1993

                An impressive rebound from a less-than-impressive 1992, driven by very solid years in all of the four “arenas” of music in which my collection pretty cleanly breaks into: grunge, UK indie (where Britpop finally arrives in force), hip-hop, and non-grunge US alt-rock.  The last one probably has the best year overall, as this is the year that US alt-rock really consolidates.  Although this is not so much in terms of formal genre boundaries: if not as diverse as New Wave, alt-rock is at least as diffuse a “genre” as post-psych was back in the late ’60s.  Nevertheless, we’re getting into the latest of our periods of post-genre creativity, where music moves in a hundred different directions at once.  This will especially be the case next year, but it begins really here. 

                Here is also where we get the second essential compilation of the early 90s, with the No Alternative comp.  It’s not as essential as Singles, which contained among the best work of the grunge acts to that point, but it does capture the range of styles that got grouped together under the banner “alternative rock” (before it became a radio station term for “mainstream rock (mostly not metal))”.  It also highlights (perhaps inadvertently) how must of what constituted alt-rock this year were bands that either had been around in the Bush Administration, or centered around members of those groups (in contrast to last year, where newer bands were more prominent).  Some of these are acts (or descendents of acts) that I’ve talked about before.  Bob Mould’s various groups, for instance, have been prominent pretty much since Hüsker Dü’s inception way back in ’83.  It is interesting, in that light, that Sugar is the first time that Mould starts experimenting with 80’s-style synth sounds, albeit against what’s otherwise the least radio-friendly guitar squall of his career.  It fits well next to Nirvana’s similarly less-than-radio-friendly In Utero this year, though, which probably isn’t too much of a surprise, given the clear Hüsker influence on all the 90s alt-rock bands, Nirvana included.

                Another band with a clear influence on Nirvana, the Pixies, are over and done, but this year we get the first post-Pixies album, from Kim Deal’s Breeders, and while it may not be the “best” Pixies-related album, it may just be my favorite.  As clever and experimental as the Pixies (and kind of following on the spacey surf-rock of Bossanova), but Last Splash is also a lot looser and more straight-up fun, one of my essential summer records of all time.  And at least to my ears, “Cannonball” was the summer jam of 1993.  Of course, even as we get an album from the underappreciated second songwriter in the Pixies, we also get an album from the underappreciated second songwriter in the Breeders, with Tanya Donelly’s Belly (who, incidentally, was also an underappreciated secondary songwriter in the Throwing Muses).  Unsurprisingly, Belly sound a lot like the Breeders, albeit more mellow and probably stronger lyrically.

Elsewhere in heavy-guitar-dominated acts, Dinosaur Jr. continue their 1-2 radio-friendly singles among mediocre albums trend, getting a little bit of airplay but not really breaking through.  In sharp contrast, however, are the Flaming Lips, who really reach the culmination of their early period here, combining all the ragged guitar attack of their early period with the more complex and catchy song structure of their last two.   “She Don’t Use Jelly” may be the most representative alt-rock single from this year: quirky, guitar-based, and from a band that had been toiling in the indie world without any radioplay of consequence until this point. 

You can file the Meat Puppets’ “Backwater” here too, but while the Lips’ breakthrough was a culmination of their earlier sound, “Backwater” doesn’t sound much at all like the shambolic country-punk of their early stuff.  Rather, it fits much more in with a strong current of 70s-revivalism which started last year, but continues in this year.  Cracker also very much fit in here, and are miles better than on their debut.  Still as jokey as last year, but while last year the joke seemed to be at the expense of the style of music, this year they’re much more jokey but within a context of a music they show clear affection for; so much more like the last Camper Van Beethoven album.  Uncle Tupelo and Matthew Sweet also fit in this 70’s revivalism, both borrowing heavily from 70’s country-rock.  Uncle Tupelo are probably less impressive this year, as their last album adds back in the electric guitars but not the punk rock of their first two records, making Anodyne the album of theirs that most sounds just like country-rock revivalism rather than a fresh take on fusing country and rock music.  Matthew Sweet, meanwhile, is layering his same almost clinical vocal arrangements on top of country-rock tunes this year instead of classic pop tunes, which works about as well, but adds some necessary grit to his sound.  Also, he’s sporadically experimenting with big, grunge-echoing distorted guitars, which is also quite compelling; even if the overall effect recalls Neil Young more than the grunge acts. 

Liz Phair probably also fits somewhere in the 70s-echoing end of alt-rock, at least insofar as her excellent debut is a song-by-song response to Exile on Main St.  It also somewhat recalls a mix of Sebadoh (in its low-fi-ness) and Jonathan Richman (in its straightforward sentiment).  Pretty excellent, at any rate, if a bit too obscenity-laced and lo-fi to be a real radio smash.

                Moving even further away from grunge-rock, though, the 70s revival continues among the more college-rock or hippie-rock friendly scene.  Big Head Todd put out what’s basically a Stevie Ray Vaughn influenced piece of classicism.  Phish don’t actually sound all that 70s (their jokey bluegrass sound actually mostly reminds me of Camper Van Beethoven), but do put out a concept album.  And I suppose you could slot the Counting Crows in here too.  They’d go on to be just another faceless post-grunge alt-rock band, but for one fantastic album, they reached a kind of timelessness, at least insofar as August and Everything After sounds like it could have come out anytime between 1965 and the present.

                Much like alt-rock more generally, punk rock is dominated by survivors from the 80s and even the 70s, insofar as the Ramones have their not-bad-but-not-spectacular 60s covers album.  The Bosstones are also (like last year) covers-happy, but this year more interested in covering classic hardcore and reggae tunes rather than metal (and once again get a small/possibly regional hit with “Someday I Suppose”.  (Being part of the “region” of interest, I have no idea if people outside of New England were hearing the Bosstones on the radio yet, but they fit well with the general eclecticism of alt-rock.  But the best punk record this year is Bad Religion’s Recipe for Hate, which was both their last indie record (on first pressing) and major label debut (on second pressing).  It’s very much an improvement on Generator, but keeping with their more midtempo approach, and also sounding like they’ve got a more expansive recording budget, with touches like steel guitar, superior production, and big-name-rockstar guests (Eddie Vedder, who in true reluctant-rockstar-fashion is buried in the mix on his blink and you miss it guest vocal spot).

                Still, appearing on a Bad Religion disc probably needed Pearl Jam some previously lacking punk cred, even if on their own record, theyre still very much not particularly punk.  They are, however, increasingly sounding linfluenced by post-punk, esp. the more guitar-heavy side of it.  They did swipe this year’s album title from Mission of Burma, after all, plus elsewhere their churning riffs + ranting vocals recall the Fall.  It might sound like heresy, but I think I prefer Vs. to Ten.  IF nothing else, the production is stronger, giving the rockers more punch, and the acoustic-driven story-songs are a bit more fully-formed than last year.  Plus they’ve purged the last of their Mother Love Bone sonic elements, and sound like a band willing to really press their sound forward.

                Nirvana, meanwhile, are in a bit more of a consolidation mode, with In Utero combining the superior songcraft of Nevermind with the more noisy, grungy sound of Bleach (albeit with Dave Grohl’s superior drumming).  Although more than Bleach¸ the sonics of this record recall the deliberately off-putting work of producer Steve Albini’s own band, Big Black.  Probably their best album, but probably also would have been remembered as a transitional record if they’d made more. 

                Finally in US alt-rock, there’s the major-label debut and breakthrough of a band which mistakenly gets called a grunge band.  Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream does recall Nevermind, in its spit-polished metal-style production and big distorted guitars, but really misses the wildness of Seattle- or Boston-style alt-rock.  Rather, this is alt-rock produced with the overdubs and attention to detail of a Boston record, which is not a bad thing, but much different from the more ragged sounds of alt-rock elsewhere.  What it really recalls, in terms of contemporaries, is My Bloody Valentine, making the Smashing Pumpkins the only US alt-rock band with a real UK influence.  Also, while Siamese Dream is too uneven to be in contention for best record of the year, the Smashing Pumpkins’ singles this year are the best collection of singles I’ve heard from anyone this year. 

                And which segues nicely to what’s going on in the UK, where I can talk about Radiohead, the only UK band with a clear US influence.  Radiohead are at this point an imitative grunge-rock band, and if they hadn’t gotten better dramatically and quickly, would be remembered on about the same level as Bush: wholly derivative, but with a couple of listenable singles.  But solidly out of place in the rest of the UK scene, wiere the big deal is the long-awaited arrival of Brit-pop.

                Brit-pop at this point is the story of three bands.  Blur are probably the best at this point, having mostly shook off the weak baggy sound of their debut in favor of a crisp, tightly-arranged classic-Kinks sound.  It’s mostly just an update on the Kinks without too much of their own contribution, but does still have a very early-90s production sound, sounding unsurprisingly like, say XTC.  And because the British press need their big bands to have Beatles-Stones rivalries, and Oasis aren’t here yet, Suede get held up as the Pepsi to Blur’s Coke.  But they’re not half as worthy; fun on the glammy, derivative rockers, but tedious on the ballads.  Much better are Pulp, who like a lot of the US alt-rock groups have been putting out unremarkable music since the late New Wave era.  But they really come into their own this year, combining the slice-of-life lyrics of Blur with the glammy sound of Suede. 

                Especially on their spoken-word vignettes they also recall the working-class-life focus of the Mekons, who are around this year, but unremarkable, beginning a 90s run of albums that aren’t bad, per se, but don’t really have anything to say.  The early Mekons (the amateurish punk band) do, however sound like a major influence on the early Cornershop, who at this point sound just like a punk band that occasionally breaks into Punjabi with no hint of either the dance influences or greatness to follow.

                Finally in the UK, there’s still a little bit of the old dance-rock sound, ironically chiefly in bands that existed prior to the movement.  New Order put out their worst album to date by seeping themselves in contemporary dance-pop.  Last time out, on Technique, they sounded like a band keeping their old identity while adapting to new sounds, but this year the new sounds have swallowed them whole, and the results are entirely forgettable.  I suppose you could say that the same thing happens to U2, as Zooropa sounds the lieast like earlier U2 of any of their albums to date.  It’s also, however, very very good (and underrated).  “Stay” may just be their finest ballad to date, and unlike New Order, they sound like they’ reengaging with the new sound rather than just imitating it.  If Zooropa had been an EP (as originally intended_ or bonus tracks on Achtung (as it is now), old school U2 fans probably would have been less thrown off, but I for one love hearing the sound of a band really radically trying new things when the safe money is on sticking with the old.  Of course, when they return on Pop, they’ll have made the same mistakes as New Order do this year, and after that they’ll stop trying to be original altogether, but this year they’re earning their place as the world’s biggest band.

                Finally turning to the world of hip-hop, I’m a little thin on the ground this year, but there’s some good stuff to be had.  Salt-N-Pepa are basically a pop-hip-hop group, but have a prominent reggae influence (not at all recalling Massive Attack’s own hip-hop-reggae sound), and as far as pop-hip-hop goes we can (and have and will) do a lot worse.  But much more exciting are a couple of groups on the fringes of the gangsta world, neither of whom really should be called “gangsta.”  The Coup, for instance, owe a much stronger debt to Public Enemy in their political hip-hop, but better them lyrically while not surpassing their work instrumentally.  Boots, especially, seems to have a much more well-thought-out critique in his leftie agitation than Chuck D.’s more sloganeering Black Nationalism.  (and Chuck D. always struck me as more “political” than “intelligent” as a rapper).  Plus, “Presto, read the Communist Manifesto” is among the best first line, first song, first album lines I’ve heard.

                Perhaps closer to gangsta, but surpassing it in every way are the Wu-Tang Clan.  RZA is a far more interesting producer than anyone I’ve heard in the post-sampledelic era, splicing sounds together in truly novel fashion.  And lyrically, while the Clan play with violent imagery, there’s a surreal, mythical element to it that makes them far better than even the most gifted of the gangstas, who hobble their lyrics with a focus on “realness.”  Far better are the fantastic exaggerations of the Wu. 

                And a final hip-hop debut, of note more for what they’ll accomplish later than where they are today, is the Roots’ first album.  In nearly the opposite trajectory from the Wu-Tang Clan, every Roots album will be better than the previous one for an impressive streak, but on their debut, the Roots sound like what they are: a bunch of musically-gifted high-schoolers who have more excitement than experience with how to put out a record yet.  So, impressive as understood as a bunch of high-schoolers, but not all that impressive versus what else is out there or where they’ll be in just a couple of years.  Still, miles better than any of my high school bands…

Song of the Year:  After a great deal of soul-searching, I’m going with Tom Petty’s “Mary Jane’s Last Dance.”  Not only is it a phenomenal song, and my favorite song of this year, but an old New Waver playing to the grunge crowd by putting out a classic-70s sounding single pretty much encapsulates the old-new conflagration of 1993.  Runners up would be the Breeders’ “Cannonball” and the Smashing Pumpkins “Rocket,” for what it’s worth, my two big summer jams of ’93.

