Saturday, July 14, 2012

1999


                My first impression of 1999 was that it was another year where all the action was in hip-hop, and indeed there is a lot of good hip-hop this year.  But upon further reflection, there are a lot of solid rock albums this year, just not forming a cohesive movement (unlike in hip-hop, where theres a fairly close community of producers & rappers who go so far as to show up on each others albums).  But the really good rock albums this year tend to be singular entities within genres that are otherwise really treading water.  There are some commonalities in those gems, though; chiefly in their willingness to break up their formulas and experiment with more unconventional song structures.
                But like I said, a lot of the action in 1999 is in hip-hop, and specifically in the indie hip-hop world.  In the mainstream, Dr. Dre returns with The Chronic 2001, and has updated his sonics, which in practice means more trebly synths and fewer P-Funk samples.  Like with the RZA from the first to second Wu-Tang albums, Dres move away from sampling and toward more original composition doesnt play to his strengths.  In both sampling and original beats, though, the RZA did it better.  Also in the rapping.  Dre remains a downright poor MC.  Lyically, the cartoon gangsta sentiments remain, and once again the only worthy rappers are a couple of guests (Snoop & Eminem).  Progress of a sort, but mainstream hip-hop virtually drops out of my collection after this, a few big singles here and there excepted.
                Fortunately, the indie scene continues to be remarkably strong.  Another early 90s producer returns to much greater effect than Dre.  Sadly, my copy of Prince Pauls A Prince Among Thieves is unplayably scratched by now, but I remember it fondly.  Pauls other great record this year, in co-production with Automator, follows a similar pattern of common production supported by a roster of indie hip-hops greatest.  Handsome Boy Modeling School is goofy, but pretty much the cutting edge of hip-hop this year, with inventive beats & sampling covering an impressive range.  Also, The Truth really sets the template of torch singer + hip-hop thatll produce great songs in both the mainstream (Eminems Stan) and indie (Deltrons Madness).  In  general, both Automator and Prince Paul show real branching away from their initial styles to great effect.  A record that really captures the diversity of sounds captured under the rubric of hip-hop in 1999. 
Its not all producer-driven, though.  The other half of the Dr. Octagon project, Kool Keith, proves less willing to abandon that records space-rap synth-funk formula, although without Automator, his beats are a bit more sparse and minimalist.  Meanwhile, while Latyrx are done and DJ Shadow is quiet, the remaining duo in Soulsides put out yet another Blackalicious EP, making us wait a long time for a proper Blackalicious LP.  Still pretty solid, with a similar retro-futurist old-school vibe as Black Star last year (though with more synth/organ sounds).  Speaking of Black Star, Mos Def is very much in the same vein as well on his solo debut (basically stripped beats, but with a full, organ-driven sound), though with the beginnings of his fascination with rock & roll thatll lead him to record his next album with an actual band.
Of course, 1999 is also the year that the Roots establish themselves definitively as hip-hops greatest band (in the live-band sense as opposed to the Wu-Tang/Blackalicious posse sense).  Things Fall Apart is their commercial breakthrough, though while its probably their best record to date, its not a case of the band revising their formula, as Illadelph Halflife boasted essentially the same sonic template.  Timing, I guess; the guests including Black Star and others show how the Roots sound has become the sound of contemporary hip-hop.  The Roots also establish their live-band cred with their live album.  It feels like a long time since weve seen such a 70s-throwback classic live double-LP.  Most of what weve had in way of live albums have either been Unplugged rearrangements or post-breakup retrospective, but if any band in 1999 was going to buck that trend, the Roots are a good one, being both phenomenal live and fairly 70s-based in their funk-soul sound.
