Best indie rock album 1995 - 2004

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i think you guys were right about indie

do you guys die if your bodies don't release snark every 42 seconds?

Sorry, either you have to love every single album on that list or think the entire list is terrible. This is ILM, there is no in-between.

was a time i'd ride heavily for three-quarters of that list, but looking at it now i just feel tired. changing tastes sunrise sunset etc etc

DIG. ME. OUT.

rejoicing in the hands is alright but like most guys i prefer rejoicing in the mouth

either nmh or interpol

i'll go w/ nmh

Lifting skinny fists is alright sure but like most guys i prefer fisting skinny lifts

tbh and not really snarky i guess if you want to think about the virtues and successes of indie as a genre you'd best avoid the most popular indie records of any era

DIG. ME. OUT.

― Little GTFO (contenderizer), Tuesday, 17 January 2012 00:18 (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

sung tongs is alright but like most guys i prefer hung mongs

[ducks]

I'd be pretty OK with hearing Le Tigre, either S-K or Alien Lanes in a public place in 2012.

The only two I listen to now are NMH and Le Tigre so those.

Neon Golden

Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One

not to be a pain in the ass but this poll crosses two eras that are pretty distinct in my mind

but also i love lots of these so it will be hard to pick for that reason too

i know very few of the albums in the second era, so voting on that part would be hard -- i'd probably go with cat power.

or the ratpure; that was a great record.

top ten for me

Dig Me Out
Electr-O-Pura
The Argument
LeTigre
Turn On The Bright Lights
Franz Ferdinand
Wowee Zowee
I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One
Alien Lanes
Internal Wrangler

not as invested in hating my past self as a lot of people itt, most of these albums are good

whoops, missed girls can tell. would put that between heart and alien

oh! and destijl should be in there too. Plenty of chewy personal canon goodness here.

NMH then wowee

Franz Ferdinand

Hmm, probably NMH, but I haven't listened to that in a few years. I think the one I've played most recently is "Lift Yr Skinny Fists".

Like or even love a bunch of these albums, though many of my onetime favorites have dulled through overfamiliarity. For every De Stijl or Alien Lanes that I'll probably leave unplayed another half decade, there's a Neon Golden or Le Tigre that I'd be happy to hear right now.

the postal service, easy

my pox: emergency & i, one chord to another, either/or, red medicine, in the aeroplane, mass romantic, wowee zowee, moon pix, dig me out, the argument

Own:
Calexico - The Black Light
Clinic - Internal Wrangler
Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
Yo La Tengo - And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out

Own bits on a compilation:
Guided by Voices - Alien Lanes
The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic
Yo La Tengo - Elect-O-Pura
Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One

Sold:
Sloan - One Chord to Another

I went with Clinic as it was the one I was most excited by at the time and has had the most repeat plays I imagine.

No 69 Love Songs, no credibility.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Excellent list. Wowee Zowee.

This is de Stijl vs. Internal Wrangler for me

Will have to think about this.

albums I can be all "oh ho hum INDIE. SIGH." about on this list, either due to ignorance or to actual disdain: Dusk At Cubist Castle, NMH, both Mogwais, Calexico, Godspeed, New Pornographers, Notwist, Animal Collective, Devendra. Everything else I dig at least one song from, though Red Medicine is my least favorite Fugazi album and the cult around The Microphones baffles me beyond some neat production and "The Moon".

Dismemberment Plan.

For the drums alone.

otm

this is where i'm obligated to say that album has aged horribly :(

love the argument
wouldn't mind listening to de stijl or Interpol or low
lol u can tell when I started listening to indie

my shortlist:

b&s - sinister
ylt - i can hear the heart
s/k - dig me out
mogwai young team
clinic - wrangler
new porn - mass romantic
spoon - gct
interpol - bright lights

a lot of these albums, even some of the better ones, have aged horribly. this whole period of indie was full of production styles that only seemed like a particularly good idea for like 2 years.

i don't think it was production--i just cannot deal with travis anymore

yeah i mean i can see that too -- i feel more that way about malkmus personally

lot of frontmen are like that friend from high school who seemed really funny and smart at the time but now you're like oh my god how do you not shut up

hahah yup.

Regardless of genres or affiliations 'I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One' would rate highly in my personal top 20 albums from the 90s. 1997 was one of the raddest years I've experienced music-wise.

ban darin

That Clinic album? Oh it totally is. I like them a lot. They're great live too - I think I saw them 2 or 3 times.

x-post

the clinic album has aged a lot better than most of these

Just noticed no built to spill, archers, or superchunk on this list

I know ಠ_ಠ

tbf the best albums from the archers/superchunk were perhaps pre-1995

built to spill's absence is less defensible

this has been discussed, and is stated in the OP - built to spill aren't here b/c they were on a major

kinda crazy how many things got votes

Oh MP - good point.

so was the death cab album, with several matador records being iffy

nah death cab didn't go major until the album after that

results take me back to one of my first thoughts upon finding ilm: "wow, these people really like clinic"

cat power got robbed. microphones i would rep for too, but guess the weird cult has died down. that all being said i probably would have repped for d-plan

i agree that neon golden was a little dry and overrated, but i still like it

also am i seriously getting a vibe that ppl are ashamed of these albums now? for real? i find these have basically ALL aged well. i mean, nany sound dated but it's like dated in a nice way

haha all 50 of these albums have aged well?

lol i said "basically all"... some are real stinkers although probably were at the time too. the rapture, yuck. but yeah, pretty much all the albums i was a fan of at the time, i am still a fan of now.

