1996: Top 50 Singles

1996 might not have been one of the best years of the '90s but there's always great music to be found if you are willing to look for it.

A few years down the line from "Nevermind"'s commercial triumph, good rock bands were more likely to get dropped from major labels than to get signed, while indie labels suffered from losing their most successful acts. As a result, the output of guitar music suffered in the second half of the '90s, while at the same time there was an increase in the interest for dance floor-oriented synth music.

Our top two selections from 1996, though, could easily claim the title of "Single of the Year" in any year of the '90s, even at the height of alternative rock's gold rush at the start of the decade. Actually, I wish we had more songs like these in 2012, but since music in recent years is more focused on laptops than guitars, it's a good thing that both Sebadoh and Cat Power are making their comeback right now with new material. To hear Sebadoh's first EP of new material in over a decade you can check out their bandcamp page (there's no "Beauty Of The Ride" on the "Secret" EP, but it's still quite a good listen and I can confirm that the band is just as great live now as it was in its '90s heyday), while Cat Power is about to release the excellent "Sun" (streaming here now) next week. And the great news is that the new album has quite a few tracks that can stand their own next to the amazing "Nude as the News" (see also our recent Killer Tracks post here).

Check out below our Top 10 Singles of 1996 and go here for the complete Top 50:

1.   Beauty Of The Ride - SEBADOH
2.   Nude as the News - CAT POWER
3.   Disco Six Six Six - GIRLS AGAINST BOYS
4.   Honky's Ladder - THE AFGHAN WHIGS
5.   Shark - THROWING MUSES
6.   Easy Way Down - SNOWPONY
7.   Teenage Angst - PLACEBO
8.   Two Clear Eyes - GALLON DRUNK
9.   Race - TIGER
10. Plug Myself In - D.O.S.E. featuring MARK E. SMITH

Listen to most of our selections from 1996 in the playlist below:

Killer Tracks: Purity Ring vs. Cat Power

Time to get back to business after our summer break and what better way to ease back into the groove of things than getting a double dose of awesomeness courtesy of Purity Ring and Cat Power.

"Shrines", the debut full length by newcomers Purity Ring, is by far the best new album I've listened to this summer and undoubtedly one of the most vital debuts of 2012. We'll definitely talk more about it in the coming weeks as it will certainly top our July-August album list - in the meantime, here's the video for one of its best tracks, "Fineshrine", as well as a recent episode of Pitchfork.tv's "+1" series where the band, siren-voiced singer Megan James and synth-wizard Corin Roddick, performs the track in the round at New York City's Le Poisson Rouge and talks about how they came together and more:

Purity Ring - Fineshrine

Purity Ring performs "Fineshrine" at Le Poisson Rouge

Meanwhile, the time is getting near for Cat Power's return with "Sun", Chan Marshall's first album of original material in six years. The first taste, the free mp3 of "Ruin" that came out in June, got us all hot and bothered and shot straight to the top of the list of our 30 favorite singles of the year so far. The second taste, the mp3 of "Cherokee" which you can get together with its remix from Nicolas Jaar by signing up to the mailing list here, is equally seductive and provides further indication that the "Sun" is going to shine particularly bright on September 3. Stream both "Cherokee" and its remix below, via Stereogum:

Cherokee

Cherokee (Nicolas Jaar remix)

 
 

New Releases: July 2012

Before we take our brief summer break, let's have a look at July's most interesting new releases:

Albums

Shrines

PURITY RING - Shrines
TWIN SHADOW - Confess
MICACHU & THE SHAPES - Never
LAETITIA SADIER - Silencio
DIRTY PROJECTORS - Swing Lo Magellan
MISSION OF BURMA - Unsound
SLUG GUTS - Playin’ in Time With the Deadbeat
DIIV - Oshin
THE SUFIS - The Sufis
JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD - Hypnotic Nights
THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM - Handwritten
OM - Advaitic Songs
AESOP ROCK - Skelethon
GATEKEEPER - EXO
THE VERY BEST - MTMTMK
CLAMS CASINO - Instrumental Mixtape 2
PLAN B - iLL Manors
PEGGY SUE - Peggy Sue Plays The Songs Of Scorpio Rising

Singles & EPs

Phone Sex

BLOOD DIAMONDS feat. GRIMES - Phone Sex
BAT FOR LASHES - Laura
TWIN SHADOW - Five Seconds
SEBADOH - The Secret EP
DIRTY PROJECTORS - Gun Has No Trigger
ARIEL PINK'S HAUNTED GRAFFITI - Baby
BLOC PARTY - Octopus
THE CRIBS - Glitters Like Gold
ARCTIC MONKEYS - Come Together
BAND OF SKULLS - The Devil Takes Care of His Own
THE BLACK KEYS - Run Right Back
THREE MILE PILOT - Maps EP
THE ANTLERS - Undersea EP
jj - High Summer EP
COMANECHI - Major Move
GIRLS NAMES / WEIRD DREAMS - A Troubled See / House Of Secrets
HAIM - Forever EP
PERCUSSIONS - Bird Songs / Rabbit Songs
M83 - OK Pal
SUMMER CAMP - Always EP
THE VACCINES - No Hope
GAZ COOMBES - Simulator
DEAP VALLY - Gonna Make My Own Money
THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM - 45

1995: Top 50 Singles

The monthly series of posts featuring our favorite singles from each year of the '90s is moving on to the second half of the decade, the post-grunge years, with 1995’s Top 50 list.

PJ Harvey, who reinvented herself as a goth diva for her third album "To Bring You My Love", claims another Single of the Year (she was also at the top of our 1992 list) with the stunning, futuristic blues of "Down by the Water", the lead single from the album which was released to great artistic and commercial success in February '95.

Grunge was already history by then, but there are still plenty of kick-ass rock tunes to choose from and several of them by the likes of Hole, The Smashing Pumpkins, Rocket From The Crypt, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and the ill-fated but excellent Scarce, have stormed to the top of our list. 1995 was also a landmark year for britpop that culminated with the Blur vs. Oasis chart battle in the summer, but although we do have quite a few of the genre's hits scattered throughout our list, it’s only the post-punk and new wave influenced sounds of Elastica that have what it takes to crack our idiosyncratic Top 10. Check it out below and then click here for the complete Top 50 of 1995:

1.   Down By The Water - P.J. HARVEY
2.   Violet - HOLE
3.   Bullet With Butterfly Wings - THE SMASHING PUMPKINS
4.   Born In '69 - ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT
5.   Bellbottoms - THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION
6.   Vow - GARBAGE
7.   Waking Up - ELASTICA
8.   Born Slippy - UNDERWORLD
9.   Natural One - THE FOLK IMPLOSION
10. Glamourizing Cigarettes - SCARCE

Listen to the majority of our 1995 selections in the playlist below, which combines (as usual) the year's great hits with the hidden gems: