Stegzy's Music Project

A commentary on Stegzy's album collection

Aug 9

All Saints – All Saints [#675]

by stegzy

I don’t know what it is, but whenever I hear All Saints or Sugababes I feel grimy. That whole harmonising sexy girls with lip gloss thing from the 90s just made me feel…uncomfortable and grimy.

Perhaps it’s me.

I wouldn’t say I was overtly prudish in any way – hey if you like that kind of thing that’s just fine but leave me alone with my fish fingers and lettuces – just the whole aesthetic – the videos with their soft focus close ups, the close mic-singing with ASMR, the needy clingy lyrics sung with vocal fry – it just makes me feel uneasy, at risk – like I’m being preyed on, stalked or trapped in a room with a over enthusiastic nymphomaniac who won’t take no for an answer. Perhaps I over analyse these things but I’m 100% certain that if the aesthetic was reversed there would be stern letters written to the police and I don’t mean Gordon Sumner and his pals.

All Saints by All Saints is the British girl band’s first album – released roughly around the time that the Spice Girls were menacing music and popular culture around the world – was seen as strong. The line-up then was Mel Blatt, Shaznay Lewis and the Appleton sisters Natalie and Nicole, founding member Simone Rainford having left the band by the time the album was launched. Later, the band would go on to release four other albums with mixed success, the difficult second album Saints & Sinners reaching number 1 in the UK album charts.

At the height of their popularity It was fairly difficult to watch or listen to any public service broadcast without seeing the girls, in various revealing modes of dress, promoting their works. Typical to bands of their ilk differences of opinion, changes in direction, solo work and intense public glare – especially from grimy sleazy toilet paper tabloids – lead to fractures. Four splits and three reunions culminated in one final album (to date) and tour with their male counterparts, Westlife.

I’ve no idea why this album is in my library. I guess there’s a couple of songs on it that summon me back to the noughties. But Jeez, noughties music was bollocks wasn’t it?

1997 All Saints Dance Pop London R&B

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Dec 31

Left of the Middle – Natalie Imbruglia [#668]

by stegzy
Album art

That actor from Neighbours jumps on the “Actors from Neighbours who want a pop career” wagon and releases an angsty “men are utter shits” album.

Not entirely sure why I have this as it’s not really my usual fayre but that said there are some catchy tunes that capture the late 90s zeitgeist here.

From Torn (a bitter ballad describing the emotional fallout from the realisation that the man the singer fell for turned out to be the asshole) to Big Mistake (where perhaps the same guy comes back) the album covers a whole load of relationship complications. No mean feat for a 22 year olds first album.

1997 Australian Pop Natalie Imbruglia Plastic pop

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Aug 29

Jackie Brown OST – Various Artists [#645]

by stegzy

Jackie_Brown_album.jpgIn 1994, I went to the Liverpool ABC cinema in Lime Street to kill a couple of hours I had spare. As I took my seat in the empty theatre, little did I know that I was about to be subjected to an amazing rollercoaster of a film. Pulp Fiction hit me like a train. To me, this was a new style of film, a new director to follow and a soundtrack that would fill that period of my life with music. So when Tarantino’s followup was the 1997 film, Jackie Brown, I was hoping that it too would renew the tarnished soundscape of my life.

By this time I was working long hours in Bootle so trips to the cinema seemed like a luxury reserved for films that had to be seen on the big screen like Star Wars. All other films, especially those which we were uncertain about, were relegated to the cheaper hire from the video shop. Despite being a video rental, Jackie Brown didn’t disappoint.

Quite often with music, it’s easy to hope that the blow away of the previous success will continue to fill one’s sails with uplifting wind and it’s sometimes the case that we disregard those works that follow as “not as good as the previous”. Take Air’s Moon Safari or Portishead’s Dummy for example, both are much more successful than their later releases because perhaps, they were seen as groundbreaking.  I think the same is true of film and that a person’s personal perception and appreciation will change depending on their tastes.

That said, the soundtrack to Jackie Brown is as vastly different to Pulp Fiction as a cake is to bread but still holds its own. A lot more soul and country compared to Pulp Fiction‘s surf guitar filled selection but still a really good selection of tracks and, like the film, at a totally different pace.

1997 Soundtracks Various Artists

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Apr 17

Impossible Princess – Kylie Minogue [#616]

by stegzy

Kylie_Minogue_Impossible_PrincessMrs Gnomepants V1.0 is the keeper of this album of which I have a digital rip. Weirdly, and possibly because of you know “internet downloading”, I appear to have a fusion of two versions of this album: the original 1998 CD rip and the 2003 Special Edition.

Of the two versions, it’s the original I prefer, I’m not sure why producers think remixing things is something people want to hear. I mean imagine someone going into the Louvre and remixing the Mona Lisa the making the remix the only version people could see. There would be uproar!

