I blame Mike Love. Yes, it’s so easy to blame the guy for everything wrong in music. I mean, he’s egotistical, gave money to help get the PMRC off the…
Popdose Flashback
154 Articles
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
I am 16. It’s July, and I’m in Florida, where, to quote my uncle Larry, the air is so fucking wet that you won’t notice if you towel off after…
Robin Monica Alexander
1 Min Read
Twenty years ago, Harry Connick shared his recipe for love — and led a new generation of pop crooners to rediscover some time-tested platinum ingredients.
Michael Fortes
9 Min Read
In a very personal Flashback ’90, Popdose writer Michael Fortes revisits the lows and highs of Cheap Trick’s Busted, song by song.
Mike Heyliger
1 Min Read
Sure, a big part of Mariah Carey’s success had to do with cold calculation. If you listen to her 1990 debut album, it’s fairly obvious that the folks behind her…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
Bobby. Art. Dave. Sonny. Ike. J-’Stache. Curt. Paul (Humphreys, that is). Everly (no, not that one, the other one) … Of all the lesser halves of pop’s greatest duos, certainly…
Kelly Stitzel
1 Min Read
I first became a fan of Jill Sobule’s after hearing her 1997 album, Happy Town. Though I was familiar with her work via her earlier singles, “I Kissed a Girl”…
Matthew Bolin
1 Min Read
It’s been 20 years since Lou Reed and John Cale set aside their differences to pay tribute to their former manager, Andy Warhol. Matthew Bolin takes a look back.
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Earth Day 1990 was a very big deal. Held on April 23, a Sunday, it marked the pinnacle of an upswing in green consumerism and a transition for the environmental…
Matthew Bolin
1 Min Read
As Popdose’s editor in chief Jeff Giles (y’all) would probably agree, Lindsey Buckingham is still probably one of the most overlooked and underrated of the significant figures in rock music…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
The 1980s were not, to put it mildly, a good decade for brass sections. We still heard horns on the Top 40, sure — but more often than not, we…
Kelly Stitzel
1 Min Read
Everybody remembers Eddy Grant’s early-’80s hit “Electric Avenue,” but he came back strong in 1990 with Barefoot Soldier, as Kelly Stitzel reminds us in this edition of Popdose Flashback ’90.
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
When the Lightning Seeds sprouted on modern rock radio in the spring of 1990, their songs felt (as much as anything on modern rock radio could feel) like a comfy…
Ken Shane
1 Min Read
For some people, Social Distortion is the very definition of a rock and roll band. After all, they have everything the average rock fan could ask for – the sizzling…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
We’re only a few months into our Flashback ’90 series, and we’ve already unearthed about as many regrettable hits as we have certified classics — and chances are, you aren’t…
Mike Heyliger
1 Min Read
Twenty years after this Public Enemy classic was released, Mike Heyliger reflects on its legacy — and laments mainstream hip-hop’s turn away from social consciousness.
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
Rob Smith tells himself he’s over the Pretty Woman soundtrack, but is he the king of wishful thinking?
Ben Wiser
1 Min Read
Twenty years after it was released, Ben Wiser says Peter Murphy’s Deep still cuts you up.
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
We soon learned that what she “hadn’t got” was her marbles. But do we have to ignore the crazy to remember what a great album this is?
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
In the spring of 1990, I was in the middle of the first long-term relationship of my adolescent life. By “long-term,” I mean “six months,” but hey, when you’re teetering…
Jon Cummings
6 Min Read
A favorite trope among the British Invasion bands of the ’60s was the notion that they took the R&B, country and early rock music that America had exported during the…
Dave Steed
1 Min Read
Today, Dave Steed is a father, husband, and homeowner — but in 1990, he was wearing baggy pants and dancing like a fool, and MC Hammer was to blame.
Jack Feerick
5 Min Read
Jack Feerick reflects on 20 years of listening to Luka Bloom — and takes us back to the days when finding music sometimes took hard work and a little luck.
Scott Malchus
1 Min Read
Eric Johnson’s Ah Via Musicom gets the Flashback ’90 series in Scott Malchus’ latest Basement Songs column.
Jack Feerick
1 Min Read
In a Flashback ’90 twofer, Jack Feerick looks back on two albums connected in more ways than one.
Rob Smith
1 Min Read
In the latest installment of Popdose’s Flashback ’90 series, Rob Smith revisits the heartbreak and loneliness of Cowboy Junkies’ album The Caution Horses.
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Twenty years ago, the reconstituted Bad Company turned Holy Water into platinum. Jeff Giles thinks it might finally be time to forgive.
Ken Shane
1 Min Read
In January of 1990, the Blue Nile released their second album. Ken Shane celebrates 20 years of listening to what he calls “one of the great pop albums of its, or any, time.”
Michael Parr
1 Min Read
Michael Parr looks back the chord struck in his 15-year-old psyche — 20 years ago! — by Toad the Wet Sprocket’s Pale.
Robin Monica Alexander
1 Min Read
This is where the party ends, ’cause we can’t stand here listening to They Might Be Giants’ Flood turning 20 years old. Twenty! Where has the time gone? And why does someone keep moving my chair?