A kung fu fighter in a disco

If this list doesn't grab you then you are 1x CURMUDGEON.

only sad point - 'Hard Knock Life' was the first Jay-Z track I ever heard & had the effect of putting me off him for years & years.

But, like, Lauryn! Aaliyah! Courtney! Madge! Stardust! I didn't even tick Fatboy Slim or Shania whic I love.

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Hard choice this time I thought - only a couple of ones I hate (and my pick as 'worst' I bought at the time!), my ticks came down to a "one must go" battle between Fatboy and Madge, and in the end I thought Norman would need the tick more in the long run. Several other records I like - Stardust, Shania in megaballad mode, Sheryl's last good single, Harvey Danger's guilty powerpop pleasure - ended up unticked :(

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- Flagpole Sitta is probably the song that most often has people going "Oooo I know this one, who is it by". I bought it on CD single from MVE in about 2002.
- Lauryn Hill in the sixties AND the nineties at the same time, cor
- Semisonic THUMBS DOWN URG
- I knew all the words to the Barenekkid Ladies song
- I remember watching Glastonbury on the telly this year and everything sinking, hahaha.

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Hard Knock Life is grebt! Admittedly his attempt to repeat the formula with "Anything" is one of the great aesthetic disasters.

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miss-newham.livejournal.com

Hard Knock Life invented Teenage Life by DJ Daz! This is a bad thing...

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I am really surprised that you ticked 'Malibu'! Well not actually surprised but I would have thought you'd go for 'Celebrity Skin' if you went for Courtney at all.

This is another of those loads-of-great-music-from-all-directions-all-ending-up-in-top-10 years, really really gladdening.

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I really really hated the sample! I might think differently if I went back to it now but given that I hate 'Beware Of The Dog' and disapprove of 'SOS' maybe not.

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awesomewells.livejournal.com

Oh come on people the collapse in quality between the first and second half is enormous.

I'm having trouble working out whether the Barenaked Ladies are worse than Semisonic.

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I did a unified Top 20 list of albums, tracks, singles, reissues, live stuff etc.

20. Piano Magic - "I Am The Sub Librarian"*
19. Field Mice - Where'd You Learn To Kiss That Way?
18. Jurassic Five - Jurassic Five
17. Lambchop - What Another Man Spills
16. Tricky - "Divine Comedy"
15. Mixmaster Mike - Anti-Theft Device
14. Doolally - "Straight From The Heart"*
13. Kenickie - "I Would Fix You"*
12. Massive Attack - "Teardrop"*
11. Future Bible Heroes - Memories Of Love
10. Dock Boggs - "Country Blues" (Reissue)*
9. Air - Moon Safari*
8. Fatboy Slim - "The Rockefeller Skank"*
7. The Beta Band - The Three EPs
6. Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire De Melody Nelson (Reissue)*
5. Hal Wilner - Whoops, I'm An Indian*
4. Future Bible Heroes - "Lonely Days"*
3. Pulp - "This Is Hardcore"*
2. Mercury Rev - Deserters' Songs
1. Charlemagne Palestine live*

* = still listen to / remember fondly in the case of 1

Basically I was rudderless here - trying hard to be a 'proper critic' i.e. heavily under the influence of S.Reynolds and G.Marcus and cut off from my own taste/voice/responses to music.

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awesomewells.livejournal.com

This was the year it was really really wet. Everything sank in 1997, the previous year.

< /glasto geek>

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I don't think I've ever heard "Celebrity Skin"!

"Malibu" was the second or third thing I ever stole off the interweb - back then track-at-a-time was all I could manage. Dunno why I picked that rather than anything else.

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Noooooooooo that makes it even BETTER!

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ARGH LJ et my comment NOT HAPPY

Beware Of The Dog (hahaha DOG DOG DOG DOG) is so nearly excellent but Jamelia (lovely as she may be) doesn't quite have the bolshiness to carry the sample off. Gwen S might have done a better job perhaps.

Even the lyric change (see subject) can't bring it up to the mark, astounding though it is!

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You have heard 'Celebrity Skin', I am sure. It starts "oh make me over, I'm all I wanna be, a walking study in demonology" and goes on "when I wake up in my make up".

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OH yes that's also great! But in such a fine list I'm not changing my ticks - it's not as good as the power ballad heaven that is Malibu.

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I still think Mezzanine is one of the best albums ever. I haven't listened to it in a very long time though.

I didn't buy Deserters' Songs until many years later in an HMV sale, I couldn't believe I had missed out on it for so many years then promptly got sick of it and ebayed it. FickleKat.

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Oh my god talking of Gwen S her new single is guilty of EXACTLY THE SAME THING as 'Hard Knock Life' - it samples THE LONELY GOATHERD from the Sound Of Music and it's AWFUL and really obviously scavenged from the LAMB cutting room floor.

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jauntyalan.livejournal.com

oo i think this was the year i probably played the FBH album non-stop.

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Mezzanine is really good, Massive Attack's finest I think. I also like Deserter's Songs! But never listen to it now obv.

Air should be in the poll. 'Sexy Boy' is HEAVENLY.

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ninebelow.livejournal.com

I'm having trouble working out whether the Barenaked Ladies are worse than Semisonic.

This was my dilemna too! The fact that One Week contains some sort of horrific geek rap finally decided it for me.

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Yeah since EVEN AT THE TIME I knew that only the first three songs on DS were any good I think #2 was an overreaction. But those three songs were INCREDIBLY GOOD, or so I thought back then. My not listening to them now is about 50% 'preserve a happy memory' after the rubbishness of all follow-ups and the horrors of Grandaddy et al.

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Oh probably. I just remember confused feelings of jealousy and relief. Festivals scared me until I actually went to Reading in 1999. Without a tent. Or a ticket. Or any clue of how to get there. Or as it turns out, any alcohol tolerance!

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