1. Third Eye Blind - Third Eye Blind 2. Matthew Ryan - May Day 3. Foo Fighters - The Colour and The Shape Third Eye Blind is just perfect. Euphorically catchy and disarmingly sad. I fell in love with it as a kid because the melodies were such earworms. It became one of my favorite albums during adolescence and young adulthood because the songs seemed to speak so eloquently and authentically about things like losing friends, or getting over a really rough breakup, or reckoning with death. The singles are obviously huge, but I've long gravitated toward the closing trio, which I'd put on any list of "best ways anyone has ever closed an album." And no hyperbole to say that "Motorcycle Drive By" is one of my top five favorite songs of all time. Here's what I wrote about the album in 2017 when it turned 20: Third Eye Blind – Third Eye Blind May Day is a record I didn't hear until a few years ago, as part of #MWE. I'd been familiar with Matthew Ryan's work, but had missed this album, his debut, for some reason. What I wrote in my #MWE tweets at the time is that May Day kind of predicted a lot of what modern Americana sounds like. Anyone who's a fan of Jason Isbell, Josh Ritter, or Brian Fallon could probably find something to love here. I especially adore "Irrelevant," which is such an achingly beautiful song with such a lovely lyrical approach. I doubt this album gets any other votes in this thread, but I'd love if people checked it out. The Colour and the Shape is actually not my favorite Foo Fighters record (that one is coming up in the next few years here!) but it's got maybe the greatest batch of singles of any '90s LP. I like the Foo Fighters debut for how scrappy and raw it is, but this record really showed how adept Grohl was both at writing big, big hooks ("Monkey Wrench," "My Hero") and building his songs into massive, stadium-filling epics (the last four songs, especially "Everlong" which is the greatest alt-rock ballad of all time). Some other shouts: Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever Amen: "Brick"! "Song for the Dumped"! "Evaporated"! Not my favorite Ben Folds album, but there are some great, great songs on here. Bob Dylan - Time out of Mind: Bob's big Grammy-winning comeback album, which contains, among other things, my personal favorite Dylan song in "Not Dark Yet." Guster - Goldfly: A high school buddy and I performed "Demons" at a concert together once, and it was lit. Love this band; they'll be appearing on one of my top 3s pretty soon here! Marvelous 3 - Math and Other Problems: Butch Walker makes his humble debut as frontman, songwriter, and producer on this extremely Elvis Costello-influenced power pop record. He's not fully formed yet, but the sticky melodies are on songs like "Appetite" and "Valium." Oasis - Be Here Now: So much cocaine, so many extended song lengths. Hubris and excess kind of sink this one as a cohesive listen for me, but there are some absolute sterling moments -- especially "Stand By Me," which is some days my favorite Oasis song. Sister Hazel - Somewhere More Familiar: These guys and their very distinctive roots-pop sound were a favorite of mine for a lot of years. I actually like 3-4 of their albums more than this one, but "All for You" remains a classic '90s radio song, and there are some other big gems here, like "Just Remember" and "Cerilene." U2 - Pop: I find this album disjointed, frustrating, and overlong, but it's also packed with great, great songs. "Do You Feel Loved," "Staring at the Sun," "Last Night on Earth," "Gone," and "Please" are all ace U2 tracks.
1. Radiohead - ok computer 2. Elliot smith - either/or 3. Modest mouse - Lonesome crowded west 4. Pavement - brighten the corners
1. Biggie - Life After Death 2. Will Smith - Big Willie Style (you might not find this often when googling 1997 rap albums of the year lists, but you should) 3. Janet Jackson - The Velvet Rope 4. Mariah Carey - Butterfly 5. IAM - L'école du micro d'argent Wu-Tang Clan - Wu-Tang Forever Jay Z - In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 Capone-N-Noreaga - The War Report O.C. - Jewelz Company Flow - Funcrusher Plus Soul Assassins - Muggs Presents.. The Soul Asssassins, Chapter 1 K-Ci & JoJo - Love Always Next - Rated Next Joe - All That I Am Blink-182 - Dude Ranch (the second best Blink album) Mase - Harlem World Pennywise - Full Circle Boyz II Men - Evolution Puffy - No Way Out Master P - Ghetto D Juvenile - Solja Rags
Third Eye Blind - ST Everclear - SMFTA Blink and the Eighteen Twos - Dude Ranch Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Let’s Face It crazy year for singles
The way people talk about blink's S/T (untitled whatever) album is so funny to me. Sure, in 2003 it was a pretty big departure from the dick and fart jokes of their previous albums. But with enough time removed I think it's settled in to be a pretty average to above average pop rock record. "Feeling This" is a highlight, but you really do feel the weight of "this is serious business" across many of the songs, which doesn't necessarily age well for me. Outside of "Feeling This" and "Always", I really don't return to the record at all. When I look back and think of blink 182, that's not the record that first comes to mind. Dude Ranch is the perfect encapsulation of the band. The best Mark and Tom have sounded. The buzzsaw guitar production that you don't find on any of the later albums. I also think it has the best lyrics of any blink release. People cite the joke songs and "Voyeur" as reasons to dismiss the record and, yeah, I get it. But I don't think you ever get the lyrical heights that they reach on any later blink release. All of that is to say nothing of the fact that it was the first album that I really attached myself to. I was 100% way too young to be listening to it (2nd grade? 3rd grade?) and had no idea what the fuck they were saying on half the songs. But it felt dangerous and special, unlike any other album I had heard until that point. It's an album that grew with me, that I returned to when I got older and made stupid fucking mistakes or had a high school heartbreak and I could finally sit down and relate to a song like Apple Shampoo. It's also an album that I can still appreciate and return to and get enjoyment out of.
All of that is to say, I can absolutely be a dickhead and start picking apart lists for being made up of boring white dudes or bands that are absolute fucking garbage, but I don't want to do that. So let me put Dude Ranch #1, shut the fuck up, and go listen to The Velvet Rope
They've been totally forgotten, but I kind of love Black Lab. Their next record after this one, See the Sun, is a minor pop-rock masterpiece.
preach s/t is a decent attempt at stepping beyond their bread and butter, but half the songs aren’t anything special and it’s still kind of “just” a pop punk record, albeit one with some spiffy production, anyways. Dude Ranch is a band doing what they’re good at and (poorly aged jokes aside) doing it perfectly 10+ times over. Blink 182 defense is responsible for some of the worst posts this site sees on a regular basis and pop punk is an easy genre to dunk on in general so I get it but a week removed from us all voting for matchbox 20/insert any 4 chord guitar band here I’m reading most dude ranch hate as posturing
also i couldn’t care less if you choose to vote for a dumb 90s band of white dudes, i voted for oasis two weeks in a row lol. i was just picking on nick for doing so because he has acted like it was crazy when myself and others have done so in previous years
1. 311 - Transistor 2. Deftones - Around The Fur 3. Radiohead - OK Computer ---------------------------------- 4. Foo Fighters - The Colour And The Shape 5. Third Eye Blind - Third Eye Blind 6. Oasis - Be Here Now 7. Green Day - Nimrod 8. Incubus - S.C.I.E.N.C.E. 9. Our Lady Peace - Clumsy 10. The Offspring - Ixnay On The Hombre 11. Depeche Mode - Ultra 12. Blink 182 - Dude Ranch 13. Live - Secret Samadhi 14. Everclear - So Much For The Afterglow 15. Silverchair - Freak Show 16. Blur - Blur 17. Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West 18. Guided By Voices - Mag Earwhig! 19. Helmet - Aftertaste 20. Limp Bizkit - Three Dollar Bill, Y'all $ Honorable Mention: The Apples In Stereo - Tone Soul Evolution Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever Amen Buck-O-Nine - Twenty-Eight Teeth Built To Spill - Perfect From Now On The Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole Collective Soul - Disciplined Breakdown Daft Punk - Homework The Dandy Warhols - The Dandy Warhols Come Down David Bowie - Earthling Days Of The New - Days Of The New Dismemberment Plan - The Dismemberment Plan Is Terrified Elliott Smith - Either/Or Feeder - Polythene Fu Manchu - The Action Is Go The Get Up Kids - Four Minute Mile Harvey Danger - Where Have All The Merrymakers Gone? The Hives - Barely Legal Hot Water Music - Forever and Counting Marcy Playground - Marcy Playground Metallica - Reload The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Let's Face It Mogwai - Young Team Old 97s - Too Far To Care Pavement - Brighten The Corners Portishead - Portishead The Prodigy - The Fat Of The Land The Promise Ring - Nothing Feels Good Savage Garden - Savage Garden Sevendust - Sevendust Smash Mouth - Fush Yu Mang Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen we are Floating In Space Superchunk - Indoor Living Teenage Fanclub - Songs From Northern Britain Toad The Wet Sprocket - COIL U2 - Pop The Verve - Urban Hymns Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One Checking Out for the First Time in Full: Aerosmith - Nine Lives The Ataris - ...Anywhere But Here Ben Harper - The Will To Live Bjork - Homogenic Black Lab - Your Body Above Death Cab For Cutie - You Can Play These Songs With Chords Dinosaur Jr. - Hand It Over Dispatch - Bang Bang The Divine Comedy - A Short Album About Love Faith No More - Album of the Year Goldfinger - Hang-Ups Guster - Goldfly Handsome - Handsome Jay-Z - In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 Matthew Good Band - Underdogs Matthew Ryan - Mayday Millencolin - For Monkeys Paul McCartney - Flaming Pie Sarah McLachlan - Surfacing Supergrass - In It For the Money Ween - The Mollusk
Yeah, See The Sun was excellent as well. I think that was the planned major label follow-up that just never came to fruition since the label shelved it (it certainly SOUNDS like the kind of slick pop/rock record that would have been released around 2000).
Yeah, they had to have sat on that one for awhile. "Learn to Crawl" is on there and that song originally showed up on the Spider-Man soundtrack in 2002!
To clarify, I enjoy Dude Ranch (and included it on my list!) but I feel like this album is a little over-rated and from a front-to-back listen, starts getting tired towards the end.
It doesn't seem in the spirit of these threads to criticise other people's picks, unless Liam Gallagher features on it.
I completely forgot the Harvey Danger album was released in 1997 as I, and many I assume, didn't hear about them until 1998.