The light in the end of the tunnel may be somewhere else. Time for the alternatives (alternatives to Alternative Rock, huh, that s quite ironic). Forward and backwards, Trip-Hop and Neo-Soul showed their wild cards!
* Protection by MASSIVE ATTACK (1994)
A decade of aggression, those were the 90s, Gangsta Rap and shrieking Grunge side by side, not to mention Nu Metal etc. MASSIVE ATTACK, however, disagreed. Mushroom, Daddy G and 3D s brainchild was responsible for many of the most gorgeous music ever made, sided by equally gifted guests, running through the decade with stellar, innovative records such as 1991 s Blue Lines. 1994 s Protection was no exception - a crystal-cleared release with transcendent vocals and original deliveries, the tenderest fruits of what is known as...Trip-Hop!
This time the MASSIVE ensemble employed the gifts of EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL s understated diva Tracey Thorn. Instead of brutality, giddy fun, frantic beats that filled (or plagued) the years to come, Trip-Hop in its jazziest: zen-like melancholy, reflection, post-modern soul-searching, elegant, delicate, minimalist beats and smooth-as-silk vocal lines. The outcomes are stunning - moody music, yet alluring, peerlessly conforting, a dreamy landscape for lucid incursions into post-modern relationships and solitude-as-condition. And even in such turmoil, MASSIVE ATTACK renewed out optimism. At least is musical terms!
This outstanding release opened the gates for the sorts of PORTISHEAD, SNEAKER PIMPS, GOLDIE and even RADIOHEAD (in their trippiest and most atmoshperic) to pound their own reflections on contemporary melancholy. Apart from being the very best track on this record, Protection was a moderate hit in Britain (apart from a critics favorite). It also signalized the shift about to come in EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL s music, from a folk-pop act to a full-blown Electronica ensemble - the blockbuster single Missing, remixed by TODD TERRY, was then on the way. (from the album Protection)
But...What about the future as it used to be? If we refused to go that further, would there be an alternative in orthodoxy?
Forget about The Neptunes and the straightforward commercialism that doomed Hip-Hop and R&B even in 1994. Troubled times to find Music that appealed simultaneously to body and...Soul! But fortunately, all of a sudden, then comes...
* Ascension (Don t Ever Wonder) by MAXWELL (1996)
Neo-Soul was a hard genre to take seriously, purists affirmed, once you considered the gigantic legacy of luminars such as ARETHA FRANKLIN and MARVIN GAYE, to name only two of the forefathers. MAXWELL agreed up to the point of recognizing the greatness of the past. When he looked at the poorness of the present, he had no choice but to carve his own What s Going On!
Alongside SADE multi-instrumentalist Stuart Matthewman (as pivotal here as he s been with the Nigerian goddess), MAXWELL carefully designed his Urban Hang Suite following the high standards of the best Soul releases of the 70s. Not confining himself to dead-ringing, he took every Soul element to its logical end, what resulted in timeless music - an epic cohesive offering. Smooth vocals were smoother than BARRY WHITE. Sweet arrangements mellowed into sonic caramel. Abrasive dramaticity when needed. Romantic offerings for many nights - and the record is about a sole one! In the end, towering sophistication coming out of all pores, not a single beat in excess.
Nowhere else you will find a best summary of this great record than in this marvelous leading single, whose cleverly-chosen name appeals simultaneously to Heaven (emotional ascension, heavenly in love) and Earth (the very moments before the main character and his companion enter the elevator leading to the former s room). MAXWELL s best offering, suplanting great tracks as Til The Cops Come Knockin and Sumthin Sumthin , this track reached n8 in R&B charts while placing at only n36 in Billboard Hot 100 - one position before the very album, this time on Billboard Top 200 (which charted equally n8 in R&B charts). What was going on? America seemed too tough and distressed to be rescued from its turmoil.
But don t blame it on MAXWELL or companions D ANGELO and ERIKAH BADU, which managed to transced the mediocrity of their times and also carve their own niches among the classics! (from the album Maxwell s Urban Hang Suite)
