Alright, time for Ruckman's list.
The intro is absolutely not at all what I would expect to hear from Coldplay, although I suppose I get it as an album closer.
It's definitely atypical of them, but I quite like it. That whole album is the best thing they've done in over a decade.
The transition into Marooned was really effective - I rate Division Bell quite highly among Pink Floyd's output but admit this track has gone a bit overlooked for me lately.
Yeah, I was particularly proud of that transition.
In turn, Marooned led really well into this Frusciante jam; I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. I've had a few people in the past urge me to listen to his solo material (hello out there djerdap!) but had never got to it.
Really glad you dug that one! If getting someone into Frusciante's solo stuff is the only thing my list accomplishes, I'd consider that a success. He's a genius, one of my favorite musicians. Like, I'd go as far as to say he's the reason RHCP became a huge mainstream band.
In fact, the whole sequencing is remarkably good - from the opener to Thom Yorke it is just astounding. I basically didn't notice track changes and would find myself thinking "oh I must be at least two minutes into another artist". This has a really haunting, unsettled atmosphere. It's excellent; you've crafted something that fits the times.
Thanks man. That's exactly what I was going for.
Nick Cave as a closer is the ideal full stop.
I couldn't get into Ghosteen as quickly as some others, but Hollywood hit me right away. It's absolutely devastating and I felt like it was perfect for this.
I honestly know almost nothing about Ryan Adams except that there was a woman on here obsessed with him and that he then got cancelled, but this track was rather good - in terms of individual songs, if removed from the larger context you've created here, I just might (har har) even say it's the best.
I really love that song. I haven't even listened to that much of him outside that album, but that song is great.
Annoyingly, the Fastball and Edna Swap songs are not on Australian Spotify - heads up Cobbler. Fortunately for my own nostalgia, The Way is, a track that still slaps today, but only four other songs from All the Pain Money Can Buy are available here. (In a prior thread I raised this problem, funnily enough because I'd been listening to The Way, never expecting someone would use a deeper cut from the album.)
I'm pleasantly surprised to see another Fastball fan here. Like I said, of all those pop-rock bands that were all over the place in the late 90s, they were one of the better ones. "The Way" is a killer single.
Anyway, here they are on YouTube.
Just to clarify, that Torn video you posted is NOT the one that was one my list. Like I said in my writeup, Edna Swap recorded the song twice. That's the first recording, but I'd used the second recording on my list(partially because I preferred it, partially because the first recording isn't available on Spotify here either). THIS is the correct one:
Interesting journey through nineties nostalgia. Once or twice a year I find myself lining up a whole bunch of tunes that were all over Australian rock radio in the mid/late nineties. Some of these are familiar, some aren't. This might be the first time I've heard a Barenaked Ladies song not called One Week.
BNL aren't as terrible as some people think. "Old Apartment" was on the album before Stunt(which is the album One Week is on), and once One Week hit, some older BNL singles started getting played on the radio a lot, including this one.
I had a "holy shit" moment with the Del Amitri song - I didn't recognise the title on your list at all, but the moment the first notes began, yeah, I can still sing along to this (except that I thought the chorus was "the right time, the wrong me"). The mix during the verses is a pain in the arse through headphones, with the vocals just in the right channel.
I love that song. I heard it in a barbershop once when I was getting my hair cut, like 15+ years ago, and I remembered it from the 90s but I had no idea what it was called or who it was by. Took me a while to figure it out, but once I did, I've never forgotten it.
I also had no idea who was responsible for She's So High; I wondered if this would be the song I expected, or another with the same title. Couldn't say who I thought actually did it, it's just one of those Generic Nineties Rock Band songs in my memory.
Yeah, it's Tal Bachman, son of Randy Bachman of Bachman Turner Overdrive. He was a one-hit wonder. He still plays live today to rooms full of people who probably paid solely to hear that song.
I'm sorry, though, I couldn't take the Tom Petty song seriously after his rhyme with "played from the heart" was "roadie named Bart", I literally started laughing. I was enjoying its pleasant chords but oh man that lyric is "stop helping god like a little old lady" territory.
I agree it's a corny lyric, but those things don't usually bother me. The chorus is epically feel-good, that's what matters imo.
