Category Archives: writing

(Almost) Thirty Years On: May/June 1997

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This one’s a little longer than usual because May’s releases were kind of quiet. That said, by this point I was doing pretty well with writing The Phoenix Effect. I wasn’t even close to working daily, let alone getting a significant number of words, but that wasn’t my aim at that point. Some days I’d work on my poems and lyrics instead; other days I’d just sit and listen to cassettes on my Walkman. Some days I’d get a few pages’ worth of longhand words, other days I’d get one paragraph.

This whole exercise was simply to keep at it, with no strict rules yet. It was a story idea that sparked my interest, so it was more important for me to find my footing with it. Who were the main characters, and what were their goals? I think the thing that helped was the creation of Caren and Poe, two characters very loosely inspired by Mulder and Scully from The X-Files, assigned to investigate a major near-catastrophic event at the huge tower in the center of the sprawling city. [That in itself was an idea dating all the way back to the original 1993 Vigil outtakes. Its instigator, now known as Nehalé Usarai, was originally a True Faith character reimagined.] They were brand new characters in a story already three years and several versions old, and they were the focal points I needed in order to make this idea work.

Once I had my footing and perhaps a few chapters down, then I’d try spending a little more time on it than ‘when I could find the time’.

Paul McCartney, Flaming Pie, released 5 May 1997. Paul’s first album since the Beatles’ Anthology project has its obvious inspiration, right down to its title that comes from John Lennon’s fanciful description of the band’s origins in a 1961 issue of Mersey Beat. But it’s also a loving dedication to his wife Linda, who was suffering from breast cancer at the time and would pass away within the year. Several fans felt it was a long overdue return to form after his less popular albums of the late 80s and early 90s, and it’s definitely the first of his albums where he fully embraces his own legacy instead of trying to fight against it. It’s one of my top favorites of his and highly recommended.

Soundtrack, The Fifth Element, released 6 May 1997. I remember this movie coming out and the overwhelming response being what the hell did I just watch? Hardcore Luc Besson fans had expected something serious and high-octane like Leon: The Professional and instead got a weird and darkly comic adventure that really didn’t take itself entirely all that seriously. The trailer also framed it as a deeply serious movie when in fact it’s filled to the brim with absurdist humor. [It’s also noted that the hero and the villain never actually cross paths let alone know about each other throughout the entire film, and that’s quite a feat in itself.] It’s since become a cult favorite to the point where it’s still quoted. The soundtrack is quite a lot of fun as well, composed by Besson’s frequent collaborator Eric Serra.

Foo Fighters, The Colour and the Shape, released 20 May 1997. How do you follow up a debut album that was essentially a solo record yet became a huge hit? By solidifying a full backing band and writing some the strongest and darkest and heaviest songs you’ve got swirling inside you. This is my favorite of the early FF records, as it’s full of tension, anger, and maybe a bit of pain as well.

Soundtrack, Batman & Robin, released 27 May 1997. A lot of people will say that 1995’s Batman Forever is terrible (it is, but in a really good and fun way), but this sequel actually is terrible (it is, in a really not so good and embarrassing way). I understood they were trying to channel the Adam West version with its cartoonish silliness, but it’s just bad and pretty much put me off of future Batman films. The soundtrack itself is another one of those “The Album” releases, where only a handful of tracks actually made it into the film, with the rest being “inspired by” it. Of note, however, is the REM rarity “Revolution” and two blazing tracks from The Smashing Pumpkins that got a significant amount of play on the radio.

Mixtape, Songs from the Eden Cycle, Vol 1, created June 1997. By mid-June I figured it was about time I made an ‘official’ mixtape for my current writing project. Almost all of my other projects to date had one, songs that inspired scenes or set the moods for me, and this was the first of many I’d be making for The Phoenix Effect. At this point I was still calling the project “The Eden Cycle” as I’d had vague plans of it being a multi-book universe. The first track of course had to be Poe’s rerecording of her song “Hello”, but it was also the first (of many) appearances of Failure’s epic closer “Daylight” which, even then, I knew would play during the final scenes of the story. This mix got a ton of play over the course of the next several years, including three more volumes made during my years at HMV. And once I started working on self-publishing the Bridgetown Trilogy, even more volumes would be made.

Days of the New, Days of the New, released 3 June 1997. At first I kind of filed this band away with all the other growly grunge bands like Stone Temple Pilots and Alice in Chains, but there was something about this band that made them different. They were swampy like AIC, bluesy like STP, and maybe even a bit inventive like Soundgarden. “Touch, Peel and Stand” and “Shelf in the Room” got a lot of play on WFNX at the time and gave them a significant following.

The Verve, “Bitter Sweet Symphony” single, released 16 June 1997. Yes, that video and song! This one dropped a good couple of months before what would be both their breakthrough and their break-up album, not to mention their hugest selling hit in which they made pretty much nil due to an uncleared sample. And yet it remains an alternative favorite to this day, a late-90s update on the classic GenX my life is shit theme in post-punk and early alternative rock.

Spiritualized, Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, released 16 June 1997. Yet another video in which the lead singer is doing nothing but walking, this was the band’s third record and an unexpected hit in the States for them. Unlike the hazy rave sounds of their first two records, this was more of an experiment in soundscapes, going from the gorgeous lullaby of the title track to the epic wall of sound with the single “Come Together”.

Radiohead, OK Computer, released 16 June 1997. Meanwhile, this band was on the verge of self-destruction, not quite knowing how to follow up the massively popular The Bends, while at the same time dearly wishing to escape the chokehold of worldwide fame and high expectations. Instead they went inwards, creating a deeply unsettling and uncomfortable record that dealt with exactly that: the feeling of not being unable to detangle yourself from the restrictive ropes you may or may not have placed upon yourself. The trick was to go against all expectations and write from the heart: the twitchy “Airbag”, the bizarre fever dream of “Paranoid Android”, the disgust of “Karma Police”, even the brittle beauty of “Exit Music (for a Film)” (written for Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet and following its plot line explicitly), it’s miles away from anything they’d done before and in effect allowed them to follow their own experimental paths thereafter. This one got a ton of play over the next several years and is of course an MU Legacy Soundtrack! [Side note: I only recently learned that the highway cloverleaf you see on the cover is actually the highly confusing I-84/I-91 interchange in Hartford CT, the very same one I’d take the following month on my planned roadtrip, and one I’d pass several times years later on my trips down to New Jersey in 2004.]

Summercamp, Pure Juice, released 17 June 1997. This band often gets forgotten in the avalanche of late 90s emo pop, but this album was one of my favorites. It’s bouncy, exciting and full of catchy songs like “Drawer” and “Should I Walk Away”. This one got a lot of play in the back room at the store and also during my writing sessions.

Mansun, Attack of the Grey Lantern (US Edition), released 24 June 1997. The original UK version of this album dropped earlier in the year (17 February) and its US version had much of its track listing shuffled around, but regardless, this was a band that made me stop and think: what the hell am I listening to? They might be seen as a Britpop band, especially with its UK hit “Wide Open Space” (which itself was a single that dropped back in November 1996), but the track is so unlike anything else that was being played at the time that it just stood out that much more. I remember many of my coworkers really liking the record, enough that it got a significant amount of play on the sales floor at the time. I quickly became a fan and listened to this one quite often.

