Numbers 7-5
Whilst 10-8 would have a long term impact by either rejuvenating the alternative scene and proving there was still an audience for creative songwriting and singular artists, 7-5 would have more short term impact by functioning either as the end of an era or the beginning of another, more exciting one. It has to be remembered what a dull place the late 90's musical landscape was, with Dad-rock having become dominant and a blandness besetting the land, not to mention the endless nu-metal hordes with their samey, repetitive videos providing a staggeringly dull mainstream. Whilst the incredible innovations of R & B during this period provided a flood of great singles, even that momentum began to slow during 2000. Bearing this in mind, it is possible to see these records as the beginning of a backlash against the complacency into which music had settled.
7.Whipping Boy-Whipping Boy
Ireland's finest bid farewell with this slice of raw cynicism and despair, with the frustration of a career spent in limbo oozing from every second. This was the point when the hangover from the Celtic Tiger era in Ireland began to kick in, in addition to a growing sense of emptiness with all the material advances brought on by the 90's elsewhere in the world. There's a definite sense of finality to this record, with Fergal McKee's lyrics creating a sense of a country gone to the dogs, wasted lives and people having learnt nothing. The bracing cynicism of this record would have stuck out like a sore thumb at the time, which is probably why it was as ignored as Whipping Boy's other masterpieces. The bitter pill is hard to swallow, and this feels like a bitter end to the 90's as a musical era, with all it's angst having matured into bitter cynicism and resignation.
6.XTRMTR-Primal Scream
Having spent much of the last 15 years of their time on the Creation label making everything from C86 to Madchester to Dad-rock to electronica, Primal Scream said goodbye to Creation in the noisiest, most agressive and irreverent way possible. With the label having aided the rise of the post-Britpop Dad-rock which was to blame for the blandness of the late 90's musical landscape, it was up to the label and it's flagship act to provide a hippie-slaughtering, terrorism-glorifying, syphilis-fixated blast of raw agression to counteract the bores and bozos. There is a sheer joy in chaos in this record that immediately sets it apart, with the likes of Kevin Shields and Bernard Sumner contributing to the madness. The record's other significance, in addition to standing as a statement against the blandness the music scene had lapsed into, was to regenerate interest in post-punk by successfully reviving not only the sonic extremities of groups such as PiL, The Pop Group and This Heat, but also by resurrecting the anarcho-revolutionary drive which drove these groups. What this record acheived was not only to create a resurgence of interest in the period, but also to spark a surge of new groups inspired by the post-punk era. And for that it more than merits it's place in the Top 10 of 2000