OK, fellow critic wannabees! It's time to get in those "Best of 1997" lists. By my rules, it's a 1997 album if you bought it in 1997. Try to say something about each entry, so this doesn't become just a dry list of titles.57 responses total.
((( Winter '98 Agora #37 linked as Music #106 )))
Alas, my logging of CD purchases fell apart sometime in the late summer, and little seemed to be leaving a lasting impression on me. Off the top of my head: The Old Joe Clarks, TOWN OF TEN: Country influenced rock, some lovely bent-note picking, a clear favorite of the year. Not available in stores, you have to order it from the band. Tarnation, MIRADOR and GENTLE CREATURES: Two beautiful albums from an alt-country band steeped in irony and in Sergio Leone spaghetti western film scores; the singer has a gorgeous voice. Kim Richey, BITTER SWEET: A reincarnation of 1970's style Bonnie Raitt - Linda Ronstadt country-flavored pop. Commercial music with warmth and intelligence. Vulcheva-Jenkins Incident, CROSS THE DANUBE: A Bulgarian woman singer and an English folk guitarist got married and had this album, a charming hybrid. Steeleye Span, LIVE AT LAST: Reissue of the year? A CD edition for this 1978 album which closed out the original Steeleye Span's career. This lineup had Martin Carthy and accordion player John Kirkpatrick, who elevated the proceedings out of the routine that Steeleye sometimes fell into towards the late 70s. If my neurons kick in, there might be some additions later.
Celine Dion's "Let's Talk About Love" is very good, and I used to loathe the woman. Although most songs are about love, which irritates us single types, it's not sappy. The song "Love Is On the Way" is encouraging too. I am dying to get Ani DiFranco's live CD set "Living in Clip". I just love Ani to death.
OK Computer, Radiohead. This album is brilliant. Unfortunately, for the music I listen to, this has been a very weak year for music releases.
A second for OK Computer. However, being the Morrissey fan that I am, Maladjusted was a long overdue effort.
Re #5: Agreed!
Time out of Mind by Bob Dylan. It is my second after Bringin it all back Home. I like the first track, Lovesick, and the last one which escapes me at present, but is something like 17 minutes long and is cool. I hope to purchase more of Mr. Dylan's albums in 1998. I also would like to get BB King's Duelin in the not so distant future.
Spiritualized -- "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space" Lavishly produced, alternately soothing and shocking songs dealing directly or peripherally with drug addiction and the writer's ambiguous relationship with his chemical muse.. Sometimes dreamy, sometimes depressing, never boring. Highly recommended. Yo La Tengo -- "I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One" I first started listening to YLT about five years ago and they haven't produced a bad record during that time (though I didn't much like their very earliest stuff..) In fact, the stuff they've put out on the last couple albums has been really good -- until this one, or so I thought when I first heard it.. It turns out I was fooled by my own expectations -- this wasn't the album that I expected but now that it's had a chance to grow on me I quite like it. It's still flawed -- like most of their stuff it works more as a collection of songs than as a cohesive album and there are a couple of songs I might've left off (like the single, "Sugarcube" -- out of place on the album and not up to their recent standards.. I can forgive its inclusion, though, because had it not been released they'd probably never have made the very amusing video that went along with it..) ICHTHBA1 is a quirkier album than their last couple -- Yo La Tengo newbies might want to start with semi-recent releases "Painful" or "Elect-o-Pura" instead. Anyone looking for a sample-sized dose should check out their "Thin Blue Line Swinger" CD-single for the alternate recording of "Blue Line Swinger" Favorite band discovery of 1997: Stephen Merritt / the Magnetic Fields (aka the 6ths, the Future Bible Heroes, the Gothic Archies..) I can't honestly give their 1997 release (the Future Bible Heroes' "Memories of Love") any "best of the year awards" though it *is* a good album (I guess it's probably one of the 10 best 1997-released albums I bought this year but that's kind of cheating since I don't know that I bought all that many 1997 albums..) My real recommendations for their stuff would be for the Magnetic Fields' "Charm of the Highway Strip" (a non- country-sounding album about very country-music themes..) and to a lesser extent (enthusiastically but not fanatically recommended) the 2-album release "The Wayward Bus/Distant Plastic Trees"
I have to say that OK computer is the crown jewel of my CD collection. shortly behind that, I have to say that "Whatever and Ever, Amen" by Ben Folds Five is a damn good album. I bought it oddly enough on the day after christmas and ended up listening to it on my discman while walking around that day. I fell in love with that CD. One of the things that stands out about BFF is that they have no guitar: the band is a trio *despite the name* consisting of a pianist, drummer, and bass player.. the lyrics are rather fresh and meaningful,
"Surfacing" - Sarah McLachlan. Her voice and music gets better and better with each album.
