729. Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power (1992)

Track Listing

1. Mouth For War
2. New Level
3. Walk
4. Fucking Hostile
5. This Love
6. Rise
7. No Good (Attack The Radical)
8. Live In A Hole
9. Regular People (Conceit)
10. By Demons Be Driven
11. Hollow

Review

Oh well... more crappy metal. Why must the list punish me with these things. I thought the crappy metal age had started and finished with the 80, but there are clearly some atavistic throwbacks still dragging their knuckles here.

So they are a bit slower, which is to say inspired by Black Sabbath... can't these people be inspired by anyone new? At least Ministry is coming from somewhere different.

So yeah Pantera is boring, samey, not particularly original metal. Why this is on the list? Your guess is as good as mine. I presume some waist-length-haired, no-girlfriend, unwashed, obese reader who just happens to be wearing a Pantera t-shirt will let me know. Please do.

Track Highlights

1. A New Level
2. Hollow
3. Living In a Hole
4. Mouth For War

Final Grade

5/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Entertainment Weekly (3/6/92, p.59) - "..one of the most satisfying heavy metal records since Metallica's early-80s cult days...11 caustic songs of unabashed brute force...a fully realized album that goes way beyond metal's usual crunch-and-burn." - Rating: A

So... the best crap since the last steaming pile of it.


Here are Pantera playing A New Level in my wife's home town:

728. Ice Cube - The Predator (1992)

Track Listing

1. The First Day of School
2. When Will They Shoot?
3. I'm Scared (Insert)
4. Wicked
5. Now I Gotta Wet'cha
6. The Predator
7. It Was A Good Day
8. We Had To Tear This Up
9. Fuck 'Em
10. Dirty Mack
11. Don't Trust Em
12. Gangsta's Fairy Tale 2
13. Check Yo Self
14. Who Got The Camera
15. Integration
16. Say Hi to the Bad Guy

Review

More not particularly distinguished hip-hop on the list. Ice Cube brings us something slightly different for West Coast hip-hop, using a mix of g-funk and Public Enemy style production. In fact the album is a bit derivative of Public Enemy without ever reaching the same levels of quality.

These similarities are present in the thumping on many of the tracks as well as the use of spoken word samples, the g-funk influence is present in the frequent use of P-Funk samples. In the end it is better than Dr. Dre's The Chronic, there is a certain righteous anger to it which works in its favour, but even that pales next to the much earlier Public Enemy albums. And the sampling is soooooo unoriginal.

So, I was not overly impressed by this. It is perfectly listenable, it is not contemptible in any major way, but it is also humourless, derivative and, at times, boring.

Track Highlights

1. When Will They Shoot
2. Wicked
3. Dirty Mack
4. Check Yo Self

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

It spawned three hit singles: the famous "It Was A Good Day", which was a big hit in March 1993, "Check Yo Self" and "Wicked" (which was later covered by nu-metal band Korn). Both the album and single version of "Check Yo Self" include an appearance from Das EFX, with the latter utilising a sample of Grandmaster Flash's "The Message". "Check Yo Self" received continious radio and MTV play. The song certainly got a boost from the old school resurgence that was happening at the time and it also further popularized the trend.

EPILEPSY WARNING! Wicked EPILEPSY WARNING! :

727. Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes (1992)

Track Listing

1. Crucify
2. Girl
3. Silent All These Years
4. Precious Things
5. Winter
6. Happy Phantom
7. China
8. Leather
9. Mother
10. Tear In Your Hand
11. Me And A Gun
12. Little Earthquakes


Review

Although I haven't heard this album in a while, it was probably one of the most frequent albums I listened to in the second half of the 90s, to the level that I know all the lyrics forwards and backwards even some 8 years later. So yes, I really like Tori Amos.

That said this is not Tori's best album, and definitely not the only album by her that belongs on this list. Even if she hasn't done anything great since From the Choirgirl Hotel a decade ago, she did produce a number of classic albums from 92 to 98. Albums that belonged here but aren't here are: Boys For Pele, her best, most original, multi-layered, underrated and challenging album, From The Choirgirl Hotel and even, possibly, Under The Pink.

This does not however, remove the credit that must be given to this album. Amos was one of the most effective lyricists of her generation, lyrics that at first seem non-sensical or loopy gain meaning with repeated listenings, meaning that is actually more confessional than that of any other singer around in the 90s. Then the music is also full of little complexities, whether in her piano playing or simply in her atypical song-structures. There are a couple of duds here, China grates while Winter is a bit too twee for its own good. Amos is better when uncompromising, and there is plenty of that here. A near-perfect album which is unfortunately the only Tori album I'll get to review here.

