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 1997 with my verdict on each record:
What had become apparent by this point was that not only were the Spice Girls here to stay, but they were almost inevitably going to top the charts with everything they release. I knew someone who bought this single because you could see Geri's legs on the cover, that's how effective their marketing seemed to be. It even made its was onto the Christmas episode of "Only Fools And Horses". Musically though it's really poor.
Verdict - Rubbish
29. Live - Lakini's Juice (New)
The 3rd and final Top 40 hit to date for Live who were a band I figured were much bigger in America than the UK. I do think that some of their records are decent, but this one just sounds a mess.
Verdict - Rubbish
I remember this record at the time. It seemed big enough, but not as big as it's predecessor "What's Love Got To Do With It". I was therefore surprised this go as high as number 2 matching it's predecessor. Another solid effort from Warren G.
Verdict - Good
Cathy Dennis was a pop singer who wrote her own music and then went onto writing songs for other pop singers. Her final Top 40 hit though was a cover of a Kinks record. It's very different to the early record she was putting out and nowhere near as good.
Verdict - Rubbish
3 years after Nirvana disbanded following the death of Kurt Cobain, they were back in the Top 40....oh hang on this isn't Nirvana. It's the Top 40 debut from Bush, a British band who had already established themselves in America. They were just a clone of Nirvana really.
Verdict - Rubbish
There appears to be a lot of dating shows on the TV these days and I have no interest whatsoever in watching any of them. This record though reminds me there was a dodgy dating show I used to watch in the 90s called "Streetmate" with Davina McCall and this was the theme music. I do remember this record initially grabbing my attention because it was by a DJ, but was disappointed when I actually heard it.
Verdict - Rubbish
The 4th Top 40 hit for Beck and his highest charting hit to date. When I heard the intro to this just now I thought this sounds better than I remember it. Following this though it's exactly how I remembered it and that's not very good.
Verdict - Rubbish
Babyface had loads of hits as a songwriter, but this was just his 3rd Top 40 hit as an artist. His greatest his album has a full albums worth of tracks, but it was the actual hits that I initially knew and contributed to my decision to buy the album which I did.
Verdict - Good
There's something wrong about Blackstreet being a featured artist on a Foxy Brown record and doing no more than that. Teddy Riley of Blackstreet is a prolific songwriter/producer but he didn't contribute to the writing of this record. The person who did write it was Jay-Z who wrote pretty much every Foxy Brown record in the 90s. As a result it's shit.
Verdict - Rubbish
The 2nd Top 40 hit for The Sneaker Pimps which stands alone as a good record. It however gained in popularity when Armand Van Helden did a speed garage mix, much like he'd done with Tori Amos couple of months earlier.
Verdict - Good
The 2nd Top 40 hit for 3 Colours Red which went 2 places higher than their debut. It sounds a bit like what you'd expect to get if you mixed Oasis with Nirvana. As I'm not a fan of either band, the result is a record I don't particularly like.
Verdict - Rubbish
19. Dodgy - Found You (New)
The penultimate Top 40 hit to date for Dodgy and the last time they'll feature as their final Top 40 hit never made the Top 30. When I've been doing these reviews I've found myself enjoying the Dodgy record more than I expected to. I could stretch it to this record even, because I wasn't 100% sure how it went so was expecting not to like it, but it's not bad.
Verdict - OK
One of a countless number of remixes of this record. It's such an overplayed record and I'm sick to the back teeth of it. This remix adds nothing to it really, even though I can't recall ever hearing this particular version it still sounds familiar.
Verdict - Rubbish
Republica formed in 1994 and the music careers of most of its members go back even further. They were established enough to play at the Tribal Gathering in 1995. It was however this record in 1997 that gave them their Top 40 debut. It's the record they're best known for, but it wasn't their highest charting hit. It's a good blend of dance and rock music that's perhaps a little overplayed, but decent nontheless.
Verdict - Good
This was the final single to be released from his album of the same name. I remember being aware that was what his album was called because he looked anything but natural. I also recall it being around this time that he was Wanker of the Week on The Girlie Show. I had nothing personal against him, but I did against his music.
Verdict - Rubbish
It had been 3 years since En Vogue had last been in the Top 40 and they came back here with what I consider to be their best record. It was also the beginning of the end for En Vogue as we knew them with lead singer Dawn Robinson leaving the group shortly after. They still carry on today but nothing they've done since has been as good as this.
