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.
#79. “Brendan's Death Song" – Red Hot Chili Peppers
Released: 11/6/12
Album: I'm With You
The last Chili's album was poor. I mean, poor by their previous standards. As a standalone album it's fine but nothing special at all. I did review it on this site, click here if you're interested. But the one true highlight, the one true spark of excellence is with this song. It's an incredibly beautiful song, dedicated to Brendan Mullen, who owned a punk rock club back in the early Eighties and are arguably responsible for giving the Chili's their big break over thirty years ago. He died a few years before the song came out and it's just a really lovely tribute. Even as a standalone song, without the sentiment behind it, the song manages to carry itself with such grace and strength, and I love how it builds up really well. Musically it's just "right" in every way possible. It's true Chili's on form. It's just a shame the rest of the album wasn't anywhere near as good as this gem of a track.
Hey, and welcome to the newest entry of The Rock and Metal Double Feature Show. I'm starting to put these up intentionally a week late, so it reminds people to tune into the next show later today. Speaking of the show on later today, that's actually going to be up at around 3:30pm as I have plans this evening. Last week's show I promoted a local band for the first time. It was Lucy Was a Decoy, who were based in North Wales. Check out their other stuff at www.facebook.com/lucywasadecoy. I'll be promoting another local band on today's show and I actually have an interview with them. If you want to listen to the show at 3:30pm check out www.mixcloud.com/johnnymercyside. Here's last week's show:
The Rock and Metal Double Feature Show: 2/3/14 Track listing: The Rock Show Coffee and TV - Blur Nobody Told Me - John Lennon Heroes and Ghosts - The Coronas Kathleen - Catfish and the Bottlemen Guilty Pleasure - Lucy Was a Decoy Bat Out of Hell - Meat Loaf Love Rollercoaster - Red Hot Chili Peppers Sweet 16 - Feeder Comfort Eagle - Cake Little Monster - Royal Blood Tick Tick Boom - The Hives Bad Blood - Beck Psychosis Safari - The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster
The Metal Hour Johnny - System of a Down Iron Man - Black Sabbath I'm Not Okay (I Promise) - My Chemical Romance Children of the Korn - Korn feat. Ice Cube Stand for Something - Skindred Voices - Disturbed Doll-Dagga Buzz-Buzz Ziggety-Zag - Marilyn Manson Beneath Black Skies - Paradise Lost Don't Fear the Reaper - HIM A Bed of Roses - QueenAdreena Dragula in the Deep - Rob Zombie vs Adele For Fucks Sake - Nailbomb Born to Raise Hell - Motorhead Total running time: 02:00:00 Other entries you might want to read: Supernatural Special - DJ Show Big News Regarding My DJing - Personal Blog My Top 50 Favourite Video Game Villains - Listing
For the latest updates on my work, follow me on Facebook and Twitter here!
Hey everyone, welcome to the ninth 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 1999,
then 1998,
followed by 1997
and 1996,
1995,
1994, 1993 and 1992.
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!
1991 was an odd year for music. Probably until September, when “you know what” got released by Nirvana, it pretty much felt like the old guard getting rusty from the eighties. Times were changing, the people who found success in the eighties were struggling to take to this change, and people wanted something new, something fresh. Nirvana and the grunge movement brought that, but it didn’t really come to full effect until 1992. So what we have here is a mixture of good and… okay. Enjoy the review!
Brief History of the
Year 1991 in Music
Nirvana
release "Nevermind", one of the, if not the biggest album
released since, and the grunge genre movement explodes to the mainstream
Lead
singer of Queen, Freddie Mercury, dies of AIDS.
Oasis
form, becoming probably the biggest British band of the nineties.
Metallica
release their self titled album (also called The Black Album), their most
successful album in their 31 year career.
Rage
Against the Machine form, starting the nu-metal era of metal, and become
one of the most outspoken and controversial bands of the nineties.
Talking
Heads, one of the biggest post-punk and new wave bands of all time, disband.
They would only play one more time together, in 2002, when they were inducted
into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.
My Top 5 Albums of
1991
#5 – “Blood Sugar Sex Magik” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Released: 24/9/91
Rating: ***3/4 stars
Stand-out tracks: “Breaking the Girl”, “Give it Away”,
“They’re Red Hot”
I
love the Chilis. They’re a great band. They make music like no other artist out
there. There are have been a few bands that have tried to put their spin on the
funk rock sound that the Chilis have perfected but none have had anywhere near
the success that the Red Hot Chili Peppers have. But my problem with the Chilis
is that their album material is usually a step down from their singles. Quite
consistently in their career. Now I’m sure there are many people who disagree
with me on that of course. It’s just me, I know. Blood Sugar Sex Magik is a
great album though, I thoroughly enjoy listening to it. I mean, it’s the same
pattern, the singles are by far the best songs on the album, but the
non-singles are fun too. If I were to recommend one Chilis album, it’d probably
be this.
#4 – “Out of Time” by R.E.M.
Released: 12/3/91
Rating: ***3/4 stars
Stand-out tracks: “Losing My Religion”, “Shiny Happy
People”, “Radio Song”
Why the Radio Song is not on any Greatest Hits album R.E.M.
have released is beyond me. What a cool track that is.
Anyway, “Out of Time” is an R.E.M. effort that I forgot
about, until I made this article for your pleasure. It surprised me a little
with how good it is. I mean I do prefer “Automatic for the People”, but I take nothing
away from this album, it’s a cracker. One of my favourite non-singles is
“Country Feedback” a song really pulls at the heartstrings, and was so good
that it was released on R.E.M.’s final release of compilation tracks. Michael
Stipe has also called that his favourite ever song, which is quite the
statement. There’s a lot of gold on “Out of Time”, and deserves a lot of
respect as one of R.E.M.’s finest albums.
#3 – “Look Mom, No Head!” by The Cramps
Released: November 1991
Rating: ****1/4 stars
Stand-out tracks: “Bend Over, I'll Drive”, “Dames, Booze,
Chains and Boots”, “I Wanna Get in Your Pants”
Look at Poison Ivy. Man, she was so hot.
Anyway,
I love The Cramps. I don’t swear often on this site but it deserves it here. I
fucking love The Cramps. If I were to list you a set of bands that deserve more
attention for their discography The Cramps would be very high on that list. The
Cramps are a band that started a genre. Psychobilly wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t
for The Cramps. They’re so good, and while their songs going into the nineties
were slowly losing quality, this is their last great effort. There are some
absolute gems on this album; those three songs above are there for starters.
They only released one single off it with “Eyeball in My Martini”, which is
pretty good, but some of the other non-singles are brilliant. Just look at
those song titles. Aren’t they brilliant? You know what you’re going to get
with The Cramps, dirty yet sexy licks, with funny innuendo in their lyrics.
They’re just a band that really deserves more attention; please PLEASE check
them out if you’ve never heard them before. You’re missing out!
#2 – “Metallica” by Metallica
Released: 12/8/91
Rating: ****1/2 stars
Stand-out tracks: “Enter Sandman”, “The Unforgiven”, “Sad
But True”
There are two albums from the year 1991 that probably get
more recognition and praise than any other. It doesn’t matter who you are, what
music you like, or anything else, there are two albums that trumped everything
else in terms of attention and longevity. These two albums are to put simply,
two of the greatest albums of all time.
First
is “The Black Album”, or the self titled “Metallica” album. That’s got to be
one of the coolest album covers ever. I’m not the biggest Metallica fan, especially for their albums, but if you love metal, it doesn’t
matter what type of metal you like, you have to listen to this. It goes without
saying. It’s just from the first track to the last, pure quality in the metal
genre. The Black Album oozes brilliance throughout. It’s amazing how fucking
good this album really is. And as I said, I’m not a huge Metallica fan, and
it’s still damn good. You simply, can’t call yourself a metal fan until you
appreciate this album. It’s a true classic, a true piece of legendary music that
will go down in history as one of the finest albums ever recorded. It’s that
simple.
It’s probably not a surprise that this is my favourite album
from 1991. But what you may find surprising is that I found it very hard to
give this a star rating of ****1/2 stars. It’s one of those albums that for me
is between ****1/4 and ****1/2, but because of the nostalgia, the impact and
the significance of the album, I gave it the latter rating.
This isn’t my favourite Nirvana album. In fact, a case can
be made that it’s my least favourite Nirvana album. But no one can dispute that
this album is great. It’s a fantastic album. It annoys me when a lot of people
talk about this album being crap. It’s not. It’s far from it. But… it was
overplayed. Nirvana as a band, we’re overplayed, overhyped. I wouldn’t say
overrated, but they got so much attention and it was shoved in everyone’s
throats for a long long time. Nevermind was played so much during the nineties,
especially “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. And as I say, rightfully so in a certain
way as it is a great album. But enough was enough.
If
you take away all the hype and attention away and strip this album down to its
core and listen to it, it’s a great effort. It’s not the best, but it’s damn
good. There are some fantastic songs on here, and the music singles were
awesome too. They’re just not my favourite tracks on the album. But if,
somehow, you haven’t heard this album, I do recommend you listen to it at least
once. Regardless of your taste in music, if you like metal, rock, grunge, pop,
dance music, RnB, it doesn’t matter. This is an album that strips musical
barriers, and appeals to a vast audience. Simply at its core, “Nevermind” is a
legendary album that is an album you have to hear before you die. It’s as
simple as that.
My Top 5 Music Videos
of 1991
#5 – “Give it Away” by Red Hot Chili Peppers
I have to be honest 1991 wasn’t really that great for videos
but one that always stands out is “Give it Away” by the Chili’s. How can a
video where half naked men in shiny pants and make up in a black and while
video be considered so popular? It’s beyond me in some ways but no one can deny
how this video became iconic. You have to give credit to the director as the video
matches the song perfectly, it’s lively, it’s a little crazy and it actually
looks fun to direct. Just like the song “Give it Away” is all of those things
to a certain extent. “Give it Away” is just a video you have to see to
understand, and to experience.
#4 – “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana
It may be an odd choice but this was a great music video.
It’s not the best music video in the world, and it doesn’t have much artistic
direction, but it’s so iconic. It’s a legendary music video. And yes, it is
purely because of the attention the song and the band got, but regardless, this
is a good music video. It shows what Nirvana do best, play music in a raw and
hostile environment. I love all the shots of the dirty gymnasium, the greasy
hair, the playing hard, the cheerleaders, everything. It’s just a music video
that does exactly what music videos are supposed to do, promote the song and
promote the band. And it does both of these things perfectly.
#3 – “Shiny Happy People” by R.E.M.
I forgot how hot Kate Pierson is in this video, and at the
age of 43 as well. What? What can I say? I love redheads! Anyway, I can’t help
but love this video. I think it’s just because band members are all trying
their hardest to look happy but all still look discretely despondent, with the
exception of Kate Pierson anyway, of the B52’s, whose smiles just gleam the
video camera lense. The video is just great, it’s just totally watchable
despite not much really happening apart from the above, in front of a large
painting of childrens drawings of ‘happy people’. It’s just an awesome video.
Oh and one more thing, Michael Stipe’s incredibly brown suit and cap turned
sideways is another amazing highlight of the video.
#2 – “Black or White” by Michael Jackson
If you’re wondering once again I’m including Michael Jackson
when I don’t include pop artists as a rule it’s because I think Michael Jackson
is above and beyond genre dividing. Michael Jackson is a member of an elite
elite ELITE set of musicians of probably 5 to 10 bands or performers that are
untouchable.
“Black or White” is possibly an odd choice for some of you.
There’s, of course, the debate about the message of the video anyway,
considering the weird change of skin colour of Michael Jackson throughout the
eighties and nineties. But take that situation out of the way for a moment and
you have a very cheesy, yet entertaining music video.
Macaulay Culkin plays as the kid who loves rock music and
pisses his father off, and when getting told off, retorts by cranking his electric
guitar volume to a ridiculous level, and the father gets blown away by the
noise to what looks like Africa, where Michael Jackson is dancing and singing
the song (so weird to say that sentence). It’s very cheesy but behind the
cheese is a very serious message about equality and diversity amongst the races
of humanity. At the end of the video was quite memorable and innovative at the
time, is loads of people’s faces of different skin colour and complexions
morphing from one person to another. This type of imagery and technology was
rarely used before Michael Jackson used it in this video, so it was pretty
cool. This video is pretty good but cheesy.
