128. Hayden - Everything I Long For (1996)




Hayden doesn't really seem like an artist I'd be into. Well, his later stuff, yeah. But this one can get rough around the edges at points. I'm generally not into that growling kind of delivery. 'Skates' is exactly the kind of song I don't like.

The rest of this album, however, is great. 'Bad As They Seem', 'In September', 'Stem', 'Bunkbed'... all very excellent.

Singer-songwriter is a label I'm wary of because a lot of it can easily become either really boring or really mediocre. This manages to stay a step ahead of becoming either of those.

129. The Wallflowers - Bringing Down The Horse (1996)




Yeah, I heard the Wallflowers before I heard Bob Dylan. But I was born in '85 and this came out when I was eleven. I was just getting into music of my own picking. I'm sure I heard a song or two off this on the radio. My parents owned this cd and they played it a lot too. So I liked it. It wasn't until a few years ago that I found it for $4 and decided to buy it for myself.

I don't enjoy it as much now as I did then. Tastes change, evolve, et cetera. But I don't hate it. Not even close. And it's not something I have a desire to listen to often, or at all, really. But I still find myself liking tracks like 'Three Marlenas' when it's on.

Three Marlenas is good song and I thought this was alot better than it's given credit for.

Considering how much his pa is worshipped, the fact that it's not a trainwreck should be an accomplishment in itself.

Just think of how your kids are going to shit all over Tommy Yorke, Jr's debut album.

That album just isnt bad. I tried to not like it, but its a guilty pleasure from back in the day, for sure.

Geezuz people, there's nothing wrong with bands like the Wallflowers. There's far too much apologizing on this planet already. You like it or you don't like it.

i'm sorry.

130. Belle And Sebastian - Tigermilk (1996)




My favorite album by my favorite band.

Also the first album I heard by the band. I can't remember how I first heard about B&S, which is a shame. If I could remember who/what/where specifically I did, I'd owe them a lot of thanks.

I never get sick of this album. I love every track on it, obsessively so. I try to include something by the band on nearly every mixtape I make. Especially when I'm making them for someone else.

This album led to me hearing about the genre 'twee', which is now one of my favorite music genres. So this album alone led me to discovering bands like Cub, Beat Happening, The Field Mice, The Boy Least Likely To, and more.

A top five of all-time for me.

131. Sponge - Wax Ecstatic (1996)




I heard about Sponge through the Mallrats soundtrack. The first songs I heard by the band were 'Seventeen', 'Plowed', and 'Molly'. All upbeat, poppy alternative rock. The kind of music I was viciously devouring at the time.

So when I bought this album, I wondered what the hell was going on. The first three tracks were loud and rough and much more rock than pop. The first few times, I only really enjoyed 'Have You Seen Mary' and a couple others. But the rest really grew on me and this is one of my favorite "alternative rock" records now.

Unlike a lot of cd's from this time period, I haven't grown out of it or stopped liking it. Which is a testament to Sponge. They beat the Smashing Pumpkins, after all.

132. Frente - Shape (1996)




I didn't remember this being so underwhelming.

It's like the last Frente! disc minus the hooks. A lot of this is just kind of dull. Her voice is still pleasant and the songs have the same low-key acoustic niceness to it. But, aside from 'Burning Girl', a lot of this is pretty unmemorable. That's disappointing.

Ha. I remember the week that this came out. I walked into Waxie Maxie's and looked it once over, and then decided not to buy it. I believe I bought Rage Against the Machine's "Evil Empire" instead. In the long run I ended up buying Sponge as well, though used.

Waxie Maxie's!

Now owned by the glorious company named Transworld, and probably renamed to FYE.

133. Fiona Apple - Tidal (1996)




This took a long time to really grow on me. Just because it's not really my kind of thing. I like female vocalists. I like piano music. I like ballads and interesting lyrics. But something about the way she does it doesn't really ring for me. I think this album in particular leans more to the jazz/soul spectrum than the rock/pop which could be it. I absolutely love her latest album.

However, despite my not loving it, I do really dig the first half. 'Shadowboxer', 'Criminal', 'Sullen Girl'...

I think it would sound really good next to Jeff Buckley on a mixtape yet I haven't actually tried that.

this is one of those rare cds i first heard at a cd listening booth in some cd store first. one of those archaic, brick-and-mortar methods of previewing albums.

134. The Cardigans - First Band On The Moon (1996)




I didn't think I'd ever say this but this album is, I think, too pop for me.

I love 'Lovefool', 'Been It' and their 'Iron Man' cover. A lot of the other songs are good. But it's so pop, minus the rock, that I don't really enjoy it as much as I think I would enjoy some of their other work.

I'm sure I probably got into this disc through 'Lovefool'. I know it would've been many years after that, though. Once I had the internet and discovered I could sample any album for free. I owe the internet and services like SoulSeek a lot. My music collection would be near-empty without it.

135. Eels - Beautiful Freak (1996)




This album destroyed me when I first heard it. It was very "alternative rock" in the sense of all the other music I was listening to at the time. But it was so much better.

