30: Your Favourite Song At This Time Last Year.
No Rain, Blind Melon (Blind Melon, Capitol; 1992)
In my previous job, my co-workers and I collaborated on a lot of things; mostly Spotify compilations.
The playlists started as just songs that we wanted to hear, liked or whatever and ended up being pretty stupid themed playlists taking in weather, food, clothing, colour, etc. A mix of forgotten gems, new pearls and awful dross, as is the nature. There was also plenty of Chief Kooffreh.
Blind Melon’s No Rain featured on every single one. It started out as a lovely slice of teenage nostalgia, of sitting in fields with crappy portable stereos drinking cheap warm booze. By the end, it was the unofficial anthem bonding together the workforce. A sing-a-long for the post-Generation X (apart from one, who was Generation X) working the nine-to-five but dreaming of freedoms outside. Finger-clicking, brushed drums, sickly sweet guitar and a pretty fey vocal took us out of the office and into parks with friends, beer and maybe a frisbee.
It became a running in-joke (not a particularly brilliant one) that a playlist wasn’t a playlist without it.
I’m sticking to that tradition.
LISTEN: Album recording.
WATCH: Commercial video.
