4 of the Best Rock Songs from 1999

Prince wrote about 1999 in 1982. In his song, the world is ending and he’s throwing a party because chances are, 2000 ain’t happening.

But 2000 did happen and before the party ended, rock bands thrived.

Twenty-five years ago, Chris Cornell went solo, Rage Against the Machine’s battle with Los Angeles ended with one final album of originals, a lost funky monk returned to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blur (again) ditched Britpop, Blink-182 dominated MTV with an enema pun, and Scott Stapp and his band Creed sold millions of albums with their arms wide OH-PEN.

Here are four standout rock tracks from 1999 with a few surprise jams you may have forgotten.

“Tender” by Blur from 13

By the late ’90s, Britpop had fizzled. Damon Albarn’s relationship with Elastica’s Justine Frischmann ended, too. But the lingering heartbreak over Frischmann consumed Albarn’s songwriting on 13. “Tender” opens their sixth album with Brit-gospel, and it’s a stunning hymn. Backed by the London Community Gospel Choir, Albarn didn’t turn his romantic split with Frischmann into a grievance exercise. Instead, it’s positive therapy.

The track also features a kindhearted slacker doo-wop vocal from guitarist Graham Coxon, who also bends his way through a twangy, angular guitar solo. Coxon is one of Britpop’s more adventurous guitarists and his playing often feels like he’s skateboarding down a dense street in Camden Town. Punters in stadiums have sung this anthem for 25 years.

“Californication” by Red Hot Chili Peppers from Californication

John Frusciante joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers as a teenage virtuoso. He reshaped the Los Angeles group’s sound—adding melodic sensibilities to the funk and punk sock party they’d thrown since the early ’80s. Then he quit at the height of their popularity. While touring in support of a masterpiece, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, the guitarist felt crushed by the band’s fame. Then he descended into well-publicized addiction. Somehow, Frusciante escaped death. He lost his house in a fire, lost his teeth, yet still, he breathed.

The guitarist returned for Californication, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ colossal seventh album. Here, Frusciante’s playing is minimalist and gorgeous and the band sounds reinvigorated after their goth metal experiment with Jane’s Addiction’s Dave Navarro. The title track details the dark side of Hollywood from a group of musicians who spent a lifetime testing the limits of seedy and glamorous L.A.

“Aurora” by Foo Fighters from There Is Nothing Left To Lose

“Aurora” is a Foo Fighters gem casual fans may not know. Dave Grohl sings wistfully about an old life, a friend, a partner, or a faded chapter in his life. Though the lyrics lack clarity, there’s enough there to piece together a universal question of existence while staring at the stars.

Grohl had painfully endured Kurt Cobain’s suicide while Nirvana was the biggest rock band on the planet. But under the radar, the drummer had great songs, too. There’s a hazy quality to the blurry, delay-soaked guitars of “Aurora.” The Foos sound like they are swimming in an abyss, grasping for air, answers, or light. “Aurora” is an exquisite song on what may be the Foo Fighters’ best album.

“Can’t Stand It” by Wilco from Summerteeth

Summerteeth opens with Jeff Tweedy’s version of a pop song. Reprise Records put the squeeze on the band, eager for a hit. Tweedy acquiesced, “once and once only.” By Wilco’s next album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the relationship between band and label would implode. Though “Can’t Stand It” didn’t become the hit Reprise had hoped for, it previewed the experimental pop Wilco later perfected on Foxtrot.

The album features the brilliant creative partnership between Tweedy and multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett. With Tweedy and Bennett hooked on both pills and Mellotron, Summerteeth kick-started Wilco’s transformation from the alt-country fare Tweedy’s former band Uncle Tupelo helped inspire. The relationship between Tweedy and Bennett would soon be another casualty. On “Can’t Stand It,” Tweedy is anxious about lasting relationships—personal, spiritual, maybe with himself. Soon, he’d tear apart his own band to save it.

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