First
of all, apologies for my first ever two posts in one day. 1997’s been ready for awhile now, I just hadn’t
realized I hadn’t posted it yet.
Anyway, 1998 is a bit of a step down from 1997, at least taking all my
various genre interests into consideration.
Hip-hop has an absolutely fantastic year, as do various hip-hop-adjacent
acts, but the rock end of things is starting to founder a bit. Indie-pop is on a heavy 60s folk-pop trip
(esp. the orchestrated folk-pop of Pet
Sounds-era Beach Boys), there’s virtually nothing happening in indie
rock, and various other niche genres just keep churning along without too much
call to get excited.
But
that’s perhaps a bit of a downer way to start, so here’s
intro no. 2. Hip-hop has an absolutely
outstanding year this year, from acts both established and new. Neo-soul is a genre that’s
somewhat under-represented in my collection, as I’ve always been more interested in hip-hop
acts influenced by neo-soul than neo-soul itself. Regardless, I’m not going to ignore the pinnacle of
the sub-genre, The Miseducation of Lauryn
Hill. I can’t decide if
Hill’s utter failure to manage a follow-up to her solo debut raises
or lowers my estimation of the album, but either way it’s a pretty
outstanding document, and one deserving of its
praise and place in the record collection of everyone who was in college
in 1998. Deeper into the hip-hop end of
things, but still retro-focused, Outkast put out their first great record,
mining a 70s-funk (esp. Parliament-Funkadelic) vibe not too far from Erykah
Badu’s from last year. Maybe
it’s not so surprising that she and André 3000 would
have been briefly romantically linked.
Regardless, a very strong Funkadelic vibe reigns on Aquemeni, esp. on the guitar-driven closer (which also sounds
uncannily like Built to Spill, a similarity that may be more due to a common
Funkadelic influence, as 3000 would later claim that he listened to virtually
no rock music before 2003).
Also
making their great leap forward (and also on their 3rd album) are
the Coup, now down to a duo. Sonically,
they fit well enough next to Outkast, also including a touch of live-band
instrumentation and more unorthodox hip-hop sounds (esp. harmonica), while
lyrically, Boots’ critiques are getting both more cutting and more humorous,
and sometimes in the self-same song.
The
best album in hip-hop this year, though, probably belongs to Black Star, the
triumphant debut of two MCs who positively screamed greatness at the time. Ultimately, Talib Kweli will be diminished in
his search for chart hits and Mos Def will be more interested in acting, but
man did they ever sound tight on their debut.
Like the acts discussed above, they look backward for inspiration,
though not as far, recalling the classic early-mid-80s stripped sound, a la
Eric B. & Rakim. They’re
at the forefront of an old-school resurgence that will also include the likes
of the Hierogyphics, which definitely recalls the 80s, but also is pretty
willing to embrace the more of the minute sonics of the post-Beck/DJ Shadow
school.
On
the subject, actual old-school hip-hoppers the Beastie Boys in many ways laid
down the template for that Shadow-Beck style on their Paul’s Boutique-Ill
Communication run, so it’s probably not surprising that they’re
able to keep up with the new school pretty handily on their return on Hello Nasty, which may not be their best
album, but definitely feels both effortlessly state-of-the-art and like a
summation of their stylistic journey to this point. In the 60s/70s, the likes of the Beatles,
Stones, and Zeppelin were impressive not only on their own terms, but in their
ability to incorporate and synthesize contemporary trends; here the Beasties
accomplish a similar feat. Among those
contemporaries, by the way, you get a follow-up EP from Latyrx, sadly their
last as a duo, but including their best song, the old-school futurism (think “Planet
Rock”) of “Lady Don’t Tek No.”
And DJ Shadow is back as well.
Much like Automator went east last year to produce Cornershop, this year
Shadow is helming the UK-based UNKLE project, which pairs Shadow beats with
a host of rappers and UK rock acts,
generally to fantastic result. If
nothing else, Thom Yorke’s guest spot on “Rabbit In Your
Headlights” does far more to preview Radiohead’s Kid A reinvention than anything on their
own records.
