Thanks for reading about last week's entry The Rock and Metal Double Feature Show. As always the next episode will be put up tonight at midnight, if you want to listen. But this entry talks about last week's record breaking episode. I've had more listens to last week's show than any show I've done before. I had a lot of support from my usuall listeners, but also from local bands Black Water County and Bad for Lazarus, who plugged the show as well. Thanks so much guys. This week also had me do my first interview in around seven years. Local Bournemouth band Black Water County joined me and had a good seven minute interview, and played their track "The Pirate Song". Check out their other stuff at https://www.facebook.com/BlackWaterCounty. I'll be promoting another local band on today's show so look out for that too. Here's last week's show:
The Rock and Metal Double Feature Show: 22/3/14 Track listing: The Rock Show Elevation - U2 Strong - London Grammar Hotel California - The Eagles Evil (Is Going On) - Jace Everett and CC Adcock Here Without You - 3 Doors Down From Yesterday - 30 Seconds to Mars Best of You - Foo Fighters The Pirate Song - Black Water County Red Hot Moon - Rancid Here Comes the Summer - The Undertones My Muddle - Bad for Lazarus Where is my Mind? - The Pixies
The Metal Hour Children of the Grave - White Zombie Change - Deftones The Bad Touch - Bloodhound Gang Sweet Dreams - Probot (with King Diamond) Ashes in the Fall - Rage Against the Machine You'll Rebel to Anything (As Long as it's Not Challenging) - Mindless Self Indulgence Dying in Your Arms - Trivium Crucify Me - Bring Me the Horizon Cotton Eye Joe - Worx Wolftribe - Vader Fear of the Dark - Iron Maiden 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!
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!
