So a few entries ago I was talking about unexpected songs being favourable when I mentioned how Crazy Town (the guys who did that awesome “Butterfly” song) have done an awesome song that had made my list. That same feeling was felt more than once in 2014 or early 2015, when I found out that Hot Action Cop had returned.
Now, HAC have done only two albums. Their first was self-titled in 2003 and it was just brilliant, I even ranked it at #11 in my list of favourite albums between 2000 and 2009. After that album, NOTHING. Nothing for six years. I was so disappointed because I really thought they were going to be one of the best bands in that decade. And in six years? They release an EP. And I’m sorry but it was just bad. Just my opinion. But it was pretty bad. Also, sorry, but this new album? Not good. It’s better than the EP but I didn’t think much of it. Sometimes bands release a great album and can’t seem to find that magic consistently for a long time, or even the rest of their careers.
But what was a piece of absolute magic on the new album was the main single, “House of Pain”. What we have here is a song that’s best described as a mixture of Prince and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It’s just brilliant. It’s been clear for a long time that HAC have been influenced by the funky grooves of the Chilis and the rap metal of Limp Bizkit and the crude and funny lyric styles of the Bloodhound Gang. But what I didn’t see coming was the brilliant Prince-esque vocals Rob Werthner provides in this song. They’re insane. And the song is just ridiculously catchy. If you’re a fan of the Chilis and have not heard Hot Action Cop I demand you listen to this song below. And if you like it, listen to “Fever for the Flava” or any of their other stuff off their fantastic self-titled debut album. You won’t regret it.
Hey everyone, welcome to the third 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 and then last month, 1998.
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!
Brief History of the
Year 1997 in Music
Radiohead's
"OK Computer" was released, and despite only selling 4.5 million
copies, is considered one of the best albums of all time.
The
Notorious B.I.G. is shot dead in a passenger seat. Gang feuds were to
blame.
Oasis
release "Be Here Now" which at the time was the fasting selling
album, with nearly 700,000 copies in the first week.
Paul
McCartney of The Beatles is knighted by Queen Elizabeth.
White
Zombie disband. One year later the lead singer Rob Zombie finds further
success as a solo artist.
Coldplay
formed. They weren't to release a full album for another three years
however.
My Top 5 Albums of
1997
#5 - "Nimrod” by Green Day
Released: 14/10/97
Rating: ***1/2 stars
Stand-out tracks: "Hitchin’ a Ride”, “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”, “King for a Day”
Nimrod is a decent little album by Green Day, and it was at
a time were they were starting to add a bit of diversity to their music. Don’t
get me wrong, you have some typical, rushed modern punk tracks like “Platypus
(I Hate You)” and “Haushinka”, but you have those tracks that were slightly
different. The great “Hitchin’ a Ride” is definitely the best example, which sounds
like a modern Stray Cats. And “Good Riddance” is a modern rock ballad that will
never be forgotten. “Nimrod” doesn’t really come to my mind in terms of great
albums, but it does represent a time where Green Day were definitely starting
to experiment, and a time that’s often underrated in their chronology of music.
The problem with me doing the “Stand-out tracks” is that
sometimes it’s common sense, and the singles stand out the most. So another
great song that was not a single off this album that deserves recognition is
“Enough Space”, which is one of the Foo Fighter’s hardest tracks, Dave Grohl
screams the song title through the chorus and the riff is fricking awesome too.
Onto the album, “The Colour and Shape” is considered one of
the best Foo Fighters albums yet that statement is something I disagree with.
It’s one of the inferior albums in my books, that’s not to say it’s crap, it’s
not, as I’ve said the Foo Fighters have always made great sounding albums
without ever doing any proper ‘classics’. This album has great singles, hence
the stand-out tracks all being songs that were released as such, and the rest
of the album fails to match the quality of those singles for long periods of
time. “Enough Space” is an example where it does, but for the most part they
don’t. They’re good tracks, but not great. And that for me is why “The Colour
and Shape” is this far down this list, and has the rating it has. It’s a decent
effort by Dave Grohl and co, but they got better, and even their debut is more
favourable in my eyes. Still, get it if you like the Foo Fighters as it’s not a
disappointment, it’s just not as good as others.
Rammstein’s second effort was very good, but things were
definitely going to get better for the German Industrial Metal band.
“Sehnsucht” shows the bands sound before they exploded into the mainstream in
the UK with “Mutter” (one of the best metal albums of all time in my eyes), and
if you compare the two albums side by side musically you can definitely see the
evolution. Despite that, Rammstein were more than capable of creating that
fantastic industrial metal sound and the German vocals are as emphatic as ever.
“Sehnsucht” is a decent album to listen to if you like that genre of music, and
sounds as good as anything else out there. There are better Rammstein albums,
but it’s still a very good effort and I’d recommend it to you if this is your
thang.
