Best Album on OUR Favourite Albums of......1996 PART ONE

the Spin lists from the 90s look to me like a good representation of indie/alternative with a little mainstream stuff thrown in

On FB I asked the question and was told Magnet was a better guide but rocklist only had this

http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/newsgroup99.htm

ROCK LIST FROM MAGNET - 1998
For lack of a better description, MAGNET is the American equivalent of WIRE.

ARTISTS OF THE YEAR:

1. Neutral Milk Hotel
2. Elliot Smith
3. Belle and Sebastian
4. Ani DiFranco
5. John Spencer Blues Explosion
6. Spoon
7. Massive Attack
8. Brian Jonestown Massacre
9. Air
10. Cat Power

20 ALBUMS THAT MATTERED IN 1998 (in alphabetical order, I assume)

• Archers of Loaf- White Trash Heroes
• Beck- Mutations
• Blonde Redhead - In An Expression of the Inexpressible
• Calexico - The Black Light
• Caustic Resin- The Medicine is All Gone
• Richard Davies - Telegraph
• Dirty Three - Ocean Songs
• Godspeed You Black Emperor! -f#a#
• Jack Drag - Dopebox
• Mercury Rev - Deserter’s Songs
• Roy Montgomery - And Now the Ran Sounds Like Life is Falling Down Through It
• Pernice Brothers - Overcome By Happiness
• Robert Pollard- Waved Out
• Quasi - Featuring "Birds"
• Sonic Youth - A Thousand Leaves
• Spinanes - Arches and Aisles
• Sunny Day Real Estate - How it Feels To Be Something On
• Tortoise - TNT
• Tricky - Angels With Dirty Faces
• Unkle - Psyence Fiction

Shit, how cool is that Swirlies record?

I guess it didn't get a release outside the US and also maybe the kind of thing that 'out of vogue' with much of the UK music press at the time so it went under the radar here.

Taking on MBV with an East coast indie rock sensibility works brilliantly. Not to say that's all it is, there's lots of invention going on.

For lack of a better description, MAGNET is the American equivalent of WIRE.

hmmm

voted mainliner

by that list it looked more like old melody maker

When I went to the US in 1999 I bought a copy of Magnet to read on the train and yeah it was more like Select than The Wire

I remember buying a Big Takeover in Tower Records or Borders in Glasgow only to be disappointed by the fact it was covering a lot of the British music I was trying to get away from reading about as I hated it. Bloody Idlewild especially.

I wanted American indie stuff not covered by the UK press.

CMJ New Music Monthly was the best source for reviews of indie-rock albums in 1996.

dunno that one.

did they do album of year lists? cant find anything on http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/

I don’t recall that they did, no.

pity, its a good way to see what artists they covered.

they did have a monthly CD though:
https://www.discogs.com/Various-CMJ-New-Music-Monthly-Volume-40-December-1996/release/1402554

but I don't know how representative that was of the mag, the CDs would occasionally end up in the £1 bin here but I never saw the magazine

I remember the monthly CD and CMJ, I was mostly reading Rolling Stone and Spin back then. But heavily into Matador records in '96.

Maybe I did see it in Tower Records but it was too expensive if it came with a CD

I rarely read magazines that covered mostly indie stuff back in the day like Magnet, and NME, but was really into the whole underground/diy scene. I get most of my music recommendations from forums and friends and sometimes The Wire nowadays.

did you read fanzines?

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

did anyone read fanzines in the 90s/

I read several zines and created one myself and had a blast doing that. Is that what you mean by fanzines? ;0

which ones did you read?
I used to read a manic street preachers fanzine but most of the fanzines I read were football ones.

btw any volunteers to do the 00s?

