Some things from 1995 that I quite like and haven't noticed mentioned yet:






The Amps - Pacer (Kim Deal, etc.)
Bettie Serveert - Lamprey
Bjork - Post
Catherine Wheel - Happy Days
Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Brainbloodvolume
Flying Nuns - Pilot EP
Fossil - Fossil
Gavin Friday - Shag Tobacco

I'm sure I'm missing a ton as I've only indexed my CDs through G.

The best Lagwagon album. Before this album they were SoCal punk with some metal licks, and after this album they became overglossed and just blended in with the typical FAT aesthetic. This one though is the apex that mixes the speedy skate punk with the extra catchy pop punk and an appropriate production. Also their strongest and most consistent songwriting on any release.

Here's a two others from Fat that I was rocking back in the day. IMO these are also the best releases these bands ever did.

Haha. I still haven't heard this one, but I've been listening to Cats & Dogs lately which I really enjoy. With them I actually prefer when they go a little more conventional to their sloppy, druggy "experimental" side, and I take it this album is a little more the former?

Big +1s on:

GBV - Alien Lanes (my favorite of theirs and a 5-star album, IMO)
Fugazi - Red Medicine
Slowdive - Pymalion
Pavement - Wowee Zowee


Slightly lesser +1s on:

NY - Mirrorball*
Faith No More - King for a Day
ODB
Luna - Penthouse (haven't really listened to this one much, but I like it)

*Definitely an underrated album, but I prefer the Pearl Jam Merkinball single that came out of these sessions:

Maybe the best single Pearl Jam release.

Such a deep year. I've got a bunch more stuff that I could post and probably will later. Still some of my favorite records haven't been mentioned yet.

Dumpjack or someone - will you up that Mirrorball/Merkinball? I haven't listened to either in a long time. Like, since I was in hs.

Never heard it as well.

I'll have to grab my CDs and rip them. I can do that in the next couple of days unless DumpJack or somebody beats me to it.

+1 on that Amps record. It was one of the albums that defined this time of my life (along with that Luna... +1).

This one was up there, too:

The follow-up to The Greatest Living Englishman does not quite live up to its epic predecessor. Still, it's a pretty damn good album in its own right. Thoroughly enjoyable Robyn Hitchcock/XTC/Kinks-style bedroom BritPop.


Probably The Boo Radleys' best album. And that's saying something.


A terrific follow-up to a masterful debut. And nearly as good, IMO. Not yet at the point where they started experimenting with electronics, this is still a very song-oriented record, more along the lines of Shrimp Boat's or The Cocktails' last records. Pure Chicago indie and exactly where I was at, musically, in 1995. Literally.


Stone. Cold. Classic.

I actually like this better than the debut. Great album. They also put out The Biz in the same year, and it's really good, too.

Hell yes on Vee Vee and I am with you on "A Live One". Even though I was probably still giving daily spins to Widespread's "Ain't Life Grand" (1994) at the time, this album was unavoidable if you were in college around any neo-hippies (of which I was at the time). WAY too many hours spent with that one playing hacky sack ( ).

Totally weird year for me. Airwaves were dominated by Alanis Morissette, Green Day, Smashing Pumpkins (Mellon Collie) and Hootie & The Blowfish. I came into the year listening to a lot of jam band stuff, REM, Nirvana, etc and went out digging deeper into The Stones and indie rock. A turning point.

But, that Archers of Loaf album and this one....:



.....were so important to me in starting to dig deeper with music. I picked both of those up along with Big Star's Radio City/#1 Record at Big Shot Records in Athens at the same time.

Still love all of them. You should hear both of them. 90's indie rock at it's finest.

I really like it but as rads said, it is just a short tease.

Most folks would consider this one of the Magnetic Fields' lesser offerings, but it was my intro to the band and so I have a soft spot for it. And still, a "weaker offering" with songs like "With Whom to Dance", "You and Me and the Moon", "When You're Old and Lonely", "Don't Look Away", etc., is a major offering from most other artists.

Also...

This was the Apples' album where they threw in everything, including the kitchen sink. A pre-NMH Elephant 6 release, where this band was still the leading light of the coop, and everybody involved was still (relatively) lo-fi. Some freaking great fuzzy lo-fi psych pop songs on this record. "Tidal Wave" and "Dots 1-2-3" are the favorites that spring immediately to mind. But really, I love it all.

I fucking love the music of 1995.

A deserving entry into the must-hear category. I love it when the avuncular one receives some love round these parts.

Nice. Thanks Bill

Yup.
This was a life-changer for me.

Pretty sure I was unconscious for most of that year. But, I did listen to that Tricky album a shit ton, and also that The The album of Hank Williams covers and a few others bandied about this thread.

Never quite understood the love for Pulp. Pretty sure at the time I found them indistinguishable between Blur or whatever other Brit pop that was coming out then (except Oasis).

I tried with them years later and found it okay but it just never clicked with me.

From a hit-and-miss band, this one was a pretty big hit. The bookend "Juliander Shere" songs are so freaking catchy that I (and most of my friends) can'g help but sing along in our pigeon Punjabi. Hey, it's just phonetic, but it's hella fun to sing. Maybe the best/most-seamlessly they ever combined the traditional Indian and Britpop sounds.
Saw them twice on this tour and they are boring as shit live, but that does not change the fact that this is a great record. Second only to the follow-up a couple of years later.

I actually bought and sold a copy of that Pulp album. Just couldn't get into it at the time.

I've considered giving them another chance, but I'm not in any hurry.

Didn't click for me at first, either. But then, Different Class hit me in a major fucking way. Not saying that it will do the same for you, but if either of you do decide to keep trying with Pulp, I would say that is the album to listen to while you keep at it.

Co-signed.

I bought and sold so many albums back in those days. I'd have been better off just standing in front of Zulu Records burning ten dollar bills. At least 50% of this thread got the heave-ho.

Okay, so it's a compilation, but it's still a pretty great one. Has a few of the classics, mixed in with different versions of other classics, and early singles and B-sides. One of those early singles, "Sally Cinnamon" is what makes this collection most worth having. Yeah, I know that with downloads and such, you can grab that song from anywhere, so it's a lot less essential. But, as with most things Stone Roses, you cannot really go wrong if you pick this up.


A similar situation to the Mag Fields album that I posted earlier. Generally not considered their best, but it was my intro to the band, so I have a soft spot. All that aside, I do think that this is the album that provides the best cross-section of the band's sound(s). From gentle and lilting to raw, 10-minute feedback freakouts. Great guitar playing all over the place. This is where I fell in love with these guys.

"Common People" is a pretty good song, but otherwise, not my thing. Classic case of my instincts being right.

i'm with Yail et al on this one.

actually I am going to go against most obs and say that a lot of the stuff posted above I never liked much at all, with a few exceptions.

Oh I think it's far and away the best of the big time "britpop" albums

I think I might be with you: I keep reading posts where people are stunned by how great a year in music this was; then I scan up and down the releases again and I just don't see it.

Of course there are a good strong handful of awesome albums but that's any year.