1997

By 1997, the state of radio rock is getting about as bad as it ever will, at least in the US.  The UK does a bit better, with the second wave of Britpop, but what's far more interesting is what's going on in the increasingly active underground.  There, we see a couple of storylines developing, in addition to the usual, at least for the 90s, waves of revivalism.  The first is the rise of a hip-hop/alt-rock fusion sound, as pioneered by Beck and DJ Shadow, that has effects esp. in both hip-hop and UK indie.  The second is a return to progressive or art-rock ambitions outside of the mainstream in the indie scenes in both the US and the UK

The most exciting thing proximate to the mainstream is by far the fractured post-Beck/DJ Shadow hip-hop/rock fusion sound, which this year is much bigger in the UK than the US, at least in terms of producing these acts (though they did well in terms of radioplay on both sides of the Atlantic, and courtesy of Cornelius even spread to Japan).  But in the US, Sublime sounds like a bigger influence on the rock side of things, with the likes of Sugar Ray or whatever.  Straight hip-hop does considerably better, with Latyrx proving that not only are they fantastic rappers, but that DJ Shadow isn't the only great producer in the Soulsides collective.

But it's the UK where this sound really flourishes.  Dan the Automator has crossed over both country and genre to help Cornershop expand from their fractured Fall-pop sound to include fractured sound collages and hip-hop beats.  This'll produce the hit that'll tar them as one-hit wonders, but they actually are much more, producing in When I Was Born for the 7^th Time perhaps the finest of the post-Odelay records.  Another contender for finest of the post-Beck groups are the Beta Band, who debut this year mixing that progressive boom-bap collage with both Kinks-style folk-pop and old-school Canterbury-style progressive rock.  Not their best work, but a mighty strong debut EP all the same.

Also fitting in this general sound are Black Grape, who of course are more Beck influences than followers.  It’s not really clear to me why they didn’t break bigger in the US, given how well they mine the same sound as other bands that would at least garner a one-hit wonder.  Possibly they suffered from being neither fish nor fowl, too hip-hop for modern rock radio (with actual rapping and everything) and too rock for hip-hop radio (said rapping not being especially good).  Regardless, they slip a little here, but still make an excellent party band.  Also arguably as big an influence on some of the lighter end of this kind sound in the UK.  Reggae-inflected Finley Quay or Stevie Wonder-jonesing Jamiroquai, for instance, who aren’t nearly as radically inventive as the likes of Cornershop or the Beta Band (or Black Grape), but still manage to spit out a worthy single or two each adding loping beats to a rock-derived sound (or possibly the other way around, adding a dose of rock to a beat-happy sound).

                Of course, the UK indie scene has always been more danceable-beat friendly than US alt-rock, and that continues this year beyond the hip-hop influenced groups to those continuing to be influenced by more European electronic dance sounds.  U2 continue to mine Eurodisco sounds, but with increasingly diminishing returns.  Their best song sounds heavily influenced by Oasis (“Staring At The Sun”), and their other dance-rock efforts generally lack the inspiration of Achtung or the daring of Zooropa.   I’ll continue to check in with U2 for another album or so, but generally believe that Zooropa was their last gasp of greatness.  Returning to dance-rock with much greater returns, however, are Primal Scream.  While U2 are pressing their same Achtung formula, though, Primal Scream have moved away from the happy acid-house sound of Screamadelica to a much darker, more dub/house sound, which is both more cinematic (down to sampling dialogue from 60s cult films a la Big Audio Dynamite) and a lot more interesting on the downtempo numbers (previously the band’s weak point in both trad-rock and dance-rock incarnations). 

                This is also the rare year where I actually have a straight-up electronica album in my collection, from a band I absolutely love, France’s Daft Punk.  They’d been releasing singles for years now, but their actual debut (double) LP is pretty excellent.  I prefer my electronic music cut with more pop elements (so I prefer their next album), but Homework illustrates the hypnotic appeal of the pure stuff well, with beats and repetition that have a lot more to do with Krautrock of the Neu! school than any of the other dance music in my collection up to this point (which is much more in a swinging soul/funk/hip-hop vein than the straight 4/4 beat of Daft Punk).  Which is a long-winded way of saying that I appreciate Daft Punk as a prog-rock band more than I feel compelled to dance to them like a dance band.  Very little electronica influence in the US yet, though, with the exception of the Smashing Pumpkins, always the most UK-looking of the alt-rock bands.  Also, oddly, Bob Dylan, whose outtake “Dreaming of You” sounds oddly but unmistakably like a folk-rock/trip-hop fusion.