I gave Garth Brooks "Sevens" to my wife for Christmas. We've both enjoyed it very much. In particular, the song (which I can't name) about "This is the song I sing when there's no one around" is both catchy and entertaining.
Re #8 - Yo La tengo, Painful, Nowhere Near. One of the best songs ever.
Sammy Hagar: Marching To Mars Sammy (like most people on Grex already know) is my favorite musician. MTM is a better album than any Van Halen or other Sammy Hagar albums. He was great at the 11 concerts I saw him at in 1997. Wish I'd seen more. For more info go to http://redrocker.com
Beck, "Odelay", which might not have been made in 1997, but that is the year I bought it. Many spins on the CD player for that one! There are others, to be sure, but none that really stand out.
*sigh* (lumen jests about having little money to spend on current albums, much less for outdated albums he wants, and notes that the people on this conference spend much more time talking about listening to music than making it..) (insert another complaint that music teachers be too busy to comment on education here..)
I second the Beck "Odelay" compliment. I love the track "New Pollution". Lumen - I play the piano/keyboard and sing as many hours a day as I listen to music.
I bought both Texas Flood and The Sky is Cryin' by Stevie Ray Vauhan. I just recently found out that Texas Flood was SRV's debut album and he is very good on it. The Sky is Cryin is the first one he made after he dropped his drug habit and he is every bit as good as he ever was. I am so bummed that he is dead. I also got Rumble by Link Wray as a christmas present and it's different, If you don't know him, he was playing in the late 50s and early 60s. I also beleive he influenced Pete Townshend of The Who. My favorite cut from this CD is Ace of Spades.
I keep thinking I should buy "Odelay" but every time I've convinced myself I wind up hearing "Where It's At" on the radio and talk myself out of it. As the song's radio airplay frequency dwindles it becomes likely that I'll eventually pick it up for "New Pollution" and "Devil's Haircut" but on my couple of listens to other people's copies it seemed like a pretty uneven album. Any standout tracks I've overlooked? I do like the Beck track on the "Life Less Ordinary" soundtrack, at least on the first couple of listens..
Oleay standouts (IMO): Novacaine, Ramshackle, a few others. Odelay is strange in that it is (to me) pretty good all the way thru. Not that many albums get that. I like "Where It's At" more these days, although a performance on some kind of music awards made me hate it for a while. Lumen: I play a lot of music too, but it doesn't count in this item.
"Music From a Glass Bead Game".
I just don't know. Too much stuff. Great Big Sea -- Play is the one most on my player this week, but that doesn't count as it's being my favorite of 1997.... Hhhhm. Will get back to this.
I only got a few cds last year.
Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields Barber-Adagio for strings
Ives-Symphony #3
Copland-Quiet City
Cowell-Hymn and Fuguing tune #10
Creston-A rumor
Hey, what do you know, an all American disk.
I also picked up a used Ambient - Imaginary Landscapes comp double cd.
Over two hours of a great assortment of 'background'
stuff.
I picked up Niel Young's _Re-ac-tor_. A classic! The song _T-Bone_ has such wonderful lines as, "...got mashed potatoes..........ain't got no T-Bone.." (er, that's Neil) I got Miles Davis' _Kind Of Blue_ around the beginning of the year, and have probably listened to it at least once a week every week since I got it. Absolutely spellbinding album, and by far my favorite music to jam along with on my alto recorder. I you were going to guess that my next selection was going to be an Elvis album, you'd be dead wrong (pun unintentional).
I love odelay, but not for the standout tracks (whose airplay turns me off more than anything). It's a splendid album, and every song is a good one.
re #16, 19: Oh, I didn't doubt it, but the conversation so very often is geared toward listening. re #16: So you play the keyboard instruments, Sarah? Do you include organ in that? (Thank God for lovely bass music in foot pedals-- it was the only instrument that rumbled before the age of electronic music :) ) I do hope you improvise, and play a little jazz..I find classical purists a bit stuffy :/ Good to hear you're a singer-- singers are very fun people :) *My* weakness these days is classical guitar :) although I love my guitar in general..even though I've only studied it a year compared to about 8 years classical piano training, 2 years trumpet, 1 year baritone horn, 6 years tuba (and the band here may yet drag me in to play that thing again (; ), 11 years accompanying as a pianist, 9 years in church choirs, and one quarter in a university choir.
i like Odelay too, creative that tiny Beck is. Got the EP of Ani DiFranco's, _More Joy Less Shame_. Has four remixes of her cool song "Joyful Girl" and two additional songs. I just love Ani, despite her shaven head and unshaven pits. Well, more like I just couldn't live with unshaven pits, but if she wants to, great.
Well, here goes...
Sarah McLauchlan - Surfacing.
It was pretty good, but I was a little dissappointed.
Paula Cole - This Fire
Wonderful followup to a wonderful first album. I'm sick of the two
songs off the radio, but the rest is just great. :)
Loreena McKennit - Book of Secrets
Yeah, all of her stuff sounds kind of alike, but it's still all
good. And for all of you who have heard that tainted version of Mummers
Dance on the radio, let me just state here and now that she has NEVER done
anything with a dance beat to it. Thankfully.
Metallica - Reload
Yes, Meg does listen to this stuff. :) Good album.
Dar Williams - End of Summer
WOO-HOO! :)
Richard Shindell - Blue Divide
No not new this year, but new to me and every other Dar Williams
fans that saw him in concert with her...GOOD stuff. :)
Lumen - I don't play the organ...just piano and keyboard.
Hey eeyore, still around? (hug) Hmm, letm e see... REM- Experiments in hi-fi (or was that a 96 album?) the Verve- Urban hymns (but mostly for the terriffic single track Bittersweet symphony, that kept on lingering in my mind until I simply HAD to Buy the G******mn record) Nick cave- the Boatman's call (another side of the mean ole man in black: here actually he is introspective, regarding his life at the age of forty; a complete musically different album from the former one Murder Ballads. I know this cave for more than twelve years now, and he neverfails to ammuse my musical mind.) But I concur that on a whole 97 wasn't such a splendid year when it comes to records.
My fave was Chumbawumba "Tubthumper" Not al of their songs are like "Tubthumper", it's boppity bop, feel good, get up and dance songs. I'll agree with Clees about The Verve, I had to go get the album after hearing Bittersweet Symphony. K Bye.
I bought George Winston's "Linus & Lucy", which features faithful renditions of the original jazz piano that was in the "Charlie Brown Christmas" soundtrack. "Cast Your fate to the Wind" and other titles, all by the same composer (whose name escapes me just now) are also on this CD.
That's New Adventures In Hi-Fi, and it was from last year. But if you got it this year, it belongs in here anyway (granted, I thought it was a somewhat weak album, but I don't dictate the opinions of others)
(31... the composer was [watch me misspell the name] Vince Guaraldi)
My favorite CD that I've bought this year.. hmm... "Play" by Domestic Problems (from Grand Rapids) "Five-Way Switch" by Fat Amy (from East Lansing) "Phones Calling" by Getaway Cruiser (from Ann Arbor)
I got Led Zepplin's _Physical Graffiti_ just before the year ended, but I think it's destined to be one of my favorites - don't know whether it'll stand up to time, but I think it will. Phish's _A Live One_. Harry Partch's _Plectra & Percussion Dances_ Tori Amos' _Crucify_ single.
RE#34 -- "Phones Calling"? Really? That's cool.
Y'all can add LeAnn Rimes "Blue" to my list. I love her singing and am still amazed how much she sounds like Patsy Cline. She also does a great job on "Cattle Call" which is a duet with Eddy Arnold.
