Well. as the age gap (a slight but significant 2 years) has become less relevant, there hasn't been a year where I haven't seriously liked at least one of your short(ish) listed albums, and about half of the AoYs would feature in my shortlist too - most of the records you mention that I wouldn't consider, I haven't heard, which means each video is giving me a little basket of musical gifts :)
Cheers. Hope at least one of these lands with you. My tastes were getting a little more specific and esoteric around about this time, so not guaranteed! D
Earlier in the series I mentioned naming my daughter (partly) after Harriet Wheeler, and the Sundays third and final album was released the year she was born. Some standout tracks but the raw unpolished magnificence of their first is still my favourite. Honourable mentions for 1997: Nimrod - my late introduction to Green Day Attack of the grey lantern - Mansun peaked too soon. My album of 1997 might be predictable but the energy and spirit lifting live on nearly 3 decades later. The Colour and the Shape - Foo Fighters.
We had very different 1997s. For me, it was when I mostly stopped listening to new music, retreating further into my 70s punk obsession. It was also a personally dark year, the details of which I will save for my analyst (isn't that what they're paid for?), but probably most devastating was the breakup of my band which I'd pinned my whole existence on, and a move back home with tail tucked firmly in place. But, there was one album that I loved, and still listen to today, which was not on your list.... The Mollusk by Ween. I saw them early in the year, possibly at their last show as two guys with a DAT machine since they weren't on tour and just did a one off in a college cafeteria, and then THIS came out shortly afterwards. I never even knew that a Peter Gabriel impression was possible unti I heard "Buckingham Green". And, apologies for the shameless self promotion but it seems apt... That broken up band reunited a few years ago, and we're currently making a new album. The last single we released to drum up interest was called.... "Half A Lifetime". Here's to the next half being as awesome as the first!
For me it’s Young Team by Mogwai. They have since made better albums and there are others from 97 I like more now. But that album and seeing them play at NAC on the tour blew my mind at the time.
Pretty sure I was at that one meself...definitely the '98 one with Ariel M supporting, but just checked '97 and Navigator supported, which is ringing serious bells! Cheers, D
Hmm they did play twice. 90% sure I went the 1st one with Navigator as I recall it being before the albums release, but I do remember it being sold out as my friend Dan could not get in, so perhaps it was the Feb 98. Either way it’s one of the top gigs. My 2024 pick for 97 would be Perfect From Now On by Built to Spill. Totally passed me by at the time but recently got into them and that’s a cracker.
Great stuff as always. Get Up Kids ‘Four Minute Mile’ record was put on over and over again by me this year. That Aerial M record was also popular round my house.
I had it 100% nailed on that Yo La Tengo would have been your pick for 1997! I do know what you mean about Homework though. It definitely was a big "memories" record for me too. A soundtrack to some very good times.
1997 was to me a really good (vintage) year with many great releases from bands/artists like: American Analog Set Three Mile Pilot Branch Manager Pavement Edith Frost Bailter Space Folk Implosion Silkworm Elevator to Hell Elliott Smith Polvo Calexico Ween Paul Newman Shipping News Marmoset Lungfish Kepone Garageland Stereolab Helium I think Elliott Smith’s Either/Or was my favorite album of that year🌟
I have had the opinion for a long time that Lonesome Crowded West by Modest Mouse is the best album of the 90's, so that has to be pick for 97. I still listen to it on a regular basis. And Modest Mouse has become the band that the whole family enjoys.
Gosh! I'm one of those that likes to guess the album from the image and I didn't call it. I had it too! Nice album. Discovery was the one that shocked me the most. I don't think Bangalter matched the spin-off Stardust single, though - music sounds better with you. Loved quite a few albums from this year. Ladies and Gentlemen is the record that I return to the most. Damn, though, New Forms was amazing. Homogenic had THAT video too.
OK Computer for me without a doubt. That CD didn't leave my car player for like 6 months. I was even listening to it on the way to the church to get married! Maybe not the best going to get married choice, but almost 27 years later we are still married so it must have worked!
