Just In Time For 1999
By Alex WendtHey kids. I know, I know, my last article was in 1992. I was busy dammit! Still am. This is my way of procrastinating over learning 34 slides of material for a very important presentation I have to make on Tuesday. So, without further ado, here are the two things I wish to discuss in this article.
Firstly, whose idea was it exactly to try to make Thanksgiving a religious holiday? As a secondary question, when we found out who this terribly misguided soul is, can we shoot him? Seriously, I was under the distinct impression that the only thing Thanksgiving had to do with any organized religion was that it was created by a bunch of people who crossed a major body of water in order to get AWAY from it! Why are we now doing things like Thanksgiving Eve services then? It's as if the nation's churches just want to latch onto any well received, decent idea and try to claim it as their own. Traditionally, you have to run for office before that's considered acceptable. I for one was unaware that there was indeed a patron saint for turkeys. Live and learn.
Secondly, as we dawn upon the 365 day period where we will undoubtedly hear Prince's "1999" every single fucking morning noon and night until our ears bleed, I thought it might be a good time to review the decade musically. To my knowledge - and this is quite surprising - no major publications have as of yet come out with their "top ten albums of the decade list." While we still do have a year left, that's usually no excuse for publications or other organizations to jump the gun. That's why we have 1999 automobiles that actually came out in 1989, as well as mutual fund magazines that pick a "mutual fund of the month." Everyone wants to jump the gun. Well, it's my turn dammit.
The Top Ten Albums of the 1990's
(In no particular order)
1. John Mellencamp - Human Wheels (1993)
John Mellencamp's official debut as a legitimate songwriter. Most people still haven't realized it yet.
2. Dead Man Walking - Original Film Score (1995)
No no, not the soundtrack, although that's pretty good too. The original film score is an epic, featuring primarily the talents of the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. For the first (and perhaps only) time, his work is presented in a form that is readily accessible to Western audiences without losing any of its potency. Given the subject matter, it may actually have gained some.
3. Dave Matthews Band - Before These Crowded Streets (1998)
This is the album I've always wanted DMB to make. Previously their albums, while competent and entertaining, have been equally disjointed, uneven, and without lyrical direction or flow. This album - with the exception of the poorly written "Pig" - blows anything they've ever done away, and finally answers the critics who hadn't seen them in concert and were justifiably wondering what all the fuss was about.
Hard to remember back all the way to when U2 was still a viable artistic entity, isn't it? It's equally hard for me to believe that this actually came out in the 1990's. The idea, back in 1992, was a magnificent one - self-parody as a way to respond to the overwhelming success of their previous all-studio effort, The Joshua Tree. What they accomplished is even more significant. What is a shame is that they didn't know when to stop, and when people would forget what it was they were parodying.
5. Radiohead - OK Computer (1997)
Perhaps the only band that has adequately captured a portion of the sound that Pink Floyd had, while still incorporating their own ideas and sounds. OK Computer is like nothing else that I've heard from the 1990's, and chances are, nothing in the next ten years will sound anything like it either.
6. Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes (1992)
I don't even like Tori Amos, and yet I have to include this album here. Simply stated, this is the album that opened up everything for female artists such as Sarah McLachlan, The Indigo Girls, Jewel, Shawn Colvin, and Joan Osborne to become viable commercial entities instead of songwriters in bars playing to 15 half-interested lushes. That, and it's one of the more powerful works I've ever heard. Agree, disagree, or become confused - if it's on, you're forced to listen to it.
7. Sarah McLachlan - Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (1994)
Some of you are thinking, "Sarah McLachlan had albums out before Tori did" - which is true, but Touch and Solace didn't exactly bring the house down. Fumbling did. With its layered effects and confident, upbeat lyrics, Sarah took the revolution in women's music a step further by proving that there was more out there than relentlessly downbeat Tori Amos-esque sparseness.
8. Bob Dylan - Time Out Of Mind (1997)
Fittingly, the only artist in my top ten to have an album out before I was born. Perhaps the most consistently desolate album since The Wall, Time even manages to end on a perfectly melancholy note. Even The Wall couldn't do that. After a decade filled with fake angst bands such as Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and especially Nirvana, it's a bit refreshing to hear those emotions coming from someone who can legitimately stake a claim to them.
9. The Wallflowers - Bringing Down The Horse (1996)
From one Dylan to another. While the elder Dylan's album didn't exactly change the way other bands wrote music - at least, no more than Bob Dylan's albums already do anyway - Jakob Dylan's album reinvented the Hammond organ and non-grunge sounding guitars as viable commercial entities. The success of bands like Third Eye Blind and Eagle Eye Cherry are a direct result of the re-emergence and consistent popularity (as opposed, for instance, to Hootie) of The Wallflowers.
OK, OK, I really have to put this one in, even if I am contemptuous of the "grunge" sound and its self-pitying lyrics. This really is one fuck of an album, from the popular anthem "Alive" to the devastating "Release." And, while some are quick to point out that debut albums by the likes of Stone Temple Pilots and Soundgarden came out earlier, this album is and will always be the hallmark of the era known as grunge. Let's just hope the pundits never dig any deeper.
Addendum:
After a little while it dawned on me that I'd forgotten to place in my list an album that would easily make the top 3. My apologies! R.E.M.'s Automatic For The People is one of the most incredible, coherent works of the entire rock era. To not list it would be criminal.