Your favorite albums of 1999

1. Boredoms - Super Are (Birdman)
2. Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin (Warner Brothers)
3. Maryanne Amacher - Sound Characters (Tzadik)
4. Beta Band – The Three EPs (Astralwerks)
5. Mouse On Mars - Niun Niggung
6. Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada (Kranky)
7. Peace Orchestra - Peace Orchestra (G-Stone)
8. Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage (Flydaddy)
9. Stereolab - Cobra and Phases Group Play "Voltage" in the Milky Night (Elektra)
10. Takako Menekawa - Fun9 (Emperor Norton)
11. Looper - Up A Tree (Sub Pop)
Tom Waits - Mule Variations (Epitaph)

Tigermilk was mine, since it was widely released that July.

1. Built to Spill, Keep It Like a Secret (Warner Bros) The most cathartic guitar album since My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, with Doug Martsch's bleeding heart and bleed-through guitar first laying his emotional cards on the table, then blowing 'em out of the room by shredding in ecstatic tongues.

2. Prince Paul Presents A Prince Among Thieves (Tommy Boy) The best blaxploitation soundtrack this side of Superfly didn't even come with a movie, though Chris Rock, who cameos here, is working on that. But even if it never gets made, this blueprint remains one of hip-hop's sharpest albums. And the songs stand up without the (excellent) plot.

3. Latin Playboys, Dose (Atlantic) Even more consistent than their classic, self-titled 1994 debut, this punningly titled gem comes replete with bent blues, scratchy childhood reminiscences, and lo-fi studio cunning that imagines dub had it been born in the LA barrio instead of Kingston's slums.

4. Armand Van Helden, 2 Future 4 U (Armed) Sticking to what he does better than anyone, and doing it to better effect than ever, Van Helden's freaky, kinetic house throwdowns practically turn you into Tony Manero upon contact: If you can't, as one song demands, "get down" to this, honey, you're already dead.

5. Moby, Play (V2) Beats slowed to a crawl, simpler-than-ever melodies foregrounded, screaming divas replaced by folk-blues crooners, this album feels at first like a retreat, as if Moby is relinquishing the intensity that has always been his trademark. Then you tune into those melodies and get swept away. Neither his most ambitious album nor his most perfect--just his most deeply felt.

6. Tom Scharpling and Ronald Thomas Clontle, Rock, Rot & Rule (Stereolaffs) A historian so inept he thinks Madness invented ska, Clontle's catch is that he's also the pseudonym of Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster, and that the whole thing is a joke. A really great joke, one so convincing that you believe every dumbfounding word of this now-legendary 1997 interview with WFMU radio DJ Scharpling.

7. John Prine, In Spite of Ourselves (Oh Boy) A sidesplitting, heartbreaking catalogue of love, rural American-style, rendered by the best New Dylan of them all. His nine duet partners are heaven-sent, too, especially Iris DeMent, who plays wacked-out Tammy Wynette to his goofball George Jones.

8. The Flaming Lips, The Soft Bulletin (Warner Bros) Their melodic smarts and sonic wizardry have never been more elaborate, yet the Lips' grandiosity never overwhelms their sense of emotion. What Radiohead wishes O.K. Computer had been.

9. Luna, The Days of Our Nights (Jericho) The sexiest-sounding rock band in America whisper more sweet nothings in your ear, from the points-of-view of a stalker ("Dear Diary"), a paranoid ("Math Wiz"), and, um, Axl Rose (the jaw-dropping "Sweet Child o' Mine").

10. DJ DB, Shades of Technology: A Drum and Bass Journey (F-111/Higher Education) The most (OK, the only) convincing argument I've come across that drum-and-bass is still as exciting as it used to be, Shades is made even more remarkable by the fact that it bypasses both Shy FX's "Bambaataa" and Adam F's "Brand New Funk"--and still sounds definitive.

Honorable mention: The Real Hip-Hop: Best of D&D Studios Vol. 1 (Cold Front); Tom Waits, Mule Variations (Epitaph); Aphrodite (V2); Spring Heel Jack, Treader (Tugboat import); Basement Jaxx, Remedy (Astralwerks); Le Tigre (Mr. Lady); Randy Newman, Bad Love (Dreamworks); 10 Years of Strictly Rhythm--Mixed by "Little Louie" Vega (Strictly Rhythm); Sleater-Kinney, The Hot Rock (Kill Rock Stars); Dr. Dooom, First Come, First Served (Funky Ass)

---

obviously, I'd change a lot of that now.

