Music: Best Albums of the Year series: 1999

[Saturated Fats]

1965: The Beatles - Rubber Soul
1967: The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
1969: The Beatles - Abbey Road
1970: Black Sabbath - Paranoid
1971: Led Zeppelin - IV
1973: Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
1975: Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
1977: Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
1979: Pink Floyd - The Wall
1980: AC/DC - Back in Black
1982: Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
1985: Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair
1988: Metallica - ...And Justice for All
1989: Pixies - Doolittle
1991: Nirvana - Nevermind
1994: Nirvana - MTV Unplugged in New York
1996: (TIE) Soundgarden - Down on the Upside // Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire
1998: (TIE) Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill // System of a Down - System of a Down
2000: Radiohead - Kid A
2002: Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
2004: (TIE) Madvillain - Madvillainy // The Killers - Hot Fuss // Green Day - American Idiot
2007: Radiohead - In Rainbows
2010: The National - High Violet

2014: Behemoth - The Satanist (6 votes)

2nd Place (TIE): Jack White - Lazaretto (4 votes)
2nd Place (TIE): Swans - To Be Kind
2nd Place (TIE): The War on Drugs - Lost in a Dream
2nd Place (TIE): Beck - Morning Phase

Wow. This was... absolutely not what I expected. I know that 6 votes is hardly a resounding mandate - but there were still a good handful of votes thrown around. Although it is my favourite album of the year, I would've never thought satanic death metal would win... Any year. But I guess it is an album that most of the mainstream metal publications recognized in their end-of-decade lists, so it's hardly like this is unjustified. Still, the biggest surprise in any of the polls, without a doubt.

1999 isn't exactly a top-end year in terms of recognized mainstream quality. This was the zenith of nu-metal, pop-punk, and rap-rock, and... Well, I tried to be fair and include the big ones as poll options. Sorry, Korn/Creed/Celine Dion fans - I had to draw the line somewhere. And there was a lot of 'somewhere' in 1999. Still, there are some outstanding releases across genres here, and I know there are a few regular voters who expressed that this is one of their favourite years, so I'm looking forward to those lists.

9/19: 1966
9/21: 2005
9/23: 1984

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[frisco]

Other:
The Austin Sessions-Kris Kristofferson
No Exit-Blondie
Brave New World-Styx
Karma-Rick Springfield

My Best-Carey

 

[NyQuil]

Study: No Two People Have Listened To Same Band Since 2003

 

[WetcoastOrca]

1. Tom Waits: Mule Variations
2. Moby: Play
3. Flaming Lips: The Soft Bulletin
4. The White Stripes s/t
5. Californication: Red Hot Chili Peppers

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I was wondering when my Mike Patton fangirlism would show up, and I guess this is it.

1. Fantômas – Fantômas
2. Mr. Bungle – California
3. The Bicycle Thief – You Come And Go Like A Pop Song
-
4. Les innocents – Les innocents
5. Melt Banana – MxBx 1998 / 13,000 miles at light velocity
6. The Olivia Tremor Control – Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume 1
-
7. Oren Ambarchi & Robbie Avenaim – The Alter Rebbe's Nigun
8. Tom Waits – Mule Variations
9. Sweep the Leg Johnny – Tomorrow We Will Run Faster
10. Secret Chiefs 3 – Eyes of Flesh, Eyes of Flame

HMs
Marc Ribot – Yo! I Killed Your God
Maybe Monday – Saturn's Finger
John Zorn – Taboo and Exile
Dillinger Escape Plan – Calculating Infinity
Motor Humming – Musical Aluminum
The Monsoon Bassoon - I Dig Your Voodoo
XTC – Apple Venus Vol. One
Death Ambient – Synaesthesia
Kazumoto Endo – While You Were Out
Magnetic Fields – 69 Love Songs (three volumes)
Alphane Moon – The Echoing Grove
Boredoms – Vision Creation Newsun
Combatwoundedveteran – I Know A Girl Who Develops Crime Scene Photos
The Black Heart Procession – 2
Godspeed You Black Emperor! – Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada (EP)
Hefner – The Fidelity Wars
David Sylvian – Dead Bees On A Cake
ZeN – Bakırköy Akıl Hastanesi'nde

Special shout-out to Bill Laswell who worked on 9 or 10 pretty good albums through the year, including 5 solo albums, using 3 different names, with 5 different record companies:
Bill Laswell – Invisible Design
Bill Laswell (as Hashisheen) – The End of Law
Bill Laswell – Permutation
Bill Laswell – Imaginary Cuba
Bill Laswell (as Rasa) – Serene Timeless Joy
Plus these collaborations (and a soundtrack album):
Purple Trap – Decided... Already The Motionless Heart Of Tranquility, Tangling The Prayer Called "I"
Cobra Strike – The 13th Scroll
Material – Intonarumori
Shin Terai – Unison

Curiosities:
John Zorn – Godard/Spillane (compilation, uniting two of the most interesting pieces of Zorn's wide work)
Dick Annegarn – Adieu Verdure
Cibo Matto – Stereo * Type A
Oidupaa Vladimir Oiun – Divine Music From A Jail
Handsome Boy Modeling School – So… How’s Your Girl?
DJ Logic – Project Logic
Maldoror – She
Deep Puddle Dynamics – The Taste of Rain...Why Kneel?
Arto Lindsay – Prize

 

[Teemu]

Wilco – Summerteeth
Bonnie “Prince” Billy – I See a Darkness
Drive-By Truckers – Pizza Deliverance

