Friday, July 25, 2003
Random thoughts on my top 99 of 1999, part 3.
*
Sheryl Crow’s best album is undoubtedly, to me, her self-titled one of 1999. That’s the one on which she got her groove on, working the country-blues (“Anything But Down”) and rhythm-and-blues (“There Goes The Neighborhood,” complete with horn section), worked the clever lyrics which verged on non sequiturs (“I dropped acid on a Saturday night just to see what the fuss was about”), and worked herself, tough and sexy and ballsy and clearly the inheritor of Bonnie Raitt’s legacy. I mean, really, what is this “Soak Up The Sun” crap? Sheryl Crow is the Sheryl Crow I choose to remember – and I feel fairly certain that she’ll be back.
*
Re: “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!”: if you were Shania Twain, you would, too.
”If I had boobies, I’d never leave the house. Huh-huh, huh-huh.” - Butt-Head
*
It amazes me, the drop-off people seem to think Trent Reznor made between the downward spiral and the fragile - to me there’s no drop-off, which is exactly the problem, as there’s also no great leap forwards. The progression from pretty hate machine to broken to spiral was, in a word, impressive: herein you could see the dramatic ascent to brilliance of a true artist. the fragile’s problem is that it treads a bit too much water from spiral and does push as hard, especially considering it’s a double album. That having been said, the third full-length nine inch nails record is a fine platter full of lots of quite rewarding songs (and most notably Reznor’s sterling songwriting, spotlit particularly on “We’re In This Together,” a song of – shock! Awe! - hope).
*
TLC’s Fanmail is grossly overpraised. Yes, we all remember “No Scrubs,” but not because of its greatness, but because of its ubiquitousness, as inescapable as it was during the spring/summer of ’99. It’s light, airy, and utterly unremarkable. The best things on the album are the sex songs, notably “I’m Good At Being Bad,” which is Left Eye’s song (and Donna Summer’s), their last truly great song (should’ve bumped it into the 30s or maybe even 20s, at least, rather than leaving it bereft at #53) – and proof that Left Eye could’ve made a hell of a hiphop record – and “Silly Ho,” a gritty slab of unconstructed machine-funk which reminds me, in its cadences, of R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World As We Know It.”
*
Some records don’t reveal their genius to us until years later. Some records have jelly we’re just not ready for. And sometimes we’re just dense to brilliance. Case in point, Aphex Twin’s “Windowlicker.” I knew it was good, but I didn’t realize just how fucking good it is. In a do-over, this would unquestionably be top 10. Richard D. James makes a bass-booty single? Absolutely mind-fuckingly blinding. And then in the song’s last 1:30, he brings you to orgasm by rubbing you down with synthetic sandpaper. Ride that pony, y’all.
*
“I Hope I Didn’t Just Give Away the Ending” is a somewhat bizarre stream-of-consciousness ramble from the mind of New Radicals’ leader (and truthfully, one guy) Gregg Alexander which involves making a porno film for cocaine. That wouldn’t be enough to get it over, though – what does it is a simply gorgeous melody, and some of the purest white-boy soulfulness this side of Daryl Hall (and like Hall, not afraid to work in rock as well as pop – and piano!). And then he gets you at the end:
”I don’t even love you. We weren’t even friends. It’s just that I can’t take it alone…”
- New Radicals, “I Hope I Didn’t Just Give Away the Ending” (Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too, Mercury, 1998)
*
After a career as a conscious rapper with A Tribe Called Quest, Q-Tip went solo on “Vivrant Thing” with one simple message: ladeez, he’s single and looking to mingle!
*
Cher’s “Strong Enough” is like “Believe” 2: Electric Boogaloo. Only better, ‘cause this time she’s got disco fever!.
*
I love the way that Total’s “Trippin’” sounds. The production is miraculous, space-aged but simultaneously wide-open with room to breathe (Missy done did it). Total was a trio of three ‘round-the-way girls who got nasty and told tales, and their records showed it – their love ballads never sounded real convincing, but when they started dirty talkin’, you knew it was real. But it’s “Trippin’” that stands tall, because as the ciphers they were, you could project anything onto them, and here it’s all about the wide-screen production.
*
Funny how so often, the best singles by Brandy aren’t her biggest hits (save for “The Boy Is Mine,” of course). “Angel In Disguise” is another great-sounding single for Brandy to curl her pipes around and atop – and notice the catch in her voice during the spoken intro, when she has trouble getting out the word “fake.” Gets me every time.
*
“Shudder/King Of Snake” is to Beaucoup Fish as “Pearl’s Girl” is to Second Toughest In the Infants: Underworld’s epic, album-centering pice de resistance, helping to further prove them as the lions of techno they are. Gigantic.
*
Basement Jaxx may be a coupla blokes from Brixton, but on “Bingo Bango” they come on like a party in the streets – and beds – of Rio de Janiero. As deliriously sexy as house gets.
*
“Anywhere” by 112 is deliciously – and slightly disturbingly – sleazy. [What’s with that “softly pull your hair” stuff?! A precursor to what was to come, I guess – in this case, their icky, smutty ’01 smash “Peaches and Cream.”] But it’s got that stutter-step rhythm that was de rigeur in ’99, yum.
