Tag Archives: 90s music

Aug18

Beck Performs ‘Debra’

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Beck Performs ‘Debra’

Beck performs "Debra" accoustically (photo: Richard Crowley)

Listen to this track by L.A-based R&B-fixated pop cut-up artist Beck. It’s “Debra”, a Princely track taken from his 1999 funkified, Young Americans-esque Midnite Vultures, a follow-up to the more sombre Mutations album.  The song was a stuck in at the end of the record that explored a number of R&B textures through an indie-rock filter in Beck’s attempt to tear down the walls between the rock world and the world of R&B as it stood at the time.

Known for being something of a slacker poster boy when he debuted in the early ’90s, by the end of the decade, Beck had done some serious work in undercutting that original incarnation by cutting follow-up records that seemingly had no connection between each one. If Odelay was a study in cut-and-paste quasi hip hop, then Mutations turned in a more acoustically based acid folk-rock direction. That record was only to be followed by this one, Midnite Vultures, full of samples and squiggly casios, yet also now punctuated with R&B horns and falsetto vocals.

But, what was Beck trying to pull with this song, “Debra”. Was he really serious?

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Aug1

Orbital Spin “Way Out →”

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Orbital Spin “Way Out →”

Orbital Middle of NowhereListen to this track by brotherly turntablists and pop culture mash-up men Phil and Paul Hartnoll, otherwise known as Orbital. It’s “Way Out →”, the epic lead track off of their 1999 album Middle of Nowhere.

Put all one-dimensional associations you may have of electronica, or worse “dance music” aside, and listen to the operatic glory of this track. Here, electronic samples and beats live quite happily along with warm, muted horns. This is music made for listeners, as well as dancers. In some ways, the Hartnolls were outside of the tecnhno scene, in that they never seemed to follow the trends. Trend-following is rife in techno. But, not so with Orbital and this track. Read the rest of this entry →

Jul25

Neil Finn Sings “She Will Have Her Way”

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Neil Finn Sings “She Will Have Her Way”

Here’s a clip of New Zealand favourite son, Crowded House occupant, and songwriting heavyweight Neil Finn. It’s the 1998 single “She Will Have Her Way”, as taken from his first solo outing that year, Try Whistling This. And once again, we see that Neil Finn’s approach to the writing of love songs doesn’t follow the most direct route, which of course brings the theme of love right down to earth, and sometimes deeper underground.

The record was lauded in the music press at the time, although hints at a more experimentalist approach worried many. Crowded House had broken up a year before, and Finn was starting anew. A different approach was to be expected. And the first single off of the record, “Sinner”, certainly demonstrated a repositioned approach sonically, mixing pop/rock arrangements with (gasp!) samples.

Yet, “She Will Have Her Way” is as hook-laden and smart as any Crowded House tune, and with one of my favourite videos of the decade to recommend it. Read the rest of this entry →

Jul18

Madonna Sings “Drowned World/Substitute For Love”

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Madonna Sings “Drowned World/Substitute For Love”

Listen to this track by self-professed Material Girl turned duchess of adult-oriented dance pop, Madonna. It’s the William Orbit-abetted track “Drowned World/Substitute For Love” as taken from 1998′s Ray of Light, as close as Madonna ever got to confessional singer-songwriter self-reflection, albeit in an ambient electronic dance milieu. Yet, this song is not without a sizeable portion of melodic gravity. Let those who dismiss her work as lightweight and uninteresting aural confectionary take note.

Madonna started off in the New York dance club subculture, and built herself up with the help of several people on the scene. Even from those early days, she seemingly possessed a savant-like skill for marketing in the video age. As a result, Madonna became what many would consider to be a cultural icon.

Along with that keen eye for the market, she understood well that the pop world is constantly shifting, changing, deking out even the most savvy of artists. As audiences age, and as musical trends morph over the decades, many artists have been left behind. When considering such a position, the smartest artists can read the writing on the wall even before it fully materializes. And they know who to turn to when it does.

By the end of the 90s, such a person to turn to for Madonna was British dance producer/artist William Orbit, who would help Madonna deliver a mid-career masterpiece, with both critical and commercial acclaim. But, even if it is very tempting to look at the resulting album Ray of Light solely as a tactic to stay in the charts, what a song like “Substitute For Love” reveals is that Madonna wanted to close the distance between herself and her audience in more ways than just record sales.

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Jun30

Ben & Jason Perform “Widow’s Walk”

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Ben & Jason Perform “Widow’s Walk”

Listen to this track by melancholic British acoustic pop duo Ben & Jason. It’s “Widow’s Walk”, the lead track off of their 1999 record Emoticons. If you’re detecting that classic, Nick Drake vibe coming off of this track, it might be because Drake string-arranger and schoolfriend Robert Kirby was called upon to write up the charts for the strings on this song.

Of course it helps that Ben & Jason worked well together to take that Nick Drake sound, and mix it with a late ’90s British rock sound. Ben Parker (vocals and guitar) and Jason Hazeley (keyboards) had put out a record in 1998, Hello, which locked into that moodier rock space that seemed to follow the chirpy irony of Brit-pop.  The duo’s acoustic pop and chamber pop leanings created the same sort of overcast atmosphere as, say “No Surprises”, or “Lucky” from Radiohead, yet with enough pop elements to invite less gravity.