CJ Bolland, The Analogue Theatre (US edition), released 24 June 1997. The squealy-sexy single “Sugar Is Sweeter”, with its vocals courtesy of Lords of Acid’s Jade4U, was another oddball favorite on the dance floor as well as on WFNX, enough that it showed up on the excellent Urbal Beats compilation (see next entry) and multiple soundtracks.

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Coming up: On a long road trip to Ohio and writing a defining moment.

(Almost) Thirty Years On: April 1997

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There’s something to be said about finally finding your groove. So much stress and anxiety finally recedes into the background where you don’t need to constantly worry that it’ll come back to bite you in the ass when you’re not paying attention. HMV was the first job in ages where I wasn’t jumping ship, getting axed or finding it’s a terrible fit after six months, which meant that I could finally focus on what I wanted to focus on and not worry as much about the bills. It meant that I could allow myself a deeper focus on the writing and a calmer approach to life. Hell, I’d even started assisting in the ordering of stock by then, as my boss trusted me and appreciated my input. It was the first time in years where I didn’t feel like I was scrambling and flailing.

And I think one can see the difference in what I wrote at the time. While still a rough draft, it’s so much better than the work I was doing on my previous now-trunked works. I’d stumbled upon a style that resonated with me and I wanted to see how far I could go with it, and now I had the ability to make that happen.

Our Lady Peace, Clumsy, released 2 April 1997. The Canadian band’s second album was a huge hit in their own country but also a surprise hit here in the States with the two major singles, the snaky “Superman’s Dead” and the ballad “Clumsy”. It was a big seller at my store and even made it to the best-of wall at the end of the year. This one got a lot of play during my writing sessions as well.

The Chemical Brothers, Dig Your Own Hole, released 7 April 1997. It took forever, but when the new album dropped it was HUGE. You heard the new single “Block Rockin’ Beats” everywhere, all the time, to the point that maybe it was a little oversaturated, but it was such an amazing record it surpassed Exit Planet Dust in terms of popularity. The duo seemed to have found their niche, cleverly mixing electronic and analog sounds, and occasionally providing guest vocals, and the fans ate it up. It ended up on several year-end lists and still remains one of their most popular albums.

Sleater-Kinney, Dig Me Out, released 8 April 1997. Their first for the Kill Rock Stars label and the first with drummer Janet Weiss, you can tell that they went all out for this one. Loud, raucous, and full of heartbreak, it was a highly successful release for the college and alternative stations. This was one of my boss’ favorite albums of the year and he’d often play it out on the sales floor.

Depeche Mode, Ultra, released 14 April 1997. After a tumultuous couple of years, the band came back with an album that channeled both their old-school dark-themed style and their newer heavier sound. It’s a perfect fit and the record is one of my all-time favorites of theirs. This is one of the first albums I added to the ‘MU Legacy Soundtrack’ list — albums that I’d frequently come back to throughout my writing of the trilogy and its various versions over the years. It’s still my favorite of the 90s DM albums, even more so than Violator.

Soundtrack, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, released 15 April 1997. I went to this movie thinking that it was either going to be really funny or painfully repetitious and unfunny (as SNL skits tend to be for me), but I was pleasantly surprised by its ability to absolutely nail it as a loving pastiche of mid-60s Mod, yet still be absurdly silly at the same time. The end-credits music video of Austin’s band Ming Tea (Mike Myers, Suzanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet) was a perfect way to cap it all off.

Supergrass, In It for the Money, released 21 April 1997. It took me a while to grow into this album, as I’d only been a passing fan of their debut I Should Coco, but once I did, I was a fan thereafter. I’m pretty sure it was the lovely and Beatlesque “Late in the Day” (and its clever video) that caught my attention in the first place. It has a very autumnal sound, quieter and calmer than their debut and far more adventurous. This was another album that my boss loved and pushed on the sales floor.

Scud Mountain Boys, The Early Year, released 21 April 1997. I knew about this local (Northampton) band from listening to WAMH in the mid 90s, and this was a reissue of their first two albums that dropped in 1995. Their quiet alt-country sound fit in perfectly not only with the indie crowd but seemed to capture the sound of woodsy midwestern Massachusetts as well. Their cover of “Wichita Lineman” is absolutely stunning and is my favorite version of the song. This was another album that got a lot of play in the back room as well as during my writing sessions.

Delerium, Karma, released 22 April 1997. A side project of Rhys Fulber of Front Line Assembly, this band could have been just another Enigma copycat yet somehow broke through on the chillwave circuit with the gloriously lovely “Silence” single with Sarah McLachlan on vocals. The rest of the album is just as wonderful and ended up on my year-end favorites list; it was also another MU Legacy Soundtrack that got a lot of play over the next several years.

Future Bible Heroes, Memories of Love, released 29 April 1997. I remember first hearing the song “Lonely Days” on The River, an Adult Alternative station out of Andover MA, while driving home from work one night and immediately falling in love with its not-quite-retro sound. One of several side projects of Stephin Merritt (he of The Magnetic Fields among other things) and including vocalist Claudia Gonson and ex-Figures On a Beach musician Chris Ewen, Their indie pop sound manages to capture that early 80s synthpop style with oddball self-conscious lyricism (a Merritt hallmark) and catchy melodies. This would get a lot of play as well, and is of course an MU Legacy Soundtrack.

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Coming Up: In which a new writing project finally gets its own mixtape

(Almost) Thirty Years On: February 1997

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I spent most of the next month or so taking my time thinking about how to approach the futuristic sci-fi story idea I’d had in my head for the last couple of years. While True Faith was a step in the right direction, there were two things wrong with it. One, it felt like a swing and a miss; it had its moments but it felt too derivative and weak, like I wasn’t allowing myself to expand on the ideas and push boundaries. And two, now that I was no longer on speaking terms with its co-author, it was probably for the best that I start over from scratch.

So because of this, I had to approach the project from two different directions: I wanted it to be original and 100% from me, and I wanted to force myself out of my old writing styles and crutches and try something utterly new. And it was a single of a re-recorded track that became the spark that started it all.

Depeche Mode, “Barrel of a Gun” single, released 3 February 1997. The last couple of years had not been good for the band, considering they’d lost key member Alan Wilder after their last tour and almost lost lead singer Dave Gahan to drugs. We weren’t quite sure what to expect of the band, especially when they dropped this heavy and unsettling teaser track. And yet it was less a downward spiral and more of a hard road out of hell, a song of redemption that signaled a new sound and style for the band.

Texas, White On Blonde, released 3 February 1997. “Say What You Want” is one of those oh, THAT song! tracks that pops up on the radio now and again and you forget you really like it. This Scottish band dropped a fine single that got a lot of play both on MTV and on AOR stations, and the album was a moderate success for them. Some time later, the song would be re-released as a completely unexpected yet fascinating duet with the Wu-Tang Clan. I remember my boss really liking this album and giving it a lot of play out on the floor.

U2, “Discothéque” single, released 4 February 1997. At this point this band had settled into the well-trodden path of ‘release brilliant album –> put on an amazing live show –> how the hell do they follow this up?’, and this time they put out…a dance song? It took a lot of people by surprise. Instead of getting another rocker like “Zooropa” we got another discofied “Lemon”. [And let’s face it, the Passengers side project was met with headscratching and an ‘okay fine you’ve done your experimental thing, give us another rocker now’.] There were already rumors that the upcoming album was half-baked and incomplete, an utter mess and even more into their own navels than usual. And yet…somehow this became a huge hit despite all that.

Silverchair, Freak Show, released 4 February 1997. After the impressive and popular debut Frogstomp, this trio surprised everyone by coming out with something that was less peppy Pearl Jam and more swampy Alice in Chains. It’s a much darker and grungier album, prefaced by the snotty single “Freak” and followed up with the sludgy “Abuse Me”. I found this abrupt change intriguing enough that this album got quite a bit of play at the time.

The Offspring, Ixnay On the Hombre, released 4 February 1997. It took this punk band almost three years to follow up from the hugely successful Smash album, and when it finally dropped it was a much darker and more polished affair on a major label. It’s not quite as brash as its predecessor, and its songs feel a bit gloomier in comparison, especially the major hit “Gone Away”. It’s not a terrible album, but it’s definitely a step in a different direction that took time to get used to, and one they’d use to considerable success over the next several years.

Blur, Blur, released 10 February 1997. Another band in need of a change, this UK favorite felt like they’d overstayed their quirky ‘Cool Britannia’ moment and needed to adjust course away from Britpop if they wanted to keep going. And in the process, they wrote and recorded a guitar-heavy record that reveals their unexpected angular post-punk side that works perfectly. From the blistering favorite “Song 2” to the Bowie riff “MOR” to the twitchy “On Your Own”, it’s so different from the snarky Parklife and the glossy The Great Escape that its fans were utterly blown away by it. It remains a fan favorite to this day.

Veruca Salt, Eight Arms to Hold You, released 11 February 1997. A few years after their wonderfully poppy American Thighs with its catchy singles “Seether” and “Number One Blind”, they released their second album (its title a nod to the Beatles, of course) along with the equally catchy “Volcano Girls” that got a lot of play on alternative radio.

Poe, “Hello” single, released 11 February 1997. The song itself dates back to her 1995 debut, but it’s this full-band reimagining that contained the venom and power the original sorely lacked, and it became a radio favorite almost immediately. It’s also this version of the track that was the spark I needed to restart my sci-fi novel project. The lyrics are an obvious nod to the literary cyberpunk genre — so much so that it feels like a direct reference to the 1995 movie Johnny Mnemonic — and suddenly I had an idea: what if the soul can be shifted into a different body? Between that and a quick reread of the original Ghost in the Shell manga, I was off and running. And the rest is (a rather long) history.

Soundtrack, Lost Highway, released 18 February 1997. Even though my interest in David Lynch’s work had fallen by the wayside by this point, this soundtrack fascinated me with its heady mix of creepy instrumentals and intense industrial noise. I absolutely loved the Nine Inch Nails single “The Perfect Drug”, but also the Smashing Pumpkins track “Eye” which also got a considerable amount of play on WFNX.

Live, Secret Samadhi, released 18 February 1997. Another band that took its time working on the follow-up to a groundbreaking album, this was yet another one that detoured into a much darker realm. There’s the chunky-riff single “Lakini’s Juice”, the tender ballad “Turn My Head”, the weird “Freaks” and the gritty opener “Rattlesnakes”. It wasn’t as huge a hit as Throwing Copper was, but it did reasonably well.

Sneaker Pimps, Becoming X (US Edition), released 25 February 1997. I’d been waiting on this one since I’d first heard “6 Underground” at the end of last year, and had even talked the boss into ordering a few import copies beforehand, but when it finally landed in the US, it took off like a shot and became a huge favorite of the alternative crowd, especially those who were enamored of that dark and grimy trip-hop sound they’d heard from Tricky and Portishead. It’s a great album, sometimes unsettling and weird but always keeping your interest from start to finish. This also got a lot of repeat play for my writing sessions!

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Coming Up: In which I finally begin a new writing project that will keep me busy for the next two decades.

(Almost) Thirty Years On: January 1997

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As mentioned previously, I’m continuing with 1997 as it’s the first full year of my stay at HMV. Even though I’d technically started in late September 1996, I kind of consider those first couple of months a trial run, getting myself used to the job while at the same time dealing with a lot of personal change. Once that disconnect from the recent past was made permanent, I had a clean slate to work with, and I wasn’t going to squander it. I was still thinking about what my next writing project would be, yet I kept coming back to the original Vigil idea that intrigued me back in 1993. I let that stew for a little while, as first I had to work on something else: getting myself started in the first place!

I knew that the best way for me to kickstart my writing again was to use the motto I’d come up with during the summer of 1995: Just shut the f*ck up and DO it already. I’d already been writing lyrics and poetry, something I’d returned to during my stay at the radio station, and thought it was time for me to start lugging a few notebooks with me to work. I started heading in a half hour earlier than normal just so I could sit in the food court. At the start, I’d put on my headphones and listened to a few albums while writing a few lyrics and poems here and there, and it was right around the end of January that I felt it finally reconnected with me. [I remember it was a poem about the mall walkers I’d see every morning that finally pushed me across the line.]

Riverdance, released sometime in 1995-96, depending on which edition. I add this here at this time mainly because this had been such a huge thing on PBS over the Christmas season. It was their go-to for their fundraising drives and the soundtrack ended up getting some serious sales in the process. It was a go-to for the overhead speakers during the quieter mornings. The 1996 edition came out right during the height of the new-age/Celtic folk mini-boom, one that I’d dabbled in for a bit and was an inspiration and influence on True Faith and The Phoenix Effect.

Bjork, Telegram, released 14 January 1997. As a follow-up to her genre-bending second album Post, she dropped a remix collection that didn’t quite hit the same heights but did feature a re-recording of the single “I Miss You”, complete with a bonkers music video animated by John Krikfalusi of Ren & Stimpy fame. She’d follow up later in the year with a proper third album that, once again, defied expectations.

Jamiroquai, Travelling Without Moving, released 14 January 1997. Yes, that video, the one Jay Kay has just recently and humorously riffed on for a Beefeaters Gin advertisement. “Virtual Insanity” was a huge breakout single for his brand of Stevie Wonder-inspired funk, and the rest of the album is just as brilliant and amazing. Further singles “Cosmic Girl” and “Alright” were just as popular, and the closer “Do You Know Where You’re Coming From” — officially a drum-n-bass track by M-Beat with Jay Kay on vocals — is a stunner. This one got a ton of play in the back room of the store and also got some heavy spins during my writing sessions throughout the year. It’s one of my favorites of the year.

Daft Punk, Homework, released 17 January 1997. It took me a little while to get into Daft Punk as the first I’d heard of them was the single “Da Funk” which didn’t resonate with me at all. However, upon watching the highly creative and amusing Michel Gondry video for “Around the World”, I was finally won over. It would take a little while longer for me to finally add them to my collection, however!

The Verve Pipe, “The Freshmen” single, released 27 January 1997. This is the one Verve Pipe song everyone knows, considering it was so saturated on rock radio at this point, but thankfully it gave the excellent Villains album a second boost in sales. They’ll still happily roll this track out these days when they’re playing live…not bad for what was originally a deep cut on their 1992 indie debut!

Built to Spill, Perfect from Now On, released 28 January 1997. This indie band had been around for a few years by this point, but it was this record, their first for a major label, that caught everyone else’s attention. And it’s quite interesting in that it was a deliberate move away from their original sound, leaning more on sprawling melodies and experimentation.

David Bowie, Earthling, released 30 January 1997. This one interestingly polarizes fans, considering it’s his foray into electronic music. There’s a lot of drum-n-bass, industrial and house going on here, and I think that’s why it appealed to me. I’d been a passive fan but never went out of my way to pick up his back catalogue (other than a greatest hits collection or two), but this one fascinated the hell out of me and became one of my favorite albums of the year. It too got a lot of backroom play as well as being a writing soundtrack.

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Coming up: In which several new releases give me an unexpected creative spark.

Thirty Years On: October 1996

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I’d say for the first month or so of this new job of mine, I took the same somewhat longer route to work as that was the easiest. That would change within a few months of course, once I got used to the area and learned several of the backroads. I also remember briefly contemplating finding a place closer to the store. Mind you, that was mostly a lingering itch to head back out on my own that I didn’t take entirely all that seriously, knowing that it was more important for me to continue getting out of debt, ensuring this job stayed permanent, and that I could perhaps save up more.

Mind you, when your position is the lone shipping/receiving clerk for the entire store and every single CD, cassette, import and box set goes through your hands, the temptation to spend said money on new releases is pretty damn high, I can tell you that. Thankfully I did get an associate discount of 30% off (basically buying it at cost) and the promos coming into the store were plentiful. This was back when there were six major distributors (I can still rattle them off: UNI (Universal), EMD (EMI), BMG, Sony, PGD (PolyGram), and WEA (Warner/Elektra/Atlantic), and UNI and PGD would merge in 1998), and I got to know their sales reps really well over the course of my stay there. Not only did I acquire several promos, I’d also get free tickets to shows! I pretty much owned that back room, having laid it out for ease of access for both me and my coworkers, and I got to know the UPS driver really well with all his daily visits.

It’s funny, really, how such a simple thing as a job I truly enjoyed would lift my spirits so much. Until then, I had no idea that could ever happen. I was still feeling out of place, caught between friendships that were slowly fading into obscurity, a crowded house with little privacy, a past I was trying to move on from, and writing projects that I was losing interest in. Yet I now had this bit of personal freedom that I could explore for the first time now that I had the time, money and impetus to do so. I found myself escaping more and more, even if it was just for a few hours, whether it was one of those backroad trips or a visit to Boston or to the Pioneer Valley. I had to do get out there and do something. And I had the perfect soundtrack for it now.

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Fountains of Wayne, Fountains of Wayne, released 1 October 1996. This band from New Jersey (named after an actual store in Wayne NJ that sold fountains) featured none other than songwriter Adam Schlesinger, who we’d met previously as the writer for The Wonders’ “That Thing You Do”. “Radiation Vibe” got a lot of airplay on WHMP and WFNX and became their calling card until a some years later when the hugely popular “Stacy’s Mom” dropped. Their smart and clever pop sound is super infectious and they’re well worth checking out.

Republica, Republica, released 5 October 1996. This was the very first CD I bought at my own store via a gift certificate I’d won during an employee meeting for knowing way too much music trivia, heh. “Ready to Go” was a monster hit for the band and got played everywhere, both on alternative and commercial radio, and the vertigo-inducing video got a ton of play on MTV as well. It’s a super fun album that isn’t just great for partying but playing super loud.

Sneaker Pimps, “6 Underground” single, released 7 October 1996. Sometimes you hear a song on the radio and you literally stop in your tracks to say “what the hell am I hearing…??” This was one of them, and it was extremely popular on WFNX. The band offers up its own version of trip hop on this track from their debut album Becoming X that was originally released on 19 August in the UK, but wouldn’t be released in the States until the following February. It’s one of my top favorite tracks of the 90s and the album is highly recommended.

Elysian Fields, Bleed Your Cedar, released 8 October 1996. This was a promo I picked up purely out of curiosity as the sales rep had enjoyed it. They were like sultry and stylish slowcore, more noirish than Low but not quite leaping into goth grimness either. “Jack in the Box” was the single featured on WNFX but it was the swampy “Lady in the Lake” that became my favorite track. Singer Jennifer Charles would soon show up on several albums over the years as a guest vocalist, including Tweaker, Lovage, John Zorn, Foetus, Live, and more.

They Might Be Giants, Factory Showroom, released 8 October 1996. This band kind of fell by the wayside for me for a few years, partly because of their foray into much more serious music with 1994’s John Henry and their hiatus while John L and John F worked on solo projects. This, however, was a fine return to form with the funky single “S-E-X-X-Y”. This was another promo I picked up early on.

The Heads, No Talking Just Head, released 8 October 1996. This was an odd project by the now Byrne-less Talking Heads, recording an album full of guest singers like Johnette Napolitano, Debbie Harry, Shaun Ryder, Andy Partridge and more. It was apparently a sort of experiment to see if they could still carry on as a trio, yet nothing further came out of it.

Spice Girls, Spice, released 9 October 1996. I’ll admit I was not a fan of “Wannabe” partly because I could not escape the damn song. And yet somehow I found myself intrigued not by their sort of manufactured public image but their surprisingly catchy songs. The single “Say You’ll Be There” is a breezy and fun track full of soul, and the ballad “2 Become 1” (yes, it’s what you think it’s about) is actually quite a lovely production. It was so ridiculously popular at the store that I don’t think we ever returned any unsold copies for at least a couple years.

Phish, Billy Breathes, released 15 October 1996. I was of course familiar with this Vermont jam band via my college years, but I’d never actually gone out of my way to pick them up as that kind of thing wasn’t, well, my jam at the time. Although getting this as a promo changed that when I kept hearing the track “Free” on the radio. It’s a surprisingly catchy track that pulled me in. I was finally hooked and I’ve been a fan since. This album became a favorite during my writing sessions in the next few years.

The Lemonheads, Car Button Cloth, released 15 October 1996. This, on the other hand, wasn’t nearly the big hit they’d hoped it would be, and while it had a minor alt-rock radio hit with the single “If I Could Talk I’d Tell You”, it received mixed reviews and didn’t really do much afterwards. He’d put the band aside for the next several years and not resurface until 2006’s self-titled record.

The Monkees, Justus, released 15 October 1996. After their highly successful 1986 reunion and the occasional tours (often minus Mike Nesmith) thereafter, they decided to reunite once more for a full-on multimedia event celebrating their 30th anniversary, with not only an album of new tracks but also a TV special played up very similar to their old show of yore.

Paula Cole, This Fire, released 15 October 1996. You will of course know this album from its two huge singles “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone” and the theme from Dawson’s Creek, “I Don’t Want to Wait”, but it’s a surprisingly deep and varied record that’s worth checking out, such as with the spooky “Mississippi” (my favorite track off the album) and the sexy “Feelin’ Love”. Later in 1997 when I went to the Lilith Fair concert, she ended up being one of my favorite performers that night. She’s put out several other great records since.

Beth Orton, Trailer Park, released 21 October 1996. Another singer-songwriter that got a lot of radio play on WFNX and other alternative and AOR stations, the dreamlike and delicate “She Cries Your Name” is a lovely track and one of my favorites of that year. It’s an intriguing record that seamlessly marries electronica and folk in a way that no one expected, and it works amazingly well. Highly recommended.

The Beatles, Anthology 3, released 28 October 1996. The third and final volume alas did not feature a third “new” song, with its opening track instead being a George Martin overture that was originally written as an intro to Ringo’s “Don’t Pass Me By”, but instead showed up as incidental music near the start of the Yellow Submarine film. The rest of the album features both the well known and the obscure (and much bootlegged) from the White Album and the Abbey Road projects.

