Top 100 Albums 1997
Elisabet Schwartzkopf
After weeks of tough debate back in 2017, the 6 Music team narrowed down the creme de la creme of 1997's finest albums into this list of 15 of the best - including classics from Radiohead, Blur, Bjork, The Prodigy, Portishead and more.
Mike Hanson: OK Computer was the album that catapulted Radiohead in to the premiership of bands. Following on from their breakthrough album, The Bends, OK Computer took them to a whole new level. Not only were they a great band, now they were an important one as well.
The re-release to mark the 20th anniversary includes tracks left off the original, causing waves of excitement amongst Radioheads. Every announcement of a forthcoming Radiohead album was always greeted with "I hope they finally put Lift out". And now it is.
Ian Sadler: Music discovery for me in 1997 meant time spent in student houses with newfound university friends, exploring each other's record collections. Our soundtrack was standard mid-90s indie, with long players from the usual suspects of Oasis, Blur, Radiohead and Pulp enjoying universal nods of approval. But one artist proved divisive.
It transpired that my otherwise well-rounded new best friends didn't share my enjoyment when a Bjrk CD was placed on the stereo. Of course this was a major failing on their part that I did my best to correct. The Bjrk poster that already adorned my wall was moved into a more prominent position, NME articles explaining her greatness would be handed over for consumption, and most importantly the rotation of her records upped when I was playing DJ for the evening.
I'd first fallen for Bjrk after taking a punt on 1993's Debut, my only previous exposure to her when The Chart Show gave a few outings to the video for The Sugarcubes' Hit a year or two earlier. Our relationship grew stronger with 1995's Post, but 1997's Homogenic sealed the deal for me, and was where my Bjrk love peaked. Embracing more electronic sounds and working with producer Mark Bell for the first time, beautiful soundscapes were created and the whole record feels suitably epic. Ten amazing tracks that flow effortlessly together from a time when albums were still listened to in full. Even now revisiting the album for the first time in too long, I feel slightly exhausted by the time l reach the end.
My Best of 1997 mix tapes had heavy Bjrk representaton. Standout tracks were the state of emergency proclaiming Joga, the evocative Bachelorette, and the stunning closer All Is Full of Love, whose accompanying video can lead a grown man to cry over robot love.
Sadly I never really convinced my student pals of the error of their ways. Even now I feel they should find some time to turn off the lights, close their eyes, pop Homogenic on the streaming service of their choice, sit back and escape to the magical world summoned up by the album.
While later efforts offered further experimentation and development of the Bjrk sound, we sadly started to grow apart, a new life of work and family giving me less time to devote to her greatness. 20 years on from Homogenic, a reunion is overdue.
David Hyde: Indie kids across the land were on the hunt for new socks in April 1997 as they were well and truly knocked off with the release of Dig Your Own Hole, the second album from dance music pioneers The Chemical Brothers.
Gemma Cairney: On first listen, this album is impossible to place in terms of era-specific genre beyond the 90s. It sounds like it could have been made then, or yesterday. But the fact that Badu, on her debut album created an entirely new namesake genre, tells you from the title that it ain't messing about as a listen.
Baduizm is hard to define. It's multi genre supreme. Fusing hip-hop style playful slang, jazz scats & deeply resonating soulful vocals. It's for those that like Soul. It's for those who like Hip-Hop. And, it's for those that love Jazz.
Erykah defied the common 'one album-wonder' and has brought out many more successful albums since, each unique and critically acclaimed. Baduizm began a legacy and helped Badu go on to become referenced, sampled, copied or simply an influence of some of the most acclaimed artists in the past 20 years.
New Forms effortlessly combined drum 'n' bass with parts of reggae, funk and soul, hip-hop and rave. It takes you on a journey from the very start of the record, through the seminal 'Brown Paper Bag' (that bass twang is one of the most recognisable sounds ever made in dance music) to the twitchy 'Digital' and the frantic 'Matter Of Fact'.
So much of its charm is down to how Roni and Reprazent crafted the listening experience. With longer than average tracks built to be enjoyed in one sitting as a two-disc offering, it twists and turns and sucks you in. At times blissful, others more soulful, you'll awake more than two hours later begging to dive back in.
Alex Rogers: Raucous energy, swirling guitars and potent lyrics - Sleater-Kinney's third album marked a massive turning-point for the band. Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein released Dig Me Out amidst drama in their musical relationship and The Furies' Janet Weiss joining as drummer. Yet, the album turned out to become one of their most complete works to date.