Ha! Reminds of a scene from the UK comedy series (from around about that time) "The Royle Family", where two of the characters get their newborn baby off to sleep by singing the xylophone motif from "No Surprises" as a lullaby. The saddest music can be repurposed into anything given the right setting. Cheers Mike! D (BTW...21 years and still going strong here...Shared musical tastes can be a powerful bonding agent!)
Songs from Northern Britain is definitely Teenage Fanclub's best. Their B sides from this period are fantastic too. I love the Trans Am album too. My other favourites from 97 are Blur's self titled album, Radiator by Super Furry Animals, Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space by Spiritualized, Around the Fur by Deftones, and The Colour and the Shape by Foo Fighters. Two albums share the number one spot, In It for the Money by Supergrass and Bagsy Me by The Wannadies. I listen to them both regularly, they still sound fantastic.
my favorite record from 97 is an EP. Come to Daddy - Aphex Twin. All your choices are great, I also propose The Lonesome Crowded West - Modest Mouse, Mogwai Young Team and Portishead - Portishead.
Portishead, yes, a good call! Think it may be the one I reach for more, ahead of "Dummy" nowadays. Should also admit to not being terribly enamoured of "Young Team" somewhere along the line. Mogwai are one of those bands that on paper, I should love, but who, with only a few exceptions, leave me a bit cold. YT was one of those...I think I returned it to HMV, made an excuse about it being a gift for someone who already had it, and swapped it for the Aerial M instead. Cheers, D
Another interesting year. Definately the end of Britpop...I put the end around August 97 😆 It was a new era of U.K. mega albums Radiohead, Verve etc That’s interesting. I was slightly underwhelmed with the TFC album...I don’t know why because it’s a collection of amazing pop tunes...I think Grand Prix was such a hugely personal album for me anything else was going to pale in comparison. Yeah The Daft Punk album was interesting. I now just listening dance & had been aware of ‘Da Funk’ since 96.The buzz was huge My view is they are a singles band. TBH it’s a pretty underground record. Revolution 909 is pretty brutal. Great pick, must dig it out again.
That was a great holiday, and the seventeen years it took to drive to and from Wales was definitely lightened by doing massive gurn faces to spangly banging pop techno. I mean, I was going to the Orbit (RIP) where the chill out room was even more earbleedy than the main room, and the main room was Jeff Mills, Plastikman, Surgeon, Adam Beyer and all that good stuff, but you didn't need to be stimulated in a room in Morley to bob your head about and appreciate A Proper Tune. I'm not sure this counts as the Bat Signal response you were looking for, but I am available for obtuse, dated dance information and at your disposal. Wasn't this the year Come To Daddy came out? That video and tune are simply fucking terrifying. *hides behind the couch and dances in French*
Correct! Time does indeed dilate driving east-west anywhere in the UK. I must have lost a good 6 months to the A14 alone, over the years. As someone who's never knowingly owned/read a copy of mixmag (even discarded ones on trains), my dance knowledge is entirely limited to "things I like". As a result, I did question the wisdom in putting myself in front of a camera and talking about "Homework" for this one. But then I remembered, "I like it", and it wasn't so bad. As for the bat signal? Everyone knows Commissioner Gordon liked nothing better than getting catastrophically blootered to Dutch gabba, so my light-hearted metaphor falls down at the first hurdle. Nonetheless, watch the skies! D PS: Yes, Come To Daddy was deffo '97. Yikes.
