Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s by AfterHours

From AfterHours 07/27/2018 00:19

@ Yann ... Sorry, I love both, have been listening to them for several years, and it's quite unlikely that I'll be switching their rankings. If anything, Hex may be too low. It's really your loss (not mine) if you don't hear Hex as much more than an "uninspired" and "pale imitation". Maybe it is very much because of my attention to detail and aforementioned erudition that I do see what I do in Hex. Something to consider when revisiting it some day...

From Yann 07/26/2018 18:49

Argh... I've just re-listened to Hex, and again it jumped out at me that Laughing Stock is in a complete other league, in another stratosphere. Up there for a reason. I'm really surprised that someone of your style and erudition think it is not. 1st : Mark Hollis subtle, delicate, parsimonious, unique voice VS a bland, typical 90's (reminds me of BMX bandits and other various indie soft bands). On Laughing Stock, the music too is unique : a clever blend of prog, minimalist rock, with hints of jazz and XXth century classical. Silence too, and never boring. Bark Psychosis tries hard to emulate all this, but throughout their very long album, they're just quoting and removing the quotation marks: that's the difference between inspiration and imitation.

From AfterHours 07/26/2018 04:47

@Yann

The difference in quality between #40 and #53 is very small and not worth mulling over much. I would suggest that you may want to give Hex a bit more attentive listening as it is hardly an "imitation" of Laughing Stock, even if it bears its vast influence. Moreover, it is a bit more colorful and evocatively multi-faceted, exhibiting immense atmosphere, existential dilemma and psychological scars both internally wrestled with and as externally inflicted by an industrial environment both depleting and awakening the soul, as the work traverses the likes of city scapes, industrial wastelands and panoramic vistas.

From Yann 07/22/2018 20:37

To rank Hex higher than Laughing Stock is incomprehensible to me : )
It's a pale imitation ! Cheers

From AfterHours 09/06/2016 20:41

@buzzdainer ... Thank you :-) Germano is among the most moving, intimate, vulnerable and personal singer-songwriters. Geek the Girl is her haunting, nightmarish peak. Moon Palace is vastly underrated in general... Mercury Rev are far more than their oft-criticized "Flaming Lips clone" tag would suggest. They were a coalescence of several major innovations from the psychedelic 60s (from Pink Floyd's spaced-out trips to Red Crayola's unstable freak-outs, to The Velvet Underground's guitar-driven orgies, to even ethereal baroque pop of the era). Well worth delving into.

From buzzdainer 09/06/2016 15:27

I keep seeing Lisa Germano popping in people's nineties charts, so much that I'm convinced I need to give her a long listen. That's particularly true after looking at your chart, since there is so much great material here: for example, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Dummy, The Black Light, and Siamese Dream, just for starters. Also nice to see a healthy representation of Mercury Rev, another band I like but haven't spent nearly enough time with. Thanks for giving me reason to give them another few spins!