #7, the only Top 10 hit of NIN’s career), but there’s no
taking away from this song, it’s a classic, it’ll be played in metal bars and
dancefloors for a long long time. If you haven’t heard the song before, then
you’re missing something, it’s as simple as that.
#1 - "Loser” by Beck
The year 1994 means a lot of things to a lot of people. To
me, it marks the year of Marilyn Manson’s debut album, and the release of Nine
Inch Nails’ finest work. It also marks the first year that I truly remember
from memory rather than tracking back into music, or listening to my parents
play vinyl records and tapes to get my influences and tastes. But for the most
part, I’d say the year 1994 marks the beginning of Beck. Now, Beck doesn’t do
chart success, he never really has. He’s a brilliant musician however, and does
things his own way on his terms. “Loser” however is the anti-commercial track,
yet it managed to set Beck’s career going very well. Beck had released an album
a year earlier, and his second album, Mellow Gold, wasn’t a big hit as it was
released the week before this single. But since then the album has been
critically acclaimed and has gone platinum. “Loser” got to #15 despite its
genre of music and lack of promotion. Only “The New Polution” has charted
higher, yet Beck’s career has come leaps and bounds and the man has so much
respect across the music industry.
And to think that Beck wrote this song to describe how his
life was. The guy was a homeless singer and song songs about gibberish. “Loser”
describes the type of songs he sung on the spot. And the song has since become
one of the most important and impactful songs of the nineties.
The Year 1994 Mixtape
Just in case you didn't know by now...
"A Mixtape is a playlist of a certain genre, band or
era. The list is generally 80 minutes long, the same length of a blank CD, with
further recommendations if some of the songs aren’t to your taste. Remember
kids, downloading is wrong!"
So here we go! My favourite songs from the year 1994. Yes,
this is a biased list.
And there we go! The year 1994 in review! Next month
naturally I’ll be covering 1993 and continue my descend into music history.
What we your favourite songs and albums from 1994? Any other comments or
queries? Raise them below. Thanks for your time.
For the latest updates on my work, 'like' me on Facebook here!
Hey everyone, welcome to the second edition in a series of reviews of a year in music. Last month I reviewed the year 1999 and we’re going back one year earlier today, to 1998. How long will this go on for? Fuck knows, it depends how long I can do a respectable review of a year. If I start struggling with my own personal music tastes going backwards, then I’ll stop. I know a decent amount about music going back as early as the fifties but to list you 90 minutes of mixtape goodness for a year in the fifties is unlikely. Let’s be optimistic I can do this for some time though!
Just in case you missed the year 1999 in review, here’s the format. It will be done in five parts. I'll do a brief history of what happened in that year, followed by my five favourite albums of the year, then what I think the five best videos are. I'll then do a Top 10 most impactful (still refraining from using the word important) songs from that year. To wrap it up, I'll do my favourite songs in a mixtape format. So now that you know where I'm going with this, let's get to it!
Brief History of the Year 1998 in Music
“Iris”, the huge hit by the Goo Goo Dolls, sets a new record in America by staying at #1 in the Hot 100 Airplay chart for 18 weeks.
Steven Tyler, lead singer of Aerosmith, breaks his knee at a gig in Alaska. This had a huge effect on the making of the video for “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”, as the camera angles had to be adjusted for shooting.
KoRn release “Follow the Leader”, which goes on to sell 14 million albums, it’s still the highest selling to date by the band.
Tommy Lee, drummer for Mötley Crüe, is arrested for beating up his superstar actress Pamela Anderson.
In pop news George Michael was arrested in a toilet in Beverly Hills for what is reported as ‘lewd conduct’. Read between the lines.
Geri Halliwell goes into hiding, and a representative reports that she has left the Spice Girls. She would not play with them live again for over eight years.
My Top 5 Albums of 1998
#5 - "The Queens of the Stone Age" by The Queens of the Stone Age Released: 22/9/98 Rating: ***1/2 stars Stand-out tracks: "Hispanic Impressions", "I Was A Teenage Hand Model", "Regular John"
Yeah that’s a low score. That’s because I was surprised when I did my research on the year that there wasn’t many albums I thoroughly enjoyed that were released. If you’ve been following me on here for sometime, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of TQotSA. But this album wasn’t the best. They really defined their sound with their second album, “Rated R”, but this album really lacked in quality. It sounds like a generic stoner rock album; you can compare this album to many other bands of the genre and it’ll sound the same. TQotSA are above the genre of stoner rock, in a way that Nirvana are of grunge. But this effort has glimpses of what we were to see later on by the band, with “Hispanic Impressions” being a great little instrumental and “If Only” and “Regular John” still being played live by the band semi regularly even now.