Track Highlights

1. Silent All These Years
2. Precious Things
3. Happy Phantom
4. Tear In Your Hand

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The album was released to rapturous acclaim and is recognized as one of the important albums that kick-started the female singer-songwriter movement of the 1990s. A heavily confessional and journalistic work, it is often considered the most accessible of her musical catalogue.

When the album was finally released in the UK in January 1992, it reached #14 and remained on the Top 75 charts (UK Albums Chart) for 23 weeks. A month later, it was released in the USA to breakthrough critical success and also announced itself as a chart mainstay, despite peaking outside the Top 50 on the Billboard 200. The accompanying singles (along with "Me and a Gun" and "Silent All These Years") were "China" (January 1992 UK), "Winter" (March 1992 UK/November 1992 US) and "Crucify" (May 1992 US/June 1992 UK), the US EP version of which featured covers of songs by artists including The Rolling Stones and Nirvana. During this time, Amos recorded the song "The Happy Worker" for the Toys movie soundtrack. A remix of the song is also included on the soundtrack, titled "Workers".

In 1998 Q magazine readers voted Little Earthquakes the 66th greatest album of all time.

The song "Me and a Gun" was released in the UK as the first single, with a b-side of "Silent All These Years". "Me and a Gun" is an a cappella song about rape. It was inspired by a sexual assault that happened to her in LA when she was 21. The single was not a commercial success (likely due to its nature), even though it was critically praised for its bravery. Radio stations did pick up "Silent All These Years", though, putting it into heavy rotation and making it Tori's first hit single (and what many consider her signature song). It was even re-released in 1997 where it once again became a radio hit.

Silent All These Years:

726. Ministry - Psalm 69 (1992)

Track Listing

1. NWO
2. Just One Fix
3. TV II
4. Hero
5. Jesus Built My Hotrod
6. Scarecrow
7. Psalm 69
8. Corrosion
9. Grace

Review

This review is being written a bit later than usual because I spent last night watching and celebrating the fact that for the first time in the 21st century there is a reason to be proud of American politics. So yay!

This is actually a good album to review at what seems to be the end of the Bush dynasty, as this album is unflinchingly critical of Bush Sr. Ministry give us a quite interesting album of industrial metal, which is immediately more interesting in terms of sound than most other metal albums around this time.

The music is well crafted, the lyrics are interesting, some of the music is actually pretty inspired, be it the rockabilly metal of Jesus Built My Hotrod or the sound collage of NWO. Again this is an album influenced by Aleister Crowley, like much of the output of Can and Led Zeppelin, it seems like no religious figure was more influential on good and innovative music. That being said the album gets a bit tiring after repeated listening, being more interesting than appealing, but something to check out.

Track Highlights

1. Jesus Built My Hotrod
2. NWO
3. TV II
4. Psalm 69

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The title of the album is directly linked to chapter 69 of The Book of Lies, a written work of Aleister Crowley, where he uses the expression "The way to succeed and the way to suck eggs" as a pun for the 69 sex position ("suck seed" and "suck eggs"). Moreover, Crowley titled the chapter ΚΕΦΑΛΗ, which means "head" (the English word being slang for Oral sex - but not the original ancient Greek word) and is used often in the New Testament. There is no direct link to the Old Testament passage Psalm 69.

Jesus Built My Hotrod:

725. Stereo MCs - Connected (1992)

Track Listing

1. Connected
2. Ground Level
3. Everything
4. Sketch
5. Fade Away
6. All Night Long
7. Step It Up
8. Playing With Fire
9. Pressure
10. Chicken Shake
11. Creation
12. The End

Review

Sorry people, I should have said something, but I've been in Amsterdam for the past few days, hence the hiatus. Now I am back, with the last bits of a lovely food poisoning and the flu! So bear with me.

Stereo MCs... another one of those bands who have dated terribly since the early 90s. This is very time specific music, which is not to say that it is bad, just a bit outmoded by now. That said there are some quite cool tracks here, in a very British type of music, in this case a mix of trip-hop and hip-hop, but very distinct from the American tradition.

In the end this is an album that is perfectly listenable, however, not necessarily an album that you would want to listen to that often now, unless you have a nostalgia attack and feel like bringing the early 90s back.

Track Highlights

1. Step It Up
2. Connected
3. Creation
4. Playing With Fire

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Connected is a 1992 album by Stereo MCs. The tracks "Connected", "Ground Level", "Step It Up" and "Creation" became hit singles; "Connected" was particularly famous for its use in adverts for the Carphone Warehouse.

In 2000 Q magazine placed Connected at number 52 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.

Fan of Thomas the Tank Engine, Mr. Men, Pingu and the Stereo MCs? Then this is the video for YOU!: