Record of the Year Revisited: 1999

Original Record of the Year: Masters At Work - To Be In Love

Masters At Work go down as one of the all time greats in my opinion. When it comes to the soulful side of dance music I can't think of anyone who's better.

My own dance music journey began being more into the harder side but as time went on I found myself more drawn to the soulful side. I then saw this side as being more musical and for a record to be truly great this is where to look.

To me this record had everything a truly great record needed and the only way I could think to make it better was to tone down the vocals a little.

Surely no record can take it's crown?

New Record of the Year: Carl Cox - Phuture 2000

Actually there is a record that can. I don't think there's another DJ as highly regarded by all areas of the dance music world and it's easy to understand why. He's a legend of the rave world, a pioneer of techno and a top house DJ. Yet this record isn't really any of those.

There's 2 main reasons why this has now beaten the Masters At Work record. First of all as much as I still love "To Be In Love" I've become less tolerant of the vocals over the year. Secondly, this Carl Cox record has my favourite type of bear, the breakbeat.

Record of the Year Revisited: 1998

Original Record of the Year: Lucid - I Can't Help Myself

I'm a bit critic of vocal trance music and rightfully so. Some of the vocal trance records around the turn of the century are just as bad as the David Guetta type EDM of today or the 2 Unlimited type Eurodance of the early 90s.

Yet here I was picking a vocal trance record as my record of the year from 1998. It also comes from a duo of which one worked extensively with Pete Waterman and the other wrote music for S Club 7.

This all sounds terrible on paper so what possessed me to pick this as my record of the year?

Well simply because it's a good tune. Not all vocal trance is bad, not all music from the Pete Waterman stable is bad and I'd even be open to listening to an S Club 7 song if I found it any good.

My biggest gripe with vocal trance is the vocals and the actual music sounding too obvious. Yet neither are always bad things. 

In this record the way the vocals are made to sound like a saw in places gives them character. Music doesn't need to be complex to be good and this certainly isn't complex. At the same time its not following any rules. 

When a lot of genres get more popular they start to follow a tried and test formula and it gets stale. More often than not though there are interesting records that came before and I think this is one of those.

Record of the Year Revisited: 1997

Original Record of the Year: Adam F - Circles

1997 was the year that had the most new entries in the Top 40 and therefore was the year that gave me the most options. 

In theory more new entries should equate for more capacity for more interesting records to get into the Top 40. In practice it meant an overload of boy bands/ girl groups and similar some of which is now long forgotten.

That said there were still decent tunes in the Top 40, the sort that wouldn't make it onto Top of the Pops as I've been finding out via the reruns.

My original pick for my record of the year was a drum & bass record that I'd heard on tapes from raves long before it entered the Top 40. I witnessed first hand this going from an underground record to a Top 40 hit.

Has another record got a better claim to be record of the year?

No I don't think so. There's some decent records, some of which were definitely made for the clubs rather than the charts. What we have here though is a record I was very fond of when it was an underground record whilst it may have lost its underground tag when it charted it's still the same record.

Record of the Year Revisited: 1996

Original Record of the Year: Way Out West - The Gift

In 1996 I was mostly listening to underground dance music which meant by definition whatever I was going to pick as my record of the year would be too commercial given it would of made the Top 40.

As I went through the list I was reminded of my pick for 1996 with the reservations I had both at the time and now for picking "The Gift". The fact it's a trance record that samples vocals from a well known record of yesteryear.

The truth is there were many great dance records that made the Top 40 in 1996 and I found myself asking is "The Gift" really better than each of those records I considered.

At the same time I could think of reasons for pretty much any candidate to not take the crown. Anything from being too obvious and/or overplayed, too cheesy or not cheesy at all but doesn't have enough about it to be considered the best.

Have any of them managed to take the crown?

No they haven't. Whilst it may have sampled vocals it has a key ingredient most other dance records that made the Top 40 in 1996 didn't have, the breakbeat. 

