Modern Rock #2 Hits, Pt. 4: From Grunge to Alternapop (1994–99)

Like I said in the NJ thread, the s/t Sheryl Crow album does not feel like a letdown.

For the life of me I can't find it, but I distinctly remember an Entertainment Weekly or Rolling Stone article from early 1997 (the only two magazines I subscribed to at the time) describing all the the 1996 sophomore slump albums, and Sheryl Crow's was definitely lumped in with the others.

I guess I must be alone in thinking "Everyday is a Winding Road" is superior single. Upbeat, catchy, reminiscent of "All I Wanna Do." "If It Makes You Happy" seemed so...downtrodden and depressing at the time. Have grown to love it and the album very much since.

to my ears each single was better. "A Change Will Do You Good," with that chorus organ line, is terrific.

Tim Finn on harmonies on EIAWR iirc

The Globe Sessions is her best album and "My Favorite Mistake" her best single.

xp

Yeah, I guess I feel like that's judging Crow as though she was going to repeatedly do Celine Dion or Britney Spears numbers, which was never going to happen because being a capital-P pop sensation is a whole different category from what Crow was in.

If you compare her to artists like her (female pop-rock singer-songwriters), she's basically the most successful of her generation. She ended up putting out 4 multiplatinum albums and a multiplatinum greatest hits. I can't think of anyone playing her style of music in the 90s and early 2000s that comes close to that.

FWIW I agree that "Everyday is a Winding Road" is a better single, I just disagree that it could have changed the course of her career trajectory in any serious way, or that the self-titled album was a genuine letdown.

and she scored her biggest hit in 2002-2003!

like a suprising lot of these:

Soundgarden – "Black Hole Sun"
Stone Temple Pilots – "Vasoline"
Weezer – "Buddy Holly"
Bush – "Everything Zen"
PJ Harvey – "Down by the Water"
Elastica – "Connection"
Matthew Sweet – "Sick of Myself"
The Smashing Pumpkins – "Bullet with Butterfly Wings"
R.E.M. – "E-Bow the Letter"
Fatboy Slim – "Praise You"
Pearl Jam – "Last Kiss"

voting for PJ because, well, because i'm voting for PJ. punkins a close 2nd.

As much as I love some of these songs, I didn't even have to think about it. "Sick of Myself."

Voted for "Interstate Love Song"

This might belong back on the "commercially disappointing albums" thread, but, I kinda like the alternate-history exercise with different singles. But I do gotta agree it wouldn't really matter. Is "Burden In My Hand" really that much catchier than "Pretty Noose"? It's kind of a jaunty oddball itself and basically the album doesn't have a "Black Hole Sun" or "Spoonman," period. "Angels of the Silences" was always supposed to be a scene-setting short-lived "they're back, and now they're rockin'!" announcement, not so much a big hit in its own right, and it actually has a strong riff and strong chorus...they made the right choice with that one and it set them up to get a decent hit with the big ballad and then watch the album not really go anywhere anyway. The Sheryl Crow album did fine IMO. Generally though I think none of those albums actually HAD the chops to do what their predecessors did even if the audience weren't tiring of the CD rack being just completely full of soundalike, lookalike albums. Soundgarden and REM make that really clear - DOTU and NAIHF are almost self-consciously going for texture, shade, slight genre sidesteps, and Maturing As A Band - hitmaking just wasn't the project.

I totally like the alternate history exercise too, but like you, I don't think most of the alternate singles would have actually changed any outcomes.

I'm sure there are other examples, but I remember when Third Eye Blind released an intentionally "uncommercial" leadoff single in "Anything" back in 1999. After it kind of tanked, "Never Let You Go" was rushed out and did ok, but the album momentum had already slowed.

Don't really vote in these things (love reading the threads tho), but WOW that "Love Spreads" went to #2.

jesus i love a lot of these songs. "big bang baby" over "in the meantime," "sick of myself," "don't speak," "live forever" and a couple songs that i will never ever voluntarily play but i will always smile when they come on the radio: "all star" and "black hole sun."

This is pretty much everything I hate. I'd possibly not skip Garbage – "Stupid Girl".

On the contrary, I love nearly all of these. Maybe a few that I'm indifferent to (Creed, Collective Soul), but nothing that I outright hate and this is easily the best selection of #2s.

The alternate lead single timeline is interesting but (as mentioned upthread) I'm not sure if "If It Makes You Happy" belongs in there - it enjoyed a good chart run (I recall it being bigger than "Everyday Is a Winding Road", though both singles were pretty successful), and Sheryl Crow wasn't all that much of a bomb relative to the other albums listed alongside it.

"If It Makes You Happy" hit #10 and "Everyday" #11.

Yeah, neither one went away fast, much to my annoyance re: the screechy chorus of "If It Makes You Happy," or maybe I have it mixed up now with my mother's mocking impression when it would come on the radio. But hearing them in my head they both sound great now, and yeah, I always dug "Change" too. The album's good too - and, refreshingly, only fifty-six minutes long, practically a punk EP by that era's standards. Check "Sweet Rosalyn" if you like the singles, also "Maybe Angels."

