This year, there was nothing particularly interesting coming out in January, but 4 February marks the last new release of Queen during the time their lead singer Freddie Mercury was still alive. This was the date when Innuendo was released. During the following months, there was some speculation that the lead singer of the group might not be feeling well, and he did seem abnormally thin in the music video for I'm Going Slightly Mad.
Finally, on 23 November, Mercury published a statement that he was stricken with AIDS, and only one day after that, he died. A tragic year then, to say the least. The title track of the album, whose music video has been embedded above, was easily one of the best art rock tracks of the year and a wonderful coda to a great career. Needless to say, this is where we part ways with Queen, but what a stunning farewell Innuendo is.
The eighties may have been the best decade ever for pure pop music but there are some brilliant pop groups in the nineties as well. One of them is the Swedish group Roxette, whose third album Joyride came out on 28 March. Yes, the remembrance of the title track almost makes one puke; it was a really annoying pop tune if there ever was one. But there are other songs on the album that are absolutely great; in fact, no less than four of them, one of which has been embedded above.
Following the obnoxious title track, Fading Like a Flower and Spending My Time were deservedly released as singles. Great pop songs, both of them. However, I chose to embed Watercolours in the Rain which did not get a single release, yet it was every bit the equal of those two. The fourth excellent song on the album is its closing track Perfect Day. Roxette would go on to compose and publish memorable pop songs during the nineties. The best one of them would come out near the end of the decade, and we will definitely discuss it at more length when the time comes.
The British trip hop group Massive Attack fell victim to bewildering censorship on MTV during the first Gulf War, when their name was shortened to Massive at the time the music videos for songs taken from their debut album Blue Lines, out on 8 April, were being played there in power rotation. The album's opening track Safe from Harm was the first, but after that came the absolutely brilliant Unfinished Sympathy which I thought already at this point couldn't possibly be beaten in the Best short track category for 1991.
Since the turn of the decade, both Yes and Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe had been preparing a new album. Finally, both groups saw the light and - with added pressure from the record company - decided to combine their talents and release a joint effort. The end result was fittingly named Union and it came out on 29 April. Both versions of Yes had added value to the album but it still didn't turn out to be particularly memorable in terms of artistic success. However, there are two truly outstanding songs on the 14-track (!) release which is why we are discussing it in the first place.
The More We Live - Let Go, embedded above, has the sound and feel of a Jon Anderson song. It was therefore slightly surprising to me to learn that it is actually a product of the Trevor Rabin incarnation of the band. The song has been written by Chris Squire and Billy Sherwood. A more obvious song from Rabin and Squire's half of the group is Lift Me Up, which sounds like it was originally intended to be the opening track of their album. These two co-wrote the song that has strong guitar sequences played by Rabin.
Next, we will jump over May all the way to mid-June, when two interesting albums came out exactly one week apart from each other. First up was Van Halen, whose new release For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge was for the most part meaningless but contained one really enjoyable song. Out on 17 June, the album's gleefully sexist opening track Poundcake was even complemented by a music video that you can watch and listen to below. Stupid, yes, but nonetheless irresistible.
Next, on 24 June Marillion released their second studio album with new singer Steve Hogarth - sixth overall - called Holidays in Eden. This was an important album release for the group for various reasons. Most obviously, this was the real test for Hogarth. You can always make one album with a group whose leader you have replaced, but it is another thing to convince also on second attempt; show that you have actually proven yourself as the new leader and are capable of leading your group's growth and progress.
The other reasons were more contradicting. Holidays in Eden was actually better than Seasons End but in the "wrong" way. It was definitely not a progressive rock album. For the first time in their career, Marillion had made a generic, melody driven art rock album that was bordering on pop. In that genre, it was an excellent collection of songs, but was this really the direction that Hogarth was going to lead his group? You know, like Phil Collins turned Genesis from a prog rock giant to a below average boy band? I assumed so at the time - I was proven wrong, but enjoyed Holidays in Eden just the same.
One track on the album, called The Party, was obviously going to give Unfinished Sympathy a run for its money when competing for the title of Best short track of the year. It looks like this lovely song is unavailable in YouTube, except for inferior live versions, so this time I will have to embed a link to Spotify. In addition to The Party, please make sure to check out also Waiting to Happen, Dry Land, No One Can and Cover My Eyes (Pain and Heaven) for some of the best rock/pop of the year.
In July, nothing of importance came out. That brings us straight to 12 August and the landmark rock album of the year. The American heavy metal group Metallica had been growing in importance all through the eighties, but still the success of their self titled "black album" must have surprised everyone - the members of the group included. The angry young thrash metal players became super rich mainstream megastars virtually overnight.
For me, the true masterpiece on the classic Metallica is The Unforgiven, embedded above. For many others, it was Enter Sandman. And, looking back, the most famous and best known track in the longer term seems to be the ballad Nothing Else Matters. For the group, this album was to be a divisive one. Not all fans were happy, feeling that their idols had sold out. For others, this was their peak album and greatest work thus far. Be that as it may, it took Metallica five years to complete their next album and when they did, the results were hardly satisfactory. They haven't really returned to form since.
