1997

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Chuck Eddy's Pazz & Jop ballot
Albums
Savage Garden--Savage Garden (Columbia) (14)
Various--MTV's Amp (Astralwerks) (14)
Prodigy--The Fat of the Land (Maverick/Warner Bros) (13)
Timbaland and Magoo--Welcome to our World (Arista) (11)
Michael Jackson--Blood on the Dancefloor: History in the Mix (Epic) (10)
Tiamat--A Deeper Kind of Slumber (Century Media) (9)
Faithless--Reverence (Arista) (9)
London Suede--Coming Up (Nude/Columbia) (8)
Various--Make 'Em Mokum Crazy: This is the New Sound of Popcore (Mokum) (6)
Natacha Atlas--Diaspora (MCA/Beggars Banquet) (6)

Singles
Spice Girls--"Wannabe" (Virgin)
B-Rock & the Bizz--"MyBabyDaddy" (Tony Mercedes)
Chumbawamba--"Tubthumping" (Republic/Universal)
The Notorious B.I.G.--"Mo Money Mo Problems" (Bad Boy)
Fluke--"Atom Bomb" (Astralwerks)
Savage Garden--"To the Moon and Back" (Columbia)
Faithless--"Insomnia" (Arista)
Prodigy--"Firestarter" (Maverick/Warner Bros)
Aqua--"Barbie Girl" (MCA)
Somethin' for the People featuring Trina & Tamara--"My Love is the Shhh!" (Warner Bros)
Single I Voted For Last Year (So Make Sure You Count My Vote): OMC--"How Bizarre"

Honorable Mentions: "Your Woman"--White Town; "Mmmbop"--Hanson; "Beautiful Ones"--Suede; "Sock It 2 Me"--Missy Elliot with Da Brat; "Luv 2 Luv U"--Timbaland and Magoo.

Reissues
Various--Anthology of American Folk Music (Smithsonian Folkways)
Various--Super Rare Disco, Vol. 1 and 2 (Robbins)
Various--The Music of Prohibition (Columbia/Legacy)
Various--Times Ain't Like They Used to Be: Early American Rural Music Vol. 1 and 2 (Yazoo)
Various)--ESPN Presents Slam Jams Vol. 1 (Tommy Boy)

EPs (Piss in the Wind Ballot)
The Need--The Need (Chainsaw)
Mocket--Fanfare (K)
A Bullet for Fidel--Lingers and Dies (Scat)
Uberzone--Space Kadet (City of Angels)
Dan Bern--Dog Boy Van (Work)

Videos (Piss in the River Ballot)
Aqua--"Barbie Girl"
Daft Punk--"Around the World"
B-Rock & the Bizz--"MyBabyDaddy"
Freak Nasty--"Da' Dip"
Peggy Scott Adams--"Bill"
Honorable Mentions:
Trio--"Da Da Da" (Volkswagon commercial), Reel Big Fish--"Sell Out," Chumbawamba--"Tubthumping," Schleprock--"Suburbia", Cherry Poppin Daddies--"Zoot Suit Riot", OMC--"How Bizarre," Erykah Badu--"Next Lifetime," the Pond one where the girl with Sean Cassidy posters grows up then ODs in the hallway.

Dance/World/Techno Compilations (Pissin' the Night Away Ballot)
Various--Disco Queens: The '80s (Rhino)
Various--Wild Style (Rhino)
Various--Kurtis Blow Presents the History of Rap Vol. 1: The Genesis (Rhino)
Various--Solar 20th Anniversary Sampler (Solar/The Right Stuff)
Various--Yo Soy, Del Son A La Salsa (RMM)
Various--World Hits 97 (Billboard Accostics India)
Various--Reconquista: The Latin Rock Invasion (Rhino)
Various--Latin Lingo: Hip-Hop from La Raza Vol. 2 (Rhino)
Various--Sound in the Eighth Dimension: Selected Material (World Domination)
Various--SourceLab 3 (Source/Caroline)