Speaking
of the rock side of things (if you like, the more Beck side of the Beck/DJ
Shadow style that I really should come up with a name for), much like Shadow
finally returns this year, so too does Beck, in a much more low-key look on Mutations. At the time Geffen tried to de-hype Mutations as a one-off, and not the “real”
follow-up to Odelay, but it actually
ends up sounding much more substantial than the “real” Odelay
follow up, Midnite Vultures. Incorporating more roots sounds, albeit
global roots (i.e. Tropicália), Beck starts mining a vein of
melancholy that’ll suit him well. Soul
Coughing are also back this year, unfortunately on their last album, but with
more pronounced electroncia influences (esp. the drone & pound of
drum-&-base), which makes for probably their most immediate album, and the
most compelling case for fusing alt-rock and electronica sounds. Of course, they’re not the only ones, and the Beta Band
go even deeper into the prog/ambient end of their Britpop/electronica/prog
fusion. I begin to understand now why
expectations were so high for their debut album, as these three EPs (two this
year, and last year’s) are all outstanding, as good as
anything else out there, and suggest a band that can do great things at
album-length.
Also expanding their
sonic palette with electronica, though not so radically, the Smashing Pumpkins
release their first post-Mellon Collie
LP, indulging in a much heavier electronica sound basically by playing up their
ballad angle and using synth drums.
Ultimately, however, this ends up making them sound more
backward-looking (think post-New Wave UK pop) than forward-looking, though. Also incorporating electroncia beats into a
rock sound are hardcore (or, whatever, “post-hardcore”) band
Refused, who manage to produce a real rarity: a meticulously-produced,
best-listened-to-on-headphones hardcore punk record. Pretty remarkable, and suggesting that punk
& prog are starting to ever so slowly reconcile themselves to each other
(unsurprisingly, the results sound not unlike metal, but a kind of metal unlike
any found in any existing metal bands: heavy & technical, but also frantic
and raw).
In
the realm of actual techno/electronica, Fatboy Slim produces (I think?) the
first major chart-busting success by an electronica artist in the US, on the
back of his repetitive, almost record-skip-recalling big beat singles, esp. “the
Rockefeller Skank.”
Easy to hate, I suppose, as it’s kind of the dumbest dance music you’re
likely to have heard in awhile (contrast to the intricate but party-happy Black
Grape for instance), but fun enough in the right context (which is to say that
no one puts on You’ve Come A Long Way Baby in any
context other than a party (unlike, say, Parliament albums), but it works
fantastically well at a party). Probably
gave electronica a bad name among US listeners for whom it was their first
exposure, though. Far more intricate,
and more moody & mellow, are Massive Attack, who return with a new, more
downbeat version of their trip-hop style, sounding much more cinematic, but
perhaps a bit less immediate and amenable to pop-song listening. Picking up on the pop-electronica vein,
however, are French band Air, who fit somewhat comfortably between Massive
Attack’s trip-hop, Beck’s Mutations-era
downbeat style, and the lounge-pop of Stereolab and the like. I’ve also, less charitably, called Air
(and others of their ilk) “music to buy pants to,”
as it’s precisely the kind of edgy-but-not-too-edgy
unobtrusive-but-vaguely-hip music you’re likely to hear in a clothing store
that’s trying to be hip. A
fun record, but a little too self-consciously hip to be a great record.
Also
dabbling in trip-hop sounds are Pulp, who follow up the brash synth-glam of Different Class with the decidedly more
moody and arty This Is Hardcore. At times their old glam sound reasserts
itself, albeit with darker hues, but at other times they threaten to go all the
way into trip-hop, as on “This Is Hardcore” (the
song). In the States, folkie Sarah
McLachlan will also get the moody-electronic remix treatment this year, at
least on the X-Files soundtrack,
which otherwise shows Noel Gallagher dabbling in Primal Scream-style beat-rock,
some excellent songs from the Foo Fighters and Soul Coughing, and a bunch of
more-or-less forgettable alt-rock.
