Taxman

TAXMAN'S FAVORITE ALBUMS FROM THE NINETIES

PART III

Okay, don't blame me for that one. I know it is kinda predictable choice and it is over hyped. Overrated also. It's influence has not been pretty good. It has been named as the most important nineties record by many, but on the other, because of it's status and popularity, it has became popular to put it down. Even many people who are fans of that band that make it do it. It's their opinion and they have a right to do so.
It is a record that "made alternative mainstream". It was called grunge, punk and nearly whatever, but I have always thought it as damn good punk pop record. Or who cares about genres anyway? It's filled "children songs with distortion". Yeah, I warn you. If you get my drift, this is not gonna be a great text. So many people have wrote about this one that I can't say anything new but you pretend you are interested? Good.

NEVERMIND

Released: 1991
By whom: Nirvana
About the band: Led by a talented songwriter but not very talented human being Kurt Cobain. (If my review includes too much praise for him, let me make this clear: I love his music, but I don't idolize him as a person, I don't analyze his lyrics like some people and I DON'T think him as a some kind of prophet. He was very troubled, but also very talented human being, not anything else.)
You may know that band cos their drummer later founded The Foo Fighters.
The funniest and best thing about Nirvana has always been how they were basically a pop band. Right from the start there were pop elements in their songs. Every song has even one hook. Melodies are simple, songs are repetive and not very diverse. Guitar solos amateurish.
What I like about that record: I love melodies. I have always thought Kurt as a pop songwriter who tried not to be pop. He tried so hard to be edgy (and never really succeeded) that it is kinda funny. It's a paradox. He did not really even sell out the underground. Those bands that were part of so called MTV grunge movement sucked anyway.
Kurt was a big fan of bands like Beatles, ABBA and Vaselines. He was very passionate about his idols, always talking about them and spreading the words, just like they were more important than his own music.
I love that combination of energy and tunefulness. I like all of their albums but I like Nevermind best cos I think Kurt was better when he wrote catchy pop punk ot whatever songs like Smells Like A Teen Spirit (yeah, I even like it...) than when he tried to be so edgy and inaccessible and wrote tunes like Tourettes. I like them too, of course.
Some of their fans (they have a lot of them and some are kinda dull) think that Nevermind is a sell out and if you like it the best you are not a real fan or whatever. That kind of strange things happen when a band becomes big enough. And Kurt never wanted to be and never was able to be his generation's spokesman so forget it. Those lyrics are not even particularly good.
And after his suicide some people have thought that Nirvana was particularly depressing band. It's not true. Right from the start humor was an important part of their music. Nevermind ain't a depressive record. It's pretty funny actually.

What I don't like about this record? Those arrangements would be a bit more diverse. Now it sounds the same from the start to the end. But maybe it would have been too much selling out then. Dunno.

Best songs: I like everything really, but Breed is mind blowing, and Lithium is catchy as hell. No weak moment here, really.

Final Words: It may not be a life-changing album, it may not be the best album from the nineties, it certainly ain't the best album ever, but it is a damn good record that combines pop catchiness with punk energy. I can understand if someone don't like it but if anyone puts it down as a sell-out, I get angry.

And I guess I don't have to post any links this time? Every song is a radio standard anyway?

And sorry for writing that text. I know I have a bad taste. But wait, the most awful examples of my awful mainstream music taste are yet to come. Stay tuned.

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Trollheart

As far as Iron Maiden go, I have four words for you:
Hallowed
Be
Thy
Name

On the subject of prog rock, I LOVE prog rock (ooh! Surprise!) but I agree with you that sometimes songs are extended simply because they can be. It's a problem I've had with Yes, ELP and Dream Theater. However, when done properly they can be quite amazing. Look at "Supper's ready" by Genesis, "Around the world in a day" by It Bites, "Grendel" by Marillion (or "This strange engine") or even "Through different eyes" by Mystery. All great songs that never seem to drag or be extended just for the sake of it. Prog done correctly can be a thing of beauty.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Taxman

Yes. That's right. However, the mains strength of Genesis is that they are not over serious. Selling England by the Pound is actually quite funny album, ain't it?

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Taxman

I HATE THAT LIST!!!!!

How can one decide what one includes and what one does not? Also I keep on finding more and more great music from the nineties. It was such a rich decade. Luckily that list is not called "Taxman's top ten records from the nineties", so I can write about those records I like and I also like to write about. So this is, by no means, not my nineties top ten, just ten good records from nineties that I enjoyed and so should you. It's easier on that way, ain't it?
However, my taste is not diverse, and I'm not pretending it is, so most of these records are well-known and I suppose most you know them. If you don't, you should. But I'm warning you, I probably will not say anything new about them. However....

TAXMAN'S TEN FAVOURITE RECORDS FROM THE NINETIES

PART IV

PARKLIFE

Released:1994
By whom: Blur
About the band: Easily the greatest Nineties Britpop band. No offence to the others, and I for some perverse reason even like Oasis, but still, Blur was much better. Period. And why?
Because Blur knew the importance of (not being idle) but being diverse. They tried pretty much everything and their every song does not sounds more or less the sane like Noel Gallagher's tunes do. They actually have arranging talent, unlike those Boasis guys who probably were too drunk and too full of themselves that they didn't even care.
Also Blur was blessed with two extraordinarily talented members. The main songwriter Damob Albarn, of course, but also Graham Coxon. He always found the perfect guitar tone and really played some magnificent lines. I'm willing to declare that he may be one of the most talented ( pop) guitarist from the nineties (yeah, contrary to the rumors, I DON'T think Curt Kobain should deserve this place. It is one of the most disgusting things ever how those ****ing Nirvana-HC- I'm so suicidal -OMG-****-you-kids once voted him as the best guitarist EVER. **** them) but then again, I may have not heard about the best ones.
Also Damon was good at penning solid catchy pop melodies. He may have not been very original songwriter, but he was good (and still is). His lyrics may have been heavily influenced by Ray Davies and vice-Ray Paul Weller, but then again, being influenced by great lyricists ain't a crime?

What I like about the album: There's no weak spots.No fillers. Every other Blur album has at least one of them, but Parklife has none. There's just 15 catchy pop songs. Some of them punkier, some of them poppier, all of them kinda sarcastic, all of them greatly produced and arranged. And ain't Damon have a magnificent voice. Especially that falsetto rules.
The first song and single Girls and Boys is nearly as simple as nursery rhymes and at least as catchy as them. It's so stupid it becomes great. Parklife is so British, British to the score that I can't resist it. Bank Holiday rocks as much as any punk song. To the End may actually be a personal song which is kinda rare when we talk about Blur - Damon is too clever to be truly emotional. You know, this may be a cliche but the cleverer you are the less emotional you are and vice versa. Magic America is kind funny.

What I don't like about that album: I DON'T KNOW. Maybe it is a bit too long, but then again, I dunno what should be taken off. Maybe Clover Over Dover is a bit weak but then again, I don't know.

Best songs: Girls & Boys, Tracy Jacks (sounds quite like a Ray Davies tune but it's merely a good thing), To the End, Magic America and This Is a Low.

Final Words: A nearly perfect pop masterpiece. I guess you have heard it already but if you have not, you should. Go and buy it now.

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Pet_Sounds

Wow, Taxman, I didn't realize you had a journal until I stumbled across this accidentally, and I very much enjoyed reading through it. I don't know if you post much in it anymore, but if you do, I've subscribed and will read.

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Everybody's dying just to get the disease

Taxman

Ah, this little ditty. Maybe I will write more, maybe I won't. I dunno. And well, my writing skills are rudimentary at best, cos you know, my English is not that strong really.

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Taxman

And also I hate how all my texts are filled with typos and errors and I can't correct them. It sucks.

Actually I just found out I can. Whatever. Nevermind.

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Pet_Sounds

Your English is excellent. I've always understood what you mean.

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Everybody's dying just to get the disease

Taxman

Yeah, I hope my English, as rudimentary as it is, is more understandable than Butthead's whose texts are sometimes pretty hard to interpret.

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Isbjørn

I see what you did there.

Anyway, your English is better than some of the native speakers on the forums, so don't worry.

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