Classic songs: Luscious Jackson’s ‘City Song’.

Back in the day, in my favourite decade for music – the ‘90s, I stumbled across a curious four-gal band called Luscious Jackson. In truth, I have the Beastie Boys to thank for that. In those early days of Lusciuos Jackson they were the first band the Beastie Boys signed to their record label and they successfully toured alongside the Beastie Boys as a support act. Interestingly, here is a little fun fact, Luscious Jackson’s drummer Kate Schellenbach was one of the original Beastie Boys in the early ‘80s when they were a hardcore punk act.

Anyway, it was around ’94 that I first got my hands upon their debut album Natural Ingredients. From it came a number of great tracks, which included Here, Deep Shang and Citysong. On their Spotify profile their music is described as “dark influenced hip-hop alternative rock”. I’m not going to argue with that description except to say that Luscious Jackson also mix ‘n’ matched their music to suit their mood. One of their biggest influence was New York City and its melting pot of musical tastes. It’s fair to say they romanticized NYC in those formative years which was no more evident than with Citysong. The songs best lyric? Probably “…this city tells me what it’s like to live.”

Luscious Jackson would remain on my radar for a number of years following my introduction to Natural Ingredients. I would later scrounge up enough money to get an import copy of their second album Fever In, Fever Out which included arguably one of their best songs ever called Naked Eyes. But sadly as quickly as I fell in love with Luscious Jackson, I was happy enough to also say goodbye to them soon after. That said, I still enjoy a nostalgic trip down memory lane every now and then and crank up the volume to one of my favourite mid ‘90s alternative hip hop bands.