Ultimate Grammy Collection: Contemporary Rock Review
by Dan MacIntosh
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Looking over this CD's 16-track selection, the first thought that comes to mind is this: These are the times the Grammy Awards got it right. (Anybody still remember when progressive rockers Jethro Tull won a Grammy in the metal category?) Thankfully, there is absolutely nothing quite that embarrassing with these various award winners.
The disc opens with Living Colour's hard rocking and smart "Cult Of Personality", which took home Best Hard Rock Performance in the 1989. Sadly -- along with Soul Asylum -- Living Colour is one of the acts on this collection that has largely been forgotten by time. But for the most part, the compilers chose performers that still have commercial staying power.
Listening through these various tunes, you can somewhat chronicle a little bit of rock music's history. This is evidence that the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences made mostly wise choices. For instance, Stone Temple Pilots' "Plush" and Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun", from 1993 and 1994 respectively, chart the rise of grunge, whereas The Smashing Pumpkins' "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" marks the beginning of the end of that stylistic trend.
In a few places, award recipients were clearly not also the most commercially viable vehicles on the spectrum. For instance, The Chemical Brothers stomping techno music has never caught on big time in the U.S., but "Block Rockin' Beats" is a wonderful rock-meets-electronic experiment. Similarly, Fiona Apple may not ever be a huge pop star, which makes her win for "Criminal" in 1997 somewhat surprising. Lastly, Tracy Chapman's "Give Me One Reason" from 1996 came along just a little bit past her commercial highpoint.
All praise aside, however, there is reason for indie rock fans to nitpick. After all, there are no lo-fi examples or independent label sweethearts. Instead, there's a whole lot of big label, commercial rock. There's Lenny Kravitz, Coldplay, Dave Matthews, and Blues Traveler, if you go for that sort of thing. Even so, there isn't anything Milli Vanilli bad. Be ye thankful my friends.
At the risk of sounding like a prophet, a few of these tracks will still be beloved many years from now. The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" has a guitar riff that will not die, nor ever fail to please. This CD closes with Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", which has eternal classic rock written all over it.
Being a Grammy representative must be a thankless job because you can't please all the people, all the time. But for the most part, this contemporary rock collection is representative of the style's last few decades. You can quibble with some choices, but you'd be hard pressed to argue with its quality.
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Ultimate Grammy Collection: Contemporary Rock
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