defend 1996

Anyone want to fuck with me on this?

What year woz Black Grape's first album. That's ace. 1995?

in particular: that first great streak of kenickie singles and belle & sebastian before they were poo.

Plus the usual suspects (Tortoise, Shadow, the much-underrated Insides, etc.) Not the best, but not bad at all.

1961 was OK for jazz but crap for everything else. So I'm told.

'93? Last great Pet Shop Boys album (Very), Bjork's Debut (still just about listenable), Siamese Dream (to annoy ET needless to say), the Goats' first album (forgotten classic), Transglobal Underground's Dream of 100 Nations (OK, maybe a bit dated now, but I still like it), So Tough by St Etienne (was that '93?)

and AHEM AHEM

ENTER THE 96 CHAMBERS???!!!!

Also the first Tindersticks album if that was '93.

Er - In Utero? 1st Suede album?

Note deliberate omission of Wild Wood.

I refuse to get into discussions about good years/bad years, because it's like the Bible: you can always find something to support whatever position you want to take.

This is easy!

• Autechre - Tri Repitae [loved/hated]
• Belle and Sebastian - Tigermilk (their best LP)
• Boards of Canada - High Scores
• Bomboras - Savage Island
• Boredoms - Super Roots, Vol. 6
• Cindy Dahl - untitled
• Dirty Three - Horse Stories [their best album]
• For Carnation - Marshmallows [the first song on this is the best]
• Gastr Del Sol - Upgrade and Afterlife (totally underrated) and Mirror Repair
• Gravitar's debut
• the two June of 44 albums are alright, better than most NME tripe at least
• Lilys - Better Can't Make Your Life Better
• The Makers' debut
• Melt Banana - Scratch or Stitch
• Neurosis - Through Silver In Blood
• Neutral Milk Hotel - On Avery Island
• Pavement - Pacific Trim
• Polvo - Exploding Drawing [though certainly nowhere near their best]
• Scissor Girls - Static Land (load records)
• Silver Jews - Natural Bridge
• Smog - The Doctor Came At Dawn
• Tortoise - "Djed" and the Tortoise Remix series
• Wilco - Being There
• various artists - In Memoriam Gilles Deleuze (Milles Plateaux)

Were Grotesque the Lester Young of post-punk albums, The Light User Syndrome would surely be the Paul Quinichette.

(and Middle Class Revolt would be Rudiger Carl)

Hey, guys, stop looking at NME for great albums= you won't find any.

Marcello= Guitar, drms n' bass released in '96 surely.

Nabisco= did you mention a Stereolab(!!!) album. Stop it, man. You crazy!

wigga pleaze.

jay-z - reasonable doubt
mobb deep - hell on earth
jeru - wrath of the math
de la - stakes is high
redman - muddy waters
prince paul - psychoanalysis
m.o.p. - firing squad
sadat x - wild cowboys
busta rhymes - the coming

^_^

yeah, what was I thinking about the Makers, must be all the crap (but free!) beer embibed during the Schmidt/Batista pitching duel last night.

"Indie as a genre" is soooooooooooooooooooo ILM... *yawn*

There's no such thing as a bad year for music, by the way, but there are (many) bad years for particular trends and genres. Basically, bad ideas spread like germs--some people are immune or just aren't exposed to these.

Experiment Zero - Man or Astro-man? and
Pinkerton - Weezer

1995 was good coz that's the year that Mellon Collie came out, and the Sinking of the SS Danehower.

Which is a roundabout way of saying that I cannot emotionally defend anything from 1996 (got to get out = got to start another life = this has to end = IT HAS = 2002 RoXoR) even though logically I know some of it is good.

(I wuv Emperor Tomato Ketchup = will never play it again = "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" RoXoR)

I wuved Gorky's Zygotic Mynci in 1996 = their fascinations caused me shame because the vestiges were still around = now they're gone so I could wuv them without shame, if I still wuved them, which I don't

(hey I liked the Brotherhood in 1996 = bought one of their singles in Dorchester when SIR JAMES SPICER was still the local MP = bloody hell he'd have had me sent to a year's hard farm labour for that ha ha chiz chiz)

Singles

*Includes 1995 votes: Oasis 21, Pulp 7, Everclear 3, Los Del Rio 2, Fugees 1, Everything but the Girl 1, Garbage 1, Houston 4, Underground 1.

@Ten voters specified this mix. The others would have if they'd thought of it.

* And per Ethan's complaint YES, I DO mean this in an indie-centric way. "Electronica" was just opening up into unprecedented far-flung territories, the whole alt-rock explosion left "indie" scrambling for new territory, and the two were both colliding with these internationalist pop ideas and German, French, Brazilian, and Japanese influences and for a moment these territories were unstable and about to get pretty damned interesting.

Fever In Fever Out as well.

Goth-Pop Revival
Garbage, Placebo, Suede - all the crap bits about Grunge but with eyeliner and men dressed in bin bags

Big Beat
A bunch of goons from Brighton making dance music out of children's cartoons is never going to be a dance revolution.

Jungle becomes Drum'n'Bass
Heralding a wave of boring loops with no energy to them at all. New Forms was a crap album, I WANT BIG BEEFY BASSLINES DAMNIT!

Britpop goes crap:
People don't remember Britpop for This Is A Low and Common People, no. People remember a bunch of soundalikes wearing waterproofs and making tuneless bilge about god knows what and Liam Gallagher flipping the bird at the camera.

