70. Stone Temple Pilots – “Sex Type Thing” (1992)
Stone Temple Pilots enjoyed massive commercial success during their peak years in the 1990s, but were often dismissed by detractors as grunge bandwagon-jumpers with scant originality. Those who believed so were simply wrong. There’s an innate power and intensity to STP’s best work, and the late Scott Weiland was a dynamic rock ‘n’ roll frontman. He had the swagger, the presence, and the enormous vocal power to deliver bracing in-your-face rock at its most primal and explosive.
The motoric rocker “Sex Type Thing” was the first single from the band’s debut album Core, and it quickly torched the rock airwaves and MTV. Weiland inhabits the character of a vicious sexual predator with a feverish malevolence, even brazenly blaming the victim, “I am a man, a man I’ll give ya somethin that ya won’t forget / I said you shouldn’t have worn that dress / I said you shouldn’t have worn that dress! / Worn that dress!” “You wanna know about atrocity?!” Weiland snarls with sinister menace. “Sex Type Thing” is clearly not about sex, but an aggressive display of power and control.
The track ends with the nightmarish repetition of “here I come, I come, I come” with guitars blazing, as if the object of the narrator’s repugnant obsession is running down a darkened corridor to escape the spectre of violence closing in from behind. Stone Temple Pilots produced a number of outstanding singles in their career, but they never equaled the sheer ferocity and raw sonic force of “Sex Type Thing”.
69. Ride – “Vapour Trail” (1990)
There’s an almost Nick Drake-like furtiveness and delicacy to guitarist Andy Bell’s vocals on “Vapour Trail”, the standout track from Ride’s brilliant full-length debut Nowhere. His delicate reeding through the vaguely psychedelic jangle pop is beautifully vulnerable. It’s like his vocals were specifically made to fit Ride’s cavernous garage-rock to perfection.
The song reflects on someone who may enter your life, utterly enchant you and then fade away like the mist. You even reasonably suspect that’s what will happen in the end, but the journey is so perfect that it’s worth the bittersweet ache. She’s the vapour trail in the title: “First you look so strong / then you fade away / the sun will blind my eyes / I love you anyway / thirsty for your smile / I watch you for a while / you are a vapour trail / In a deep blue sky.” The sun’s brightness fades all too soon, no matter how bright it gets at noon.
The swirling guitar sound, produced by Andy Bell on two 12-strings, creates a pleasantly dreamy setting for his sadly nostalgic lyrics. The rest of the band performs admirably, creating a hazy soundscape for Bell’s lilting melody. “Vapour Trail” lingers for a long, spectacularly cinematic closing, the guitars slowly giving way to strings over a series of manic fills by drummer Laurence Colbert. At the very end, only the strings are left, slowly fading into nothing, and a whirl of smoke dissipates into the ether.
68. K’s Choice – “Not an Addict” (1996)
K’s Choice are a Belgian band formed by siblings Sarah Bettens (vocals) and Gert Bettens (guitar/keyboards). “Not an Addict” is from their second album, Paradise in Me, and became by far the band’s biggest single. The song deals with addiction from the point of view of someone who tries to throw up spurious denials that she obviously doesn’t even believe herself. It’s a portrait of a woman trapped in chains, sometimes pretending that it’s exactly where she wants to be, but knowing deep inside that she’s drowning.
The breathy, ominous refrain of “ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh” helps build the song’s searing tension. Bettens’ performance is completely compelling and absolutely convincing. She nails the vocal with a rasp of desperation — the pleasure, pain and self-delusion of addiction. The lure and the trap are laid out bare. “Not an Addict” captures dual desperations — the need for the next hit, and the aching need to be free. Bettens describes the bleak emptiness of life when the high fades away: “It’s over now, I’m cold, alone / I’m just a person on my own / nothing means a thing to me / oh, nothing means a thing to me.”
The song opens with a rumbling bass and rhythm guitars that gradually rise in pressure until finally exploding. There’s also a psychedelic, dream-tinged bridge that gives a taste of what the mind is like when not frozen in the cold, dire reality between trips. A riveting human drama, “Not an Addict” proved popular at alternative radio, reaching #5 on the Billboard Modern Rock Chart.
67. Filter – “Hey Man Nice Shot” (1995)
There’s something viscerally shocking about the sentiment “hey man, nice shot” as a response to a suicide, even if it’s meant to be sardonic. At the time of its release, many fans perhaps understandably thought “Hey Man Nice Shot” was prompted by Kurt Cobain’s suicide the year before. In fact, it’s inspired by the death of R. Budd Dwyer, a state treasurer in Pennsylvania who was found guilty of racketeering, fraud, conspiracy and bribery. At a press conference in January 1987, he stunned the assembled crowd by putting a gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger. Cameras rolled, people screamed, and footage of the suicide was widely shown on television news reports.
