The 90s

[Thenop]

Being born in 1970 my formative years musically speaking are the '80s. It is said between 12 – 16 you are most imprinted, whatever you hear and like at age 15 is meant to last a lifetime. And it's true, even though I do not always appreciate it every now and then I feel the need to put on the likes of Possessed or Slayer and feel like I am a misfit once again. Whether that feeling went away, well, who knows. And to be honest, who cares?

So, one might ask, why is this a '90s story then? Well, while most people stop their musical development somewhere in their 20s (hence the very lively golden oldies stations and shows) and tend to stop there, I keep up. Every day even, which I take great pride in, I find new bands to enjoy. And it struck me that he '90s are a very underappreciated era still. Sure, grunge was huge ironically, it's very roots being a protest against the reigning hair metal trend, it became the million seller Cobain & all so much detested. But it's not necessarily that band I want to write about. I wanted to pick 5 albums, not bands, to bring forward. Well known? Perhaps too some, for sure not to all.

So, will I include Radiohead? No. Not because I don't like them, I love Radiohead, but because I think that ever since the '90s equivalent of Sgt. Peppers (bring on the drama) OK Computer, everyone has heard this album and it is difficult to sing praise to something as praised as that. In the rare event you haven't heard it though: stop reading and listen to it now. And then again and some more. It is everything it pretends to be and a major influence on all music since. Shit, I just did what I said I wouldn't.

So what else is missing? Except for 1, the most obvious ones. So, no Nevermind, Ten or any RHCP album. No Mellon Collie which, in all its brilliance, is actually overlong.

Also, not surprisingly, no Rush. The '90s were not exactly the boys' most shining hour.
No, this is the story of the 5 albums I listened to most upon release and they have earned special place in my heart. So let's start.

In order of release:
1990 – Jane's Addiction – Ritual de lo Habitual
1991 – Last Crack – Burning Time
1991 – Mind Funk – Mind Funk
1992 – Saigon Kick – The Lizard
1994 – Jeff Buckley

Yes, I know, one sticks out immediately: Buckley's astonishing debut. I just can't leave that one out of any list. It might even be at top 3 album for me.

So, the '90s, leaving the hedonistic 80s hair metal and poser music behind me, I head-first stormed into the grunge wave. I loved the checkered shirts, toned down sound and introvert lyrics but it wasn't long before I realized Pearl Jam is a classic rock band, Alice in Chains a metal band and Soundgarden, well Soundgarden. Anything but grunge then? Yes and no, the grit brought by the album sounds rubbed of. Gone were the gated snare and tom sounds, the overblown productions and likewise hair. But I kept on feeling like I was missing something. There was nothing fun, nothing to even try & cheer me up. Mind you, I was happy in my hole, but I was an '80s kid, so if I needed music to bring me down, I'd have my pick of the British bands that outdid so many of their US peers. (There's a brilliant Robert Smith clip on YouTube at a red carpet thing that sums it up in about 5 seconds, I'll find it someday). Until one day I ran into an album with a strange name, with an equally weird looking outfit posing on the videos: Jane's Addiction. I fell in love with the opener 'Stop' with its' Spanish intro spoken and funk infused (Dave Navarro) guitars and drums. I was intrigued. Singer Perry Farrell (actually Bernstein, but he took a cue from the word Peripheral for his stage name) was and is not the best singer, but JA's main attraction was the combination of music & shows. Find some footage on Youtube with dancers, trapeze artists and all and you know what I mean. It is a true LA glitter extravaganza. This was so far from grunge, yet so close because of the less than overproduced sound, this had to be fantastic. And it was. If you haven't heard it, just indulge yourself and listen to 'Three Days' off of the afore mentioned album. Highlight of the album and possible JA's career is a near 11 minute tour de force rumoured to describe a 3 day sex, drugs and drink binge Farrell had gone through (and which is reflected in the albums artwork).

Mind you, the rest of the album is just as extravagant with 'Then She Did' and 'Of Course' clocking in over 8 & 7 mins respectively being progressive in song structure an style.

'Been Caught Stealing' was the big single here, reaching top marks in the charts.

Last Crack's Burning Time is cut from a different cloth although similar in its' insistence to be different and equipped with an extraordinary frontman that goes by the name of Buddo. This outfit could be mistaken on initial listening to an era band, but upon repeated listens the album reveals itself as an interesting mix of engaged music rooted in the more alternative scene than in rock. Although the guitars can squeal and sometimes even a metallic edge can be heard it has a different starting point it seems. Rhythmically it is far from metal and vocally even more. It could, in a way, be compared to Tool when it comes to that. Not as heavy or as progressive but more in the sense that the band identifies as more than a one genre band. 'Mini Toboggan' is one of the album highlights with its brooding sphere, waiting to explode and it then never fully does but the fantastic vocal performance of Buddo is the real attention seeker here. The title track was probably the most listened to song at the time with its' fantastic drive and airy illusions. It sounds like it's written for arena's never played to. There's many more song highlights and it saddens me when I have a quick look at the dreaded Spotify it has drawn so little attention... 'Oooh' with it's wailing vocal and piano feels like a long forgotten art: the album closer.
Still a great album after 32 years!

Now, for a bit of fun: Mind Funk's debut (yes they wanted to call themselves Mindfuck...) is a metal funk album still firmly rooted in the tongue in cheek tradition with exceptional musicianship. The big one on here is 'Big House Burning' with its relentless drive that makes you either tap your foot (in company) or completely let go (when alone). Signed by a major label this band was going places...until they didn't. I felt they had it all at the time, but not enough others thought so apparently. Anyway, a lot of fun that takes up 40 minutes of your time, if you have them to spare. Don't forget to enjoy 'Sister Blue', a lovely acoustic ballad that should have cracked the top 10 everywhere.

Then, 'Love is on the Way' was the big hit off of this one: Saigon Kicks' the Lizard. It was this album, well actually the mastermind behind the band (Jason Bieler) that inspired to this write up (see now listening thread). SK was a vessel for his musical antics that ranged from anywhere as popmetal (basis of everything), to acoustic ballads (the afore mention 'Love is on the Way, but also 'God of 42nd Street'), to short blasts of punky music ('My Dog'), and 50's poptune 'Chanel'.

Personal favourites include the super catchy 'Feel the Same Way', funmetal 'Peppermint Tribe' and the titletrack with its grinding riff.
But above all, the fantastic vocal performance of this band with its vocal harmonies always very neatly harmonized is what makes this album stand out among peers.

And then the one 'big one', Jeff Buckley's Grace. I already mentioned I will always find a way to make mention of this album and Buckley's music. It is hard to overstate what this album does to me when I listen to it, it is an emotional listen, his voice probably described countless times, to me is so pure. I have read and heard music is the art form that displays the human emotion the most because it is direct, from mouth or instrument to ear, nothing else that veils the impact it has on you. On me, in this case. Buckley's voice, full of pathos, does more to me than many a full song. 'Hallelujah', a Leonard Cohen cover partly making use of verses not in the original recording, has been covered so many times it could have lost its magic easily, but it hasn't. Not for me, nor should it for anyone else. It is so powerful, yet fragile. And that is maybe the core of this album: every song has something that makes it stand out, makes that it has more than one face. Opener 'Mojo Pin' starts out as if you're drifting in nothingness but the choruses and closing parts seems to grab you by the throat and (yes) pin you down. The title track with its open chord progression beginning turns into a monster of a song: "Wait in the Fire, Wait in the Fire", I will Jeff, I will. 'Last Goodbye', the big break up, the how's and why's, did we come to this are explained, not just thrown out there. And it sounds as Last Goodbye as well. It is a definitive song. The mere mention of 'Corpus Christi Carol', the most traditional song on here (Benjamin Britten as composer) is enough for me to shut up. So volatile it sounds, if something would make me religious, it's this. (And my grandmother, who passed before this album was even released).

I need to stop and turn up the volume now. This album in its core, stripped down to the bare essence is about love and loss, aren't all great works of art just that? It is not for nothing this is extremely successful album that resonates after 30 years still with so many people.

