The Chicks – Fly [Sony] – 31 August 1999
It’s arduous to think about, however The Chicks existed earlier than Natalie Maines, the outspoken and dynamic member, joined the group. Present bandmates and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Robison co-founded the ensemble in 1989 with two others and have become well-liked on the bluegrass circuit, releasing three albums between 1990 and 1993. Throughout these years, the group have been already experimenting with the seeds of the modern nation and bluegrass mix that grew to become their patented signature, a lot to the displeasure of fellow founder Robin Lynn Macy, who left the group. Enter Natalie Maines, and stardom was simply across the nook.
Maines added that charismatic frontperson the band wanted, and her musical chops, have been equal to these of the completed Maguire and Robison. Certainly, the Chicks‘ enduring significance might be what they’ve accomplished for the visibility of feminine instrumentalists in a extremely male dominated area. Maines stands out as the one which will get the majority of the press, however Maguire and Robison’s consummate taking part in is the muse of the band and the picture that it initiatives is probably extra highly effective than even Maines’ colourful character.
These “chicks” have by no means been fairly fronts for males, however are among the many best pickers within the biz. Maguire got here in third on the 1989 nationwide fiddle championships and Maines scored a full-tuition scholarship on the prestigious Berkelee School of Music.
But there was some doubt among the many Nashville fits concerning the business viability of an all-woman group in nation music. Somebody both sniffed a gimmick right here that may promote or, hopefully, was merely gained over by the sheer excellence of their music as a result of after they landed that deal, they hit huge and quick, promoting 12 million copies of 1998’s Vast Open Areas and nabbing two Grammys within the course of.
Fly adopted shortly on Vast Open Areas‘ heels, meant to take care of and construct the artist’s momentum, one thing it succeeded at wildly as Fly is packed to the gills with stadium fillers. The album offered ten million copies, gained them two extra Grammys and generated two #1 singles in “Cowboy Take Me Away” and “With out You”. Fly maintained parts of bluegrass type with its emphasis on virtuoso musicianship and layered concord singing, whereas including pop pleasant guitars and angle into the combination, in addition to mainstream nation staples like pedal metal guitar and songs about on a regular basis lives.
The Chicks managed the feat of sounding fully new, by no means straightforward to do, whereas upending Nashville traditions. It’s uncommon for artists to play their very own backing on main label albums popping out of Music Metropolis. Even George Strait‘s very good Ace within the Gap Band normally has to take a seat on the sidelines whereas the studio gamers step as much as the recording mics. The Chicks use some extra gamers to fill out their sound on recordings, however the bulk of the taking part in comes from the artists themselves, working as a real workforce of equals and so they went platinum doing it.
Fly was loaded with hits, from the Celtic influenced “Able to Run”, the expansive traditional nation craving of “Cowboy Take Me Away”, the risqué barnstormer “Sin Wagon”, and the Fried Inexperienced Tomatoes-esque “Goodbye Earl”. These songs discover love and longing, however with an actual sense of empowerment and energy, by no means despair or victimhood. Fashionable tradition and the music enterprise badly wanted such robust ladies again in 1999 and we nonetheless want them right this moment. – Sarah Zupko
Magnetic Fields – 69 Love Songs [Merge] – 7 September 1999
When 69 Love Songs was launched in 1999, the excitement couldn’t have been larger. Along with profitable over the faculty radio crowd, the album charmed the press, garnering glowing critiques and a uncommon “10” score from SPIN. Its affect on the time was palpable, particularly as 20-somethings have been launched to Nina Rota, Ferdinad de Saussure, and Pantone colour charts. The album inspired modern vocalists to gender-bend their lyrics and songwriters to tackle any material with innocence, style experimentation, and even, within the case of “The Night time You Can’t Bear in mind”, heroic full rhymes.
A decade previous the album’s launch, its impression has solely begun to be revealed. In contrast to different indie bands that generate hype after which fade into nowhere or face a backlash, Magnetic Fields held robust with 69 Love Songs. Whereas the aforementioned over-hyped indie bands typically solely influenced each other, it appears musicians in every single place have been touched by 69 Love Songs.
