14TH AUGUST- BETTER OFF ALONE- DJ Jurgon Presents Alice Deejay (3 weeks)

 

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After spending a year off working after I finished my degree I decided I was going to a masters in Brighton and so spent several weekends down there flat hunting. THIS was the soundtrack to that summer, it is therefore the soundtrack to a fantastic part of my life and a song that instantly takes me back to 1999 like no other. It's also a FANTASTIC record and if ever there was a case for brevity in a record this si it the repetition of "Do you think you're better off alone" simultaneously can be taken two ways (i.e "you'd be better off alone" or the opposite "I don't think you'd be better off alone" it's a nice little contrast with just one phrase. I know this could be dismissed as "car horn music" which many did at the time, but the electronica in the track give the song a very melancholic feel i've always thought, for all the fast beats and dance track backing there is a situation going on here and it's not altogether good. How all of this can be communicated tot eh listender through minimal vocals is just magic.

 

Of course they went to denegrate their own name by pumoing out either carbon copies of this or naff dance music but once you've produced a dance classic like this I can almost forgive them anything. The only other line in the track "Talk To Me" referenced the Eurythmics "Here Comes The Rain Again" and the song is actually written after the lover of one of the writers left him, but it's brilliant that they chose not to construct a whole song and scenario around the story, almost as if that would be unbearable for the writer.

 

I can't praise it any more highly than I have- My favourite song of 1999 by a long chalk.

 

 

Now, I know "less is more" in some cases (minimal lyrics and/or instrumentals are perfectly fine) but even at the age I was (15 at the time) and loved house music and like trance... this summed the term "meh" for me. Totally pointless and vacuous Euro trance that I had no time for (but the 2 zillion that bought it would disagree). Still, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as ATB! :puke2: The dance tracks that hit number 2 (IMO) don't represent dance music in a very good light. Toy-town trance (DJ Jean) and plain utter tosh (Shaft) are better best forgotten. Where as Basement Jaxx produced some truly groudbreaking house music that crossed over effortlessly and Rank 1 "Airwave" and Binary Finary "1999" (the era of superclubs like Gatecrasher were nothing short of blindin!

Edited January 17, 201213 yr by ScottyEm

Just read all of this. Really interesting read and brilliant reviews.

 

Hopefully you'd do a thread on the noughties but I doubt you're as interested in them. :lol:

Thanks- I don't know there MAY be one more in the pipeline!

Thanks- I don't know there MAY be one more in the pipeline!

 

Ok well for the record I'd love to read a Noughties version. :D There were so many brilliant number twos in that decade. :o

Lots and lots of catching up to do here! :lol:

Edited June 5, 201213 yr by jaxxalude

Here we go, before long!

 

3RD OCTOBER- PERFECT 10- The Beautiful South (1 week)

True: they'd still go on for a few years after this. But in retrospect, maybe the song's title should have functioned as some sort of warning. Not claiming the song itself actually deserves its moniker - it doesn't, as it was pretty much standard-issue Beautiful South. Still, it was the good kind of standard-issue, as "Perfect 10" rides on its biting lyrics, bouncy backing and Paul & Jacqui's wink-wink-nudge-nudge delivery. Even still, that was what we already expected from them, right? And sure enough, what came next just didn't so much carry on up the charts, but just carry on, period. Maybe they should have just called it a day after this.

 

10TH OCTOBER- TOP OF THE WORLD- Brandy Featuring Ma$e. (1 week)

It's a neutral kind of tune, this. Decent enough to sound good while on the radio, but - and I agree - not leaving much of an impression either. Reason why it reached the runner-up slot? Maybe it was a slow week, I don't know.

 

24TH OCTOBER- MORE THAN A WOMAN- 911 (1 Week)

People often say there really are no coincidences in life. As we all know, it's been pretty much two-and-a-half weeks since The Bee Gees were reduced to a single pronoun, as Robin Gibb joined his twin Maurice in the ranks of Heaven. And I'm back in this forum just as it's my turn to comment on this. Hmmm...

Anyway, bad jokes aside, Gezza already put it best: by the time this was released, a Bee Gees cover had already somehow become standard boyband fare. None of the previous Take That and Boyzone covers were much to write home about, to start with; and sure enough, it would not be some second-tier contenders who would turn it into aural gold. As such, 911's "More Than a Woman" is just what it is: a timepiece of sorts.

 

31ST OCTOBER- OUTSIDE- George Michael (2 weeks)

And speaking of timepieces...

We're not going to beat around this bush more than it already was at the time: this was, of course, GM's obvious post-coming out single. Moreso than the song, it was the memorably funny promo that gave it all away, as GM gave one 'ell of a f*** you to all haters, and then some! As for the song itself, it was fine as an exercise in style over real substance, as it wore its retro-disco sensibilities on its sleeve. As Gezza put it, GM sounds as relieved as a man can be and is just all too happy to wear his newfound freedom on his naysayers faces. All points considered, the whole "controversy" probably did provide this song much more gravitas than it would otherwise. But then that's what art is all about too: context.

