madonna: ray of lights vs. smashing pumpkins: adore vs. depeche mode: ultra vs. tori amos: from the choirgirl hotel vs. roland orzabal: tomcats screaming outside vs.

lmao at me typing "ray of lights" in the title. it's an extremely minor error but can a mod fix?

From the Choirgirl Hotel and ROL are my favorites.

lol that Orzabal album. I had no idea it existed.

it's extremely awesome. one of the tracks rips off orbital's "the girl with the sun in her head"

roland orbital

hearing tomcats for the first time this morning is also the reason i started this thread

If you're looking to make a list, you need U2's Pop, Herbie Hancock's Future 2 Future, Butthole Surfers' Weird Revolution

i almost included pop! as explained above

Ultra doesn't feel like it's in conversation with these albums at all. It's a great album though, and the one that I voted for.

i figured ppl would disagree with me there so fine!

2nd or 3rd tier I guess in terms of popularity but I'd add Neil Finn's Try Whistling This

Up and Adore definitely feel like they come from the same kind of place, though. To me, at least.

it's extremely awesome. one of the tracks rips off orbital's "the girl with the sun in her head"

OK I'm going to have to listen to this now.

you are missing ...

...

...

***************bush**************** the science of things*********************

I love Madonna's mom-at-the-rave abandon here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AX55nr-Hxw

At least half of these are from 1998 right? Another one that fits from that year is PJ Harvey's Is This Desire?, I'd probably vote for that. From the ones on the list, I'd have to go with Choirgirl Hotel, I revisited it a while back and really liked it.

99.9ºF

I'm a huge Tears For Fears fan, but don't have any use for that Orzabal solo album.

you are missing ...

...

...

***************bush**************** the science of things*********************

― marcos, Monday, November 13, 2017 9:49 AM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i relistened to that and imo for the most part it's just a shitty bush record

I'm a huge Tears For Fears fan, but don't have any use for that Orzabal solo album.

― Gholdfish Killah (Turrican), Monday, November 13, 2017 9:52 AM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

good for you friend

Yeah, I'd say 1997-2001 was the prime period for this sort of thing of existing bands experimenting with electronic textures and even elements of prog, in a way. A whole number of later bands would then become influenced by that approach.

Rob Halford's 2wo record(s?).

wondering if Bowie's 'Earthling' belongs here

^^^ that's a good one

Okay, there was only one 2wo record. I couldn't remember for sure.

imo for the most part it's just a shitty bush record

yea it is bad

99.9ºF

― willem, Monday, November 13, 2017 10:51 AM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Similar in content/intent but it's about half a decade older than the albums mentioned here so not sure if it would count.

Reznor seemed like he might go in this direction when he released 'Perfect Drug' between albums but he pulled back the reins a bit.

Vega's album is Froom sticking his hurdy gurdy keyboards over standard acoustic singer-songwriter stuff; it doesn't belong in this category. If it belongs, then so do the Froom-produced Richard Thompson albums.

Also, can I just say: ctrl+f 'electronica', 0 results itt. Shameful.

Feel like Garbage are relevant here in some way.

Eh, that first Garbage album went pretty heavy on the electronics before going heavy on the electronics was cool. This thread seems reserved for the bandwagon jumpers.

version 2.0 seems like the essence of the late-90s rock-electronica sound

and I might rank it higher than almost every album on Brad's list.

this is definitely From the Choirgirl Hotel, so great

I think Pop fits a bit more directly than Original Soundtracks 1 but both are relevant

sort of weird that there isn't a NIN album that lines up with this vibe perfectly

version 2.0 seems like the essence of the late-90s rock-electronica sound

― marcos, Monday, November 13, 2017 10:09 AM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol i nearly included it, but didn't bc of the reasons old lunch stated

yea it is bad

― marcos, Monday, November 13, 2017 9:59 AM (thirteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i mean i think "spacetravel" is def one of the few good bush songs but that's them pretending to be catherine wheel; the only songs on the record that seem aligned with this trend at all is "chemicals between us" and parts of "altered states"; otherwise it's a cleaner razorblade suitcase with worse songs

UNKLE : Never Never Land.

dropped all pretence of hip hop for electronica.

Everything But The Girl's 'Walking Wounded' should probably count here and an interesting example given its reasonable success both artistically and commercially (in the UK at least) from an act people weren't really expecting that from.

^ yes

Ooh, I know one: Girls Against Boys - Freak*on*ica (gaaaag)

Haaa, from Wikipedia:

In his retrospective review, Ned Raggett of AllMusic wrote that Freak*on*ica was "practically a joke, sounding more like a commercial band attempting to cover Girls Against Boys than the group itself."

still no mention of radiohead/ok computer.
surely that would be of relevance here ?

the big Canadian one was The Tea Party's Transmission ('97)

Ooh, I know one: Girls Against Boys - Freak*on*ica (gaaaag)

― Home of the Ill-Considered Gravy Spigot (Old Lunch), Monday, November 13, 2017 10:43 AM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this album is Actually Good but i figured no one would vote for it, so i left it out

Everything But The Girl's 'Walking Wounded' should probably count here and an interesting example given its reasonable success both artistically and commercially (in the UK at least) from an act people weren't really expecting that from.

― nashwan, Monday, November 13, 2017 10:37 AM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

can't believe i forgot this one

Yes, absolutely Walking Wounded ... I don't think anyone was expecting them to head in that direction. The title track was one of my favourite singles of '96, even though it wasn't as big a hit as 'Wrong' or 'Missing' ...

I like Up a lot, I return to it more than I do the "peak" era REM stuff, mostly cause it's an hourlong sigh with almost no respite from the malaise (see also the Manics' TiMTTMY which *almost* works for this thread but the newly folded in electronic elements are just accents)

I'm relistening to Transmission right now and these hooks are so deeply embedded in my memories of early adolescence that I earnestly can't tell if this album is any good or not

Eh, that first Garbage album went pretty heavy on the electronics before going heavy on the electronics was cool. This thread seems reserved for the bandwagon jumpers.

― Fresh Toast (Old Lunch), Monday, November 13, 2017 5:05 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah that's fair.

Agreed on the mentions Walking Wounded, that's a great album (that I somehow only heard this year).

mentions of

Reznor seemed like he might go in this direction when he released 'Perfect Drug' between albums but he pulled back the reins a bit.

uh... maybe listen to Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral again? Reznor has been in this zone from the beginning.

it's maybe a bit of a stretch but you could put Wilco's Summer Teeth here

I voted REM bc I'm on (all all things) a 2000s REM kick

17 seconds of compassion
17 seconds of peace
17 seconds to remember love is the energy behind which all is created
17 seconds to remember all that is good
17 seconds to forget all your hurt and pain
17 seconds of faith
17 seconds to trust you again
17 seconds of radiance
17 seconds to send a prayer up
17 seconds is all you really need

17 seconds of faith

"Look, mother! The core. The heart music. The Cure."

"Fuck off, William."

lmao

ray of light (the song) has been an anthem to me and my friends for years. it's totally 'mom rave' but also bangs and is so easy to get lost to; i'll never get tired of dancing to it

the core, the heart music. matchbox 20

underworld is too early and maybe not precisely fitting in the parameters but theirs was the most successful rock-to-electronic(a) reinvention, so successful that their 3rd album is practically considered to be their debut

alternate thread title was going to be "albums that definitely did or should've inspired an underworld remix"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUsb_mvzxX4

this is ofc one of my favorite tracks ever

Love the concept of this thread. ultra works for me because it was my first DM album (I was too young for anything earlier) and I got into it I think precisely because it was chiming with everything else I was into.

Other possible partial inclusions:

Kylie Minogue - Impossible Princess (same caveats as Madonna but this was for the most part her first and last “very serious electronica” album)

Curve - Come Clean (obv the same caveats as Garbage)

Yeah, this seems custom made for Radiohead. I loved The Bends, but when they decided to rip off electronic artists and then got praised for it, instead of called out as trendhopping opportunists, I bailed.

ah you’re one of those

lmao

regardless of their fitness I think we have enough places on ilm to talk about radiohead as it is

kid a feels too tasteful for this thread, ok computer too “actually a rock record,” but i get it

I am primarily an electronic music lover, and having Radiohead be praised when they just stole sounds and ideas from electronic artists and labels, was really frustrating. So yeah, I'm one of those people who resent bandwagon hoppers.

As another electronic music lover, my reaction to that argument/opinion is "lol"

It is ridiculous, but there ya go. I am aware of the issues of my complaints about Radiohead.

voted Ray of Light because it's one of the best albums ever but another great poll option imo would be Think Tank

Madonna feels out of place here, because she'd been doing contemporary dance music right from the beginning of her career, so I don't see how doing contemporary dance music in 1998 was any kind of deviation for her?

also feel like Various Positions is proto... this

i guess you could flatten madonna’s career in that way sure

Ray of Light is informed by contemporary dance music, and you can dance to it, but it's got an ethereal, spiritual vibe I don't associate with her earlier work, lot's of "World" influences too, and Music is full on electronica iirc

Daysleeper is a great REM single, wish the other singles were more like that

Maybe Sade's Lovers Rock fits

i guess ok computer and kid a (more so) fit conceptually, but less so in terms of the 'electronica' vibe most of these share

From The Choirgirl Hotel

Liquid Diamonds and Hotel just destroy

also FTCGH is a transitional album in Tori's discography. The arrangements flirted with electronics in a way that would be explored even further on TVAB and Scarlet's Walk.

Voted Passengers because it has some pretty pure Eno soundtrack moments on there, esp. “One Minute Warning” which is a blast

might go with Gran Turismo by the Cardigans as 'other', if that counts (1998 again)

fuck that one TOTALLY counts

also FTCGH is a transitional album in Tori's discography. The arrangements flirted with electronics in a way that would be explored even further on TVAB and Scarlet's Walk.

― Week of Wonders (Ross), Monday, November 13, 2017 5:02 PM (thirty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

scarlet's walk seems a pretty deliberate retreat from electronics? the most artificial she gets is sometimes she plays a rhodes

venus and back, sure

yeah, i was a bit off on that one Brad - maybe would have made more sense to say strange little girls with tracks like "i'm not in love"

up has a lot of great stuff on it, especially the mellow stuff with vibraphone

voted "other" for Walking Wounded.

The Kennedys, Evolver.

Luna, Pup Tent.

Both fit this vibe IMO

I love Up and Walking Wounded.

Garbage v2.0 fits this mold.

Love And Rockets' Hot Trip to Heaven absolutely belongs on this list but I wouldn't necessarily vote for it.

ahhhh "my favorite game" hell yes

re: cardigans

Madonna feels out of place here, because she'd been doing contemporary dance music right from the beginning of her career, so I don't see how doing contemporary dance music in 1998 was any kind of deviation for her?

Most Madonna albums are stylistic deviations from their predecessors in one way or another. But (if I can presumptuously speak on Brad's behalf for a moment) this thread isn't about deviations per se.

It's about rock/pop artists putting out albums mostly during the second half of the nineties where "engagement with electronica" feels like a major talking point for the album, something you'd expect to see raised prominently in reviews and used as a barometer for success (i.e. "how successful was that engagement?"). And in a sense, what the artists were really engaging with was the uncertainty of what it meant to be modern and "alternative" in the late nineties, which you could boil down to appearing on the cover of Spin with slightly oddball make-up and ensuring that your music felt like it could soundtrack that cover photo, especially if it was some kind of edgy genre-bending (apply scare quotes liberally to those words) single off a film soundtrack.

In this context, "electronica" was mostly code for the kind of "dance music" that had found most success away from the dancefloor during the mid-nineties - so, really, house doesn't even count except by accident e.g. both "Ray of Light" and Tori's "Raspberry Swirl" could be considered house-pop, but they sound more inspired by e.g. the upbeat stretches of the first two Bjork albums rather than "house music" per se. And yes, Madonna actually literally made a fake Bjork tune earlier with "Bedtime Story" but that was an outlier on its parent album, which was more about "engagement with R&B".

(lol actually just read the Madonna interview she did with Spin at the time! It explains everything: https://www.spin.com/2016/03/madonna-ray-of-light-cover-story-1998/)

That's also a reason why Ultra feels like it fits: it was the first of two albums where DM turned to producers who had grown up through UK dance music (and had both worked with Bjork, of course) to fill the hole in their line-up. It takes literally seconds for you to think "oh, this album sounds a lot like Clear sonically".

This was definitely an era of lots of artists talking up their own recent additions to their record collections and then wearing those new influences on their album sleeves in a very Primal Scream (whose Vanishing Point also fits this trend in part) way.

the big Canadian one was The Tea Party's Transmission ('97)

Crash Test Dummies - Give Yourself a Hand (99) ?

Also if we're going to include Ray of Light, would Kylie's Impossible Princess also work, or is that one more all over the map?

right yeah all these albums are more or less the artist engaging with "electronica", it's just that with depeche mode and madonna you have two artists that are ALREADY electronic, so the engagement is more specifically directed towards .. um.. not necessarily trip hop but "deep" "home listening" side of electronica.

xp to tim

vanishing point is a good call

Marko yeah I mentioned Impossible Princess upthread as well - the first single suggested otherwise but it's one of only two songs on the album that doesn't fit the brief.

Also not quite the same since it involved collaborations, rather than the artists themselves, but the Spawn Soundtrack from 1997.

And then there was Moby's Animal Rights, which was the exact opposite of this.

can't believe we took this long to get to Vanishing Point, great album

right yeah all these albums are more or less the artist engaging with "electronica", it's just that with depeche mode and madonna you have two artists that are ALREADY electronic, so the engagement is more specifically directed towards .. um.. not necessarily trip hop but "deep" "home listening" side of electronica.

Yeah exactly, there was this kind of irony at work that a lot of these artists were Americans who were then turning to a very British (plus Air and Stereolab from France, I guess - though I think the latter was more a "this is what I am listening to" namedrop rather than a direct stylistic influence on mainstream artists) notion of electronic music with almost no direct US influences at all.

Amusing to see Madonna bitching out R&B in that interview given it was 1998 and she then waited a full decade before finally deciding to work with Timbaland (by which point he'd pretty much lost it).

uh thank y'all for making this the best thread

i think pj harvey is this desire qualifies. Definitely the most she had dipped into electronics at that point, especially on "Joy" and "The Garden".

Noel Gallagher / Chemical Bros - Setting Sun

i seem to remember a lot of garage artists going the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion 'Acme' route too (they brought in Dan the Automator for that one.) Even R.L. Burnside had a turntablist on one LP iirc? and Medeski Martin and Wood had DJ Logic on an album.

there was also some kind of rule in the late 90s that your album had to be btwn 55 and 65 mins long and most of these fit that too

i still kinda like that Charlatans LP ('Wonderland') where Tim Burgess suddenly adopted a Curtis Mayfield falsetto and they got a bit more danceable.

I should qualify my comment regarding US artists turning to European sources of inspiration - obv. the other really big influence was Beck's Odelay - and yeah to the extent that there is a shadow US narrative it'sin the deference paid to The Dust Brothers, Dan The Automator and Sean Lennon and even the enthusiasm which greeted the return of the Beastie Boys on Hello Nasty on its release (though obviously for a variety of reasons that album is not an example of this phenomenon per se).

So maybe Cibo Matto playing live on Buffy is the eye of the storm.

Actually does anyone remember the soundtrack for A Life Less Ordinary (1998)? Beck, Luscious Jackson, Sneaker Pimps, Underworld, The Cardigans, Alabama 3, Faithless and the REM track pre-Up that most pre-figured the turn toward electronica ("Leave").

Forgot the Folk Implosion were on that soundtrack too.

voted Tori, but anything that isn't Smashing Pumpkins is the right vote.

Kid A totally fits, as does Super Furry Animals' Guerrilla

Does Saint Etienne Sound of Water fit here?

Saint Etienne are at least partly rooted in house music and synthpop from day one so they don't really count IMO. I'm not sure if Ultra does either fwiw - at least one record in the original post (Adore) is considerably more rooted in Depeche Mode than it is in either European or American dance music. Unless it's possible to be both originators and bandwagon jumpers at the same time.

Whereas there's virtually no electronic element to REM or Smashing Pumpkins pre-1998 but both are reaching back to something pre-house and techno. In Adore's case that's the gothy end of 80s synthpop (Gary Numan is all over that record), but then again gothy trip-hop was everywhere in 1998 so it sort of fits.

I've come back round to Up after an autumn of listening to Cluster and Harmonia and realising that its synths have far more to do with mid-70s Germany than anything from the 80s or 90s (although that was obvious from 'Hope' I suppose). Certainly more than the glossier and less inter synthy records they made in the 00s.

'Ray of Light' is the only one that really feels fully of its time and it's probably the best record here but also the one that sounds the most dated right now - very little contemporary music sounds that *pristine*.

Gran Turismo is a good call though, that's the one I immediately thought of. Is there a Placebo album that fits here? Feels like there should be.

Not sure if there’s a whole Placebo album that fits but “Pure Morning” and “Taste In Men” were both at least pretending to be on trend.

There’s probably some awful fake rap tune on the third album that i’ve deliberately erased from my memory.

Actually that reminds me: Suede’s ‘Head Music’ is kind of on this tip isn’t it.

Does Saint Etienne Sound of Water fit here?

Was thinking about this - like some of the other artists here they'd dabbled in dance music before but this was the album where they really went for the (as Brimstead put it) 'home listening' side of dance/electronica so I'd say yes personally.

Another one I thought of late last night was Cornershop's When I Was Born for the 7th Time.

Kid A totally fits, as does Super Furry Animals' Guerrilla

See I'm not really sure about this - Kid A is a bit too late to qualify (it's really the first of a particular kind of 00s record rather than a late 90s phenomenon), and it lacks the vampiness that unites a lot of these records. The Radiohead song that really, instantly, seems to fit is 'Talk Show Host' and somewhere there's a parallel universe where Radiohead went further down that rabbit hole. Maybe that its placement on the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack but there's also a sense of campness, of dressing up, that you don't usually get with Radiohead.

Guerilla is SFA's most obviously pluralistic record but it's the culmination of something that was building in their music from the very beginning, even on the first album they were into techno and that shows in the way they'd run an acid line through a punk pop track or whatever.

I should qualify my comment regarding US artists turning to European sources of inspiration - obv. the other really big influence was Beck's Odelay - and yeah to the extent that there is a shadow US narrative it'sin the deference paid to The Dust Brothers, Dan The Automator and Sean Lennon and even the enthusiasm which greeted the return of the Beastie Boys on Hello Nasty on its release

Feel like there was also a subset of early 90s indie/shoegaze dudes who reappred with new names making vaguely countryish music with faux-hip hop beats and obviously Odelay is the rosetta stone for those bands, although Delakota is the only one I can think of right now. Is this what Mojave 3 sounded like?

Agreed that Radiohead don't have an album that really fits - the Airbag/How Am I Driving? EP might do at a stretch I guess.

Thread has reminded me of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3GN9PZG_qM

Matt OTM about “Talk Show Host”. I think the version on the R&J soundtrack was the Nelly Hooper remix but it applies to the original almost as much.

Airbag is probably the best fitting Radiohead track

Cut Here by The Cure, though a little later than most of this, feels related

ultra's inclusion is admittedly more about association and feeling than it fitting the narrative. also i should have called this thread "drowning in time to a desperate beat"

I think of the Cure as having been pretty darn electronic already, but I won't quarrel about it.

I remember discovering both Ultra and GusGus in about April 1997 and thinking "It's No Good" and "Believe" were the most futuristic music I had ever heard. In my defence I was not quite 15.

... Adore's case that's the gothy end of 80s synthpop (Gary Numan is all over that record)

Speaking as someone who has heard every Numan album, I really don't hear Numan's influence on that record at all.

Is this what Mojave 3 sounded like?

― Matt DC, Tuesday, November 14, 2017 4:55 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

not at all. it's been a while since i listened but "early 90s indie/shoegaze dudes who reappred with new names making vaguely countryish music with faux-hip hop beats" is accurate I suppose

Feel like there was also a subset of early 90s indie/shoegaze dudes who reappred with new names making vaguely countryish music with faux-hip hop beats and obviously Odelay is the rosetta stone for those bands, although Delakota is the only one I can think of right now.

