Then and Now

Then and Now: Best Albums of 1997

Chris KriofskeLeave a comment

Then:

  1. Ben Folds Five, Whatever & Ever Amen
  2. Blur, Blur
  3. Jill Sobule, Happy Town
  4. Pizzicato Five, Happy End of The World
  5. Depeche Mode, Ultra
  6. Steve Wynn, Sweetness and Light
  7. Morphine, Like Swimming
  8. Sarah McLachlan, Surfacing
  9. Indigo Girls, Shaming Of The Sun
  10. Paul McCartney, Flaming Pie

Snarky American alt-rock and Britpop were my mainstays in the 1990s, so it scans that my top two albums of 1997 were from Ben Folds Five and Blur. As with 1996’s I’m With Stupid, Whatever & Ever Amen hit instantly upon its release early in the year, the soundtrack to a life in transition as I graduated from Marquette University in my hometown and moved across country to Boston to pursue a master’s in film studies at BU. Weeks before this sojourn, I saw Morphine at the H.O.R.D.E. Festival’s stop at Alpine Valley and bought their latest CD Like Swimming the next week. Incidentally, Ben Folds Five also played that festival, focusing heavily on some odd new songs that would surface on their divisive next record in 1999.

As an Anglophile deep into the Beatles, XTC and (to a lesser extent) the Kinks, Blur were ostensibly crafted in a lab specifically for me. Compared to Parklife three years before, their self-titled fifth album was a departure, throwing aside past homegrown influences for American indie bands like Pavement and Guided By Voices. Riding high on a surprise US hit (“Song 2”), I saw them with a friend live at The Rave in Milwaukee early that summer which might’ve elevated my initial, somewhat confused impression of Blur.

Weeks after arriving in Boston that September, my first purchases from Newbury Comics were the just-released Happy End of The World and Sweetness and Light. I played Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel” on repeat long before it became a hit or forever associated with sad animal shelter ads. Jill Sobule’s Happy Town was a continual background presence, revealing her as a strong voice in it for the long haul even if it wasn’t as immediate as her  1995 self-titled breakthrough, home to the immortal “I Kissed A Girl”.

Now:

  1. Ivy, Apartment Life
  2. Ben Folds Five, Whatever & Ever Amen
  3. Jen Trynin, Gun Shy Trigger Happy
  4. Ani DiFranco, Living In Clip
  5. Beth Orton, Trailer Park
  6. Sleater-Kinney, Dig Me Out
  7. K.D. Lang, Drag
  8. Morphine, Like Swimming
  9. Pizzicato Five, Happy End of The World
  10. Steve Wynn, Sweetness and Light

As with 1996, another 1997 album eventually surpassed my original number one although I didn’t hear it until years later. It’s a testament to the solidity of Whatever & Ever Amen (and I’m With Stupid) that both remain in second place of their respective years to this day but picking up a used copy of Apartment Life weeks after 9/11 was a revelation; it’s also one of the few records I’ve ever purchased the demos of (on vinyl, no less), a 2023 Record Store Day release.

Although one of their better records, Blur wasn’t as enduring. Lead track “Beetlebum” remains their greatest Beatles rip, but I don’t ever have to hear “Song 2” again (save for Emm Gryner’s version) and the rest is uneven compared to Parklife. I’d also now rather play many Jill Sobule and Depeche Mode LPs other than Happy Town or Ultra. Surfacing proved the beginning of the end for McLachlan, a real drop after the genuine mystery of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy and its predecessors.

Throughout 1998, as Ani DiFranco’s Dilate and Little Plastic Castle became the soundtrack to my new life, double LP Living in Clip completed the triumvirate and served as a neat primer of highlights from her first five records, rendered in definitive live power-trio versions. Early that year, I also picked up a used copy of Jen Trynin’s second (and final) record, now a lost gem from the start of an era far less welcoming to female singer-songwriters from the electro-folk genius Beth Orton to the riot-grrl adjacent Sleater-Kinney who weren’t popping on commercial alt-rock radio anytime soon.

Go here to read about my 1997 playlist.

Then and Now: Best Albums of 1996

Chris KriofskeLeave a comment

I’ve always looking back on my own best-x-of-the-year/decade/etc. lists and thinking about what changes I’d make if I were to compile the same list today. I began making album-of-the-year lists at the end of 1996 and posted them annually online as of my first blog in 2002. Thirty years on, I’m looking back at what I liked then vs. now.

One caveat: until streaming and the adoption of Friday as a global release day in 2015, the occasional record release would often fall by country in different dates and in some cases, years. A few beloved albums on my lists were not available in the U.S. until the calendar year after their original UK/European release. For the most part, I’m sticking with those US release years for point of comparison, only using original release dates on the rare occasion when I bought the import instead of waiting for a release here.

My pre-blog best-of lists were always recorded in handwritten journals I kept as of 1995. No list for that first year, so we begin with ’96.

Then:

  1. Aimee Mann, I’m With Stupid
  2. Cibo Matto, Viva! La Woman
  3. Everything But The Girl, Walking Wounded
  4. Soundtrack, Trainspotting
  5. R.E.M., New Adventures In Hi-Fi
  6. Pet Shop Boys, Bilingual
  7. Luscious Jackson, Fever In Fever Out
  8. Cowboy Junkies, Lay It Down
  9. Suzanne Vega, Nine Objects of Desire
  10. Beck, Odelay

I’m With Stupid defined my 1996. A UK release the previous summer, it was delayed here until January. Not long after finally getting my hands on it, I wrote a review of it for my Critical Writing class at Marquette; the professor liked it enough to make copies and share it with the entire class (are teachers still allowed to do this w/out the author’s permission?) We didn’t have iTunes or Spotify back then and thus no easy means of keeping track of spins but I’m almost positive I listened to it more than anything else at the time.

Kooky Japanese-America duo Cibo Matto I discovered via their video of “Know Your Chicken” on MTV’s 120 Minutes. A week later, I found a freshly used promo CD of it at my regular used-record store, Second Hand Tunes. Along with Everything But The Girl’s full-on dive into club music shortly after the success of the remixed “Missing”, it was my soundtrack going into summer between Junior and Senior years; the Trainspotting soundtrack, R.E.M.’s final classic lineup release and late-in-the-year additions from Pet Shop Boys and Luscious Jackson would take over for the fall and winter.

Now:

  1. Belle and Sebastian, If You’re Feeling Sinister
  2. Aimee Mann, I’m With Stupid
  3. Morcheeba, Who Can You Trust?
  4. Tori Amos, Boys For Pele
  5. Soundtrack, Trainspotting
  6. Cibo Matto, Viva! La Woman
  7. Ani DiFranco, Dilate
  8. Amy Rigby, Diary of a Mod Housewife
  9. Luscious Jackson, Fever In Fever Out
  10. Fiona Apple, Tidal

Only something I hadn’t heard at the time could possibly knock Mann off the top spot; I’ve written at length about Belle and Sebastian’s near-perfect record here. Morcheeba and Ani DiFranco would become favorites in 1997 (and the former still gets plenty of spins from me in 2026.) I also bought Boys for Pele when it came out (two weeks before I’m With Stupid) but had difficulty absorbing all 70+ minutes of it, returning to some tracks often (“Hey Jupiter”, “Putting The Damage On”) while ignoring others altogether (“In The Springtime of His Voodoo”?) Only after a decade or two did I come to love it nearly as much as Little Earthquakes. A dense, demanding labyrinth, Pele is worth living with for the long haul as was 2002’s similarly sprawling Scarlet’s Walk (and, though too soon to tell, potentially this year’s In Times of Dragons.)

The only post-2000 discovery here is Rigby’s now-classic debut, as accomplished an introduction as Little Earthquakes (or perhaps Fiona Apple’s Tidal, which I also likely first heard in ’97.) I hemmed and hawed over including Diary of a Mod Housewife and/or Viva! La Woman in my 100 Albums project but already had six entries for 1996 and wanted to spread the wealth around to adjacent years. I still listen to Nine Objects of Desire and Bilingual regularly; Odelay, not so much. Walked Wounded is a good EBTG album but perhaps not one of the greatest in a fairly stacked discography.

Speaking of which, is 1996 one of the *best* years for music? I haven’t even mentioned Stereolab’s Emperor Tomato Ketchup, Pulp’s Different Class, Gillian Welch’s Revival, DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing…, George Michael’s Older or Fishmans’ Long Season. We’ll see if even 1997 measures up to it.

Go here to read about my 1996 playlist.