Tied To The 90s: Part 4

Today's 5 entries cover 4 of my all-time favourite artists. And Belly.


33. Björk - Debut

There's a whole generation of indie fans who can still remember when they first heard Björk's voice. That mysterious grainy video on The Chart Show with the weird Icelandic vocals.

Some time later Eifion walked into the 6th form common room with a bright orange day-glo sleeve and (maybe misguidedly given the state of the stereo's needle) played Birthday to the assembled couple of dozen 16-18 years-olds.

And Dave Slave from the school's hard rockin' band The Slaves commented on his good taste.

Anyway, you all know what happened next - really fun first album, dodgy second album, reasonable third album, greatest hits/remix stuff, DEBUT!

The first time you heard Human Behaviour you knew that Björk's solo work was going to be like nothing you'd heard before. The genius of the beats, the pop sensibility, the voice. Of course we knew the voice, but in conjunction with these new tunes there was so much more than we ever thought might be possible, given the Sugarcubes gradual decline. From the quiet beauty of tracks such and Like Someone In Love and Venus As A Boy to the full on joyous dance tracks like Big Time Sensuality, Violently Happy, and the sheer  unadulterated fun of There's More To Life Than This (Recorded Live at the Milk Bar Toilets) this was obviously the shape of things to come.

32. PJ Harvey - Dry

And so to the other half of that awe-inspiring duo who performed Satisfaction at The Brits that time.

When I was in Germany you would occasionally get a specially recorded John Peel show on BFBS radio, and if you were lucky, really late at night you could pick up Mark Radcliffe's Hit The North in the ether on Medium Wave on the old Radio 5. One of these sources was doubtless where I first heard Dress and Sheela-Na-Gig because I bought the album the first time I saw it in a shop. Sadly I had no way to get hold of the limited Demonstration edition but I was happy just to have found what, at that time, I thought was a pretty obscure little album by an unknown band (am I the only one who still files PJ Harvey stuff under P as it was the name of the band?).

I'm pretty sure I went without food for a while there so I could buy this.

31. Radiohead - OK Computer

Radiohead were the first band that I could genuinely profess to liking before they were famous. I can still see the box full of 99p CD copies of the original issue of Creep on the counter downstairs in one of the two Coventry HMVs.

There will be more talk about Radiohead in a future post, but for now let's think about OK Computer. It's a stunning album obviously, that much is a given. There's so few, if any, weak moments. Maybe Fitter Happier but in the grand scheme of things it's forgivable. The singles Paranoid Android, Karma Police and No Surprises along with Lucky (originally released as a single to support the War Child Help charity compilation album) is just about the greatest run of singles ever to come off an album that isn't by Prince or Teenage Fanclub.

"Why the relatively low placing then Matt?" I hear you cry. Well, it's probably just a matter of how little I actually listen to it these days. They remain one of my all-time favourite bands, and if you haven't seen them live then you've missed out, but I find myself reaching for Hail To The Thief or In Rainbows these days over this.

I do wish that I'd picked up a handful of those Creep singles though. Could have seen me through some sticky financial moments over the years.

30. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - I See A Darkness

Will Oldham. Palace. Palace Music. Palace Brothers. Bonny Billy. Anyone who tries to be a completist of this fella has their work cut out for them.

Many many years ago I needed another CD single to make up the 3-for-a-pound from the bargain rack in Prestatyn Record Shop and ended up with a copy of Palace's An Arrow Through The Bitch. I must have listened to it at least once I guess, but it never worked for me so it got filed away and forgotten about.

Then some years later I got copies of I See A Darkness, Ease Down The Road and Master And Everyone on one of the first CDs of these newfangled mp3s anyone ever did for me. I realised that on these albums the Prince had found his voice and I was hooked.

Of these three albums Master And Everyone is my favourite but it doesn't fall into this list's criteria so I See A Darkness is the one that makes the cut. More polished than the earlier Palace material it still has that grim menace but it's also great fun (or is that just me).

Oldham's sense of fun has always been the side of his music I've enjoyed the most, and his Greatest Palace Music reworking of his early lo-fi Palace material with a full Nashville country band is my all-time favourite BPB release, and the fact that he can turn this...

...into this...

...is a mark of the greatness of the man.

29. Belly - Star

One of the good things about being friends with Eifion is the fact that he has a penchant for collecting stuff on the coolest record labels. His Factory obsession introduced me to New Order, James, Happy Mondays, The Durutti Column etc; he always had all the limited edition ZTT stuff for all the FGTH, Art Of Noise, Propaganda & Act stuff; and his 4AD collection brought me Throwing Muses, Pixies, Wolfgang Press and the Mountain Goats.

Of course this brought along with it all the splinter groups and solo stuff such as The Breeders and Belly.

Prior to Red Heaven there were usually a couple of poppier tunes on Throwing Muses albums. Slighty more mainstream indie pop than your usual Muses fare. And these were usually the Tanya Donnelly ones.

Belly are really a one album wonder for me. I know some of you will argue that King is a superior album, but for me, apart from the fancier artwork of the limited edition it van't hold a candle to Star. This is probably because I love Star *so* much that I didn't feel the need for another Belly album.

Tied To The 90s: Part 3

Only 3 to give you today, and to be honest, there isn't much to say about the third of them so only 2 proper write-ups. Sorry, but it's late & I've got a hell of a day tomorrow. The 3 albums that follow today's post are real big-hitters and deserve more than an over-tired  half-recalled ramble from your humble host, whose writing isn't up to much even at the best of times.

36. The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin

I managed to miss The Flaming Lips until this point. I mean I knew the name, and I remember seeing a (shaped?) picture disc of This Here Giraffe in Prestatyn record shop, but that was it. And then this came along.

I know my feats of record-purchasing-recollection have been pretty impressive so far, but I can even remember where in Rhyl Our Price this was. I guess if I went into what is now the O2 shop I could still pinpoint the exact spot.

I've never really been into the more psychedelic side of music I guess but this is so obviously great from start to finish that that isn't even an issue. Really my appreciation for them waned (see what I did there?) after Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots but I think this is more down to me not having the time and energy to properly investigate subsequent releases.

35. Beck - Odelay

As I mentioned previously, the first time I heard Beck was when Jo Whiley played Loser on Radio 1. And of course it was a work of genius (Loser that is, not the Jo Whiley show). It had great b-sides, it had a classic TOTP performance with a band of old-timers and breakdancing, but it didn't really have the killer album to back it up. I remember a guy I worked with called Charlie Bass (and yes, he played the bass) coming around with Mellow Gold on CD and me being, well, disappointed.

So I was not expecting great things from the follow-up, although lead-off single Where It's At was nicely funky and got my attention. I'm convinced I actually bought this on release (Rhyl Our Price) so maybe it was just funky enough.  And then of course the hits kept coming. Devil's Haircut, The New Pollution, Sissyneck and the fabulous Jack-Ass. I bought the "maxi-single" of that one in a record "store" in a "mall" somewhere in North Carolina, and also got Stereopathic Soul Manure and One Foot In The Grave at the same time so as to avoid paying the cost of buying them as imports from the ads at of the back of the NME. Of course the cost of a holiday to North Carolina never occurred to me at this point. These were the only music purchases I made on that trip. I know The Drugs Don't Work was released the day we set off, and that The Fat Of The Land was all over the shops over there, but I never looked for anything beyond those 3 Beck releases.

I haven't listened to Odelay for quite some time (I tend towards Mutations these days) but I know it's always there and I know it's great.

In fact typing this has made me want to listen to it right now.

34. Various Artists - Chess 50th Anniversary Collection

Just look at this tracklisting. Have you ever seen a more influential set of tracks on one compilation?

CD1

1. Smokestack Lightning' - Howlin' Wolf
2. Hoochie Koochie Man - Muddy Waters
3. Let me love you baby - Buddy Guy
4. Boom Boom (Out go the lights) - Little Walter
5. Tell Mamma - Etta James
6. I had a talk with my man last night - Mitty Collier
7. Summertime - Billy Stewart
8. I'm a Man - Bo Diddley
9. If walls could talk - Little Milton
10. The Entertainer - Tony Clark
11. Flat Foot Sam - T.V. Slim
12. Mama talk to your daughter - J.B. Lenoir
13. T.W.A. - Jimmy Witherspoon
14. Dirty Old Man - Laura Lee
15. Wang Dang Doodle - Koko Taylor
16. So many roads - Otis Rush
17. Seventh Son - Wille Mabon
18. Jock-A-Mo - Sugar Boy Crawford
19. The Walk - Jimmy McCracklin
20. Reconsider Baby - Lowell Fulson

CD2

1. One Bourbon, one scotch, one beer - John Lee Hooker
2. Roadrunner - Bo Diddley
3. Reelin. & Rockin. - Chuck Berry
4. That's all right - Jimmy Rogers
5. My Time after awhile - Buddy Guy
6. But I do - Clarence "Frogman" Henry
7. Rescue Me - Fontella Bass
8. The "In" Crowd - Ramsay Lewis Trio
9. Soulful dress - Sugar Pie Desanto
10. Stay in my corner - The Dells
11. Voice your choice - The Radiants
12. Talk to me baby - Elmore James
13. Good to me - Irma Thomas
14. Rocket 88 - Jackie Brenston & his delta cats
15. Selfish One - Jackie Ross
16. Juke - Little Walter
17. Grits ain't Groceries - Little Milton
18. 29 Ways - Willie Dixon
19. Help me - Sonny Boy Williamson
20. Rollin' Stone - Muddy Waters

Tied To The 90s: Part 2

This is obviously going to be a long process. Life tends to get in the way of finding the time to share these memories with you all. It is kind of fun though, remembering what particular albums and songs mean to me. For example at the moment I'm listening to Left To My Own Devices by the Pet Shop Boys from the album Introspective - an album I bought on limited edition 3x 12" vinyl from Abergele Woolworths (where I also bought my first PSB record - a limited double 7" pack of Suburbia) and then later got on CD - I think from the second-hand rack at Phase One Records in Rhyl.

Remember I mentioned last time that I was a multi-format sucker? I bought the single of Left To My Own Devices on 7", 12", cassette & CD single (all in yellow outer sleeves) as well as owning it on the album. Twice. And then bought the B-sides again on the Alternative compilation. And now I'm listening to it on Spotify punctuated by adverts about energy drinks and commercial radio stations.

I just remembered - I also have a promotional Introspective carrier bag from Kavern Records in Rhyl.

Hopefully more such exciting revelations to follow...

43. Carter USM - 101 Damnations

My friend James introduced me to Carter - they'd played some early shows in Leicester where he was at university and he had seen them for the musical/lyrical geniuses that they were. Now generally I have a lot of faith in James' taste, but then he also tried to convince me about the Manic Street Preachers so I always have to be slightly wary.

Of course, it goes without saying that this time he was right. I remember seeing the LP in Swordfish Records in Birmingham but I don't think I actually bought the CD until maybe a decade or more later. Of course 30 Something, 1992: The Love Album and subsequent singles were bought on release, and seeing them supported by The Family Cat at Leicester Granby Halls (Songkick tells me 11/12/92) remains one of my favourite gigs to this day.

42. Pavement - Crooked Rain Crooked Rain

I bought Slanted & Enchanted from a hi-fi shop in Braunschweig, Germany which had a very impressive indie section (stand-out memories are of buying Trompe Le Monde & PJ Harvey's Dry from there)

I tried to like it, I really did. It has been one of those albums that has eluded me for many years. Every so often I'll give it another try but it still won't click for me.

So what possessed me to buy Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain? I can only assume that I was sufficiently persuaded by lead-off single Cut Your Hair. This is another though that I didn't buy on release, but got second-hand. My memory is that Eifion rang me from a second-hand book shop in Colwyn Bay and asked me if I wanted this for a fiver. Now he has no recollection of this, or of said book shop ever selling CDs. I have 6 months on him so I'm going to put it down to old age affecting his memory.

I certainly have other singles from this album - Gold Soundz, Range Life - so I don't think it would have taken much to persuade to go for the album.

As a matter of fact I only think they bettered it once.

Oops, sorry - SPOILER ALERT!

41. Pulp - His N Hers

The tale of how I fell in love with Pulp is one of my favourite stories to tell, and no doubt some of you will have heard it more than once already, so feel free to skip to number 40.

James & I were off to see Saint Etienne at De Montfort Hall not long after they had released So Tough. I had bought the album on CD from Spinadisc in Coventry on release day but not knowing there was an in-store planned at Andy's Records I'd left it at home. Therefore I had to buy it again to have a good reason to meet Pete, Bob and (who am I kidding - I really only cared about meeting...) Sarah. I'm pretty sure that this was the first band I ever met.

