"Classic" Albums of the Last 10 Years

1993-2003

I guess we start with a definition. What's a "classic"? It's easier to start with saying what it's not. A classic is not just a record with 100% good songs. It's not necessarily a "masterpiece" representing the very finest work of a particular artist. A classic is a record that your kids might end up stealing from you to listen to, all the while wondering how mommy and daddy got so lame when they used to listen to such cool music.It's not necessarily a bestselling record. It's a record that inspired other musicians, upped the game, and did something fresh and timeless.

Some candidates:
Nirvana In Utero
Sunny Day Real Estate Diary
Bjork Vespertine
Sleater-Kinney All Hands On the Bad One
The Flaming Lips The Soft Bulletin
Jeff Buckley Grace
Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Nine Inch Nails The Downward Spiral
Pavement Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Blur Parklife
Pulp Different Class

Thoughts?

I'd agree with the Jeff Buckley album, but I can't call any of the others classics because a) I haven't heard them and b) it's unlikely they influenced anything I like.

However, you can probably appreciate my list, Keith.

In no particular order:

Sianspheric - Somnium
Yo La Tengo - I can hear the heart beating as one
Belle & Sebastian - Tigermilk
Lush - Split
Slowdive - Souvlaki
Suede - Coming Up
Stereolab - Dots & Loops
Portishead - Dummy
Heavenly - The Decline & Fall of Heavenly (obligatory Sarah Records band inclusion)
Esthero - Breath From Another

Too many classics to list just 10... but 10 will have to do.

[Edited on Aug 22, 2003 by avalyn11]

The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin

Mercury Rev - Deserter's Songs

Shellac - 1000 Hurts

...and you will know us by the trail of dead - source tags & codes

The Boredoms - Super ae

Lightning Bolt - Ride the skies

Stereolab - Transient Random-Noise Bursts With... (1993!)

Tortise - self titled debut (1994)

GSYBE-Shake yr skinny fists like anntennas towards heaven
Sigur ros- ( )
Bjork- Homogenic
Brian Jonestown Massacre- Methodrone
Radiohead-Ok Computer
NIN- The Fragile
Spiritualized- Lazer Guided Melodies
Aphex Twin- Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2

Wilco - Being There
Songs: Ohia - the Lioness
the Jayhawks - Tomorrow the Green Grass
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Whiskeytown - Stranger's Almanac
Teenage Fanclub - Grand Prix
Three Hour Tour - 1969
Olivia Tremor Control - Music from the Unrealized Film Script Dusk at Cubist Castle
the Gits - Enter: the Conquering Chicken

Going back a little more than a decade, sorry.

The Stone Roses - Self titled
Massive Attack - Blue Lines
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Primal Scream - Screamadelica
Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman
Interpol - Turn On your Bright Lights

Alice In Chains - Jar of Flies
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Deftones - White Pony
Atmosphere - God Loves Ugly
Poison The Well - The Opposite of December
Company Flow - Funcrusher Plus
Tool - Aenima
Rage Against The Machine - The Battle of Los Angeles
Rollins Band - Nice
Alias - The Other Side of the Looking Glass
Radiohead - OK Computer
Comes With The Fall - The Year is One

and many more...



[Edited on Aug 22, 2003 by Kris7]

69 LOVE SONGS
LONESOME CROWDED WEST
KEEP IT LIKE A SECRET
NEW ADVENTURES IN HI-FI
EMPEROR TOMATO KETCHUP
MAXINQUAYE
SUMMERTEETH
SEA CHANGE
TEN NEW SONGS BY LEONARD COHEN
LOOK NOW LOOK AGAIN
THEN NOTHING TURNED ITSELF INSIDE OUT
EITHER/OR
OK COMPUTER

also

THE FRAGILE

these are always impossible lists, but here's a few from my collection:

Velocity Girl - Copacetic
The Wedding Present - Seamonsters
Built to Spill - Perfect from Now On
The Beautiful South - 0898
GusGus - Polydistortion
Field Mice - For Keeps
The Lilys - Better Can't Make Your Life Better

Manics - The Holy Bible
Otep - Sevas Tra
Catatonia - Way Beyond Blue
Chowder Boy - The Soup Is Off

Bill and Ted's Bogus Hourney soundtrack! HA! Gotcha! That was 91. Though it did rock. GOD GAVE ROCK AND ROLL TO YOU!

Some great albums listed above by everybody. Here's a few that I think were overlooked so far:

Exhile In Guyville - Liz Phair (1993)
Siamese Dream - Smashing Pumpkins (1993)
Live Through This - Hole (1994)
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - Smashing Pumpkins (1995)
Odelay - Beck (1996)
OK Computer - Radiohead (1997)
Evergreen - Echo & The Bunnymen (1997)
When I Was Born for the 7th Time - Cornershop (1997)
This Is Hardcore - Pulp (1998)
Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea - P.J. Harvey (2000)
All That You Can't Leave Behind - U2 (2000)
Is This It - The Strokes (2001)
Gold - Ryan Adams (2001)
The Fine Art of Self Destruction - Jesse Malin (2002)

I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but to me all of the above are classics.

[Edited on Aug 22, 2003 by souljacker]

Two words

Nothing Shocking

That does it for me.

Great album...but you missed Keith's 1993 cut-off by five years. That album came out in 1988.

The only ones I'd disagree with there are Gold and All That You Can't Leave Behind. I personally thought Heartbreaker was a better record than Gold in every sense, and although I thought ATYCLB was good, I dunno if I'd call it a classic. Good fucking called on Exile in Guyville though.

cripes . . . that means I'm going to be a grownup soon.
Drat!
*goes to pick out a tie*

Leftfield - Leftism
Oasis - Definitely Maybe
Pulp - Different Class
Beck - Odelay
Orbital - Brown
Ash - 1977
Kent - Hagnesta Hill
Kent - Isola
Prodigy - Music For The Jilted Generation
Super Furry Animals - Fuzzy Logic

1.Steve Coleman and The FiveElements Black Science
2.Greg Osby Zero
3.Portishead Dummy
4.Tortoise Millions Now Living Will Never Die
5.Radiohead Ok Computer
6.Autechre Tri Repaete+++
7.Drive Like Jehu Yank Cime *extended version
8.Medeski, Martin+Wood The Dropper
9.The Refused The Shape of Punk to Come
10.DJ Evil Dee Rawkus Records Presents:SoundBombing, Vol.I
11.The Wu-Tang Clan ...the 36 Chambers
12.Belle&Sebastian If Your Feeling Sinister...

[Edited on Aug 22, 2003 by deBreard]

I love threads like this...
Now I gotta go scrounge through my CDs and find some stuff mentioned above.. Especially Copacetic by Velocity Girl. I haven't listened to that in years and I really loved that CD when it came out.

Who is Kent? I've heard several members rave about them, and I can honestly tell I've never, ever heard of them before. Please recomend some tracks I can download as an introduction.

Nirvana Unplugged
Bjork Homogenic
STP Purple
Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness
Orbital In Sides
Radiohead OK Computer
Nine Inch Nails The Fragilel
Soundgarden Down on the Upside
A Perfect Circle Mer de Noms
PJ Harvey Is This Desire?
Sigur Ros Ágætis Byrjun
Dust Brothers Fight Club Original Soundtrack
Rilo Kiley Takes Offs and Landings

I'd also include SP's Adore and Placebo's Without You I'm Nothing, but I might be getting a little too into my tastes there [Edited before the Grammar Police found me] <3

[Edited on Aug 22, 2003 by desidia]

Kent are an awesome band from Sweden.
For starters you can get 'Just Like Money', 'Kevlar Soul', '747' (both Swedish and English language versions), 'Celsius', 'Protection' and 'Rollercoaster'....when you've got through them then get 'Saker Man Ser', 'Kevlarsjäl' and 'We Need To Eat'.

Truly one of the finest bands of the last 10 years, and unfortunately hardly anyone has ever heard them.
It's almost criminal...