Reply All, "So Much Better," and the radio of Fall '99

The first noteworthy COVID-19 headline that failed to resonated worldwide occurred after Dr. Li Wenliang's death on February 7th 2020.

We heard a Pop Smoke song on Power 105 yesterday, and we felt a jog in our memory. (Did we use "jog" correctly there?) Didn't Pop Smoke die not too long ago? Did that happen? We had to look it up to be sure, and yes, he passed away back on February 19th, a headline that feels like it belongs to a buried, distant, alternate 2020.

On February 25th, we attended a current-events themed "trivia night" where the answer to one question was Pop Smoke. The Nevada Caucus was also around that time, which may have been the most recent hopeful moment in the history of the world.

As the viral outbreak and Super Tuesday collectively decimated any remaining hope for the future, morale was low and existential dread surged.

We did not expect the highlight that defined the following weekend to arrive from Reply All, a popular tech podcast that peaked in quality well over 18 months ago, before the atmosphere of the show started to hinge more heavily on creating characters out of the show's two primary hosts. We liked the show a lot better between 2017 and 2018 when it felt like there was more reporting, more cultural commentary, and less emphasis on the hosts as podcast personalities. Like many podcasters, their laughs are frequent and grating.

That said, their March 6th episode "The Case Of the Missing Hit" was an unexpected moment of lighthearted engagement. At least 7 or 8 reporters and bloggers reviewed the episode, including someone from The Guardian erroneously claiming it as "the greatest podcast episode ever."

So that's the first thing we wanted to note here: The episode is very funny, engaging, warm and nostalgic. It was something we really needed that weekend to temporarily lift our drowning, choking, suffocating heads from the slime bucket of life.

The other thing we wanted to discuss regards Evan Olson's major label flop "So Much Better," the subject of the episode.

Are there Top 40 flops anymore? The answer is a resounding "no." Due to radio consolidation, every current radio hit is carefully considered, backed by numbers to ensure longevity and justify the immense investment.

"So Much Better" arrived toward the end of perhaps the saddest era of '90s commercial radio, a brief stretch between the great label merge of Fall '98 and the advent of Napster one year later.

After the big merge, promotional dollars per song increased as a consequence of having less songs to promote. So 1999 was probably the first year when you could turn on the radio and notice smaller new music playlists. The breakthrough hits of this era felt bland and predictable compared to earlier in the decade. The "creative genius wiz kid" (ie Beck, Busta Rhymes, et al.) was no longer a profitable commodity. (We've written about this before, but the late '98 records that we always cite as suffering the most from the first wave of consolidation were The Cardigans' Gran Turismo, Nada Surf's The Proximity Effect, and Local H's Pack Up The Cats.) By Spring 2000, the excitement of MTV's longest running show, 120 Minutes, dwindled as it spent its final few months sneaking Broadcast or Primal Scream videos between premieres from prioritized VH1 artists and nu-metal bros.

After Napster, a pristine digital copy of a minor hit was as good as yours if you could afford enough real estate among a precious 11.2 gigs of hard drive space. (That was the size of our hard drive in 1999.) So if you heard a song on the radio every day for two months and it disappeared from your favorite station's playlist out of nowhere, you wouldn't have to invest $14.99 to hear it again.

Immediately promoted as a non-crossover VH1-ready pop hit, "So Much Better" never got the chance to build momentum on alternative stations. Vertical Horizon's strategy worked more effectively, as a handful of adult-alternative stations added "Everything You Want" to light rotation throughout Oct-Nov '99, eventually building enough steam to crossover, hitting #1 on the Hot 100 in June 2000. "So Much Better" also has no music video, and it was never performed on TV. Granted, these extra boosts didn't guarantee success. It helped when people actually enjoyed the song, which was not the case with an artist like John Oszajca for instance. He can say that he got to play Woodstock '99 and that his terrible song "Back In 1999" was the lead single for the Mystery Men soundtrack; otherwise, Oszajca's flop performed just as poorly.

Out of curiosity, we spent about an hour on Sunday, March 8th digging around some November '99 back issues of Radio and Records, Billboard, and a few similar magazines to see if there were other similar Top 40 flops of that era. "So Much Better" might have been the only flop of its type from that Fall, but it wouldn't surprise us if 5 or 6 other forgotten test-singles snuck onto playlists regionally between Fall '98 and Spring 2000. However, we doubt this phenomenon continued after the advent of Napster.

