Tag: 1990s

Mike Batt | Better Than a Dream

“Yes … his has been something of an unconventional career. ‘The mystery man who jumps around from lily pad to lily pad without really explaining himself … My career has been like hitting a wall with a rubber hammer a thousand times, rather than just getting a bulldozer and knocking a way through in one go.’ (The Guardian). In the popular imagination, his name is linked with discovering Katie Melua, writing Art Garfunkel’s 1979 smash hit ‘Bright Eyes,'” and the Wombles, a British novelty pop group whose members dressed as fuzzy animal characters from the children’s TV show of the same name. “That barely does justice to his oeuvre, however: four decades of albums, film scores and projects … (that) have never been less than fascinating.”

Indeed, Batt’s career seems to have been nearly uncategorizable: “… One minute he’s knocking out a global soft-rock smash for Garfunkel, the next he’s taken off on a round-the-world yachting trip and is proffering a concept album about it … he protests that he’s not taken seriously as an orchestral conductor. ‘Most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between my version of the Planets suite and Simon Rattle’s.'” Had the Wombles’ tunes “not been performed by himself and sundry cohorts in vast, furry costumes made by (Batt’s) mother, it’s hard not to feel they would be widely hailed as classic bubblegum pop – as indeed they were by the late Dee Dee Ramone, who unexpectedly outed himself as a fan of their keep-fit-themed 1974 album track ‘Exercise Is Good for You (Laziness Is Not)‘ in Legs McNeil’s oral history of US punk, Please Kill Me.”

1992’s “Better Than a Dream,” which starts as a piano ballad but evolves into a full orchestral accompaniment, begins in C major. But at 2:20, the dense texture of a brass fanfare shifts the tune to Eb major. Many thanks to our contributor Julianna A. for this submission!

Alana Davis | Blame It On Me

The daughter of jazz vocalist Ann Marie Schofield and jazz pianist Walter Davis Jr., Alana Davis made her own reputation as a singer and songwriter whose style bridges folk, rock, jazz, and R&B (AllMusic) … Although she began writing songs at the age of 18, Davis didn’t turn to music as a career until briefly attending Mohawk Valley Community College in Utica, New York.

Leaving school to devote her full attention to music, she recorded a demo tape of her original tunes and was signed by Elektra. They released her debut album, Blame It on Me, in late 1997. It reached number 157 on the Billboard 200, and her first single, a cover of Ani DiFranco’s ’32 Flavors,’ became a Top 40 single in early 1998 … Drawing equally from folk and pop, Davis comes on as a refined, refashioned DiFranco — one with a stronger melodic sense and a willingness to indulge in slick production … The single’s success also led to an invitation to participate in the Lilith Fair.” Davis went on to release several other albums, most recently 2018’s Love Again.

After a start in D major, “Blame It On Me” shifts briefly to Bb minor at 1:06 before reverting to the original key (1:30) for a vamp that leads into verse 2. A break featuring a laddered series of key changes starts at 3:33, but then Davis climbs back down and once again returns to the D major for a final verse at 4:14.

Wilson Phillips | You’re in Love

Wilson Phillips, a vocal trio of daughters of 1960s/1970s musical royalty Brian Wilson (The Beach Boys) and John and Michelle Phillips (The Mamas & The Papas), were suddenly ubiquitous on the pop charts in 1990. Although mostly remembered now for their international smash hit “Hold On,” the trio’s followup single “You’re in Love” (1991) did well too, briefly hitting #1 in the US and Canada.

“SBK Records founder Charles Koppelman … basically bet the label’s entire future on Wilson Phillips: ‘I always say, if they were racehorses, I would syndicate them. I believe they are SBK Records’ George Michael, our Madonna. They are the future.’ … But Wilson Phillips were not the future. ‘You’re In Love’ would be their last top-10 hit.” (Stereogum).

After a start in D major, the tune shifts its emphasis to the vi chord (B minor) for the pre-chorus (0:54), then deftly flips over to a sunny B major for the chorus (1:04) before returning to D major for the next verse. The pattern continues from there.

kd lang | Love is Everything (Jane Siberry cover)

“The title of Canadian singer-songwriter Jane Siberry’s 1984 breakthrough sophomore LP also still serves as her mission statement: No Borders Here,” (Tone Glow). “As one of Toronto’s most prolific tone poets and troubadours, her work has long ridden the divide between pop form and sonic abstraction, carefully dodging any traps of easy definition through detail and duration.

Erstwhile music critics often compared the ethereal leanings of her stretch of records for Reprise as Canada’s answer to the likes of Kate Bush or Laurie Anderson, but even these ties are somewhat of a slight. Her genre-agnostic innovation is fully drawn from intuition—a record like her retrospectively celebrated 1988’s The Walking merged koan-like lyrical hooks with thick vocal arrangements and impressionistic textures. Over the years, she’s collaborated with Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, k.d. lang, Michael Brook and Mary Margaret O’Hara.”

Under the affectionate care of Siberry’s intermittent collaborator, fellow Canadian kd lang, “Love is Everything” (originally released by Siberry in 1993) is a showcase for lang’s stunning palette of vocal colors. Fully immersed in the lyrical sweep of Siberry’s lyrics, lang’s voice ranges from a soft breeziness to the power of her trademark belt — which for all of its impact, always seems to leave a bit more in reserve. The tune’s intro and verses are in D major; the chorus, first heard at 1:21, is in A major. But the shift to A major, in addition to being closely related to D major, is perhaps further obscured by voicing all of the A chords with D major’s leading tone, C#, in the bass. The next verse returns to D major at 2:11.

Many thanks to Mandy D. for calling our attention to this 2005 performance of the tune — her second contribution to MotD!

Andrea Bocelli | Mi Mancherai

“Mi Mancherai,” (which translates to “I’ll miss you”) is from the critically acclaimed 1994 Italian movie The Postman. Composer Luis Bacalov won the Academy Award for Best Original Score, and the film was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Screenplay.

Italian singer Andrea Bocelli included the song on his 2015 album Cinema, which features classic film soundtracks and scores. The track starts in D and modulates briefly to Bb at 1:51 before returning to D at 2:28. After an instrumental interlude, the vocal returns at 2:56 again in Bb. There is a final modulation to Eb at 3:30.

Postmodern Jukebox | Criminal

“Imagine wandering into a nightclub somewhere on the outskirts of time. A classic jukebox in the corner plays timeless music with oddly familiar modern lyrics, incongruously marrying the 21st-century party vibe of Miley Cyrus or the minimalist angst of Radiohead with the crackly warmth of a vintage 78 or the plunger-muted barrelhouse howl of a forgotten Kansas City jazzman,” (Concord.com). “The dance floor is full of revelers twerking in poodle skirts, while at the bar, well-heeled hipsters balance a martini in one hand with a smartphone in the other.

If such a place actually exists, no doubt the soundtrack is Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox. Founded by pianist and arranger Scott Bradlee in 2009, the ensemble reimagines contemporary pop, rock, and R&B hits in the style of various yesteryears, from swing to doo-wop, ragtime to Motown – or, as Bradlee himself puts it, ‘pop music in a time machine.’ The band parlayed a series of YouTube videos shot in Bradlee’s Queens living room into massive success, accruing more than 450 million YouTube views and over 2 million subscribers, an appearance on Good Morning America, and performances at packed houses across the globe.”

On PMJ’s 2016 cover of “Criminal,” according to the tune’s Youtube description, “the sultry Ariana Savalas returns to take Fiona Apple’s 1997 hit … back a half century, to the heyday of the torch song.” The tune is built primarily in A minor with forays into C minor, but there are moments when the bass line moves chromatically, not diatonically — only adding to the slinky feel of the lyrics. The bridge (2:49 – 3:16) shifts to Eb minor, driven by Dixieland filigree. At 3:16, an upward shift leads to a closing chorus, this time in D minor.

Owsley | Zavelow House

“Power pop. It’s the redheaded stepchild of rock,” (PopMatters). “It started as a quick fix description of those mid-’90s bands who turned their noses up at grunge and preferred the sunny melodies and crunchy guitars of such luminaries as the Beatles, Big Star, the Raspberries, Cheap Trick, and, last but certainly not least, Jellyfish, who may be the first band to be christened with the dreaded power pop moniker … In 1999, power pop very nearly broke into the mainstream, thanks to a number of strong outings from artists such as John Faye Power Trip (whose debut also turned out to be their swan song), Ben Folds Five’s dark but dazzling The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner … Even Nik Kershaw turned in the best record of his career with 15 Minutes, a near flawless guitar pop album, and XTC resurfaced after a self-imposed seven-year exile with the orchestral pop masterpiece Apple Venus Vol. I.

