Music

1997 and the Salad Days of Music

When good songs went hand in hand with the good life. And vice versa.

1997 was the best year that has ever been, for the kind of music that I listen to. There, I said it. I am willing to listen to all reasonable arguments against this.

Alright, alright….Everyone just be cool.

That was 25 years ago. That’s a big chunk of anyone’s lifetime, mine included. Despite that, I will likely always think of that particular year as not all that long ago. How long that feeling will last, is anyone’s guess. It could just be the middle of middle-age talking.

Things changed that year in a young fella’s life. I had finished university for the first time, my swimming career that I had poured my heart and soul into for years was over, I was about to embark on my first set of solo European travels and I was in a new relationship.

I still had no idea what I wanted to do, at 24. But it was ok, the world was mostly my oyster and in the moments when it felt like maybe it might not be, I had music to see me through. What I do know now, that I didn’t know then was that it was the year that it was pretty much over for Britpop, which this list is heavy on.

What is it about getting older that makes you think back to a given year and think, “that was as good as it got”. And thinking like it was just yesterday, when a particular song comes on.

I’m going to make a great old man. Some day.

Ahhhh….nostalgia. It will do that to you. Here then is my best of 1997, and each entry is hyperlinked for your viewing and listening pleasure (as opposed to the video being inserted). These are in no particular order (except for the first one):

Bittersweet Symphony / The Verve (Urban Hymns). For my money, the best song ever written. The opening strains always calm my furrowed brow and soothe my aching bones. Good as it got for the Verve, and they only made one more album after this. Richard Ashcroft has made 6 on his own — all good — but none can touch this song. The video is an all time classic.

Tellin Stories / The Charlatans (Tellin’ Stories). My favourite band for the last 20 years. This album was their 5th and was a comeback album after the death of keyboardist Rob Collins. This song is them at the height of their powers and it certainly catches the spirit of the times. “I’ll be there in the mornin’, can’t you see I’m tellin’ stories”. The 8 albums that followed are good but not quite up to this one.

Teardrop / Massive Attack (Mezzanine). Beautiful, hypnotic, dark, haunting, menacing. A female voice, instead of the usual Robbie Del Naja, Tricky or Horace Andy. The third album from this collective, often lumped in with the Trip Hop sound as its forerunner on previous albums. This song is mesmerising and all you want to hear when you come home after a long day. Or night.

Tomorrow / James (Whiplash). Have competed with the Charlatans in my top 3 for the past 30 years. By the time we get to this album, though, they are running out of steam but this song is still a pop classic in my book. Tim Booth’s melodies and falsettos, all guitars and drums and trumpets in the usual James way. They made one more album in 1999 before packing it in….before roaring back in 2008. Still going, still great.

Pure Morning / Placebo (Without You I’m Nothing). An emphatic opening salvo as there ever has been from any band. (Yes, I know this is their second album, but this was the first time I’d heard of them). Hypnotic lyrics and drum and bassline, a wash of guitar. Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal hit the pre-millennium tension on the head here and haven’t looked back since. New album out this month and tour to follow. Absolutely captivating live show.

It’s No Good / Depeche Mode (Ultra). The drug rehab stories and pseudo messianism of the early 90s had run their course and Depeche Mode needed to find a way to stay relevant. Back to the origins then with a pulsating club beat and taunting lyrics from Dave Gahan and Martin Gore.

Burning Wheel / Primal Scream (Vanishing Point). They never made the same album twice (in a row, anyway) and here they go from Stonesy rock n roll on the predecessor to psychedelic, trippy club beats. They’d go back to more of a rock sound a few times in the following decades, but Bobby Gillespie puts words and music to our drug-addled haze here.

Corpses in their Mouths / Ian Brown (Unfinished Monkey Business). The Stone Roses were done, but Ian Brown had more to say with his pants as baggy as ever. But he had the sense not to make it sound too much like the Roses. This one, a shuffling number, about….well, who knows, always put me in the mood for a few backyard beers that summer.

A Design for Life / Manic Street Preachers (Everything Must Go). Yes, I know that album was from 1996, but it was so monumental, so cinematic, so razor sharp that it continued its heavy rotation the following year. This one, about the manufactured indignity of working class life, soared complete with strings and kettle drums. More, much more was to come for Bradfield, Wire and Moore, but this is as good as they got, to my mind.

Delicious / Catherine Wheel (Adam and Eve). The only of the shoegazer bands that ever really said anything to me. Their fourth album was a swirl of fuzzy guitars and over produced vocals. This track stood out as an example of the straight ahead rock and roll I always wished they had done more of.

Dead Man Walking / David Bowie (Earthling). By this point, how many times had his genius managed to reinvent itself? Here he pops up again, partly with a Berlin basement club mix and a Nine Inch Nails guitar. But that voice….in a different league altogether from anyone else on this list.

Let Down / Radiohead (OK Computer). A memorable and hummable number off their third album, which was itself a significant departure from its predecessor, The Bends. I remember wandering around a museum in Budapest or maybe it was Berlin, listening to this on my discman, because I thought that’s what cultured people did. They lost me after that. This status continues to today.

D’You Know What I Mean? / Oasis (Be Here Now). Yeah, you knew it was coming. The wheels were still firmly attached to the Oasis wagon at this point in, you could see a little bit of a wobble coming. Still, this straight ahead rawk number had all the Gallagher brothers’ swagger that fans were still mad for. A stadium anthem and not even their best one.

Motorcycle Drive By / Third Eye Blind (Third Eye Blind). The one that doesn’t belong — an American band. Viewed by many as a throw away late 90s pop one hit wonder, this particular song is a detailed lyric of going across the country to see someone you thought one way about and then realising that you were wrong to think that way and just wanting to get the hell out of there. It’s an experience that everyone should have at least once in life. Or twice.

I know you didn’t see Morrissey on this list. That’s a whole other article, on its own. That’s what greatness gets you.

These songs are 25 years old, dammit. But these are the first bands I reach for on any given day. Some of them are still putting out new music to this day and many are touring once again. They still have my ear, probably always will.

Another great song of that era is “Nothing Lasts Forever” by Echo and the Bunnymen from Evergreen. It gets the full treatment right here:

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