Whoever said "If You're Feeling Sinister", that came out in 1996.

1 Basement Jaxx - Remedy
2 Mos Def - Black on Both Sides
3 Breakbeat Era - Ultra-Obscene
4 Beck - Midnite Vultures
5 various - Rawkus Presents Soundbombing 2
6 Blur - 13
7 The Roots - Things Fall Apart
8 various - Locked On... The Best of
9 Death In Vegas - The Contino Sessions
10 Mr. Oizo - Analog Worms Attack

Bubblin' Under: Hot Boys - Guerilla Warfare; Ginuwine - 100% Ginuwine; Placebo - Without You I'm Nothing; Destiny's Child - The Writing's On The Wall; Jay-Z - Volume II: Hard Knock Life; The Beta Band - The Beta Band; Super Furry Animals - Guerilla; The Chemical Bros - Surrender; Layo & Bushwacka - Low Life; Bows - Blush; Tori Amos - To Venus & Back; Ultrasound - Everything Picture

Retroactively, Cornelius took pole position, due to his untouchable remix form, which allowed him to take 7 disparate acts and make a fully fledged mini album out of the results. Keigo's Bomb Squad/dance/Spector production was further refined since Fantasma (in the space of mere months), and he took his eccentricities to a new plateau in the monster movie thrashcore of 'Ape Shall Never Kill Ape' and the unexpected tropicalia-meets-Balearic-rock of 'Homespin Rerun', which continued his unquestioned dominance of truly sublime stereo panning, though the best effort remains 'Atomic Moog 2000', which practices demolitions alongside space travel and footnotes about the Moog and the theremin, which gets a nice workout over the two aforementioned tracks. Other high points include 'Maybe I'm Dead', which nails everything great about Air in one seemingly effortless 5 minute take, and 'Great Five Lakes' ("a ghostly echo of rock's future" - Allmusic. And it's fire in a club). The best, most sonically interesting and idea-crammed remix (pop) album of all time.
Without the obvious pop and oddball humour of his previous work, Paul still knocked out another work of total cohesion that works as much in the narrative as it did in the music (plus, 'Steady Slobbin' is an acid wit laff).
The Beta Band...the beginning of their end (if you discount Nick Hornby), but also their genius awakening. Their greatest achievement in sound and playfulness, and some of their best pop songs are here, be it the post-Cornelius/pre-Plus-Tech Squeeze Box mash-up of 'The Beta Band Rap', nearly narcoleptic left-of-centre white-reggae-with-steel-drums acerbic breakup song 'Number 15' or the particularly darling calypso breakdown-featuring, jazz drumming indie escapade in alienated confusion that is 'Round The Bend'' plus the free-spirited hippie jam in modern shoes, 'Brokenupadingdong'. Heck, last night, I was dancing in the mirror to 'Smiling'.
The Jaxx - 'Rendez-Vu'. Sometimes, it's all I need. Old dance in a twisted new form, one of the rare records that gets a few new elements injected up the backside of an old dog to point to a new present and maybe a better future. Why not?
Soundbombing 2, still one of the finest hip hop compilations ever made, one that feels like an album not too disimilar to Paul's either.
Natural Calamity - as with a lot of the acts hailing from Tokyo/Japan I've discovered, they've been added after the fact, but this is probably the best alien opium den music ever made, sounding so languid and so poppy at the same time. Prince Paul's first team-up with MC Paul Barman was actually on his soul-enrichingly mournful remix of album track 'Home' (possibly one of the most accomplished remakes ever) and I may buy a second copy.
Let's hear it for hip hop with a live/fusion agenda that actually works. On both sides of the Atlantic. First up, The Roots bettered everything previous, bar Illadelph Halflife (personal choice). Truth be told, this may be the one I played least, but it always made the right impact and the right time. Sometimes, I doubt there are better modern soul tunes than 'Love of My Life' or better hairdos than ?uestlove's.
The Herbaliser had been building up to their third album for 5 years, and as their jazz/sample-breaks/hardcore hip hop fusion became more professional, less wilfully experimental, they lost some of their rather endearing weird funkiness, heralding a more mature side to Ninja Tune's jazzbrakes. But when let loose, as they did on 'Goldrush', or having Bahamadia, the Dream Warriors and Roots Manuva tighten their shit up with a little vocal polish, they could afford to get laidback with real style.
Ugly Duckling are better than Jurassic Five and everything the Black Eyed Peas did since Behind The Front by and embarassingly long way. They are corny and they know it, but that doesn't stop them from being so cool.
After the stone cold classic Dig Your Own Hole, the Chems could no longer go up, so they went sideways instead and Gatecrashed a different party. It has one of their best (pop) songs ever ('Hey Boy, Hey Girl', accidentally precipitating the hastening death of the superstar DJ in its way) and one of its most (unjustly) maligned ('Let Forever Be', which should earn goodwill back on the strength of its video alone).
Prince Paul reigned over my '99. While oddly patchy (I blame Stone Brother No.1, Dan Nakamura), like Remedy, when it's on, it's ON. A brilliant, funky opener, some wicked skits, a bizanas dancefloor destroyer, smooth cameos from Roisin Murphy (though J-Live sounds like he's come in from a different song - at least he stops you falling asleeep), Trugoy The Dove, Del and a typically bonkers Kid Koala providing the record's/world's most individual scratch style.
Gentleman of Leisure turned out to be (mostly) instrumental hip hop's last great shot until 2002 (in the interim, we got nobodies like...Nobody, and DJ Krush took turns for the unlistenable). As with a few albums that bucked the generalisation of "beats for stoners", Jadell did funk with aplomb, pulled off a cover of 'Compared To What' without embarassment and subverted old school hip hop cliches twice ('Space Bed': man lands on Mercury and makes with the bodypopping; 'Beat Of Ages': pal and remix whore Nick Faber assists J in producing '99 Problems' 4 years early), all on the same record.
To talk about Beck's last album is to invite some kind of redundancy, but at times it's telling that the two Dust Brothers tracks are easily in the top 5 songs here, as are the singles. 'Beautiful Way' could be very underrated, mind.
Labelmate to Jadell for about 5 minutes, the Hughes was one of the first heralds of the raised international profile of Norway's modern music makers (Ultimate Dilemma also signed Magnet a while later, while Annie got her UK singles deal with Loaded the following year). Bobby makes live funk, lounge and jazz that he sometimes supplemented in the studio with old and new breakbeats. The fact that he has such a flair for modern production, and for absorbing rhythms that actually made your ass shake easily kept him from becoming a Brand New Heavies in search of a vocalist. In fact, going instrumental and letting the keys, horns and flutes do the talking was the best move he could make.

NB. I still have never heard any of the Timbaland-related albums of 1999 in full, but they would be up there. Also, I have run out of energy to big up Destiny's Child properly.

and there is a lot which I haven't heard yet...

1. Mogwai -- Come On Die Young
2. Super Furry Animals -- Guerilla
3. Godspeed You Black Emperor! -- Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada
4. Luke Slater -- Wireless
5. Labradford -- E Luxo So
6. Suede -- Head Music
7. Orbital -- Middle of Nowhere
8. Stereolab -- Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night
9. Catatonia -- Equally Cursed and Blessed
10. Sensational -- Corner the Market

Today, the I don't rate everything outside the top five nearly as high (except the Sensational record), and "E Luxo So" suffers next to "Mi Media Naranja" and "Fixed:context". Looking at this list, every artist has done FAR better work other than Sensational, SFA, and maybe Mogwai.

Blur - 13
Keith Jarrett - The Melody at Night, with You
Luna - The Days of Our Nights
The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
Les Négresses Vertes - Trabendo
Pinback - This Is a Pinback CD
Iggy Pop - Avenue B
Tocotronic - K.O.O.K.
Tue-Loup - La Belle Inutile
Wilco - Summerteeth

Btw I am still trying to find my fave albums from 1963-2002. I am at 1998 right now. Only 12 years left till the whole thing is finished and I can close up my blog ;-)

01 13 - Blur
02 When The Pawn - Fiona Apple
03 Surrender - Chemical Brothers
04 Keep It Like A Secret - Built To Spill
05 Beaucoup Fish - Underworld
06 Nigga Please - Ol' Dirty Bastard
07 s/t - System Of A Down
08 The Soft Bulletin - The Flaming Lips
09 The Chronic 2001 - Dr. Dre
10 The Fragile - Nine Inch Nails

also...
Play - Moby
Baby One More Time - Britney Spears
The Shape Of Punk To Come - The Refused
Avant Hard - Add N To X
Clarity - Jimmy Eat World
Windowlicker (maxisingle) - Aphex Twin

Richard Thompson - Mock Tudor
Black Box Recorder - England made me
Fountains of Wayne - Utopia Parkway
Scritti Pollitti - Anomie and Bonhomie
All Seeing I - Pickled egss and sherbert
Shack - HMS Fable
Underworld - Beaucoup fish
Cousteau - Cousteau
Flaming Lips - Soft bulletin
Arab Strap - Elephant shoe
Magnetic Fields - 69 love songs
Auteurs - How I learned to love the bootboys
Third World Cop - OST

I still haven't made my mind up about Kevin Rowland's My Beauty.

The aforementioned GSYBE, Magnetic Fields, several others that I can't remember from above...

1 chemical brothers - surrender
2 layo & bushwacka - low life
3 shack - hms fable
4 nightmares on wax - car boot soul
5 mary j blige - mary
6 basement jaxx - remedy
7 macy gray - on how life is (so help me god...)
8 groove armada - vertigo
9 presence - all systems gone
10 suede - head music (huh?)
11 pet shop boys - nightlife (HUH?)
12 tlc - fanmail
13 gus gus - this is normal
14 super furry animals - guerilla
15 death in vegas - the contino sessions
16 handsome boy modelling school - so... how's your girl?
17 wayne g presents twisted ft stewart who? - through the k-hole
18 fathless - saturday 3am
19 wilco - summer teeth
20 cassandra wilson - travelling miles

I was a bit fucked up for most of 1999, and this weird list is a clear reminder.

Bump.

Our record club's theme next week is albums from 1999. Most people who've heard this theme have said "1999 was a bit shit for music, wasnt it?"

Was it?

scrolling up gives you your answer

True, but five years on from that, what do people think? Have any new favourites emerged?

Most people who've heard this theme have said "1999 was a bit shit for music, wasnt it?"

never trust anyone who says "[year] was a bit shit for music"

NEVER

truthbomb

Primal Scream - XTRMNTR

In my experience and recollection, yes '99 wasn't so good. I started uni in '99 and for at least the first year and a half, felt that pickings were slim - especially stuff being played on the radio. I've said it before, and others disagree, but it seemed like a stream of weak-arsed shit, from Travis, Moby, Macy Gray, bad garage-pop and oblique Ibiza trance, superclubs, superDJs, bloated girl and boy bands, thousands of chillout compilations, frat-boy nu-metal dunderheads and Eminem rap. Sure there were good things out there, but you could take your pick from the sheer amount of depressing lame-o rubbish out there.

It also happened to be the year I got into music in a big big big way - I became obsessed with Warp Records, a bit of post-rock too, and started an online community about electronic music. I had a lot more money (well, technically, student loan etc) so I ended up dipping into back catalogues of bands from the past. So I wasn't without things to listen to, just not a lot of good stuff to bond over with other students.

On a positive note:

I can't believe Boredoms would slip my radar entirely for another five years. It's actually impossible for me to comprehend. I could imagine something like VCNS blowing my brain away at the time.

Plaid's Restproof Clockwork is one of my alltime favourite records. Mu-ziq's Royal Astronomy too. Lots of good IDM releases around this time.

Moving by Supergrass - still love this song.

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let's have NO MORE of "it was a bit shit", 'k?

oh, you.

My top ten would have then included

PRML SCRM, Basement Jaxx, Missy, Tom Waits, Kelis, Wilco, Flaming Lips, Suede, TLC, Buck 65

and now would be more likely to include Neurosis, Boredoms and Lightning Bolt.

as i recall i was splitting my time listening to the most hyper-populist dance/r&b and the most un-populist rock music, so little has apparently changed in 12 years.

My ten now:

Sleater Kinney - The Hot Rock
John Prine - In Spite of Ourselves
Everything But The Girl - Temperamental
The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
Backstreet Boys - Millenium
Jay Z - Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter
Mos Def - Black on Both Sides
Le Tigre - s/t
Mary J. Blige - Mary
Imperial Teen - What Is Not to Love
Pet Shop Boys - Nightlife

(in no order)

A few good things. Liked the Fiona Apple well enough. Never really got the hang of Basement Jaxx, not like Daft Punk - sacrilege I know. Mule Variations is one of my least favourite Waits albums. Have a theory that Caught Out There is a nu metal track in disguise, but it's still good fun.

I dunno, besides a few select releases, '99 seemed like a real transitional year rather than the era of celebration Prince forecast.

I remember '99 not as a stellar after-dinner dance, but as the last gobs of stodgy over-rich chocolate dessert choked down by a 20th century turned gluttonous and bloated.

Of course, that's all very subjective and I don't expect anyone to agree.

depends on the main course

"Ce Matin La," Air
"All the Small Things," Blink 182
"Good Stuff," Kelis
"Hot Topic," Le Tigre
"Beautiful Stranger," Madonna
"When My Boy Walks Down the Street," Magnetic Fields
"Millennium Blues," Matthew Sweet
"That I Can Admire," Mendoza Line
"Mr. Nigga," Mos Def
"Lookin' Out Forever," Paul Westerberg
"Wait Up," Q-Tip
"The Great Beyond," R.E.M.

Alphabetical off the media player...I think I had four of these on my year-end that year.

No order:

Fountains of Wayne - Utopia Parkway
Joe Henry - Fuse
Lamb - Fear of Fours
Latin Playboys - Dose
Slough Feg - Twilight of the Idols
Lyle Lovett - Live in Texas
Mr. Bungle - California
The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage
Prince Paul - A Prince Among Thieves
Spirit Caravan - Dreamwheel

More or less what lex said.

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Awesome year for the 19-year-old me.

I remember '99 not as a stellar after-dinner dance, but as the last gobs of stodgy over-rich chocolate dessert choked down by a 20th century turned gluttonous and bloated.

YEARS IN MUSIC ARE NOT HOMOGENEOUS ENTITIES

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To some extent:

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Random memory, but probably the musical highlight of the year for me: just before we broke for the Christmas holiday, I had one of my grade 6 students read an announcement over the P.A. about saying goodbye to the century that gave us The Catcher in the Rye and the Ohio Express, after which he played R.E.M.'s "End of the World." That's what was supposed to happen, anyway. I think the principal ended up reading the announcement, then he played the song for about a minute before cutting it short.

Hmm, I seem to recall purchasing If You're Feeling Sinister in November 1996

I don't know the Westerburg, clemenza, but that's a good list regardless.

Close enough to the studio version that I'll post this. I think it's the best song he's done since leaving the Replacements:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOl8VKHDjcM

True, but five years on from that, what do people think? Have any new favourites emerged?

i forgot to tweet Drexciya's 'Neptune's Lair' at u last week. technically a new favourite for me as i didn't hear it until a few years later.

surprised at no mention of Plone 'For Beginner Piano' too (not a big fave of mine tho, apart from the first track).

I'm a huge fan of that album fwiw.

Lots here I need to get into still like Blur, Fiona Apple, Wilco, Trans Am etc, but here is a working list of my favourites (in no partic order):

Acid Mothers Temple - Pataphysical Freakout Mu
Bardo Pond - Set and Setting
Hash Jar Tempo - Under Glass
Yume Bitsu - s/t
Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun
OOIOO - Feather Float
Clinic - 3 EPs
MF Doom - Operation Doomsday
Elliott Smith - XO
RHCP - Californication (admittedly last 2 are the only ones I wz actually listening to in '99)

Not a shit year at all imo...

Here's one: Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Spanish Dance Troupe. Not their very best effort, but still nice enough

Ep7 by autechre too. Some great idm stuff

I remember 99 as a year when a few of my favourite bands really disappointed me, Suede, Supergrass, The Charlatans and Stereolab come to mind.

I'd list these as my favourite now.

Magnetic Fields-69 Love Songs
The Flaming Lips-Soft Bulletin
David Sylvian-Dead Bees on a Cake
Super Furry Animals-Guerilla
Underworld-Beaucoup Fish
Tindersticks-Simple Pleasure
ODB-Nigga Please
Kelis-Kaleidoscope
Ultrasound-Everything Picture
Mos def-Black on Both Sides

Most of these I didn't buy until a few years later, Magnetic Fields and Kelis didn't actually come out here until the following year.

I need to hear that Kelis album too...