I think Brad would be a good choice but whoever wants to do it can do it as I dont fancy it as my tastes really dont align with ILM in that period I hate stuff like Avalanches, LCD Soundsystem, The Knife/Fever Ray and Mike doesn't want to do it either.

alright I'm relistening to the Cake album now. suddenly I'm starting to get all the criticism levied at the band

― frogbs, Wednesday, August 7, 2019 11:08 PM (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Haha, I still think I'm voting Cake. Their odd song structures and slacker sarcasm always reminded me of an updated Wall of Voodoo.

xp I would volunteer to work on the 00s, but I don't like those bands either, lol

I'd do a poptimist-free 00s.

not a shot at anyone but i'd like for there to be at least some rap listed each year, so

I'd do a poptimist-free 00s.

― pomenitul, Tuesday, August 13, 2019 3:59 PM (three minutes ago)

that might be interesting, im sure id find a lot of new stuff

50 classical records.

2/3 of them will consist of contemporary music.

Let's do this.

Alternately: we can just poll RYM's top 50 for each year, minus the video game soundtracks, maybe.

tbf I could do a poptimist free 00s quite easily but I dunno if I could face another 10 weeks of "you forgot my fave albums"

If anyone thinks they could do a list of a nice mix that includes hip hop, dance music, metal, underground stuff along with everything else then please give it a go!

Completely on board with polling pomenitul's contemporary classical take on the 00s.

I can do it for each year, but it would take a while, not least because there's no exhaustive database to draw upon. I could also limit each poll to 20-30 releases.

Might be a good idea since most of us would probably have to do a lot of listening to vote.

Me too tbh.

Another option would be to start with the CD era, i.e. in 1983. I'd likely include reissues as well, since the chronology of recorded classical music feels less immediately linear for a whole slew of reasons.

I'd love it if someone (Siegbran?) could do an all-metal poll series too.

lol I've been kicked out of the metal union?

If we're doing each year individually by genre I bagsy indie since I lost my metal membership card

math rock and post rock must be represented!

I'd do a poptimist-free 00s.

― pomenitul, Tuesday, August 13, 2019 8:59 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

sounds boring

At least you didn't get your metal bonafides questioned lol

lol sorry ON, that's not what I meant. It's more that I assumed you're worn out by the current poll series.

It's hard to cut down stuff to fit in enough to please people that's for sure.

A genre poll for each year would be much easier but might piss off a lot of ilxors, otoh ilm is dead anyway so at least there might be new threads created and ilmers find out about new to them music.

it's no different to the balkanised rolling threads really

I'm alright with separate genre polls/threads as long as it doesn't devolve into gatekeeping. Which it hasn't so far, save perhaps for the tongue-in-cheek ambient police and the less amusing (to me, at least) offbeat drip beefs.

I mean, I kind of like the way these polls have not been broken down by genre and have just been lists of someone's faves.

So much music came out in the 00s plus P2P meant everyone heard a lot more albums it would be impossible to only have 1 poll that would please everyone, which is why I don't want to do it.

I'd love it if someone (Siegbran?) could do an all-metal poll series too.

― pomenitul
Could do that but I don't think there's enough metal fans left on ILM? It's a bit pointless if the winner has like 2-3 votes.

I kind of like the way these polls have not been broken down by genre and have just been lists of someone's faves.

otm, and also not "canon" or a big averaged-out list of agreed "classics" so a RYM list wouldn't be quite the same either, though I'd read and vote on some RYM 2000s polls (er, if there haven't already been some, kind of feel like there may have been)

sorry ON (& Michael) that you feel people have been getting at you abt fave albums missing - I've know I've mentioned some unlisted favourites and grumbled about my favourite albums by bands not being listed while lesser favourites did but I didn't mean it as a complaint, just everyone here, well, loves music and doesn't get much chance to talk about specific 90s albums outside genre or artist threads, so it's nice to throw a few overlooked favourites into the discussion too

I've groused about missing albums but it was all in good fun. It's been a great series, frankly.

Siegbran, you're right, but it would be entertaining anyway and may result in a few heads coming out of the woodwork. If I were to do a classical poll based on the same yearly model, I'd be amazed if more than five people voted at all, but eh, if it can get a discussion going, it's good enough for me.