As for the poll, hrm.

AWESOME

Soundgarden – "Black Hole Sun"
Soundgarden – "Pretty Noose"
Garbage – "Stupid Girl"
R.E.M. – "E-Bow the Letter"

GREAT TO PRETTY COOL, BUT MOSTLY I'VE JUST HEARD THEM TOO MANY TIMES NOW

Stone Temple Pilots – "Interstate Love Song"
Weezer – "Buddy Holly"
Pearl Jam – "Better Man"
Spacehog – "In the Meantime"
Stone Temple Pilots – "Big Bang Baby"
Smash Mouth – "All Star"
The Smashing Pumpkins – "Bullet with Butterfly Wings"

GOOD

Stone Temple Pilots – "Vasoline"
Oasis – "Live Forever"
No Doubt – "Don't Speak"
Blink-182 – "What's My Age Again?"
Soundgarden – "Burden in My Hand"
Foo Fighters – "This Is a Call"

NOT QUITE SO GOOD

Bush – "Everything Zen"
Pearl Jam – "Last Kiss"
The Smashing Pumpkins – "Thirty-Three"

DULL

Fuel – "Shimmer"
Green Day – "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)"
Fatboy Slim – "Praise You"

JUST GROSS

Collective Soul – "December"
Creed – "One"

DON'T REMEMBER

The Stone Roses – "Love Spreads"
PJ Harvey – "Down by the Water"
Matthew Sweet – "Sick of Myself"
Elastica – "Connection"

The four songs from female-fronted bands are my favorites here. It's down to PJ vs Elastica.
"Praise You" is really good too.

i voted for Matthew Sweet but I do love "What's My Age Again?" and the Spacehog song ... and the Foo Fighters song ... and most of those STP songs ... and Elastica and "Buddy Holly," of course. good list!

Such a classic era for catchy straight-ahead alt-rock. Voted This is a Call

is that the worst song on Mellon Collie? that song is terrible.

Which one? There are two on the list.

neither of which are anywhere close to the worst song on Mellon Collie, imo

Worst song on this list: "Down by the Water"

waht

this list has "Love Spreads"

and "Everything Zen." I'm no knee-jerk Bush hater, but that song is abominable. Can't imagine how it was chosen as the lead single for their record, let alone how it became such a success.

Snrub never disappoints

I remember doing a speech in 9th grade on "How to Play the Guitar" which was really an excuse for me to show off my (terrible) guitar skillz and I did a medley at the end of like "Basket Case" and other bullshit songs and I ended with "Everything Zen" and everyone was bobbin their heads along I felt like such a rock god and was all ready to go out and buy one of those tight fitting floral print shirts like Gavin and I had this vision of the future hit me which flashed the videos for "Mouth (remix)" and "The Chemicals Between Us" and the phrase "BENZEDRINE TELEPHONE" kept blinking in front of my face and in an instant I smashed my guitar on the ground and ripped my shirt off and ran out of the classroom screaming

got a B+

Which one? There are two on the list.

sorry, Thirty-Three. Ugh. "The music video for "Thirty-Three", directed both by Billy Corgan and then-girlfriend Yelena Yemchuk, is a series of images shot in stop-motion, ending with a re-enactment of theMellon Collie album cover."

What I don't get is that I listened to the radio much more in 91-94 than I did in 94-99, but I like this list a lot better.

I can tolerate "Everything Zen" but Gavin's lyrics are pretty cringeworthy imo

"Love Spreads" is great, BTW.

might have voted for 'interstate love song' or 'love spreads' or 'live forever' or 'connection'

ended up voting for 'sick of myself'

Still don't know what "she's alright but she's my sister" means.

And what other alt-rock hit from this era had a 1:15 guitar intro before any lyrics

none.

disappointing that it took five years for this to come out but for a lead off single they could have done a lot worse.

i'm 50/50 on that album. think a bunch of it is actually pretty damn good.

"10 Storey Love Song" fits right on the debut.

E-Bow

"Good Riddance" has the longest run at #2 in this chart's history, btw; 13 or so weeks stuck behind the equally omnipresent "Sex and Candy" (and with "Given to Fly" stuck behind them at #3 for a good portion of that time)

"Given to Fly" would make a much better #2, kind of amazed it's that high though. By rights "Good Riddance" should be #1, not that I like it at all but it's probably the most generally well-known song of any on this list.

"Good Riddance" hit #11 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart during that limbo in which Billboard didn't count airplay-only singles. It might have been a genuine top ten hit if released in physical form.

It was the Iris and Uninvited were (possibly) kept off the top spot from those old rules.

It was the YEAR...

impossible to choose between "big bang baby" and "Interstate love song". big bang baby wins if we include the video, i guess.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Hmmm, surprised about some of the goose eggs in these poll results – would've expected "Don't Speak" to get at least one vote, guess not.

It's vile, so yeah..

"Don't speak" is better than most of this crap.
Fucking stone roses.