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.

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.