commercially disappointing major label rock/alternative albums of 1996

I remember that 2nd PUSA album was great, but I haven't heard it in over a decade. I did hear a bootleg of a show a few years ago and the entire audience was enthusiastically singing along to every single song. It sounded so fun!

yeah i don't even really object to dulli's lyrics/persona or the whole sketchy R&B thing, if anything that's why i wish i could tolerate the singing itself

yeah, exactly. the boozy, self-loathing/aggrandizing cad thing is fine by me, and i like the idea of fusing heavy soul with heavy rock, but the voice just grates, and it doesn't work with the music. every element of the sound is so thick and oppressive and unnuanced. the guitar churns, the vocals bellow, the rhythm section mulches, and there's no room to breathe. musical waterboarding.

have i mentioned that i don't like the afghan whigs?

you have! no particular reason to heed your taste tho

On my site I have Soundgarden rated highest, then Screaming Trees and Afghan Whigs. But I'm feeling Black Love the most right now, partly because they're on my mind as I'll be seeing them at Lollapalooza for the first time since about 1992. I would have also included Tricky - Pre-Millenium Tension, though I'm not sure what kind of sales Maxinquaye had. More than a lot of these I'm sure. Ride - Tarantula too.

first Remy Zero album

(actually Ill probably vote Hi-Fi)

you have! no particular reason to heed your taste tho

of course not. it's mine, after all.

two of my best friends are huge & eternal whigs/dulli fans. have tried so often and long to "get it", to no avail :(

291 posts and nobody's claimed Hi-Fi is R.E.M.'s last good album. Pleasing!

thought that was a given?

^

most played 1996 hits on modern day alternative rock radio:

1. Sublime - "Santeria"
2. Sublime - "What I Got"
3. Green Day - "Brain Stew" / "Jaded"
4. Sublime - "Wrong Way"
5. Smashing Pumpkins - "1979"
6. 311 - "Down"
7. Bush - "Glycerine"
8. Cake - "The Distance"
9. Bush - "Machinehead"
10. Smashing Pumpkins - "Tonight, Tonight"
11. The Butthole Surfers - "Pepper"
12. Sublime - "Doin' Time"
13. 311 - "All Mixed Up"
14. Local H - "Bound For The Floor"
15. Rage Against The Machine - "Bulls On Parade"
16. Beck - "Where It's At"
17. Oasis - "Champagne Supernova"
18. Stone Temple Pilots - "Trippin' On A Hole In A Paper Heart"
19. Smashing Pumpkins - "Zero"
20. Sublime - "Caress Me Down"
21. Spacehog - "In The Meantime"
22. Marilyn Manson - "The Beautifu People"
23. Soundgarden - "Burden In My Hand"
24. Sublime - "April 29, 1992 (Miami)"
25. Tool - "Stinkfist"
26. Beck - "Devil's Haircut"
27. No Doubt - "Spiderwebs"
28. Beck - "New Pollution"
29. Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Aeroplane"
30. Garbage - "Only Happy When It Rains"

that seems about right

And to think Garbage had two way bigger hits that year!

only 2 songs from the 'commercially disappointing' list! congrats STP and Soundgarden, you outlasted "Swallowed" and "Who You Are"

I wanna say that STP track was in the year-end radio top ten, but I could be wrong.

probably, yeah, it was pretty ubiquitous

"Desperately Wanting" is the song i hear on the radio now most besides those 2, though, and it's kind of great.

lots of Tori stans might creep out and vote for BFP.

not a stan but voted for this. it's a pretty strong record.

basically the reason i put "alternative" in the subject line instead of just "rock" was to include that nutty harpsichord-filled album

it'll be pretty interesting to see who wins, though. i figured initially that it'd be a battle between Weezer and REM but maybe Whigs and Tori are in contention too.

I would have also included Tricky - Pre-Millenium Tension, though I'm not sure what kind of sales Maxinquaye had.

I think someone mentioned upthread that P-MT fit the theme of this thread w/r/t British sales figures. Had it been included, it would've been my pick for sure.

Pele got my vote.

Boys For Pele would probably be my second pick from the list after New Adventures.

yeah i wasn't really sure what his US sales figures were like and it was just a little beyond the spectrum on which tori amos was an outlier so i just didn't bother w/ tricky (xpost)

if PMT had been in there, i'd have gone w/ that instead of weezer. some went on at the time abt how it was a career-suicide level disappointment, but i thought it was pretty damn great.

Fuckin' Spacehog.