When we got to De Montfort Hall that night we had no idea who were supporting St Et, but onto the stage walks a lanky charmer by the name of Jarvis with his band. They were (obviously) amazing. They were on the cusp of great things as we now know, but they stormed that stage. Jarvis was brilliant and witty as we know. Sharing a box of Milk Tray with the audience before launching into Razzmatazz is still the best thing I've ever seen anyone do between songs. The fact that Babies and Lipgloss are on this album just about edges it over Different Class and Intro as my favourite Pulp album.

For once my memory fails me about where I bought this, but my money is on Rhyl Our Price. What I do know is that I had to make sure I handed over the right copy of So Tough when I went back to Spinadisc and said "Look - I've got two".

40. The Bluetones - Expecting To Fly

There isn't a great deal to say about this one really, except that it remains my favourite album to come out of what was known as Brit-Pop. Just some cracking songs, especially on the second half (after the needle run-off and click in the middle of the CD) and it still gets played on a regular basis when I'm in the mood for great tunes.

39. Madder Rose - Bring It Down

I guess Swim got some airplay on The Evening Session or something. I can't think how else I would have heard of Madder Rose. I went into Penny Lane Records in Chester looking for the single and came out with the album. Scuzzy guitars, cool female vocals - what's not to love. Right up my street.

Second album Panic On was pretty close, but this remains my favourite of theirs.

38. Airhead - Boing!

Airhead didn't need to release anything other than this album, although the stand-alone single Counting Sheep was ace and subsequently added to the album. Another album I got second hand in Rhyl's Phase One, but I'd had a tape copy of it for ages from someone.

Cracking singles like Right Now, Congratulations (got this on ltd 12" in a poster sleeve under their origianl moniker Jefferson Airhead), and the story-of-my-young-life Funny How are interspersed with equally great album tracks.

Back then I thought "It's funny how the girls you fall in love with never fancy you / Funny how the ones you don't do" was up there with anything Morrissey had ever penned.

37. Cake - Fashion Nugget

Cake are great. The Distance was the big radio & chart hit but all their albums have great songs with, often very funny lyrics. Their sweary cover of I Will Survive featured here along with tracks like Frank Sinatra and Italian Leather Sofa showed off their talent to the extent that I ended up paying £15.99 for the next album Prolonging The Magic from Kavern Records.


That's seven more for you. Let's see when life gives me time to do some more.

Tied To The 90s: Part 1

The 1990s were a time when I bought what can only be described as "an absolute shit-load of music". And I mean a shit-load. In 1990 I was still one of the last lot of students who had any hope of leaving university without a massive overdraft and a huge loan to repay. The student grant was a wonderful thing, and mine was spent vigorously in the record shops of Coventry and Rhyl.

September 1991 to June 1992 was spent working and studying in Germany and thanks to the failure of a Czech student to turn up for the course I was on, I managed to assume his identity and receive an EU grant on his behalf. Yay identity theft!!

The record shops of Brauschweig and Wolfsburg profited from this and some classics were bought during this time: Buffalo Tom's Let Me Come Over, Bandwagonesque, Screamadelica, Foxbase Alpha, Trompe Le Monde, Dry, Slanted & Enchanted, Lazer Guided Melodies, Diamonds & Pearls... I could go on for some time.

And then after uni that leaves 6 years of working to build up a pretty reasonable (predominantly indie-rock orientated) CD collection. And that's really only taking the albums into account. There wasn't a week that went by when I wasn't scouring the new release CD singles at Our Price, Woolworths or Kavern Records for the 99p first week bargains. Of course being the multi-format sucker that I was I often ended up with 2 (occasionally 3 - see Orbital's Satan (Live)) versions of the same single.

So yes, a shit-load of music. In retrospect, my quality filters did slip up occasionally, and some things haven't held up to the ravages of time, but I make no secret of the fact that this decade is easily my favourite time in music.

And that's why the challenge of making a top 50 albums of the 90s list has been a pretty big job. Big insomuch as the sheer volume of stuff to pick from was pretty daunting, and the original long-list was particularly long.

When you think about it, 50 for a whole decade is pretty ridiculously restrictive. I mean, 5 per year? Especially when you consider 1997 has 7 albums I couldn't really live without. Thankfully when I looked at it I thought "Well first of all I'd better pick the definite ones" and ended up with 51 ticks (sorry to the War Child Help! collection).

Some of you (I'm kidding! I know no-one's reading this!) may remember that I did a top 50 albums of all time list last year. I warn you now that if you're comparing that list to this one you'll find that they don't necessarily correspond with their chart placings. I haven't checked back on that previous list, I've just winged it based on my gut feeling this week. There's an element of both "loved it then" and "love it now" in the selections, but they're all corkers and that's what counts.

As ever I hope you find something you didn't know and look it up. I've only written up 7 so far so that's what you get for now...

50. Throwing Muses - Red Heaven

I'm pretty sure that the first time I heard Throwing Muses it was from a cassette my friend Eifion had of Hunkpapa. The disjointed rhythms worried me slightly, but I remember enjoying Dizzy particularly.

The Muses became one of my favourite bands over the years. The album was the first they released after the departure of founding member Tanya Donnelly. Tanya always had a slightly poppier sensibility than Kristin Hersh so I wasn't sure how I would feel about this when it was released but I needn't have feared anything.

From the single Firepile, to the Bob Mould Duet Dio and the unbelievable Pearl this album is chock full of great songs.

I bought this from one branch of HMV in Coventry and then went up to the other branch and exchanged it because they had the version with the live solo acoustic show bonus disc. And let's face it, a live acoustic solo Kristin Hersh set of Throwing Muses songs is pretty much the best thing you could ever want to hear.

49. The Stone Roses - Second Coming

I liked it.

48. The Amps - Pacer

Pretty much the most rocking Breeders album there is.

47. Buffalo Tom - Birdbrain

You know when you first start going to gigs and you get to see your favourite bands in person for the first time? I went to see The Wedding Present in Leicester De Montfort Hall with my good friend James in May of 1991. Seamonsters was newly released so the boy Gedge was at the height of his powers and we were geared up to immerse ourselves in the our first bit of real hero-worship (although I *had* seen Prince once and Frank Sidebottom twice by this stage). The last thing either of us expected was to be completely blown away by the unknown support band.

Don't get me wrong, The Weddoes were amazing that night. I  mean PROPERLY amazing, but both James & I left the show understanding that we had just discovered a band that could go on to great things.

The following day we walked into a record shop in Leicester city centre and saw this album on vinyl. Of course this was 1991 and *no one* bought vinyl. So we walked out again.

In the end I didn't end up buying it until I was in Germany over a year later, and by this time Let Me Come had also been released. I don't remember which I bought first, although I'm pretty sure I got them both (and also the eponymous debut eventually) in the same shop.

Over the years Buffalo Tom have been consistently in my top 10 bands of all time, along with Gedge & his lot, so when James & I had the opportunity to see them play in Manchester in 2011 we were front and centre from start to finish, and to talk to and get autographs from two of them after the show was a big thrill.

I took this picture. I was pretty happy with my point of view. Bill Janovitz is a bona fide rock star in my eyes.

46. the Mountain Goats - Full Force Galesburg

You know by now that this is my favourite band, but I didn't get into them until about 2001. Some of their earlier stuff isn't as accessible as the records that got me hooked on them, but Full Force Galesburg is chock-full of great tunes and is my favourite early-period tMG album.

45. Money Mark - Push The Button

The first album in the list that I bought on cassette. Not quite sure why that is because I've got Mark's Keyboard Repair on CD. I  guess at this stage I must have still chosen my format based on my budget. It's a cracking little album too. Having discovered Mark through his work on The Beastie Boys' Ill Communication album I found Mark's Keyboard Repair a little too keyboard-noodly but while this one has its fair share of noodle, it also has proper hit singles.

44. Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque

Right, remember that shop in Germany where I bought those Buffalo Tom albums? We'll be returning there quite regularly on this journey.

One of the first things I did when I got to Germany was to take out a subscription to the NME. Back in '91/'92 it was still worth buying the NME and especially in Germany where the radio options were the local chart pop station (Radio FFN!) and BFBS (although you did get Peel once a week). I had to really rely on reviews to give me some clues about what I might want to buy. Thankfully it was pretty difficult to go wrong in 1992.

I knew nothing about Teenage Fanclub prior to reading NME's rave review of Bandwagonesque  but bought it, possibly at the same time as Lazer Guided Melodies, and from the opening "She wears denim wherever she goes / Says she's gonna get some records by the Status Quo" I was hooked. A friend had asked me to copy his CD of Nevermind onto a cassette for him and I remember telling him that it was "a bit too metal for my taste". I think Bandwagonesque filled the grungy niche in my collection, and although I would later come to see the error of my ways about Nevermind, it still never overtook this neon pink & yellow wonder in my eyes.