GNMD Poll: Top Ten Albums of 1998

[Serjeant Grumbles]

It's just something I happened upon and thought was worth checking out since I do enjoy Three 6 Mafia.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

Pass. I can only come up with 6, and not sure any of them belong in a top 10. I do need to listen to the Lycia and Mors Syphilitica though.

 

[CiG]

1. Placebo - Without You I'm Nothing
2. American Football - American Football EP
3. The Kaze - Kamakazie Timez Up
4. Prophet Posse - Body Parts
5. dälek - Negro Necro Nekros
6. DMX - Flesh of My Flesh Blood of My Blood
7. Penfold - Amateurs and Professionals
8. Sunny Day Real Estate - How It Feels to Be Something On
9. At the Drive-In - In/Casino/Out
10. Knapsack - This Conversation Is Ending...Starting Right Now

Spoiler

11. Fugazi - End Hits
12. T-Love - Return of the B-Girl EP
13. Andre Nickatina - Raven in My Eyes
14. Gangsta Boo - Enquiring Minds
15. Turbonegro - Apocalypse Dudes
16. Indo G - Angel Dust
17. Elliott - U.S. Songs
18. The Dirtbombs - Horndog Fest
19. Mineral - EndSerenading
20. Edaline - I Wrote the Last Chapter for You

More HM's:

Shonen Knife - Happy Hour
Envy - From Here to Eternity
Big Pun - Capital Punishment
Killah Priest - Heavy Mental
Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come

Deleted my whole list and recreated it from the ground up in my free time. This has turned out to be one of the hardest years for me, I guess because there are so many interesting albums, and so many moods and vibes to try and represent. Introspective emo vs ignorant hardcore rap! Without You I'm Nothing is one of the single most nostalgic albums for me, I've had my CD copy since I was probably like 14. Yeah it goes deep, it's loaded with emotional associations that range from happy, bittersweet, traumatic and is ultimately very transportive.

Decided to include the American Football EP because it's American Football's best release to date. A pinch of something special was lost between 1998 and 1999 with their full length, maybe it's the concision of the EP format? It's conceivably easier to pack more raw and genuine emotion into 3 songs as opposed to 9... I don't know, but any fan of American Football that hasn't heard the EP yet should do themselves a favour.

Anybody curious about The Kaze, especially if you like southern hip hop, double especially if you like Memphis rap, they're a shortlived group that most notably featured Project Pat and on their sole album had production handled by DJ Paul and Juicy J from Three 6 Mafia. The album also has a ton of cool featured guests that you might expect from a group associated with Memphis rap. Body Parts is a similar deal, it's basically a collaboration album featuring all the artists on Three 6 Mafia's label at the time, that whole camp was putting in a ton of work back then, they were like the south's answer to Wu-Tang Clan in terms of dominating the industry by flooding it with groups and solo projects, franchising and DIY ethics.

Fans of experimental hip hop should check out Negro Necro Nekros by dälek if they haven't already:

HM:
T-Love - Return of the B-Girl EP

Didn't see this until now, great HM! I somehow forgot it even existed, but I used to bump it on the regular, one of the best femcees for sure. Had to edit it into my list lmao.

 

[Serjeant Grumbles]

Pass. I can only come up with 6, and not sure any of them belong in a top 10. I do need to listen to the Lycia and Mors Syphilitica though.

Damn right you do.

 

[CiG]

Zab out of curiosity what are the 6 albums?

 

[zabu of nΩd]

Zab out of curiosity what are the 6 albums?

Spoiler

Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Starcraft soundtrack
Banjo-Kazooie soundtrack
Shpongle - Are You Shpongled?
Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children
Dargaard - Eternity Rites

 

[CiG]

That top 4 is legit a good crop of albums.

 

[Serjeant Grumbles]

Spoiler

Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Starcraft soundtrack
Banjo-Kazooie soundtrack
Shpongle - Are You Shpongled?
Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children
Dargaard - Eternity Rites

Just make sure you check out Lycia's album Cold in time for the 1996 poll, if you haven't already.