#4 - "Version 2.0" by Garbage Released: 4/5/98 Rating: **** stars Stand-out tracks: "I Think I'm Paranoid", "Push It", "When I Grow Up" This was released first in Japan on my birthday! Woo! Anyway, this was a good little album by Garbage. I always debate what was better, their debut or this, as they’re both good little crackers. I don’t listen to Garbage as much as I should, I thoroughly enjoyed their music when I was a kid and still do now. They were my big sister’s favourite band when she was younger. Version 2.0 was definitely a step forward for the band musically, from their self titled album “Garbage”, with a lot of inspiration from The Pretenders in their music. Shirley Manson will always be one of my favourite female vocalists from the nineties, she had a great voice.
#3 - "System of a Down" by System of a Down Released: 30/6/98 Rating: ****1/4 stars Stand-out tracks: "Peephole", "Sugar ", "Know" This album to some people is now considered a classic. SoaD’s debut album was a true firecracker, it felt like a band of musicians venting all their frustrations of politics and life in general into thirteen tracks and thrashing it all out. That’s pretty much what it is actually, but like a lot of SoaD’s material, the material is venomous, but it’s a form of focused venom that packs a nice bite. “Peephole”, still to this day one of my favourite SoaD songs just does heavy metal with such fantastic style. “Sugar” is an excellent debut single, not many bands have had better ones that’s for sure.
#2 - "Hellbilly Deluxe" by Rob Zombie Released: 25/8/98 Rating: ****3/4 stars Stand-out tracks: "Dragula", "Demonoid Phenomenon", "Superbeast" I reckon if this was released on any other year this would have been ‘#1 on that review list. But it wasn’t. There is one album in 1998 that I think is better. But I don’t want to take anything away from this album. Rob Zombie, lead singer of White Zombie, released his solo debut. And this is it. “Dragula” is an industrial metal classic. It’s untouchable as an important (yes, I said important) song of the decade, and the rest of the album isn’t far behind in terms of producing great sounding metal. I debated last year, when he released “Hellbilly Deluxe 2” about what was the better album, and while it’s a close call, I’ve got to keep faith to the original. “Hellbilly Deluxe” showed the world that Rob Zombie had moved away from his ‘gothic Motorhead’ roots and he stepped forward on his own, and produced an industrial clinic. If you like industrial metal, or heavy metal of many kinds for that matter, get this. Seriously. You will not be disappointed.
#1 - "Mechanical Animals" by Marilyn Manson Released: 14/9/98 Rating: ****3/4 stars Stand-out tracks: "The Speed of Pain", "Coma White", "I Want to Disappear” I reviewed this album when I was around 14 or 15, you can read that retro review here. At the time I gave the album five stars, and if any album is deserving of such a perfect score, this would be one of them. I’m still a bit sceptical about keeping that score, so I've knocked it down a quarter of a star. I just find it hard to rate anything perfect, as there’s always a snag to be found somewhere.
Regardless though, this is an incredibly underrated album. I always dispute what is the better album, this or “Antichrist Superstar”, as they’re both incredible masterpieces. One thing is for sure, this is definitely Marilyn Manson on form, and probably, in his prime. The combination of Manson’s shrieking vocals, the raw industrial metal energy inspired by Nine Inch Nails get soothed and condensed into a modern glam rock tragedy. Manson took his influences from his teacher, Trent Reznor, and fused him with his love for David Bowie and produced this. It’s an amazing album, and there’s some fantastic material here. “The Speed of Pain”, “Coma White” and “The Last Day on Earth” are evidence that Manson does have some form of singing voice. Yes, he can sing. No, it’s not pure, and no, it’s not Susan Boyle, but there is something there that comes through his throat that is an incredible listen. I love it. If you’ve always been intrigued by Manson, and want to get a mellower version of his controversial self, give this a go. I doubt it will waste your time.
My Top 5 Music Videos of 1998
#5 - "Dragula" by Rob Zombie This is one of thos videos that you either love or you hate. It’s so incredibly cheesy yet it’s awesome. Rob Zombie is for the most part, driving the Munster Koach, which isn’t actually the Dragula video he is speaking of, but it’s still a funny visual, seeing this man dressed in gothic clothing, beared, and full of black and white makeup, just dancing horribly in this weird looking car. Most of the rest of the video is from the 1939 serial film The Phantom Creeps. It’s just cheesy yet awesome at the same time.
#4 - "No Suprises" by Radiohead Radiohead have been releasing great videos for sometime, some of them are are in depth (like Just, and Paranoid Android) while some of them are just simple concepts. This is one of the latter. The video is simply Thom Yorke, the lead singer, in what looks like a tank over his head. The lyrics are put on a reflection against the basin. Halfway through the song the tank fills up with water, for what seems like around a minute. In that time, Thom Yorke just stares at the camera. This minute or so, considering how simple the concept is, it’s really quite the visual. It wasn’t really a minute of underwater breathing, the director Grant Gee just sped up the tape and then reversed it, so it looked like it was a long time. But still, if you didn’t know that fact, it made you feel kinda uncomfortable, looking at some dude with a drooping eyelid (a condition Yorke has had since birth), staring at you. It’s a great visual noneoftheless.