The Rutles, Archaeology, released 29 October 1996. Meanwhile, Neil Innes’ spot-on Beatles pastiche project riffs not only on the band but the reunion with tracks once again sounding almost but not quite like the original. The Pre-Fab Four’s music is a treat.

Wilco, Being There, released 29 October 1996. While their debut AM did capture the interest of the fans of their former band Uncle Tupelo, it was this unexpected double-disc project that brought them a much wider audience. They’d remain an alt-country band with a heavy Big Star influence, but they’d remain a huge favorite with every release.

Luscious Jackson, Fever In Fever Out, released 29 October 1996. I used to hear the “Naked Eye” track on WFNX all the time on the drive to work, and by this time they’d become a band to be reckoned with. They still had that inner city groove they’d created with the In Search of Manny EP only they’d become glossier and poppier in the process. This was a favorite at my store and we’d play it over the system quite often.

Soundtrack, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, released 29 October 1996. I’ll admit I’m not the biggest Baz Luhrmann fan, as I find most of his movies cloying and over the top, but I’ll admit that he hit paydirt with this version of the Shakespeare play. He managed to be clever about it in several ways, and the soundtrack is full of favorite radio hits like The Cardigans’ “Lovefool” and the peppy “You and Me Song” by the Wannadies. But it was the Garbage deep cut “#1 Crush” (originally the b-side of the “Vow” single) that caught my interest — it’s a seriously sexy track even though the lyrics get progressively more unsettling as it goes on.

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Coming Up: Ending the year on a slightly curious and strange note, and looking forward

Thirty Years On: July/August 1996

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I spent most of the summer of 1996 not quite in stasis but not quite moving in any specific direction, to be honest. It was more of a ‘waiting for something to come along’ that I was slowly getting used to. I’d kept my promise to myself not to once again fall prey to becoming stuck in one place I wasn’t entirely happy being in out of necessity; instead I made it a point to look for new jobs outside of the area. I’d still have to figure out travel arrangements, whether it was to borrow someone’s car or look into buying my own beater. In the meantime I stuck with the temp job at my mom’s bank until further notice and focused all my energy on job searching…and writing.

At this point in time I was still trying to figure out what to do with True Faith, which had stalled since I’d moved home. I was still interested in it because it was related to my original Vigil idea from 1993, but I kind of felt like I’d lost the plot, literally. I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go with it, and I was constantly rewriting and revising it instead of moving it forward. It wasn’t close to my best writing and I knew it, so I was focusing on how best to rectify that. I really felt like I was holding myself back, but I wasn’t entirely sure how to break out of that either.

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Soul Coughing, Irresistible Bliss, released 9 July 1996. WHMP loved this album, especially the single “Super Bon Bon”, and so did WFNX whenever I listened to it during my road trips into Boston. My friend Chris was a huge fan highly recommended them to me, as they were less a straight-ahead alternative band and more of a poetry slam performance, complete with Mike Doughty’s weird yet captivating lyricism.

Soundtrack, Trainspotting: Music from the Motion Picture, released 9 July 1996. The movie was a massive hit everywhere (though I myself didn’t watch it until we rented it at some later point), and even the soundtrack was immensely popular, filled with such a wild assortment of music from Iggy Pop, Underworld, Blur, Primal Scream, and more. This also gave Iggy a huge boost in sales and popularity with the always great “Lust for Life” single.

Tonic, Lemon Parade, released 16 July 1996. This LA band could be seen as a one-hit wonder with the popular “If You Could Only See” single, and yet they’re still going strong today. This debut is a great record — the opener single “Open Up Your Eyes” is also a banger — and it’s worth checking out. I got to see them open for The Verve Pipe later in the year.

Chimera, Earth Loop, released 23 July 1996. I wouldn’t hear this for another few months when I finally found what would then be my dream job, and it was one of the first promo cds I’d snag. They were a sort of alternative-meets-trip-hop with a bit of shoegaze for flavor, and it’s an absolutely lovely record that became one of my favorites of the year.

Hooverphonic, A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular, released 29 July 1996. This is the album that started it all — and the only one with their original name ‘Hoover’ (before they changed it for obvious reasons) — and the amazing single “2Wicky” sold me right from the beginning for this Belgian group. They masterfully took the darker edges of trip hop and added a flair of elegance and beauty to it, and they’ve been a huge favorite of mine ever since. I highly recommend pretty much everything they’ve ever put out.

Eels, Beautiful Freak, released 13 August 1996. I was aware of Mark Oliver Everett’s music under the name ‘E’ (he had a minor alt-radio hit with “Hello Cruel World” in 1992), but I was drawn to his new project with the oddly catchy “Novocaine for the Soul” single. It became a huge hit on alt-rock radio and started a long and still-strong career for him.

Failure, Fantastic Planet, released 13 August 1996. The first time I heard “Stuck On You” was when I saw the video for it on MTV one day and was gobsmacked by just how flipping brilliant it was. It wasn’t just a banger of a track that felt like a punch in the face, the video was a dead-on riff on the opening credits to the Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. I bought the album soon after and my mind was fully blown. It really is an amazing record from start to finish, heavy and loud and epic as hell. This album would be one of the first on my Official Soundtrack List to the Mendaihu Universe, and I would play it constantly while writing The Phoenix Effect and then the Bridgetown Trilogy over the next several years. I highly recommend owning this one.

Better Than Ezra, Friction, Baby, released 13 August 1996. After their popular debut, this was their equally great yet not exactly popular follow-up, and yet tracks like “Desperately Wanting” and “King of New Orleans” got significant amount of play on alt-rock radio for a good couple of years there.

Reel Big Fish, Turn the Radio Off, released 13 August 1996. Yet another ska-punk band of the 90s that cluttered up rock radio and MTV at the time, it was a super fun record regardless. “Sell Out” is one of my favorite songs of the late 90s and I remember I used to sing along to this one in the car all the time.

K’s Choice, Paradise in Me, released 20 August 1996. Another Belgian band, this time firmly entrenched in that 90s radio-friendly alt-rock sound complete with (yes) a one-hit wonder, the excellent “Not an Addict” that got play all over the place, even on VH1. I picked this one up on cassette and listened to it quite a bit at the time.

Tara MacLean, Silence, released 20 August 1996. Another singer I discovered during my upcoming new job, this Canadian singer was unfortunately overlooked by US radio at the time. She’s still going strong and has put out several albums, and recently a memoir. This one got a lot of play during my writing sessions as well.

Pearl Jam, No Code, released 27 August 1996. How do you follow up the massively popular Vitalogy album, all while very publicly boycotting Ticketmaster? By putting out something even weirder! It’s all over the place, containing both wonderful radio-ready singles like “Hail Hail” and “Who You Are”, folky tracks like “Off He Goes”, and dense soundscapes like “Lukin”. It remains a head-scratcher for a lot of people for it being all over the place. It’s the album of theirs I listen to least, but only because it can be a hard listen at times. They’d bounce back with the excellent Yield a few years later.

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Coming up: The start of the HMV Years

Thirty Years On: March 1996

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By this time I’d been working not-quite-fulltime at the radio station, doing the morning shifts from 5:30am to noon, and also on Sunday afternoons to prep the religious programming on the AM station that still ran from dawn to dusk. I was on my own for the most part until the GM came in and nitpicked any slight errors I’d made. Let’s just say that she was one of those evangelicals that threw stones first and leave it at that, shall we? Anyway, it wasn’t the most exciting of jobs and as before, I was never on air, but it gave me time to play around with a few ideas. I revived my poetry and lyric writing, something I hadn’t done for a good year or so. I watched Sailor Moon on the station TV in the morning (this was when anime was finally becoming more popular and mainstream in the US instead of a niche thing). I read books and comics I’d been buying recently. I drew maps and comic ideas. Anything to get my mind moving instead of spiraling into self-pity.

This is when I’d come up with the idea of priming the creative pump, so to speak. While I was getting caught up on the Great Transcription Project, I was also playing around with various ideas longhand. We had scrap paper galore in the studio and I used it to let my mind come up with ideas. They didn’t have to go anywhere, it was just an exercise to get myself back into creative shape. I came up with about a dozen story ideas, none of which went anywhere in the long run, but the exercise did its job: I felt the creative spark reignite, and I was ready to start writing again.

I should also state that at this point, my then-gf (and cowriter on True Faith) and I had broken up though we did stay in touch, very occasionally meeting up with a few mutual friends to do things. I also met up with a few people via online New Age chatrooms and had a brief friendship with someone who gave me a lot of positive insight on my ideas that would eventually become a part of The Phoenix Effect in the future. So it wasn’t as if I’d cut myself off from the world; it was more that I felt a bit lost and trying to find my footing. These weren’t the most fulfilling of connections, but they were needed at the time and helped me stay out of that funk I’d been in a few months previous.

Lush, Lovelife, released 5 March 1996. The band’s last album before breaking up, it was also their most radio-friendly and popular, especially with the single “Ladykillers”. They still attained most of their dreampop/shoegaze sound, but it felt forced and overly polished to me, however.

Various Artists, WHORE: Tribute to Wire, released 5 March 1996. Around this time I’d started listening to my old standby college radio station, WAMH at Amherst College. I had to get used to the fact that they weren’t playing the post-punk-influenced alternative stuff I’d fallen in love with back in the 80s but was now fully immersed in indie rock that I was only vaguely resonating with. They’d play a few tracks off this one now and again, especially Band of Susan’s cover of the brilliant “Ahead”.

Stereolab, Emperor Tomato Ketchup, released 11 March 1996. I bought this one via Columbia House as I’d always liked them but never quite got around to ever buying anything from them! I’d heard “The Noise of Carpet” on 120 Minutes and that sold them for me. I still get the track stuck in my head now and again.

Cocteau Twins, Milk & Kisses, released 15 March 1996. Believe it or not, I wouldn’t own this for a good year or so! I was more of an early-era, pre-Heaven Or Las Vegas fan and felt their later work lacked the dreamlike sound I loved so much. It would end up being their final album as they would break up soon after.

The Beatles, Anthology 2, released 18 March 1996. I remember the ‘new’ Beatles single, “Real Love”, was supposed to drop on Valentines Day or thereabouts but got delayed, instead dropping a week or so before the second volume of the Anthology series. This one fascinates me, as it dials back the live and interstitial content that was prevalent on the first volume and focuses on the interesting alternate takes, like the trippy first take of “Tomorrow Never Knows”. At this point there was still a rumor that a third ‘new’ song would be on the third volume, but alas, time and technology kept that from happening.

Barenaked Ladies, Born On a Pirate Ship, released 19 March 1996. Before the hugely popular Stunt from 1998, this album opened the door much wider for this beloved Canadian band, with the single “The Old Apartment” getting major airplay on the radio over the next year or so.

Love and Rockets, Sweet FA, released 19 March 1996. Story goes that they’d recorded a significant portion of this album project when a fire consumed the studio they’d been working in. Guitars were burnt to a crisp (thus the album cover) and friend Genesis P-Orridge suffered injuries because of it, but in the end they soldiered on and came out with a sleek album that wasn’t quite a return to their psych rock origins or the techno of their previous album, and “Sweet Lover Hangover” became a radio favorite.

Tracy Bonham, The Burdens of Being Upright, released 19 March 1996. She’d become a local favorite in Boston with her indie-released The Liverpool Sessions EP, and for her major label debut she came out with guns blazing and several songs that became favorites on the local alternative stations like the blistering opener “Mother Mother”, the catchy “The One” and the oddball singalong “Sharks Can’t Sleep”. She’s still active as a musician and putting out her own works.

Superdrag, Regretfully Yours, released 26 March 1996. This band could be seen as a one hit wonder with its clever “Sucked Out” (a song about selling out, natch), but there’s a lot more going on with this band than just being a whiny Gen-Xer. They’re actually quite an excellent powerpop band worth checking out, and their amazing about-face with 1998’s Head Trip in Every Key (done specifically as an anti-“Sucked Out” album which did its job by having the label drop them soon after) is highly recommended.

Stone Temple Pilots, Tiny Music…Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, released 26 March 1996. STP, on the other hand, seemed to be on the verge of self-immolation, as the first hints of Scott Weiland’s self-destructiveness came to the fore. This is a druggy haze of an album because of that. It’s not my favorite of theirs and a bit of a hard listen because it feels so sloppy, especially after the wonderful Purple from 1994, but it does have its finer moments like the above single that got a lot of play at the time.

Guided By Voices, Under the Bushes Under the Stars, released 26 March 1996. This is their ninth(?) album so I kind of gave up on trying to catch up with their work, but they finally resonated with me with the lovely “Official Ironmen Rally Song” single that got a lot of play not only on WAMH but on WHMP as well. I did get this song down on one of my radio source tapes somewhere, but it would be quite a few years more before I finally downloaded this album.

The Verve Pipe, Villains, released 26 March 1996. I immediately fell in love with this album not because of the ridiculously popular single “The Freshmen” but because of their other radio/video tracks “Photograph” and “Cup of Tea”, both of which would show up on one of my favorite mixtapes later in the year. It really is an amazing album, and Brian Vander Ark’s songwriting is at its highest here. I bought this one via Columbia House and played the hell out of it over the next several years, as it became one of my all-time favorite 90s records and became a frequent go-to for my writing sessions, especially when working on The Phoenix Effect and the Bridgetown Trilogy. I highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t already.

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Coming up: The birth of the writing nook.

Walk in Silence…

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It’s been quite a long time since I’ve listened to the music I grew up with. In fact I was kind of trying to avoid it on purpose. Not for any emotional reasons (not this time, at any rate), more that I wanted to distance myself from it for a bit.

You all know how obsessive I can get about listening to music, and sometimes I’ll get myself into a spiral of listening to certain albums (or years) on constant repeat. On the surface that’s not inherently bad. Sometimes you just want to listen to the music that resonated with you the most. Songs and albums that created a deep and lasting connection with your life and awakens memories both good and bad.

Thing is, I felt like I was doing this a little too often, to the detriment of any new music that came my way. I know I’m an outlier in this sort of thing: I’m just that kind of obsessive where I’m also constantly interested in new and fascinating things. [The new album by The Clockworks is amazing and they are so criminally underrated. I highly recommend all their work.] So I purposely distanced myself from the sounds of my past, at least for a little while. Just long enough where I felt I wouldn’t fall into another listening spiral.

It was the recent “forty years ago” meme that changed that, however. Several people on social media remembering music that dropped in 1986, and I of course thought oh man, this is a perfect Forty Years On series…maybe it’s time to return. Especially considering that was the year when I discovered college radio and my listening habits completely changed from classic rock and AT40 to alternative almost overnight.

