Looking Back in Anger at the Crow Soundtrack

 

It's time to look back at a soundtrack from the 90s and see how it has held up over the years.  For an album largely of covers and b-sides, it has stood the test of time better than most albums from 1994, and in truth aged better than the movie. It opens with "Burn" by the Cure which Smith wrote for the film. Not only is it the album's best song, it is one of the Cure's best songs. It has the drive of "Fascination Street' but the drums bring a tribal tension to it. The slinky bass line finds Machines of Loving Grace abandoning some of the industrial stomps for a more groove-minded song that plays to their strengths as a band, making it one of their best songs as well. Thus two songs in a they have established the theme of sexy darkness, which was the mood this movie was aspiring to. 

Stone Temple Pilots were heading toward peak popularity with the album "Purple" which this song would later appear on. They debuted it on this soundtrack first,  I think this song is lyrically clever, and I like the more subtle blues elements they ebb back down into. Nine Inch Nails cover of  "Dead Souls" works really well. Reznor does his thing rather than going for an Ian Curtis impersonation and it works. The more subtle jazzy passages of "Darkness" bring out Rage Against the Machine's more melodic side, making them seem like less of a one-trick pony. The Violent Femme's "Hallowed Ground" album is an example of their darker side which they tapped back into for "Color Me Once", an overlooked gem on this album.

Despite Henry's vocal limitations, the Rollins Band does a pretty good job of covering Suicide's 'Ghost Rider". There is more swagger than expected here. Butch Vig remixed Helmet's "Milk Toast' for the soundtrack, it's one of the band's calling cards. Pantera covers Poison Idea's "The Badge". and makes it sound like they wrote it. For Love Not Lisa proves they were better than most bands who merged as bigger one-hit wonders from the 90s like saqy Candle Box and this song is a testament to that fact.   My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult is one of the most reliable bands on this soundtrack so you can count on them to deliver, their whole persona is why they were actually playing at a club in the movie. Musically Jesus and Mary Chain is just as consistent, "Snakedriver" being a clear example of this. 

Medicine brought Elizabeth Fraser in for their remake of "Time Baby". Speaking of the Cocteau Twins , they should been the artist to perform the last song "It Can't Rain All the Time". as the Jill Siberry track is the album's only weak moment. It drifts without focus and the Cocteau Twins could have done much better doing similar. So far this reason this album is getting a 9.5, putting it still in the upper tier of movie soundtracks along side the "Lost Boys" soundtrack, 

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The Top 100 albums of the 90s : 60 to 51

Ok, you know the deal we are counting down the top 100 album of the 90s, who cares about album sales though one of these albums was the artists big sellers, but that doesn't always equate with quality, since the sheeple tend to like pretty color by numbers art. So here we go... 60- Cold -s/t The only NU-METAL album that really needs to be on the list, they are like Bush with more muscle on their skinny frames and more dope in their dirty veins. They would put out a couple of more commercial albums, and lead singer Scooter would begin to start singing more.
 

  59-Mindfunk- "S/T"

 This album rocks, but going back and listening to it doesn't hold the weirdness it seemed to back in the day.  Mother Love Bone were good for what they did,  but these guys did it better and Andrew Wood and the boys just got more recognition once Pearl Jam came out. One of the first non metal albums I got into even though these guys can get pretty balls to the wall when they want to and some of the members came from Ministry and S.O.D. Jason Everman who played with both Nirvana and Soundgarden did a stint with this band as well.

 


  58- Deee-Lite-"Infinity Within"


 Yes, there was more to them than groove is in the heart. Lady Miss Kier has some pipes and uses them in a much different way than she did on their first album. They could have tried to replicate their big hit , but instead they but with more thought both lyrically as well as compositionally and created one of the best dance alums every that goes beyond button pushing. They bring in not only funk, but jazz on this one before trip hop was a thing.

 

57-Mad Season -"Above'

 Grunge meets jazz, the songs might wander around in a drugged out hazed that envies the Doors. It always sounded really good on the mornings after taking xanax to go to bed after being up all night tripping. The song that Mark Lanegan only furthers the Doors comparison. I like the fact Layne uses more jazz intervals in his melodies on this one.

 


  56-This Mortal Coil- This double album was the last to be released by this collective from the 4AD label, is a goth classic even though it's not the more iconic 80s release "It'll End in Tears". Members of Shelleyan Orphan, The Style Council, Throwing Muses, Breathless, and the Pixies, appear on this album. 55- Sugartooth- "S/t" They fell between the cracks of grunge and metal, though grunge had pretty much seen it's peak once these guys put this album out. The drummer went on to play with Danzig. The singer did not feel the need to use the constipated grunge baritone.This kinda makes them come across like a heavier and darker version of Candlebox. 54-the Crow Soundtrack This is one cd you could find in the collection of kids you weren't normally into goth , but owned it because Stone Temple Piolots , Rollins Band and Pantera were on it. Most did not know that Pantera was covering a Poison Idea song or that Rollins was covering a Suicide song, but they were so dumb they didn't know who those bands were any way.The Cure song is awesome and their heaviest . 53-Curve- "Doppelganger" Garbage might have sold more albums and put out slicker product thanks to producer Butch Vig being in the band. Songs like "Wish You Dead" had a darkness and bite to them that made these guys closer to goth than Garbage and "Always Yours" carried more of an sensual edge than the likes of Elastica. 52-Sublime- "40oz to Freedom" "Easy E were your ever caught slippin...hell no." "Smoke Two Joints" was my soundtrack to wake and bake to. While 311 jerked back and forth from dance hall to alt-rock, Sublime stuck closer reggae and punk creating a more authentic vibe. 51-the Verve- "Urban Hymns" They are the first to toast to their rotten souls, they also kicked the hell out of both Oasis and the Stone Roses with this one. It has song like "Rolling People" that rock harder than other Brit pop out at this juncture."Bitter Sweet Symphony" is obviously the albums best known song, but "the Drug's Don't Work" is the album's best song and would later serve as my break up song with heroin.