Whilst some instrumental banging techno from Carl Cox or Dave Clarke made the Top 40 and would of been worthy winners I couldn't really pick the kick drum over a breakbeat.

More to the point though I gave "The Gift" a listen and was taken back to the good old days of 1996 and reminded that the most important thing of all is what it sounds like. 

Record of the Year Revisited: 1995

Original Record of the Year: Nush - U Girls (Look So Sexy)

Hardbag was big in 1995. It wasn't as fast as happy hardcore but had a harder edge to it than house which put it up in my estimate.

Its one of those genres where the music itself is much better than the image which I've never been a fan of. However it seemed appropriate to pick a hardbag record and I still maintain my pick is the best hardbag record I've heard.

Is there another genre that spawned a better record?

New Record of the Year: Mark Oh - Tears Don't Lie 

In 1995 I was really into my happy hardcore so it really makes sense for me to pick a happy hardcore record so I've gone with "Tears Don't Lie" by Mark Oh.

Very few happy hardcore records made the Top 40 and those that did tended to be from the continent and not really played at raves in the UK. Mark Oh is German and this was his only UK Top 40 hit which interpolates "When A Child Is Born" so I say to people this is my favourite Christmas record.

I guess my reluctancy to pick it at the time is that there were better underground happy hardcore records. That said when it comes to 1995 nostalgia this record very much features in that.

Record of the Year Revisited: 1994

Original Record of the Year: N-Trance - Set You Free

I said at the time I was reluctant to pick "Set You Free" as my record of the year but felt like I had to because of the impact it had on my music tastes.

I was thinking along the lines of if N-Trance and everybody associated with this record died in a plane crash straight after this was released then they'd all be fondly remembered. I've heard this too many times but maintain it's still a great record.

The problem is N-Trance never really made another decent records. Some were alright but most were terrible. Vocalist Kelly Llorenna made even worse records. It's also on AATW records who are responsible for some of the worst dance records ever made.

Yet this record was strong enough to hold its own. Or is it?

New Record of the Year: The Prodigy - No Good

The fact of the matter is it wasn't just one record that made me decide to become a raver. The Prodigy played their part in that and "No Good" was certainly a record that got me into rave.

More to the point though I do think this is a better record that "Set You Free". I think it's aged better too, helped by the fact its not overplayed. At the time though I'd play this a lot.

Record of the Year Revisited: 1993

Original Record of the Year: Saint Etienne - Hobart Paving

I'm purposely not looking at what I originally picked as my record of the year prior to making my new choice but I'll never forget what my choice was for 1993.

It seemed like the perfect choice for a variety of reasons. It's definitely one of my favourite Saint Etienne hits and it gives me nostalgia of myself being nostalgic about the early 90s at the end of the 90s. I liked their "Too Young To Die" CD enough to buy the video version and seeing the East 17 graffiti in the video made it very 1993.

Then there's the London aspect. A significant amount of their music references London where I ended up moving to and have since spent the majority of my adult life here. Not only can I relate to the London aspect but I can also relate to the fact they appear to be music nerds like myself. At the very least Bob Stanley is.

I still live in London but the members of Saint Etienne have since moved out. Not really relevant in terms of picking my record of the year. What is relevant though is that the reason why I remember picking this is remembering my instant regret afterwards.

As much as I like Saint Etienne and this record I see it as being the TVR of the music world. Basically a TVR is a great car but if I had enough money to buy one I'd only do so if I couldn't afford a Ferarri.

New Record of the Year: Leftfield Lydon - Open Up 

I do find Leftfield a mixed bag but the name alone suggests you're not going to like all of their music. However the main problem with much of their tunes is they're not as good as their debut "Open Up".

The problem with putting vocals on dance records is that it can take the attention away from the beats and certainly some girly vocals can make a hard fast record sound quite namby pamby.

Leftfield had a good solution for adding vocals, get a punk singer to do them. It's an all round good record, it would work just fine without vocals but I think John Lydon really adds something here.