Pissing the night away...

This was my birthday present from my ex and good compadre Sam a year ago. I have the Rhino box sets Have a Nice Decade (which covered the 70s) and Omigod! (handling the 80s), and this box brings us into the 90s. The first two boxsets were great playlists of cheese and good times, concentrating on mostly "fluffy" pop music, making you not miss the major artists they of course couldn't afford to licence. However, taking a slighty different tack this time, Whatever - The '90s Pop & Culture Box forgoes most of the "happy pop" music in exchange to mostly chronicling the rise of alternative rock music with a smattering of pop tunes. So no "Macarena". No "I'll Be Missing You". No "Livin' La Vida Loca".

Now of course that's all shot to hell with the first song, MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This", by far the cheesiest thing on all the 7 discs (well, maybe "Whoomp! There It Is" or "I'm Too Sexy" would give it competition ). From there though, the first disc goes right into alternative-mode with Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U". It's anything signifies the beginning of the 90s, that's it. Sinead was like nothing else on the radio, and it was the first big smash of the decade with a month at #1 on the singles chart and seven weeks topping the album chart, until of course she had the initial "Dixie Chick" treatment. After that it's Michael Penn (the Penn that neither married Madonna nor is dead) with "No Myth" a pleasant if not totally memorable (I mean for looking back 16 years) mid-charting pop song, representing the beginnings of one-hit-wonder alt-pop quirkiness found throughout the set here. [sidenote: Is his marriage to Aimee Mann the cosmic opposite to Britney Spears and Kevin Federline's?]There are new examples of hip-hop on here, with Queen Latifah's "Ladies First" being a cool, and surprising choice, being it's a song released way before her mainstream popularity. Then there's a spree of obscure alt-rock songs, with the poppier than usual "Ball And Chain" from Social Distortion, the crazy-fun They Might Be Giants' "Birdhouse In Your Soul", the proto-grunge Mother Love Bone with "Crown Of Thorns", and the Sundays' proto-Lilith "Here's Where The Story Ends". After that the only spate of dance songs come, though arguably with the best two dance songs of the decade, C&C Music Factory's "Gonna Make You Sweat" and Deee-Lite's "Groove Is In The Heart", with two songs that proved not only good in their own right but by consistently good acts. Also thrown in is the dancy-rock "Right Here Right Now" by Where-Are-They-Now candidates Jesus Jones. The compilers of this box then head-scratchingly stuck the only non-pop rap song on the seven-CD comp with Ice-T's "New Jack Hustler". I mean there was so much going on in rap throughout the decade in different sub-genres to even warrant its own boxset, let alone slipping in a good, though minor sample of underground rap. After that is some more pop-rock one-hits like the Divinyls' "I Touch Myself" (only in the 90s can a sweet song about spanking the monkey reach the top-10), EMF's "Unbelieveable" (seen on whatever commercial on TV right now), and Marc Cohn's "Walking In Memphis" (proving again the Grammy's new artist "kiss of death" curse), thrown in with the Black Crowes' rockin' take on Otis Redding's "Hard To Handle", Naughty By Nature's "so good it rises above novelty" "O.P.P.", and Boyz II Men's "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday (maybe not the most inspired choice of the group major 90s impact).

Disc two starts out sleepily with Queensryche quasi-metal-Floyd number "Silent Lucidity" puzzling at the front. then comes a comes minor chart hits, the still-proto-grunge Mudhoney with "Into The Drink" and Matthew Sweet, with "Girlfriend", claiming power-pop for the alt-rock contingent. Jarringly, "I'm Too Sexy" follows, though that song really doesn't blend really into anything else here (well maybe "Groove Is In The Heart"). Then there's another spurt of very obscure stuff, with Jane Siberry's "Calling All Angels" (which nice as it is wouldn't be missed), My Bloody Valentine's critic-fave "Only Shallow" (a cult classic which does belong here), and the Lemonheads' "It's A Shame About Ray" (again, OK but not totally memorable). After that is the 1-2-3 rap punch of Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back" (I think maybe one of the best if not the best pop/rap/novelty song ever), Das EFX cool but minor "I Got EFX", and Kris Kross' teeny-bopper-hard "Jump" (I have more affection for "Jump" than most, thinking it doesn't belong in the cheesy-rap category). The second half of the CD contains mostly unheard-of songs from acts as random as Pantera ("Walk"), Dada ("Dizz Knee Land"), and Supersuckers ("Coattail Rider"), while sticking a couple pop-alt acts like Spin Doctors ("Little Miss Can't Be Wrong") and Soul Asylum (Runaway Train").

The third is more pop-oriented than the last one, with classic songs like Red Hot Chili Peppers' somber "Under The Bridge" (starting another CD with a depressing song?), En Vogue's R&B/Rock hybrid "Free Your Mind", and Duran Duran's deserved comeback hit "Ordinary World". There's also the highest amount of crap on this one as well, between Wreckx-N-Effect's monotonous "Rump Shaker", Snow's faux-Canadian-street "Informer", Green Jello's funny but puerile "Three Little Pigs", Primus' "I just don't get it" "My Name Is Mud", and the totally excretable 4 Non-Blondes' "What's Up". Throw in a couple passable hits (House Of Pain's white-boy "Jump Around" and Silk's over-the-top "Freak Me"), a couple good minor hits (Stereo MC's groovy "Connected", Bob Mould's Sugar's "If I Get To Change Your Mind"), and a load of tossaway alt-rock songs, and you have the weakest CD as a total listen.

Disc four does contain the sublime "Possession" from Sarah McLachlan closing it out, and Salt-N-Pepa's joyous "Whatta Man", Gin Blossoms' jangling "Hey Jealousy", and Tori Amos' quirky "God" providing the highpoints. The low points are less common, with Tag Team's inane "Whoomp! There It Is!" and Me'Shell Ndegeocello's "If That's Your Boyfriend" symbolizing bad rap music comes in all styles, and the Muffs' "Eye To Eye" caught in a sea of samey jangle-rock.

The fifth CD is a little better, having the uplifting "You Gotta Be..." from Des'ree and Blues Traveler's jam-band classic "Run-Around". It's a little more varied as well, with only 7 Year Bitch's "MIA" and Soul Coughing's "Sugar Free Jazz" deletable. The hits though aren't as big, with "Run-Around", the Rembrandts' stuck-in-head-annoying "I'll Be There For You", and Natalie Merchant's beautiful but not stick-in-your-head memorable "Carnival" being the only top-10ers.

The next disc sets itself firmly in the modern rock camp, with only Busta Rhymes' "Woo-Hah! Got You All In Check" sticking out like a sore thumb dead center on the playlist. Otherwise you've good tunes by Oasis (signature song "Wonderwall") , Joan Osborne ("One Of Us"), and Jamiroquai ("Virtual Insanity"), as well as crappy ones by forgettable Cibo Matto (the truly awful "Birthday Cake") and Supergrass (shocking for them, the bad "Caught by the Fuzz"). The biggest hits on here are "Wonderwall", "One Of Us", the fondly-remembered one-hit Deep Blue Something's "Breakfast At Tiffany's", and "Woo-Hah!". Noticeable nugget, the sleeper hit "In The Meantime" by Spacehog.

Rhino seemed to rush the final years of the 70s and 80s boxes, so it's welcome to know the most consistently good CD for the 90s is the seventh. The best songs on here are also the most shocking for being successful: the alt-commie-protest-whatever band Chumbawamba with the gloriously un-serious drinking song "Tubthumping" (in the running for best one-hit-wonder) and totally depressingly yet beautifully serious abortion-tune "Brick" by Ben Folds Five. Then you've got more poppier fare like the Cardigans' "Lovefool", Meredith Brooks' "Bitch", Hanson's so-nerdy-it's-cool "MMMBop", post-grunge's powerhouse hit "Sex And Candy" by Marcy Playground, Smash Mouth's retro "Walking On The Sun", "Tubthumping" (of course), Shawn Mullins' quirky "Lullaby", Goo Goo Dolls alt-pop "Slide", Sixpense None The Richer's ok but saccharine "Kiss Me", LEN's summery "Steal My Sunshine" (which does sound more dated now), and former House of Pain's Everlast's temporary career-saver "What It's Like". Only a couple ok toss-ins (Fountains Of Wayne, Sleater Kinney) and Moby's ethereal "Natural Blues", and you've got a disc which would represent what this whole set coulda been.

As a document of a decade, Whatever doesn't exactly make the mark,with so many nominal tunes in comparison to era-defining songs, but it does hit the mark with a certain demographic, namely actually me, who has all the major pop stuff from that time but wanted to be exposed to more underground rumblings in the music scene form a lot of influential acts without having to pick up a stack of albums. But as a casual go-thru listen, you're gonna feel like you're on a roller coaster, which could be good yet bad. You can tell that the best cuts are also pop songs (though some of the worst are as well. Also of note is the packing, which has real (and aromatic) coffee beans in the cover (the 70s set had carpeting, and the 80s had the "Trapper Keeper" rubber).

Grade: C+ (each CD varies between B+ and C-)
Best Cuts: "Nothing Compares 2 U", "Gonna Make You Sweat", "Groove Is In The Heart", "Hard To Handle", "O.P.P.", "Baby Got Back", "Under The Bridge", "Free Your Mind", "Ordinary World", "Possession", "You Gotta Be...", "RunAround", "Brick", "Virtual Insanity", "Tubthumping"
Weakest Links: "Rump Shaker", "Three Little Pigs", "What's Up", "My Name Is Mud", "Whoomp! There It Is", "If That's Your Boyfriend", "Informer", "Birthday Cake"

You can buy Whatever - The 90s Pop & Culture Box in places like here.


And for a video, I originally was going to put up Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity" since it was such a big video of the area, but looking at it, it didn't have the umph I was expecting. However, eve more than before I've feel in love again with They Might Be Giants' "Birdhouse In Your Soul" video, or actually anti-video, as it were. You just don't get dancing like this anymore.