Prompted, inevitably, by the “1991 day” thread; what are the blog’s favourite songs of the 1990s?
My top 10 is (repeated from that thread) as follows:
Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana
Juicy – Biggie Smalls
Ex-Factor – Lauryn Hill
Protect Ya Neck – Wu Tang
Glory Box – Portishead
Shook Ones Pt II – Mobb Deep
Enjoy the Silence – Depeche Mode
Say It Ain’t So – Weezer
Don’t Let Go – En Vogue
Know Your Enemy – RATM
A combination there of my own personal tastes, the songs that had a major impact on the culture at point of release and the ones that have aged like a fine wine and still prompt happy times when they come up in conversation/on the radio. More than anything, they’re the songs that, in some strange way, define the decade from my perspective.
The 90s, for me, were the moment that all the barriers between genres started to collapse; a super exciting time when all sorts of things seemed possible. I was also a teenager for a good chunk of it, which inevitably helped. Some of the above are songs I loved in my adolescence (Say It Ain’t So), some I’ve come to respect over time (Enjoy the Silence).
Inevitably, even as I write this I’ve started to recall the classics I forgot to include: Geek USA, Nothing Compares 2 U, You Oughta Know (how did I miss that one out?), Original Nuttah, Sure Shot, Da Funk, This Is Hardcore, Live Forever, Animal Nitrate, Yes, It’s A Shame About Ray, Rez, E-Bow The Letter, Fu-Gee-La, Show Me Love, The Rain, The Boy Is Mine, Doll Parts, Hyperballad, Insomnia, California Love, Set You Free, Don’t Speak, November Rain, Regulate, A Design For Life. A Design For Life! What a record THAT is.
I always think that songs are much more interesting than albums. With albums there’s a greater pretence to serious artistry; it’s where the form gets a bit fusty and academic. No one is nominating a whole album by Brandy & Monica, whereas I can quite happily state that The Boy Is Mine is one of the best things I heard all decade.
A great song reaches out, grabs you by the throat and never lets go: it’s immediate and undeniable. And it’s also more likely to be truly definitive: most of my album memories from the 90s are me off listening somewhere on my own, whereas I will always always always remember how it felt to be 15, sat on the platform of some distant railway station waiting for a train that felt like it would never arrive and singing along at the tops of our lungs to the just-released Live Forver. Because it felt fucking magnificent. We shared that song, in a way that I’ve not shared many albums with others. Not really.
Anyway, enough preamble. I’ve listed above a ton of 90s classics. It’s over to you to list below your own favourite 90s tunes, and maybe share a memory or two that they conjure. I’ll pitch in with a few more if this thing gets any traction.
Wait – here’s another one: Stakes Is High. God, I must have listened to this a million times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzOOCnkUlnA
Here’s 5:
A Design For Life – Manics YES!
Find the River – R.E.M.
Paranoid Android – Radiohead
She’s a Jar – Wilco
Not Dark Yet – Bob Dylan
Great selections.
Time Out of Mind remains a brilliant album, and Not Dark Yet is a track I often find myself going back to. He was only in his mid-50s, but he felt about a hundred years old when that came out.
There are so many R.E.M tracks that could qualify for the list. Nightswimming!
Thank you, could almost pick anything from Automatic From the People, Try Not to Breathe, Drive, Sweetness follows, Everybody Hurts …
Absolutely. Everybody Hurts is one of those songs I listen to from time to time and try to imagine never having heard it before. Its impact has been dulled by over-familiarity, but what a beautiful piece of work it is. I would imagine it’s probably helped a fair few people through difficult moments too.
I think it is a gift to the world from Michael Stipe (and Bill Berry), yes diluted by familiarity, but I try to do the same as you occasionally.
Unfinished Sympathy – Massive Attack
It’s Not Safe – Aimee Mann
Far Gone and Out – Jesus and Mary Chain
The Shining Hour – Grant Lee Buffalo
Barbara H – Fountains of Wayne
Afraid Himself to Be – Jason Falkner
Le Femme D’Argent – Air
Waltz #2 – Elliott Smith
The Dutchman – High Llamas
Interstate Love Song – Stone Temple Pilots
How did I miss Elliott Smith? What a brief but wonderful moment in the spotlight that was.
I recently played Waltz #2 on a long car journey. The segue into the middle eight (“here today, expected to stay…”) is about as beautiful a moment as I can think of in any song. What a wonderful voice he had.
Have to confess that some of the above are new to me: I’ll check them out.
I can’t listen to Waltz #2 now, especially that spectacular middle eight, without thinking of this live version. Heartbreaking.
Wow. I hadn’t seen that before and I did not see that coming at all. Heartbreaking indeed.
Absolutely love the XO album.
Heart. Sleeve. Broken. Breaking.
There were loads, but off the top of my head (without the use of a calculator)
New Order – Regret
Stereolab – French Disko
Belly – Gepetto
French Disko – good choice, I forgot about that one. Stereolab I think were a band who were simultaneously ahead of their time and behind the times. They would have done very well in either 1976 or 2021.
Ah, Regret.
I remember the first time I heard Regret. I was about 13 or 14, and it was track one on a free CD mounted to the cover of Q magazine (there was a cake on the CD cover).
I listened to that song over and over. To me, it seemed to chart a level of adult sophistication I hadn’t often heard in rock music. I pictured myself, maybe as old as my mid-20s, recently moved in to a new home with wood floors and no furniture, the slate wiped clean and ready to proceed with life, unhindered by – ahem – regrets.
Many years later, my then girlfriend, now wife, and I rented our first place together. We moved in without much furniture, and as I stood looking across the empty wood floors, I stuck Regret on, and realised that I was – in theory at least – now that mature sophisticate once conjured by the lyric. Even though, on the inside, I still felt like I was about ten years old and blagging it all wildly.
That was the moment that I realised sometimes the future turns out exactly as you’d imagined it, but it still never feels quite the way you’d expect it to.
Just wait til tomorrow, I guess that’s what they all say.
I’ve written before of my disappointment of playing the Republic album in the car on a trip up to Nottingham. But I can still hear the communal cheer, and feel the crowd surge forward, lifting me off my feet and squeezing my pal’s pint like a fountain into the air, at the 1993 Reading Festival as the intro chords of Regret began. Simply joyous.
One of THE great calling card intros. So good.
I should add that the song is also tremendous and relatively attainable karaoke.
If Bernard can attain it so can anyone.
Very very true.
Bernard can’t attain it, and that’s why it doesn’t matter if anyone else fails.
Also very true
Regret could well have been on my list too. Just chose 5 off top of my head, could easily choose 10 or 20 times more.
Regret takes me back to a very precise moment in my life, a difficult time to say the least. Thankfully, enough years have passed now that I can just enjoy the song, my second favourite NO song after Thieves Like Us I think. I actually really like the Republic album, which puts me in a minority.
Songs that had a big impact on me and which (crucially, and unlike much 90s music) haven’t dated… also, no more than one song per artist….
– The Orb – The Blue Room
– Portishead – Mysterons
– Spiritualized – Cool Waves
– Beck – Loser
– Kate Bush – Moments of Pleasure
– DJ Shadow – In/Flux
– Radiohead – No Surprises
– U2 – Mysterious Ways
– Air – La Femme D’Argent
– Tom Waits – The Earth Died Screaming
– Blur – On Your Own
– The Divine Comedy – Generation Sex
That’s the ones I like anyway!
In/Flux! Congratulations for being one of only a seemingly small number of people to pick the correct DJ Shadow tune!
One of very very few records I ever bothered to purchase on vinyl. Huge fan of Mo Wax and Ninja Tune at the time, always think In/Flux was the peak of that whole movement: the build up to that first “Meanwhile, uptown, the DJ play” is just brilliant.
He’s never bettered it, has he? A masterpiece of slow build and sustain.
Oddly enough, I bought a 2LP half-speed mastered Entroducing last weekend.
‘Claim to Fame’ time – my partner’s brother released some stuff on Ninja Tune as Zero Db.
NTs was a pretty strong brand for a few years back there.
It was like, I dunno, the Postcard Records of Whateverfuckingenreitwascalledthatweek. Brand names were very helpful in the maze of mostly-made-up subgenres of dance and electronic music that proliferated in the 90s like catholic rabbits.
Short Busta Rhymes interlude.
I realised after I hit “post” that I’d missed an absolute no-brainer tune off the list in the OP. Scenario by Tribe Called Quest; one of the best hip hop tracks of the 90s, arguably the greatest posse cut ever released and the launch pad for the stellar talent that is/was Busta Rhymes.
Here’s Tribe’s legendary performance of the track on the Arsenio Hall show. A truly great cultural moment: look at the audience, look at Q-Tip, look at Arsenio’s face. Most of all, look at Busta, wearing his reversible top hat and dropping one of the greatest verses in hip hop history. Causing rambunction indeed.
Busta went on to numerous massive singles and to coin a visual aesthetic that is probably as heavily redolent of the 90s as anything else in music that I can think of: all those Hype Williams videos, that fancy dress and the fish-eye lens shots. Amazing. He blew the doors off in terms of what an MC could be/do.
Here’s Wild For The Night, a tune which would quite conceivably make my 90s Hip Hop top 10. Absolutely brilliant video.
So much of my favourite stuff has already been posted but I’m genuinely gutted I didn’t get to Scenario before you. Low End Theory is one of the few hip hop albums I could pick almost any track from, it’s just that good, but Scenario is just… it. Quest were maybe the first hip hop I ever heard that made me go “ohhhh wow”: it was Bonita Applebum and, of course, Can I Kick It that made me buy People’s Instinctive Travels… as a teenager, but LET absolutely blew my mind when it turned up. I’d almost forgotten how much I loved it when the excellent Netflix series Hip Hop Evolution reminded me a couple of years ago, and it barely left my headphones again for about a year.
Smashing Pumpkins – 1979
Massive Attack – Teardrop
Primal Scream – Loaded
EBTG – Missing, Todd Terry mix
Underworld – Born Slippy. This is the 90s for me, living in London, working in the West End, drinking too much, mixed feelings
Dee Lite – Groove Is In The Heart
Radiohead – Let Down
REM – Texarkana
Dinosaur Jr. – Feel The Pain
Prince – Cream
Portishead – Roads
Oasis – Some Might Say
Pulp – Babies
Supergrass – Time
Breeders – Cannonball
Stereolab – French Disko
A lot of nostalgia in there for me.
