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?
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