Author: VanJam 80s v. 90s Music War - 50 Album Battles to See Which Decade Rules!

#11: Elvis Costello and the Attractions, ‘Get Happy!!’ (1980) vs. Outkast, ‘Aquemini’ (1998)

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This was a fun battle. Both new listens for me and both are near perfect records. One album has relentless drive and the other has relentless groove. Both demonstrate lyrical genius. Both demonstrate a mastery of their genre.

Get Happy does exactly as prescribed. Most songs feel like I am cartwheeling down a mountainside and nailing every rotation with a smile on my face. Elvis’s delivery, musically and lyrically, is completely forward moving. The album is in constant motion. The uptempo drums, the aggressive vocals, the falling melodic and chord change refrains, the big hit riffs. There is never a moment of rest, but it’s all energizing.

When it came out, Get Happy was seen as a bit of a flub. Mainly because it was a bit of a change from the three previous Attractions albums. The retroactive reviews have changed to the point where this is now seen as one of his best. That is great art, when the audience has to go to the artist and not the other way around. Sometimes, like this case, it can take a while.

I would always hear or read about how important Outkast was in the evolution of hip hop. Hearing Aquemini I can see why. This album is groove perfection. Every little sample or rhythm or even guttural “ugh” is completely calculated and flawlessly timed. The layering and blending of these precise ingredients created a stew of sounds that masks the rigid architecture, making it feel more natural and less mathematical. Like a well made hip hop ratatouille.

Outcast is really the first Southern hip hop mainstream group. Their impact no doubt spilled into how the East and West Coast hip hop scene would develop. Aquemini was an instant classic immediately and was revered by those who followed them, having a profound influence and musical impact.

So, this battle was fun in terms of discovering two great albums, but it’s a tough one to decide on. If I were to pick the one I like most and will probably include in my future musical rotation, Get Happy is that album. If I am to pick the album that had the most impact, I gotta think that Aquemini influenced more simply because it was immediately loved by both fans and critics. This time I shall go with the one that I simply just like better.

JS

WINNER: Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Get Happy!! (4 points)

BATTLE TALLY

80s: 18

90s: 22

EARNED POINTS
80s: 47
90s: 53

Next week’s post – #10: Tracy Chapman, ‘Tracy Chapman’ (1988) vs. Pavement, ‘Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain’ (1994)

#12: Public Enemy, ‘It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back’ (1988) vs. Tom Petty, ‘Wildflowers’ (1994)

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Here we have a battle of musical opposites. Wildflowers is comfort food and It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back is cold hard medicine. The only thing they have in common is that they are both absolutely amazing. I really do not want to pick a winner here.

Wildflowers is the Tom Petty album that all other Tom Petty albums want to be when they grow up. I used to think Full Moon Fever was his best. I was wrong. In 1994, Tom found the perfect formula for smooth, indelible folk rock. This is the soundtrack to a lazy summer night on the back patio. The title track kicks things off perfectly, and every song that follows is a gem. (Although it must be said “Honey Bee” sounds distressingly like a middle age man sneaking around with his neighbour’s teenage daughter – killer riff though!)

Also, the album contains a lyric that has brought me comfort in life more times than I can count. On “Crawling Back To You”, Tom says “Most things I worry about never happen anyway.” So simple, but a great reminder to any worrywart, and a line that sums up the spirit of the whole album. Take it easy, friends – all will be well.

And then there’s Public Enemy’s second album, which changed the game for rap in 1988 by teaching all future rappers that their genre could be scorchingly political. A million miles from Wildflowers, it’s piercing, abrasive and disruptive. Packed with whistles, sirens and all manner of other noises, it’s an emergency meeting of the Enough Already Club. Time to get the hell OFF the porch!

While “Fight the Power” would come a little later, Chuck D was already making bracing political statements about the media (“Don’t Believe the Hype”), drugs (“Night of the Living Baseheads”), racial inequality (just about everything, including “Party for Your Right to Fight” – a nice play on the earlier Beastie Boys hit), and even mind-numbing shitty television (“She Watch Channel Zero?!”).

And while Chuck D thunders his anger and wisdom, there by his side is the slightly ridiculous but very welcome Flavor Flav, egging him on, playing the comic foil to the angry preacher:

Yo Chuck, these honey drippers are still fronting on us
Show ’em that we can do this, cause we always knew this
Haha, yeah boy!

Yeah boyyyyy! You said it, Flav. The album also broke new ground on sampling, both in volume and variety, bringing in everything from Malcolm X to Slayer. It’s phenomenal.

As I’ve said before, I rarely listen to hip hop, but every so often an artist comes along that shows me why I should. Public Enemy was the first artist to do that (the Run DMC-Aerosmith collaboration “Walk This Way” doesn’t count). They taught teenage me that even though my tastes may steer me to Tom Petty-ish music more often, rap freakin’ matters.

Because influence must be factored in, this brutally tough battle must go to…

JG

WINNER: Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (4 points)

BATTLE TALLY

80s: 17

90s: 22

EARNED POINTS
80s: 43
90s: 53

Next week’s post – #11: Elvis Costello and the Attractions, ‘Get Happy!!’ (1980) vs. Outkast, ‘Aquemini’ (1998)

#13: Midnight Oil, ‘Diesel and Dust’ (1987) vs. Beastie Boys, ‘Ill Communication’ (1994)

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No need to mince words.  I don’t like Midnight Oil.  Some bands you just don’t like, and that’s okay.  I never liked the way their songs sounded, and let’s just leave it there.  “Bed’s Are Burning” probably sealed the deal, for me.  It’s the first song I heard from them. The video actually. I just never liked the packaging and didn’t want to open the box.

But, the battle forces me to.  So I did.  What I can say now is that I still don’t like them.  However, after listening to the whole album, I can see why it might make the best of the 80s list. I actually found them sounding a bit like R.E.M.  I like R.E.M. a lot, so why don’t I like Midnight Oil?! I don’t know. I just don’t.

Let’s move on….Ill Communication is fucking amazing. One of my favourite all-time albums. It’s my party jam, no contest. This album defines my late teens and early twenties. I would crank songs like “Root Down”, “Flute Loop”, and “Sabotage”, as loud as my ears could take, in my car. Most bar nights would end with me begging the DJ to play “Get it Together”.

I really think that they mastered all of what they had been working on with Ill Communication. It’s truly a 90s defining hip hop record. Everyone drools over the innovative sampling and weirdness of Paul’s Boutique but for me, all attention should be put towards Ill Communication. The Beasties always seem to be a bit ahead of the curve on things. They also get points for calling themselves out on their past misogynist lyrics.

I Want To Say a Little Something That’s Long Overdue
The Disrespect To Women Has Got To Be Through
To All The Mothers And Sisters And the Wives And Friends
I Want To Offer My Love And Respect To The End

In a time when relentless misogyny in rap was, and in many ways still is, as common as McDonald’s, this progressive statement is huge. For this, and so much more, the winner is clear.

JS

WINNER: Beastie Boys, Ill Communication (4 points)

BATTLE TALLY

80s: 16

90s: 22

EARNED POINTS
80s: 39
90s: 53

Next week’s post – #12: Public Enemy, ‘It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back’ (1988) vs. Tom Petty, ‘Wildflowers’ (1994)

#14: Peter Gabriel, ‘So’ (1986) vs. Snoop Dogg, ‘Doggystyle’ (1993)

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One of the joys of the VanJam project has been discovering albums I wasn’t paying attention to at the time but probably should have been. Here we have two in that category.

Peter Gabriel temporarily became a superstar despite himself with So. He was an art rocker who answered his record company’s call to try to be at least a bit commercial. And so he did. He made hits. He gave the album an actual name – every other had been eponymous – and for the first time you could see his entire face on the cover (this was actually a request from the record company – stop obscuring half your face, Peter!).

But the album is still art. Gabriel was experimental enough to bring African and Brazilian sounds into it. It’s beautiful stuff. So is both smooth and challenging – it pulls you in. The ballads are my favourite, especially “Don’t Give Up”, with Kate Bush’s gorgeous and soothing vocals. You also gotta enjoy “Big Time”, which has Gabriel making fun of the kind of megastar he’d been working hard not to be and now kinda was.

