Popular '97

NME Albums of 1997:

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
21. Black Grape – Stupid Stupid Stupid
22. The Divine Comedy – A Short Album About Love
23. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – The Boatman’s Call
24. Pavement – Brighten In The Corners
25. Oasis – Be Here Now
26. Stereolab – Dots And Loops
27. Grandaddy – Under The Western Freeway
28. Roni Size & Reprazent – New Forms
29. Travis – Good Feeling
30. Mick Head Introducing The Strands – The Magical World Of The Strands
31. Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – Barafundle
32. Portishead – Portishead
33. Eels – Beautiful Freak
34. Squarepusher – Hard Normal Daddy
35. Jonathan Fire Eater – Tremble Under Boom Lights
36. Prolapse – The Italian Flag
37. Wilco – Being There
38. Missy ‘Misdemeanor’ Elliot – Supa Dupa Fly
39. Photek – Modus Operandi
40. David Holmes – Lets Get Killed
41. Echo And The Bunnymen – Evergreen
42. Finley Quaye – Maverick A Strike
43. Tindersticks – Curtains
44. Manson – Attack Of They Grey Lantern
45. Scarfo – Luxury Plane Crash
46. Foo Fighters – The Colour And The Shape
47. Howie B – Turn The Dark Off
48. Robert Wyatt – Shleep
49. Silver Sun – Silver Sun
50. The Wannadies – Bagsy Me

The Wire (by way of contrast):

1.Robert Wyatt – Shleep
2.Jim O’rourke – Bad Timing
3.Wabi Sabi – Wabi Sabi
4.Arto Lindsay – Mundo Civilizado
5.Mouse On Mars – Autoditacker
6.Tomasz Stanko Septet – Litania: Music Of Krzysztof Komeda
7.Gyorgy Ligeti – Ligeti Edition Vols. 1-6
8.Roni Size And Reprazent – New Forms
9.John Wall – Fractuur
10.Porter Ricks – Biokinetics
11.Henry Threadgill & Make A Move – Where’s Your Cup?
12.Autechre – Chiastic Slide
13.Gravediggaz – The Pick, The Sickle And The Shovel
14.Bjork -Homogenic
15.Farmers Manual – Fsck
16.Squarepusher – Hard Normal Daddy
17.Vinicius Cantuaria – Sol Na Cara
18.Toru Takemitsu – Film Music
19.Various Artists – Driftworks
20.Fushitsusha – A Death Never To Be Complete
21.Company Flow – Funcrusher Plus
22.Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – The Boatman’s Call
23.Spiritualized – Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
24.The Fall – Levitate
25.Fushitsusha – The Time Is Nigh
26.Tom Recchion – Chaotica
27.Stereolab – Dots And Loops
28.Iannis Xenakis – Kraanerg
29.Joe Maneri Quartet – In Full Cry
30.Ground Zero -Consume Red
31.Paul Schutze – Second Site
32.Evan Parker Electroacoustic Ensemble – Towards The Margins
33.General Magic – Frantz!
34.Porter Ricks- Porter Ricks
35.John Zorn – Duras: Duchamp
36.Yo La Tengo – I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One
37.Bisk – Strange Or Funny Ha Ha?
38.Portishead- Portishead
39.Kaffe Matthews – Cdann
40.George Crumb – Quest
41.Metheny/Bailey/Bendian/Wertico – The Sign Of 4
42.Guschwachs – Guschwachs
43.Jeff Mills – The Other Day
44.Maurizio – M
45.Giya Kancheli- Caris Mere
46.Patti Smith – Peace And Noise
47.Ornette Coleman & Joachim Kuhn – Colors
48.Buena Vista Social Club – Buena Vista Social Club
49.Arcana – Arc Of The Testimony
50.Hariprasad Chaurasia – Four Drums

Where Do You Go by No Mercy was great. They were a vaguely Latin looking, probably American boyband trio. I think the song was inspired by that “Where Do You Go To My Lovely” song but it sounds nothing like it. It has an unbelievably cheesy Spanish guitar lick in it… come on, you must remember!

