'Narayan' is so good that I can even overlook the fact that fuckin' Crispian Mills (of all people) is on it!
I have no Crispian Mills baggage (lol American) so my cosigning of the awesomeness of "Narayan" is without caveat.
I didn't realize anyone rated "Funky Shit", though.
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Thursday, 13 August 2015 15:51 (eight years ago) link
I think Gus Gus - Polydistortion might be my favorite 'electronica' (always hated and always will hate that word) album from '97. There are clearly still lots of '97 albums I've forgotten were '97 albums.
― Gristly Bear (Old Lunch), Thursday, 13 August 2015 16:07 (eight years ago) link
It's another album from that scene/time that, like In Sides, somehow avoids sounding at all dated.
― Gristly Bear (Old Lunch), Thursday, 13 August 2015 16:08 (eight years ago) link
I was going to mention Lamb as well but their debut was 1996; the Gus Gus/Lamb tour I saw in 1997 was SUPER SUPER fun.
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Thursday, 13 August 2015 16:11 (eight years ago) link
OKC is prob my least favorite Radiohead besides In Rainbows
Alfred otm also; Velvet Rope is great. Though I think it was seen as a disappointing follow up to janet. at the time (also, critics not being v enlightened re: big budget pop albums)
― darkwing dynasty (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 13 August 2015 16:26 (eight years ago) link
the lonesome crowded west if i'm being honest but i love a bunch of these
― ciderpress, Thursday, 13 August 2015 16:31 (eight years ago) link
xxpost Yeah, Lamb has also nicely avoided sounding dated.
Not that datedness is necessarily a criticism. I still love a lot of 'electronica' that sounds like the soundtrack to a movie about hackers.
― Gristly Bear (Old Lunch), Thursday, 13 August 2015 16:33 (eight years ago) link
I didn't realize anyone rated "Funky Shit", though.― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Thursday, August 13, 2015 3:51 PM (57 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Thursday, August 13, 2015 3:51 PM (57 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I've always liked it!
― You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart (Turrican), Thursday, 13 August 2015 16:52 (eight years ago) link
Darn it, i missed 1996!
ICHTHBAO easily.
If OKC wins I will be sad, and I am a card carrying Radiohead fan.
― Van Horn Street, Thursday, 13 August 2015 16:55 (eight years ago) link
OKC will win. Resign yourself to fate.
― Gristly Bear (Old Lunch), Thursday, 13 August 2015 17:16 (eight years ago) link
I'm remembering just how quickly it took for OK Computer to become a "canonical" album. Here in the UK, the NME gave it 10/10, and then it came #1 in a Q Magazine readers "All Time Top 100 Albums" poll only nine months after it was released. At the time, and as much as I liked the album, I was kinda "wait, what? seriously?" ... I couldn't help but think all of these reactions were a little too quick. Having said that, though, here we are 18 years down the line, OK Computer is widely considered to be the best album of 1997, and on rateyourmusic.com it's considered to be the best album of all time. Ever. In terms of Acclaimed Music's own All-Time list, it's #12, but even that is above Abbey Road and Dark Side Of The Moon etc.
You may like the album, or you may not, but it does seem to have a stature to it that none of the other records on this list have.
― You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart (Turrican), Thursday, 13 August 2015 17:16 (eight years ago) link
I think OKC's wild praise somehow went completely under my radar. It really doesn't make sense to me...which kinda makes sense as it's in good company with any number of other wildly-praised canonical albums that don't seem particularly special to me.
― Gristly Bear (Old Lunch), Thursday, 13 August 2015 17:29 (eight years ago) link
^^^
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 13 August 2015 17:32 (eight years ago) link
I will never "get" Radiohead
congratulations
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Thursday, 13 August 2015 17:36 (eight years ago) link
thx I gave myself a medal and everything
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 13 August 2015 17:37 (eight years ago) link
As I said upthread, I think it's fine, but its canonical status seems on par with Sgt. Pepper's (an album that I would sincerely say was maybe on the low end of the best 30-40 albums released in '67).
― Gristly Bear (Old Lunch), Thursday, 13 August 2015 17:46 (eight years ago) link
I think it's largely to do with the right time and place. Like Sick Mouthy says about the Spiritualized record, kids of our generation just hadn't been exposed to that kind of expansive rock music before. The only other thing I can think of is Mellon Collie, which is still very much a hard rock album with a flabbier concept than OKC or LAGWAFIS.
I can't understand any Radiohead fan saying they like OKC and In Rainbows the least btw.
― 9 days from now a.k.a next weekend. (dog latin), Thursday, 13 August 2015 18:12 (eight years ago) link
I can understand In Rainbows because it's a collection of songs that work against each other rather than build upon each other; I always have a much more positive experience listening to the material when it comes up in a random shuffle or a computer-generated playlist than I do when I try to listen to the album.
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Thursday, 13 August 2015 18:36 (eight years ago) link
That's true. I guess another reason OKC is considered such a classic is because it's sequenced so well. It has a beginning, middle and end and an overriding loose theme.
― 9 days from now a.k.a next weekend. (dog latin), Thursday, 13 August 2015 18:39 (eight years ago) link
I think it's largely to do with the right time and place. Like Sick Mouthy says about the Spiritualized record, kids of our generation just hadn't been exposed to that kind of expansive rock music before.― 9 days from now a.k.a next weekend. (dog latin), Thursday, August 13, 2015 6:12 PM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― 9 days from now a.k.a next weekend. (dog latin), Thursday, August 13, 2015 6:12 PM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
What, their parents didn't have one of those multi million-selling Pink Floyd albums in their record collections?
― You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart (Turrican), Thursday, 13 August 2015 18:46 (eight years ago) link
Ah, I can't fault In Rainbows, really - a much better start-to-finish experience for me than Hail To The Thief, without a doubt!
― You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart (Turrican), Thursday, 13 August 2015 18:52 (eight years ago) link
Whereas for me Hail To The Thief is their best overall album.
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Thursday, 13 August 2015 19:16 (eight years ago) link
haha yes this was exactly my reaction, I was baffled
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 13 August 2015 19:17 (eight years ago) link
I dont have time right now, but maybe later if youre interested, dog latin I can bash together a brief rundown explicating the hows and whys of my personal Radiohead albums ranking
― darkwing dynasty (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 13 August 2015 19:52 (eight years ago) link
Pavement over Cornershop for me. Have to concede I rarely play BTC now, but I think it was underrated then and now, especially "We Are Underused," probably their best "fuck it let's go big" song -- so big, so sad, so final. "Transport is Arranged" almost as good, almost as ignored by history. This Cornershop record wasn't actually a part of my 1997, I bought a used CD of it much later, not really knowing what it was, and fell in love with it.
But the truth is, I think Pavement, Cornershop, and the Verve are the only three of these I've heard all the way through, and I remember nothing about the Verve record except the single. I feel like I was listening to a lot of music in 1997 but I guess somehow not this music?
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 13 August 2015 20:07 (eight years ago) link
Where is Wu-Tang Forever? I remember this coming out and being AN EVENT, thought of as an instant classic. I listened to it a lot. Is it now forgotten? OK, I see it's at #37 on the Acclaimed list. So not forgotten, exactly, but -- not remembered to the extent people anticipated remembering it?
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 13 August 2015 20:09 (eight years ago) link
Where's Voyage To The Bottom Of The Road? This list is INCREDIBLE! It has no CREDIBILITY!
― imago, Thursday, 13 August 2015 20:12 (eight years ago) link
Side note re: Zaireeka, my brother got a version of the album off eBay that was mixed down onto one CD, and it was definitely not as interesting as getting our youth group to play it off four cheap boomboxes in a church basement.
― Tom Violence, Thursday, 13 August 2015 20:15 (eight years ago) link
I remember this coming out and being AN EVENT, thought of as an instant classic.
it was and it is
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 13 August 2015 20:18 (eight years ago) link
No Pink Floyd in my house growing up! Not that I've heard any Floyd like Cop Shoot Cop.
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 13 August 2015 20:23 (eight years ago) link
A Saucerful Of Secrets does the long-form order -> chaos -> order thing quite well. Fuck I'm writing a serious post in this thread
― imago, Thursday, 13 August 2015 20:27 (eight years ago) link
Interstellar Overban
― imago, Thursday, 13 August 2015 20:28 (eight years ago) link
If this list represents 1997's music to you in anything like a satisfactory manner then frankly I pity you and your shit taste. This sort of consensus canon-forming is the enemy of all good historical music appreciation and it makes me extremely uneasy to see so many of you buying into it
― imago, Thursday, 13 August 2015 20:29 (eight years ago) link
in spite of experiencing a youth where the boombox experiment was like the ne plus ultra of social events i will never willingly listen to the flaming lips again. ok computer was a huge album for me for a long time but this is so easily homogenic now.