However, those albums all paled in comparison to the 1999 debut of one Will Owsley. After Owsley’s first attempt at rock stardom crashed and burned in the form of the infamously unreleased Semantics album Powerbill (now available as Japanese import), he went on tour supporting Amy Grant and Shania Twain, making enough money in the process to build his own recording studio. He then made an album with his own money and offered it to the labels as is. Eventually, Giant Records bit (and later, bit the dust) and released Owsley, a fantastic collection of new wave- and classic pop-fueled gems that heralded the arrival of a Major New Talent.”

“Zavelow House,” a track from that eponymous debut album, tells a story that’s likely familiar to North Americans who grew up in the suburbs: That One House(TM) — abandoned, growing weeds through cracks in the driveway, windows boarded up. Not surprisingly, the local kids are scared but intrigued, with imaginations working overtime. Built in E major overall, the groove-driven track shifts to A major for an instrumental bridge (2:02 – 2:24) before returning to E. At 3:16, A major returns and holds sway until the final chord drops back into E.

Tori Amos | Happy Phantom

An extremely overdue MotD debut for Tori Amos: “‘Happy Phantom’ was written and recorded during the first phase of creating Little Earthquakes. … (It) was included on both a cassette tape Tori submitted for copyright in June 1990 and the original rejected version of Little Earthquakes in December that year,” (ToriPedia). “In the Little Earthquakes songbook, Tori noted that ‘when the songs began showing up I wrote their names on separate envelopes and made a faery ring in the middle of the house. I’d sit in the middle of the ring to focus on a song’s direction. All of the songs seemed to work toward the completeness of the other. They decided we needed to hang out with death for awhile.'”

Amos’ first major-label release, Y Kant Tori Read, saw her fronting a synth-pop band of the same name during the late 1980s. The album “sunk without a trace; she had to dig deep inside herself, in her search for her true identity,” (Songfacts). “She told Rolling Stone this meant killing her old self: ‘To talk about death was really important on Little Earthquakes because there was a part of me had to die. The image that I had created for whatever reason, had to die.'”

“Happy Phantom,” is largely built in Bb major, but erupts into a surprising instrumental interlude in G major (1:45 – 1:57), then pivots around a bit more until returning to familiar territory at 2:14. Wrapping up by returning to Bb major, the tune then falls off the edge of the earth during a few formless closing bars.

The Offspring | Self Esteem

“The Offspring is perhaps the quintessential SoCal punk band of the 1990s — survivors of the 1980s hardcore scene who revamped themselves for the heavier alt-rock era … ” (AllMusic). “The group released their second album, Ignition, on Epitaph in 1992 but it was 1994’s Smash and its accompanying singles ‘Come Out and Play (Keep Em Separated)’ and ‘Self Esteem’ that pushed the band toward blockbuster national success.

Shortly afterward, the Offspring made the leap to the major labels and continued a streak of snotty, satirical alt-rock hits such as ‘Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)’ and ‘Why Don’t You Get a Job?’ that kept the group squarely in the hard rock mainstream through the 2000s.”

“Self Esteem” spends most of its runtime in A minor, including its “snotty” wordless a capella intro, verses, and choruses. But a bridge (1:59 – 2:35) suddenly jumps up to D minor before reverting to the original key. At 3:39, the D minor section repeats, seemingly falling back into A minor only for the last beat (the tune cuts off abruptly on the first beat of a measure).

Selena | Dreaming of You

“Selena Quintanilla-Pérez’s first album featuring songs in the English language was conceived to establish the young ‘Queen of Tejano’ music, who already at 23 was a Latina icon, as a star in the mainstream American market,” (UDiscoverMusic). “When it was released, Dreaming of You surpassed even the wildest of expectations. It became the first album by a Latin artist to debut at number one on the Billboard 100. Sales in its first week, according to Soundscan, made Selena second only to Michael Jackson as the artist with the fastest-selling album of 1995. The headline on one Associated Press article soon after the album’s release proclaimed that Dreaming of You ‘finally makes Selena a national star.’ All of this success came in the wake of tragedy.” Selena was murdered by a colleague in March 1995 just shy of her 24th birthday.

“Dreaming of You was packaged as a tribute, with the inclusion of the Tex-Mex-flavored pop hits in Spanish that brought Selena Latin music stardom while she was alive, like ‘Amor Prohibido,’ ‘Bidi Bidi Bom Bom,’ and ‘Como la Flor.’ With those songs, Selena had already refreshed the mariachi and Mexican polka styles of South Texas for a bicultural generation of young Latinas who recognized them as their own.”

Two verses and two choruses in Ab major pass before a bridge in Eb minor, heavy on syncopation, changes up the mood a bit (2:22 – 2:46). Another verse and chorus arrive via a prominent rising bassline, delivering us into Bb major.