The other beat-driven musical scene in the late 90s, electronica, continues to inch its way into the mainstream (though largely separate from hip-hop still).  (nows a good a time as any to mention that Im calling this stuff elecronica because I vaguely remember that the 80s stuff is techno, and of course the actual fans of the genre rather uselessly refuse to accept that its more than a collection of microgenres; I welcome any advice on what else to call beat-driven electronic dance music).  The Basement Jaxx follow on the basic path blazed by Fatboy Slim, of big, almost stadium-rock beats, though their songs have a lot more going on than the deliberately simplistic big-beat of Fatboy Slim.  Still, above all the beat is foregrounded, even if the textures underneath are richer.  But the biggest electronica album of the year is without a doubt Mobys Play.  (and, indeed, apart from Santanas compromised and shamelessly radio-play-seeking Supernatural, probably the biggest record of 1999).  Moby is sort of a natural fit to be the electronica artist to break into modern rock radio.  First, hes got some punk-rock pedigree (having earlier covered Mission of Burma for a minor hit).  Second, hes manipulating familiar sounds (blues, gospel, etc.) but in new configurations.  And third, and most important, he really fit the post-Vedder/Cobain alt-rock-star mode the sensitive intelligent young man of which there were precious few to take that title after Cobains suicide and Vedders deliberate retreat. 
On the more rock side of things, both Cornershop side-project Clinton and Beck are going still deeper into electronic sounds as a way to follow up their big breakthrough records, though in both cases, its in a way that recalls hip-hop and 80s synth-funk more than contemporary electronica.  Clinton practically screams side-project, with its sketches of songs over a bed of spartan synth-funk, but at times it can be a whole lot of fun, and good way I suppose to sidestep the pressure to follow up as mammoth a record as When I Was Born for the 7th Time.  Beck also is in the process of following up a (even bigger) monster hit record, and somewhat split the difference.  In retrospect, Mutations was probably the real follow-up, the one that pointed toward Becks future development, and Midnite Vultures the slight party-record.  Not that Midnite Vultures isnt a fantastically dense, meticulously-crafted party record (splitting the difference between P-Funk and Prince), though.  It just somehow feels less ambitious than either Odelay or Mutations, in that it doesnt really press musical frontiers either for Beck personally or music generally.  Still a great party record, though; think of it as Becks version of a Black Grape record.
Outside of the more beat-driven scene, rock music, especially in the mainstream, is downright grey in its conservatism.  My mainstream rock this year is mostly grunge leftovers, all of which are pretty good, but few of which really get me all that excited.  The Foo Fighters put out another solid but not particularly ambitious record, turning more and more into the alt-rock version of Tom Petty, consistent & catchy, but not particularly boundary-pushing.  Also like Tom Petty, theres a great Foo Fighters greatest hits to be assembled from their excellent singles, but only the die-hards probably need the albums.  Tom Petty himself actually moves closer to sounding like the Foo Fighters (or alt-rock more generally), abandoning the folk-rock of Wildflowers and the Fleetwood Mac-style power pop of Shes The One for a more stripped and raw (for Petty) sound; remarkably similar to where the Foos end up by polishing their sound. 
Elsewhere among the grunge survivors, Chris Cornells solo record continues on the trajectory Soundgarden had been on since Badmotorfinger, stripping out the metal and playing up the classic rock influences.  So his solo debut, far from being a singer-songwriter record or radical departure, sounds like the follow-up to Down On The Upside that Soundgarden never made themselves; even more like a 70s-era hard rock band in a Led Zeppelin mode.  Cornell is good at this stuff, though, so thats fine by me if not as novel as what Soundgarden were doing.  Meanwhile, Pearl Jam reach even further back than the 70s for their last fluke-y radio hit, a cover of pre-Beatles early-60s weeper Last Kiss.  I love it as a one-off (Vedder, like Cornell, has a voice that can lift even substandard material if he puts an effort in), though I understand that some people loathe it. 
Among the other grunge-era survivors, the Stone Temple Pilots have shifted into being a quite worthy neo-psychedelic hard-pop band.  Not sure why Id given up on them by 1999, but theyre the rare band that only got better the later they got into their career, at least at single-length.  Rage Against the Machine, meanwhile, continue to amaze me insofar as they can sound so innovative on a song-by-song basis, but taken as a whole their albums are incredibly interchangeable and sonically predictable.  Like the Foo Fighters, a band where all most people probably need is a good singles comp, as the albums are all just more of the same variation on the same formula (and the singles are usually the best tracks).
In the UK, the mainstream is caught in a late-Brit-pop recursive loop.  Kula Shaker update their sound by stretching their influences all the way from early Deep Purple to early Yes; fun but nowhere close to original.  The Charlatans similarly continue to ride a late-60s organ-heavy vibe; less deliberately retro than Kula Shaker (no sitars, for instance), but also less catchy.  And Travis emerge as the first contender to fill a Bends-shaped hole in the UK mainstream.  Theyll lose out to Coldplay, of course, but also really set the template, smoothing off the experimental edges in favor of a moody, languid, guitar-based style thatll be the dominant form for UK pop in the next decade. 