#3 - "Vindaloo" by Fat Les Who can’t love this video? It’s just a great parody of the iconic video “Bitter Sweet Sypmhony” by The Verve. Some of the scenes, like copying Richard Ashcroft’s walking over the car are just ripped into (the person playing Ashcroft’s character tries walking over it, before the car reverses and he falls over), it’s just so funny. There’s a lot of cameos in the video as well, like the actual band (which consist of Keith Allen, the actor, Alex James from Blur, and the artist Damien Hirst), Edward Tudor-Pole, Matt Lucas, David Walliams, a very young Lily Allen. It’s just a great British video, and served us well as an unofficial anthem for the 1998 World Cup.
#2 - "My Hero” by Foo Fighters At #2 is another Foo Fighters effort. I’d probably say consistently in terms of a career of music videos, the best band of all time for music videos has to be the Foos. Consistently for over fifteen years, they’ve produced excellent music video after excellent music video. Most of them are humorous, but some of them are really good for different reasons. This being one of those reasons. “My Hero” is one of my favourite videos of all time, just for the sheer visual. Dave Grohl, the lead singer, directs the video, and it’s a simple concept once again, that of a man saving a woman’s baby from a fire, then going back into the burning building to rescue that woman’s dog. He goes in a final time to rescue a picture frame of the woman herself. The band is playing in the burning building as well. You never see the man’s face, and the baby and dog have been blocked out as a form of mockery for documentaries. Still that aside, it’s still a powerful video, one that is often overlooked I think.
#1 - "Rabbit in Your Headlights" by U.N.K.L.E. featuring Thom Yorke Man this is one of the best music videos ever made. Truly. If you've never seen this video before you really need to stop what you're doing right now and watch it below. I don't want to even describe what it is. Just. Watch. It's just a magnificent piece of art.
The Top 10 Most Impactful Songs of 1998
As I said, I'm NOT calling it the 'important' list, although it's more than just popularity as well. Anyway, here are the 10 songs of the year. It's an unbiased list.
#10 - "No Surprises” by Radiohead I spoke of this track in the Best Videos section but it really does show the strength of Radiohead when this tranquil piece gets to #4 in the charts despite it also being the third single off the album. “No Surprises” is definitely a Radiohead fan favourite however, and I fondly remember seeing an entire sea of fans singing it at Glastonbury one year. It’s a beautiful song, definitely one of Radiohead’s biggest soft songs, and it’s one for them to be proud of.
#9 - "The Bartender and the Thief” by Stereophonics Some people think I often overlook the Stereophonics but in honesty they get mentioned more than played nowadays. A lot of people like them, yet you don’t often hear their songs on the radio, see them on music channels. It’s hard to back that stuff up really. Regardless, this song is one of their most popular, it was the debut single off their album “Performance and Cocktails”, and it got to #3 in our British charts. You still hear this track once in a while and it’s considered a live favourite as it’s one of their more catchy songs, as the Stereophonics tend to lean more towards a softer sound for their music.
#8 - "The Rockafeller Skank” by Fatboy Slim “Right about now, the funk soul brother, check it out now, the funk soul brother, right about now…” and so on and so on. I don’t really need to go into much detail into this dance classic. Chances are you’ve heard it and know of it. It’s a catchy little tune by the man known as Fatboy Slim, although he doesn’t get any of the royalties for the track whatsoever, despite it getting to #6 here in the UK. Why? Well his lyrics are a sample of a rapper named Lord Finesse; there are also four more samples, “Sliced Tomatoes” by the Just Brothers, “I Fought the Law” by Bobby Fuller, “Beat Girl” by John Barry and “Peter Gunn” by Art of Noise. All of these artists share the royalties for the track. It’s a shame really, as this song is arguably more popular than all of those tracks combined, and they all probably got more money from Fatboy Slim than their own recordings. Poor Fatboy.
#7 - "Intergalactic” by the Beastie Boys With it getting to #5 in the UK and winning a Grammy award, it’s safe to say this is the Beastie Boys biggest hits. It’s actually their biggest hit in this country so far, and is one of only two Top 10 hits by them (the other being “Ch-Check It Out”). While the group have had many ups and downs in their career, this is definitely seen as a career high chart wise, although the song is not as well considered as “Fight For Your Right” in terms of long term success. “Intergalactic” features the theme music from the 1980s film “The Toxic Avenger” and other samples, and the video is very popular too, where a giant robot causes chaos in a city and ends up fighting a large octopus. I only just realised how weird that sentence sounded.
