Number One Australian Albums 1990-1999
I had initially thought that I’d review Michael Bolton by saying “nope, not interested in reviewing this”. He’s not my cup of tea at all. But after listening to Milli Vanilli, Soul Provider proved to be a bit of a balm! While the album is definitely MOR, you can tell that Michael Bolton’s influences are soul music (Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye) and that comes through. For all his faults, this is actually a pretty decent album.
I know that you’ve already got some prejudices in your mind when I say the words Milli and Vanilli. I’m certainly not saying that you’re wrong. I have these very same prejudices. I wonder though, who has actually listened to the album? I don’t remember listening to it ever. Not even their songs title are familiar to me. It’s kind of strange.
I thought that the fairest way to review this album would be to review Milli Vanilli on their musical merits. What else can you do really? I know it’s hard to come to this album without any baggage, but I’ll give it my best shot.
Their fall from grace is well known (two models front a band of faceless musicians – Grammy awards are stripped from them, they become a cautionary tale). But what was the album actually like? I’m not opposed to a bit of trashy euro-pop every now and then, and that’s pretty much what I was expecting to find on this album. A fairly decent album of euro-pop.
Strangely, after listening to this album I still can’t tell you anything about it. None of the songs stood out. It was pretty terrible from start to finish. I thought that I would remember the big single from the album (whatever that was…) but even after listening to the whole album I’m none the wiser. Surely that was played on the radio in 1990. The album got to number 1 for god’s sake! But I’ve got nothing.
My working theory is that back in the 90s the backlash started not because Milli Vanilli were lip synching, but because the world collectively woke up and realised that they’d been conned. Not because they didn’t sing. But more that we’d been forced to listen.
For years after this album was released Prince tried to reclaim the lead single from this album – Nothing Compares 2 U. He kept releasing his own versions of the song. He’d release his original version. He’d re‑record it. He’d try all matter of tricks. No matter how hard he tried, nothing could take away from this, the definitive version. Yes, Prince, you wrote it. But it belongs to Sinead now. She owns it.
Nothing Compares 2 U is still quite a remarkable song and acts as a bit of a Trojan horse for the rest of the album. Sinead isn’t a one trick pony. The other songs on the album are great – Emperor’s New Clothes, Black Boys on Mopeds are among the best. But overall, it’s hard to imagine most people who bought the album for the sad and mournful ballad listening to the rest of the album on repeat. I think you have to remember that back in the day you’d have to buy the whole album to listen to one song.
It’s not an album of love songs, they’re a bit spikey and have a bit of an edge to them. Much like Sinead herself.
In some ways it would have been surprising if this album hadn’t made it
to number 1. The follow up to the career defining Diesel and Dust, Blue
Sky Mining is pretty much the perfect album to make next. It doesn’t
veer too far from the
template, but puts enough of a spin on it to make it interesting. It’s
not a carbon copy, but it doesn’t do anything to scare the horses. All
in all it’s a perfectly decent follow up to their career best album
that was always going to find an audience ready
for new material.
I think we need to remember that in the 70s, and 80s, comedy albums were really the only way to listen to comedy “on demand”. Now, you get to just stream any comedy you like on Netflix. But back in the day, it was quite a thing to have a comedy album.
There are some comedy greats that have seminal comedy albums. Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor are two names that immediately spring to mind. But I’m not sure that the 12th man is in that league. It certainly isn’t to my taste.
But yet, I think his impact on Australian culture can’t be dismissed. I can still, to this day, recite some of his most famous songs/skits. Even after not consciously listening to him at the time and certainly not for 30 years. I can guarantee that if you started quoting the following words “The bone, the off white, the cream, the ivory or the beige” to people of a certain age (ok, men of a certain age) that they’d be able to finish the quote off for you. I do wonder how much of the 12th man material has just worked its way into the Australian consciousness. Quite a bit I think.
So, while it’s not to my taste, it is interesting to note that the 12th man has had seven (7) number 1 albums in Australia. That’s kind of amazing. It is as many as Taylor Swift, Pearl Jam and Elton John.
And more than Michael Jackson.
Aerosmith.
Aerosmith.
Aero.
Smith.
What to say about Aerosmith? I’m that confident I used to own this album. I’m not saying
that I’m ashamed of owning it, but I don’t own it anymore and my tastes definitely
progressed from this point on. So that says something. But I guess more interestingly is
that the entire music scene was about to get more exciting from this point on in the 90s.
This album feels a bit like the last gasp of the 70s classic rock bands (put through a pop
filter). We were waiting for something. What that was, we didn’t know at this point. But
Grunge was on the horizon (the seeds were already about for those who knew where to
look), but it hadn’t quite broken through to the mainstream.
There are two songs that stand out on the album now. Love in an Elevator. I probably
thought it was cool and risqué when I was in my late teens. Not so much now. Still, it’s got
a cool chorus.
Janie’s Got A Gun is the other. This was probably the start of bands singing about stuff
other than love etc (or maybe it was just me realising that they did). Janie’s Got a Gun is
quite clearly a good song and it’s really about child abuse and incest and the protagonist
taking revenge. Quite a confronting topic for a pop song. A similar topic is explored by
Pearl Jam with Jeremy only a few years later. I’m surprised by how well it holds up - I doubt
I’ve listened to it since the mid-90s.
The rest of the album is largely forgettable. And that’s just me being polite.
I always feel that the B-52s belong with the early American alternative bands from the 70s and 80s. Bands like Talking Heads and Blondie. Patti Smith as well. I know that all of these bands are from New York and that the B52s are the second most famous band from Athens Georgia (second to REM of course). But they kind of go together.
So, it kind of feels strange that one of these bands has a number 1 album in the 90s in Australia. And of all of these bands, the least likely seems to be the B-52s. Really, the only song by the B-52s that would have troubled the public consciousness prior to this album was Rock Lobster. Rock Lobster still is a great song. But it’s quirky and unusual and not really like anything else. It’s not really a “mass appeal song”.
What is a mass appeal song though is Love Shack. It is infectious. It is undeniable. I’m afraid just by mentioning the title that it’ll be stuck in your head all day. Now, there are plenty of bands that have one great mass appeal song that don’t get a number 1 album. I guess what Cosmic Thing has going for it is that it has the 1-2 punch of Love Shack, followed by Roam.
Roam isn’t a carbon copy of Love Shack. Where Love Shack is getting the party started, Roam is the gentle come down. It’s blissfully remembering the night before. It’s the perfect companion to the party. And I guess that’s enough for most people.
Sometimes you have an idea and then stumble at the first hurdle. The idea to review every number 1 album in the ARIA charts from 90s, initially sounds like a solid idea for a series of articles.
But doing some research 1 I learned that the first album that was number 1 in 1990 was Jive Bunny and the Master Mixers. Jive F*kn Bunny. I’m not really sure what to say, or where to start with this album. I bet you hadn’t thought about Jive Bunny for 30 years. I certainly hadn’t.
How to describe the album? It’s a series of big band tunes that a DJ has made into one long mix. He/They (Who cares?) takes Glenn Millers “In the Mood” and mixes that into “Rock around the clock” and I imagine that goes into other songs for another 45 minutes. I could only bare listening to 15 seconds of the first song. Is it as bad as you remember? Yes. Yes, it is.
Not only was this album number 1, but it sold two times platinum in Australia (140,000 copies). I’m starting to question the sanity of my fellow citizens.
1 My source of truth is this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one_albums_in_Australia_during_the_1990s
