Kenny G - Breathless

This is probably the closest we come to jazz in the entire 90s.  Wikipedia describes this album as “smooth jazz”.  

I think every list of “the best albums of all time” feels that they need to include a jazz album.  I’m not sure why, but it seems like every rock critic feels like they have to include it to seem like they’re a well-rounded person.  Or something. Inevitably the albums chosen are A Kind of Blue or Bitches Brew by Miles Davis. 

But here’s the thing.  That’s not the place to start with Miles Davis. 

The Miles Davis album(s) that you should listen are the Prestige sessions (cooking, relaxing, working, steaming … ).  The story behind these albums is that he wanted to get out of his recording contract, but owed his record company 4 albums.  So, in two days, he put together a band of the most talented musicians he knew, he chose a selection of jazz standards.  And reached the sky.  These are untouchable classics.  They’re basically perfect versions of these songs.  Even if you know nothing about jazz, you’ll like those albums.  They might not explore new musical territory like Bitches Brew or A Kind of Blue (and purists will say that all jazz should), but they’re so good they make all other jazz albums redundant.   

What was I supposed to be talking about?  

Oh yeah. 

That’s right. 

Kenny G. 

Don’t listen to this album. 

It’s nothing like the Prestige Sessions

Lenny Kravitz - Are You Gonna Go My Way

It’s really nice to see another rock album in the number 1 spot in the charts.  Even if he’s not your cup of tea, the fact that a rock album made it to number 1 is a good thing.  Fast forward to 2021 and that’s a real rarity. 

This is another example (like the Baby Animals) that rock was very much alive in the 90s.  Grunge may have been the sub-genre that got the lion’s share of column inches, but bubbling away just below the surface was more straightforward rock.  

There’s no doubt that the title track is brilliant.  It features a timeless riff and you’ll be playing air guitar to the song in no time

 

Eric Clapton - Unplugged

You could argue that MTV unplugged is the most influential music TV show of all time.  They didn’t invent bands playing acoustically, but they certainly brought it to a wide audience.  Even today bands will regularly take a break in their concert to do a mini acoustic set. 

By some measures this is the biggest selling live album of all time.  I know the usual subjects are Frampton Comes Alive or Kiss Alive, but this was recorded in front of an audience – albeit a small one – so I think it counts. 

Two songs stand out.  You can’t help but be moved by Tears in Heaven.  Written for the death of his son, it’s the perfect expression of music helping you start to heal in your moment of grief.  

And then there’s Layla.  Written for Patti Boyd (who also had The Beatles Something written for her), it has a killer guitar riff and an urgency to it.  Unfortunately, here it lacks power.  I guess, at his best, Eric Clapton wore his blues influence on his sleave and married that with rock songs.  Layla is a great song.  But it needs that soaring riff and driving rhythm section.  By presenting this song in an acoustic format, it loses all that made it great

Whitney Houston - Bodyguard Soundtrack

Whitney Houston has gone from being the golden girl of America to being a cautionary tale.  She had it all at her feet.  She had the talent, the songs, the connections.  But she also made many, many bad choices.   Her personal life was a bit of a mess, her extended family even worse.  While she is one of the greats, with the right people by her side, she could have had a long and happy life.  But sadly, that wasn’t to be. 

 

She had soul and gospel in her core, and she married this with a pop sheen.  This produced a winning combination.  Unfortunately, she also had the tendency to overdo things.  Where Dolly Parton’s version of I Will Always Love You (she wrote the song) is understated, Whitney’s version is overblown, over sung, over emoted, overdone and I’m over it.  Dolly has gone from being the butt of jokes to being recognised as one of the best songwriters of all time.  Perhaps, in time, Whitney will be recognised for her music and not the tragic end of her story.

1992

Prince - Diamonds and Pearls

Baby Animals 

Diesel - Hepfidelity 

Def Leppard - Adrenalize 

RHCP - Blood Sugar Sex Magic 

The Cure - Wish 

Neil Diamond - Greatest Hits 

Michael Crawford - Performs Anthony Lloyd Webber 

Lionel Richie - Back to Front 

Billy Ray Cyrus - Some Gave All 

Prince - Love Symbol 

Bon Jovi - Keep the Faith 

AC/DC - Live 

 Simple Minds - Glittering Prize 81/92

ABBA - Gold 

 

ABBA - Gold

 I love the fact that when the Sex Pistols reformed for their Filthy Lucre tour (in 1996) they walked on stage to ABBAs Dancing Queen.  The idea was that they were showing what music was around in 1977 and how different and important the Sex Pistols were.  They wanted to show that they had to cut through the dross and mediocrity of the music industry at the time.  They were different.  They meant something.  They were real.    

 

The problem was that the audience of die-hard punks were singing every word of Dancing Queen back to the band.  They loved it! 

 

In the intervening years ABBA had become cool.  In many ways it was inevitable.  The songs are infectious.  The singing is flawless. (When putting on the Mamma Mia stage play, I gather that the cast of professional singers were finding it next to impossible to replicate the harmonies).  The ABBA catalogue can hold its own when put next to any other artist’s catalogue. This is wall to wall hits. 

ABBA’s appeal knows no bounds.  When an Australian conservative politician was asked to name his favourite band he said “well, you put some ABBA on at a party and everyone gets up and dances”.  This answer was met with a bit of scoffing (he could have chosen a much cooler band).  But you know what?  He was right.

Simple Minds - Glittering Prize 81/92

It’s no secret that Simple Minds are one of my guilty pleasures.  Are they all that’s wrong with bloated 80s stadium rock?  Perhaps they are.  Did Simple Minds jump the shark? Perhaps they did.  

 

But before all that happened, they were a super cool art-rock European band.  New Gold Dream is a straight up classic album.  It is both of its time and timeless.  It is a dance rock masterpiece. 

 

The album that followed (Sparkle in the Rain), however, was where, for many, the rot set in. They set a course for stadiums and lost what made them great. 

 

As an explanation, I think you can’t go past this story from Jim Kerr:

 

“A Couple of years ago a young, anonymous musician approached Jim Kerr in a Glasgow rehearsal studio and began humorously haranguing him. "He was like: 'You guys lost it, man, having all those hits, playing all those stadiums. I would never do that.' And I said: 'Well, you might not have that dilemma!'" Kerr laughs. "It's nice to have the choice, to try it and see where it goes. But I understand that for a lot of our audience it was too much of a jump."

 

I know when they left the dance-art-rock thing behind them was the point where Simple Minds go from being “cool” to being seriously uncool.  They became like a poor man’s U2.  But the instinct is totally understandable. Isn’t that part of the reason you get into a band?  To play to thousands of people?   

 

Not surprisingly, this collection focuses on the hits but, by doing so, it misses out on what made them great.  If you were to only to listen to one Simple Minds album, put on New Gold Dream.  It’s perfect in every way.

AC/DC - Live

Angus! 

 

Angus! 

 

That’s the call of the audience before the first song. And it’s understandable.

 

When you’re 15, you think AC/DC is all about Angus. But when you get older, you realise that Malcolm is actually the beating heart of the band.  He’s got the groove, he’s got the drive.  He’s got the roll, to go with the rock, that sets this band apart from their many imitators. 

 

The old joke is that AC/DC only ever made one album.  16 times in a row.  I mean there’s an element of truth to that, but it’s a little unfair.  This album is the closest they came to releasing a greatest hits album and the arrangements don’t veer too far from the studio versions (they just have added crowd noise).  But do you want AC/DC to go off on a jazz odyssey? No.  quite clearly you don’t. 

 

They might have made the same album 16 times in a row, but they know what they do and they do it well.

Bon Jovi - Keep the Faith

Bon Jovi are an easy band to like, but they’re really hard to love. I wouldn’t say that they absolutely define the term “Corporate Rock Band” but you’d have to go a long way to find a better example of one.  

 

I have mixed feelings about this album.  There are some good songs - I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, In These Arms, Dry County are all good.  But then you have some forgettable songs and you have Bed of Roses, which is a song I’ve always thought was an overblown pastiche of November Rain.  Which, in itself, is an overblown rock ballad.  So it’s a copy of a song I don’t like.  It’s fair to say that there’s both good and bad on this album.  

 

I will say, in the albums defence, that I’ve always had a soft spot for the title track.  For a bit of mindless “fists in the air -  screaming out a chorus” type song, you could certainly do worse.   

 

Madonna - Erotica

Not content with upsetting the religious establishment with Like a Prayer, Madonna continue to push boundaries in the early 90s.  There was the one-two punch of releasing this album - Erotica – along side her Sex book.  She certainly knew how to get attention. 

 

The album itself was, again, musically just ahead of the curve.  She obviously had her finger on the pulse and knew how to make her mark.  The standout songs are the title track, Deeper and Deeper, Rain, Bad Girl.  I know I’ve said it before, but she’s got a lot of good songs.  It’s easy to be controversial, but at the end of the day, you need something to back that up.  On Erotica, she had the songs to go with the sensationalism. 

Prince - Love Symbol

 

I hate to say it, but this is a good EP hiding inside an overblown album.  Morning Papers, My Name is Prince, Sexy MF and 7.  These are the only songs you need to hear from this album ever again.  Prince’s purple patch (yes, I did just say that) went from 1978-1988 but in the early 90s he was kind of looking for a direction.  He was fighting with his record company (he famously wrote Slave on his face to complain about his treatment), he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol.  All the signs were there that he was a bit lost.  By any measure this is the last Prince album most people will have heard, and frankly, aside from the above-mentioned tracks, there’s not a whole lot here for the casual listener. 

Billy Ray Cyrus - Some Gave All

We all know that this made it to number one for that song.  I’m not going to mention it. It’ll be stuck in your head for days even if I just mention the title.  I’m going to review the album without even listening to that song.  Anyone with a sane mind hates it.  But what’s the rest of the album like? 

Some Gave All is a fairly good/pretty decent country album.  Yes, I’m hedging my bets.  It’s not fantastic.  It’s not terrible.  We all know that people bought this album for that song (it will come as no surprise this is his most successful album), but he didn’t embarrass himself on the rest of the album.  While he is more famous in 2021 as the father of Miley, there’s definitely enough on the rest of this album for suggest it wasn’t all down to luck. 

Jesus Christ Superstar - 1992 Australian Cast Recording

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A musical.

Starring:

John Farnham.

Kate Cebrano.

Jon Stevens.

Angry Anderson.

…

10 Weeks at number 1.

…

Jesus Christ. 

 

Lionel Richie - Back to Front

Lionel Richie is smooth.  Or maybe I should have written that smoooooth.  He’s very smooth. 

I reluctantly listened to this album, but it was actually pretty good.  I know he’s had quite a career since 1992 (as a judge on American Idol among many other things) but musically, I think this album all you need to know of his work.  A mix of his solo singles and Commodores tracks (I could jam in a reference to Faith No More in this review…who did a pretty faithful cover of Easy) it is (have I said this before?) smooth.  It’s easy listening, but not unpleasant.  I don’t think you can mention Lionel Richie and not bring up Hello.  What do you remember of the song?  Bad pottery.  That’s what I remember.  But really, I could have summed up the whole album with one word.

Smooth. 

Michael Crawford - Performs Anthony Lloyd Webber

Has there ever been a review of Michael Crawford that didn’t mention Frank Spencer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Some_Mothers_Do_%27Ave_%27Em ?  This won’t be the first. 

I said that Neil Diamond was music that my mum liked, but Michael Crawford was literally music that a friend’s mum liked.  What the hell was going on in 1992?  How did all these albums get to number 1? 

I guess you could call Michael Crawford a triple threat.  Acting, singing and a comedian (I use this term loosely).  He obviously knew what worked for him.  Songs from musicals aren’t my cup of tea, but I guess he knew his market.    

Neil Diamond - The Greatest Hits 1966-1992

I had written off this review as “God, Neil Diamond.  That’s music my mum liked”.  But this album really opened my eyes.

The first band I was in was an acoustic duo and we really could have benefited from listening to this album.  Putting aside that he was one of the best songwriters of his generation (or maybe even of all time) the production flourishes that are used would really have lifted some of our songs.  In fact, they lift some of these songs from being “good” to being “great”.   

Some songs have groovy bass lines that complement the chords (Cherry Cherry), on one particular example (Sweet Caroline) there are trumpet notes that lift the chorus to another level.  All of Solitary Man is actually quite amazing.  Not only that, he’s a great singer.  I had previously only heard UB40’s version of Red Red Wine, but his phrasing on this made me listen to the song in a new way. 

A revelation. 

The Cure - Wish

Another band that had to follow up a genre defining album.  Disintegration is not only the best Cure album; it is arguably one of the best albums by anyone ever. Wish was never going to reach those heights, but it is definitely a worthy addition to the Cure’s catalogue.

It features the polarising Friday I’m In Love.  Cure aficionados hate it.  It’s too bright, too up, too poppy.  I think they forget the Cure that made Love Cats, Just Like Heaven, Boys Don’t Cry etc.  The Cure are a band that have always had two sides to it.  The gloomy, dark and, yes, gothic songs.  But they also had a pop side. 

Wish features both of these sides.  From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, to Open or Apart, these songs express the dark and brooding side of the Cure.  Whereas High and Friday I’m in Love will satisfy those looking for a pop hit.  A Letter To Elise is one of those rare Cure songs that seems to do both things at the same time.  Really brilliant. 

At the end of the day Wish is great.  It’s not Disintegration.  But then again, not many albums are

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magic

In some ways, the 90s start here. While Def Leppard were part of the old guard, the Red Hot Chili Peppers represent the beginning of the new (Nirvana, Pearl Jam etc).

 

The RHCP have had a history of changing lineups (they have had more lead guitarists than albums…) but with BSSM, the second of the albums they made with John Fruisciante, they really hit their stride. 

 

Lead single (Under the Bridge) is a bit of a Trojan Horse for this album.  It’s a great ballad, but it doesn’t represent the funk/rap hybrid that is the RHCP stock in trade. 

 

While BSSM is often cited as their best album (I personally prefer Californication), it is not without its flaws.  There is a bit of filler here (it could have done with a bit of judicious pruning), but for the most part there are some really great songs on here.  Give It Away, Breaking the Girl, Suck My Kiss, and the previously mentioned Under the Bridge are all songs that I’ll never tire of listening to.

Def Leppard - Adrenalize

Hysteria is the best Pop-Metal album of all time.  That’s a given.  I’d say it’s almost flawless.  The follow up, Adrenalize, was … how do I put this politely… not quite as good.  Def Leppard had the unenviable task of following up a genre defining album.  What did they do?  They tried to copy a winning formula but in doing so they gave us less, rather than more.   

 

The main problem with this album, is that although it wasn’t produced by Mutt Lange it sounds like someone trying to produce an album like he would.  In some ways, it feels like the band is second guessing themselves.  So, you get a copy of something, rather than an original.  To refer back to an earlier review, unfortunately, this makes it sound a bit like a Bryan Adams album fronted by Joe Elliott.

 

And while I remember liking this much more in 1992 than I do now, it’s not without its merits.  Let’s Get Rocked is a fun song.  Yes, it’s stupid.  But it’s fun.  I’ve always had a soft spot for White Lightning – written for Steve Clarke who died of alcoholism – but other than that, there’s slim pickings here.

 

My advice?  Listen to Hysteria. 

Diesel - Hepfidelity

I was expecting pub rock (reminiscent of his earlier incarnation as Johnny Diesel and the Injectors – terrible name btw), but what I got was a funky mix of 60s soul and Prince. 

 

Diesel is well known as a guitarist, but on Hepfidelity he explores his funky side.  He’s definitely looser than you would expect, and it is quite a surprise.  Perhaps he felt free from the straight jacket that is pub rock, but there’s quite a diverse range of sounds here.  From straight ahead funk of Man Alive and Love Junk, to the soulful sounds of Come to Me and One More Time it’s all really, really good.  Love songs are the stock in trade of pop music, but there are only so many ways you can say the same thing.  Amazingly on Tip Of My Tongue Diesel finds a new way to express an ages old feeling.  Very impressive. 

 

All in all, this album was quite a surprise.  A gem.