Music from the 90s, people! It’s what’s in my playlist these days. Perhaps out of reaction to all those jerks who got to go to SXSW and party down with all the fun bands (I hate you all!). Perhaps out of nostalgia for my high school years … um … no, that’s not it (high school was my classic rock/80s goth/Smashing Pumpkins stage). These are songs I missed the first time around, or didn’t listen to enough, that shamefully I am just catching up on now. Acquaintances from so long ago, I revisit you!
01. Sade – Love Deluxe (1992). I used to watch Sade on European MTV, where she was very popular, and think, “blah.” Someone like me, who listened to the Cure all day and night, couldn’t figure out the appeal of Sade. But having grown up a little and broadened out, I really enjoy listening to her voice and the slow, melting sounds that back it up. I remember one of her videos was of her, underwater, swimming around, and the video in my memory is rippling, blue and gold and green. I didn’t try to find it on Youtube, because now I like that memory-video. It fits the music.
Sade – No Ordinary Love
Sade – Kiss of Life
02. Old 97’s – Too Far To Care (1997). Back in the days when the Old 97’s were not based on the smoothness of Rhett Miller’s outfits, they were a little bit punk. And though Miller continued to get smoother and sexier as time went on, “Too Far To Care” has an exuberance that “Satellite Rides” and “Drag It Up” can barely recreate. This album also contains the best Old 97’s song ever — “Barrier Reef” — which features that most awesome of pickup lines: My name is Stewart Ransom Miller / I’m a serial ladykiller, and the shoot-down: she said, “I’m already dead” / that’s exactly what she said.
Old 97’s – Barrier Reef
Old 97’s – Just Like California
03. And as a bonus, if you please, one of the best songs to come out of the 90s, featured last night in the tear-soaked episode of “Supernatural,” Queensrÿche – Silent Lucidity, from 1990’s “Empire.” I was never a huge fan of Queensrÿche, or a fan period, but this song’s grave melancholy is simply classic.
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