*** 80's & 90's Record Draft Thread ***

[ManCalledFoot]

21.06 Spilt Milk - Jellyfish (1993)



I still don't have a non-NYC American group on my list, so what do I do to rectify that? Pick the California band that meticulously recreates the 70s British sound of Queen, 10cc and Supertramp (with some Beach Boys thrown in).

Another lush oasis in the bitter desert of early-90s grunge, this one just missed being a hit, and 20 years later it's a bona fide cult classic. They broke up right after its release, but not before I saw them open up for Tears For Fears at Hialeah Racetrack in Miami. I was probably the only one there to see them; certainly the only one who knew each song and played air-guitar along with them. It was the lame 1993 Tears For Fears version anyway, the one without Curt Smith.

[DMT]

Yet another pick from those barren late 90s...I had two Roots albums on my list and kept waiting for someone to pick one so i could take the other...and waiting....looks like I'll be the only picking them.

21.07 The Roots - Things Fall Apart (1999)

[Stephen]

21.10 Open Up and Say Ahhhhhhhhhhh! - Poison (1988)

[senorsheep]

20.09 - Dust - The Screaming Trees

The knife fight with Erik over Sweet Oblivion never materialized because, over time, I've actually grown to prefer Dust. The Trees had an unusual career arc - they started off as a weird little kinda-punk kinda-indie psychedelic garage band, and just got better and better with every album as they melded those elements with more traditional sounding rock music. It all came together on Sweet Oblivion, and Dust builds on that record by featuring keyboards for additional texture. Mark Lanegan turns in his best lead vocals on this record, too - much more like his dark, folky-bluesy vocal style on his 2000's solo records. Great melodies, great hooks - it's criminal that Lanegan and The Screaming Trees don't get more recognition.

This album has it all - classic Trees psychedelica on the opener Halo Of Ashes:



The straight ahead classic rock of All I Know (complete with I Am The Walrus keyboard intro!):



The tortured, blues-drenched Look At You:



Sworn And Broken is another soulful Lanegan classic:

[senorsheep]

Whoop! Whoop! Warning! Warning! Wussy Brit rock alert! Wussy Brit rock alert!

21.08 - Suede - Suede (1993)

It seems unlikely that I would love this album so much. Every music critic on the planet immediately compares it to The Smiths, whom I loathe with every fiber of my musical being. It features ridiculously theatrical effeminate British vocals, and wallows obsessively in every mopey shoe-gazing gay martyr cliché from alienation to obsessive sexuality to suicide, typically elements that make me cringe coming from any other UK band. The easy answer is... because this record freaking rocks.

Brett Anderson's angsty vocals take almost every song to the brink of self-pity, but just when they're about to topple into the abyss of mock-worthy melancholy, Bernard Butler's innovative guitar playing pulls them back from edge. Butler is an incredibly versatile guitar player - he can just as easily lay out subtle atmospheric landscapes for Anderson's dramas, or take a song over completely with his glam-style licks and clever production. This dynamic makes for one fascinating roller coaster ride of a record. Unfortunately, it also caused them to bicker jealously and hate each other's guts and part ways during the recording of the follow-up album. Most critics have concluded that the second record is better, but the raw youthful exuberance on their debut keeps me coming back.

Metal Mickey was a minor hit on American alternative rock radio:



The Drowners is my favorite track. I'm not sure why it wasn't a bigger song in the U.S. - maybe we weren't ready for songs about gay hookups in 1993:



Here are the two excellent album-opening tracks, in case eldiablo505 isn't sufficiently freaked the motherfuck right out yet -

So Young:



Animal Nitrate:

[swampdragon]

repick

21.12 - Lyle Lovett - Joshua Judges Ruth - 1992

Nice slow groove to this album

[Erik]

21.09 A Brilliant Mistake -- Tsunami (1997).

Tsunami was a '90s indie band led by Jenny Toomey and Kristin Thomson that combined textured guitars, intricate rhythms, playful lyrics and memorable hooks. They were indie in every sense of the word, putting out records on Toomey and Thomson's DC-based label, Simple Machines. Their debut, Deep End (1993) was punky and poppy without being punk-pop. Their second album, The Heart's Tremolo (1994) was more layered and intricate but offered the same general approach. There was a period of inactivity after that, with World Tour (and Other Destinations), a 1995 compilation of non-album tracks, including some fantastic singles, serving as a stopgap.

They re-emerged in 1997 with a different sound and a different outlook, a considerably bleaker one. After a series of financial and distribution setbacks, Toomey and Thomson made the decision to fold Simple Machines. And then they wrote a bunch of songs about it. Seething with resentment at the disrespect they had received from the industry, and choked up emotionally over having to abandon their life's work, Toomey and Thomson poured all they had into the songs that make up A Brilliant Mistake. The result is to the professional world what Exile in Guyville is to the personal world. The songs are very heavy emotionally but don't drag the music down. In fact, some songs display a lighter, airier touch than their previous work, with horns and cellos sweetening the sound. Toomey, the primary lead singer, turned in the best vocal performances of her career, really making you feel her pain and yearning on tracks like "The Match," "DMFH" and "PBS."

Needless to say, the band broke up shortly after a brief tour following this record's release. Anything further would have been redundant.

There isn't a single file with the whole album on Youtube, but there is a playlist with all the songs in sequence. This one is my favorite:

[Controller Jacobs]

21.13 Run DMC - Tougher then Leather

[johnnya24]

Lucky skipped at 20.15 & 21.02

Next 3 picks:

Pogues up for 21.14
Fresno Bob
Johnny

[Pogues]

21.14 Broken, Nine Inch Nails, 1992


After Pretty Hate Machine, which was a favorite in my circle, I was itching for the new NIN album. I love Wish, the second single, but overall I wasn't really in love with the album. Anyone DJing in college and remember the promotional copy your station received, and the 25 or so tracks of nothingness before Pinion started? Threw us for a fit at first.

But as time has gone by, I have really started to love this short album. Hell, it has two Grammy awards for Best Metal Performance, Wish and Happiness in Slavery. The hidden tracks, Physical and Suck are great. And Pinion might not win the award for most disturbing video (that Tool video that ElDiablo posted way back when is still giving me shivers) but it would be in the running.

I had this marked as a "probably will be taken". I guess I had to take it to make it happen.



Why not...remake of the Adam Ant song:

[Fresno Bob]

21.15: Depeche Mode, Violator, 1990

I'll add stuff later

[johnnya24]

Did not have this on my original lists ... I was convinced it was a 2000/1 release. I recall listening to it a lot on my first trip to Greece, which was in 2001.

The return of the prodigal son. Frusciante's virtuosity is all over this record.

21.16 Californication - Red Hot Chili Peppers (1999)

[johnnya24]

Almost reaction-picked Dirt in the 7th after Sheep picked Jar of Flies. Decided to gamble and wait a few rounds. Figured no-one was looking at it, so gambled a few more rounds, then a few more. Enough's enough.

For me the quintessential grunge-period record. My ex had a huge crush on Layne Staley.

22.01 Dirt - Alice In Chains (1992)

[Fresno Bob]

22.02 Nine Inch Nails, The Downward Spiral, 1994

[Pogues]

22.03 Enema of the State, Blink 182, 1999


If anyone else was even considering this, I'd be stunned. Their first album was childish, but enjoyable. This one, I just have never gotten sick of it... in fact I'll call this one of the best Fake Punk albums of all time. That's my terminology for Pop Punk.. I'll add videos later. I just wanted to keep those late night roll going.

From Wikipedia: "Although the band were criticized as synthesized, manufactured pop only remotely resembling punk and pigeonholed as a joke act due to the puerile slant of its singles and associating music videos, Enema of the State was an enormous commercial success." That's just fantastic! This was the first album with Travis Barker as the drummer, and it shows, being a much higher quality that the previous album.

Their biggest hit:


A favorite of mine: