Coleman's 1990's; Part four - 1993

Wow. It feels like on this blog all years go pass like weeks. We've only just started and it's 1993 already (or again, depending how you're going to look at it). And it looks like for me things got a little bit heavier. They actually got far, far heavier than this selection shows as one of my friends at that time was a very dedicated metal fan (a doctor nod to Seba) and I would borrow a lot of music from him to have a try. I got introduced to bands like Samael, Paradise Lost, Cathedral, Moonspell, Morbid Angel, Deicide, Sepultura and god knows what else. Some of them, I go back to now and again but as you can tell, none of them made it to my very top of the 'most important' pile. But fear not, there is still plenty of good music to go round. Now, I don't really want to make anyone upset or cause any metal heart a torrent of rusty tears, but I would probably go as far as to say that there is still plenty of MUCH BETTER music to go round. And the best examples await you just after the jump.

Kuba's 1990's. The end of the beginning. 1991

1991. Oh, that was the year. Or maybe I should say The Year. It really changed my life with music. To tell the truth I discovered 1991 about a year later. I mean I was aware of bands like Pearl Jam or RHCP but it was really 1992 – when I started my secondary school – when I discovered how important they are. For me, not for the world. But it doesn't really matter now. Anyway 1991 starts with my a bit softer side.

Coleman's 1990's; Part three - 1992

Since 1991 was such a short year in music (only 2 songs worth remembering, huh?) it seems that the 1992 was trying hard to make up for it and then some. I've just had a quick peek - ten songs and artists varying from Bel Canto to Laibach, from Alice in Chains to Leonard Cohen. Wow, I must have been taking a lot in that year. To think of it, it was still my first year at secondary school (the old system in Poland was completely different with 8 years of primary and 4 for secondary), still surrounded by fairly new people, and still clinging to a bunch of the old ones. And some of that bridging seems to be present in my music choice of that year. Let's see how many memories I'm going to be able to dig up then.

Jonathan's 1990s; Part 2, 1991

My Bloody Valentine – Only Shallow

In all honesty, I expected a lot of songs to be here ahead of MBV, but here they are nonetheless. MBV are an Irish group almost solely responsible for creating shoegaze. I am not an avid MBV fan. And I’m certainly not one of those devout fans who headed out to rediscover the old days of shoegazing (a pastime now being perfected by emos so fucking depressed they can’t stare beyond their footwear – what is the footwear choice of the emo?) whilst still believing that MBV are the greatest band to grace this planet when they recently went back on tour. Their live performances are renowned for being ear-splitting and listening to some of the material from their two albums, that hardly requires a stretch of the imagination. There are only a few tracks I truly enjoy listening to by MBV and admittedly I bought the albums on the strength of what I had heard about MBV, rather than what I actually heard, musically speaking. However, I am still here with the aim to justify my decision, ahem. Underneath the layers of distortion and reverb you find some wonderfully ear-catching melodies, and no more than in Only Shallow, the opening track on Loveless. I love the Sonic Youth style overkill on the distortion, then adding masses of reverb to provide the layered soundscapes that makes MBV simultaneously suffocating and airy. This is the kind of track you would only hear at weird indie nights full (?) of people whose only friend is the Internet (back then comics or Dungeons and Dragons) or are seriously considering serial killing as a hobby, or both...hobbies are healthy. It’s not an immediate track, in fact, MBV through their choice of production seem to try to test the listener, alienate them and make it a difficult record to swallow. They are a bit of a ‘marmite’ band, but if you persist, there is a rough diamond to be polished. Perhaps the critic got the better of me. I really do like the song and I love the melodies and the driving rhythm, how the song hovers, swoons and dives, but in comparison to others here in my top 50, it’s one of the runts of the litter, but a classic runt of my litter.

Jonathan's 1990s; Part 1: 1990

Gun Club – Humanesque

I have decided to kick off my 90s with a track that truly harks back to the previous decade as so many early 90s tracks did. For me, Gun Club are and were one of the best bands of the 1980s, having had their most outstanding moments back then, but personally I feel they deserve to get a track in the 90s too. Jeffrey Lee Pierce is one of the greatest lyricists of all time and Humanesque is littered with great lines. JLP managed to churn these out like a great lyrics factory for around sixteen years, before his timely/untimely (delete where appropriate) death. JLP was already suffering from serious health problems, all of them pretty much of his own making, and therefore it was surprising he had made it to the 90s, dragging himself through the haze of sour whisky and cheap drugs like the true veteran of the music world that he was. Humanesque doesn’t have the ferociousness of early Gun Club albums, the grandeur of the Las Vegas Story nor the accomplished sound of Mother Juno; but it’s still a beautifully layered track and a great demonstration of JLP’s talent when his health was failing.

Jonathan's 1990s - The tracklist

My favourite 50 of the 90s

Jonathan's 90s

My 90s: A decade not only important for some damn good music, but the decade in which I, for all intents and purposes, “grew up”. Admittedly I’m still just a big kid but when you consider that I entered this decade as a Lego brick loving, subbuteo playing eleven year old, I did leave the decade somewhat different. This was the decade when I discovered the joys of...