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

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

thought about voting for that, didn't

glad it's here in spite

ditto

82= Mogwai - Mogwai Young Team
36 points
4 votes
0 first-place votes
Greatest contributor: Gravel Puzzleworth

http://mogwai.sandbag.uk.com/Content/58.jpg

I hadn't listened to Young Team in probably a year and a half before this morning, but this album remains an utter masterpiece of mood and tension, a collection of muted, fucked-up, drifting-to-sleep emotions. There's an unbelievable implied depth (sonic? emotional?) to the songs, something that's really hard to get at from merely describing the sound or the methodology of the record. I like to think that there's a certain place in the world -- maybe some pocket of air a few hundred feet in the air over the ocean -- where the theme from "Tracy" plays endlessly. Is anyone else still listening to Young Team?

― Clarke B. (Clarke B.), Sunday, 9 May 2004 14:44 (5 years ago)

Opening track. I still think 'Young Team' is basically all you need to know about this band, apart from the odd EP track. I've never really liked any of their other albums. Ever-diminishing returns and all that. This one is definitely a classic of 90s post-rock, even if it does totally rip off 'Siamese Dream' in places.

― ears are wounds, Friday, 20 March 2009 11:27 (1 year ago)

everything starts and end with Young Team,and it's hard to believe they will ever make again anything of sagnificent

― Zeno, Sunday, 16 December 2007 19:49 (2 years ago)

I was reviewing records for KALX when "Young Team" came out and wrote a sprawling two paragraph thing that proclaimed it "better than sex" -- I was wrong.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 9 December 2002 22:41 (7 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

erm... mogwai was great sexmusic. at least, young team was.

― kate, Monday, 9 December 2002 22:51 (7 years ago)

mogwai: rock.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Friday, 18 February 2005 10:59 (5 years ago)

I like about half of that album! But some of it is slightly dated! It was a great gateway drug to avant-rock for my younger self! I have another album primed to post! Maybe I'll leave it until tomorrow morning!

Substrata is still really good!

Fine, I'll do the last two!

82= 2pac - All Eyez On Me
36 points
4 votes
0 first-place votes
Greatest contributor: The Reverend

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GhJGoTBwAPc/Sb9tEGhBH3I/AAAAAAAABCE/0fWrXxedeOk/s400/All+Eyez+On+Me+(pred).jpg

Tupac is pretty bad. This album is just like all of his cliched dross. Dud.

― paulhw (paulhw), Thursday, 11 August 2005 19:19 (4 years ago)

My favourite hip-hop album. Mainly because of the production and backing track. Might have preferred it without the rapping, but I used to love the G-funk sound, which was probably the closest the 90s ever got to 80s influenced electro.

― Geir Hongro, Thursday, 3 January 2008 12:43 (2 years ago)

yeah man, greatest drum sound ever. PSHHHHHHH.

― Alex in Baltimore, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 17:24 (2 years ago)

i like all the tracks really its just kinda different moods and shit, like when you wanna hear all about u is not the same as when you wanna hear life goes on or the weak california love remix

― and what, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 17:35 (2 years ago)

ambition az a ridah cuz i ain't mad at cha makes me want to kill myself l;

-- luriqua, Wednesday, September 5, 2007 7:52 PM (7 months ago)

wtf @ haters

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 3 January 2008 02:42 (2 years ago)

(1996)

(and Mogwai was 1997)

(and Missy was 1999)

So far, strategy is working.

LOTS OF TIES! Recap so far:

(tie) 100. Stereolab - Peng! (1992)
(tie) 100. XTC - Apple Venus, Vol. 1 (1999)
(tie) 100. De La Soul - Buhloone Mind State (1993)
(tie) 98. Fugazi - End Hits (1998)
(tie) 98. Crowded House - Woodface (1991)
97. Sonic Youth - Washing Machine (1995)
96. Björk - Debut (1993)
95. Mark Eitzel - Songs of Love (1991)
94. Elliott Smith - Either/Or (1997)
(tie) 92. The Pharcyde - Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde (1992)
(tie) 92. The Afghan Whigs - Black Love (1996)
91. Tori Amos - From the Choirgirl Hotel (1998)
90. UGK - Ridin' Dirty (1996)
89. Grifters - Crappin' You Negative (1994)
88. The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I (1999)
87. The Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen (1993)
(tie) 85. Neil Young - Harvest Moon (1992)
(tie) 85. Biosphere - Substrata (1997)
(tie) 82. Missy Elliott - Da Real World (1999)
(tie) 82. Mogwai - Young Team (1997)
(tie) 82. 2pac - All Eyez On Me (1996)

Nothing from me yet. An intriguing list so far.

6 I've heard so far. (Rap albums + Bjork)

Last one for the evening coming up

81 Metallica - Metallica (The Black Album) (1991)
37 points
2 votes
1 first-place vote
Greatest contributor: RedRaymaker

http://musicmedia.ign.com/music/image/article/911/911683/metallica-20080919045507879-000.jpg

I don't understand the problem. Metallica broke up in 1989 and sold their name to some boy-band. Who cares?

― Phil Freeman (Phil Freeman), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 14:53 (6 years ago)

stick up yr butt rock rules.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 16:47 (6 years ago)

I like how nearly everyone on this thread pretneds not to *LOVE* the black album.

― Bobby Peru (Bobby Peru), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 06:38 (4 years ago)

I thought the production was nice (especially coming off ...And Justice for All) but it didn't get the blood flowing like their earlier records. It seemed like an olive branch to the middle of the road.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 14:32 (4 years ago)

The black album has some catchy tunes too, but they're too heavy for my tastes. Except of course for "Nothing Else Matters", the ultimate nineties teen disco slow tune.

― Tuomas, Tuesday, 24 July 2007 11:30 (2 years ago)

I kinda hope poseurs like me voting for the Black Album end up beating out the vote-splitting of the 80s albums just to piss off the real metalheads.

― Alex in Baltimore, Tuesday, 17 July 2007 15:21 (2 years ago)

I've heard all but Biosphere, UGK, Pharcyde and XTC so far, and of the ones I've heard I actually like most of them. Good work, ILM (though I'm not on board with Mogwai and Dismemberment).

wow i haven't listened to the black album in like 8+ years probably, maybe i should give it a spin for old times sake

none of my votes in yet (my ballot was essentially 100% corny 90s indie, not sure if this stuff will wind up at the top or out of the running)

This is great! Well done Louis.

I still remember the feeling of hearing Young Team with friends and the total certainty that this, this was the magic potion.

lol i gave the Black Album 1 point, which means the one other person gave it all 36 of its other points. totally deserves to be here, though, glad i helped it in and made sure it wasn't a 1 vote wonder.

Really enjoying this. I debated between a ballot of albums I listened to in the early 90s (high school years), and those I still listen to. The Black Album would probably have been number 1 for me if I had gone the first route.

It's a terrific album. All the songs are really strong. They didn't get anywhere near it in future years until "Death Magnetic" in 2009. Well worth a listen again if you haven't listened to it for a few years.

This poll is more brilliant and hilarious than I dared hope.

I still remember the feeling of hearing Young Team with friends and the total certainty that this, this was the magic potion.

likewise. still think MYT is a really beautiful album. they never really topped this record for me, except perhaps for 'my father,my king' and the EP version of 'xmas steps'.

never get why people vote strategically in ILX polls, btw. especially one like this. antithetical to both spirit and purpose.

should have a thread on this bizarro emotional need to justify yr love for some record

"I was worried that MC Tunes would not receive his gold statue and 2 million Euro cash prize if he failed to place on the ILX 90s Poll"