OR: Day one of the unofficial pentalogy of great 90s sample-based tracks.

The beginning of university in 95 was an odd experience. My master was Communications Science, because, as you can see, I like arts, movies, and writing. The first semester wasn’t what I expected and I ended up switching majors on my second semester, to Telecomm.

I’ve heard the word “sample” and “cover” a lot from friends, but never quite got what they meant. Thankfully, the next two years gave us several hits from bands in different genres whose greatest hit had a sample as its hook, and like all good samples, it opens you to other genres you’ve probably never heard before.

White Town’s Your Woman lyrics were confusing for some. Is it from a gay guy perspective? Is it from the point of view of a woman in a bad relationship? Jyoti Prakash Mishra eventually said that it was written from different perspectives. A storyteller song, from an observer of human relationships, good and bad.

The Lew Stone sample goes perfect with the 20s aesthetic chosen by Mark Adcock, the video’s director. I would eventually travel to Leicester ONLY to see the place where such an iconic video was recorded. There I was, with a Gregg’s cheese and onion pasty, whistling the sample, half-mumbling the lyrics as I was freezing.

Like I’ve said many times, CDs were stupidly expensive, and there’s this period, between 95 and 2000, where if you wanted a hit from the radio, you’d have to buy those double-disc NOW compilations, where 5 or 6 tracks were the hits you heard, then the rest were a bunch of electronica and disco tracks. Pulp’s Disco 2000, Sting’s Let your soul be your pilot, this track, and the ones I’ll be posting about in the next days were keepers.

In retrospective, you could call Your Woman “bedroom pop”, and although it went underappreciated later in the charts, it still is a perfect example that creativity and dedication can help you get your art out there.

-Sam J. Valdés López