Snoop, on the other hand, knew he was destined to be a superstar and wanted everyone to know it on his debut, Doggystyle. I’ll admit I have mixed feelings on Doggystyle.   There is no denying it is infectious as hell. SUPER catchy. It sounds fantastic (thanks in large part to Dr. Dre’s production), and Snoop’s rapping is as smooth and mellow as the finest herb you’ve ever tasted. It’s mostly party music – although “Murder was the Case” tells an interesting story of life on the streets – and much of it is just silly. But what else to expect, I suppose, from an album that opens with the star being bathed by his girlfriend (or one of many, apparently), and is periodically interrupted by a DJ from “W Balls” radio.

Also, why oh why must the lyrics be so damn misogynistic? I suppose we’re supposed to accept at least a certain amount of that in rap (especially from the 90s), but shit like “Ain’t no Fun” and the talking intro to “Doggy Dogg World” are way too dumb to forgive the offensiveness.

JG

WINNER:  Peter Gabriel, So (4 points)

BATTLE TALLY

80s: 16

90s: 21

EARNED POINTS
80s: 39
90s: 49

Next week’s post – #13: Midnight Oil, ‘Diesel and Dust’ (1987) vs. Beastie Boys, ‘Ill Communication’ (1994)

#15: The Replacements, ‘Let it Be’ (1984) vs. Lucinda Williams, ‘Car Wheels on a Gravel Road’ (1998)

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I really hate to say it, but this should be a lot closer of a competition that it is. I saw Lucinda Williams live and she is magnetic. I was captivated by her swagger and command of the stage and this was only a few years ago. Boy could she hold a crowd. She just owned that stage. It made me wanna rush home and try to appreciate Car Wheels on a Gravel Road for the umpteenth time. And like all the other umpth-times it fell flat for me – umphh!- and did not take. Based on seeing that live show, I am certain that it is me and not her that is the problem. I am quite sure I am wrong on this and if the VanJam Music War ends in a one point differential, there is a justifiable case for an asterisk designation that will require a reassessment of the whole project. I fully expect this album to click for me eventually.  Foot stompin’ songs like “Joy” and “Can’t Let Go” will no doubt be my gateway into appreciation so I can eventually fall in love with more mature contemplative songs like “Drunken Angel” and “Jackson”.  I’ll get there someday I am sure.  Lucinda is an Americana goddess with nothing to prove.  I just gotta catch up.

Let it Be, however, is another story. This one hit me late in life and it hit me hard. This is not just the most accessible punk album I have ever heard, it is also just good plain songwriting.  If the Beatles made a punk album (and really tried hard at making it authentic) it would come out sounding  a lot like Let it Be (just realized the connection right now). Case in point is the first track.  The undeniably catchy “I Will Dare” can’t help but put one in a happy mood.  The shimmering guitar, the poppin’ up-tempo bass lick, and ragged vocal cries are a complete delight.  Go ahead, I dare you to not be smiling from ear to ear after listening to that song. There are so many other alt-beautiful moments throughout the album. “Androgynous” stands out as a sweet non-conformist ballad to punk youth entering a new world of adult society. The piano progressions and melodic punk vocals inject validity to a punk culture that can no longer stand in the shadows.  The complexities of love are just as valid in punk society as they are in the mainstream. At its heart, it’s a punk album, but it’s really a lot more than that. You can hear elements of hard rock, folk, pop and, dare I even say it, the seeds of grunge! Its influence on the indie rock scene can’t be overlooked. I don’t doubt that any member of a future 80s or 90s rock, punk, or grunge band had a copy of Let it Be in heavy rotation in their bedroom. Elements of its brilliance and influence on others are scattered throughout every Indie rock album in this VanJam Music War.

JS

WINNER: The Replacements, Let it Be (4 points)

BATTLE TALLY

80s: 15

90s: 21

EARNED POINTS
80s: 35
90s: 49

Next week’s post – #14: Peter Gabriel, ‘So’ (1986) vs. Snoop Dogg, ‘Doggystyle’ (1993)

#16: Prince, ‘1999’ (1982) vs. Metallica, ‘Metallica’ (1991)

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When I was in junior high in the early 80s there was a kid in our class, Kevin, who went on and on about this new thrash metal band called Metallica. He declared that one day they were going to be the biggest hard rock band in the world. We all knew he was a fool, of course; nothing could unseat Twisted Sister.

Turns out Kevin was right! By the end of the decade Metallica were well on their way to global metal domination and in 1991 they made it official with Metallica self-titled (aka the Black Album), which would go on to sell a bazillion jillion copies (approx.) and make Metallica fans out of everyone and their sister (twisted or not). I’d lost touch with Kevin by this point, but I wonder what he thought of the Black Album. I suspect he hated it – many “real” Metallica fans rue the day that their beloved thrashers recruited Bon Jovi producer Bob Rock to help them make an album of 12 polished tunes of melodic metal that included – yikes! – a love ballad (“Nothing Else Matters”).

I say they’re crazy (a band’s grassroots fans can be tiresome sometimes). The Black Album is freaking awesome. It’s dark, it’s heavy, it’s fun and it sounds amazing (thanks, Bob Rock!) without a bad song anywhere. Near perfect album.

With 1999, Prince continued to prove that not only was he a genius who could bend any music genre to his will, he also was the horniest son-of-a-bitch to ever pick up a microphone. Every song on this techno-funk masterpiece is either about sex or features it prominently, even when its tackling serious issues. Prince will car-fuck you (“Little red Corvette”) . He’ll Armageddon-fuck you (“1999”). He’ll even politico-fuck you (“Lady Cab Driver”). On “Let’s Pretend We’re Married”, he declares: “Look here Marsha, I’m not saying this just to be nasty/I sincerely want to fuck the taste out of your mouth/Can you relate?”

I don’t know who Marsha is, but I’m a little scared for her.

There is no question Prince was engorged with talent and this album is an orgy of amazing sounds, but 70 minutes of pulsating musical intercourse eventually makes me want to fake a headache.

Kevin (and Marsha for that matter), this one’s for you…

JG

WINNER: Metallica, Metallica (4 points)

BATTLE TALLY

80s: 14

90s: 21

EARNED POINTS
80s: 31
90s: 49

Next week’s battle – #15: The Replacements, ‘Let it Be’ (1984) vs. Lucinda Williams, ‘Car Wheels on a Gravel Road’ (1998)

#17: The Police, ‘Synchronicity’ (1983) vs. Jay Z, ‘Reasonable Doubt’ (1996)

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Synchronicity has one of the best starting tracks of any album. Titular (Version One) is a hard driving pump – your fist in the air – 80s rocker laced with enough musical oddity to keep it interesting and challenging. Then the inconsistent journey begins. It’s a reflection of the band’s fractured relationship and the album suffers a bit from it. From “Synchronicity I”, it goes to the chant of “Walking in Your Footsteps”. A great song but it leaves the listener a bit hanging after getting revved up so hard. This leads into “Oh My God”. A perfectly fine song with a good groove. So we are back on track, right? Then along comes “Mother”. An out there barely-listenable indulgent scream fest. “Miss Gradenko” is a nice and appropriately weird soft landing, after the shock of “Mother”. Then we get into the mammoth hits. My fave of the hits is next (Titular Two) with its rock solid groove mundane big picture lyrics:

“Every meeting with his so called superior, is a humiliating kick in the crotch!”

Then the stalker snooze fest “Every Breath You Take”. “King of Pain” is perhaps one of the best Police songs ever written. And “Wrapped Around Your Finger” is slightly less sleep inducing than its stalker  counterpart. The last two songs are sort of forgettable and then its over. All in all it’s a mix of greatness, weirdness, and flaccid pop. A rave review for a band I actually truly love.  It’s a fractured contribution. You can’t deny it’s a classic album, but the Police have better ones. This one is maybe middle of the pack.

