Casey Stratton always does memes on Friday, so I figured, why the hell not? I've done the seven songs meme before, but it's time to trot it out again. But this time around, I'm going to put a different spin on it. Heidi and I have been listening to all this cheesy stuff from the 90s in anticipation of a get together we're maybe possibly planning, the stuff that reminds me of being in college and out at the bars or whatever. Of course, it also reminds many of the people I work with of being 11, but we'll forgive them their inexperience.
List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening to.
-------------------------------------------
1) Beautiful Life - Ace Of Base
Ace of Base had a lot of expectations to live up to with their second album. This was the first single off of it, and I remember buying the CD at Wal-Mart in Carroll on a Thanksgiving break. I was immediately hit by how much more they spent on the packaging of this CD than they did on The Sign. Although the album is a bit overbaked and certainly too long, this slice of 90s Swedish pop still plays well today.
2) Rhythm Is A Dancer - Snap!
This is the ultimate Vito's song for me. I vividly remember being out with my whole pharmacy class after a big run of tests or something and this song playing. This song perfectly encapsulates the style of 90s dance that always takes me back.
3) Expose - I Wish The Phone Would Ring
I love phone songs. There are so many good ones. Among my favorites are Blondie's "Hanging on the Telephone" and "Call Me", Jim Croce's "Operator", Tommy Tutone's "867-5309", Sheena Easton's "Telefone (Long Distance Love Affair)" and, of course, "Hung Up." What I love about this song is that it's basically about hatching the phone, as one of my friends used to call it. It's one of those dependent victim songs that really aren't very good for your psyche, but rarely has being a victim been so frothy.
4) Be My Lover - La Bouche
All these dance artists, so much the same. My college roommate Kim loved all this stuff. I did too, but shhh!! I wasn't telling anyone. Although I did tell her. This was on a compilation that Heidi and I had, Ultimate Dance Party 1997 that I can't find any longer. The thump-thump-thump is interchangeable with just about any of the other songs of its ilk, but it's not like I'm not going to listen.
5) SWV - Right Here (Human Nature)
My friend Rick always called SWV "sisters with vaginas." Well, I certainly hope so! (although I think the actual meaning of SWV is "sisters with voices.") I love how effortlessly the Michael Jackson's sample is used, and since there is spelling of sorts in the song (es, es, double double you, vee) I am contractually obligated to love it.
6) Two Princes - Spin Doctors
This song is unfairly maligned, I think, because it had the audacity to become a hit. Yes, it was horribly overplayed, but it's still a cute song, although I'm not sure cute was what they were aiming for. It does represent the tail end of my undergraduate years and, yep, I was suckered into buying Pocketful of Kryptonite based on this and "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" (which I also really like.) I have subsequently sold it, as have many others, I'm sure.
7) Blue (da ba dee) - Eiffel 65
By the time this song came out, I was (finally) out of college and working. So it doesn't really remind me of college. It is kind of representative of the kind of music that would never be played on the radio now even if a gun were held to Clear Channel's collective head. It was the last gasp of Eurodance on mainstream radio.
-----------------------------------------------
That's it. I'm supposed to tag 7 people, but I'm not going to do that formally as some people really hate being tagged. But Yuri, Paul, Caryle, Heidi, Matt, Jeff and Mary, feel free to do your own versions of this (themed or not.) And anyone else that has not been specifically tagged, feel free to do so as well!!
3 comments:
Wow, Dan, every one of those was a college song for me, too, except for Eiffel 65... I first heard that one in December '99, and it was the closing of my first year living in L.A. It perfectly summed up how depressing the adjustment period of that year had been.
I totally agree about the second Ace Of Base album. It's like the epitome of the sophomore slump -- their first one had been the best-selling album of '94, and then all this money was put into The Bridge (which I think I, too, bought over Thanksgiving break, or maybe Christmas break that year), but it was really uneven. Of course now, in retrospect, it's a really mature album for them. Might have to dig that one out.
"Rhythm Is A Dancer" -- the dawn of '90s Eurodance, where it went mainstream!
"I Wish The Phone Would Ring" was out the same time as Madge's "Deeper And Deeper," if I recall correctly -- fall '92 -- and I remember hearing them on the radio a lot at that time.
That SWV jam is on a compilation I just made of '90s R&B I'm literally burning onto a disc as we speak. Always reminds me of fall '93.
Spin Doctors. Ugh. My best friend at the time loved them. I was a college freshman and he was in 11th grade. I'm one of those unfairly maligning that one.
Thanks for the stroll down memory lane! More sexy Bea pics, too, please!
(P.S. A co-worker just interviewed Rue over breakfast at her hotel this week!)
oh i am so doing this over the weekend. How bloody marvelous. You've woken the beast now :P
I love that SWV song. I had all sorts of r'n'b I loved in this era. Gangsta by Bell Biv Devoe was one of them. I can't remember if I did a post on that? Hmmmm.
Post a Comment