It's hard to say whether Reply All purposely omitted any fun facts to assist with the story's progression. Evan Olson's Wikipedia entry states that he used to play in a couple Chapel Hill area bands in the early '90s with none other than Ben Folds, perhaps the era's most well-known musician from that region of North Carolina. The Reply All episode makes it seem like Evan's CD oddly found its way to UMG by chance, but we suspect he had some inside assistance and probably knew some people.

One final note: This song really sucks. If it were on our radar by December 1999, it's very likely it would have landed somewhere among our "Worst Songs of 1999." (We'd like to find that list tbh. It's around somewhere.) Twenty years later, we're more lenient for funny-bad, but we're still puzzled by mental space that might inspire anyone to write a song that sounds like this.

Its production value and the dorkiness in the songwriting added many LOLz to the podcast itself. If it weren't so goofy, we probably wouldn't have enjoyed it. As Susan Rogers noted (without Reply All crediting her as Prince's legendary sound engineer), "So Much Better" sounds like three misremembered segments pulled from entirely different songs. Structurally, "it doesn't sound like a hit." She is correct. But the nuances in its production (revealed at the end of the episode) somewhat align with hits from that era.

For contextual purposes, it helped a bit to recall what radio actually sounded like then. Considering our attitude at the time, we don't think we were wrong throughout 1999 growing increasingly upset with how quickly alternative and modern rock radio had been immersed in prospects for VH1 and TRL crossovers. Just for fun, here's a C+P of what WLIR was playing that month. Again, we think it's strange that Universal never thought to pitch Evan Olson to stations like these...

1. 311 Come Original (Capricorn)
2. SMASH MOUTH Then The Morning Comes (Interscope)
3. FILTER Take A Picture (Reprise)
4. FOO FIGHTERS Learn To Fly (RCA)
5. GOO GOO DOLLS Black Balloon (Warner Bros.)
6. LIVE Dolphin's Cry (Radioactive)
7. TRAIN Meet Virginia (Aware/Columbia)
8. FIONA APPLE Fast As You Can (Clean Slate/Epic)
9. PET SHOP BOYS New York City Boy (Sire)
10. BUSH The Chemicals Between Us (Trauma)
11. JIMMIE'S CHICKEN SHACK Do Right (Island)
12. CHRIS CORNELL Can't Change Me (A&M)
13. STROKE 9 Little Black Backpack (Universal)
14. CREED Higher (Wind-up)
15. COUNTING CROWS Hangin Around (DGC)
16. SANTANA FEATURING ROB THOMAS Smooth (Arista)
17. SANTANA FEATURING EVERLAST Put Your Lights On (Arista)
18. KID ROCK Cowboy (Atlantic)
19. STING Brand New Day (A&M)
20. JAMES Just Like Fred Astaire (Fontana U.K.)
21. R.E.M. The Great Beyond (Warner Bros.)
22. SARAH MCLACHLAN Ice Cream (Arista)
23. BLINK 182 All The Small Things (MCA)
24. BECK Sexxlaws (DGC)
25. MOBY Bodyrock (V2)
26. TOM JONES & THE CARDIGANS Burning Down The House (Gut U.K.)
27. MARCY PLAYGROUND It's Saturday (Capitol)
28. LIMP BIZKIT Re-arranged (Interscope)
29. FUEL Sunburn (Epic/550 Music)
30. SAVE FERRIS Mistaken (Epic)
31. RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS Around The World (Warner Bros.)
32. THIRD EYE BLIND Anything (Elektra)
33. OUR LADY PEACE One Man Army (Columbia)
34. EURYTHMICS 17 Again (Arista)
35. BEASTIE BOYS Alive (Capitol)
36. RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE Guerrilla Radio (Epic)
37. EDNA'S GOLDFISH Veronica Sawyer (Moon Ska)
38. SOULWAX Much Against Everyone's Advice (Almo)
39. BETH HART L..A. Song (Atlantic)
40. KORN Falling Away From Me (Epic)
41. MUSE Muscle Museum (Maverick)
42. STONE TEMPLE PILOTS Down (Atlantic)
43. NINE INCH NAILS We're In This Together (Nothing/Interscope)
44. EIFFEL 65 Blue (Republic)
45. OFFSPRING She's Got Issues (Columbia)
ADDS:
TORI AMOS Cornflake Girl (live) (Atlantic)
VERTICAL HORIZON Everything You Want (RCA)
BETH HART L.A. Song (Atlantic)

"Wax Ecstatic"

Does this guy really have missing teeth? I remember seeing them at Radio104 fest and they encouraged all the people on the lawn section and in the cheap seats to run to towards the stage saying "You paid your fucking money, now come on up here!"