Among the many artists overlaying the titular love songs are Mary Lou Lord, Peter Gabriel, and Kelly Hogan (whose model of “Papa Was a Rodeo” is probably the perfect Magnetic Fields cowl but). Furthermore, Stephin Merritt has set a blinding precedent for males working between theatrical and pop traditions, and he might properly even be chargeable for the doubtful ukulele craze of the previous few years. – Erin Lyndal Martin
Sloan – Between the Bridges [Murder] – 12 September 1999
Sloan have been at all times far more well-liked in Canada than they ever have been in the US. Nonetheless, the ability pop band launched a string of wonderful, critically adored albums within the Nineties that at the very least granted them the cult following they deserved. Arguments may be made in favor of every of those albums, however for my cash, 1999’s Between the Bridges nudges out Navy Blues, One Chord to One other, and Twice Eliminated as their greatest.
Between the Bridges flows collectively like a rock opera, as songs mix into one another and themes return all through the course of the album; this regardless of the band having 4 distinct songwriters. If there’s a idea behind the file, it’s autobiographical, because it charts the band’s starting in Nova Scotia (“The N.S.”), their flirtation with American success and eventual failure (“So Past Me”, “Shedding California”), and their return dwelling to Canada (“Take Good Care of the Poor Boy”).
Nonetheless, the intelligent sequencing wouldn’t matter if the songs didn’t maintain up, and the LP is chock-full of nice ones. “So Past Me” is a gem, with tight harmonies and a hovering melody, and a bridge/outro that mixes each. “Don’t You Consider a Phrase” is an enormous, stunning slice of AM radio-style pop, with coy lyrics and singing from Jay Ferguson. “Sensory Deprivation” is probably Andrew Scott’s most fun arduous rocker, with an enormous, meaty riff and big vocals.
“Shedding California” has the album’s most infectious refrain and a kickass dual-guitar solo, whereas “The Marquee and the Moon” is a powerfully catchy piano-based track that makes use of its change-of-pace 6/8 time signature to nice impact. In a extra rock-friendly time for mainstream music, Between the Bridges might’ve been enormous. However within the boy band pop and nu-metal dominated late ’90s, it by no means had a shot at exhibiting up on the charts. – Chris Conaton
Gomez – Liquid Pores and skin [Virgin] – 13 September 1999
Half two of the Merseyside indie band’s profession overture, Liquid Pores and skin shared the textural nuances of Gomez‘s Mercury Prize-winning debut Convey It On. Certainly, the albums have been nearly twins, right down to the implied diptych of their cowl artwork. Liquid Pores and skin even inherited Convey It On‘s discarded title monitor, a bluesy fugue that grew to become a top-25 single within the UK, however it in the end outstrips its older sibling in each ambition and within the polished grit of its neo-blues confabulations.
For sure, it options extra superb uvula-scraping sustained notes from Ben Ottewell’s burnt-copper pipes than every other Gomez launch: the sitar-drenched “Hangover” begins along with his potent entreaty to “be the sunshine at my window”, “Blue Moon Rising” climaxes with explosive iterations of the title phrase, and “Rosalita” bears out his vocal dexterity for its total size.
The songwriting and manufacturing stays strong all through (“Rhythm & Blues Alibi” might properly be the band’s theme track), however it’s the rambling splendor of “California” and “Satan Will Experience” that sees Liquid Pores and skin pull forward of its well-laurelled predecessor. The latter specifically takes the cake, with its gobsmacking vocoder results, marching-band horns, and Beatle-esque sing-along fadeout. “Even the Royal Mail / Can’t ship us from what we bought into,” Ian Ball sings. However on Liquid Pores and skin, Gomez evades the sophomore jinx and convincingly delivers. – Ross Langager
Eve – Let There Be Eve… Ruff Ryders’ First Girl [Interscope] – 14 September 1999
Our nostalgic journey down reminiscence lane can be incomplete with out recognizing one in all 1999’s brightest stars: Eve Jihan Jeffers. Carving out an area for herself within the male-dominated world of hip-hop, Eve achieved business success and significant acclaim together with her debut, Let There Be Eve… Ruff Ryders’ First Girl. Sensual but devoid of the hyper-sexuality that plagued the careers of quite a lot of of her feminine contemporaries, Eve appealed to younger and previous, feminine and male, the transformed and the unconverted.
Amazingly, in a black cultural universe more and more fragmented alongside the traces of rhythm and bullshit (see: Mark Anthony Neal), neo-soul, business rap, and backpacker hip-hop, Eve possessed the uncommon means to endear herself to disparate communities.
Nowhere was this extra obvious than on her debut launch. Unafraid to indicate with and on her hip-hop brethren, Eve shares the mic with rap’s man of the hour, DMX, her Philly comrade Beanie Sigel, and fellow newcomer Drag-On. Sure to oblige probably the most rudimentary necessities of hip-hop, the proficient rapper from the Metropolis of Brotherly Love states her declare because the baddest chick within the recreation (“Situation”), pays homage to her hometown (“Philly, Philly”), and tackles the advanced topic of relations between the sexes (“Let’s Speak About” and “Gotta Man”).
To her credit score, Eve provides voice to ladies battling problems with vanity and caught in abusive relationships. It appears solely becoming in a milieu wherein black music tilted towards a extra aware stance that Eve’s largest single would tackle the difficulty of home violence. “Love Is Blind”, produced by Kasseem “Swizz Beats” Dean and that includes soulful vocals from Religion Evans, raced up the charts, due in no small half to its accompanying video.
Opening with “I don’t even know you and I hate you”, Eve informed the story of the havoc home violence reeks on the lives of its victims and the communities they inhabit. On this monitor and others, Eve revealed a layer of black femininity that differed from that related to neo-soul’s Earth Mamas. As cultural critic Greg Tate astutely famous, Eve put forth a imaginative and prescient of “inner-city sisterhood that could be understandably misplaced on people all caught up in her platinum blond, butch haircut, pouty lips, and breast-stalking paw prints.”
Popping out the identical yr as Me’Shell Ndegeocello’s masterful Bitter, Angie Stone’s underrated Diamonds, and Mary J. Blige’s stunning Mary, Eve was one in all many artists offering a thought-provoking tackle the complexity of black womanhood on the flip of the twenty first century. – Claudrena Harold
Ol’ Soiled Bastard – Nigga Please [Elektra] – 14 September 1999
There’s no questioning the late, nice Ol’ Soiled Bastard’s place because the wild man of the hip-hop idiom. He was Rudy Ray Moore, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, and Worry of a Black Planet-era Taste Flav all rolled up in a dusted Phillies blunt with the phrases “Massive Child Jesus” written throughout it with a bootleg Sharpie. Although the co-founding (and confounding) member of the Wu-Tang Clan was labeled an MC and a rapper by commerce and affiliation, his by chance Dadaistic strategy to the craft was precisely the attention jammie hip-hop wanted to maintain itself in test.
Largely produced by the Neptunes with accompanying beats by the likes of the RZA and Irv Gotti, Soiled’s second solo album is certainly his absurdist masterpiece as he blurts, sings, chants, and rants his manner via what can simply be thought of probably the most non-linear mainstream rap album ever created. Nigga Please was launched in September of 1999 within the midst of a private twister of chaos and dangerous publicity.
It got here within the wake of ODB’s full yr of prison mischief, which discovered Soiled hijacking the 1998 Grammys throughout the “Music of the 12 months” award announcement to proclaim that “Wu-Tang is for the kids,” getting arrested in California after making “terrorist threats” in opposition to safety on the Home of Blues in Los Angeles, being kicked out of a lodge in Berlin, Germany for lounging within the nude on a balcony, getting pulled over in New York for driving with a suspended license and drug possession expenses twice inside a five-day span, and hiring OJ Simpson’s lawyer to symbolize him in court docket amongst different ill-fated situations.
Anchored by one hit track, the freaky membership banger “Bought Your Cash”, that includes a memorable hook by a pre-“Milkshake” Kelis, Nigga Please zig zags from a trustworthy studying of Rick James’ “Chilly Blooded” to sloppy-yet-entirely-endearing warble via the Billie Vacation traditional “Good Morning Heartache” with one-time Timbaland protégé Lil’ Mo. Then there’s ODB doing what the Filth Canine does greatest on “I Can’t Wait”, that includes a pattern normal from the theme music to the William Shatner police drama TJ Hooker.
