You want proof that good music can never die? That it can never die even if it never lived? Try “Nude Restaurant” by The 1990s – a band from the past that I can’t clearly recollect – as this album never saw the light of the day way back then but now finally finds itself in the sunshine courtesy of local label Last Night in Glasgow.
So, I hear you say, why didn’t this album escape before now? It wasn’t for quality reasons as the thirteen songs contained therein make for very pleasant listening. The sonic signatures that you might associate with the tail end of Britpop – although this album was apparently recorded in 2011 – are quite clearly present but not all the songs to be found here are stuck in that particular groove with “Diamond Dog” and “Blue Stockings”, as examples, taking the lyrical integrity of the aforementioned genre and transforming it into something simultaneously melodramatic, magical and just a little bit Bowie.
I therefore have no real idea why “Nude Restaurant” has taken so long to make it to the ears of Joe Public. The 1990s apparently had a fair following back then and there are a plenty of quality pop songs on this album so it’s not like it would have crashed and burned. Is the album a worthy subject for investigation in the here and now? I would say yes.
Best song: The ironically playful “Fassbinder Would Have Loved Techno”