AllMusic Loves 1999
May 9th, 2008 | 10:15 am est |
We love 1999 a whole lot, but maybe not quite as much as we love making lists. Each month (or so), until we have covered every year we can remember (unless we get tired), we will take a look at our favorite albums and singles released during a given year. In the year 1999, Basement Jaxx, Eminem, Mos Def, the Flaming Lips, the Dismemberment Plan, the ageless Tom Jones, the mighty LEN, and dozens of others produced nonperishable goods that would’ve gotten us through a Y2K drought of just about any magnitude.
Marisa Brown
I heard “Where My Girls At?” on the radio a couple of weeks ago and I still remembered every single word. If that’s not a testament to powerful songwriting (or um, limited radio playlists), I don’t know what is.
Blackalicious - A2G
The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
The Roots - Things Fall Apart
Eminem - The Slim Shady LP
Aesop Rock - Float
Beth Orton - Central Reservation
Goldie - INCredible Sound of Drum’n'Bass
Rob Swift - The Ablist
Quannum - Quannum Spectrum
702 - “Where My Girls At?” 
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
There was a bunch of great music in 1999 — I can’t think of another year in the past decade with so many great singles from all genres of music — so I decided to whittle my list to the albums and singles I still actively play (although I do admit that the singles are in heavier rotation than the full albums).
Fiona Apple - When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts…
Pavement - Terror Twilight
Eminem - The Slim Shady LP
Paul McCartney - Run Devil Run
XTC - Apple Venus, Pt. 1
Super Furry Animals - Guerrilla
The White Stripes - The White Stripes
Alan Jackson - Under the Influence
LEN - “Steal My Sunshine”
Madonna - “Beautiful Stranger”
Sugar Ray - “Every Morning”
Supergrass - “Pumping on Your Stereo”
Kid Rock - “Cowboy”
Super Furry Animals - “Northern Lights”
Backstreet Boys - “I Want It That Way”
Christina Aguilera - “Genie in a Bottle”
Suede - “Electricity”
Eminem - “Guilty Conscience”
David Jeffries
At the end of the year, Billy Joel promised to never play pop music again. Had he kept this promise, it would have been the best year ever. I also wish I could have fit Eiffel 65 or the Vengaboys on the list but the boss told me to keep it to ten.
Cut Chemist & DJ Shadow - Brainfreeze
Underworld - Beaucoup Fish
Beanie Sigel - The Truth
Tom Jones - Reload
Pharoahe Monch - Internal Affairs
Mos Def - Black on Both Sides
The Fall - The Marshall Suite
The Chemical Brothers - Surrender
Eminem - The Slim Shady LP
Basement Jaxx - Remedy
Mr. Vegas - “Heads High (Kill Dem Wid It)”
Ol’ Dirty Bastard - “Got Your Money”
Q-Tip - “Vivrant Thing”
Mr. Oizo - “Flat Beat”
Buccaneer - “Bruk Out”
Armand Van Helden - “U Don’t Know Me”
Groove Armada - “At the River”
Foxy Brown - “Hot Spot”
Capleton - “Jah Jah City”
Terrance & Phillip - “Uncle F**ka”
Andy Kellman
Basement Jaxx - Remedy
Mary J. Blige - Mary
Aril Brikha - Deeparture in Time
Dettinger - Intershop
Drexciya - Neptune’s Lair
Gas - Königsforst
Innerzone Orchestra - Programmed
Kelis - Kaleidoscope
Mos Def - Black on Both Sides
Stewart Walker - Stabiles
Basement Jaxx - “Red Alert”
Bows - “Girls Lips Glitter”
Pépé Bradock - “Deep Burnt”
Foxy Brown - “Hot Spot”
Vladislav Delay - “Huone”
Farben - “Live at the Sahara Tahoe, 1973″
Donell Jones - “U Know What’s Up”
Moodymann - “Shades of Jae”
Theo Parrish - “Summertime Is Here”
Slum Village - “Get Dis Money”
Andrew Leahey
Wilco - Summerteeth
The Waking Hours - The Waking Hours
Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers - Honky Tonk Union
Kate Rusby - Sleepless
Jimmy Eat World - Clarity
Fountains of Wayne - Utopia Parkway
Drive-By Truckers - Alabama Ass Whuppin’
Beck - Midnite Vultures
Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers - “Green & Dumb”
The Waking Hours - “Dolores”
Jimmy Eat World - “Lucky Denver Mint”
Madonna - “Beautiful Stranger”
Kate Rusby - “The Unquiet Grave”
Fountains of Wayne - “The Valley of Malls”
Jason Lymangrover
Mr. Bungle - California
Sigur Rós - Ágætis Byrjun
Handsome Boy Modeling School - So…How’s Your Girl?
The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
The Roots - Things Fall Apart
Beulah - When Your Heartstrings Break
Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret
The Dismemberment Plan - Emegency & I
Fantastic Plastic Machine - Luxury
Pavement - Terror Twilight
James Christopher Monger
The Negro Problem - Joys & Concerns
XTC - Apple Venus, Pt. 1
Agalloch - Pale Folklore
The Gourds - Ghosts of Hallelujah
Waterson:Carthy - Broken Ground
Tom Waits - Mule Variations
Nightmares on Wax - Carboot Soul
Dolly Parton - The Grass Is Blue
The Auteurs - How I Learned to Love the Bootboys
The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
Heather Phares
Add N to (X) - Avant Hard
Basement Jaxx - Remedy
The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci - Spanish Dance Troupe
Jim O’Rourke - Eureka
Royal Trux - Veterans of Disorder
Smog - Knock Knock
Stereo Total - My Melody
Super Furry Animals - Guerrilla
The White Stripes - The White Stripes
Tim Sendra
These poptastic songs are guaranteed to rub you the right way, get your game on, and be friends forever. These songs are strong enough, as high as Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, and Aphrodite, and if you’re lucky, they might just kiss you beneath the milky twilight. None of these songs are also known as a buster, none will hang out the passenger side of their best friend’s ride, and they will never, not ever, steal your sunshine. And yes, we like butter tarts!
LEN - “Steal My Sunshine”
Cher - “Believe”
Smashmouth - “All Star”
Sugar Ray - “Every Morning”
Tal Bachman - “She’s So High”
Sixpence None the Richer - “Kiss Me”
TLC - “No Scrubs”
Christina Aguilera - “Genie in a Bottle”
Vitamin C - “Graduation (Friends Forever)”
Some of the recordings listed above are technically 1998 releases, but they made more of an impact in 1999.
That Erlewine would list that completely talentless and useless scum-of-the-earth “Kid Schlock” in his singles of the year explains the fact that overall his reviews of artists and albums sound like they were written like a fourteen-year-old. AMG, for God’s sake, get rid of this moron.
I think he’s head of the site Bill.
That Tom Jones album was great, forgot all about it.
AMG *hates* Midnite Vultures! only one mention? come on, guys, just because STE gave it a bad review doesn’t mean you have to tow the line. if it had come out three years later and been called “the Love Below” you’d have shit your pants with glee.
I would vote for 1993.
1998 was a fascinating year.
“Kiss Me”! I can’t remember anything beyond the first line. But I still like it.
Armand Petri, the guy who produced and managed Sixpence None the Richer for a while, was an adjunct professor at my college for a while. He said “Kiss Me” got its big break when someone said that none of the songs from “She’s All That” could possibly become a hit. As a sort of “oh yeah?” to that, they took “Kiss Me” and promoted and pushed it like mad; sure enough, they broke it (in the sense of making it a hit, not irreparably damaging it)–it was all over the radio, on “Dawson’s Creek”, everywhere you turned.
Speaking of 1999, and because I love cheesiness, I’d add Vertical Horizon’s “Everything You Want” to the list just because was one of the few songs that I constantly heard on top-40 stations that didn’t make me want to break the radio into tiny pieces.
sunscreen
some albums not mentioned (just for the hell of it):
counting crows - this desert life
ben folds five - unauthorized biography of reinhold messner
blur - 13
cocteau twins - bbc sessions (old recordings, but an essential CT release, so it’s worth mentioning)
third eye blind - blue
nine inch nails - the fragile
supergrass - s/t
red hot chili peppers - californication
the fixx - 1011 woodland
def leppard - euphoria
chris cornell - euphoria morning
incubus - make yourself
stone temple pilots - no. 4
rage against the machine - battle of los angeles
foo fighters - there is nothing left to lose
limp bizkit - significant other
sleater-kinney - the hot rock
I’m really surprised that there are no mentions of Groove Armada’s “Vertigo,” the Magnetic Fields’ “69 Love Songs,” Moby’s “Play,” or Sleater-Kinney’s “The Hot Rock.” And no love for “…Baby One More Time” (in album or single form)? For shame.
Veterans of Disorder is a fantastic record…
“waterpark” and “second skin” sound as classic rock and roll songs… and the acid-soul-drenched “Stop” still makes me cry.
for me it ranks as the 2nd greatest royal trux album of all time.
being…
1st. Accelerator
3rd Cats and Dogs
rock on, baby!
I quite relate with Andrew’s list the most, despite how much I usually agree with STE. I think he completely missed the point of Utopia Parkway in his review, in fact FOW in general.
I also agree with the guy who listed ‘There Is Nothing Left To Lose’. The last FF album that doesn’t feel forced or bland.
But overall, 1999 wasn’t so hot.
This is a fun feature, and I’ll be following it along. Good work, all!
Shalom, y’all!
L. Bangs
Yes, actually very interesting and fun to send spotlight on a specific year.
Here’s my top 5 (as far I can remember it…)
The chemical brothers: Surrender
Mr. Bungle: California
Sigur Rós: Ágætis byrjun
The flaming lips: The soft bulletin
Rage against the machine: Battle of LA
Wilco - Summerteeth
STP - No. 4
Stereolab - Cobra and Phases Group
Snog - Third Mall from the Sun
RHCP - Californication
Rage Against the Machine - Battle of L.A.
Orbital - Middle of Nowhere
Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
Incubus - Make Yourself
Handsome Boy Modeling School - So…How’s Your Girl
Flaming Lips - Soft Bulletin
Filter - Title of Record
Dr. Dre - 2001
Death Cab - Something About Airplanes
Ben Folds - Unauthorized Biograph of Reinhold Messner
Beck - Midnite Vultures
I just lost all respect for this site.
I was working in a music store back in 1998 and we spent most of that summer listening to Underworld’s “Beaucoup Fish.” Great album (an all-time favorite of mine, in fact), but to say it “made more of an impact in 1999″ is just plain inaccurate.
Also, “Steal My Sunshine” isn’t available on iTunes. That’s just wrong.
I’m glad that Heather Phares got Smog’s “Knock Knock” mentioned, I don’t know why that album isn’t more popular.
Leedog,
We have the Underworld album as an April 13, 1999 release in the U.S. (and March 1, 1999 in the U.K.).
Interesting, and now that I think more about it, almost certainly correct. The CD’s copyrighted 1998 (with the exception of the track “Moaner,” which is 1997), but I imagine that’s when it was available in the UK. My bad, everything prior to 2002 is a blur for me.
Anyway, I hope you plan on working backwards at least a little. 1997 and 1998 were loaded with great albums.
Steve Earle’s The Mountain, which he recorded w/the Del McCoury Band, is a keeper from 1999. (Granted, his tour with them was even better … but how can anyone resist his duet w/Iris Dement on this album, “I’m Still in Love with You”?)
ha, i forgot ‘title of record’ by filter. pretty decent album..they’ll never top short bus though
I see much love for messrs Partridge and Moulding. Well deserved, and Wasp Star (from 2001?) was as good.
