When Beck went big I lost some interest in him, not reflected in my embrace of Odelay as subcultural force which should’ve produced a couple of mainstream crossovers. As for the rest, I’m not besotted with these singles except “Woo Hah!! Got You All In Check” today, although I’ll note that Quad City DJs is the kind of regional dance smash that, like Noel’s “Silent Morning” and Stevie B’s “Spring Love,” I wish had gathered fewer points: the more people liked it, the oftener I cried, “Is that all there is?” The obverse happened with Los Del Rio.
I suppose my readers will most disagree with my Pumpkins placement. I can hear the hook and the poignancy in “1979,” but Billy Corgan smothers it like a pillow on an old woman’s face. The same goes for “Lovefool,” whose omnipresence turned its likable ephemerality into a silken menace.
Meh
Fugees – Killing Me Softly
Oasis – Champagne Supernova
Eels – Novocaine For The Soul
Butthole Surfers – Pepper
Rage Against The Machine – Bulls On Parade
Sound, Solid
Smashing Pumpkins – 1979
Los Del Rio – Macarena
Fugees – Fu-Gee-La
The Cardigans – Lovefool
Primitive Radio Gods – Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand
Beck – Devils Haircut
Sheryl Crow – If It Makes You Happy
Good to Great
Busta Rhymes – Woo Hah!! Got You All In Check
Pulp – Common People
Beck – Where It’s At
Fugees – Ready Or Not
Underworld – Born Slippy
The Chemical Brothers – Setting Sun
Garbage – Only Happy When It Rains
Everclear – Santa Monica
Blackstreet – No Diggity
Tupac & Dr. Dre – California Love
Quad City DJs – C’mon N’ Ride It (The Train)
Garbage – Stupid Girl
Whitney Houston – Exhale (Shoop Shoop)
Nas – If I Ruled The World
Everything But The Girl – Missing
Humanizing The Vacuum 