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
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
F#A#& (sic) was very early 1998 I thought?
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 14 August 2015 09:56 (eight years ago) link
Says on Wiki that F♯A♯∞ was released in August 1997 (on Constellation) and then again in June 1998 (on Kranky).
― Poacher (Chinaski), Friday, 14 August 2015 10:31 (eight years ago) link
I've played OK Computer back to front more times than I can count, but I haven't done so in years and think I would probably get physically ill if I did so today. It's too cold and bitter for me to stomach these days (I was going to call it "dour and smug," but that probably better describes Thom Yorke than the music...). Voted Built to Spill, whatever.
― Sam Weller, Friday, 14 August 2015 10:37 (eight years ago) link
I was still recovering from Grunge/Alt Rock/Bush/Live in 1997, didn't grow to appreciate all these albums till like 2002.
Yo La Tengo.
― Jeff, Friday, 14 August 2015 11:06 (eight years ago) link
great post on first exposure to spiritualized scik mouthy!
I thought I had heard a bit of everything when I got around to LAGWAFIS but was still blown away
lol at the thought that your parent's pink floyd records would have made you immune to grandiose psychrock
― niels, Friday, 14 August 2015 11:10 (eight years ago) link
I somehow missed Dig Me Out. That album was huge for me, arriving as it did about a year after my college riot grrrl friend opened my eyes to an entire wing of music that I was previously unaware of. Still don't know if it trumps Yo La in terms of staying power for me, though.
― Gristly Bear (Old Lunch), Friday, 14 August 2015 12:36 (eight years ago) link
my actual favorite 1997 record is probably stars of the lid - the ballasted orchestra
― ciderpress, Friday, 14 August 2015 13:50 (eight years ago) link
― Gristly Bear (Old Lunch), Thursday, 13 August 2015 21:32 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
yeah but it's the SAME fucking albums that get polled every time, this is just such a boring exercise
― imago, Friday, 14 August 2015 14:16 (eight years ago) link
i think it's funny when people get mad a canonized list. they can never satisfy everyone but you can usually pick one that you love or loved.
― Bee OK, Friday, 14 August 2015 14:32 (eight years ago) link
at
in this case i can pick about 10 and it is fun to talk about a year of music in a thread...
― Bee OK, Friday, 14 August 2015 14:35 (eight years ago) link
where's your list imago?
― frogbs, Friday, 14 August 2015 14:36 (eight years ago) link
Thing is, imago, if there's no consensus, there's no conversation. Not all conversations about music are geared around the discovery of new music, nor should they be; sometimes people want a bit of nostalgia, and that's fine, or to understand the past they experienced better, and that's fine too. You seem to be interested in always finding an alternative past and exploring that, at all costs - and that's totally valid, too, but it's not what this thread is about. If this thread was polling albums no one had ever heard of, or if everyone was only talking about obscure gems that they liked, there'd be no shared experience, and no point. If you want another discussion, start a "lost gems from the mid 90s" thread, or something.
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 14 August 2015 14:41 (eight years ago) link
Also there have been dozens of other threads in this series that arguably set the precedent for how the 1997 poll would proceed
― 1993 ball boy (Karl Malone), Friday, 14 August 2015 14:45 (eight years ago) link
I already ran a 'lost gems from the 90s' poll a few years ago! Nearly ended up with the Space Jam OST winning due to a weird voting system, haha
― imago, Friday, 14 August 2015 14:54 (eight years ago) link
lol
― ciderpress, Friday, 14 August 2015 14:59 (eight years ago) link
this is so easily homogenic now.
― e-bouquet (mattresslessness), Thursday, August 13, 2015 4:30 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
otm. i'd honestly be happy never hearing OKC again. listening to homogenic right now and this is such a great album, "all neon like" is still just making me feel very happy right now
1997 was prob the first year i really started reading about music and buying new and current albums, i was 14, the "electronica" craze was in full effect w/ lol prodigy and dig your own hole etc. i liked most of this list back then but i don't have much desire to hear almost any of it again
― marcos, Friday, 14 August 2015 15:00 (eight years ago) link
also imago i kind of get what you're saying too, i mean how many more times do we have to talk about radiohead albums really
― marcos, Friday, 14 August 2015 15:01 (eight years ago) link
Oh shit, the Sundays' Static and Silence came out in '97, too! Easily my least favorite of the three but I still like it a lot.
― Grilled Floam In A Gak Reduction (Old Lunch), Friday, 14 August 2015 15:05 (eight years ago) link
do we really talk about Radiohead anymore? kinda feels like the conversation's been "ugh Radiohead so overrated" for like, a dozen years now. I've overplayed OK Computer myself but it is such an obviously great album that I can't just shun it, would be real dishonest for me to claim it's NOT one of my ten favorites this year, even if it's definitely not #1
― frogbs, Friday, 14 August 2015 15:05 (eight years ago) link
xps i feel that tired about all of the indie on this list. i truly have no desire to hear ok computer or like modest mouse again. yo la tengo too. the past few years i've been into a lot of dance music so i have a low-level interest in hearing say that david holmes album. i never listened to roni size at the time, or i think i did once? at a used cd store. definitely did not get it. not sure i would choose that one now if i wanted to get myself into d n b though. seem to recall it was like the token "this happened" pick of nme 2-3 years too late.
― e-bouquet (mattresslessness), Friday, 14 August 2015 15:14 (eight years ago) link
in many ways these lists are incredibly tiresome. the canonization aspect is stupid. i basically agree with imago but feel that pointing it out to list dongs is not going to be productive you're just going to have defensive paragraphs. conversation doesn't require external consensus it requires two people with the imagination to create consensus between themselves in any huge number of ways and it's disingenuous to suggest that like a canonized list of albums is required for people to have conversations. maybe with someone like scik mouthy but really who would want to do that? other list choads with overlapping taste. how exciting.
― e-bouquet (mattresslessness), Friday, 14 August 2015 15:28 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, I wish there was room on ILM for the discussion of obscure music. But there just isn't. There just isn't.
― Grilled Floam In A Gak Reduction (Old Lunch), Friday, 14 August 2015 15:56 (eight years ago) link
Homogenic you monsters.
― Norse Jung (Eric H.), Friday, 14 August 2015 16:06 (eight years ago) link
Have I just been ad hominem'd? Fuck you, mattresslessness; I can do (and have done) dick-waving obscurantism with the best of them. This thread is ABOUT A CONSENSUAL LIST you fucking moron, and there is AN ENTIRE DATABASE of discussion built over 15 years for you to talk about whatever the fuck you like. List choad? I participate in about ten threads a year these days and they're seldom list ones - I came in this thread because it's about a formative year for me, and, surprise surprise, for other people too. Fuck you.
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 14 August 2015 17:44 (eight years ago) link
actually really hate this list. there's something about late 90s popular music, which i experienced as a relatively happy adolescent, that when it's formed into this variegated aggregation just instills a deep feeling of ennui and horror in me.
― corbyn's gallus (jim in glasgow), Friday, 14 August 2015 18:08 (eight years ago) link
supergrass, bjork, cornershop, portishead, the verve - cobbles on a path towards suicide ideation.
― corbyn's gallus (jim in glasgow), Friday, 14 August 2015 18:09 (eight years ago) link
I think my main way of discovering new music in 1997 was to go to Downtown Music Gallery in the East Village and buy something unheard based on the cover. Obviously the results ended up being a bit hit or miss. I did see a lot of good shows in '97 though. Most of my listening that year would probably be categorized under avant-garde jazz or experimental rock.
― o. nate, Friday, 14 August 2015 18:32 (eight years ago) link
1997 wasn't even a great year for me. Looooads more good stuff in '96 and '98. Nevertheless, here's a small list of stuff I personally prefer to this list:
The Fall - Levitate <<<this album is above and beyond, but also below and within - it is unmusic, it is unlearnt art, it is terrifying and bad and better than anything else from this yearHalf Man Half Biscuit - Voyage To The Bottom Of The RoadCornelius - Fantasma <<<still sounds futuristicToenut - Two In The Pinata <<<the best American indie-rock album of this year, obvCheer-Accident - Enduring The American Dream <<<a fucking avant-rock classic, just so goddamn adventurous and greatOcean Machine - Biomech Catherine Wheel - Adam And Eve <<<the best American indie-rock album of this year by a British band, obvRobert Wyatt - ShleepThe Wildhearts - Endless, Nameless <<<an insane and beautiful little album that's largely forgottenMansun - Attack Of The Grey Lantern <<<the third-best Britpop album of the yearThe Dandy Warhols - Come Down <<<the second-best Britpop album of the yearSuede - Sci-Fi Lullabies <<<the best Britpop album of the year. oh it's a compilation, SORRY. Sidi Bou Said - ObsessiveKomar & Melamid & Dave Soldier - The Most (Un)Wanted MusicLong Fin Killie - AmeliaHum - Downward is HeavenwardSpace Needle - The Moray Eels Eat The Space NeedleDubstar - GoodbyeUlver - Nattens Madrigal
Hell, I even prefer listening to Be Here Now than a load of this stuff. It's just so huge and shit and clueless that it becomes kind of mesmerically great. But of course if it were in this list it'd be very much part of the problem.
― imago, Friday, 14 August 2015 19:12 (eight years ago) link
imago how do you think this list was constructed and what do you think the intent was behind the methodology?
― balls, Friday, 14 August 2015 19:19 (eight years ago) link
Dig Your Own Hole as aged incredibly well. Same with Homogenic. While I love OKC, even at the time I listened to those two records more, so I'll probably vote for one of them.
― octobeard, Friday, 14 August 2015 19:22 (eight years ago) link
I kinda feel like Be Here Now is the apotheosis of the Oasis 'dumb-as-dirt bombast' mission statement. I enjoy it as a rock album by a band who could sincerely be mistaken as speakers of English as a second language ('Magic Pie', indeed).
― Grilled Floam In A Gak Reduction (Old Lunch), Friday, 14 August 2015 19:23 (eight years ago) link
beep beep who got the keys to the jeep
― brimstead, Friday, 14 August 2015 19:56 (eight years ago) link
I enjoy it as a rock album by a band who could sincerely be mistaken as speakers of English as a second language ('Magic Pie', indeed).― Grilled Floam In A Gak Reduction (Old Lunch), Friday, August 14, 2015 7:23 PM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Grilled Floam In A Gak Reduction (Old Lunch), Friday, August 14, 2015 7:23 PM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Worst/most cringeworthy lyric on Oasis' 'Be Here Now'
― You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart (Turrican), Friday, 14 August 2015 20:01 (eight years ago) link
Can anyone explain the appeal of Spiritualized to me? I've given them a go a number of times over the years and always found them crushingly dull.
― the joke should be over once the kid is eaten. (chap), Thursday, August 13, 2015 3:56 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
have you heard the first album, Lazer Guided Melodies? the sound is much more dreamy and zonked out than their other records. the production is really slick and shimmerry. and the songs are catchier.
― brimstead, Friday, 14 August 2015 20:04 (eight years ago) link
plus j spaceman's voice tends to be either bathed in fx or low in the mix (if his voice bothers you)
― brimstead, Friday, 14 August 2015 20:06 (eight years ago) link