#6 - "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next” by the Manic Street Preachers A little bit of trivia for you, this holds a record in the Guinness Book of Record as the longest song title to get a #1 hit that doesn’t have brackets. It is a really long song title that’s for sure. It’s arguably the band’s biggest hit, although they have been consistently a Top 20 band since the early nineties (between 1991 and 2007, the band have managed 24 Top 20 hits, quite a remarkable feat). The song is about Welsh volunteers in the Spanish Civil War fighting. For such a strong subject it’s quite a surprise that this got to #1 in a UK where dance and pop was rife but there you go. I don’t think MSP will have a bigger hit either.
#5 - "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls It may have had the longest run in the American charts with 18 weeks at the top but interest in the Goo Goo Dolls is nothing on what it was. Not only that, while it was a MEGA hit in the States, over here it only got to #26 and it’s their biggest hit here too. So it’s not the biggest song from this year, not anymore anyway, maybe if I were writing this thirteen years ago the outcome would be different. Regardless of that, the mellowness of the track, it’s significance to the film “City of Angels” and how it was arguably one of the first tracks that lead to the current trend of soft sounding music with instruments and romantic lyrics (ie James Blunt, Maroon 5 etc).
#4 - "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)" by The Offspring It can easily be argued that this is the song that The Offspring will always be known for. Punk Rock is by dominant a late seventies and early eighties genre, and in the late eighties and early nineties, save for Green Day, punk rock waned. But when this track came out, you can easily make a case that THIS is the song that brought the Punk Rock Revival. Blink-182 became big, Green Day became even bigger. Good Charlotte and Sum 41 were also a part of that new surge, amongst other bands. But this is really the song that brought Punk Rock back again, just in a softer, more approachable way. The song is really funny, and the lyrics are not about hating on something, but on some white trash guy trying to get involved with the ‘cool’ kids, and having some success along the way. It’s fun and catchy, and it’s an incredibly influential song in modern day terms.
#3 - "It’s Like That" by Run DMC vs Jason Nevins According to Wikipedia, this song got to #1 in over thirty countries. That’s more than any song I’ve covered so far to my knowledge on this website if that’s the case. That’s an incredible achievement. It was huge when it was released, and it’s arguably one of the best remixes of all time. It’s most certainly one of the most successful. You have to give a huge amount of credit to Jason Nevins for this effort, he turned an ‘okay’ 1980’s rap song into a rap/dance classic. The song gets a great amount of airplay today and it sounds just as fresh as it did all those years ago. The video is a lot of fun too.
#2 - "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)" by Jay-Z Jay-Z at this point in his career was quite a decent respected young rapper in the States, but he was a little fish in a big pond in the worldwide music scene. Until this song came out. This song opened the doors worldwide for him, especially in the UK, where it went straight to #2 in our charts. The song was a huge hit, and it remained his biggest hit in Britain for 11 years, when in 2009 he released “Run This Town” with Kanye West and Rihanna and finally topped our charts. But this song is bigger than that track, much bigger. “Hard Knock Life”, with it’s fantastic sample from the classic film “Annie” is just a solid rap track with strong connotations. It will forever be one of Jay-Z’s biggest moments, and finest moments even.
#1 - "I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith Urgh I hate this song personally. But this is unbiased. It’s quite unbelievable how big this song was, and is. This song is more popular and more well received back then, and now, than the film it was promoting ever was (which was Armageddon by the way). This was Aerosmith’s first and so far only #1 hit in the official US charts. They were together for 28 years before they reached the holy grail. The song got to #4 here in the UK, but it was a #1 hit in no less than nine countries. I hear this song on the radio semi-regularly today. The video was also a big success. It’s easily Aerosmith coming full circle, with the band already having a decent amount of success worldwide already but never making that grand impact until this track came out. Even on a personal level for lead singer Steven Tyler it goes full circle, as his extremely gorgeous daughter Liv Tyler was featured in the film his biggest success story was promoting. All in all this is now a rock classic and will never be forgotten.
The Year 1998 Mixtape
Just in case you didn't know by now...
"A Mixtape is a playlist of a certain genre, band or era. The list is generally 80 minutes long, the same length of a blank CD, with further recommendations if some of the songs aren’t to your taste. Remember kids, downloading is wrong!"
So here we go! My favourite songs from the year 1998. Yes, this is a biased list.
And there we go! The year 1998 in review! I hope you've enjoyed this. So that’s two years covered from the nineties, next month naturally I’ll be covering 1997 and on a personal level I hope it’s better year as I was quite disappointed with this year, it was not as good as I anticipated. Any comments or queries? Raise them below. Thanks for your time.I'll be back tomorrow, yes that’s right, three posts in three days, with a live feed of the England match against Bulgaria. I hope to see you then.
