Always reminded me of Jesus & Mary Chain with the hooks taken out.
holy mother of god
― lynndie englisher (country matters), Sunday, 5 July 2009 22:25 (fourteen years ago) link
i bought that first teenage fanclub album on matador and listened to it all of once. so, i guess i kinda wrote them off. i lumped them in with boo radleys and other bands that were a big deal in the u.k. and were only worshipped here by the bob magazine and magnet. the same people who still listen to new bob mould and robyn hitchcock albums. you know, like jack rabid.
― scott seward, Sunday, 5 July 2009 22:26 (fourteen years ago) link
loreena mckennitt "the visit" ftw
― ian, Sunday, 5 July 2009 22:39 (fourteen years ago) link
FWIW, I think that Teenage Fanclub album gets misunderstood when taken as a power pop album. Yeah, everything they did after it was power pop, and they wanted it to be power pop, and they ripped off power pop to make it, but it's not power pop to my ears. Which is probably why I like it.
Other thing I always come back to is: I bought Never Mind The Bollocks, Confusion Is Sex and Creamed Corn From The Socket of Davis at three different *mall record stores* in New Jersey so the idea of Nevermind suddenly ushering in some sea change has always seemed weird. I mean, I know what happened in its aftermath, but it wasn't like water suddenly came to the desert, at least for me.
― dlp9001, Sunday, 5 July 2009 22:40 (fourteen years ago) link
do you ever think some ppl are fronting with this whole OMG WEEN/BOLT THROWER/COWS IS BETTER THAN NEVERMIND shit nowadays?
Maybe not frontin. Maybe they just enjoy being quantitatively wrong.
― Parenthetical Grillz, Sunday, 5 July 2009 22:59 (fourteen years ago) link
i laughed at "these are without question the three best albums of 1991"
― thomp, Sunday, 5 July 2009 23:06 (fourteen years ago) link
also at scott including 'arc' over 'weld', surely the most contrarian piece of contrarianism on this thread so far. chuck and scott r u doing these off the top of ur head
when i was fourteen (almost ten years later, and in england) pretty much all my friends listened to nirvana, or at least this album. they did not listen to either of the other two albums. probably none of the other albums mentioned in this thread, except use yr illusion i and ii.
from what i can tell, the global advent of emo seems to have given 14-year-olds away from the pulsebeat something else to listen to and latch onto, which is a good thing: and i guess nevermind is historical for them, now, in a way it isn't for me, even though i was six when it came out. i mean, it's historical if you're over 40 or under 20 or so, it seems like. (feel free to quibble with the range here.)
hands up: how many people who have posted on the thread care enough about the question, as posed in the thread title, to actually have voted?
― thomp, Sunday, 5 July 2009 23:15 (fourteen years ago) link
i voted for nirvana just because i didn't want to see the absolutely boring loveless take the win.
― ian, Sunday, 5 July 2009 23:17 (fourteen years ago) link
important thinking itt
― what a delightfully quirky new voice! (bug), Sunday, 5 July 2009 23:23 (fourteen years ago) link
loveless is just as overrated as nevermind is.
― Mike Crandle, Financial Analyst, Bear Stearns, New York, NY 10185 (res), Sunday, 5 July 2009 23:38 (fourteen years ago) link
"Banwagonesque" I thought mediocre & derivative when it came out, I never understood why it got all the props it did, didn't understand why I never seemed to read any dissenting opinions about it at the time either. On top of that, my abiding memory of the fucking thing is that if you went out to the indie disco on a fri or sat night, you couldn't avoid hearing it, and it fucking ruined many nights out for as much as a year, due to it being heavily rotated by the local DJs. In retrospect, I wonder if it was the shock troop advance commando attack sorta thing for the wave of tedious nostalgia/retro rock that ruined british guitar music in the wake of britpop. Probably not, but y'know.
"loveless" I like plenty though if I'm reaching for a MBV rekkid, it's almost always going to be "isn't anything" Even though I like it, I think Xhuxk's "Jesus & Mary Chain with the hooks taken out" is kind of apposite and I do think that the mary chan blow MBV into the weeds generally.
"nevermind" I still like a lot, the tunes are still good & strong generally, the performances still propulsive & thrilling if you crank it up. I voted for "Nevermind"
From the stuff listed upthread by Scott & Xhuxk, i like "Blue Lines" about as well as nevermind, "Spideralnd" a little better, though I haven't played it in many years, "Laughing Stock" and "Cypress Hill" nearly as much.
― f1f0 (Pashmina), Sunday, 5 July 2009 23:42 (fourteen years ago) link
People that vote MBV are like people that convince themselves that Trout Mask Replica is better than Abbey Road
― making plans for nagl (Whiney G. Weingarten), Sunday, 5 July 2009 23:56 (fourteen years ago) link
but the thing is dude
― lynndie englisher (country matters), Sunday, 5 July 2009 23:57 (fourteen years ago) link
ohhh, that first Cypress Hill record is fucking amazing! It's so overlooked. It's got a great vibe, kind of like "Illmatic" does. I think the production is even better than "Low-End Theory."
― Mike Crandle, Financial Analyst, Bear Stearns, New York, NY 10185 (res), Monday, 6 July 2009 00:00 (fourteen years ago) link
for comparative purposes whiney maybe start the '68/9 (?) thread with abbey road, trout mask replica, and a donovan album
― thomp, Monday, 6 July 2009 00:01 (fourteen years ago) link
in the court of the crimson king?
― lynndie englisher (country matters), Monday, 6 July 2009 00:07 (fourteen years ago) link
i don't think you're mapping these the same way i am
― thomp, Monday, 6 July 2009 00:10 (fourteen years ago) link
Loveless is the only one that can hold my attention after many repeated listens over the years.
― qualia, Monday, 6 July 2009 00:11 (fourteen years ago) link
That was actually my first impression of Loveless as well, until I realized shortly after that they were trying for something different, more like Cocteau Twins with feedback and fuzz. I was 17-18 when I had this realization, which was 17 years ago.
― incomprehensible Kool-Aid swallower (sarahel), Monday, 6 July 2009 00:11 (fourteen years ago) link
1991 was just the most musically disillusioning year for me in my entire life. And that had to do with exactly two factors: I was eighteen, and indie bands were streamlining their sound and signing to majors.
Nirvana Nevermind, Metallica Black Album, Voivod Angel Rat, and Ministry Psalm 69 all made me want to strangle the artists involved. Of those four, Angel Rat is the only one I've ever owned.
This is not an attempt to look cool or precocious. It's simply the state of mind I was in at that age that year. Nirvana Bleach (and tour) were big deals for me. Nevermind was a big disappointment.
― Nate Carson, Monday, 6 July 2009 00:29 (fourteen years ago) link
And fwiw, I didn't get into Loveless until way later and I still think it's a nice listen more than a revelation/masterpiece. Stereolab writes better songs than MBV for crying out loud, and they usually only need one riff and one beat to do it!
― Nate Carson, Monday, 6 July 2009 00:31 (fourteen years ago) link
So . . . Bandwagonesque or Loveless, I take it? They were both released on Creation Records, an indie label.
― Daniel, Esq., Monday, 6 July 2009 00:37 (fourteen years ago) link
Voivod Angel Rat
This is actually a great album! Can't believe I left it off my list above (which btw was not done from memory; it's from a file on my desktop.) Though I can see how some people who loved all of Voivod's earlier, more convoluted stuff may have heard it as a betrayal. (I like their early stuff, too, but Angel Rat is still easily one of my favorites.)
it's historical if you're over 40 or under 20 or so, it seems like
I don't get this. Wouldn't people now in their 30s be more likely to feel it was a life-changing album, not less? (Though maybe I don't understand what you mean by "historical." I mean, it's obviously a historical album. It'd be idiotic to argue otherwise. I just don't think it's a great one.)
― xhuxk, Monday, 6 July 2009 00:52 (fourteen years ago) link
it has to be 'bandwagonesque', I mean, come on, look at who they inspired--the diggers, swiss family orbison, superstar, some people bought some bmx bandits records that may have not--that is quite a legacy.
― keythkeythkeyth, Monday, 6 July 2009 00:58 (fourteen years ago) link
xhuxk sorry by 'historical' i mean "part of the vast dead apparatus of history that speaks not to me on my own level", i guess that wasn't immediately apparent by my choice of the word 'historical'
― thomp, Monday, 6 July 2009 01:01 (fourteen years ago) link
"indie" in UK has a diff. meaning, this is one of the oldest argts to have tho I'm sure you know this. MBV got an advance higher than most indie labels could even count in '91.
whiney do you really think Grunge Geir is a good look?
― worm? lol (J0hn D.), Monday, 6 July 2009 01:18 (fourteen years ago) link
just teasin' btw, all love y'know
― worm? lol (J0hn D.), Monday, 6 July 2009 01:19 (fourteen years ago) link
And in both instances, you grew up and realized you were wrong.
― My name is Kenny! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 6 July 2009 01:20 (fourteen years ago) link
I like Loveless because the songs sound like they were on mushrooms
also why I like Coil btw
― what if deeznuts comes back like that (Curt1s Stephens), Monday, 6 July 2009 01:21 (fourteen years ago) link
Trompe Le Monde is insanely better than most of the records that came out in 1991 or since for that matter.
― Adam Bruneau, Sunday, July 5, 2009 11:09 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark
love that album so
― surm, Monday, 6 July 2009 01:35 (fourteen years ago) link
lol The Face magazine didn't think kurdt was kute enough. their 1991 album list:
1 Massive Attack - Blue Lines 2 Primal Scream - Screamadelica 3 Young Disciples - Road To Freedom 4 PM Dawn - Of The Heart, Of The Soul And Of The Cross: The Utopian Experience5 St Etienne - Fox Base Alpha 6 Seal - Seal 7 REM - Out Of Time 8 Omar - There's Nothing Like This 9 Prince - Diamonds And Pearls 10 Galliano - In Search Of The Thirteenth Note 11 Lenny Kravitz - Mama Said 12 Pet Shop Boys - Discography 13 Dream Warriors - And Now The Legacy Begins 14 The KLF - The White Room l5 Ultra Nate - Blue Notes From The Basement 16 Public Enemy - Apocalypse '9117 Various Artists - Paradiso 18 808 State - Ex:el19 Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque 20 A Tribe Called Quest - The Law End Theory
― scott seward, Monday, 6 July 2009 01:49 (fourteen years ago) link
Here was Spin's 1991 list:
Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque R.E.M. - Out Of Time Nirvana - Nevermind Pixies - Trompe le Monde Pet Shop Boys - Discography Robyn Hitchcock - Perspex Island Public Enemy - Apocalypse '91: The Enemy Strikes Black Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger Smashing Pumpkins - Gish P.M. Dawn - Of The Heart, Of The Soul And Of The Cross: The Utopian Experience Metallica - Metallica Massive Attack - Blue Lines Fugazi - Steady Diet Of Nothing Urge Overkill - The Supersonic Storybook Pearl Jam - Ten Seal - Seal De La Soul - De La Soul Is Dead Mudhoney - Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion I And II Hole - Pretty On The Inside
― dlp9001, Monday, 6 July 2009 02:15 (fourteen years ago) link
Out of Time? They're Out of (Their) Mind.
That Urge Overkill disc was pretty good, tho imo.
― Daniel, Esq., Monday, 6 July 2009 02:17 (fourteen years ago) link
Yeah, I thought that too. Had forgotten when the UO album came out.
In 1990 they had Catholic Education at #7, so really what could they do but put the follow-up at #1.
― dlp9001, Monday, 6 July 2009 02:21 (fourteen years ago) link
...and much as I love him, that Robyn Hitchcock album really blows.
Rolling Stone Two Star review of Bandwagonesque:
Alternative Rock is dead; long live demographics. Since virtually all of the great late-Seventies and early-Eighties independent labels got snatched up by the big boys, the sound that once shook the underground has been touted – and accepted – as the latest groovy thing for going on ten years now. The elements have barely budged – enigmatic band names, droning guitars, pretty melodies and exhausted male singers.
Far from the freshness and punch of its previous effort, A Catholic Education, Teenage Fanclub seems to have lapsed into an alternative-rock coma. Bandwagonesque has not a single musical surprise in store: From the pop-culture in-jokes ("Pet Rock," the wordless "Is This Music?") to the faux spiritualism ("Star Sign," "Guiding Star") to the halfhearted stabs at irony ("The Concept," "Metal Baby"), each song lopes along at a slowish midtempo, made more endless by high, thin vocals and moments of decorative guitar feedback. And it's all repetitive repetitive repetitive.
The huge record labels have an excuse to call such homogenized product "alternative" – they're notoriously out of touch. The fans who reject Poison's or Amy Grant's image because those artists are obviously packaged and marketed with numbers-crunching calculation will happily fork over the $12.99 for Teenage Fanclub's equally persuasive images – eye-searing fluorescents and fisheye-lens photos of the unsmiling, unkempt band members. But these pleasantly innocuous melodies are alternative to nothing, certainly not to their antecedents – Bernie Taupin, Kansas and nursery rhymes. Still not convinced? Try singing Boston's "More Than a Feeling" to the tune of "Smells Like Teen Spirit." (RS 623)
ARION BERGER
― dlp9001, Monday, 6 July 2009 02:24 (fourteen years ago) link
other albums from 1991 that were better than nevermind:
varttina - oi dai
mano negra - king of bongo
old - lo flux tube
gorguts - considered dead
mekons - the curse of the mekons
nova mob - last days of pompeii
terminator x - terminator x & the valley of the jeep beats
son of bazerk - bazerk bazerk bazerk
julian cope - peggy suicide
neil young - weld
main source - breaking atoms
organized konfusion - s/t
immolation - dawn of possession
cathedral - forest of equilibrium
the obsessed - lunar womb
cranes - wings of joy
diamanda galas - plague mass
this mortal coil - blood
dog faced hermans - mental blocks for all ages
the young gods - play kurt weill
fear of god - within the veil
born against - nine patriotic hymns for children
fudge tunnel - hate songs in e minor
last crack - burning time
roxette - joyride
heidi berry - love
skin chamber - wound
chubb rock - the one
thee hypnotics - soul, glitter & sin
― scott seward, Monday, 6 July 2009 02:26 (fourteen years ago) link
Son of Bazerk still gets regular play in my house.
― EZ Snappin, Monday, 6 July 2009 02:27 (fourteen years ago) link
that nova mob album is not better than nevermind, shit it's not even better than loveless.
― ian, Monday, 6 July 2009 02:30 (fourteen years ago) link
i love that album! it's one of my favorite albums of the 90's!
― scott seward, Monday, 6 July 2009 02:32 (fourteen years ago) link
weird.
― ian, Monday, 6 July 2009 02:33 (fourteen years ago) link
it's the only solo husker du thing i've ever owned or heard too.
― scott seward, Monday, 6 July 2009 02:34 (fourteen years ago) link
it makes me sad. and sometimes it feels triumphant to me. i like that it's about the sadness of history. the production is a little wonky at times, but it doesn't bother me.
― scott seward, Monday, 6 July 2009 02:35 (fourteen years ago) link
Scott, you should try Grant Hart's solo stuff. His 1999 disc -- Good News for Modern Man -- is great. (xp)
― Daniel, Esq., Monday, 6 July 2009 02:36 (fourteen years ago) link
Haven't heard Nova Mob.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfx7tvGisbA
― keythkeythkeyth, Monday, 6 July 2009 02:37 (fourteen years ago) link
it's not for everybody. the pompeii one. i think you either feel it or you don't.
― scott seward, Monday, 6 July 2009 02:37 (fourteen years ago) link
o_0 at that Rolling Stone review of Bandwagonesque.
― Daniel, Esq., Monday, 6 July 2009 02:37 (fourteen years ago) link
Tempted to vote Bandwagonesque cuz that's what I actually listen to the most and has the most sentimental value, but really its not a patch on the impenetrability of Loveless. Nevermind way way way far behind the other two.
― And the biggest self of self is, indeed, self (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 6 July 2009 03:17 (fourteen years ago) link
scott that roxette album is not better than nevermind or bandwagonesque. loveless maybe, but only maybe
― kamerad, Monday, 6 July 2009 03:52 (fourteen years ago) link