*
Sheryl Crow’s best album is undoubtedly, to me, her self-titled one of 1999. That’s the one on which she got her groove on, working the country-blues (“Anything But Down”) and rhythm-and-blues (“There Goes The Neighborhood,” complete with horn section), worked the clever lyrics which verged on non sequiturs (“I dropped acid on a Saturday night just to see what the fuss was about”), and worked herself, tough and sexy and ballsy and clearly the inheritor of Bonnie Raitt’s legacy. I mean, really, what is this “Soak Up The Sun” crap? Sheryl Crow is the Sheryl Crow I choose to remember – and I feel fairly certain that she’ll be back.
*
Re: “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!”: if you were Shania Twain, you would, too.
”If I had boobies, I’d never leave the house. Huh-huh, huh-huh.” - Butt-Head
*
It amazes me, the drop-off people seem to think Trent Reznor made between the downward spiral and the fragile - to me there’s no drop-off, which is exactly the problem, as there’s also no great leap forwards. The progression from pretty hate machine to broken to spiral was, in a word, impressive: herein you could see the dramatic ascent to brilliance of a true artist. the fragile’s problem is that it treads a bit too much water from spiral and does push as hard, especially considering it’s a double album. That having been said, the third full-length nine inch nails record is a fine platter full of lots of quite rewarding songs (and most notably Reznor’s sterling songwriting, spotlit particularly on “We’re In This Together,” a song of – shock! Awe! - hope).
*
TLC’s Fanmail is grossly overpraised. Yes, we all remember “No Scrubs,” but not because of its greatness, but because of its ubiquitousness, as inescapable as it was during the spring/summer of ’99. It’s light, airy, and utterly unremarkable. The best things on the album are the sex songs, notably “I’m Good At Being Bad,” which is Left Eye’s song (and Donna Summer’s), their last truly great song (should’ve bumped it into the 30s or maybe even 20s, at least, rather than leaving it bereft at #53) – and proof that Left Eye could’ve made a hell of a hiphop record – and “Silly Ho,” a gritty slab of unconstructed machine-funk which reminds me, in its cadences, of R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World As We Know It.”
*
Some records don’t reveal their genius to us until years later. Some records have jelly we’re just not ready for. And sometimes we’re just dense to brilliance. Case in point, Aphex Twin’s “Windowlicker.” I knew it was good, but I didn’t realize just how fucking good it is. In a do-over, this would unquestionably be top 10. Richard D. James makes a bass-booty single? Absolutely mind-fuckingly blinding. And then in the song’s last 1:30, he brings you to orgasm by rubbing you down with synthetic sandpaper. Ride that pony, y’all.
*
“I Hope I Didn’t Just Give Away the Ending” is a somewhat bizarre stream-of-consciousness ramble from the mind of New Radicals’ leader (and truthfully, one guy) Gregg Alexander which involves making a porno film for cocaine. That wouldn’t be enough to get it over, though – what does it is a simply gorgeous melody, and some of the purest white-boy soulfulness this side of Daryl Hall (and like Hall, not afraid to work in rock as well as pop – and piano!). And then he gets you at the end:
”I don’t even love you. We weren’t even friends. It’s just that I can’t take it alone…”
- New Radicals, “I Hope I Didn’t Just Give Away the Ending” (Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too, Mercury, 1998)
*
After a career as a conscious rapper with A Tribe Called Quest, Q-Tip went solo on “Vivrant Thing” with one simple message: ladeez, he’s single and looking to mingle!
*
Cher’s “Strong Enough” is like “Believe” 2: Electric Boogaloo. Only better, ‘cause this time she’s got disco fever!.
*
I love the way that Total’s “Trippin’” sounds. The production is miraculous, space-aged but simultaneously wide-open with room to breathe (Missy done did it). Total was a trio of three ‘round-the-way girls who got nasty and told tales, and their records showed it – their love ballads never sounded real convincing, but when they started dirty talkin’, you knew it was real. But it’s “Trippin’” that stands tall, because as the ciphers they were, you could project anything onto them, and here it’s all about the wide-screen production.
*
Funny how so often, the best singles by Brandy aren’t her biggest hits (save for “The Boy Is Mine,” of course). “Angel In Disguise” is another great-sounding single for Brandy to curl her pipes around and atop – and notice the catch in her voice during the spoken intro, when she has trouble getting out the word “fake.” Gets me every time.
*
“Shudder/King Of Snake” is to Beaucoup Fish as “Pearl’s Girl” is to Second Toughest In the Infants: Underworld’s epic, album-centering pice de resistance, helping to further prove them as the lions of techno they are. Gigantic.
*
Basement Jaxx may be a coupla blokes from Brixton, but on “Bingo Bango” they come on like a party in the streets – and beds – of Rio de Janiero. As deliriously sexy as house gets.
*
“Anywhere” by 112 is deliciously – and slightly disturbingly – sleazy. [What’s with that “softly pull your hair” stuff?! A precursor to what was to come, I guess – in this case, their icky, smutty ’01 smash “Peaches and Cream.”] But it’s got that stutter-step rhythm that was de rigeur in ’99, yum.
# posted by Thomas : 3:08 PM