Yet, there was more to this collaboration than met the eye, stylistically speaking. Read the rest of this entry →

Apr14

The Beautiful South Play “Rotterdam (or Anywhere)”

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The Beautiful South Play “Rotterdam (or Anywhere)”

Listen to this track by Hull-based popsters and Housemartins splinter group The Beautiful South. It’s “Rotterdam (or Anywhere)”, a smash UK single from 1996 as taken from the band’s fifth album Blue is the Colour, the second record by the band to feature its newest member and co-lead vocalist Jacqui Abbot

This is a gentle, lilting song that is barely conceals some pretty bitter misanthropy. It’s classic pop music contrast for which this band, and writers Paul Heaton and Dave Rotheray, are known.

The Beautiful South’s back catalogue shows a track record of bright, sunny pop songs that are lyrically opposite, with the love song to the names of several women in “Song For Whoever” being something of a non-love song, just as a for-instance. To me, this contrast makes their material very three-dimensional, further developed by the sonic textures of male voices and female voices sharing leads.

Along with Heaton’s lead voice, the band employed singer Briana Corrigan, who was then replaced by Jacqui Abbot, who was a less-than-minimum-wage shelf stacker in a supermarket before she was heard singing karaoke in a club, and recruited by Heaton. Read the rest of this entry →

Mar7

John Mellencamp Sings “Get A Leg Up”

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John Mellencamp Sings “Get A Leg Up”

Here’s a clip of radio-friendly  singer-songwriter and Hoosier roots rock hero formerly known as ‘Cougar’ John Mellencamp with his 1991 hit that out-Stoneses the Stones. It’s “Get A Leg Up” as taken from Mellencamp’s Whenever We Wanted. This album is his first not to feature the ‘Cougar’ moniker, as given to him without his permission by the record company when his first album came out.

R&B, rock ‘n’ roll, and pop music is rife with stage named artists from Bo Diddley, Howlin’ Wolf, and Muddy Waters, to Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Elton John, David Bowie, Elvis Costello, Sting, Flea, Lady Gaga, and on and on. These artists created and wore their names to suit their music, and their personas on stage. Mellencamp would spend the rest of his career fighting for his name. And here, he claims it, with a knock-it-out-of-the-park rock ‘n’ roll tune that brings it all back home.

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Dec16

Happy Birthday Keith Richards: 10 Musical Moments

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Happy Birthday Keith Richards: 10 Musical Moments

This coming December 18th is actually the celebration of two birthdays. One, a celebration of the birthday of Rolling Stones songwriter/guitarist, rock n’ roll pirate, and superhuman drug-abuse survivor Keith Richards. And the other, incredibly, is the birthday of this very blog in its present form, which is three years old today. Happy birthday to us!

But, today let’s focus on Keef. He’s  known by many  these days for his ruined visage and onstage tenacity as a rock n’ roll musician. He’s still doing it even on the occasion of his 67th birthday, and also in the year that his biography Keith Richards Life was released.

So, what I’d like to do is to list some musical highlights in a career that offers an embarrassment of riches. Where many of the greatest tracks with the Stones were fronted by Keith’s musical partner, Mick Jagger, Keith himself has often taken the helm, providing lead vocals as well as game-changing touches as a guitar player.

And even when he hasn’t come to the fore as a lead singer, it was established very early on that even if early Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham was listed as the producer on the band’s early albums, the real musical ear behind their catalogue in the studio was Keith himself. The takes that were used on the records were done so on Keith’s approval.

So, let’s take a look at 10 such moments that best features Keith’s musical signature, which is a cultural contribution unlikely, if not completely impossible, to replace. Read the rest of this entry →

Oct14

Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Perform “Four Sticks”

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Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Perform “Four Sticks”

Listen to this track from Percy and Pagey, once of conquering Nordic-style hard rock  demi-gods Led Zeppelin, reunited as world-music enthusiasts Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.  It’s “Four Sticks”, a massively underappreciated Zep track from their most soundly celebrated 1971 untitled fourth album (sometimes called IV, Four Symbols, or Zoso), and revisited here on their live No Quarter album, recorded and released in late 1994.

Since 1980, and through solo career efforts of varying degrees of success and quality, Page and Plant were burdened with their legacy as game-changing rock icons.  The pair were constantly asked about Zep re-unions, teased out by appearances with John Paul Jones at Live Aid (with Tony Thompson and Phil Collins sitting in for a departed John Bonham).  There was also a brief show together at the 1988 Atlantic Records 40th anniversary.  Yet, through it all, the commonality that runs through their music was their interest in Celtic traditions and the blues as informed by the musical traditions of North Africa. Read the rest of this entry →

Sep25

Guilty Pleasures: Seal “Kiss From A Rose”

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Guilty Pleasures: Seal “Kiss From A Rose”

The guy has a perfect life; married to a supermodel (happily mind you) with a jet setting life and a brood of great kids.

You hate him already, don’t you?

And his brand of new agey soul is like fingernails on a chalkboard to most respectable music nerds like me.  So, who would have thought that I could love a song from his easy-listening, sensitive new age, fashion-model grade pen?

And yet, I do.

I’m going to burn in music geek hell, but I do.

And it’s taken from a bad Batman movie too!

Enjoy?