I was not in great places in 1997 (things would soon change) so there will never be more strangely comforting duo to soundtrack the potential end of the world than Radiohead and GYBE (! deliberately left out). Two of 'my' bands. Daft Punk? Well, I'm sorry Darren but no, not for me. Loving the series, hope you feel better soon :-)
I guess that shows how much your life ends up being reflected in your music (and vice versa). After a pretty low couple of years, '97 was a year when things started going right for me...my girlfriend and I had been living in different cities, making do, for 3 or 4 years, and this year, that finally changed. So what's my soundtrack for this year? A banging funk-house screamer! I was close to picking Aerial M (a truly beautiful, eye-opening record for me) but my memories took me to a much lighter, happier place! Cheers, D
Such a lovely record. I still think they set themselves a ridiculously high bar after "Everything Flows" (no exaggeration...one of the greatest songs ever written IMO), but in album terms, "Northern Britain"feels like their most "complete" record. 43 minutes, twelve tracks, a supremely radiant, homely vibe throughout. A real mood setter! Cheers, D
@@discellany Everything Flows, yeah! But I only discovered Teenage Fanclub in 1993 through Thirteen and, to me, that is still a "sentimental favourite" if you will. More experimental with song structure/length, wacky ideas; with varying results as wisdom would have it but I love that album. Nice of them to feature 6 bonus tracks on the US edition as well, though in 1993 I listened to the version with the bonus maxi single that had Goody Goody Gumdrops on it... I remember that well.
Take this as you will. You're half way through this series and I haven't watched any of them because of the blurred thumbnail. If you put the name of the album or artist in the title or thumb I might check it out even if it's a band I don't care for just to hear your opinion but I don't mystery click
But mystery comments, they're OK, right? Taking in someone's creativity, their opinions, their observations, without any forethought...That is OK, you know? No one's trying to trick you. Knowing that you haven't watched any of these videos, by your logic, I should just delete your comment, because I know you haven't engaged with my video in any way. Honestly...I was going to go back and retrospectively add the albums to the title/description now I'm halfway through the year. Bullshit takes like this make me think twice about that. D
Well. as the age gap (a slight but significant 2 years) has become less relevant, there hasn't been a year where I haven't seriously liked at least one of your short(ish) listed albums, and about half of the AoYs would feature in my shortlist too - most of the records you mention that I wouldn't consider, I haven't heard, which means each video is giving me a little basket of musical gifts :)
Cheers. Hope at least one of these lands with you. My tastes were getting a little more specific and esoteric around about this time, so not guaranteed! D
Earlier in the series I mentioned naming my daughter (partly) after Harriet Wheeler, and the Sundays third and final album was released the year she was born. Some standout tracks but the raw unpolished magnificence of their first is still my favourite.
Honourable mentions for 1997:
Nimrod - my late introduction to Green Day
Attack of the grey lantern - Mansun peaked too soon.
My album of 1997 might be predictable but the energy and spirit lifting live on nearly 3 decades later. The Colour and the Shape - Foo Fighters.
Yeah, can't fault this choice. This album holds up so well a quarter of a century later.
We had very different 1997s.
For me, it was when I mostly stopped listening to new music, retreating further into my 70s punk obsession.
It was also a personally dark year, the details of which I will save for my analyst (isn't that what they're paid for?), but probably most devastating was the breakup of my band which I'd pinned my whole existence on, and a move back home with tail tucked firmly in place.
But, there was one album that I loved, and still listen to today, which was not on your list....
The Mollusk by Ween.
I saw them early in the year, possibly at their last show as two guys with a DAT machine since they weren't on tour and just did a one off in a college cafeteria, and then THIS came out shortly afterwards.
I never even knew that a Peter Gabriel impression was possible unti I heard "Buckingham Green".
And, apologies for the shameless self promotion but it seems apt... That broken up band reunited a few years ago, and we're currently making a new album. The last single we released to drum up interest was called....
"Half A Lifetime".
Here's to the next half being as awesome as the first!
For me it’s Young Team by Mogwai. They have since made better albums and there are others from 97 I like more now. But that album and seeing them play at NAC on the tour blew my mind at the time.
Pretty sure I was at that one meself...definitely the '98 one with Ariel M supporting, but just checked '97 and Navigator supported, which is ringing serious bells! Cheers, D
Hmm they did play twice. 90% sure I went the 1st one with Navigator as I recall it being before the albums release, but I do remember it being sold out as my friend Dan could not get in, so perhaps it was the Feb 98. Either way it’s one of the top gigs.
My 2024 pick for 97 would be Perfect From Now On by Built to Spill. Totally passed me by at the time but recently got into them and that’s a cracker.
Great stuff as always. Get Up Kids ‘Four Minute Mile’ record was put on over and over again by me this year. That Aerial M record was also popular round my house.
I had it 100% nailed on that Yo La Tengo would have been your pick for 1997! I do know what you mean about Homework though. It definitely was a big "memories" record for me too. A soundtrack to some very good times.
1997 was to me a really good (vintage) year with many great releases from bands/artists like:
American Analog Set
Three Mile Pilot
Branch Manager
Pavement
Edith Frost
Bailter Space
Folk Implosion
Silkworm
Elevator to Hell
Elliott Smith
Polvo
Calexico
Ween
Paul Newman
Shipping News
Marmoset
Lungfish
Kepone
Garageland
Stereolab
Helium
I think Elliott Smith’s Either/Or was my favorite album of that year🌟
I have had the opinion for a long time that Lonesome Crowded West by Modest Mouse is the best album of the 90's, so that has to be pick for 97. I still listen to it on a regular basis. And Modest Mouse has become the band that the whole family enjoys.
Gosh! I'm one of those that likes to guess the album from the image and I didn't call it. I had it too! Nice album. Discovery was the one that shocked me the most. I don't think Bangalter matched the spin-off Stardust single, though - music sounds better with you. Loved quite a few albums from this year. Ladies and Gentlemen is the record that I return to the most. Damn, though, New Forms was amazing. Homogenic had THAT video too.
So glad to see yo la tengo and teenage fanclub in this vid
OK Computer for me without a doubt. That CD didn't leave my car player for like 6 months. I was even listening to it on the way to the church to get married! Maybe not the best going to get married choice, but almost 27 years later we are still married so it must have worked!
Ha! Reminds of a scene from the UK comedy series (from around about that time) "The Royle Family", where two of the characters get their newborn baby off to sleep by singing the xylophone motif from "No Surprises" as a lullaby. The saddest music can be repurposed into anything given the right setting. Cheers Mike! D
(BTW...21 years and still going strong here...Shared musical tastes can be a powerful bonding agent!)
I loved ICHtHBaO - Spec Bebop is ace. Damaged ditto. Lots of good 'uns.
Songs from Northern Britain is definitely Teenage Fanclub's best. Their B sides from this period are fantastic too. I love the Trans Am album too.
My other favourites from 97 are Blur's self titled album, Radiator by Super Furry Animals, Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space by Spiritualized, Around the Fur by Deftones, and The Colour and the Shape by Foo Fighters.
Two albums share the number one spot, In It for the Money by Supergrass and Bagsy Me by The Wannadies. I listen to them both regularly, they still sound fantastic.
Another great video, DAFT Punk definitely not my jam but will go back an listen. Acrobat Tenement I thought was pretty amazing at the time.
my favorite record from 97 is an EP. Come to Daddy - Aphex Twin. All your choices are great, I also propose The Lonesome Crowded West - Modest Mouse, Mogwai Young Team and Portishead - Portishead.
Portishead, yes, a good call! Think it may be the one I reach for more, ahead of "Dummy" nowadays.
Should also admit to not being terribly enamoured of "Young Team" somewhere along the line. Mogwai are one of those bands that on paper, I should love, but who, with only a few exceptions, leave me a bit cold. YT was one of those...I think I returned it to HMV, made an excuse about it being a gift for someone who already had it, and swapped it for the Aerial M instead. Cheers, D
Another interesting year. Definately the end of Britpop...I put the end around August 97 😆 It was a new era of U.K. mega albums Radiohead, Verve etc That’s interesting. I was slightly underwhelmed with the TFC album...I don’t know why because it’s a collection of amazing pop tunes...I think Grand Prix was such a hugely personal album for me anything else was going to pale in comparison. Yeah The Daft Punk album was interesting. I now just listening dance & had been aware of ‘Da Funk’ since 96.The buzz was huge My view is they are a singles band. TBH it’s a pretty underground record. Revolution 909 is pretty brutal. Great pick, must dig it out again.
That was a great holiday, and the seventeen years it took to drive to and from Wales was definitely lightened by doing massive gurn faces to spangly banging pop techno. I mean, I was going to the Orbit (RIP) where the chill out room was even more earbleedy than the main room, and the main room was Jeff Mills, Plastikman, Surgeon, Adam Beyer and all that good stuff, but you didn't need to be stimulated in a room in Morley to bob your head about and appreciate A Proper Tune.
I'm not sure this counts as the Bat Signal response you were looking for, but I am available for obtuse, dated dance information and at your disposal. Wasn't this the year Come To Daddy came out? That video and tune are simply fucking terrifying. *hides behind the couch and dances in French*
Correct! Time does indeed dilate driving east-west anywhere in the UK. I must have lost a good 6 months to the A14 alone, over the years.
As someone who's never knowingly owned/read a copy of mixmag (even discarded ones on trains), my dance knowledge is entirely limited to "things I like". As a result, I did question the wisdom in putting myself in front of a camera and talking about "Homework" for this one. But then I remembered, "I like it", and it wasn't so bad.
As for the bat signal? Everyone knows Commissioner Gordon liked nothing better than getting catastrophically blootered to Dutch gabba, so my light-hearted metaphor falls down at the first hurdle. Nonetheless, watch the skies! D
PS: Yes, Come To Daddy was deffo '97. Yikes.
I was not in great places in 1997 (things would soon change) so there will never be more strangely comforting duo to soundtrack the potential end of the world than Radiohead and GYBE (! deliberately left out). Two of 'my' bands. Daft Punk? Well, I'm sorry Darren but no, not for me. Loving the series, hope you feel better soon :-)
I guess that shows how much your life ends up being reflected in your music (and vice versa). After a pretty low couple of years, '97 was a year when things started going right for me...my girlfriend and I had been living in different cities, making do, for 3 or 4 years, and this year, that finally changed. So what's my soundtrack for this year? A banging funk-house screamer! I was close to picking Aerial M (a truly beautiful, eye-opening record for me) but my memories took me to a much lighter, happier place! Cheers, D
Agree that Songs from Northern Britain is a brilliant album, it's probably my favourite Fannies album as well.
Such a lovely record. I still think they set themselves a ridiculously high bar after "Everything Flows" (no exaggeration...one of the greatest songs ever written IMO), but in album terms, "Northern Britain"feels like their most "complete" record. 43 minutes, twelve tracks, a supremely radiant, homely vibe throughout. A real mood setter! Cheers, D
@@discellany Everything Flows, yeah! But I only discovered Teenage Fanclub in 1993 through Thirteen and, to me, that is still a "sentimental favourite" if you will. More experimental with song structure/length, wacky ideas; with varying results as wisdom would have it but I love that album. Nice of them to feature 6 bonus tracks on the US edition as well, though in 1993 I listened to the version with the bonus maxi single that had Goody Goody Gumdrops on it... I remember that well.
Yay me first!
Take this as you will. You're half way through this series and I haven't watched any of them because of the blurred thumbnail. If you put the name of the album or artist in the title or thumb I might check it out even if it's a band I don't care for just to hear your opinion but I don't mystery click
But mystery comments, they're OK, right?
Taking in someone's creativity, their opinions, their observations, without any forethought...That is OK, you know? No one's trying to trick you. Knowing that you haven't watched any of these videos, by your logic, I should just delete your comment, because I know you haven't engaged with my video in any way.
Honestly...I was going to go back and retrospectively add the albums to the title/description now I'm halfway through the year. Bullshit takes like this make me think twice about that. D