Other Albums I Liked (in very approximate order of preference since I'm too lazy to figure out anything precise): Daft Punk, David Holmes, Those Were Different Times, Elevator Drops, Everclear, Komputer, Jocelyn Enriquez, Jean Leloup, the Waitresses (King Biscuit), Baader Meinhof, London Suede (B-sides album), Chico Science and Nacao Zumbi, Crystal Method, Night Ranger, A3, Girlschool (King Biscuit), the Offspring, Carlinhos Brown, Bhangra Rules OK, Aqua, Primal Scream, Dandy Warhols, Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, Transglobal Underground, Third Eye Blind, Crush, Chemical Brothers, Somethin' for the People, Gina G, Chumbawamba, Cornershop, Imani Coppola, Clay Harper, Next, White Noise, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, Spice Girls (both albums), I Know What You Did Last Summer, Selena, Puff Daddy, Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Shania Twain, Kenickie, Hanson (debut), Mansun, Coolio, Ego Summit, MTV Grind Volume One, Notorious B.I.G., Cobra Verde, Artificial Joy Club, Sleater-Kinney, Trip Hop Dance 2000, Daude, DMA Dance Vol. 3: Eurodance, Mindy McCready, Merengon, Princess Superstar, Chris Rock, Pastilla, the Gathering, Los Olvidados, Thee Hydrogen Terrors, Jane Jensen, Sara Evans, Gravesend, Dennis Leary.

Best-of Albums I Liked (by '80s/'90s-identified artists; all the older guys are too hard to think about right now): X, C-Bank, Fat Boys, Altered Images, NG La Banda, Trisha Yearwood, Urinals, Los Van Van, Midnight Oil, Pixies, Soundgarden, Dead Milkmen.

Already In the Running For Next Year's Ballot: the Donnas, the Need (see EPs), Air, Ani DiFranco, Rammstein, Dropkick Murphys, Course of Empire, MC Solaar, L.A.L.

Better Than I (and I Bet You) Would've Guessed: Sister Hazel--"All For You," Matchbox 20--"Push," Indigo Girls--"Shame On You," Paula Cole--"Where Have All the Cowboys Gone," Queensryche--"Sign of the Times," Next--"Butta Love," Bob Carlisle--"Butterfly Kisses," and every damn thing Puffy touched. (He's despised by prog-rap complexness fetishists who think Rakim created the universe and I assume wouldn't classify "Rapper's Delight" as real hip-hop since its beats are all stolen from one song, but let's face it--the jerk almost singlehandely managed to make black radio CATCHY again.)

Crushes: Lene (Aqua) Nystrom, Luciana (Crush) Caporaso, Ani (green hair) DiFranco.

Tired Horny Middle-Aged White Males I Pathetically Identified With: Art Alexakis of Everclear, Ron House of Thomas Jefferson Slave Apts, Clay Harper, Dennis Leary.

Bands I'll Get Bored With Real Soon If They Don't Stop Making The Same Album Over and Over Again: Everclear, Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, Sleater-Kinney.

They've Invented a New Machine,
Prettiest Little Thing You've Ever Seen:
I'm listing so many extra records because I want to demonstrate to all the cranks and cynics out there that 1997 was an excellent year for music, maybe not as good as 1929 but probably the funnest year to own a car radio since 1984, and the best year of the '90s in terms of overall quantity and freedom of expression.

I'm voting for Anthology of American Folk Music as one of my reissues because I decided it would be perverse to list Serge Gainsbourg or X or Eh Paisano!: Italian-American Classics instead, even though I don't actually per se OWN an Anthology copy, because I WAS NEVER SENT ONE (and I'm too cheap to shell out 60 bucks). What I do own is a 15-song promo sampler CD, plus a 90-minute cassette called Geezers on Acid that Frank Kogan recorded for me from the original 1953 vinyl five years ago. And what I mostly notice is that the folkier old-timey-and-barndance-oriented anthology cuts have way more eccentric pizazz than its blues-and-gospel-oriented stuff. My favorites--"Peg And Awl," "A Lazy Farmer Boy," "Moonshiner's Dance," "King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O", the Uncle Dave Macon tunes--feel an awful lot like novelty songs. Even though they didn't cross over to the pop charts, they were the "How Bizarre"s and "Tubthumping"s and "Wannabe"s of their day.