Amazing
Oh man – Cannonball. That may just be the most 90s song of them all, in its way.
I was tempted to go for some Supergrass, although mine would have been either Caught by the Fuzz or Lenny. Love that weird intro to the latter. They were such a fun band when they first emerged.
Re: Pulp, I know Common People is the one really. In fact, it probably belongs in the top 10. I just never quite took it to my heart. This Is Hardcore is the Pulpiest Pulp song there is, and I’m a sucker for a tune with a lot of changes in it. Babies or Disco 2000 would be my runners up.
For supergrass I would go for Alright. It’s been diluted by familiarity, but the first time I heard it I thought it was one of the most infectious tunes I had ever heard.
Going Out for me
Here we go
Andy Irvine/Davy Spillane – Hard on the heels
Neil Young – Harvest Moon
Squeeze – Some Fantastic Place
Massive Attack – Angel
Page and Plant – Kashmir
Emmylou Harris – Deeper well
McAlmont & Butler – Yes
Teenage fanclub – Sparky’s Dream
Afro-celt sound system – whirl-y-reel
Curtis Mayfield – Back to Living Again
Kate and Anna McGarrigle – Going back to Harlan
Dick Gaughan – No Gods and Precious Few Heroes
Monaco – What do you want from me?
Nils Lofgren – Black Books
Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris – Western Wall
Michael Marra – Niel Gow’s Apprentice
Definitely no Blur, no Oasis and no Spice Girls !!!
FABULOUS list.
Seconded
Oh come on: no Spice Up Your Life?
Glad to see some love for What Do You Want From Me; that’s a great tune. Sparky’s Dream too.
Yes would be in with a shout for my favourite song of the 90s. It doesn’t really sound like much else that I can think of, and it was such a singular moment: McAlmont & Butler were such an ostensibly odd pairing, and that vocal is just tremendous. Sometimes I imagine being able to sing like that; god, it must feel absolutely amazing.
The performance on Jools Holland was a quintessential 90s moment. Bernard in his Britpop t-shirt, David skinny and gorgeous and barely filling his suit. Amazing earrings, and still to this day one of the most beautiful men I can ever recall seeing. All the contradictions and genre-blending of the 90s in a single glorious performance.
Wannabe is a great record.
So is 2 Become 1. They did have some brilliant moments.
I’m going to repeat myself here but in case you missed it first time round. Alan Rankine was on Martyn Wares latest Electronically Yours podcast and said that David McAlmont is the only vocalist he would consider performing The Associates songs with. There is a YouTube clip if him singing “Those First Impressions” I would very much like it to happen…
The whole of Music for Pleasure is great. If I had enough money, I would pay Peter Hook to walk around with me, soundtracking my life with his bass.
Sometimes I feel like Yes is either one of those emperors new clothes things, or some elaborate joke the world is playing on me. All I hear is a mess of a melody that sounds like five songs stuck together randomly. Plus I think he’s singing out of his range. Is it just me?
Hang on; was it also you who didn’t like A Change Is Gonna Come?
I think we might need to meet up and physically fight, Arthur. Regrettable, but it is what it is.
Uh oh.
Well, we’ll always have in/flux….
Delighted to see Michael Marra on our list. Great song too!
Cracking list! @tropdevin
This far down the page and no mention (unless I missed it) of possibly my favourite album from the 90s?
August And Everything After – so many GREAT songs.
Mr Jones. I speak from experience of having sung this song in many many bars, booths and street parties and can confirm that absolutely everyone loves Mr Jones. Huge massed singalong, even if nearly everyone ducks the chorus. Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-yeah.
I may also be guilty of having belted that out quite a few times, though luckily only in synch with Adam and not in his stead. The one I just can’t get through intact is Sullivan Street; singing along, my voice always cracks half way through, usually on the run up to the title phrase. It has a massive sense of loss and nostalgia. I’m welling up just writing about it. WHAT a song.
It is near enough a perfect debut album.
Rain King is the one for me
Primal Scream – not Loaded, or anything from Screamadelica. I refer the house to the (many believe to be) disappointing follow-up, and it’s two opening tracks Jailbird and Rocks Off.
And while we’re on the subject of the best song the Stones never wrote, howzabout Dandy Warhols – Bohemain Like You
I’m planning on doing BLY next time I do karaoke. Never heard it done before, seems easy enough to sing and surely – surely – enough time has passed that others might finally be glad to hear it again.
Lightning Seeds?
There’s that one about 3 Lines on a shirt, or that other one which they nicked from Goal Of The Month.
Or this one when they were basically one bloke in a studio (with a couple of mates sometimes).
Pure
One of my absolute favourite songs, but it came out in 1989.
I reckon you’re all going to hate me here.
But for sheer power, commitment, belief, and marking a moment:
When Liam says “Toinght, I’m a Rock n Roll Star”, you believe him.
If it’s stuff that defined the 90s, Oasis must be in there
(but the answer is not, and never will be, Wonderwall)
Live Forever is a great song and a great statement, hard to actually achieve though. Oasis were great for about 3 albums (inc the B sides one)
I must post my re-edit of Be Here Now which proves that it is a great album if you swap out the shit tracks with the much better b-sides they were releasing at the time.
OK I’ll just start typing and see what happens:
Pulp – Dishes
Beasties – So Watcha Want
Shack – Undecided
Boo Yaa Tribe – Don’t Mess
Suede – New Generation
Def Jef – Get Up 4 The Get Down
Top – Life’s Only Dreaming
Ice-T – Straight Up N—— (no I am not bloody typing that)
Waterboys – Glasto Song
St Etienne – Hobart paving
Ride – Leave Them All Behind
Prince – Diamonds & Pearls
Stereo MCs – The Other Side
Dubstar – Cathedral Park
Paul Simon – Born At The Right Time (live)
My Life story – the King of Kissingdom
Definition of Sound – Wear Your Love Like Heaven
Supergrass – Richard III
Massive Attack – Lately
The The – Dogs Of Lust
Tindersticks – City Sickness
Super Furry Animals – Play it Kool
Spiritualised – Cool Waves
Primal scream – Burning Wheel
Elvis Costello – The Birds Will Still Be Singing
MC Tunes – Tunes Splits the atom (no I am not bloody joking)
Tin Machine – Goodbye Mr Ed
Urban Dance Squad – Bureaucrat of Flaccostreet
The High – So I Can See
Eric B & Rakim – Know the Ledge
Talk Talk – Ascension Day
Scott Walker – Bouncer See Bouncer
First Offence – Tell Em Watcha Want
Beth Orton – She Cries Your Name
Kid capri – Joke’s On You Jack
ATCQ – If The Papes Come
Black Grape – Kelly’s Heroes
Chemical Brothers – Sunshine Underground
The Auteurs – New French Girlfriend
Audioweb – Lover
Black Sheep – Try Counting Sheep
Ash – Angel Interceptor
Jah Wobble – the Sun Does Rise
The Human League – Tell Me when
MC Buzz B – Bandit
The High Llamas – The Goat Looks On
…..and of course Son of Bazerk – Part One (“WE’RE HERE!!”)
…I’m going for a lie down. As I often did in the 90s.
I’ll see your Richard III and raise you … well nothing really. Surely the best song from their best album.
Oh, and I think you mis-spelt Twisterella for the Ride track
And while I’m here, let’s add Echo & The Bunnymen – Nothing Last Forever to the list
I’ll see your Nothing Lasts Forever and raise you I’ll Fly Tonight.
Of course 1990 is the 90s innit, so I should have said Seagull for Ride.
NLF – brilliant and often overlooked tune.
Know The Ledge is an excellent shout, and was certainly among my most played tunes of the decade. First encountered on the fantastic soundtrack to the immortal Juice, aka the movie that well and truly sent Tupac to the dark side.
Also glad to see some love for Undecided; a brilliant and enduring track, and a rare opportunity to unironically praise the use of medieval chord structures.
Great shout on St Etienne and Tindersticks. Also on Suede, Tin Machine, Bunnymen and Prince, although I would choose different songs – The Wild Ones, You Belong In Rock’n’Roll, Rust and Gold respectively. Apart from that, you’re right.
Oh, the High Llamas. I always forget about them, they were great.
Reassuring to see Donovan getting a nod in a 90s list.
You spelled DONOVAN wrong.
That song’s got a Jonathan King sample in it. The nineties is a long time ago.
I was so wrapped up in The Dels and life in the 90s that I feel like they passed me by in a flash. Oasis, Spice Girls of course. I can come up with a few without thinking too hard though..
The Mutton Birds – Come Around
Weather With You – Crowded House
Good Enough – Dodgy
Chasing Rainbows- Shed 7
You’re Gorgeous- Baby Bird
Edit** Of course Pulp and Supergrass.. but I’ve come back to mention Catatonia. Murder and Scully and the monster that is Road Rage. Singing those at the top of my voice in the car to shake myself out of whatever it was that was consuming me. Yes. Cata-fucking-tonia.
Best song of the 90s though?.
Driving With The Brakes On…
Disco Down is the Sheds greatest moment. It came out at the precise moment when they’d been written off. A phoenix from the flames (as we used to say and occasionally sing in those days)
Shite! I forgot Another Day by The Real People. The band Oasis could have been (really)
My Baby Bird nomination would be Back Together. It’s less 90s sounding than You’re Gorgeous, but I still play it all the time to this day.
Re; Dodgy, Homegrown is such a happy 90s album memory. Many lazy days sat around with my fellow indolent teens, feeling very mellow indeed.
I think we need more detail of what constitutes indolence in Bingo’s world… Benching a mere 200?
Knob jokes.
200 knob jokes. Nice work.
There’s nothing sexier than Cerys’ rolled ‘r’s.
So I’ve hurred. 😏
1st album, Way Beyond Blue is an overlooked gem.
Not here it isn’t. Overlooked, that is!
IN THE EVENT OF SICKNESS PLEASE CALL CABIN CREW
Catatonia released some great early songs like ‘Bleed’ and ‘For Tinkerbell’.
This is my favourite and it’s just lovely.
Lots I like already mentioned. I’ll go for ones that haven’t been.
