Wednesday, July 11, 2012

1998


                First of all, apologies for my first ever two posts in one day.  1997s been ready for awhile now, I just hadnt realized I hadnt 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), theres virtually nothing happening in indie rock, and various other niche genres just keep churning along without too much call to get excited.
                But thats perhaps a bit of a downer way to start, so heres intro no. 2.  Hip-hop has an absolutely outstanding year this year, from acts both established and new.  Neo-soul is a genre thats somewhat under-represented in my collection, as Ive always been more interested in hip-hop acts influenced by neo-soul than neo-soul itself.  Regardless, Im not going to ignore the pinnacle of the sub-genre, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.  I cant decide if Hills utter failure to manage a follow-up to her solo debut raises or lowers my estimation of the album, but either way its 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 Badus from last year.  Maybe its 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.  Theyre 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 Pauls Boutique-Ill Communication run, so its probably not surprising that theyre 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 Dont 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 Yorkes guest spot on Rabbit In Your Headlights does far more to preview Radioheads 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 thatll 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, theyre 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 years) 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 its kind of the dumbest dance music youre 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 Youve 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 Attacks trip-hop, Becks Mutations-era downbeat style, and the lounge-pop of Stereolab and the like.  Ive also, less charitably, called Air (and others of their ilk) music to buy pants to, as its precisely the kind of edgy-but-not-too-edgy unobtrusive-but-vaguely-hip music youre likely to hear in a clothing store thats 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 its 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 Coxons first solo record, which leaves few doubts that Blurs 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 Nirvanas 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 Spoons 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, its not surprising that R.E.M. are good at this.  Their early folk-rock was much more Byrds-influenced, but its not so far removed from their Automatic for the People chamber-folk, even if its 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 cant help but wish that theyd 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 Hotels 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 its also a last gasp of lo-fi, the great vice of 90s production Ive 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 Smiths 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. 
                Theres 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 theyre not, really.  Theyre 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 Guthries obvious influence on Bragg, this project fits him well, even as it doesnt 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 isnt 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 its 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 arent 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 thats essentially a victory lap, and neither the Dropkick Murphys nor Bad Religion are radically overhauling their sound.  But Ive 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 Wont Wait isnt Sandinista! or anything, but does show a sonic restlessness that Rancids reputation as revivalists wouldnt lead you to necessarily expect. 
                Finally, in a genre where you dont really expect any progression, its worth discussing the late-90s hard blues sound.  Not rock, but Mississippi hill blues played mean & distorted by old men whove 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 shouldnt 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 its a joke song, but in fact its a tremendously dark song about exploitation, revenge, and parent-child love in dire circumstances.  If you havent heard it, go listen to it immediately.  This is the edit, but still worthy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ImD4l1l0bA Its not just my song of the year, but as far as Im 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, its 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.  Ive variously considered Black Stars debut, Life Wont Wait, This Is Hardcore, and Psyence Fiction, but ultimately Ill settle on Elliott Smiths 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 Im 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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