The most recent albums that have impressed me were all from 1996. They would be: Groove Collective "We the People," They describe themselves as "Afro cubob Hip-Hop" I guess you could say they are acid jazz influenced by Miles Davis and Herby Hancock with killer Hip-Hop/Mambo influenced drums and congos. They are a must see live. They played at the Majestic in Detroit for 3 hours, and I danced the whole time. Squirrel Nut Zippers "Hot" This is pretty much straight ahead retro 20s jazz, but they play with a lot enthusiams and humor. Again another great live act. Utah Philips & Ani DiFranco "The Past Didn't Go Anywhere" This album combines Utah Philips hysterical storytelling with Ani DiFrancos studio treatments of Utahs voice and interesting, piano, bass, and beat backing. An unusual album with some really great poetic stories.
I forgot one: Will'o the whisp by Claw boys Claw. Which is a Dutch post-punk band from the eighties, but this album (from 1997) is more civilized than I could imagine. I like it. Apparently we both are growing old together at the same pace. Anyone curious for a dutch tape should email me. We look what we can arrange then.
re 36 - yes, the one with your name in the CD liner as Engineer :) Can't wait to hear Getaway Cruiser's new CD.
How could I have forgotten Squirrel Nut Zippers' _Hot_? I love SNZ to death. I have both their CDs and their EPs, _Roasted Right_ and _Sold Out_. I saw them live and haven't been the same since. Honestly I can't really express here how cool I think they are. Besides you just can't go wrong with a name like Squirrel Nut Zippers.
Amen.
I got the SNZ bug in '97 as well. The multimedia presentation that comes with "Hot" bowled me over. Unbelievable. I also got into a NY band called SOUL COUGHING. A hip-hop cartoon sample beat-poetry verbose wacky group that escapes definition. The songs are ultra-sharp stripped-down drum hits with an upright blues bass groove. Combine this with half sung / half spoken lyrics and keyboard samples from godzilla movies & cartoons and yr almost there. Also delighted in a band called RED HOUSE PAINTERS. Very melodramatic sing-songy stuff like that 80s band THE CHURCH. Gothic folk acoustic. One reviewer said: music which spreads itself over the dark livingroom of your mind.
I'll have to check them out (Red House Painters). I love Soul Coughing. I first got into them in 1995 when the song "Mr. Bitterness" came out.
I haven't heard much Soul Coughing, but I've liked what I have. They played at a local festival earlier this year and they're on a lot of movie soundtracks (the one which I have, on Batman & Robin, totally rocks).
it may be a little late to respond, but the best album's that I acquired
during 1997 were
#1---Supertones Strike Back, by the O.C. Supertones
#2---Upbeats and Beatdowns, by Five Iron Frenzy
#3---Hot, by Squirel Nut Zippers
and although I have not yet purchased the Soul Coughing CD, I have
heard it a few times, adn must agree that it is a great listening
experience....
Aside from that , I though that 97 was a year of boring, and repetitive music,
I was not much impressed with anything out there........hmmmmm
I hope 98 will be a better year for music!
Well, 1998 is here and I've already added a new CD to my collection that is destined to be one of my favorites for the year. It's by a band called "Nectar" out of Grand Rapids.. I can't really describe them, but there are clips of all the songs in Real Audio on a fan page I made for them: http://www.arborsites.com/Nectar/
I think I responded earlier to this item, but I forgot to mention discovering the album "Apartment Life", by Ivy.
I was very disappointed by Sarah McLachlan's "Surfacing" "Fumbling Towards Ecstacy" was much much better. Odelay is definitely the best of the year.. my goal in life is to marry Beck.. wouldnt it be cute.. Beck and Becca? hehehe
("cute" is one word for it...)
Heck, why settly for _marrying_ Beck - I want to _be_ Beck when _I_ grow up :)
I really like Big Hair's self titled cd. You all need to hear it. :)
Re:51 well, as long as you don't marry Becca I don't mind... :)
Becca can marry the other beck. There'll just have to be two of us.
That's too bad....
Gillian Welch, "Revival"
I can't remember when I got my copy of that. Certainly Gillian Welch is one of the strongest songwriters to come along in years. Her songs are already being picked up and sung by others, which is one of the best signs of songwriting talent for me.
You have several choices: