11 October 2005

Overlooked Albums from the 90's - #1


Before you know it the 90's nostalgia will be in full form and bands like The Faint and Interpol won't seem so cool anymore.

So, let's take a look at some albums that don't seem to get much attention...YET. These albums will show up here from time to time so check back for #2 and beyond.

(look, it's cool to make fun of them/their snooty reviews and all but as a point of reference let's just have Pitchfork's top albums of the 90's available. here's the 1st version of their list - btw, don't bother looking for this, or ANY of the albums in Ear Farm's Overlooked of the 90's feature, on those Pitchfork lists)

okay, the first album for thought, listening and discussion is:

Saturnalia by The Wedding Present

Who knows why this band has been consistently overlooked but they're really fantastic. They've got great songwriting from the guitarist/singer David Gedge and the band puts together smart two to four minute pop-rock songs better than most of their late 80's/90's peers. I think that general consensus is that Seamonsters is the better Wedding Present album from the 90's but I like Saturnalia from the first song to the last and there's some great variety within the songs, besides...this is about overlooked albums not acclaimed ones. It may take a little doing to find a copy of it, but if you can I think you'll like it.


You can hear some Wedding Present songs here but they're not from that album.

1 comment:

howard said...

Saturnalia is one of the few albums I can think of that suffers from off-putting artwork. You're right to say that there is a healthy variety in the pace and style of songs, but all I can really remember is the grey cover. Even bizarro (2 tone dark green and orange in the UK) and seamonsters (3/4 tone squiggles on grey textured background) didn't create such a muter reaction. Still at least it was better than watusi.