I can’t narrow my list down to 10. Here are my favorite 1999 albums! (I can’t believe some of these weren’t mentioned at all)
American Football - American Football
Built to Spill - Keep it like a Secret
Hot Rod Circuit - If I Knew Now What I New Then
Incubus - Make Yourself
Jimmy Eat World - Clarity
Machine Head - The Burning Red
Moby - Play
Mos Def and Talib Kweli - Black Star
Muse - Showbiz
Peanut Butter Wolf - My Vinyl Weighs A Ton
Poison the Well - The Opposite of December
Songs: Ohia - Axxess and Ace
The Anniversary - Designing A Nervous Breakdown
The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
The Get-Up Kids - Something to Write Home About
in no particular order:
1. Blur - 13 !!!!(i can’t believe this one didn’t make a list)
2. Chemical Bros - Surrender
3. Flaming Lips - Soft Bulletin
4. Beck - Midnight Vultures
5. Ben Folds Five - unauthorized biography…
6. Dr Dre - Chronic 2000
7. (?) RHCP - Californication (not their strongest, but a valiant comeback)
8. Kool Keith - Black Elvis/Lost in Space
9. Limp Bizkit - Significant Other ( i cringe as i type. a guilty pleasure for sure… yet a very good and influential album nonetheless).
10. Ole Dirty BAstard - Nigga Please
honorable mentions:
* Methodman and Redman - Blackout
* Sonic Youth - SYR4: Goodbye 20th Century
* Aphex Twin - Windowlicker
ps - get off STE’s nuts. he makes a valid list and is a good reviewer.
love,
chopper
…oh, and how about
Of Montreal - The Gay Parade (afterall, it is AMDB’s career album pick!)
CHOPPER OUT
conspicuous omissions:
Magnetic Fields = 69 Love Songs
Zap Mama = A Ma Zone
Sparklehorse = Good Morning Spider
Dave Douglas = Songs for Wandering Souls
Le Tigre - s/t
Os Mutantes = Best of
Opeth = Still Life
Tom Waits = Mule Variations
Sam Rivers = Inspiration
Ruben Blades = Tiempos
Richard Thompson = Mock Tudor
Brad Mehldau = Elegiac Cycle
Fountains of Wayne = Utopia Parkway
Continental Drifters = Vermilion
Lee Fields = Let’s Get A Groove On
Old 97s = Fight Songs
Evan Parker = Drawn Inward
Kim Richey = Glimmer
Rage Against the Machine = Battle of LA
Avishai Cohen = Devotion
A couple of my favorite albums from 1999 that didn’t make it in your list:
Aluminum Group - Pedals
The Ladybug Transistor - The Albemarle Sound
Shannon Wright - Flightsafety
Tindersticks - Simple Pleasure
Glad Heather Phares didn’t forgot Stereo Total.
Greetings!
Where the frigging hell is The Magnetic Fields’ ‘69 Love Songs’?
And Moby’s ‘Play’?
10. Moby - Play
9. Kool Keith - Black Elvis/Lost In Space
8. Beck - Midnite Vultures
7. NIN - The Fragile
6. Mr. Bungle - California
5. Basement Jaxx - Remedy
4. Basement Jaxx - Remedy
3. Basement Jaxx - Remedy
2. Basement Jaxx - Remedy
1. Basement Jaxx - Remedy
I can understand leaving Moby off the list, as “Play” made it’s biggest commercial impact in 2000 and 2001. “South Side” was the biggest hit and didn’t impact the charts until late 2000. “Porcelain” and “Natural Blues” were also decent successes, and were both released in 2000. Only “Body Rock” charted in ‘99.
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:geknikx0bbo9
-this review is practically unreadable - edit your reviews, allmusic.
Amen - S/t
Biohazzard New world Disorder
crazy town - gift of the game
Dido - No angel
Dope - Felons and revolutionaries
Eminem - Slim shady lp
Korn - Issues
Limp Bizkit -sign other
Machine Head - the burning red
Muse - Showbiz Hell you guys forgotten this gem
RHCP - Calefornication
Savage Garden - AAffirmation
NIN - Fragile the single greatest album of 1999 absolutely f***** brilliant two cds of gold
Hell this little band called creed released Human clay , bow down to there pseudo god rocking,
Yep, 1899 was the greatest year of them all.
Maurice Chevalier was merely a choir singer and Germany had just merged as a new country. But most of all, there was no time wasted complaining about little, harmless amuse-gueules like this one. You make music geeks a very bad publicity (for other music geeks anyway).
Can’t we just take it as it is ?
A very good year indeed, 1899.