And for that reason (among others), I'm not all that comfortable with the mindset that dismisses "How Bizarre", "Tubthumping," "Wannabe," et. al., as inconsequentially candied blips just because they sound energetic and high-spirited and like nothing else on the radio--what they really are is GREAT ROCK'N'ROLL RECORDS, pure and simple, and their success proves the public still recognizes an inventive and well-written song on the rare occasions it's allowed to hear one. Hanson, the Spice Girls, Chumbawamba, Aqua, and especially OMC (not to mention Jocelyn Enriquez, Third Eye Blind, Gina G, Shania Twain, and especially Savage Garden) all made albums this year at least as consistently enjoyable as Cornershop or Notorious B.I.G. or Sleater-Kinney (all three of whom made me shrug half the time), but the latter are taken seriously as legitimate artists, while critics consider the pop guys amusing minor diversions at best. Hasn't anybody else noticed that Tjinder Singh's English vocals always sound blank and phoned-in compared to his pretty Punjabi ones, and that his corny Muzak-concrete noodlings have the rhythmic sense of a concrete slab? And despite the slight B-52s bent of "Little Babies" and "Dance Song '97," Sleater-Kinney more and more seem like one-trick ponies, so I never play their albums all the way through--more than a couple songs at a time, Corin's wail really starts to grate.

On the other hand, maybe I'm a hypocrite as guilty as everybody else, since I'm voting for Spice Girls/Chumbawamba/Aqua singles not albums myself (though I did vote for OMC's album as a New Zealand import last year, and though the shamefully ignored Savage Garden--who scored three big hit singles, and who incidentally captured way more of Michael Jackson's beauty and pathology than Hanson did--made my favorite album of 1997). The most notable thing about my album list, I think, is that nine of my top ten (all but the London Suede) prominently feature electronic instrumentation, but most would never be considered "electronica": Savage Garden would usually be classified as "pop," Timbaland and Magoo as "hip-hop," Tiamat as "metal," Natacha Atlas as "world music," Michael Jackson as "a demented pervert from Jupiter" or whatever. I checked my discography in the back of Accidental Evolution of Rock'n'Roll and figured out that my annual Top 15s usually run closer to 20 percent electronic than 90 percent, and only flirt with even the 50-percent-electronic mark for a handful of years in the Eurodisco late '70s and house-music/Mantronix mid-'80s. My 1996 list was almost all guitar bands. So my listening habits definitely changed this year, whether the music itself did or not. Partly this might be explained by 1997 being one of the most stressful, exciting, depressing, rollercoaster-like years of my adult life (thanks to unresolved personal conflicts I'm not yet remotely comfortable writing about), and mechanically-tranced repetition exerting a certain calming influence on my wracked nerves--I played my old Kraftwerk vinyl more than usual, too.

But I'm willing to concede that the electronica hype may have had bearing on my new ears as well, and I expect it'll drastically affect the Pazz and Jop results in general. I tend to agree with the critical concensus on specific electronica records more than on most music these past few years; the more free-jazz and ambient-oriented techno usually goes over my head like a wild pitch, and (give or take David Holmes) "drum'n'bass" all sounds the same to me, but in general critics seem to gravitate toward CDs with stoopid phat rock hooks, and so do I. My big hope for 1998 is to be bombarded with drunken midwestern Prodigy-wannabe oi!-lectronica bands. But already, the art-music calling itself techno has considerably more fun, wit, silliness, catchiness, elegance, and surprises (not to mention block-rockin' beats) in it than the art-musics that used to be called Kraut-rock, prog-rock, jazz fusion, dub reggae, new age, speedmetal, indie-rock, industrial, lo-fi, or Tori Amos ever did. It still doesn't have anywhere as much as it should, though, and that still bothers me--a week didn't go by this year that I didn't get a bunch of dance compilation CDs in the mail (who buys these things, anyway? like, how big a market ARE club deejays??), and while I wound up loving a few technoid ones (including two that even made my top-ten album list), in general all but the very best felt bloodless and songless up against any random reissue sampler of obscure '70s/'80s disco, old-school hip-hop, or Spanish cooking.

Anyway, to save you poobahs some work (though you might want to check my calculation), I decided to take a half-hour to track how well electronic music (calling itself "electronica" or not) has done in the Pazz and Jop over the years. Turns out the first two synth-or-sampler-or-turntable-based albums to win the poll were Public Enemy in 1988 and De La Soul in 1989, but then unless Arrested Development in 1992 count (didn't they play washboards or something?), no other electrolytes won until Beck in 1996. In 1991, three of the top five (U2, P.E., PM Dawn) were suitably technological; in 1993, five of the top 10 (Pet Shop, Dr. Dre, De La, U2, Digable); in 1996, at least seven (Beck, Fugees, DJ Shadow, Stereolab, Everything But the Girl, Tricky, Nearly God) and maybe eight (Pulp?--not Prince, right?) of the top 20.* So the numbers have steadily increased over the years, and unless Third Eye Blind pull a come-from-behind upset, I'm sure '97 will break all records.

*(Actually, it just occurred to me that the numbers above prove no such thing; from 60 percent of five to 50 percent of ten to 35 or 40 percent of 20 over five years is hardly a "steady increase" in and of itself; in fact, it sounds like the opposite. But actually, 1996 did still have three in its Top Five and five [or six] in its Top 10 as well. 1991 had only three [four if the Mekons count] in its Top 10, and a few more maybes or I-forgets or who-the-fuck-cares [Ice T, My Bloody Valentine, Ice Cube, Seal] in its Top 20. So let the numbers prove whatever you want. Then go back to my essay and count how often I use the phrase "in general" in a single paragraph.)
What was most interesting to me however (hey, I gotta put my high G.R.E. math scores to use SOMEHOW) was that electropop muzik has always had drastically more success in the P&J singles poll than album poll--all the way back to M and Flying Lizards in 1979, and already at least half the top ten ("O Superman," "Adventures on the Wheels of Steel," "Homosapien," "Tainted Love," "Controversy," and conceivably "Walking on Thin Ice") way back in 1981. Last year almost the ENTIRE top ten, including the top three ("C'Mon and Ride It," "Where It's At," "1979"), were digitized. Since the singles chart is supposedly a bastion of "novelty hits" while the album chart is reserved for more high-minded pursuits, doesn't it follow that this is yet another dumb example of an "amusing minor diversion" taking forever to earn stripes as an "important conceptual innovation"?

Mo Money Mo Questions:
Is Biggie being self-effacing when he brags that girls "boo too much" when he steps on stage? Is it good or bad to "blow like Hootie"? Why does he want to be "flossin' on the cover of Fortune, instead of, say, Dentistry This Month? Do his roadies get upset when he throws them in the sky? Did he realize that Diana Ross's "I'm Coming Out" was a huge anthem for uncloseted gay people? And how is it possible that one of the ugliest and slugliest voices (with a thugly soul to match) in hip-hop history, a creep who's always tripping over his own dental-floss drivel and whose CD kicks in mainly when special guests are upstaging his mushmouth, could make me dig him?

Back in 1988, the popular Seattle metal band Queensryche released Operation: Mindcrime, an incoherent, amorphously atmospheric, audiophile-asskissing, prog-rock-reviving "concept album" paranoid and cynical about the dangers of future technology, inspired by Pink Floyd and electronic music (Wax Trax industrial in its case), stubbornly revelling in its own virtuosity, pomped to the skies with spoken-word samples, echoey studio effects, and inhaled melodrama. "It's a relief to know there's still bozos around who aren't content with being half-assed," I joked in Stairway to Hell. Nine years later, Radiohead put out basically the same record, named it OK Computer, and it became the most boring album ever to win (I'm predicting) the Pazz and Jop Poll. Unless Dylan wins instead, that is, with his dime-a-dozen blues beer-commerical, which as near as I can figure people just like because of that Greil Marcus book plus the guy almost died so they feel sorry for him. (Is there a more bland record producer on earth than Daniel Lanois? Not counting Steve Albini?) I don't feel as sure of myself criticizing Bjork, since I've NEVER understood her tuneless/voiceless/grooveless look-how-weird-I-wish-I-was schtick, so I'll allow I might just be prejudiced against Icelanders. But Radiohead's "Creep" was my single-of-the-year a few seasons back, and Bob Dylan gets mentioned in my new book more than anybody except Def Leppard. So I think I can tell when they're being shitty.

