September 17th, 2007
6. Spiritualized, Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
In giving the repetitive drones of Spacemen 3 a Phil Spector studio sheen, Jason Pierce sacrificed gritty immediacy (and hipster cred) for studio indulgence, but the payoff is one of the best "headphone" albums of all time—not to mention one of the most convincing arguments ever made for drug abuse. From the adrift-in-the-cosmos majesty of the title track to the staggering acid-rock of "Electricity" and "Come Together," Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space is Pierce's psychedelic symphony, a pill-addled epic incorporating a gospel choir, huge orchestral sections, and even grizzled blues veteran Dr. John on the hypnotic closer, "Cop Shoot Cop." Though the album's influence on "space-rock" albums to follow—particularly The Flaming Lips' similarly grand The Soft Bulletin—is arguable, its impact on 1997 isn't: NME named it Album Of The Year over The Verve's Urban Hymns and, yes, even OK Computer.
7. Company Flow, Funcrusher Plus
Hip-hop was born and nurtured on independent labels, and for much of its early life, it thrived on them. But the early stuff isn't viewed as indie rap, per se; that concept was born with Rawkus, and Funcrusher Plus codified it more than any other of the label's releases. That's partly because of its sheer griminess: Its sound is dense, hard as granite, and unapologetically belligerent, with vocals to match. But El-P and Mr. Len were as likely to get science-fictional as street-tough on songs like "Vital Nerve" and "8 Steps To Perfection"; "Last Good Sleep" even dealt with El-P's abusive childhood. For rap fans disenchanted with the style's buoyant mainstream takeover (1997 was the year of Puff Daddy's ascent), Funcrusher Plus helped build a new church. And for college-radio types, it remains a foundational text.
Company Flow's 8 Steps To Perfection
8. Björk, Homogenic
Though she was by no means a straight arrow in preceding years, Björk really shot off on Homogenic, an album full of diverging songscapes that are bigger and more forcefully emotive than any she's made since. Her declaration of a "state of emergency" in "Joga" raises the question of whether a state so gorgeously lamented could be all bad, and her fusion of portentous film music with twitchy IDM in "Bachelorette" ranks as one of Björk's defining moments. (Certainly it's her best song about a "killer whale trapped in a bay.") In a discography as diverse as Björk's, Homogenic serves as a sort of hinge: It didn't quite mark the opening or closing of a particular sound, but it remains the album that divides her work into "before" and "after."
Michel Gondry's video for Joga
9. Belle And Sebastian, The EPs
Though it was released in late 1996, If You're Feeling Sinister probably belongs on any list covering the music of 1997: It had a much bigger impact once it became more widely available. But it's easy to make a case that Belle And Sebastian's three actual 1997 EPs—Dog On Wheels, Lazy Line Painter Jane, and 3… 6… 9… Seconds Of Light—were equally influential. Every indie band that never thought of embracing its twee side before picked up the import-only discs as they became available, gobbling up the biting, precious stories of "The State I Am In" and "A Century Of Fakers." The tracks are all available now on Push Barman To Open Old Wounds, an excellent compilation of B&S singles.
If you already think Belle And Sebastian is wimpy, don't watch this
10. Notorious B.I.G., Life After Death / Wu-Tang Clan, Wu-Tang Forever
How do you follow a debut album that changed pop music forever, made you an icon/household name, and is widely credited with revitalizing East Coast hip-hop in the face of a massive G-Funk revolution? If you're Wu-Tang Clan or Notorious B.I.G., you take some time off to enjoy the fruits of your hard work (unless you're Wu-Tang mastermind RZA, in which case you hole up for years, producing one solo masterpiece after another), regroup, then come back with a double-disc monster that tries to make up for in quantity and ambition what it lacks in freshness and cohesion. Wu-Tang Forever and Life After Death, the legendary, legendarily flawed follow-ups to Enter The 36 Chambers and Ready To Die, respectively, are widely remembered for monster singles like "Triumph," "Hypnotize," "Mo Money, Mo Problems," and "Sky's The Limit" in part because the albums they emerged from are prohibitively difficult to listen to in their entirety. How many fans even tried to listen to both these monsters from the first track to the last? They're prototypical follow-ups to historic debuts: brilliant, uneven, overreaching, messy, and vital. For all their flaws, they're both screamingly essential, especially Life After Death, an album that takes Ready To Die's gloomy, noir-hued gangsta fatalism to bleak new levels while still finding ample time for partying and bullshit.
Cars, choppers, boats, Puffy…
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