#2 - "OK Computer” by Radiohead
Released: 16/6/97
Rating: **** stars
Stand-out tracks: "Paranoid Android”, “Exit Music (For
a Film)”,
“Electioneering”
I think my mother would have murdered me if I never included
this on the list of best albums of 1997! She’s a huge Radiohead fan, as I’ve
said before on this site. In honesty, it’s not my favourite album by the band,
I prefer “The Bends” and “Hail to the Thief” personally, but that doesn’t
matter, “OK Computer” is a solid effort that’s more than justified. I don’t
really no what to say about this album that’s probably not been said before;
it’s just a classic in the eyes of both hardcore Radiohead fans and general
indie fans as well. It’s a piece of art that will always be considered one of
the biggest and best albums of all time. You’ll find it on many many lists of
‘best albums of all time’, however not on my personal list. Still, it’s a great
album from start to finish and chances are you’ve heard it before in some
capacity already.
This may be considered a surprise entry by some as I’ve not
really mentioned the Furry Animals before on this site. In fact, until I
started looking back on the year 1997 for this article I’ve not listened too
much from the band in many a year. Even more, I hadn’t heard “Radiator” for a
good ten years before I listened to it a few weeks ago. This wasn’t going to be
my #1 album; “OK Computer” above was going to be. But I did love this album
when I was younger, but completely forgot until recently how fucking good it
was.
If you were to ask me who my favourite Brit Pop band was,
chances are it’d be the Super Furry Animals. If you were to ask me who my
favourite Welsh band was, it’s most certainly the Super Furry Animals. They
just seem like such a genuinely normal Welsh band who write music for fun and
are also quite good at it. That’s what this album feels like. It brings me to a
happy place as it brings me back to my youth but more than that, it’s just a
great album to put on if you want to listen to some great nineties rock. The
fact that they’re Welsh is a bonus naturally; I did spend thirteen years there
and am very proud of my influences from Welsh culture. “Radiator” has a low
score for a #1 album of the year, but simply, album releases weren’t that great
this year. Music singles on the other hand were pretty solid, and you’ll see
that below. But regardless, “Radiator” is not an album to be dismissed easily,
if you like British rock from the nineties give this album a listen. It’s just
fantastic.
My Top 5 Music Videos
of 1997
#5 - "Sexy Boy” by Air
Air isn’t a band that interests me much and this song was decent,
but the video was just excellent. It’s just directed really well. The band Air
see a cuddly toy monkey with a t-shirt that says “I love moon” on it and they
enter this bizarre fantasy world where the toy monkey is the size of Godzilla
and starts walking across New York to the amazement of everyone. Speech bubbles
come out of citizens on the street pointing at the monkey exclaiming “Look!
It’s Sexy Boy!”. Eventually the toy monkey goes to the moon and we’re cut back
to the band playing with the toy. The video is mainly in black and white and
it’s just a classic video. Chances are you’ve seen this video, but forgot about
it as interest in the song and video died down quite quickly.
#4 - "The Perfect Drug” by Nine Inch Nails
This video is possibly one of, if not the most expensive
videos Nine Inch Nails have done. It cost nearly $1 million and was directed by
the excellent Mark Romanek, who also directed “Closer” as well as excellent
videos like “Can’t Stop” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and “Hurt” by Johnny
Cash. The video, as well as the song, is one of Trent’s most diverse, most
uncharacteristic, and just odd. Trent pulls off a weird yet awesome looking
moustache and goatee in the video and has his long hair, and he’s seen in
costumes from other periods of time and is wielding swords. It’s just odd
seeing Trent in this state when he’s usually stoic and closed in nature. Yet
it’s really good, really well designed and the design of the video is
excellent.
#3 - "Everlong” by the Foo Fighters
I said it last month with “My Hero” and I’ll say it again.
The Foo Fighters are the best band at producing videos in all times. Seriously.
Their videos are consistently great and this is no exception. “Everlong” to my
knowledge is the first video by the band to feature dress crossing, as at the
time new drummer Taylor Hawkins is dressed up as Dave Grohl’s girlfriend/wife
(and does a fantastic job of it too). The video is of this ‘couples’ dreams and
how they’re attacked by two men in the dream and Grohl’s hand increases to a
huge size and he attacks them back with it, in theory, killing them and they
disintegrate into ground and end up in the real world. Dave Grohl’s character
however ends up trapped in Mrs Hawkins’ dream (yes that’s the name I’m giving
Taylor). Mr Grohl tries to communicate with the missus via telephone to warn
her that the two men are in the real world but she’s fast asleep. She manages
to use the phone to communicate with the hubby. This somehow gets Dave Grohl
back into the real world we see my favourite bit. Dave Grohl gets a log
nunchaku and starts wielding it around like a total pro. He then drops it and
his hand starts increasing to the huge size again. He defeats the two attackers
yet again. The video ends with the band then coming out of their characters and
start playing hteir instruments. It’s an excellent video, one that is better to
watch than describe. It’s one of my favourite Foo Fighters videos that’s for
sure.
#2 - "Man That You Fear” by Marilyn Manson
Anyone that knows me personally knew that I absolutely
adored this song when I was younger. It was my username for most of my website
logins and what not. It was the video that made me love the song. I have odd
feelings for both the track and the video now, as I’ve grown up and I associate
the song and video with a lot of my past, a lot of it is tainted with events
that occurred in my personal life.
