Better late than never: 90s acts got into post-90s

I hope this OP is a little clearer than mud. I should be doing other things.

The idea for this is to mention acts that you are very into now but were not in the 90s or earlier (you became a fan of the act with 90s release you love post 90s). These would have releases in the 90s which you were mostly unfamiliar with (a track on the radio etc. is okay), and did not really get into and were pretty unfamiliar with until years after the 90s.

Most of my list I did not get into until the past decade. I was going to go for acts that were completely unknown in the 9os to you but you came to love later for 90s releases, but that's harder and can be hard to remember. I'm sure I heard some Portishead in the 90s, don't remember what, and was not a fan until maybe the late 2010s.

Aside from listing the acts, please mention one specific album from each act, and a track if you have the time and inclination. I want this to focus on stuff we know very well, and are currently into (probably have listened to the album in the last few years).

These are 30 plus of my favourites that fit the bill, but of course you are free to mention as many or few acts as you like provided that you were not into the act in the 90s or earlier and did not know the album you list in the 90s.

I had been introduced to some 80s Cardiacs by the early 90s, like "Jibber and Twitch", but I was not a Cardiacs fan or a fan of that song at all. From the list, Air is I think the one that I got into closest to the 90s as I got Talkie Walkie at the time of release, January, 2004, and had already loved a track off Talkie Walkie ("Cherry Blossom Girl" turned me onto Air).


Air - Moon Safari (1998) Key track: "La femme d'argent"
Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album (1996) Key track: "Fingerbib"
Fiona Apple - When the Pawn (1999) Key track: "Get Gone)
Belle and Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister (1996) Key track: "The Boy Done Wrong Again"
Björk - Post (1995) Key track: "Isobel"
Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children (1998) Key track: Aquarius
Bondage Fruit - Bondage Fruit (1991) Key track: "Kakuu No Sakana"
Broadcast - The Book Lovers EP (1996) Key track: The Book Lovers
Cardiacs - Sing to God (1996) Key track: "Dirty Boy"
The Cardigans - First Band on the Moon (1996): Key track "Great Divide"
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Let Love In (1994) Key track: "I Let Love In"
Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas (1990) Key track: "Pitch the Baby"
Controlled Bleeding - Golgotha (1991) Key track "Standing in Twilight"
Current 93 - Thunder Perfect Mind (1993) Key track: "Hitler as Kalki (SDM)"
Dead Can Dance - Into the Labyrinth (1993) Key Track: "The Carnival Is Over"
Fishmans - Long Season (1996) Key Track: "Long Season Part 5"
The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin (1999) Key Track: "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate"
The Future Sound of London - Lifeforms (1995) Key track: "Vertical Pig"
Godspeed You Black Emperor! - F♯A♯∞ (1996): Key track: "The Dead Flag Blues"
Komeda - Pop pa Svenska (1993) Key track: "Borgo"
Mr. Bungle - California (1999) Key track: "Pink Cigarette"
Naked City - Radio (1993) Key track: "Sunset Surfer"
The Necks - Hanging Gardens (1999) Key track: "Hanging Gardens"
Neutral Milk Hotel (1998) - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Key track: "Two-Headed Boy Pt. 2"
Portishead - Dummy (1994) Key track: "Roads"
Pram - Helium (1994) Key track: "Blue"
Radiohead - OK Computer (1997) Key track: "Exit Music (For a Film)"
Spiritualized® - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (1997) Key track: "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space"
Stereolab - Dots and Loops (1997) Key track: "The Flower Called Nowhere"
Swans - Soundtracks for the Blind (1996) Key track: "Helpless Child"
Talk Talk - Laughing Stock (1991) Key track: "After the Flood"
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 (1994) Key track: "Strangers From the Universe"
Tortoise - Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1996) Key track: "The Taut and the Tame"
Tuxedomoon - The Ghost Sonata (1991) Key track: "Licorice Stick Ostinato"
U Totem - U Totem (1990) Key track: "Vagabond's Home"
Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One (1997) Key track: "Moby Octopad"

As for some 90s bands I recall liking in the 90s:

Depeche Mode's Violator was a great one. Key track: "Waiting for the Night". And I liked music by Mercury Rev, Pulp, Lambchop, eels, Low, The Orb and Enya in the 90s. I enjoy Depeche Mode, Mercury rev, Pulp, Lambchop, eels, Low and The Orb more than ever now as I got into exploring more of the music and returning to some of it in recent years.

When it comes to "popular" styles of music (including Progressive Rock / Art Rock), I was mostly stuck in the 60s and 70s until the mid 2000s.

Edited by Logan - September 24 2024 at 13:21

^ Thanks Mike. I have liked plenty of Opeth. It can be so heavy at one time and so melodic at others (and some beautiful instrumentals) I like the folk influence in the music. It has been a while since I listened to the albums, but I do recall enjoying My Arms, Your Hearse (1998) (which I had listened to due to the Comus reference in the title).

