I enjoyed Pitchfork’s list of the Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s. The decision to limit the list to one song per artist opened things up to tons of songs, probably even whole genres, that would have been excluded if folks like Bjork and Beck and Radiohead each had five songs a piece or what have you; moreover it started a whole different set of discussions than “‘Let Down’ should have been ranked higher than ‘Creep,'” which is probably what you’d have gotten otherwise. Still, as with any exercise of this sort, there are bound to be lacunae, oversights, goofs, choices you’d have made differently, artists you’d have better represented, and of course outright crimes against all that is holy. LOL srsly the closest thing I have to a substantive philosophical criticism of the list is that in the end, the voters admittedly went with comfort for their #1; given that the list has frequently been positioned as a statement about indie music today, read into that what you will. In my case, seeing the #1 vote-getter (no spoilers here!) simply reminded me that my 1990s were different from those of a lot of other critics–less “indie rock,” more “alternative,” electronic, heavy, and industrial.
So in the interest of showing my ’90s off a bit, here, in alphabetical order by artist, are 80 wonderful songs from that wonderful decade for music that didn’t make Pitchfork’s cut. I applied three rules in making this list:
1) Like Pitchfork, I limited myself to one song per artist.
2) If an artist made Pitchfork’s Top 200 list, I couldn’t use them–in other words, I wasn’t adjudicating whether “Donkey Rhubarb” would have been a better pick than “Windowlicker.” (Although it is.)
3) Pitchfork very helpfully and very smartly included two or three “see also” suggestions with every entry, in order to give relevant sounds/scenes/artists that much more props. I didn’t let this rule out artists who were thus listed, but I did let it rule out the individual songs that were cited. As a practical matter this meant that several songs which all things being equal I’d have included on any Top Whatever List didn’t end up making it in, because the song Pitchfork had suggested as a “see also” was so clearly the right choice–“Stars” by Hum, “Gett Off” by Prince, “Woo-Hah!! Got You All in Check” by Busta Rhymes, “Jump Around” by House of Pain, and “Unsung” by Helmet all come to mind. But more often than not I had the leeway I wanted.
So there you have it. There was a lot of great music made in the days of my youth; here’s some of it, in convenient video form. I hope you enjoy!
Back in the early-mid 90’s, I was a supervisor in the music department at a retailer called Media Play, a one-stop shopping site for music, books, movies, games, etc. At the time, romance-novel cover superstar Fabio was pimping both a series of romance novels he had “authored” as well as a CD of romantic songs for lovers bridged by words of wisdom from the blond beef cake himself on the proper way to woo a woman (‘Fabio After Dark’). Fabio was in the store doing a signing, so we thought we’d put his album on the store speakers to help the bohunk cross-promote his products. About two minutes into his signing, his agent (?) came over to me and said “Fabio doesn’t like this,” meaning his client’s own CD. “He wants Seal,” the agent told us, “but just the first two songs, ‘Crazy,’ and ‘Killer.'”
I obliged, and for two hours we played those two tracks over and over until his Highness left. As a consequence cannot hear either of them without picturing Fabio, his long golden mane hair blowing in slow motion. It’s terrible, really, because ‘Killer’ really is a pretty sweet track.
Both that event and the hot demand for the goddamn Gregorian chant album around the same time (I think it was just called ‘Chant’) are real stains on an otherwise great period of music for me.
Not trying to be funny, but if you’re including a Backstreet Boys song, you should include an NSync song. Of the two major boy bands, I always felt they were vocally superior (there’s a reason Justin Timberlake is still around).
Can I play too? Most of these are on YouTube but I assume adding links will get this marked as spam.
Bark Psychosis – Bloodrush
The Black Dog – Xeper
Blackalicious – Alphabet Aerobics (Cut Chemist 2 1/2 Minute Workout)
Coldcut – Autumn Leaves (Irresistible Force Mix)
Carl Craig – At Les
DJ Food – Dark Lady
DJ Rolando/Aztec Mystic – Jaguar
Eno/Cale – Spinning Away
Fila Brazillia – Soft Music Under Stars
4 Hero – The Paranormal in Four Forms
Global Communication – 14 31
Hardfloor – Acperience 1
Mark Hollis – The Colour of Spring
LFO – LFO (Leeds Warehouse Mix)
Model 500 – The Passage
u-Ziq – Sick Porter (Remix)
Jeff Mills – The Bells
Mundo Muzique – Andromeda
Negativland – I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For (Special Edit Radio Mix)
Orbital – Belfast
PFM – For All of Us
Rhythim Is Rhythim – Icon
Slowdive – Blue Skied an’ Clear
Steinski & Mass Media – It’s Up to You
Talk Talk – New Grass
Underground Resistance – Amazon
Wishmountain – Radio
It’s also criminal to exclude Basic Channel but I’d have to do some research to decide which track.
Sean: Yikes.
Ben: I really can’t name a single NSync song I like, whereas I think Everybody and I Want It That Way are genuinely good songs.
Hilker: The more the merrier!
i’ve always liked “tearing at my heart”, but mostly for the chorus. But nsync’s major popular songs are post 2000. “pop”, while not too popular, always impressed me for how weird it was, especially considering it’s source.
i’ve always liked “tearing at my heart”, but mostly for the chorus. But nsync’s major popular songs are post 2000. “pop”, while not too popular, always impressed me for how weird it was, especially considering it’s source.