Doh! I posted my review of the wrong song!! Ugh!! Sorry!! Another song I have a vague recollection of thanks to the chorus. To me this song sounds like it could’ve been a hit anytime between the late 70’s up to its release date. The weepy backing music: synth orchestration and plodding rhythm sound like the could be straight from the 70’s. The vocals recall 80’s boy band vocals. They also predate the late 90’s boy band resurgence. The short, fuzzy guitar solo comes out of the mid to late 80’s playbook. The devotional lyrics set the stage for early 90’s acts like Boyz 2 Men. Overall this is a blandly pleasant, ultimately forgettable 5.
Oh for an edit button!!
Here’s another song I have no memory of, this wasn’t the type of music I was into back then. This song sounds more like a boy band hit then a New Jack Swing song. The vibe is relaxed and the beat is slowed down, I personally prefer my New Jack Swing upbeat. The vocals are smooth and the chorus is catchy, but the delivery sounds a bit on the young side, maybe too innocent for the material. It also losses a point or so for being to long. 5.
Miss Jackson was on a roll. She scored another banger here, maybe her most anthemic song. It’s got the hallmark heavy, industrial type beat that she and Jam and Lewis are known for. The slinky bass line insinuates itself into your mind. Unlike her other number ones, the lush uptempo synths and backing harmonies make this song feel joyous and fun. Jackson sings with such power and joy you can’t help but feel sunny. The song loses a point or so for being overly long, the radio edit got it right. This is a very worthy entry in her catalog of number ones, a strong 7.
Madge was no stranger to controversy, in fact she knew it would help sell her music and raise her profile. This song and video may be the height of her button pushing phase. I’m going to try to separate the song from the video and the hubbub surrounding it but the two are so linked together it’ll be almost impossible to not comment on both.
First and foremost let’s call this song out for what it is, a marketing stunt plain and simple. She made the video for the song knowing full well it wouldn’t get played on MTV and that the record company would release it as a video single, Madge is smart enough to make canny business decisions like this. The music itself isn’t anything to spectacular to me. It’s a sparse trip hop prototype song (Madge once again pulling the cultural appropriation card). But a Public Enemy via Funky Drummer drum loop, a drawn out synth note or two, and Madge’s breathy, mumbled moaning does not a song make. I know this may go against the popular opinion but to me this is nothing more then a cynical, money grab plain and simple. 3.
Here’s yet another song that wasn’t aimed at me (I suspect there will be plenty more of these as the 90’s progress), I vaguely recognize it, mostly because of the chorus. After giving it a few spins, it’s about as bland, nondescript, R&B ballad as possible. The backing music is so generic and cookie cutter it seems like a computer algorithm wrote it when you typed in ballad. It’s made even worse by the echo effect on his vocals, who decided that would be a good idea?!?! They make his voice sound more nasally then it already is. This is a generous 3.
I think Houston felt the pressure to keep up with Janet and Mariah, so she veered back into the R&B/dance music arena with solid results. The music comes across as a slowed down type of New Jack Swing thing. The beat is slower then I’d personally like it to be. The backing orchestration gives it a jazzy quality. Some of the production elements sound dated, the whooshing fade in and out going into the semi breakdown, and what I guess is a sax solo. Houston’s vocals are once again prominently displayed but for the first time feel like they’re competing against the music and backing vocals for attention. This is a good start to her 90’s, leading up to her crowning achievement in 1992. 7.
Even last minute Mariah Carey appealed to the American record buying public. This is your standard adult contempo ballad with just a touch of R&B. The backing music: slight, twinkling synths, barely there percussion, and your moms backyard wind chimes, do what they’re supposed to, stay out of Carey’s way. As a result it sounds boring to me. Carey keeps her vocals restrained on this track compared to her previous number one. It allows the song to simmer slowly and while she does build her vocals she never really cuts loose to release the tension. As a result I find this song kinda boring, it sounds like it could’ve been sung by any other artist. 5.
Where to start, where to start! First, and this is meant very begrudgingly, they picked one heck of a song to sample and build off of. You could also maybe, possibly, sort of give it credit for introducing rap to a large white audience. Otherwise this song did a whole lot of damage to hip hop. From what I remember this is the song that got people taking about sampling, and putting the spotlight on rap in a scrutinizing way. Plus you could write a whole thesis on the cultural appropriation going on here.
Musically, the Under Pressure sample is the only thing it has going for it. Ice himself has no flow whatsoever, his cadence’s don’t match up to the beat in anyway shape or form. The lyrics are pure bullshit, they barely even rhyme, he’s about as gangsta as the Monopoly guy, the New Kids come off as tougher and more hood then him. The best thing to come of this was Third Bass’s diss track, Vanilla Ice definitely gets the Gas Face! This will go down as the number one that tired and succeeded to suck as much as possible. 1.
Janet one ups her brother here, producing the better rocker. The song introduces the main, gnarly, bluesy guitar riff right away. The drums pound away with anger. The bass pulses menacingly underneath. The guitar solo sherds with the best of the 80’s. I like how the song slows just enough to launch the solo. The reprieve before the chorus picks up is a nice break/tension builder. Janet wails away with righteous fury and rock swagger but it lacks that full rock edge like a Joan Jett song. Overall it’s a very pleasant surprise to see a song that rocks this hard top the charts. 8.
In the bland, boring world of Adult Contemporary/“lite hits” most songs go something like this: I love you, you love me, or I love you, you don’t love me. This one takes the unique approach of you love me, I don’t love you. That’s about the only thing that sets this song apart for the other soft rock ballads of the day. That and Ingrams voice. Everything else about this song is paint by numbers: the tinkling piano, swelling strings, and a semi hard rocking guitar solo. Better than some previous ballads but not by much. 5.
Two great songs here. Superchunk, and this song in particular, make me want to get up and jump and dance around with reckless abandon until the room is in complete disarray!! I've always felt they were the musical representation of me: high energy, always on the go moving, with a slight hint of ADD! LOL!
Michael certainly knew how to create a mood and tension, not only with his voice but with the music and his biting lyrics. The music has a slightly menacing synth drone to it, which creates a compelling atmosphere of tension and strain. Michael’s vocals follow suit, he sings in a lower register than his sunny pop days. His ability to switch from scathing to aching is brilliant. My only minor issues with this song is that his vocals sound distanced, and I would have liked the song to build to some type of tension releasing finish. All that being said, this is one of his masterpieces. 9.
Another song, like Wishing Well, that didn’t sound like anything else on the chart at the time. It has a vaguely reggae meets soul/pop feel. It has that same sparse, pared down vibe. The slowed down, New Jack Swing type beat gives the song a smooth feel but is still danceable. The backing keys do sound kinda cheap. Priest’s vocals are smooth and soulful, it sells the main hook. A smooth, easy, sexy 8.
Nelson and this song often get lumped into the hair metal category. However there’s only hair here, no metal to speak of. This is more power pop than anything else, a sugary sweet piece of radio friendly pop rock. It opens with the sweetly strummed acoustic guitar, followed by the Nelson bros pleasant harmonies. It has that dated gated reverb on the drums that plagues most rock ballads of that era. I remember liking it back in the day, enough that I bought the cassette single. A simultaneously catchy and cheesy 6.
A solid second single, this is just a step below their debut. It has nothing to do with their voices, those sound beautiful combined together. Their harmonies are air tight, it almost sounds like one voice. The backing music and production lets the song down, it has all the generic late 80’s ballad tricks brought into the new decade: the sad piano, easy drum fills, the slight up tempo chorus, and the key change on the last chorus. Their voices also sound too happy or chipper for the bitter type sentiment. 5.
You can (rightfully) write this song off as Wanted Dead or Alive part 2. You can also (rightfully) write this song off as part of the big haired glam rocker goes cowboy trend that existed back then. While this is clearly no country/western song, I’ve always enjoyed the fatalistic nature of the song and the sentiment of going out in a “blaze of glory”. I like the twangy guitar riff, but my favorite part may be the military drum roll march, it sounds like he’s resigned to his fate, which for whatever reason I’ve always found cool. I like the interplay between his vocal and the backing vocal. This is a guilty pleasure I will fess up to enjoying. 8.
This is another song that wasn’t on my musical radar at the time, it doesn’t ring any bells. It’s a perfectly uptempo ballad that sounds like it should’ve been a big hit in 87 or 88. By 1990 it just sounds formulaic and corporate. It starts of with a light, flamenco guitar and overly dramatic strings. The synth line and electric guitar pick up the tempo before the song slows into the first verse. It builds into the big chorus, with thudding drums, strummed power chords, and the main synth hook. Betty Lebron’s voice is perfectly adequate and generic, she sounds like any other girl group singer of that time. Then there’s that best left in the 80’s ballad lite rock guitar solo, that trick should’ve been retired at the turn of the decade. This song is pleasant enough to hear once but doesn’t bare repeat listenings and leaves your brain very quickly after it finishes. 4.
Carey came out of the gate strong, this song put the pop world on notice that the next great voice was here. The chimes and soft strings that start the song fade into the slow, sensuous retro R&B beat. The backing choir gives the song a nice gospel feel which compliments her strong, powerful vocal. The star of the song is of course her voice, she has power, confidence, and sweeping highs. She took Whitney Houston’s influence and pushed it to the next level. I’ve never been a fan of her going into that “whistle” register, it’s grating to me. Otherwise she nailed her debut right out of the gate and set up one of the most successful careers in music by any artist. A strong 7.
Here’s another song that wasn’t on my radar in the early 90’s, I wasn’t listening to this style of music and apparently I wasn’t missing nothing. This is low grade New Jack Swing, the echoey drums and synth stabs get annoying as the song drags on. Medeiros’ voice sounds thin even if it’s double tracked or more, the production didn’t help him here at all. Brown’s rap verse is generic and uninspired. This song ain’t worth it. 2.
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