he says when you gonna make up your mind: o.g. p4k 90s poll (001-050)

this is really just a built to spill poo-album poll w/ 47 trick responses that are there to confuse you

keep it like a secret

hahaha so three built to spill albums was actually not an exaggeration

imo this is spiderland or ride the fader and i can't decide yet

voting OK Computer just over Loveless and Perfect from Now On

pony express record vs for your own special sweetheart vs in on the kill taker

loved:

guided by voices - alien lanes
stereolab - emperor tomato ketchup
built to spill - there's nothing wrong with love
pavement - crooked rain crooked rain
liz phair - exile in guyville
guided by voices - bee thousand
pavement - slanted & enchanted

liked:

elliot smith - either/or
built to spill - keep it like a secret
built to spill - perfect from now on
elliot smith - xo
yo la tengo - i can hear the heart beating as one
beck - mellow gold
beastie boys - check your head
nirvana - nevermind

was pretty indie, i guess.

"was" ffs

"i guess"

pox: emergency & i, flood, grace, siamese dream, either/or, pony express record, the bends, post, nevermind, teenager of the year

Pixies "Trompe Le Monde" actually. If the AoL album were "Vee Vee" I'd have picked that. If the MBV album were "Isn't Anything" I might have picked that. Etc.

Much as I love the *first* Walt Mink album (and I'm not even from Minnesota) El Producto doesn't really belong here. Chavez and Slint win the "Future Generations" award. "Struggling Electric & Chemical" is missing, but that's probably for the best.

"you guys really have to hear this album 'endtroducing,' its like rap, but not rap-rap. he's a true master of the sampler as an instrument. i think you'll really like it"

"i'm really sick of like, you know, bling bling rap, you know?"

Emperor Tomato Ketchup by miles.

how do you pronounce trompe le monde?

def voting SHUDDER

my pox: crooked rain crooked rain, bricolage, bonsai superstar, weezer, slanted & enchanted, pony express record, post, bakesale, bee thousand, nevermind

― deltron the escape g.o.a.t. (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, January 19, 2012 7:02 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

iirc, it was more like, "it's really cinematic and trippy", plus yeah, a lot of "sampling as an artform". don't remember anyone hearing much "bling" talk in '96. was more about the gangsters.

In it's time, "Pump Up The Volume" was a fucking RAP SONG like the way the Dust Brothers and Steinski and Prince Paul and The Bomb Squad made rap songs.

― moonshit journey to caca (Whiney G. Weingarten), Saturday, September 17, 2011 7:27 PM (4 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

how do you pronounce trompe le monde?

tromp le mond

some dude do you like pavement?

i dont like much of this list really

The bottom 50 better than the top 50. Went with Loveless.

some dude do you like pavement?

― Lamp, Thursday, January 19, 2012 10:14 PM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i have a very ambivalent relationship w/ them where i'd get one album, like it at first but then it'd get old quick, then i'd get another and the same thing would happen, until i had all their albums and realized i kind of hate them.

Own around a dozen of these, heard many others. There's only one album here that entranced me - Kristin Hersh's Hips And Makers. And it still does.

A million times, Homogenic.

Out of these, Entroducing.

Hips and Makers is really great

goin w beck

Exile in a close call over Bee Thousand and Endtroducing

exile; obligatory reminder that loveless sucks

lotta albums on this list that were formative for young me

love all the pavement albums obv but "loveless" is all-time, voting that

wow tori amos in the top 10 of this is so weird - esp as the past decade has pretty much seen her written out of The Canon, rarely do you see people talking about her as a classic artist (and even at the time critics weren't exactly wholly on side). certainly i've felt, way more than for any other artist, that the response will be tumbleweeds. as far as i can tell she's the only artist that tim f reps for that the rest of ilm doesn't pick up on (or at least, the bits of ilm that tim usually influences).

little earthquakes is only her 4th best album but it's still pretty classic. what singer songwriter nowadays could you possibly imagine writing "precious things"? "so you can make me cum, that doesn't make you JE-E-SUS" <3 <3

that aside the list is pretty much entirely awful. so many bullshit "alternative" acts who bored me then and bore me now, seeing all these names in one place is such an unwelcome blast from the past. whenever i see these formative lists i give thanks for the music of my formative years being what it was - i want to go back and shake 13-year-old lex's hand for having good taste and never getting taken in by canon indie.

of these, apart from tori, i love both björk albums (homogenic way more than post), and i loved the dj shadow at the time but would be vaguely embarrassed to listen to it now for some reason, and i like exile in guyville and emperor tomato ketchup fine without being overly enthusiastic. (phair has the hooks and the words but her voice is just wooden; stereolab never struck me as that far away from, like, the cardigans, and as much as i like ETK it rarely moves me emotionally, it's just bubbly melodic poppy ea candy with no real centre)

Genuinely astounded that Archers Of Loaf made the top 50 but Afghan Whigs didn't.

Had to go with Liz Phair in the end.

It's a close call between Homogenic and Emperor Tomato Ketchup for me, they're both in my top twenty albums of all time.

Quite a few albums in this list I haven't heard of like Amon Tobin, Brainiac and Walt Mink.

lol I strongly dislike the top 3 bands.

1 - Archers
2 - Phair
3 - Pixies - TlM
4 - Breeders

Slanted, then Trompe, then Check Your Head.

there aren't any fun albums on this list like there were on the other one

every album on here seems deadly serious & dragged down by the weight of its own import

what were the fun albums on the other list?

all of this except the bizarro excellence of tori in the top 10 goes such a long way to explaining why the p4k aesthetic sucks

the postal service ^_^

kmt

My top 10 would be:

033 guided by voices - alien lanes
004 guided by voices - bee thousand
018 bjork - homogenic
007 dj shadow - endtroducing...
015 sunny day real estate - how it feels to be something on
001 my bloody valentine - loveless
016 beastie boys - check your head
050 smashing pumpkins - siamese dreams
024 fugazi - in on the kill taker
045 pixies - bossanova

Probably not as strong as the first half of the list. Keep it Like a Secret is the one BTS album that deserves to be anywhere on here imo.

every album on here seems deadly serious & dragged down by the weight of its own import

― I am that young sis, the beacon, a yardstick (dayo), Friday, January 20, 2012 7:14 AM (53 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

hahah what? this list has beck and they might be giants on it!

it cracks me up how much this list violates the 'earlier stuff was better' indie canon rule in ways they'd never allow today: XO over Either/Or, TNT over Millions Now Living, Killtaker over Repeater, How It Feels To be Something On over Diary

ha, xp Whoever's decision to rank Frank Black's first two solo records above Bossanova must've had a gleeful moment
Actually there's lots of this, see Tortoise and Fugazi
Voted "Exile"

048 heatmiser - mic city sons

the heck is that?

Elliot Smith

Would have easily voted Afghan Whigs were they in this list, guess I'll vote Slint instead?

Ha Tim F otm. AR Kane are awesome.

I wanna read your essay Lamp but were you implying that AnCo sounded like a cross between the Kanes and Beat Happening?

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I'm gonna have to give it to SIAMESE DREAM. Like Lex, I'd like to go back in time and shake my 13-year-old self's hand, but for realizing this album for the titanic masterpiece it is and always has been.

I heard them at 16 (in 99). Age was more important than year, I think.

― Tim F, Sunday, January 22, 2012 4:01 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i can't entirely disagree cuz i was 20 when i first heard them (in 87), but i'm loath to say that they're only suited to unripe ears. 69 is one of my very favorite albums and has held up much better than most of my late 80s loves.

ar kane desperately need an "EPs" collection a la Disco Inferno

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

people still listen to exile in guyville?

i do

who are all the people voting in these polls????

there needs to be a "you must post in this thread before voting" thing here

hi river

lurkers are really the scum of the earth

hi dayo? :)

:)

oh i like lurkers and i mean i guess i cant be so faux-naive as to not realize p4k threads will get 'mad pageviews' im just surprised any ilm thread i started had more than 6 ppl read it so all these votes are like 'omg'

i'm okay with all these votes except for the d-plan ones

i voted d-plan cuz it was beloved to young me + i didn't want it to get 0 votes, i guess lurkers make fools of us all

Stoked that Exile took 2nd place. So awesome.

Why are these results bad? WTF did you expect?

I think I forgot to vote in this one.

When you have to choose only 1 album out of these 50, would it make more sense for people to choose Brainiac or Chavez? Just because it's more unexpected?

Actually I'm surprised Built To Spill had 1 vote among 3 albums.

if it were no. 1 song, i might have picked 'unreal is here'

xp i'm guessing built to spill was a lot of folx' fifth or eighth or whatever

morelike built to SUCK amrite????

I thought about voting Brainiac for a second; that's a good album

poor lampy

tbh the best album of the '90s was 'gentlemen' so

Actually I'm surprised Built To Spill had 1 vote among 3 albums.
--billstevejim

I blame the 'perfect storm' of me forgetting to vote and everyone else on ilm being wrong

I have no idea what my favorite 90's album is right now...

Prolly Illmatic.

there needs to be a "you must post in this thread before voting" thing here

― river, Tuesday, January 24, 2012 12:13 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i agree

why?

Mods we demand a recount!

not sure if I voted, I might be that one teenager of the year vote. awww. <3 but the bends surely deserved at least one of OKC's votes, and I am glad exile in guyville placed so high because it was great & it was nice as a teenage girl in the 90s to have dirty but sweet liz phair kicking around (somewhere between Bikini Kill & Alanis Morissette)

Loveless is one of those albums where I like 3 songs and couldn't care less about the rest

Liz Phair's album is one that I never gave a chance but I'm listening to 15 second clips on amazon and I don't think this music would ever jibe with me. I think I rather give Sheryl Crow a chance because I know I like some of her radio songs

OK Computer has 3 essential songs and a handful of good songs but they aren't essential

Homogenic is fine but I mostly prefer poppy Bjork these days. And that boils down to "Alarm Call" being the only song I'd stuff onto one of my mixes.

Bee Thousand, like OK Computer, isn't all prime but I find myself going back to Bee Thousand way more often.

I voted Alien Lanes. After the GBV poll I've been able to boil down my favorite GBV songs to a 80 minute mix and Alien Lanes has more songs than Bee Thousand

Liz Phair's album is one that I never gave a chance but I'm listening to 15 second clips on amazon and I don't think this music would ever jibe with me. I think I rather give Sheryl Crow a chance because I know I like some of her radio songs

...

captainlorax is wrong about most things but sheryl crow > liz phair seems pretty fair to me

hindsight does give that opinion a massive amount of leeway

i am enjoying lorax's new role as the Judge Dredd of Shitty Indie City 4

meh I would take Extraordinary over Soak up the Sun any day of the week

(xp)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqmivX34JV8

never forget

lol go to hell

This is one of those polls where I REALLY wish ilx-poll-widget would let each person get three votes or something like that - - I think a lot of low-placing things here are actually everybody's second or third choice.

I love Exile. I think it has a little bit of filler and some of the shock has worn off, but I don't think that's a strike against either its craft or the songwriting (which is FANTASTIC - jesus, listen to "Divorce Song," gets me every time) - I mean there are other Liz Phair threads to delve thorugh this but man. I really love the SOUND too, especially on the straightforward rock numbers (6'1" etc.) - it's like this overlap of this "flattened cool" lo-fi indie sound with really clean, propulsive rhythm guitar and drumming, like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers wandered into the wrong studio and decided to roll with it as this no-name singer-songwriter emptied out 2/3 of her songbook on tape. Love it, love it, love it.

Would rank Bends over OK Computer and Post over Homogenic, but don't mind any of them. Really, this is one of the strongest top tens I've seen in an ILX poll in terms of my personal taste.

Threw on Emergency & I the other night actually - it's pretty darn good but I'd still rather see them live. There's one or two kinda samey songs that kinda bog it down, I kinda want it to be this like really kick-ass 35-minute album. But no beef with it either.

Doc Casino otm about the Tom Petty comparison; I said this in another thread, but I kind of hold the challop that Liz (in her prime) is the Prince of power-pop; Exile does a couple of things, one where she writes totally hooky pop songs, and then other songs where the songwriting tics are far more ungainly--6'1" is the perfect example here; how long does she hold out that "I'll be-e-e-e-e-eet" for?--in which hooks are kind of secondary to an awkward langour that codes as authentic sensuality much more effectively than any number of four-letter words imo...

Despite voting for OK Computer, I have to admit that I can't really convince myself that "Paranoid Android" makes any sense as a composition.

"Exit Music" and "Lucky" are amazing though. (Cool aug6 chord in "Lucky"!)

"Paranoid Android" is ruined for me by jackass college dude playing it on his acoustic

I saw the same guy accidentally take a sip from a glass full of tobacco spit. Totally made my day

hahaha, great story.

I like a lot of individual songs on OK Computer - "Let Down" in particular just keeps growing on me. But there's also some sluggish stuff that verges on filler - I needed to hear "Fitter Happier" exactly once - and looking at the tracklist I straight up can't remember "Climbing Up The Walls" or "Exit Music." The highs are super high, but I think The Bends is just way more consistent in its songwriting.

I never really liked OKC; Doc you're otm about the sluggishness (embodied by "Let Down" imo) though again, you're right; there are some good songs in there.

The Bends was my favorite album as a teenager but though I still like the Just/My Iron Lung/Bulletproof run, that album hasn't aged the best...

the only bad song on OKC is "Electioneering"

I love that song ;_;