commercially disappointing major label rock/alternative albums of 1996

"I'm The Ocean" is the only track on Mirror Ball that I think is a must-hear for Neil fans.

"I'm The Ocean" is his best post-SWA track period.

xp Re: the year alt-rock died, a similar thread could have easily been put together for 97 or 98. it was a totally different game by the start of 99.

eminem/blink/slipknot/etc

a similar thread could have easily been put together for 97 or 98.

samadhi, yo. samadhi.

this is Filth Pig btw

if some dude made similar lists for 1997 and 1998, i would certainly take kindly to them.

i think the roster of high profile failures was smaller for '97 or '98, but yeah it was an overall trend all through that period.

i checked Test For Echo when putting together the list but Rush held onto the same kind of sales figures as Counterparts

amazingly we haven't even gotten to how uniformly bad the cover art is for almost every single one of these, either.

was the cover art great for any of the big hit albums before these, though?

Not a fan of any of these but if I had to listen to any one of them right now it would be October Rust.

'99 was the year after the first huge major-label merge.. lots of rock bands were dropped from majors, and the ones who weren't received little to no push regarding radio spins.. bands like cardigans and local h and nada surf tried to follow-up on their initial success but no one was working to promote them, and the idea of maintaining career artists out of the 90's alt-rock bands seemed like a lost cause.

aka weezer chose a very good time to go on a batshit insane hiatus.

REM> Screaming Trees> Tori> pthrrrt

was the cover art great for any of the big hit albums before these, though?

― da croupier, Thursday, May 3, 2012 4:07 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

probably not, no, just saying

man, NO ONE likes that cure album..

because it's a bag of shit

it has 2 great songs ("Want", "The 13th"), 4 good/okay songs ("Jupiter Crash", "Trap", "Bare", "Treasure"), one song I like even though I think it's objectively terrible ("Gone!") and then everything else is horrible (I will grant them "Round and Round and Round" was great live but not so much on record)

this is Filth Pig btw

― suidavyvan eht nioj (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, May 3, 2012 2:05 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Nuh-uh. "Reload" is the shit, tho.

i like mint car even though it's so stupid.

listening to it now!

CLOUDS DRIFT BY AND EVERYTHING IS LIKE A DREAM

what i don't get is that robert smith claims that he hated "friday i'm in love" and then "mint car" was obviously intended to be a follow-up to that song.

the fact that both "Mint Car" and "Return" are on that album hurts me deep in my heart

what i don't get is that robert smith claims that he hated "friday i'm in love" and then "mint car" was obviously intended to be a follow-up to that song.

Maybe he thought "Friday I'm In Love" was too charming? idk

"We hated our second highest charting single so much that we're going to hold our noses and record a soundalike."

is he actually saying anything during the guitar break just before the two minute point? "sinkin shacuzzy in a goomp"?

that part rules haha

Though I might dismiss it as hoary pseudo-psych if listening for the first time at 29, I loved "Dust" at the time. And I still play it, and I don't know anyone else who owns it - unlike about half the albums here, it really was a flop. So it gets my vote.

Smart poll. I would totally read a book on 1996: The Year Alternative Broke (But In a Bad Way)

"yeah, sink in...shark coozie in a hoo............................OW!"

lol this song is hiliarous, i don't think i'd heard "mint car" SINCE 96

I think it's code for "please please please kick me in the nuts as hard as you possibly can"

Dust got really strong reviews in the UK. I was under the impression it was big in the US until I was writing something about Lanegan and discovered how badly it bombed.

God all these songs got serious rotation on State College's The Revolution 101.1. I've said it elsewhere, but I didn't realize how privileged I was to have a local radio station that played all this shit as well as like, Chavez and Sebadoh in 1996.

the tragic thing is, no matter how bad I think "Mint Car" is, there are WAY WAY WAY worse songs on WMS

fucking "Club America" for example, I dare you guys to sit through that

haha been there did that in 1996

the only song I can recall from a mixtape i made off the radio around this time that isn't on the above album list is NIN's "The Perfect Drug"

do most cure fans hate mint car this much?

I had just become arts editor of my college paper after writing a couple of years and I had never seen so many promo CD's coming into the office; I saw every one of the albums here around the office at some point (I reviewed that Cure album) along with Imperial Teen, Jonny Polonsky, Jars of Clay, etc. Major labels were swimming in loot.

lol i heard the big Jars of Clay song on the radio the other day

produced by Adrian Belew!

xxxpost:

Nope. I like 'Mint Car', and I like 'Return' too.

pinkerton

wild mood swings was bought out of loyalty. The point where I ceased to look forward to new Cure albums (unimaginable to my teenaged self). They have done good stuff since tho.

produced by Adrian Belew!

presumably called after jerry harrison said he was busy

dammit, I was actually going to get some studying done today before Some Dude had to go and post a list of alternative rock albums

on that 'time and place' tip it's really striking to me how many of these albums I can remember being absolutely ripped apart in the NME - like obviously most of this wasn't their bread and butter in the mid 90s but I think that being a huge-but-faltering American alt-rock band was just the worst thing you could be from that perspective

Whigs and S. Trees exempt from this iirc

underperforming major label debuts are a different category re: Sammy

I don't know that could've possibly underperformed. Pretty sure I bought it sight unseen because the tape was selling for, like, four bucks brand new. Pretty decent album, too.

oh c'mon like Jerry Harrison wouldn't have accepted the chance at carving more throwing copper.

i said "busy," not uninterested

was there actually a Screaming Trees album that sold 'well'? xp to Dorian

dammit, I was actually going to get some studying done today before Some Dude had to go and post a list of alternative rock albums

― da croupier, Thursday, May 3, 2012 4:25 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

lol i started the thread against better judgment on a busy work day, if it's any consolation

Sweet Oblivion was a pretty minor blip as far as grunge's boom years go, but it still sold probably several times more than any other Screaming Trees album before or since

incidentally the only year i went to Lollapolooza was '96, where i saw Metallica and Soundgarden and the Trees work these albums

i think this is the first time I've heard "Mach 5" in over a decade. It kicks harder than I remembered!