1993 all over again: 1 - The Breeders

1. The Breeders - Cannonball

Not only did NME think this was the best song of 1993, they considered it the 22nd best indie anthem ever. Oddly, Pitchfork considers it the 22nd best track of the 90s. From this we can extrapolate that it is also the 22nd best polka tune and number 22 of your 100 Best Hymns.

It also is comprised of two little ducks.

So robust a song, it survived being used in the trailer for Dude, Where's My Car.

You can go and look at the outfit Kim Deal wears in this video in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.



[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Buy: The Breeders - Last Splash]

1993 all over again: 2 - Credit To The Nation

2. Credit To The Nation - Call It What You Want

Apparently, Credit To The Nation are currently in the midst of a comeback. Back in 2011, there was talk of a new album - it would have been their first release since 1996's Daddy Always Wanted Me to Grow a Pair of Wings; instead, it seems to have become their first unreleased album since 1998's Keep Your Mouth Shut.

The single is a nice bit of agit-poppery, but you wonder if it would have got a second glance from Kings Reach Tower without, you know, the opening bit.

1993 all over again: 3 - Leftfield/Lydon

3. Leftfield/Lydon - Open Up

The stand out track from the album Now Thats What I Call Music 26, and part of the reason why Lydon can just about get away with playing the pantomime dame.

Leftfield's manager, Lisa Horan, reveals that the track was passed over by a major label:

John was on East West at the time, which meant they had to have first choice on the single. Luckily for us, they turned it down. I've still got a letter from the A&R man which says, "Thanks for coming to us with this project', but...". We were after a £25,000 advance and he didn't think it was worth it. So we ended up being able to put it out on Hard Hands."

The 'burn Hollywood burn' hook was unfortunately timed, as the record coincided with fires in Los Angeles. Paul King - by now well into his second career as MTV presenter - seemed convinced that the band had deliberately written the song to mock those who lost property in the inferno. Paul King always was an idiot.



[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Buy Leftism]

1993 all over again: 4 - Suede

4. Suede - Animal Nitrate

This nearly didn't make it to number four. It nearly didn't make it to a singles release at all, as Brett Anderson wanted Sleeping Pills to be the single.

From 2012, it might look like NME had made a bold decision in choosing Suede - outsiders, a bit sexy, a bit druggy. Well away from the mainstream.

But not so much - not only did the song build itself round a riff nicked from Dixon Of Dock Green's theme tune (no, really) but it also got debuted at the Brit Awards. Yes, the Brit Awards.



[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Buy: Suede]

1993 all over again: 5 - Rage Against The Machine

5. Rage Against The Machine - Killing In The Name...

At the time, being the fifth-best single of 1993 as judged by the NME team seemed to be the peak of the achievement. Who knew we were listening to 2009's Christmas Number One single?

I've told this tale before, but it stands retelling: The real effect of the single is best summed up by the boy wearing a "Fuck You, I Won't Do What You Tell Me" tshirt. In Asda. Running up and down the aisles to fetch items for his mum.

As a statement, the chant was about as likely to achieve success as "fly me to the moon" was.



[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Buy: RATM]

1993 all over again: 6 - Bjork

6. Bjork - Human Behaviour

The only act to get two tracks into the top 20, this time we see Bjork being stalked by either an extreme furry, or else someone struggling with a prototype onesie. This would also win MTV's "Breakthough video" for the year.



[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Buy: Buy: Debut]

1993 all over again: 7 - Tindersticks

7. Tindersticks - Marbles

Over at the Melody Maker, they were crowning Tindersticks as the album of the year. It came 13th in the NME list; they went for Bjork's Debut instead. That difference alone suggests that maybe IPC closed down the wrong title, doesn't it?

You've got to admit, this is a wonderful lyric:

You saw your life as a series of complicated dance steps
Impossible to learn, they had to come naturally
Together you squirmed and wriggled
And I could only jerk along behind

[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Buy Tindersticks]

1993 all over again: 8 - Elastica

8. Elastica - Stutter

One of the great songs about sexual dysfunction, of course.

These days, Justine Frischmann is living in San Francisco and painting. Where this video was filmed, funnily enough:



[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Buy: Elastica]

1993 all over again: 9 - Belly

9. Belly - Feed The Tree

Over on songmeanings.net, there's some prime reader-as-author work going on. Yangtze knows what they think:

I know Tanya's confirmed the death thing which makes it kind of official. However, I much prefer to interpret feed the tree as giving birth. Be there when I give birth, feeding the family tree. The tree of life. 'Being there' is everything.

That's fair enough, right? Knowing the song is intended to be taken in one way but happy to think of it in a way that works for you.

Not good enough for kenfoo00, apparently. He's convinced Tanya Donelly is hiding something:

In general, I find that song lyrics often do not fit what the authors claim they mean. Often, they attribute some amazing meaning behind pathetically weak lyrics. There is something dark about this song, she may not feel comfortable relating.

BECAUSE TANYA IS EVIL

No one deals with the "silver baby come to me (if it is the narrator, she would be talking to herself), I'll only hurt you in my dreams.". Death hurts, jack. If you've not seen it up close and personal, your time is coming. I like the singer's voice and the music, but there is something evil about that line. I thought it is about a child molester...."old man", "broken heart" (badly functioning conscience?), wants to hurt a child in his dreams? There is more to the real meaning than the performer is letting on.

I think something approaching 75% of debates about song lyrics online eventually contain the claim the song is about touching children.



[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Download Feed The Tree]

1993 all over again: 10 - Huggy Bear

10. Huggy Bear - Her Jazz

Yay! Yes, yes, yes. Apparently the NME could think of nine songs better than this.

Over on YouTube, under the live version from The Word, there's some grumpy commentage:

jameyinegypt 8 months ago
What a load of crap, bad at the time , just as terrible now. Where are they now??!! who care's lol

flemwad 2 months ago
took the words out of my mouth mate..thank God sometimes shit doesn't float to the top, but tumbles along the bottom to obliteration...just garbage.... then now and forever

InAnswer 1 month ago
Couldn't agree more.
I remember seeing this on the word 20 years ago & thinking what a load of s**t & 20 years later it's still s**t & embarrassing to watch.
Proof that the NME would champion any crap as long as the bands in question were politically 'right on'

Besides the question of who would choose "flemwad" as a screenname, there is much else to wonder at here. Why would someone censor the word "shit" but not "crap"?



[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Buy Her Jazz]

1993 all over again: 11 - Manic Street Preachers

11. Manic Street Preachers - From Despair To Where

Here's what Richey Edwards told the Melody Maker about this track:

In the Western world, living conditions really aren't that bad. Most people have somewhere to live and enough to eat - and yet most people are unhappy. I don't think many people ever come home at night thinking 'What a great day that was!' And that's why totalitarianism will always be tempting - because a fascist leader can say 'I'll make all your decisions for you. You don't need to have any responsibilities. I'll take care of your life.'

[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Buy: Gold Against The Soul]

1993 all over again: 12 - Pet Shop Boys

12. Pet Shop Boys - Go West

I'm sure this was the result of a pub bet, in which Neil Tennant was bet he couldn't make a Village People song any more gay.



[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Buy Pop Art]

1993 all over again: 14. Blur

14. Blur - For Tomorrow

"We're trying not to feel sick again, and holding on for tomorrow." The coalescing myth that Blur somehow needed Oasis to provide a yang to their yin is rather comprehensively disproved by the stuff they were doing before Oasis even had a record in the shops.

This track inspired the famous bit of graffiti which is either a key cultural icon of London life, or else a persistent spot of vandalism.



[Part of 1993 all over again]

1993 all over again will resume later...

1993 all over again: 16 - Radiohead

16. Radiohead - Creep

Back when Radiohead's fate seemed to be defined by a large pile of cassingles marked down to 10p each, in a dumpbin under the main racks, it was Creep that sustained them. This number 16 placing was all the more remarkable as the song had made it to number four in the 1992 list, on its first, mostly overlooked, release. (I think this might make it the only single to have been in the NME SOTY list two years running.)



[Part of 1993 all over again]

1993 all over again: 17 - Shara Nelson

17. Shara Nelson - Down That Road

Five Top 40 hits in her own right. How many can you name?

Not easy, is it? This was her first post-Massive Attack single, and sadly also the high-water mark of her solo career. To say she lost her way a bit is understatement on stilts - Pete Tong had to take out a restraining order things got so bad at one point - but it sounds like she's got things back together now; there's a new album due this year.

1993 all over again: 18 - Paul Weller

18. Paul Weller - Sunflower

Because Paul Weller was in The Jam, he has been forgiven an awful lot of decidedly average albums (most of which were destroyed through over-production, to be fair - live, many of the songs can stand up.)

If Paul McCartney had made this, the 1993 NME would have laughed it off the page - although the 2013 version of the magazine would have given it a cover.



[Part of 1993 all over again]

1993 all over again: 19 - Senser

19. Senser - Eject

"I see the system as it crumbles before me. I see the system as it dies" - luckily not before Senser took their "Stereo MCs with a New Statesman subscription" schtick to A&M.

They're still going.



[Part of 1993 All Over Again]

1993 all over again: NME's best singles two decades back

Although we have a bright new year waiting to be written upon, let's not forget that January is two-faced, looking back as well as forward. And no day is more push-me-pull-you than New Year's Day itself.

So, to show 2013 what sort of challenges it will need to rise to and to lob in a few lazy posts of embeds, let's hold hands and countdown the 20 best singles of 20 years ago, as decided upon by the NME.

20: Bjork - Venus As A Boy
Possibly the point where we should have said "enough with the kooky", as Bjork stares into middle distance and rolls eggs round her head. Cooking doesn't come any more twee than this.

"His wicked sense of humour suggests exciting sex" doesn't really hold true in the real world, does it? Not unless Jeremy Beadle was... but no, let us pursue that thought no further.



19. Senser - Eject
18. Paul Weller - Sunflower
17. Shara Nelson - Down That Road
16. Radiohead - Creep
15. New Order - Regret
14. Blur - For Tomorrow
13. Spiritualized - Electric Mainline EP
12. Pet Shop Boys - Go West
11. Manic Street Preachers - From Despair To Where?
10. Huggy Bear - Her Jazz
9. Belly - Feed The Tree
8. Elastica - Stutter
7. Tindersticks - Marbles
6. Bjork - Human Behaviour
5. Rage Against The Machine - Killing In The Name Of...
4. Suede - Animal Nitrate
3. Leftfield/Lydon - Open Up
2. Credit To The Nation - Call It What You Want
1. The Breeders - Cannonball