Wham!

Quick break from the 90s stuff.

Remember when George Michael & Andrew Ridgely named their band after a chewy pink 80s sweet with sour yellow crystalline bits in it?

Yes, it's the maff Wham top ten!

10: Bad Boys

9: Wham Rap

8: Club Tropicana (John Peel Intro)

7: If You Were There

6: Wake Me Up Before You Go Go

5: The Edge Of Heaven

4: Young Guns (Go For It)

3: I'm Your Man

2: Freedom

1: Everything She Wants

Tied To The 90s: Part 6

Right. If you've been paying attention you'll know that as we've reached 25 that means we're halfway through the 50.

50-25=25.

Always a good idea to show your workings.

Looking at what's coming up it strikes me that these really are pretty much all killers now. The vast majority of what's coming up are regularly bandied about as the top albums and artists of the 90s, and that really brings it home to me just how mainstream 90s indie I really am. But I'm sure you all knew that already, and love me for it.

Because I seem to have really slacked off with the fascinating purchase details of late I'm going to add some Post Scripts to posts where there's nothing that fits nicely into the main body of the post.

Just two for tonight.

25. Teenage Fanclub - Grand Prix

I never gave up on Teenage Fanclub. There were enough moments on the, granted, not quite up to their usual standard, Thirteen to give me hope. Imagine if Thirteen had been as chock-full of great tunes as your usual TFC album. Grand Prix would have been the third in one of the greatest runs of albums of all time.

As it stands Grand Prix is to be looked at more as a return to form of sorts. Rarely, if ever, has a band contained such a blend of 3 ridiculously gifted songwriters (a Blake - 5, Love - 4, McGinley - 4 mix here) and they have the music to back up the songs. I usually find myself saying that I'm a Blake man, but then who can ignore Love's Discolite and Don't Look Back or such McGinley gems as About You and the wonderful Verisimilitude?

My memory of buying the album has gone the way of many others, although I'm willing to take a punt on Rhyl Our Price again. I absolutely remember buying all the CD singles from there, and they all had different versions of the lead track on the second disc, which in an era of multi-format exploitation by the record labels, made a refreshing change. TFC were always good value with their singles & b-sides.

Of course there's a whole separate post to be written just about the genius that is Sparky's Dream. Gerard Love created one of the touchstones of 90s indie with a tune that seems so simple but that seems to have struck a chord with a generation of indie kids. Maybe I'm a Love man after all.

I'm a Love man.

Yeah baby...

24. Björk - Homogenic

Another return to form I suppose. Although I've already told you how I feel about Debut, and Post is a damn fine album, I think Homogenic is the best Björk album. After this there's some stunning work, but as an album - I think this is the best collection of songs she's ever produced.

It's a beautiful thing. As the picture on the front of the sleeve might suggest, it's a colder, crisper sound in general than Debut, with far less emphasis on the dancier, poppier stuff that infused the first two albums. The beats are less mainstream, the songs slightly more challenging to the listener (penultimate track Pluto being a case in point - some serious BPM  pushing the song along to somewhere it might not otherwise have gone), but as ever, it is definitively Björk. I would even say definitive Björk.

By the time you get to final track All Is Full Of Love you're ready for it to ease you gently back down to normality, but even then it does it in a haunting way. No beats, just layers of the voice and synths/strings bringing the album to a shimmering conclusion.

Of course All Is Full Of Love is complemented by one of the greatest videos ever made. Or maybe I'm just a sucker for robot lesbian Björks.

P.S.

Homogenic comes in a very nice multiple fold-out digipak CD case, but I can't for the life of me remember where I got it from. I do know that I got a 3CD box set thing of the single of Jóga from Rhyl Our Price which is still sealed in cellophane because I probably thought it would be worth something one day. I used to do this a lot. There was a time when my limited double album of Deacon Blue's Raintown / Riches was worth £40 in Record Collector. I doubt it is now.

Tied to the 90s: Part 5

Have I still got anyone's attention? Sorry it's taken ages for the next part of this. I'm going to at least try to get us to the halfway point tonight. MrsJ has flaked out on the sofa so I'm going to put on one of my mear misses, Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works 85-92 and have a go at at least the next 3 on the list.

28. Beth Orton - Trailer Park

There are certain albums that are bedtime albums, and there are certain types of bedtime albums (if you know what I mean). For me at least, this is definitely a going-to-sleep bedtime album.

MrsJ has worked nights for quite a few years now, on and off, and she is most definitely a night owl even when she isn't working, so I have a tendency to put some music on when I got to bed and I have a few core albums that I turn. Usually Spiritualized's Lazer Guided Melodies, Bonnie "Prince" Billy's Master & Everyone or this one.

Sadly this means that the vast majority of times that I've listened to these albums I have only heard them to about half way through. Trailer Park though is an album that gets its regular daytime airings too.

Beth Orton's voice is one that has a sadness to it, and there are songs on here that show that off to its full potential. The epic closer Galaxy Of Emptiness has a bit of a shuffling beat to it to take the edge of the desolation, but the track before it, the stunning, haunting cover of The Ronettes' I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine takes you a whole different level of heartbreak. Believe me, there are times in your life when it's not altogether healthy to listen to that song, but you still have to hear it to make things better in a weird kind of way. I put that track in my all-time top 100 tracks last year here and you should go and listen to it right now.

I find it hard to recognise that the album ends after Galaxy Of Emptiness as for so long I only ever had a copy of the album on a mini disc with b-sides etc tagged on the end, so I have to stop myself from including the heartbreaking It's Not The Spotlight as part of the album.


27. Pet Shop Boys - Behaviour

We all love the Pet Shop Boys don't we? They've provided us with some of the greatest pop songs of the last 25+ years but albums haven't necessarily been their strong point with early albums Please & Actually having great singles, but a few weaker moments to fill the gaps. Behaviour though is a different proposition.

Although I had been a fan for some time I didn't properly start avidly buying PSB stuff until Introspective and its related singles (I know I have about 4 formats each of Left To My Own Devices & It's alright).

I'm pretty sure I rushed out and bought So Hard when it was released, and the album itself on release day too from what I remember (both Rhyl Our Price). This is Neil & Chris at the top of their game and yes, Very has its moments, but I've got Behaviour so I'm happy thanks.

26. Kristin Hersh - Hips And Makers

Now, as I'm sure I've mentioned already Throwing Muses are one of my favourite bands so when main Muse Kristin Hersh released the acoustic solo single Your Ghost with its Michael Stipe backing vocals I was pretty much as excited as it was possible to be. Hips And Makers is a departure from Throwing Muses usual fare in as much as it's an acoustic album but there's no dip in the quality of Hersh's songwriting or musicianship. In fact some of her finest work is included on here.

The CD of this album has some gorgeous 4AD packaging & when I asked Dave in Kavern Records to keep a copy for me while I went to the bank to get the cash out to pay for it he told me that he wouldn't, the swine. I pretty much sprinted to that cashpoint.

I was lucky enough to see Kristin & Vic Chesnutt on the tour when this album was released and to meet her after the show at Warrington Parr Hall. As many of you who follow her on Twitter will know, she officially one of the nicest people in indie and she obliged with autographs & small talk. That autographed KH t-shirt I got that day got me a discount on a Throwing Muses Dizzy 10" from the record shop on Colwyn Bay pier a few years later. So thanks Kristin for the tunes, and for the autographed-with-added-fish-picture t-shirt.
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Right MrsJ has woken up. See you next time for more pointless ramblings.