Impossible Princess is a marked divergence from Minogue’s usual pop princess style and, I think at least, is her best work. She has said of the album that she would never do another like it and it is her least favourite. Also, sadly, exposure wise, it didn’t fair as well as other albums, especially in the UK, as its release coincided with the death of Princess Diana, so was renamed Kylie Minogue and release was delayed until the buzz had died down.

This and Air’s Moon Safari are two albums that define a period where there were a lot of changes in my life every time I hear songs from it, fond memories are invoked of people I’ve not seen in ages and events and activities partook.   It still, even nearly 20 years since its release and about ten years since I last listened to it, sounds amazing.

1997 2003 Kylie Minogue Plastic pop

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Feb 27

I Like to Score – Moby #602

by stegzy

Moby_I_Like_to_Score

I Like to Score – Moby

Coffee table hipster music nineties style from everyone’s favourite baldy hipster nineties musician Moby. This is the album that everyone bought after he released Play in an effort to seem more culturally independent amongst their fellow Saturday Guardian supplement reading proto-hipsters by showing ownership of his previously released albums.

 

Comprising of a selection of Moby’s music written for film, I Like To Score does feature some good tunes including First Cool Hive from Scream, Ah-Ah from Cool World and his take on the James Bond theme as used in Tomorrow Never Dies. 

As I’ve said before, even though I have a few Moby albums, I’m not a massive Moby fan. But it’s difficult to have been an adult in the nineties/noughties without having some Moby in your music collection. As I’ve also said, I’ve tried to like Moby, but I really do struggle.

SaveSave

1997 compilations Electronica Moby

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May 16

Guitar Favourites – Norbert Kraft [#562]

by stegzy

71dXBWuSKZL._SX522_When I was studying for an A Level in Music Performance my old college friend Min decided that rock guitar was “so last year” and turned his guitar playing skills from the electric to the classical guitar. I have to say, he was bloody good at both.

I’ve had loads of guitar playing friends over the years and, he’d probably hit me for awarding him such an accolade, but on this side of the celebrity curtain, I’d say Min was definitely the most talented of the lot. Of course, yet to see Jim play Asturias, Malagueña Salerosa  or Recuerdos de la Alhambra so that could change.

After many months practice Min managed to play Asturias with all the dexterity and finger twiddly of an accomplished guitarist almost, but not quite, like John Williams or Narcisio Yepes. Of course having spent many hours listening to him practice, the tune stuck in my head and, as a result, when I saw todays album in the bargain basket in WH Smith, I snaffled it.

Norbert Kraft is one such accomplished guitarist and I would wager he could out twiddle John Williams in a twiddle off. But then I suppose that’s like comparing Matt Howden with Nigel Kennedy. On this album, Kraft twiddles his way through 19 tracks of classic Classical classical guitar melodies effortlessly, though if a little allegro instead of vivace in places.

1997 Classical Norbert Kraft

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May 9

Greatest Lovesongs, Vol.666 – HIM [#558]

by stegzy

In my opinion, HIM was borne on the back of the mid ninetiesHIM-GreatestLovesongsVol666 semi-successes of corporate-goth bands like Evanescence. Unremarkable, goth themed performers singing grungy devil worship innuendo laden lyrics while also providing music for the occasional occult themed movie soundtrack.

I was told I wouldn’t like HIM.

They were right. I don’t. HIM are too similar in sound to the likes of Scream Silence and Rasmus and then the whole chicken/egg thing starts in my mind.

I keep this album purely to be reminded that someone murdered Chris Isaak‘s Wicked Game and Blue Oyster Cults Don’t Fear the Reaper and that I’m glad I didn’t pay for album.

1997 gothic HIM

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Feb 1

Formica Blues – Mono [#491]

by stegzy

Mono_Formica_Blues_album_coverYears ago, before it was ruined by Spotify I used Last.FM to stream my music. Using Liverpool University’s superfast internet connection, at a time when to most scousers the word “Broadband” met something to do with being fat, I would stream new music, scribble down those I liked and then try and download it all buy it legitimately.

Back in those early days, the algorithm used by such sites couldn’t cope with my eclectic music tastes and would regularly throw a spaz or start playing stuff it thought “I should like”. One such band was Mono which, it turned out, I actually liked.

Mono were a British band whose appearance on the world stage was brief and shared only by a few in the know. THE ultimate nineties/noughties hipster band. Many hipsters will know only of Mono through the inclusion of  Life in Mono on the soundtrack of the fabulous 1999 film Great Expectations and other might know them because they were related some how. But I know them because technology said to me I wasn’t cool or hip enough to know them before anyone else.