So all in all, the 90's: not bad. Although as with everything, beauty is in the eye (or ear) of the beholder.
 

[The Picnic Wasp]

Thank you.

[pxr5]

Nice post. I got married in 1989 and a son in 1995 - so I didn't really pay much attention to music in the 90s so it passed me by somewhat. I did listen to Radiohead a lot and OK Computer is an incredible album. So too is one of your choices: Jane's Addiction - Ritual de lo Habitual, it's one of few albums I bought in the early 90s after catching the brilliant video for Been Caught Stealing. Great band. I know and like Jeff Buckley's Grace as well, but the other 3 I have no idea about.

Two musical things from the 90s I hated was the rise of Raves and Rave music; also Brit Pop (some of it was not too bad, but on the whole a genre best forgotten for me), I'm not sure those 2 things impacted on The Netherlands much - if they didn't, lucky you 

[Nickslikk2112]

I got married in 1990, had a son in 1998. I'd about given up on music in the 1990s. Still bought Kerrang! out of habit and would buy new releases by Metallica and Rush and go see them when they toured.
To my mind we reached peak music in the 70s and it was all downhill - bar Thrash Metal - from there on in and I was prepared to slide into middle age.

I think it was seeing Alice in Chains on Later with Jools Holland that just kept me bubbling along with the realisation that Heavy Metal was still out there, since the 00s I started picking up on things again, mostly stuff that sounds like it's from the 60s or 70s, nothing that sounds like the 90s!

[captainkurtz]

Jeff Buckley's Grace is my favourite record of all time.  The Janes record you mention isn't far behind...

I saw Mind Funk supporting Kings X in 1990 - I still have a signed flyer somewhere.

Beautiful post.  I reminisce about the 90's constantly.  My favourite decade - university, music, meeting my wife...so good.

[The Picnic Wasp]

I'm glad someone else made such a wonderful summation of the 90s. The decade which awakened me.

[dom]

Going to listen to Grace for the first time this afternoon!

The 90s don't hold much of a place in my heart musically.  Find it quite hard to tie much down to that period bar Radiohead and the Rush output over that period. 

[Thenop]

Going to listen to Grace for the first time this afternoon!

The 90s don't hold much of a place in my heart musically.  Find it quite hard to tie much down to that period bar Radiohead and the Rush output over that period. 

Oh fantastic, I found someone who hasn't heard it 

[Slim]

Great post, I enjoyed reading that on holiday.

I liked the '90s, musically. I loved some of the Britpop bands - Menswear, Kula Shaker and others. Can't deny that I played Morning Glory a lot. Loved Paul Weller's stuff from the mid '90s. Loved Suede; Dog Man Star is one of my favourite records ever.

Really enjoyed the Soup Dragons, the Mondays, the Farm - used to go to a pub in Derby every Thursday night when they had a DJ on, and they always used to play that stuff.

The Shoegaze bands as well - Lush and Catherine Wheel for example.

Massive Attack - I think this is probably my single favourite single of the 1990s:

But most of all Radiohead. Two brilliant albums.

I listened to a lot of jazz as well. There were three really good McLaughlin albums in that decade. I don't really think of them as being associated with a particular decade though, except for the cold fact of the date of their release.

[Slim]

Thinking about it there were a few albums that I played over and over again in the car in the early / mid '90s, although two of them were released in the '80s. Once Around The World and Eat Me in St Louis by It Bites, and Dirt by Alice in Chains.

[Thenop]

Thinking about it there were a few albums that I played over and over again in the car in the early / mid '90s, although two of them were released in the '80s. Once Around The World and Eat Me in St Louis by It Bites, and Dirt by Alice in Chains.

Dirt is so good. How a group of people ever laid this down without offing themselves upon completion remains a mystery to me.
The Dirt songs on the Unugged performance are so powerful, Staley was so fragile it is a miracle he lived as long as he did after that.

[Thenop]

found the Robert Smith reference I made above, first 25 secs are essential and very Smith. Love it.