But I give credit where it’s deserved and “Man That You
Fear” is a great video.It’s still possibly my favourite Manson video. It’s
just directed very well and the story is excellent. The song itself is about
Manson’s frank views on his life up until that point, from when he was a boy to
the feared “Antichrist Superstar” he became in the mid-nineties. The video kind
of reflects this, where a blind-folded girl is chosen to randomly choose
someone who needs to be stoned to death. It turns out Manson is the person
chosen, and the events in the videos document the last moments in this man’s
life. He spends a good amount of time with his girlfriend/wife, who is
distraught and upset as she knows the man in her life is about to die a
horrific death. It’s just a great video, one you should really look at if
you’ve not seen it before, regardless if you’re a Manson fan or not. If people
think Manson isn’t a very good music artist and is all flash and no substance,
check this out, he’ll prove you wrong.
#1 - "I’m Afraid of Americans (V1) by David Bowie
featuring Trent Reznor
Man I love this video. The title of the song speaks for
itself, where David Bowie claims he is afraid of Americans and the video
follows this theme of fear as he is in the streets of a busy American city,
only to be stalked by Trent Reznor (who still has the goatee but not the
moustache from “The Perfect Drug” video above) around the city. As the song
goes on David Bowie sees what seems like visions of crimes occurring before his
eyes. One example is a young man pointing his fingers in a gun motion at a
policeman’s head. David Bowie heads into a taxi but it turns out the taxi
driver is in fact Trent Reznor, his stalker. Trent gets out of the car and
starts firing a pretend machine gun at the taxi itself, before a cult of people
appear. Bowie is completely terrified by everything happening around him. Trent
leads this cult while the song ends with the lyrics “God is an American” said
over and over again. It’s just an excellent video and is a good song that
demonstrates the odd fear factor parts of the world has on America sometimes.
The Top 10 Most
Impactful Songs of 1997
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 - "Monkey Wrench” by the Foo Fighters
In at 10 is not “Everlong”, but “Monkey Wrench”, as I
consider the song to have made a bigger impact. “Monkey Wrench” in terms of
singles, is one of the Foo Fighters’ heaviest tracks, with the excellent
screaming section in the middle. The video was a clever one too, yet “Everlong”
beats this track in terms of videos in my opinion. “Monkey Wrench” almost hit
the Top 10, getting to #12 in our charts despite it being a hard rock track. It
was the debut single off the second album, and definitely shows a harder edge
to Dave Grohl, something that was arguably missing in the first album. It was a
great track and was very well received, and it still more than relevant today.
“Paranoid Android” was released as the first single off OK
Computer but you can make a claim that this song was the bigger of the two.
“Karma Police”, despite getting to #8 (“Paranoid Android” got to #3) has since
become a huge festival hit for the band, due to it’s toned down and easy to
chant chorus of “this is what you get”, but the song itself was quite popular
at the time too, but its strength has grown over the years. The video concept
ironically was given to a certain Marilyn Manson before he rejected it, and
offered it to Radiohead instead. It’s just a nice soft song that’s about an
in-joke between the band members where if they do something wrong, they
threaten to call “the karma police” on eachother. Good stuff.
#8 - "Nancy Boy” by Placebo
This was Placebo’s fourth single and its still considered
one of their best. Getting to #4 in the UK charts they’ve never bettered the
song as a hit. It was their breakthrough track, although “Teenage Angst” before
it was still a commendable effort. With the odd video, and the mixture of
brit-pop and gothic indie, Placebo’s songs since are an extension from of this
track, as Brian Molko’s vocals were are distinctive and important to the band’s
sound. “Nancy Boy” is another of those songs that won’t go away; they’ll be
remembered as one of the alternative brip-pop great tracks, and one that
Placebo fans will never forget.
#7 - "My Own Summer” by the Deftones
Now if you’re not a metal fan chances are you’ve not heard
of this song. But if you are a metal fan and you haven’t… then you really need
to hear it. I don’t claim to be the biggest Deftones fan, most of their songs
don’t interest me, but this song is a metal classic. If you go out to metal
bars and clubs, chances are you’ll hear this song. It’s a metal classic now, in
a discreet way. It’s not an ‘in your face’ metal song in the respect that it
gets played all the time, it doesn’t, but in the metal club scene, it’s just
huge. You have to have this song on your playlist if you want to play some hard
metal. The constant screaming of “shove it shove it” in the chorus is pretty
damn popular. And it charted well for a metal song, getting to #29, and after
“Minerva” is their biggest hit. That being said, this song is thought of much
more than “Minerva” by both Deftones and general metal fans. Give it a listen
if you haven’t heard it before, if you love a bit of metal.
#6 - "Song 2” by Blur
From Wikipedia:
“"Song 2"
was the second track on the album,
was the second single from the album
to be released, is exactly two
minutes and two seconds long, and is
also the second track on their
compilation Blur: The Best of. It reached #2
in the UK Singles Chart and also placed #2
on Triple J's Hottest 100 for 1997 in Australia. The song is also the second song on the second disc on the album Bustin' + Dronin'. It has two choruses, two verses and two
bridges.”
That’s a lot of twos!
Otherwise known as the “WAA-HOO!” song, this song is a
classic as well. It’s almost un-Blur like, in the respect that it’s possibly
their heaviest track, with the fantastic guitars and the constant “waa-hoo” in
the chorus. Apparently the song is a parody of grunge music. Blur were known
for their slower, more lyrical orientated tracks where Damon Albarn spoke a bit
clearer. This song however you can barely hear his vocals for most of the
track. It was kick ass though, almost punk in a way, and has stuck as one of Blur’s
finest moments.