I still fuck w the rapture

Built to spill started on C/Z and Theres Nothing Wrong With Love is better than half this list and was on Up...also the Shins signed to a major and are on this list

Also, late period archers and chunk is underrated

'there's nothing wrong with love' is from '94

late period chunk is underrated

agreed

95-onward superchunk is my shit

shins also went major well after the album on this list

huh, i'd say 1993-2000 are probably my biggest "indie" years, but i haven't even heard the godspeed, the clinic and the low albums that made the top 10.

indie rawk has just always been terrible hasn't it. i thought it was a more recent phenomenon but no. yo lo tengo, ugh!

i voted for yo la tengo, they are probably my favorite band :'(

electr-o-pura the only ylt album i really like. i voted for internal wrangler, it's a really fun record. listen to it more these days than wowee zowee, alien lanes, lonesome crowded west, which i listened to more back in the day.

am i alone in thinking that girls can tell (like most spoon albums actually) peters out terribly on side 2.

great top 2!

That NMH album is interesting for me: I fucking hated it on first listen and grew to love it.

I have never heard that Neutral Milk Hotel album. I think I'll check it out.

The Microphones - The Glow, Pt. 2 0

not cool ilm, not cool

2nd half of girls can tell is great. KTM is the only spoon album where i feel like it falls off towards the end.

i voted NMH. clinic is prob my fave UK album on here, maybe young team. but i would put wowee zowee, lonesome crowded, emergency & i and poss both gybe ahead of them. the spoons, the s-ks, arcade fire, elliott smith and interpol not too far behind. will rep for cody and the glow.

I saw Jeff Mangum last week and now I wish I could change my vote.

J/k, it was an emotionally conflicting experience, though.

― St3ve Go1db3rg, Monday, January 30, 2012 7:45 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

what do you mean by that? i saw him last week too

i dont think that postal service record will ever live down its reputation but its still a solid indiepop record and im kinda glad at least one person voted for it

i dont think that postal service record will ever live down its reputation but its still a solid indiepop record and im kinda glad at least one person voted for it

it's ok. i think the track he did with styrofoam >> all the postal service stuff, maybe he should have done a whole record with the styrofoam dude

gibbard that is

what do you mean by that? i saw him last week too

Well, I wrote a lot of words about it, but I guess the TL;DR is that the songs were the same as they ever were and I still love them, and it was cool to hear Jeff play them in person, but he's older and doesn't quite have the fire that he used to, and I wish he'd had a band to carry him instead of just the massive goodwill of the audience, especially at $35 a ticket.

yeah that sounds m/l like my experience

I'm probably due for another listen to the NMH album, but yeah way stoked to see Clinic score so high

Someone has got to tell me what's the appeal of NMH. Sometimes I feel like I'm being trolled when people say they love it. Although I guess that if I didn't get it back then I wont get it now.

Also used to love the Notwist album and I really haven't felt like listening to it since... probably 2005. Everytime I try to dig it out I get bored and skip to something else.

Although that statement could apply to 80% of the albums in this list.

So here's my stupid analogy. In a way most of the albums on this list feel like past lovers. Yeah you had good moments, some of them make you feel embarassed and others genuinely happy when you bump into them in a random place but you don't really feel anything for them anymore.

Except for Clinic and Yo La Tengo. I'd definitely give them a guilt-free-reminiscing-bang whenever I get the chance.

i liked a lot of um "alternative" music in these years, particularly in the 90s, and none of it is represented here, lol. cat power is about the only artist on this list i can stand and i'm surprised those albums didn't get more votes.

Who do you like Lex?

TBF this is a very US-centric list and not my own view of indie rock in the '90s. Most of these bands I discovered in hindsight during the 2000s.

Oh I see - misread this as being a nineties-only poll. This makes more sense.

Glad to see Sung Tongs get 6 votes. Starting to think my fandom of this band hinges entirely on that one album and then a few deep cuts, mostly off of EPs. In retrospect I've really wanted to like the more recent albums but I'm starting to admit they're pretty dud. That Panda Bear album from this year was pretty good though.

Someone has got to tell me what's the appeal of NMH. Sometimes I feel like I'm being trolled when people say they love it.

This. I listened to it a couple of years ago and it sounds like a template for a load of shite awful 00s bands. So I guess it was an influential sack of crap, if nothing else.

I hated it the first time I heard it - "Sounds like a rubbish busker!" but yes it is a very powerful record and a real grower. You do have to get used to his voice, but after that there's a very emotionally charged and imaginative record bubbling near the surface. I love the use of brass and saw instruments which give it this (I'm gonna say it) "steampunk" quality. There's tracks like "Oh Comely", a very powerful song which was recorded in just one practice take but deemed good enough for the record proper. The lyrics are conceptually different from pretty much anyone before or after... I dunno, it's just a really good album that takes a few goes to get into..

this got 166 votes one of the most ever of ILM

maybe we should do more Acclaimed Music polls

Comparing this list to a 85-94 equivalent would provide some laughs

fuck, a 90-94 equivalent even

lot of closeted indie fans up in this bitch