1. David Sylvian – I Surrender (my fave song off my fave David Sylvian album)
2. Primal Scream – Damaged (I love how it shouldn’t work in the context of Screamadelica but does perfectly. And I really like the guitar solo)
3. Massive Attack – Protection (though I could have chossen any track off of the debut. I don’t like the seond album as much, but the title track is so gorgeous. “I stand in front of you, I’ll take the force of the blow”. I love that. And Trazza singing “You’re a girl and I’m a boy”)
4. Red Hot Chilli Peppers – Under the Bridge (not a band I like much, but this song is ace. I like the guitar’s harmonics.)
5. Tom Waits – Hold On (“You don’t meet nice girls in coffee shops”)
6. Peter Gabriel – Blood of Eden (with Sinead. A great moment in Wim Wenders’ Until The End Of The World film, when the plane’s engine cuts out and they’re gliding and they think the nuclear bomb’s gone off)
7. Jane Sidberry – Calling All Angels (also used in the above film. Just stunning. Stunning, stunning, stunning.)
8. Jeff Buckley – Hallelujah (way too over-familiar a song, X-Factor material, but if it wasn’t… the way he holds that last note is so beautiful)
9. Moby – Porcelain (The beach!)
10. Ben Harper – The Three of Us (Just to round off the list to ten I’ll go for this lovely acoustic instrumental)
I would have bet cash money on you being a Porcelain man, Gary.
My favourite Buckley was always Lover You Should Have Come Over. So much drama, such great backing vocals. Too young to hold on, and too old to just break free and run.
Wasn’t my kind of decade really. But I loved Jellyfish.
Then again I suppose they were intellectually and spiritually a seventies band.
Second that Jellyfish vote and another 90’s band that may have been spiritually from the 70’s. The Black Crowes. The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion is usually my favourite album when I think about these things.
I think it was possibly during this decade that I was finally forced to admit to myself that- even though there were a few bits and pieces here and there that I liked (and that pop music was probably no better or no worse than it had ever been) – sonically and historically (and in all manner of other ‘ally’s’ ) I was only seriously interested in music from the sixties and seventies. And that hasn’t changed really.
Oh, except that I have since discovered the fifties.
Has sir considered the 1940s?
The 1940s?
Then we’re talking Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington. Sheer brilliance.
40s are, inevitably, next.
I think 1999 is possibly the most amazing year for music. Some years are great for singles, others for albums. 1999 is great for both. I could fill a top fifty from just that year but will resist from doing so.
Sinead O’Connor – Nothing Compares 2U
A remarkable song that only Sinead can give justice to. The grief and longing is almost crippling. In my life it captured a sliding doors moment perfectly, what might have been.
Leftfield featuring John Lydon – Open Up
A track that kicks the door down, grabs you by the throat and throws you round the room, tossing a lighted Molotov cocktail over its shoulder as it exits. On the album, they diluted it with a four minute reggae coda. A truly great single.
Massive Attack – Teardrop
By the time I heard this I had experienced the scorching pain and ecstasy of true love. I can barely cope whenever I hear Teardrop without dissolving.
Björk- Venus As A Boy
Playful, sexy, beautiful and strange. Can you ask any more from a pop song?
Fiona Apple – Criminal
Watching the video made me, a man approaching forty at the time, feel oddly soiled. But the voice is intriguing and gorgeous and the piano chords seem to originate from the familiar safety of The White Album. She begs for forgiveness, or at least a good defence lawyer, but I felt I was the one committing the crime. It makes the recent Fetch The Bolt Cutters even more amazing. We have history, Fiona and I.
Randy Newman – Shame
Randy, in full dirty old man mode, seems to be dining Fiona and attempting to persuade her back his gaff. Supported by a wonderful New Orleans Jazz band, by the song’s outro, he’s the lamb being led to slaughter.
Deee-Lite – Groove Is In The Heart
Playful, sexy, beautiful and strange. Plus, irresistible on the dance floor. A song that makes me feel 17 again.
Kelis – Caught Out There
Totally gobsmacking. How could anyone imagine this as a record and then make it a hit?
Macy Gray – I Try
A stumbling song of resilience, a last hurrah of old-fashioned Soul music. It catches the back of the throat, provoking a gulp, a hitch of the trousers and a deep breath before joining in on the chorus, chin held high.
Aphex Twin – Windowlicker
Electronic dance music performed as free jazz. This is music that knows no boundaries, no restrictions, a music beyond imagination.
I Try is a fantastic shout. One of those tracks which is often discounted because it’s a bit of a one hit wonder but is just fan-fucking-tactic if you actually stop and listen to it. Perfect synergy of song and voice. Renders cover versions a nonsense.
Re: Nothing Compares, it’s either that or Yes for the best vocal of the decade, from where I’m sat, with Sinead probably edging it. How the hell did she know to do that with it?
Open Up is a good call. I love Lydon’s voice. Yesterday I came across a clip on YouTube from his ‘I could be wrong, I could be right’ speaking tour in which he gets the audience to sing Abba’s Fernando. It’s awful.
Great choices, Tiggerlion. Kelis made my longlist, and it’s good to be reminded of Macy Gray.
Leftism is so bountiful, I could have gone with Open Up or Release The Pressure, but Original just pips them for the opening
Sonically we’re in control
We’re the diamond in your soul
Images come thick and fast
From the future, from the past
It could be the Four Quartets
I just see Hugh Laurie’s skeletal mugshot when I hear Teardrop – but it doesn’t stop it being a wonderful song. You’ll probably not want to watch this, but I think this is one of the better mashups out there
I read recently that Nothing Compares 2 U was written about his housekeeper, who flounced off after an argument and he deeply regretted it.
The song was an apology and an appeal for her to come back. No funny business.
Explains why he had to eat his dinner in a fancy restaurant. Still. All that grief and longing.
I interpreted songs deliberately strictly -because otherwise it would be too hard to choose. There are loads of tunes from that decade I love, but many of them would best be described as instrumentals (KLF, Orb, Grid, Global Communication, etc, I’m thinking of you). Songs have a great beginning, preferably a chorus, they sustain themselves well through the lyrics without getting baggy or repetitive, and they conclude well, not fading to grey.
So:
Soledad – Jah Wobble and the Invaders of the Heart
California (All The Way) – Luna
One of Those Rivers – Dodgy
Original – Leftfield
Change Your Mind – Neil Young
Like A Motorway – St Etienne
Inside Out – Shara Nelson
Safe Surfer – Julian Cope
A Girl Like You – Edwyn Collins
Naked Eye – Luscious Jackson
From your top 10, I’d take Don’t Let Go – En Vogue. When I saw the Weezer track, I was sorry to see it wasn’t a cover of this – the 4 lines of the chorus go through my head almost every day.
All The Small Things is an amazing tune. Great shout.
Say It Ain’t So is a bigger deal in the US than here, and it’s probably a bit cheeky chucking it in as decade-defining, but it is an anthem of nerd rock, has a wonderful intro, a brilliant lyric and such a fabulous crescendo to sing along to. I’ve encountered a surprising number of people for whom that song is particularly meaningful.
A selection from one of my playlists from that era
Freestyler – Bomfunk MC’s
Sorted E’s and Whizz – Pulp
I Know – Hybrid
Don’t Give Up – Chicane with Bryan Adams
Insomnia – Faithless
Moving – Supergrass
2 worlds collide – Inspiral Carpets
Coffee and TV – Blur
At The River – Groove Armada
6 Underground – Sneaker Pimps
The Western – PFM
Horizons – LTJ Bukem
Jumbo – Underworld
Little Fluffy Clouds – The Orb
Perfect Motion – Sunscreem
Out Of Space – The Prodigy
Lovestruck – Madness
All I Need – Air
Red Alert – Basement Jaxx
You’re Not Alone – Olive
Trivia time!
As far as I know, Bomfunk MCs are the only Finnish artists to appear so far on this thread.
The other Scandinavian countries are not doing too well either.
One point to Denmark now for the irresistible bubble gum pop of Aqua’s Barbie Girl.
..joining their Scandi chum Whigfield in the AW 90s pantheon..
Well, KFD, The Cardigans are on my second list, some way down from here…
Lovefool and Favourite Game deffo belong on this thread.
Mid 90s ScandiIndiePop:
Wannadies – You and Me Song
LTJ Bukem! Virtually anything off Logical Progression vol 1 and 2 would happily make my list, but special shouts go out to The Western, which is among my very favourite records by anyone, ever, and this, which is…. just… amazing…
The Western always reminds me of a magic moment during rehearsals for the sixth form play. We were all in school on a Saturday evening, mixed in with the local girls school (always a pleasure).
Despite not really being one of the in crowd, I managed to get control of the stereo, stuck on a bunch of DJ Shadow and then topped it off with The Western. It went very quiet, someone turned the lights off and we all lay on our backs looking out the skylight at the stars, a little bit phased by all the boundless potential that suddenly swirled round the room. Drunk on our own youth, essentially.
It’s always been my go to record for when I need to hit reset and get the ground under my feet. Conrad is my favourite drum & bass MC of all time, and I love love love what he does with that tune; perfect synergy of rhymes and music. It’s a wiiiiild world, that we livin in….
The Western is the track on that list that takes me back to living in Watford in the 90’s. We actually had a flat just up the street from Good Looking Records offices.
I’ve given this very little thought, and deliberately haven’t read the thread before picking these dozen which came quickly to mind. I will now see what everyone else has said and no doubt there will be many I should have thought of:
Pulp Common People
Paul Weller Broken Stones
Blur Tender
Bjork Venus as a Boy
REM Losing My Religion
Counting Crows Omaha
Bruce Springsteen Across the Border
Crowded House Private Universe
Bob Dylan Trying to Get to Heaven
Lucinda Williams Sweet Old World
U2 One
Cornershop Brimful of Asha
Yup, so much I missed. Oasis of course – ‘Slide Away’ for example. ‘I Try’ by Macy Gray is a great record. Loads of tracks on ‘Urban Hymns’. Cast were a decent band and ‘Walk Away’ a classic Merseyside song. Mention of the Spice Girls brought All Saints to mind – ‘Never Ever’ was a brilliant pop single. How could I forget Sinead? ‘This is to Mother You’ was a huge record in our household, and still is.
And I should have thought of Crash Test Dummies and ‘Afternoons and Coffee Spoons’. And Primal Scream ‘Rocks’. And a thousand others too I’m sure.
2 lists, separating rap and, er, not rap. As soon as I saw the title of the thread I thought it was easy, as the best song of the 90s is clearly Goodnight Moon by Shivaree, which shows what I know, as it’s from 2000.
My favourite song of each year
1990 – Frazier Chorus – All The Air
1991 – Voice Of The Beehive – Perfect Place (single version)
1992 – Morrissey – Tomorrow
1993 – New Order – Regret
1994 – Pulp – Babies
1995 – Pulp – Something Changed
1996 – Pet Shop Boys – The Survivors
1997 – Whiskeytown – Houses On The Hill
1998 – Pernice Brothers – Wait To Stop
1999 – Chappaquiddick Skyline – Hundred Dollar Pocket
My second favourite song of the 90s doesn’t make that list, because Forever J by Terry Hall came out in the same year as my favourite song of the 90s, 1994. Other notable tracks are Common People by Pulp, Beautiful Ones and Trash by Suede, Needle Mythology by Stephen Duffy, Indian by Eg & Alice, Wicked Game by Chris Isaak, Last Goodbye by Jeff Buckley, Clear Spot by Pernice Brothers, Being Boring by Pet Shop Boys, North Country Boy by The Charlatans and Some Might Say by Oasis. And the top year for music in the 90s was 1995, as voted by the Barnsley jury.
Favourite 15 rap tracks of the 90s (I was only going to do 10, but the next 5 were too good to miss out)
1 – Gang Starr – Code Of The Streets
2 – NaS – N.Y. State Of Mind
3 – Binary Star – Slang Blade
4 – Beastie Boys – Three MCs And One DJ
5 – Beastie Boys – Sabotage
6 – Binary Star – New Hip Hop
7 – Arrested Development – Mr. Wendal
8 – Dr. Dre Featuring Snoop Dogg – Nuthin’ But A G Thang
9 – The Notorious B.I.G. – Juicy
10 – Digible Planets – Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)
11 – GZA Featuring Inspectah Deck – Cold World
12 – A Tribe Called Quest Featuring Leaders Of The New School – Scenario
13 – The Notorious B.I.G. – Big Poppa
14 – Warren G Featuring Nate Dogg – Regulate
15 – Wu-Tang Clan – C.R.E.A.M.
Wicked Game! Big shout!
For Pet Shop Boys, I’d go for the glorious Se A Vida E (I Love You). Push comes to shove, possibly my fave Pet Shop Boys song of them all, which is saying something. It always sounds to me the way it feels being in a happy relationship. And that’s a sound I like an awful lot.
For Morrisey, I’d go for Now My Heart Is Full, which I love more than anything else he’s ever done. It’s peak Morrissey: the vocal, the lyrics, the preening. “Tell all of my friends, I don’t have too many” – SUCH a Morrissey lyric.
I will give some thought to further hip hop nominations.
Okay, having mulled it over, here are my 10 nominations for 90s hip hop tracks. I’ve excluded anything that’s already been mentioned in the thread and tried to avoid the super obvious 90-s devouring artists (by which I mean the Wu, Biggie, Tupac, Nas, Dre, the Beastie Boys, etc).
1. The Humpty Dance – Digital Underground
Okay, maybe this one is a little obvious, but it’s such a great moment. Right at the top of the 90s, a record that, while being utterly daft, signals so much of where the genre is headed: the use of alter-egos for MCs, those swarming synths opening up a different type of production style, and even a young Tupac dancing in the video. Brilliant party tune too.
2. How To Survive In South Central – Ice Cube
Nothing says the 90s like a super hard, rubberneckin’ beat, in this case built off an old Funkadelic sample that sounds like the evil older sibling of Zapp’s More Bounce To the Ounce. Had to have some Gangsta Rap on the list, although I’m not really a massive fan of the stuff. What I like about How to Survive is the way it typifies Cube’s ability to simultaneously sound like the angriest man on the planet and as if he might actually just be taking the piss completely: who can argue with lyrics like “everybody’s doin a little dirt/And it’s the youngsters puttin in the most work”?
3. Simon Says – Pharaohe Monch
In that same spirit of utterly filthy sounding beats; this one has to be right up there. I still remember the first time I heard it: jesus christ, what on earth is that? Super of its time, as is the equally filthy lyric. Makes me nostalgic for that late 90s/early 00s period where the central commandment of hip hop was to make the crowd wild the fuck out.
4. Concrete Schoolyard – Jurassic 5
Slightly surprised this didn’t come up yet. Even in the late 90s, rap music could already get a little misty eyed over its own lost innocence; never more so than in the work of J5, whose preference for rock soild MC skills and old school turntablism was a happy rejoinder to some of the darkness brewing elsewhere. Concrete Schoolyard has the works; a great, but now lamentable, opening sample from “Fat Albert Plays Dead” by Bill Cosby, that hands in the air beat and some of the best interplay between disparate MCing styles from any hip hop record ever made. These days, it’s a karaoke favourite: the trick to successfully pulling it off is nailing the “man fi dead” line near the end.
5. Movements – Roots Manuva
Brand New Second Hand doesn’t seem to come up in conversation much these days, but it was such a big big record when it first came out. For me, it was the first time I heard rap music that was conspicuously British in character, but which didn’t seem to be in thrall to the Americans and worked all the same. Movements has such a weird, off-kilter vibe to it; it feels like something out of a Hip Hop Jack the Ripper musical (saucy jack, you’re a naughty one, etc). Obviously, Roots went on to make Witness (1 Hope), which was the big one, but I always preferred the early stuff. Movements sounds none-more 90s and takes me back to a time when the future of this music felt so exciting and unknowable.
6. Mo Money, Mo Problems/Cold Rock A Party – Ma$e/MC Lyte
Cheating slightly with a two for one here to cover off four important 90s bases: the party jam, the emergence in numbers of female MCs, the influence of Puff Daddy and (related) the tendency to lift tunes wholesale from 70s classics. In this case, a pair of Diana Ross offerings. Cold Rock A Party is an undeniable jam: great beat, great addition of that “oo-ooh” in the off-beat, and MC Lyte absolutely kills the verse. Wonderful flow. Mo Money, Mo Problems, meanwhile, does the unthinkable in taking I’m Coming Out and somehow improving on it. If I had to pick one hip hop record as the total package to sum up the 90s it would very possibly be this one; the beat, the lyric, the video. Ma$e is amazing on it, it’s virtually impossible to perform if you’re foolish enough to try it (as I am): he has that lazy flow and he’s hopping all over the beat. Plus, the chorus is fantastic.
7. The Next Shit – DJ Vadim
I’m including this here, partly because a huge element of the 90s for me was checking out some of the mental sounding instrumental Hip Hop coming out of various Trip Hop record labels (shout out also to DJ Krush), partly because the tune is influential and bridges the gap from the end of the 90s to a lot of the stuff that emerged in the decade following (it’s basically a J Dilla track before J Dilla), but mainly because it absolutely slaps, in that super stoned sounding way.
8. Hip-Hop – Dead Prez
Another super scuzzy beat that was classic before anyone even rhymed over it. However, this one has the advantage of having some of the best bars in all of 90s hip hop spat on it: “Who shot Biggie Smalls/If we don’t get them they gon get us all/I’m down for running up on those crackers in they city halls”, “It’s real hip hop and it don’t stop/till we get the po po off the block”, “One thing about music when they hit you feel no pain/white folk say it controls your brain/I know better than that, that’s game”. So good. I’m also honour bound to point out that “Let’s Get Free”, the album this is taken from, contains a Hip Hop reworking of Animal Farm, entitled “Animal In Man” and featuring the immortal line “Just then, the horses got buck wild”.
9. Luchini – Camp Lo
Out of all the records on this list, the one that sounds most 90s, mainly because it’s designed to sound so 70s. And. It. Slaps. So. Hard.
youtube.com/watch?v=WvAqy1i2hEA
10. 8 Steps to Perfection/America – Company Flow
Just creeping in under the wire with a late 1999 release, “8 Steps” pointed the way forward into the next decade, when I would be spending a lot of time listening to stuff off Rawkus Records, and in particular a lot of time listening to Co-Flow/El-P. Helpfully, it’s also a massive tune in and of itself; massive beat, great flow and that super memorable intro: “Rugged like Rwanda, don’t wind up far or get chopped up”. These days, I prefer my Hip Hop when I can’t actually make out much of what’s being said: it’s generally better that way. This takes me back to a period where what was being said was often the whole point. I will never forget the jolt of first listening to “America”, a record that had something urgent to say and proceeded to say it with such speed, clarity and insight that you pretty much had to pause the damn thing every three lines to catch a breath. So many classic lyrics in that song, but I’ll end by posting just a couple of my favourite sections:
“You bitchy little tarts don’t even phase my basic policy
To bomb smarter, my Ronald Reagans crush Carter
Preparing big tactics, making young men into martyrs”
“With cameras mics and satellites that leave privacy breathless
You don’t even know the chemicals you’ve ingested
Urine tested… Beat an innocent man till he confesses”
“Invite you to cross the border then shit on your divinities
What language is that? I’m anguish in fact, tangle with a
Star-spangled standard issue gat for crowd management”
I have a hard time telling my 90s and my 00s apart, but hopefully not too many misrememberings here:
Blackstreet feat. Dr. Dre – No Diggity
Roy Davies Jr feat. Peven Everett – Gabriel (Live Garage Version)
Lauryn Hill – Do Wop (That Tning)
TLC – Creep
Soundgarden – Black Hole Sun
Marc Almond – Toreador In The Rain
LL Cool J – Mama Said Knock You Out
Pet Shop Boys – Being Boring
Mariah Carey – All I Want For Christmas Is You
Cornershop – Candy Man
Scritti Politti – First Goodbye
Björk – Isobel
Tricky – Overcome
Mylene Farmer – Désenchentée
Freakwater – Picture In My Mind
David Sylvian – Godman
Christian Falk feat. Demetreus – Make It Right
Beck – Loser
Brainpool – Free Ride
Prodigy – Poison
Julian Cope – East Easy Rider
Dream Warriors – Wash Your Face In My Sink
Khaled – Chebba
The The – Love Is Stronger Than Death
Foo Fighters – Walking After You
Emmylou Harris – All My Tears (Be Washed Away)
The Tamperer feat. Maya – Feel It
QOTSA – I Was A Teenage Hand Model
Morrissey – Hold On To Your Friends
Just D – Relalalaxa
De La Soul – 3 Days Later
The Wannadies – You and Me Song
Papa Wemba – M’Fono Yami
Radiohead – Just
Nirvana – Heart Shaped Box
Suede – Black Or Blue
The Smashing Pumpkins – Bullet With Butterfly Wings
The Blue Aeroplanes – Jacket hangs
(and a whole bunch of bangers already mentioned by others, and definitely a bunch of chart hits that I didn’t buy but get happy whenever they come on the radio today, but can’t remember right now)
Some great shouts here.
Loving the Lauryn Hill. I was tempted to name check If I Ruled The World and Ready or Not in the OP, so I’ll do it here instead. She is/was amazing.
Glad to see some Mariah love on the blog. Fantasy and Honey both deserve a shout here, as well as some of the album tracks where she does completely mental things with her voice and picks mad hip hop samples.
I loved Tricky so very much. It all fell apart a bit after the second album, but you can pick virtually anything off Maxinquaye. I’ll go for Hell Is Round The Corner, partly because of the way it bites on the immortal Glory Box, as well as Make Me Wanna Die and Tricky Kid from the second album.
Prodigy well overdue a mention. When it first dropped, No Good (Start The Dance) felt so exciting and cutting edge. It’s a bit old hat now, but I still love it. Super 90s dancing in the video too. I recently played my kids Out of Space and they pissed themselves laughing at it, the little heathens.
Love that you went for The Tamperer. Such a weird and wonderful pop song. What’s she gonna look like with a chimney on her indeed.
I was about to say! That Tamperer tune is utterly brilliant and a regular unbidden earworm of mine.
A little while ago, just to amuse myself, I rebuilt Out of Space from scratch out of its constituent samples, then re-recorded the massive synths and basically reconstructed the entire song. It was the most enormous fun and I was quite proud of my efforts. Then I played the result to my kids, to amused bafflement. “You… danced to this?”
You’re damn right I did, you appalling little nerks.
My tastes were a bit all over the place in the 90s. I saw these supporting Depeche Mode at the NEC on the Violator tour and they were absolutely brilliant (great album too).
So on a similar sort of vibe, Jon Marsh’s remix of World In My Eyes by Depeche Mode. Here he almost transforms it into a Beloved track. Happiness, Violator and Electribal memories still sound great and get tons of play round our place today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C7YvSlbJUw
I might post more later – started making a playlist of 90s favourites but it just got out of control very quickly. So much brilliant music in that decade
Devil’s Haircut is surely the top Beck track to savour?
I agree, and that’s the one I chose first, but Loser was such a huge and unexpexted hit so it feels more like THE 90s track in my mind.
Damn! Totally forgot All I Want For Christmas Is You.
Freedom 90. Fantastic pop moment: he must have given himself such a pat on the back when he came up with “all we have to do, is take these lies, and make them true”.
Great question: Here is an an off-the-top-of-my-head answer, all UK-based, pop-centric, and in arbitrary order:
1: Stereolab, Three Dee Melodie
2: Portishead, Glory Box
3: Tricky, Ponderosa
4: Massive Attack, Protection
5: Pulp, Babies
6: Blur, For Tomorrow
7: Aphex Twin, Analogue Bubblebath
8: LTJ Bukem, Atlantis
9: Omni Trio, Renegade Snares
10: Whitetown, Your Woman
11: Tom & Jerry, Maximum Style
12: My Bloody Valentine, Soon
13: Spiritualized, If I Were With Her Now
14. St Etienne, Nothing Can Stop Us Now
15: Groove Armada, At the River (I like this!)
Madonna – Ray of Light & Beautiful Stranger.
I was going to add All Saints – Pure Shores, but turns out that was 2000.
William Orbit was on something of a roll.
Trendy buggers, you’re all too cool for school to admit to liking Fatboy Slim, eh? I don’t think the following have been mentioned:
The Rockerfeller Skank – Fatboy Slim
Human Behaviour – Bjork
I Wouldn’t Normally Do This Kind of Thing – PSB
Wilmot – the Sabres of Paradise
Justified & Ancient – The KLF
Brimful of Asha – Cornershop
Intergalactic – Beastie Boys
Stay Away From Me – Smashmybrothersfacein
As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, the 1994 night Oasis played a half-empty Astoria, I was at an Acid Jazz double-headed downstairs at the LA2. Corduroy and Mother Earth, but the special guest support turned out to be Freakpower. Hang on! Isn’t that guitarist the bloke from the Housemartins and Beats International? And the singer’s the trombonist from Loose Tubes! They were ruddy great. I saw them half a dozen times in the following six months or so, including my 25th birthday party at the Jazz Cafe.
Given how many on the blog, including me, profess to adore this band and album, I suspect there are some who will realise their oversight of my first choice.
XTC : Easter Theatre
Supergrass: Richard III
Del Amitri : Be My Downfall
Bjork: Hyperballad
Mutton Birds: Envy of Angels
Julian Cope: Double Vegetation
Blur: This is a Low
The Verve : Northern Soul
Radiohead : Paranoid Android
The Orb : Little Fluffy Clouds
Oooh, I love a list.
The Verve are definitely worth a mention. They’ve gone way way way out of fashion, but they had a handful of brilliant moments, even beyond the big singles.
The two I’d go for personally are This Is Music, which is probably about as close to their actual manifesto as it’s possible to get, and then the 93 Glastonbury recording of Gravity Grave, with Ashcroft going full 90s Jim Morrison on the audience. We got one minute left, c’mon. One minute! One minute! One minute!
Re. “Easter Theatre”
Oh yes. Absolutely. Their finest song of all.
Of course Easter Theatre. In my defence I came to that album rather late so always have it placed somewhere in the early 00’s.
I was giving this some more thought and remembered Ocean Colour Scene. Riverboat Song, The Day We Caught TheTrain and the insane Hundred Mile High City. Great band for me. It also reminded me of this from Pete Paphides…. Now he can write.
The Day We Caught The Train is an excellent shout. Another unfashionable band, but people do seem to love that song, even now. I think the shout of “we’ve got the whole wide world” on the third chorus and the “when you find that things are getting wild, don’t you want days like these” refrain really send the whole thing into orbit.
Good shout. It’s an album that I still play fairly regularly.
However for me the standout OCS track is the B side “Huckleberry Grove”. No idea exactly why, but it’s just one of those songs that grabs me, makes the hairs stand on the back of the neck, etc etc…..
OCS got off to a poor start didn’t they? They must have, ‘cos I first encountered them when rummaging through a bargain bin in a little CD shop in Sodding Chipbury (which is long gone now). After ten minutes flipping through nondescript discs from a wide range of unnattractive artists, I chanced upon an intiguing album called Ocean Colour Scene, which appeared to be by a band of the same name. Naff cover, but lovely heavyweight jewel case, Fontana gold CD and a little booklet sprinkled with clues* that led me to stump up the fiver that the cover sticker demanded. What a find! Been following them ever since.
* Alison Moyet bvs
Heidi Stevens viola
Bob Stanley nod
Jimmy Miller nod
Musical Exchange brum nod
a PO Box in Solihull
That first album is not bad at all – a bit formulaic, trying to catch a rendition (remixed by the record company against the bands wishes apparently, but the clues are there).
Moseley Shoals is something of a re-invention, and a very fine one indeed. Still getting regular(ish) spins check Digit – and the Paul Weller endorsement can’t have hurt
Wot, no James?
Funnily enough, I’ve been listening to this absolutely loads recently. Amazed they drafted in Billy Corgan to sing it.
Ok the 90s is the first decade where the tracks of the decade and the songs of the decade are not quite the same. In addition to some of the ‘proper’ artists listed above like Leftfield and Underworld, here’s a list of some of my favourite tracks of the 90s
Energy Flash – Joey Beltram
You Got The Love – The Source feat Candi Staton
The Prodigy – Voodoo People
FSOL – Papua New Guinea
Josh Wink – Higher State of Consciousness
LFO – LF0
Liquid – Sweet Harmony
Underworld – Born Slippy
Disco Evangelists – De Niro
Sasha – Xpander
Chemical Brothers – Block Rockin Beats
Masters at Work – to be in love
Jam and Spoon – Odyssey to Anyoona
Daft Punk – Da Funk
Cafe Del Mar – Energy 52
Professional Widow – Tori Amos (Armin Van Helden remix) ok so she is a ‘song artist’ but this just left Tori singing ‘honey bring you close to my lips’ and ‘gotta be big’ over and over again over a monster bass line.
Energy Flash should definitely make the list.
Love the Josh Wink shout out. Brings to mind two stories from my school days: the first being the occasion a mate arrived in a cafe we were all sat in and proclaimed “awesome – Higher State of Consciousness”, before realising it was actually just a kettle boiling; the second the kid in my school year who was – ahem – not the quickest, and who was gifted the nickname “Lower State of Consciousness” by his (somewhat evil) classmates.
I’ll chuck in a few more tunes:
Brown Paper Bag – Roni Size
Angels Fell – Dillinja
In Dust We Trust – Chemical Brothers
Pulp Fiction – Alex Reece
Super Sharp Shooter – Ganja Kru
Far Away – Doc Scott
Demons Theme – LTJ Bukem
Terminator – Goldie
Modus Operandi – Photek
Doom Night – Azido Da Bass (what a huge tune that was)
Flowers – Sweet Female Attitude
Shaolin Buddha Finger – Depth Charge
20 Seconds to Comply – Silver Bullet
Never Gonna Let You Go – Tina Moore
Closer Than Close – Rosie Gaines (for many years, my old football team used to warn that a game was likely to be “a bit Rosie Gaines”)
A Little Bit of Luck – DJ Luck & MC Neat
A Knife and a Fork – Paul Robb
Who’s The Bad Man – Dee Pattern
Blow The Whole Joint Up – Monkey Mafia
Dirt – Death in Vegas
and, of course: Bug Powder Dust.
Bug Powder Dust is just the bomb. The nineties were the decade in which the bass line became the most important part of the track.
Bug Powder Dust may be the ultimate track that could only have been released in the early 90s. Impossibly of its moment, impossibly brilliant.
Silver Bullet? I say old son, suck a Fisherman’s Friend.
