When she woke up late in the morning light and the day had just begun

Continuing my trip back through the 1994 album charts.

31/07/94 : Happy Nation - Ace Of Base


There would have been absolutely no danger of me listening to this back in the day - but I have a sneaking suspicion that, whilst it's not going to be a musical masterpiece, I'm not going to mind it at all.

Hmmm - no. In some ways it was nice to hear an album that didn't take itself too seriously because it's been quite a downbeat year so far, but it's just all a bit too upbeat Euro-electro-reggae for a whole album for me, I'm afraid. Taking them a track at a time, "All That She Wants", "Wheel Of Fortune" and "Happy Nation" (which is surprisingly downbeat considering its title) are bearable but 55 minutes of it was just too much (and it includes some unforgiveably pointless remixes).

We're at #7 in the charts this week on their 20th week of a 34 week run, with it having peaked at #1 in its 15th and 16th weeks  and if that sounds like it was a slow burner, then this was its third run with it first having charted in mid '93 - it seems like "The Sign" was probably responsible, although it's a bit strange that "All The She Wants" got to #1 in May '93 but didn't seem to impact the album sales and "The Sign" wasn't on the version I listened to (but is on the US release). The top five this week were Wet Wet Wet, Larry Adler (a new entry), The Prodigy, The Rolling Stones and Eagles (not exactly the youngest selection ever) and the next highest new entry was The Gipsy Kings (#11).

Wikipedia tells us its their debut album and apparently "during the album's development, the group was significantly influenced by a Jamaican reggae band that was recording in a nearby studio" (which makes you wonder where it started out) and to the band's credit, they wrote all the tracks - this is no producer/label driven nonsense. The album was originally released in Denmark in November '92, then released in Europe across '93, but released in US in November '93 as The Sign with a different track listing (and obviously including "The Sign"). 

This version was then released in the UK in March '94 (but confusingly still called Happy Nation) so I actually listened to the wrong version - I made up for it by listening to "The Sign" and it really is head above everything else on the album (but it's still not as good as The Barden Bellas version!). Critically, the reviews were kind enough but commercially, I don't think anyone saw where this was headed, with it getting to #1 in Canada, Germany, Hungary, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal and the US, selling TWENTY-ONE MILLION copies globally, making it one of the best-selling debut albums ever. Which seems quite bizarre.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, record collectors aren't exactly queueing round the block for this one, with discogs.com telling us you can pick up a decent version for three quid but you can't spend any more than £30 on it. I quite liked the thinking behind this album and appreciate that it is somewhat different, but it was just too much for me I'm afraid, although that certainly wasn't the case for a lot of people in '94 - I'd no idea this was quite as popular as it was.

24/07/94 - Decent enough but didn't grab me
07/08/94 - Not for me

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

And all at once I owned the earth and sky

Image
A new year to start the New Year - starting my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 30/12/01 : Swing When You're Winning -   Robbie Williams There's a reasonable argument I should reject this album, but it was such a surprising cultural moment that even I don't feel I can, so it means we're starting the year with one that "we" own. This is our fifth visit with Mr Williams - I'm determined not to enjoy it, but I also have to admit I'm not going to hate it nearly as much as I would like to.  You know what? This is perfectly fine. Completely inessential, but he's not doing anyone any harm. For the most part, it's classic Sinatra-or-thereabouts tracks which Robbie does a decent job with on the vocals (along with some slightly peculiar guests) and they've obviously got some decent musicians in to lay down the backing tracks. He rarely does anything wildly original with them but, most importantly, he doesn't ruin them either - I don't...
Read more

I got caught compiling my own news

Image
Continuing my trip up The Guardian's  50 best albums of 2025 . #35 :  SABLE, fABLE - Bon Iver If, as Justin Vernon recently suggested, this is the last ever Bon Iver album, it’s a beautiful redemption arc: a loving send-up of his anxious, myopic sad-sack self blossoms into a radiant appreciation of possibility, sensuality, risk. Everything Is Peaceful Love has one of the year’s best refrains: “Damn if I’m not climbing up a tree right now!”, giddy with thrill and absolutely no idea of what to do when you get up there other than enjoy the view. And while there are gorgeously passionate songs here, it’s the ones about gracefully letting go of an unviable love that really underscore the admirable humility in Vernon’s bowing out. I always feel like I should enjoy Bon Iver albums more than I do - they feel like they have the ingredients I need but come across a bit detached and miserablist for me to actually want to revisit them - but The Guardian suggests there may be hope for this...
Read more

But you hold your love like a weapon in your hand

Image
Continuing my trip up The Guardian's  50 best albums of 2025 . #14 : pr ivate music - Deftones This was the US alt-metallers’ first album back after serendipitously getting a huge new following via TikTok, particularly for their sweeter, shoegazier material. But rather than court that audience by cynically remaking Sextape 11 times over, they instead created a balletic cyborg of a record. The riffs could put a dent in concrete masonry, but the groove-metal rhythms are light-footed and, as ever, vocalist Chino Moreno sets out even wider tonal possibilities. It’s as if waves of pain and relief pass across his spirit as he goes from dry croaks to thunderous denouncements to blissful clean singing. The thirteenth album I've previously heard from the list because I met it as a new entry and I'm afraid I won't be relistening to this one because it was (and I quote) " too noisy for my sensitive ears". This debuted at #2 (kept off the top by Wolf Alice) and managed ...
Read more