Scott 4 were one of these bands I think? Though as far as I know they just appeared rather than reappeared.

yep. feel like the Beta Band's "Dog's Got a Bone" was a touchstone for a lot of this stuff too

Better Than Ezra - How Does Your Garden Grow?

hey brad - posted this on another thread but wanted to make sure you saw it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vx3wCAWJSk

Rickie Lee Jones' 'Ghostyhead' belongs here too. Oddly seems a more natural fit for her than many others who dabbled in this and would have liked to see her do more in this vein.

Rickie Lee Jones' 'Ghostyhead' belongs here too. Oddly seems a more natural fit for her than many others who dabbled in this and would have liked to see her do more in this vein.

― Dan Worsley, Tuesday, November 14, 2017 8:38 AM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

aw hell yeah i am listening to this record when i get home

Beth Orton's Superpinkymandy seems like this whole scenario in reverse, wherein she began with the "engagement with electronica" approach and then abruptly moved to a folk pop sound.

A distinguishing feature of Ghostyhead for me is that Rickie used the “going electronica” manoeuvre to give full rein to a certain beatnik spontaneity that had been part of her stylistic make up from the beginning. For me the shifts in songwriting and performance are probably more essential to what makes that album fascinating than the album’s laurel canyon trip hop production, though that’s pretty interesting and largely successfully as well.

I think the Cure songs that best fit the thread are Wrong Number and their cover of World In My Eyes.

an electronic RLJ album is totally expected

I think the Cure songs that best fit the thread are Wrong Number and their cover of World In My Eyes.

I was thinking Mixed Up.

Mixed Up is not a part of this trend any more than “W.F.L” or “Fool’s Gold” are.

I don't think The Cure is part of this at all, really.

would Chromatics fit into this? going from a punk lo-fi style band into an Italo-disco style act.

bands that change their sound completely like that are kind of a different thing, i think. i associate this period with one album detours.

i think there might be one person left from the og chromatics? it's almost like maybe the band broke up but johnny jewel wanted to still use the name? it is a cool band name.

madonna interview Tim posted was great, thanks Tim

The thread specified late 90's - early 00's. To my ears, Wong Number ('97) and World in My Eyes ('98) have that electronic texture that was being used at the time. Also More Than This and A Sign From God. (x-post)

13 by Blur, right? At least a few of the tracks seem to go down this path, plus produced by Orbit

Also, Medazzaland by Duran Duran seemed distinctly informed by electronica, even though they've also been synthy

always been*

Guys it’s simple: if the stylistic development has no conceivable relationship to quote unquote “electronica” then it is not part of this thread.

Chromatic definitely don’t count.

wanted to like Ghostyhead a lot more than I actually did.

Chromatics are the best part of a decade too late?

It's not really a coincidence that the vast majority of the records in the original post are from the same year, and a general sense that the a lot of the defining musical narratives of the 90s had played themselves out by 1998. With a lot of these records you get a sense of artists spinning around trying to work out what to do next. Once again it's Ray of Light that feels like the most sure-footed step here.

A lot of this general malaise feels embodied in UNKLE's 'Psyence Fiction' but that obviously isn't within the remit of this thread.

iirc Madonna had a few other producers in mind for Ray of Light before or at least in addition to William Orbit so think she was spinning around as much as anyone - but the album does a good job of sounding like it was always meant to sound I guess.

oh shit here's one i completely forgot about: twilight as played by the twilight singers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwS4Rby2Re0

yesssss good call

Kid A is a bit too late to qualify (it's really the first of a particular kind of 00s record rather than a late 90s phenomenon),

we don't really need to talk about radiohead any more than we already have obv but surely kid a is a part of this phenomenon, "rock band explores electronica" was the overwhelming press narrative w/ this album and i think predecessors like u2, pumpkins, and rem who had already dabbled with electronica possibly allowed for the success of something like kid a, it was such a common arc for a band at that time

And in a sense, what the artists were really engaging with was the uncertainty of what it meant to be modern and "alternative" in the late nineties, which you could boil down to appearing on the cover of Spin with slightly oddball make-up and ensuring that your music felt like it could soundtrack that cover photo

ha this is amazing. otm.

i agree with the people who have suggested that the "talk show host" remix on the romeo + juliet soundtrack has more to do with this thread than kid a

though technically one of the options in the poll is "too late to qualify" (the orzabal record is from 2002, it just sounds like it was recorded in 1998)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxkYMCA104o

actually it's from 2001. sorry, that's an extremely misleading youtube embed

^^^ i really love this record now

i agree with the people who have suggested that the "talk show host" remix on the romeo + juliet soundtrack has more to do with this thread than kid a

― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Wednesday, November 15, 2017 4:24 PM (forty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't. The approach of Kid A isn't distinct, it's part of the same continuum.

Also, if Guerrilla doesn't fit (it does) then Madonna and Depeche Mode sure as hell don't.

ok thanks turrican

you know who really started this trend was the beatles maaan

but anyways i am so grateful for this thread because it got me browsing through the 1998-2002 spin archives on google books https://books.google.com/books?id=NhMpG7hKAr0C&source=gbs_navlinks_s

the first Natalie Imburglia album would definitely qualify as "token electronica sounds" in places

the vein of albums brad is identifying are generally referencing mainstream forms of electronic music; Radiohead were/are more interested in the Warp catalogue and austere early electronic music

Basically, if it doesn't sound like it could have been on a split single with Republica, move on.

(I realize I've torpedoed my Cure argument here.)

x-post:

'Everything In Its Right Place' and 'Hope' feel like they both come from near enough the same place to me.

y/n: Moby is the mirror image of this phenomenon

Animal Rights already mentioned upthread

the first Natalie Imburglia album would definitely qualify as "token electronica sounds" in places

as opposed to all her earlier work? it's not like she was Laura Imbruglia previously

does supposed former infatuation junkie work? i'm on the fence

also i revisited pop for this and it's really astounding how "miami" derails the whole thing

another one of U2's geography lesson songs that faceplants a bit (New York, Elvis Presley and America, Elvis Ate America, The Hands That Built America)

though i actually mostly like all of those except for the last one

Miami placement is OK if you think of that as side 2.

as opposed to the middle track on side C?

That works, too.

'Miami', 'The Playboy Mansion' and 'If You Wear That Velvet Dress' back-to-back just kills the album, IMO.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

lol how did Up beat Adore

does supposed former infatuation junkie work? i'm on the fence

― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Wednesday, November 15, 2017 4:47 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

missed this thread but glad this one got named, i think it counts. so many tracks are really "loop"-oriented... even "thank u" has those big crunchy beats rolling in.

^ otm!

Madder Rose's Tragic Magic probably fits here

adore meanwhile has many fine qualities but at the time felt like a letdown for me because it WASN'T all in on "electronica" - where Eye and TEITBITE had whet my whistle for this new futuristic incarnation of the Pumpkins. i like it better now as the hybrid/quilt that it is but i would have been down for twelve tracks of loops and keyboards supporting billy's angst.

This was a great thread despite so many people determinedly missing the point. lol how did we ever manage to survive the turrican era.

One 1998 album that we forgot about but which you can tell fits this trend even just from the title and the front cover (which looks like a photo shoot for Spin Magazine) is Robbie Robertson's Contact from the Underworld of Redboy.

Passengers easily one of my favorite albums. Plenty of music from that era that bangs, but Passengers (along with dubnobass) one of my only portals to what anticipating the future felt like back in the early-mid 90s.

The rest of the appeal is prefigured by the cover. Combine Eno's ambient floating in space with his "African robot factory", for a feeling of effortless repose in propulsion. Also Bono at his least annoying.

Were there any high-profile releases in this style which signalled its end? Like, "if Artist X is (still) doing this, it can't be cool anymore". (Roland Orzabal doesn't count, no-one noticed this record.)

Forgot the Folk Implosion were on that soundtrack too.

― Tim F, Monday, November 13, 2017 7:57 PM (four years ago)

The Folk Implosion are interesting (even though I know they don't really fit this thread) - when they did the Kids Soundtrack / Wally Gagel / breakbeats thing in '95, it still felt like a novel move by a couple of indie rock guys (fwiw, Garbage's debut was released that same summer). By the time they finally made their obligatory 50-minute, major-label rock/electronic hybrid album (in '99), nobody cared... it's a good album, though!

xpost - not sure, but even at the time I remember thinking “this era has passed” in October 2000 when both U2 and PJ Harvey released naturalistic “return to rock” albums.