Moving from a fractured group at the end of their run to a master first entry from a hip hop legend soon to be realized. Reasonable Doubt is as solid a hip hop album as you can get. Every song holds up. Jay-Z’s rapping style feels like it’s chiseled from stone. Where most 90s hip hop albums were either hard core gangsta rap or RnB/Jazz, Reasonable Doubt found a Goldilocks zone. It’s an almost perfect album in the way that Nas’ Illmatic is almost perfect. In fact it seems very much modelled after Nas’ masterpiece with its consistency and singular inner city crime fuelled vision. He references Nas on multiple occasions, so I would think he welcomes that comparison.

Many consider Reasonable Doubt to be Jay-Z’s best work and I would find it hard not to agree. Of course I am troubled by the misogyny and homophobia that sprinkles the album, but I have to treat that as a character (having no evidence to the contrary) and not a character trait of Jay-Z’s. If that changes I will revise my review.

JS

WINNER: Jay-Z, “Reasonable Doubt” (4 points)

BATTLE TALLY

80s: 14

90s: 20

EARNED POINTS
80s: 31
90s: 45

Next week’s battle – #16: Prince, ‘1999’ (1982) vs. Metallica, ‘Metallica’ (1991)

#18: Prince, ‘Dirty Mind’ (1980) vs. R.E.M., ‘Automatic for the People’ (1992)

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In the summer of my 13th year I met a girl at summer camp. She asked me to dance, I kissed her in the woods and when I went home I had my first girlfriend. Four years later, no longer together but silently knowing we should be, we found ourselves reunited at another summer camp; so she and I snuck out of our cabins down to the lake and went nightswimming under a starry sky. Several years after that, in 1992, she and I finally did the inevitable and got back together.

That same year, R.E.M., at the peak of their powers and popularity, brought John Paul Jones into the studio to enhance their jangly indie rock sound with lush orchestral strings and gave the world a moody, profound masterpiece called Automatic for the People.

That girl and I, finally together but living in separate university towns, would talk on the phone all night and listen to Automatic on repeat, puzzling over the enigmatic “The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite” and welling up over the painfully earnest “Everybody Hurts”. One summer night we saw R.E.M. at Toronto’s Molson Ampitheatre, got high on the grass and marveled at the perfect full moon that floated in the sky while the band played “Man on the Moon”.

A few years later, we danced to the nostalgic piano ballad “Nightswimming” at our wedding despite protestations from family members who would have preferred something more upbeat, like “Up Where We Belong”; and so there we swayed on the dance floor, the centre of attention, whisper-singing into each other’s ears: “Nightswimming deserves a quiet night/I’m not sure all these people understand”.

20 years later we still sometimes dance to “Nightswimming”, remembering that night.

So that’s my take on Automatic for the People. (Here’s a proper and great review of the 25th anniversary edition worth checking out.)

Dirty Mind? Well, I’m sure that many people really like it.

JG

WINNER: REM, Automatic for the People (4 points)

BATTLE TALLY

80s: 14

90s: 19

EARNED POINTS
80s: 31
90s: 41

Next week’s battle – #17: The Police, ‘Synchronicity’ (1983) vs. Jay Z, ‘Reasonable Doubt’ (1996)

 

#19: Lou Reed, ‘New York’ (1989) vs. Red Hot Chili Peppers, ‘Blood Sugar Sex Magik’ (1991)

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New York is a wonder. With each listen the songs become more and more vivid. I absolutely love this album. Lou Reed’s decision for simple music under complex lyrics is admirable, but in a strange way the songs seem unfinished. I keep expecting some change in the middle, or even at the end, of the song. Perhaps a bridge or some coda or reprise or key change. If New York is a house, the songs are like peeking into a window, not getting the full view of what is inside. But as you keep staring in you see more and more detail and nuance.  As with all love letters, there is something deeper being communicated beyond the lyrical snapshots and paintings of scenes and people. With my lack of Lou depth I may be unaware that this is the beauty of his song writing. Sparse. Spare, and speaking to something greater. New York is a series of feeling-filled paintings, elevating the rock form to high art status.

