Acclaimed Music Top 30 Albums from 1997 poll

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"

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

Chemicals for me. Not sure how well it's aged, though.

gotta go with LCW

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

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.

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.

Gravitar - Now the Road of Knives
ST37 - Spaceage
The Fall - Levitate
OOIOO - s/t
Strange Warmings of Laddio Bolocko
Acid Mothers Temple - s/t
Dissolve - 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 Fawn
Janet Jackson - The Velvet Rope

I'm on #teamimago for this one, just sayin

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.

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.

Edit: or Bad Timing by Jim O'Rourke.

That Davis Redford Triad album is amazing

^yes

Shout out for that David Holmes record, which is actually called "Lets Get Killed". Voted Daft Punk.

F#A#& (sic) was very early 1998 I thought?

Says on Wiki that F♯A♯∞ was released in August 1997 (on Constellation) and then again in June 1998 (on Kranky).

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.

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.

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

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.

my actual favorite 1997 record is probably stars of the lid - the ballasted orchestra

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 (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

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.

at

in this case i can pick about 10 and it is fun to talk about a year of music in a thread...

where's your list imago?

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.

Also there have been dozens of other threads in this series that arguably set the precedent for how the 1997 poll would proceed

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

lol

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Yeah, I wish there was room on ILM for the discussion of obscure music. But there just isn't. There just isn't.

Homogenic you monsters.

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.

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.

supergrass, bjork, cornershop, portishead, the verve - cobbles on a path towards suicide ideation.

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.

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 year
Half Man Half Biscuit - Voyage To The Bottom Of The Road
Cornelius - Fantasma <<<still sounds futuristic
Toenut - Two In The Pinata <<<the best American indie-rock album of this year, obv
Cheer-Accident - Enduring The American Dream <<<a fucking avant-rock classic, just so goddamn adventurous and great
Ocean Machine - Biomech
Catherine Wheel - Adam And Eve <<<the best American indie-rock album of this year by a British band, obv
Robert Wyatt - Shleep
The Wildhearts - Endless, Nameless <<<an insane and beautiful little album that's largely forgotten
Mansun - Attack Of The Grey Lantern <<<the third-best Britpop album of the year
The Dandy Warhols - Come Down <<<the second-best Britpop album of the year
Suede - Sci-Fi Lullabies <<<the best Britpop album of the year. oh it's a compilation, SORRY.
Sidi Bou Said - Obsessive
Komar & Melamid & Dave Soldier - The Most (Un)Wanted Music
Long Fin Killie - Amelia
Hum - Downward is Heavenward
Space Needle - The Moray Eels Eat The Space Needle
Dubstar - Goodbye
Ulver - 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 how do you think this list was constructed and what do you think the intent was behind the methodology?

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.

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).

beep beep who got the keys to the jeep

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

Worst/most cringeworthy lyric on Oasis' 'Be Here Now'

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.

plus j spaceman's voice tends to be either bathed in fx or low in the mix (if his voice bothers you)

yeah, i'd agree with that. if you're not a fan of spiritualized from "ladies and gentlemen..." on, you should give lazer guided melodies (and some of pure phase) a chance because it's quite different.

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