Welcome back to the Q Albums of the 90s thread. If you weren’t here for 1990-96, this is a thread where we get the chance to review Q’s choices for the top albums from each year between 1990 and 1998 as published in the December 1999 edition of Q.
So, let’s have a look at which 10 albums Q thought were the pick of 1997 (“The Year of Extremes”):
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – The Boatman’s Call
The Chemical Brothers – Dig Your Own Hole
Bob Dylan – Time Out of Mind
Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott – Supa Dupa Fly
The Prodigy – The Fat Of The Land
Spiritualized – Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space
Supergrass – In It For the Money
Texas – White On Blonde
The Verve – Urban Hymns
Radiohead – OK Computer
What do you think of the list? Does it represent 1997 for you? What’s missing? Did you buy the Candle in the Wind CD single? And of course, how many have you got?
Links to the other threads in the series
1990: The Year of Hope
1991: The Year of Turbulence
1992: The Year was Pissed Off
1993: The Year was Still Grungey
1994: The Year of Transition
1995: The Year of Britpop
1996: The Year of “Britpop”
And the scan:
Glad to see this list series continue – I’m enjoying revisiting the nineties, musically at least..
From the Q list, I bought Spiritualized (my favourite at the time), The Boatman’s Call (don’t play it much – you need to be in that mood) and ..cough.. Urban Hymns (a pretty neat E.P. s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d to past my patience length) but that was partly because The Prodigy, Radiohead, The Chemicals and Supergrass were in the house anyway (all fine).
In 1997 I liked Gorky’s Barafundle, Tindersticks’ Curtains, the Bentley Rhythm Ace album BRA (hurr hurr..), the Blur album and much of Grandaddy’s Under The Western Freeway.
Using the same hindsight approach as Q, two ‘97 albums I have adored from 1998 on are Elliott Smith’s Either/Or (which I only bought after XO) and Kenickie’s At The Club.
Around this time I was losing faith in hip hop (Missy Elliott passed me by) – I did get it back a few years later – and people in general. I remember being obsessed with White Town’s Your Woman for quite a while..
I find The Boatman’s Call ok for a few songs at a time, but after that I zone out a bit. As I’ve said on another thread in the series, I prefer the pre-Boatman’s Call Nick Cave, rather than post, which I find to be a bit Guardian Weekend.
And it has surely the clunkiest opening line of an album I’ve heard.
A total of 6 for me from this year – Dylan, Spiritualised, Supergrass, Texas, Verve and Radiohead. Can’t really argue with OK Computer as the album of the year – it still stands up today.
No Candle in the Wind for me (although I thought that came out in 1974 – was it reissued ? Why?)
Notable albums missing from me…
Buena Vista Social Club / Buena Vista Social Club
– I know everyone bought it at the time and it was everywhere, but its still a great album that I still play.
Manson / Attack Of The Grey Lantern
– Stripper Vicar anyone ?
Ocean Colour Scene / B-Sides, Seasides & Freerides
– Yes Mosely Shoals was everywhere the year before, but I actually prefer this (much like Oasis / Masterplan) and it contains their greatest ever track in Huckleberry Grove
Diana Krall / Love Scenes
– I remember hearing an interview / couple of tracks on the BBC World Service on the car radio and loved it, bought it and played to my wife who became a huge fan. Can’t go wrong with bit of sophisticated jazz.
Portishead / Portishead
– whilst not having the impact of the debut, its still a great album.
Prefab Sprout / Andromeda Heights
– probably their weakest album, but a weak Prefab Sprout album is still stronger that most artists efforts.
Re Candle in the Wind: I was referring to the remake that was released after Diana’s death. There is BBC news footage of consumers rushing into a shop the day it was released to buy it. There were people pulling handfuls off the shelves.
Diana Dors ? I thought she died much earlier than 1997 ?
Wasn’t it John Lennon that said she died the day she did that terrible episode of The Sweeney?
Great call on Buona Vista Social Club. It really is a good album. I was playing the Ruben Gonzales album that came afterwards just the other day.
It does seem a omission. Perhaps Q didn’t want an album of 50s Cuban music to be listed as one of the albums of 1997.
Or perhaps its ubiquity went against it. It’s difficult not to feel that you should be ordering some food whenever you hear it.
This series is making me re-assess my 90s, and by 1997 I must have been enjoying music socially as I don’t own any of these albums even though I sort-of-know most of them (Texas and Dylan excepted). Among other national events, this was the year of the Brighton Dance Parade, the foolish attempt by the local council to replicate Berlin and let ravers take over the city for one day only—a premonition of the Fat Boy Slim beach madness to come later. Additional albums I remember:
Robert Wyatt-Schleep
Jim O’Rourke–Bad Timing
Mogwai–Mogwai Young Team
Nuyorcian Soul– (This was always playing at parties)
Yo La Tengo–I Can Hear My Heart Beating As One
Roni Size & Reprazent–New Forms (Considered very important at the time, but I didn’t like this one as much as the singles)
Broadcast–Work and Non Work ( I didn’t really get how great this lot were until later. )
Umm, that’s it (What was I doing?). This was also the year of Mark and Lard’s Radio 1 breakfast show, which I was one of the few people to switch from Radio 4 to listen to, and soI loved hearing singles like White Town.
Finley Quaye’s Maverick A Strike and Thievery Corporation’s Sounds From The Thievery Hi Fi are missing. I’ve never understand the love for Spritualised’s album. Some gorgeous melodies spoilt by throwing everything including the kitchen sink at them.
Is it only me that rates The Stereophonics debut Word Gets Around
Nope me too. It has not aged amazingly well (the last few songs tail off), but at the time it was a fantastic album & I was obsessed with it. I saw them support Skunk Anansie (13th March 1997) & thought they were fantastic. The next few years were spent tracking down every single & repeatedly watching the live at Cardiff Castle VHS!
They are very unfairly slagged off I reckon. They never came out & claimed to be the saviours of music & did have some brilliant songs. They were also very good live up until the 4th album or so too.
Local Boy alone is worth the price of admission. Fantastic song.
Correct Foxy, it is.
On reflection, 1997 may actually have been the peak (or at least some sort of peak) for 90s music. The sheer range of great quality albums that came out that year takes some beating – there were awesome developments in Hip Hop, House, Drum n Bass, Ambient, Soul and Post Rock. Bob Dylan came back with possibly the best late life album released by any of the 60s people (he was a whopping 56 years old), the Charlatans put out some of the best music of their career, Drum n Bass went fully mainstream with a Mercury prize win, and some of my all time favourite music compilations appeared.
A word on those compilations first. Logical Progression Volume 2. Even better than the first one, and almost certainly the record I listened to most in 1997. Regrettably not on Spotify and I don’t really fuck with CDs these days, so I’ve not heard it in a while, but my recollection is that Disc 1 was the album per se, while Disc 2 was all the same tracks, mixed by Blame and with MC Conrad chatting over the top. That second disc took an absolute caning – I may need to dig it out and buy a CD player or something. Also contained Bukem’s Atlantis, which is a top 5 all time Drum n Bass tune for me.
Live at the Social is also not on Spotify, which is a great shame as in my world it was the true follow up to Exit Planet Dust. First contact with some immortal tunes (Cutman by Meat Beat Manifesto, Packet of Peace by Lionrock, Wede Man by Selectah, etc), and an amazing party vibe. Dig Your Own Hole was a fine record, but it always felt like a slightly heavy handed lunge for credibility where no additional cred was really required. Private Psychedelic Reel is ace though.
In a very similar vein, Brit Hop and Amyl House contained a number of absolutely classic tunes, and had the worst title of virtually any record I’ve ever bought. Listened to it heaps, despite that deep shame – Dirt by Death in Vegas, Shaolin Buddha Finger by Depth Charge, What’s That Sound (Fucked Up Sound) by Sam Sever and the Raiders of the Lost Art, the first time I ever heard the Chems Bug Powder Dust remix, etc. Utterly superb.
1997 also saw the release of what is still my favourite album of all time, Mogwai Young Team. I had heard some Post Rock stuff previously, in the form of Tortoise and Slint, but I had never heard anyone apply the quiet/loud formula to it in such devastating fashion, never seen a band have so much fun with song titles and certainly never ever heard anything like Mogwai Fear Satan. Two core memories leap out in respect of this record, both from that period. The first was getting it home for the first time, whacking it on, doing something else at the same time and slowly losing focus on it a little. Like Herod came on, with its introductory guitar noodling that gradually gets quieter and quieter until it’s eventually silent before – BAM – the guitars slap back in, howling with rage that you could ever have stopped paying attention. I virtually jumped out of my skin that first time, and that feeling of being shocked by music (even if the shock was cheap) was such a pleasure.
The second memory is connected to another of 1997’s great cultural moments – the release of the N64, until recently my favourite games console of all time. It was the era of Ocarina of Time, Mario Kart and Goldeneye, endless rounds of which were played in our University dorms. But it was also the era of F Zero X, which released a year later, and which won our hearts utterly. The game had minimal polygons, which meant it was incredibly fast. It also had a superb random track generator which occasionally threw up wonderful oddities (a first corner which killed virtually the entire field being one of them). Anyway, discovered that the game was the absolute perfect accompaniment to Mogwai Fear Satan (at around the time we also learned that Manowar’s Wheels of Fire is the ideal Mariokart soundtrack), and thus spent many happy hours in a zen state tearing round the track to that beautiful ruckus. One of those glorious moments that music and life coalesce utterly.
Heard my first GY!BE in 1997 as well, so a great year for Post Rock. This was also the period in which NME published their infamous “No Sell Out” issue, in which Mogwai declared their lack of vocals to be the most important development in popular music since Dylan went electric (heh), and one of Godspeed delivered the outstanding quote “if I want to have an awkward conversation with people about things I hold to be self evident I’ll go to my parents’ place for the holidays”. A super rare case of the late 90s NME overhyping two bands who actually deserved to be overhyped. The rest of that excellent GY!BE interview is here:
https://www.brainwashed.com/godspeed/deadmetheney/interviews/nmejuly.htm
Speaking of Dylan, he came roaring back with his first good album in just under a decade. I’d become a fan maybe two years earlier – after a childhood spent hearing him round the house, my revulsion at “the voice” had fallen away and I’d come to truly love Bringin It All Back Home. The release of Time Out of Mind was a big moment – it contains some wonderful songs, including (improbably) a couple of pop bangers. The sound of The Great Artist wrestling with his own mortality was still novel at that stage, and suddenly that gravelly old man voice became weirdly befitting of the material, if it ever wasn’t. I played that album endlessly, and it set the stage for an enormous obsession with the Albert Hall gig bootleg when it finally released the following year.
Similarly the Spiritualised record. Who can forget the joy of buying an album that came packaged as prescription medicine? It seemed a shame to even open it, but it was worth doing so, because it’s brilliant. A concept album about love, drugs, collapse and recovery, it had some stellar moments that soundtracked the year, lead me on to Dr John (who I think I ended up seeing live in 97 – an experience) and later to Lou Reed’s Heroin, its spiritual forebear. In retrospect, LAGWAFIS is a hot mess, with far too much going on, but then I rather suspect that was the point – so was its author.
Daft Punk released in the January of the year. I still recall going to Our Price to buy it, feverish with excitement, then hopping straight onto a train to visit Essex University, the alma mater of both my parents. It was a wasted trip, in that I had no real intention of going there, but what a way to soundtrack it. I listened to Homework over and over and over again, trying to figure out how it all worked, how they’d done this incredible thing that sounded so alien and yet showed you the guts of so much other music. Quite possibly the single most influential release of 1997, and Burnin’ was a huge part of that year for me; I listened to it constantly.
On an – ahem – somewhat less influential tip, I also spent much of the year, and particularly that Summer, with Urban Hymns. It’s not a record that has aged well, by any means, but in its moment it was most certainly a thing. No one had expected that band to jump from all their mad riffing and grooving, their shamanic bullshit, to the beautiful peak of A Northern Soul, and we certainly didn’t expect them to morph onward into unlikely pop stars thereafter. Bittersweet Symphony hit like a truck that Summer; I remember hearing it for the first time and thinking it had the cadence of a Hip Hop track and that maybe it pointed a sort of new way forward. As it turned out, it really didn’t, and like a fair bit of 90s Hip Hop it, shall we say, rather wore its influences on its sleeve, but I cannot say I cared or care. Drugs Don’t Work duly followed to convince the world that the band had the goods, and a breathless article in The Face declared ahead of the album release that Ashcroft had a song “even better” than the singles. That song was Lucky Man. It was not better.
On the Hip Hop front, the East Coast/West Coast beef finally calmed down on account of its two major antagonists being dead. That left space for the Wu Tang to return with the long awaited sequel to 36 Chambers and assert their dominance. When we learned that Forever was to be a double album, that dominance seemed all but assured. But life doesn’t always work that way. Shockingly (at the time), the RZA’s absolute Midas period came to an end at just the wrong moment – we had never heard him release a merely OK beat to this point, but Forever had its share of them, and marks the juncture at which the momentum went out slightly, never to fully return. There’s a great single album in there, much of it on side one, but regret at what might have been remains the prevailing sense.
Elsewhere though, great things were happening. After several years of brilliant releases, a member of Busta Rhymes’ Flipmode Squad finally released a brilliant album. I was obsessed by Rampage’s Scouts Honor By Way of Blood (although it’s largely a forgotten gem these days), not least because it contained one of my absolute favourite 90s Hip Hop tunes, Wild For Da Night. Camp Lo also released Uptown Saturday Night, a marvellous and singular record preceded by the still brilliant single Luchini – well worth a moment of anyone’s time.
Most excitingly of all, the next wave of Hip Hop was coming rolling in. In 1997 we got our first taste of the future with Slum Village’s little heard Fan-Tas-Tic, a whole album of J Dilla beats signalling the way forward. Dilla has a claim to being the single most important Hip Hop producer of the last 30 years, and this is where he really made his name. At the same time, Company Flow released the immortal Funcrusher Plus. I had never heard anything that sounded like it – the sheer density of the lyrics, their intelligence, that industrial but sci fi sounding production. Hearing that album set off a long time obsession with anything that came out of Rawkus Records (I think Soundbombing Volume 1 might also have come out the same year), and saw me hop on board for El-P’s solo career and then on to Run The Jewels. Both great investments. Co Flow were an utterly seminal act who did their work off in the margins of the genre but whose impact was enormous – you could fairly describe them as the Velvet Underground of Rap.
Roni Size won the Mercury Prize with New Forms. It seemed a big moment at the time – mainstream acceptance for this music we’d been adoring for years! – but it ended up being a bit of a dead end. New Forms isn’t massively listened to these days, Take The Fall and Brown Paper Bag aside, but it shouldn’t be forgotten that Size played some unreal shows that year. Think we saw him three times, the peak being an appearance at the Reading Festival that overflowed the tent and saw people dancing on the roof of a nearby ice cream van. MC Dynamite was on fire that day.
Rounding us up, the Charlatans, Bjork and Foo Fighters released their best albums (One To Another – what a single, another one that had a Hip Hop feel), Missy Elliott and Elliott Smith broke through, Primal Scream released an absolute classic, the Prodigy album was a bit of a disappointment but had its moments, and we heard Usher for the first time. I was obsessed with You Make Me Wanna, and he really just got better and better after that. Another one who was the future and you sort of knew it even at the time.
I also had my only real positive contact with Radiohead, a band who have otherwise largely eluded me. While I didn’t get on with OK Computer, I laid hands on a bootleg of their Glastonbury show from that year, and it was ace. The songs, which I’d found quite sterile on record, really came alive on that stage. While we’re doing live recordings, the Beastie Boys released their double album of the Tibetan Freedom Concert in November of 97, and what a document that is. Tibetan monk prayers, Ben Harper doing Ground On Down, Patti Smith doing About a Boy, Tribe with an absolutely seismic Oh My God, Taj Mahal playing She Caught The Katie, the Beasties themselves nailing Root Down and, most of all, Bjork delivering a completely heart stopping Hyperballad. One of my all time favourite live albums.
So, there you go. With apologies for the essay, probably my favourite year of the 90s. There was simply so much going on, on so many fronts – so many unfamiliar new sounds and ideas, so much excitement at what might come next. I can trace the roots of so much brilliant music from this decade back to that year, and have fun doing so. It probably didn’t hurt that it was the year I finally escaped off to uni, where free time to listen to music was about as plentiful as it would ever be. But it also didn’t hurt that the music was so good.
Mogwai Young Team – Mogwai
Ladies & Gentlemen, We Are Floating In Space – Spiritualised
Homework – Daft Punk
Funcrusher Plus – Company Flow
Scouts Honour By Way Of Blood – Rampage
Live at the Social – Chemical Bros
Fan-Tas-Tic – Slum Village
Brit Hop & Amyl House
F#A#~ – God Speed You! Black Emperor
Logical Progression Volume 2
New Forms – Roni Size
Uptown Saturday Night – Camp Lo
Homogenic – Bjork
Time Out Of Mind – Bob Dylan
Life After Death – Biggie
Tellin Stories – The Charlatans
Dig Your Own Hole – Chemical Brothers
Vanishing Point – Primal Scream
Forever – Wu Tang
Either/Or – Elliott Smith
Supa Dupa Fly – Missy Elliott
Around The Fur – Deftones
Urban Hymns – The Verve
In It For The Money – Supergrass
Butterfly – Mariah Carey
Come To Daddy – Aphex Twin
If You’re Into It, I’m Out Of It – Christoph De Babalon
My Way – Usher
Blur – Blur
The Colour and The Shape – Foo Fighters
The Velvet Rope – Janet Jackson
Radiator – Super Furry Animals
Baduizm – Erykah Badu
Portishead – Portishead
The Fat of The Land – Prodigy
Modus Operandi – Photek
Maverick A Strike – Finley Quaye
I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One – Yo La Tengo
Dig Me Out – Sleater Kinney
Shizuo v Shizor – Shizuo
Harlem World – Ma$e
The 8th Letter – Rakim
Strangers Almanac – Whiskeytown
One Day It’ll All Make Sense – Common
Latryx – Latryx
Bingo – I feel like we are kindred spirits. I was in the states for most of 1997 but a lot of what you described above resonates with me. I never really think about it when we do the ‘best gigs’ type lists but LTJ Bukem at the Emporium was around this time (maybe 1998) and was terrific. I started listening to the ‘Earth’ series around this time as well.
🙌🙌🙌
The Earth series was excellent! I saw Bukem spin at Turnmills a few times circa 96-97, and I can honestly say those were some of my favourite club nights ever.
Hold on is that a mention of Manowar on the Afterword?
#interestingtimes
Death to false metal!
Re Manowar: was that the band where the singer used to demonstrate the power of his lungs by blowing up a hot water bottle or has my memory let me down..?
Nope. Manowar were the ones who were oiled up in loincloths playing music that sounded like Jack Black’s internal monologue:
I think Thor was the hot water bottle guy.
1997 was probably the year I was most obsessively into music and of all the records on the Q list, it was only really OK Computer that got me. We’d managed to get – I still don’t know how – hooky pre-releases of Let Down and (I think) Karma Police on a grubby cassette and listened to them obsessively. I was properly obsessed with Radiohead at that point – it’s funny how they took over our heads and hearts entirely but left so many people pretty cold.
1997 was the last year I can remember being regularly really surprised by pop music (hard to overstate – now it’s been dulled by familiarity – how hearing Song 2 on the radio felt: “wait – this is BLUR?”). I was listening to EVERYTHING, to the extent that I can hardly remember what. We were on first name terms with the guy who ran the record shop (Andy from the late lamented Concepts in Durham shout out) because we were literally in there every day. On OKC release day, and probably 5-10 others, we were outside the shop at opening time.
It was also the biggest party year of my life. Clubs 2-3 times a week, from daft and wonderful indie nights at the Worst Club In The World (Klute) to decentish clubs in Newcastle, to trips across the country for Cream. What Bingo says above about indie rock picking up a lot of hip hop flavours is dead right – mostly via “Big Beat”, which isn’t a phrase you hear often now. (I was obsessed with a Skint compilation I had, and particularly Req’s “Cars Girls Money Too”.) That Brighton sound obvs found its peak the following year when the country went Norman Cook-mad, but it’s the year prior that I have the most affection for. It all sounds pretty dated now, but in a way that’s quite sweet: those scuzzed-up break samples, silly vocal chops, that whole good-natured Bentley Rythym Ace thing. I remember seeing an interview with Ad-Rock, of all people, extolling BRA, and saying “that one track of theirs is crazy, Bentley’s Gonna Fuck You Up, or some shit”. Funny how things like that stick in your head.