Poppy Ska-Punk :
No Doubt, Reel Big Fish and that other band started it and before you knew every Hollywood High-School Prom band was fronted by a chubby goateed part-dude with a chequered tie. Queue a billion Ska-Punk covers of cheesy 80s songs.

Mitigating factors: If You're Feeling Sinister, Expecting To Fly

LOLOLOLOLOL

fair point tuomas but to all intents and porpoises, 'born slippy' fkn DEFINED '96.

http://www.cdquest.com/images/album_art/sorted/0049/9250/0049925053227.jpg

Shit, is OK Computer really 9 years old?!!

Mogwai - "Tuner" and "Summer"
Ween - 12 Golden Country Greats
Scooter - Wicked
White Town - "Your Woman"
Air - "Modulor Mix"
Robert Miles - "Children"
DJ Trace - "Mutant Revisited"
The Cardigans - "Lovefool"
Sneaker Pimps - "Spin Spin Sugar (Armand's Dark Garage Mix)"
Disco Inferno - Technicolour

"defend 2006" would be a better thread.

1997 was a far worse year for music and almost put me off all recorded sound forever.

Sanskrit, yesterday.

I realised/estimated last night that this is the 10th anniversary MONTH I got into punk rock properly, which without sounding old and shit, was probably more important (to me) in hindsight

plus it had 'endtroducing'.

but the aftertaste is curiously 'noelrock' :/

UGH!

armand's 'professional widow' remix is ten years old woo
and they still play it at my local club which i only went to once.

and they still play it at my local club which i only went to once.

get out of the satellites

trying, but hertfordshire is sticky.

Aphex Twin – Richard D James (holds up just fine)
Beck – Odelay (BEST OF THE YEAR – though I never wanna hear it again)
Belle & Sebastian – If You're Feeling Sinister (haters will; it's what they do)
Blackstreet – Another Level (at least 50% boring, but "No Diggety" is the point)
Boredoms – Super Roots 6 (first sign of things to come...)
Brainiac – Hissing Prigs In Static Couture (a personal favorite, that's all)
Cradle of Filth – Dusk and Her Embrace (yes, Jan. '97 counts ... sorta)
DJ Shadow – Endtroducing (comically overrated by white boys, but WTF, you know?)
Dr. Octagon – Dr. Octagonecologist (BEST OF THE YEAR – bad year for hip hop?)
Fugees – The Score (BEST OF THE YEAR – obviously...)
Jay Z – Reasonable Doubt (BEST OF THE YEAR – come on, kids!)
Manic Street Preachers – Everything Must Go (uh, English people seem to rate it)
Marilyn Manson – Antichrist Superstar (having good taste is waaaay overrated)
Masada Chamber Ensemble – Bar Kokhba (BEST OF THE YEAR – most beautiful music Zorn's ever come within 100 miles of)
Maxwell – Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite (but it's world-class R&B pablum)
Mobb Deep – Hell On Earth (not The Infamous, but still...)
Neurosis – Through Silver In Blood (BEST OF THE YEAR – devastating)
Neutral Milk Hotel – On Avery Island (too indie for ya? – still massively influential)
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – Murder Ballads (chicks dig it)
Orbital – Insides (not classic, but this is a time capsule, right?)
Rocket From The Crypt - Scream, Dracula, Scream! (with Brainiac, just a record I like)
Sheryl Crow – Sheryl Crow (you're above it - so what?)
Skullflower – This Is (now available in over-the-counter form)
Sleater Kinney – Call the Doctor (every bit as good as Dig Me Out)
Spice Girls – Spice (regrets are for the little people)
Squarepusher – Feed Me Weird Things (still kinda mind-blowing)
Stereolab – Emperor Tomato Ketchup (BEST OF THE YEAR - as good as they got)
Sublime – Sublime (I hate this record, but it's better than Tortoise, so deal)
Super Furry Animals – Fuzzy Logic (insanely great, if you dig refried pop-rock leftovers)
Swans – Soundtracks for the Blind (a niche record, but a lovely one)
Tool – Aenemia (hate it, but kids'll be rocking it long after your "hits" are forgotten)
Tortoise – Millions Now Living (I say boring poo; you say classic – shrug)
Tricky – Pre-Millennium Tension (BEST OF THE YEAR – chilling, if dated)
Weezer – Pinkerton (again, it doesn't matter whether you like it or not, you'd have to be an idiot to deny the influence on / relevance to today's pop/rock)

if i may be so bold: are you white?

xpost

Orbital – Insides (not classic, but this is a time capsule, right?)

Insides is highly rated and treasured on ILM generally

(also released in 96, in the middle of pj harvey's most amazing creative period)

Blackstreet – Another Level
DJ Shadow – Endtroducing
Fugees – The Score
Orbital – In Sides
Sheryl Crow – Sheryl Crow
Spice Girls – Spice
Stereolab – Emperor Tomato Ketchup
Tricky – Pre-Millennium Tension

they're all ok!

What an UNLIKELY combination.

*cough*

Wasn't the Big K starring in Bio-Dome around this time?

(if the alternative is Britpop rule...)

And I mock my people 'cuz I love 'em. I'm like Woody Allen or Dave Chappelle in this sense. But better looking. Much better looking.

I thought the point of ILM was I LOVE MUSIC. ie all music and not just one or two particular genres.

Add that the "BEST OF THE YEAR" bellowing. Ask me, '96 shapes up just fine. Kinda treading water, but classy-like. Hair in place.

(Wait, wasn't that a Broadcast album?)

Muzik 1996 - Albums of the Year
1. DJ Shadow - Endtroducing
2. Jeru The Damaja - The Wrath Of The Math
3. The Fugees - The Score
4. Faithless - Reverence
5. Slam - Headstates
6. John Beltran - Ten Days Of Blue
7. Sweetback - Sweetback
8. Underworld - Second Toughest In The Infants
9. Motorbass - Pansoul
10. Terry Lee Brown Junior - Brother For Real
11. Maxwell - Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite
12. Dr Octagon - Dr Octagon
13. Herbert - 100lbs
14. Larry Heard - Alien
15. Dave Clarke - Archive One
16. Orbital - Insides
17. Two Lone Swordsmen - The Fifth Mission
18. Tek 9 - It's Not What You Think It Is
19. George Michael - Older
20. Dimitri From Paris - Sacrebleu
21. Mobb Deep - Hell On Earth
22. A Tribe Called Quest - Beats, Rhymes And Life
23. Lionrock - An Instinct For Detection
24. Tortoise - Millions Now Living Will Never Die
25. Wamdue Project - Resource Toolbox Volume One

Muzik 1996 - Remixes of the Year
1. Busta Rhymes - Woo-Hah! (Origin Unkown Remix)
2. The Beloved - Deliver Me (Robodisco Dub)
3. Tori Amos - Professional Widow (Armand Van Helden Remix)
4. Alex Reece - Jazzmaster (Kruder & Dorfmeister Remix)
5. Sandy B - Make The World Go Round (Deep Dish Remix)
6. Incognito - Out Of The Storm (Carl Craig Remix)
7. Manic Street Preachers - Kevin Carter (Jon Carter Remix)
8. Raw Stylus - Pushing Against The Flow (Roger Sanchez Remix)
9. The Fugees - Ready Or Not (DJ Hype Remix)
10. Robert Owens - Ordinary People (Fire Island Remix)

Muzik 1996 - Compilations of The Year
1. LTJ Bukem: Logical Progression
2. Central Heating
3. Elements
4. Source Lab 2
5. Nu Yorica Experiments In Latin Music 1970-77
6. Laurent Garnier: Laboratoire Mix
7. Jon Carter Live At The Heavenly Social Volume 2
8. High In The Basement
9. Kruder & Dorfmeister: DJ Kicks
10. Techsteppin'

I picked up on and loved 'Elevators' thanks to Kiss FM airplay and Yo! MTV Raps but despite this didn't buy the album (I wasn't buying any hip-hop at that time even tho there was a lot of great stuff about).

TROLLED EM BOSS

!!!!!!!

they left 'Advance' out for that?!

they left 'Advance' out for that

Yes, but...

1. Tori Amos - Professional widow
2. Underworld - Born slippy
3. Way out west - The gift
4. Fugees - Killing me softly
5. KADOC - Night train
6. DJ Zink - Super sharp shooter
7. CJ Bolland - Sugar is sweeter
8. Lisa Marie Experience - Keep on jumping
9. Air - Casanova 70
10. Full intention - I love America
11. Blackstreet - No diggety
12. Chicane - Offshore EP
13. Fugees??? - Or not - bootleg
14. Faze action - In the trees
15. Boris Dlugosch - Keep pushing
16. Salt tank - Eugina
17. Mighty dub kats - It’s just another groove
18. Busta Rhymes - Woo hah (got you all in check)
19. BBE - Seven days & one week
20. Adam F - Metropolis
21. Blue boy - Remember me
22. Ian Pooly - Chord memory
23. Lochi - London acid city
24. Summer daze - Samba magic
25. Robert Miles - Children
26. Chemical Brothers - Setting sun
27. Mood II swing - Do it your way
28. Stretch & Vern - I’m alive
29. DJ Trace - Mutant revisited
30. The Prodigy - Firestarter
31. I: Cube - Disco cubizm
32. L’Homme Que Valait Trois Millards - Foxy lady
33. Ed Rush - Kilimanjaro
34. Goldie - Inner city life
35. David Holmes - My mate Paul
36. Squarepusher - Squarepusher theme
37. Two lone swordsmen - Rico’s helly
38. Faithless - Insomnia
39. Kenlou IV - What a sensation
40. Ann Nesby - Can I get a whitness
41. Man made - Space wreck
42. Grace - Orange
43. Jeru tha damaja - Ya playin’ yaself
44. Reprazent - Reasons for sharing
45. Billie feat. H20 - Nobody’s business
46. Crystal method - Keep hope alive
47. Yellow sox - Flim flam
48. Pharcyde - Runnin’
49. X-press 2 - Tranz Europe express
50. Funky green dogs - Fired up

music was the only thing that made me happy then

UR + continuity UR always a minority thang. how many of the contributors even kept up, you gotta wonder.

-- ESTEBAN BUTTEZ The Unstoppable Troll Machine (estebanbuttez@g

Roffle. "Esteban" is old sk3wl of '01.

But yeah, far and away my favorite Outkast. And of 1996. Though I really dug Under the Bushes Under the Stars (probably my favorite GBV)

http://www.bluejean.com.tr/nevarneyok/04369/imperiaflex_0_4_0.jpg

'96: year of the Mack!

but its also the start of an astonishibg timbaland resurrect of rnb i guess. which becomes apparent.

In '96 make mine "No Diggity"

No:

Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup
Masaki Batoh - Collected Works '95-'96
No Neck Blues Band - Letters from the Earth
VON LMO - Red Resistor
some Soundtrack of Our Lives giveaway EP from Ugly Things
Shadow Ring - Wax-Work Echoes
Boredoms - Super Roots 6
Satisfact - The Unwanted Sounds of Satisfact
Soul Junk - 1953
Metabolismus - Terra Incognita (might've been '97)
The Fall - The Light User Syndrome

Pinkerton isn't indie! And Avery Island owns you.

-- jaymc (jmcunnin...), July 30th, 2006.

I've always been here. I just use to call myself Alfred Soto. That got old.

Who the fuck are you, sweetie?

"Jelly Tones" (2LP/CD - RS 95065/RS 95065 CD - 1995)
"Metal Blue America" (CD - R&S Records - 1997)

hmm

01 - Eddie Palmieri y La India - Mi Primera Rumba
02 - Gilberto Santa Rosa - Y eso Duele [this isn't really so hot, but it's historically interesting, as one of the earliest examples I've found of salsa with dancehall style rapping]
03 - Frankie Ruiz - Hablame
04 - Victor Manuelle - Pensamiento y Palabra
05 - Oscar D'Leon - Volver a Verte
06 - Manolin (El Medico de la Salsa) - Te Conozco Mascarita
07 - Melcochita - Bombele
08 - Africando - Yay Boy (Baron Lopez re-mix)
09 - Joe Arroyo - Mi Libertad-Various Artists
10 - Grupo Gale - Tumbadora
11 - Victor Manuelle - Volverás
12 - E. Palmieri y La India - Yemaya y Ochun (Prelude)
13 - E. Palmieri y La India - Yemaya y Ochun

Fairly slim pickin's.)

There were also excellent debuts from Bluetones and at least an excellent single from Kula Shaker. Both of which undoubtedly Britpop. Plus Supernaturals (best debut album of 1997) released their first couple of excellent singles and Dodgy and Lightning Seeds both saw their deserved commercial breakthrough. All of it positive side effects of 1995's Britpop boom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYG63G1-lqw

96 is sick.. fuck the haters

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9VYzNUXGDA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cntLoJ8nCs

Definitely not as good as 1995 or 1997 but better than 1998

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duKz3JfLSrc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljdzX7a4_Xs

[las vegas]

This makes me want to listen to Suede

ok ok last one...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJE6-wFaq7o

the secret tapes of dr eich

http://www.discogs.com/Moodymann-I-Cant-Kick-This-Feelin-When-It-Hits-Music-People/master/77702

http://www.discogs.com/Claude-Young-DJ-Kicks/release/2859

http://www.discogs.com/Farmers-Manual-No-Backup/master/222108

CR-03 Porter Ricks Port Of Transition / Port Of Call ◄ (3 versions) 1996 ▼
CR-04 Monolake Cyan ◄ (3 versions) 1996 ▼
CR-05 Substance Relish ◄ (2 versions) 1996 ▼
CR-06 Vainqueur Reduce ◄ (3 versions) 1996 ▼
CR-07 Vainqueur Elevation ◄ (3 versions) 1996 ▼
CR-08 Monolake Magenta ◄ (4 versions) 1996 ▼
CR-09 Porter Ricks Port Of Nuba / Nautical Nuba ◄ (3 versions) 1996 ▼
CR-10 Pelon No Stunts ◄ (2 versions) 1996 ▼
CR-11 Helical Scan Index ◄ (2 versions) 1996 ▼
CR-12 Resilent 1.1 / 1.2 / 2 ◄ (3 versions) 1996 ▼
CR-13 Vainqueur Solanus ◄ (3 versions) 1996 ▼
CR-14 Porter Ricks Nautical Dub (Tidal Mix) / Port Gentil ◄ (2 versions) 1996 ▼

http://www.discogs.com/Larry-Heard-Alien/master/6660

Can't Kick This Feelin' yes sure

Not that I listened to that in '96

http://www.discogs.com/Jeff-Mills-Mix-Up-Vol-2-Featuring-Jeff-Mills-LiveMix-At-Liquid-Room-Tokyo/master/5923

Yup another good one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBb9srjEsKA

what did you listen to in 96? i think my favourite song was probably the theme tune to mike and angelo, or something

I dunno, prob whatever indie band would get me into a girl's pants

Like Suede

For me, 1996 was the year of Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. Even tho they didn't put out an LP that year, a friend of mine had returned from a record-buying/show-going trip to the UK w/ their entire Angst discog, which several of us promptly dubbed cassettes of & listened to almost exclusively for a matter of months.

man that run of chain reaction singles is pretty impressive

lolz:

Patti Smith - Gone Again; REM - New Adventures in HiFi; Pearl Jam - No Code.
Anyone want to fuck with me on this?

― Queen of the Mentalist Gs, Wednesday, May 29, 2002 12:00 AM (8 years ago) Bookmark

"My Boo" came out in '96. Therefore, best year ever. Case closed.
― It's Rodney, currently unemployed! (R. J. Greene), Friday, July 28, 2006 8:00 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark

yes

http://www.discogs.com/Dan-Curtin-Art-Science/release/4851

http://www.discogs.com/Solcyc-Tales-From-The-Reefer-Barn/release/80105

http://www.discogs.com/Mark-Broom-Angie-Is-A-Shoplifter/master/39362

^ amazing album

http://www.discogs.com/Tetsu-Inoue-World-Receiver/master/45050

http://www.discogs.com/Coil-Presents-Black-Light-District-A-Thousand-Lights-In-A-Darkened-Room/master/6807

http://www.discogs.com/Detroit-Escalator-Co-The-Soundtrack-313/master/39264

96 gon be that year

i figured out a while back that 1996 produced more albums i like/love than any other year. ones that haven't been mentioned in this thread:

Two Dollar Guitar - Burned And Buried
Sloan - One Chord To Another
Brendan Benson - One Mississippi
Trans Am - Surrender To The Night
UGK - Ridin' Dirty
Soul Coughing - Irresistible Bliss
The Posies - Amazing Disgrace
Cat Power - What Would The Community Think?
2Pac - All Eyez On Me
Butter 08 - Butter 08
D'Angelo - Brown Sugar
Beck - Odelay!
Buffalo Daughter - New Vapour Athletes
Counting Crows - Recovering The Sattelites
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Now I Got Worry
Elvis Costello & The Attractions - All This Useless Beauty
Firewater - Get Off the Cross, We Need the Wood for the Fire
New Radiant Storm King - Hurricane Necklace
Girls Against Boys - House Of GVSB
Dave Matthews Band - Crash
Heatmiser - Mic City Sons
Stone Temple Pilots - Tiny Music
Mike Johnson - Year Of Mondays
Fred Schneider - Just Fred
Soundgarden - Down On The Upside
Lungfish - Indivisible
They Might Be Giants - Factory Showroom
Semisonic - The Great Divide
Ruth Ruth - The Little Death EP
Cibo Matto - Viva! La Woman

ok forgot to delete a few that have been mentioned but still

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQrhA6QtWOM

1996 is my favorite music year ever, p much

Either/Or was released in 97

I have to pull out that Butter 08 album again and re-listen.

xp Yup I had to look that one up.. KRS released "speed trials"/"angeles" october '96

Some, probably not all:

Nazareth – Greatest Hits (A&M reissue)
OMC – How Bizarre (Mercury)
Emmett Miller – The Minstrel Man From Georgia (Columbia/Legacy reissue)
(Various) – Cleveland: So Much To Answer For (Cle reissue)
Weezer - Pinkerton (DGC)
The Business – Loud, Proud And Oi! (Dojo reissue)
The Nomads – R&R (Raw and Rare) (Estrus reissue)
DJ Shadow – Endtroducing… (Mo Wax/FFRR)
(Various) – Jazz The World Forgot Vol. 1 (Yazoo 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)
(Various) – Jazz The World Forgot Vol. 2 (Yazoo reissue)
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)
New Kingdom – Paradise Don’t Come Cheap (Gee Street)
ZZ Hill – Turn Back The Hands Of Time (Night Train/Tuff City reissue)
Deana Carter – Did I Shave My Legs For This? (Capitol)
Banda Bahia - Ghostbusters (Unico)
(Various) – Czeching In (Skoda)
(Various) – Make ‘Em Mokum Crazy (Mokum/Roadrunner)
Moonspell – Irreligious (Century Media)
OutKast – ALTiens (LaFace)
Sheryl Crow - Sheryl Crow (A&M)
In Extremo – Die Verruuckten Sind In Der Stadt (Stars In The Dark Germany)
My Dying Bride – The Angel And The Dark River (Fierce)
KMFDM – Retro (Wax Trax! reissue)
The London Suede – Coming Up (Nude/Columbia)
Serge Gainsbourg – Comic Strip (Philips/Mercury reissue)
Nina Hagen – 14 Friendly Abductions: The Best Of (Columbia/Legacy 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)
Ruth Ruth - Laughing Gallery (American)
The Afghan Whigs – Honky’s Ladder EP (Mute EP)

the number of reissues included ^ don't make a very strong case for actual 1996 music. loved that deanna carter record, however.

don't = doesn't

the number of reissues included ^ fact that I just realized I posted the exact same list uphthread, three years ago, don't make a very strong case for actual 1996 music either

consistency!

Actually looks like I added a couple since then. (Mostly reissues though, I think.)

1996 is the year I pretty much stopped listening to music "professionally" (for non-musical reasons) so I'm willing to take your word for it more or less

Emmett Miller and D.A.M. were historic releases of unheard or little-heard music so they probably shouldn't count as reissues

Well, I have a wide definition of reissues. But with those, and that Gene Autry one, and the Cleveland one, and Jazz The World Forgot (and probably Business and the Nomads and ZZ Hill for that matter), it's not like the stuff would have really been possible to track down before 1996. So suggesting they made the year better than it would've been otherwise doesn't seem so far-fetched to me. (Joni Mitchell, Nazareth and Nina Hagen may be stretching it, though.)

just the fact of that Destroy All Monsters stuff existing on record - and people paying to hear it - made 1996 better than it would have been otherwise

that and my son being born that year :-)

Ruth Ruth - Laughing Gallery (American)

― xhuxk, Tuesday, August 10, 2010 3:49 PM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

that's from '95, but their EP, The Little Death, that I listed upthread, is from '96 and is imo way better

Apparently '96 was the year my music tastes were formed forever cz those lists upthread are just so much nostalgia I cannot possibly say anything bad about them

For me, 1996 was almost entirely about Sepultura Roots. Probably the single most important metal release of the entire decade.

Albums I'd recommend from 1996:

All Natural Lemon and Lime Flavors - s/t
Burger-Ink - [las vegas]
Golden Palominos - Dead Inside
Gyuto Monks - Freedom Chants from the Roof of the World
Lamb - s/t

That said, there's no question in my mind that 1996 is the weakest year for recorded music since 1989, which probably holds the title for my lifetime.

1989? waht

As my two favorite albums released in 96 - Donna Summer's I'm a Rainbow and Alex Chilton's 1970 were recorded years earlier, I'd say a pretty weak year, though I still listen to the first two Belle & Sebastian albums, the Fountains of Wayne self-titled debut and Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite. In fact, I might go so far to say that while it was a mediocre year for music generally, it was a pretty good year for debuts.

Also really like:
Johnny Cash - Unchained
the Auteurs - After Murder Park
Ghostface Killah - Ironman
Eels - Beautiful Freak
Fu Manchu - In Search Of
De La Soul - Stakes is High
Jason Falkner - Presents Author Unknown

xp Colonel Poo: yes 1989. Like 1996, it was in one of those pop-culture troughs between the exhaustion of older ideas and their replacement by novel ones (waving my hands T. Wilson in 24 Hour Party People style). There were exceptional albums, (eg. Doolittle, 3 Feet High and Rising or Paul's Boutique), but there wasn't a deep well. It took another year or so before summer of '88 and Psychocandy fandom really flowered...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V5IUMzRDsI

1996 was probably the best music year of the entire 90s. The Britpop explosion of the year before made the labels go bananas searching for Britpop acts, which brought a lot of great pop albums to the world.

- A great debut from Bluetones, that sadly they never really managed to follow properly

- Dodgy released their best ever album and had a deserved UK Top 5 hit and a final breakthrough.

- Lightning Seeds finally had a well-deserved UK #1 with the best footie song ever made.

- Kula Shaker's debut was much better than the reputation it has gotten afterwards.

And added to that, Orbital made the best dance/techno album ever made.

Oh, and of course, Suede also peaked artistically and commercially in 1996. Surely a fantastic year for pop after a horrible period in the early 90s.

I'm just gonna do this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1989_albums

maybe I overrate 1989 because Disintegration and Technique came out that year but I sort of feel like if you're saying that year sucked, it was because you were not listening to the same things I heard

awesome year for rap singles iirc

http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/2/2pac/album-all-eyez-on-me.jpghttp://images.uulyrics.com/cover/2/2pac/album-all-eyez-on-me.jpghttp://images.uulyrics.com/cover/2/2pac/album-all-eyez-on-me.jpghttp://images.uulyrics.com/cover/2/2pac/album-all-eyez-on-me.jpg

^^^^^^^^^
damn came here to post this

to contribute

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

been listening to "Killing Me Softly" a lot today; that has to be top 10 cover versions of all time!

"My Boo" came out in '96. Therefore, best year ever. Case closed.
― It's Rodney, currently unemployed! (R. J. Greene), Friday, July 28, 2006 4:00 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark

I know I already co-signed this comment, but "My Boo," "Return Of The Mack" and "One In A Million" are all kinda historic IMO.. Is the whole "lmao 90's" thing still a thing? Are people finally over it? I hope so...

Swirlies came out with one of my favorite albums ever in 1996!

Lotsa personal faves from that year, but the vast majority were smaller, niche-ier titles, and thus not the kind of assortment that makes for a standout year in a broad, culturally memorable sense. Still, I'd trade most other years' popular highlights for any of these 10 in a second:

Elvis Costello & the Attractions, ALL THIS USELESS BEAUTY
DJ Shadow, ENDTRODUCING
Patty Griffin, LIVING WITH GHOSTS
Jimmy Eat World, STATIC PREVAILS
The Loud Family, INTERBABE CONCERN
Aimee Mann, I'M WITH STUPID
Marry Me Jane, MARRY ME JANE
Slingbacks, ALL POP NO STAR
Too Much Joy, ...FINALLY
Dar Williams, MORTAL CITY

hell yeah, i'll co-sign Swirlies
and Endtroducing deserves more love. i don't get why it's dismissed so often around here.

The more distance you get on a year or era, the easier it becomes to see what was important. A lot of 1996's best music I wouldn't hear until much later. Great year for doom & stoner rock, metallic garage punk, american indie pop, drones & tones, oddball/experimental/noisy rock music.

12 Favorites:

Sun City Girls - 330,003 Cross-Dressers...
Electric Wizard - Come My Fanatics
Hellacopters - Supershitty to the Max!
Belle and Sebastian - Tigermilk and If You're Feeling Sinister
Outkast - ATLiens
Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup
John Zorn - Bar Kokhba
Harmony of the Spheres compilation
Bardo Pond - Amanita
Turbonegro - Ass Cobra
Ghostface Killah - Ironman

Other Good Stuff:

2Pac - All Eyez On Me
Arvo Part - Litany
Boris - Absolutego
Brainiac - Hissing Prigs In Static Couture
Butter 08 - Butter 08
Cibo Matto - Year of the Woman
Circle - Zopalki
Country Teasers - Satan Is Real Again
Cryptopsy - None So Vile
De La Soul - Stakes Is High
DJ Spooky - Songs of a Dead Dreamer
Dr. Octagon - Dr. Octagonecologyst and Instrumentalyst
E-40 - Hall of Game
Fatboy Slim - Better Living Through Chemistry
Fu Manchu - In Search of...
fucking racist asshole - Filosofem
Fugees - The Score
Guided By Voices - Tonics & Twisted Chasers and Under the Bushes Under the Stars
Harvey Milk - Courtesy and Goodwill to Men
Imperial Teen - Seasick
Jay-Z - Reasonable Doubt
Jessamine - The Long Arm of Coincidence
Magic Hour - Secession '96
Maxwell - Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite
Melvins - Stag
Mobb Deep - Hell On Earth
MOP - Firing Squad
Neutral Milk Hotel - On Avery Island
Oblivians - Popular Favorites
Olivia Tremor Control - Dusk at Cubist Castle
Sleater-Kinney - Call the Doctor
Sloan - One Chord to Another
Swans - Soundtracks for the Blind
The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Take It From the Man! (and at least one more)
The Chemical Brothers - Live At the Social, Vol. 1
The Fall - Light User Syndrome
The Heads - Relaxing With...
Three 6 Mafia - The End
Tricky - Pre-Millennium Tension
Unwound - Repetition
Weezer - Pinkerton

IF You're Feeling Sinister was 97, no?

Though DJ Shadow and Beck were at the top for me, I haven't had much desire to listen to either for the past decade. I do still listen to the Tortoise album though, along with these:

Chico Science & Nação Zumbi - Afrociberdelia
Acrimony - Tumuli Shroomaroom
Electric Wizard - Come My Fanatics...
Neurosis - Through Silver In Blood
Melvins - Stag
Walt Mink - El Producto
Acid Bath - Paegan Terrorism Tactics
The Oblivians - Popular Favorite
Gallon Drunk - In The Long Still Night
Sheila Chandra - ABoneCroneDrone
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads
Screaming Trees - Dust
Afghan Whigs - Black Love
Turbonegro - Ass Cobra
The Hellacopters - Supershitty To The Max
Nightstalker - Use

IF You're Feeling Sinister was 97, no?

allmusic, discogs and wikipedia all list it as 96 (18 nov., according to wiki)

Neurosis - Through Silver In Blood
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads

yow, totally forgot about these (not to mention beck, DJ shadow & tortoise). TSIB is a classic. now i'm thinking that 96 must have been one of the best years of the 90s.

anything released by elephant 6 collective. nmh, otc.

cosign Stag, Amanita, Hissing Prigs, Pinkerton, ATLiens, totally need to give Zopalki & Millions Now Living (& probably Temple IV) a listen.

would add:

Third Eye Foundation, Semtex
The Boredoms, Super Roots 6
Remy Zero, s/t
The Kelley Deal 6000, Go to the Sugar Altar

I should write a longer post on the Eyeless in Gaza thread at some stage, but this winter I have been totally obsessed with an album they put out in 1996 called All Under The Leaves, The Leaves Of Life, absolutely my favourite of all the albums that I've heard from them. By this stage they'd turned down the pop side of things a little and were making much earthier music that mixed noise and drone elements with English folk music (there are a couple of songs here that the Watersons had sung on Frost and Fire). The whole thing is just taut and alive with this real sense of place, you can feel both the proximity of the ghosts of the past but also the soft mud of the afternoon clinging to your boots.

That sounds kind of amazing!

(I forgot one as D.A.M. btw: Mainliner's Mellow Out)

Wow, Kelley Deal, I totally forgot to ever check out that album, and my friend Nick Hook is on it. He met her in rehab in Mpls, lol.

Strangely enough I recently made a playlist of '96 Hip Hop:

2Pac- All i's
America is Dying Slowly (VA)
Xhibit- At the Speed of Life
Outkast- ATLiens
Lord Finesse- the Awakening
Ultra- Big Time
Young Lay- Black'n'Dangerous
Blahzey Blahzey- Blah Blah Blah
Westside Connection- Bow Down
Dru Down- Can You Feel Me?
Three Six Mafia- Chpt. 1: the End
Nine- Cloud 9
Busta- The Coming
OGC- Da Storm
2Pac- Don Killuminati
Dr. Octagon- Dr. Octagonecologyst
Keith Murray- Enigma
Big Noyd- Episode of a Hustla
Slum Village- Fan-tast-ic Vol. 1
Crucial Conflict- Final Tic
MOP- Firing Squad
Mad Skillz- From Where???
Al Tariq- God Connections
Da Bush Babees- Gravity
dj Honda- h
Lil Kim- Hardcore
Mobb Deep- Hell on Earth
The Roots- Illadelph Halflife
Ghostface- Ironman
Nas- It Was Written
Kingpin Skinny Pimp- King of da Playaz Ball
Bahamadia- Kollage
Lost Boyz- Legal Drug Money
Shyheim- the Lost Generation
Redman- Muddy Waters
PRT- New World Order
Smoothe da Hustla- Once Upon a Time in America
Do or Die- Picture This
Cella Dwellas- Realms & Reality
Jay-Z- Reasonable Doubt
Geto Boys- Resurrection
UGK- Ridin' Dirty
Fugees- The Score
Ras Kass- Soul on Ice
Lil Half Dead- Soul on a Misson
E-40- the Hall of Game
Kwest tha Mad Lad- This is My First Album
Real Live- the Turnaround
Siah & yeshua- the visualz
Sadat X- Wild Cowboys
Jeru- Wrath of the Math
DJ Screw- 3 n tha Mornin
tha Juggaknots- Clear Blue Skies

764-Hero "Obviously Awful"
Modest Mouse "Whenever I Breathe Out You Breathe In"

tom/marcello/drc/mark s's other rubbish theory was that 1996 was a poor year for music.

Wrongest most OffTM theory ever.

Geir Hongro abandoned his yearly polls for some reason, so this'll give me a chance to list all the '96 stuff I keep on my computer: "Ahead," Band of Susans (Wire cover); "Jackass," Beck; "False Start," Bikini Kill; "She's a Freak," Bloody Chicletts; "Shoot Me First," Come; "Riverside," Cub; "Attack of the 50-Ft. Teletubbies," D.J. Shoe; "Tres Delinquentes," Delinquent Habits; "Stem/Long Stem," DJ Shadow; "Main Sequence: Diffusion/Photon/Lajolla," Füxa; "Pig Latin" and "You're One," Imperial Teen; "Despite," Jale; "Lovey Dovey," Local H; "Twenty-Five-Forty-One," Marshall Crenshaw; "Rollerblade," Nick Heyward; "How Bizarre," OMC; "Sign of the Times" and "Days," Outrageous Cherry; "Kiss My Sister," Pollyanna; "Up to No Good," Porn Kings; "Ontario" and "Grant Hart," Posies; "The Love We Could've Had," Rocketship; "On Fire," Sebadoh; "Stay Where You Are" and "I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone," Sleater-Kinney; "Suggestions," "Yeah," and "Hopefully," Small Factory; "6 Underground," Sneaker Pimps; "Pretty Noose," Soundgarden; "Wannabe," Spice Girls; "The Noise of Carpet," Stereolab; "She Doesn't Know How," That Dog; "Even Grable," Treble Charger; "Nutricia," Yo La Tengo.

So much of this stuff I discovered long after the fact; I can only spot half my top 10 for the year in there. Verdict: a year a lot like all the other ones.

I know for me as a listener, 1995-1996 is really when I started to get out of the indie rock/punk music and start to expand more and more into jazz, krautrock and electronic music. In October '96 I started to keep track of every record I listened to all the way and have kept that up for like 16-17 years. Looking at the list, it looks like Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Charles Mingus are what I was listening to the most in the fall of '96.

I'd say for new records from that year, I know that Millions Now Living Will Never Die and Endtroducing are both pretty high on the list of records I have listened to the most since I started my list in late 96. There are others around the list I liked and some I listened to a ton at the time (like Autechre, Tricky, Swans, The Grifters "Aint My Lookout", 6FS "Paranormalized", GvsB, & Jon Spencer) but I think the Tortoise and DJ Shadow have gotten the most play over the years.

listening to Füxa's Very Well Organized atm, might be the best single Michigan space rock LP, huge dollop of 60s organ to go along with the spacey droney electronic noise

Add another album--Circle's Hissi, which feels almost like a summation of all the interesting avant- & post-rock developments of the year (see: Stag, Amanita, Super Roots 6, Temple IV, Very Well Organized, Mellow Out)

I don't think I have much music from this year but 1996 gets a pass from me simply because of Sing To God.

The Cardiacs album, that is.

Haha, if I remember, Vox magazine - Cardiacs 'Sing To God' 0/10..."unlistenable shite" - Johnny Cigarettes

not that I agree of course

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zDdoL2I234

history shan't remember johnny cigarettes

it will, however, remember matthew herbert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3x8mp1ECUQ

Great things that came out in '96

B&S "If You're Feeling Sinister"
Beck "Odelay"
first Damon & Naomi w Ghost record
Earth "Pentastar: In the Style of Demons"
E-40 "Hall of Game"
Outkast "ATLiens"
Mobb Deep "Hell on Earth"
Lilys "Better Can't Make Your Life Better"
Dr. Octagon "Dr. Octagonecologyst"
Ghostface Killah "Ironman"
JSBX "Now I Got Worry"
GBV "Under the Bushes Under the Stars"
Stereolab "Emperor Tomato Ketchup"
UGK "Ridin' Dirty"

looks pretty good to me

People aren't making the case they think they are in this thread

http://www.avclub.com/article/1996-alternative-rock-died-messy-forgettable-death-240366

_encomium_ came out in 1995. the world had nowhere to go but up after that.

Nice to read an article that boasts every bit of received wisdom uttered about the year and its bands.

if you think this year sucked, i can't trust your opinion on anything.

Some of my favourite records ever came out that year, but Endtroducing and perhaps Aimee Mann's I'm With Stupid aside, most of them were too under the radar (Too Much Joy, the Loud Family, Leslie Spit Treeo, Dar Williams) for Pazz and Jop, let alone radio or MTV. This article certainly parrots conventional wisdom and picks at low hanging fruit, but I turned 18 in 1996, and was thus probably the target demographic for much of this stuff, and it was indeed a dull, dull time more mainstream music.

that article is so comprehensively tedious. i'm kind of impressed that they were able to finish and copy-edit it without falling asleep halfway through.

f you think this year sucked, i can't trust your opinion on anything.

― billstevejim, Tuesday, August 9, 2016 6:06 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM.

Nice to read an article that boasts every bit of received wisdom uttered about the year and its bands.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, August 9, 2016 4:28 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ This is precisely why I get such a fucking headache any time I read an article about the '90s and its music.

Scrawl's Travel on Rider is a forgotten gem from that year

Ah, 1996! Pazz and Jop!