And so we continue. With things still somewhat of a struggle, we are keeping on with our series of decade playlists.
This time we roll into the 1990s. The previous decade had been the one for my musical awakening, so what would the 90s bring? The Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys and Britney may have all been doing their thing - but what else was there for the music connoisseur?
To be honest, many of the 'scenes' passed me by at the time, I was busy discovering stuff I had missed in the 80s. But there is much about grunge, Brit pop and even Madchester that I came to love in time.
All of those, and much more, are represented below. As ever, it will mostly be ones you've heard of - nothing too obscure or weird.....
1. Nirvana: Smells Like Teen Spirit
Well, we might as well kick things off with a bang! I could have gone with any number of songs to get things up and running, but something straightforward (and loud) seemed to fit the bill. My time at college, 1991-94, mirrored the rise of Nirvana through to the sad demise of Kurt Cobain in April of 94. While I liked all the songs of theirs I heard, I think the fact that they were the archetypal student band possibly pushed me away. It wasn't until a few later when I heard the live album, From The Muddy Banks Of The Wishkah, that I realised what a fantastic band they actually were - so much raw, punk power.
2. The Stone Roses: Love Spreads
The lead off single from the Stone Roses second album, Second Coming (1994), was a bluesy epic, and at number two in the UK, their highest charting song. It is a re-telling of the Passion Of Christ, with Jesus portrayed as a black woman, with guitarist John Squire saying the lyrics were also influenced by Rosalind Miles' book, The Women's History Of The World.
3. Crowded House: Distant Sun
While I first fell in love with Crowded House on hearing their second album, Temple Of Low Men, in 1988, by the time the fourth one came out, Neil Finn's writing had gone up even more levels. Together Alone, produced (perhaps somewhat surprisingly) by Youth (Killing Joke), had so much subtle power and exquisite beauty seeping out of every track. There were log drummers and Māori singers, but on Distant Sun, the lead single, we just got a smack in the face of simple elegance and wonder. "I don't pretend to know what you want, but I offer love."
4. Pulp: Common People
By 1995's Different Class, Pulp were experienced older hands on the British scene - this was their fifth album. Common People became one of the catchiest memories from the decade, full of Jarvis Cocker's witty and clever lyrics about a Greek art student at St Martin's College. Based on a real experience he had while studying there, it was a put down of the phenomenon of 'class tourism', where wealthy people would ascribe a sense of glamour to living in relative poverty.
5. Blur: Tender
Look away Oasis fans. In the so-called battle between them and Blur, I'm afraid there was only ever one winner. While Oasis did a nice line as a nostalgic 60s tribute band, Blur were (are) constantly at the cutting edge. We might not like everything they do, but they have never stood still - everything is a little different to the time before. The recent low-key gig they did for the BBC (July 2023) is one of the best things I have seen in a while (if you can access the BBC iPlayer you absolutely must watch it). For this playlist, I have eschewed the loud and rocky (Parklife, Song 2) and gone for the more subtle, yet no less powerful, Tender. By this point, they had fully left their Brit Pop past behind and were moving into more experimental territory. Written about Damon Albarn's break up with Justine Frischmann, it includes gorgeous backing vocals from the London Community Gospel Choir.
6. Throwing Muses: Not Too Soon
Okay, this was not a big hit, so might not be all that well known (but should be) - but it is a fantastic indie pop tune. The Real Ramona was my gateway to Rhode Island's finest, and although it was to be Tanya Donnelly's last album before venturing to pastures new (Belly) - her contribution to this album (half sister Kristin Hersh tended to take on the majority of the songwriting) was just great. This is one of my all-time favourite songs - crisp guitars, catchy hooks and bright and breezy vocals.
7. Breeders: Cannonball
I reviewed this for our college newspaper when it came out in 1993 - the editor (future Den Of Geek founder Simon Brew) was my friend, and I suspect, took pity on me, and included my contributions far more often than they merited. As for the single? It's an absolute corker! From the weird megaphone buzz of the opening words, Jim McPherson's little rimshot motif and Josephine Wigg's snappy repeated bass line - the song bursts into life with power chords and lots of ah-woos, before erupting into its headbanging chorus.
8. Pearl Jam: Rear View Mirror
There was so many bands from the scene that could, and perhaps, should have been included - but we need a little diversity in here. So, apologies for the lack of Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots etc. - but Pearl Jam have always been a favourite, so had to be in here. I could have gone with almost anything from debut, Ten, but this one, from the follow up Vs, has always been the one I liked the best. A song about looking back on a break-up, it is propelled by the repetitive guitar hook that drives on as the song ebbs and flows around it. It was written primarily by Eddie Vedder (although credited to the whole band) - who apparently felt that it might be a bit too catchy.
9. Beck: Loser
Beck exploded onto the scene from out of nowhere, well actually ambled, in 1993 with the ultimate slacker anthem. Beck Hanson had been a struggling, often homeless musician, in NYC, before returning to LA to work low end jobs and play music in coffee shops. He developed a jokey style of song playing to keep people interested. This was taken into the recording of this tune, with producer Carl Stephenson. Over guitar loops and other instrumentation laid down by Stephenson, Beck would try and do his nonsensical raps, apparently trying to emulate Chuck D. When he heard the song back he realised how poor the rapping was, and so, the killer chorus was born - "I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me?"
10. The Lemonheads: Mrs Robinson
We end this playlist, as pretty much every student night at Manhattan's nightclub in Southport ended in those 91-94 years. With one of the best cover versions of them all. This is not the sad, befuddled Evan Dando I witnessed in Southampton last year, but the young, vibrant punk with a glint in his eye, Evan Dando of the early 90s. The bass drives this version along, it is faster and heavier than the original, but never loses sight of it and honours it's uplifting chorus. So, there we are again - every 19 and 20 year old bloke still standing in Manhattan's at 00:55 on a Monday night, on the dancefloor, pogoing around and singing along.
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