Those that didn’t get it nonetheless can’t perceive the place ODB was coming from on this, absolutely the oddest gem within the Wu-Tang Clan catalog. However for these within the know — Jesus, we nonetheless rollin’ wit you. – Ron Hart
Supergrass – Supergrass [Capitol] – 20 September 1999
This album was a vital step for Supergrass. Whereas their chart place has slunk down incrementally with nearly each album they’ve launched, their eponymous third album established them as a strong profession band. Whereas the Britney Spears and Eminem sorts manufacture carbon copy blockbuster releases on pure hype, the so-called “X-Ray” album noticed the band’s early, unrefined various punk and ramshackle twee influences coalesce right into a persistently understated and delicate file, commanding their future whereas sustaining their unpretentious spirit and humorousness.
Their 1995 debut I Ought to Coco ended up at primary within the UK charts, garnering them a Mercury Prize nomination and greatest new artist awards from NME and Q. The lead single “Caught by the Fuzz” and the Ivor Novello-winning “Alright” noticed them touching again on their formative teenage years, capturing the unchecked hope and power of youth. In 1997, In It for the Cash adopted it as much as quantity two within the UK with a extra bold and sonically diverse sound, and offered extra worldwide than its predecessor. This course continued for his or her eponymous 1999 launch.
The band was all safely of their mid-twenties at that time, and the time for naive noodling had handed. The album introduced Supergrass as a mature group of proficient musicians, now not depending on, however not devoid of, spunk. It helped to opens doorways to the US market because of the shock summer time hit “Pumping on Your Stereo” (which made the Street Journey soundtrack) and its now-legendary supporting Muppet video.
The core of the album was not in its flashy riffs, however emotionally its contemplative, composed tracks. Amongst these, “Eon” is a gradual transferring epic that builds to a drifting downtempo peak, and “Born Once more” follows go well with, from an orchestra-warming-up intro to an electrical piano and string-laden groove penetrated by vocoder-dampened vocals. The album was bookended by “Shifting”, a touring track documenting numerous attributes of life on the highway, and “Mama & Papa”, which closes the album on the notion that, as soon as the nest is empty, you by no means can return dwelling.
Granted, their third album was their final to achieve platinum gross sales, so one could also be inclined to imagine this was the place all of it went incorrect. On the contrary, I see this because the album the place they lastly grew to become themselves, reaching the place the place the entire promise from their debut took them. The patron solely involved with the right here and now would possible miss the development the band took to get so far, and it’s one they continued.
2002’s Life on Different Planets can be their first album on the Billboard 200, whereas Street to Rouen from 2005 and final yr’s Diamond Hoo Ha reached 41 and 22 on High Heatseekers charts respectively. But, though their earlier albums might have had extra uncooked power and their later works could also be extra refined, in my thoughts, Supergrass nonetheless holds up as their greatest. – Alan Ranta
Leftfield – Rhythm and Stealth [Sony] – 20 September 1999
They don’t make music like this anymore. It’s not a lot a price judgment as a easy assertion of reality. Few acts ever made dance music as highly effective and pummeling as Leftfield, and even fewer acts have been in a position to mix this type of energy with such a keenly cerebral intelligence. Sooner or later, dance music bought small: what occurred to the bass? What occurred to the cathartic pulse of amniotic bass? When did all the pieces get so damned hip and self-conscious? The place’s the fervour?
Leftfield have been huge, greater than life, even when they themselves have been nearly comically nameless. Simply one other couple of English blokes making home music — however not simply that. Their model of home music blew out sound programs throughout the continent. For his or her first trick they conjured up John Lydon and the era-defining “Open Up”, and subsequently dropped Leftism, nonetheless probably the most highly-esteemed dance LPs of all time. Rhythm & Stealth was their second album, and whether it is typically ignored in favor of their debut that’s no scratch on Rhythm & Stealth.
Solely ten tracks, and never a bum within the joint: all killer, no filler, and nothing however huge beats and monstrous, all-encompassing synths. Few tracks have ever kicked like “Afrika Shox” (with Afrika Bambaataa!); few dance ballads have ever felt as harmful as “Swords”; treasured few arduous home tracks have ever swelled with the harmful fury of “6/8 Struggle”.