 

[Oxbow Lakes]

Prince Paul - A Prince Among Thieves
The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
the pillows - Runners High
Tenhi - Kauan
MF Doom - Operation Doomsday
Kent - Hagnesta Hill
Mos Def - Black on Both Sides
The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs

 

[Mescaleroman]

Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros - Art Rock and the X-Ray Style
Stereophonics - Performance and Cocktails
Ocean Colour Scene - One From the Modern
Filter - Title of Record
the Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
Guided By Voices - Do the Collapse
Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
... And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead - Madonna
Of Montreal - Gay Parade

 

[Langdon Alger]

Travis - The Man Who

 

[plank]

1. Summerteeth - Wilco
2. Axxess & Ace - Songs: Ohia
3. Lost Son - Richmond Fontaine
4. Cheating at Solitaire - Mike Ness
5. Echo - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
6. Burn to Shine - Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals
7. The Velvet Touch Of - Los Straitjackets
8. Bourbonitis Blues - Alejandro Escovedo
9. Rehearsals for Departure - Damien Jurado
10. Central Reservation - Beth Orton
11. I See A Darkness - Bonnie "Prince" Billy
12. Mojave - Willard Grant Conspiracy
13. Full Western Dress - The Derailers
14. The Tennessee Fire - My Morning Jacket
15. Solitude - Volebeats

 

[ItsFineImFine]

I'd say it's Hagnesta Hill by kent, the best album that Radiohead never made, but since it's entirely in Swedish and the English version wasn't released an year later, I'll instead go with:

The Man Who by Scottish band Travis. Really the first big album of the 'post-Britpop' era (though Puressence released Only Forever an year ago and it was just as good but they never made it big). Why Does It Always Rain On Me is still one of my all-time favourite songs and it has three other strong singles, Writing To Reach You, Turn, and Driftwood combined with not a single bad track on the rest including the bonus. I first heard it in the summer of 2005 on my commutes and it fit really well, still holds up.

Travis - The Man Who

Ayyyy

 

[Langdon Alger]

I’ll give a little love to Live for their album “the distance to here”. Not as good as throwing copper, but still a solid effort from a great band.

Also, Moist for their album “Mercedes five and dime.”

 

[kihei]

Sigur Ros: Agaetis Byrjun
Brian Ferry: As Time Goes By
Ryuchi Sakamoto: BTTB
Ibrahim Ferrer: The Buena Vista Social Club Presents....
Keith Jarrett: The Melody at Night, with You
Ali Farka Toure: Niafunke
The Charlatans: Us and Only Us
The Frames: Dance the Devil
Porcupine Tree: Stupid Dream
Jeff Beck: Who Elase?

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Blink 182 - Enema of the State

While its fun, high school pop/skate punk, its also more complex musically than you'd think.

Rick Beato does a great breakdown as part of his What Makes This Song Great series



side note, he should be every music lovers favorite channel. He does great stuff breaking down songs, awesome music theory videos and interviews artists from a music composition side.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Blink 182 - Enema of the State

While its fun, high school pop/skate punk, its also more complex musically than you'd think.

Rick Beato does a great breakdown as part of his What Makes This Song Great series



side note, he should be every music lovers favorite channel. He does great stuff breaking down songs, awesome music theory videos and interviews artists from a music composition side.

I love Beato! I think he sometimes puts a lot of effort/time to end up not saying much, but he's always so much fun and enthusiastic that he even makes me appreciate stuff I'd never listen to.

 

[Our Lady Peace]

Matthew Good Band - Beautiful Midnight

 

[Langdon Alger]

People actually like Blink 182? I guess they’re kind of fun in a way, but they’re really not that great.

 

[Ceremony]

I voted for Cody



but I also need to vote for Clarity by Jimmy Eat World.

 

[Azathoth]

Voted Slipknot (definitely listened to this album a lot in high school), Agalloch and Opeth

Others:
Windir-Arntnor (one of my favorite black/folk metal albums)
Children of Bodom-Hatebreeder
Nevermore-Dreaming Neon Black
Immortal-At the Heart of Winter
Finntrol-Midnattens Widunder

 

[Langdon Alger]

Matthew Good Band - Beautiful Midnight

Hello time bomb, I’m ready to go off.

 

[Fixed to Ruin]

Matthew Good Band - Beautiful Midnight

this.

 

[Our Lady Peace]

I voted for Cody



but I also need to vote for Clarity by Jimmy Eat World.

100% yes. That's the album that slipped my mind. Clarity is a staple album in the emergence of 90's Emo and paved so much way for future Emo bands.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Matthew Good Band - Beautiful Midnight

I'd vote for this one as well. Nothing too complex, but it has a great, dark ambience throughout the album and consistently strong songwriting.

 

[Our Lady Peace]

I'd vote for this one as well. Nothing too complex, but it has a great, dark ambience throughout the album and consistently strong songwriting.

All-around it's just a front-to-back homerun. Aside from the brilliant non-radio tunes the band has on this album, they catch the ear of recreational listeners to the band. If the garbage record labels wanted a 'pop' song, he smashed it out of the park with 'Hello Time Bomb', 'Load Me Up', 'The Future is X-Rated', and 'Jenni's Song'.

The signature of this album is that many of the songs about 2 or 3 mins in descend from the heavy hitter style to an ambient, somber tone and capture your ears - then it jumps back into the heavier parts. Brilliant album.

 

[Fixed to Ruin]

Hello time bomb, I’m ready to go off.

I'm frantic so load me up.