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.

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

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.