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.

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!