If you’re not familiar with this band, you are most certainly familiar with their songs. Unless you were born in the late 90′s in which case you might not be familiar with their songs. But that’s just weird to think about so I’ll just pretend like you were all born pre-1995. If you were born in the late 90′s and that offends you, I’m sorry. But you missed out on the best decade of this or any generation.
For those of you that DO know what I’m talking about, Vertical Horizon started killing the charts in 1999 with their #1 hit “Everything You Want.” Their second hit ” You’re A God” soon followed with quick climb to #23 on the charts and #1 in my heart. Numerous covers of their songs quickly spread to college bedrooms nationwide and their popularity grew to astronomical proportions. Their 1999 release Everything You Want went double-platinum and made these guys a staple of the close of the 90′s.
Their latest release Burning the Days is currently available to check out along with their other 5 albums dating back to 1992. If you dig the new stuff AND want to take a walk down memory lane with the classics, Vertical Horizon is touring the states this summer and are going to be coming through the Chicagoland area mid-July. And just for old times’ sake, check out the video for “Everything You Want”:
Buy Everything You Want:
I’ve been a huge fan of Silverchair ever since their debut album Frogstomp in 1995. I have always been a purveyor of 90′s music, so the garage alternative hard rock sound of Silverchair was right up my alley. But (admittedly to my own surprise) this is one of those bands that has refused to conform to the space of one genre. They have constantly evolved their sound to produce music they want to produce without having to stick to any type of formula. Case in point, their fourth studio album, Diorama.
Now don’t get me wrong, the three albums previous to Diorama (including Frogstomp) were all staples of Silverchair‘s sound and evolution to new types of music. But Diorama is really the point at which I said to myself, “Self, they are really taking a chance with this album, and I like it.” The first time I heard it, I had to be convinced it was actually Silverchair. Granted, lead singer Daniel Johns’ signature vocals were hard to miss, but the whole rest of their sound flew miles away from where they started off with Frogstomp.
If you enjoyed the gritty rock sound of their first album, this album is a complete 180 to what you’d be expecting, but in a good way. After you get used to the lack of grunge, the addition of a complete horn and string section and the focus on the melody (even though it spans a number of different scales and is seemingly completely sporadic), you get used to the completely new sound and accept it as the next generation of Silverchair.
Songs like “Across the Night”, “World Upon Your Shoulders” and “My Favourite Thing” are all melody driven whereas songs like “The Greatest View”, “One Way Mule” and “Without You” have hints of that old school Silverchair sound. Regardless of the new additions to the sound, Silverchair still has hints of that old school, nostalgic 90′s sound we all came to know and love.
Buy the album:
There are only a handful of hip-hop artists that I listen to on a regular basis. Not because I don’t fully appreciate hip-hop. That would be like saying I don’t appreciate beautiful women because none of them want to date me. No, I keep my hip-hoppery at an exclusive level because there are only so many albums that strike me on a personal level. Don’t get me wrong, I like booty scrumping as much as the next person, and if the song that happens to be on is “Poker Face”, then who am I to judge what makes my booty shake.
But good hip-hop is more than just a catchy beat and an over-produced pop icon. It’s an entire culture and an art-form. The best hip-hop albums provide complete harmony between lyrics, beats and delivery while providing the listener with something so unique it feels like moving poetry. Nowadays it’s hard to even find anything sans auto-tune. That’s why I feel obliged to bring up one of my favorite hip-hop groups of all time Jurassic 5.
The group first formed in the ripe year of 1993 amidst other 90′s hits including (but not limited to) Pearl Jam’s “Daughter”, Beck’s “Loser”, STP’s “Plush” and even Soul Asylum’s “Runaway Train”. The group was formed as a sort of hip-hop super group (although I guess more in the sense of a “Mr. Big” supergroup instead of a “Them Crooked Vultures” supergroup being as none of the members were actually popular at the time.)
Their first major label release Quality Control continued to grow their already growing fan-base and solidified them as true artists of the alternative hip-hop movement of the 90′s. I like to think that I was a part of the movement too since I listened to music in the 90′s and made numerous attempts at break-dancing. I guess you could say I was a pioneer of sorts as well.
Quality Control really started making the rounds in my CD player in early 2002 (since I was not affluent enough at the time to own the [then] brand-new technology of the iPod.) But regardless, with the album on repeat and my track skip protection engaged, I started a new personal era in hip-hop. Tracks like “The Game” and the title track “Quality Control” exhibit their unique blend of multiple rapping styles all within the arena of one track. Check out the video for “The Influence”:
Overall, the entire album is unique, not just one synthesized drum beat after another. Jurassic 5 made a name for themselves as artists true to the form of hip-hop. So I guess you could say it’s the opposite of pretty much any album by Lil’ Wayne or T-Pain. It’s just too bad they had to break up. I’ve literally been crying since 2007.
Check out and buy the album below:
Amazon Music
iTunes
Lala
If you like Jurassic 5, make sure you check out Camp Lo!