This year, oddly enough, marks the beginning of a long period of detachment from mainstream whateverosity, where I was digging further back instead of listening to what got played on the radio when my wife was in the car.

Voted for DUST, though I found it a disappointment after SWEET OBLIVION, which I played right into the ground after it came out.

xpost

It really was. I daresay both Tricky and Tori hit their peaks in '96.

i don't really consider any of these albums the artist's best, other than stuff like Counting Crows or Porno For Pyros where there's not much competition. a lot of 2nd bests and 3rd bests, though.

Just have to say that the Gin Blossoms album from '96 is the product of a band that should have hung it up after the dude who wrote all of their good songs committed suicide. It's kinda surprising that it did as well as it did.

Alfred otm about King btw; that is a dope fucking record

Dulli's vocal style is actually the thing I like least about Afghan Whigs but the band is really good. Counting Crows are one of my most hated bands of all time, "'Round Here" is one of the worst pieces of lyric-writing I've ever heard, I used to be kind of obsessed by how terrible it was. Well there you have it my opinion on the whole Afghan Whigs Counting Crows question of 2012

Anybody remember when Dulli and Donal Logue guest hosted 120 Minutes?

They reenacted scenes from The Godfather 2 with super soakers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHnB-xdeDYI

This is fucking amazing.

Why doesn't MTV let people goof around anymore?

I can still picture most of these CDs sitting in the 'new releases' racks of Way Ahead Records even though I've heard less than half of them. Porno for Pyros grabbed my attention because they'd used the same font as The Chemical Brothers.

This is a close run thing between Black Love and New Adventures for me. I like Pinkerton and Boys for Pele a lot too. Not a big PJ fan but I've got time for No Code. Wild Mood Swings is one of the worst records I've ever heard.

This may have been the greatest year in the history of music.

Pinkerton.

This may have been the greatest year in the history of music.

― Jeff, Friday, May 4, 2012 7:34 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

when i started looking back at '96 and eventually getting the idea for this thread, i started out going "wow, 1996 has the highest concentration of albums i like of any year ever," but then i realized i didn't really love many of those albums, and not nearly as many as for '95 or '94

P&J poll:

1. Beck: Odelay (DGC) 1134 (110)
2. Fugees: The Score (Ruffhouse/Columbia) 602 (58)
3. Sleater-Kinney: Call the Doctor (Chainsaw) 456 (35)
4. DJ Shadow: Endtroducing . . . DJ Shadow (Mo' Wax/FFRR) 404 (40)
5. Los Lobos: Colossal Head (Warner Bros.) 403 (37)
6. Steve Earle: I Feel Alright (Warner Bros.) 387 (37)
7. Stereolab: Emperor Tomato Ketchup (Elektra) 379 (35)
8. Amy Rigby: Diary of a Mod Housewife (Koch) 371 (34)
9. Tricky: Pre-Millennium Tension (Island) 355 (38)
10. Pulp: Different Class (Island) 351 (31)
11. R.E.M.: New Adventures in Hi-Fi (Warner Bros.) 348 (38)
12. Everything but the Girl: Walking Wounded (Atlantic) 340 (30)
13. Patti Smith: Gone Again (Arista) 330 (31)
14. Wilco: Being There (Reprise) 264 (26)
15. Cassandra Wilson: New Moon Daughter (Blue Note) 225 (19)
16. [File Under Prince]: Emancipation (NRG) 213 (21)
17. Iris DeMent: The Way I Should (Warner Bros.) 211 (18)
18. Me'Shell NdegéOcello: Peace Beyond Passion (Maverick/Reprise) 209 (21)
19. Nearly God: Nearly God (Island) 183 (17)
20. Maxwell: Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite (Columbia)

Emancipation and Chaos And Disorder definitely deserve an honorable mention in the "plummeting commercial fortunes in 1996" stakes.

my firs thoughts about this period were "Belly and Juliana Hatfield."

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, May 3, 2012 2:42 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol I saw TD and JH play together around then but I think it was 1997 not 6. I left 1/2 way through the show. It was just not good.

huh, good year for Tricky P&J-wise

Pinkerton

me and some dude, just a couple of lonely guys thinking about kim thayil.

kim thayil himself is one of us, i believe

that old spin article where thayil zings the shit out of billy corgan makes him in my view maybe the most lovable figure of 90s alt rock

I'm only halfway kidding about the greatest music year. It just so happened that it coincided with my sophomore year in high school, prime radio listening years.

thayil seems like a bro