Side A
Ricky Martin-Shake Your Bon Bon
Fiona Apple-Fast As You Can
Eve-Gotta Man
Beastie Boys-Alive
Smash Mouth-Then The Morning Comes
Limp Bizkit-Rearranged
Jimmie's Chicken Shack-Do Right
Q-Tip-Vivrant Thing
Santana feat. Everlast-Put Your Lights On
Marvin Gaye-What's Going On?
Radiohead-Paranoid Android
Sublime-Seed
Side B
The Beatles-Good Morning, Good Morning
Limp Bizkit-N2gether Now
Santana feat. Lauryn Hill and Cee-Lo-Do You Like The Way
Red Hot Chili Peppers-Californication
Smashing Pumpkins-Jellybelly
Fiona Apple-Slow Like Honey
Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Dogg-Still D.R.E.
Static-X-Push It
Foo Fighters-Learn To Fly
Blink 182-All The Small Things
Korn-Falling Away From Me
When it comes to The Collection, I've always counted Vol. 6, Vol. 9 and Vol. 19 among some of my best. When I went back to those tapes, there was a warm sense of familiarity, as if I had just checked back in with an old friend. All my tapes are friends in one or another, but some you just remember more fondly.
I knew going into this project to expect good things from the mixtapes I just mentioned, but it had completely slipped my mind just how much I had enjoyed Vol. 22. Over these past few volumes, I had increasingly more control over the sound and direction of my mixes and now it had gotten to the point where more than one-half of a side was dictated by my CD collection instead of the radio (That run on Side B from The Beatles to Fiona? All me). All in all, I have to say there weren't any embarrassing moments on this one.
Okay, maybe at least one embarrassing moment: Ricky Martin-Shake Your Bon Bon
One thing I'm starting to realize after going back to these tapes is that Ricky Martin's music was pretty overrated, which can often be lost in the midst of the buzz and glow of the late 90s Latino Explosion. After his breakout North American performance at the 1999 Grammys, Ricky Martin's stock was at an all-time high and everyone was buying. The only thing is that none of his subsequent songs matched the electricity of "La Copa de la Vida," but most people were too polite to admit it. I'll admit to "Livin' La Vida Loca" having its moments, but it doesn't hold up that well. "Shake Your Bon Bon" is not quite as redeeming. I used to think it was kind of catchy, but deep down inside, I knew it was unforgivably corny.
I'm a desperado
Underneath your window
I see your silhouette
Are you my Juliet
I feel a mad connection
With your body
And this is how I decided to kick off Side A.
Obligatory song that time has forgotten: Jimmie's Chicken Shack-Do Right
I always found it hard to take these guys seriously because of their name. I'd see it and think, "Oh, they probably have tons of crappy songs." But here's the thing: "Do Right" is the only track of theirs that I've heard. And it's pretty good! I used to love the crunch of that chorus with harmonies that sounded more sophisticated than anything that has the combination of the words, "Jimmie," "chicken" or "shack" should be associated with it.
Song that I wish more people knew about: Smash Mouth-Then The Morning Comes
It's lonely being a fan of Astro Lounge, Smash Mouth's second album. Everyone is still fatigued from "All-Star" to this day and coupled with the success of "Walkin' On The Sun," it's incredibly easy to dismiss the band as a throwaway act from the late '90s. Part of me thought that they were just a fluff band that was good for a fun moment or two. I believed that up until I gave Astro Lounge a listen and I found out they were full of more fun moments than I could count. It still wasn't anything deep, but it was radio-ready pop/rock of a pretty high caliber and it always made me smile. "Then The Morning Comes" was basically them getting their Zombies on and stuck closely to the '60s-influences sound they made their name on. What I really loved was the transition of the pre-chorus going into the chorus. A good pre-chorus is always a pleasant surprise for me and it still is to this day. For instance, you order what you think is just going to be a nice sorbet and you're perfectly fine with that. It's going to be delicious and with just the right texture. And then *BOOM*: they bring it out and it has a cookie on top, which you weren't expecting at all. Back in 1999, the chorus for "Then The Morning Comes" was the cookie on top of my sorbet.
Song that only gets sexier over time: Fiona Apple-Slow Like Honey
It's no secret that I had an affinity for songs that were fitting for a stalker's soundtrack (or "one with deep yearning" is the term I probably would have preferred back then). Alt radio hits like "Walking After You," "Crash Into Me," and "Got You (Where I Want You)" spoke to me because it felt like all I knew how to do back then was admire from a distance. "Slow Like Honey" was never a single, but I felt it went deeper with its obsesssion than anything that was on the radio at the time.
You'll remember me like a melody
Yeah I'll haunt the world inside you
Gonna win you over
Slow like honey
Heavy with mood
What also added that extra bit of stalker quality to it was the low tone that Fiona sang in. It was filled with pure lust and determination, something that I was certainly sympathetic to. Just the way the intensity increased during that last chorus was enough to make you want to bite your lip. I was an Apple fan prior to buying Tidal and only being familiar with the singles, but "Slow Like Honey" might have been the beginning of me truly falling in love with her music.
Song that made me feel like I had plenty of years of good music from Lauryn Hill to look forward to: Santana feat. Lauryn Hill & Cee-Lo-Do You Like The Way
There was an aura of calm whenever I thought about this song. The world just made that much more sense. Of course Lauryn Hill would drop a good verse and compose a melody that could have easily been a holdover from Miseducation. Of course Carlos Santana would be a part of something so contemporary after having released singles with Robb Thomas and Everlast. And of course Cee-Lo had an incredible voice! Overall, I think was happiest about Cee-Lo getting an incredible amount of exposure from being on Supernatural. Looking at his success now, his first flirtation with the mainstream started with this track and at a time when he was still known primarily as a rapper. Everything about this song simply felt right and I supported it 100% because it was how things should have been in 1999. I had no idea at the time that this would be one of Lauryn Hill's last great recordings. I try to stay away from current music talk on this blog, but facts are facts, folks.
Song that made everything in the world feel just a little more epic: The Beatles-Good Morning, Good Morning
I haven't really had the chance to talk about how important of an album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was to me. For starters, it was the first Beatles album I ever owned. I was starting to tap into the mystique that had been constantly presented to me, thanks to the rock canon. Everything I read was telling me that they were special and I was starting to find out why. Sgt. Pepper's was such a lush and imaginative world, filled with treats both audio and visual. Just about every song had colorful imagery I could play with and there was always something new to discover whenever I listened to it on my headphones. As far as "Good Morning, Good Morning" was concerned, I don't think I had heard anything as frantic so late in an album up until that point in my life. It gave the CD a second wind right before the finish and made the whole experience feel climatic. When it got to those rhythm changes, I could feel the world moving in a spiral as John Lennon rapidly jumped from thought to thought. It made my pulse pick up the pace on more than a few occasions.
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