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.

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

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.