 

14TH NOVEMBER- EACH TIME- E-17 (1 Week)

Deary old me, why did they even bother in the first place? Even by boyband standards, East 17's music and image weren't really known for their substance; so an attempt to do some kind of "mature" version would always sound awkward, really. Then there's the choice of new moniker. I mean, had they forgotten all the tabloid furore over Brian Harvey and his musings about taking X number of E's in one night and how it was the kind of drug that made you a better person? Weren't they aware of all the obvious jokes?

Anyway, "Each Time" is what it is: a forgettable piece of pop fluff which actually sounded kind of dated by the time it was released. So no wonder their second incarnation went to shit.

 

28TH NOVEMBER- UNTIL THE TIME IS THROUGH- Five (1 week)

I didn't even remember this existed anymore! And if you have the time, you can search for my rant of "Everybody Get Up" and see what I think of them in a nutshell.

 

5TH DECEMBER- I LOVE THE WAY YOU LOVE ME- Boyzone (1 week)

Last time they'll appear here, right? I've slagged them enough, so let's move on, please! :lol:

 

12TH DECEMBER- HARD KNOCK LIFE (GHETTO ANTHEM)- Jay Z (1 week)

As I said earlier, people usually say there really are no coincidences in this life. And as I come back here to finish my job, talks of an Annie film remake produced by Will Smith and starring his daughter Willow are making up the rounds. To add to it, the soundtrack will be provided by... Jay-Z! :D

Which, of course, takes us to this. The man whose ID shows Shawn J. Carter was already pretty hot property in his native America, as 1996's Reasonable Doubt pretty much achieved classic rap album status from the get-go and the following year's In My Lifetime, vol. 1 reached platinum status in no time. 1998's Vol. 3... Hard Knock Life, though, was another commercial level altogether, having reached near double platinum status in America by the time this single was released in the UK. And sure enough, "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)" was also the Jiggaman's first stab at success outside his land, as this reached the Top 10 not only in Britain, but in a lot of European countries, becoming a solid Eurochart hit in 1999.

What matters, though, is that this song is bonkers, in the best possible way! Taking a children's standard and turning it into great sampling material is no mean feat, and that's what producer Mark "The 45" King achieves here with brilliance. And then there's Jay-Z's cutting, biting rhymes, delivered in his signature style. As one of his songs went: what more can I say? It's records like this that built not only his current megastar status, but also provided the means for him to become as much of a touring evergreen in the future as any classic pop/rock act you'll remember. You just watch!

Edited June 5, 201213 yr by jaxxalude

23RD JANUARY 1999- I WANT YOU FOR MYSELF- Another Level Featuring Ghostface Killah (1 week)

First up, the question that did not get asked: what in feck's name was Ghostface Killah doing here?!?! :wacko:

I remember this better through the Full Intention Radio Edit, as that was the version that received any kind of airplay around here. As for either the original and/or GK-featuring remix, they're quite the nondescript R&B tracks, with no more than a marginally memorable chorus to them. I'd wager it was the traditionally slow January market that brought this to #2 more than anything else.

 

30TH JANUARY- TEQUILA- Terrorvision (1 week)

For some reason, I thought this had been an actual #1 single! I pretty much mirror Gezza's thought on it: earwormy for sure, but its novelty appeal wore rather fast, if only because the one version that made it a single (the Mint Royale Remix, as already disclosed) was the exemplary prototype of a generic "big beat" production. In fact, come to think about it, the whole thing had an eerie air of desperation about it, the sound of a once-marginally relevant neo-pub rock band trying to "get on wiv' The Kids". Whether it was The Kids or not, it worked, if only very temporarily.

 

27TH FEBRUARY- RUNAWAY (REMIX)- The Corrs (1 week)

If there is a band against which we probably should be nastier towards to is The Corrs! :D Music so mind-numbingly dull already deserves its fair share of jokes. But when married to such a barely-disguised self-satisfaction, that's when nastiness should creep in. Maybe that makes me horribly inhuman, but there you go.

 

6TH MARCH- TENDER- Blur (1 week)

Actually, "Tender" is very much about Damon's by-then ex-squeeze Justine Frischmann - her out of Elastica, as you probably know. More specifically, about Damon's own demons about that relationship (see my take on "Song 2" to find out how it all went bonkers) and his hard time moving on from it. Of course it's a dose of self-pitying, but one redeemed by a faint hope of redemption in the coming future. As such, the gospel feel of the track is more than warranted, giving it the kick up the arse it needs, especially taking into account how, as Gezza put it, it's a song that takes its time. In many ways, it's a song that fits us human beings, so full of contradictions it is. And all the better for it.

 

20TH MARCH- BETTER BEST FORGOTTEN- Steps (1 week)

In my book, Steps were the very definition of pointless, so shall we just move on?

 

3RD APRIL- WITCH DOCTOR- The Cartoons (1 week)

Aqua, I find you guilty for musical crimes like these!

 

10TH APRIL- MY NAME IS.....- Eminem (1 week)

If there would be anyone Eminem reminded me of, that would be Axl Rose. No, come back! Like Rose, Mr. Marshall Mathers was a white trash screaming out his (mostly) misdirected primal rage with a certain kind of idiot-sapience. As such, whether you liked it or not, you couldn't help but become fascinated by their characters. Of course he seemed like a novelty when "My Name Is..." came out. But that was only if you were not listening attentively. Behind all the seeming goofiness, some pretty disturbing (and yes, fascinating) echoes of the other side of the American Dream (which is to say the Capitalist Dream) lurked very much in your front. And that's what prevented this song from descending into paltry comedy and raised it to cunning black comedy. As we all know, this was only the beginning.

 

24TH APRIL- TURN AROUND- Phats & Small (1 week)

If you are going to apply the "can't be nasty towards it, but really can't support it either" logic, this seems more appropriate, as far as I'm concerned. On the other hand, the recent Cube Guys remix does seem to imply that this track somehow became a dance music staple, and I don't disagree. Still, it's as inoffensive and mobile disco-friendly as you remember it being - and that's not such a bad thing in itself.

 

1ST MAY- RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW- Fatboy Slim (1 week)

Now THIS is more like it! And actually, a fair number of Fatboy Slim's singles and even the You've Come a Long Way, Baby! album are somehow considered modern classics - just not in a conventional way. Anyway, "Right Here, Right Now" was but a grand end to a run of brilliant singles from one album few would match ever since: "The Rockafeller Skank", "Gangster Trippin'", "Praise You" and this. Many more could have been taken from it: "Build It Up - Tear It Down" (this one was actually a promo single and even had a video to it), "Kalifornia", "Soul Surfing", "Love Island" - pretty much the whole album, really! And as "Right Here, Right Now"'s darker edges and slightly eerie atmosphere demonstrates, it wasn't all necessarily dumb, stupid fun around Fatboy's corner - there really was a certain multidimensionality to this character.

I can understand why people would say that this sounds quite like 1998/1999 - after all, the whole big beat thing was very much a product of the times. Still, the best music doesn't really have to feel "timeless" - whatever timeless in music actually means! Quite the contrary: some of the best music is actually the one which reflects its context the best. Such is the case with the best Fatboy Slim.

8TH MAY- WHY DON'T YOU GET A JOB?- The Offspring (1 week)

The Offspring sure could use their own advice, methinks!

 

22ND MAY- LOOK AT ME- Geri Halliwell (1 week)

 

05 JUNE- OOH LA LA- The Wiseguys (1 week)

Advert or not, you could pretty much cut and paste my Fatboy Slim review here.

 

19TH JUNE- BEAUTIFUL STRANGER- Madonna (1 week)

Madonna had had some really good-to-great soundtrack singles: "Into the Groove", "Crazy For You", "Live to Tell", "Who's That Girl", "Causing a Commotion", "Vogue". Starting with A League of Their Own's "This Used to Be My Playground", however, the quality of such releases has been more miss than hit. "Beautiful Stranger" is neither. It's competent and insidious enough to lodge into your brain and the retrodelic influences give it not only a nice-enough touch, they actually complement William Orbit's trance-infused production through a not-so-subtle nod to what was, effectively, much of modern dance music's own spiritual ancestry. Still, after it does its job, it just can't help but leave quite a neutral impression. But then, this was Madonna in her second wind, tying herself with a film franchise reaching its mainstream cultural peak, so a #2 peak thus was.

 

3RD JULY- MY LOVE IS YOUR LOVE- Whitney Houston (1 week)

Her heart was surely in the right place. And her attempt at staying current by tapping Wyclef Jean to write and produce this also demonstrated that Whitney wasn't trying to rest on her laurels. Still, "My Love is Your Love" is just a nice, forgettable piece of fluff. I guess her death somehow lent this some gravitas, but it doesn't prevent it from its own irrelevance.

 

10TH JULY- WILD WILD WEST- Will Smith Featuring Dru Hill (1 week)

Another soundtrack tie-in. From the days when such things still seemed to matter - nowadays, adverts, TV shows and the odd viral video practically took over film as the main provider of cross-marketing hits. Anyway, looking at the cold hard facts: 1999, Will Smith on his way to become Mr. Hollywood, a very successfully reignited music career = success. A snapshot of the day, basically. As for the song... how did it go, exactly?

