Your music's shite, it keeps me up all night

Continuing my trip up Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time...

#218 : CrazySexyCool - TLC (1994)

Things were not well with TLC during the making of CrazySexyCool: Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes was lighting fires, and the group was in a financial slide that would end in bankruptcy proceedings. But they emerged with the most effervescent and soulful R&B pop anyone had heard since the Supremes. “Creep” is hard-edged but cute, the summery “Diggin’ on You” is almost pastoral in its intimate flow, and the transcendent “Waterfalls” may be the greatest song ever about how it’s not a great idea to go after your dreams.

I tell you what, those ladies really think they are are crazy, sexy and cool - they certainly tell you often enough.  And they particularly think they're sexy. Soooo very sexy.  A bit of self-confidence is a fine thing but I'd have to say I'm not entirely convinced by them constantly going on about it.  The whole album does drag a bit (although only 56 minutes, it felt way longer) but the good bits are pretty good - I would say "Waterfalls" was probably the best for me (7 weeks at #1 in the US!), although I'd struggle to say it's transcendent.  I would also say that "Sexy - Interlude" is worth a "special" mention because it manages to be clever, juvenile and unpleasant all at the same time.  I'm not recommending you actually listen to it though.

Wikipedia has a surprising amount to say about the album - but mostly that it sold VERY well.  Like 14 millions copies well.  Which is a lot of well.  Although it's interesting because it sold 9 million in the US and 300 thousand in the UK - and if you remember from ONE day ago, Rage Against The Machine sold 3 million in the US and 600 thousand in the UK - were TLC really 3 times more popular in the US, but half as popular in the UK?  However, who cares about ANY of that when you've got this sentence to consider "she said burning down the house was an accident". Unfortunately, the story is not a happy one, so I'm not as comfortable taking the piss as much as I'd like to - sometimes circumstances are so unreasonable!  It does make the point that this album was very influential in the way that all this shit sounds today and, whilst it's not really my thang, I can see there's some logic there.  

Their Wikipedia page has them down as the best-selling American girl group and I totally would have had Destiny's Child in that position (85 million sales for TLC, 60 million for DC).  However, there is some contention out there on t'internet that The Andrews Sisters (formed in 1925) hold this record - but it is universally agreed that both groups lose to them Spicey Girls (It'll be interesting to find out if we'll be seeing them on this list).  Whatever the exact rankings, there's little doubt that TLC did pretty well for themselves and I find it strange that Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes is the only one I could name - partly because she died at the age of 31 in a car crash but really only because she did the fine rappy bit on Mel C's "Never Be The Same Again" - and it really is very fine indeed and elevates the song

And sometimes it seems completely forgiven

To discover those feelings that we kept so well hidden

Where there's no competition and you render my condition

Though improbable it's not impossible

For a love that could be unstoppable

For those interested, the other two were Tionne Watkins and Rozonda Thomas, although Crystal Jones was in the original lineup but was swiftly replaced by Rozonda (and Crystal doesn't even warrant her own Wikipedia page, which seems bizarre).  "Customers also listened to" an odd selection of the obvious (En Vogue, Brandi, Janet) and the less obvious (Sinead O'Connor, anyone?).  An interesting listen but an even more interesting read - I had no idea they were quite as popular as they were.  Unfortunately, I feel more likely to revisit the Wikipedia pages than the album.

#217 : Definitely Maybe - Oasis (1994)

Oasis didn’t get the memo about how Nineties rockers had to be all angst-y and fame-hating, but the Gallagher brothers’ cockiness would have been hollow without the supersonic songs on their debut. Liam’s insolent snarl and his brother Noel’s dialed-to-11 guitar on working-class anthems like the elevating “Live Forever” and the blaring “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” built off the Beatles and T. Rex to reach for their own glorious future.

I know and like this album but hadn't listened to it in donkey's years, so was pleased to get a chance to relisten to it - although I was slightly concerned my recent overexposure to music from the 60s might have dimmed my enthusiasm for it.  But I was pleased to find that I still enjoyed it - it doesn't hide its influences, but it's done well with enough attitude to give it that something extra (and this was back in the day when they were still trying).  I also found some bits of the album surprisingly shoe-gazey, which was something I didn't remember and wasn't expecting.  But I don't really feel the need to discuss this album - you'll either know it and like it, know it and not like it or not know it and know you won't like it.

Woah - Wikipedia tells me this was a double album on vinyl.  How did I never know that?  I guess it just shows I haven't bought an album on vinyl in many a long year (I'd be intrigued to know which was the last one I bought).  The sales are interesting for this album too - 2 million over here and 1 million in the US, I hadn't realised it had sold quite so many over here.  I'm afraid I'm just not in the mood to read their entry - I find the Gallagher brothers to be very tiresome, although am partly in awe of the amount of effort they expend on feuding.  "Customers also listened to" The Verve (I'm hoping we see them later) and, surprisingly, lots of Blur.  Overall, I was pleased to relisten to this and glad to find I still liked it.

#216 : Either/Or - Elliott Smith (1997)

Elliott Smith had ambitions to make records with a Beatlesque sound — but zero interest in Beatlesque fame — when he recorded Either/Or. While he achieved his dreams on several subsequent major-label releases, the Portland, Oregon, indie-folk singer-songwriter’s third album resonates because of his low-fi whisper and gritty, sepia-toned lyrics. His songs struck a nerve well beyond the Northwest music scene — Madonna, of all people, covered the morosely pretty drunk’s lullaby “Between the Bars."

Three albums from a three year period makes this the closest packed round we've had so far - and the decade of release is pretty much all they've got in common.  This is much more laid back and less refined/polished (the Oasis effort has been very refined in order to not sound polished!) than either of the previous two.  It's the sort of thing I like, but I must admit to not really remembering anything about it - I have pleasant memories of it, but they're really only memories of pleasantness.  Which seems a bit odd - I would revisit it, but I doubt I'll remember to do so.

Wikipedia has very little to say about the album, apart from telling me twice that Gus Van Sant liked it and put three tracks into Good Will Hunting.  Oh yes, and this - "The album's title derives from the Soren Kierkegaard book of the same name, in which "either/or" refers to the contrast between aesthetic/subjective experience and ethical/objective being" - but I'm sure you all know that already.  His entry is somewhat lengthier, but not exactly what you'd call a happy read (the section on his death being particularly unhappy) although I did like this quote about him playing "Miss Misery" at the Oscars ceremony because it was nominated for best song (he lost to Celine Dion, so wasn't really in with much of a shout) - "But the Oscars was a very strange show, where the set was only one song cut down to less than two minutes, and the audience was a lot of people who didn't come to hear me play. I wouldn't want to live in that world, but it was fun to walk around on the moon for a day".

His Wikipedia page also has him down as being extremely influential to those that followed him and "customers also listened to" a mix of interesting people - Cat Power, Bon Iver, Beck - all being very much in his wheelhouse.  All in all, I feel I should revisit this and more of his stuff - and if I did so, I might well enjoy it and then I'd be able to tell you something (anything!) about it.

Oasis for the win based purely upon my familiarity with the album - they certainly don't win if for their sparkling personalities.

#221-219 - The lads let me down somewhat (again)
#215-213 - Who doesn't love an ambigram?