Lyrically, the trio put out a masterpiece bursting with raw emotion and tension. Their words are so simple but call out in a way I hadn't heard before, on everything from heartbreak to consumerism to gender roles. From the title track's "Baby, out my head/What do you want?/What do you know?" to "Take take the noise in my head/C'mon and turn it turn it up/I wanna turn turn you on" in 'Words and Guitar'. It's enough to get you up and jumping around, or a slight head nod on the bus will do. 'Dig Me Out is mightily impressive - a hidden gem that surely deserves its place on this list amongst its more well known peers.
Sean Adams: Ladies And Gentleman We're Floating in Space is an album that devours you. It sweeps you in and spits you out, and betwixt all this, through a process of osmosis and playing hard to get, it can - and for many of us has - become more than just another record in our collections. (And not just because you managed to get your mitts on that coveted pill pack edition.)
Whether it consumes you because of its climatic build to a Hitchcockian wail of horns at the end of 'The Individual' or the hypnotic-verging-on- "cosmic" bass on tracks like the life-changing (for me at least) 'Come Together' gets you locked in its groove or because the devastatingly melancholic 'Broken Heart' makes you feel everything and nothing with its mournful, barely there, blue-hued, bleary-eyed, monstrously beautiful funeral march that underscores it's one of the saddest of wonderfully sad songs.
The obsessive production detail and them heaven-spun string arrangements drew in a legion of devotees who through word of mouth (and some gentle prodding) helped jockey this shoegaze/psychedelic-rock record into its position as a modern classic. Unlike 1997's two biggest sellers in the UK (Be Here Now and Urban Hymns) it's a record that often finds itself sitting comfortably in The Canon alongside the likes of Pet Sounds, The Dark Side of the Moon, Loveless, and The White Album. It's fair to say, OK Computer, released on the same day, slips into a fair few of these 'All-Time Bestest Records Ever...' listicles too.
Then again, maybe it's the use of silence, the seemingly endless space, and the majestic noise that engulfed you. Those subtle taps of a tambourine. Guitars that quiver and bend beside a patient piano part. The synth drones you only heard bubbling away after 100 plays of 'Cool Waves'. The way all of this and more combines to punctuate every moment of this odyssey with a clear intent that you're meant to share its nihilistic rage, be at one with its curl-up-in-a-ball existential melancholy or move (rather than dance) as you succumb to the groove.
Lyrically, with witty turns of phrase and nudge-nod-wink drug references, Ladies and Gentlemen.... made Oasis seem like kid-rock, and Lou Reed and The Stones innocent, verging on prudish in their poetic crypticisms.
Whatever it is that pulled you into its orbit, it's hard to find this undeniable feast of sound drab or cynical or lazy. It may be your coming of age record, a soulful Sunday reminder of music's moon-like pull or the first record you truly loved - you were "probably just hungry. C'mon!" And you're probably still hungry for more. Thank goodness then that every listen to this masterpiece, even 20 years on, delivers a different shiver down the spine or another cathartic jolt of gospelnoizadelia.
Underground Hip Hop at its finest. A hate-or-love-it kind of album for many due to its innovative and experimental nature, but doubtless a classic. Company Flow, consisting of El-P (beats & rhymes), Big Juss (rhymes) & DJ Mr. Len (beats & scratches), dropped this gem to bless Hip Hop in a time period where shiny suit rappers and gangsta posers were starting to get most of the spotlight. Ahead of its time and very influential, Funcrusher Plus paved the way for countless left-field Hip Hop acts, who were and are instrumental in keeping the genre fresh.
Capone is only on half of the songs because he got locked up while recording the album. Tragedy Khadafi takes his place on some songs, which actually does the album well. The War Report is a solid album, a must-have for fans of NYC street rap like that of Nas, Mobb Deep, and Kool G Rap.
On their debut album, this underground crew from Philadelphia do not reach their full potential yet, but this still is a dope album anyway. Stoupe Enemy of Mankind is an excellent producer, providing bone-chilling and atmospheric soundscapes for Vinnie Paz to unleash his lyrical wizardry on. Innovative and intelligent, and the beginning of an impressive career filled with A+ quality albums. Jedi Mind Tricks is one of the best and most consistent Hip Hop crews in the game.
Frankie Cutlass gathered an A-star line-up for this boom-bap treasure. With guest spots from Craig G., Roxanne Shante, Biz Markie, Big Daddy Kane, Mobb Deep, Kool G Rap, M.O.P., Fat Joe, Busta Rhymes, Keith Murray, Redman, Sean Price, and others, you know this has to be a quality album.