Here is the Top 40 in full.
Obviously some of the records will be the same as last week so therefore the review will be the same for these. I've indicated which ones are new so you can skip the others if you read last weeks post.
Once again my opinions are inevitably going to differ from other people, but I'm not trying to convince anyone something is good or rubbish, I'm simply giving my opinion.
So this is the top 20 from this week in 1999 with my verdict on each record:
20. Steps - Better Best Forgotten
This song title certainly sums up this song, that it's better best forgotten. I had to stop the music after writing that sentence it's that bad. Steps know they're music is shit, but they make a lot of money out of it so keep on doing it and the public keep on paying their hard earned money to subject themselves to this torture.
Verdict - Rubbish
19. Whitney Houston - It's Not Right But It's Okay
I think the song title sums this one up quite well. Generally speaking Whitney Houston's music to me was either cheesy pop or dreary ballads, but then in the late 90s it was more R&B which I guess doesn't seem right but it's ok.
Verdict - OK
18. E-Z Rollers - Walk This Land (New)
E-Z Rollers were a Drum & Bass act I first came across in the mid-90s when they were only known by ravers. Here they were in 1999 with their first and only Top 40 hit which is known by many thanks to it's inclusion in the film "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels". Despite Drum & Bass seeming a lot more commercial by 1999, this was actually the only Top 40 Drum & Bass hit of the year.
Verdict - Good
17. Electronic - Vivid (New)
The final Top 40 hit for Electronic. It's a bit of a strange one as Electronic originally formed because Bernard Sumner wanted to make more Dance orientated music, yet here we are in 1999 when Dance Music is bigger than ever and we have this record that doesn't sound very Dance at all. I do still like it though.
Verdict - Good
16. Blackstreet With Janet - Girlfriend/Boyfriend
It could be argued that the success of Blackstreet in the mid 90s had a lot to do with the addition of Mark Middleton to the group who was arguably their best singer. Then he left the group and it seems their solution to life without him is to have a song that they don't really sing on. In addition to Janet Jackson, they also have rappers Ja Rule and Eve feature on this track. I have their "Finally" album which this song is on. It was considered a flop but I actually think it's a really good album and despite the lack of proper singing on this track I still like it. I should add that some of the album tracks do have good singing on them.
Verdict - Good
15. Catatonia - Dead From The Waist Down
I don't think I've heard this since 1999, I remember it as being the record that isn't actually called "Make Hay Not War". I thought my verdict on this record would be ok until I listened to it just now for the first time in 20 years. It's actually a pretty good tune, much better than I remember it.
Verdict - Good
14. Ruff Driverz Presents Arrola - La Musica (New)
Another example of underground DJ/Producers going commercial. Ruff Driverz were Chris Brown and Brad Carter. Chris was better known in the mid-90s as Eruption and made several Happy Hardcore records as well as being the owner of the rave United Dance. Brad was engineer on many Happy Hardcore tunes around the same time. It wasn't until maybe a couple of years later that I realised this so therefore I could appreciate this record without being bitter about them leaving the Hardcore scene.Verdict - Good
13. Vengaboys - We Like To Party! (The Vengabus)
Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, well actually I'm not sure whether this is worse than Steps but it's pretty close. The Vengaboys had previously charted with "Up & Down" which I thought was ok, though I did get pretty sick of it given how overplayed it was. Then came this, which is essentially "Up & Down" with ridiculous vocals over the top of it provided by 2 females and 2 males that you don't actually hear. The Vengaboys it seems had become the Dutch Steps (yes I know there were 3 females in Steps but there could just as easily be 2).Verdict - Rubbish
12. Glamma Kid ft Shola Ama - Taboo
It's Glamma and Shola Ama, did this collaboration come about because their names rhymed? Glamma Kid was the vocalist on "Fly Life" by Basement Jaxx and this was his first Top 40 hit as a artist in his own right. It interpolates"The Sweetest Taboo" by Sade. Quite hard to take this seriously, but then does it really matter, I like it.
Verdict - Good
11. Britney Spears - Baby One More Time
When I first heard this I thought it was alright. Then I heard it so many times that made me hate it. 20 years later I see it as one of these songs that's a bit too American High School for my liking, even though it was written by a Swedish bloke.
