Ten mid-90's songs
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Polls
Forum Description: Create polls on topics related to progressive music
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=129485
Printed Date: February 03 2025 at 05:46
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Topic: Ten mid-90's songs
Posted By: Logan
Subject: Ten mid-90's songs
Date Posted: August 06 2022 at 23:17
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I had the idea of coming up with a list of songs somewhere around the 4:45 to 5:00 mark from 2005-2007. I covered some of my faves here that I felt worked, plus some others for more variety of styles, and to add some 90s songs from classic bands. Don't feel like you must listen through all to vote -- it's not a contest. Two of these, Portishead and Stereolab, are not in PA, but I like them in the list. Cardiacs - Manhoo Dream Theater - You Not Me Genesis - Not About Us Marillion - 80 Days Portishead - Only You (not in PA) Radiohead - Climbing Up The Walls Rush - The Colour of Right Stereolab - Cybele's Reverie (not in PA) Swans - Mind / Body / Light / Sound (4:40) Yes - Somehow.....Someday EDIT: I changed the Portishead track to Only You from Cowboys, which is the one it whould have been as I had been trying to go for ones of 5 or under 5 minutes and go for the one that comes to that time. |
Replies:
Posted By: Man With Hat
Date Posted: August 06 2022 at 23:47
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Eek. I guess Marillion, but really a pass all around. ------------- Dig me...But don't...Bury me I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect. |
Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: August 06 2022 at 23:55
| My tastes perhaps are not so refined. I like the Stereolab, Swans, Portishead, Radiohead and Cardiacs, but I went with Stereolab's "Cybele's Reverie". |
Posted By: octopus-4
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 03:51
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Cardiacs here ------------- I stand with Roger Waters, I stand with Joan Baez, I stand with Victor Jara, I stand with Woody Guthrie. Music is revolution |
Posted By: suitkees
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 03:55
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A nice bunch of songs, where the most established bands deliver actually the least interesting ones. Maybe nothing really spectacular, but the Radiohead song stands out for me. ------------- The razamataz is a pain in the bum |
Posted By: nick_h_nz
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 04:07
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I like a great many of these, but the one that stands out for me is Radiohead. It would probably have been Portishead, had the Radiohead song not been included. (I almost voted for the DT song, simply because I’m not sure it will get any votes otherwise. Falling Into Infinity is one of my favourite DT albums, and though this is not one of my favourite songs on that album, I do like it.) ------------- https://tinyurl.com/nickhnz-tpa" rel="nofollow - Reviewer for The Progressive Aspect |
Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 05:11
| Thanks, Kees and Nick for your comments. :) |
Posted By: nick_h_nz
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 05:29
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Speaking of the Radiohead song, I quite like this cover of it - though I will certainly understand if others don’t. I find Postvorta to be a very interesting band. My favourite two albums of theirs are the very different (almost polar opposites, in fact) Porrima and Siderael. https://postvorta.bandcamp.com/track/climbing-up-the-walls" rel="nofollow - https://postvorta.bandcamp.com/track/climbing-up-the-walls ------------- https://tinyurl.com/nickhnz-tpa" rel="nofollow - Reviewer for The Progressive Aspect |
Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 05:40
Oh, that's my kind of heavy. I really love this! Awesome cover, thanks. |
nick_h_nz wrote:Posted By: nick_h_nz
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 06:00
I’m very happy you enjoyed it! Postvorta were one of my first suggestions for PA, after joining the Prog Metal team. http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=11852" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=11852 ------------- https://tinyurl.com/nickhnz-tpa" rel="nofollow - Reviewer for The Progressive Aspect |
Posted By: Manuel
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 06:04
| Of this list, Radiohead, even though is not my favorite song from them. |
Posted By: Grumpyprogfan
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 07:01
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Dream Theater. Sonically, the Portishead sounds awful to my ears... tinny, harsh, over-processed. Is this how all their mixes sound? |
Posted By: Nogbad_The_Bad
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 07:15
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Cardiacs > Radiohead ------------- Ian Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on Progrock.com https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-avant-jazzcore-happy-hour/ |
Posted By: Cristi
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 07:34
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Rush - The Colour of Right Would have voted Marillion (who had more interesting songs to choose from, mid 90s that is)
 , but 80 Days is just a listenable song, good but not great. |
Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 11:29
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Yeah, these seemed to work with certain time frames I had in mind before looking up the albums for songs rather than an attempt to highlight the best (thus removing some personal bias). .
They did that very much on purpose. Especially on this Portishead album they tried to make it sound grainer and harsher than the previous Dummy. They would damage the recordings to get a grainy, popping and scratchy sound on Dummy I have read. They wanted an old school sound of crackling vinyl for one thing rather than a clean sound, and it was in part to evoke old soundtrack music. I think it comes across rather more on the track I posted than others off that album. I can imagine for someone with your tastes it would bother you a lot more than me as I would expect you to generally prefer cleaner and smoother music than I often do (and I also appreciate "Noise"). To not hear such sound qualities, live versions of that music would be better. And with Third it has a smoother sound. EDIT: I changed it to the track "Only You", which I should have gone with by my methodology, but opted not to in this case as I thought I did it in another pol and had wanted something I knew I had not covered as a song. Here is a live version of the song: |
Posted By: Grumpyprogfan
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 12:36
And yes, I believe mixing/mastering should be part of the listening experience. If the music is stellar but the mix is not, the overall experience can be disappointing. |
Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 13:34
| ^ I'm sure you are not alone, but there is a sound they were going for, which they seemingly achieved, and of course Portishead became a very well-known band so I would think they were doing something right (which doesn't mean they could not have done better). It would be nice if there were various versions of the studio albums (if there are, I don't know), but as said, there are lives to listen to which don't have those qualities and the third album takes the band in a rather different direction. To be honest, I find the production, performance and music on that Dream Theater song to be uninteresting. Maybe had they experimented like Portishead I would have preferred it -- probably not, however. To each his or her own, of course. |
Posted By: Mormegil
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 13:49
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Not About Us. Dismal selection. Could honestly say none of the music here has been on the turntable in recent memory. ------------- Welcome to the middle of the film. |
Posted By: nick_h_nz
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 13:54
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^^ The funny thing is that DT did experiment with that song and album - which tends to be why so few DT fans like the album. I’m one of the few who appreciate their experiments on this album, if you look at any of the many DT polls/posts over the years on PA (including Paul’s present one). The production isn’t great, though. I’ll give you that. I don’t know why Kevin Shirley is known as The Caveman, but I’ve always wondered if it’s because his productions sound like they were done in a cave with Stone Age technology. I’m not a fan of his production for Iron Maiden or Rush, either. ------------- https://tinyurl.com/nickhnz-tpa" rel="nofollow - Reviewer for The Progressive Aspect |
Posted By: Jared
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 13:59
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If you had chosen something (literally anything!) from Yes: Talk (94) instead of some utter dross from OyE (97), then you might have given me something to think about.. similarly with Marillion, you've given us one of the blandest tracks from a fairly unspectacular album, whereas (literally anything!) from Brave would have made me pause. You've also chosen something approaching the level of album filler from DT's poorest album, when you could have chosen (literally anything!) from Awake, to make me pause... So, in view of all this, it has to be Rush... ------------- Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson |
Posted By: suitkees
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 14:07
^ If my aunt had balls, she would be my uncle...  ------------- The razamataz is a pain in the bum |
Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 14:12
I decided before making the poll and looking up ones that could fit that it would only cover albums from 1995 to 1997 (so no Awake or Talk even considered) and the songs should be approaching 5 minutes in length (about 4:45 to 5:OO). The songs kind of chose themselves once I started with that limitation and decided on my approach (hoped as a way to limit my bias). Mind you, of course I could have thought of different acts but I went with what first sprang to mind (which of course reflect my biases anyway to the approach). I didn't know which songs by which bands would make the cut. One I did question was whether to go with Stereolab's Cybele's Reverie or The Flower Called Nowhere, but hearing Cybele's Reverie on a radio program just had such a big impact on me (and it came closer to the initial 4:45 I thought of).. I liked my approach to this even if it doesn't produce the best song results. EDIT: Maybe I will do a shorter 1994 poll. |
Posted By: Jared
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 14:25
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^^ I've said this before, for me, 1997 was the utter nadir for music... it was just before the Internet kicked in over here, prog was a term of derision and Classic Rock mag had yet to get started. Queensryche released a poor album marking a change in direction. Genesis and Yes released albums which were embarrassing, Marillion's was bland, DT's was a cowed sop to the record label, Rush's sounded safe and tired and to my embarrassment, I'd lost track of IQ around 1990. I genuinely thought music as I knew and loved it had ended... then in 1998, I discovered the Classic Rock Soc, Cyclops Records, Classic Rock Magazine, Magna Carta, InsideOut, the UK Prog Scene and eventually in the spring of 1999, THE INTERNET! Needless to say, things have not been quite as bleak ever since! ------------- Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson |
Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 14:42
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^ And to me 1997 (and 1995 and 1996) was a great year in music (not in the more mainstream prog I would say). It really just depends on what you are into. For someone like me who is into Art Rock and Art Pop, and Indietronica, Neo-Psychedelia, the space age Lounge and exotica revival and music influenced by Krautrock, trip hop, chamber pop, dream [pop, indie music, avant prog, dark jazzy music, and lots of quirky music there is so much that is just great to these ears. Probably for someone with more mainstream Prog rock and prog metal tastes, and more AORish melodic rock and metal than me (say those who favour symph prog, Neo Prog, and regular Prog metal, it might be less interesting. For me there is so much wonderful boozy woozy music during that time, but I haven't come from as much of a mainstream kind of rock appreciation background as many here. Anyway, I love plenty of music of different styles for every year that I have explored, and the internet has been an amazing resource to aid in my travels down so many music rabbit-holes. I often think if one thinks a year or era poor, then one just hasn't diversified one's tastes enough and dug deep enough.