Intrigued by the high placings on The Wire and NME lists for the second Gravediggaz album, which I remember as being disappointing after the excellent first one. Might see whether I actually have it on CD rather than just on white-label tape (my tape deck has finally died) and give it a listen.

There’s a whole bunch of stuff on those end-of-year lists that I like, probably more than I would expected at the time. But the good stuff is very disparate, not pointing to any movement you could get a grip on.

#9: I thought and still think that Vanishing Point is good – Mani provides something extra on bass and it rumbles along pretty well as a result. Low point as ever is Bobby’s vocals/lyrics. At least on Kowalski, he doesn’t raise himself above a whisper.

Radiohead seem, from comments on other threads, to be exactly the sort of band that commenters here don’t seem to like. I still play OKC from time to time though and have a lot of time for it.

Can’t quite believe Buena Vista Social Club is 17 years old – feels like I saw that in the cinema only a couple of years ago. I am obviously getting up in years.

Checking some of the other lists, H#1 also in the Top 50 from Q. WTF was everybody snorting in the critical community in 1997?

The Wire’s approach to hiphop was always a bit “beyond the valley of the backpack” — the review column was called “critical beats”: not sure if they ever quite defined what they meant by “uncritical beats”, so obviously i can’t PROVE that they meant “the good stuff that people like” 🙂

^^^affectionately meant!: i am v fond of many of the ppl at the wire and may actually be writing for them a bit more soon *writes 300,000 words on the teletubbies*

Wow, I wasn’t expecting to tick as many as 14 out of 24, and there were a few near-misses in there as well. Tori Amos, White Town, Blur, U2, No Doubt, Chem Bros, Olive, Hanson, Oasis, the Verve, Spice Girls x 2 (“Spice Up Your Life” and “Too Much”), Aqua, and “Perfect Day”. “Beetlebum” got my highest score, which is still fine by me.

Popular (Not Popular) has a lot I don’t remember, but I’d rate the first two.

#9: “(whispers) Primal Scream’s album”

It’s great! More listenable than Screamadelica for me. That, Xtrmntr and the Dixie-Narco EP constitute my essential Scream.

#10: “Radiohead seem, from comments on other threads, to be exactly the sort of band that commenters here don’t seem to like”

Some commenters. The NME’s top two albums of the year were mine too.

Australia’s number ones in 1997 were like selected highlights of the UK’s, thanks to some long stays at the top:

Savage Garden*, “To the Moon and Back”, 1 week
Silverchair*, “Freak”, 2 weeks
No Doubt, “Don’t Speak”, 8 weeks
Savage Garden*, “Truly Madly Deeply”, 8 weeks
Hanson, “MMMBop”, 9 weeks
Puff Daddy and Faith Evans featuring 112, “I’ll Be Missing You”, 5 weeks
Will Smith, “Men in Black”, 4 weeks
Elton John, “Something About the Way You Look Tonight”/”Candle in the Wind 1997”, 6 weeks
Aqua, “Barbie Girl”, 3 weeks
Chumbawamba, “Tubthumping”, 3 weeks
[Bunnied], 1 week and 6 weeks in 1998

*Australian artist

Only 11 compared with 24 here. That difference in turnover becomes even more noticeable over the next couple of years: 13 vs 29 in 1998, and 8 vs 36 in 1999.

Another feature of these lists, looking at them, is the high placing of a bunny a bit before they got to #1 (primarily due to a remix), which is cool I think, as I thought that they hit big due to that remix. Seems they were actually highly thought of beforehand too.

I doubt you got to it, Tom, since you can’t stand the album and it’s the last track, but Shoot Speed Kill Light off XTRMNTR might well be the best Primal Scream have ever been (minimal Bobby, guest guitar spot from New Order’s Barney, motorik goodness). Anyway, that is 3 years hence, by my count.

My interest in Primal Scream starts with XTRMNTR and finishes with Evil Heat and the only Radiohead I ever really listen to much now is Kid A / Amnesiac, not sure if I can be taken as an example of a popular commenter though (there – thankfully – isn’t anything like a standard set of accepted tastes on here and people are generally able to articulate their opinions well without attacking others)

Surprised at how much good stuff there is in those lists (Young Team / Dots & Loops / Come To Daddy / 3…6…9 / Portishead’s second / Shleep / Add N To X / Homogenic…) as I don’t think of 97 as a classic year generally.

Here’s the US Billboard Hot 100 list of number ones, with brief comment on each:

“Unbreak My Heart”, Toni Braxton
– carry over from 1996

“Wannabe”, Spice Girls
– already discussed

“Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down”, Puff Daddy feat. Mase
– barely remember it, typical Puffy piece

“Hypnotize”, Notorious BIG
– his first number one, but he wasn’t around to enjoy it

“Mmmbop”, Hanson
– already discussed

“I’ll Be Missing You”, Puff Daddy, etc.
– already discussed, more than the usual UK/US overlap this year…

“Mo Money Mo Problems”, Notorious BIG
– it was certainly true for him. Biggie’s the only person ever to have two posthumous #1’s on the Hot 100

“Honey”, Mariah Carey
– we couldn’t have a year in the 90’s without Mariah, could we? This is the one with the secret agent/swimming pool/boat chase video.

“4 Seasons of Loneliness”, Boyz II Men
– their last #1. Seemed to barely get noticed, as all eyes were on what was coming next…

“Candle in the Wind 97/Something About…”, Elton John
– never heard of it 😉

So that’s that. Interesting note: “Missing You” ended up only as the 3rd biggest hit of the year. Controversially slipping into #2 was Jewel’s double sided “You Were Meant For Me/Foolish Games”. The first song had peaked at #2 and was falling down the chart when the second song started gaining airplay causing the single to rise back up into the top 5. End result: two hits counting as one, and spending a then-record 65 weeks on the chart. Chart geeks like myself were quite annoyed by this.

Best UK #1 of the year: “Your Woman” – a 10 from me!

Best US #1 of the year: either “Wannabe” or “Mmmbop”

Best song of the year period: “Tubthumping” – too bad it didn’t hit #1!

So onto 1998, a year which would see only the second ever visit to the UK by yours truly, but not until near the end….

Imbruglia’s Torn should have been number one over there, but I’m biased. Zero 7’s Binns and Hardaker had a role in crafting that track as I learned recently, and I was surprised to find they didn’t have a UK number 1 during their Simple Things/Destiny cycle.

I’d have the Eternal over Torn any day. I don’t get the love – it’s a good, rather pretty pop single and I’d probably give it a 6 or 7, although it reminds me a lot of She’s A Star by James (which I’m not sure isn’t actually a better record), but it seems to have become a truth universally acknowledged that Torn was in fact the Best Single of 1997, certainly for the discerning hipster. Buh?

Consensus Pop Classics is a good title for something.

“Torn” is a classic example of a song I’d think was OK, except the fact that I never understood why everyone seemed to love it so much made me dislike it, even hate it for a while. And it was so overplayed – back in 1998, I used to wonder what would make a DJ say “you know, we haven’t heard ‘Torn’ for 20 minutes: I think I’ll play it again!”

That being said, there are Consensus Pop Classics I do like. In fact, I’m going to go on record right now with the prediction that the highest group-rated #1 of the period 1990-present will be a specific bunny from the spring of 2006. I guess we’ll see in a couple years…

Re: 23 I’m guessing Unique II *aren’t* Sheffield bleep pioneers Unique 3 minus a member.

John Peel’s 1997 Festive 31*

1. C*******p – B****** O* A*** (bunny)
2. Mogwai – New Paths To Helicon
3. Helen Love – Does Your Heart Go Boom?
4. Period Pains – Spice Girls (Who Do You Think You Are?)
5. Belle & Sebastian – Lazy Line Painted Jane
6. Novac – Rapunzel
7. The Fall – 4 1/2 Inch
8. Daft Punk – Rollin’ & Scratchin’
9. Clinic – IPC Sub-editors Dictate Our Youth
10. David Holmes – Don’t Die Yet (Arab Strap Mix)
11. Blur – Song 2
12. Belle & Sebastian – Dog On Wheels
13. Hydroplane – Cross The Atlantic
14. Stereolab & Nurse With Wound – Simple Headphone Mind
15. Betty Davies & The Balconettes – Shergar
16. Arab Strap – Hey! Fever
17. The Fall – I’m A Mummy
18. Spiritualized – Ladies & Gentlemen You Are Floating In Space
19. AC Acoustics – I Messiah Am Jailer
20. Stereolab – Fluorescences
21. Hitchers – Strachan
22. bis – Sweetshop Avenger
23. Synchro Goldfish – Dandelion Milk Summer
24. Prolapse – Autocade
25. Dream City Film Club – If I Die I Die
26. Stereolab – Mismodular
27. The Delgados- Pull The Wires From The Wall
28. Propellerheads – Velvet Pants
29. Highbirds – Seventeen
30. Prolapse – Slash/Oblique
31. Angelica – Teenage Girl Crush

* I have no idea exactly why the full 50 wasn’t available on the BBC’s Peel site. Bad BBC. Looking at the music on display here, chimes pretty well with the other EOY polls. As has been mentioned before, the significance of the F50 was in decline, compared to say, The Wire. Only die-hard Peelites would have said this list was where it’s at.

The full (lack of a) story is here – http://peel.wikia.com/wiki/1997_Festive_Fifty
Incidentally I think this is one of the strongest festive fifty lists – though of course it’s out of step with what was in the charts or the critic lists, that doesn’t reflect badly on it at all.

Re 31: Maybe not the best place to mention it, but the art of the fade-out was rapidly becoming a lost art in the late 90s. Introducing a new element on the fade hadn’t been common since the 60s but still persisted (Pet Shop Boys knew how to deploy a good fade); this is a good indicator of how crafted a record Torn was, like the song or not.

A bunnied Swedish producer seemed (to me) to really kill off the art of the fade – but maybe there’s an earlier clunky Popular example I can’t think of.

A good example of a clunky fade souring a decent song is coming up very soon indeed. (exit pursued by bunny)

The fade on ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’ is pretty dire too, as if they didn’t really know how to end it. Brooker launches into a new chorus, but barely makes it to the end of the first line.

I voted for ten here, and as ever there were a few near-misses. I appear to be one of only four who liked the Gary Barlow record. And it’s amusing to see the Tubbies outscoring Elt by eight to one. The thing is, I really like ‘Something About …’ – I reckon it’s a stronger song than his two other solo number ones (one of which is a bunny) – if it hadn’t played second fiddle to CITW97 I’d have voted for that too.

I should have said ‘an aspect of Radiohead fandom’ – I’m not suggesting that’s the only reason people are listening to them but I think it does go some way to explain the protectiveness a lot of fans seem to display toward the band’s critical reputation.

#45 – I’d say those are the best albums Spiritualized, Stereolab and Portishead ever made, and I don’t think that’s a controversial opinion at all.

On OK Computer – in the early-to-mid 90s I listened to a lot of 70s progressive rock: Oldfield, King Crimson etc. (We had limited media. My school never got Nirvana as in we barely heard of it. The other kids prefered Guns N Roses, who to this day I detest from over–exposure.)

I’ve always heard OK Computer as doing to prog rock as Amnesiac did to the Warp record back catalogue – selectively mining these sources and intricately piecing together new music. Here was a Fripp guitar, there a certain proggy organ sound or whatever. It’s been too long since I’ve heard it to remember all the sources I could identify.

This isn’t to knock the album – I like it – but at the time I never understood the esteem in which it was held. That said I also kept forgetting I was the only kid I knew who heard a lot of progressive rock.

Re 48 – part of what Radiohead were doing was a very 90s thing: pilfering sounds from the past and recontextualising them for an indie-rock audience: Most 90s indie fans would probably find 70s prog too ponderous and nonlinear but dug some of the ideas when slotted into a more guitar and shortish song centred format.