I think that’s what British music felt like in 1997: joyful, confident, proud of itself, getting the respect that the parochialism of Britpop had deservedly denied it. By pure coincidence rather than design, I’d been more interested in stuff from the US in the Britpop years, and so had lots of the British acts who flourished in 1997, apparently – and they folded it all in, and made something amazing. Lots of amazing. All the gor-blimey-luv-a-duck / fookin mad fer it stuff seemed to have passed and there was this flowering of amazing, and amazingly varied, music that acknowledged its influences without being held hostage by them. Maybe that’s why Oasis – despite never being bigger than they were in this year – felt like a busted flush to many of us: all that banging on about the bloody Beatles, doubling down on the 60s and 70s references. Everyone interesting was doing the opposite: gathering multiple threads together and going “let’s see what happens when we do THIS”.
What a year.
Oh man – “Big Beat”. Now there’s a term I haven’t heard in a while.
I think your penultimate paragraph pretty much nails that year, and also the point at which Oasis found themselves.
The recession of the early 90s, together with Grunge, created a really fertile seedbed for all sorts of weird new sounds and creativity. Not just in music, but in film, art, fashion and so on. All that stuff was brewing in 1993 and 1994, but – for the UK at least – it needed someone or something to kick the door down. That something ended up being Oasis.
Early Oasis, more than any other band of that period, extolled the virtues of being young and hungry and unashamed of your own ambition. They had this certainty about them where they seemed to know exactly where they were going, and they were blissfully untroubled by the ascent – there was no hand wringing over selling out, no deep concerns about authenticity (how could there be, when they were so clearly themselves, warts and all). They worshipped the past, but they also treated it as their own personal property; Noel was incredibly open about who he’d nicked his songs from, and who he thought they’d nicked from in turn. For a generation being brought up on sampling, it wasn’t an issue. They were the perfect 90s band, in the perfect 90s moment – they told the world that this was all going to happen and you’d better get on board, and they gave their peers the confidence to do whatever they were doing with a similar level of self assurance and to embrace success rather than shy from it. They set the tone.
But then, once the door had been kicked down, once they’d released What’s The Story and played Knebworth and ruled the world (or at least this corner of it), what was left for them? They stalled in America – the incident at the 1996 MTV awards showed that they weren’t going to play the same on that side of the Atlantic – they attracted some truly boneheaded (arf) fans, and much of what had seemed fresh and novel about them soon soured. They’d played their part, but things moved on. And that’s what 1997 was, for them – the moment things started to move on.
You’re also right that by this stage all the 60s-worship had really started to fade. It had been fun between about 94 and 96 to drag out Ray Davies, but that moment passed too. In 1997 the pendulum swung away from “Swinging London”. The really interesting music was being made in the US again, or in Paris, or in Brighton. And it was forward-looking (the Verve aside); the impact of the music of 1997 extends way further into the future than the music of (say) 1995. The year benefited from Oasis having peaked and beginning their descent.
selective quoting here
Early Oasis, …extolled the virtues of being …unashamed of your own ambition. …there was no hand wringing over selling out, no deep concerns about authenticity (how could there be, when they were so clearly themselves, warts and all). They worshipped the past, but they also treated it as their own personal property; Noel was incredibly open about who he’d nicked his songs from, and who he thought they’d nicked from in turn. …they told the world that this was all going to happen and you’d better get on board, and they gave their peers the confidence to do whatever they were doing with a similar level of self assurance and to embrace success rather than shy from it. They set the tone.
…they attracted some truly boneheaded (arf) fans, and much of what had seemed fresh and novel about them soon soured.
Are you saying they invented populism?
Of the Q list, I remember getting 5 – Prodigy, Spiritualized, Texas, Radiohead and The Verve. I think only The Prodigy. and maybe the Texas albums I would choose to listen to now – the former I get a kick out of the idea of, whuch adrenalizes my mid 50s flabby form, the latter, because a dose of soothing, easy listening, generic Sharlene sounds like a tonic. The further into their career, Spiritualized got, the more self-indulgent, dull, and over-extended they seemed to get (like they missed the freak dose that Sonic Boom put into the S3 music) – the more they got like the Verve. I completely agree about the 3-4 song ep idea of Sewer Robot – I mistakenly got their previous albums – acres of ‘neon wildermess’. As for Radiohead, however good they might be, it always seems like a miserabilist chore to listen to their music – “It’s time for your annual listen to The Bends/OK Computer, Sal” “Do I have to?” “Yes, you might like it this time” “I didn’t really, the last 25 times” “You might, this time. Put it on” “Sigh”.
Onto more enjoyable memories. Of those mentioned already, the Blur eponymous album was fun enough, the Buena Vista is still a pleasant listen, although it was the Ruben Gonzalez that I bought after hearing the opening of the first track at a listening post in a Paris record shop – divine piano ivory tickling.
I don’t think I can come up with a top ten of my own this time. Maybe 5:
Vanishing Point/Echo Dek – Primal Scream
I think these are my favourite of their albums. I used to drive around the Essex countryside in an old Golf with this blasting away above the engine noise. It’s so mechanical and greasy – I can hear the cogs grinding and the pistons. firing and the exhaust barking – fantastic!
Exile on Coldharbour Lane – Alabama 3
Brilliant ramshackle album in the tradition of Sandinista-era Clash – I love it still
Music for Pleasure – Monaco
If I can’t have an imperial-era New Order album, I’ll have this, please. There must be a category of satisfying albums – not amazing in every way, but just pleasant to listen to – enough stock in the soup to enjoy savouring the flavour – that’s how I feel about this – it’s nice
Risotto – Fluke
There are few enough Fluke albums that each one is worth cherishing, and this little beauty, particularly Atom Bomb, has a place in my heart
There were other albums, e.g. Moon Safari, Tubthumper, but nothing I could really rave about.
Now, I say this as someone who really likes at least three Primal Scream albums, but they’d be absolutely nothing without dragooning an auteur producer or two into making them sound entirely other than themselves. “I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have” is just a bit… shite. A plod by a band who aren’t good enough at playing to be the rock n rollers they’re trying to ape. And then Weatherall, and everything changes. I *love* Screamdelica and Vanishing Point and Echo Dek; I really like XTRMNTR. But the talent is really all happening behind the boards.
Yebbut that really doesn’t, in fact, MATTER and doesn’t make them that much different than Elvis, for example.
And I speak as one who started a thread on here before the flood about records credited to one party which should be credited to two (Linton Kwesi Johnson and Dennis Bovell, PS and Weatherall etc)
Hi hp – absolutely that the talent is in who they collaborate with – but I’m in/with the Sewer on this one – sometimes it’s the ‘musically untalented’ ones who make the big time – I’m thinking Diana Ross not Florence Ballard, Robbie not Gary. In any case, what Boabie has on his side is that he is an überfan, so knows who to choose to collaborate with to emulate the music/bands he loves.
