List some of your favorite records that turn 20 this year

Swirlies being the semi-exception!

This thread is making me feel all sorts of old and uncool

I get the old part, but why uncool?

same diff?

All this music is "cool" again

I know the aforementioned Tindersticks, Luna, Oval, Slowdive, Pulp and Wu-Tang releases sound pretty good these days (because I have actually heard them recently) but I'm realising there are huge number of other things I've been resisting revisiting at all, fairly or not! (Despite them sitting on a shelf, just metres away, in many instances.)

Top 5:

Sing to God
Second Toughest in the Infants
Factory Showroom
Richard D James Album
Irresistible Bliss

Jack Frost - Snow Job
Martin Newell - The Off White Album
Sleeper - The It Girl
Animals That Swim - I Was The King...
Whipping Boy - Heartburn
Able Tasmans - Store In A Cool Place
A House - No More Apologies
Strangelove - Love & Other Demons
Superette - Tiger
Puressence - Puressence
Gene - To See The Lights

Of these, I haven't listened to Whipping Boy, Puressence, Gene, Sleeper and Superette in over a decade but I'd still enjoy those albums.

Ellery Eskelin - The Sun Died
UGK - Ridin' Dirty

Such a huuuuge year for me. Lots of the stuff already mentioned (Polvo, Mazzy Star, DJ Shadow, Tortoise, Cocteau Twins, Orbital, Tori Amos, Olivia Tremor Control, Future Sound Of London, Aphex Twin, Underworld, Wu Tang Clan), plus:

Bardo Pond - Amanita
Cibo Matto - Viva! La Woman
Dirty Three - Horse Stories
Dr. Octagon - Dr. Octagonecologyst
Gastr Del Sol - Upgrade & Afterlife
Lisa Germano - Excerpts From A Love Circus
Go Sailor - S/T
High Llamas - Hawaii
Illyah Kuryahkin - Count No Count
Luscious Jackson - Fever In Fever Out
Microstoria - SND
Takako Minekawa - Roomic Cube
Neutral Milk Hotel - On Avery Island (the album I prefer)
Ninety Nine - S/T
Rachel's - The Sea and Bells
The Raincoats - Looking In The Shadows
REM - New Adventures In Hi-Fi
Retsin - Egg Fusion
Rome - S/T
Royal Trux - Sweet Sixteen
Sammy - Tales Of Great Neck Glory
Sebadoh - Harmacy
The Sonora Pine - S/T
Spinanes - Strand
Sugar Plant - Cage Of The Sun and After After Hours
Superdrag - Regretfully Yours
Tricky - Pre-Millennium Tension and Nearly God
Veruca Salt - Blow It Out Your Ass, It's Veruca Salt

And the Trainspotting soundtrack was a huge deal then, as well, despite being a comp of mostly older material. And those are just the ones I reeeeally liked.

I never miss an opportunity to mention

Possum Dixon - Star Maps

How did I forget Chavez both this year and last? Well anyway, Chavez.

I never checked out Retsin, any recommendation beyond the album you listed?

Yes, I would recommend any Retsin album you can track down. I guess Cabin In The Woods, if I had to narrow it down to one? But if you like Tara Jane O'Neil's other work, you won't be disappointed (see also: Sonora Pine from my list above). And if you aren't familiar with Tara Jane O'Neil, it's worth familiarizing yourself.

oh wow, I forgot about In Sides...sorry!!

Agreed on GBV, Afghan Whigs, DJ Shadow, Jay-Z, OTC, Underworld, Aphex, REM, Tori Amos, Orbital, Silver Jews... Would also add:

Tool - Aenima
Ghostface Killah - Ironman
Texas Is the Reason - Do You Know Who You Are?
OutKast - ATLiens

And including comps:

LTJ Bukem - Logical Progression
Metalheadz - Platinum Breakz

Thanks for the Retsin rec!

Also, that Spinanes album has always been tough for me. I love the one before and the one after, but that one just floats out the window every time I try.

Ah, and that's my favorite Lisa Germano record basically due to the song Bruises alone. Sometimes her albums as a whole really bring me down, and I thrive on melancholy music so it's significant. Perhaps it'd be fresh again for me now, though.

xpost Yeah, my Spinanes feelings pretty much sync up with yours (with added love for solo Rebecca and EXTRA love for Imp Years). Strand is my least favorite but it's still Spinanes.

Yes, Imp Years is fantastic!

LFO - Advance
Jedi Knights - New School Science
Motorbass - Pansoul
John Beltran - Ten Days Of Blue
Boards Of Canada - Boc Maxima
Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup

Lots of great stuff that year, but the ones I couldn't live without:

Too Much Joy - ...finally
The Loud Family - Interbabe Concern
Dar Williams - Mortal City
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing

Orbital - Insides
Gas - Gas

Ah, 96, the year I got my first paying job. I basically listened to just three new albums that year, besides shit I already owned from years past:

2Pac - All Eyez on Me
Mazzy Star - Among My Swan
Outkast - ATLiens

I spent most of the 90s just checking out whatever was playing on the radio.

That this is 20 years ago is faintly petrifying.

this is a better year than i thought

Good records have no age because they existed since the beginning of time it was just a question of when someone got round to recording and releasing them

Glenn had a good year that year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZcbdEElEVs

they dont belong in the past though, belong in the present along with the sycamores and the oaks

Though she died 4 years ago, I am still haunted by her music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwHM3jHUpjI

Good lord, I never heard that she died.

earl brutus - your majesty .. we are here.
compulsion - the future is medium.
2 badcard - hustling ability.

My top ten for 1997:

1. Adrian Borland - 5:00 am
2. Radiohead - OK Computer
3. Bike - Take In The Sun
4. Gene - Drawn To The Deep End
5. China Drum - Self Made Maniac
6. Frank & Walters - The Grand Parade
7. Love Spit Love - Trysome Eatone
8. Prolapse - The Italian Flag
9. Luna - Pup Tent
10. Hugh Cornwell - Guilty

That was a really good year, I love all those albums still, though the Radiohead is a bit played out for me.

There is an internet rumour a teenage Zlatan played on this before signing for Malmo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uo6qMnIFTQ

Supa Dupa Fly

BAD TIMING - Jim O'Rourke
TYCHO MAGNETIC ANOMALY - The Azusa Plane
DOTS AND LOOPS - Stereolab
COME TO DADDY - Aphex Twin
EITHER/OR - Elliott Smith
DUDE RANCH - blink-182
WORK AND NON WORK - Broadcast
THE LONESOME CROWDED WEST - Modest Mouse
OK COMPUTER - Radiohead
FINAL FANTASY VII OST - Nobuo Uematsu

Acrimony - Tumuli Shroomaroom ,
Bardo Pond - Lapsed,
Blonde Redhead - Fake Can Be Just as Good
Blur – Blur
Built To Spill - Perfect From Now On,
Corrupted - Paso inferior ,
Daft Punk – Homework
Death In Vegas – Dead Elvis
Electric Wizard - Come My Fanatics... ,
Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk ,
Entombed - To Ride, Shoot Straight And Speak The Truth
Enslaved - Eld,
Faith No More - Album Of The Year
Ghost - Temple Stone,
Grandaddy – Under The Western Freeway
Iron Monkey - Iron Monkey ,
Karma To Burn - S/t
Michael Head Introducing The Strands – The Magical World Of The Strands
Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West,
Mogwai – Mogwai Young Team
Pavement - Brighten The Corners,
Portishead – Portishead,
Primal Scream – Vanishing Point
Radiohead – Ok Computer,
Robert Wyatt - Shleep
Skepticism - Lead and Aether ,
Spiritualized – Ladies And Gentleman We Are Floating In Space,
Squarepusher – Hard Normal Daddy,
Super Furry Animals – Radiator
Supergrass – In It For The Money
The American Analog Set - From Our Living Room to Yours ,
The Chemical Brothers – Dig Your Own Hole
The Verve – Urban Hymns,
Three Mile Pilot - Another Desert, Another Sea,
Today Is The Day - Temple Of The Morning Star
Ulver - Nattens madrigal: Aatte hymne til ulven i manden ,
Wu-Tang Clan – Wu-Tang Forever
Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One

Bjork - Homogenic
Blur - Blur
Daft Punk - Homework
David Bowie - Earthling
Deftones - Around the Fur
Depeche Mode - Ultra
Devin Townsend - Ocean Machine: Biomech
Erasure - Cowboy
Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape
Gary Numan - Exile
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Barafundle
Green Day - Nimrod
Hugh Cornwell - Guilty
James - Whiplash
Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene 7-13
Laika - Sounds of the Satellites
Mansun - Attack of the Grey Lantern
Oasis - Be Here Now
Paul McCartney - Flaming Pie
Paul Weller - Heavy Soul
Pavement - Brighten the Corners
Portishead - Portishead
Primal Scream - Vanishing Point
Radiohead - OK Computer
Recoil - Unsound Methods
Roni Size/Reprazent - New Forms
Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space
Stereolab - Dots and Loops
Super Furry Animals - Radiator
Supergrass - In It For The Money
Teenage Fanclub - Songs From Northern Britain
The Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole
The Prodigy - The Fat of the Land
The Verve - Urban Hymns

re: McBoing-Boing's list -- I suspect I'm not the only one who was reading The Big Takeover in 1997? That China Drum album has been sitting in my "to sell" pile for 20 years. Maybe I'll give it one more chance...

Great year, no real order:

Larry Heard ‎– Dance 2000
Paul W. Teebrooke ‎– Connections
Alpha ‎– Come From Heaven
Sluts'n'Strings & 909 ‎– Carrera
Chris Brann ‎– Deep Fall
Stereolab ‎– Dots And Loops
Aquarhythms ‎– Greetings From Deepest America
Baby Ford ‎– Headphoneasy Rider
Björk ‎– Homogenic
Gemini ‎– In And Out Of Fog And Lights
Gemini ‎– In Neutral
The Timewriter ‎– Letters From The Jester
Christian Morgenstern ‎– Miscellaneous
Carl Craig ‎– More Songs About Food And Revolutionary Art
The Advent ‎– New Beginnings
Various ‎– Objets D'art III
Faze Action ‎– Plans & Designs
Speedy J ‎– Public Energy No.1
Moodymann ‎– Silentintroduction
Placid Angles ‎– The Cry
Morgan Geist ‎– The Driving Memoirs
Jaime Read ‎– The End Of The Beginning
Various ‎– The Lords Of Svek Vol. 2
Jeff Mills ‎– The Other Day (Axis Compilation)
Various ‎– The Seductive Sounds Of Teknotika
Gerd ‎– This Touch Is Greater Than Moods

Must have listened to each of these hundreds of times

cosign on Shleep and YLT

these stand out for me when I look through my physical copies:

Ø - Tulkinta
Nick Cave - Boatman's Call
Muslimgauze - Farouk Enjineer (the best noisy one IMO)
Geraldine Fibbers - Butch
Atari Teenage Riot - Burn Berlin Burn
Alvarius B. - S/T 2LP

Not already listed from 1997:

Bad Brains - The Omega Sessions
Buena Vista Social Club - st
Company Flow - Funcrusher Plus
Cornelius - Fantasma
G. Love & Special Sauce - Yeah, It's That Easy
Lambchop - Thriller
Nick Cave - The Boatman's Call
Plaid - Not for Threes
Plug - Drum 'n' Bass for Papa
SMOG – Red Apple Falls
Ween - The Mollusk
Will Oldham - Joya
Windy & Carl - Antarctica: The Bliss Out, Vol. 2

Extra shout-out to Plug -- yet another nom de plume of the criminally underrated Luke Vibert...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE-IQAKR3U8&index=2&list=PL5hZAMEzIDkHlmh2bucwhKC5NA3m88gEO

Built to Spill - Perfect From Now On
Ulver - Nattens Madrigal
The Van Pelt - Sultans of Sentiment
GYBE - F#A#∞

Not mentioned so far

David Devant & His Spirit Wife - Work, Lovelife, Miscellaneous
David Holmes - Let's Get Killed
Dawn of the Replicants - One Head, Two Arms, Two Legs
Kenickie - At The Club
Minty - Open Wide
Quickspace - Supo Spot
Silver Sun - Silver Sun
Strangelove - Strangelove
The Delgados - Domestiques
The Yummy Fur - Kinky Cinema

Fantasma is 20! Jesus Christ!

Other favorites from '97: The Mollusk (absolutely classic), Chiastic Slide, Denki Groove's A, Motorpsycho's Angels & Daemons at Play, and Subterranea by IQ

Bardo Pond - Lapsed
Chiastic Slide

Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out

Bloody hell. Young Team is 20 yrs old. I wrote a prentious review of that at the time that contained passages about how I wished I was young again. I was 20.

Sp. Pretentious obv.

Some 2017 Albums I Enjoy

Assück - Misery Index
Brutal Truth - Sounds of the Animal Kingdom
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Boatman's Call
Deceased - Fearless Undead Machines
Bruce Dickinson - Accident of Birth
Electric Wizard - Come My Fanatics...
Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape
Immortal - Blizzard Beasts
Judas Priest - Jugulator
KARP - Self Titled LP
Orange Goblin - Frequencies From Planet Ten
Saxon - Unleash the Beast
Southern Culture on the Skids - Plastic Seat Sweat

T'wasn't a great year. I mean, a Foo Fighters album made the list.

Disclaimer: I worked for the label that did the Dickinson & Priest albums. Jugulator is likely a result of that (though I still love "Bullet Train") but I'll rep for the Bruce solo record.

The last great Pavement album, Robert Wyatt's best, some excellent work from the Ellery Eskelin/Andrea Parkins/Jim Black trio, then... I don't know, maybe the US Maple album?

A few more not mentioned so far:

The Apples in Stereo - Tone Soul Evolution
Bikeride - Here Comes the Summer!
The Hives- Barely Legal
k.d. lang - Drag
Low - Songs for a Dead Pilot
Papas Fritas - Helioself
Matthew Sweet - Blue Sky on Mars
Tindersticks - Curtains
Whiskeytown - Strangers Almanac