Here's my weekly look at the Top 30 from 27 years ago. The plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Friday.
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 30 from this week in 1996 with my verdict on each record:
The 3rd and final Top 40 hit to date for Candy Girls. This marks the end of the hardbag era, there were no further Top 40 hits from the genre though it did evolve into other genres such as hard house. It's not bad but does feel like a change was needed.
Verdict - OK
It had been nearly 2 years since Boyzone made their Top 40 debut and I remember when Take That were still around some said they were losing their grip on the boy band world to Boyzone. Yet it took Boyzone until this record to score their first number one. Still, it was one hit sooner than Take That scored their first number one. A cover of the Bee Gees record which could be best described as the alternative lyrics of: shits only turds and turds are all I have to take your fart away.
Verdict - Rubbish
The posthumous hits keep coming for Queen with this being the 7th since Freddie Mercury died. It's said to be reminiscent of their "Hot Space" era which is widely considered to be a low period for them. I'd also say there's similarities between this and some of Freddie Mercury's solo hits. I have to say this is pretty crap.
Verdict - Rubbish
That's right, Deep Blue Something had another hit. I mentioned on the "Breakfast At Tiffany's" review that I hated it so much that I had to turn off the radio when it came on. This record was bad enough for that, though I don't recall ever hearing it on the radio in order to turn it off.
Verdict - Rubbish
26. Enya - On My Way Home (New)
This was the final Top 40 hit of the 90s for Enya. It takes a while to get going but livens up a bit when the chorus comes in and it's not a bad chorus. This is probably more one for the purists though of which I'm not one.
Verdict - OK
A year after Michael Jackson topped the charts with "Earth Song" he's attempting it again with another ballad but he falls short this time round. Like "Earth Song" he's trying to get a message across but musically it's not to my liking. I also got irritate about the way he pronounce Moscow.
Verdict - Rubbish
I've now heard this record more times in my life than I care to remember. It's one of those records that's universally loved, even by people who generally don't like dance music. I liked this so much I bought the single and I've never bought that many singles really.
Verdict - Good
With Crowded House now split up, this is what Neil Finn did next. He provided backing vocals to this and apparently the inspiration for this song was fellow Crowded House member Paul Hester. I think this is even worse than the later stuff Crowded House did. It did used to irritate me at the time.
Verdict - Rubbish
22. Kaleef - Golden Brown (New)
Kaleef had previous been in the Top 40 under the name Kaliphz alongside Prince Naseem with "Walk Like A Champion" which was dreadful. Here they are covering the Stranglers record with additional rapping. This isn't as bad, but I won't be in a hurry to listen to it again.
Verdict - Rubbish
At the time I remember hearing that Babybird was a really prolific songwriter who'd written hundreds of songs. For many though, this is the only song of his they remember. It's a record I remember being out around the same time as "Breakfast At Tiffany's". It's not as crap, but is still crap.
Verdict - Rubbish
One thing I remember this record being known for at the time was the incomprehensible lyrics. I do recall someone pointing out that one of their previous hits "Tattva" had incomprehensible lyrics. With this record their basically trying to be the 90s George Harrison. It's a no from me.
Verdict - Rubbish
19. Metallica - Mama Said (New)
After Metallica alienated a number of their original fans by making the more radio friendly black album including ballads and followed up with music that was hard rock at best where could they go next? Well this is the answer, a country record with acoustic guitars. OK it's not completely free of electric guitars, but as someone who actually liked their more radio friendly sound I have to say this is shit.
Verdict - Rubbish
18. Ice-T - The Lane (New)
The 4th and final Top 40 hit to date for Ice-T which was also his highest charting. A solid effort as usual, he just carried on doing his own thing regardless of what else was going on.
Verdict - Good
This was the first posthumous Top 40 hit for 2Pac who died in the September. He actually dies in the video to this, though that's probably why this was picked to be his first posthumous release. 2Pac made loads of great records and this ones amongst my favourites.
Verdict - Good
This was written by the same songwriting team as her previous hit "Undivided Love" which included Simon Climie from Climie Fisher. No resemblance to any Climie Fisher record this time, more of a resemblance to the group she left, Eternal. Also clear to hear she couldn't sing as well as her former bandmates.
