Random Rules, Just Married Edition

1. Morrissey-Alma Matters

Probably the best track off of Moz’s somewhat average 1997 Maladjusted album. That being said, there are still a lot of excellent tunes on it—it’s just that the filler tracks are reallly filler-y.

2. Britney Spears-Gimme More

It’s Britney, bitch!  I don’t think Brit has put out a stone-cold solid album yet, but that’s not the sort of “artist” she is. She’s a cipher really, merely a conduit for the songs and production work of genuinely creative people. Kind of like how a steak is a really lame piece of meat without a sauce of some kind.

3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs-Softshock

This latest YYY’s album was a nice surprise. Each successive album they release is more and more cohesive, and I was struck by the similarities between this one and concurrent Metric release Fantasies. It’s difficult to articulate why, but the two albums really have a Beatles vs. Stones, Blur vs. Oasis kind of vibe, not in a rivalry sense, but in how these two relatively evenly-matched groups sysnthesize their influences and interpret their chosen sub-genre’s musical conventions. The YYY’s are fuzzier, grittier, and rougher around the edges while retaining enough of a pop sensibility to get on radio and be popular with the kids (a la the Stones), and Metric is all about the gloss, even when they stretch out into more avant-garde territory in terms of song construction (a la the Beatles).

4. The Verve-The Drugs Don’t Work

The further away 1997 appears in the rear view mirror of my life, the more saccharine the production of  Urban Hymns becomes. Still a nice tune, just a bit cloying if you’re not in the right frame of mind to hear it.

5. INXS-I Need You Tonight

Hahaha, OK, so, this song, for whatever reason, has become completely intertwined with the word “striptease” in my mind. There’s something very sexy about it, but in that very superficial, plastic sense that 80s sexuality possessed within the mainstream. Once grunge (and subsequently “modern rock”) entered into the equation in the early 1990’s, you had an altogether dirtier well of musical “inspiration” to draw from as a sex worker. Less Patrick Nagel, more Michael Turner. Compared contextually, ‘I Need You Tonight’ is positively oozing with innocence!

6. Speed McQueen-I’m In Love With

One drawback of the alternative boom of the early to mid 90s (there were many, but that’s a long discussion for another post) was the glut of indie labels that sprung up, were bought out my majors, and then shat out in the form of a tax write-off. A lot of promising bands couldn’t survive the constant upheaval, which is a shame, and everyone’s loss. One such group was New York’s Speed McQueen, who put out one very solid full-length before getting got by the powers-that-be. Protect ya neck, little bands that could!

7. Blur-On The Way To The Club

A stand-out cut from Blur’s underrated Think Tank, this is a weird song, because the band basically sabotage what could have been a really odd-but-beautiful single by only going through the “chorus” only twice, and then fading out into a strange dub coda. It reminds me a lot of their song “Death of a Party”, but without the sinister overtones.

8. The Jam-Every Little Bit Hurts

A nice, if lightweight, rarity from the band who built a career on mining 60s R&B and soul music and running it through a punk blender. Paul Weller’s voice isn’t quite up to the task of matching the nuance of the Brenda Holloway original, but he gets some points for feeling (he was totally closing his eyes when he recorded this.)

9. Portastatic-I Wanna Know Girls

Perfect. Pop. Song.

10. Tom Petty-You Wreck Me

Such a great driving song, off Tom’s second solo joint. So many people I’ve met over the years usually have two Tom Petty CD’s: The 1993 Greatest Hits compilation, and Wildflowers. Which stands to reason, as those are unequivocally his two strongest discs, top to bottom.

Shopping-The Jam

I’ve recently been re-discovering my love for The Jam. For those that don’t know, The Jam were essentially the biggest punk band in the UK (back when punk “happened”). Yes, bigger than The Clash, The Sex Pistols, everybody. The trio centered around vocalist/guitarist Paul Weller, and traded in an amped-up version of the mod sounds of mid-60s London, Weller’s two main songwriting influences at the time being Ray Davies of The Kinks and Pete Townshend of The Who. However, by the time they broke up in 1982, Weller had successfully integrated the best elements of disco, pop, R&B and soul into the band’s sound. A single b-side from around the time of the band’s swansong, The Gift, ‘Shopping’ is a fantastic testament to just how far he’d come, both as a songwriter, melodicist, and synthesizer of styles.

The song is essentially a musical re-working of Charles Mingus’ classic ‘Goodbye, Pork Pie Hat’. Lyrically, the song deals with the frustration of trying to become (and subsequently stay) fashionable. Taken at face value, the boredom and exasperation of walking from shop window to shop window in search of the perfect ensemble and accoutrements is clever, but not particularly interesting. However, in the context of when the song was written, as Weller was struggling with the decision to continue making gobs of money fronting what was by then one of the most successful pop acts in the UK (only Queen and The Police were bigger) or to divest himself of the responsibility of remaining fashionable in the eyes of his fans and critics and stretch out even further musically, there’s a lot of conflict and soul-searching here. And the best part of the song is the playing; Weller and bassist Bruce Foxton and drummer Rick Buckler don’t sound like amateurish punks aping jazz stylings–they sound like jazz pros aping pop structure.

While ‘Shopping’ isn’t really indicative of The Jam’s overall style, it’s an intriguing curio and the perfect b-side: it exemplifies creative exploration paired with pop precision, and is a great supplement to the latter-day albums in the band’s catalog.