This video kinda sucks... So catchy though.

90's Guilty Pleasures: Complete List

We finally made it. Your support matters. Rock the vote, and Clinton in '96. Unless Gerry Brown runs again. Honorable mentions coming soon...

60. Jesus Jones "Right Here Right Now" (1991) / EMF "Unbelievable" (1991)
59. Soul Asylum "Somebody To Shove" (1992)
58. The New Radicals "You Get What You Give" (1998)
57. Whitney Houston "I'm Your Baby Tonight" (1990)
56. Ben Folds Five "Brick" (1997)
55. Quad City DJ's "C'Mon And Ride It (The Train)" (1996)
54. Marilyn Manson "Sweet Dreams" (1996)
53. Eve 6 "Inside Out" (1998) / Eve 6 "Leech" (1998)
52. Janet Jackson "Escapade" (1990) / Janet Jackson "Come Back To Me" (1990)
51. Toad The Wet Sprocket "All I Want" (1992)
50. Positive K "I Got A Man" (1993)
49. Len "Steal My Sunshine" (1999)
48. The Wallflowers "Sixth Avenue Heartache" (1996)
47. TLC "Baby Baby Baby" (1992) / TLC "Red Light Special" (1995)
46. The Presidents Of The United States Of America "Peaches" (1996)
45. Silverchair "Ana's Song (Open Fire)" (1999)
44. Michael Jackson "Stranger In Moscow" (1996)
43. Aerosmith "What It Takes" (1991)
42. Nada Surf "Popular" (1996)
41. Montell Jordan "Get It On Tonite" (1999)
40. Metallica "Hero Of The Day" (1996)
39. M.C. Hammer "U Can't Touch This" (1990)
38. Prince & The New Power Generation "Diamonds And Pearls" (1991) / "Money Don't Matter 2 Night" (1992) / "7" (1992)
37. Crash Test Dummies "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" (1994)
36. Seal "Kiss From A Rose" (1995)
35. U2 "Lemon" (1993)
34. Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories "Stay (I Missed You)" (1994)
33. Jordan Knight "Give It To You" (1999)
32. Green Jelly "Three Little Pigs" (1993)
31. K-Ci & JoJo "All My Life" (1998)
30. Sugar Ray "Someday" (1999)
29. The Flaming Lips "She Don't Use Jelly" (1993)
28. Boyz II Men "Motownphilly" (1991)
27. Keith Sweat "Nobody" (1996) / Dru Hill "In My Bed" (1997)
26. Sophie B. Hawkins "Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover" (1992)
25. P.M. Dawn "I'd Die Without You" (1992)
24. Marcy Playground "Sex And Candy" (1997) / The Flys "Got You (Where I Want You)" (1998)
23. Soul For Real "Candy Rain" (1995) / Next "Too Close" (1998)
22. Powerman 5000 "When Worlds Collide" (1999)
21. Del Amitri "Roll To Me" (1995)
20. Bush "Everything Zen" (1995) / Bush "Greedy Fly" (1997)
19. Mariah Carey "All I Want For Christmas Is You" (1994)
18. Mark Morrison "Return Of The Mack" (1996)
17. Chris Isaak "Wicked Game" (1990)
16. Groove Theory "Tell Me" (1995)
15. Third Eye Blind "Never Let You Go" (1999)
14. Sting "If I Ever Lose My Faith In You" (1993)
13. Phish "Down With Disease" (1994)
12. LFO (Lyte Funky Ones) "Summer Girls" (1999)
11. George Michael "Freedom '90" (1990)
10. Van Halen "Poundcake" (1991)
9. Usher "You Make Me Wanna" (1997)
8. Londonbeat "I've Been Thinking About You" (1991)
7. S.W.V. "Right Here/Human Nature" (1993)
6. Queensryche "Silent Lucidity" (1991)
5. Limp Bizkit "Nookie" (1999)
4. Ghost Town DJ's "My Boo" (1996)
3. Stroke 9 "Little Black Backpack" (1999)
2. Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch "Wildside" (1991)
1. Mr. Big "To Be With You" (1992)

90's Guilty Pleasures #1: Mr. Big "To Be With You" (1992)

Its various inconsistencies and contradictions have proven this to be one of those rare phenomenon among the pop radio canon. Elements that normally never come together in the correct manner somehow are perfectly aligned in this context. In an effort to keep this concise, we'll be listing these reasons individually...