On the slightly more ambitious edge of things, there are some bands adding electronic touches to their otherwise straightahead rock songs.  Gomez, for instance, are basically a roots-rock band with just a light electronic glaze making them sound more contemporary.  This works well for roots-rock, a genre thats not know for bold innovation, and gives them a way to tweak the formula just enough to stand out; also making Liquid Skin an excellent hangover record, being moody & downtempo, with just a slightly off feel.  Also basically making roots-rock with electronics added on is Joe Strummer, returning from seemingly out of nowhere with his first record in a decade.  And honestly, he hasnt changed his mellow folk-pop sound much from Earthquake Weather, albeit with some new electronica elements.  Not coincidentally, the songs with those elements most prominent (esp. Tony Adams and Techno D-Day) are the best, and also the ones that most recall his old Clash-mates Big Audio Dynamite.  BAD, though, was always more interested in hip-hop than techno, and also more than a little more daring compositionally.  Of course, they sound incredibly dated today, but so too does Strummers record (though less so, being of more recent vintage).
The best record that you might still call Brit-pop, though, is the Super Furry Animals.  Guerilla is probably the zenith of their early pop period, incorporating not only the psych-pop of their earlier stuff but a much more wide-ranging collection of sounds.  At times they show off how they could be a real electronica band if they wanted to be, at times they dabble in Tropicaliá or other of-the-moment sounds, and overall sound like an omnivorous pop beast.  Its all in keeping with my thesis that the great bands (Beatles, Beasties, Zeppelin, Stones, etc.) are the ones that are able to be inspired by their contemporaries but incorporate those sounds into their own without sounding like shameless fad chasers (which, for instance, Bowie could sound like).  Of course, the band that the SFA most resemble is probably Blur in their Brit-pop days (though more forward thinking than Blur, who always kept one eye firmly on the mid-60s past).  Blur in their modern incarnation however, are an entirely different beast altogether, continuing down the path of their last record into increasingly abstracted and experimental song forms, sounding more like  a modern prog rock band in the mod of the Beta Band or what Radiohead will become than the Kinks.  Recognizable song forms emerge (gospel here, Brit-pop there, acoustic balladry over here), only to fade back into a sonic stew including elements of electronica, prog-rock, noise rock, and the like.  At times they sound almost in over their heads (i.e. Swamp Song) but at their best they take that sense of dislocation and turn it into an asset, deliberately creating an atmosphere of confusion and melancholy that makes 13 remarkably emotionally-driven for such an experimental record.  Better than, but similar to, the Beta Bands first long-player, which manages to sound less coherent than the compilation of their early EPs.  Theres a lot going on here, but ultimately, as they themselves would demonstrate on their later albums, some bands benefit from being able to engage in long-form songwriting (Yes, Pink Floyd), but some really need the discipline imposed by pop-song length to compel them to boil down their ideas to the most essential.  One style isnt necessarily better than the other, but the Betas sound a bit adrift at times given a whole LP to work with, and theyll be much better once they recognized the constraints that produce their best work.
                Interesting, then, to segue to the American quasi-prog/neo-grunge of Built to Spill and Modest Mouse, both of whom are moving out of long-form construction and into more concise song forms.  Built to Spill make this move earlier (at least on record), condensing their ranging epics down to generally single-length tracks.  Not obviously an improvement (as it will be for the Betas), but an evolution; certainly more immediately accessible.  Also makes them sound even more like a smoother Dinosaur Jr.  Modest Mouse arent so far along on their own similar journey, and dont have a new album this year, though their BBC Sessions show that theyre starting to condense what were side-long multi-song epics on The Lonesome Crowded West into considerably shorter packages.