[The Picnic Wasp]

The nineties was a bittersweet time for me. It was a physically and emotionally charged time in which I spent large periods driving long distances, sitting on trains or hanging about airports. My long-term girlfriend had finished her studies and moved back to Essex and much of my time and money was spent on planning or executing our next meet. Looking back, the music which meant the most to me then was a bit scarce, probably as I couldn't spend much on albums due to financial pressures. The standout stuff was however, Counterparts, The Division Bell and latterly OK Computer, fuelling the misery of the breakup. I will always be grateful for being introduced to Peter Hammill as part of the deal. She hated Rush though, and when I later reached the place where I could laugh again at some of the memories, I had a quiet chuckle when Rush and Peter Hammill appeared on the same Prog magazine front cover.

[Slim]

I'd pretty much lost interest in Rush by the early '90s. One day in late 1993 I was browsing Our Price records in Derby, where I lived at the time - and I saw a Rush album I'd never heard of in the CD racks; Counterparts of course. I had no idea that there were even plans for a new album, let alone that they'd recorded and released one. But I wasn't one to read Kerrang, Metal Hammer et al.

If I remember correctly this was the impetus that finally prompted me to buy a CD player, a Marantz CD52. Not sure because I recall that my first CD was Crowded House's Woodface. I should have mentioned the Crowdies in my first post in this thread actually - I loved Woodface and (especially) Together Alone.

Anyway whatever the circumstances, when I finally did get to listen to Craperpants it just left me cold. It was flat, mediocre, uninspired. I well remember being glad it was over and thinking "yep, I won't be listening to that one again". I pretty much expected it after Roll The Bones which if anything is worse.

And I didn't, not for years. Of course I've patiently sat through some of the tunes at live gigs. I've dug it out for a TNMS sync once or twice. Sari made me listen to it at her place in Helsinki once. But I have no plans to repeat the experience. There are worse Rush albums but it's banal corporate rock at best.

It was the Internet that revived my interest in Rush. My very first exposure to the Internet was in 1994. I'd been an IT specialist for five years by this time but neither of the companies I'd worked for had any interest in the Information Superhighway.

I saw my first Internet-connected computer at an exhibition at Olympia in the summer of that year. My very first interaction with the Internet was to type 'Rush' into an Internet search engine (Lycos probably) and some transcripts from the old National Midnight Star mailing list popped up.

In 1996 I joined an American firm that had Internet-connected workstations on every desk (I couldn't believe it!) and I became the scourge of the fanbois. Arguing about Presto, 2112 et al endlessly, and the sense of being part of the global fan community really refurbished my interest in the band.

So I was well prepared for Test For Echo when it came out, and I was really pleased to find that it was a big improvement on the previous couple of albums. I still think it's a good (not great) album if you overlook the stinkers, one of which is Peart's attempt to pour scorn on the very phenomenon that helped to keep the band alive for millions of people.

[The Picnic Wasp]

Strange, isn't it? One man's meat as the saying goes, even when a liking for a band is shared. I just took to Counterparts immediately. There was a rawness and edge to the instruments that had been blanketed away for a while, and it felt strangely like a live album to me. I've read Animate being slated all over the place and I'm absolutely hooked on that track. I was buzzing when they performed it at R30 on the first Wembley night of my first Rush away fixture. All about feel I suppose and I just don't get that with TFE, which annoys me as I'd much rather not have the hang ups about it as it's by my favourite band.
Early dial-up internet exploration was a mystery to me. I had no notion of what a PC really was. I'd parted company with my Atari computer a while before as I knew nobody who could help me get Cubase up and doing the things I dreamt of doing with synths. I stumbled across TNMS by chance on one of my obsessive Rush searches. I had no idea what it was. Just random ramblings by similarly minded Rush fans like me, but I had no perception of how to navigate these blocks of information. The penny eventually dropped after a few more visits and I remember being so excited when Stewart spotted me online alone in the wee small hours and asked me make a couple of posts to let him run some checks. I felt like I'd just been given one of the band's phone numbers. I also got chatting somewhere else to a Jack Relax person who much later I got to find out worked in the White House with Obama and appears in the Rush documentary. Can't imagine life without the internet now but we'd probably be happier, safer and less stressed if it had never happened. I'd buy a lot more books and music magazines, that's for sure.