Getting to #5 in the UK charts, only “One More Time” is a
bigger chart success in this country for Daft Punk. That being said, this song
fared much better, ahem, “around the world”, than it did in Britain. It got to
#1 in Italy, and the US Dance charts, while getting to #5 in France and #4 in
Belgium. With its simple chorus which is basically the title of the song said
144 times and its soft electronic beat, the song was just huge. It appealed to
many audiences, not just in dance, but in rock, in indie and in pop. It’s not
as played as often as it used to, but it’s still considered one of Daft Punk’s
greatest efforts and is thought of very fondly.
#4 - "Tubthumping” by Chumbawamba
“I get knocked down, but I get up again, you’re never gonna
keep me down!” Yes that song. It’s often criticised as being one of the most
annoying songs of all time yet you can’t knock it for its success back in the
year 1997 and even since. It got to #2 here in the UK, but it got to #1 in
Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US Modern Rock Tracks chart. It’s
appeared in many forms of media, possibly most famously in the FIFA World Cup
98 game, and Weird Al put it on one of his Polka Medleys. The song hasn’t gone
away, despite it being 14 years old, which like it or not, is a credit to the
song’s longevity. Yes it has its haters, but people must love it to still play
it even today.
#3 - "Smack My Bitch Up” by The Prodigy
Wow this song was controversial. Not only the song title,
but the video too, if you haven’t seen it before, was very controversial. The
video depicts someone from a first person perspective going out for a night
out, getting drug, taking drugs, abusing women, picking up a stripper, doing a
hit and run, and having sex at the end. The plot twist in the end of the video
is that it’s actually a woman committing these acts, which riled up a lot of
feminists. All the controversy surrounding the song furthered interest in it,
and in the end the track got to #8 in the UK charts, but charted all over the
world with decent success. It goes without saying really that this song made a
huge impact.
It’s odd to think that this song initially was a raw B-side
for the single for “Brain Stew” in 1994, not the huge selling, internationally
recognised, acoustic classic it now is. There are many differences between the
original B-side, and the remade version that is now a global smash hit that has
sold nearly 2 million copies. But this ballad gets misinterpreted many times by
casual fans, who believe that it’s a nice song wishing someone “the time of
their life”, when it’s actually about lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong breaking
up with his girlfriend who is moving to Ecuador, and his upset feelings towards
it are felt in the lyrics rather than the tone of voice. The song at the time
wasn’t a huge hit, but it did have some success in Australia, getting to #2. It
got to #11 here in the UK. But the longevity of the track, the fact that it’s
played so often today, the fact that it’s seen as one of the best acoustic
singles of all time, has easily cemented it as one of the most important modern
rock tracks in history. Good riddance.
I was torn whether to put “Good Riddance” down as #1 but
I’ve gone with this instead. Regardless, there were definitely two tracks in
1997 that just trounced everything else in terms of popularity and long term
appeal. I’ve given it to The Verve instead. I’m not the only one who thinks
it’s a more important song, Rolling Stone have put it at #382 in their list of
most important songs of all time. It’s hard to put into words what makes
“Bitter Sweet” so iconic. The composition truly does add to its greatness, although
it’s a sample from an orchestra recording of a Rolling Stone’s track called
“The Last Time”. There was a lot of controversy surrounding the samples as both
the Andrew Oldham Orchestra and The Stones wanted credits and a share. But
regardless of all that jazz, the song is now a truly iconic track, a pure
classic, that the video also contributes to. It’s easily The Verve’s biggest
hit and the album “Urban Hymns” would definitely be incomplete without it. The
song was a big hit too, getting to #2 here in the UK while getting to #1 in
Canada, #3 in Ireland #6 in Finland, #9 in Norway and #10 in Sweden. “Bitter
Sweet Symphony” is brit-pop at its pure best.
The Year 1997 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 1997. Yes,
this is a biased list.
And there we go! The year 1997 in review! I hope you've
enjoyed this. So that’s three years covered from the nineties, next month
naturally I’ll be covering 1996. What we your favourite songs and albums from
1997? 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 first edition in a series of reviews I'll be doing on music on a yearly basis. I covered the entire of the Naughties in a 6 month epic saga that ended with me counting down what I thought the 100 most important songs are. This will be done in a completely different style to that series. I might do a similar thing at the end of the nineties where I countdown my favourite 100 and what I think the 100 most memorable (refraining from using the word important) songs are, but at the moment I'm just concentrating on one year at a time.
This 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 1999 in Music
Eminem releases his official debut album "The Slim Shady LP" (he released an EP with the same title two years prior), starting his rise as one of the brightest young hip hop artists.
The Columbine High School massacre happened. Industrial metal artists Marilyn Manson, Rammstein and KMFDM were blamed for the massacre, although there was no evidence suppporting this.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers release "Californication", which went on to sell over 13 million copies.
Slipknot release their self titled debut album, starting a career as one of the most popular heavy metal artists of the next decade.
Limp Bizkit release "Significant Other" which sold over 14 million sales worldwide.
Glam rock star Gary Glitter is jailed for four months for downloading pornographic images of children.