Eels are currently a top three band for me. The exact positions vary day to day, while they fight with Belle, Sebastian, and Guster.

E is probably my favorite singer-songwriter-musician-icon working today. Stephen Merritt and Stuart Murdoch are up there but I still stand by E. His various looks and attitudes on down to showing up on Letterman with the entire group in pyjamas and E himself, cane in hand, cigar in mouth, slippers on make me think how cool he is.


Anyway, this album I love. Maybe not my favorite by Eels but that's a position that changes every day as well.

Songs like 'Flower' and 'Not Ready Yet' are among my favorites by the group and tracks like 'My Beloved Monster' and 'Novocaine For The Soul' are bonafide classics.


I can't believe I still haven't seen them live.

136. Fountains Of Wayne (1996)

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Definitely one of my favorite power-pop albums, though not all the songs fall into that grouping, obviously.

Just a great album from beginning to end and one I never get sick of. Another one where I've got a different favorite track off it every day. And another band that really does not deserve to be known as a one hit wonder, though I'm sure they already are in some circles.

137. Counting Crows - Recovering The Satellites (1996)




This was maybe my favorite album when this came out. I would've been almost twelve. I had got into their first one because my parents owned it and played it a lot. I don't know why they didn't buy this one themselves or get into it. Maybe the lack of radio play, aside from 'A Long December'. But, one way or another, (birthday present money probably), I ended up getting this for myself. And this would've been one of the first albums that I owned myself that wasn't Disney.

Like a lot of things, it's tainted by the time and the place. I can't ever enjoy it as much as I did then because it's steeped too much in the "then" time period. And 'Goodnight Elisabeth' was my first girlfriend and I's song. So I can never properly listen to that again.

I do really enjoy this disc, though. And it empowered me, because it was a sign that the band did have a career ahead of them and were capable of quality, outside of August.

'Another Horsedreamer's Blues' is probably my favorite song off this now. And I would love to hear a cover of this by one of my current favorite bands. Someone like Belle And Sebastian or Eels.

138. Blind Melon - Nico (1996)




Ironically, my favorite Blind Melon album. But this odds-and-ends compilation is stellar and adds to the strong case that the other two albums were making; the case being that the death of Shannon Hoon was a real loss to the music world.

The ripped away version of 'No Rain' is lovely. 'All That I Need' is heartbreaking, when placed in this context. And 'Soul One' is one of my favorite songs of all time.

The rest are great as well and, for obvious reasons, I love a good Steppenwolf cover more than the next guy.

The fact that three albums is about all that's available from the late Hoon is a slight.

139. Belle And Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister (1996)




Definitely a strong record and one that I love, but not even in my top three Belle And Sebastian albums.

I know each song on here so well that it was almost weird to hear them in sequence like this. It didn't seem to gel. And I guess I'm just sick of songs like 'Me And The Major' and 'Like Dylan In The Movies'. My favorite track on this listen was 'The Boy Done Wrong Again', probably just because I never listen to it that much.

Yeah, it's a good album. And yeah, it's one I'd easily recommend for new people wanting to check the band out. But it's not one I reach for very often when I want to listen to the group.

140. Headstones - Smile & Wave (1996)




This would mark the high point of Headstones.

Arguably their best album and definitely their most commercial. 'Smile And Wave' and 'Cubically Contained' got a lot of radio play around these parts, and I remember them performing 'Without A Sound' on Open Mike With Mike Bullard.

The two leading up to this were good, but not as good as this. And the two proper albums following this were good but didn't quite mix their alternative rock and hard rock quite as well.

And the hidden track, 'Anything', is one of my favorite songs by the group.

And that's it for 1996.

Break time to re-listen to all my releases from this year and contemplate my best of the year list.


We'll kick off the last ten years with some sex and some candy when we return.

141. Marcy Playground (1997)




There are quite a few artists ("one-hit-wonders") that I only knew the one song from for the longest time but finally decided to look into more of their stuff and was so glad I did. Marcy Playground probably top that list.

All three of their albums are very good and their debut is probably the best. I don't know if it's because I'm sick of it or not but 'Sex And Candy' is probably my least favorite song on this disc. 'Sherry Fraser', 'One More Suicide', 'Poppies' and more are all great, memorable slices of pop-rock from back when radio stations still played alternative rock bands.

One of the best post-grunge albums of the '90s.

142. Guster - Goldfly (1997)




This would be the first record I heard from Guster. After discovering the band through mp3's of them back when they did covers all the time, I finally sought out some of their original music and came across 'Demons' and 'Airport Song' and loved both.

The second time I was listening to those songs, my parents' best friend was over, overheard, asked if I was listening to Guster, and gave me a free shirt she had from them. It was very bizarre (as I've never met anyone in real life since who's heard of them) but some kind of sign, surely.

So I bought Goldfly and I loved it and still do. This is yet another record where I love the entire thing so much that my favorite song changes on a daily basis. 'X-Ray Eyes' might be my favorite off it. But again, that's today. Who knows about tomorrow?

The guys are one of my three favorite bands making music these days and this was as exceptional a place to start as any.