XTRMNTR, much as I love it, didn't hit shops until early January 2000. I remember it very well.

i swear we did a thread one time that was like "top five albums of every year since..." and i have been going insane trying to find it because i want to see my '99 list.

XP: Really? Ah well.

I was also listening to ODB and Mos Def a lot. I still love ODB.

I bought a lot of new release albums in '99, probably more than in any other year, and have nothing but warm nostalgic thoughts for it as a Year In Music. That said, my list is somewhat different now, I suppose.

Gas - Königsforst
Lightning Bolt - s/t
The Monsoon Bassoon - I Dig Your Voodoo
Trans Am - Futureworld
Bardo Pond - Set and Setting
Cardiacs - Guns
Stars of the Lid - Avec Laudenum
Underworld - Beaucoup Fish
Enon - Believo!
Mr Bungle - California

The only one of these I'm fairly sure would've made it at the time is Underworld and maybe the Trans Am, which would've been joined by Clinic, Built To Spill and Papa M. I probably still like those last 3 but haven't put them on in forever. Of the rest, I got round to several a year late in 2000, but the Gas and Lightning Bolt I didn't hear until much later.

(Where "much later" is probably 2002 or 2003, which in my head are much closer to now than to 2000. Ah, aging...)

agalloch - pale folklore
the angels of light - new mother
jessica bailiff - hour of the trace
charalambides - houston
dr. dooom - first come, first served
fennesz - plus 47 degrees...
ghost - snuffbox immanence
ghost - tune in, turn on, free tibet
jandek - the beginning
labradford - e luxo so
low - secret name
neurosis - times of grace
nurse with wound - an awkward pause
piano magic - low birth weight
scritti politti - anomie and bonhomie
sleep - jerusalem

^ all totally AWESOME, none mentioned in our recent thread revival that i can recall. Drugs A Money's list is v great also

The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
Sparklehorse - Good Morning Spider
The Roots - Things Fall Apart
Ginuwine - 100% Ginuwine
Built To Spill - Keep It Like A Secret
Destiny’s Child - The Writing’s On The Wall
Superchunk - Come Pick Me Up
Eightball And MJG – In Our Lifetime
Jay-Z - The Life And Times Of S. Carter, Vol. 3
Joan Of Arc - Live In Chicago, 1999
Missy Elliott - Da Real World
Sleater-Kinney - The Hot Rock
Method Man And Redman - Blackout!
Beatnuts - A Musical Massacre
Tom Waits - The Mule Variations
Mark De Gli Antoni - Horse Tricks
DMX - ...And Then There Was X
Beck - Midnite Vultures
Sloan - Between The Bridges
Nels Cline/Gregg Bendian - Interstellar Space Revisited: The Music Of John Coltrane

I rank the top tens, though.

What a year... I was working at VH1 and had a TV over my desk, so heard most of those songs 1,000 times.

So much of that list drawing a blank. Total?

Things I like:

Agalloch - Pale Folklore
Angelcorpse - The Inexorable
Cibo Matto - Stereo Type A
Johnny Dowd - Pictures From Life's Other Side
Neil Hamburger - Left for Dead in Malaysia
Immortal - At the Heart of Winter
Kool Keith - Black Elvis / Lost in Space
Lacuna Coil - In a Reverie
MF DOOM - Operation: Doomsday
Moby - Play
Mr. Bungle - California
Neurosis - Times of Grace
Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
Scharpling and Wurster - Rock, Rot & Rule
Sleep - Jerusalem
Supersuckers - The Evil Powers of Rock 'n' Roll
VNV Nation - Empires
Tom Waits - Mule Variations

jimmy eat world: clarity
fiona apple: when the pawn...
built to spill: keep it like a secret
meshell ndegeocello: bitter
drexciya: neptune's lair
summoning: stronghold
orbital: the middle of nowhere
underworld: beaucoup fish
missy elliott: da real world
everything but the girl: tempermental
tori amos: to venus and back
saves the day: through being cool
smog: knock knock
mr. bungle: california
tlc: fanmail
the get up kids: something to write home about
rainer maria: look now, look again
shiina ringo: muzai moratorium
wilco: summerteeth
silverchair: neon ballroom
hot water music: no division
van morrison: back on top
randy newman: bad love
blink-182: enema of the state

this is just from scanning my itunes library. great year

oh and 100 percent ginuwine!