Rumours By Decade, Part 2: Some of the contenders from the 90s
"Wake up, motherfucker, and smell the slime"
Fist, a quick recap: #RumoursByDecade is a fun/weird/stupid/incredible Twitter-Thing™ that my friend Casey started years ago.
I wrote a primer about it a couple months back that you might wanna check out if you didn’t already, because now I’m starting to dig into some of the contenders. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll get to the bottom of this rabbit hole (Ron Howard narrator voice: they will not.)
For reference, here’s (some of, at least) the contenders for each decade:
Note: Just like that tweet says - there’s always an open call for Rumours By Decade submissions. Rumours By Decade is a team sport. Feel free to get involved, even (especially?) if its something I’ve already covered here. Or just add a comment and leave your two cents.
As a brief reminder, the basic gist is that we are looking for an album that is to its decade as Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours was to the 1970s.
The 3 main “guiding principles” for determining that are:
Lavish Production / High Craft
Cultural Ubiquity
Dubious Taste
With 2 additional, optional things to consider:
Weird Intra-Band Dynamics
Hard Drug usage (This is a judgement-free category but relates to many of these albums)
So, with the stage set, let’s dig into the relative qualities of some of our contenders from the gnarliest decade, the 1990s.
Blood Sugar Sex Magik by the Red Hot Chili Peppers
There’s no better/other place to start than this, as this was the album that started it all.
Lavish Production? (Steve Austin voice) OHHHHH HELLLLL YEAHHH. They rented a mansion that Harry Houdini used to own and turned it into a studio/home. They had Gus Van Sant do the art direction and photography. Rick Rubin produced the record. Lavishness, thy name is Chili Pepper. (Forget Rumours, they might have out-lavished Tusk!)
And, say what you will about this record, from a purely technical perspective, every aspect of it sounds great. It is really well recorded/engineered/produced/whatever. So it both sounds good, and presumably cost a lot of money to sound that good, which is pretty Rumours worthy.
Cultural Ubiquity? This record was very popular, as evidenced by having sold a lot of copies. It took RHCP from a band to a brand (but, temper that slightly, because this was the early 90s and that was happening a lot)
Here’s the thing for me with this record though: this is not the biggest RHCP record, culturally1. That has to be Californication. And to truly be Rumours, I think it has to be your legacy, which is usually your biggest record? Of course, you have to wonder if Californication (and everything that followed) could have been what they were without the foundation laid here. That’s obviously impossible to predict. But…it leaves the door open for us to assess Californication as the Rumours of the 2000s, so more to come on that, in the future.
Dubious Taste? I’ve been struggling with this aspect a little, because taste changes over time, so I’ve decided to look at it from two perspectives2, “of it’s time” and “in retrospect.”
Of It’s Time - this was one of the approx. 15-20 albums I had in the earliest-90s (through around ‘94ish.) I had a dubbed cassette copy that a friend gave me.3 I listened to it all the time (I had pretty limited options) and would definitely have classified myself as a fan. At that age, I’d listen to it if it had guitars in it but if it had good drum parts I’d listen to it a lot. And there really is some cool drum stuff on this record.
In Retrospect - this album is like spending time with someone you used to like but now is kind of a tough hang. It has a LOT to say, makes some good points, makes some weird points and generally overstays its welcome (8 minutes of Sir Psycho Sexy, really?) To write about it for this piece, I had to listen to it in chunks over multiple listens cuz I just couldn’t get through it. I may have also bad-mouthed Casey during one of those listens.
Weird Dynamics? - For the Chilis, the answer is always yes, for any album/era. The “living in the Houdini mansion” stories outline some of it. And of course, the on-again/off-again relationship with John Frusciante (see below) and the rest of the band factors in here as well. This is just a weird bunch of dudes. But none of it is Rumours-level stuff, best I can tell.
Hard Drugs? This ties into the dynamics, what with Frusciante developing a secret heroin habit. which was especially problematic coming after Kiedis kicked his habit, and former member Hillel Slvoak died of an overdose in 1988. But, in terms of the creative process, all signs point to this being a clean record (unlike Rumours and many of our other contenders.) So, nothing much of note here.
In Summation: A lavishly made album of deeply dubious taste. But maybe not quite the cultural powerhouse we need? And most of all I just think it’s a little bit too sonically weird to really be Rumours worthy.
Nevermind by Nirvana
Lavish Production? In a fun coincidence, this album was recorded at the same studio that parts of Rumours were recorded at. (How’s that for keeping on topic?)
But overall, this is harder to assess. We don’t have the kind of lavish “Hollywood Mansion” stuff that the Chili Peppers do. And I’d bet this is probably one of the cheaper costing albums on this list. It was produced by a relative unknown but then famously re-mixed prior to release by a “hit” producer at the record label’s request/insistence, to ensure it had that mainstream sound. It’s definitely the cleanest sounding record this band ever put out. How about all of them double tracked vocals, huh?
I can’t quite qualify this as lavish. That said, this does sound like a big-budget-major-label release. It’s a world away from Bleach, that is for sure4.
Cultural Ubiquity? Yes, Yes, Yes! If you ask someone to “name a famous American band from the 1990s”, I’d wager that Nirvana would be the one with the most answers. And there’s a weird quasi-cult about Kurt Cobain that still exists. (Probably because Nevermind had sold over 30 million copies worldwide?) They still make movies about him. Being married to a person that was in the media’s crosshairs certainly helped keep him, and the band, on front page news.
From the sphere of “rock-and-roll-as-pop-music5” I’m not sure there’s anything bigger from the 1990s than this record - and the resultant kerfuffle that ensued.
Dubious Taste?
Of It’s Time - This was 100% my favorite/most important album of this era. I’m really not sure I cared as much about anything else as I did about Nirvana during that time. I was heartbroken when I heard Kurt died.
In Retrospect - Honestly, this is more listenable to than most of the other contenders on the list. The songs are good, Dave Grohl’s drum parts are the best, Kurt’s screams still resonate. Maybe I’m still just a fan-boy, but there’s little to dislike here. (But as an adult, In Utero is easily my favorite Nirvana record6.)
Weird Dynamics? - I think the truly weird dynamics came to be as a result of this record. If I correctly recall my multiple readings of “Come as Your Are”, all 3 guys fondly remembered the time just before, during and just after making this record as some of the best times they had together.
Hard Drugs? - Similarly, I think the real-deal problems came later, but again, if I recall the book correctly, Kurt’s toe was already dipping into the narcotic waters at this point.
In Summation: An absolute powerhouse of a record that has remained very popular through multiple generations of listeners, but perhaps lacking in the intrigue and ‘weird vibes’ during its creation that a real Rumours would have?
Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt
Lavish Production? As best I can tell, the creation of this record is almost the antithesis of lavish. What we had here is essentially a struggling local band somehow7 getting the attention of label that is flush with cash and willing to roll the dice. They recorded this thing in a bunch of different places with a bunch of different people, which is a little more' “workmanlike” than most big, hit records. Actually, it’s kind of wild that it has any internal consistency at all with that many fingers in the pie. Score one to the band for knowing what their sound was?
Sonically, this is an incredibly saccharine sounding record, with all of the fancy sheen/tricks/gimmicks that implies, with the vocals front and center in the mix, lots of double tracking and a clever use of the horns to add more ‘swell’ to the songs (and less ska or skronk elements than you might otherwise get.)
Cultural Ubiquity? You have to assume that even the band and label didn’t really think this record would be as big as it was, right? Certainly, by 1995 the early-90s boom had created a platform for crossover success, and in hindsight Gwen Stefani may as well have been lab-created to be a pop-star8. But as soon as Don’t Speak went supernova and Gwen was on every magazine cover, you couldn’t really get away from this band/record/singer.
What’s missing for this record, I think, is staying power. I’m not sure it kept going through the generations quite like some of our other contenders do.
Dubious Taste?
Of It’s Time - First, a sad-but-necessary disclosure. I was 14 years old when I first saw Gwen Stefani, so there was more going on here for me than just the music. Hence, I’m not sure how objective my take is here. I listened to this record a lot, and in fact own the complete No Doubt discography (except their reunion album from a while back.) So, I think we have to discard my “of it’s time” opinion.
In Retrospect - There’s a couple good pop songs on this record (Sixteen and Sunday Morning holds up relatively well as a back-to-back combo) but overall, this album has aged worse than most of the others on the list. And artistically, No Doubt has more to offer us on their follow up album Return of Saturn.
Weird Dynamics? In this category, we probably come closest to finding something Rumours worthy of all of these contenders. Most of this album charts the break up of Stefani and bassist Tony Kanal, but that seems to be more a of stone-cold bummer of a breakup than a scandal. Throw in the departure of founding member/original creative force Eric Stefani and the immediate rocket ship to fame and you have some complex scenarios to navigate.
Hard Drugs? Not that we know about. The wholesome, non-threatening suburban vibes was part of the appeal (to the record label, to the kids) here though, right?
In Summation: I should add here, in lieu of this fitting anywhere else, that this is one of (the only?) album on all of these contender lists that has a woman involved, which is another key aspect of Rumours. So, that counts for something, I think. Beyond that, this has a great mix of production quality, cultural ubiquity and strange dynamics. It lacks a little in staying power but it did in time lead to Gwen as a solo pop-star, much as Rumours did with Stevie Nicks.
Hot Take Alert: with 3 contenders from the ‘90s down - but with more to come - I think I currently have Tragic Kingdom highest on the list of Rumours of the 90s. Now it’s your turn to tell me what you think….
If you can trust Wikipedia for sales data, Blood Sugar sold more in the US, but Californication sold more globally.
And this is why #RumoursByDecade is a team sport - I need more perspectives.
There was extra space left on side 2, so after this album ended, there was some Soundgarden cuts from Superunknown: Spoonman, The Day I Tried to Live and, of course, Black Hole Sun. I think The Day I Tried to Live might be my fav Soundgarden song? The drum sound is FANTASTIC.
Bleach was recorded for $606.17, if I recall correctly.
As opposed to “just pop music”, which for this era would be Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Celine Dion?
The best gift Kurt ever gave me, however, was an introduction to the THE WIPERS, truly one of the most important bands in my catalog.
I mean, the “somehow” here is “the singer looks like Gwen looks”, right?
I say that with respect for Gwen’s pop career. Her mid-00s stuff is the kind of goofy nonsense that I feel like more pop music should aspire to be. I find myself randomly humming Hollaback girl more often than I like to admit. That shit really is bananas. More on that in the 00s, I guess.
I have nothing to add here but I enjoyed reading this.
I'm not so sure on Californication. If anything, it's neck and neck to me vs. BSSM.
Growing up in SoCal, I mean, Under the Bridge was on KIIS FM around the clock. It was just EVERYWHERE. It had so much gravitational pull alone that it dragged Give It Away and Breaking the Girl some play/screen time.
Also of minor note, I think that song from the Coneheads soundtrack coming out just after also kinda helped just keep BSSM relevant and recent and in the limelight. Then again, I'm old and you're better with dates so maybe that was after JF left and Navarro got in? Hmmm...
Not to take away from Californication at all because it maybe had more BIG HITS? That said, Suck My Kiss. (Just thought it should get it's own line in all of this non-sense)