 

[Serjeant Grumbles]

I will leave this open for the rest of the weekend in the hopes that someone might break the tie for 1st place.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

Just make sure you check out Lycia's album Cold in time for the 1996 poll, if you haven't already.

I know Cold well. A masterpiece.

 

[CiG]

Keen for the next year, kind of hoping it's an 80's year.

 

[Krow]

1. Queens of the Stone Age - s/t
2. The Seatbelts - Cowboy Bebop
3. Turbonegro - Apocalypse Dudes
4. Gov’t Mule - Dose
5. OutKast- Aquemini
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Eh. Only 5.

 

[The Ozzman]

Gov’t Mule - Dose

Good album

 

[Serjeant Grumbles]

#10 Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
(14 Points)

Genre(s):
Neo-Soul, Contemporary R&B, East Coast Hip Hop
Conscious Hip Hop, Boom Bap​

Those who voted:
@jimmy101 #5
@crimsonfloyd #3

<TIED WITH>​

#10 Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
(14 Points)

Genre(s):
Indie Folk, Indie Rock
Psychedelic Folk, Singer/Songwriter, Lo-Fi Indie, Brass Band​

Those who voted:
@Somethingface #3
@crimsonfloyd #5

 

[Serjeant Grumbles]

#9 Cypress Hill - IV
(15 Points)

Genre(s):
West Coast Hip Hop, Gangsta Rap
Latin Rap, Boom Bap​

Those who voted:
@Oblivious Maximus #1
@jimmy101 #6

 

[Serjeant Grumbles]

#8 Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come
(15 Points)

Genre(s):
Post-Hardcore, Hardcore Punk
Art Punk, Metalcore​

The only Swedish hardcore band I know is Refused. The Shape of Punk to Come is an awesome album.

^ I have have that album and it is left winged bullshit, it hardly qualifies as music.

So, by your example a band's political direction dictates whether it's music or not. Good job. Anyway... Refused isn't exactly what I would call hardcore.

Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come
best hardcore record ever! a bit experimental and never boring... not one song sounds like another!

My favourite punk band is definitely Refused...so I'd recommend both "Songs to Fan the Flames Of Discontent" and "The Shape of Punk to Come". I'd also recommend Modern Life Is War, Dropkick Murphys, Transistor Transistor, and The (International) Noise Conspiracy (Dennis from Refused is their vocalist).

Those who voted:
@HamburgerBoy #10
@Somethingface #1
@Terasophe #7

 

[Serjeant Grumbles]

#7 The Gathering - How to Measure a Planet?
(16 Points)

Genre(s):
Progressive Rock, Art Rock
Space Rock, Trip Hop​

They are pretty impressive,
Gothic ROCK, some of you may find it stupid but dont be judgemental from the start

I love The Gathering. But I'd hardly call them Goth Rock though.

I agree. They're one of my favourite bands. They haven't really done anything gothic influenced since Mandylion. They're pretty original and Anneke van Geirsbergen is the most emotional singer.

The Gathering... goth rock? You don't know what goth rock is, do you?

The Gathering is one of my favourite bands but you can hardly describe
them as "goth rock". The band describe their own style as "trip rock"
(should be a relative to "trip hop"). Their latest album "Souvenirs" is a masterpiece.

These two songs are from their album "Mandylion"... In my opinion their best album is "How To Measure A Planet?", since it's the most experimental album they've released. If you want something closer to metal you should start by "Mandylion" or "Nightime Birds"... But try to get everything they've released after Anneke joined the band (the above+"If_Then_Else", "Black Light District" & the new album "Souvenirs" out this february). Their first album "Always" is also very good but closer to the doom/death sound of early nineties than their other releases...