Gotta be honest, I'm not sure why I've never listened to much Foo Fighters because I dug Learning to Fly back when it came out and it still holds up today. Although my idea of a highway drive is a bit heavier - namely Kyuss. If you don't find yourself speeding during almost any song from Welcome to Sky Valley, you have no pulse. (I say as someone who's too blind to drive, but has egged on drivers to go faster during said album.)
It's one of their greatest tracks imo. Been trying to learn to play it on guitar.
Interesting that you thought some of us might not be psyched for the Lit song - I've never heard of the band or the song before. It's fine? Am I meant to object to this band?
They were just one of those bands that would've gotten mentioned in the same breath as Blink 182 or Third Eye Blind or whatever back in the day, and that general milieu of bands is often maligned in these parts.
HOLY SHIT THIS IS THE ORIGINAL OF THE NATALIE IMBRUGLIA SONG?! I was surprised years ago when I found out Natalie's banger was a cover but I'd never looked up the original. I had in my head that it would be some niche sixties folk tune or something. This goes hard.
Really glad you liked it! I almost prefer it to Natalie's version because I feel like the pain behind the lyrics comes through more - which makes sense because Anne is singing her own words.
The run after Torn through to Blind Melon really runs the gamut of nineties nostalgia for me. What's the Frequency Kenneth is, without a doubt, one of my favourite REM songs. I was surprised when you suggested in your write-up that About a Girl is *not* a ubiquitous Nirvana tune - it's one of the first songs I think of when I think Nirvana, as someone who has only ever been a casual listener at best; it's good.
Well, I mean, it's less ubiquitous than Smells Like Teen Spirit or Come As You Are or Heart-Shaped Box or something like that where you might go 'I've heard this too many times, I can't hear it again'. It was on their first album but, even though it was a single, I don't think it came to the attention of a lot of casual fans until they played it on the Unplugged album.
At the other end, The Flaming Lips can go fuck themselves.
I'm thousands of miles away, but I can almost feel Cobbler's wrath at that statement.
The RHCP track didn't do all that much for me; I probably would've preferred one of their bigger hits.
Not surprised. It's usually hard to get people excited about RHCP in here. Oh well.
I've always thought I need to listen to more Smashing Pumpkins and this song, totally unknown to me, suggests that instinct is correct. It seems like they're the formative nineties reference point for so many of my friends who are into/make shoegaze music. Can't count how many give some variation of "yeah I was 13 and loved Smashing Pumpkins, then I discovered MBV/Ride/Alcest/whoever".
I'm genuinely surprised that it was unknown to you. It's a very well-known single. Not on the level of generational touchstones like "Today" or "1979" or "Bullet With Butterfly Wings", but still pretty well-known. It's great though, and I'm happy to have introduced you to it.
If you're looking to get into SP, a lot of people would probably say Siamese Dream - the album Cherub Rock is from - is their best. For me, it's good, but I'd take Mellon Collie and Adore over it. Be warned though, they'd move away from that shoegaze-y sound of Siamese Dream and toward a darker, more stripped-down sound.
I have somehow avoided NMH up to this point in my life, unless I've expunged something from my memory during past DIs. This isn't as bad as I thought it would be, though it doesn't really commend itself to me.
I only recently got into them. They are polarizing because of the guy's voice. I really love that song though.
I also expected to hate the Sheryl Crow song but it's quite pleasant and fits well with the list and your desired vibe for this section. (Also I keep forgetting that Sheryl Crow and Shania Twain are different people.)
Sheryl is one of the more underappreciated female artists of the last 30 years, imo. She's the real thing. Her best work came before this though, in the 90s.
Ha, wow, I remember this Jennifer Paige song. Wouldn't have given it a thought since I last heard it on the radio over twenty years ago, and not sure I'm thrilled to be reminded of it. Speaking of Natalie Imbruglia above, I think of this song in conjunction with her other hit, Pash.
Yeah, I wasn't expecting anyone to be too excited about that track. I just threw it on there because it fit the vibe well and it was something that people may not be familiar with or may have forgotten about.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed my sequence of "oh wow, this!" I enjoyed your tour of the nineties. I'd have made a few different choices, as I'm sure we all would have, but - like part one - this all sat together really well, and, as intended, it was a blast. Thanks for a good time, I needed it this evening.
So happy you enjoyed it!
. This has been a great list for the work I'm doing while listening: breezy and well-paced. Sounds like a Sirius XM channel, which I mean as a compliment because I love Sirius radio. Second half a little later.
