The late ‘90s were not, in hindsight, the best of times for music. Of course, you can’t say things like that without caveats; I suspect at any time the ratio of good music to crap remains constant, more or less, at least from around 1965 onwards. But what gets into the zeitgeist is curated by the record companies and the media, so what is prominent at any given time. And, for me, the late ‘90s were a time where Britpop had burst into mainly inane dad rick, metal had continued Nu-Metal to a point beyond interesting while things seemed to be stagnating a bit, and it had become clear that manufactured pop, an institution of unfettered evil, was back.
But of course there was so much more going on under the surface, and my personal soundtrack to the late ‘90s bears no relation to those trends. One reason for this is Mercury Rev and this album, which I went out and bought the moment I first heard “Goddess on a Hiway”. Weird, ethereal, sounding like gossamer with theremins while still somehow sounding a bit like the Flaming Lips, I fell for this album hard, as did many for this breakthrough album. It’s extraordinary, and it’s quite ironic that this is the sound of the band giving up on mainstream success and just doing what they want.
Still don’t like how they spell “hiway” or “tonite”, mind.
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