To be honest, I wonder how many of these would have ever graced your turntable, as you chose what might be considered the blandest of these. To each his or her own, however. ;) |
Posted By: Jared
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 14:54
I'm curious, were they great years of music for you at the time, or have they become so in retrospect as you've gradually discovered things you hadn't hitherto known about? For me in retrospect, the activities of IQ, Pendragon, Jadis, Arena, Threshold, Grey Lady Down, Shadowland and others during that period demonstrate that there was indeed good music out there... the problem had been how to access it, without a mainstream magazine or the internet, as I had no friends who were interested in the progressive side of rock and metal and I had merely clung onto the old names until they were worn out. ------------- Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson |
Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 15:05
That's true, and I meant had they done the kinds of experimentation that Portishead did to achieve that sound (which includes loops, samples and perhaps like with the previous album, a fair bit of abuse and whatnot). DT's is indeed quite different from other offerings by the band, and actually before I decided to do this poll (I had forgotten), I had planned to do a topic on unusual/unique offering by bands, but then I realised that would take more thinking, research and explaining.... I also was thinking of a Swans track from 1996 that is very unique in its oeuvre. That's a topic I'd like to do -- very unique tracks in a band's discography. |
Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: August 07 2022 at 15:21
At the time I was listening to much earlier music mostly. I did discover some music I like back then like Cardigans and Bjork (while in Japan). I was listening to a lot of jazz in the 90s. Other than that, Pink Floyd, The Alan Parsons Project, Gary Numan, a huge amount of Kitaro and various classics, and lots of soundtrack music. Most of the kinds of music I am into now I got into after 2004 (or after 2018 and later actually), and most of the music I have been into from the 90s over the last three years I have discovered over the last three years (I mean I'd heard some Portishead before). I mostly dig music that I haven't known for many years. My interests change in kind of music, and one thing leads to another and another, and then my direction changes again. A lot of the 90s music I have been very into (not Prog) was thanks to discovering a BBC radio sketch and music comedy program called Blue Jam on the webz maybe three years ago. That had a huge effect on my musical direction. Nowadays I mostly listen to music of the last eight or so years, and I doubt I would find find it without this wonderful searchable internet, and I have received so many fantastic-for-me recommendations from people here over the years. |
Posted By: nick_h_nz
Date Posted: August 08 2022 at 07:24
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I wasn’t sure how great a year 1997 was for me, until I went back and looked at what I own from that year (most of which was bought in that year). By 1997 the “grunge” boom had largely faded/imploded, and the first waves of what came to be known as post-grunge were becoming popular. I like a lot of music from the ‘90s, but in my mind it was the first half of the decade, and not the second. It was only after I looked back at my collection after your comment that I realised how much music I like and bought was released in 1997. Now, I guess it depends largely on what you enjoy listening to, and perhaps prog had some lean years around this time. Certainly not much of what I bought and still enjoy from 1997 is in PA, and even that which is is not the “usual suspects”. (I’ve left out a bunch of Kiwi and Aussie bands that I suspect would be unknown outside Australasia.) Bought in 1997 Blur - Blur David Bowie - Earthling Built to Spill - Perfect From Now On Creed - My Own Prison Days of the New - Days of the New Depeche Mode - Ultra Bruce Dickinson - Accident of Birth Tanya Donnelly - Lovesongs for Underdogs Dream Theater - Falling Into Infinity Faith No More - Album of the Year Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape Helmet - Aftertaste James - Whiplash Jane’s Addiction - Kettle Whistle Live - Secret Samadhi Love Spit Love - Trysome Eatone Luna - Pup Tent Mansun - Attack of the Grey Lantern Our Lady Peace - Clumsy Portishead - Portishead Radiohead - OK Computer Silverchair - Freak Show Sky Cries Mary - Moonbathing on Sleeping Leaves Spawn (Soundtrack) Suede - Sci Fi Lullabies The Tea Party - Transmission Truly - Feeling You Up Bought in more recent years (The albums in parentheses as a bonus disc to the reissue of another album) Arcturus - La Masquerade Infernale Art Zoyd - Häxan Bozzio Levin Stevens - Black Light Syndrome 5uu’s - Crisis in Clay (Galaxie 500 - Copenhagen) Höyry-Kone - Huono Parturi In The Woods… - Omnio King Crimson - The Night Watch Koenji Hyakkei - Two Lusk - Free Mars Dave Matthews Band - Live at Red Rocks No-Man - Dry Cleaning Ray Porcupine Tree - Coma Divine (Porcupine Tree - Insignificance) Queensryche - Hear in the Now Frontier Sigh - Hail Horror Hail Sigur Rós -Von ------------- https://tinyurl.com/nickhnz-tpa" rel="nofollow - Reviewer for The Progressive Aspect |