1. The vocal performance: Outstandingly irritating, and yet somehow it completely works within this context. The delivery of "Stand up little girl" is especially lol-tastic, and yet so on-point...

2. The lyrics: Not particularly memorable on their own, but somehow the irritating vocal performance helps them to become outstandingly memorable. Upon this song's peak in popularity, I knew all the words despite never owning a physical copy. How does this happen?

3. The guitar solo: Halfway through the song, we reach a completely inane and hilarious moment, similar in style to the closing credits of The Wonder Years, which featured an annoying-as-fuck acoustic-guitar version of "With A Little Help From My Friends." On The Wonder Years, it was simply annoying. But in "To Be With You," it's both annoying and funny, and yet somehow even THIS even gets turned around within the context of Mr. Big's arrangement. The question returns: How does this happen??

4. Handclaps: One of the key factors of its arrangement is the whole no-drums thing. "Handclaps = fun" is one of those equations that's not incredibly difficult to disprove, but anyone who would want to probably hates fun to begin with.

5. Its success probably had a lot to do with Extreme's "More Than Words," and similar acoustic ballads of the era (listed earlier in the "Silent Lucidity" entry). However, "To Be With You" is mid-tempo, and not necessarily a ballad. It's hard to say where this fit on pop radio, but this was certainly the last #1 single of its type, and possibly even the last charting song that had anything to do with hair metal. The 80's hair "Monster Ballad" category deserved a song like this to cap things off. It was a poppy, singalong-style one-hit-wonder - very fun, and not to be taken seriously - which is exactly what hair metal deserved.

The lipsynch is off for this video... Bummer.

90's Guilty Pleasures #2: Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch "Wildside" (1991)

In his signature song "Good Vibrations," Marky Mark extends a shout-out: "Donnie D's on the backup." I always had a suspicion this was referring to Donnie Wahlberg. After reading into this, I was impressed upon learning that Donnie actually produced the album Music For The People, going by the pseudonym Donnie D, which explains a lot. For whatever reason, Mark and Donnie have since disowned this period of their showbiz careers, and I've never been exactly sure why. Considering the context, it's not bad (especially the production).

"Wildside" is Marky Mark's significantly less-heralded 2nd most popular song, sampling Lou Reed (less than a year after Tribe's "Can I Kick It") which happens to perfectly accompany the tone Mark is striving for. If only his rhymes weren't so endearingly hilarious, tackling hard "street" issues such as drugs and gang violence, but with the poignancy and flow of an 18-year-old white dude from Boston...

Money, before you know it he's a rich man / Gold on every finger of his hand
A brand new BMW, a condo / Ron ended up a John Doe

The whole plot was an insurance scam / Charles and his brother came up with a plan
Kill Carol, collect the big checks / Blame it on the black man, What the heck!

Donnie's production also inserts a slight key-change between the verses and choruses, a pleasingly unexpected element considering the source. I'm actually considering giving this album a complete listen at some point very soon, not only for extreme ironic lols, but also for extreme musical enjoyment. Music For The People may be one of the rare cases when these two areas intersect so nicely.

90's Guilty Pleasures #3: Stroke 9 "Little Black Backpack" (1999)

A certain level of freshness and excitement was pushed into mainstream music upon the breakthrough of bands like Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Beck, Green Day, Oasis, Weezer, and dozens more who gave "underground music" fans an overwhelming sensation that "we've won," albeit temporarily. If the big labels were ever masters of anything, it's how to spoil a great thing. By the end of the decade, the corporates did their best to weaken this excitement, in the interest of keeping themselves in control, and keeping listeners away from those wacky indie-labels. This opened up some doors for alt-rock marketing, searching for bands who could easily crossover onto Top 40 and Adult-Oriented Radio (AOR), and lessening listener standards to the lowest common denominator. Matchbox 20, 3 Doors Down and Train weren't necessarily shitty bands; they just sounded completely out of place on the same stations playing A Perfect Circle, At.The.Drive.In and Queens Of The Stone Age. This is ultimately what killed modern rock radio.

The Silver Lining: Practically every mainstream radio trend, no matter how mundane, produced a few outstanding singles. In the case of late-90's/early-00's AOR, "Little Black Backpack" is that shining moment, mostly thanks to its contagiously catchy punch and impenetrable darkness. Lyrical allusions such as "up-smack" and "Your mind is lined with layers of lead" suggest drugs playing a big part in its narrative. But its most obvious layer of darkness is that of extreme violence: "I think I'm gonna bash his head in," and the image of a "bloody" backpack. Radio listeners didn't seem to mind; around the same time, Eminem was releasing songs like "Stan" and "Kim," so violent lyrics seemed to be within the norm of the moment.

