Badlittlekitten

Over the course of my journalistic blabbering I intend to look at albums from certain years, and highlight the good, the bad and the ugly. My reviews will be kept short as I will save the rambles for individual reviews. The best albums are highly recommended, and there should be something here for everyone. “Why am you doing this?” I hear you murmur. Well cos it’s fun, and it cures some ocd symptoms and cos I love you dear humble reader.

I shall start with the year 1994, for no other reason than that the numbers were floating around inside my skullbox.

Pictures Of Me
Badlittlekittens Significant Albums Of A Randomly Picked Year - 1st Edition.

Kurt Cobain shot his brains to death in 1994. This was quite a significant event, especially in the UK, as not only was a hero to many now gone for good, but it signalled grunges death knell. Throughout the early 90s the British rock charts were cluttered with grungey misery merchants and charisma free, post-shoegaze bands. Now the grunge poster boy was gone, new rules could be written, and kids started looking closer to home for their musical nourishment. Groups like Suede and Blur’s reaction to the wounded grunge scene was to revel in their Englishness. And so begat Britpop. . . which was **** really wasn’t it? A few good bands, and a landfill of pub-rock, retro dullards. It was a lame press term for anything white, English and sporting a bowl cut. I mean groups like Massive Attack and The Prodigy meant more to the average kid on the street than most of the rock dinosaurs. But heaven forbid we class multi-racial acts as British pop.

America had its own strain of retro dullards in the form of Guided By Voices etc. But there were some interesting noises about too, especially in the Slint inspired post-rock of Tortoise. Outside of Britpop there were also a handful of lost British post-rock acts like Pram, Bark Psychosis and Laika sticking at it, despite knowing that the Britpop obsessed press/public/major labels weren't interested.

In hip-hop land, Dr. Dre’s sleazy, stoned G-funk sound was ubiquitous and peaked with Warren G’s superb ‘Renegade’ single. Nas ensured that the east coast scene stopped receiving a bitch slapping from the west in commercial terms, with the classic Illmatic. Actually, the most interesting hip-hop record, sonically, in 1994, isn’t really a hip-hop record at all – Portishead’s Dummy.

Henceforth, the pleasantries . . . .

Honourable Mentions:
Notorious BIG – Ready to Die
Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works Vol 2
The Prodigy – Music For The Jilted Generation
Pavement – Crooked Crooked Rain
Nick Cave – Let Love In

Best Albums Of 1994

(In order of letters)


I only very recently, ahem, ‘acquired’ this album. A post–rock master class in the Talk Talk vain. A good album to go to sleep to. Its atmosphere and deep bass tones will creep up and consume you and send you into a dreamy, meditative state.




There was never any doubt in Parklife’s placing. After all, it was Blur that got me obsessed with music in the first place. What strikes me after all these years is how much depth it has. From the sneering satire of ‘Girls and Boys’ and ‘Tracey Jacks’ to the emotional sincerity of ‘This Is A Low’ and ‘Badhead’, to the daft radio jingles of ‘Debt Collector’ and ‘Lot 101. The diversity in Damon Albarn’s songwriting skills became apparent with this album, yet it sounds de-fragmented and ornate. Blur revived a British pop tradition that went something like Beatles>Kinks>Barret>Bowie>XTC>Smiths and injected cheery, sharp and snappy songs back into rocks veins. Musically it’s exquisite, a ****tail of strings, sax, horns, keyboards, a flute, and of course Grahams Coxon’s frantic guitar, making things that little bit messier. Finally, the lyrics are a classic evocation of Brit escapism in lottery tickets, cheap holidays, cheap sex, binge-drinking, casual violence and err . . . cross dressing. Maybe that’s just me then.




A delightful sampledelic fusion of pirate radio sounds (jungle, drum and bass) and Future Days era Can. With added chanteuse vocals and flutes. What more could you possibly want?







Tight, concise and a perfect artefact of street poetry. One of the best albums of any genre, and one its maker couldn’t live up to. It’s got everything you could want from a hip-hop record – articulate lyrics and imagery, killer jazz/soul/funk beats (courtesy of DJ Premier, Pete Rock and Q tip) and some of the greatest rapping ever recorded. Honourable mention has to go to A.Z, whose verse on ‘Life’s A Bitch’ is magical in its head spinning complexity. Also ‘Halftime’ is one of my favourite songs of all time; funky, sexy, mean and hilarious.





