Well this week is a bit of a nostalgia trip – which really doesn’t distinguish it too much from all the other weeks I suppose. However, the theme is 1990. The year I became a teenager. A momentous avalanche of change and complicated thoughts about stuff I didn’t really understand.

I don’t claim to remember much from that year, to be honest, however, I do remember the music. Indie music was starting to seep into my consciousness, The Stone Roses self titled debut album had been out for a year and it would take another 3 years for me to discover it as the holy grail or keystone to my collection. Well not quite perhaps, but it was certainly a turning point for me. Thanks to my buddy Sam for lending me an old D90 cassette with Nevermind on one side and the Stone Roses on the other. Pure gold.

These are 4 songs that span a number of genres but are all solid and take me back to the pre-internet days of video libraries and remembering peoples phone numbers.

First up we have There She Goes by The La’s. The La’s were a complicated band. Over a 10 year period there were 20 people who formed the lineup. Someone has spent some effort to provide a timeline on wikipedia in graphical fashion linked here. Which is nice of them. The best fact I could find about Lead singer Lee Mavers is that he used to carry around a pouch of dust he had collected from vintage 1960s amplifiers, which he would sprinkle on instruments during recording sessions, in order to create the right “vibe”.

Then to EMF – Unbelievable I felt like I was alone in my love for the album Schubert Dip with its slightly camp and shouty electronica guitar pop vibe. I’ll be honest I’m not a huge fan of this now. it feels very dated and it nearly didn’t make it to the list, but I defer to my 13 year old self who was clearly forming a compost of musical growth hormones.

Finally a song I didn’t know back then but one that has seemingly followed me through two decades. Charmingly bonkers They Might Be Giants and Birdhouse In Your Soul TMBG have had a long and healthy career with what has to be said is a pretty diverse back catalogue. They also have a pretty dedicated fan-base so I’m not going to say anything controversial… but just that this song is brilliant in every way. 🙂