Tori absconded to New Mexico to write her second album, Under The Pink. Its first single, Cornflake Girl, to aim at all girls who betray their closest friends - for the record, Tori is a raisin girl. (A girl with substance! Not a flip-flopper.)
A top five hit on the UK charts, and a top fifteen on the Modern Rock charts, CG is still remembered.
So is second single God, which TOPPED the Modern Rock charts and went all the way to #72 on the Hot 100.
So both of my 11 contenders (Winter and Bachelorette) didn't make the cut. I don't know what to do anymore.
During this time, Tori developed ... something with Trent Reznor, of Nine Inch Nails fame. It fell apart, and Tori documented this in the first single from her third LP, Boys for Pele.
Charting at number sixty on the Hot 100, Caught A Lite Sneeze also helped the album debut at number two in both the US and the UK - her most successful release yet.
But who broke up this "relationship?" Why, none other than Courtney Michelle Love Harrison! Tori came after the erstwhile Mrs. Cobain in the white girl diss record Professional Widow. A dance remix by Armand Van Helden went to NUMBER ONE in the UK.
"It's gotta be big" kinda sorta definitely sounds like "He's gotta big dick!" That totally captures Courtney's vulgarity.
I'm glad everyone knows what should be the overwhelming number eleven!
The success of Professional Widow greatly transformed the direction of Tori's next release, From The Choirgirl Hotel. Moving in a dance-oriented vein, the lead single Spark was predicted by Billboard to be the single to break her out into the mainstream.
That did not happen, but it is good!
Me and a Gun
Silent All These Years
Cornflake Girl
God
Caught a Lite Sneeze
Professional Widow
Spark
You realize the best songs were not released as singles, right?
Liz Phair. Born in Connecticut, raised outside of Chicago. One of her friend's boyfriends was in a band, and became her first musical contact. She started writing and recording under the name Girly Sound, after becoming friends with members of Urge Overkill, Liz asked around to find out the "coolest" record label around. She got her answer: Matador Records. By coincidence, a review of Liz's Girly Sound recordings had been printed in a local zine, and the head of the label read it. She sent him a demo, he loved it, and she began recording her official debut.
That debut, Exile in Guyville, stopped the world. Male, female, don't make no difference! She stopped the world - world stop.
Carry on!
A play on The Rolling Stones' heavily masculine and at times outright sexist Exile on Main Street, Guyville presented a feminine but still vulgar and blunt perspective on the opposite sex. It is also the best album of the 1990s. (Let's be REALLY real.)
Somehow, it only had one real single lifted off it - Never Said.
The clip went into heavy rotation on MTV, and the album went gold. Hew else?
The heat was on. The label wanted a second album quickly, but Liz had only written new material about her frustrated she was with the industry. U-oh. She dug back to some previously written stuff, and coupled it with a few new tracks - like Supernova.
Supernova was a rock SMASH, and gave Liz her first Grammy nomination. But she grew disillusioned with it all, married an editor, and had a baby in December 1996.
Her world had changed, and her lyrical point of view reflected it. whitechocolatespaceegg's first single, Polyester Bride, chronicles the tale of an early thirtysomething that refuses to grow up.
I will be blocking anyone who gives any of her songs less than a 7.
Since I am probably Tori's biggest stan in this godforsaken forum I intend to give nothing but 9-10s to her
I am however mad that "Crucify", "China" and "Jackie's Strength" did not make the rate.
As far as Ms. Phair is concerned, I will wait and see what's being included. "Never Said" ain't getting much love from moi. Too bad "**** and Run" was never released as a single.