There’s no kind way I can say it: in the year 2000, I only heard one decent “alternative” record: United States of Mind by Covenant. This was a problem: I was the “industrial correspondent” for a metal magazine, and every release I was being sent was s***. It wasn’t just the ones I was being sent: I’d hear a great record in a club, hear the album, and that was the only good song on the entire record!
Pop music in the 90s had been pretty weak, but suddenly a slew – a plethora – of beautifully-written pop music records were released. There was Madonna’s Ray of Light and Music, Kylie’s Fever and Sophie Ellis Bexter’s Read My Lips. Weaker on the album front but churning out a succession of truly magical singles was teen band Sugababes. Their voices were lovely and stylish, and the arrangements sophisticated and moreish.
Is it really any wonder I jacked in the crappy gothic synth-bilge for music like this?
Reinspired 