4 of the Q list – Texas, Radiohead, Dylan and Nick Cave.
Others that spring to mind from that year…
Teenage Fanclub – Songs from Northern Britain
The Jayhawks – Sound of Lies
Edwyn Collins – I’m Not Following You
Echo & the Bunnymen – Evergreen
I only bought one album out of the Q List: “The Boatman’s Call”. Unlike Hawkfall, I LIKE the well-behaved “Guardian Weekend” version of Nick Cave. He’s great! Early Nick Cave scares me a little…
The Prodigy? Missy Elliott? Texas? No … I’m afraid those sort of artists just … ain’t me.
There was a five-way tie for my favourite albums of the year:
Elliott Smith – Either/Or (his first masterpiece)
Jackie Leven – Forbidden Songs of the Dying West (his extraordinary comeback continued)
Teenage Fanclub – Songs from Northern Britain (irresistible)
Buena Vista Social Club – Buena Vista Social Club (both a big hit and a great album – an unusual combination!)
Keith Jarrett – La Scala (sheer genius from KJ. And the most immodest sleeve notes of all time)
Mentioned in dispatches:
Kate Rusby – Hourglass (her first proper solo album. Very fine)
Rubén González – Introducing Rubén González
Kenny Wheeler – Angel Song (if you’re a fan of the ECM style, give this a listen)
Waterson:Carthy – Common Tongue
In the reissues/compilations category, there was Lee Perry’s Arkology.
And there was also the greatest reggae compilation of all time: Blood and Fire’s 2CD collection of the work of Vivian Jackson/Yabby You: “Jesus Dread”. I find I run out of superlatives when describing this incredible album.
I’d add a couple more Great Jazz to Angel Song: Wynton Marsalis & The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra – Blood On The Fields and Tomasz Stanko – Leosia
Some other great archival issues besides Arkology: John Coltrane – The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings, Jimi Hendrix – First Rays Of The New Rising Sun, Stan Getz – The Complete Roost Recordings and Joy Division – Heart And Soul
Four I was actively grooving to, not yet mentioned: David Holmes – Let’s Get Killed, Death In Vegas – Dead Elvis, Robert Wyatt – Shleep (superb) and Pink Martini – Sympathique(I know)
I think HMHB said it best about the ubiquity of the Buena Vista Social Club album on their own Cammell Laird Social Club (2002).
“She stayed with me until
She moved to Notting Hill
She said it was the place she needs to be
Where the cocaine is fair trade and frequently displayed
Is the Buena Vista Social Club CD”.
The day will come when I have to explain to my four year old’s playschool teacher why he has been singing this particular gem.
As for the albums of this year, I think my most played was Yeah It’s That Easy by G Love and Special Sauce. For me it’s his best album by a mile, a great collection of catchy feelgood songs.
A quick Google check reminds me that Come Down by the Dandy Warhols was another favourite of mine at the time. A great rock’n’roll band announcing themselves with this album including the great singles Every Day Should be a Holiday and Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth. I thought they were a breath of fresh air.
Only one of these, and that was the Dylan bought later.
1997 was a big year for me. I had been stuck in a very deep rut and on a whim moved to the other end of the country for a fresh start. I also turned 30, which was probably the spur to me making changes in my life, and paying a lot less attention to the latest music.
Of all the albums mentioned in the replies Common Tongue was the only one which made an impression at the time and still does. Sorry 1997, I just had a lot of other stuff going on at the time.
It was all downhill from here for me! Never was I so up to date with the musical zeitgeist as I was in 1997. My two big albums that year were OK Computer and Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space: as soon as I heard them they sounded familiar, and I felt like I instinctively knew what each artist had been listening to to get to that point. I was a sprightly 24 at the time (feeling of course like I knew everything and world revolved around me), so of course it sounded to me like Thom Yorke and Jason Pierce were singing to me alone. That’s daft of course, but it’s an indication of the emotional pull that good music can have.
Bob yep obviously
Ditto Nick
Spiritualised Ladies and… yrp
Buena Vista yep
El Corazon Steve Earle was another high point, tail end of his smack fuelled albums.
Another vote for El Corazon – cracking album, my favourite by Steve Earle.
El Corazon indeed superb, possibly his best
Ooh – I forgot about “El Corazón! Brilliant record.
My favourite of Steve’s, along with “Transcendental Blues”.
In 1997 I was 14 & obsessed with music. I did 4 paper rounds & then worked Saturdays to satisfy my cd buying habits. Every Monday after school I would head straight into Our Price Accrington & spend every penny on CDs, hoping to impress the lady behind the counter. After years of this being a habit they would sometimes make me a cup of tea as i was perusing!
I have eight of these, with the only two missing being Texas & Missy Elliott. I did love Inner Smile by Texas but i think that was a few years later IIRC.
Of the ones from this list, OK Computer is the only one I listened to then & still do so regularly today. This may be a controversial opinion, but i think this was the last good album they did until In Rainbows. Everything in-between was patchy at best.
Two of these that I now own were not purchased until a good few years after 1997. At the time I didn’t get Nick Cave or Spiritualized so these ones passed me by. Now I would rate both as my favourite bands of all time & a day does not go by without me listening to Nick Cave in some form or other. I’d like to crack on that I had my finger on the pulse in 1997, but the truth is more as below;
Albums that I listened to in 1997 not on the list;
Homework – Daft Punk
I heard Da Funk on the radio one evening & was disappointed when I got the album. Other than Round The World I did not rate it at all although I listened to these two on repeat & they were regular features on any mix tapes I made at the time. Th is opinion changed a lot over the years & I can now see how great the album is.
Glow – Reef
I loved his voice & Consideration is still a great tune.
Blur – Blur
Beetlebum was everywhere this summer & although i liked it at the time, the album is pretty patchy.
Word Gets Around – Stereophonics
As detailed above, I really loved this at the time. It sounded very fresh & was exactly what I wanted & needed at the age I was. One of the first bands I discovered on my own & was ahead of the curve on. 2 years later they were doing arenas & everyone was a fan.
Do It Yourself – The Seahorses
My back to front introduction to Stone Roses. This was a great album & I spent hours trying to learn the riff from Love Is The Law
One Second – Paradise Lost
I still liked my heavier music at the time & this was a decent follow up to Draconian Times. Say Just Words still holds up today & I think they did a great cover of Smalltown Boy as a b-side around this time that I was impressed with too
Be Here Now – Oasis
Loved it at the time of released & then realised very quickly it was shite. I then belligerently told everyone this opinion.
Whiplash – James
Contains my favourite James songs. Waltzing Along, Tomorrow & the sublime album closer, Blue Pastures.
Pop – U2
The Last Night On Earth video with Sophie Dahl…….
After Achtung Baby this is my favourite U2 album.
In It For The Money – Supergrass
When I plug my phone in to charge it buzzes twice & always reminds me of the little bit at the beginning of Richard III. Still listen to this album today & loved it in 97
The Colour & The Shape – Foo Fighters
Not as good as the debut, but one i bought on the day of release
Marchin Already – Ocean Colour Scene
This was great at the time & I will probably put it on today
Nimrod – Green Day
My memory may be letting me down here as I think it was likely 1998 that I loved this. Hitchin A Ride & then Time Of Your Life (Good Riddance) sound tracked a lot of this time.
Left Of The Middle – Natalie Imbruglia
Every shop you went in around Christmas in 1997 had Torn playing. I saw her tour the album again last year & it still holds up. Smoke is an excellent song/
It says a lot that when I read the sentence above re: the buzz and crackle at the start of Richard III I heard the noise in my head. Wonderful.
On Be Here Now, I think the retroactive judgement has it about right. It’s a tremendously cokey, overproduced album and they’d clearly lost the run of themselves – everything feels like it’s 7 minutes long and has an orchestra behind it. It was the point at which they well and truly lost me, and many others. That said, Stand By Me and I Hope, I Think, I Know are still pretty good.
On the Stereophonics debate, I think they suffered in comparison to their Welsh contemporaries the Manics and the Super Furries, both of whom made them look quite meat and potatoes. Personally, I was put off by the observational lyrics. I’ve never got on with observational lyrics. I do still have some time for The Bartender & The Thief though.
It’s interesting to compare Be Here Now with Blur, given that both bands were touted as close rivals only a couple of years previously. I much preferred Blur, and in 1997 they seemed so nimble and forward-looking compared to Oasis. Blur (the album) sounded like a band full of possibilities, but Be Here Now sounded like a band who had run out of ideas.
I might be wrong, I admit: are there Oasis fans on here who would argue that Be Here Now was the start of better things for the band?
There’ll be hundreds typing as I post this.
I’m not really a Blur fan (although I do love 13), so probably not best placed to make this comparison.
However, I think the reality is that Oasis were essentially a one trick pony . They had a hatful of absolute bangers, a really distinctive vocal that fitted them like a glove, and were probably the ultimate “arms round your mates at closing time” band. They were the sound of being young and stupid and full of hope for the future, in as much as any band ever has been. I’m not sure they had a lot of ideas about what else to do really – it took Noel the best part of two decades to move his sound on properly – and it’s probably not surprising they flamed out so quick. However, their cultural peak was almost certainly higher.
Blur are a far more talented group of musicians. They clearly listen to a lot of different stuff, and are able to incorporate it into their sound. They are much more interested in the world and at least some of them have matured a bit over the years. They’re objectively a better band on almost every metric, and they could easily make a great sounding album this year, or any year for that matter. For me, personally, their peak was lower though. Even in 1995, when they were massive, they didn’t quite own it the way Oasis did, probably because they’re too smart to allow themselves to be cast in aspic in 1996 forever.
Is there any argument that Be Here Now was the start of better things for the band? Only if you consider getting away from each other to constitute better things, as I’m quite certain Noel Gallagher does.
Be Here Now was not only running out of ideas, it was also having too much cocaine leading to a lack of quality control. It’s almost got the sub-title “F**k it – that’ll do”.
Although I will defend “All Around The World”, but only as a single track – splitting it was a daft idea
Couldn’t argue it was the start of better things, but later albums do have their moments.
If anything, Be Here Now showed that Noel Gallagher was a pretty good songwriter, he just failed to put the best songs on the albums and keep them for B-Sides.
This is why, after Definitely Maybe, The Masterplan is the best Oasis album
I like The Colur & The Shape.
And like it more because Dave Grohl chose to sell “colour” the correct way, not the US sans U spelling
Which spelling is “Colur”?
Aah … sort of mucked up my “how to spell properly” rant there …
Marchin Already – tis a fine album. OCS (like Stereophonics mentioned elsewhere) are oft forgotten or disregarded. Their first couple of albums were brilliant, and those that followed had some very good bits too.
5. They got album of the year right. About a year or two later it was voted “greatest album ever made” in the same magazine. It may or may not be, but I don’t think it’s aged at all and at least the first half is peerless. I also have Dylan (a real return to form), Spiritualized (never really got this one), Supergrass (brilliant) and The Verve (always felt the singles were great and the album patchy). Good times for the city of Oxford.
What do I think of the list? Underwhelmed.
Does it remember 1997 for me? I don’t know, can’t remember.
What’s missing? 8 worthy albums.
Did I buy Candle In The Wind? 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
How many have I got? 2, I did have 3. The one I don’t have now was OK Computer. Played it once and gave it to the charity shop (Mind). It was the biggest load of bollocks I’ve ever heard.
I have 5. Nick Cave, Dylan, Supergrass, Verve, Spiritualized. The only one I still listen to is Dylan but I think I bought it a good few years later. It’s sometimes my favourite of his albums. Loved the Spiritualized at the time but now it just sounds a bit pompous and it only got worse.
Other than that I can’t think of anything that has been mentioned alread:
Songs from Northern Britain (my favourite album ever)
Buena Vista
Sound of Lies
Curtains
When I was born – Cornershop
Thriller – Lambchop
Blur
Not a bad year at all.
Oh I forgot about Cornershop – yes, that was an interesting one. I don’t think it was massive at the time though, was it? I think they grew in popularity over the next year or so (personally I hadn’t really heard of them until that Norman Cook remix).
I think the remix was 1998. I remember it on the (very good) Summer 98 CD that Q gave away.
A shout out has to go to The Beta Band. They didn’t have an album this year, but were certainly starting to grow in popularity, and released the first EP in their great trilogy.
Beta Band are coming next year.
NME top 20:
1. Spiritualized – Ladies And Gentleman We Are Floating In Space
2. Radiohead – Ok Computer
3. The Verve – Urban Hymns
4. Primal Scream – Vanishing Point
5. Super Furry Animals – Radiator
6. Cornershop – When I Was Born For The 7th Time
7. Mogwai – Mogwai Young Team
8. Teenage Fanclub – Songs From Northern Britain
9. Bentley Rhythm Ace – Bentley Rhythm Ace
10. Supergrass – In It For The Money
11. Daft Punk – Homework
12. The Chemical Brothers – Dig Your Own Hole
13. Blur – Blur
14. The Charlatans – Tellin’ Stories
15. Bjork – Homogenic
16. Death In Vegas – Dead Elvis
17. Prodigy – The Fat Of The Land
18. Wu-Tang Clan – Wu-Tang Forever
19. Yo La Tengo – I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One
20. Gravediggaz – The Pick, The Sickle And The Shovel
I was disappointed with Homogenic after Debut and Post. Looking back, it’s a good album, but it’s just a dip in quality. I think the technical term is a “Goat’s Head Souper”.
Oh man. It’s my favourite Bjork. It’s certainly the only one I go back and listen to in its entirety with any regularity.
I like Debut and Post a lot, but they always felt more like collections of singles than cohesive “albums”. Homogenic was the first record where she really nailed that – the whole thing has this icy, glacial feel to it, the songs are all of a piece, and her voice is as good as it ever was.
Plus, it has Joga on it. And Joga is right up there with my favourite Bjork tracks. It’s so gloriously dramatic and she sings it so beautifully.
Oh, and Bachelorette, and Unravel. So good.
Bachelorette is maybe my favourite Bjork song. But it’s a Post song really, it belongs with the mountains and forests of Hyperballad and Isobel, not the crash test dummies of Homogenic. I like Homogenic, but perhaps the cover art influences me. The warm colours of Post invite you in; the cold colours of Homogenic keep their distance.
I think the contrast is quite deliberate. Iceland is the land of fire and ice after all.
Personally, I prefer Debut’s unrestrained enthusiasm for life. However, Homogenic is an astonishing album, quite consistently brilliant. Post, as you say, has peaks and troughs.
Another shout for Songs From Northern Britain: fab album. As is tradition, I’m always last on these threads!
Are you? Hadn’t noticed…
I own two from that list, and my own list is only four albums long…and a compilation.
Another year when I had very little money, and spent it on a subscription for Sweden’s best music magazine (at that time) where I could read about a ton of great music for the same price as buying just a few albums of probably not-so-great music. 😀
1. Cornershop – When I Was Born for the 7th Time
2. Bob Dylan – Time Out Of Mind
3. Foo Fighters – The Colour and the Shape
4. Radiohead – OK Computer
And the compilation: Soundgarden – A-Sides
I love Missy, but I hadn’t started to buy her albums at this time, and for some reason I never got around to buying that one later either.
Cutting edge taste maker that I am, three of my favourite albums that year were impressive Returns to Form by three old codgers, all of whom were younger than I am now – Dylan, of course, with what is one of his absolutely essential albums; Van Morrison with what may turn out to be his last essential album, The Healing Game, and John Fogerty’s terrific Blue Moon Swamp. I only heard it some years later, but if I’d picked up on it in the year, I’d have added McCartney’s Flaming Pie to that list.
Of the Q Top 10, I had the Dylan, the Radiohead which I just didn’t get on with, and the Verve which I enjoyed at the time. We played the Buena Vista album a lot, and I had the Blur though to be honest it’s only the singles which grabbed my attention. I remember Brimful of Asha being one of the soundtrack songs of the year, but I only caught up with the album many years later. Ubiquitous in our house was Shania Twain’s Come on Over, our daughters having moved on from the Spice Girls to Shania’s more adult version of Girl Power.
1997 saw the release of the Jam boxset Direction Reaction Creation – basically compiling everything worthwhile in the vaults.
The Jam had split 15 years before, and with Paul Weller’s rising profile and Noel Gallagher’s endorsement, The Jam were back in the picture again. 2 years later, the compilation Fire & Skill: The Songs of the Jam was released and those on the edge of the Britpop bubble (and some in the know US counterparts) were falling over themselves to be chosen.
They may not have been forgotten, but after the release of the boxset The Jam became influential again
@rigid-digit Although frustratingly (as I could chazza Extras otherwise) not quite everthing is on Direction, Reaction, Creation. You need Extras which has about ten tracks not on the box set – Pop Art Poem, We’ve Only Just Started and a cover of I Feel Good for example..
I agree with others above that this was a great year. Not just for the eye-catchers in the Q list, but also for the consistency of established artists bringing out a great album (I’m thinking Bjork, Portishead, Blur). I have four from the list and enjoy them regularly – Spiritualised and Urban Hymns. On release, I listened to OK Computer daily or more, like I used to as a teenager when I only had half a dozen albums in the collection. It still carbon dates the year for me. In it for the Money is in my Top 5 of all time, so I think it’s quite good really.
Beyond those, Attack of the Grey Lantern has already been mentioned – a great sprawling ambitious, maybe overreaching album.
The one name that I really would have wanted in the Q list is Barafundle – gorgeous, individual, bonkers.
Funnily enough, In it for the Money is my Saturday night record; Barafundle is my Sunday morning record.
Just a couple to mention in passing:
Two historical releases in 1997 – Zep’s BBC Sessions and Hendrix’ South Saturn Delta.
Both superb in my unfashionable view.
Also Tanya Donnelly’s solo debut – Lovesongs for Underdogs. By 1997, I was completely bought into Throwing Muses and all offshoots – and bought it on release. It’s been a while, I might listen to it this evening.
Can’t argue with OK Computer as their album of the year. I remember Radiohead opening Later.. with Paranoid Android and thinking ‘I pity the poor sods who have to follow this’.
The dullards in the inkies were too scared (and allegedly coked-up) to point out that Be Here Now (or Played Here Once, as they called it at the Record & Tape Exchange) was a copper-bottomed stinker.
My top choices for the year:
Primal Scream – Vanishing Point. A mate was in their horn section and got me an advance double LP signed by the band. Got to see them free a few times as well.
Songs from Northern Britain – Teenage Fanclub – It’s a toss-up between this and Grand Prix as their best. Was in a car ride on a beautiful day, heading into the mountains north of Montreal when the driver put SFNB on the stereo. The perfect accompaniment.
Supergrass – In It for the Money. Definitely their best, saw them last year in Crystal Palace and it seemed like they’d never play anything off this album. Then they did loads of it and all was well with the evening.
Ben Folds Five – Whatever and Ever Amen. Another high water mark. Must put it on now.
The Chemical Brothers – Dig Your Own Hole. This has aged really well IMO and goes on when I need to get work done in a hurry, to a high standard. Works every time.
Jayhawks – Sound of Lies. Along with Wilco’s Being There, a big Americana gateway drug. This album cost me a lot of money…
Blur – Blur
Spiritualised – Ladies and Gentlemen…
SFA – Radiator
Foo Fighters – The Colour and the Shape
The Dylan album, while good, as not on my radar at all in those days. Likewise Either/Or (amazing) and Strangers Almanac by Whiskeytown (also a doozy).
Be Here Now was released (in the UK) on the day that GCSE results came out & so some of its sales were probably down to being a treat or a consolation prize.
Or perhaps a punishment.
Dunno, I think it was the most eagerly awaited rock album possibly in decades. The number of pre-orders were huge. I bought it day of release at Asda in Bristol, sat in my car at lunchtime and listened to it. Hmmm, maybe it’s a grower …
I seem to recall that most of the songs on Be Here Now were pretty long – at least five minutes. I’m not their biggest fan, but Noel always had a way with a melody (albeit not always his own); maybe the album just needed some judicious pruning?
I do recall that album being a major event – I have a memory that it was released on a Thursday, which might be wrong. It still probably outsold the rest of the top twenty combined in the weekly chart.
Time for a remix?