Sensitive to criticisms that the song was callous or somehow glorified suicide, Filter felt compelled to issue the following statement: “The song ‘Hey Man Nice Shot’ is a reaction to a well-documented public suicide. It is not a celebration or glorification of taking one’s own life. The phrase ‘hey man, nice shot’ refers to the final act itself, an expression of guts and determination of a person standing up for what they believe is right. We are extremely sensitive and respectful to Mr. Dwyer’s family and friends. We have both lost friends to suicide and felt nothing but sympathy and loss for the victims, and those involved in such a tragedy.”
It’s an incendiary track built on dramatic shifts in dynamics, from solemn and barren to soul-wrenching blasts of colossal firepower. “Hey Man Nice Shot” reached #10 on the Billboard Modern Rock Chart.
66. Morrissey – “The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get” (1994)
The lead single from Morrissey’s fourth studio album, the outstanding Vauxhall and I, “The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get” is one of the former Smiths vocalist’s most successful solo singles. It reached #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Chart and became his first Top 10 single in his native England in five years. Morrissey plays an obsessive stalker with just the right amount of suave creepiness. His sickly sweet crooning is chilling as he takes a song that sounds romantic and turns it on its heels.
Musically the song is a languid-mid-tempo rocker, produced by Steve Lillywhite and built on a recurring melodic electric guitar riff, acoustic rhythm guitar, a florid bassline, and Woody Taylor’s rock-solid drumming. A glistening acoustic guitar pattern descends above the fray during the song’s chorus. The music overall is relatively upbeat and not evocative at all of an obsessive stalker, which undoubtedly is the point.
Morrissey’s sardonic wit and clever wordplay are on display as always, with acerbic lines like, “Beware! / I hold more grudges/ Than lonely high court judges / when you sleep I will creep into your thoughts like a bad debt that you can’t pay / take the easy way and give in / yeah, and let me in.” Perhaps it’s metaphoric — something troubling that constantly gnaws at your mind and you can’t banish? With a wordsmith as deft as Morrissey, anything is possible. But most likely it is what it sounds — a predator’s velvety supplication for the object of his sick fascination to give in to the inevitable. He actually seems supremely confident that she will.
65. Catherine Wheel – “Crank” (1993)
Cavernous and vast in sound, it’s easy to visualize “Crank” being performed in a giant wind-tunnel with all the band members just barely hanging on from being swept away into oblivion. There’s plenty of space for the massive walls of guitar and an absolutely stellar vocal performance by Rob Dickinson. The dreamy multi-part vocal arrangement is clever and mixed perfectly — slathered in reverb, mixed right down in the maelstrom of beautiful chaos surrounding it.
A ‘crank’ is slang for a person who’s not quite right in the head, and Rob Dickinson’s lyrics are full of self-deprecating observations, but they are too obtuse to know what he’s referring to. For example, “love my superstitious games / running circles round my brain when I’m left smiling / I love to steal this living steam / my head in someone’s dream / I’m tired of sleeping.” Lovely imagery that only Dickinson can translate into something beyond vague impressions.
It really doesn’t matter — it’s one of those Rorschach test songs that is about a feeling and an overall atmosphere more than a literal meaning. Listen to the intensity of the bridge, which is then followed by a brief series of guitar snarls before fading into a powerful rhythmic guitar solo section. There is no wasted space. Tim Friese-Greene, veteran of three of the best albums of the past 30 years (Talk Talk’s Colour of Spring, Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock), adds a piercing line of keyboard that slices through the cacophony like an urgent radar signal. It’s simply an epic recording, made for blasting at the highest volume possible and completely losing yourself in the swirling waves of sound.
“Crank” is from Catherine Wheel’s second album Chrome, which was produced by Gil Norton of Pixies fame. The song reached #5 on the Billboard Modern Rock Chart, Catherine Wheel’s highest ever placement on that survey.
64. eels – “Last Stop: This Town” (1998)
Eels is the project of Mark Oliver Everett, otherwise known as E. His second album under the eels name, Electro-Shock Blues is the harrowing and startlingly intimate chronicle of the deaths of two of Everett’s loved ones — his sister via suicide and his mother via cancer. Throughout the album, Everett relates these tales with stark pain and soul-baring grief twined with humor, grace and love. It’s the human reaction to the death of a loved one, the type of expression one might expect to hear after the funeral is over and friends are sitting around talking about the good times, about how much so and so was loved all the while thinking of their own mortality.
E returns to his home base, “This Town”, which will be for him his last stop as it was his first stop. Wherever life takes us, we all know where our last stop will be, where our lifeless vessels of flesh will end up either buried in the cold ground or else as ashes floating on the wind to be melded into the soil or water. “Last Stop: This Town” is streaks of pain intertwined with whimsy and nostalgia, as one comes to terms with his own mortality with a sense of irreverent acceptance.