                Of course, there’s plenty of more traditional rock in the UK this year, from a still-burning Brit-pop scene.  This project makes me reconsider the history of Brit-pop a bit.  I’d always known that there were two strains of Brit-pop, the art-rock version represented by Blur (with nods to post-punk and noise-rock) and the trad-rock version epitomized by Oasis (whose influences start in 1964 and end with glam), but I’d thought that they were basically simultaneous, given the Blur/Oasis rivalry.  But while Oasis was a contemporary of Blur, really the arty Brit-pop came first (1993-1995) and the trad version came later (Definitely Maybe, then 1995 and later).  So this year Brit-pop is dominated by the trad stuff, probably mostly unfortunately.  It’s probably illustrative of the conservative nature of the trad school of Brit-pop to look at the biggest records of that school this year.  The Verve experiment with sampling and looping, but what they’re sampling is among the most trad influences of them all, the Rolling Stones.  Oasis get ambitious, but in a very late-60s kind of way, expanding their sound with dozens of overdubs and stretching out more-or-less simple pop songs to pretentious epics.  Oasis were probably shooting for Sgt. Pepper or Forever Changes with Be Here Now, but they end up closer to Their Satanic Majesty’s Request or Da Capo (the Love album with the tedious side-two jam).  What’s frustrating is that, unlike most unnecessarily sprawling albums (Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, for instance), the problem isn’t too many songs of dubious quality (which can be fixed with some home editing), but that they’re mostly good songs at 3 minutes stretched to 7 or 9 minute lengths.  This works for “D’You Know What I Mean?,” which is better than the too-long side-two epics on Morning Glory, but otherwise bogs down simple rockers with unnecessary ornamentation..

                Trad Brit-pop isn’t overall bad this year, though (at least in my collection, having sold off my Ocean Colour Scene albums years ago).  Kula Shaker’s EP is unremarkable but fun.  Supergrass, who debuted a couple of years ago, keeps the trad-rock energetic by adding a healthy dose of Buzzcocks-recalling sugar-rush energy.  And of course the art-rock end of Brit-pop isn’t exhausted yet.  The Super Furry Animals, who like Supergrass coasted largely on their sugar-rush last year, this year are really opening up their sonic palette, keeping the flame alive for art-pop in the Beatles/Blur tradition.

                In the US, the state of the mainstream is more dire.  Amid all the Third-Everclear-Twenty whatever, I only have three America albums that would qualify as anywhere near the mainstream this year.  Ben Folds Five are the kind of band that, like the Counting Crows on their debut, probably could succeed in any era, with their catchy, clever piano-pop.  The Foo Fighters polish their sound, and tone down the noise-rock a bit, but still hew close to the Sugar punk-pop sound.  It's interesting, but probably not surprising that the two bands that survive from grunge to the present day, Pearl Jam and the Foos, settle in to a comfortable but sonically conservative groove.  Still, the Foos wilk consistentlu be a wholly listenable corner of rock on the radio, so if they're never my favorite band, they'll be alright in my book.

The third band in the mainstream in my collection is more of a surprise.  The Bosstones toiled in punk rock semi-obscurity for years before hitting the big time with a "cleaned up" version of their ska-core sound, emphasizing their Madness/Beat influences over the hardcore/metal ones.  This lets them fit in more with the radio-friendly West Coast ska-(pop-)punks, but by altering the ratio of influences rather than radically overhauling their sound.

                Deeper into the still-outside the mainstream world of punk, the harder/more punk end the Third Wave is still going strong, while a pair of excellent roots-punk bands surface in Boston.  We'll hear more from the Dropkick Murphys later, but they debut this year with a sound that owes a lot more to the Clash and Rancid than the Celtic influences that'll be increasingly prominent.  And yes, I acknowledge that musically, Rancid doesn't really separate itself from the Clash, but the Dropkicks owe more lyrically to Tim Armstrong's street-level slice-of-life approach than Joe Strummer's more macro-level political concerns.  The other great Boston punk rock debut this year is the Amazing Royal Crowns, who are basically rockabilly-revival, recalling Social Distortion but also sounding not out of place next to the swing revivalists.  This will work out poorly for them, as thin-skinned ska revivalists the Royal Crown Revue will successfully sue them to force them to become the Amazing Crowns going forward.

Deeper into the indie world (which is finally distinct from alt-rock) things are mellower, but increasingly as fractured in songform as the more beat-infused stuff.  Yo La Tengo and Pavement, probably the two biggest movers in the US indie world, are in a much mellower mood this year, with a heavy late Velvet Underground influence (slightly fractured late 60s folk-pop with just a hint of their noisy past).  Elliot Smith also sounds highly indebted to late 60s folk-pop, like Belle & Sebastian taking a fragile, post-psych-pop-recalling approach, though Smith favors the stripped, acoustic Drake style to the more orchestrated Left Banke approach of Belle & Sebastian.  Taking the 60s revival to a whole other level are the Apples in Stereo, sounding for all the world like a pop band that'd been in cryogenic storage since 1966.  The Flaming Lips are similarly looking back to a flower power 60s.  Zaireeka pretty much already has the Brian Wilson-inspired symphonic pop sound they'll show off on The Soft Bulletin, even if requiring 4 cd players to play the 4 discs simultaneously meant that relatively few people heard it at the time.

                The UK indie scene is considerably noisier and (Flaming Lips excepted) more ambitious.  Blur are back, but a long way from their Brit-pop sound.  Abrasive and noisy, they sound a lot like Beck circa Mellow Gold (as opposed to the numerous UK bands taking inspiration from Odelay) with a dash of Beastie Boys and early Pavement.  So, radically more American, although with an art-pop sensibility that owes more to Bowie.  Miles beyond the far more hidebound efforts of Oasis in expanding their sound.  Also, although they don't get as much credit as they deserve for it, much more ambitious sonically than Radiohead.  OK Computer is a great album, don't get me wrong, but (like Pearl Jam's Ten) it's a great album that could have been released in 1973.  Not nearly as adventurous as they'll be soon, though.  Still, I do love some old-school prog-rock, and OK Computer is some excellent old-school prog-rock, as well as a logical expansion of their Bends sound.  And considering that the UK will soon develop an entire cottage industry of bands trying to recapture the Bends sound, all the more impressive that Radiohead was willing to follow their collective muse away from commercial glory.  Not unlike Pearl Jam again, I suppose, since plenty of second tier US bands would climb the charts aping Ten while Pearl Jam themselves moved on.

                Of course, if it's new-school prog you want, there are offerings on both sides of the Atlantic.  Scotland’s Mogwai call themselves post-rock, but sure sound like King Crimson-following prog-rock to me (perhaps without the technical chops, but with similar compositional ambitions).  In the US, the most progressive acts are a pair of Pac-Northwest post-grunge guitar bands, Built to Spill and Modest Mouse, who work very similar sounds.  Built to Spill are the mellower of the two, with long rambling guitar jams that split the difference between Neil Young and Yes (or maybe Phish, given the greater improvisational element): churning grungy guitar sound with long rambling solos, but interspersed with shifting songforms, sometimes shifting radically sometimes subtly, so that you end at an entirely different point than when you began.  No track is under 5 minutes on Perfect from Now On, but it never feels like an indulgence either.  More abrasive, but similarly compositionally ambitious are Modest Mouse, who sound like they have a much clearer influence from the grunge bands (esp. Mudhoney) in their bursts of noise and aggression (and a hangdog, socio-economic outcast vibe that owes to both Mudhoney and Nirvana).  Unlike Built to Spill, whose lyrics are more or less placeholders (in true prog fashion), Modest Mouse have a clear (if somewhat cyptic) point of view, and something to say. 
                Also finally having something to say again, at long last, is Bob Dylan, who out of nowhere returns with not just a great album, but without a doubt his finest album since Blood on the Tracks, if not John Wesley Harding.  It’s not my insight, but in retrospect it’s clear that Dylan’s mid-90s folk-covers albums were a way of recentering himself after a decade and a half of fruitless, Jagger-eque trend hopping.  Borrowing a page from Neil Young, though, Dylan is finally comfortable sounding his age, and making the kind of music that appeals to him personally, rather than trying to sound contemporary.  (not coincidentally, doing this make him and Young hands-down the most vital of the 60s survivors in the 90s and beyond).  And that sound this year is a lot like the sound of fellow veteran artist Junior Kimbrough, whose blues are raw and rocking, but slower in pace and downright old-fashioned in production.  Jagger, incidentally, makes Dylan even better by trying to contemporize the Rolling Stones by adding electronica beats.  Even Bowie sounds more than a little desperately contemporary grafting big electronic beats onto his sound this year, so it’s all the more surprising how effective Dylan’s low-key quasi-trip-hop outtake “Dreaming Of You” is (though given how perfectly the rest of Time Out Of Mind fits together, leaving it off was probably a good call on Dylan’s part).

