International Favourites Week!
U.K.
So much great music came out of the U.K. in the ‘90s that I couldn’t narrow my list down to a top five—or a top 10, for that matter. So here are my 12 favourite English/Scottish/Welsh albums of the decade. Tomorrow: Europe’s revenge!
12. Word Gets Around — Stereophonics
11. Central Reservation – Beth Orton
10. Vertigo – Groove Armada
9. Dots and Loops – Stereolab (A bit of a stretch to put it on this list because of French singer Lætitia Sadier and Australian singer Mary Hansen, but other members are British and they were formed in London, so…)
8. Reading, Writing & Arithmetic – The Sundays
7. Bandwagonesque – Teenage Fanclub
6. Heaven or Las Vegas – Cocteau Twins
5. Parklife — Blur
4. Medusa – Annie Lennox
3. OK Computer – Radiohead
2. Behaviour – Pet Shop Boys
1. If You’re Feeling Sinister – Belle and Sebastian
Top track: Seeing Other People
This might just be my favourite album of all time. (But tomorrow’s pick comes a close second, and every so often sneaks into the #1 spot.)
My Toronto pals are going to think today’s list of my fave Canadian albums of the ‘90s is unhip—literally, in that it has no Tragically Hip on it. Also, no Eric’s Trip, Thrush Hermit or other alternative acts associated with the decade. Alas, none of those bands reached my ears way down South. And besides, I think Canadian alternative music really took off in the early aughts, right around the time I moved here— coincidence? – with Arcade Fire, Feist, Broken Social Scene and the like. So I stand by my list, dammit! (Sorry for swearing.)
Being a seasoned globetrotter who has lived in TWO adjoining countries and visited TWO continents, thank you very much, I’m devoting the next several days to tracks from my favourite ‘90s albums from different parts of the world. (Disclaimer: I’m going with “favourite” and not “best” because there are acknowledged classics from the decade such as “Nevermind” and “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” that I greatly admire and even love hearing on rare occasion but that I hardly ever listen to nowadays.)
For a brief time in the very early ‘90s, my pal JB and I frequented the downtown Atlanta dance club Velvet. The songs “Crucified” by Army of Lovers and “Been Caught Stealing” by Jane’s Addiction were in HEAVY rotation at the club; I think we heard them pretty much every night we were there. On one of our visits, we partied with Ellen DeGeneres. And by “partied” I mean we were drinking and dancing and she was drinking and dancing nearby, and we never spoke or anything, but we’re best friends now, I swear! (And guys, not to speak out of turn, but she had her arm around another lady!)
I read this morning that Mary J. Blige’s debut album “What’s the 411?” was released on this date in 1992. I got the opportunity to see her perform live in the mid-‘90s in Atlanta and report on the performance for Rolling Stone magazine as part of a “50 Shows in 50 States” special issue, for which a writer from each state covered a different summer concert. It was my first article for a national magazine and I was super excited, until I got the issue and discovered that a great majority of the 50 of us wrote in a strikingly similar style, as if we were all cribbing from the same concert review template. It was a bummer to find out that, in this case at least, my journalistic voice was so generic. Mary’s voice though? One of a kind.
dugoutdiscs 