Between the birth of my second daughter in the spring of 1998 and discovering Catch the Sun by Doves in 2000, I listened to virtually no rock music, except The Beatles. I was focused on parenting and my boredom with rock lead me on a deep dive into jazz and new age music. So, I never listened to any of the albums under consideration for my Mt. Rushmore of 1999 when they came out. Turns out there is a common thread between the four albums I eventually chose; no guitars. Now when I say "no guitars", I don't mean that literally, but two of them are piano centric and two were created in the studio with very little guitar. All of my honorable mention albums had guitars a-plenty; Built to Spill, Foo Fighters, Pavement, The White Stripes, Centro-matic, Tobin Sprout and Robert Pollard/Doug Gillard, but none of them could overtake my final four.
The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
When guitar wizard Ronald Jones left the band after 1995's Clouds Taste Metallic, The Flaming Lips decided not to replace him and became an experimental studio band for their next couple releases. The roots of The Soft Bulletin were the Parking Lot Experiments. They recorded multiple tracks on cassettes, assembled several cars in a parking garage and played the tracks simultaneously. This in turn lead to 1997's Zaireeka, which was a four disc album which was engineered so you had to play all four discs simultaneously. It was during these sessions that the concept of The Soft Bulletin began to develop. When the crutches of guitars and fuzz were removed they discovered Wayne Coyne's fragile vocals and vulnerable lyrics and Steven Drozd's genius as a multi-instrumental composer. Despite The Soft Bulletin being a studio creation, it is one of the most human albums of all time. It's a celebration of life, love, stuggle and loss. The highlight of the album is on "Waitin' For a Superman" when Wayne sings "Tell everybody waiting for Superman that they should try to hold on best they can. He hasn't dropped them, forgot them, or anything. It's just too heavy for Superman to lift". The 90's was arguably the best decade for albums and The Soft Bulletin was the best albums of the 90's. Sorry O.K. Computer.
Wilco - Summerteeth
A decade ago, I was very dismissive of Wilco and Jeff Tweedy. This was mostly out of my love of Jay Farrar and Uncle Tupelo. Since then, I have deliberately listened to the early Wilco albums and read Tweedy's biography to develop a more educated opinion. Once I accepted Tweedy growing beyond alt-country and knew more of his story, Summerteeth became a beautiful studio album by two damaged humans. At the time, Tweedy was going through marital problems and he and Jay Bennett were addicted to painkillers. Many of the lyrics took me back 1999 when I was also going through marital problems as well. "We fell in love in the key of C" but "you've changed" and "Daddy's payday is not enough". Summerteeth is a raw and painfully honest album, but never loses hope for a better future. "Summerteeth" is also an old dad joke about someone with bad teeth; some are here, some are there, so that's fun.
Ben Folds Five - Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner
Here's a spoiler for my Mt. Rushmore of piano players; dude is on it. I love Ben Folds playing and I love his band. Reinhold Messner is a departure from his upbeat snark. It's lush and introspective. Check out the lyrics to "Don't Change Yours Plans", they are heartbreaking. If you miss upbeat Ben Folds Five, there's "Army" which is a great track. There's also a two minute answering machine message from his dad called "Your Most Valuable Possession" where he's concerned about Ben's most valuable possession; his mind. It took me awhile to get around to this album because I was put off by the title and cover, but it's great.
Fiona Apple - When the Pawn...
Before this week, I had never heard this album and had no idea that I like Fiona Apple. I intended to put Keep it Like a Secret by Built to Spill in this spot, but I had to change The Plan. Sorry, dad joke. Female artists are a blind spot for me for some reason. I kind of wrote Fiona Apple off as another Tori Amos when "Criminal" was a hit. Turns out I really like her voice, lyrics and delivery. The singles from When the Pawn are great and I also love the track "Get Gone" which has a powerful vocal performance. Now I have to go back and check out her first album. When I began this exercise, I thought 1999 was a weak year for albums, but I was pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, 1998 is weak with the exception of the second best album of the 90's. Stay tuned. Peace.
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