When Sam the Record Man went into receivership, the flagship store hend some amazing sales. I believe I wrote about going back again and again to pick up the last remnants of their electronic music section, searching diligently for the (unfortunately rather) rare gems they happened to have in stock. Around that time, they held a clearance sale on literally hundreds of old casettes, and I picked up about a dozen of them, something like two for a dollar (x 6).

Which brings us to today ... I still haven't listened to most of those tapes! At the time, I did plan to put out a stream of Revisitation Reviews (into a notebook) but only one of them was ever written (The Levellers -- Levelling the Land, which turned to a series of jokes at the expensive of folk singers everywhere. I haven't listened to that album since). Inner City's "Fire" was reviewed prior to the Levellers one; it was an album which had fallen through the cracks for me. Somehow I'd never heard it despite being a big Inner City fan. The overall experience was considerably more positive than that with the Levellers. The Replacements final album, "All Shook Down", sat on my dresser for weeks until I finally heard it, but at that point I had lost the motivation to write about it. My spirits were partly ruined by some of the reviews I read, all of which slammed it as Westerberg solo album put out to fill contractual obligations. After I heard the album (neutral feelings about it), I read more reviews and all of them praised it to heaven. Hmm. It remains the only Replacements album I have ever heard.

But I have more -- eight albums worth! I don't know more than two songs on any of them! I don't want to handle a full, real-time review for all of them, particularly since I would like to be able to hear them while working on other things. So I will resurrect another old trick. I'll write exactly fifty words about each. If I feel the itch to comment further, it'll be in a separate article.

BELLY -- STAR. I didn't expect Slashing Guitars -- I could have sworn this was Lush at times. Generic Indie Rock stuck out more in the context of the Grunge era, no? This album is best at its softest, such as the gentle, echo-swamped "Altogether" (I am a sucker for acoustic strums).

FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY -- GASHED SENSES & CROSSFIRE. Crash. ARRGGGH. We are Front Line Assembly Front 242. Grrr. Pow!!! We are Front 242. Grrr. We want to be Front 242 so very badly. Grrr. Dooooom. So very badly. Where is my copy of "Front By Front"? Nice to hear that "Digital Tension Dementia" still sounds like "Smothered Hope".

B-MOVIE -- FOREVER RUNNING. I expected little from generic 80.s rock and there are no surprises to be found here. Well, "Blind Allegiance" has a Duran Duran-ish sax solo, albeit only five seconds worth. And "Nowhere Girl", the hit single, isn't the 12" remix that I remember and love from the old days. Boo.

KRISTIN HERSH -- HIPS AND MAKERS. I am in love, because I'm a big sucker for aggressive, repetitive, acoustic guitars strumming two chord mantras of doom. Kristin's gorgeous voice cuts jaggedly through the din and her claustrophobic lyrics make for harrowing, yet oddly soothing listening. Too many highlights-- this album is heading straight into heavy rotation.

INNER CITY -- BIG FUN. Along with L'il Louis' album from the same year, I'm probably incapable of properly judging "Big Fun" (plus, I've already heard the album, although it wasn.t until the late 90's). Their singles are near to my heart, these are my age 15 songs. This is Inner City. Just listen, dammit.

STEVE "SILK" HURLEY -- WORK IT OUT COMPILATION. This mainly precedes my adolescence, so I take more of an arms-length view. I've never understood claims that mid-80's house was badly produced -- simply produced, sure, it's basically vocals over four-bar loops (always over the same drum sounds, but rock drums all sounded the same in the 80's too).

More to follow later ...

I have a notebook filled with music writing, it served as the precursor to this online endeavour, gradually petering out over the course of a few years as my internet content increased. One of my favourite semi-regular installments was reviewing either a notable album that I'd never heard before or (more rarely) something that I was familiar with but hadn't heard in many years. These reviews were usually written in real time as was listening. I haven't done one of these in over two years (Sleeper -- "Smart", which I had never heard except for the singles, and haven.t listened to since!), but as fortune would have it, I've stumbled across a bunch of albums that fit the "criteria", and have decided to resurrect the art of these "Second Opinion"/"Reviewed Massively Late After the Fact" pieces (I never could come up with a decent title for them).

The world wasn't exactly holding its breath waiting for a revisitation of this one. Many people in the same age group as me will remember this one, albeit begrudgingly so. Hold your groans, please:

MINIPOPS -- MINIPOPS Sure, let's get a bunch of preteen kids to sing popular hits! We can even dress them up like the artists they're covering -- yeah, it might be a bit weird to make eight-year olds dress like the Village People and sing gay anthems, but the kids who listen to the album won't understand that aspect of it, so don't worry about it! Ditto "Turning Japanese", reputedly about masturbation! And Madness fans won't mind that we're calling that band a "novelty" act, because actual Madness fans will never hear the record, so what they don't know can't hurt them!
[Hmm ... after writing this introduction, I found this link which provides some background and perspective. However, the tone is a bit too PTC for me, so take it for what you will.]

Joking aside, reviewing this record is a brave task on my part because I'm risking tarnishing some childhood memories if this album sucks. We had the record when growing up (when searching for this at my parents' home, I was surprised to find TWO copies, why we'd have two, I have no idea) but my strongest memory of it is hearing it constantly when on a road trip with my grandparents. It was one of the cassettes my grandfather had checked out of the library for the trip. My hunch is that we were in Florida at the time, which would put that trip in 1988 or 1989. Not only does that seem a bit late in the 80's for anyone to be listening to the Minipops, but I would have been at least fourteen at the time, making my enjoyment of the album preposterously uncool at that age. In any case, it's been at least fifteen years since I've heard this.

When it first came out in 1982, I recall knowing maybe half the songs beforehand. Blondie's (cover of) "Denis" was unknown to me at the time, and it remains one of my very favourite Blondie songs, mainly because of the introduction I received from this Minipops album.

Because there are so many medleys on this album, I can't possibly attempt a track-by-track breakdown in real time, so here is the tracklisting .

"Video Killed the Radio Star". By the time the 80's were over, I likely heard this version ten times more than the Buggles version. And the backing track is astonishingly similar to the original (big demerits, however, for the absence of the classical melody immediately following the line "they took the credit for your second symphony") until we hit the far too rockish-sounding drums in the chorus. OK, this is no match for the original but it KILLS the version by the Presidents of the USA.

Medley 1. "Japanese Boy" . I'm four minutes into this album, and I'm already getting emotional. This is such a wonderful, sad melody. Finally, we hit the cheesy-sounding portions of the record, the parts that make it abundantly clear that this is a novelty record sung by little kids. I don't want to hear anybody other than Mary Wells singing "My Guy". The inclusion of ska tunes on this album is also an unfortunate choice But all is forgiven once the medley ends as it began -- with the "Japanese Boy" reprise! I think I want a Japanese boy. Or girl.

ABBA Medley. In 1982, this was probably fair game (i.e. cover at will, go right ahead!), since ABBA were considered a fantastic pop group and nothing more. Nowadays, the band has been (rightfully) elevated to deity status, and the idea of a kiddie version of their hits cannot be considered anything other than hokey. Look at how embarrassing the A*Teens were. Anyhow, this medley passes by pleasantly until we reach "Waterloo" and "Dancing Queen". The latter is in the upper echelon of the Pop Pantheon, and should not be touched, covered, tampered with, remixes, remastered or rerecorded from now until the end of time. Let's pretend this isn't part of the medley. Fortunately, it gets the least amount of time allotted to it. "Waterloo", on the other hand, just sounds disjointed, as if they couldn't get the group of them to sing on cue.

Disco Medley. "YMCA" sounds screechy, with the boys singing in a crazily high register. That's fine though, because I never want to hear the original ever again. I'll settle for anything different. I've been listening to the Pet Shop Boys' "Pop Art" recently, and am smitten once again with their masterful cover of "Go West". How did they manage to convert the Village People's hedonism into a PSB funny/sad hybrid special? Anyhow, the production during this portion is pitifully poor and tinny late 70's/early 80's drum/synth fodder, which I suppose is the point considering what they are recording.

So there are about twenty songs on side one alone ... do kids really have such short attention spans. "Don't bore us, get to the chorus"? Did I have such a short attention span then? I doubt it, but I was a special child because my parents were so into disco back then and I was used to enduring ten-minute 12" versions of "Knock on Wood" and "You Make Me Feel Mighty Real". That must be why I like ambient and drone music so much today. Ten minute songs in childhood set me up for twenty minute-plus songs in adulthood, whereas those unfortunate kids who were accustomed only to fourty-five second snippets in medleys like these are only able to tolerate two minutes of Sum 41 until they become bored. Yes, I know I'm babbling here, but I have no choice because I'm avoiding comment on this Made For Karaoke at Pee-Wee's Playhouse version of "The Birdie Song".

Stupid Cupid. I thought the girl on the album cover credited with singing this song was mega-cute. What if those kids were just models and the kids who sang on the record were deformed, impish beings? That would really ruin my childhood memories. I mean, these were pre-Milli Vanilli days, right? There must be a video to provide evidence of this, doesn't the link I provided above allude to this?

Novelty Medley. The boy singing "The Green Door" turns in a gritty, determined performance, probably the best of the album thus far. Although it's overtaken almost immediately with the kids singing "Baggy Trousers" -- complete with dead-on accents! OK, it's not as impressive if they were British kids, but still. This is easily the best medley on this album thus far. I guess that's not such a surprise considering the album itself is a novelty.

Rock and Roll Medley. We have our first and only Phil Spector song ... I may have heard this song here first, also. Now what's wrong with this medley ... is it the stereo production? Am I that accustomed to hearing early rock and roll in lo-fi mono? I wonder how much money Lieber and Stoller saw from these twenty seconds of "Hound Dog"? Feh, this medley got tiresome fast after "When".

Blondie Medley. Yet another entry in the creepy sweepstakes, as a crew of young girls sing a song from a movie about a male prostitute! I can't complain about any of this, though, because I love these songs (awesome track selection, getting the then-recently massive "Call Me", along with the swooning "Sunday Girl", along with personal and UK fave "Denis" -- complete with the French verse! I don't remember that at all! Yes!!

I'm Gonna Knock on Your Door. Oh no, I have a feeling this tune will be stuck in my head for the rest of the night . ARRGGHH why did I just write that, it'll only prove to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Thanks to a gruff singing style (as gruff as the kid can possibly sound, anyway), this song has plenty of leather jacket cred and is a worthy choice for one of the three proper non-medley tracks. I say "proper" because I'm ignoring junk like "Can Can", of which I couldn.t see the point when I was eight years old, so I'll certainly not attempt to look for it now.

And that's all folks ... it's a short album (35 minutes), the song selection is still great after all these years (thank the ABBA and 70's revivals, in part), I could still get a rush from several tracks, there were no prolonged sucky periods and most importantly -- MY CHILDHOOD WASN'T RUINED! There might be money in a reality show-based Minipops revival, although there was something like it not long ago with that American Idol Jr. show, which flopped. I can't see myself wanting to revisit this album except for a bit of a laugh or a touch of nostalgia. Perhaps the biggest litmus test is this: I'm not even sure I'd feel the need to play it for my future kids. Unlike, say, the still brilliant and beyond awesome "Free To Be You and Me", which my kids will be forced to listen to ad nauseum, "Clockwork Orange"-style if I can help it. Kids or not, I continue to listen to that album from time to time and am always smitten with its timeless messages and the gorgeous singing from top to bottom (particularly from Diana Ross and of course, ex-football player Rosey Grier).

I was shocked by how deeply involved I became while watching a VH1 Legends special on Queen (I'm sure MMM has aired this a thousand times, but I'd never seen it). Also, it's not like I'm new to the story of Queen and I've heard the "Classic Queen" comps a countless number of times. Suddenly, I was a neophyte, it was like I'd never heard the band before and I was completely sucked in by the flash and sizzle. I marvelled at Freddie Mercury's incredible stage prescence and powerful operatic voice. I was intruiged and enthralled by the incredible diversity of a band whose name had been dropped in every writeup on the Darkness, which had caused me to forget that they were no one-trick glam-rock ponies. Live Aid made sense more than it ever had before -- yes, I could see why Queen's triumphant performance was so revered. And I was saddened by the pictures and video footage of the final years of an increasingly sickly-looking Freddie Mercury. Why was I affected in this way? Ten years ago, I had done my best to avoid the Queen revival and megahype. Even after Freddie's death, they were everywhere and I soon found myself trying to avoid their ubiquitous songs, all except for "Under Pressure", which is by far their finest moment and a song I cannot imagine ever tiring of. And now, many years after the furour had died down, I found myself remembering Freddie's memorial concert as though it was yesterday -- and wishing I could watch it again. I must be a softie when procrastinating at one AM.

And hey, if HENRY ROLLINS is man enough to narrate a Queen special, then we all should just shut our mouths and like it.

BEST OF THE 90'S REDUX -- SORT OF.

Pollmania started running wild on ILM after the runaway success of the Best of the 00's poll, so a 90's poll was instigated not long after. Given the immense emotional investment that I tend to put into my listmaking, this meant I was in for night after night of pained decision making. If I had children, I would be forcing myself to favour one child over another, like giving one child the fanciest toys while others were forced to play outside with mud and twigs. It took eight months to put together this list the first time -- AND I NEVER COMPOSED A SINGLES LIST! That means twice as much work is required for this poll! The agony!

Fortunately, it doesn't have to be that way. As with the previous poll, the lists aren't my personal favourites, they're my favourites out of the group of nominees, all of which (besides two albums and two tracks) were nominated by others.

POLL STRATEGY.
1. Do not nominate right away. By waiting, music that you feel inclined to nominate may get nominated for you, absolving you of the responsibility of nominating the likes of "In Sides" or "Loveless".
2. The effect of split votes must be taken into account. "Mars Audiac Quintet" may be my fave Stereolab album, but if four albums by the 'Lab are nominated then it's in danger of getting lost in the shuffle if nominated. Particularly if the band.s music is divisive, i.e. fans cannot decide what their best album is, then the risk of vote-splitting, leading to drastically lower placings (and/or fewer placings) across their entire canon is probable. Now, if every nominator adhered to this rule, then they would think twice about nominating that fourth Stereolab album, and those who made the first 'Lab nominations could feel secure about nominating them, since they wouldn.t fear that others would partially ruin their nomination later on. But of course, if this were true, then Stereolab may have never been nominated in the first place, since anyone adhering to Rule 2 would also adhere to Rule 1. Ha, PARADOX.
3. Strike a balance between strategic voting and picks from the heart. The necessary balance between the two is whatever makes you sleep soundly at night -- no more, no less. The main considerations with strategic voting are a) vote inflation toward items that you want to see on the final poll, and b) support for non-favourite items by favourite acts (AKA Artist Support Transfer). The complimentary considerations in the nominations field are the two forms of Artist Nomination Transfer, which are, c) nominations for non-favourite items by favourite acts, and d) nominations for items (which may or may not be favourites) by non-favourite acts. Both Rule 3c and 3d are followed in the interest of achieving the aims of Rule 3a).

Let us now consider explanations and examples of the (somewhat complicated) Rule 3 and its constituent parts.

The Spiritualized Conundrum provides a suitable model system for addressing this rule. At one point several days into the nomination process, their only nominated album was "Lazer Guided Melodies". My favourite album is "Pure Phase", but I was uncertain about nominating it since it typically is not cited as the fave of serious or casual SPZ fans -- that honour surely belongs to "Ladies and Gentlemen ...". I was quite surprised that the latter had not been nominated at this point, given the prevalence of SPZ fans on the board. So, my options were

A) Do nothing, invoke rule 3b and engage in AST toward LGM in my ballot.
B) Essentially the opposite of A). That is, if I felt that I could not give strong support to LGM in place of a superior (IMHO) SPZ album. Therefore: do nothing, essentially vacating spots that would have been occupied by SPZ on my own personal chart, and take advantage of the opening by invoking Rule 3a on other worthy albums.
C) Invoke Rule 3c by Nom. LAG (note that this could constitute a disobeying of Rule 1). In this case, it would necessitate a subsequent choice of whether or not to invoke 3b by engaging in AST toward LAG (that is, AST from PP to LAG). Obviously, this is a necessity if and only if PP was not subsequently nominated (which I suspected would be the case).
D) Nom. PP. Since this is a fave album by a fave act, no strategic voting is necessary. Nonetheless, this risks a violation of Rule 2 in the (not unlikely) event that LAG is subsequently nominated. Not to mention that the paucity of votes it would receive compared to those albums could result in a de facto violation of Rule 1, since that nomination could have been more effectively used toward music that would have a better change of making the final chart. This is the tradeoff that comes with shunning all strategic voting, i.e. nom/voting strictly with the heart and not with the head.

In this case, I decided against A, since I felt LGM was not strong enough to merit AST from either follow-up record. I deemed D to be unsuitable since it would not draw enough votes to make the nomination worthwhile. Fortunately, LAG was nominated a couple of days later, saving me the agony of deciding between B and C. At the time, I was leaning toward B, since there were many other things I wanted to nominate. Had I gone with C, Rule 3b would not have been invoked, since LAG, once nominated, would likely do fine on its own without a strong ranking on my ballot.

Rule 3a was applied to significant effect. It is too soon to know if "69 Love Songs" is truly one of my favourite albums ever, but for right now, little would please me more than a top ten placing in the final standings. [My latest "69 Love Songs" learned moment of clarity: The ending of "Meaningless", with its repeated refrains of "Effervescently meaningless, YES YES YES it was beautifully meaningless, YES YES YES, it was profoundly meaningless ... etc." is one of the saddest things I have ever heard in song. The weighty feeling of utter defeat and humiliation in his voice as those lines are uttered is what gets me every time. Furthermore, the entire lyric can be construed as the braggadocio of an uncaring dumper of the painful lament of a distraught dumpee. Of course, the previous sentence already revealed which interpretation I prefer].

Other invocations of 3a include: the top five ranking for "Woob 1194" (entirely necessary since I nominated it), the inclusion of "Lapsed" (my other album nomination -- it's not yet a slam-dunk inclusion on my personal 90's Album Redux list -- but its placing was fueled by the temptation to stoke the flames of the small but devoted ILM Bardo Pond contingent, i.e. a situation for the usage of Rule 3d if there ever was one), the high ranking for "Ex:El", the inclusion of "Spice", and the inclusion and high rankings for a significant amount of ambient, house, and techno.

Rule 3b was rarely invoked, in large part because many of my actual favourites were nominated on both the albums and singles charts. Most notable is the case of "Basic Channel", in which large quantities of AST from Vainqueur's "Elevations" are required to explain its high ranking. More accurately, "Elevations" might have been nominated but was not due to Rule 2, and the high ranking resulted from application of Rules 3b and to a lesser extent, 3a as well. Autechre's "Amber" is ranked comparable to "Chiastic Slide" in my original list, and the application of Rule 3b is the dominant cause for this.

So there you have it, an updated, semi-accurate list of the best of the last decade of the last century of the last millennium. The first one required eight agonizing months of thought, whereas these two lists came together in only three sittings. It never could have come together so quickly had it been my own personal list. It's far easier to toss a chart together without having to micromanage the decisions that go into choosing each and every spot. Since the list isn't my personal one, I don't have the same burden of having to maximize the list's "correctness". And many decisions can be explained away by claiming strategic voting, which in itself is something of an antithesis to listmaking accuracy.

On the other hand, seventeen of my former top thirty were on the nominations list. These seventeen, as you'd expect, formed the backbone of the new list (all of them are in the top 21), with the extra spots filled in by several albums which scraped the outskirts of the list in 1999, and have continued to do so ever since. And the singles list contains nearly all of my legitimate favourites from the decade. With that sort of selection, perhaps these musings on strategic voting are nothing but a veil for my lack of acceptance of the fact that this list had the potential to be more accurate than I would care to admit. If so, please pardon me while my head explodes.

TOP ALBUMS

1. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
2. Orbital - In Sides
3. Pulp - His'n'Hers
4. Woob - Woob 11:94
5. Orbital - Snivilization
6. The Orb - The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
7. The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
8. Basic Channel - Basic Channel
9. Orbital - Brown Album
10. Pulp - Different Class
11. Depeche Mode - Violator
12. Stereolab - Mars Audiac Quintet
13. 808 State - Ex: El
14. Jeff Mills - mix-up vol. 2 (aka live at the liquid room)
15. Spiritualized - Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
16. Autechre - Amber
17. Bardo Pond - Lapsed
18. Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible
19. Super Furry Animals - Guerilla
20. Blur - Parklife
21. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
22. Slowdive - Souvlaki
23. Spice Girls - Spice
24. Labradford - Mi Media Naranja
25. Saint Etienne - Tiger Bay
26. Curve - Pubic Fruit
27. Snoop Doggy Dogg - Doggystyle
28. Th'Faith Healers - Lido
29. Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Vol II
30. Motorbass - Pansoul

TOP TRACKS

1. Depeche Mode - "Enjoy the Silence"
2. Saint Etienne - "He's on the Phone"
3. James - "Laid"
4. Mogwai - "Mogwai Fear Satan"
5. Orbital - "Belfast"
6. My Bloody Valentine - "When You Sleep"
7. Adorable - "Sunshine Smile"
8. Underworld - "Cowgirl"
9. Yo La Tengo - "Nowhere Near.
10. Eddie Amador - "House Music"
11. Pulp - "Common People"
12. New Order - "Regret"
13. Saint Etienne - "Like a Motorway"
14. Slowdive - "Avalyn"
15. Pulp - "Disco 2000"
16. My Bloody Valentine - "To Here Knows When"
17. Monaco - "What Do You Want From Me?"
18. Massive Attack - "Karmacoma"
19. Pulp - "Something Changed"
20. Sinead O'Connor - "Nothing Compares 2 U"
21. Slowdive - "Allison"
22. The Breeders - "Cannonball"
23. Cornershop - "Brimful of Asha"
24. Madonna - "Ray of Light"
25. Dubstar - "Stars"
26. The Future Sound of London - "Papua New Guinea"
27. Smashing Pumpkins - "Cherub Rock"
28. Placebo - "Pure Morning"
29. Britney Spears - "Baby One More Time"
30. Jeru the Damaja - "Come Clean"

I've accidentally absorbed some information about the progress of Canadian Idol over the last several weeks, and was a bit shocked by my "good fortune" -- the one preliminary show I saw all those weeks ago has produced two of the top three contestants. And how are they doing?

Jacob is still a clown. Embarassing, cringe-worthy performances during every second of his stage time (there's a REASON that people have spent years making fun of the way Celine emotes the lyrics with her hands when she sings). His voice -- thin, reedy, Muppet-esque -- grates horribly on the ears after less than thirty seconds, while his actions (a Frankensteinian melding of Steve-O from "Jackass" and Chris Kattan's "Mango" from SNL) merely compound the agony. At least the fans were smart enough to vote off the right person.

Theresa's voice is pleasant, anodyne, and carries that tiny bit of post-70's Stevie Nicks' gravelly sexiness. She's got a farm girl cuteness and seems to be an extremely likeable person. But she's got nothing on even the top five women from last year's "American Idol". OK, she's got a much better voice than Jasmine, but Jasmine's looks and bubbly charm evens the score. Because (and I'll keep saying this until more people understand it), the purpose of the show is not to locate the greatest singers. Its purpose is to create pop stars. And the only one of the three people I saw tonight that has even a tiny bit of genuine star quality is Kalan. His voice -- a less polished, more uncertain version of Clay Aiken. His look -- 1993 Damon Albarn except 1000 times cuter. His singing is still a work in progress, but he's got the shy and bashful look down pat. It's that lost puppy blank stare that makes the girls think he's imminemtly attainable, which is not a bad position to be in.

Don't ask.

1) Len - Steal My Sunshine
2) Haddaway - What is Love
3) Sunscreem - Love U More
4) Apotheosis - O Fortuna
5) Aerosmith - I Don't Want to Miss a Thing
6) LaTour- People Are Still Having Sex
7) Space and Cerys Matthews - The Ballad of Tom Jones
8) Yo La Tengo/Daniel Johnston -- Speeding Motorcycle
9) Flaming Lips - She Don't Use Jelly
10) Donna Lewis - I Love You Always Forever
11) Fun Lovin' Criminals - Scooby Snacks
12) C & C Music Factory - Gonna Make You Sweat(Everybody Dance Now)
13) Primitive Radio Gods - standing outside a broken phonebooth...
14) Blondie - Maria
15) Snow - Informer

Comments:
1) No OMG on this one. It's just a brilliant summer tune from a bunch of Missisauga slacker kids who fluked into making one hell of a funtastic pop song.
2) The video is the cheesiest thing ever. A Meatloaf ripoff that used 1/100th of the budget. The "A Night At the Roxbury" dudes ruined any chance that this song will ever be taken seriously anymore. And yet, it is beyond brilliant.
3) Hearing this played on a college episode of 90210, some two years after it was originally released (and before it became a proper hit), blew my mind. In retrospect, who the fuck knows why. I think I was in denial that Sunscreem were anything other than the perfect band to be played at a pool party for rich California college kids who wanted to think they were listening to actual techno. Definitely one of my top 10 all-time OMGWTFLOL TV moments. Nothing could possibly match hearing Mogwai on Sex and the City, though (twice!). That one's gonna be tough to top.
4) Not just an OMGWTFLOL slice of 90's music, but an OMGWTFLOL slice of rave. When you're too cheesy for the cheesiest of EARLY 90's RAVE MUSIC ... geez, that practically DEFINES "OMGWTFLOL".
5) I have no idea why I like this song. Absolutely none.
6) "Allen's Got a New Hi-Fi" is a better song, but it doesn't carry the OMGWTFLOL factor. What is that song about anyway? A guy who can't get his stereo to work? What a dumb idea for a song.
7) Space and Catatonia -- two bands that went from stardom to burnout in a spectacularly short amount of time. 1998 was the OMGWTFLOL *year* of the 1990's. Except for maybe 1992.
8) The YLT version is gorgeous. DJ's version is strangely affecting. This version is neither. It's just bizarre.
9) Might have been higher if Drugstore's version wasn't 1000% better.
10) Damn, how many of the artists on my list appeared on 90210? This is frightening.
11) I just realized, how many songs on my list rely heavily on samples? The ultimate OMGWTFLOL 90's mix tape would probably be chock full of songs based on samples. We really needed more 90's rave in that vein, like "Sesame's Treet" and "I'm Raving I'm Raving".
12) Bonus points for Borat's fine re-working.
13) I can't even remember much about this. But it was different.
14) If this poll were done in another five or ten years, it would likely finish much higher because more people would say "OMGWTFLOL!!! Blondie had a hit in the 90's???".
15) The real OMGWTFLOL moment was when Snow had another hit .... ten years later!!