Muse's debut album was a solid yet barely ground-breaking effort. Every song on the album is decent, and I could put this album on and play it and barely notice it's presence. I sound like I'm dissing it but I'm not. It's very good. It's just that nothing really stands out, it's barely inspiring. But as I said, it's solid, Muse would go on to become one of the best British bands of the next decade. And if it wasn't for these songs, Muse wouldn't have got there. This mini review is actually making want to listen to it again, in the background while I do something else. Because as I said, it's a great album for something like that.
#4 - "Hooray for Boobies" by Bloodhound Gang
Released: 4/10/99
Rating: ****1/4 stars
Stand-out tracks: "Mope", "The Inevitable Return of the Great White Dope", "Yummy Down on This"
Released on the same day as "Showbiz" above, this awesome album came out. It's definitely my favourite album by the group. I was taken aback by how good it was, as the singles that were released were okay yet not fantastic (in my opinion). But there's some great rap/rock tracks on here, and some funny shit as well. It's toilet humour at best, yet they do it with enough dignity that makes it quite fun. If you don't like your music crude, then avoid this album. But if you liked this genre of music that the end part of the nineties brought you, then seriously, give this a go. It's great.
#3 - "The Battle of Los Angeles" by Rage Against the Machine
Released: 2/11/99
Rating: ****1/4 stars
Stand-out tracks: "Born of a Broken Man", "Calm Like a Bomb", "Guerrilla Radio"
Look at that. The Battle of Los Angeles album has a guy fist pumping to his death as the cover. Awesome stuff. Anyway, this album is actually my favourite by Rage Against the Machine. From start to finish, I think it just sounds great. The problem with Rage is that their songs sound quite similar (although their sound is innovative and there's not a single band out there like them) but I find this to be the most diverse. Also both the singles and album tracks are great. My favourite is definitely "Born of a Broken Man", I just love the guitar, the quite yet angry way Zach de la Rocha sings yet somehow sounds like he's gritting his teeth his awesome. Trivia for you, Saul Williams samples this in his song "Om Nia Merican" off his "Amethyst Rock Star" album. Anyway it's just a great album, my favourite.
#2 - "Tight" by Mindless Self Indulgence
Released: 6/4/99
Rating: ****1/2 stars
Stand-out tracks: "Bring the Pain", "Tight", "Pussy All Night"
Mindless Self Indulgence's official debut album is still my favourite. I mean, they're all excellent (if, very similar) but this one trumps the rest if only slightly. I just love their raw energy, their complete innovation, their ability to just crank up random songs with punk, rap, electronic, and industrial metal all into 120 seconds of pure bliss. "Bring the Pain" is one of my favourite cover versions of all time, it's very difficult to do a cover, but doing a completely different genre of music and twisting it into yours AND trumping it, is a feat not many artists can claim to have done. "Bring the Pain", originally sung by Method Man of the Wu-Tang Clan, is arguably more famous by this band now. "Tight" is another belter, with it's fantastically cool guitars and Little Jimmy Urine's unique vocals. It's just a brilliant album, one that I'd recommend you get if you've never heard this weird and wonderful band.
#1 - "The Fragile" by Nine Inch Nails
Released: 21/9/99
Rating: ****1/2 stars
Stand-out tracks: "I'm Looking Forward to Joining You, Finally", "Just Like You Imagined", "Starfuckers, Inc."
My #1 album of 1999 is probably unsurprisingly by my favourite band, Nine Inch Nails. "The Fragile", while not Trent Reznor's best effort, was an incredible masterpiece, a depressing and angry 23 song concept that really pulls on the heartstrings at times. It's a concept album about being at your lowest ebb and trying and failing to get better. That's the story of the album. But don't let that put you off, what's important is how Trent tells you this story through music. The composition of songs is incredible, there's some really good stuff on this album, some lovely, tranquil tracks like "La Mer" and "The Day the World Went Away", there's some cool shit like "Please" and "Into the Void" and there's some kickass metal tracks like "Starfuckers, Inc." and "No You Don't". It's a heavy album, and it's also a very long album at over 100 minutes (in comparison, "Tight" above is only around 30 minutes), and it's definitely not the NIN album I'd recommend you listen to first. But if you like NIN, like concept albums, like music done artistically and differently, then this is a must. It's just one of those albums that has a place in music history on a platform on its own. Because no album is like it, but it's too important to be ignored.
My Top 5 Music Videos of 1999
#5 - "Coma White" by Marilyn Manson
This is one of my favourite Manson videos, and songs for that matter. It just shows a different side to Manson that not many people see, and while his voice isn't commercially considered great, this is one of his best songs in terms of showing that he can sing. The video, a twisted version of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, features Rose McGowan, his then girlfriend. It's just a beautifully dark video, arguably one of Manson's finest moments in his now dwindled career.
#4 - "Learn to Fly" by Foo Fighters
Arguably one of the funniest videos of all time, the Foo Fighters board a plane which has many passengers played by themselves but cross dressing (and not for the first time). It features the great duo Jack Black and Kyle Gass from Tenacious D, who accidentally drug everyone's coffee, which makes everyone fall asleep, including the pilot. The band, who decided to drink alcohol instead, manage to land the plane safely. It's just a very funny video, probably my favourite moment being when the pilot receives his coffee, pauses, and then says "thank you", and winks. It's just a moment of awesomeness.