                On the subject of folk-rock, though among the younger set, there’s more alt-country this year, but I don’t have too much to say about it.  The Old 97s, Whiskeytown, and Jayhawks all keep going with their root-rocking sound, though both the Jayhawks and Whiskeytowner Ryan Adams will cast their sonic nets further soon.  In another example of how the UK and US scenes are coming together this year, though, Mekon Jon Langford’s new side-band, the Chicago-based Waco Brothers, sound for all the world like alt-country followers, rather than the product of one of the forefathers/precursors of the genre.  Also they sound a regrettable amount like mainstream country.

                Also in revival circles, neo-soul really gets moving this year, with Erykah Badu’s Baduizm laying down a style that’s clearly modern, but strongly indebted to the classic late 60s/early 70s soul heyday.  In Badu’s case, if not in other neo-soul artists, this comes with a layer of Parliament/Funkadelic cosmic weirdness as well.  This sound will spread quickly in the indie hip-hop world, and Common, for instance, is an early adopter.  More in the mainstream, the Wu Tang Clan release their formal follow-up to their debut, the sprawling Wu-Tang Forever, but it’s no more or less cohesive than if you’d assembled a 2-CD best of the intervening solo releases.  It’s impressive how the Wu were more a genre into themselves than a band or conventional hip-hop collective, but it does dull the impact of their united return that the new Wu album is more or less just another Wu-related project, and actually not nearly as good as some of the solo discs (esp. Liquid Swords).  Still, some good stuff in there.

Song of the Year:  Nothing really jumps out at me.  The Beta Band’s “Dry The Rain,” maybe?  It fits well in both my post-Beck narrative and my resurgent progressive ambitions narrative, at least, and is pretty excellent in its own right.  Probably the other contender would be Pavement’s “Shady Lane,” which is pretty much the epitome of their late-era Loaded-recalling folk-pop sound.

Album of the Year:  I was almost certain going into 1997 that it would be OK Computer, which really is a fantastic Floyd/Zeppelin album for the 90s, but ultimately I find myself thinking that really, the album of the year is Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind.  Albums by veteran artists often get tagged with a “great, considering” kind of tag, but Time Out of Mind is just straight up great, consistent in tone, excellent in both musicianship and lyrics, and honestly as good as anything else Dylan has done.  Except for “To Make You Feel My Love,” which is just maudlin tripe (and the only track I reliably skip), so of course became the song that Garth Brooks, Billy Joel, and Adele would cover.  And don’t feel bad for Radiohead; they’ll have plenty more shots at the title.

Artist Most Benefiting from Reevaluation:  Modest Mouse.  Having encountered them after Built to Spill, I wrote them off as Built To Spill followers, but they really came up simultaneously, and are at least as deserving of cred for developing that rambling post-Neil Young indie sound.  Plus, I’ve always felt that The Lonesome Crowded West, their grunge-prog album, is their real classic, not the next one (the one the indie kids swear by) or the one after that (the one mainstream radio noticed), and listening this year only reinforced that belief.

Artist Most Diminished in Reevaluation:  None, really.  Among my collection, a solid year, even if modern rock radio was increasingly becoming unlistenable.