“Last Stop: This Town” boasts a razor-sharp arrangement that frequently pivots with sudden left turns, incorporating electronic and hip-hop elements. “Last Stop: This Town” is an album’s philosophical and hopeful track that portrays life at its most cruel. It ponders life and death from a state of utmost peace. “Last Stop: This Town” reached #40 on the Billboard Modern Rock Chart, a shame because it deserves a much wider audience.
63. Siouxsie & The Banshees – “Kiss Them For Me” (1991)
The biggest American pop hit by far in the long and enormously influential career of Siouxsie & The Banshees is the sinuous electronic gem “Kiss Them For Me”. Over a trippy beat, the song has an exotic vibe, swaying sensually with a languid keyboard riff as Siouxsie Sioux delivers an elegant and sensual vocal. The track includes a tabla played by Talvin Singh that emerges near the end.
“Kiss Them For Me” is a major update of the band’s sound, a bridge to the 1990s. It’s hard to imagine what fans of the discordant wailing and bruising guitars of albums like The Scream and Join Hands would think of the slinky electronica of “Kiss Them For Me” if we went back in time and assured them ‘Yes, this is Siouxsie & The Banshees’. Siouxsie herself would no doubt be shocked. And yet, it undeniably works and marks a natural progression for a band that remained relevant in the 1990s when many of their contemporaries had faded into oblivion.
On “Kiss Them for Me” the band fully embraces the mainstream electronica and ornaments it with exotic, Middle Eastern-inspired effects. It shouldn’t be a total shock — Siouxsie always had a keen sense of melody, and this is the culmination of years of becoming increasingly accessible while losing none of their artistic vision.
The CD single of “Kiss them for Me” is worth seeking out. It includes two transcendently beautiful B-sides: “Staring Back” and “Return”. “Kiss Them For Me” reigned for five weeks at #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Chart during the summer of 1991 and crossed over to become the band’s only Top 40 hit in America, hitting #23.
62. Curve – “Faît Accompli” (1992)
Before his work in Curve, Dean Garcia was primarily known as the bassist for several Eurythmics albums and their supporting tours. At the dawn of the 1990s, Garcia partnered with vocalist Toni Halliday (who had also worked with Eurythmics) to form Curve. The duo quickly veered into heavy electronic beats and distorted effects with Halliday’s dynamic melodies floating above the metallic soundscapes in a voice that’s often as dramatic as the music.
“Faît Accompli” is the first single from the band’s excellent full-length debut Doppelgänger. Halliday turns in a passionate performance with lyrics about addiction and how insidiously easy one can be receptive to its grip. “I’ve come to crush your bones/ I’ve come to make you feel old / I’ve come to mess with your head / ‘Cause it’ll make you feel good”, she sings during the song’s frantic and dramatic bridge.
“Faît Accompli” is edgy, hard, and dangerous with a strong melody peeking up from the industrial chaos that forms the song’s core. They incorporated the electronic/industrial elements smartly — just enough to add an edge, but not enough to render Halliday’s melodies inaccessible. Curve are rather like a more obtuse version of Garbage, who took a similar style but transformed it into much more commercial material.
“Faît Accompli” reached #18 on the Billboard Modern Rock Chart. Curve released four more albums over the next decade but could not match the success of Doppelgänger and ultimately called it quits in early 2005.
61. James – “Laid” (1993)
Madchester’s James rode the title song from their fifth album, the Brian Eno-produced Laid, to substantial success in America. The boisterous, hard-rocking, brazenly sexual title song tore through college radio like a wildfire and reached #3 on the Billboard Modern Rock Chart. It’s hard to resist lines like: “This bed is on fire with passionate love / the neighbors complain about the noises above / but she only comes when she’s on top”.
Yeah, the song is about a pretty intense obsession, but singer Tim Booth’s character is so intoxicated by the couple’s sexual chemistry that he’s willing to put up with it. In fact, he’s obsessed himself. The couple’s sexual games include experimenting with sexual roles: “Dressed me up in women’s clothes / messed around with gender roles / line my eyes and call me pretty”. He tries to escape but she follows him and, like a drug, he can’t resist: “Moved out of the house so you moved next door / I locked you out / you cut a hole in the wall / I found you sleeping next to me / I thought I was alone / You’re driving me crazy / when are you coming home?”
“Laid” is bright and upbeat, a brusque acoustic rocker that’s tightly compact at only 2:36. Booth’s vocal delivery makes the song. The orgasmic howl he lets out, “Laiiiiiiiiid”, sounds very much like a man who’s struck gold and doesn’t seem to be fretting much over the obsessive nature of his relationship. “Laid’ is sexy and cocksure, fogged by an unhinged passion that seems to block out anything and everything else, including good sense. It’s a state of being to which many of us can relate. Does good sex trump crazy? Well…