#3 - "We're in This Together" by Nine Inch Nails
Not particularly one of my favourite NIN singles, but this video always brings me back to my childhood. Funnily, I discovered NIN properly a good eight or nine years ago, but I remember quite vividly watching this video back in 1999, although it felt like it was much earlier than that (which is scientifically impossible I know). I saw this video, thought it was cool but I didn't know who the band was or anything. But the video is great, it shows loads of people, one being Trent Reznor, all running away from 'something'. For some reason everyone is wearing a black shirt and black trousers. In the end whatever that 'something' is catches them, and everyone disappears, leaving Trent on his own. All that remains is everyone's black clothes, just lying there, desolately in the ground. It's a powerful video, one that makes the song much deeper in context and adds layers to one of the tracks from "The Fragile" that ironically, seems to lack the support other songs do.
#2 - "Freak on a Leash" by KoRn
This Grammy award winning video is just excellent. It mixes animation and live footage. The beginning is animation, where a bunch of kids are playing hopskotch near an edge of a cliff where a policeman accidentally falls and his gun triggers a bullet. It then turns into live footage, of a poster with this cartoon scene occurs and a bullet pierces the poster and starts tearing through anything and everything in it's path, regardless of it being capable of doing it in real life or not. It goes through walls, glass, but more artistically, it goes through squirty cream cans and a large water container. The idea is unrealistic, yet it looks so good when it's happening. Eventually the bullet goes through a wall where the band are playing, and the lead singer Jonathan Davis somehow gets this bullet to stop it's surge and retreat back to where it came from. It then arrives back into the poster, and into the policeman's hand, thankfully not killing any of the children. It just looks so much better than to describe it in this paragraph, have a look above if you haven't seen it before.
#1 - "Coffee and TV" by Blur
In at #1 is one of the best music videos of all time. I hold that statement very seriously. It's just a brilliant video. If you haven't seen it before, it would be criminal to avoid watching it above. And don't worry, it's not controversial in any way, it will appeal to most if not all audiences.
The video is about Milky, a milk carton, who has a missing person (Graham Coxon) printed on his design. He finds that other milk cartons also have his face on them and sees the family deeply upset about this man becoming a missing person and decides to go out into the world and find him himself. On his travels he finds loads of things that are dangerous and almost kill him, like a dog and a garden strimmer, and evil bottles of pop (which, of course, are also animated). Eventually he finds a female milk carton on the opposite side of the road and they start to approach each other, only for the love of his life to get run over by a passenger's foot. This sends Milky heartbroken and even more scared, that he runs away and ends up finding the missing person on his milk carton. The missing guy picks Milky up and drinks the entire carton, and puts him in the rubbish bin. Milky ends up dying, but develops angel's wings and flies to the heavens, where he joins the female milk carton he fell in love with earlier.
It's just a beautiful video, a truly magnificent one at that. It's such a simple concept, but it's just directed so well and the designs of the milk cartons and the pop bottles and stuff are excellent. It's a true little mini children's movie in honesty, three minutes long, but it's just so great. Seriously, if you haven't seen it before have a look. It's fantastic.
The Top 10 Most Impactful Songs of 1999
As I said, I'm NOT calling it the 'important' list, although it's more than just popularity as well. Anyway, here's the 10 songs of the year. It's an unbiased list.
#10 - "What's My Age Again?" by Blink-182 While Blink-182 will forever be renowned for their #2 hit "All the Small Things", you can argue that this song had a say in that. They were both released off the same album, and this peaked at #17 here in the UK. The video with the band running around nude, the lyrics about grown men not wanting to grow up, it was a huge hit with the teens. It preceded the huge popularity of pop-punk that filled the charts in the early Naughties. It's still played to a decent amount today, and is seen as one of Blink's best songs.
#9 - "Every You and Every Me" by Placebo I didn't feature much Placebo in the Naughties listing but truth is their memorable songs and significance slightly waned (only slightly) in the last decade. Their popular stuff was really in the late nineties, and this is arguably the last huge song they did. Part of that was it's significance to the great soundtrack to the film "Cruel Intentions" but it's also because the song was so great anyway. It's not the chirpiest or catchiest of songs, but the lyrics are great, so good that it managed to get to #11 in our British charts. It was the third single off their most successful album, "Without You I'm Nothing" which was also a critically acclaimed album, one I recommend you get if you like the sound of Placebo.
#8 - "Pumping on Your Stereo" by Supergrass As far as I'm concerned, this is the last major Supergrass song (although they released "Moving" afterwards, which got slightly higher in the charts) of their career. It was a quick, simple, easy belter in honesty. It's just so simply catchy, apparently once the band started to get going it only took them 10 minutes to get it all down to what we hear today. It's a shame Supergrass' career dwindled so quickly after the new decade kicked in as they were as big a part of Brit Pop in the mid nineties as anyone really. But some bands just lack longevity, and Supergrass unfortunately was one of them. Here's a fact for you, I once saw Supergrass, they supported the Foo Fighters. I saw the drummer Taylor Hawkins discretely watching the set, bopping, when they were playing. They were good.