Formica Blues is one of my most favourite albums. It crosses many genre boundaries whilst also paying homage to both John Barry and Lulu. Much akin to Sneaker Pimps, Portishead and Massive Attack, Mono fall neatly into the Triphop genre but with only one, highly acclaimed but hardly known album under their wing, the band disbanded in 2000;  Lead singer, Siobhan de Mare, later working with Cocteau Twin, Robin Guthrie.


1997 Mono (UK) Trip Hop

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Sep 17

Dust Bunnies – Bettie Serveert [#403]

by stegzy

440px-Dust_Bunnies_(Bettie_Serveert_album_-_cover_art)The second of the three Bettie Serveert albums in the music project.

I’d not listened to this album entirely before writing this entry and before this project, I’d only really heard Bettie Serveert’s Totally Freaked Out track on the 4AD Presents compilation. After listening to the previous album I’d reviewed, I wasn’t too enamoured but then I wasn’t totally repulsed either so I approached Dust Bunnies in the same way.

Unfortunately, I think I must have listened to Attagirl on a day when I was feeling less critical because on second listen, I was wondering why I actually bothered saving the album from the recycling bin for. As a result, Attagirl eventually ended up a casualty of the first “purge” of unwanted previously featured music project albums.

Moreover, although first listen of Dust Bunnies wasn’t too offensive, it’s certainly not something I would probably listen to again. I think after nearly 10 years of ownership without listening, or identifying a track I’m keen on, is indicative that the music project’s second aim (#Deletion of unwanted music) is now starting to take effect and the decision making processes leading to the deletion of unwanted music (thus freeing up disk space) is now becoming easier.

Still, I’ll plough on…

1997 Bettie Serveert

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Jan 28

Call on the Dark – Various Artists (#238)

by stegzy

NB_0233_1167839428_largeCall on the Dark – Various Artists

I think it’s probably best that I warn you in advance. When I get to “G” there will be a whole load of compilation albums similar to this resulting from my search into gothic music. If you read regularly you’ll already know of that search.

Call on the Dark is a compilation album. No idea where I got it from but it’s more than likely I downloaded it because it has a track by Fields of the Nephilim. Anyway, the compilation consists of the following:

  • Annwyn, Beneath the Waves – Faith and the Muse
  • Flash in My Veins – Silke Bischoff
  • Dawnland – Love Like Blood
  • Demon – London After Midnight
  • Kick It – Nitzer Ebb
  • Bin Ich Es Denn – Das Ich
  • Dawnrazor – Fields of the Nephilim
  • Dreamland – Girls Under Glass
  • Chains – Dreadful Shadows
  • If Only – Born for Bliss
  • Disorder – Shock Therapy
  • Godsent – Dreamside
  • Kleine Schwester – Umbra et Imago
  • Precious Limetree – Darc Entries
  • To a Loyal Friend – Sopor Aeternus & The Ensemble of Shadows

Nephilim aside, there’s nothing much to like about this compilation. I suppose I keep these kind of things just incase I find something I like but 8 years on, I still haven’t.

1997 Faith and the Muse Fields of the Nephilim Various Artists

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Jan 20

Buena Vista Social Club – Buena Vista Social Club (#231)

by stegzy

Buena Vista Social ClubBuena Vista Social Club – Buena Vista Social Club

This is one of those albums that everyone seems to have.

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1997 Buena Vista Social Club Ry Cooder Soundtracks

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Nov 5

The Best of the Doors (#174)

by stegzy

The Best of the Doors The Best of the Doors

Old Jim Morrison again with another Best of.

Thing with bands like The Doors, their entire catalogue is seen as next to perfect and it’s not like any new stuff is likely to emerge.

Long term followers of this project will recall that I’ve already covered a “best of” compilation for The Doors – A Collection. That compilation had all the same songs on as well. So in the interests of blog writing, I suggest you go and have a look at the entry.  

1997 best of Doors (The)

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Jul 14

Angels Fall First – Nightwish [#73]

by stegzy

Screen Shot 2014-06-09 at 17.02.48 Angels Fall First – Nightwish

Long ago, deep deep in the forests of the snow bound lands of the bearded Vikings men gathered and sang of the faerie folk and mystical things too mystical for our closed modern minds to comprehend.

Spin forward several centuries and they’re at it again, complete with huge chested Valkyries, heavy metal guitars and lots of chugga-chugga riffs.

This album was my first experience of Nightwish. With it came a desire to visit Finland and see the forests and voluptuous valkyries while drinking salmiakki and growing a beard. The music had the added bonus of “This is shit get it off” chants from the wife. Of course, I didn’t, I just lapped it up in Lapland, sought out other similar artists and probably damaged my credibility as a music lover along the way.

But I don’t care. I was into Nightwish before metal hipsters. That makes me cool.

 

1997 Nightwish

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