FREEFORM 1990's ALTERNATIVE ALBUM POLL - THE RECKONING (TOP TEN COUNTING DOWN NOW)

I'm thinking Crappin' You Negative is probably an album I'd appreciate more now than I did in 1994. Gonna go back and re-evaluate.

88 The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I (1999)
35 points
3 votes
0 first-place votes
Greatest contributor: sofatruck

http://www.merryswankster.com/images/Dismemberment.jpg

TDP, and "Emergency & I" in particular, is one of those things I just can't talk about rationally. To cop a well-worn phrase, not liking them is like not liking the sun. Of course I feel that way about the Beatles so consider the source.

― Jack Redelfs, Sunday, 23 September 2001 00:00 (8 years ago)

as much as i enjoy them, I have to concede that they're certainly an acquired taste (like anything of worth, in my opinion). their quality is not an absolute, even to fans of the type of music they play, however you choose to define it. There are days when it sounds as paper thin to me as it must to those who dismiss the hype, so i definitely sympathize. But one thing that's hard to take issue with is that they're good at what they do, which I think is pretty rare, really. And if you want to see effort and ambition as overearnestness, so be it.

as for the 'classic' issue, that's a thorny word to throw around, but i can only speak for myself that I already know that these are some records and shows that i'll look back on fondly in the years to come. as for "Change", i already love most of the songs from hearing them live, but have my dooubts as to whether it'll continue to step up their hype momentum. it's kind of one of those records that's too low-key (by their standards) to really maintain the excitement they've been generating lately, but it'll probably still be their biggest yet, although i think E&I will remain the most effective (and most flattering) introduct

― al, Thursday, 4 October 2001 00:00 (8 years ago)

If Louis's reading this I think he'll love the last two D Plan albums.

― Scik Mouthy, Monday, 5 March 2007 16:36 (3 years ago)

yeah, the Dismemberment Plan are awesome. Emergency & I is one of my top albums of the last 10 years, no questions.

― Lee F# (fsharp), Thursday, 28 April 2005 06:50 (4 years ago)

TDP kicks much. Such inventiveness, such style.
Classsssssssssic.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Thursday, 13 March 2003 07:47 (7 years ago)

did you love the last two D-Plan albums??

never really listened to them

but I do have them

Change never worked for me...but E&I has some absolutely killer songs. A scarred and charred Weezer. Definitely give it a good go.

good choice

I can't listen to D-Plan. Travis and I didn't get along way back when, and I can't get past the memories.

That's al-legedly some dude's first-ever ILX post, in that round-up there

http://www.merryswankster.com/images/Dismemberment.jpg

^^^jesus I wouldn't listen to anything that came in such a godawful eyesore of a package. wtf

87 The Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen (1993)
35 points
4 votes
0 first-place votes
Greatest contributor: Ismael Klata

http://www.terapija.net/fotke/portret/20061120_103938_3.jpg

Of course not liking the album is a subjective choice but it's always been classic in my book.The single best bad relationship album ever.I pretty much love everything about the album from the lyrics to the slide guitar sound to the song order & of course female perspective on "My Curse".
I always thought Black Love was an attempt to recreate this one on a grander scale only Dulli seemed like he was just playing the bad ass.Gentlemen seemed to come from his heart.
Of course if you don't like Dulli's voice you're out of luck.God knows it's an acquired taste.Always seems like he's straining to stay in tune.Combined with the woozy slide sound it takes some getting used to.And yeah the lyrics are great.

― evan chronister (evan chronister), Monday, 11 April 2005 04:49 (5 years ago)

o fuck like rickey said if yr lumping it in with sebodah yr looking for shit that aint there. its a big arrogant MALE record - rawk! - that falters and reveals itself as self centred arrogant nasty precious crude preening. dulli is a prick - in the lacanian sense.

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Monday, 11 April 2005 06:46 (5 years ago)

oh god. wounded animal record. best relationship/breakup album ever. frighteningly un self- edited. it's all out there, or in here. dulli's voice is awesome. "i've go a dick for a brain / and my brain is gonna sell my ass to you".

― stevie (stevie), Monday, 11 April 2005 13:40 (5 years ago)

When I got rid of my albums to devote myself to songs, Gentlemen was one of the four I couldn't bear to let go. That said, I've never quite been totally convinced of its greatness - it somehow feels just a little bit too unrelenting in its grittiness. Torn between 'My Curse' and 'Brother Woodrow', but it's hard not to vote for the title track

― Ismael Klata, Tuesday, 2 June 2009 12:54 (10 months ago)

this album's sound and U2 have some things in common

― Zeno, Wednesday, 3 June 2009 00:20 (10 months ago)

I can only imagine it will get much more niche/personalized from this point on.

― Johnny Fever, Monday, April 26, 2010 6:19 PM (30 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i don't understand. don't you think there'll be more albums with more than 3 or 4 voters the further we go up? i mean even if a large number of voters gave one album the majority of their points those records would still make up just a small portion of the top 100.

lmao @ lj quoting Chamillionaire's "Ridin'" as a blurb for UGK's Ridin' Dirty. glad my 8 points helped that one make the cut.

haha yeah that is my first post!

lmao @ lj quoting Chamillionaire's "Ridin'" as a blurb for UGK's Ridin' Dirty

my face is a million sadnesses

some dude's voting patterns have borne fruit, what can I say?

i don't understand. don't you think there'll be more albums with more than 3 or 4 voters the further we go up? i mean even if a large number of voters gave one album the majority of their points those records would still make up just a small portion of the top 100.

I'm thinking people's #1 votes will start showing up with one or two backing votes (or, if enough points were allotted, NO backing votes). Seeing people's pet favorites will surely be interesting. My own #1 vote wasn't something I'd normally include in such a list, but I wanted to ensure it placed.

another one from my list makes it

85= Neil Young - Harvest Moon
36 points
2 votes
0 first-place votes
Greatest contributor: Captain Ahab

http://www.theartwolf.com/imagenestAW/Neil_Young_Harvest_Moon.jpg

also half of Harvest Moon bores me to tears

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 25 July 2004 22:35 (5 years ago)

Harvest Moon is pretty boring.

― Hell is other people. In an ILE film forum. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 11 November 2009 00:36 (5 months ago)

yeah Harvest Moon is like 50% of a good record

― squarefair (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 11 November 2009 00:48 (5 months ago)

sometimes, Neil Young. esp. the Harvest Moon album which I like a lot for reasons I don't fully understand.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 14 June 2004 22:37 (5 years ago)

I voted Harvest Moon. I love that record & I have a very particular history with it.

― Mark, Wednesday, 11 November 2009 03:38 (5 months ago)

Harvest Moon is pretty boring.

― Hell is other people. In an ILE film forum. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 11 November 2009 00:36 (5 months ago)

Soto in complete correctness shocka.

88 The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I (1999)
35 points
3 votes
0 first-place votes
Greatest contributor: sofatruck Pitchfork

I dunno, Pitchfork was hardly the tastemaking monolith in 1999 that it is 11 years later.

It was just one of the hundreds of indie rock review sites that rose above the others by shelling out the cash for its own domain name.

Ha. Pretty true really. I can't seem to find my ballot, but I basically picked 10 or 12 albums off the top of my head and gave them equal points. I did hear about this one from pfork... no regrets, still love this album.

I did hear about this one from pfork...

I bet this is the case for most people who jumped on board at E&I.

85= Biosphere - Substrata
36 points
2 votes
0 first-place votes
Greatest contributor: ciderpress

http://dezji.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/substrata.jpg

I was really hoping there'd be like 500 votes for this poll

― rockapads, Monday, 16 June 2008 23:31 (1 year ago)

substrata is great!

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Friday, 20 February 2004 12:38 (6 years ago)

i find people describe a lot of albums as beatless when they aren't really, but substrata seemed to quite genuinely fit the description.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Friday, 20 February 2004 12:50 (6 years ago)

Biosphere's "Substrata" is as arctic as it gets. And his "Polar Sequences" too...

― Siegbran Hetteson, Friday, 19 July 2002 00:00 (7 years ago)

i gave a bunch of points to Biosphere - Substrata

i hope i'm not the only one...