Album of the Year:  The Wu-Tang Clan – Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers).  More imaginative than the rather dour world of gangsta rap, but not nearly so wimpy as the Native Tongues stuff, and as fresh a take on hip-hop as I’ve heard in awhile.  A significant portion of my readership/my loving wife Liz, however, thinks I should give the nod to Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville

Artist Most Benefiting from Reevaluation:  Pearl Jam.  I’ve thought of Vs. as a transitional record, between the classic-rockin’ Ten and the experimental greatness of Vitalogy, and it is, but it’s also an entirely worthy record in its own right, showing already a willingness of the band to press into new sonic territory.  Somewhat ironic that after the mid-90s, they’ll be remembered instead as a band that works their signature sound into the ground.

Artist Most Diminished in Reevaluation:  New Order.  The fact that U2 (a band who parallel New Order in a lot of ways) made reshaping their core identity to fit a new sonic landscape work for them probably makes New Order’s failure all the worse, especially since they had arguably less distance to go.  Still, this is a limp, limp record, and understandably the band would call it quits for almost a decade after while figuring out how/if to move forward from Republic.

Album List

Bad Religion - Recipe For Hate

Belly - Star

Big Head Todd & The Monsters - Sister Sweetly

Blur - Modern Life B-Sides

Blur - Modern Life Is Rubbish [Bonus Tracks]

Bob Dylan - Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs

Bob Dylan - World Gone Wrong

Built To Spill - The Normal Years

Built To Spill - Ultimate Alternative Wavers

Camper Van Beethoven - Camper Vantiquities

Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band - Express Yourself: The Best Of Charles Wright

Cornershop - Elvis Sex-Change

Counting Crows - August & Everything After

Cracker - Misc.

David Bowie - Best Of Bowie

Dinosaur Jr. - Ear-Bleeding Country: Best Of Dinosaur Jr

Elvis Costello - Extreme Honey: The Very Best Of The Warner Bros. Years

Fugazi - In On The Kill Taker

Iggy Pop - Nude & Rude: The Best Of Iggy [Explicit]

Iron Maiden - Misc.

Junior Kimbrough - You Better Run: The Essential Junior Kimbrough

Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville

Manic Street Preachers - Forever Delayed

Matthew Sweet - Altered Beast

Meat Puppets - Too High To Die

Megadeth - Greatest Hits: Back To The Start (Digital Only)

Midnight Oil - 20,000 Watts R.S.L.: Greatest Hits

Mudhoney - March To Fuzz: Best Of...

Mudhoney - March To Fuzz: Rarities

New Order - Republic

Nirvana - In Utero

Ozzy Osbourne - The Ozzman Cometh

Paul Weller - Modern Classics

Pearl Jam - Christmas Singles

Pearl Jam - Lost Dogs

Pearl Jam - Misc.

Pearl Jam - Vs.

Phish - Rift

Prince - The B-Sides

Prince - The Hits

Pulp - Pulpintro: The Gift Recordings

Radiohead - Pablo Honey

Run-D.M.C. - Greatest Hits

Rush - Retrospective 3

Salt-N-Pepa - Very Necessary

Smashing Pumpkins - Rotten Apples: Greatest Hits

Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream

Stereolab - Serene Velocity - A Stereolab Anthology

Suede - Suede

Sugar - Beaster

The Breeders - Last Splash

The Coup - Kill My Landlord

The Cranberries - The Best Of The Cranberries 20th Century Masters The Millennium Collection

The Fall - 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong: 39 Golden Greats

The Flaming Lips - Transmissions From The Satellite Heart

The Grateful Dead (live incomplete) - So Many Roads [1965-1995]

The Jesus & Mary Chain - 21 Singles

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - The Ultimate Experience

The Mekons - I Love Mekons

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Ska-Core, The Devil, & More [EP]

The Notorious B.I.G. - Notorious

The Ramones - Acid Eaters

The Roots - Organix

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Playback III: Good Booty

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Playback IV: The Other Sides

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Playback VI: Nobody's Children

U2 - B-Sides 1990-2000

U2 - The Best Of 1990-2000

U2 - Zooropa

Uncle Tupelo - 89/93: An Anthology

Uncle Tupelo - Anodyne

V/A - Children Of Nuggets I

V/A - DGC Rarities, Vol. 1

V/A - No Alternative

Violent Femmes - Add It Up (1981-1993)

Wu-Tang Clan - Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

Wu-Tang Clan - Wu: The Story Of The Wu-Tang Clan

Yo La Tengo - Prisoners Of Love