And I hate to burst any more bubbles (heh heh), but one category that WAS truly disappointing in 1997 was ROCK EN ESPANOL. The genre peaked at least a half-decade ago, when Voice and Spin editors were scared to give it the time of day (I know, because I tried like hell to get it in). The only really innovative new album I heard all year came from Chico Science and Nacao Zumbi, whose singer died in February. And though I was tickled to hear Los Fabulosos Cadillacs' "El Matador" in Grosse Point Blank, their latest CD had no songs on that level, and mostly felt like old pros spinning wheels; it was solid enough save for its obligatory hardcore parts, but nothing to get excited about. Other veteran Zorros (Aterciopelados, Fobia, Caifanes alumni in Jaguares, the wildly overrated Cafe Tacuba whose worst album will likely get more P&J votes than any rockero CD ever) are tuckering out and watering down, and newer hypes (Negu Gorriak, Ninos Con Bombos, Todos Tus Muertos) as often as not just prove that post-Rage-Against-Machine metal sounds repulsive no matter what language it's rapped in. A few more competent new combos (King Chango, Pastilla, Los Olvidados) all seem to be coming from the U.S., but Aztlan's Alternativo and Rock En Eskanol comps only confirmed that American Hispanic kids are as capable of rigid-hipped noise orthodoxy as their gringo counterparts.

The Songs That Remind Him of the Bladder Times:
My two favorite words of the year were "represent", which apparently can can mean anything hip-hop-type people want it to mean, and "pissed," which means something totally different in the U.K. than in the U.S. Though then again, if I drank a whiskey drink then a vodka drink then a lager drink then a cider drink, I'd be pissing the night away, too. (P.S. from Ken Barnes: "I kept waiting for the female singer to come in with "I get knocked up, but I get down again'".)

I hoped Erykah Badu might be hiding some Teena-Marie-type unhingedness amid her status-symbol-jazz-poetry pretension, but no such luck; she's just more schoolmarm R&B for public radio snobs, like Dionne Farris and Des'ree before her. In Spin's year-end issue, she asks us to explain what all the fuss with "MyBadyDaddy" was about; well, maybe if she'd take that ridiculous bath towel off her ears and stop being so obsessed with proving what a classy dame she is, she'd note that "MyBabyDaddy" starts out addressing more or less the same predicament as her own only remotely un-humorless track "Tyrone"--Erykah scolds her man for never dropping by without Jim, James, Paul, or Tyrone, and the poor guy (B-Rock? The Bizz? I have no idea) playing T-Bone in "MyBabyDaddy" frets that his gal is always phoning "Elaine, or either Shawna, or Donna." Then, obviously, said bass-booty hit turns into a paternity suit against a delinquent dad, and T-Bone swears the kid is not his son, and Billie Jean's new boyfriend is at the door so she ain't fittin' to be gittin' no Pampers even though her Dixie drawl is more believable than any other human microphone-use in 1997. I wonder if T-Bone's mama ever warned him not to go around breaking young girl's hearts, and be careful what you do because a lie becomes the truth.

Mastermix: How 1997 Felt to Me

I'm the fear-infested twisted animator
It's black and it's lonely, oh if I could only get some sleep
I want to take you for granted
Who got the keys to the jeep
My hormones jumpin' like a disco
Is it in your genes, I don't know
Somethin' ain't right, and I'm fittin' to go
It's a secret no one knows
No info for the D.E.A.
Destination unknown as we pull in for some gas
I'm staring at her tits and it's the wrong way
I confess I burned a hole in the mattress
I'm the firestarter, twisted firestarter
I ain't never seen a baby that scared
I'm sick and tired girl, you about to get fired girl
In an mmmbop you're not there
Seven horny brothers and a drunk-ass dad
TV news and cameras, choppers in the sky
Mama never loved her much, daddy never keeps in touch
If you really bug me, I'll say goodbye
If you want my future, forget my past
So much for all your highbrow Marxist ways
You turn your back and it's gone so fast
Every time I look around it's in my face
They crawled out of the woodwork and they whispered in your brain
You're my doll, rock'n'roll, feel the glamour and pain
Baby got pain on tap, baby can you suck on that
The mo money we come across the mo problems we see
I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want
I don't know what they want from me
In the days of 18-and-one, peggin' shoes was all I done
I will do the laundry while you pay all the bills
You'll never find an "ungh!" as good as this, so you better represent it
If I want to push you around, I will
Slam your body down and wind it all around
I'm the young Harlem nigger with the golden sound
I get knocked down, then I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down
You can hurt me, I can hurt you
Blood is on the dancefloor, blood is on the knife
Cut the crap and tell me that we're through
Wanna know the rest, hey buy the rights.

--Chuck at 37.