So here I am now, thinking that maybe it’s time to allow myself a bit of reminiscence again. Thinking that maybe it’s finally time to work through that Walk in Silence book once and for all. I have the time and the spoons for it. And I’m starting to see even more books and articles about Gen-X 80s and 90s alternative rock these days, now that my generation is slowly trudging its way towards Elder status. And I realize that I still want to tell my side of that story: not about a scene or anything like that, but just a story about someone who’s listened to this stuff to the point of obsession and let it influence and inspire their life. A story about how alternative rock not only changed me for the better but connected me with a group of people that became lifelong friends.

Will it be any different from the outtakes and the 80s posts I put up here over the years? That’s a good question. I’ve told some of that story here of course, but I’ve left stuff out as well. Stuff that’s just a bit too personal, things I didn’t want to share online at the time, or things that were a bit too emotionally rough for me to revisit. And there are some things I’ve completely forgotten that come to light after a close listen to a certain song or album, well after the original posts. There’s also the fact that I’ve told and retold the story in different ways and never quite felt satisfied with it as a writer.

Let’s be honest here: I’ve also been thinking about returning to that era’s music here anyway. After all, this blog is named after the first line of Joy Division’s “Atmosphere”, and its original purpose was to talk about my obsessions with said era. I won’t be dismissing my interest in new music at all, and I’m sure that talking about it here on a regular schedule will continue; I’m just saying that it’s time for me to return to where I’m happiest: back when I used to call it “college rock”.

Forty Years On: Favorite Music from 1986 Part X

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By the time November rolled around, I found myself thinking less like a clueless mid-teen reacting to everything around me and taking more chances with my creative and personal lives. The ideas within the IWN were taking a much darker and more experimental road, and I’d started writing my first screenplay, coming-of-age comedy inspired by John Hughes. I was also trying out new ideas with a plan of not holding back nearly as much as I had. I felt like I was less of a dork with braces and finally coming into my own as a creative person in training. I had to start somewhere, right? Why not now?

November was also the month when I first made not one but two radio-sourced mixtapes by recording a full side of music while listening to WMUA, the college station of UMass Amherst. Those two mixes (both later titled The Crossover I and II) got a lot of repeat play during the day when I couldn’t always get the station in clearly. [It was around this time that the guy at Radio Shack suggested I purchase a six-foot extending antenna, which I duly bought and used for several years (and radios).] I’d make a few more commercial station ‘radio tapes’ well into 1987, but that would soon come to a close once my obsession grew.

Killing Joke, Brighter Than a Thousand Suns, released November 1986. I remember this one getting a bit of flak because it was so slickly produced, the songs weren’t as powerful as their previous work, and it sounded very…well, 80s. It didn’t do too well, but I do remember “Sanity” and “Adorations” getting a fair bit of play on 120 Minutes.

A Certain Ratio, Force, released November 1986. I remember WMDK being a bit excited about this album coming out, as it was their first album in four years (not including the collection The Old & the New which had come out earlier in the year). They’re not your typical British post-punk band; they’re more like post-punk-meets-funk, and the critics loved it.

The Mission UK, God’s Own Medicine, released November 1986. The first album from Wayne Hussey’s new band after leaving The Sisters of Mercy, and you can hear a few similarities between the two groups, though The Mission would be more melodic and less doom-and-gloom. “Wasteland” got a fair bit of play on 120 Minutes and on college radio. They’d be a favorite on Boston’s alternative station WFNX over the next few years.

He Said, Hail, released November 1986. Graham Lewis, the bassist/vocalist from Wire, also had his own solo project at this time (one of many during their hiatus) although it would be a few years before I’d finally get around to picking them up, starting with 1989’s Take Care.

Fishbone, In Your Face, released November 1986. This funk-metal band had a strong fan following for ages, so when their first album finally came out it was an immediate favorite. Even from the album cover you could tell that they didn’t always take themselves entirely all that seriously, and this album shows it: while there are certainly some serious tracks here, there are also quite a few fun jams as well.

Clan of Xymox, Medusa, released November 1986. This is a curious 4AD band that I knew of thanks to seeing them in the bins at Al Bum’s and later at Main Street Records, but I never quite got around to picking up their albums until 1989’s Twist of Shadows. I’d pick this one up on one of my jaunts to the many used shops in Boston during my college years, and “Agonised By Love” became one of my favorites of theirs.

Lone Justice, Shelter, released November 1986. This was a band that straddled the lines between alternative, country and folk, and did surprisingly well not just on AOR but also on pop radio. “Shelter” was the big hit for them and got a decent amount of play all over the place.

Wire, Snakedrill EP, released November 1986. Speaking of…after disappearing at the start of the decade to focus on solo projects, this influential foursome reconvened and began what they would call their “beat combo” era with this teaser EP, with a new album coming in the new year. It’s a fascinating release as all four songs sound completely different from each other despite having a similar style. “A Serious of Snakes” is radio-friendly and catchy as hell even despite its oblique lyrics; “Drill” is their showpiece focusing on lyrical and musical repetition; “Advantage in Height” reminds fans of their first post-punk wave; and “Up to the Sun (A Vivid Riot of Red)” sees the band at their most experimental. This EP would be reissued as bonus tracks on the cassette and CD of their album that would drop in April.

Game Theory, The Big Shot Chronicles, released November 1986. Another band listed in Trouser Press Record Guide that caught my attention, this power pop band were critic favorites and would show up on WMDK quite frequently.

China Crisis, What Price Paradise, released November 1986. This British band showed up on an episode of Night Flight as a band with success in their home country but very little visibility in the States despite being signed to Virgin Records. I’d hear “Arizona Sky” and “It’s Everything” on WMDK around this time, both great singles that really could have fit in perfectly on American pop radio, and I’d soon find this record in the bins at Al Bums.

They Might Be Giants, They Might Be Giants, released 4 November 1986. It’s safe to say I’ve been a TMBG fan since album number one, and I absolutely adore this record for its silliness and relentless oddball creativity. So much so that this garnered a follow-up record review in my school paper! “Don’t Let’s Start” got a lot of play on 120 Minutes, AOR and college radio, as would “(She Was a) Hotel Detective”. [And I would learn later that they were sort-of-once-local, having grown up in Lincoln MA, thus the title of their follow-up in 1988.] I bought this cassette at Strawberries if I’m not mistaken, and it got a ton of play over the next several years, so much so that I can still quote several songs, heh.

‘Til Tuesday, Welcome Home, released 4 November 1986. The follow-up to their mega-huge Voices Carry album may not have been as popular, but as a Boston band they definitely got their fair share of play on local rock radio with the singles “What About Love” and “Coming Up Close”. The latter became one of my favorite tracks of theirs, a song that perfectly encapsulates the closing-down of the year feel of late autumn in New England.

Kraftwerk, Electric Café, released 10 November 1986. Their first new album in five years, this was big news, especially since they were the godfathers of early synth music, which was now at the peak of its current wave. I remember Night Flight and even PBS doing a retrospective on them at this time, and releasing the video for “Musique Non Stop”, which at the time had cutting-edge CGI facial animation work.

Cocteau Twins with Harold Budd, The Moon and the Melodies, released 10 November 1986. This was part of the wave of CT albums and EPs I’d dub from a friend in early 1989 that would end up getting constant repeat plays on my Walkman over the next few years. It’s my favorite of their discography, even despite it being more of an experimental side-project, but its dreamlike ambience is absolutely breathtaking.