Verdict - Rubbish
I mentioned previously that Mansun's hits of the 90s were number EPs in chronological order but there's only one actual song I remember. This was the song. I remember it mostly for how much I hated it so I guess I learned to avoid them after that.
Verdict - Rubbish
Robson & Jerome had a total of 3 Top 40 hits and they all reached number one. This was the final one of those hits. Like it's predecessors, it's a cover and it's rubbish. To be fair they knew there time was probably up after this so called it a day.
Verdict - Rubbish
Once again I'm going to talk about "The Noise" with Andi Peters. This was when it became apparent that The Spice Girls weren't going to be one hit wonders. They exclusively showed the video to the new Spice Girls single. It's not as bad as their debut, that's the only positive thing I can say about it.
Verdict - Rubbish
Gary Barlow was the first member of Take That to have a solo hit which went to number 1. Then Robbie Williams was the second and went to number 2. Then Mark Owen was the third which went to number 3. It's possibly the most namby pamby record I've ever heard. No wonder his solo career was an overall failure.
Verdict - Rubbish
The Woolpackers were 3 actors from Emmerdale who were named after the pub that features in the soap. As you can probably predict then, this is cheesy and shit. It's a line dancing record, something myself and many others used to take the piss out of.
Verdict - Rubbish
This record was released to promote East 17s greatest hits album. To show they weren't planning on splitting up any time soon they put in the reference "The Journey So Far", but we all know what happened next. As with pretty much all the East 17 singles, I like it.
Verdict - Good
9. Eternal - Secrets (New)
Louise may have left Eternal, but it was Eternal who had the last laugh when they knocked her off number 9. You do sense they were upset about Louise leaving though because their songs from this period were so fuckin miserable.
Verdict - Rubbish
8. Fugees - No Woman No Cry (New)
The Fugees narrowly missed out on making it 3 number ones in a row. They're showing that they can do multiple genres of music with this Bob Marley cover. It's definitely up there amongst the best covers ever and even as someone exclusively listening to rave at the time I couldn't deny how much I liked this record.
Verdict - Good
The Warren G I was most familiar with in 1996 was the drum & bass MC who would regularly MC for DJ SS. There was of course an American rapper of the same name and this was his joint biggest hit. With the interpolation and the fact it was on a movie soundtrack means it was supposed to be commercial, but it's done really well. I can appreciate this a lot more now than I did at the time.
Verdict - Good
6. Jamiroquai - Cosmic Girl (New)
At the time this sounded so futuristic when he sang the opening line about a Saturday in 1999. Obviously that's well in the past now, but if someone sang about a Saturday in 2026 now I'd almost question whether I blinked and we were in 2026 already. If only music remaining as good as this into the future.
Verdict - Good
After having 2 big hits that were both instrumentals, Robert Miles did the unthinkable and released a record with a vocalist. I remember at the time thinking what are you doing having a vocalist on your record. The vocals have always annoyed me so on that basis this gets half a mark.
Verdict - OK
After having all 5 of her previous Top 40 hits written by Babyface, Toni Braxton turned to prolific songwriter Diane Warren for her 6th. It worked as this became her joint highest charting Top 40 hit, but often in order to achieve popularity you have to compromise on quality and this is what's happened here in my opinion.
Verdict - Rubbish
3. 3T - I Need You (New)
A lot of boy band songs are crap and many of them are supposed to be. At the same time though, several boy bands have one decent song in their back catalogue and this is the one for 3T. It's a cover of an Eric Carmen song, but is produced by Denniz Pop and Max Martin so would have been carefully crafted to be easy on the ears.
Verdict - Good
When The Prodigy did "Firestarter" earlier on in the year after much excitement of a new Prodigy tune it was a big disappointment. However, despite follow up "Breathe" taking a similar direction I actually like this one and bought the single. It's the beats that really do it for me.
Verdict - Good
1. Peter Andre - I Feel You (New)
A second chart topper for Peter Andre that wasn't "Mysterious Girl". This is quite possibly the most obscure number one of the 90s. I do remember it and remember thinking it was depressing. A blatant rip off of every other dreary ballad.
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 10.5/30, or 35%. An improvement over last week which wasn't difficult really.
No comments:
Post a Comment