Album List

Backstreet Boys - Backstreet Boys

Belle & Sebastian - The BBC Sessions

Ben Folds Five - Whatever & Ever Amen

Black Grape - Stupid Stupid Stupid

Blur - Blur

Blur - Blur B-Sides

Blur - Bustin' + Dronin' [Live]

Blur - The Best Of

Bob Dylan - Live 1961-2000: Thirty-Nine Years of Great Concert Performances

Bob Dylan - Time Out Of Mind

Bob Dylan - Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs

Built To Spill - Perfect From Now On

Charlatans UK - Melting Pot

Common - Thisisme Then: The Best Of Common

Cornelius - Fantasma

Cornershop - Singles 1997-2006

Cornershop - When I Was Born For The 7th Time

Daft Punk - Homework

Daft Punk - Musique Vol 1

Dan Bern - Dog Boy Van

David Bowie - Best Of Bowie

Devo - Pioneers Who Got Scalped: The Anthology

Dinosaur Jr. - Ear-Bleeding Country: Best Of Dinosaur Jr

Dropkick Murphys - The Singles Collection, Vol. 1

Edwyn Collins | Orange Juice - A Casual Introduction 1981/2001

Elliott Smith - Either/Or

Elliott Smith - Misc.

Elvis Costello - Extreme Honey: The Very Best Of The Warner Bros. Years

Erykah Badu - Baduizm

Fleetwood Mac - The Very Best Of Fleetwood Mac

Foo Fighters - The Colour And The Shape

Greyboy Allstars - A Town Called Earth

Hank Williams - 20 Of Hank Williams' Greatest Hits

Jamiroquai - Travelling Without Moving

Junior Kimbrough - You Better Run: The Essential Junior Kimbrough

King Crimson - In The Studio 1995-2003

King Crimson - Live 1994-2003

Kula Shaker - Summer Sun

Latyrx - The Album

Massive Attack - Mezzanine

Megadeth - Greatest Hits: Back To The Start (Digital Only)

Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West

Mogwai - Ten Rapid

Morrissey - The Best Of Morrissey

Oasis - Be Here Now

Oasis - The Masterplan

Old 97's - Hit By A Train: The Best Of Old 97's

Patti Smith - Outside Society

Paul Weller - Modern Classics

Pavement - Brighten The Corners

Pavement - Misc.

Pearl Jam - Christmas Singles

Phish - 1997/12/29 I New York, NY

Phish - 1997/12/29 II New York, NY

Primal Scream - Misc.

Primal Scream - Shoot Speed (More Dirty Hits)

Primal Scream - Vanishing Point

Radiohead - Airbag/How Am I Driving? [EP]

Radiohead - OK Computer

Radiohead - Running From Demons

Smashing Pumpkins - Rotten Apples: Greatest Hits

Squirrel Nut Zippers - Sold Out

Stereolab - Serene Velocity - A Stereolab Anthology

Super Furry Animals - Mwng

Super Furry Animals - Outspaced

Super Furry Animals - Radiator

Super Furry Animals - Super Furry Animals Songbook

Supergrass - In It For the Money

The Amazing Royal Crowns - The Amazing Royal Crowns

The Apples (In Stereo) - Tone Soul Evolution

The Beta Band - The Three E.P.'s

The Cure - Galore (The Singles 1987-1997)

The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin Companion

The Jayhawks - Music From The North Country: The Jayhawks Anthology

The Mekons - I Have Been to Heaven and Back..., Vol. 1

The Mekons - Where Were You?

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Let's Face It

The Mountain Goats - Misc.

The Notorious B.I.G. - Notorious

The Rolling Stones - Forty Licks

The Waco Brothers - Do You Think About Me?

U2 - B-Sides 1990-2000

U2 - The Best Of 1990-2000

V/A - Give 'Em The Boot

Van Morrison - The Songs Of Jimmie Rodgers - A Tribute

Whiskeytown - Strangers Almanac

Wu-Tang Clan - Wu: The Story Of The Wu-Tang Clan

Wu-Tang Clan - Wu-Tang Forever

X - Beyond & Back: The X Anthology

Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One

Yo La Tengo - Prisoners Of Love