Rage Against the Machine’s “Battle of Los Angeles” is a must.
people wonder why amg was so reluctant to allow user interaction .. half of the people who post here seem to actually be retarded.
Tim: Yeah, user interaction is truly a loud, whiny, hypersensitive, self-absorbed double-edged sword.
Whine whine, moan moan. I can’t believe you AMGers have favorite albums that don’t neatly coincide with my personal favorites. Really, how could you leave off the Backstreet Boys’ Christmas album from ‘99? How could you?! I judge you, AMG — I totally, totally judge you.
How can you forget The Beta Band?
NINE INCH NAILS “THE FRAGILE”?!!! HELLO?!
A few albums I feel are worth mentioning (not complaining):
Burning Airlines-Mission: Control!
Dieselhed-Elephant Rest Home
Elf Power-A Dream in Sound
Fantômas-S/T
Gordian Knot-S/T
Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci-Spanish Dance Troupe
The Hellacopters-Payin’ the Dues
The Lord Weird Slough Feg-Twilight of the Idols
The Mountain Goats-New Asian Cinema
Los Natas-Ciudad de Brahman
Nebula-To the Center
Spirit Caravan-Dreamwheel
Turbonegro-Apocalypse Dudes
Unida-Coping with the Urban Coyote
Yes, “The Fragile” and “The Battle of Los Angeles” were essential ‘99 albums.
I also have a deep love for Tori Amos’ “To Venus and Back”. The studio album is righteous and the live album is thrilling.
Just one more to add…
GZA/Genius - Beneath the Surface.
Obviously it was no Liquid Swords, but, then again, what is?
I guess I’m a little late to this party, but I have to say SHACK’s “HMS FABLE” belongs somewhere in the best of 1999 list. All of their albums are positively wonderful, but this is probably their greatest work. Buy it now!
I would add Bruce Cockburn’s “Breakfast in New Orleans,” a career highlight from a criminally undervalued artist.
Now now now, Bill “Plain White” T. If all critics were knee-jerk, Pixies-happy rejectors of everything that sells more than 100 grand and that “14-year-olds” like, then the public would (rightfully) tell them all to go to hell. Besides which, AMG would not exist.
Personally, although I think Mr. Erlewine went a little too far in giving Paris Hilton an above-terrible rating, he’s a breath of fresh air from the idiots over at Pitchfork.
My theory: Said idiots all live in the same apartment together in Boston, and they never, ever shower. They also burn Liz Phair albums in the furnace to keep warm.
Oh, and I couldn’t give a rodent’s gallbladder about most music from 1999. Still, that Moby album with “Porcelain” on it was a toe-tappin’ tunefest.
Hey, David Dickson, I went to pitchfork web, i didnt know there was such thing. and My God!, they are idiots.
If we all like music why are we insulting each other’s taste instead of trying to turn them on to what we like? If there were a perfect art form, there would only be one artist…producing the same perfection over and over again. Art is the unquantifiable, that’s what makes the experience/discussion fun.
That said I would like to recomend the following three very mentioned albums to anybody who hasn’t heard them:
Smog - Knock Knock
The Dismemberment Plan - Emegency & I
Beck - Midnite Vultures
1999 is a year I wish I could relive.
Bonnie Prince Billy - I See A Darkness
1999 seems like the most pitiful year in modern music to my ears. I’m hard-pressed to think of anything I enjoyed from that year aside from Prolapse’s Ghosts of Dead Aeroplanes.
I can’t believe no listed (even in the comments) the incomparable IMO self titled Slipknot album
It gave a whole new meaning to heavy music and has been a benchmark for countless bands, bot good and bad, ever since
Hey Jeff,
Good call! Bonnie Prince Billy’s “I See a Darkness” should not be forgotten. Truly, a classic album no matter what year it was released. I’ll take it over Basement Jaxx anyday.
I think Shanice ‘When I close My Eyes’ should’ve made the list for singles as it was a big thing in 99.
andy’s list is my favorite.
various albums unmentioned heretofore:
missy elliott-da real world
gramm-personal rock
destiny’s child-the writing’s on the wall
jay-z-vol. 3: life and times of s. carter
lil wayne-tha block is hot
hot boys-guerilla warfare
super_collider-head on
position normal-stop your nonsense
ginuwine-100% ginuwine
everything but the girl-temperamental
armand van helden-2 future 4 u
v/a-total 1
monolake-interstate
eightball & mjg-in our lifetime, vol. 1
dj screw-all work no play
at the drive-in-vaya
juvenile-tha g-code
maddkatt courtship-i know electrickboy
coil-musick to play in the dark
b.g.-chopper city in the ghetto
sizzla-royal son of ethiopia
deep dish-yoshiesque
richie hawtin-decks, efx & 909
todd edwards-prima edizione
faze action-moving cities
isolationist-s/t
piano magic-low birth weight
ghost-snuffbox immanence
green velvet-constant chaos
tlc-fanmail
sleep-jerusalem
kristin hersh-sky motel
e-40-charlie hustle
brendan perry-eye of the hunter
scritti politti-anomie & bonhomie
Some of those lists bring back some bad memories. 1999 to me represents the nadir of modern popular music. Tal Bachman, seriously? Fucking “All-Star”? Compare Top 40 from the last few years and it’s gotten SO much better.
highlights of some dark days:
Sigur Ros–Agaetis Byrjun (changed my life)
Built to Spill–Keep It Like a Secret
The Magnetic Fields–69 Love Songs
Wilco–Summerteeth
The Flaming Lips–The Soft Bulletin
Sleater-Kinney–The Hot Rock
The Beta Band–The Three EPs
Aimee Mann–Magnolia OST (haven’t seen this one mentioned)
1. Dream Theater - Scenes From A Memory
Single of the Year 1999: New Radicals “You Get What You Give”
Based on my record collection I couldn’t make 1999 a standoutyear.
The List of rap albums that year reads truly impressive:
Eminem - The Slim Shady LP
Pharoahe Monch – Internal Affairs
Mos Def - Black On Both Sides
The Roots - Things Fall Apart
Jay-Z - Vol.3… The Life And Times Of Shawn Carter
Aesop Rock - Float
But are the neighbor years 98/00 any worse? Not quite:
Outkast - Aquemini
Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Blackstar - Blackstar
Jay-Z - Vol.2 Hard Knock Life
Pete Rock - Soul Survivor
Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill
Outkast - Stankonia
Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP
Common - Like Water For Chocolate
Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientle
Talib Kweli & Hi Tek are Reflection Eternal - Train Of Thought
Ded Prez - Let’s Get Free
Jay-Z - The Dynasty Roc La Familia
These R’n'B/Pop-Albums of 1999 I still like:
Mariah Carey – Rainbow
Christina Aguilera – Christina Aguilera
TLC – Fanmail
Destiny’s Child – The Writings On The Wall
Melanie C – Northern Star
Geri Halliwell – Shicophonic
Jennifer Lopez – On The Six
Mary J. Blige – Mary
Pretty nice, but this list would get bashed by some 00er…
Obviously I’m not familiar with every style there is…
… but I do recognize these hard-hitting highlights of 1999:
NIN - The Fragile
Opeth - Still Life
In Flames - Colony
Emperor - IX Equilibrium
Dimmu Borgir - Spiritual Black Dimension
Immortal - At The Heart Of Winter
Testament - The Gathering
Hypocrisy - Hypocrisy
Slipknot - Slpknot
The Battle Of Los Angelos
And last but not least, better than every 1999er Album in my post:
Dream Theater - Metropolis Part II, Scenes From A Memory
Word
Supergrass - “Pumping on Your Stereo”
I forgot all about that song. Damn that was a good one!
- gramm - personal rock
- tom waits - mule variations
- beck - midnite vultures
- thid eye foundation - little lost soul (or was this 2000?)
- latin playboys - dose
- nin - fragile
- gas - koningfrost
- kit clayton - repetition and nonesense
- to rococo rot - the amateur view
- tiger lillies - bad, blood & blasphemy
i would also put those on. and californication is an album that made much noise when it came out, so i think it is worth a mention. it representes the rhcp rise from the ashes.