Back
to the subject of Brit-poppers, though, Pulp aside it’s a pretty
quite year. Nothing from Oasis, an
non-album single from the Super Furry Animals, and a bunch of miscellany from
Blur. Their remix EP does nothing to
convince me that all remix albums are a waste of time, as the best songs are
the ones changed the least, but the second, live EP is pretty solid. Also, guitarist Graham Coxon’s
first solo record, which leaves few doubts that Blur’s turn toward
ragged guitar rock was his doing, as The
Sky Is Too High goes even further down that road, esp. the ragged,
downtempo ballads, which recall heavily Nirvana’s unplugged stuff, even as Coxon
name-checks Nick Drake in the lyrics. So
think of it as Drake-ian in mood, if sonically much closer to Nirvana, Sonic
Youth, or possibly Vitalogy-era Pearl
Jam. This accounts for a surprising
amount of the scarce guitar skronk to be found in 1998, where the indie scene
is getting decidedly precious and pretty.
The only other real exception (outside of punk) to this trend is Spoon’s
debut, which recalls the jagged sounds of both post-punk and the early
alt-rockers (think Dinosaur Jr., Pavement, or early Flaming Lips). Not nearly as polished as their later stuff,
but also appealing in how it recalls the last great era of guitar-rock already
passed by ’98.
But
on that more genteel side of things, indie pop is in a heavy late-60s
vibe. In this period, a whole mess of
bands in both the US and UK focus on delicate ornamentation, along a Brian
Wilson or perhaps Zombies/Left Banke vein.
In the UK, Belle & Sebastian had been here already, and their new
record more or less repeats themselves, but to good effect. More interesting, though, are the Super Furry
Animals, who only release a stray single, but a stray single that may just best
capture how great a band they are, as it careens effortlessly from Velvet
Underground to Beach Boys and elsewhere all within a single pop song.
In
the US, R.E.M. also pick up on this vibe, with a heavy Pet Sounds influence. In one
sense, it’s not surprising that R.E.M. are good at this. Their early folk-rock was much more
Byrds-influenced, but it’s not so far removed from their Automatic for the People chamber-folk,
even if it’s “brighter” than that moody record, and more
embracing of electronic sonics. Still,
the one rocking song on the album, the psychedelic-pop “Lotus,”
rocks so effectively that I can’t help but wish that they’d
have broken out of their chamber-pop mode a bit more.
Elsewhere
in the States, the folk-rock comes in more straightahead forms. Everybody but me evidently loves Neutral Milk
Hotel’s In An Aeroplane Over
The Sea, and I can certainly hear how it influenced a whole lot of the
indie stuff that would come after, but it’s also a last gasp of lo-fi, the great
vice of 90s production I’ve railed about earlier. In short, I think these are good songs, but
the record plays like a demo tape, not a finished album. I suppose some people see it as “raw”
or “emotional,” but to me it more sounds “unfinished.” For an example of how much better off you are
(and with no compromise of raw emotion) by applying a bit of studio polish, see
Elliott Smith’s XO, which finds
him moving away from his spartan solo-guitar style and embracing a full-band
style. This works outstandingly well for
him. giving his melodies a better framing and a better ability to generate a
coherent atmosphere than a man and his guitar alone can.
There’s
a tendency to call the likes of Neutral Milk Hotel and Elliott Smith folk-rock
(look, I just did it in the last paragraph), but they’re not,
really. They’re folk-rock
in the sense that James Taylor or Jacksone Browne are, which is to say
folk-influenced soft rock. Actual
folk-rock, of the directly part of the folk tradition connecting back through
Woody Guthrie is a much different beast, with a much wider range of subjects
than just the romantic preoccupations of a lot of sensitive young people
playing guitars with holes in them.
Billy Bragg, for instance, plays actual folk. He also this year returns in concert with
Wilco on the Mermaid Avenue project,
setting new music to unrecorded Woody Guthrie lyrics. Given Guthrie’s obvious influence on Bragg, this
project fits him well, even as it doesn’t offer much in way of surprises. Wilco are maybe a less obvious fit, but
acquit themselves well, with a continuation of their Being There sound. The other
half of Uncle Tupelo, meanwhile, keep on keeping with their sound, a bit
mellower than their debut but otherwise in the same vein. This year, Son Volt and Wilco are about
equally pretty good, but soon Wilco will make their own great leap forward.