 

24TH JULY- LOVE'S GOT A HOLD ON MY HEART- Steps (1 week)

After a forgettable Will Smith ditty, Steps is a head plunge into Nightmare Land, more like it!

 

31ST JULY- IF YA GETTIN DOWN- Five (1 week)

The pathetic rap aspirations were left intact. And so was the over-reliance on tired sampling motifs. Which is to say that all was normal in 5ive Land.

 

14TH AUGUST- BETTER OFF ALONE- DJ Jurgon Presents Alice Deejay (3 weeks)

Let's not lose sight of the fact that "Better Off Alone" already sounded like your typical Euro-trance anthem by the time it was unleashed on the charts. And yet that synth motif was just too earwormy to deny. More than the "do you think you're better off alone" vocal, it was that durr-dur-nur-nur-nur-nur-nur that sealed this track into your ears. Proof of its seemingly neverending appeal? This:

 

 

4TH SEPTEMBER- SWAY (MUCHO MAMBO)- Shaft (1 week)

I knew this existed, just couldn't really remember how it went. Now I understand why!

Edited June 6, 201213 yr by jaxxalude

11TH SEPTEMBER- THE LAUNCH- DJ Jean (1 week)

Get ready... for the punch (in the face)!

 

2ND OCTOBER- S CLUB PARTY- S Club 7 (2 weeks)

Everybody probably expects me to rip S-Club a new arsehole. Afraid to disappoint you here! :D Doesn't mean I like them very much (for the record, their only truly decent tune is "Don't Stop Movin'"), but I don't loathe them either. They were what they were: not so much teenpop, but PREteenpop. Besides, I can't knock a group with Rachel Stevens in it! B-)

Anyway, "S-Club Party" was completely in tandem with all this: jolly, breezy, harmless family-friendly fun.

 

16TH OCTOBER- 2 TIMES- Ann Lee (2 weeks)

Auto-Tune had already been in use in That Record By An Ageing Female Star That Shall Remain Nameless. An in use it is here too.

Before you jump to conclusions, I'm not one of those anti-Auto-Tune zealots, nor am I an unabashed patriot for it. For me, it's just another instrument, like the vocoder once was. What matters to me is the WAY it is used. Here, it's used in the most nagging way, I'm afraid. Besides, as a song, this is as paperthin as they come.

 

6TH NOVEMBER- IF I COULD TURN BACK THE HANDS OF TIME- R Kelly (1 week)

Where to start with such a character as this one? Personally, his 1991/1995 period (i.e., before he truly went big all over the place) is his best. It's certainly "purer" R&B than most of the records with which he came to chart (especially outside America) from 1996 onwards, and all the better for it. Still, some good was made afterwards; just not, by definition, when it came to ballads. Besides sounding like an even poorer relation to "I Believe I Can Fly", "If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time" sees him singing with all the emotional investment of someone going through the motions.

 

13TH NOVEMBER- WHAT I AM- Tin Tin Out Featuring Emma Bunton (1 week)

The original is probably one of the greatest examples of the wave of female singer/songwriters which emerged in the late 80's, of which Suzanne Vega, Tracy Chapman, Natalie Merchant (in her 10 000 Maniacs days) and, of course, Edie Brickell came to shine the brightest in the mainstrem firmament - if only for just one moment.

Tin Tin Out, on the other hand, were just continuing their job of butchering radio staples. They started in earnest in 1995, when their cover of the Bacharach/David standard "Always Something There To Remind Me" reached #14. Three years later, the victim was The Sundays' masterful "Here's Where The Story Ends". And in 1999, this one. Not only is their electronica MOR production dull, they added insult to injury by featuring the second most thin-voiced Spice to the mix. Result: a record as devoid of emotion and, indeed, purpose as they came.

 

20TH NOVEMBER- WILL 2K- Will Smith (1 week)

Thous shalt not murder "Rock the Casbah", ever!

 

11TH DECEMBER- RE-REWIND THE CROWD SAY BO-SELECTA- Artful Dodger With Craig David ( 3 weeks)

Deary old me, what is here to even slightly criticise?!?! :o Not the first UK garage record to reach the upper eschelons of the chart - that would probably be the very same year's irresistible "Sweet Like Chocolate", by Shanks & Bigfoot -, but it was certainly one of the most memorable. First of all, those jittery beats were just too undeniable. Then there was Craig David's voice, sweet as honey dripping. And to top it all off, a bassline to die for! Icing on the cake: the way David swoons "hardcore". Coming from his mouth, it was as if hardcore was actually a term of endearment!

Really: not even remotely liking this is almost equivalent to being quite, quite dead inside, in my book. What a unheralded classic, through and through! Could the decade (if not, FACT, the millennium) end up on a higher note? Yes: if it went all the way!