Here's my weekly look at the Top 30 from 26 years ago. The plan is for these posts to go out at 17:30 on a Sunday.
Here is the Top 40 in full.
I've decided against repetition from previous weeks moving forward so will only feature the records I'm reviewing for the first time.
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 records new to the top 30 from this week in 1999 with my verdict on each record:
Sebadoh are to Dinosaur Jr. what Megadeth are to Metallica. They were formed back in the 80s by then Dinosaur Jr. member Lou Barlow who was then kicked out of Dinosaur Jr. This was the only Top 40 hit by Sebadoh and the only record I've ever heard of theirs. My conclusion is that another similarity they have to Megadeth/Metallica is that their music is nowhere near as good as Dinosaur Jr.
Verdict - Rubbish
It's amazing how much one misremembers things particularly when it comes to music they've not heard for years. My memory of Monifah is that she was a rapper similar to Missy Elliott. Turns out she was an R&B singer. What hasn't changed though is my memory of this record not being any good.
Verdict - Rubbish
Duran Duran in 1999? This record was actually from 1997 and only released in America initially. By the time this record came out in the UK in 1999 they had been dropped by their record label. Given how much their popularity had dwindled by this point and they were down to a trio it's a wonder this made the Top 40 at all. Least of all because it's not very good, but I can say the same about some of their more successful records.
Verdict - Rubbish
This was the fourth and final Top 40 hit to date for Hole. It's actually quite surprising they were having hits around this time given the Nirvana connection and the fact a number of people I knew who listened to them in the early 90s were slating them by this point. That's not to mention others saying the Hole were only big because of Courtney Love being married to Kurt Cobain. Purely from a music perspective though, this is crap.
Verdict - Rubbish
Here we have some German trance music from 1993 that's been remixed by German DJ Paul Van Dyk. It was the only Top 40 hit for Humate, the same could be said of a number of trance records from around this era.
Verdict - Good
They may be called Three Drives but there's only 2 of them. The record may be called "Greece 2000" but they were Dutch and this was a remix of a record from 1997. One of many trance records to make the Top 40 in 1999 and this is one of the decent ones.
Verdict - Good
In 1999 it was well documented that guitars were out and turntables were in. Then along came Gay Dad, a band described by the music press as the saviours of British rock. The "saviours" they speak of were a band of music journalists and their mates. They got their Top 10 hit out of it, but how many people actually remember them? All hype and no substance.
Verdict - Rubbish
With Busta Rhymes now well established and no doubt rich, it was time for spending lots of money for a fancy video for your record. Fortunately this was also backed up by a decent tune which sees Busta Rhymes rapping quickly and in a way that few others could.
Verdict - Good
In the late 90s the lines between rap and R&B were getting more blurred and this is evident in this record. It is essentially a rap tune that is sung rather than rapped and is therefore an R&B record. I always loved how dark this record was and liked it enough to buy the "They Never Saw Me Coming" album on which this appears and it's a great album.
Verdict - Good
We've already had "Malibu" enter the charts this week, now we have "Tequila". This time it's a rock band making a dance record courtesy of a Mint Royale remix. I remember being pretty shocked at Terrorvision making a record like this when I first heard it. It became their highest charting single to date.
Verdict - Good
The Offspring were a band I got into briefly in the mid-90s but then I got into rave and quickly forgot about them. A few years later here they were topping the charts. Lead singer Dexter Holland now had short hair, like a lot of long haired musicians from a few years prior now had. The music was cheesy American high school movies type nonsense, not for me.
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 11/30, or 37%. That's quite some improvement.
No comments:
Post a Comment