Even though I kicked off 1999 by falling in love with If You’re Feeling Sinister, this was one of the more disjointed and new music-deficient years of my life. During the four months between stumbling across the finish line of grad school and finding steady employment, I spent no money on music, instead raiding a plethora of suburban libraries to acquire previously unheard (i.e.—old) stuff to listen to (Nina Simone, Serge Gainsbourg, Os Mutantes, etc.) Still, even if I had had the cash, it’s not like I would be rushing out to buy many of the year’s best-sellers—I didn’t even hear the three LPs I wrote about here until 2000-01.
What follows is a by now expected late-‘90s grab bag. It includes tracks from both long-beloved artists (a sweet sigh from Everything But The Girl’s last album, Aimee Mann’s Magnolia soundtrack triumph, another indelibly-titled Pet Shop Boys single) and good stuff I didn’t hear until much later (Le Tigre’s punk anthem (not fully appreciated by me until its inclusion in the 2006 film Reprise), Super Furry Animals’ Tropicalia-by-way-of-Wales). And yet, I recognize selections I loved at the time, like the lead-off track to Beth Orton’s mostly forgotten second album, Ben Folds Five’s flop follow-up to “Brick”, Blondie’s underrated (in the US, anyway) reunion single and an Indigo Girls tune that didn’t trouble the charts but seemed to receive heavy rotation on WBOS (then a decent Triple-A station).
Of course, I was never going to hear The Magnetic Fields or Sleater-Kinney without actively seeking them out. Same goes for Jason Falkner, whose second LP Can You Still Feel was a lucky library find not long after its release. Listening to it now, I wonder why it didn’t make the list—I’ve heard fewer finer power pop albums from that era, and “The Plan” is a concise gem of a song everyone should know.
Go here to listen to my favorite tracks of 1999 on Spotify:
- Le Tigre, “Deceptacon”
- Beth Orton, “Stolen Car”
- Jason Falkner, “The Plan”
- Everything But The Girl, “No Difference”
- Supergrass, “Moving”
- Fiona Apple, “Paper Bag”
- Pet Shop Boys, “You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk”
- Tom Waits, “Hold On”
- Tori Amos, “Bliss”
- Aimee Mann, “Save Me”
- Steve Wynn, “Cats and Dogs”
- Ben Folds Five, “Army”
- The Magnetic Fields, “All My Little Words”
- Hedwig and the Angry Inch, “Wicked Little Town”
- Blur, “Coffee and TV”
- Indigo Girls, “Peace Tonight”
- Fountains of Wayne, “Red Dragon Tattoo”
- Meshell Ndegeocello, “Bitter”
- Moby, “Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?”
- Sleater-Kinney, “Don’t Talk Like”
- Blondie, “Maria”
- Super Furry Animals, “Northern Lites”
bonus tracks not on Spotify:
23. XTC, “Easter Theatre”
24. The Negro Problem, “Repulsion (Showed Up Late For Work On Monday)”
25. Pizzicato Five, “La Regle Du Jeu”
Haunted Jukebox 