”You Get What You Give” has to be one of the decade’s greatest singles. I missed it here.
yes…ian thanks for refing prolapse’s ‘ghost’.
really that’s the only thing on the amg writers list or the fans segment i like…
translation…yep i have another year of having zero to listen to/look forward too…
but it’s like that for years and years so whatever. so yep i’m prefering silnece over whatever ‘hip’ music i’m supposed to like/over whatever popular music that’s good i’m supposed to like etc…
ian, notice even limp b. has made a few lists. alternative has truly won…
Here are my 20 best songs of 1999
1. FatBoy Slim - Right Here, Right Now
2. Moloko - The Time Is Now
3. Blur - Coffee & TV
4. Flaming Lips - Race For The Prize
5. Beck - Debra
6. Le Tigre - Deceptacon
7. Len - Steal My Sunshine
8. Macy Gray - I Try
9. Magnetic Fields - Luckiest Guy On The Lower East Side
10. Gerling - Enter SpaceCapsule
11. Chemical Brothers - Hey Boy Hey Girl
12. Ben Folds Five - Don’t Change Your Plans
13. Britney Spears - Baby, One More Time
14. Les Rhythm Digitales - Hey You What’s That Sound?
15. Bis - Action & Drama
16. Basement Jaxx - Jump’n'Shout
17. blink 182 - All The Small Things
18. Cassius - Feeling For You
19. Limp Bizkit - Nookie
20. Suede - She’s In Fashion
What a terrible year…
Or maybe the lists just suck. The lists on the comments are better, however…
Let us now ponder how great the years 1977 and 1984 were…and how much 1999 sucked in comparision.
great hard music releases in the year of 1999.
korn/issues
opeth/still life
dimmu borgir/spiritual black dimensions
testament/the gathering
l7/slap happy
at the drive in/vaya
in flames/colony
incubus/make yourself
static x/wisconsin death trip
chris cornell/euphoria morning
fu manchu/king of the road
machine head/the burning red
sevendust/home
stone temple pilots/no.4
limpbizkit/significant other
napalm death/words from the exit wound
staind/dysfunction
pennywise/straight ahead
filter/title of record
w.a.s.p./helldorado
nine inch nails/the fragile
red hot chili peppers/californication
danzig/666;satan’s child
biohazard/new world disorder
sick of it all/your’s truly
rage against the machine/the battle of los angeles
overkill/necroshine
mercyful fate/9
…. probably left some crucial ones out…i always seem to.
1999 saw few of my favourite bands coming up with some excellent CDs. Here are my favourites listed according to my liking.
1- there is nothing left to lose - foo fighters (there best CD ever for me)
2- this desert life - counting crowes (”hey…mrs. potter won’t you talk to me ?)
3- 13- blur (raggedly beautiful)
4- euphoria morning - chris cornell
5- californication - red hot chili peppers ( i love “scar tissue”)
6- no.4 -stone temple pilots
7- the distance to here - live
8- brand new day - sting
9- human clay - creed ( don’t atack me; it’s a pretty decent album… before they faded into predictable nothings…)
Here is one glaring omission, Santana’s Supernatural. That was probably the best thing out in 1999.
Here are some other notables
Whitney Houston’s My Love Is Your Love
Tevin Campbell’s Tevin Campbell
I love the concept (and lists) keep ‘em coming, please!
UMMM, Forgive me, but US MAPLE “TALKER” was one of the best albums of the year. Made me wanna go out, get shit faced, cut my hair in the dark, and wear an acid washed denim jacket and pants with lots of pleats. Druggy fucker music. Incredibly organized chaos, atonal and melodic, angular and perfectly smooth. I wish I could hear it for the first time again.
OM EFFIN G!!! I just said how much I LOVE US MAPLE “TALKER”…and I was thinking that the best way to describe it would be to call it “A JOYFUL NOISE”…only its kinda not really joyful, more damaged…more like a when you see a race at the Special Olympics…its kinda more fucked up, but the win is all the sweeter. More sincere and beautiful…but somehow the losses are a little more tragic.
And that made me think of ANOTHER of the most PERFECT ALBUMS OF 1999.
