NME's "Best Tracks of the Nineties"

i don't necessarily disagree with kulkarni there, either specifically or in a more general sense, but bad writing at feature-length is much more ire-worthy than whatevia filler in a listicle (aim your ire at the editor for that one).

also this

'Unfinished Sympathy' a record that shudders like an iceberg through your heart, always swells like a fresh new bruise, the turning of personal torment, of the battle between freedom and love, fearlessness & loneliness into a whole new universal noir

is not good writing either imo (though i've never got with NK's frothy-mouthed ~passion~ or unseemly physicality so maybe just my tastes).

i'm in two minds about how much of a good look it is for an old, established writer to call out young writers like this in such a public way. on the one hand it seems a bit bullying, i'd rather nurture young writers whose style isn't quite there yet. on the other i'm not actually sure how established the writers he criticises are, if they're working at nme they should be able to take it. i've always had a "bring it on" attitude to old writers criticising my writing (unless it's actually helpful advice given politely) so i'm sure they can cope

haha xp with dl!!

Picking on some easy targets as quoted in the Kulkarni piece, if the 72nd best track of the 90s was merely "absolutely pleasant" then it's a good job they didn't write about the other few million

(and if H McB didn't start writing abt music until 2002 and would've liked someone to tell him at the start of his career that the internet was going to be invented, er... sorry, back to Google Streetview)

though it's a terribly boring list, there's bunch of stuff on here i like to some degree or another:

Pulp- 'Common People'
Beastie Boys- 'Sabotage'
Daft Punk- 'Da Funk'
Suede- 'Animal Nitrate'
Radiohead- 'Street Spirit (Fade Out)'
Eminem- 'My Name Is'
Weezer- 'Buddy Holly'
Blur- 'Song 2'
Green Day- 'Basket Case'
Warren G- 'Regulate'
PJ Harvey- 'Down by the Water'
Foo Fighters- 'Everlong'
Blur- 'Girls and Boys'
Massive Attack- 'Unfinished Sympathy'
Smashing Pumpkins- '1979'
Portishead- 'Glory Box'
Mazzy Star- 'Fade into You'
Julee Cruise- 'Falling'
Blackstreet- 'No Diggity'
Beastie Boys- 'Intergalactic'
TLC- 'No Scrubs'
House Of Pain- 'Jump Around'
R.E.M.- 'Losing My Religion'
Supergrass- 'Caught by the Fuzz'

went with beastie boys just cuz

^ probably should have been "street spirit (fade out)"

lex's will be the only good posts in this thread not to be about british geography

what even is the nme's target market these days? do they even know?

Oh, I didn't see Portishead in there.

Not voting - I agree that too many of these tracks have been overplayed and overexposed to the point where they induce mild nausea.

The NME's "writing" on them though is so bad that I felt like writing about them myself on the blog to see if anything "new" could be gained from them, but I resisted the temptation. "If You Don't Want Me To Destroy You"; the compromise result of down-the-middle voting (the only SFA single I regularly revisit is "The Man Don't Give A Fuck").

Not going to go through what I would have put in there since I don't have all day and it wouldn't satisfy the NME's "target" audience anyway (whatever/whoever that means).

There's just nothing on the top list that makes me want to jump up and go "OMG, best! song! evah!"

There's a couple on the bottom 50 I could see getting that excited about (Groove Is In The Heart, Vapour Trail, What Time Is Love, Cannonball) and a couple of artists I wish they'd picked a different track (Bjork, Missy E, Hole, Chemical Brothers)

Even for, you know, NME-ish taste, like... no My Bloody Valentine? No Aphex Twin? Bizarre.

Why am I even arguing with an NME list? Like, seriously, I could find some paint to watch dry or something.

Not the most exciting ever list, but I went with "Everlong"

Unfinished Sympathy. Yes, it's received all the praise it deserves; but it still kills.

Not the most exciting ever list, but I went with "Everlong"

― justfanoe (Greg Fanoe), Wednesday, May 16, 2012 2:48 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark

ditto

what a wonderful list~~

underworld, saint etienne, or beasties

Pulp- 'Common People'
Radiohead- 'Paranoid Android'
Beastie Boys- 'Sabotage'
Daft Punk- 'Da Funk'
Blur- 'Song 2'
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds- 'Into My Arms'
Warren G- 'Regulate'
Underworld- 'Born Slippy'
Massive Attack- 'Unfinished Sympathy'
Portishead- 'Glory Box'
Nick Cave & Kylie Minogue- 'Where the Wild Roses Grow'
Mazzy Star- 'Fade into You'
Daft Punk- 'Around the World'
Blackstreet- 'No Diggity'
Beastie Boys- 'Intergalactic'
Saint Etienne- 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart'
R.E.M.- 'Losing My Religion'
Supergrass- 'Caught by the Fuzz'

voted Primal Scream.

quick attempt at my top 10 (no order):

the White Stripes - Cannon
Pavement -Loretta's Scars
Olivia Tremor Control -Holiday Surprise 1, 2, 3
Ween - Push The Little Daisies
Palace - More Brother Rides
Le Tigre - The The Empty
Built To Spill - Car
PJ Harvey - Sheela Na Gig
Neutral Milk Hotel - The King Of Carrot Flowers, Part 1
The Flaming Lips - Felt Good To Burn

Oh, I didn't see Portishead in there.

Me neither, but I'm not too gutted as Glory Box is nowhere near my favourite cut from Dummy; it's a record on which most of the album tracks are better than the singles imo.

This is true, but I went with Glory Box anyway. There are a lot of good songs here, though.

McAlmont & Butler - 'Yes'

Small question: how many of the current NME staff are old enough to remember these songs clearly first-hand? Or are they just relying on received "wisdom" or back-to-back Xfm?

i don't think you can blame for not being old, sir. no one has a choice over when they were born.

i feel like i've seen 'common people' listed on these fuckin' lists more often than i've ever listened to it. and i've listened to it, like, a lot.

Ash- 'Girl from Mars'

This justifies the entire list. Besides that it's all the same shit we've seen in plenty of other "best of the 90's" things.

Cornershop - Brimful of Asha (Fatboy Slim remix)

Didn't Pitchfork include this as well? Why do they choose the Fatboy Slim version??!

Because that's the version most people know

No Diggity vs Fade Into You vs Motorcycle Emptiness

― Goodbye 20th Centipede (NickB)

Because that's the version most people know

I had no idea. Among people I know IRL this is definitely not true.

That's the version that made Number1

Ohhhh I get it... Yeah I don't live there.

From that list, Kelis - Caught Out There.

Not voting - I agree that too many of these tracks have been overplayed and overexposed to the point where they induce mild nausea.

Not voting either. I love most of these songs but they're so overfamiliar now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-30nX3a6IF4

How is Lazarus (aka the correct choice in a poll like this) overplayed?

(other than in my house of course)

House Of Pain- 'Jump Around'

That track underwent a renaissance in the late 90s and ended up being played at every cheesy club night ever for the rest of time.

How is Lazarus (aka the correct choice in a poll like this) overplayed?

the boo radleys being played anywhere ever even for half a song would be too much

xpost What, "Common People"?

What, as in "lie on the floor and let it wash over you" too much?

for like my immediate group of acquaintances, "Common People" is like "Let it Be" or something. I have no idea where everyone even heard it the first time because it certainly wasnt on American radio and I don't remember ever seeing it on MTV even though I'm pretty sure it had a video.

I heard it on John Peel, I think it was a 'session', had to wait about 4 months before it came out properly.

Just looked it up, Sept 1994 was the Peel session recording, and the single came out 22 May 1995.

I was going to say 6 months, thought that may have been exaggerating, but h.

xxpost, I meant Jump Around. I think the first time I heard it again I remember thinking "hey I remember this, this is great!" but then it got wheeled out every weekend and now I just cringe.

Common People? Probably on Radio 1, an evening session or something. I don't remember too well. It got loads of play in the UK, although I never really appreciated it properly until Bill Shatner and Joe Jackson covered it in 2004 for some reason. Pulp always seemed too seedy and adult for 14-15 year old me. All the songs were about class and sex and pimpliness whereas I just wanted gut lords and marching. I like them a lot more nowadays than I did back then.

Yeah, but you guys are english, i grew up in the land of Everclear and OOOOOOOHHH GOT U WHERE I WANT U YEAHHHH SUFFA SUFFA U KNO IT GET NO RUFFA

i feel sorry for americans who like "common people". like, you didn't even have to suffer it irl and you willingly went out of your way to make it part of your life?

For them, Common People is only for Christmas.

Sod it, I'll vote for Common People just to aggravate lex

aggravate lex is for life..

Actually, looking at these songs again in the cold light of day, I like a lot of them. Really like them. Some of it's residual affection from being a teenage (and there's enough distance betwixt then and now for me to quite like them again), and some of them I think are genuinely just really good songs. I still think the bottom half of the list (i.e. the bit not in the poll) is more ILM-friendly, though.

Huh, just realised 'Caught Out There' wasn't a hit in the UK until March 2000.

(Realised meaning it suddenly struck me and I had to go to everyhit.com to check)