                Elsewhere in the indie-pop scene, the orchestrated folk-pop sound continues to dominate on both sides of the Atlantic.  In the US, the Magnetic Fields lean especially heavily on Loaded-era Velvet Underground in a deep but not exactly broad survey of folk-pop circa 1966-1972.  In the UK, another Ffa Coffi Pawb spin-off, Gorkys Zygotic Mynci unsurprisingly recall the early Super Furry Animals, albeit in a more mellow, acoustic mood, again leaning heavily on the folk-pop of 66-72 (albeit with a touch of actual folk-rock of the Pentangle variety); pretty but unsubstantial.  Much better, but in the same general vein, is the new album from the Flaming Lips.  Continuing the shift begun on the (largely unheard) Zaireeka, the Lips move into a softer, more orchestrated sound thatll set the tone for their 00s work.  They do this much better than most of the Pet Sounds-worshiping crowd, though, through a willingness to move beyond simple homage, incorporating both more modern production flourishes (down to R&B producer remixes of two songs) and a big drum sound that recalls John Bonhams, though in no other way does The Soft Bulletin sound at all like Zeppelin. 
                Its almost perverse but logical that Matthew Sweet will respond to all these attempts to remake Pet Sounds by attempting to remake Buffalo Springfield Again.  Hed always had a Neil Young influence, albeit more 70s Neil, but here Sweet really sounds like hes attempting to make post-Brian Wilson pop in a vein very similar to Young.  What I mean by this, I suppose, is that the strings and found sounds are incorporated into a more sturdy power-pop base (Beatles-recalling at times as well, just as the Springfield recalled the Beatles), and that his epics are driven much more by solo singing and more aggressive and foregrounded playing than the Beach Boys harmonies.  Nice to hear Sweet again pressing his power-pop in new directions after two consecutive attempts to remake Girlfriend threatened to box him in a corner.
                The last of the ambitious rock albums I have to talk about this year is Wilcos Summerteeth.  Yankee Hotel Foxtrot gets all the press, of course, but Summerteeth is really the moment Wilco decisively abandon alt-country.  Like the Flaming Lips, theyre firmly grounded in the pop sounds of the late 60s but more wide-ranging in their sounds than the more strictly-revivalist indie-poppers.  So there are flourishes of soul, jazzy piano, song suites, and, of course, some moody alt-country.  Too ambitious to just be called Americana, but still firmly grounded in American music; given the albums relatively unpretentious and unselfconscious ambition, it may be Wilcos best.  Of course, elsewhere, alt-country is continuing to go strong in a more traditional mode.  Chief on this front are the Old 97s, who even manage to get some modern-rock radioplay this year with a really strong set of roots-rockin tunes.  Also in alt-country, the band thatll be the major carrier of the alt-country flame into the 00s, My Morning Jacket get their start.  At the beginning, its mostly straightahead alt-country, a bit sluggish maybe but lifted by strong vocals, though even at this point there are hints that My Morning Jacket will end up moving in a more arty/Wilco-y direction.
                Finally, out of sight of the mainstream, we do get some hints at the upcoming garage-rock revival.  To a degree, this makes sense; 1999 is the latest in a series of years weak on straightahead rock music.  This year theres the Foo Fighters, the tired trad Britpop bands, and not much else to just kick out the jams without getting into prog-rock or folk-rock or country-rock or electronica-rock or whatever.  So out on the margins, we see these bands starting to form.  The White Stripes, unfortunately, have their vices in place earlier than their virtues.  Theyre already self-consciously arty and minimalist, but by a good margin the best songs on their debut are the covers.  Also, as an aside, Ive always found the minimalism of the likes of the White Stripes and Rage Against the Machine a little ridiculous:  the White Stripes wont add a bass and Rage are always just bass-guitar-drums, but whats the point if that just means you add effect pedals to make your guitar sound like a bass or harmonica or whatever?  No one but you cares; just pick up a bass and a harmonica (the latter, especially, are pretty cheap!).  But anyway, far less pretentious garage-rock is out there to be found, albeit not anywhere near the mainstream.  Lowell, MAs the Shods, for instance, are an excellent garage-punk band who got zero airplay even in the Boston area, as far as I know, but are the first (and not the last) band where I bought their CD immediately after being impressed by them as an opening band.  Dont miss the opening bands, people!  You can find some really excellent bands that way!  And if theyre ridiculously terrible, then at least youve got a good story.

Song of the Year:  The Flaming Lips Waiting For A Superman.  Really sets the template for the soft-rock Lips of the 00s, and shows all the indie-poppers how to make 60s folk-pop more than just empty revivalism. 
