Listed below are the best albums of 1997 as calculated from their overall rankings in over 58,000 greatest album charts. (Chart last updated: 4 hours ago).
"This is definitely the start of the end for Oasis. They seem to have lost their spark and their edge on the songs and there is such a large amount of filler and weak tracks on here. It is such a bloated release as well with it coming in at around an hour and 11 minutes with some songs being stret...""This is definitely the start of the end for Oasis. They seem to have lost their spark and their edge on the songs and there is such a large amount of filler and weak tracks on here. It is such a bloated release as well with it coming in at around an hour and 11 minutes with some songs being stretched to their limit and not in a good way. The production is pretty poor and the music sounds like a mess half the time. You lose some instruments in places and it is tough to even see what they are going for on some songs. There are some positives like a few exceptional tracks but they really are diamonds in the rough. They demonstrate that they could still create amazing things but external factors are stopping them from doing it. Overall, this is a pretty poor record and is quite a mess in my opinion. "[+]Reply
"One of the ways the Fishmans online community stokes the fire of their fandom is through the creation of "The Seasonal Report", a fanzine consisting of all things concerning the Japanese outfit. Said volumes contain recent Fishmans-related news, fan retrospectives and even occasional poetry. Howe...""One of the ways the Fishmans online community stokes the fire of their fandom is through the creation of "The Seasonal Report", a fanzine consisting of all things concerning the Japanese outfit. Said volumes contain recent Fishmans-related news, fan retrospectives and even occasional poetry. However, the passion project can only be accessed on 'The Fish Tank' (Fishmans' Discord), issuu.com and archive.org. This narrowness of access is an emblematic reminder of the legacy the band has left in its wake. It's a portrait of veracious artisans whose existence and collected works are shrouded in just as much mystery as truth. This attaches value to excavating deep within cavernous labyrinths to find gold among endless, pedestrian sediment. Some things are meant to be uncovered by happenstance and, due to this, many don't find Fishmans. Fishmans find you. Furthermore, it seems fitting that the closing studio effort was 1997's 'Uchu Nippon Setagaya', an eight-chapter odyssey that saw the band fully harness and deploy the optimal strength of their dream pop powers. See, just as Fishmans was destined to be difficult to discover, they also curated a candle which burned ineffably bright for a finite amount of time. At the risk of inducing melodrama, Fishmans' catalog extends beyond the plane of human achievement and dexterity. To put it plainly, it was the music of the angels.
Album seven is the final entry in Fishmans' Wakiki Trilogy, so named for the new studio HQ, "Waikiki Beach", provided by the band's record label (Polydor). The sonic space birthed fruitful products, as they went on to release three of their most acclaimed records in this new auditory ecosystem. The upgrade in capital also aided a transition to a more evocative and mellifluous sound, supplanting their dub roots. The new look artistic temperament is unabashed and unshrouded in the opening track of 'Space Japan Setagaya', entitled 'Pokka Pokka'. The opening melody coos with a delicate, childlike disposition, almost with the intention to softly awaken one from a dream. Kin-Ichi Motegi's patient drum beat gently breaks the serenity to pull you in as Sato's falsetto safely ushers you to the next soundscape. His lyrics craft a vision more mournful than on previous records. He sings, "I wish I could be kind only to someone; I wish I could live without relying on tomorrow." Honzi's violin, which served as a lynchpin for the band's dream pop realignment, softly puts the track to bed and marks another tender moment in an already alluring discography. At the close, it becomes clear that it's a heinous crime that 98 percent of the western world will never experience this music but it also functions as a magnificent anomaly to those who greet its majesty. It's like finding a four-leaf clover or witnessing a double rainbow by accident. Track two advances the dynamism as icy keys give way to a submerged bassline from Yuzuru Kashiwabara, who's always been a phenomenal bass player, but 'Weather Report' is one of his finest hours. Also, the production done by ZAK is another highlight, as the song shares DNA with Joy Division's 'Atmosphere'. The glassy, sweeping walls of sound contrast the throbbing, ever-present bassline. It's a heavier, but no less comely moment for the group.
