The nineties ended in 1997, let’s face it. In 1997, the world at large started to feel more grey, more generic. Skanky women in New York started wearing lowrise jeans, it would still be years before they reached us out west. The warming glow of our Cold War victory was wearing thin as we faced a new, underwhelming enemy on the Indian Ocean.
On a personal level I was starting to have a genuine interest in music, starting here with Paul Simon’s Graceland. I couldn’t get enough of it and it was the first time I couldn’t get enough of everything. But on a greater level, I could only appreciate that little window of celebration, the kind of internationalism that brought Paul Simon to this album, that was now coming to an end.
Next: Radiohead, Judaism, and more grey.