Why is The Mike Flowers Pops’ A Groovy Place on my best 1,000 albums ever list?
Groovy and swinging (and clever and funny).
What does The Mike Flowers Pops’ A Groovy Place mean to me? What does it make me feel? Why is it exciting or compelling?
I’m a huge fan of music that works both as comedy and as music: a difficult thing to pull off, but when it does, it’s magic. With The Mike Flowers Pops and A Groovy Place, it’s a delightfully subtle mix that, all told, is clever and funny and groovy and swinging.
To me this is represented best by something I read many years ago, about the astonishingly good cover of Oasis’ “Wonderwall.” While my memory on the specifics is hazy now, the gist is that many people completely assumed that The Mike Flowers Pops version is the “original,” produced during the swinging ‘60s, and that the Oasis version is the cover.
I love this because it means that The Mike Flowers Pops version works on multiple levels: it’s fun and hip and original enough to completely stand on its own as an Austin Powers-esque swinging London-vibe kind of ‘60s pop song, and it’s also a song that makes you smirk a little (with the song, and not at it, if you can dig) at the delightful fun that the cover song is having with the earnest, incredible Oasis original.
And man oh man does The Mike Flowers Pop video for “Wonderwall” nail that exact vibe as well. Here’s the Oasis version of “Wonderwall” as comparison.
The Doors’ “Light My Fire” has been covered many times and in all kinds of ways, and the groovy, so-square-it’s-hip martini lounge version that The Mike Flowers Pops performs is another great entry.
“Sure,” you say. “But I’m also looking for the exact polar opposite cover version of ‘Light My Fire,’ Eric, what you got for me there, my dude?”
Okay, a little confrontational, but I’m compelled to retort with the absolutely incredible and exquisitely unique Type O Negative goth rock version.
This medley of Velvet Underground songs, called “Velvet Underground Medley” appropriately enough, is mind bending in the best kind of way.
Some stats & info about The Mike Flowers Pops – A Groovy Place
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Pop Music, Lounge Music, Martini Lounge
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 3 out of 5 stars
- When was A Groovy Place released? 1996
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #839 out of 1,000
The Mike Flowers Pops’ A Groovy Place on Spotify
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective take on what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.