Its structuring is also noteworthy, with 2 "monster ballad" verses of heartbreak giving way to a huge pre-chorus build, leading into the angry, up-tempo major-key chorus. Heartbreak and anger then congeal for a strong bridge and solo section. Stroke 9 were formed out of a "rock band" college course, and have stuck together for the past 20 years, so they had time to tweak and strengthen their formulaic songwriting just in time for this AOR giant to be ripe for heavy airplay.

90's Guilty Pleasures #4: Ghost Town DJ's "My Boo" (1996)

Before 2-step, before UK Garage, before M.I.A., there was... that weird R&B sub-genre with drums that sampled Kraftwerk (or used very similar electro-beats), which is possibly called "bass music R&B," or "booty bass." In 2006, Yo Majesty made a dent in the undergroup hiphop landscape by adding huge helpings of raunch to this combination. However, back in the mid-90's, the appeal of this sub-genre's most popular songs lie within their innocence, such as INOJ's "Love You Down," KP & Envyi's "Shawty Swing My Way," and especially the Mack Daddy of them all, the understated 90's classic "My Boo." There's definitely something distinctively "classic 90's" about a song whose drums are encouraging grind-dancing, but whose innocent lyrics, playful keyboards, and simplistic vocal melody paint images of 7th graders dreaming about their crushes while they're supposed to be workin' on their studies.

I've never seen this video before, but upon my first viewing, it's not exactly matching up with what I had envisioned earlier... But pool parties are fun too. Whatever. And hey... at 1:40.. is that Jermaine Dupri again?? Making his 2nd appearance in the Top 10??? Right on, Jermaine is clearly the master of the 90's guilty pleasure... (Unfortunately this shortened "video edit" doesn't do the song as much justice as the full version, available here..)


INOJ "Love You Down" (1997) Youtube

KP & Envyi "Shawty Swing My Way" (1997) Youtube

Freak Nasty "Da Dip" (1997) Youtube

90's Guilty Pleasures #5: Limp Bizkit "Nookie" (1999)

This entry was originally supposed to be for "Re-Arranged," because of its decent bassline. "Break Stuff" was also considered for similar reasons to why "Nookie" ended up winning, but from what I can tell, "Nookie" is more embarrassing simply based on its TERRIBLE refrain.. specifically rhyming "nookie" with "cookie." Jesus...

Since their breakthrough, The Durst has remained one of modern rock's most compelling fixtures, as most view him as a complete jerk with a terrible singing voice, advocating misogyny and creating music with a specific niche in mind, that being music for SUV-driving meatheads. His extreme "jerk superstar" status places him on a shortlist of celebs alongside Axl Rose, P Diddy, Eminem and Dr. Dre. As a songwriter, his pop tenancies helped to give a bad name for the term "rap-metal," essentially creating a mockery of early 90's classics such as Public Enemy & Anthrax's "Bring The Noise" collaboration, Faith No More's "Epic," and Rage Against The Machine's first album.

The singles were also incredibly hooky & poppy party nu-metal, with various guitar-weirdness thanks to Wes Borland helping to keep things interesting.. And the guitar parts in "Nookie" are no exception. And in the tradition of Vanilla Ice, so-bad-its-good rapping on a hit single is pretty much the definition of fun.. although that should be "fun" in quotes, signifying some hardcore irony.

Try and pause the video on Wes Borland's face at 2:08.. Definitely the best part...


Limp Bizkit "Re-Arranged" (1999) Youtube

Limp Bizkit "Break Stuff" (1999) Youtube

90's Guilty Pleasures #6: Queensryche "Silent Lucidity" (1991)

Believe it or not, the mentality of Mickey Rourke's character from The Wrestler still exists, thinking Nirvana killed '80s metal, when it was actually 100% the plan of the record companies. In the first 2 years of the '90s, and just before "them Nirvana fags" killed the '80s, there was a brief period when "the next big thing" really mattered and was severely pushed by radio and MTV. Just prior to grunge, magazines such as SPIN suggested a wide-range for "the sound of the '90s," with predictions ranging as far as Danzig, Deee-Lite, Teenage Fanclub, and grindcore.

While this was happening, pop metal got soft. Different singles could have been chosen from these bands, but instead the biggest "pop metal" hits of the early '90s were "More Than Words," "Something To Believe In," "I Saw Red," and "Wind Of Change." By the time another year had passed, Metallica scored a hit with "Nothing Else Matters," and the same with Ozzy's "Mama I'm Coming Home." Soft-metal prevailed further during the first half of 1991, when the biggest rock song to come out of Seattle was from yet another attempt at finding "the next big thing," from the prog-rock of Queensryche.

"Silent Lucidity" includes many embarrassing yet intriguing characteristics, and mostly intriguing considering how huge this song became. For example, the song's acoustic guitar intro alternates between 15/16 and 4/4 measures, for absolutely no reason other than showcasing the band's technical proficiency. (Yawn.) It could have just as easily been in straight 4/4, but that's prog-rock for ya.

The lyrics themselves generate further embarrassment. Take the song's once-sung refrain for instance: "I'm smiling next to you, in silent lucidity," meaning he's sitting next to someone's bed and smiling at them while controlling their mind/dreams. Kind of a gross image, IMHO (although the subject matter is an interesting concept).

It's possible that this song wouldn't have been nearly as marketable or popular if it hadn't musically shared so many characteristics with Side 3 of Pink Floyd's The Wall. There's the intro of "Hey You," the vocal harmonies from "The Show Must Go On" (reaching a bit into Side 4), and a strikingly similar atmosphere from the first guitar solo in "Comfortably Numb."

Queensryche are also inherently embarrassing by nature simply associating with nerdy prog-rock, as their fans show off their "Got 'Rhyche?" t-shirts with pride. But technically "Silent Lucidity" is still pop metal, and along with "Mama I'm Coming Home," this was probably the best out of this genre's very last few charting singles, before bands like System Of A Down and Slipknot scored hits with metal in a completely different direction.



NOTE: Just let it be known, I'm not especially proud of this "Silent Lucidity" review because it kind of jumps all over the place and doesn't flow nicely, but I'm posting it anyway because I don't really care.

90's Guilty Pleasures #7: S.W.V. "Right Here/Human Nature" (1993)

While nicely predicting the eventual success of mash-ups, this was also (probably) the only charting song that not only includes cameos from both Michael Jackson and Pharrell Williams, but also a co-songwriting credit from Toto, and an appearance from Free Willy himself right in the video. (Yes, the whale's full name was "Free Willy." Look it up.) Its gentle-yet-cool atmosphere is rarely heard on today's Top 40 stations, as it falls somewhere between ocean waves crashing, and a comforting hug from a loved one saying "I think it's gonna be okay." In that respect, I've found "Right Here/Human Nature" to be a fitting example of the potential power of the pop single.

SWV became unjustly forgotten when those "90's nostalgia" shows started showing up on VH1. En Vogue pretty much stole their girl-group glory, even though they never released anything as good as "Can We" or the Wu-Tang remix of "Anything." "Right Here/Human Nature" also happened to show up during a very strong period for female-fronted R&B, charting alongside Janet's "That's The Way Love Goes," Zhane's "Hey Mr. DJ," and Jade's "Don't Walk Away" among others. (Watch out for Youtube links listed below...)

As much as we do love this song, we've known people who called it "so gay" and find the MJ sample to be annoying as shit. Homophobia aside, we kinda see where these people are coming from, which is why it's included here. Also, this was one of the first mp3's I ever downloaded.



SWV "Can We" (1997) - Youtube

SWV feat. Wu-Tang Clan "Anything" (1994) - Youtube

Janet Jackson "That's The Way Love Goes" (1993) - Youtube

Zhane "Hey Mr. DJ" (1993) - Youtube

Jade "Don't Walk Away" (1993) - Youtube

90's Guilty Pleasures #8: Londonbeat "I've Been Thinking About You" (1991)

If TimeLife's 70's A.M. Gold series ever needs a 90's equivalent to release anytime soon, I'd like to propose this idea: "Supermarket Gold," which would be songs played very often while shopping for produce. "I've Been Thinking About You" would be a strong contender for disc 1, track 1, partially because it's damn hilarious. And it's also better than 90% of early-90's UK dance-rock, combining falsetto from Fine Young Cannibals with a guitar lick clearly stolen from Johnny Marr, although I'm having trouble ID'ing which Smiths song this would have been. Ladies, if your man puts this song on your mixtape, it means he truly loves you. Gentlemen, if you sing this song for karaoke, I will buy you a tasty beer.

