Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

The Pixies like their fellows eighties legends the Smiths just don't make bad albums. For that matter they don't make mediocre albums either, it's just straight up greatness. Bossanova was the Pixies first record of the ninities and firmly asserted that they would not be defined by thieir decade, The Pixies were an unstoppable cultural force. After Doolittle brought us the harmonies and big singles in a big way, Pixies decided that they'd get back to rocking on Bossanova ala Surfer Rosa but this time they were going to merge the killer hooks with the hard rock. This is the complete Pixies record. This is the Pixies showing off all their skills. The album is launched into action with Rock Music seeing Black in full alternative screamo mode it's visercal as fuck, then there's the sugar pop of Allison the two tracks clocking in at just over three minutes combined, it's electrifyingly fast and fresh. Of course this is the album that brought us the lovely Velouria which needs no introduction but its the gloriously freaky She Is Weird that screams out for attention with its smooth guitar and sex offender vocals. I have to stop myself becuase every track stands out in its own little way and I could fill ten paragraphs rolling through each one by one. While it may not have the quite reached the highs of Doolittle, Bossanova is a gloriously consistant record with the Pixies effortlessy stretching their creative muscles in whatever direction takes their fancy.

In Utero will always be my favorite Nirvana album and I could make an argument for it being their best but that would be beside the point, and spending a paragraph comparing it to Nevermind would be fruitless and petty. In Utero was the sound of a deeply confused and conflicted man, after all he had just released the biggest hard rock album ever, he had become a superstar, he had become cool, he'd even become an unlikely fashion icon. Curt clearly (as we all know) didn't exactly enjoy being a superstar and many thought prior to release that In Utero would be an intentionally inaccessible album to drive away the "posers", that it would be hardcore. This wasn't the case but in many ways it did suceed after all switch on MTV2 or Kerrang other than Heart Shaped Box you're more like to here Sliver than All Apologise or Rape Me. What In Utero did represent was a search for something new and different direction but not a rejection of the core sound. You got a look inside Curt's psyche and it was pretty destressing. "Teenage Agnst Has Paid Off Well / Now I'm Tired And Old...Go Away! Go Away" is Curt's feral cry on the bombastic Pixirific Scentless Aprentice then there's the genius line "I Miss The Comfort In Being Sad"on Frances Farmer... of course it's all sung over a suitably huge riffs. Aside from reading into Curt's lyrics the songs are astounding in their own right, Dumb is possible the best song Curt has ever written and the arrangement is sublime. In Utero is a fascinating look into Curt Cobain's mind as he searches for direction, satisfaction and happiness but at it's heart is a collection of thrilling songs.

Pavement are an a total paradox, it just doesn't make sense, they sound so definitively 90s the ultimate US alternative band of the period and yet they sound completely unique, no one sounds like Pavement and everyone sounds like Pavement. Some maybe raising and eyebrow not because the previous sentance made absolutely no sense but because this album is relatively low down, only 18th? How can that be, well frankly, it's because Pavement were and still are a US phenominon, and I live in Great Britain, as powerful and important as this record was, and it was bloody influencial, it ultimately never quite managed to penetrate the UK culturally. Anyway back to the music, and Its even more paradoxes, what makes Slanted And Enchanted so great is that every track is superb, so catchy, you love it with their delicious witicism, and of beat humour combined with the sleakest slugiest music, yet it's uncomfortable, Pavement never quite do what you except, the song structure is free form it's odd, it's alien. Ultimately there is one more big Pavement paradox, Slanted and Enchanted is beautiful and ugly at the same time. It's sounds like a true independent record, it feels like it was recorded in a skip and that your listening to the tracks through an old time radio, this is indie music at its purest and grimiest this is not pop, and yet it is, it's so irresitable, so immediate, and to darn catchy to resist. It's a contradiction, a glorious contradiction that can stand tall along side Doolittle and Daydream Nation as one of the all time great American underground records.

There's something so pleasent about listening to A Tribe Called Quest, you can't help but close your eyes and nod your head as you become lulled into these gorgeous baselines and the soft charming voices of Tribe. Okay so "charming" and "pleasent" aren't excatly music to hip hop officianardos ears, infact calling a hip hop act pleasent is flat out hip hop heresy. However that's what Low End Theory is, this is smooth as fuck, it's like taking a swig of a fine whisky, you take it down, it warms your throat and you breathe out this lovely smokey breath. Just like a fine whisky Low End Theory has a kick too, it's sharp lyricism, the quality of the rhymes is so strong, you don't pick out a line here, or a cuplet there, it's like listening to one long poem, you just sit back and enjoy and then applaude the performance. This isn't punch line rap, this is all about flow and swagger, and it's an unparrelled flow, because you roll with the words, hell you even feel like joining in. Musically the arrangements are staggering, the basslines are ice cold and the samples are spot on. The little twangs of Voodoo Chile over the top of Sly And The Family Stone on Rap Promoter are sheer genius, it's subtle however, it never distracts from the flow, your not sitting there going "oooh! that's Hendrix" the samples are their for a reason, they are a part of a whole not individuals calling out for attention. The samples and Tribes flow form one giant whole from track one it one continuous smooth jazz-rap odessy, that's sounds like the oposite of cool, but make no mistake this is sub zero shit.

Would the world be a better place with or without Pearl Jam? Your surely thinking what the hell kind of question is that to ask of the sixteenth best album of the nineties, but alas it must be asked. If there were no Ten there would be no Stone Temple Pilots, no Nickelback and best of all there would be no Creed. Now you wondering yourself aren't you, how much pain would we had been saved if this album had flopped under the radar? Because Ten wasn't just a great album, it was friggin huge, it redefined everything. Prior to Ten if you wanted to fill a stadium you had to be big and overblown, you had to be a huge stage show, you had to have endless solos, a front man who was a walking all singing all dancing freak who could hold notes for days, you also had to be coked up and rock primarily from your cock. With Grunge rapidly killing hair metal all that had to change but as big as Nevermind was it was still regular rock, it wasn't built for Stadiums it was built for moshing in pits with 8, 000 nutters. Ten had huge riffs like that of Evenflow but it was tight, it was widescreen but it wasn't a day glo wooly mamoth. At the heart was Eddie Vedder his voice would play far beyond row z but his lyrics were honest, personal and utterly believable. He explored is own torement, his in nuerosis and his childhood, he wasn't singing about fucking girls and snorting coke, this wasn't a show it was real life, it was 100% serious. So thanks to Ten we got the gritty honesty back in rock and roll, we exchanged pomposity for heartfelt sentiment, was it worth it? Of course it was, I can always change the channel when snooze rockers Nickelback are on the tv, but I'd never wish to lose the feeling eliscited when first listening to Ten.