Would need more than that 71 minutes long, 5 tracks around 7 mins or longer. So would need significant pruning, a remix night help somewhat but I doubt it was very well recorded
Noel G has been quite honest about the album’s failing, and even called it ‘the same old pub rock bollocks’ in the run-up to its release. In recent years he’s said something along the lines of ‘listening to the album was fun at full volume off your head on coke, but if you’re a working shill on the car in the way to work, seven minute songs that start and end with a minute and a half of feedback get annoying really quickly.’
Don’t take drugs, kids.
You could fade the last couple of minutes off each track.
Brevity was not in the plan – there could’ve been some very good 3 to 5 minute songs in there, but extended in length for no good reason other than they could.
Just a so-so year. Three from this year’s Q selection but all have their issues. Dig Your Own Hole isn’t as good as Exit Planet Dust, although it was praised as being the better album. The more positive reviews smacked of ones who missed out on Exit Planet Dust and had to make up for lost time. That said, Setting Sun is the best thing Noel Gallagher was involved in, The Private Psychedelic Reel is good and the last minute or so of Electrobank is fantastic. As is the video with Sofia Coppola getting one over on her gymnastics rival.
OK Computer is alright but started the phase of Radiohead appealing to the head rather than to the heart. Bought it week one but never liked it very much, with it sounding considered and forced rather than heartfelt and natural. The Fat of the Land was fine but didn’t like Smack…then and still don’t like it. Breather, Firestarter and Diesel Power are all better but, like Dig Your Own Hole, the positive reviews sounded like critics making up for lost time and/or opportunity.
Wu Tang Forever wasn’t bad but was bloated and the second disc is patchy. And Cappadonna is very much a first reserves Wu Tang member, with me thinking that there was too much from the reserves and not enough from the first team. Maverick a Strike was good but it’s an album I go back to only intermittently.
And I hated Urban Hymns…The Drugs Don’t Work and Lucky Man are two of the dullest, most pedestrian songs ever recorded while Bittersweet Symphony is a sneering, unpleasant song in which Richard Ashcroft looks down on all those who have to work for a living. Hated it then. Hate it now. Even hate the video. Hate the oversize leather jacket. Hate the put-on swagger. Hate the shoulder barge. Glad they got sued to billy-o by Allen Klein. Klein went up in my estimation for that alone. Hate the po-faced title of the album. Even hated their choice of footwear on the album cover. The thing is…I actually quite like A Storm in Heaven.
Vanishing Point was a good album and it’s a toss up between this and XTRMNTR as to their best album. Most days I think that Vanishing Point edges it.
Track/EP/video/anything of the year was Come To Daddy by the Aphex Twin. Utterly unforgettable and the standout release of the year.
If you liked Vanishing Point, did you ever hear and like Echo Dek?
I made it yesterday’s plan to listen to Echo Dek but two listens, without a compare-and-contrast to Vanishing Point, isn’t wholly doing it justice.
On an early impression, it does hold true to the rule of Primal Scream that there is an inverse relationship to how much Bobby Gillespie there is on a song and how good that song is. Less Bobby, the better the song. Not always true but a good guide to Primal Scream.
Also on an early impression, what Echo Dek does well is give space to songs that need it and some of the songs on Vanishing Point were crying out to be stretched a little more. Good recommendation so thanks for that. I missed it at the time.
Although, it’s a tricky one to get an Amazon Echo to play on account of the confusion of asking an Echo to play something with Echo in the title, even if Alexa is the wake up word.
Completely agree on the Primals (XTRMNTR has the edge, for me) and the reviews of the Chems and Prodigy. Diesel Power is the track from Fat Of The Land I actually still listen to.
I totally respect your opinion, Viva, but I loved The Drugs Don’t Work. I have no sympathy with Ashcroft re. the Rolling Stones lawsuit thing – he literally used a backing track of another song.
1997 felt like good times or rather more good times in a general sense of optimism. Maybe that was just me. As one, like the rest of us here, who has an interest in culture, it seemed like there was a lot happening. In TV in particular but in film, music and literature. also. Don Delillo’s Underworld was published and that was an event for me as a fan, with it’s celebrated baseball-based opening. I would say though in music it felt like a continuation rather than a new scene. Perhaps even, a slowing down, a lack of new ideas. It depends on your own perspective as well. I was living a Croydon, which was a blessing because I was in a Tory marginal and I watched with unalloyed pleasure as it went red and Labour won the election. That was cause for celebration after 18 years in the wilderness. At least for a time. I’d always lived in a safe Tory seat before. Now it felt like my vote had done something, I’d been part of a change. Good times.
I got The Verve, Supergrass and Radiohead off the list. The Verve no longer does it for me. Supergrass I loved for a time but the debut has more personality. Radiohead seems to me full of emotion and brilliance. Today the tracks Airbag, Lucky and Letdown are my favourites. A band who seem to make people quite cross for various reasons. I don’t think they like Thom. Later albums are as good as OK Computer in my view. There tend to be tracks that aren’t quite to the high standard of the rest though. There are a few here too. I could live without Karma Police, Climbing Up The Walls and Electioneering. The former just is a bit ordinary.
I also got
-Vanishing Point
-Barafundle
Which aren’t on the list. I think The Primals is up there on the 1997 rankings. Kowalski is great. Burning Wheel has an element of early Floyd plus indie dance groove.
Barafundle is also quite psychedelic, mixed with a Wicker Man pagan feel. A really excellent record.
I like dance music but all that Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, Chemicals stuff seems tiresome. Sledgehammering itself at me.
The opening section of Underworld is an absolutely extraordinary piece of writing. I go back to it quite regularly.
I also agree with you on Supergrass. They arrived perfectly formed with that first album, it was the purest expression of what they were all about.
Not sure where else to put this – assume the blog doesn’t need another 90s thread right now.
Pitchfork’s recently compiled 250 best songs of the 90s.
Some outstanding takes in there; they definitely have most of the right songs, albeit not always in the right order. Tough to argue with number 1 though.
https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/the-best-songs-of-the-1990s/
Apart from all the rubbish, a handy few reminders there for a chap who might be thinking of loading up a 90s hits playlist off the back of this series of threads..
Indeed, and some kind soul (not me) has already taken care of the Spotify playlist.
A lot of memories in that playlist, but the one I’m most enjoying is this;
Amazing tune. Amazing video. Amazing verse from Biggie beyond the grave.
I remember being at Carnival that year – we’d just got our A Level results and Mo Money was playing on every corner. We had no money. No money, no problems. Good times.
God I love Fantasy. The beginning of the end for Dirty but it’s such a massive massive tune.
It’s really really hard to argue with Fantasy. It sits rights at the centre of the decade, it straddles 3, maybe 4 genres, Mariah knocks the vocal out the park and the ODB connection is so gloriously incongruous that it sets the tone for much of what follows.
While we’re here, a couple of indie tunes from 1997, by bands that didn’t do what we might’ve hoped of them. Indie rock was in great shape that year.
Urusei Yatsura and Ultrasound! NOW we’re 1997ing.