90's Guilty Pleasures #9: Usher "You Make Me Wanna" (1997)

It's hard to think of commentary for some of these R&B choices.. And usually this eludes to falling back on nostalgia... When I first saw this video, I was confused into thinking that Usher was a group of 4 or 5 guys, because there are 4 or 5 Ushers dancing in the beginning of this video. Eventually "Yeah!" became his trademark song, but "You Make Me Wanna" is still one of the best breakthrough R&B singles of the decade, proven by its longevity on Top 40 radio playlists, where it remains to this day. Within months after its release, "Nice & Slow" and "My Way" slayed with nearly as much punch as the first single. I'm still waiting for Usher to return to Jermaine Dupri and correctly match this trifecta of awesome.

P.S. The adlibs in this one are so fucking killer... I mean, they're not quite Michael Jackson caliber, but who is, really...

90's Guilty Pleasures #10: Van Halen "Poundcake" (1991)

So as the story goes, with one album, Van Halen changed to Van Hagar. What was once an exciting scuz-bucket-of-rock extravaganza (with some of the best guitar and drum work of any of their contemporaries) morphed into generic, boring, standard, no-nonsense AOR. About 90% of the fun (and scuz) that David Lee Roth apparently encouraged all went down the shitter. Throughout their four albums, Van Hagar's biggest moment was the annoying-as-shit and horribly overrated video for "Right Now" (which beat out "Smells Like Teen Spirit" at the '92 VMA's for "Best Video Of The Year").

Despite their newfound "maturity" and lameness, and despite the annoyance levels of Sammy's singing voice, "Poundcake" remains the one song that nearly justifies their post-Roth existence. (I guess it's kinda cool they named their album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, in a way that's not really cool at all...)

90's Guilty Pleasures #11: George Michael "Freedom '90" (1990)

There's a certain category of hit single that is among my absolute favorites, where a song's complexity stretches beyond simply verse, chorus and bridge. In some cases, these songs include a pre-chorus, post-chorus, multiple bridges, and/or segmented verses of some sort. It's the songwriter's attempt to stretch the boundaries of what's capable in charting pop music, to see how far the flow can possibly last while keeping the listener's attention. And when it works, it normally succeeds in helping to separate the artists from the pop-stars. As far as I can tell, the first hit song of this category was "Oh! Pretty Woman." It was perfected by "Good Vibrations," and the most recent example (as of March 2010) was "Bad Romance."

I find it revealing that George Michael would choose such complexity, with a 6-minute string of one undeniable hook after another, as his confession to the world of wanting to break free from record companies, while secretly also confessing his sexual orientation. This was something he really wanted his fans to hear, giving even more meaning to the album title Listen Without Prejudice.

The video is still overrated, but it's not bad...

90's Guilty Pleasures #12: L.F.O. (Lyte Funky Ones) "Summer Girls" (1999)

The Guilt:: There's a strong possibility this song may have been associated with a surprisingly effective viral marketing campaign for Aberchrombie & Fitch. And the boy-band image itself, often portrayed as rich kids driving around in Daddy's new SUV, was never anything that offered much sense of pride.

The Pleasure:: "Summer Girls" is so retardedly absurd that there's almost no way to not appreciate it in some form, ironic or otherwise. Let's examine these lyrics...

You're the best girl that I ever did see / The great Larry Bird Jersey 33
When you take a sip you buzz like a hornet / Billy Shakespeare wrote a whole bunch of sonnets...

So here, they rhymed "hornet" with "sonnets," which in itself is nothing short of lyrical genius. Moving on...

Now I can't forget you and it makes me mad/ Left one day and never came back
Stayed all summer then went back home / Macauly Culkin wasn't Home Alone

After moving past the random-as-fuck pop culture references having practically nothing to do with the song's narrative (which I'm sure fans of Family Guy should be able to appreciate), this turns out simply as a sad song of love and loss...

You love hip hop and rock n roll / Dad took off when you were 4 years old
There was a good man named Paul Revere / I feel much better baby when you're near

The "dad took off" part reveals some unexpected undertones of darkness, followed immediately by the WTF "Paul Revere" line... I shouldn't need to go further. There's almost no other song more worthy of a "WTF" tag from this entire decade...

90's Guilty Pleasures #13: Phish "Down With Disease" (1994)

For a 15-month span which encompassed a decent portion of my sophmore and junior years of high school, Phish were my favorite band in the world. This is now by far the single most embarrassing skeleton in my awkward teenage closet. I never considered myself neo-hippie or white-college-cap-preppy-soccer-jock, so when I realized the kinds of people I was unintentionally associating myself with, I made the right decision to run away as fast as I could. In retrospect, a handful of Phish's attempts at standard 4-minute verse-chorus rock still sound surprisingly fresh, "Down With Disease" being one of them. And I may as well list the remainder of that handful here just so I can close this chapter once and for all.. Those would be "Lizards," "Maze," "Stash," "Waste," "Billy Breathes," "Free," "Fee," "If I Could," "Julius," "Gumbo," and their best song is probably "Llama." And despite what the unwashed burnouts have to say about it, all of these songs sound best when they're concise and sans noodling. ("Harry Hood" is one I would have included, but it unfortunately suffers from being about 7 minutes too long.) Out of 100+ songs of theirs I can recall, these are the only ones left I can still stomach. Their tendancy to lean toward lovely vocal harmonies accompanying distractingly horrendous lyrics remains their most frustrating paradox. ("Down With Disease" made the most sense for this list since it remains their only MTV video. Beavis and Butthead thought it was cool that they jumped into a fishtank.)

90's Guilty Pleasures #14: Sting "If I Ever Lose My Faith In You" (1993)

It's been suggested by many that Sting may be the best candidate for pop music's alltime "best music with worst lyrics" songwriter. Although this was correct throughout many moments in The Police, the "worst lyrics" aspect on its own was never truer than on his Ten Summoner's Tales LP from 1993, where the album's first track was probably the only one where the strength of the music actually masked his horrendously embarrassing verses. And it helps that this may have been an earnest attempt to combine his own boring contemporary-jazz-fetish with a moment as radiant as Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes." For post-Police Sting, this is probably as good as it will ever get.

Huge lolz alert: I think Sting is unironically wearing a fake-beard at 2:40...

90's Guilty Pleasures #15: Third Eye Blind "Never Let You Go" (1999)

3EB were never well-behaved puppets: When they played their hit “Graduate” at the American Music Awards in 1998, they changed some of the lyrics to “can I masturbate” instead of “can I graduate.”

In Defense of Third Eye Blind -- Vulture

Due to the genius of "Semi-Charmed Life," Third Eye Blind is forever justified. This is a fact of science, so just deal with it. Their hit songs happened to arrive around the same time as Matchbox 20, but their pop leanings sonically placed them a lot closer to Sugar Ray. This brand of pop is normally imperfect, and sometimes even soulless, but always well organized.

Their most heralded singles were the 5 from their self-titled debut. However, the 2nd album's charting status was thanks to the less-remembered "Never Let You Go," where they decided to brilliantly rip off Lou Reed's "Sweet Jane" riff for about 4 minutes, accompanying a rather carefree atmosphere in comparison to the 1st album. And after it feels like the song is about to end, get ready for it: a semi-charmed kinda rap-coda, one that was far more subdued compared to what Kid Rock was releasing around the same time. It may have been thrown at the end of the song as an afterthought, but it's somehow the key to what makes this song memorable: "I remember the stupid things, the mood rings..." Brilliant or not? You decide.

90's Guilty Pleasures: #16: Groove Theory "Tell Me" (1995)

Here's a simple, understated, and sadly underappreciated mid-decade gem from around the same era of relaxing funk-pop as LL Cool J's "Hey Lover," and slightly foreshadowing The Fugees' The Score. Groove Theory only ended up releasing this one album, and later on lead singer Amel Larrieux ended up releasing one of those late-90's neo-soul records that sounded like Erykah Badu. While neo-soul was a neat little trendy moment for R&B, it removed a lot of those raw hiphop edges that made records like "Tell Me" and The Score so compelling.

90's Guilty Pleasures #17: Chris Issak "Wicked Game" (1990)

If there was a "man of the year" for 1990, it's gotta be David Lynch, no contest. During this year, he not only premiered Twin Peaks, but he also saved Chris Issak's "Wicked Game" from near-certain obscurity by including it in Wild At Heart (along with thrash-metal band PowerMad, among others). Not long afterward, the "Wicked Game" video (one of the greatest ever made) was on MTV constantly and gave all of us massive boners. By 1990, Roy Orbison had only recently died, but his spirit was very much alive within "Wicked Game," which became kind of an anomaly throughout the 90's, only possibly matched sonically a few years later by Mazzy Star's "Fade Into You."