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.

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.