SUN RA & HIS SOLAR MYTH ORCHESTRA “LIFE IS SPLENDID” (it was recorded in ‘72, but released in ‘99, so that counts).
I hate to argue with Mr. Unterberger (I’m a fan), but THREE STARS!?!?!?! This record has to be one of the most perfect live recordings ever made; quality be damned! TRULY, A JOYFUL NOISE!!! Chaos, precision, energy, spontaneity, message, intention. Throughout the 37 minutes, “songs” materialize from ether, and then devolve into cacophony. Rhythms and structure magically appear with gorgeous call and response lyrics and then dissolve into confusion and anxiety and stress and then emerge again with confidence and purpose and honesty. And then collapses again (and on and on). This album is a perfect photograph of a perfect moment taken with a shitty camera.
Funnily, “Talker” employs the same device…organization and clarity from noise and chaos, intention through the accidental.
But then, I was really fucked up in ‘99. Fin de siècle.
@H-LO: I agree, that album deserved a place in this post.
hmmm a great year
Air - premiere symptomes
Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun
Built to spill - Keep it like a secret
Death Cab for cutie - something about airplanes
death in vegas - the contino sessions
drive by truckers - pizza deliverance
foo fighters - there is nothing left to lose
fountains of wayne - utopia parkway
jimmy eat world - clarity
massive attack - mezzanine
moby - play
mogwai - come on die young
RATM - battle of LA
STP - no 4
super furry animals - guerilla
supercar - jump
flaming lips - soft bulletin
wheat - hope and adams
wilco - summerteeth
still listening to all these even now
Love the posts.
Favorites I haven’t seen mentioned:
Los Lobos - This Time “Viking”
Pete Townshend - Live in Chicago “Heart To Hang Onto”
VA - More Oar
VA - Return of Grievous Angel
Pretenders - Viva El Amor
Supergrass - X-Ray
Travis - The Man Who
Magnolia soundtrack
Jeff Beck - Who Else?
My Morning Jacket - The Tennessee Fire
Looking over these lists, what strikes me the most is how little rock and pop music has changed in the last ten years. Seriously, everything on these lists could’ve been released for the first time in 2009 and no one would notice. Conversely, most pop/rock music of 2008/2009 could’ve been released in 1999 without sounding ahead of their time.
Imagine Eminem’s Slim Shady album being released in 1989, Prince’s Lovesexy appearing in 1979, Pink Floyd’s The Wall coming out in 1969. Ridiculous, right? In each case, musical and cultural trends, as well as studio technology, had changed so much over a ten-year period that those albums couldn’t have appeared a decade earlier. But ever since the nineties it seems to this listener that, though excellent singles and albums do continue to appear, overall there has been no significant evolution in the field.
What is to blame? Studios taking less chances with unproved but original talent in favour of homogenized, “safe” acts due to declining industry sales? The increasing irrelevancy of the album due to downloading (legal and otherwise) of individual songs? The fracturing of shared musical tastes due to the prevalence of DIY mash-ups and mixes? Who knows? But the music industry sure could use another significantly original and innovative artist (like the Beatles in 1962 or the Ramones in 1976), and a studio exec courageous enough to sign them, just to shake things up again.
I must say that you provide genuine, quality information. Thanks for this!
BTW, dpn’t you think your blog needs a better wordpress template?
Ah, junior high, it’s all coming back…warped tour, baggy jeans, hacky sacks, starting a band, getting into the local music scene… expanding my mind would soon follow.
Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Californication
Incubus - Make Yourself
Korn - Issues
STP - No. 4
Eminem - Slim Shady LP
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Live - The Distance To Here
NIN - The Fragile
blink-182 - Enema of the State
Saves the Day - Through Being Cool
311 - Soundsystem
Slipknot - Slipknot
Suede - Head Music
Bush - The Science of Things
Silverchair - Neon Ballroom
Buzz Poets - Pretzel Sex
Simon - Writing on the Cosmic Wheel
AMG staff, how did you miss all of these!?
1999 was also the year ‘emo’ broke with the trifecta of jimmy eat world’s clarity, the get up kids ’something to write home about’ and saves the day ‘through being cool’