Ye Olde Hit Parade: Where It's At

Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).

1996: Beck - Where It's At

Plenty of highs and lows in '96. The year began with my brother and I taking a road trip to Montreal to see a game at the Montreal Forum before it closed. As it tends to be, the weather was brutally cold while we were there, but there was no snow. Meanwhile, back on the East Coast of the U.S., a massive snowstorm dropped about 2.5 feet of snow on everyone. By the time we got back, the snow was melting and the roads were clear. Seems like a good omen, right?


My father's health had been deteriorating for a while for a number of reasons. By early '96, he was in and out of the hospital, including having to undergo multiple-bypass surgery that somehow he made it through. But he didn't have much left, and while I was moving my stuff to a new apartment in Salem at the end of March, he passed away at the age of 55. It wasn't a surprise and we weren't particularly close, but it still hit me pretty hard.

Other than that massive life event, things were going okay. I wasn't loving my job, but I was getting the hang of it. My new apartment was only 10 minutes from the office in Marblehead, but it created another problem: I was sleeping in and getting to work late. Why was I sleeping in? Because I was partying up a storm. Maybe it was a reaction to my dad's death, but it wasn't really destructive behavior. I was playing sports multiple nights a week (floor hockey, softball, soccer) and going out afterwards. Plus I was dating a bit and going to plenty of shows, so I was busy. I also went to London with a buddy to visit another friend who was working there, so that was pretty fun.

Musically, it was a strange year. Grunge finally ran out of steam, Van Halen went through three singers (Hagar, Roth briefly and then Gary Cherone), KISS reunited the original lineup in makeup, the Sex Pistols played a reunion tour, Tupac was killed and the Ramones broke up. Pop was very much back in fashion, with the top single of the year being none other than "The Macarena" by Los Del Rio. Plenty of familiar names were on the charts as well: Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Tracy Chapman, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Toni Braxton, Alanis Morissette, Whitney Houston, LL Cool J. Metallica changed its image by getting haircuts and releasing an album called Load that was, by all standards, a load.

There were strong new releases from Sloan, the Afghan Whigs, Weezer, Frank Black, Wilco, the Hip, Eels, Sebadoh, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Luscious Jackson, Brainiac, Guided By Voices, Soundgarden, Rage Against the Machine and Westerberg. Concerts I attended included Frank Black, Joan Osborne, Garbage, The Tragically Hip (three times), Tracy Bonham, the Buzzcocks, Paul Westerberg and Throwing Muses.


But my favorite album of the year was Beck's Odelay, which was his followup to his breakthrough Mellow Gold from a few years earlier. Beck was known for folky acoustic slacker rock, but on this record, he teamed with the Dust Brothers and released a monster combination of that stuff along with hip hop, noise rock, country and garage rock. The first single, "Where It's At," is catchy as hell and managed to kick the crap out of everything else on the radio or MTV at the time. "Loser" had gotten seriously overplayed since Mellow Gold's release, so this was definitely a fresh new sound for Beck. I blew my chance to see him come through town in the fall because I was waiting for a friend to let me know if he could go, but by the time he said yes, the show was already sold out. Still, "Where It's At" definitely lived up to its name, and it still does.

Honorable mentions: Beck - "Devil's Haircut"; Beck - "The New Pollution"; Sloan - "Everything You've Done Wrong"; Sloan - "G Turns to D"; The Afghan Whigs - "Blame, Etc."; The Afghan Whigs - "Honky's Ladder"; Weezer - "El Scorcho"; Weezer - "Pink Triangle"; Frank Black - "Men In Black"; Frank Black - "Punk Rock City"; The Tragically Hip - "Gift Shop"; The Tragically Hip - "Springtime in Vienna"; Wilco - "Misunderstood"; D Generation - "No Way Out"; Sebadoh - "Ocean"; Sebadoh - "Prince-S"; Pearl Jam - "Hail Hail"; Pearl Jam - "Smile"; R.E.M. - "E-Bow the Letter"; R.E.M. - "Leave"; Chixdiggit! - "(I Feel Like) (Gerry) Cheevers (Stitch Marks on My Heart)"; Soundgarden - "Pretty Noose"; Soundgarden - "Burden In My Hand"; Rage Against the Machine - "Bulls on Parade"; Rage Against the Machine - "Down Rodeo"; Lush - "Ladykillers"; Tupac and Dr. Dre - "California Love"; The Prodigy - "Firestarter"; Alice In Chains - "Over Now"; Alice In Chains - "Heaven Beside You";