Baby Animals - Baby Animals

The early 90s were an interesting time for rock music.  History shows us that Grunge became the dominant music genre for the rest of the decade, but there was another path that could have been taken and Baby Animals were one example of this.

 

There was definitely a reaction against the hair metal bands of the late 80s - they were too slick, too corporate.  Baby Animals were almost pub rock, but a bit heavier.  They’re grounded in blues-based rock and they could almost be called hard rock, but they would never be mistaken for a metal band.  Perhaps having a female lead singer gave them a point of difference.  Or maybe it just gave them a different energy.  It’s no exaggeration to say that Suze DeMarchi was the driving force behind the band.  She was definitely in charge.  She wrote all the songs, played guitar and sang.  She took no prisoners.   

 

Thinking about it some more you realise that this isn’t a million miles away from grunge in terms of attitude.  They toned down the excesses of the 80s and turned up the guitars.  I guess at the end of the day the most important thing is the songs on this album are all great.  One Word, Painless, Rush You and Early Warning are the stand outs and although they never reached these heights again, they left behind a true Aussie rock classic.

 

Prince - Diamonds and Pearls

Imagine having such impossibly high standards that this album isn’t considered one of your best. Prince’s imperial phase (where he could do no wrong) lasted pretty much the entire 80s.  After a few lean years (he released a couple of substandard soundtrack albums at turn of the decade – Badman and Graffiti Bridge) this was a return to form.  He feels reinvigorated, like he’s got something to prove.  He’s rediscovered his funk. 

 

However, on this album while Prince proves that he can write, sing, dance and play many instruments (guitar, piano) one thing he hasn’t quite worked out is rap.  It feels like Prince felt that he had to put rap on this album to stay contemporary, rather than because he thought the songs needed to have rap on them.  The rapping on this album (admittedly not performed by Prince) doesn’t gel with these songs.   But to say that the rap causes this album to be substandard is a not quite right.  There’s a bit of filler here which is not something you normally associate with Prince. 

 

All is not lost though.  This album houses one of my all-time favourite songs (by any artist).  Cream.  Guaranteed to get even a wooden board dancing.  The title track is also great. Gett Off and Money Don’t Matter 2 Night are both fantastic.  There are so many great songs on this album.  So, by any mortal standard this is a classic.  But by Prince’s high standards, this isn’t indispensable.  It is merely brilliant.

1991

 Elton John - Very Best Of

Janet Jackson - Rhythm Nation 1814 

 Billy Joel - Ultimate Collection

Hothouse Flowers - Home 

Blackbox - Dreamland 

Twin Peaks - Soundtrack 

Eurythmics - Greatest Hits 

Ratcat - Blind Love 

Grease Soundtrack 

Noiseworks - Love vs Money 

Rod Stewart - Vagabond Heart 

Natalie Cole - Unforgettable with Love

Metallica - Metallica (The Black Album) 

Dire Straits - On Every Street

 Guns N Roses - Use Your Illusion 2

Bryan Adams - Waking Up The Neighbours 

Jimmy Barnes - Soul Deep 

U2 - Achtung Baby 

Michael Jackson - Dangerous 

 

 

Michael Jackson - Dangerous

It has to be said that as a musical force, this was MJ’s last stand.  I think people remember the lead single Black or White more for the video than the song.  Remember the Time is also a good track, but overall this album is just too long.  I’ve probably said this before, but with the advent of CDs that could fit 80 minutes of music, artists decided that they could share every last musical thought.  Previously they had been constrained by the amount of music that could fit on a vinyl record (about 45-50 minutes) so they needed to have a bit more self-discipline.  I’m not sure restraint was part of MJs make up though. 

 

It feels that MJ isn’t as confident on Dangerous as he was on Thriller or Bad.  I guess the first clue is that he’s hiding behind a mask on the front cover (he was going through child molestation allegations at the time).  But he’s also hiding behind a series of producers and too many songs.  It feels like he’s throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.  While not a bad album, it’s also not a great album.

U2 - Achtung Baby

This is my favourite album of all time so it’s hard to give an objective review.  But I’ll do my best. 

 

The last time you heard U2 (in 1988) they were playing Desire and When Love Comes to Town.  They had a harmonica and Bono was wearing a cowboy hat.

 

There was no doubt that the U2 of Achtung Baby was a completely different beast. 

 

Imagine expecting Angel of Harlem part 2, but getting The Fly.  To me, U2 were absorbing the sounds that were bubbling around the world at the time (the Madchester dance scene, industrial music, grunge, etc) and distilling them through their own lens.  While the music is contemporary, the subject matter is as old as time.  This is a classic break up album (the Edge was going through a divorce) and lyrically this ties the album together.  The key songs aren’t actually the singles - Until the End of the World, So Cruel, Acrobat, Ultraviolet.  But it’s all distilled in the timeless classic One.  A breakup song for the ages.   

 

I’ve said previously that musical success is all about timing.  By pushing themselves outside their comfort zone, with Achtung Baby U2 were just a little ahead of their contemporaries, which made them feel like part of the new wave of bands coming through in the 90s, rather than the older bands still stuck in the 80s.

 

Jimmy Barnes - Soul Deep

You can imagine the conversation at the record company… “ok Jimmy, if you’re going to do a Soul album, the first single has to be the most rocking, “Jimmy Barnes” type soul song we can find”. 

 

Unfortunately, the song chosen, I Gotcha, was too in your face.  It was too blunt.  And it was lacking … unfortunately … soul. So, when I heard the song on the radio in 1991, I completely dismissed the whole album as just another Jimmy Barnes album. 

 

That’s the problem with record companies.  Because Soul Deep is actually Jimmy Barnes’ first real artistic move as a musician.  After 7 number 1 albums treading basically the same musical terrain, what was he to do?  He goes back to his childhood and records an album of soul standards.  And they’re actually really good.  He actually sings.  Not shouts.  And his voice is really an asset, knowing when to hold it back, when to let it go.  The arrangements are fairly standard, but they do service to the songs.  This is a really good artistic step and a solid album

Bryan Adams - Waking Up The Neighbours

There was really no escaping Everything I Do (I Do it for you) in 1991 was there?  But what I want to know is there more to this album than that one song? 

 

Joe Elliot described WUTN as Bryan Adams fronting Def Leppard (Bryan Adams hired Mutt Lange – producer of Hysteria – to produce WUTN).  I’m not sure who ends up being more insulted by that comment.  It feels a bit like an own goal if I’m being honest.

 

But it’s not an inaccurate description.  The album is a solid pop-rock album.  The music is tight, there are choruses where you expect choruses, they have verses that set the stage for the big pay offs that come in the chorus.  Overall, it does what it needs to do.  It does feel a bit impersonal though. 

 

I can’t tell if the lyrics for the whole album were written in 10 minutes or if they took hours and weeks to fit in every cliché they could.  Again, I’m not sure which is more insulting…

 

The best I can say about this album that it’s a very consistent album.  But I’m not sure it’s consistently great.

Guns N Roses - Use Your Illusion 2

It happens to every successful artist in every field.  They become too big to say “no” to.  It happens with authors; it happens to film directors. 

 

And it happens to musicians. 

 

Appetite for Destruction was such a successful album that it gave the band room to satisfy their every musical indulgence without any record company interference. 

 

I can’t help but think that if a bit of discipline was involved, they could have cut the two Use Your Illusion albums down into one tight 10 song classic.  Instead you get two albums which have moments of brilliance, but also quite a bit of filler.  I know that there is a case to be made for “good value for money” but maybe “less is more”. 

 

For comparison purposes it’s worth looking at two of the best double albums in history to see how long they are.  The Beatles White Album runs to 93 minutes and Prince’s Sign of the Times runs to 80 minutes.  Whereas, the total running time for the Use Your Illusion albums (1 and 2) goes for a whopping 152 minutes. So, by my calculation, you could cut half the songs from these two behemoths and still have a huge double album.   

 

Sadly, that didn’t happen. 

 

I doubt either the band or the record company was complaining at the time (these two albums sold millions) but it’s certainly not as good as their debut. 

Dire Straits - On Every Street

Never cool (I mean, the guy wore an exercise headband while playing guitar) Mark Knopfler would have to be one of the most distinctive guitarists to ever pick up the instrument.  Instantly you know it’s him when you hear him playing. 

 

Brother’s in Arms was, of course, their most successful album.  In 1986 when they toured Australia, they had the biggest ever tour in our country’s history (until Ed Sheeran overtook this record in 2018). 

 

This album is the follow up and their final album.  It took them 6 years.  I think that’s telling.    It sort of feels like they’re going through the motions a bit and have nothing else to say.  Not necessarily that the creative juices were dried up, but just that they had their time and it was time to put a full stop on their career.  

 

It’s not without its merits though, Calling Elvis and Heavy Fuel are both good tracks.  Mark Knopfler would go on to further success writing soundtracks and having a lower profile solo career.  On Every Street is a fitting final album for Dire Straits.

Metallica - Metallica (The Black Album)

Here comes the cavalry.  It feels like that I’ve had to listen to a few albums I wouldn’t have chosen to in this series, but now I get to review a really great album. 

 

While Master of Puppets is Metallica’s masterpiece, the Black Album is still a classic.  They deliberately wanted to write shorter songs on this album and be more succinct (although none are 3-minute pop songs).  They definitely succeeded.  Enter Sandman, Sad But True, Unforgiven, Nothing Else Matters.  It’s all pretty great.

 

It feels like they harnessed their sound from earlier albums and focussed it into more easily digestible songs.  Earlier albums had a tendency to be filled with endless noodling, but here they are reigned in and the songs are all the more powerful for that. 

 

Sometimes I write a short review because there isn’t much to say about the album.  This time it’s a short review because there’s nothing else to add.  The Black Album is great

Natalie Cole - Unforgettable With Love

The big thing on this album was that Natalie Cole sang a duet with her late father Nat King Cole.  In 1991 this was revolutionary.  In 2021 this isn’t even worth mentioning.  Singing with someone not in the same room is literally the standard way of recording albums.

 

There’s not much to say about this album.  I feel that it made it to number 1 due to the novelty of the recording method and the feel-good story of a daughter duetting with her dead father.  That’s not to say that it’s not a good album.  It is.  But smooth jazz doesn’t normally trouble the top of the charts. 

Rod Stewart - Vagabond Heart

I had pretty much written this review off as “Rod Stewart equals 70s star, soccer, he used to date Rachel Hunter, he’s got a famous haircut and he sang Do You Think I’m Sexy”.  That was about all I knew of Rob Stewart and had just thought this would have made it to number 1 because his old fans bought his new album in droves.  Let me say from the outset that I was totally wrong, and I was really surprised by this album.

 

I guess you’ve got a star (yes, I’ll admit a 70s star) who actually had to be able to sing when he became famous.  This meant that he actually was talented and had to know what material works for him.  So, it plays to his strengths.  He co-produced this album and it has a lot of hits on it, his voice is strong, and it really suits the material.  There’s a bit of a Celtic vibe on some of the songs (no surprise there really), it’s got a duet with Tina Turner and while it may be smooth adult contemporary rock (normally an insult) this is actually quite a classy album.  

Noiseworks - Love verses Money

 

Noiseworks wrote some undisputed Australian pub rock classics.  Their first two albums walked close enough to the line of “generic rock” to be popular with the masses, but were far enough away from that line to be interesting.  Melodic rock songs like No Lies and Take Me Back will be played wherever drunk young Aussie’s congregate until the end of days. 

 

I wouldn’t say that Love vs Money walks a bit too close to the generic rock line as much as it has both feet planted on the line and doesn’t step away from it at all.  It doesn’t budge from generic rock even one inch.   

 

I’m not sure if the title is supposed to be ironic or some uber-cool nod to knowing cool saying that “hey, we know we’re being sexist, but we’re cool enough to get away with it” type thing (yes I’m clutching at straws), but the story that I heard about the song Hot Chili Woman was that the guitarist and the bass player wanted to get some studio time, but their management wouldn’t give it to them unless they wrote a song about cars and girls.  So, they whipped up Hot Chili Woman in about 5 minutes. The song writers were embarrassed by the song and, frankly, even back when I was a callow youth, I thought the song was stupid and sexist and not very good.  It hasn’t improved with age.  What would I know, though?  The song earned the band their equal highest charting single (along with Take Me Back).  So maybe listening to management is a good thing.   

 

Anyway, I always thought that Noiseworks were a pretty decent pub rock band.  They wrote some catchy songs.  This album, however, isn’t their finest work.

Grease Soundtrack

 

Some music you just know because it is played all the time in your house.  I think my sister must have seen the film Grease 1,000 times.  Which means I’ve heard this soundtrack, you guessed it, 1,000 times.  I know every word.  Every syllable.  Every phrase.  Worse.  I know every dance move.    

 

Was it cool?  Grease was never cool.  All the evidence you need is in the second sentence of this review. 

 

But there’s no doubt that while not cool, the songs are catchy as hell. 

 

So even if it’s not my cup of tea, it’s in my veins. 

Ratcat - Blind Love

I have previously written that Tingles is the most important release by an Australian band in the 90s.  In fact, I’m going include that article before I get to my review of Blink Love. 

Australian Indie 

I would argue that Tingles by Rat Cat is the most important Australian music release of the 90s.  To make my case, you have to remember a few things about the musical landscape at the time, what Tingles stood for and I’m also willing to take into account how old I was at the time.  It’s funny how the pop music from your youth is always better than the pop music of today’s youth… (insert raised eyebrow) … but I feel that it was maybe good timing on my part to be at an impressionable age when the music world was on the cusp of an explosion.  I guess I was at the right age at the right time…

 

 

1990.  It was the start of a new decade and I was in my later years of high school.  The music scene in the late part of the 80s was pretty slick.  Pretty corporate.  Hair Metal and Michael Jackson ruled the charts.  Yes, there were bands like the Pixies starting to make some waves in the underground, but how would a 16/17 year old from Canberra hear those things?  We only had commercial radio for god’s sake!   

 

By happy coincidence in 1990 Triple J went national.  What a godsend!  Strange sounds.  Interesting bands.  I’m not sure I liked all of it, but you could tell it was exciting and vital and it was everything that the commercial radio stations were not.  It’s also worth noting that I had just started my first job and was earning around $50-$75 a week and a CD (possibly the most important thing to purchase) was $30.  Quite a commitment.  Into this environment came a three piece from Sydney who released a 6 track EP that only cost $5.  Five Dollars!  What a bargain.  I can’t even begin to tell you how many people I know owned it.  It was… let me think… oh yes.  It was everyone.  It was everything that we’d started to hear on Triple J.  It was exciting.  It was different.  It was catchy enough to be familiar, but not too slick to feel corporate! It was perfect. 

 

But it didn’t come out of nowhere.  Bands such as the Clouds and the Falling Joys as well as the Hummingbirds led the charge for Australian Indie around this time, so Ratcat didn’t exist in a void.  Not long afterwards, of course, Nirvana released Nevermind and changed everything.  After that, you didn’t need to be someone who played a distorted guitar to be successful.  But it certainly didn’t hurt.

 

Blind Love 

 

Blind Love is the album that follows up the EP that solidifies their success.  At least that’s what it was supposed to do.  Rat Cat really were a bit of a flash in the pan.  They didn’t really leverage their early success and turn it into a longer career.  They don’t even feature on 90s nostalgia tours. 

 

While you could say that this album sounds a bit like a Nirvana rip off (albeit, it is a bit more bubble gum pop than angsty Seattle grunge) what is more interesting than anything is that this album was released in May 1991 while Nevermind was released in September 1991, proving that Nirvana didn’t come out of nowhere.  The seeds of grunge were sown in the late 80s and early 90s (with bands like the Pixies) and while Nirvana were the main beneficiaries of this, they weren’t the only band to cut through into the mainstream. 

 

But back to Blind Love.  It’s a good album, but let’s face it, it’s not Tingles now is it?