Verdict - Good
There have been seemingly an endless number of versions of this record over the years, but this one is the best in my opinion. It's the beats that do it for me in this version. A memory of this tune at the time was getting into a friend of a friends Ford Orion with all the modifications you can think of including big speakers. This tune was blasting out when I got in the car and I thought good taste. As the journey went on it became apparent he was playing Now 36.
Verdict - Good
My one reservation about this record was it being too slow. It wouldn't have really worked as a fast tune though. I remember this and "Your Woman" by White Town being out around the same sort of time. I guess there are similarities between the two.
Verdict - Good
I remember seeing a short clip of the video to this on "The O-Zone" but the rest of the time I ever simply listened or saw it being performed. I still think this record is decent enough, but the other 3 singles from the "Alisha Rules the World" album are much better.
Verdict - Good
I mentioned when I reviewed a Geneva record a few weeks ago that Monaco are just around the corner, Well here they are with their Top 40 debut. It's the side project of Peter Hook from New Order, something you can tell with his distinctive bass playing. Not as good as your average New Order record, but it isn't bad.
Verdict - OK
10. Ant And Dec - Shout (New)
The 12th Top 40 hit for Ant & Dec/PJ & Duncan and their penultimate Top 40 hit of the 90s. I mentioned during a previous review about how I remember the music from Byker Grove ending up being some kids singing an Oasis record when I stopped watching it. Well here is Ant & Dec more or less doing the same thing except it's not an actual Oasis song and it's worse than Oasis if anything.
Verdict - Rubbish
I seem to recall the blurb about this record on The Chart Show saying that No Mercy were waiters at a Gloria Estefan owned restaurant prior to becoming singers. Can't find any mention of that on the internet so The Chart Show were probably just taking the piss. It does make a convincing story though.
Verdict - Rubbish
Eternal were proving once again that they didn't need Louise in the band in order to be successful with this record being their highest charting to this point so therefore charting higher than any Eternal record with Louise on it, or any Louise solo record to that point for that matter. It's such a miserable record though.
Verdict - Rubbish
The final Top 10 hit to date for Mark Morrison and I'm actually surprised this got into the Top 10 as his popularity did appear to be in decline at this point, especially after being named Wanker of the Week on The Girlie Show of course. I personally think his music wasn't that great in the first place,
Verdict - Rubbish
I initially thought this was Kula Shaker doing a cover of a Deep Purple record. It turns out that the Deep Purple record was also a cover with the original being by Billy Joe Royal. It's not bad, but I much prefer the Deep Purple version and I've never heard the original.
Verdict - OK
This was the 27th Top 40 hit for The Bee Gees and took their Top 40 career to 30 years long. This record came out around the same time as the infamous Clive Anderson interview where they walked off the show. Can't say I think much of this which may upset Barry Gibb in the unlikely event of him reading this.
Verdict - Rubbish
The Top 40 debut for Sash! and the record he's best known for. I have mixed feelings about this record. At first I wrote it off as being cheesy commercial crap, but it did start to grow on me after a while. When you consider some of the dreadful music this no doubt inspired though it's hard to truly like it.
Verdict - OK
Fugees had a pretty impressive Top 40 record. They only managed 21 with their debut "Fu-Gee-La" but then followed with 2 number ones, a number two and a number three, the latter being this record which is also their last Top 40 hit to date. This one is my personal favourite and reminds me of listening to Trevor Nelson on a Saturday afternoon. It's much darker than their other hits, but then it's the darker side of rap which attracted me to the genre in the first place.
Verdict - Good
No Doubt seemed to just come out of nowhere with this record. I remember thinking who the fuck are No Doubt and suddenly they were number one. Turns out they'd had a number 38 prior to this. I think they did their best stuff later on in their career, but this ones not bad.
Verdict - OK
The 4th Top 40 hit for the Spice Girls and their 4th number one and last single from their debut album. "Mama" is marketing in a way for ones mother to approve of their child listening to the Spice Girls and "Who Do You Think You Are" was the comic relief single. It was a win win situation for them, but musically it was still shit.
Verdict - Rubbish / Rubbish
If we give the records which were good 1 point each and those which were OK half a point, the final score is 11.5/30, or 38%. We're staying in the same ballpark.
No comments:
Post a Comment