Best (music) Albums of the 1990's part 3

30.The Prodigy - The Fat of the Land -1997 -USA

Why: Probably the best album from The Prodigy.Heavy use of samples, which was innovate for the time, and at that time the band were the leaders in electronic/dance music. There's enough rock in it to appeal to a mass audience (of rock listeners) and that caused enough buying to send electronica mainstream.

Example Tracks: Breathe, Firestarter, Smack My Bitch Up

29. Weezer -Weezer(the blue album) -1994 -USA

Why: Geek rock. The only people singing about love songs that weren't thoroughly depressing in the grunge early 90's. Not that they didn't channel that heartbreak-emo vibe, they just didn't sound like they didn't. Because they had the melodic ideal.

Example Tracks: Buddy Holly,Say It Ain't So

28. Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible -1994 -Wales

Why: A bit of depression and anxiety, a bit of anti-right-wing totalitarianism and overall concern about the bleak state of the world. It's a work of genius which makes you realize that you're alive despite everything about the album pointing to the fact that it's a sad, cold world.

Example Tracks: Revol, The Intense Humming of Evil

27. Bob Dylan - Time out of Mind -1997- USA

Why: They say it's Dylan's comeback album, though he'd never been gone. Half of it is definitely back to the blues and the other half is the internal working inspections which characterize recent Dylan. The anguish of old age? Maybe not, but the age is sounding in Dylan's voice

Example Tracks: Make You Feel My love, Not Dark Yet

26.Ready to Die - The Notorious B.I.G. -1994 -USA

Why: The debut of Biggie. The revival of East Coast hip-hop. Easy to understand lyrics because of the mutli-level rhymes and superior flow. The portrait of a life that deals with drug dealing, crime and violence understandably carries a dark tone, which only adds realism to an already vivid portrayal.

Example Tracks: Things Done Changed, Big Poppa, Suicidal Thoughts

25. Metallica - Metallica (the black album) -1991 -USA

Why: Simplified for the mainstream. And it worked. Usually that's a bad thing. But not always. And this is one of those times. It was slower and less thrash metal, but heavier and deeper themes . It's the first Metallica album that's very easy to relate to in it's entirety.

Example Tracks: Enter Sandman,Nothing Else Matters,The Unforgiven

24. Lauryn Hill- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill -1998 - USA

why: The debut and only album Lauryn ever released. So far. But it's so good that you wish she'd get back to the studio. R&b, hip-hop,soul and reggae; topics such as love, God, motherhood and tensions in The Fugees. It's a powerful,souful album that moves between many different forms and topics seamlessly.

Example Tracks: Final Hour, Doo Wop (that Thing)

23. Radiohead- The Bends- England -1995

Why: The 90's and Radiohead only resulted in excellent albums. This was when they started the multi-level sounds and the lyrics that are extremely confusing. Singing high notes to lots of guitars playing started here and without this, there wouldn't be half the popular music of today.

Example tracks: Fake Plastic Trees, Street Spirit (Fade Out)

22. Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine -1992 -USA

Why: Very heavy and one of the first popular rap-metal albums, widely viewed as the album that made the genre noticeable. Very political (and critical) lyrics mixed with funk and metal guitar sounds make it fun to listen to as well as intellectual.

Example Tracks: Wake Up, Killing in The Name, Bullet in the Head

21. The Smashing Pumpkins -Siamese Dream -1993 -USA

Why: Too much genres merge into this album to be counted, which works because the music is very complex and detailed with lots of production effort to create. Intertwined with melodramatic and intensely emotional lyrics, its an excellent album.

Example Tracks: Cherub Rock, Geek U.S.A, Rocket

Oscar Predictions-Film Awards (i)

Best Director Most likely winner : Steven Spielberg for Lincoln. Leaving out Ben Affleck, Kathryn Bigelow and Quentin Tarantino pretty much made this Spielberg's to lose. And doesn't reflect too well on the Academy either. Backup Pick : David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook. The production company of Weinstein have been campaigning hard for this and it's a good film with the acting performances set up well. The thing about best director is it's the easiest award to give to someone the academy likes because it's ambiguous and the academy doesn't really love Russell. Most deserving : Michel Haneke for Amour. Haneke has the most carefully crafted film here. All in all it is definitely his film in every scene. His presence is all around the film and it is an excellent film. If they give it for the greatest impact a director has on the film, this is it. Best Adapted Screenplay Most li...

a list about plays (post 1950)

The general perception is good plays stopped being written. That all the plays being performed which remain popular are classics and there is no place for the playwright in the current dramatic world. The role of the playwright has been diminished but good plays have not become extinct in the 20th and 21st century.This list will attempt to reflect that by giving a selection of excellent plays written (and performed) after 1950. 20. Prelude to a Kiss- Craig Lucas. Premiered in California in 1988. Quick Description: Thought to be a metaphor for AIDS. A story about the switching of bodies between a new bride and an old man and how the husband must find the old man while keeping his love alive. Something of a Sci-fi style and one of the most original works in recent times. 19. Long Day's Journey Into Night - Eugene O'Neill.premiered in Stockholm at the Royal Dramatic theatre in 1956. quick summary: A play about addiction and how it affects everyone around the addict.The characters ...

Travel Writings- Rome (I)

Rome is a cliché. Usually that isn’t a good thing but when the cliché is that a city is cool, full of life and gorgeous, the clichés can stay. Rome is possibly the only European capital that can claim to rival Paris in the popular imagination in terms of having an expectation around it. Even Paris is now succumbing to parallel narratives due to the sheer size of the city (much like London), with the immigrant experience less of an unknown story (to non-immigrants anyway. Immigrants always knew it wasn’t cities paved with gold they’d find). Some combination of smaller population, less immigration and the weight of centuries of civilization being still visible across the city has allowed Rome to actually deserve the tag of “The Eternal City”. My idea of Rome comes to me primarily from Italian films of the 1960s. Rome is black and white in my mind just as it is on Fellini’s film reel. I had low expectations. Months in London had allowed cynicism to set in...

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