Both of them, though, fit in with a lot of what else
is happening in the rock world, which is established bands churning out more of
the same. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but
neither is it an especially exciting thing.
Of the Seattle bands, the Foos suggest a mellower change of pace on
their one new single this year, but Mudhoney keep on being Mudhoney, sounding
exactly the same as they always have.
Pearl Jam, meanwhile, have fully settled into being the classic rock
band people always said they were. Yield is a good album, and they
put out a good live album as well, but it’s a bit of a step back from a band that
relentlessly pushed their sound in new directions in every album before
this. U2 similarly are in a bit of a
retreat this year, with their one new single a remake of a Joshua Tree
b-side. Unsurprisingly, therefore, “The
Sweetest Thing” sounds like a throwback, but what sounded like a one-off at
the time now clearly heralds their conscious return-to-80s sound on their
upcoming album.
Elsewhere
in alt-rock, Cake put out another of their more-or-less interchangeable albums,
with some good singles and worthy album cuts, but no better nor worse than
their others. The Fall similarly have
been riding a consistent groove for awhile, and aren’t about to
stop now. Phish do slightly modify their
sound, finally arriving at a Stone Roses-recalling mellow funk groove on some
cuts, but otherwise continuing in their own established hippie-jam pattern.
Punk,
a genre that in its modern form makes a virtue out of staying still, actually
has a few more signs of growth than the alt-rockers. The Bosstones release a live album that’s
essentially a victory lap, and neither the Dropkick Murphys nor Bad Religion
are radically overhauling their sound.
But I’ve already touched on the progressive/electronic innovations
of Refused, and Rancid, while not as adventurous as Refused, nevertheless are
starting to incorporate more and more sonic elements, dipping into hardcore,
dancehall, and deeper into ska. Life Won’t Wait isn’t Sandinista!
or anything, but does show a sonic restlessness that Rancid’s
reputation as revivalists wouldn’t lead you to necessarily expect.
Finally,
in a genre where you don’t really expect any progression, it’s
worth discussing the late-90s hard blues sound.
Not rock, but Mississippi hill blues played mean & distorted by old
men who’ve lived in this music for decades, and bring to it a rawness
that none of the blues-rock bands ever really managed to touch. Junior Kimbrough represents the more purist
wing of this sound this year, while R.L. Burnside gets surprising mileage out
of adding electronica production to his take on this sound. It shouldn’t really work, but somehow, while many
bands have tried to fuse raw rock and dance beats and failed, fusing hill blues
and beats somehow succeeds.
Song of the
Year: No question at all this
year. The Coup – “Me
and Jesus the Pimp in a ’79 Granada Last Night.” The title might make you think it’s
a joke song, but in fact it’s a tremendously dark song about
exploitation, revenge, and parent-child love in dire circumstances. If you haven’t heard it, go listen to it
immediately. This is the edit, but still
worthy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ImD4l1l0bA
It’s not just my song of the year, but as far as I’m
concerned the single greatest hip-hop song of them all, showing the real
capacity of the genre as a storytelling medium.
Check out, for instance, how Boots undercuts all his imagery to capture
the ugliness. For instance, “City
lights from far way can makeyou drop yo’ jaw//Sparklin’ like sequins
on a transvestite at Mardi Gras,” or “The rain dropped giant pearls, God was
pissin’ on the world.”
Also, it’s a vicious undercutting of contemptible pimp-exultation of gangsta,
revealing pimps instead as craven exploitive scum.
Album of
the Year: In contrast to song of the
year, a lot of contenders this year. I’ve
variously considered Black Star’s debut, Life Won’t
Wait, This Is Hardcore, and Psyence Fiction, but ultimately I’ll
settle on Elliott Smith’s XO. I understand those who prefer his earlier
stuff, but for me this is his absolute pinnacle, showing how, in addition to
being a great voice and lyricist, that he also was one of the finest crafters
of classicist pop songs since at least Matthew Sweet.
Artist Most
Benefiting from Reevaluation:
Pulp. Jarvis Cocker was 34 when
he made This Is Hardcore, and now
that I’m also in my 30s, I find it an album that makes a lot more
sense to me. This album is perhaps the
rarest of beasts in rock, an album by a 30-something acting his age. Rock is full of artists trying to act like
teenagers well into their 30s, 40s, and beyond, no matter how ridiculous they
come off, and there are a handful of old men in rock who eventually start
acting their age (Neil Young, Bob Dylan).
But virtually no one writes honestly about being in their 30s, just at
the point of ageing out of being young and hip.
On This is Hardcore, Cocker writes about losing contact with old
friends, fears about new fatherhood, realizing the vacancy of hipster life, and
the like. Pretty unusual, and
unsurprisingly, it was a bit a commercial disappointment. Increasingly, though, I think it's my
favorite Pulp album.
Artist Most
Diminished in Reevaluation: A Tribe
Called Quest. They're far from bad this
year, but elsewhere it was a banner year for hip-hop, and they just kind of
pale in comparison.
Album List
A Tribe Called Quest - The Love Movement
Air - Moon Safari
Bad Religion - No Substance
Beck - Misc.
Beck - Mutations
Belle & Sebastian - Misc.
Belle & Sebastian - The Boy With The Arab
Strap
Billy Bragg - Must I Paint You A Picture?: The
Essential Billy Bragg
Black Star - Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black
Star
Blur - Bustin' + Dronin'
Bob Dylan - Live 1961-2000: Thirty-Nine Years of
Great Concert Performances
Bob Dylan - Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs
Cake - Prolonging The Magic
Cheap Trick - The Authorized Greatest Hits
Daft Punk - Musique Vol 1
Dropkick Murphys - Do Or Die
Dropkick Murphys - The Singles Collection, Vol. 1
Dropkick Murphys - The Singles Collection, Vol. 2
Elliott Smith - XO
Fatboy Slim - You've Come A Long Way, Baby
Graham Coxon - The Sky Is Too High
Hieroglyphics - 3rd Eye Vision
Iron Maiden - Misc.
Johnny Cash - Unchained
Junior Kimbrough - You Better Run: The Essential
Junior Kimbrough
King Crimson - Live 1994-2003
Latyrx - The Muzapper's Remixes
Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill
Manic Street Preachers - Forever Delayed
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Midnight Oil - 20,000 Watts R.S.L.: Greatest Hits
Mudhoney - March To Fuzz: Best Of...
Mudhoney - March To Fuzz: Rarities
Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane, Over The
Sea
New Order - Retro
Outkast - Aquemini
Paul Weller - Modern Classics
Pearl Jam - Christmas Singles
Pearl Jam - Live On Two Legs [Live]
Pearl Jam - Lost Dogs
Pearl Jam - Misc.
Pearl Jam - Yield
Phish - The Story Of The Ghost
Primal Scream - Misc.
Primal Scream - Shoot Speed (More Dirty Hits)
Pulp - Pulpintro: The Gift Recordings
Pulp - This Is Hardcore
R.E.M. - Up
R.L. Burnside - Come On In
Radiohead - Misc.
Rage Against The Machine - Godzilla - The Album
Rancid - Life Won't Wait
Refused - Live at Umeå Open festival
(April 3, 1998)
Refused - The Shape Of Punk To Come
Ringo Starr - Photograph: The Very Best Of Ringo
Starr
Smashing Pumpkins - Rotten Apples: Greatest Hits
Son Volt - Wide Swing Tremolo
Soul Coughing - El Oso
Spoon - A Series of Sneaks
Super Furry Animals - Outspaced
Super Furry Animals - Super Furry Animals Songbook
The Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty
The Beastie Boys - The Sounds Of Science
The Beta Band - The Three E.P.'s
The Coup - Steal This Album
The Coup - Steal This Double Album
The Fall - 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong: 39
Golden Greats
The Jesus & Mary Chain - 21 Singles
The Mekons - I Have Been to Heaven and Back...,
Vol. 1
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Live From The Middle
East
U2 - The Best Of 1980-1990
UNKLE - Psyence Fiction
V/A - Snatch
V/A - The X-Files: The Album
Wilco - Mermaid Avenue (with Billy Bragg)
Wu-Tang Clan - Wu: The Story Of The Wu-Tang Clan
Yo La Tengo - Prisoners Of Love
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