Kate Bush, The Whole Story, released 10 November 1986. I picked this one up at Strawberries soon after it dropped, partly because I’d really liked “Running Up That Hill” and partly because of the video feature I’d seen on Night Flight. I’d known how different her music could be from other alternative and pop music, but this felt like it was in a different yet parallel universe. I’d be a longtime fan from here on in.

The The, Infected, released 17 November 1986. This too was something that caught my interest via Night Flight when they premiered the movie Matt Johnson made to promote this album. Like the film, the album is dark, dense and unforgiving and yet with a sense of redemption at the end. Nothing is held back: songs about sex, obsession, war, desolation, politics, death, and going to the brink. I was absolutely floored and immediately bought the cassette at that little record corner inside the department store in Amherst, the same place I’d bought Flaunt It. One lasting memory I have is of a friend borrowing this then giving it back the next day saying “It’s okay, but why do I want to hear songs about ‘piss-stinking shopping centers’?”

Duran Duran, Notorious, released 18 November 1986. After the almost-dissolution of the group and its loss of two core members, Simon, Nick and Andy reconvened with an album with a much slicker production and stylish songwriting. It definitely lost some of their older fans, and I wasn’t the biggest fan of the title track, but the sexy slinkiness of the “Skin Trade” single kept me interested. It’s more of a transitional album than a solid one, but it’s worth checking out.

Bad Brains, I Against I, released 21 November 1986. I remember 120 Minutes making a big thing out of this release as this was the hardcore band’s first album in over three years with a change in sound, moving closer towards funk and metal, and would become their biggest and most popular record. [You can kind of hear a style that Living Colour would adapt themselves a few years later.] I also remember seeing ads for it in the music magazines, and would occasionally hear tracks from it on WMUA and later on WAMH.

The Other Ones, The Other Ones, released 24 November 1986. I gravitated towards this album thanks to the excellent single “We Are What We Are”, which spoke to me at a time when I was still trying to figure myself out. Although it only scraped by to number 53 on the Billboard Top 100, I was entranced by its simple message: we only want to be ourselves / we’re just like everybody else. As a teenager this clarified so much: I needed to get out of my own head and be who I wanted to be instead of constantly overthinking it like I always did. And that I surely wasn’t the only one feeling this way. Despite its slick 80s pop style, this album was just quirky and different enough that I fell in love with it, and it got a ton of play in my room for a good couple of years.

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Next up: winding up the year

Forty Years On: Favorite Music from 1986 Part VII

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With summer’s end came a bit of a sea change for me. I’d started avoiding the few neighborhood kids left that I no longer wanted to hang out with, because surely I could do so much better. While I might still have been an overly moody teen on the inside and an obnoxious goofball on the outside, I’d finally learned to tone both sides down when I realized that my hyperfocus on writing was a good thing. (Hi, undiagnosed ADHD!) I was looking forward to starting the new school year with a fresher outlook and a hell of a lot more self-confidence.

And of course, I always looked forward to hitting the record stores in central Massachusetts that actually carried this ‘college rock’ I found myself obsessed with. In short order I knew all the best shops and who sold what, and even which mall chain and department stores carried held such hidden gems. The thrill of the hunt was on!

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Camper Van Beethoven, Camper Van Beethoven, released August 1986. It gets confusing: 1985’s Telephone Free Landslide Victory is their first album, January 1986’s II & III is their second, and this self-titled is their third. This was typical of David Lowery’s absurdist nature, writing oddball songs that were surprisingly catchy and memorable. Critics and college radio stations loved them, and even you knew one of their songs (the silly “Take the Skinheads Bowling” that got MTV play). I do remember WMDK and WMUA playing them now and again.

Crowded House, Crowded House, released August 1986. Upon hearing that the younger Finn brother picked up the ashes of the recently broken-up Split Enz to go solo, both fans and critics were excited to see what would come of this brilliant songwriter. The ubiquitous and still lovely ballad “Don’t Dream It’s Over” hit the airwaves here in the States and instantly won them acclaim. This first album is well worth listening to.

Sparks, Music That You Can Dance To, released August 1986. This is yet another good example of a great band with great songwriters that never quite managed to break through. Perhaps it’s their inherent quirkiness, or perhaps the inability to pigeonhole them (which is actually a plus, to be honest), they spent most of the 80s being that band that just sort of popped up unexpectedly every year or so. I remember seeing this album in the cutout bins a lot in the 90s under its weirdly renamed reissue The Best of Sparks.

Bruce Hornsby, The Way It Is, released August 1986. He could have been a one hit wonder with the title track — yet another catchy late-80s song about failed lives and failed dreams — but due to Hornsby’s stellar playing and ability to write amazing songs, this album became a hit on rock radio and MTV. I believe I acquired this album off someone who didn’t want it and I found myself captivated by its mastery. A surprisingly solid album. I saw him live in Boston in 1988 and he put on a wonderful show.

Paul Simon, Graceland, released 12 August 1986. Alongside Peter Gabriel, Sting and other British songwriters and bands that chose to embrace the sounds of Africa around this time, Simon’s approach was less about integrating the style into his own and more about being inspired by it instead. You can hear his signature folksy style even with songs like “Diamonds On the Soles of Her Shoes”. And “You Can Call Me Al” was everywhere for the next several months, partly thanks to its silly video featuring Chevy Chase.

Soundtrack, Manhunter, released 15 August 1986. Well before 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs, there was Michael Mann’s take on the first Hannibal Lecter book Red Dragon, with William Peterson playing a retired FBI agent called back in to hunt a serial killer…with the help of Lecter, who’d been the focus of his previous case that had sent him into a nervous breakdown. As expected, Mann delivers a film that’s highly dramatic (in that wonderful overwrought 80s way), visually stunning, and contains an excellent soundtrack. Shriekback shows up multiple times, and Iron Butterfly’s “In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida” is used in a highly creative and extremely disturbing way. The Prime Movers’ “Strong As I Am” was a surprise minor hit on the radio, and the songs remains one of my favorites of the decade.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Kicking Against the Pricks, released 18 August 1986. At this point Cave was pretty much still known as the former lead singer of Australian punk band the Birthday Party and writing gloomy torch songs and growly dirges about the darker and grimmer sides of life. Yet another fan and critic fave that never bothered to crack commercial radio here in the States [Who knew that decades later, one of his songs would be on a Harry Potter soundtrack?], but would appear quite frequently on college radio.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood, “Rage Hard” single, released 25 August 1986. No one really expected this quintet to follow up their ridiculously popular debut double album, considering how brightly they’d shone over the last two years. But follow up they did, turning away from Trevor Horn’s epic aural (over)production and trying their hand at being rockers, which they’d been initially before fame hit. This teaser single is unexpectedly grim and heavy, and even singer Holly Johnson tones it down by singing in the lower register for most of the song. [And if you bought the original twelve-inch, you’d hear their fun cover of Bowie’s “Suffragette City” as a b-side.] Their upcoming album would definitely defy expectations.

XTC, “Grass” single, released 26 August 1986. This isn’t one of their biggest hits, but it is quite the lovely pastoral (pun intended) track by this trio, whose sound by this time had veered well away from angular post-punk to British folk, 60s pop and light psychedelia. This teaser for their upcoming album was a fan favorite, but the single also holds an unexpected gem: this was the original location of their most famous song “Dear God”, which they’d signed off as a b-side due to its controversial lyrics and theme.

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Next up: In which 120 Minutes takes over my brain.