By the way, I don't understand why so many people compare Lacuna Coil to Gathering... Other than the fact that they both have a female singer, they're not that similar and in terms of quality I don't think they're even close.... (well, my prejudices are showing again )

10) the Gathering - How To Measure A Planet 1998 (the band that single-handedly wrote the blueprint copied by Lacuna Coil, Nightwish, ad infinitum released their absolute masterpiece in this double-disc set. Sparse, lightly-distorted, yet claustrophopic, this album's atmosphere is thick enough to be cut with a knife)

I'd go with 'Mandylion'. I believe 'Always' is their first, but they had death vox on that one and their sound was completely different. They did a comlete 180 when they got Anneke to front the group. A change for the better, imo. Mandyloin and Nighttime Birds are both great. I don't much care for the more recent stuff. I didn't like How to Measure a Planet at all. If_Then_Else was decent, but I still didn't like it nearly as much as M & NB. I haven't even heard their newest yet.

"Mandylion" was their first album I bought when it came out and it was my favourite until the release of "How to measure a planet?". The latter was my favourite The Gathering album for several years in spite of the fact that I found (and still find) the title track very hard to stomach, which is the reason why the first disc (it's a double album) got far more spins from me. "HTMAP" is a lot softer than "Mandylion" with "Liberty Bell" probably being the "heaviest" song on it. "Nighttime Birds" is more in the vein of "Mandylion", but I like it less. The albums after "HTMAP" mostly didn't do much for me. Well, I still liked "If_then_else" and I also find their live album "Sleepy Buildings - A Semi Acoustic Evening" quite enjoyable, though as far as live recordings are concerned, their DVD "A Sound Relieve" is my favourite. I haven't listened much to their music for at least a decade now, though I sort of re-discovered "Mandylion" about two years ago. I never cared about their early albums, because the "Beauty and the Beast"-stuff simply isn't my cup of tea.

Since I can't predict what you might like or if you might like any of their releases at all, first check out some songs of the albums mentioned (or even the entire albums) on youtube. (But you would have done this anyway, wouldn't you?)

Exactly the kind of rock music I hate, it's like a mish-mash of mainstream 90's grunge-lite and stoner rock with a mild hint of boring psychedelia. Put this back in the discount bin at that record shop in the movie High Fidelity where it belongs, maybe some fuckhead with spiky bleached hair will buy it for his hairy wannabe Daria girlfriend.

Those who voted:
@Burkhard #3
@crimsonfloyd #9
@Serjeant Grumbles #5

 

[Serjeant Grumbles]

#6 The Seatbelts - Cowboy Bebop
(17 Points)

Genre(s):
Television Music, Jazz
Big Band, Blues, Swing, Spaghetti Western​

It's impossible for me to pick a favourite character in Cowboy Bebop.

There's Gren, the guy who we saw for about two minutes, but he was kick ass. "I love the idea of comraderie to death..." something like that. Was genius.

The thing about Cowboy Bebop is that the characters are not simple people. They all have pasts, hopes, dreams, and they're all really intense and complicated, even Ed. The way that they interact with eachother is absolutely fantasic.

That show is easily one of my favourites.

Cowboy Bebop is the shit. Just flat out amazing characters and dialogue, and great music as well. I don't watch much other anime but now that I see what fellow Bebop fans are into I might check those out.

Claymore is fairly new and is unlicenced so you'll have to d/l a fansub torrent.

Cowboy Bebop is one of those rare animes where the dub is vastly superior.

Cowboy Bebop is pretty boring anyway so it doesn't matter if it is dub or sub. ^_^

Those who voted:
@Krow #2
@Terasophe #3

 

[CiG]

Exactly the kind of rock music I hate, it's like a mish-mash of mainstream 90's grunge-lite and stoner rock with a mild hint of boring psychedelia. Put this back in the discount bin at that record shop in the movie High Fidelity where it belongs, maybe some fuckhead with spiky bleached hair will buy it for his hairy wannabe Daria girlfriend.

 

[jimmy101]

Jesus, sounds awful. Even the Daria-esque girlfriend.