Just in case you were wondering, the original video was
quite controversial as it had racial graffiti all over it, but this isn’t the
version I’m placing at #2 in my list, but the revised version now found all
over music channels that cuts this section out.
#1 – “Enter Sandman” by Metallica
What can I say about “Enter Sandman”? It’s just one of the
best music videos of the early nineties. What it lacks in technological quality
it makes up in vivid imagery. The video pretty much follows the lyrics song,
and deals with a child who can’t sleep properly and dreams vividly of the
Sandman, who, in the video, is a very strange old man that is haunting the
little girl. The girl falls from the top of a building, gets covered in snakes,
gets chased by a truck and falls from a mountain while trying to escape the
truck, all the while the Sandman lurks in and around her dreams throughout the
video. And while all of these events are happening, the band is playing in
parts and throughout the entire time, the screen is flickering, only showing
you in parts what’s happening. It’s just a truly magnificent video, especially
when it aired in 1991, and one that really needs to be seen if not seen before.
The Top 10 Most
Impactful Songs of 1991
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.
By trade this is a pop song of course, but it’s status is
legendary as a one-hit wonder of a balanced feeling of cringe and awesomeness.
I mean that. This song is absolutely awesome, but it’s cringe-worthy at the
same time. It’s just a truly remarkable song of cheese, slime and facepalmingly
bad lyrics but I dare you not to like it. This track got to #2 in the UK
charts, but it’s never gone away. It’s too bad not to go away. Right Said Fred
has made a career from this song and you will like it, if you like it or not.
That didn’t make sense. In summary, you love this song so don’t deny it!
Getting to #3 in the UK charts, this GnR song was their highest
charting single in our country until they released “Knockin’ On Heavens Door” a
year later, and the video promoted the classic film “Terminator 2: Judgement
Day”, one of my favourite films ever. It’s tainted nowadays by arguably better
songs like “Paradise City”, “Welcome to the Jungle” and “November Rain”, but
for Guns ‘n’ Roses to get a #3 hit was quite a big deal, and kudos to them for
that. Sorry, I’m not a big fan of Guns ‘n’ Roses or this song! But yeah, you
can’t argue facts, and facts are that in 1991 this was a big hit. A very big
hit.
Probably by today’s standards this song isn’t that popular
in comparison to other U2 songs, but this song got to #1 in the UK and at the
time showed a very different side to the band, a slightly harder edge. The song
is probably more famous for being the song that knocked Bryan Adams’
“Everything I Do (I Do it for You)” off the #1 spot after a 16 week stay up
there. That being said it’s only U2’s second #1 single in the UK, and they’ve
had seven. It definitely showed that U2 are capable of branching their sound to
different genres so kudos to them for that.
#7 – “There’s No Other Way” by Blur
Before the days of “Girls and Boys”, “Parklife”, “Country
House”, “Song 2” and “Coffee and TV” came “There’s No Other Way”, only Blur’s
second single, and the single that brought them huge mainstream attention. The
rest of Blur’s career speaks for itself, but if it weren’t for this song, life
would have been a lot more difficult for the Britpop band that made such an
impact over the course of this decade. It’s one of Blur’s more simple songs,
but it’s still exceptionally catchy, and got to #8 in the UK.
If there’s any song by Queen that’s tragic on a personal
level it’s probably this. The song got to #16, and was written primarily by
legendary guitarist Brian May, and speaks volumes of the pain that Freddie
Mercury was going through in the final year of his life. So much in fact, there
were many concerns whether or not Freddie Mercury could actually sing the song,
but in Brian May’s words, despite all his struggles, Freddie Mercury “he went
in and killed it, completely lacerated that vocal”. So strong is Freddie’s
performance in this song you’d be hard to believe he had any problems at all,
but that was the strength of the man. This was Queen’s last single in the life
of Freddie Mercury. He died six weeks later.
#5 – “Black or White” by Michael Jackson
It may have got to #1 in the UK (and in no fewer than
fourteen other countries) but this song has really tainted over time as a song
that is considered a great Michael Jackson song. It’s not bad don’t get me
wrong, but over his entire career his nineties work is really not taken in high
regard, and even when compared to his other songs of the nineties, this song
still doesn’t really shine ‘brilliance’. Maybe it’s due to the fact that
Michael Jackson is asking us all not to judge a man or woman by the colour of
their skin, yet the mysteries of his skin colour changing over time definitely
questions that logic. Regardless of is Michael Jackson had skin pigmentation
surgery or not, this song and its ethic and moral message, is still important,
and obviously the song had a fantastic impact in 1991.
It was initially hard to choose between “Give it Away” and
“Under the Bridge” as the Chili’s song from the classic “Blood Sugar Sex Magik”
album but after a deeper thought it became very obvious that this song had to
be included in a list of songs that created the most impact. Sure, on a
commercial level, “Give it Away” is the cooler, funkier, more mainstream track,
but deeper down, on a personal level for Anthony Kiedis himself, and as a song
that has created more for the band long term, there’s barely no dispute that
this is one of the Chili Peppers’ finest moments in their illustrious career.
What a song this is. Getting to #13 in the UK, it’s only one of two songs in
the entire Chili’s discography to go platinum in the US (the other being the
far inferior “Dani California”). It’s just a beautifully sad song that deals
with loneliness and depression, and is one of Kiedis’ finest pieces of music.
#3 – “Losing My Religion” by R.E.M.
Once again, another song by another band has been more
successful (this time it’s “Shiny Happy People”) but is omitted for a song that
may not have charted as high, but has had a far larger impact on the career of
the band long term. “Losing My Religion” got to #19, their second biggest hit
in the UK at the time (“The One I Love” got to #16). The song’s lyrics deal
with pining for someone who doesn’t really feel the same way, a feeling I’m
sure we’re all very familiar with. But the song is much more famous for the
riff on the mandolin, an instrument Peter Buck, the guitarist was only starting
to learn at the time. It’s such a beautiful instrument and is the key to why
this song is so memorable. What a song.
#2 – “Enter Sandman” by Metallica
Getting to #5 in the UK is no easy feat for a metal artist,
but Metallica did just that with this blistering effort (they also did it a
second time with “Until it Sleeps”). It’s arguably one of, if not the biggest
Metallica song ever. The lyrics are infamous, the music video memorable, but
nothing can beat the opening intro of the song. It’s absolutely sublime; it’s
one of the best openings to a song ever. “Enter Sandman” is responsible for
turning heads to how good metal can sound, and then “The Black Album”
solidified that foundation. It’s such a huge track, such a brilliant song, and
it’ll forever go down in history as one of metal’s finest efforts.
#1 – “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana
It’s not really a dispute about what was the most
“Impactful” song of 1991. You can easily make a case that this song made a bigger
impact than any song of the nineties. But that’s a conversation for another
day. For today, is the day we celebrate “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, THE song of
the year 1991.
My opening paragraph talks about how the old guard of the
eighties were losing their hold on the change in music. Something was needed to
shake music up, but nothing new was really coming. Until September. “Smells
Like Teen Spirit” changed music history forever.
I don’t even know how or why. It’s not as if it’s the most
amazing song. Nirvana have made much better songs than this. I mean, I really
like “Teen Spirit” but I prefer other songs. But something happened, something
clicked, a bond was made between audience and song, and it changed Nirvana
forever. It changed grunge forever, alternative rock and music changed.
Suddenly bands who were previously considered uncool became cool and it changed
the pop charts for a good amount of time. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is
responsible for that change, and if you like the song or not, you have to
appreciate what impact this song had. It may have only got to #7 in the UK, but
it simply changed everything.
The Year 1991 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 1991. Yes,
this is a biased list.
You can now listen to this playlist on YouTube! Just click here!
And there we go! The year 1991 in review! Next month
naturally I’ll be covering the final year in the nineties, 1990, and continue
my descend into music history. What we your favourite songs and albums from
1991? Any other comments or queries? Raise them below. Thanks for your time.
For the latest updates on my work, 'like' me on Facebook here!
“I’m With You” is just that – the Chili’s being with us,
on CD, but definitely not in spirit.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ tenth major effort is called “I’m
With You”, and was released three months ago. “I’m With You” is the first album
since “Stadium Arcadium”, which was released five years ago, and was met with
decent acclaim and excellent sales. It marks the longest break between two
albums by the band, who have been active for twenty-eight years. Only Anthony
Kiedis, lead singer, and Flea, bass guitarist, have been active for that long.
The album marks a major landmark in their career;
influential guitarist John Frusciante left the band two years ago. He was with
the band for a total of thirteen years, from 1989 to 1992, and then from 1999
to 2009. It’s safe to say replacing him was difficult, but the Chili’s chose
Josh Klinghoffer, someone the band were very familiar with, as he had worked
with Frusciante many times beforehand. Klinghoffer has been a tour and session
guitarist for many bands, including PJ Harvey, Butthole Surfers and Beck.
The album starts off with “Monarchy of Roses”; the beginning
is pretty cool with some distorted guitars and a nice drumbeat, but then it
turns into every other Red Hot Chili Peppers song. That sounds critical, and in
a certain way it is, but it isn’t a bad song, it’s just nothing different you
would expect from the Chili’s. The disappointment really is that this is the
second single off the album, and you would expect better when you compare it to
other songs the band has released. After the balanced opener, we get “Factory
of Faith”, which features a lot of the funk you’d expect from the band, without
it ever getting past second gear. It’s one of the better tracks on the album as
it sounds quite cool, but as I said, it just doesn’t step up at all, and
remains a relatively upbeat song.
And that’s the problem with this album on the whole; it
never goes to third gear or beyond. What’s on this album is fine, it truly is;
it’s what you would expect from a Chili’s album, apart from that it lacks that
spice that their singles usually pack. There’s no fantastic and funky song on
here, like a “Give it Away” or a “Can’t Stop”, nor is their a truly beautiful
and heart-pulling track like “Breaking the Girl” or “Otherside”.
The best song on the album is probably track three,
“Brendan’s Death Song”, it’s a beautifully written, beautifully sung and
beautifully composed song. The song builds up slowly as it goes on, once again
it never takes off, but in this instance you don’t want it to. It’s very
similar to a lot of the other slower songs on other albums, in the respect that
it remains a rock song, but also has certain elements of ballad in there. It’s
just a great track.
The seventh track, “The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie”, is
the main single off the album but if you didn’t know that you wouldn’t have
thought so. The song has no redeeming features that other main singles off
other albums has. Compare it to “Dani California”, “By the Way”, or “Scar
Tissue”. It’s not even in the same league.
The album is jam-packed full of dare I say it, generic
Chili’s material. I can barely comment on most of the songs without stretching
myself, something I don’t really want to do, as it sounds desperate. But I find
myself doing so; track eight is “Did I Let You Know”, and it sounds quite good,
but it’s further emphasis to the “slightly upbeat” Chili’s song. Oh, and there’s a nice guitar
solo in “Goodbye Hooray”. See? I’m stretching myself.
Track ten, “Happiness Loves Company”, is one of the songs
that stand out a little more than the others, it has some nice work on the
drums and Kiedis’ vocals are particularly good here. “Even You, Brutus?”, which
is track twelve, features some almost preaching vocals by Kiedis and it has a
slightly on the cuff feeling to it and the chorus is quite fun, especially in
comparison to what else is available on here. The album’s ending, “Dance,
Dance, Dance” ends in a way that’s fitting for this album, a slightly upbeat
(yes I used the term again) track that suggests you dance all night long. And
if you want to dance half heartedly, then the song is definitely apt for it.
I don’t want to come across as bitter and disappointed but
I’ve got to be honest, I am. This album was very disappointing for me. I’ve
reviewed many younger artists than the Chili’s and I’ve reviewed artists that
have been going on for longer than the Chili’s. And I can honestly say that
this album feels the most lacking in effort that I’ve reviewed. Now, the Red
Hot Chili Peppers are a great band, and the quality is here. But it’s like a
firework past its explosion. I find the album lacks the energy, the drive and
imagination that their previous work has. I don’t want to call the Chili’s past
it. I don’t even want to say it’s the departure of iconic guitarist John
Frusciante that leads to this disappointment. It just feels the band haven’t
tried very hard, and in turn, it leads to me not trying very hard to review it.
“I’m With You” is just that – the Chili’s being with us, on CD, but definitely
not in spirit.
Rating: *** stars
Stand out tracks: “Brendan's Death Song”, “Even You,
Brutus?” “Factory of Faith”
Here's the video for the second single "Monarchy of Roses"...
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Hey there, welcome to my newest Q&A session. These questions are all taken off my Formspring account, which you can find here. These were answered a while ago, and I've changed the answers if the situation has changed since then.
Before I start, I have some bad news. I'm not going to be covering the hopefully great match between Liverpool and Manchester City on Sunday. I'm away for the weekend. The plan is to post this, and then on Monday I'll be hopefully reviewing the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album. Anyway, enjoy Q&A Part 6.
Q: Who was the best boss you've ever had?
A: My boss before she retired in April, by some distance as well. I mean no boss is perfect but I did like her. It's difficult answering this, I have her on my Facebook, I'm not a kissass, it's my honest opinion.
Q: What music are you listening to today?
A: Music from 1994. I'm preparing the Mixtape for the "1994 in Music Review" which you will see posted here probably January 1st or 2nd 2012.
Q: Would you rather be a zombie or a mummy?
A: Zombie, at least I can move about easier, there is a chance I might spend a long time lying down if I were a mummy.
Q: What's the furthest you've ever traveled?
A: Argentina to take part in something that should hopefully be quite clear on this site in late January. Stay tuned.
Q: How many languages do you speak?
A: I speak fluent English and Welsh, although I am extremely rusty with my Welsh now. I haven't been in a first language Welsh school for eight years, and I haven't been in a second language Welsh school for four
Q: Would you rather have the ability to fly, or the ability to breathe underwater?
A: Ability to fly, easy, what views you can see from there...
Q: What was your favorite book as a child?
A: I was huge on Roald Dahl as a kid. What an author.
Q: Do you consider yourself a good dancer?
A: Not really, I don't "have the moves", I can move but I can't do much with it. I also get embarrassed doing it too.
Q: What would be the best thing about being a vampire?
A: I suppose it would be the fact that it's harder to die as a vampire, as long as you avoid the common threats (ie wood, light etc).
Q: If you could go on vacation for the next month with an unlimited budget, where would you go?
A: Hmmm... probably Switzerland but I'm more interested in this unlimited budget than the
location...
Q: Who and when was your first kiss?
A: Jeez I can't remember, I think it was with a girl called Nia, when I was around 6 years old.
Q: What's the most delicious meal you've ever had?
A: I'm not really sure, I've had some pretty good ones, I don't remember meals often, more the food and if I like them I want them more often.
Q: If you had to perform at the circus, what trick would you do?
A: Definitely the Wall of Death, that's so kickass, it should be more popular than it is.
Q: What message would you want to put in a fortune cookie?
A: Be patient, too many people expect everything straight away. Good comes to those that wait.
Q: What is your favourite thing in the whole world, not a person.
A: Thing? Erm, food probably, I love food a lot. Then games.
Q: If you could have been the author of any book, what would it have been?
A: Probably Nineteen Eighty-Four, it's a fantastic book, and is very relevant for what the world is like today.
Q: What was the last book you read?
A: Dr. Dale's Zombie Dictionary The A-Z Guide To Staying Alive, which is a great book about, naturally, how to survive a zombie apocalypse. It's a must read for the inevitable.
Q: What's your favorite video game?
A: If I had to choose one, it's probably Final Fantasy IX, it's had the most impact on my life and as a gamer it's almost perfect in every way.
Q: What's your favorite school subject, and why's it your favorite?
A: My favourite subject through most of school was Maths, I was very good at it, I started to lose interest and struggled a bit more with it maybe GCSE onwards though. Then on, I started showing more interest in Art and English.
Q: Are you a member of any other social networking websites?
And that's my latest Formspring update. Once again if you want to follow me on Formspring you can do so here. As I said I'm away this weekend so this is my last post until Monday. Have a good one and take care.
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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.