It was a phenomenally potent second act, and somewhat than tempt destiny, Leftfield determined to name it a day quickly after. It appeared like a disgrace on the time, however in hindsight maybe it wasn’t such a foul thought. There are worse concepts than releasing two all-time traditional albums after which fading gracefully into the evening. – Tim O’Neil
9 Inch Nails – The Fragile [Nothing] – 21 September 1999
Listening to The Fragile is rather a lot like listening to a mash-up of 9 Inch Nails’ albums,’ Ghosts I-IV and The Slip. There are some actually nice instrumentals and a few nice rock songs right here, however there are additionally just a few boring instrumentals and a few really uninspired rock songs. Theoretically, The Fragile was 5 years within the making, and Trent Reznor had a lot materials that his solely selection was to go the double-disc, huge album route. However in follow, there actually is about one full CD’s value of robust music right here. That was true when the album got here out, and it’s nonetheless true right this moment.
Age has not improved the extra lackluster songs. What is putting about listening to The Fragile right this moment is how a lot the guitars are turned up. We have a tendency to think about 9 Inch Nails as having an digital bedrock wherein heavy, distorted guitars are used to fill out the sound, with sure rocking exceptions, after all (“Want”, “March of the Pigs”). However the guitars all through this album are enormous, and so they dominate nearly each track they’re utilized in. Opener “Considerably Broken” illustrates this completely. A jagged riff kicks off the track and continues all through, getting louder and extra distorted because it goes. This riff finally ends up so totally overwhelming the remainder of the music that it renders the track inert.
The second monitor and first single, “The Day the World Went Away”, fares higher with its apocalyptic lyrics and slow-and-heavy music. Nonetheless, it’s the third monitor “The Frail” that highlights the album’s different putting characteristic. A gradual, piano-based instrumental, it has a quiet minor-key melody and is the primary of a number of wonderful instrumentals spaced all through the album.
These instrumentals expanded the sound of the band, pushing ahead and exploring new territory, which might later bear fruit on the aforementioned Ghosts album and the wonderful acoustic Nonetheless CD. Nonetheless, the rock songs, even when nice, right this moment sound fairly stagnant for 9 Inch Nails, rehashing numerous what Reznor did on Damaged and The Downward Spiral. – Chris Conaton
Stereolab – Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage within the Milky Night time [Elektra] – 21 September 1999
Because the Nineties drew to a detailed, so did Stereolab‘s means to sound recent, important, and related. By this level of their profession, the “groop” might play their explicit model of house age lounge-pop of their sleep. Certainly, Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage within the Milky Night time discovered them going via the motions like by no means earlier than, and nonetheless ranks because the worst file of their extremely in depth catalogue. Correctly talking, nothing had modified.
All the parts have been slotted into their anticipated locations; each droning Farfisa organ, each vibraphone hit, each “ba-ba-ba” vocal tic and harmonized verse by Laetitia Sadier and backup singer Mary Hansen. Abetted by Jim O’Rourke and John McEntire’s aloof and totally boring manufacturing, Stereolab successfully turned the music that had as soon as galvanized the faculty rock underground with early classics like “Jenny Ondioline” and “Ping Pong” into predictable pop pabulum.
Cobra and Phases Group additionally coincided with the obsolescence (if not the outright loss of life) of the Nineties Exotica motion, led by Mexican straightforward listening composer Juan García Esquivel, Stereolab’s main affect. (In a tragic and poignant flip of occasions, the growing old Esquivel would die solely three years later.) But when the file justifiably represents Stereolab’s lowest descent into lifelessness, it additionally stands because the clear dividing line between their early- and late-career successes.
Maybe it took a blatantly autopilot album and the crucial backlash that adopted it to jolt the group out of their holding sample. Even after Hansen was killed in a tragic biking accident in 2002, Stereolab would proceed to recharge their batteries and produce the wonderful Margarine Eclipse and Chemical Chords, which didn’t alter their formulation a lot as suffuse it with new, vivifying power. All of us make errors, and the as soon as do-no-wrong Stereolab wasn’t an exception. It’s what we do about these errors that basically issues. – M. Newmark
