20 Years Since....Q2 2002

Time for our quarterly look back to the tunes I was enjoying 20 years ago because there weren't enough good tunes to justify doing it monthly:

Aaliyah - Rock The Boat

It was after the shooting of this video that the plane crash that took Aaliyah's life happened. I was already familiar with the song as I had the album. I'll be honest it took me a while to get into it, but I guess I wanted to make more of an effort given the circumstances.

I noticed I'd made the breakthrough with it when I found myself randomly singing it.

Fat Joe ft Ashanti - Whats Luv

Fat Joes debut album came out in 1993 but this was his first UK Top 40 hit. I recall telling a few people at the time that Fat Joe was no newbie and he'd been around since 1993, not that I'd actually heard of him in 1993.

It's far from the best Fat Joe record I've heard, but I thought it was good enough to buy the "Jealous Ones Still Envy (J.O.S.E.)" album. The following album "Loyalty" which has no Top 40 singles from it is one of the best albums I've heard.

Ms Dynamite - It Takes More

I see this record as a turning point for the fate of UK garage. Ms Dynamite broke through with a UK garage record, but this one was R&B so a sign that people were now leaving UK garage behind.

Looking at what charted for the remainder of 2002 I cannot see a single UK garage record in there. 

I did think her debut "Booo" was a bit shit, but this one is excellent. It's the only Ms Dynamite tune I've heard that I like.

Paffendorf - Be Cool

I remember making a long journey along the A1 with a mate who's music taste is the complete opposite to mine. As a compromise I played the radio in the car as opposed to music from my collection.

When this record came on the radio it was one we both agreed was good. I ended up buying it on vinyl too.

Scooter - The Logical Song

There was a TV show on UK Play I believe where they had Liberty X on as guests and were looking at upcoming singles releases. This was one of those. The presenter said they'd never heard of Scooter before but apparently they'd been around several years, then one of the blokes in Liberty X said he knew them from his rave days.

I too had known them for several years and made it known to everyone that I had. I bought this on vinyl and also bought the "Push the Beat for This Jam" album. 

Mis Teeq - Roll On/This Is How We Do It

Another example of UK garage being left behind. It was the garage aspect that made Mis Teeq appeal to me in the first place, but I liked this record too. 

Without the garage beats there's more of a focus on the vocals. Alesha's rapping arguably suits UK garage more, but fits nicely into this record. Su Elise makes more of a vocal contribution than usual too.

I do find it quite sad that Mis Teeq made music like this, but these days Alesha is famous for the Simon Cowell nonsense she does and the other two have disappeared off the face of the earth.