#7 - "The Bad Touch" by the Bloodhound Gang The Bloodhound Gang haven't really had a bigger hit than this one, not in this country anyway. Around the late nineties and early naughties there was a lot of crude lyrical bands who did their music in either a hybrid of rock, rap or punk and there's arguably no better band at it than the Bloodhound Gang. The Bad Touch, most famously for the line "Do it like they do it on the Discovery Channel", was just a huge international hit. It was a great song and the video, albeit odd, was good too.
#6 - "Scar Tissue" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers The album "Californication" was the beginning of a return to form for the Chili's, it was a huge success. "Scar Tissue" was the first release off the album, and as one of the softest Chili's singles, it was a surprise success. They took a punt releasing this first, instead of the very catchy, heavier "Around the World" which on paper, sounds like the best song to release first off an album. But the risk paid off, it was a fantastic success and the slide guitar in the track is still well thought of as one of the best guitar moments in recent history.
#5 - "Praise You" by Fatboy Slim Fatboy Slim's fonly #1 hit so far came as a surprise. "The Rockerfella Skank" was the first release off the album, "You've Come a Long Way, Baby" and was a big hit, reaching #6. But Fatboy Slim's rising stars weren't ending there, and "Praise You" was the big climax by Norman Cook. Partly because of the now legendary video, and partly due to it's soft dance beat, "Praise You" appealed to many different people rather than the usual dance music fans. It's arguably Fatboy Slim's biggest moment, although I personally think the efforts were bettered by "Weapon of Choice" a few years later.
#4 - "Coffee and TV" by Blur We touched on this song earlier as it's featured in the videos section but the song itself was also big. It got to #11, not particularly impressive for Blur who at this point had eight songs hit the Top 5. But this song gets played more than most of those tracks, more than a lot of Blur tracks actually. It's a staple Blur song, a great one at that, and yes you can thank the video for a lot of the success it has had long term, but the song is great too and is well thought of as a great moment in the band's career.
#3 - "Learn to Fly" by the Foo Fighters Following a similar vein to Blur, with both the great videos and past successes, "Learn to Fly" too wasn't a huge chart hit for the band, getting to #21. But similar as I said to Blur, "Learn to Fly" is played more than most other Foo Fighters songs, especially those ones from the nineties. It was released at a time when the band was starting to grasp their key sound, with a lot of the naughties singles being slightly similar in style, and most definitely in terms of how good the singles sound as individual songs. "Learn to Fly" is arguably the pedestal Dave Grohl and co. used to build their now flourishing success on. I fucking love the Foo Fighters by the way.
#2 - "My Name Is" by Eminem One of my major criticisms from my Noughtie series was that there is a major lack of Eminem involved. True that. I tried to stay away from rap and dance as much as possible, yet Eminem simply cannot be ignored. Similar to that is this song, it's simply incapable of being ignored. It's not really in my eyes Eminem's finest moment, but man, without this song making the BANG it did, his fantastically accomplished rap career wouldn't have been anywhere as big as it is now. "My NameIs", like the Foos before, based the style of song Eminem has now been rapping for over a decade. It was a huge hit too, getting to #2 in the UK. The song has remained one of Eminem's most popular, and is still played very often today.
#1 - "Freak on a Leash" by KoRn I have my doubts, I have a hunch this is going to be a controversial call. But for me, the highlight of the year 1999 was this song. "But Johnny, KoRn's song was no where near as successful as Eminem or the others!" True that. But similar to my Noughtie series, this isn't just about chart success. It's also not just about longevity. I just think personally, "Freak on a Leash" did more for metal than "My Name Is" did for rap. "Freak on a Leash" is one of the modern classic metal songs, not many metal songs released since this track have had the long term impact this did. It's a classic now. And it's fricking awesome too, in a biased way. But as I said, this is an unbiased listing, covering rock, metal and alternative genres. And for metal, this song was just huge.
The Year 1999 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 1999. Yes, this is a biased list.
And there we go! The year 1999 in review! I hope you've enjoyed this. It's the new format going forward, that I'll be doing on a monthly basis or so. So yes, in September, I'll hopefully be covering the year 1998. Any comments or queries? Raise them below. Also just in case you didn't notice, my lovely wife has made me a Facebook page, so on the top left of this site you can 'like' me on Facebook. Or just click here if you're lazy! On that left hand side there are other ways to contact me and follow me too, like Twitter and Formspring.
I'll be back in a few days with something, not quite sure what I'm doing next actually. I have a lot planned, I'm just not sure what order it'll be posted. See you soon anyway.
To view part 2, click here. To view part 3, click here. To view part 4, click here.
Here we are, Part 5, we’re approaching half way, I hope you haven’t fallen asleep yet! The songs are getting better, well I think so anyway! This is a biased list! Let’s get to it!
#60. “Running Up That Hill” – Placebo
Released: 5/3/07
Album: Once More With Feeling
I’ll put my hands up. I never knew Placebo did a cover version of Kate Bush’s classic. I only heard it last year, being the huge wrestling fan I am, watched the fantastic promotional video between The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels a few weeks before their brilliant 5 star classic at Wrestlemania. But since I heard it, I loved it. I prefer it to the original. It’s just so elegant, so light on its feet but heavy on the heart. It’s a modern day cover version classic in my eyes.
