Tag: Retro

Categories
Tunes

Eighties’ best 100 redux: #96 The Wonder Stuff “Unbearable” (1988)

credit to Derek Ridgers, Brighton 1988
credit to Derek Ridgers, Brighton 1988

<< #97    |    #95 >>

At song #96, we have The Wonder Stuff and their snarling, acerbic track “Unbearable”. This is a band that I typically identify with the early nineties because this is when I discovered them and also when the band released the bulk of their original catalogue. However, their startlingly upbeat debut album, “The eight legged groove machine” was released in the latter part of the eighties, back before the fiddle was added to the stuffies’ repertoire and before The Bass Thing left the band for America. I featured this very same album when it appeared at number two on my Best albums of 1988 list*, back when I counted that down a few years ago. And in that post, I described how the album was my introduction to the band and a bit of the story behind how the band became one of my favourites during my last few years of high school and into my early twenties.

For those unfamiliar with The Wonder Stuff, “Unbearable” is a good starting block. It is certainly representative of their early work and the rest of their debut album, seamlessly blending the pop mentality of The Beatles with the guns blazing, two-minute guitar rock of The Ramones. Yes, it’s the thirteenth track on a fourteen track LP that falls well short of the forty minute mark. Another song about money and the way it’s misspent, priorities and greed. It was this angst and snarling lyrics and vocals of frontman Miles Hunt that drew me (and by all accounts many others) to the band in the first place and what most probably led to the band’s downfall. They were quite popular for a time in their native country but sadly, The Wonder Stuff never quite broke into the North American market.

Original Eighties best 100 position: #98

Favourite lyric:  “I didn’t like you very much when I met you / And now I like you even less” Classic Miles Hunt.

Where are they now?: After their original break up in 1994, The Wonder Stuff re-formed for a string of shows in London in 2000. The shows were so successful, Hunt, who had been recording solo up to then, began recording new material under The Wonder Stuff name with the original guitarist, Malc Treece. The two of them are still at it these days, having added violinist Erica Nockalls in 2005, and the rest of the band has pretty much changed every few years since. They last surfaced with a new album called “Better being lucky” in 2019.

*In fact, each of their first three albums have appeared in the top five for albums on this blog for the years in which they were released.

For the rest of the Eighties’ best 100 redux list, click here.

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: Spiritualized “Pure phase”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: Spiritualized
Album Title: Pure phase
Year released: 1995
Year reissued: 2011
Details: 2 x 180 gram

The skinny: Just over a month ago, when I first started this Spiritualized ‘Vinyl love’ series, fellow blogger 1537 commented that he was at that time “obsessed” with Spiritualized’s sophomore album “Pure phase” and asked me if I was purchasing any of the “fancy pants” reissues. I won’t lie and say I wasn’t even tempted because I certainly was. However, my vinyl collecting hasn’t yet reached those obsessive levels where I need to collect multiple (or all) versions of certain albums*. This album, along with Pierce’s debut** and third albums as Spiritualized, have always been amongst my most favourite ever albums and so were amongst the first records that I sought out in the record stores once I started collecting. This was back before I really started nerding out about vinyl and studying discogs.com and various other message and Reddit boards and the comments of other vinyl aficionados. I’ve since read and heard all of the complaints about reissue label Plain Records and their shoddy pressings but I’ve never claimed to have such a dynamic ear to hear what all the fussing is about. All that to say, I’ve never regretted this purchase.

Standout track: “Medication”

*And with vinyl prices the way they’re going, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to afford such levels of obsessiveness.

**Which we’ll see next week

Categories
Playlists

Playlist (revisited): EDGE 102.1’s top 1002 of all time (1999 version)

Just over a year ago, I posted a playlist that I didn’t create. I wrote then about how I was doing a bunch of driving, was looking for a good long Spotify playlist to stream in the car, and finally settled on one my friend Tim had made. He created it using a countdown of the “Best 1002 songs of all time” as voted by CFNY (aka EDGE) 102’s alternative rock radio listeners way back in 1999. Then, not long after, well before I managed to get all way through the 900+ songs on the playlist, I switched my streaming service allegiances from Spotify to Apple Music*.

Then, a few months ago, I decided I wanted to finish listening to the playlist and to do so, started building my own version of the playlist on Apple Music. I really got an appreciation for the patience Tim must have had in building the original Spotify playlist because it took me quite a bit of time and searching to find the right versions of all these tunes. Interestingly, Apple Music was only missing 9 of the 1002 songs, whereas Tim’s Spotify version is a good 28 tracks shy, though I am sure Spotify’s catalogue has expanded some in the years since he originally put it together.

Another interesting point: I noticed while compiling this playlist something that didn’t really strike me while listening to the original. This list of the “best songs of all time” really is of its time and place.

The Tragically Hip is the artist with the most songs (22) on the list, outpacing iconic alt rock groups like U2 (19), R.E.M. (16), and Depeche Mode (14). And though The Hip are a pretty great band, pretty much universally loved here in Canada, they are largely unknown everywhere else in the world.

The list is also pretty heavy on the 90s grunge and post-grunge side of alt rock. Bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and Smashing Pumpkins all have more songs on the list than The Clash, David Bowie, The Smiths, and New Order.

Nevertheless, it was fun to put this list together and has been fun revisiting it with my earphones over the last month or so. It’s a great selection of alternative/indie rock spanning from the 60s and 70s, through the 80s, and right up to heyday and wane of alternative in the 90s. Plenty of my favourites, as well as songs I don’t get to hear all that often but love, just the same.

If you’re curious, here’s the top 25 songs on the list and the rest can be found here:

ARTIST TITLE
1 Nirvana Smells Like Teen Spirit
2 The Smiths How Soon Is Now?
3 Pearl Jam Jeremy
4 U2 Pride (In The Name Of Love)
5 Nine Inch Nails Closer
6 The Tragically Hip New Orleans Is Sinking
7 The Cult She Sells Sanctuary
8 Soft Cell Tainted Love
9 R.E.M. Losing My Religion
10 Pearl Jam Alive
11 U2 With Or Without You
12 The Smashing Pumpkins Today
13 The Tragically Hip Blow At High Dough
14 Stone Temple Pilots Plush
15 Live Lightning Crashes
16 Talking Heads Once In A Lifetime
17 Soundgarden Black Hole Sun
18 U2 I Will Follow
19 Pearl Jam Even Flow
20 Peter Gabriel Games Without Frontiers
21 Tears For Fears Shout
22 New Order Bizarre Love Triangle
23 The Tragically Hip Little Bones
24 The Violent Femmes Add It Up
25 The Smashing Pumpkins Disarm

For you Apple Music users, you can link to my version of the playlist here. If you’re still on the Spotify, you can have a sampling at my original post here.

Enjoy.

*I spoke a little bit about the reasons for making this change on one of my other playlist posts from last year.

If you’re interested in checking out any of the playlists I myself have created and shared on these pages, you can peruse them here.