Verdict - Rubbish
10. The New Radicals - You Get What You Give
One day in 1999 I was in HMV and asked to listen to a CD at the listening post. When I got to the listening post, the man who had just been listening at it told me it's the New Radicals on there, not knowing I'd gone up to the counter to ask for something else. That was the first time I'd heard that name and maybe a couple of weeks later I heard this. I thought maybe it would have been good to have listened to them at that listening post as I quite like it. I still like it today but still haven't heard any other New Radicals tunes, given that after their breakup frontman Gregg Alexander started writing rubbish for Ronan Keating and Sophie Ellis Bextor amongst others maybe it's better that way.
Verdict - Good
9. The Honeyz - Love Of A Lifetime (New)
The 3rd single from The Honeyz which was their last before Heavenli left the group. When they released their repackaged "Wonder No.8" album it included CD-Rom videos for all their singles to date apart from this, and the official video isn't on YouTube either. But at least we have the audio, it's possibly my favourite Honeyz single.
Verdict - Good
8. Mr Oizo - Flat Beat
Some dismissed this as being a novelty record at the time thanks to Flat Eric, the puppet who appeared on the Levi's adverts containing this tune. However, if you simply listen to the tune it's not cheesy at all. Mr Oizo is also a successful French House DJ on Ed Banger Records.
Verdict - Good
7. The Cartoons - Witch Doctor
First there was Whigfield, then there was Aqua, then came The Cartoons to continue the cheesy Europop from Denmark in the charts. I guess they're probably more blatant that it's supposed to be cheesy crap, but that still makes it crap.
Verdict - Rubbish
6. TLC - No Scrubs
TLC were big in the mid 90s with their "Crazy Sexy Cool" album and then for me at least they just disappeared until this came out. It was a great comeback though, and the funny thing is that had Xscape not broken up the year before it could have been an Xscape single given Kandi and Tiny of the group were two of the writers.
Verdict - Good
5. Suede - Electricity (New)
Suede in 1999? Yes their chart career actually lasted until 2003. This was their final Top 10 hit and they had taken their music in a more electronic direction. It doesn't work though, just sounds like noise.Verdict - Rubbish
4. Steps, Tina Cousins, Cleopatra, B*Witched And Billie - Thank Abba For The Music
Oh dear, this is just awful. The who's who of shit music at the time doing a medley of Abba songs. Either you like Abba, therefore you'd want to hear the actual Abba songs, or you don't like Abba and therefore you're unlikely to like these covers which are made to sound the same. You could say it was to cater for the fans of the featured artists on this record, but when Erasure, who I like, did their Abba covers a few years earlier I hated it.
Verdict - Rubbish
3. Eminem - My Name Is
Here we have the beginning of Eminem's chart career. I could take or leave this record at the time, though I did find the line about what Spice Girl he wanted to impregnate quite amusing. The following year I got into Eminem's music when he released "The Marshall Mathers LP" and I bought "The Slim Shady LP" at the same time and that's when I really started to appreciate this tune.
Verdict - Good
2. Phats And Small - Turn Around
By the time this tune charted I'd heard it a lot and I remember it appearing on Dave Pearce's Dance Anthems on Radio 1 pretty much every week. I also remember Phats & Small presenting the show themselves one week when Dave Pearce was on holiday. Despite it being overplayed though I have good memories of this tune, despite the lyrical content of someone being down it's a feel good Dance record. Funnily enough "Feel Good" was the name of their next hit.
Verdict - Good
1. Martine McCutcheon - Perfect Moment
I ended 1998 watching the death of Tiffany on Eastenders and then going to the pub and wondering why I bother watching Eastenders because it's just depressing. I stopped watching Eastenders from that point, but then a few months later Tiffany comes back to haunt me with this crap. The formula was to take a dreary song by Polish singer Edyta Górniak and in true Eastenders style make it even more depressing.
Verdict - Rubbish
If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 12.5/20, or 62.5%. The best Top 20 I've reviewed so far.
No comments:
Post a Comment