2 August 1996 In summer 1996 'Lemon Tree' by German band Fool's Garden seemed to fill all available Irish radio airspace like an ever-expanding gas. To borrow its chorus: I wonder how, I wonder why. Was it the schlager whimsy dressed as then-trendy Britpop-adjacent larkiness? The all-ages blandness? Probably a bit of both. Considering how … Continue reading Fool’s Garden – ‘Lemon Tree’ →

14 June 1996 Louis Walsh knows best: people will buy anything as long as it's a cover of a schmaltzy '70s ballad. Boyzone led the way, for their farewell single Take That inexplicably followed, and here crossing the Atlantic are an ostensible hip hop act with their breakthrough hit and contribution to the EU corn … Continue reading Fugees – ‘Killing Me Softly’ →

7 June 1996 What exactly the project is here, I'm not sure. Write the most maudlin, mawkish romantic ballad ever? Throw generic supermarket piped music into a comparatively positive light? Or is 'project' short for 'projectile vomiting after a fill of slush and mush'? Whatever the project scope, I imagine Tony Rich's Gantt chart only … Continue reading The Tony Rich Project – ‘Nobody Knows’ →

10 May 1996 Now kids, you may find this hard to believe, but there was a time when Manchester United were winning the English league nearly every season. Yeah, I know! Anyway, in the '90s Man United were a banter club for the right reasons. Here in Ireland, on 2FM every weekday morning Des Cahill … Continue reading Men Utd ft. The Absolutelys – ‘Man Utd Man’ →

22 March 1996 I haven't found any independent source online to substantiate the widely-stated claim that the BBC banned Richie Kavanagh's 'Aon Focal Eile'. The sole basis for it seems to be a 1997 RTÉ interview in which Richie suggests a London radio producer told him this. What we can be sure of is that … Continue reading Richie Kavanagh – ‘Aon Focal Eile’ →

1 March 1996 Robbie had left, the other four had just announced their split, and this was the obligatory new track on their imminent greatest hits compilation. Those are the facts. However, Take That releasing a schmaltzy '70s ballad cover version as a high-profile single was a surprise and a disappointment. Were the boyband who … Continue reading Take That – ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ →

23 February 1996 U2 were post-punk. Bon Jovi and Guns N' Roses were hair metal. Even Coldplay were bedsit indie. What those bands have in common is that as soon as they reached stadium-sized success they instead started making stadium-sized soft rock: slow churning guitar chords; performative pseudo-profound lyrics; try-hard anthemic choruses. Yes, I mean … Continue reading Oasis – ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ →

19 January 1996 Here's how I remembered it. The jeans ad featured half a minute of ear-catching futuristic electronica. Everyone duly rushed out to buy the single, only for our collective jaws to drop when we realised that those opening thirty seconds turned into something entirely different. The next thing we dropped was the single … Continue reading Babylon Zoo – ‘Spaceman’ →

12 January 1996 The common denominator in George Michael's better songs—'Careless Whisper', 'Last Christmas', 'A Different Corner', 'Praying For Time', 'Freedom '90'—is his ability to express confused, vulnerable hurt, often just in a striking lyric or vocal phrasing. Unfortunately, it's a strength he gets to flex to its utmost in 'Jesus To A Child', which … Continue reading George Michael – ‘Jesus To A Child’ →