Club MTV: Surely There Was Better Music Than This in 1991
Written: Jun 17 '03
Product Rating:
Pros: Personal Jesus and Humpty Dance...
Cons: Everything else is boring, dated, and sounds horrible...
The Bottom Line: Be smart. Get a more inclusive, better representative, and better produced compilation if you'd like to hear dance-pop from the early part of the last decade.
I’m proud to say that even in 1991 I refused to have anything to do with Club MTV. I thought it to be hokey even then, and over a decade later my respect for the Downtown Julie Brown hosted debacle has waned to the point of near nothingness. If the show is anything near as bad as the disc Club MTV: Party to Go, Vol. 1, then my memories are indeed accurate.
Certainly MTV could have come up with a collection of tracks that wouldn’t seem so bland and outdated. There was at least slightly higher quality dance music in the early 1990’s and songs like Unbelievable (EMF), Right Here-Right Now (Jesus Jones), Pump Up The Jam (Technotronic), and Back To Life (Soul II Soul) come immediately to mind. But with that said, there is little positive that can and should be said for this truly appalling compilation. From start to finish, Club MTV: Party to Go, Vol. 1 is ghastly.
First things first, any album that includes songs from Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer needs to be put out of it’s misery immediately. Not that I don’t see the merit in the songs of either pop-rapper but the fact is that Turn This Mutha Out and Play That Funky Music aren’t necessarily the most representative choices from either man. Turn This Mutha Out is in my estimation a rotten example of rap. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In 1991, this is what was popular—but mere popularity does not amount to a whit of musical merit. Play That Funky Music on the other hand lacks any particular direction and hasn’t aged well. Vanilla Ice sounds like a little boy as he raps slowly and methodically to overly tidy beats. Bad, bad stuff.
Of course I can’t attack everything on Club MTV: Party to Go, Vol. 1. Humpty Dance and Personal Jesus are without question the standout tracks. Neither seems particularly suited to this otherwise toss-away release. Humpty Dance from Digital Underground is a funky, silly track. This, the troupe’s breakthrough single, is still worth hearing today. Personal Jesus (from Depeche Mode) is ill suited for this album in both genre and quality. Pretty much everything else here is dance-pop-rap. This song is on the other hand a kind of alt-synth-pop that mixed dark grooves with thick theatrics. Dave Gahan’s rich voice permeates the track, and if nothing else it at least wraps up the album on a positive note.
But even with two good tracks, there is so much wrong with this album that I can’t even recommend a purchase for a mere 75 ¢. It seems to me that I remember some of these songs in a more positive light than they seem here. Whatever good in Poison (Bel Biv DeVoe) and Feels So Good (Tony! Toni! Tone!) that once existed is all but tossed out the window with these strangely hollow mixes. Poison is a fine enough track, but lasts way too long while Feels So Good is dated and reprehensibly bad. The beats are weirdly outdated, something that never happens to truly decent songs.
Club MTV: Party to Go, Vol. 1 only gets worse as it progresses. Come on people! Knocked Out from Paul Abdul is by no means one of her more worthwhile hits. Even in 1991, it didn’t get much airplay…and for good reason. It pretty much sucks rotten eggs. Think from Information Society wasn’t something I liked twelve years ago. My tastes haven’t changed so much as to allow it anywhere near my musical hemisphere. The synths are devoid of emotion and the melody barely exists. The song does manage to eventually go somewhere…but in the end it just sounds like a long (thankfully) extinct television jingle.
Tom’s Diner is a great song. Period. But not this unsanctioned DNA remix. Suddenly the dark, thoughtful Suzanne Vega was (without her knowledge) turned from a contemporary folkie to something of a dance hall diva. I respect the fact that DNA decided to set the a cappella song to a beat, but it should never have been a dance track. The beats and synths drown out Vega’s light, soothing voice. Knockin’ Boots from Candyman is sheer fun. It is by no means an intelligent or fierce track, but it is nonetheless rather representative of the era. The melody and samples do get old after a while. As do his monotonous rhymes. But hey…it’s better than most of the other material.
Even all those years ago, I didn’t know what to make of the Canadian Jane Child. She looked like an artsy punk rocker with crimped, spiky hair and braids…not to mention piercings. But what came out of her mouth was something akin to the dance-pop stylings of Taylor Dayne or Paula Abdul. Admittedly, I was fascinated by her look as a young teen but her sound wasn’t appealing then. It’s certainly no more tempting now.
Club MTV: Party to Go, Vol. 1 is just an overall bad album that should not be for any reason (aside from comic relief) added to any half way respectable music collection. Very few of these songs sound at all relevant today.
Rating: 1 star
Track Listing:
1. Club MTV Theme
2. Turn This Mutha Out - MC Hammer
3. Poison - Bell Biv DeVoe
4. Feels So Good - Tony! Toni! Tone!
5. Knocked Out - Paula Abdul
6. Think - Information Society
7. Play That Funky Music - Vanilla Ice
8. Tom's Diner - DNA featuring Suzanne Vega
9. Knockin' Boots - Candyman
10. Humpty Dance, The - Digital Underground
11. Don't Wanna Fall In Love - Jane Child
12. Personal Jesus - Depeche Mode
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