― e-bouquet (mattresslessness), Thursday, 13 August 2015 20:30 (eight years ago) link
not everyone can achieve the artistic purity of singing "Bohemian Rhapsody" while diddling a vacuum cleaner
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Thursday, 13 August 2015 20:34 (eight years ago) link
OK, maybe 'shit taste' is making things a little personal and mean, but cmon, this is the sort of thing which gets good artists forgotten beneath a horrid swathe of canonical classics! And I say this as someone who has at some stage of their life liked or loved probably half the albums here!
― imago, Thursday, 13 August 2015 20:37 (eight years ago) link
Generally, I agree with you that consensus canon-forming can lead to a number of great releases getting forgotten about or glossed over, but the thread is called "Acclaimed Music Top 30 Albums from 1997 poll" not "30 Sadly Neglected Albums from 1997 poll"
― You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart (Turrican), Thursday, 13 August 2015 20:43 (eight years ago) link
think a good deal of my antipathy towards this does stem from the fact that of the albums i've liked from here, i'm over just about all of them - and subsequent 1997 discoveries just give me so much more
if i were to validate the poll by voting in it i'd probably go with portishead, although the mogwai and the sfa are still quite good maybe. but argh NO
― imago, Thursday, 13 August 2015 21:01 (eight years ago) link
Chemicals for me. Not sure how well it's aged, though.
― Turtleneck Work Solutions (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Thursday, 13 August 2015 21:04 (eight years ago) link
gotta go with LCW
― big fat rascal (will), Thursday, 13 August 2015 21:06 (eight years ago) link
think a good deal of my antipathy towards this does stem from the fact that of the albums i've liked from here, i'm over just about all of them - and subsequent 1997 discoveries just give me so much more― imago, Thursday, August 13, 2015 9:01 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― imago, Thursday, August 13, 2015 9:01 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Well yeah, I fully understand what you mean... there's loads of albums on this list that I played the absolute shit out of back in the '90s that I know full well are good records, but because I've played 'em that many times I seldom feel like listening to 'em. There's a few albums on this list that I'd love to be able to listen to with completely "fresh" ears again, but because I know every single nook and cranny of some of 'em, they just don't hit my "pleasure centre" in the way that they once did.
― You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart (Turrican), Thursday, 13 August 2015 21:11 (eight years ago) link
LJ, I think you're the only person here who thinks anyone else here would mistake this list for a canonical survey of 1997's best and brightest. We're polling a list of albums. That's all.
― Gristly Bear (Old Lunch), Thursday, 13 August 2015 21:32 (eight years ago) link
Gravitar - Now the Road of KnivesST37 - SpaceageThe Fall - Levitate OOIOO - s/tStrange Warmings of Laddio Bolocko Acid Mothers Temple - s/tDissolve - Third Album from the Sun Bardo Pond - Lapsed Helium - The Magic City Davis Redford Triad - The Mystical Path of the Number Eighty Six The Sea and Cake - The FawnJanet Jackson - The Velvet Rope
I'm on #teamimago for this one, just sayin
― darkwing dynasty (Drugs A. Money), Friday, 14 August 2015 01:18 (eight years ago) link
By this year I was well out of touch with most new music, and not much on this list made any impression on, me except for Pavement, which was a pleasant surprise after the disappointing Wowee Zowee. Brighten the Corners is still my favorite Pavement album to listen to, though to be honest, I don't play it that often.
― o. nate, Friday, 14 August 2015 02:13 (eight years ago) link
Did F♯A♯∞ come out in 1997, or am I going bananas? If it did, that would be no.1. As it is, either Young Team or Ladies and Gentlemen... for me.
― Poacher (Chinaski), Friday, 14 August 2015 08:13 (eight years ago) link
Edit: or Bad Timing by Jim O'Rourke.
― Poacher (Chinaski), Friday, 14 August 2015 08:14 (eight years ago) link
That Davis Redford Triad album is amazing
― It empowers them, he jokes (albvivertine), Friday, 14 August 2015 09:35 (eight years ago) link
^yes
― darkwing dynasty (Drugs A. Money), Friday, 14 August 2015 09:46 (eight years ago) link
Shout out for that David Holmes record, which is actually called "Lets Get Killed". Voted Daft Punk.
― Neil S, Friday, 14 August 2015 09:56 (eight years ago) link