#59. “Red Morning Light” – Kings of Leon
Released: 15/7/03
Album: Youth and Young Manhood
Kings of Leon’s debut track was a fantastic little ditty. It’s probably my favourite single by the band, it just sounds really cool, and it’s everything that is good about Kings of Leon, namely, their great combination of country and garage rock. It was the main song for FIFA 04 as well, oh those were the days…
#58. “I Want You So Hard (Boy’s Bad News) – Eagles of Death Metal
Released: 28/8/06
Album: Death by Sexy
I heard “I Only Want You” back when it came out, thought it was a decent track and then moved on. I was aware that Josh Homme was the drummer of the band but naturally the interest in this band didn’t go much beyond that.
But then this cracker came out. This song really kicks ass. The video is pretty funny as well, with Jack Black and Dave Grohl making cameos wearing wigs (which eventually blow off due to Jesse “The Devil” Hughes ‘mind-blowing’ guitar riffs). It’s by far their best single, but the album “Death by Sexy” is freaking awesome as well.
#57. “Harmonic Generator” – The Datsuns
Released: 28/10/03
Album: The Datsuns
This song kicks real ass. The Datsuns are a barely remembered footnote in history now, but back in the early Naughties they were a decent little band that had some exposure on MTV2. This was my favourite track. I love the riff, the back vocals in the chorus, the lead singers voice as well. The video is nice and colourful too. It’s just a great track, an underrated one, that’s for sure.
#56. “Burn the Witch” – The Queens of the Stone Age
Released: 10/1/06
Album: Lullabies to Paralyze
Unless you’re a decent TQotSA fan, chances are this song slipped past you. Which is a shame really as it’s my favourite single off “Lullabies”, more so than the relatively successful “Little Sister”. I just love the riff, the way the song is sung, the lyrics, it just sounds really cool. The clapping towards the end and the wooo-ing gives it that ritual-esque feeling as well.
#55. “Pretty Like Drugs” – QueenAdreena
Released: 8/7/02
Album: Drink Me
Man, if QueenAdreena released more singles then they’d find themselves on this list more. They probably don’t care mind. Anyway, QueenAdreena’s “Pretty Like Drugs” is probably their most popular song, and is one of the few tracks actually released as a single by the band. Like in a lot of their tracks, KatieJane Garside manages to combine her beautiful vocals with her screaming vocals in the same track, which really work well with the topic of the song, drugs being seen in a positive and negative light. It’s a fantastic track, and if you’ve never heard of this band before, I’d recommend you start with this song.
#54. “Rise of the Eagles” – The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster
Released: 4/1/05
Album: The Royal Society
I announce this entry with news that TEMBLD have officially split up. They put it on their Facebook today. It's been on the cards since about November last year. It's a serious shame as I fucking love this band and they are the one of the most underrated bands of the decade. Rant over. Anyway, TEMBLD’s second entry into this Top 100 brings the final single off The Royal Society into the mix. It’s probably my favourite of the three, although “Mister Mental” is a quality track too. Rise of the Eagles is a more mainstream effort by the gothabilly group; it’s very catchy and the “All dressed up and ready to go” hook is great. But the video is also epic, with lead singer Guy pretending to be an American president and having all the ladies wanting him. Great stuff.
#53. “Mope” – The Bloodhound Gang
Released: 5/9/00
Album: Hooray for Boobies
This is the only Bloodhound Gang effort to make any of the Mixtapes and the Top 100 biased listing. I did like Foxtrot Unicorn Charlie Kilo but not enough unfortunately. Hooray for Boobies, released in 1999, was a brilliant album and had this awesome effort on it. “Mope” has a ridiculous amount of references to other artists and pop culture, and samples a few different tracks into the song, most prominently “Relax” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. The song is very catchy and the rapping is decent. I’m not a huge fan of the “Pacman on crack” business though, but that aside, it’s an awesome song.
#52. “Coming Undone” – KoRn
Released: 21/2/06
Album: See You on the Other Side
KoRn appear three times in this listing and for the first to be at #52 is pretty good really. “Coming Undone” is a funny one; I didn’t really think much of it at the time of release. Then I got KoRn’s Unplugged album (which by the way, I thoroughly recommend you get if you like KoRn) and the acoustic version of it sounded fantastic. As I said it’s a funny one, as I prefer the original now, but at the time I thought the stripped down version sounded greater. It still sounds good and the great clap sounding drums throughout the song are a highlight for me. Jonathan’s whaling vocals in the chorus are also good.
#51. “American Bad Ass” – Kid Rock
Released: 30/5/00
Album: The History of Rock
Kid Rock is one of those damn artists that as people, man, I could just punch in the face. Same applies to Fred Durst. But, if they release songs I like, I’ll own up to it. American Bad Ass is one of those tracks, that along with “Bawitdaba” are his finest pieces of music. With the great choice of “Sad But True” by Metallica to sample, this song just sounds immediately kickass. It also helps that it worked fantastically well with WWE Legend The Undertaker, one of my favourite wrestlers, and his biker gimmick back in 2000. The lyrics are shit but as I said, the song sounds fantastic, and sometimes that’s all you need in a song.
Well we’re officially half way now. You’ve seen my favourite tracks from #100 to #51. We’ll be back tomorrow to kick start the second half, from #50 to #41. Take care.