Here's "The Amen Corner" off it.

Me, or Mike or both. (j/k, my list is longer). Was Don Caballero one you got into post 90s?

I listened to American Don (2000) some years after it came out, and I'm sure I have heard the second from 1995.   I'm more of post-rock guy than math rock, but I'm quite sure I have mentioned Don Caballero in topics, especially when I was newer here.

Lots of my current favourites from the 90s I only got into over the past five years (EdIt: oops, make that ten years). I have listened to a huge amount of music over the past twenty years. Well, mostly from, maybe 2003 to 2010 and then again in more recent years. I did start listening to Podcasts quite a bit, don't now, and I do still listen to True Crime stuff, sad though it can be.

I do hope that more people will try to mention their own acts with albums from the 90s that they discovered and/or got into after the 90s and really like now. Time will tell if this works or not. And that we will comment on each others choices as well. One issue I sometimes have with top ten lists is that we don't comment more on each others lists, and there is very limited discussion.

David has has been doing his albums you were into in the 70s and 80s, I wanted to do a few topics about bands (and albums) that released music during a decade that you only got into later and are some particular favourites of yours (ones you would happily play right now). Thought it might present an interesting counterpoint to David's topics. :)

Edited by Logan - September 24 2024 at 19:52

Threshold 

Cristi wrote: Threshold  Porcupine Tree The Gathering Paradise Lost Nevermore

You know, I've been wracking my brains over this one and can barely think of an example of a band who were predominantly from the 90's, whose music I have only recently cottoned on to and love now?

MikeEnRegalia wrote: Logan wrote: ^ Thanks Mike. I have liked plenty of Opeth. It can be so heavy at one time and so melodic at others (and some beautiful instrumentals) I like the folk influence in the music. It has been a while since I listened to the albums, but I do recall enjoying My Arms, Your Hearse (1998) (which I had listened to due to the Comus reference in the title). Sorry for not reading the instructions thoroughly. For Opeth, it was specifically The Moor which pulled me over to the dark side (of growling vocals).

Thanks, and no worries. I had intended for that to be optional. I really love hearing people's stories with how it relates to music (Richard's and Jared's posts, for instance, plus yours were a pleasure to read, and so have been different takes). And nice to see that long a list from David. :)

My concern (not that it matters much) for future participants (if there are any) might be that I was not clear enough in the OP about people sharing their own examples as it relates to them, and/or sharing their own experiences. It's a long enough OP to warrant a tl;dr (too long; didn't read) reaction. I often write with too little economy, and too many ideas presented, which can confuse. Character limitations, but I had wanted "Better late than never: 90s acts you got into post-90s" as my title and some people are very title-focused rather than considering the requests in the OP and/or seeing how others responded. People only have so much time and focus. As long as it's cordial, and somewhat thoughtful, it's [mostly] all good to me.   

Edited by Logan - September 25 2024 at 10:59

Oh, yes I can think of one!!

Jared wrote: Logan wrote: Psychedelic Paul wrote: Porcupine Tree, who I'd never heard of before 2010.  You were late to the internet. I only discovered it six years earlier due to reading about it online. I bought Porc. Tree's In absentia on CD in 2004 or maybe early 2005, but it did not do it for me. Maybe I heard it at the wrong time in my journey, but Porcupine Tree is a darling of PA that has never really connected with me. Of course, we joined PA around the same time, when PT, DT & Opeth were extremely popular on this site and they were hard to avoid!! We had a heavier crowd in here at the time... Well, I discovered PT in 1998 when Stupid Dream came out, having been beguiled by 'Even Less' which appeared on one of the very first Classic Rock Mag's free CD samplers. At that stage, I'd not heard anything quite like them, other than Floyd.

I had an account that I made in 2004 or 2005, but I only posted a few times then later came back with this one. i might have discovered PT through this forum, that was before Deadwing came out (I like Deadwing more). Kayo Dot was another that got talked about a lot, mostly in 2006, and now it hardly gets mentioned (except by me). I do enjoy the 90s PT more than later stuff generally. Stupid Dream I liked more than I expected, and I should play it again. It does have some wonderful music on it as I recall. Be nice if Steven Wilson would post here again. I have come to appreciate his work more in recent years.

This ("Stop Swimming") I remember liking off Stupid Dream (it reminds me of Talk Talk's "Laughing Stock" in part).



In 2005 and 2004, this forum was so different. Not just busier (really busy in 2006) but it was a lot ruder and raunchier, and more of the forum felt like Just For Fun. There was a lot of playful ribbing of Tony R's early incarnation (with the TIE fighter) and lot of sexual innuendo and jokes and comments that were much less PC than one would expect here now. Micky would call it the wild west. It was less heavily moderated than subsequently. By 2006 it was getting fairly tame, methinks. It's hard to get that right balance between exciting and rude and boring and genteel.

Edited by Logan - September 25 2024 at 20:42