I’ve seen this described as “Hip-hop on life support”, which is great but overlooks the tortured ghostly vocals of Beth Gibbons. She’s like a lady Thom Yorke. I’m sure, humble reader, that you’ve heard this album by now. If not, what are you thinking?? Dummy.


Yes, retro pub-rock dullards perhaps, but oooh! what a noise! And what a thrill. Because for fifty minutes, lightning was captured in a bottle and the Gallagher’s and co’s hunger burns bright for the one and only time. The excitement, the agro, and the working class ennui is neatly summed up with the line, “Is is worth the aggrevatiiiiiiioonnn to find yourself a job when there's nothing worth working for”. The fact that the rhythm section’s crap and that most of their riffs have been nicked from Berry/Keef/Bolan is irrelevant, because when Liam sings “You make me laaaaf, give me ya autograaaf”, and Noel plays a stoopid, bleeding, swaggering hooligan guitar solo to end ‘Supersonic’, you feel like the coolest, meanest, sexiest son of a bitch alive. And that’s good rock n’ rolls job.


For me, the pinnacle of modern RnB. A treasure trove of treats, from the lush and sensual ‘Digging On You’, to the bubbly, ‘controlled frenzy’ beats of anti-gangsta classic ‘Waterfalls’ and infidelity anthem ‘Creep’. Smooth, funky and sexual in all the right places.

Tortoise – Tortoise

Jazz and dub tinged post-rock classic. Like Spiderland but even quieter. Allmusic.com's Glenn Swan will do this album better justice than me with his description; “Tortoise sounds like a dark and wonderful garage full of dusty instruments. It's like looking at Avedon photographs -- the crevices and quirky imperfections are so richly explored that they become things of beauty”. That’s it in a eggshell. Its minimalism and subtlety will bind you in a spell, until closing track ‘Cornpone Brunch’ rises to a crescendo and launches you into the stratosphere.

Dishonorable Mentions

I don’t know you, but I think I hate you . . .

Green Day – Dookie
So basically Green Day made a ‘punk’ album that airbrushed away any challenging/interesting/disturbing bits and coated it with inane teen angst lyrics and sold billions. Cue record companies signing up every Tom, Dick and Harry with a punk riff, dumbing down their sound, and cynically marketing it to every bullied middle class geek in town until this trash was now what was considered ‘punk’.
But do you want to know what really makes Dookie such an evil record? (deep breath) It’s enjoyable! How can you resist the hooks of ‘Burnout’, ‘The She’ or ‘Pulling Teeth.’ How can you not relate to lyrics like ‘Masturbations lost its fun and I’m fucking lazy!!” That was the point of course, and they did their job well, them evil bastards.

I Swear To Ya Son, They Were Good Back In The Day!

The Stone Roses - Second Comming
The Roses sink into the pub-rock puddle that they were partly responsible for. 'Daybreak' is mega though.

R.E.M. - Monster
They sound knackered already. I wish they gave it up around this point. Mike Mills would make a great bank clerk.

Frankly, My Dear, I Don’t Give A Damn . . . .

Nirvana – Unplugged In New York

Jeff Buckley – Grace
I know some people that would literally die for this record, but it’s never done it for me. There’s the odd flash of guitar brilliance from Jeff but it doesn’t compensate for the session muso dullness and the choir boy mewling. He's old man was better.

Nine Inch Nails – Downward Spiral
Just a slick version of what the Young Gods/Big Black had done so much better. Also I despise Trent whatever his name is and his faux-angst, misery-for-a-profit persona.

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And that’s it chaps and chapettes, my significant albums of the randomly picked year of 1994! (must change title). Hope you'll join us next time on this rollercoaster ride of pain and pleasure, praise and damnation.

Feel free to let us know if I’ve missed anything, or to recommend something I haven’t mentioned, or to call me a dick head.

__________________
'Said do you feel it? Do you feel it when you TOUCH ME?. THERE'S A FIRE! THERE'S A FIRE!' The Stooges. Dirt.

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