1992, The Year in Review, P4

After a blisteringly strong Top 20 for 1992, the rest of the releases seem to settle down to the level of a typical year—lots of interesting sidebars to accompany a year packed with essentials.

Ten More Albums, for
My Top 30 Albums of 1992

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). Note: Entries for this post may have been written alongside the Artist Spotlight posts for the respective artists and might therefore contain some similar material.

Unrest
Imperial f.f.r.r

Released 1992/03/16

Unrest’s Imperial f.f.r.r. is a nifty indie-rock disc that covers a variety of styles. Back in the day, it spent quite a while in my CD-player; it sounds a little less unique now than it did to me back then, but it’s still worth many listens. Two nice up-tempo tracks (“Suki,” “Cherry Cream On”), one captivating slow number (“Imperial”), and a semi-grooving instrumental number with cowbell (“Champion Nines”), are the standouts here; the rest is merely good but will do you no harm.

En Vogue
Funky Divas

Released 1992/03/24

En Vogue updates classic R&B—right down to the prefab construction of the group—with a ‘90s girl-group feel, and the results are more than satisfying. The quartet comes across soulful when they’re sharing their love (“Giving Him Something He Can Feel”), soulful and sassy (even better) when they’re holding it back (“My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)” and willing to dance away their confusion when they don’t know what to do with it (“What is Love”). They even crank out a beat-heavy, political riff on Funkadelic with “Free Your Mind.” It sounds equally good on your radio, at your party, and on lonely rainy afternoons in need of an uplift.

Helmet
Meantime

Released 1992/06/23

I’m not much of a metalhead, to be sure. But if Helmet’s Meantime is what ‘90s metal sounds like, I dig it. The beats are edgy and crisp, the guitar strung so taut it almost hurts—but the wall-of-sound release makes all that tension worthwhile. I listened to this quite a lot back in the day. “Ironhead” in particular has wedged its way permanently into my musical consciousness. Better than Metallica in my book.

Various artists
Singles [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

Released 1992/06/30

I’m normally not a huge believer in soundtrack albums. But the Singles soundtrack feels worthwhile to me, one of the earliest mainstream looks at the underground music only just beginning to come to the fore.

We hear from contemporary Seattle scene bands—Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Mother Love Bone, Mudhoney, and the Screaming Trees—placed alongside chronologically out-of-place tracks by Jimi Hendrix and Heart (disguised as the Lovemongers, covering Led Zeppelin) and some geographically misplaced songs by the Replacements’ Paul Westerberg (from Minneapolis) and the Smashing Pumpkins (from Chicago). So as an archeological and musical document, the album doesn’t quite cohere.

Even so, it feels essentially of the moment, a touchstone marking the alternative rock scene’s arrival in the public consciousness. Some of the new tracks would later be included on the artists’ own releases (Alice in Chains’ “Would?,” the Screaming Trees’ “Nearly Lost You”), but others are best heard here, including a couple excellent Pearl Jam tracks, a powerful Chris Cornell acoustic number, and the epic album closer, “Drown,” by the Smashing Pumpkins. The spacy, amorphous, four-minute guitar fadeout that closes the song is one of my favorite moments of their career.

Playlist Note: One of my selections, the Smashing Pumpkins’ “Drown” appears unavailable in Spotify. The song is present—in an inferior, abbreviated form—on a compilation, but the full track is greyed out here.

Mecca Normal
Dovetail

Released 1992

I discovered Mecca Normal’s Dovetail retroactively, after reading about and picking up their 1995 album Sitting on Snaps. A decade before it seemed every other hip new band was a duo, Mecca Normal were blazing a trail all on their own. The wavering, brassy drone of Jean Smith’s vocals pairs perfectly with guitarist David Lester’s accompaniment, be it subtle or jagged and raw. I suspect that close inspection of their lyrics might reveal them to be too artsy for their own good, but it’s all about the sound here, and I find this sound intoxicating. If they have to go to such pretentious lyrical ends to discover it, I’m all for it.

The Orb
U.F.Orb

Released 1992/07/06

The Orb’s sophomore album U.F.Orb is most famous for the track “Blue Room,” which gained fame as the longest charting UK single in history, extending to within 2 seconds of the UK 40-minute maximum for a song to be considered a maxi-single. Here, it clocks it at a mere 17:34.

But my favorite pieces here are two of the shorter numbers (still over ten minutes). “Close Encounters” starts off spacey and ethereal before a spritely techno thump intrudes and propels you to your feet. The midtempo churn of “Majestic” is punctuated occasionally by a Middle Eastern flourish. Both tracks feature scintillating and swirling embellishments and slowly shifting arrangements that keep things interesting throughout. The title track and the amorphous sludge of aptly titled album closer “Sticky End” are other nice treats. Good stuff.

