Best Albums of 1999

By Russell Baillie and Graham Reid

1 SHIHAD The General Electric: There's a point early on Shihad's fourth album where its droning electronic overture collides with the dark churning rumble of first track proper, My Mind's Sedate. Within the space of a few seconds, anticipation turns to exhilaration, tension to release.

The General Electric has many moments like that. But the thrills of this album aren't just confined to those explosive surges - they're there in the songs themselves, the mix of sonic muscle and melodicism, the intelligence and hydraulically-pounding heart that this album exudes throughout.

The thought, of course, might be that we're just saying that because of Shihad's status as local heroes - a brutally exciting live band which emerged from Wellington high school beginnings a decade and three albums ago then headed out into the world.

But no, TGE really is that good, an album of diversity, intensity and time-bomb dynamics. One which captures that live pulse and then some, as well as showing the band's increasing way with a pop hook and studio creativity.

Yes, here Shihad made their most excite and showed that the future of rock'n'roll - in this part of the world, at least - is in the safe hands of a band who want to keep it fresh and dangerous.

And above all, TGE says one thing: Well, hello world.

2 GROOVE ARMADA, Vertigo: From the brilliantly nagging I See You Baby dance track through to the airy ballad At the River which samples a delicious Patti Page song and breathes warm summer days, this London DJ duo of Andy Cato and Tom Findlay dished up an album of enormous diversity, great tunes and good feeling.

Each track has been lavished intelligent attention, whether that be the straightforward dance grooves or the more atmospheric pieces.

So here is an album which references soundtrack jazz and hip-hop (Whatever Whenever), Eno-esque ambient dance (Dusk You & Me), pulls in some brazen brass (Pre 63), offers chantdown scratching and Chi-Lites soul sampling (If Everybody Looked the Same) and goes out with an Irving Berlin-quoting Inside My Mind. And it all makes perfectly good sense.

Pitched somewhere between the deckchair and the dancefloor, Vertigo has seldom been too far from the player and we're expecting it to take up residency when the weather finally clears for summer.

3 THE STEREO BUS Brand New: The second offering of widescreen guitar artpop from the Christchurch-born band was a dreamy dramatic wonder. An album full of songs which swung from whispered sweet nothings to exuberant choruses to howling guitar gales and back again, rather nicely.

4 BASEMENT JAXX Remedy: Like Groove Armada, the approach to dance by the Brit DJ-producer duo of Felix Burton and Simon Ratcliffe's was as wilfully eclectic as it was invigorating.Their mishmash of house beats, ska, hip-hop, soul, and flamenco made for a debut album high on its own freaked-out funkiness.


5 MACY GRAY On How Life Is: The voice of the year was Los Angeles nouveau soul gal Macy Gray whose raspy squeaky, purring pipes fired up her collection of lyrically frank songs into something sexy, refreshing and essential. Expect this one to take off, real soon.


6 MOBY Play: American producer and all-round musical dilettante Moby stepped back from the techno and thrash of his previous outings and thought things through. The result was an album which sampled melancholic old blues and folk and placed them alongside keyboard-heavy arrangements and breakbeats and slide guitar. New music possessed of that old black magic.

7 TRAVIS The Man Who: The second from this Glasgow quartet made them local heroes in Blighty and rightly so. Led by the tortured tenor of frontman-songwriter Fran Healy, Travis delivered a hearty set of heart-on-sleeve Britrock tempered by folky acoustic edges, dour Scots humour and some indelibly gorgeous tunes.

8 PAVEMENT Terror Twilight: What may be the American left-fielders last album was also one of their best. Their shift from the lo-fi recording aesthetic of their earlier albums let their melodies shine on a broader canvas as the band brushed on fuzzy psychedelia, plaintive pop and an occasional mellow country tune.

9 STELLAR* Mix: The debut from the Boh Runga-fronted band was not only the biggest seller of this year's local releases, it was a neatly poised, richly-produced album which managed to act tough on a few tracks of pop-rock swagger but was at its best on its soft centre of lovely downbeat ballads.

10 KELLY JOE PHELPS: Shine Eye Mister Zen: This remarkable third album by a young white guy from Oregon brought together folk, bluegrass and old blues in songs driven by understated narratives which evoke the spirit rather than the style of his mentors. Expressive vocals, superb acoustic and lap steel guitar playing and intelligent lyrics make for a fully realised album which steps around convenient categorisation.

11 THE MUTTON BIRDS Rain Steam and Speed: The fourth by the back-from-Britain outfit was one that took a little while to grab, because frontman Don McGlahsan sounded less of the quirky-singer-songwriter-with-backing he'd sometimes seemed before. But the songs still found beauty in creepy little corners, or conversely glowed with towering songs of ebullient hooks and harmonies.

12 RANDY NEWMAN, Bad Love: After years of acclaimed soundtracks Newman returned to narrative songs which were typically cynical, ironic, funny and sometimes possessed an astutely observed viciousness. He also offered the nakedly personal (I Miss You is an emotional address to his ex-wife), a gorgeous spare ballad (Every Time It Rains), haiku-like gospel (Going Home), and a wickedly accurate swipe at geriatric rockers on I'm Dead (But He Didn't Know It).

13 WILCO, Summer Teeth: The country-rock quartet helmed by Jeff Tweedy went back to other kinds of roots for an album of intelligent pop-rock. It's long on influences from the likes of Big Star, the Kinks, Velvet Underground-meets-Beach Boys, the Byrds, Beatles-framed country (without sounding like a Ringo album) and comes with a strong melodic sensibility, harmony vocals and memorable lyrics.

14 TLC FanMail: The third album for multi-platinum girl group of T-Boz, Left Eye and Chilli was the R&B collection of the year, a epic of slick grooves, imaginative production, and in the likes of tracks No Scrubs and Unpretty, some irresistible singles.

15 IBRAHIM FERRER Buena Vista Social Club Presents ... : The Ry Cooder-instigated Buena Vista Social Club of 97 spawned a cottage industry of Cuban albums but Ferrer's - produced by Cooder and calling on a similar roster of musicians - was the outright winner. Beguiling, lazily-phrased singing, and with Spanish dramatics added by the band and a chorus of women singers, this has a warm exotic atmosphere very hard to dislike.

16 NINE INCH NAILS The Fragile: The long-awaited third (and fourth really 'cos it's a double album) offering from one-man electro-Gothrock band Trent Reznor was a deep dark thriller. It came big on precision-tooled noise headbanging pop, long on lull-before-the-storm atmospherics, and had Reznor winning the award for self-loathing rock star of the year.

17 GARAGELAND Do What You Want: Another back-from-Up Over outfit, Garageland's second album fizzed with barbed guitar hooks, stroppy confidence and the sometimes wistful, mostly acerbic songs of front guy Jeremy Eade.

18 SALMONELLA DUB Killervision: The Christchurch outfit mixed up reggae (and had a genuine hit with 4 the Luv of It), dub, drum'n'bass and most anything else that took their languidly funky fancy on an album that was also strong on songs and foggy atmospherics and helped them become the country's grooviest live drawcard in the process.

19 DEATH IN VEGAS The Contino Sessions: The second from the American electronic duo of Richard Fearless and Tim Holmes offered a menacing, mesmerising mix of electro-psychedelia and grainy rock'n'roll noise with supporting vocal roles from the likes of everyone from Iggy Pop to the London Community Gospel Choir.

20 BECK Midnite Vultures: After the introspective Mutations of last year, this was Beck's chance to play libidinous funk soul brother on an album where much of it came out sounding like Prince - but fortunately back when Prince was good. And rudely funny.