End of the Road by Boyz II Men
Every New Zealand #1 single… 8 End of the Road by BOYZ II MEN Topped the NZ chart: from 18 October 1992 for 7 weeks. Philadelphia vocal harmony quartet Boyz II Men were successful on the New Zealand single charts…
Category 1990s
Crowded House’s Woodface reimagined
Crowded House’s Woodface was released in 1991. It marked a turning point in their commercial fortunes in pop music’s major English-speaking territories. The lead single ‘Chocolate Cake’, particularly the line “excess of fat on your American bones”, effectively killed their…
10 Best Rage Against the Machine Songs
Rage Against the Machine’s debut album was a slow-burn success. Their debut single ‘Killing in the Name’ was initially released in 1992, and became the Christmas #1 single in the UK in 2009. Parent album Rage Against the Machine didn’t…
10 Best Tom Waits Songs
California’s Tom Waits is effectively the patron saint of this website. My Waits album ranking was the first post from this site to become popular, and it’s still one of its most-visited posts. With recently accounted reissues of Waits’ peak…
10 Best Jeff Buckley Songs
Jeff Buckley is best known for his sensitive reading of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’. It’s well done, but taken alone it undersells Buckley’s immense talents. Far more than a crooner, he was also a talented guitarist and a sophisticated songwriter –…
Natalie Merchant and 10,000 Maniacs Albums: Ranked from Worst to Best
Natalie Merchant recently released her sixth solo album, Keep Your Courage. It seems like a good opportunity to revisit her catalogue. On this countdown, I rank her albums as a solo artist and as the lead singer of 10,000 Maniacs.…
10 Best Grant McLennan Solo Songs
In tandem with Robert Forster, Grant McLennan was a vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist for literate Australian jangle-pop band The Go-Betweens. While The Go-Betweens were on hiatus during the 1990s, Grant McLennan embarked on a solo career, releasing four solo albums,…
Blues for George Michael by The Boo Radleys: Great B-Sides
The Boo Radleys emerged in the shoegaze scene of the late 1980s. They came from Wallasey, a town just across the Mersey from Liverpool. They shifted closer to pop/rock in the 1990s, and achieved critical acclaim, particularly for their 1993…
Music Quiz: 5 Letter Words in 1990s Songs
The Fyfes have always been strong spellers, but not as strong as the Robichauds, one of whom dominated last week’s quiz. This week your challenge is to fill in the blanks in 1990s song titles. I knew enough of…
Aneurysm by Nirvana – Great B-Sides
The classic lineup of Nirvana – Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, and Dave Grohl – first recorded together on the first day of 1991. They ran through seven tracks, all captured in just one take. Cobain later added vocals to two…
10 Best Joni Mitchell Songs after 1980
Joni Mitchell peaked in the 1970s with a terrific sequence of albums, particularly from 1971’s Blue to 1976’s Hejira. But she also released six studio albums in the 1980s and 1990s. None of these compositions would force their way into…
10 Best Tori Amos Songs
Tori Amos was the youngest ever person admitted to the prestigious Peabody Institute before she was asked to leave for musical insubordination at the age of 11. After a false start with her synth-pop band on 1988’s Y Kant Tori…
10 Excellent Tom Petty Deep Cuts
The late Tom Petty was a great singles artist – tracks like ‘The Waiting’, ‘Refugee’, and ‘Free Fallin” sound terrific blasting from cars and on classic rock radio. Petty had so many enjoyable hits through the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s…
Music Quiz: 1990s One-Hit Wonders
Last week’s Band by Long Song Title quiz favoured younger contestants – King Clover narrowly beat Jprobichaud for bragging rights. This week’s quiz possibly has a similar demographic skew. You need to link lyrics to a song by a 1990s…
10 Best Songs by Sugar
After Hüsker Dü broke up, singer-guitarist Bob Mould dabbled with a solo career. In the wake of Nirvana’s success, he formed a new power trio with bassist David Barbe and drummer Malcolm Travis. Needing to come up with a band…
Freedy Johnston: Albums Ranked from Worst to Best
Frederic Fatzer grew up in the small town of Kinsley, Kansas, notable for its equidistance between New York City and San Francisco. He sensibly adopted the stage name Freedy Johnston. His small town background initially constrained his music career –…
10 Best Straitjacket Fits Songs
Of the indie guitar bands proffered by Dunedin’s Flying Nun label in the 1980s, Straitjacket Fits were the most likely to break through to a mass audience. The Fits were based around two vocalists and songwriters who were an unlikely…
Summer in Paradise by The Beach Boys: 30th Anniversary Review
The past week marked the 30th anniversary of The Beach Boys’ Summer in Paradise. I’ve been filling in the gaps in my Beach Boys album review page, so it seemed a good time to revisit the most maligned album from…
Weekly Music Quiz: MTV Unplugged Albums By Three Songs
Making mellow music with his wife paid off for Rich Kamerman last week – he scored perfect marks in the ‘Margaritaville’ quiz. This week you need to identify the Unplugged album by three songs. I scored 23/24 – I’m…
10 Best Songs by The Mutton Birds
Don McGlashan had already made an impact on the New Zealand music scene before he formed The Mutton Birds. He was the drummer for the punk-influenced band Blam Blam Blam, remembered for fabulously titled songs ‘There Is No Depression in…
Fountains of Wayne: Albums Ranked from Worst to Best
When New York power-pop band Fountains of Wayne were nominated for a Grammy for Best New Artist in 2004, they’d already recorded three albums. The nomination was on the back of the hit ‘Stacy’s Mom’ – the gimmicky, new-wave flavoured…
Music Quiz: Singers Who Died in the 1990s
Congratulations to EclecticMusicLover, who scored the fastest perfect score in last week’s Signs quiz. There’s just a brief quiz this week, with ten questions: I only answered 8 of those 10 questions correctly – I didn’t recognise a couple…
Harness Your Hopes by Pavement: Great B-Sides
The streaming era has scattered previously held views on the hierarchy of popular music. Despite a critical pasting, Queen have emerged as the dominant classic rock band. The number one spot on the Billboard 100 in early 2022 has largely…
10 Best Sam Phillips Songs
There are two prominent Sam Phillips in popular music. This list isn’t about the Sun Records producer who worked with Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Rather it’s about the idiosyncratic female singer-songwriter who launched her career in…
