Beneath the 90s

That Jekka Gal

That Jekka Gal

That Jekka Gal

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Thinking about albums that were acclaimed at the time but, perhaps, less mainstream.


I have to nominate Nuyorican Soul. Had totally forgotten about it until I chanced upon it on Spotify the other day. An absolute corker & a bit of Roy Ayers to boot!
 
Jamiroquai's first 2 albums were quite jazz orientated, then their third album onwards (Travelling Without Moving) were more poppy and chart friendly. I liked Jamiroquai best for their first 2 albums. All of their albums were well received though.

Bjork is the opposite way round in that all of her albums were also well received, but she is best known for her first 2 albums (Debut / Post). Third album onwards is less mainstream and more experimental.

Possibly Baby D as well? They're better known for their hit singles but they recorded an album as well called Deliverance which was a lesser known gem.

Would be nice to hear more suggestions as the 90s was my favourite decade for music.
 
Brand New Heavies - Heavy Rhyme Experience. Nothing much like it at the time or since although Guru's Jazzamatazz came after this (I think!). The first was decent but felt the rest were all a bit same same.
 
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If you were into the dance scene at the time, these suggestions would be well known, but mainstream probably not....

Cafe del mar volume 1 & 2. No. 2 being my favourite. Track no. 7 sabor de verano ( the way out west mix) is still one of my favourite all time tracks.
These are chill out dance albums & in some ways I'd say pretty unique.

Northern Exposure by sasha & john digweed. More heavier dance than cafe del mar, but is sublime.

Gatecrasher Red. CD, or now track list no 2 imho being better. A fantastic mix, that sums up the dance era at that time.
 
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In my opinion music (or popular music) but I think music in general died in the mid to late 90's, certainly by about 97/98.

Of course this is just personal taste/opinion.

But I think, certainly by the mid 90's capitalism and money making started to exceed creative/art driven music. If you look at the likes of Take That, Boyzone, Spice Girls etc - they were not artists or musicians, just pretty faces brought in by record labels and producers to make money, they otherwise had little to no talent, yes some of them could sing (ish).

And yes, I know this sort of thing had been around before Bananarama, Kylie Monague etc with Waterman Aitken Stock behind it, but it became very much the forefront of music come about 95 onwards.

But largely prior, a band would have to become poplular (at least a little) in their own right, and then either approch or be picked up by talent scouts/word of mouth etc and then were picked up by record labels.

Maybe its just my age, but I listen to a lot of diverse music really, from the 60's onwards and I think it was great up until about that era and died a death.
 
BUDFORCE said:
Maybe its just my age
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You're making the mistake a lot of us decrepit oldies do.

You're taking the very best of old music, the ones that you love and remember, and calling it 'old music', ignoring the reams and reams of music from that time that you didn't like.

Then you're taking the worst of music from now. The ones that draw your attention because you dislike them significantly, and calling it 'modern music'.

Then you're comparing those two sets and drawing a conclusion. The charts were always full of crap, commercialised music. Such is the nature of things.

This is exactly what people do with sitcoms when they cite OFAH, Blackadder, Red Dwarf, compare it to Mrs Browns Boys, and confidently state that there's no good comedy any more.
 
Every generation will always have a rose tinted classic best album ever of all time that also just happens to be strongly emotionally connected to either a holiday you had, a girl you knew, a lot of Es and amphetamines etc etc.....

Aphex twin selected ambient works 85-92.

Guns and Roses use your illusion 1 and 2

Pearl jam - ten
Nirvana - nevermind
Smashing pumpkins - Siamese dream

That's my 90s grunge/rock and lots of LSD.
 
FISHGUTS said:
Cafe del mar volume 1 & 2. No. 2 being my favourite. Track no. 7 sabor de verano ( the way out west mix) is still one of my favourite all time tracks.
These are chill out dance albums & in some ways I'd say pretty unique.
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Yes, I have them all and they introduced me to a load of great artists- most notably the great Marc Anyone.

I once went to Cafe Del Mar expecting a groovy international crowd but found it more like Cardiff city centre on a Saturday night at chucking out time.

This was in 2010, perhaps I'd left it a bit late.
 
BUDFORCE said:
In my opinion music (or popular music) but I think music in general died in the mid to late 90's, certainly by about 97/98.

Of course this is just personal taste/opinion.

But I think, certainly by the mid 90's capitalism and money making started to exceed creative/art driven music. If you look at the likes of Take That, Boyzone, Spice Girls etc - they were not artists or musicians, just pretty faces brought in by record labels and producers to make money, they otherwise had little to no talent, yes some of them could sing (ish).
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I agree with you, although I could extend the "ok" period until about 2002. Out of Take That, Boyzone, East 17, Spice Girls, All Saints and Steps, there were a handful of tracks that I could tolerate from these guys and girls. Then come 2002, we had the emergence of reality TV talent shows like Pop Stars and Pop Idol and that flooded the chart with absolute trash. At the same time, DJ Sammy destroyed dance music. The fact that an old man like me can listen to the odd track from a 2020s top 40 chart demonstrates just how bad it was in the early 2000s.
 
90's was a golden era, guitar/rock based stuff was still 'popular' then but at the same time you had all the 4 to the floor stuff

perhaps not the best example, but meh :D
 
Pawnless Endgame said:
I agree with you, although I could extend the "ok" period until about 2002. Out of Take That, Boyzone, East 17, Spice Girls, All Saints and Steps, there were a handful of tracks that I could tolerate from these guys and girls. Then come 2002, we had the emergence of reality TV talent shows like Pop Stars and Pop Idol and that flooded the chart with absolute trash. At the same time, DJ Sammy destroyed dance music. The fact that an old man like me can listen to the odd track from a 2020s top 40 chart demonstrates just how bad it was in the early 2000s.
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I was going to go on and say exactly that, after the era of manufactured pop boy/girl bands you then had pop idol and x factor etc.

Big money behind these acts, pushing and promoting them for quick cash. But none of these "artists" really earned it, and I don't think any of them stood the test of time.

There are a few bands I listen to that are more recent, but I'd say a handful that started up post 2000, probably the most current band I'm into is Ghost and even they started up, what, 7/8 years ago now.
 
JonRGV250 said:
Stereo MC’s - connected.
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Yep. Still one of my favourite albums of all time. Probably considered much of a one hit wonder at the time so not particularly mainstream either at the time. Disappearing pretty much for 15+ years helps as well.

Portishead were pretty big at the time.
 
The American release of Come On Over is better than the Euro / International release. Some of it is way different. It’s more country.

You know, in case anyone else cares about Shania that much.
 
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