1990, The Year in Review, P3

On the eve of the alternative rock explosion into the mainstream, some the elder statesmen who influenced the movement were enjoying revitalized careers—Neil Young, Lou Reed, John Cale, Brian Eno, and (the slightly less elder) Depeche Mode all make appearances in my Top 20 of 1990.

Eight More Albums, for
My Top 20 Albums of 1990

As always, you can jump to the playlist at the bottom of each post to listen while you read.

Within each tier (Top 6, Next 6, etc.), all albums are listed roughly chronologically (all release dates from Wikipedia, unless otherwise noted).

The Black Crowes
Shake Your Money Maker

Released 1990/02/13

It’s a rock-critic cliché to opine that no one in rock history betrayed his talents so much as Rod Stewart. He transformed himself from an “authentic” blues-rock belter into a slick, adult-contemporary, husky-voiced sex symbol in the span of a mere decade. Back in 1990, if you wanted the real-deal Rod Stewart, you had to put on a record almost twenty years old.

Or, for just about the same experience, you could check out the debut album from the Black Crowes, who seemed dedicated to Every Picture, Faces-era Rod, with more than a touch of early-‘70s Rolling Stones swagger thrown in for good measure. (It’s probable the proportions might be better shifted toward Stones-with-a-little-added-Stewart—but I like my Rod Stewart intro here, so I’m sticking with it. Some of the power chords may even have a little AC/DC in there.)

Derivative? Yes, certainly. But the Black Crowes make it sound fresh, at least to my ears. The slow-burning addiction tale “She Talks to Angels” is the obvious standout here, but everything cooks, from the opening one-two punch of “Twice as Hard” and “Jealous Again” all the way through to “Stare it Cold.”

The Black Crowes of 1990 played balls-to-the-wall, gut-wrenching blues-rock better than anyone at the time—one of the last, great gasps of classic rock. And they didn’t even have to fake their accents.   Plus, they do right by Otis Redding—not an easy task.

Depeche Mode
Violator

Released 1990/03/19

I’m surprised at how much I like Violator. Depeche Mode’s ‘80s stuff is sometimes a bit too synth-poppy for me, but Violator turns out to be a great blend of their techno-pop style with a darker, neo-alternative sound.

Depeche Mode seems quite good at picking their singles. It’s a quite frequent experience for me to get familiar with an album (often unawares as to which songs are actually hits) only to discover later that the songs that I consider relatively middle-to-low-end in terms of quality are the tracks that were chosen as singles.

Here, the four singles are quite clearly among the best five songs on the album. Those four singles—“Personal Jesus,” “Enjoy the Silence,” “Policy of Truth,” and “World in My Eyes”—were among the strongest of the band’s career. The outlier non-single is “Clean,” which I’ve selected as one of the three to represent the album; with its obvious drug references I can see why it wasn’t selected as a single—it was released a year or two too early to be a hit.

Digital Underground
Sex Packets

Released 1990/03/20

Silly, funky, engaging sex raps straight outta the Funkadelic playbook—that’s the recipe for Digital Underground’s Sex Packets. There’s some sort of sex-related concept-album storyline involved, but that’s pretty inconsequential. Now, here’s the step-by-step for new dance craze: “First I limp to the side like my leg was broken / Shaking and twitching kinda like I was smoking / … No two people will do it the same / Ya got it down when ya appear to be in pain.” And who says it’s a bad thing to have a big nose? Loads of fun, for the freak in all of us.

Lou Reed and John Cale
Songs for Drella

Released 1990/04/11

When listening to Songs for Drella, the song-cycle by Lou Reed and John Cale about Andy Warhol, it helps to know a little about Warhol—his life, his art, his films, and his involvement with the Velvet Underground. But I don’t think it’s entirely necessary for appreciating this excellent album. The songs paint a pretty thorough picture of Warhol the man, the artist, and the personality, even for the uninitiated.

Almost twenty years had passed since Reed and Cale collaborated in the Velvet Underground under Warhol’s guidance, when they met up once more at his 1987 memorial service. One thing led to another, and Songs for Drella was born. It’s a measured, accessible work, with Reed’s guitar and Cale’s piano providing the bulk of the musical backdrop for a series of songs, most of which are written from Warhol’s point of view.

Lou Reed had been on quite a roll in 1990, having released New York just the year before, but to my ears it’s John Cale who has the best songs here with “Style it Takes,” “Trouble with Classicists,” “A Dream,” and “Forever Changed.” That said, Reed’s “Small Town,” “Slip Away,” “It Wasn’t Me” and “Nobody But You” are close behind. Plus, Reed’s guitar speaks wonders throughout the Cale tracks. Those eight tracks would make a terrific album sampler, for those interested in a larger taste.

Neil Young and Crazy Horse
Ragged Glory

Released 1990/09/09

Not bad for an old man.

Neil Young capitalizes on the momentum of his 1989 comeback Freedom to record an even better follow-up. Where Freedom was a touch uneven, Ragged Glory fires on all cylinders throughout.

It seems every song here boasts a great guitar line or two—Young knows how to gently curl a guitar around a melody, letting it make its way on its own, rather than forcing or rushing it. A true master. Throughout, Crazy Horse grinds it out in support.

I could do without the lame Mother-Earth crap, though. Not that I’m not sympathetic to environmentalism—it’s the poor delivery of the message that’s the problem, or perhaps my resistance to overt political messages in art, which I feel should be more about asking questions that preaching answers.

I’ll take this opportunity, then, to make a brief, political aside—in written form, rather than in a misguided musical one: Global climate change and the overall destruction of the environment pose a grave threat to civilization as we know it—possibly not in my lifetime but most certainly in my children’s. We need to change (at times radically) the way we produce and consume energy, the way we travel, the way we farm crops and raise livestock, our consumption habits, our reliance on plastics (especially single-use plastics), and more. Sadly, I have very little faith that the political will exists to make meaningful change, and isolated individual efforts will not be enough. Mother Earth’s gonna give us a spanking, and a bad one.

There. And you didn’t have to sit through a lame song to get the message. (Problem is, I’m probably preaching to the choir.)

Playlist Note:  The work of Neil Young is currently unavailable on Spotify. My selections from Ragged Glory are “F*!#In’ Up,” “White Line,” and “Over And Over.”

Brian Eno & John Cale
Wrong Way Up

Released 1990/10/05

Wrong Way Up is a masterful set of inventive, immensely listenable pop music from two guys who have spent much of their respective careers avoiding anything sounding so commercial. John Cale and Brian Eno had worked together before, of course. Way back in the ‘70s, for example, Cale played viola on Eno’s classic Another Green World and Eno produced Cale’s Fear album. But this was the only genuine collaboration they released together.

The lead vocal duties are split roughly evenly, with Eno taking lead on the irresistible “Spinning Away” and album opener “Lay My Love”; Cale handles “Been There Done That,” “Footsteps,” and the hushed “In the Backroom”; and they share the lead on album highlight “One Word.” (Many critics point to Cale’s poetry on “Cordoba” as a highlight, but I prefer the solo version he would release later on the live Fragments of a Rainy Season.)

True, neither Eno nor Cale will set the world on fire with their singing–it’s the catchy tunes and innovative arrangements here that capture the imagination. Eno’s ever-rich keyboard work and Cale’s piano and viola are accompanied by spritely rhythm guitar, plus dumbek, Indian drum, Shinto bell, and other assorted eclectic instruments. Good stuff.

Happy Mondays
Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches

Released 1990/11/05

Although I had heard of the Happy Mondays before, dating back to when they came out, I had never listened to them before, at least not to my recollection. They’re one of those bands that gets rave reviews in the UK but are only marginally recognized in their time in the U.S. Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches has been considered by several publications—all of them British—to be among the best albums of the year (sometimes the best) and one of the best of the decade, mostly for helping pioneer the Madchester sound that fused 1960s pop, psychedelia, and rave influences.

I love “Kinky Afro,” which apparently was a hit in the US, and I have now seen the video, which seems as if it may have been popular. I don’t believe I’d heard the song until now, though. In 1990, the only radio I even rarely listened to was my college radio station, which I feel was more likely to play Einstürzende Neubauten than this kind of dance-y thing. And I hardly ever watched TV back then, and never MTV. (We were too busy back then to watch much of anything—with homework or just as often simply hanging out, chatting, and having fun. I only remember a small few people being regular TV watchers in my university days.) Anyway, once “Kinky Afro” has wormed its way into my subconscious, I find it hard to cast off. It’s addictive, in all the right ways.

The Happy Mondays seem to be big on the appropriation of past hits, morphing them into something new. “Kinky Afro” pilfers the gleeful “Gitchie, gitchie, ya-ya, da-da” from Labelle’s “Lady Marmalade,” runs it past some Die Hard Bruce Willis, and transforms it into a sneering “Yippee-ippee-ey-ey-aye.” And “Step On” feels like “Get Back” sped up into a sleazy, groovin’ dance number—but actually, it’s a cover of John Kongos’ “He’s Gonna Step on You Again.” Recombinant tunes, indeed.

There’s a thuggish snarl to lead singer Shaun Ryder’s voice that makes him seem like he might be a bit of a jerk—kind of a real cocky bastard, actually. The fact that he’s consciously playing an asshole of a father in “Kinky Afro” doesn’t mean the act doesn’t come naturally. All of which of course makes Ryder just the kind of lead singer to bring a little oomph! to the proceedings here. He’s not quite an antihero, but he moves in that general direction. So he makes for quite a charismatic frontman, although I have no desire at all to ever meet him.

And I have no idea whether Ryder thinks he’s actually singing or if he’s happily content to just snarl his lyrics in a nasally boast, but I don’t care. Just play that kinky song for me again.

The Sisters of Mercy
Vision Thing

Released 1990/11/13

Sisters of Mercy lead singer Andrew Eldritch appears to have been a difficult man to work with. He’s gone through band members with the frequency at which most of us change our underwear. His only consistently faithful partner in crime throughout the years has been a drum machine, which he’s christened Doktor Avalanche.

And he hasn’t released an album since 1990’s Vision Thing, supposedly in protest of his record label. Sure, I get that many record labels are filled with absolute slime-dogs, but still…. can it be that bad? Over thirty years of protest? I mean, he could self-release, right? I suspect something else afoot.

Regardless, each of his three albums has a different feel, which may reflect his evolving sensibilities and skill, or may simply be a consequence of whoever happen to be his current band-mates. Vision Thing feels both more electro in its pulse and more heavy metal in its guitar texture than his other albums, making it an interesting and compelling aural experience.

The opening title track starts off the proceedings with flair, sporting a grinding metal riff and forcefully chanted vocals backed by a throbbing drum machine beat. The lyrics and tone of the album seem steeped in life’s underbelly, with numerous references to prostitutes, drugs, and violence. But the title track itself is a criticism of then-President George Bush, who was often derided for lacking “that vision thing” necessary for making his policies intelligible to the masses. The song contains references to Bush’s famous “million points of light,” the U.S. involvement in Nicaragua, and the CIA’s alleged use of drug money to fund the Contras.

Elsewhere, “Ribbons” proclaims that “Love is a many-splintered thing” and rides a charged electro beat toward a seemingly violent ending, with repeated references to red ribbons (of blood, I suspect). “Something Fast” (ironically) slows the proceedings down to deliver a haunting street-level anthem.

By all means, get the Sisters of Mercy’s second and best album, Floodland, first; but Vision Thing is a nice follow-up, and better than their debut.

Here’s the 1990: The Year in Review playlist for you—three tracks per album.

The playlist is sequenced chronologically according to release date (with a few concessions to playability), with the exception of the Sonic Youth album which opens the playlist and the KLF album which should close it (not currently available in Spotify).

Enjoy!

Playlist Notes:

• I was not able to find the KLF’s Chill Out album on Spotify.
• Neil Young’s discography is currently unavailable in Spotify, including Ragged Glory (1990).

More 1990, The Year in Review

More Years in Review of the 1990s…

Cover Art Citations:

• Shake Your Money Maker: By May be found at the following website: The official website of The Black Crowes, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67340822
• Violator: By [1], Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42176655
  
• Sex Packets: By http://www.sfmission.com/music/packets.jpg, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12990464
• Songs for Drella: By The cover art can be obtained from Sire Records., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4249914
• Ragged Glory: By The image is from Allmusic.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3642864
• Wrong Way Up: By https://www.allmusic.com/album/r6817, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20449118
• Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches: Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4194286
• Vision Thing: By https://www.amazon.com/Vision-Thing-Sisters-Of-Mercy/dp/B000002H8P/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_5, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1815121