1. Tortoise - Millions Now Living Will Never Die - 1996
A Victor Hugo quote maybe shows the right way to describe this album 'Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent' Very exquisite. Emotional rock music without a human voice but human touch!
mp3: Tortoise - Glass Museum
2. Bonnie Prince Billy - I See A Darkness - 1999
It certainly is one of the best record throughout 90s, it was very deep. Very dark.
A highly satisfying musical experience. It shows importance of the words which is hard
to tell during painful experiences of life.
3. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation - 1988
"Daydream Nation" incudes perfect instrumental explosives which can break into
pieces the whole world, noise machine!
4. The Pixies - Doolittle - 1989
Pixies' the youngest, the most lovely guitar lines, and perfect songs of the band are very appreciated in alt.indie music after their separation.
Their contribution to indie rock is impossible to debate.
5. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead - 1986
The Queen Is Dead, Bigmouth Strikes Again, There Is a Light That Never Goes Out, all the best The Smiths works are included in the record. Lyrically, musically, its impression huge on indie rock scene.
6. The Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane - 1988
This record is very different, having sensibility of love, taking rich textures of rock music,
and also it's from Australia's greatest pop group ever. Something like falling in love and
rocking at the same time.
7. Bob Mould - Workbook - 1990
Masterpiece, and also it's one of the best record in 90s.
8. The High Llamas - Gideon Gaye - 1994
"Gideon Gaye" is sneaking to ears carefully, and waiting right time to stole your heart. Once it got your heart, never gives back to you what's yours.
9. Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen - 1993
The Afghan Whigs' sound was quite independent, self-reliant and mind-blowing!
10. Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - 1998
Everyone knows or should know about it, yes it's one of the best indie rock record ever made.
mp3: Neutral Milk Hotel - Holland, 1945
And albums couldn't make the top 10 list:
11. Silver Jews - Starlite Walker
12. Jim O'Rourke - Eureka
13. Mojave 3 - Ask Me Tomorrow
14. Belle & Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister
15. Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted
16. Smog - Red Apple Falls
17. Elliott Smith - Either/Or
18. The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
19. Spiritualized - Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space
20. Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand
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13 COMMENTS:
nice list - i for one like the "black sheets of rain" by bob mould far better then yours on the list - do you know this one?
cheers
btw, what about the other tortoise albums? standards?...
If you like "Millions Now Living Will Never Die", you may love any album by Tortoise. "Standards" is a great record but when a band or mucisian records the masterpiece, it's very hard to smash it.
it's certainly not perfect but definitely one of the best albums of the nineties and befitting the genre of indie rock, although thoroughly well-marketed and sold with its two solid mtv hits and post-grunge groove, i vote for beck's odelay.
with it's beatnik style, funked-up, early seventies samples, crafty, industrial fuzz, and ingenuitive asymmetrical beats, it's one of those records that you force yourself through just once and then leave in the playlist indefinitely.
definitely a veteran effort from a guy who looks like he's just old enough for a learner's permit.
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ok, had to double-check and found my memory to be lousy. beck was releasing indie records, mainly pre-geffen, although the dgc contract permitted him to continue to release on indie labels. mellow gold was a product of his time as an independent artist, but was released by geffen.
no matter, i retract "odelay" and submit "the bends" by radiohead on parlophone in the uk. it's altogether more approachable, with its basis in rock rather than electronica, than the overly-experimental "ok computer". "the bends" is an allusion to the sudden impact of the band's arrival and the sickness associated with fame and success. it is brimming with melancholy, a radiohead staple, yet somehow the rock roots and freshness of the ghostly-chilling melodic anthems prevent the record from becoming a suicide pact but more an homage to the anguish of life and love.
Rocktations
What on earth is "indie" music?
No Sebadoh.
If You Are Going To Include Siamese Dream On The List It Needs To Be Number One. The Smashing Pumpkins Are The Greatest Band In The Last Thirty Years. Siamese Dream Blows The Other Albums Out Of The Water
Agreed. Not sure the Smashing Pumpkins are the best band in the last 30 years but Siamese Dream is a masterpiece and does blow those other albums away.
Whoever wrote this list is fucking clueless. Best indie albums - you must have had your head firmly planted in your rectum for the last 30 years. Meh
I appreciate everyone's opinion on music. Music, after all, is art. Art is beauty. And beauty is in the eye (or ear, in this case) of the beholder. No two people's lists are going to be the same.
I too am a bit confused by the term "indie" here, as almost every artist started independent of a big corporate record contract. One could hardly consider bands like the Pixies or Smashing Pumpkins "indie" anymore, but I do appreciate their contributions to the field.
Bands/albums that would have made my list include oldies like Can, the Velvet Underground, Captain Beefheart, Television, Wire, 80's and 90's acts like Jane's Addiction (surely "Nothing's Shocking" removed the entire door for an alternative - read: indie - movement), Butthole Surfers, Pere Ubu, Beck, Fugazi, the list goes on. I tend to agree with previous posters who felt Beck and Radiohead were blatant omissions.
Even a few brand new bands would make my cut: Zu, Battles, No Age, Man Man ... etc.
But it's within us all to wish our picks had made someone else's list. It's all subjective. Regardless, they're fun to read.
ok for one thing indie and alternative are the same thing, indie was used by the UK and Alternative by the US. also one thing to note is indie does not mean your on an indie label, look at indie pop/rock megastars Death cab for cutie they are HUGE everyone loves them they are probaly rich as hell yet they are still indie. also tortoise is mainly post-rock with indie influences and whoever thinks the smashing pumkins is the greatest band in the last 30 years must have not listened to any over band besides them.
Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? by Metric definetly should be on the list
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