The 90's Music Thread • Page 2

I've gone in ways with them for the past decade. I liked Let Love In and Magnetic for what they were. I thought Something for the Rest of Us and Boxes were both pretty bad, especially the latter. The started working with outside co-writers for the first time on Boxes, and it kind of just made them sound like everybody else.

 

I've been working on a personal project to do in the background at work for the last... 3? 43? years, where I am going backwards year by year and creating a 20-song mix from that year, then also picking my top 20 albums from the year. I've made it back to 1994 so far, and it's definitely getting harder and harder for years that I wasn't really quite old enough to be living the years musically. Maybe I'll post some of my tracklists in here at some point, the mixes are a cross section of personal picks, great memories with certain songs at the time, and then some that I discovered later in life

 

Wow, that sounds like a lot of work, but a great concept! I'd be really interested in seeing some of that! There's probably a ton of stuff I've forgotten about.

 

Yeah, definitely post that if you're feeling like it!

 

I'll post them one at a time, just so I don't clog up or annoy the thread. Feel free to throw in your opinions on my album ranking and song choices . I also spend a long time making sure my mixes flow well, so if you ever want to listen through this is certainly the suggested order as well. ALSO special note, I try to use the year the song or album was first released, so even if a song got popular a year later, I keep it in the release year. It's hard sometimes to justfy, but it's the rule I made for myself

1999 mix

1. Len - Steal My Sunshine
2. Santana ft. Rob Thomas - Smooth
3. Beck - Sexx Laws
4. The Hippos - Wasting My Time
5. Destiny's Child - Say My Name
6. Ben Harper - Steal My Kisses
7. Tal Bachman - She's So High
8. Robbie Williams - Milennium
9. Incubus - I Miss You
10. Blessed Union of Souls - Hey Leonardo (She Likes Me For Me)
11. The Get Up Kids - Out of Reach
12. Lemon Jelly - The Staunton Lick
13. Christina Aguleria - Come On Over
14. Sugar Ray - Someday
15. Jimmie's Chicken Shack - Do Right
16. Collective Soul - No More, No Less
17. Moby - Porcelain
18. Guster - Happier
19. Stroke 9 - Little Back Backpack
20. Third Eye Blind - Slow Motion

1999 Favorite Albums

1. Third Eye Blind - Blue
2. Blink-182 - Enema of the State
3. Lit - A Place In the Sun
4. Incubus - Make Yourself
5. Jimmie's Chicken Shack - Bring Your Own Stereo
6. Guster - Lost And Gone Forever
7. Savage Garden - Affirmation
8. The Get Up Kids - Something To Write Home About
9. Jimmy Eat World - Clarity
10. Santana - Supernatural
11. Collective Soul - Dosage
12. The Hippos - Heads Are Gonna Roll
13. Sigur Rós - Ágætis byrjun
14. Stroke 9 - Nasty Little Thoughts
15. Blur - 13
16. Beck - Midnight Vultures
17. Moby - Play
18. Saves The Day - Through Being Cool
19. Fiona Apple - When The Pawn...
20. The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I

 

Oh super cool to see the Dismemberment Plan, an unexpected 20th. I like the lists, I'll probably listen to the playlist on Spotify, at least the ones I'm unfamiliar with

 

Third Eye Blind and there isn't even a close second.

 

That one was easy for me, Blue is an all time favorite of ANY year, so that's unquestionably my pick.

 

Dismemberment Plan are great, I actually listened to their self-titled for the first time recently as I was going back (1995?) and really enjoyed that one too! Half of the fun of me making these lists is that I am also discovering a ton of new bands, or older music from bands I already like

 

I've tried multiple times to get into Blue, and I like maybe 1/3 of it. Self Titled and Out of The Vein/Ursa Major are my favorites.

There's just something about Jenkin's lyrics. While I enjoy the metaphorical stuff, sometimes the straight forwardness is welcomed, and fits. Plus, you know Jenkins is writing from his own experiences. Shit, the Self Titled came out when he was in his 30's.

 

I totally get that, and I really love all their albums honestly, but when it comes to the music itself, I really think Blue blew (heh) the others out of the water with sheer diversity and goes a ton of super unique places. Shit, "Red Summer Sun" itself is enough to get me amped on the band, that song fires on so many cylinders and personally I love the resulting track

 

I'm a big fan of lyrics, almost more so than anything else, something about Blue just doesn't grab me. Though I'd argue that Never Let You Go is one of their best singles, and Deep Inside of You might just be one of their best songs.

Then again, nothing, NOTHING beats the last 4 songs of the Self Titled.

Also, the fact that Out of The Vein was mainly based on the relationship with Charlize Theron is neat.

EDIT: Blinded, from Out of The Vein is probably the best example of a positive song about an ex-girlfriend I have ever heard.

 

I was really (pleasantly) surprised to see Moby's Play make this list. I feel like most people (myself included) often forget about this album. But it produced some HUGE singles and kind of made electronic music accessible to a lot of people who otherwise wouldn't have ever given Moby a listen. I really don't care for any electronic music whatsoever, but for some reason this album just worked. Maybe it was all the weird gospel samples?

 

It's kinda funny, I remember that I bought that CD when I was younger but didn't really get into it. Years later, I decided to re-visit the album and now I'm kinda blown away at how before it's time it was. I've listened to more of his albums since then, and there's some more great stuff in there, but Play is really something special

 

I think the only other ones I really paid attention to were 18 and Hotel. To your point, each of those had some cool stuff on them, but none felt as cohesive or compelling as what he did on Play. The Play B-sides disc didn't do much for me, but Flower is awesome and should have been included on the album proper.

 

I'll have to go back and check out those B-sides, especially Flower now. Have you ever listened to Everything Is Wrong? It's extremely weird, kinda unbalanced, and really brash at points... but I really, really like it. Worth a listen if you haven't before

 

I haven't, but I'll check it out!

 

I also totally missed that Beck's Midnite Vultures was on that list! This next statement probably belongs in the "Unpopular Music Opinions" thread, but I really think that Midnite Vultures was the last great Beck album. The production and songwriting was just so over the top and was just so much fun. Deborah is one of his best!

 

Finger Eleven was another good band in the 90's, and was my introduction to the "alternative" genre, Incubus and 311 both came to me around the same time when I was 13.

Are there any fans of Finger Eleven's Tip?

 

I don't know much about them. I don't think they were on my radar until that One Thing song, which was one of those inescapable songs that drove me nuts. But I bet their earlier stuff was way better!

 

Different, yes, better is subjective. Their album Tip is still one of my all-time favorites.

 

I definitely go back and forth on Beck albums, more than a lot of other artists, but I love that one. I honestly hate Sea Change though, I really just can't stand that album. Odelay is the other one that I really like. Haven't gone past Sea Change, it kinda stopped my exploration

 

I'm not a big pandora user, but if you ever want to be whisked away into 90s nostalgia, I highly recommend typing in "how bizarre" by OMC

 

Odelay and Midnite Vultures are the only two I listen to for the most part. He has the trio of slower, acoustic-y albums which I never really got into (Mutations / Sea Change / Morning Phase). They all just felt kind of the same slow tunes over and over. Guero and The Information were supposed to be a return to his usual style, but I recall only liking a handful of tracks between those two.

Much like the Flaming Lips, I believe that Beck is really talented and made some landmark, genre defining music. But, I don't think he's been able to maintain it to the level of the hype that continues to surround him.

 

I think overall I am more of a Flaming Lips fan than Beck, but I do agree that they are another band that kinda goes back and forth in quality, but really hit there peak at a very specific time