Listen to more of The Orb.

Ministry
Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed & the Way to Suck Eggs

Released 1992/07/14

Not my ordinary cup of Earl Grey, the throbbing, discordant industrial music on Ministry’s Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed & the Way to Suck Eggs somehow discovers a way to make me love the sensation of being drilled in the head by an aural sledgehammer. It’s hard to argue with the amusing, irreverent introduction to “Jesus Built my Hot Rod,” the mock religious majesty of “Psalm 69,” or the pointed jab at George Bush’s new world order (“N.W.O.”). Elsewhere, a thorough listening proves the rest of the album to be of high quality. Worth a good listen, even if it’s not your style.

The Jayhawks
Hollywood Town Hall

Released 1992/09/15

Devotees of alt-country (whatever that means) swear by this album, which shows a sweeter side to the subgenre than the clanging angst of Uncle Tupelo. It’s good, no doubt—pretty melodies and pleasing harmonies abound. It doesn’t feel substantial enough to be major, yet it’s immensely satisfying. It strikes me as more America than, say, Gram Parsons.

And whereas (elsewhere in 1992) Bettie Seveert channels alt-rock-style Neil Young, here we get country-rock Neil inspirations. The guitar solo on “Martin’s Song” might have easily been plucked wholesale from, say, After the Gold Rush. Ditto for just about all the guitar solos on the record.

Aphex Twin
Selected Ambient Works 85-92

Released 1992/11/09

All my sources seem to tell me Selected Ambient Works 85-92 is the best Aphex Twin album, considered a seminal work in electronic and techno music. And I like it. It’s very good.

I first heard of Aphex Twin a couple years later with the release of Selected Ambient Works Volume II, (1994), which features a very different sound. I picked this one up almost right away, and didn’t go much for it at first. I loved the stretched-out creepy weirdness of Volume II, and Volume I one was more straight-up, normal techno, although clearly at a high level of achievement. Volume I doesn’t feel particularly ambient, either, at least not in the way Volume II would be—but maybe that’s part of a joke I’m not getting.

The music on Volume I has more of a mathematical appeal, at least initially; its soul takes longer to reveal itself. Maybe that’s what highly accomplished techno is all about—finding soul in soulless, mechanical sounds. “Tha” starts off with a hollow beat, soon joined by a rhythmic, clicking blip. An understated melody begins to draw your attention, but it’s not until a ghostly conversation emerges from beneath the mix that the music taps into your subconscious. Some synth drones enter to add to the effect. The engaging tune and subtly shifting and swelling arrangement of “Actium” mark another high point, as do the wispy faint female vocals on “Xtal” and the corny melodies of the slow-grooving “Ageispolis” and the Intricate rhythms of “Delphium.”

Although I prefer the unsettling edge of Volume II and the more eclectic (and abrasive) assortment of sounds on …I Care Because You Do (1995), Volume I has grown on me enough for me to get into it, despite my non-techno-purist leanings. Good stuff.

Pavement
Watery, Domestic EP

Released 1992/11/25

The Watery, Domestic EP stands as the perfect transition from the fuzzed-out slacker distortion of Slanted and Enchanted and the gentler, lackadaisical melodies of Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. Every track here is a low-fi slacker gem. This EP and those first two LPs absolutely mark the three best releases of Pavement’s career.

Here’s the 1992: The Year in Review playlist for you—three tracks per album.

I’ll be building the playlist as I go, adding to it as I complete different tiers of commentary. By the time I finish all Year in Review posts for the year, the playlist will be complete!

Enjoy!

More 1992, The Year in Review

More Years in Review of the 1990s…

Cover Art Citations:

• Imperial f.f.r.r: By Derived from a scan of the album cover (creator of this digital version is irrelevant as the copyright in all equivalent images is still held by the same party). Copyright held by the record company or the artist. Claimed as fair use regardless., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30935076
• Funky Divas: By The cover art can be obtained from the record label., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24371936
• Meantime: By All Music Guide, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16286431
• Singles: By The cover art can be obtained from Epic Records., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1138663
• Dovetail: Source, Discogs.com, Fair Use
• U.F.Orb: By May be found at the following website: http://www.discogs.com/release/2728, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3308551
• Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs: By [1], Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=225959
• Hollywood Town Hall: Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4824577
• Selected Ambient Works 85-92: By last.fm, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51211302
• Watery, Domestic: Source, Discogs.com, Fair Use