PS. LFO……cher-hooooooooooooooooooooooooooon!
Depeche Mode. Enjoy The Silence.
Just sneaks in – released in Feb 1990. Pop perfection really. One of those records I can just revisit and never get even slightly bored of.
New Order. Regret.
Euphoric guitar pop is always something I can imagine is very difficult to write – certainly to my ears. As a fan of electronic music, this is as exciting as any electronic track I have ever heard.
Pet Shop Boys. Can You Forgive Her?
So unusual; musically, visually, lyrically. Remember sitting in a working mens club when they performed this on TOTP. Total puzzlement around me – is this for real or joke? Regardless if you were behind the cricket pavilion or the bicycle shed.
Suede. The Wild Ones.
A band that personified the 1990s for me. Imagine Bowie singing this.
Morrissey. Speedway.
I remember going to a gig on my own for the first time to see him on tour in the mid-90s. It was ultra aggressive going to a Morrissey gig, connected to his persona at the time. He came on with a cut drawn on his face and bloody knuckles. Crazy. I’m not a violent person one bit, but it was really scary and exciting to see him around this time. This track still his best.
The KLF. 3am Eternal.
Just magic. I often think Damon Albarn most get most annoyed that whatever Gorillaz do – they’ll never be The KLF.
Placebo. Every You Every Me.
Used to hear this at endless indie nights in dire clubs, that were utterly depressing music-wise. But this track had a different energy to Britpop.
Rozalla. Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good).
When first released, in the Warehouse in Leeds, they would play this track six or seven times during the night. And nobody got sick of it.
Bruce Springsteen. Streets Of Philadelphia.
Still love the timeless beat and heartbreaking lyric.
The Cure. From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea.
Not a single, but a song that goes on a real journey. Highs, lows and all in-between (days). ‘Wish’ is a sublime 90s album.
Couldn’t agree more re: Enjoy The Silence. It just has its own vibe going on that’s so different to anything else I can think of.
Streets of Philadelphia is a brilliant shout. I’m also a sucker for Secret Garden, which is schmaltzy but wonderful.
That’s a great selection and the closest so far to the list I would put down. Particularly Can You Forgive Her? which is peak PSB.
This thread has been really cathartic for me. For all the reasons I’ve explained before the 90’s were a tough decade and these songs have brought up some really positive memories for me. I listened to Catatonia’s National Velvet today and it was brilliant. So thanks Bingo and everyone else who’s contributed….
Now that’s out of the way. How did I forget Nick Heyward? His three 90’s albums were great. Full of proper, special Brit Pop songs. Rollerblade, Kite, Caravan, The Man You Used To Be the list goes on. This Toppermost piece I did where I got fans (including Gary Crowley and our own @Rigid-Digit) to choose the songs I wrote this which says it all about Nick’s 90’s imperial phase…
“The trilogy is that good and should be known well enough to guarantee him Saturday evening at Glastonbury status without having to play a single Haircut 100 track. Yep, that good.
https://www.toppermost.co.uk/nick-heyward/
Glad to hear it, Dave. And just think! No one has even nominated Crazy by Aerosmith, Freak Like Me by Adina Howard, or (most egregiously of all) This Is How We Do It by Montell Jordan yet!
All over the shop, a mess and mass of genres…..
A slow scan through my i-tunes and these were the best of what actually seems to have been a great decade.
Hey Joe/Black Uhuru
Finisterre/June Tabor & Oyster Band
How Long Will I Love You/Waterboys
Put the Message in the Box/World Party
Equinox/Davy Spillane
Little Things in Life/Green on Red
One Way/Levellers
Country Feedback/REM (but I prefer most the Live on Jools Holland live version with BJ Cole, 1998)
Black Sky/Shakespears Sister
Shine/Charles & Eddie
Your Ghost/Kristin Hersh
Gradually Learning/Rockingbirds
4th of July/Aimee Mann
Mr Jones/Counting Crows
Ring on the Sill/Cowboy Junkies
Jerusalem Tonight/Emmylou Harris
Big Gay Heart/Lemonheads
Fade Into You/Mazzy Star
Regret/New Order
Pog Ain Oidche Earrach/Runrig
Some Fantastic Place/Squeeze
Cherry Dress/Anthony Thistlethwaite
Give the Anarchist a Cigarette/Chumbawamba
Sanvean/Dead Can Dance
Power of Two/indigo Girls
Glory Box/Portishead
Bordertown/The Walkabouts
McDougall’s Pride/Ashley McIsaac
Supervixen/Garbage
Two Hearts/The Jayhawks
The Queen and the Soldier/Kate Rusby & Kathryn Roberts
Yayli/Loop Guru
Protection/Massive Attack
Hymn/Moby
Secret Heart/Ron Sexsmith
Pacing the Cage/Bruce Cockburn
The Oakham Poachers/John Kirkpatrick Band
Pearl’s Girl/Underworld
Not Dark Yet/Bob Dylan
Another Night In/Tindersticks
La Femme d’Argent/Air
Bongo Bong/Manu Chao
The Sea/Morcheeba
Lovers of Light/Afro-Celt Sound System
Malheureuse/The Balham Alligators
Walk away Renee (Version)/Billy Bragg
Nothing Compares 2 U/Jimmy Scott
6/8 War/Leftfield
I Try/Macy Gray
Stranger on the Square/Jackie Leven
Oh, this is a great list.
How Long Will I Love You – absolutely, beautiful song.
Very nearly chucked Big Gay Heart in the OP. A song I go back to over and over again: he really did make it all look so simple at times. That middle eight.
I went through a big Levellers phase circa Levelling The Land. Haven’t listened to that album in a long, long time, but may give it a spin this weekend.
It’s really interesting perusing these lists. There was so much more going on than I remember at the time. I’ll definitely be having a listen to some of the tracks in this thread to see if I remember it all!
here are some off the top of my head, there may well be a few repeats but there you go
TLC – Sumthin’ Wicked This Way Comes Creep or Waterfalls could just have easily made it here, but this slow burning non-single off the excellent CrazySexyCool has always hit me just right
The Afghan Whigs – Crime Scene, Part One gritty, cinematic, sweeping, this is a perfect album opener
Kate Rusby – Our Town one of those covers that is better than the original. Wistful and melancholy, I’m not crying, you’re crying
Lo Fidelity Allstars – Disco Machine Gun A banger. No further questions.
Underworld – Rez That nagging synth riff is perfect, it’s like the end scenes of Close Encounters if Devil’s Tower was a disused warehouse somewhere and all the scientists were pilled up ravers
Rancid – Olympia, WA Could have been anything off …And Out Come The Wolves. Sometimes three chords, a big chorus and a few Oi! Oi! Oi!s is all you need
Primal Scream – Come Together the album version, mixed by Andrew Weatherall. Basically a perfect piece of music
and which one inevitably leads me to
The Sabres Of Paradise – Wilmot it’s like an old Kia-Ora advert gone voodoo
Wildchild – Renegade Master what a hook
and seeing as the big film of the month is going to be Dune, have a couple more early 90s rave bangers from Eon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4AIsI5QKzU
Oh my god – the Lo Fidelity Allstars. I was obsessed with Disco Machine Gun. Obsessed.
I dragged like ten people to watch them live, all enormously unimpressed. I still love Vision Incision.
The memory has also conjured to mind this, which I was listening to a lot at that time.
A few from me
Billy Bragg – Tank park Salute
Aimee Mann – I’ve Had It
Belle & Sebastian – Sleep the Clock Around
Eels – Last Stop: This Town
Mercury Rev: Goddess on a Hiway
G.W. McLennan – Lighting Fires
Nick Cave – The Ship Song
Michael Head & The Strands – Something Like You
Tom Petty – Wake up Time
Willard Grant Conspiracy – Evening Mass
World Party – Is It Like Today
Quite a few 90s Nick Cave tracks worthy of any shortlist, but The Ship Song is an excellent suggestion.
I once lived with a Nick Cave superfan who was absolutely horrified when his then girlfriend (who was Cave-agnostic, at best) arrived home one evening and announced she was to interview the great man. I believe the sheer injustice of the situation caused them to break up shortly thereafter.
Good call on the Billy. My favourite of his from that decade is King James Version, which has one one of the all-time great opening lines:
He was trapped in a haircut he no longer believed in
@charlie-gordon
Excellent calls there with Tank Park Salute and Is it like today?
Re: G.W. McLennan. I’d go with Haven’t I been a fool?
Delighted to see G W McLennan making an appearance, @Charlie Gordon. That is a fine song.
That’s a fine album. No complaints about Aimee, Billy, Mercury, B & S, Willard etc either.
RE: Grant McLennan. It was a toss up between Lighting Fires, The Dark Side of Town and Coming Up for Air. For BB…his version of Everywhere from same album is extraordinary.
Waaaaaay too many tunes for any realistic shortlist – seems to me the best available method is a sort of word association where you say a year and immediately answer with what first comes to mind. Thus…
1990: Public Enemy – Welcome To The Terrordome
1991: Primal Scream/The Orb – Higher Than The Sun
1992: Suede: To The Birds
1993: The Boo Radleys – Lazarus
1994: Manic Street Preachers – Faster
1995: Tricky – Hell Is Round The Corner
1996: Underworld – Juanita/Kiteless/To Dream Of Love
1997: Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – Patio Song
1998: Pulp – This Is Hardcore
1999: Aphex Twin – Windowlicker
Hoorah! A fellow appreciator of This Is Hardcore. The best Bond theme that never was.
Oh Yes. Patio Song. Just gorgeous.
Welcome to the Terrordome was 1989. As I always say amid my confusion about how much fuss is made about Fight the Power. “Fight the Power isn’t Public Enemy’s best single. It isn’t even Public Enemy’s best single of 1989”.
Of course it was really made in some year in the distant future that hasn’t happened yet.
I had convinced myself, like others, that the 90’s was pants. Clearly from some of these memories, I was wrong.
Of course, the best song from that decade was Aura by The Church. From their sprawling magnum opus Priest = Aura which killed grunge.
A small addendum:
Rainmaker – Sparklehorse
Weightless Again – The Handsome Family
Balinese Dancer – Chuck Prophet
Ship Song – Nick Cave & the bad seeds
Do you love me? – Nick Cave & the bad seeds
At the risk of overloading the Nick Cave content, I’d also include Where the Wild Roses Grow…
@fitterstoke
“Do you love me?”was the first Nick Cave song I bought. Still love it!
@Freddy-Steady
I suspect the majority on the site prefer the more quiescent Cave which emerged later – but I always preferred his earlier stuff, when it could be defined as Bad Seeds material, rather than Cave with a backing band. I missed The Birthday Party at the time, so I suppose I started listening with The Firstborn is Dead…and Let Love In is a storming album!
@fitterstoke
I did work backwards from Let Love in, of course I did! A great back catalogue but yes, a bit like Killing Joke, I prefer the melodic stuff to the more shouty stuff. Got Carnage due to drop through my letter box any time soon.
So many great songs above, a wonderful thread (and a Spotify playlist wouldn’t go amiss) but amazed to see so little:
Teenage Fanclub (v edited list) – Everything Flows, The Concept, What You Do To Me, Starsign, Hang On, Gene Clark, Don’t Look Back, Neil Jung, Going Places, Start Again, Ain’t That Enough, Planets, etc.
Or much Julian Cope to be honest!
And of course The Osmonds by Denim.
TEENAGE FANCLUB! What was I thinking?? Some of those songs can hold their own against anything else released in the 90s…and after…
Also:
Music non-stop (The Mix version) – Kraftwerk
Taneytown – Steve Earle
Saturday – Sparklehorse
Constant craving – KD Lang
Monday – Wilco
Meet ze Monsta – PJ Harvey
A change would do you good – Sheryl Crow
Red Right Hand – Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Renegade Master – Wildchild
Breathe – The Prodigy
That don’t impress me much – Shania Twain
My favourite game – The Cardigans
Also:
Big Dipper and Kerosene Hat – Cracker
I seem to remember soaking up a lot of vaguely rocky Americana in the 90s…
After seeing the tweet below yesterday I was going to start a new thread based on “Stars” but I thought it really belonged here on Bingo’s uber thread. I’m with the tweeter on this 100%. I’ve never hidden my love of Simply Red. The songs “Stars”, “Something Got Me Started”, ” For Your Babies” absolutely belong in a thread about the best songs of the 90’s. Would anyone else here admit to listening to “Stars” more than “Nevermind” or “Screamadelica”? You know what hill I’m on…
I’ll stick my hand up and join you, Dave. There are a fair few Simply Red tunes I have time for; super unfashionable, super “civilian”, and all the better for it.
What was their song that included the lyric “I love the thought of coming home to you?”
That was ace.
Fairground. Nothing wrong with Fairground.
That was it. Great stuff.
Thanks.
Earworm embedded… Great tune, that line is best described as euphoric…
In all the excitement, I somehow forgot my single favourite track of the entire decade: Mogwai Fear Satan.
I was tremendously excited by Post Rock when it first emerged. Rock lyrics are so often tedious that it seemed a blessing to do without them, and I spent many happy hours wandering the soundscapes of Slint, GY!BE, Tortoise, Explosions in the Sky, Mono, et al. There was something universal and quite moving about it all.
Mogwai Fear Satan, however, towered above the rest in my affections.
If a cheap musical trick defined the 90s, it was probably the jarring quiet/loud/quiet dichotomy. You heard it in everything from Pixies to Nirvana to Nu Metal and all over the early work of Mogwai. Nowhere, to my mind, has that cheap trick worked so perfectly as in Mogwai Fear Satan.
There’s that gentle, martial sounding build, the suggestion of a maelstrom to come. There’s the sturm und drang of the guitars crashing in and then receding, over and over, with varying degrees of distortion; howling endlessly into the void. The whole thing has this incredible sense of propulsion, likes it’s constantly accelerating towards something nameless. When I first heard it, it reminded me of Heroin by the Velvet Underground in that sense, but without the stupid shock tactics of Heroin’s lyric. The sheer urgency of it all.
What sets MFS apart, however, is the flute. That gorgeous flute line, dropping in to the quieter moments and applying salve to the wound before it all begins again. The way it takes us to the close of the track as the rest of the music begins to slow and quieten, the transcendent feeling of peace created by the eventual absence of all that chaos.
I listened to Mogwai Fear Satan a million times in the late 90s. It comforted me in tough moments, and helped me make sense of some of what was going on inside me. It made me feel less alone on days when that was exactly what I needed. Years later, when I first listened to Dream House by Deafheaven (which would be up there with my favourite songs of the last decade or so), I immediately caught an echo of MFS. It was so ugly and angry, but still familiar and comforting all the same.
I’m not sure it could ever be said to define the 90s, but I’ve never stopped loving it, and I can’t imagine I ever will. It’s an absolutely brilliant name for a song too – Mogwai were always good at that.
Addendum….
A few from the old guard:
Prefab Sprout – One of the Broken
Leonard Cohen – Anthem
Neil Young – Prime of Life
Morrissey – Someone on Your Side
Paul weller – Clues
Tom waits – Black Wings
Van Morrison – The Days Before Rock’n’Roll
Robert Wyatt – A Sunday in Madrid
REM – Electrolite
Barry Adamson – Achieved in the Valley of the dolls (achtung @dave-amitri)
Nick Heyward – The world
Terry Hall – Moon on Your Dress…
….also nothing says the 90s more to me than I Remember Punk Rock by Vic Reeves.
Electrolite has to make any sensible final shortlist.
I can’t believe I left it off my first list. I think I’d rather have it than all the rest of the Gardening At Night Hitmakers’ output.
And, contrary to popular demand, there’s more:
No Time – Whiteout
Moebius – Orbital
Worlds In Collision – Pere Ubu
I Had to Serve You – HiJack
Another Girl’s Name – Ocean Colour Scene
Monday – Wilco
Towers of Dub – The Orb
Wreck of the arthur Lee – Robyn Hitchcock
Don’t Ask Me – PiL
Miss World – Mice
City Bright Stars – Lightning Seeds
Talking to the Spirits – MC900 Ft Jesus
Valentine – Willie Nelson
It’s Up To You – Steinski
Hanging Upside Down – David Byrne
When She’s Gone – Electronic
Fine Time – Cast
People Get Ready – Brand New Heavies
I’m Ready – Caveman
Don’t You worry – Beloved
Dry the Rain – Beta Band
Pianos & Clocks – Aztec Camera
Rough it Up – Blade
Kingdom – Ultramarine
Body & Soul – The Blue Nile
I Wouldn’t Normally Do… – PSBs
Pocket Calculator (The Mix version) – Kraftwerk
After All – Frank & Walters
Time Wraps Around You – Velvet Crush
Smile – Supernaturals
Hayfever – Trashcan Sinatras
Love Gets Sweeter Every day* – Finley Quaye
(*yes you did read that right)
I heart Finley Quaye. Very happy memories of watching him play a sunny Notting Hill Carnival shortly after the first album. Will always stand up for Even After All.
Amazed it took us this long to get Dry The Rain. I’d also add Dog’s Got A Bone.
As for Orbital, will only add SATAN! SATAN! SATAN! SATAN!
I think many associate the Betas with the noughties. The Three EPs is a very “long tail” album in terms of its impact, To be fair, they did two albums in the noughties and a standalone single (To You alone/Sequinsizer) and there isn’t a duff note on any of them: the earlier and more famous recordings veer violently from genius to unlistenable. There’s a lesson in there about consistency not being everything.
I’m rambling, I half expect this post to be interrupted by a double-tracked Steve Mason going “Hmmmm-mmmmmm”
Oh yes, Even After All should definitely bave been on my list. And everyone else’s, come to that.
Kelly Willis – What I Deserve
Sugar – A Good Idea
Steve Earle – Telephone Road
Lucinda Williams – Still I Long For Your Kiss
Whiskeytown – Everything I Do
Ron Sexsmith – Strawberry Blonde
Fountains of Wayne – Red Dragon Tattoo
Nick Lowe – The Beast in Me
All Saints – Never Ever
Shit, I forgot Sugar! ‘Kinnell! If I Can’t Change Your Mind! Man on the Moon! Walking Away!
That Whiskeytown tune is a cracker. My favourite of theirs from the 90s is Dancing With The Women At The Bar.
Not sure if we’ve had it yet, but; Leavin’ by Shelby Lynne, anyone?
Ooh, yes.
While I think of it, could I also chuck in Sheryl Crow’s All I Wanna Do. Probably the greatest hit of her greatest hits but still a song I love.
I revisited some Sheryl Crow recently: sounded pretty good to me, particularly If It Makes You Happy.
Big up for Leavin’…and, arguably, anything else by Shelby Lynne…
Back to this because unforgivably I’ve not yet mentioned Billy MacKenzie. Some of his solo releases during the 90s were his best. “Wild and Lonely” while released in 1990 as The Associates was Billy solo really. Its a fantastic poppy treat that contains “Just Can’t Say Goodbye” which if produced by SAW would have been number 1 for weeks. His true solo album “Beyond The Sun” is absolutely beautiful and emotional and exquisite. The track I’m choosing to share though cones from BEF’s Music of Quality & Distinction Volume 2 album. It’s his cover of Deniece William’s “Free” from 1991 it also appears on the 1998 BEF ‘Best Of’ album. Just give yourself 4 minutes of lovely…
A few more from me:
Deceptacon by Le Tigre
Pony by Ginuwine
Keep Their Heads Ringing by Dr Dre
If I Could Turn Back Time by Cher (what a banger)
Dreamer by Livin Joy
Never Tear Us Apart by INXS
Say My Name by Destiny’s Child
Inner City Life by Goldie
You Make Me Wanna by Usher
Two Princes by the Spin Doctors (admit it)
Walking on Broken Glass by Annie Lennox
Ghost Chase by Atari Teenage Riot
No Rain by Blind Melon (so good)
Nitro by The Offspring
Connection by Elastica
When I come Around by Green Day
Swallowed by Bush
What I Got by Sublime
What’s Up by 4 Non Blondes
74-75 by The Connells
Oh, the 90s.
I do like that Connells tune. I’m surprised it hasn’t appeared already, it seems definitively Afterwordian.
PS Nitro reminded me that I didn’t include anything from Mama said Knock you Out. I’d probably go with To Da Break Of Dawn meself.
(Cool J’s Nitro itself is from 89 though)
Sultans Of Ping FC – Where’s Me Jumper
Stop the thread. We have a winner.
Can’t believe I forgot these:
Cece Peniston – Finally
Young Disciples – Apparently Nothin’
Skee-Lo – I Wish
DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince – Summertime
Kriss Kross – Jump
and (dare I say it?)…
Whigfield – Saturday Night 😀
Oh man – Apparently Nothin’. Haven’t heard that in a looong time. Great call.
Finally! Tuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuune!
I’ll change my mind in 10 mins but:
Oasis – Live Forever
Manics – Faster
Suede – Metal Mickey
Primal Scream – Loaded
Black Grape – Reverend Black Grape
Bjork – Isobel
Saint Etienne – Nothing Can Stop Us
Stone Roses – Love Spreads
Crowded House – Distant Sun
Charlatans – Tellin’ Stories
I bought the NME every week for most of that decade and I think it shows.
Love Spreads is a shout.
Big fan of that Charlatans album; add One to Another and North Country Boy to the list.
I’d have One Love or Something’s Burning. “2C” is unforgiven for me. I put my life in the hands of a rock’n’roll band and they threw it all away.
Golden Greats is a lovely album, while I’m here. Genuinely what Second Far Too Bloody Long Coming could have been,
Charlies-wise, am I alone in having a soft spot for Me In Time? Crikey, that’s thirty years old now too. In other words, it’s as old as Wonderful Land by The Shadows was then.
I wish I hadn’t said that.
Here’s a varied few that I dug at the time:
Sound of da police – KRS-One
Long snake moan — PJ Harvey
A cure for pain — Morphine
Crush with eyeliner — REM
Ride on — Little Axe
Words of advice — Material, feat William Burroughs
I’ll shoot the moon — Tom Waits
Bulls on parade — Rage Against the Machine
3D Lifestyle — Greg Osby
The white man’s got a god complex — Public Enemy
Wide open spaces — The Dixie Chicks
The things I used to do — Albert Collins
Farmer in the city — Scott Walker
Doll parts — Hole
Sound of Da Police is such a good shout. You rarely hear it these days, which is odd given how on point it is.
The 90s chat has had me listening to Live Through This a lot in the last few days. It’s a great album, they were a great band and Doll Parts is a brilliant song.
See also Who Protects Us From You, which is even older.
Judging by the above lists, I seem to have been a ’90s-dodger for the most part.
Odds and sods from Portishead, Pulp, Jah Wobble, KLF, Julian Cope, The Orb, Waterboys and Garbage and that’s pretty much It, for me.
That was about the time I quit smoking (including forswearing the naughty weed) and started dabbling in computers and t’internet.
It’s never too late to un-dodge a decade, Mike (although from the list above, you didn’t do too badly).
Would that I had the time to compile all of the above into a Spotify playlist. There have been some truly excellent suggestions on this thread.
I will happily volunteer to do a Spotify playlist for this tread.
There are so many tracks I love. But also so many I have never heard of! I intend to put that right.
It may take a day or two!!
You absolute legend!
For full 90s authenticity, shouldn’t it be on 5CDs that we can put in an autochanger in the car?
You gave up both of them at the same time? Impressive if so.
Tried giving up tobacco but carrying on with the weed but just found it too difficult.
Also my finances got in a mess after my employer went bust and knocked me for a couple of weeks money. I needed to knuckle down with work, stop taking those Monday or Friday sickies and clear some debt.
I have a playlist called ‘Flawless’ & it’s exactly what it says on the tin. Songs I like that I do not believe I will never tire of.
Tracks on that playlist from the 90s are (in no particular order);
Depeche Mode – Enjoy The Silence
Regular John – Queens Of The Stone Age
Ex-Factor – Lauryn Hill
On The Avenue – Aztec Camera
The Rhythm Of The Night – Corona
Dammit – Blink 182
Meet Ze Monsta – PJ Harvey
Let Down – Radiohead
Rockin’ Chair – Oasis
Good Grief – Foo Fighters
Waterfalls – TLC
Still – Macy Gray
Just A Girl She Said – Dubstar
Ladies & Gentleman We Are Floating In Space – Spiritualized
Sleep The Clock Around – Belle & Sebastian
Tonight We Fly – The Divine Comedy
I like this list a lot. I think you’ve picked the right Spiritualized track, although I also have a soft spot for Shine A Light.
I realized earlier that we’ve had nothing so far from the mighty 69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields, so will nominate Busby Berkeley Dreams and Kiss Me Like You Mean It.
A few more that sprung to mind on my commute:
California Stars – Billy Bragg & Wilco
Try Again – Aaliyah
Roots Bloody Roots – Sepultura
Tonight, Tonight – Smashing Pumpkins
The Private Psychedelic Reel – Chemical Brothers
Gone Til November – Wyclef Jean
On & On – Erykah Badu
Devil’s Pie – D’Angelo
Rain Showers – Sizzla
Traffic Blocking – General Degree
I’m Going Down – Mary J Blige
Ice Cream – Raekwon
Ain’t No Right – Jane’s Addiction
Closer – Nine Inch Nails
Highway 29 – Bruce Springsteen
Scentless Apprentice – Nirvana
I think its ample testament to the strength of the nineties that pretty much every post has had me nodding appreciatively and wishing it was a playlist. Mary J Blige and Sepultura? Oh, yeah!
Spiritualized: for me it’s a close thing between Run and Cool Waves. The latter probably shades it because it has the definitively nineties touch of featuring the London Community Gospel Choir.
Yeah, Cool Waves is also brilliant – good shout.
I’ve just played it again and it’s the sound of bliss. It’s when that flute takes off at the end. And the Spector/Brian Wilson bass saxophones. And Jason’s funny little papery voice in the middle of it.
For a couple of years they were the best band in the world.
His voice is what makes it. It’s such a glorious contrast to the lush, orchestral arrangement and the choir.
I played it last night. That whole package of Ladies and Gentelemen… could have looked as indulgent as any 70’s behemoth LP if the contents didn’t match up to the concept.
Luckily it was a stone classic.
There must be others but I’ll add
Cracker: Eurotrash Girl
3 Mustaphas 3: Golden Clarinet
As Marie Lloyd died 99 years ago today can I also nominate Oh Mr Porter written 1893.
Isn’t Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay from the nineties, too? A banger and a half that one.
Indeed it is, how could I forgotten that one, cut.
Three more that I can’t believe have been overlooked until now:
Steal My Sunshine – Len
Break Stuff – Limp Bizkit (c’mon people – we’re so obviously slacking here)
and particularly, this piece of absolute 90s genius….
Anybody mentioned Closing Time by the never-cool Semisonic?
I, the never-cool Bingo Little, absolutely love Closing Time. It’s so simple, but so effective. Good for karaoke too.
That’s a proper tune, that.
Here are 10 songs from the 1990s that I love.
Some of them have been mentioned by other Afterworders, but hey, that’s OK.
Elvis Costello – Couldn’t Call it Unexpected No.4
REM – Find the River
Ayub Ogada – Obiero
Grant McLennan – Coming Up for air
Lal Waterson & Oliver Knight – Midnight Feast
Jackie Leven – Jim O’Windygates
Elliott Smith – Bled White
XTC – Easter Theatre
Magnetic Fields – I Don’t Believe in the Sun
Divine Comedy – Tonight We Fly
We played Find the River at my other half’s funeral – it was a song that had some significance for us in the 90s when we first got together…
Your first was the theme tune from GBH.
“I know where you live!!”
“Calm…calm…calm…”
Classic.
Producing a playlist for this thread is a real labour of love.
I’ve a long way to go still, but maybe listening to what we have so far will jog your memories.
Enjoy!
Oh come on. 👏
*carries KFD on a sedan chair through the streets of Stockholm*
Thanks Moose, I really enjoyed your list. A fascinating mixture of favourites of mine and then artists I had never heard of.
Thank you for this. I was 9-18 years old in the ’90s – I’m back there now. Top effort!
Thanks @bingo for the thread.
Cheers
Well, nobody chose this, largely because it’s pretty firmly associated wit’ noughties. But it is indeed from the nineteen hundreds.
That is such a great, great track. With the Sopranos exposure it’s surprising that it was not a global hit single (it barely charted in the UK, even on reissue). According to Billboard it did get to no 11 or 32 depending on which of their singles charts you look at.
And they’re still going, despite the death of the Rev in 2019.
Who wants another list? Boo, hiss, etc…
https://www.slantmagazine.com/features/the-50-best-rock-albums-of-the-90s/
If there is one thing AW loves it’s a list, I’ve found. Even beats any thread on British politics!
Very true. But what is such a delight about this list is that you can nominate as many song as you wish. This means all manner of wonderful esoteric stuff is being remembered.
Our Spotify Playlist up to 355 songs and there has been no drop of quality in the suggestions.
What a remarkable decade it was.
If you can remember the 60s, you weren’t there..
If you can remember the 9Os, the memories never seem to stop.
How in god’s name did we get this far without a mention of Fugazi. Tsk.
Just name songs you like without castigating others for their “inferior” taste 😉
How dare you! Nobody – and I mean nobody – has inferior taste to me.
Talking of good taste, I think we’ve missed this splendid, infectiously catchy floorfiller …
It used to go down a bomb at children’s parties at nursery school.
A fine addition.
I must also ask the assembled: whither Roxette?
It Must Have Been Love? Listen To Your Heart? Joyride? Fading Like A Flower?
Tunes, one and all.
The Joyride album is featured today over at SDE, in forthcoming 30th anniversary 3CD form. 30 years!
The late , great Marie Fredriksen recorded more than a few fine ballads in Swedish too.
This came up at karaoke the other night. Absolute banger:
Comes in the great 90s tradition of windswept, piano-led balladry, with lengthy narrative videos and lots of blow-dried hair/wind machines.
See also, this classic, with a video that is completely unacceptable in 2021.
Shoegaze has gone largely unremarked so far. Not a problem, but as we’re doing singles here’s one of the poppiest and best.
Shoegaze, you say? You’ve come to the right place. I won’t post the video of this as it uses the nasty 7″ edit, so stare at the album cover through your swaying fringe and crank it up for 8 and a quarter minutes.
Ride – Leave Them All Behind:
This lot were on the Reading bill above Nirvana.
Chapterhouse – Pearl
Local boys too
Toni Halliday, sigh…
Curve – Ten Little Girls.
Lush – De-luxe