Blood Sugar Sex Magik is a funk rock revelation. For the teenage set in the 90s this album hit all the right buttons, with its collection of stone cold summer jams and monster party hits like “Give it Away”, “Under the Bridge”, and “Suck My Kiss”. With most of their albums, the Red Hot Chili Peppers walk a tightrope of solid funk-rock, but at any moment can slip and fall into a soft netting (like balls in a swimsuit) of douche bag rock (in fact I think they might have inadvertently invented the genre). However on BSSM they stay firmly in the air. It is, by far, the best album they ever made. Their albums before this were infantile and the ones after just stood in the shadows of this funky monolith.

So the conclusion is that, with New York, I feel like I am looking at the iceberg. Knowing that below the water, there is so much more. With Blood Sugar Sex Magic they are at Funkrock Mountain’s peek. There is nothing deeper under the water.

JS

WINNER: Lou Reed, New York (4 points)

BATTLE TALLY

80s: 14

90s: 18

EARNED POINTS
80s: 31
90s: 37

Next week’s battle – #18: Prince, ‘Dirty Mind’ (1980) vs. R.E.M., ‘Automatic for the People’ (1992)

#20: Pretenders, ‘Pretenders’ (1980) vs. Liz Phair, ‘Exile in Guyville’ (1993)

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We’re in the top 20!

Now we’re talking! After the let-down of my last battle (The Smiths vs. Jeff Buckley), I’m thrilled to get back to two albums that are genuinely awesome. In other words, where a couple of mopey dudes failed, two kick-ass women spectacularly succeed.

Liz Phair’s debut album (why are so many of the masterpieces on these lists debuts?) is a beautiful mess, which I think is the point. It’s got a bit of everything, sound-wise, including a dog, but it’s mostly just straight-up rock n’ roll. You get sludgy guitar, piano, low-fi drums and shockingly candid and vulgar lyrics delivered in a matter-of-fact monotone that is way more compelling than it ought to be. One second she’s telling you she’ll fuck you till your dick is blue (“Flower”), the next she is waking up from a one-night stand pining for a boyfriend who’ll write her love letters (“Fuck and Run”). 

It was touted as a song for song response to Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street, but more precisely it’s a commentary about what it’s like to be a girl in the man’s world of rock n’ roll (she breaks it all down herself in this excellent Rolling Stone piece). Every song is catchy, fun and fascinating. I love it.

Chryssie Hynde stormed the gates of guyville 13 years earlier with the Pretenders debut (another debut!) album of new wave rock. It’s astoundingly strong and confident for a band’s first time out. The band is crazy tight and rockin’ and, when it needs to be, pretty (my favourite is the Kinks cover “Stop you Sobbing”, which sounds like vintage ’60s “Wall of Sound” girl music).

Unlike Phair, Hynde didn’t make it about being a girl in a man’s world, but nor did she in any way hide who she was either. I’m struck by how prominent her vocals are – especially on the album’s opener, “Precious”. She drives her words straight into your ear-holes.

Thematically, there are comparisons to be made. “Up the Neck” is Hynde’s take on waking up from a one-night-stand; just a little more cryptic about how she feels about it than Phair’s “Fuck and Run”. (And let me just say I love the way Hynde sings “Baby! Oh Sweetheart.”) And “Brass in Pocket” is not unlike Phair’s “Flower”, but a whole lot more subtle about how she’s going to have her way with you. I guess Phair, working in the 90s, could be waaaay more candid about the details. I think it’s a case of trailblazers like Hynde (and Pattie Smith) opening the door for the next generation of trailblazers like Phair (and PJ Harvey).

So who wins this battle? Frankly I hate to choose.

This is neither the first time nor the last time I’m going to do this in the VanJam Music War – I’m choosing the album I think is better rather than the one I personally like more. Perfection over beautiful mess. Hynde over Phair, by a hair…

JG

WINNER: Pretenders, Pretenders (4 points)

BATTLE TALLY

80s: 13

90s: 18

EARNED POINTS
80s: 27
90s: 37

Next week’s battle – #19: Lou Reed, ‘New York’ (1989) vs. Red Hot Chili Peppers, ‘Blood Sugar Sex Magik’ (1991)