838. Radiohead - OK Computer (1997)

Track Listing

1. Airbag
2. Paranoid Android
3. Subterranean Homesick Alien
4. Exit Music (For A Film)
5. Let Down
6. Karma Police
7. Fitter Happier
8. Electioneering
9. Climbing Up The Walls
10. No Surprises
11. Lucky
12. The Tourist

Review

It's OK Computer, what the fuck do you think? Perfectly played, written, produced, probably the best album of the 90s.


Track Highlights

1. Paranoid Android
2. Karma Police
3. No Surprises
4. Airbag

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

OK Computer first appeared in a "best of all time" list three months after its release, placing 16 in a chart based on submissions by customers of Virgin Megastores. This chart heavily favoured recent releases, which suggested that OK Computer's popularity was a passing fad. However, OK Computer has since appeared frequently in professional lists of greatest albums. In early 1998, OK Computer topped a Q reader's poll of the greatest albums of all time, and in 2001 Q placed it at number one in a list of the top 50 pop albums of the last 15 years. A number of publications, including NME, Melody Maker, Spin, Alternative Press, Pitchfork Media, and Time placed OK Computer prominently in lists of best albums of the 1990s or of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 162 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Additionally, retrospective reviews from The A.V. Club and Slant Magazine have received the album favourably; likewise, Rolling Stone gave the album five stars in the 2004 Rolling Stone Album Guide, with critic Rob Sheffield saying "Radiohead was claiming the high ground abandoned by Nirvana, Pearl Jam, U2, R.E.M., everybody; and fans around the world loved them for trying too hard at a time when nobody else was even bothering."

Paranoid Android:

837. Blur - Blur (1997)

Track Listing

1. Beetlebum
2. Song 2
3. Country Sad Ballad Man
4. MOR
5. On Your Own
6. Theme From Retro
7. You're So Great
8. Death Of A Party
9. Chinese Bombs
10. I'm Just A Killer For Your Love
11. Look Inside America
12. Strange News From Another Star
13. Movin' On
14. Essex Dogs

Review

Blur move away from Brtipop in what is a really great album. They start it off by putting two tracks clearly made for single greatness, Beetlebum and Song 2, after that they explore all kinds of progressive rock music, with psychedelia looming large through it, but with elements of country and every other thing you can think of in it.

The songs from number 3 onward are not as accessible as the first two, but don't let that put you off, those are the tracks that most reward repeated listenings in order to tease out all their great complexities.

It is at this point that the Blur/Oasis competition stop making any sense, Oasis are finished by now, re-hashing the same formula, and Blur completely reinvent themselves with one of the best albums they ever made. Blur and Damon Albarn particularly would continue with widely successful reinventions up until today. Hats off.

Track Highlights

1. Song 2
2. Beetlebum
3. Strange News From Another Star
4. MOR

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The album's style was resultant of Blur's dropping their previous Britpop mantle in favour of lo-fi and alternative rock recordings, reportedly at Graham Coxon's urging. As a result, Blur was a hit primarily because it proved that Blur could evolve beyond their Britpop roots, in contrast to other formerly Britpop bands such as Oasis, who critically disappointed with their 1997 release Be Here Now . The album's move from Britpop was emphasised by this being the first Blur album not to use Stylorouge cover-art and also not to have lyrics and chords printed in the liner notes, instead having a composite photo of the band in the studio spread out over three panels. The album featured the first song in which Graham Coxon not only wrote the lyrics, but also provided lead vocals, for the song "You're So Great". He would later do the same for Coffee & TV for Blur's next album.

Song 2:

836. Belle And Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister (1996)

Track Listing

1. Stars Of Track And Field
2. Seeing Other People
3. Me And The Major
4. Like Dylan In The Movies
5. Fox In The Snow
6. Get Me Away From Here I'm Dying
7. If You're Feeling Sinister
8. Mayfly
9. Boy Done Wrong Again
10. Judy And The Dream Of Horses


Review

I had never really gotten what all of those obsessed Belle And Sebastian fans were all about... I get it now. After having two amazing albums by them in a row here I have developed a new appreciation for them.

Each single track here is great, overall it might be infinitesimally inferior to Tigermilk, where they were more experimental. There is a sense here of Belle And Sebastian focusing on their eventual sound.

This sounds therefore like a distillation of Tigermilk, as such it is a more consistent album, it loses something however by not being as innovative as their first outing. However, for all intents in purposes, this is really the first Belle and Sebastian album, as Tigermilk only reached 1000 people on its limited release. As such this was the album which had true impact. And it is pretty damn near perfect, the lyrics, the music, the delivery...

Track Highlights

1. Seeing Other People
2. Mayfly
3. If You're Feeling Sinister
4. Stars of Track and Field

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

If You're Feeling Sinister is often considered to be Belle & Sebastian's career high point. Band leader Stuart Murdoch has stated in interviews that this is probably his best collection of songs, although they are not very well recorded. In 2005, Belle & Sebastian released a live version of the album entitled If You're Feeling Sinister: Live at the Barbican on the iTunes Music Store. Its purpose was to offer fans a better recorded version of If You're Feeling Sinister.


If You're Feeling Sinister:

835. Ash - 1977 (1996)

Track Listing

1. Lose Control
2. Goldfinger
3. Girl From Mars
4. I'd Give You Anything
5. Gone The Dream
6. Kung Fu
7. Oh Yeah
8. Let It Flow
9. Innocent Smile
10. Angel Interceptor
11. Lost In You
12. Darkside Lightside

Review

I have very mixed feelings about this album. It starts out great, with a Tie-Fighter sample, geek that I am, to the point of knowing that Tie means Twin Ion Engine, it pulled my heart-strings right there. After this it kicks in to some pretty great guitars, with a fat sound that I really like.

The downside came after this, I just really don't like the singer's voice. It sounds too bratty here, something that brings to mind teen-rock bands which annoy the crap out of me.

Therefore I like the music but dislike the voice, making this an album which in the end I will not want to listen to again that much. The slower the track the more noticeable the voice is, so I quite liked the heavier stuff. But meh.

Track Highlights

1. Lose Control
2. Let It Flow
3. Goldfinger
4. Darkside Lightside

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The name is a reference to year of three events which shaped the band - the births of two members of the band, the year Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was released, and the year the first punk albums were released, though it has been suspected that the Star Wars reference is the most important; the album opens with the sound of a TIE Fighter, and ends with the track "Darkside Lightside", whose title is a Star Wars reference, and which also ends with a choral version of the Star Wars main theme. The band have also covered "Cantina Band", on the "Girl From Mars" b-side.

Lose Control:

834. Fugees - The Score (1996)

Track Listing

1. Red Intro
2. How Many Mics
3. Ready Or Not
4. Zealots
5. The Beast
6. FU-GEE-LA
7. Family Business
8. Killing Me Softly With His Song
9. The Score
10. The Mask
11. Cowboys
12. No Woman, No Cry
13. Manifest/Outro
14. Fu-Gee-La (Refugee Camp Remix)
15. Fu-Gee-La (Sly & Robbie Mix)
16. Mista Mista
17. Fu-Gee-La (Refugee Camp Global Mix)

Review

By 1996 the mainstream was getting tired of gangsta rap and needed an acceptable face of rap, defending principles acceptable to all, with accessible music, songs that sounded like singles, not too much cursing... So there appear the Fugees.

These characteristics of the Fugees are both what make them original and interesting but also what make them a bit tiring. You can't help but feel a kind of commercial compromise going on here. Some tracks feel like what they wanted to do, while others feel like what they needed to do to sell albums.

On this last category most singles fall, although they clearly loved Fu-Gee-La to the point where there are 4 versions of the song in the album, a bit of an overkill. Ready Or Not grates with the Enya sample, Killing Me Softly is annoying, No Woman No Cry is worse than the original. On the good side Lauryn Hill is one of the best female rappers ever and you can really tell, Wyclef brings a good mix of creole elements into the music, but it really could have been much better.

Track Highlights

1. Mista Mista
2. Fu-Gee-La
3. How Many Mics
4. The Mask

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:


In 1998, the album was named one of the 100 best rap albums by The Source. In 2003, the album was ranked number 477 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The album was certified 6X Platinum on October 3, 1997. To date, it has sold over 18 million copies worldwide.

Fu-Gee-La: