3. “Piccadilly Palare” – Morrissey (From the compilation album Bona Drag) 1990 After following up the success of his debut album Viva Hate with a series of non-album singles, Morrissey had begun work on his second solo album with the famed production team of Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley. However, the writing sessions didn’t go as well as planned and it quickly became apparent that no new album would quickly be forthcoming. Wanting to capitalize on the success of Viva Hate quickly and knowing that outside of the UK the recently released non-album singles were basically unknown Morrissey dec ..read more

2. “Everyday Is Like Sunday” – Morrissey (From the album Viva Hate) 1988 Viva Hate went all the way to #1 on the UK charts and, perhaps somewhat surpringly, to #48 in the USA where the album earned support from college radio and, to a lesser degree, from MTV. Morrissey followed up the success of “Suedehead” with the second single “Everyday Is Like Sunday”. “Everyday Is Like Sunday” is a dramatic ballad based on Neville Shute’s novel On The Beach about nuclear holocaust and living in a place so boring and unimportant that nobody even bothered to nuke it. Thus, the song’s protaganist must wait f ..read more

7. “Pagan Poetry” – Bjork (From the album Vespertine) 2001 Following the release of Homogenic Bjork took an acting role in Lars von Trier’s 2000 film Dancer In The Dark. As the main character in the film Bjork won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the same award at the Golden Globes. She was also nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Song for “I’ve Seen It All”, a duet with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, that was from the film and released on Bjork’s soundtrack from the film titled Selmasongs. Bjork followed up her acting success by saying the process of act ..read more

5. “It’s Oh So Quiet” – Bjork (From the album Post) 1995 Bjork followed up the success of “Army Of Me” with “Isobel”, another song that melded genres by combining electronic beats with a string arrangement. However, it was the third single from Post, a cover of the 1951 show tune “It’s Oh So Quiet”, that really showed how willing Bjork was to push the boundaries of pop music, while also sealing her reputation as an alt rock maverick willing to try almost anything. Bjork’s cover of “It’s Oh So Quiet” is musically quite faithful to the big band/show tune style of the original version (which had ..read more

3. “Human Behaviour” – Bjork (From the album Debut) 1993 Bjork did not wait very long to release her English solo debut, fittingly titled Debut, which came out only sixteen months after the last Sugarcubes record. For the album Bjork collaborated with producer Nellee Hooper and largely abandoned her post-punk and alt-pop past with The Sugarcubes to create something much more eclectic, drawing on pop, electronic dance music, jazz, and hip hop. This new direction can be heard on the lead single “Human Behaviour” which is built up from cavernous percussion and an array of electronic noises to cre ..read more

2. “Hit” – The Sugarcubes (From the album Stick Around For Joy) 1992 The Sugarcubes followed up the surprise success of Life’s Too Good by releasing their second album Here Today, Tomorrow, Next Week! In 1989. The album was not the critical or commercial success that Life’s Too Good had been with many reviewers disliking the more prominent vocal role that Einer Orn Benediktsson had on the record. That said, the album isn’t a major departure from their first record and lead single “Regina” is an especially noteworthy song. The Sugarcubes went on a lengthy tour to support the album and then put ..read more

1. “Birthday” – The Sugarcubes (From the album Life’s Too Good) 1988 The Sugarcubes formed in 1986 in Reykjavik, Iceland around the core of vocalists Bjork Guomundsdottir and Einar Orn Benediktsson, although all of the members of the band had long been part of Iceland’s alternative music scene. Indeed, Bjork, who would become the band’s focal point and then later have a massively successful solo career, also started out as a solo artist when she released a solo album in Iceland at age eleven. However, this collection of Icelandic all-star musicians formed as The Sugarcubes with the stated inte ..read more

I’m taking a week off from the daily posts for my spring break. See you in a week ..read more

7. “Ten Storey Love Song” – The Stone Roses (From the album Second Coming) 1994 While The Stone Roses Second Coming did not completely eschew the dance/rock textures of the Madchester scene that the band had helped make famous (third single “Begging You” leans into these in fact) the band did pull back from them for much of the album. Lead single “Love Spreads” was more a psychedelic rock song and the follow up single “Ten Storey Love Song” was one of the most classicist songs that the band would ever record. A midtempo love song that made sense playing alongside bands like Oasis and Blur on t ..read more

5. “One Love” – The Stone Roses (From the single “One Love”) 1990 The success of The Stone Roses album was a slow build and a slow burn and many of the singles were released and rereleased multiple times as the band’s fame slowly rose. However, as the album cycle for The Stone Roses drew near to its end the band decided to release one more non-album single to capitlaize on their success and serve as a capstone for this era. So the band returned to the studio and recorded “One Love” which would be released in the summer of ‘90. “One Love” was released with the intent to be the summer anthem of ..read more