Best Album on OUR Favourite Albums of......1997 PART ONE

unknown here, dont think ive ever knowingly heard them

lonesome crowded west

I think i first heard that in 1998 as I read about it in an american import mag and found it in hmv in Glasgow

I am in the bug ballot queue yes. I've been saying I'll do this for the last year. Get on with 1998 and 1999, then it'll be time!

Big ballot, even

Moths
Woodlice
Butterflies
Beetles
etc

Its going to be a different system to your 90s poll, yes?

Yeah, it'll be the traditional EOY format

How many of these albums have you heard?

that Ulver album is the only thing in my collection I'm actually a bit scared to listen to, it's like its specifically designed to give you tinnitus

yeah it's wonderful, prob gonna be my vote

Emperor. Easily

Substrata has not aged one day. So that’s my pick

I recommended that one to Mike as I was surprised he didn't know it.

I've listened to it since. Its pretty good but I dont know what elevates it over countless other competently decent ambient albums.

I thought it was one of the best

Village Voice - Pazz & Jop Lists

Albums - 1997

1. Bob Dylan - Time Out Of Mind Columbia
2. Radiohead - Ok Computer Capitol
3. Cornershop - When I Was Born For The 7th Time Luaka Bop/Warner Bros.
4. Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out Kill Rock Stars
5. Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One Matador
6. Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly The Gold Mind, Inc./Eastwest
7. Erykah Badu - Baduizm Universal
8. Belle And Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister The Enclave
9. Bjork - Homogenic Elektra
10. Pavement - Brighten The Corners Matador
11. Steve Earle - El Corazon Warner Bros.
12. The Notorious B.I.G. - Life After Death Bad Boy
13. Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole Astralwerks
14. Portishead - Portishead Go! Beat/London
15. Roni Size/Reprazent - New Forms Talkin' Loud/Mercury
16. Wyclef Jean Featuring Refugee Allstars - Wyclef Jean Presents The Carnival Featuring Refugee Allstars Ruffhouse/Columbia
17. Spiritualized - Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space Arista
18. The Verve - Urban Hymns Virgin
19. Beth Orton - Trailer Park Heavenly
20. Elliott Smith - Either/Or Kill Rock Stars
21. Buena Vista Social Club - Buena Vista Social Club World Circuit
22. Geraldine Fibbers - Butch Virgin
23. Whiskey Town Strangers - Almanac Outpost
24. Janet Jackson - The Velvet Rope Virgin
25. Wu-Tang Clan - Wu-Tang Forever Loud
26. Richard Buckner - Devotion + Doubt Mca
27. Ben Folds Five - Whatever And Ever Amen 550 Music
28. Stereolab - Dots And Loops Elektra
29. Patti Smith - Peace And Noise Arista
30. Prodigy -The Fat Of The Land Maverick/Warner Bros.
31. U2 - Pop Island
32. Built To Spill - Perfect From Now On Warner Bros.
33. Ron Sexsmith - Other Songs Interscope
34. John Fogerty - Blue Moon Swamp Warner Bros.
35. Fiona Apple - Tidal Work
36. Daft Punk - Homework Virgin
37. Supergrass - In It For The Money Capitol
38. Blur - Blur Virgin
39. Jayhawks - Sound Of Lies American
40. Primal Scream - Vanishing Point Reprise

Bad year IMO

did you like anything from this year?

I stand by my list and think 97 was good. Sure, I had to dig a bit more and didn't hear some albums til much later, but I admit that I was wrong in the actual year to think it was a bad year.

And I'm hoping to convince Mike too!(he's checking out my list album by album)

I mean I guess its not a terrible year but theres such a noticeable drop in quality from the richness of 91-95

Y'er all OLD!

No shit!

It’s all been downhill since ‘74.

I don't really care for anything in this poll or the Pazz & Jop list (and I bought or heard a lot, thought not all, of it). The Daft Punk singles were obv. great, but I could never hang w/"Homework" as an entire album.

(I like the Pavement album, but even that is my least fave of theirs!)

Brighten The Corners is great. I saw them on that tour

I saw them on that tour too, Bristol Anson Rooms

Did they open with 'Grounded' and play 'Summer Babe'? they did at Glasgow Garage

now that I can't remember, I probably din't know their catalogue well enough back then either. I remember it was a fun show in a not particularly great venue.

was a cracking gig I saw, played pretty much everything i wanted

I saw them for the last time in '97. (Apparently this was the setlist, which I seem to recall was pleasant if relatively sedate.) I saw them every time they toured here, starting in 1993, but I haven't come close to voting for Pavement in any of these polls. Maybe I'm just trying to distance myself from high school me.

I saw them that year in Boston, with Shudder To Think opening.

Remember Pardon My French, by “Fuck”? This was the year that you’d buy albums like that, and be all... uhhhhhhh

I dont remember them

It was a Hyped Matador Release

I think I was wary of hype by then, but I honestly do not remember anything about them in the UK press or the infrequent US mags I bought on import.

Spin & Rolling Stone was sold in every wh smiths in every provincial town in the UK but I never bought them. They were always in cellophane to stop you reading them too.

Gonna mention it here as I'm playing the fuck out to it today and it's from 1997...the Oblivians album Play Nine Songs With Mr Quintron. A little ripper. Hellfire and booze, gospel and guitars, sounding like it was recorded on a bootleg in 1958 if they'd discovered punk by then

I remember a band called Quintron. No relation?

Unless that band was a New Orleans organist, no...

while we are on the subject of terrible late 90s indie, these cunts are where me and UK indie parted ways

https://tix-media-files.s3.amazonaws.com/img/cache/img/events/1751/hurricane-number-1/H%231%20-%20Press%20pic/3ef22e81f891ece6640e14ba455add79.JPG

hah, I remember liking i think their 1st single but everything else was rotten, especially that song that The Sun used in adverts. The singer was a real mouthy twat that you can find in most Scottish pubs.

Bluetones and Catatonia were when I parted ways with trusting the nme and MM

There was some decent britpop singles and a handful of good albums but when I hear a lot of stuff from back then I wonder how the fuck people liked them. Babybird? Ocean Colour Scene? Divine Comedy? Space?

oh and travis appeared in 97 didn't they?

and the kerrang britrock of the era was even worse, Symposium, Reef, 3 colours red, stereophonics and I'm pretty sure 97 was when the nu metal bands started getting real hype

I do love "slight return" by Bluetones tbh

Symposium, Reef, 3 colours red, stereophonics

Im sure all these bands appeared on TFI Friday at least once

I have a soft spot for Catatonia. Also likely ilx-unpopular, but the Grand Parade by the Frank and Walters is a great record from 1997 that I stil l listen to.

not too surprised built to spill got so many votes, though i never quite found what i wanted to in that record. some of the songs are really great, 'randy described eternity', and 'velvet waltz' stand up well... but it's way long, cluttered, poorly engineered (maybe since that was the third time around they recorded it), just spirals into meandering and lethargic guitar at times. keep it like a secret was way more cohesive.

It felt like kind of a bummer that they followed up There’s Nothing Wrong With Love with such a turgid, ponderous album (and I listened to it a good deal). It’s like they could have gone a few different ways as a band, and they chose the worst one. I guess the obvious joke is that the record teased at the end of Nothing Wrong... would have been preferable...

There are other LPs on these 1997 polls that effectively killed my interest in the respective artists (such as Homogenic and I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One). These aren’t even bad albums, but they had the effect of: “ok, I’m done.”

Yeah I liked Perfect From Now On at the time, but it sounds more disappointing in hindsight, especially after Keep It Like A Secret came out, which became the one I always reach for.

I've only just finally gotten around to digging into Bardo Pond this year & been liking it but havent got around to Lapsed yet. Lots of stuff I havent heard in this one actually. Didnt get a chance to vote but probably would have gone w/Lambchop.

I would have probably voted for it if I'd voted. The BtS album I've listened to most. 1997 was largely when I tuned out, though; never listened to most of these.

perfect from now on is the best BTS

Best Album on OUR Favourite Albums of......1998 Part One

Best Album on OUR Favourite Albums of......1998 Part Two

Possibly the best BTS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmE9f-TEutc

that video has 488 million views what in the world