Best Album of 1996?

Let someone else vote DJ Shadow. I vote Underworld.

Let someone else vote for Stereolab. ;-) I voted Tori's "Boys for Pele." The world needs more vaguely baroque, deconstructivist pop albums.

Let someone else vote for Underworld. That would be ridiculous.

Can we do brackets instead of lists? It's hard to get my head around it.

humansuit: http://dailybracket.com/

O, this link is excellent. Thanks!

Haha I voted for Prince! And I am not ashamed! Although I feel bad for the Boo Radleys. This was when I had a baby daughter and only listened to singles, I think I bought just a few albums that year. Three of them were Emancipation.

My real favorite record from this year is T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M though.

TORTOISE

uhh hello gza

Can't just say three way tie between 'Diff. Class', 'Dusk at a Cubist Castle' or 'New Adventures in Hi-Fi' - went with the later. Though Tortoise made it hard too ...

Liquid Swords is not '96, and I want to vote for Outkast's ATLiens, but it inexplicably is not on the list, and therefor fuck this poll.

I voted for the best album of the 1990s: Endtroducing...

Olivia Tremor Control - Dusk at Cubist Castle

Modest Mouse - This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About

(both double album debuts)

Most important: Endtroducing. The one I voted for because I listened to it the most, which probably means I think it's the best: FSOL (other finalists: Sparklehorse, Orbital, Underworld, Tortoise, Tool, Lamb, Dave Clarke)

favourite at the time: Faithless :/

Urusei Yatsura! Alright maybe not the best, but underrated.

Orbital all the way

hee this was such a formative year for me!

favourite at the time = tori amos
others vying for first place = stereolab, spice girls, meshell ndegéocello, john parish & pj harvey, and NICOLETTE! i loved that nicolette album! 'no government' = all time classic. she's doing some really good stuff with the bug these days.

I voted for Underworld. I could have voted for DJ Shadow, but found it a bit disappointing, in the sense that half of it had already been out before the album came out and it lessened the impact of the album. It is great, though. I could have voted for Richard D James, but I didn't really get it at the time and it sat on the 'should listen to more' pile for eight years before I fully got into it (like most other Aphex Twin stuff)! I guess I've had the most enjoyment out of listening to Underworld over the years.

I was about to type 'pretty good list' or similar but on closer inspection there is at least as much dreck and general who-would-ever-admit-to-voting-for-that fare as the '95 and '94 lists. BUT the great stuff is really great and yeah, there are quite a few records there that are formative for me

The only one of these albums I'd listen to these days is New Kingdom, so my vote goes there

the presence of "your majesty ... we are here!" on any best-of list renders every other contender pretty much redundant.

Voted for Faithless. Runners-up: Suede, DJ Shadow, New Kingdom, Underworld, Neurosis, Sublime, Placebo, maybe Lionrock (I really like one album of theirs, can't remember what it's called), probably some others I didn't notice on the list. Person on the list who sent me an email this month: Patti Rothberg.

I voted for Orbital but 1996 was a big year and it could have been any of about eight.

some others I didn't notice on the list

Such as Spice Girls, duh -- a runner-up for sure.

A few good albums not on the list:

Nazareth – Greatest Hits (A&M reissue)
OMC – How Bizarre (Mercury)
Emmett Miller – The Minstrel Man From Georgia (Columbia/Legacy reissue)
The Business – Loud, Proud And Oi! (Dojo reissue)
The Nomads – R&R (Raw and Rare) (Estrus reissue)
Al Jolson – Let Me Sing And I’m Happy: At Warner Bros. 1926-1936 (Turner Classic/Rhino Movie Music reissue)
Joni Mitchell- Hits (Reprise reissue)
Gillette – Shake Your Money Maker (Zoo/SOS)
Baader Meinhof – Baader Meinhof (VC)
Local H – As Good As Dead (Island)
Gene Autry – Blues Singer: 1929-1931 (Columbia/Legacy reissue)
Destroy All Monsters – Silver Wedding Anniversary (Sympathy For The Record Industry)
Carlinhos Brown – Alfagamabetizado (Metro Blue)
ZZ Hill – Turn Back The Hands Of Time (Night Train/Tuff City reissue)
Deana Carter – Did I Shave My Legs For This? (Capitol)
Moonspell – Irreligious (Century Media)
In Extremo – Die Verruuckten Sind In Der Stadt (Stars In The Dark Germany)
My Dying Bride – The Angel And The Dark River (Fierce)
Nina Hagen – 14 Friendly Abductions: The Best Of (Columbia/Legacy reissue)
KMFDM – Retro (Wax Trax! reissue)
Sheryl Crow - Sheryl Crow (A&M)
The London Suede – Coming Up (Nude/Columbia)
Serge Gainsbourg – Comic Strip (Philips/Mercury reissue)
Lucifer – 666 (Lucifer)
Girls Against Boys – House Of GVSB (Touch & Go)
Fluffy – 5 Live (The Enclave EP)
Thornetta Davis – Sunday Morning Music (Sub Pop)
The Afghan Whigs – Honky’s Ladder EP (Mute EP)

oops, should have erased "London Suede" from that I guess (though they're only on the list with their non-American name, obviously.)

Fuck! Should have erased Girls Vs Boys, too (and they should have been one of my runners up too - the only album I care about by them.) So never mind.

different class and liquid swords are surely 95? i dont feel like voting today

Ergh, what a miserable year. Barely more than a couple of decent albums on that list. I'd choose Baader Meinhof, otherwise, among those listed, 'The Doggfather', 'Liquid Swords' or the Blues Explosion one.

No Lovelife so it's Stereolab, though Sloan's One Chord To Another is great too.

Two Lone Swordsmen = genre-defining, trend-setting. If only. (Definitely shadows of dubstep in there though.) They get my plucky underdog vote.

the presence of "your majesty ... we are here!" on any best-of list renders every other contender pretty much redundant.

double up that opinion.

Pulp and GZA are '95

Pulp was in the Village Voice poll http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/village9097.htm#96
and Spin
http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/spinend.htm#96

Genius/GZA was in Q
http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/qlists.html#1996

no geto boys/UGK/m.o.p./do or die/master p/e-40/so so def bass allstars/juggaknots no credibility

never mind TUPAC

or HELTAH SKELTAH, BIG NOYD, LORD FINESSE, CRUCIAL CONFLICT, LOST BOYZ, POOR RIGHTEOUS TEACHERS, FOXY BROWN

etc

but good thing you made sure to include a sub-par jeru album

gza

should have had a wink next to jeru, didn't mean to sound like that much of a dick

I might be the only one , but that list makes me think there wasn't anything good in 1996. And though I wouldn't have thought I'd ever vote for a Pearl Jam album, in a weak year, their best album "No Code" gets my vote.

if you can't hear greatness in at least 20 of these albums to the extent where you have to vote Pearl Jam then lawd help you

1996 was a fine year for music if you don't read NME, Melody Maker, Mixmag, Muzik, Select, Spin, Village Voice and Q.

strange that both Mixmag and Muzik didn't include 'Advance'.

yet again tho, too many options = results sure to be uninteresting/irrelevant.

Speaking for everyone are you?

In this case, yes.

I wasn't asking you :)

and blueski if you don't have lots of options you get people like deej moaning something is missing. So if you're happy with fewer options there are others who clearly aren't. Can't please everyone.

went with endtroducing, but 2nd place vote would go to dead cities.

just make a top 15 based on all the UK mag EOY lists for any given year. i'm sure it would be great fun doing the additional maths.

humansuit was OTM re brackets tho. if only.

dammit, i voted exactly as i thought i would. for orbital. :-|

and blueski if you don't have lots of options you get people like deej moaning something is missing.

oh don't get me wrong, there are plenty of albums i would cut from list

and NICOLETTE! i loved that nicolette album! 'no government' = all time classic. she's doing some really good stuff with the bug these days.

Yes, fantastic album, but I guess I'll still be voting for DJ Shadow. Though The Aloof, Orbital and REM are in with a shout and I'm sorely tempted to vote for George Michael as it has my favourite single of '96. Will dig them out later to see what holds up best.

oh don't get me wrong, there are plenty of albums i would cut from list

yeah, but what gets cut might be someone elses choice. Like I said you can't please everyone.
Polls with fewer choices get far more posts of people complaining such and such is missing. While polls with lots of choices tend to get just blueski complaining.
And so what if the top vote is like 10 votes. It's still fun to see that other people like other albums, plus the real fun should be the posts on the subject. The poll is just to start the debate and I suppose have some sort of end to it when the results come through. Just to see how people voted.
Arguing about 15 albums is boring for the people who don't like any of them and they just moan "x album" should be in it and how they would've voted for that.

But it's impossible to please everyone on ILM. Someones always going to whine about something because it's not to their own personal tastes. The answer to which is quite simple - do your own poll.

Anyway 1996 anyone?

I'm sorely tempted to vote for George Michael as it has my favourite single of '96. Will dig them out later to see what holds up best.

hey man feel free to run singles/eps polls. I just don't want to start so many polls by myself in one week. Good luck trying to please everyone though.

plus the real fun should be the posts on the subject.
what posts on these threads have been fun, out of interest?

The poll is just to start the debate
Haven't 'the best albums of 1996 or any other year' been discussed enough on ILM over the last six years tho? this is just another poll for a poll's sake.

if you limit your next one to a calculated 15 or so and emthasise that this was a conscious decision in order to make people think more about their choice, then anyone complaining about omissions will just look even more dumb. and it might actually be a more fun poll/discussion. give it a try.

DJ SHADOW

8080

Entroducing was one of those albums you thought you were being Mr Up On The Trends by buying on the day it came out, then getting back to halls and finding that "B-b-bback again! Who is he?" is coming out of every other goddamn door.

(where "you" is "me")

i don't think i bought it until early 97 end of my first college year but i dug it straight away, all from hearing 'Midnight In A Perfect World' on the radio the previous Summer and being wowed (i was big on lots of mostly instrumental CHILLBIENT stuff at that point, 'Nights Interlude', 'Melt', St Germain's 'Forget It' and the like).

absolutely insane that the cat power isn't on the list. so I'm not voting.

cat power - what would the community think
bad brains - black dots
napalm death - diatribes
team dresch - captain my captain

Midnight in a perfect world disappointed me, because inexplicably, it doesn't have the Rollerball sample on the LP version. x-post.

Choosing btw Endtroducing, Millions Now Living and Natural Bridge is hard. Natural Bridge is probably my personal favorite but the other two seem more "important" in my musical scheme, especially since NB is kind of like a companion to American Water.

This is either Prince or Orbital. not sure which.

ROCKET.

It's weird to think how much I listened to Odelay in 96 vs how little respect I have for Beck anymore.

That's true! It worked retrospectively, too. I can't even bear Odelay now, let alone newer stuff

No So So Def Bass Allstars, no credibility indeed.

Guero is actually kind of awesome, esp. "Missing".

Odelay was such a big deal for me at the time, but it might be my least favorite Beck album.

I voted Manics.

Ha!

now I don't feel so bad!

trembling blue trees? ;)

That Carlinhos Brown album listed by Chuck was seriously great, and is still seriously great.

Otherwise, it's In Sides. Which version? Because my bonus disk has some good shit.

GOOD YEAR!!!!

There are probably twenty albums on this list that I still like, some of which I still love. That's pretty good going.

Pulp was '96 in the U.S. I remember this clearly.

Kind of strange that The auteurs - After murder park was only in the Q list.

Afghan Whigs for me since I voted Screaming Trees in the Kerrang poll of 96.

am I the only Fugees voter?

Really? The (first three) singles are pure gold, but that album hasn't dated well at all.

am I the only Fugees voter?

nope.

Doc Oc!

i voted richard d. james just cuz. also in contention: fsol, fugees, doc oc, tricky, shadow, sleater-kinney. my real favorite album of '96 was probably the v-roys. but steve earle's album that year was good too, and i'm pretty sure it finished top 10 in the voice so i don't know why it's not here. and what about amy rigy?

rigby, even.

I voted for 'Pre-Millenium Tension' in the end

Dodgy!

I think I only have two or three of these albums. I was so sick of music in 96. No Belle & Sebastian to chose from.

I should get Mazzy Star's Among My Swan though.

Fond memories of the Wilco, Pulp, REM, Suede, Rocket from the Crypt (on a rope on a rope got me hangin' on a rope!), Screaming Trees and Urusei Yatsura albums. Same goes for the DJ Shadow and Tortoise albums, though I didn't hear them until a year or two later... However, if it were listed I would have picked Sixteen Horsepower's debut - it really blew me off my feet when I first heard it.

Upon reflection, I am voting for New Edition, because that is one of the first tapes I ever bought with my own money. "Hit Me Off" is mad underrated.

I will use the excuse that Liquid Swords was '95 to vote for Emperor Tomato Ketchup.

favourite at the time: Faithless :/

-- blueski, Monday, June 4, 2007 10:19 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

Loved it too. Still do, actually.

I'm amazed at the inclusion of Space - possibly one of the worst albums I have ever purchased.

Favorite (dunno about "best") album of 96: House of GVSB

I voted Endtroducing but kind of wish I voted Silver Jews instead.

Pulp

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Get those votes in!

I will use the excuse that Liquid Swords was '95 to vote for Denim on Ice.

I have a horrible suspicion that if I were to vote for one of these it might just have to be Terrorvision.

LAST CALL FOR EARL BRUTUS VOTERS

Earl Brutus: 1

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Sleeper - The it girl 2

calum is back?

Earl Brutus - Your majesty..we are here 2

You voted twice, you cheating b***ard!

dj shadow?? oh ilm you corny indie fuxx

umm no i voted for the majestic Brutus as well as grim.
thought that was clear from my post !

I have never heard Earl Brutus.

dj shadow?? oh ilm you corny indie fuxx

But it's not an indie album.

Sleeper - The it girl 2

calum is back?

-- Herman G. Neuname, Thursday, 7 June 2007 23:45 (19 hours ago) Link

One was me. I ALWAYS get called Calum! I am his taller, cuter, female Canadian counterpart. I'd use my name but the Lex took it :(

But it's not an indie album.

lol

I am surprised the Sebadoh album got no votes.

<3 whigs but black love is teh bad

thought that was clear from my post !

exactly! don't worry about keith, mark. his NAZI HELMET is constricting his brain ;)

I have never heard Earl Brutus

you need to rectify that. you could start here.

[link fixed, clot]

<3 whigs but black love is teh bad

Black Love is great. One of their best.

Are Earl Brutus Steve Lamacq music?