Album of the Year:  Blur 13.  See above.  Also, it shows that Blur (along with the Beta Band and arguably R.E.M. circa. New Adventures in Hi-Fi) beat Radiohead to the punch, making Kid A sound less like bold innovation and more like Radiohead playing catch-up.  Id also argue that 13 trumps Kid A as a listening experience, offering a richer palette both musically and emotionally.  Also, if Im going to pick a runner-up, itll be Handsome Boy Modeling Schools So, Hows Your Girl?, which was really the state-of-the-art in hip-hop circa 1999. 
Artist Most Benefiting from Reevaluation:  Probably the Stone Temple Pilots.  Id dismissed them along with the rest of rock radio at the time, but theyd actually become a really solid singles act.  I found myself looking forward to the new Stone Temple Pilots (meaning what theyd put out in 99, not the reunited band) in doing this project more than I ever did at the time.
Artist Most Diminished in Reevaluation:  Joe Strummer.  It saddens me to say this, as I do love me some Joe Strummer, but really the difference between Rock Art & The X-Ray Style and Earthquake Weather (a record I find a bit dull) is in the production, not the songwriting.  Now, I like the production style of the late 90s, but in retrospect, Strummers a bit insubstantial this year.  Hell get better later, though.

Album List
Backstreet Boys - Millennium
Basement Jaxx - Remedy
Beck - Midnite Vultures
Beck - Misc.
Blackalicious - A2G
Blur - 13
Blur - 13 B-Sides
Blur - Coffee & TV [Single]
Blur - The Best Of
Blur - Wedding Songs
Bob Dylan - Million Miles: Live Recordings, 1997-1999
Bob Dylan - The Lonely Graveyard of My Mind - RPI 2 Feb 1999
Boozoo Chavis - Who Stole My Monkey?
Bruce Springsteen - 18 Tracks
Built To Spill - Keep It Like A Secret
Charlatans UK - Us And Us Only
Cheap Trick - The Authorized Greatest Hits
Chris Cornell - Euphoria Morning
Clifton Chenier - Clifton Chenier And His Red Hot Louisiana Band In New Orlean
Clinton - Disco and the Halfway To Discontent
David Bowie - Best Of Bowie
Destiny's Child - The Writing's On The Wall
Dr. Dre - 2001
Dropkick Murphys - The Singles Collection, Vol. 2
Elliott Smith - Misc.
Foo Fighters - There Is Nothing Left To Lose
Gomez - Liquid Skin
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Spanish Dance Troupe
Handsome Boy Modeling School - So How's Your Girl...
Joe Strummer - Rock Art & The X-Ray Style
Johnny Cash - Johnny Cash - 16 Biggest Hits
Kool Keith - Black Elvis/ Lost In Space
Kula Shaker - Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts
Manic Street Preachers - Forever Delayed
Matthew Sweet - In Reverse
Megadeth - Greatest Hits: Back To The Start (Digital Only)
Moby - Play
Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica [Bonus Tracks]
Mos Def - Black On Both Sides
My Morning Jacket - The Tennessee Fire
Old 97's - Hit By A Train: The Best Of Old 97's
Out Hud - Misc.
Pearl Jam - Christmas Singles
Pearl Jam - Lost Dogs
Rage Against The Machine - The Battle Of Los Angeles
Richard Thompson - Action Packed: The Best Of The Capitol Years
Richard Thompson - Misc.
Santana - Supernatural
Social Distortion - Misc.
Stereolab - Serene Velocity - A Stereolab Anthology
Stone Temple Pilots - Thank You
Super Furry Animals - Guerrilla
Super Furry Animals - Super Furry Animals Songbook
The Apples (In Stereo) - Misc.
The Beastie Boys - The Sounds Of Science
The Beta Band - The Beta Band
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 - The Soft Bulletin
The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin Companion
The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs, Vol. 1
The Mekons - I Have Been to Heaven and Back..., Vol. 1
The Mekons - Where Were You?
The Mountain Goats - Misc.
The New Minstrels Of The Rhine - American Branches - German Roots
The Notorious B.I.G. - Notorious
The Roots - The Roots Come Alive
The Roots - Things Fall Apart
The Roots - Things Fall Apart [Explicit]
The Shods - Thanks For Nuthin'
The White Stripes - The White Stripes
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Echo
Travis - The Man Who
V/A - Snatch
Wilco - Summerteeth

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