― ciderpress, Friday, 5 March 2010 02:59 (1 month ago)

I don't even know what this is.

first one i don't have the slightest clue what it is. techno?

heh xpost

Wikipedia says ambient.

so quiet techno

about 90% of the ILX posts about it are by Ki11ian

and about 8% by Siegbran

although it transpires that cutty is a fan

I'm intrigued - lovely album-cover at least, and if it's in the same quality-bracket as Global Communication I'd be well up for hearing it

also al I can't believe you even questioned whether this was techno I mean look at the name + the cover hey you never know it might be postpunk! XD

or some really goddamn undie hip-hop lol

eh there are so low level mid-90s major label alt-rock records with artwork like that

when i 1st started posting here i tht geir was the geir from biosphere i hav no memory of why tho

substrata is def a classic but i like some of the supermnml dronier stuff hes done more recently

eh there are so low level mid-90s major label alt-rock records with artwork like that

this is a good point, but I was thinking a combination of that + the band-name + the album-name

I like Super Tight more overall, but this record starts with one of the best four-song stretches ever

― otto günne (The Reverend), Wednesday, 17 February 2010 07:11 (2 months ago)

Confession: I didn't vote for Super Tight because I thought Ridin' Dirty would have better chance of making it.

I only voted for 10 albums, all either canonical, or at least ILM-beloved rap albums. Strategy ahoy.

more and more i'm kinda wishing i'd done that too, but eh what's done is done.

ha re: bizarre ride II the pharcyde it was #09 on my ballot so lol @ me giving it the most points. loving it so much probably makes me an herb but its kinda like that majesticons album mike ladd made - jittery and jokey and self-obsessed and easy to like - & i basically vibe everything abt fatlip

thought abt voting for ugk but ended up voten stuff i liked a little better :/

Substrata doesn't have a single beat in it, so it's definitely "quiet techno". Great album to go to sleep to, but I spent my Biosphere vote on Patashnik, which I think is more fully realized work. The two albums Biosphere and Pete Namlook did as The Fires of Ork are dope too.

substrata deserves its iconic status just for sampling major briggs dream speech from twin peaks

Biosphere were great, awesome to see it in the poll.

Though Substrata has one of the finest uses of a vocal sample ever, when it juxtaposes Major Briggs' monologue from Twin Peaks with Jenssen's Himalayan soundscapes.

(x-post with Lamp, ha!)

ok gonna do the rest of the night's polling to the soundscapes of Substrata - this had better be good you guys!

It is!

http://open.spotify.com/album/6jeIzUv8Bff4fFElZwwA4B

heh Lamp / Tuomas, I was just about to say. It also has the giant saying "sorry to wake you..."

This is a great winter album.

Am loving the start! 1997, btw

glad to see biosphere. strongly considered voting for the same album and love patashnik also.

if it's in the same quality-bracket as Global Communication I'd be well up for hearing it

― sausage s4rgent (acoleuthic), Monday, April 26, 2010 7:57 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

it's on par, but maybe darker and dronier than GC? been a while since i listened to them. think "poa alpina" off substrata might combine GC-type prettiness with his usual wintery atmosphere. let us know what you think!

It's got something of the Slowdive - Pygmalion about it (Poa Alpina being the song I've just sat through) and yeah I can see myself getting along very well with this music.

This album is somewhere between Gas and GC. It's not my favorite Biosphere album but it's pretty good.

82= Missy Elliott - Da Real World
36 points
4 votes
0 first-place votes
Greatest contributor: The Lex

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qEiTSJ7FhGs/SUREUe1A-9I/AAAAAAAAAYQ/-z3fw6sbzZc/s320/missyeliottmissynr5.jpg

"Da Real World" is possibly my favourite, but I reckon all the albums are quite consistent in terms of quality. "...So Addictive" has some of her most fabulous work ever - the stretch from "One Minute Man" to "Scream AKA Itchin" is absolutely astonishing - but strangely the tracks don't seem to build on eachother as well as on the previous albums.

"Da Real World" is not the place to start - too cool and stylistically consistent. I think that is its strength, but as an introduction it would be its weakness.

― Tim, Thursday, 19 July 2001 00:00 (8 years ago)

Missy's most consistent album by a long way. There are at least six tracks I'd happily vote for, I'll have to think about this. Luckily I have almost a year!

― chap, Thursday, 6 November 2008 18:33 (1 year ago)

MR DJ PLAY DAT ONE MORE TIME
SO ME AND MISSY ELLIOTT CAN MOVE WE WAISTLINE

― lex pretend, Thursday, 6 November 2008 19:32 (1 year ago)

AMAZING ALBUM.

― Tim F, Wednesday, 9 September 2009 23:15 (7 months ago)

Everyone is a bitch
But no-one comes close to
Missy, the queen B.

-a hoy hoy