'うしろ姿'opens with concordant ticking, evoking a hair-triggered clock. The bass again buoys as Sato sings, "Sometimes I walk a little too far, sometimes I go a little crazy." The track evolves into a pleasing cacophony of dueling rhythms and melodies, all while reverbed vocals hover in the distance, watching the sounds perpetually crawl over each other. Next, comes one of the album's more tranquil passages. The tale goes that when Sato provided his mates with a demo tape which would become 'Uchu Nippon Setagaya', most of the demos were nearly complete. The band was reluctant to tamper with the grandeur of the work, especially 'In the Flight'. On the final version, Sato's dove coos are obscured and hauntingly placid. A disciplined, observant drumbeat lingers behind as the song slowly dissipates into the ether. It's squarely doleful, ruminating on Sato's own personal sense of creative and personal unfulfillment after the band's first 10 years. The juxtaposition of beauty and sorrow coagulate to create a hymn with an idiosyncratic, potent aura. These are the sort of triumphs Fishmans make look elementary. 'Magic Love' commences with what sounds like junkyard percussion and stakes its claim as the cheeriest cut on the record. There's a lot brewing here and the bombastic production furnishes the immediacy. Its flamboyance isn't to its detriment as 'Magic Love' is still distinctly Fishmans and, therefore, funkily merry.
The band rekindle their trip-hop ethos with 'バックビートにのっかって', a slow-churning sway which steadily unravels to don a new sonic identity. Honzi's polite keyboard strokes give way to a more ethereal tone which elicits violin and a more ominous vocal style. "Anxiety hovers in the air at night, it must be ruining someone's life," Sato croons. It's a patient exercise which precurses the maximalist leanings of the subsequent anthem. For the penultimate effort, the album recedes back into itself during the intro of 'Walking in the Rhythm'. Alternating sets of key strokes frame the outer edges of the track as a harmonious chant begins in lock-step while encouraging the listener to 'Walk in the Rhythm'. Clocking in at nearly 13 minutes, this 'Walk' is the record's most prolonged but possibly most serene. Honzi's violin blots the midpoint, as the strings are purposely manic, sonically abyssal and the reverberation creates an illusion of ricocheted amati lost in a spectral wilderness. Soon after, the song shrinks again as a subdued, elongated coda allows the once triumphant harmonies to be ingested subtly by the Earth. 'Walking in the Rhythm' is a masterstroke of simplicity, intention and cognizant repetition. The LP leaves us with its defining statement. 'Daydream' is a bubbling, dilating, caliginous opus that starts with a modest drumbeat. Sato bellows overtop, "A figure in the sunset, standing with a quiet face; They looked so defenseless; They blankly stood." The track oscillates with progressive whimsy, coalescing into a multi-pronged beast of arpeggio. The weighted wheel of guitar that arrives at the track's latter half conjures the sensation of being kissed by the sun after a brief summer rain storm. 'Daydream' gives in to its own anxiety as fragments begin to decouple in a heavenly fashion before dissolving ahead of its full maturation. It remains the most poignant exhibition amongst a marvelous octet of culminating art.
When Shinji Sato presented his decade-long collaborators with his sparkling demo tape for what would become the final record, they were puzzled and questioned their place in an outfit that was rapidly becoming singular. However, Sato's intentions were noble and driven by a pursuit to make music that had the capacity to "change a person's life". In reality, Sato trusted his bandmates to interpret and execute his artistic vision and they too checked their egos in order to produce something wholly momentous. Despite not knowing the full vulnerability of Sato's personal headspace, Kashiwabara and Motegi were aware of the pain he carried as a result of watching his band dissolve in front of his eyes. So, as a reactionary measure, Sato employed loneliness to combat future loneliness. The byproduct was a record marked by solemnity but bathed in a whimsical elixir of creative utopia, a paradise which Sato deeply longed for. His relentless pursuit of perfection was his final undertaking. Sato died in March of 1999, but his bandmates still visit his grave to politely conversate. For theirs is a bond which never can be severed, not even by death. Fishmans still exist, as Sato would've surely wanted, never straying from their desire to plot a path through rain clouds to reach the gleaming sun of ambition and the vivid sky of artistic fulfillment.
"I'm filling the holes in my heart, little by little"
-Pokka Pokka
1. Daydream
2. Walking in the Rhythm
3. In the Flight
95.3"[+]Reply
"Baffles me why people put walk among us or legacy of brutality on their charts when clearly this is the superior album. Unfortunately not released till the 90s people had to rely on those release which had overdubs by the singer due to not wanting to pay royalties to his past band mates.I find it...""Baffles me why people put walk among us or legacy of brutality on their charts when clearly this is the superior album.
Unfortunately not released till the 90s people had to rely on those release which had overdubs by the singer due to not wanting to pay royalties to his past band mates.I find it hard to believe that this was written before walk among us instead of the other way round being that this has post-punk elements and longer songs proving they are not just Ramones with horror lyrics.
Only downside is that Last Caress and Teenager From Mars sounds weak here compared to their original release on the beware ep."[+]Reply
"arguably the band's best album and absolutely they're most underrated and misunderstood. the rhythm section is as strong as anything u2 has done. adam clayton and larry mullin jr are playing at another level that we don't see much from u2. by this point in his career, bono has backed down from sh...""arguably the band's best album and absolutely they're most underrated and misunderstood.
the rhythm section is as strong as anything u2 has done. adam clayton and larry mullin jr are playing at another level that we don't see much from u2.
by this point in his career, bono has backed down from shouting his way through songs, and he delivers his coldest, most down-to-earth lyrical performance here. there's a glimmer of hope in his words as always, but he's so chalk full of anger. it's pretty chilling at times. you won't hear any "all you need is love" tracks on this album. instead, you get "wake up dead man" and "get up off your knees".
and you've got to give the edge a lot of credit for backing off of his trademark shimmery delayed riffs in favor of something altogether different.
there's a lot of merit to the position that the backlash from critics and fans alike is what watered down the u2 we have left in the years that follow. this was the band's last great risk, and it's a beautiful risk. "[+]Reply
"Jealousy's a motherfucker, you weak jealous motherfuckers! If you a jealous motherfucker, you just a weak motherfucker! See when you on top, motherfuckers just wanna bring you down! Motherfuckers don't even know you, and they don't like you..."Reply
"You feel like you've just caught a taxi to fulfill your next mundane task at hand with your dysfunctional relationship with life; but your cab driver is an eccentric Japanese man and he sends you to space and takes you on a 50 minute tour exploring the universe. It's the dreamiest and most beauti...""You feel like you've just caught a taxi to fulfill your next mundane task at hand with your dysfunctional relationship with life; but your cab driver is an eccentric Japanese man and he sends you to space and takes you on a 50 minute tour exploring the universe. It's the dreamiest and most beautiful thing you'll ever experience."[+]Reply
"Bricolage opens pretty simply. A neatly arranged slowly paced track based around a smooth as fuck jazz baseline. The neat and laid-back nature of stoney-street lets you know that Tobin is into jazz, and that he's just as happy to make use of cool-jazz and smooth jazz as he is to implement the int...""Bricolage opens pretty simply. A neatly arranged slowly paced track based around a smooth as fuck jazz baseline. The neat and laid-back nature of stoney-street lets you know that Tobin is into jazz, and that he's just as happy to make use of cool-jazz and smooth jazz as he is to implement the intensity of hard bop and post-bop, but this hardly prepares you for what is to come. I guess this get classified as drum'n'bass with heavy influences from elsewehre, but with that influence coming from everywhere from nu-jazz to hip-hop to classical, Bricolage doesn't really function as a masterwork of melding together different genres so much as it does as a piece of music with its foundation laid in a plethora of genres but that amounts to something entirely unique form (and far greater than) any of the individual cogs from which it is composed. Easily sliding from a hypnotic cool-jazz melody to an erratic onrush of perfectly placed beats and noises, Bricolage seems to run across the mind of the listener, ravaging every synapse and almost immediately recreating the mental apparatus into something greater, just in time for it to repeat the process with an entirely different approach, and with and entirely different end result on the listener (though with the same lasting impact) as each previous time. At times, relaxing, romantic, energetic, smooth, frantic, organic, distorted, blah blah blah Bricolage is a symphony of paradoxes that not only flow into each perfectly, and with remarkable ease (defying whatever I used to think logic was). But as I said, this isn't an album made singular just for it's ability to make the juxtaposition of what one would think to be harshly opposing or just entirely unrelated elements seem completely natural, but for it's ability to take each of those individual elements and derive from them something peerless; something to which no accurate parallels can be drawn, and in the end, something that is just massive fun to listen to.
So yeah I sort of disagree with outlaw"[+]Reply
HoldenM | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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DriftingOrpheus | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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craola | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +10 votes (10 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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Cymro2011 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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HazeyTwilight | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +10 votes (10 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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