Jamwise #49 · Years · 1996
Best Albums of 1996
The best albums of 1996 — Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt, Beck's Odelay, Fiona Apple's Tidal, Rage Against the Machine, Tool, and R.E.M. A quietly stacked year for debuts.
Hello everyone!
First of all, apologies for the multi-week newsletter hiatus. Long story short, I got a new job assignment on short notice that required a new apartment, moving to a new city, lots of coordination, lots of overtime, and lots and LOTS of driving. On the one hand that’s a good thing for this newsletter - plenty of time for music on the road. But on the other hand there’s been literally zero time for thinking, let alone writing. But now things are getting moderately stable, and I’m back to regularly scheduled programming. Thanks for hanging with me.
I’ve been listening through the 90’s with the help of the excellent folks on Substack, and this week continues that series with a deep-ish dive into the year 1996.
As always, please leave a comment with any of your favorites that are missing! Leaving an album off of my list isn’t an indication of dislike, for the record - I simply write about the albums that inspire the most thoughts, not necessarily my votes for the best. But that doesn’t mean I won’t be listening through all of your favorites next time I make the 6 hour drive back home for the weekend.
Odelay — Beck
When you’re a teen to pre-teen, you have a very different definition of what constitutes “deep meaning” in song lyrics. This album was one of those that young Dave thought was mind-blowingly cool and original and deep - I was probably assuming that many of the nonsensical lyrics were simply nonsensical in order to hide a deeper meaning.
Reasonable Doubt — Jay-Z
Jay Z’s debut album sounds like nothing so much as a guy in the streets of NYC, hat down, collar up, sounds of cars and the subway screeching and people hustling for survival all around. What’s he doing in the street?
Evil Empire — Rage Against the Machine
Every kid has that one song or event that introduces them to the problems of adults in the real world. RATM was that band for me - I wasn’t an angry kid, but I experienced early on the catharsis of listening to intense energy and anger artfully expressed.
New Adventures in Hi-Fi — R.E.M.
REM’s sound takes many forms, and this form seems like it came about after extended listening sessions of the downcast early 90’s era of alt rock, the era REM only dabbled in in precious albums. It’s like they bought a bunch of Radiohead records and let the resulting gloom into their sound.
Aenema — Tool
Industrial grossness of the non-destructive variety. This album almost sounds like it’s polluting the atmosphere, a cloud of grey-green smoke emanating from a decades-old smokestack.
Tidal — Fiona Apple
Fiona Apple’s debut album sounds like something you’d hear from a far more established artists. Her hooks are buried deeply behind the freeform melodies and musing poetry of her lyrics, and for an artist with so much commercial success - and such a pop legacy - this album is surprisingly un-poppy sounding today.
Richard D. James Album — Aphex Twin
This album is confusing as hell for me, as a mortal and organic life form with normal cognitive abilities and no onboard internet connectivity, but it’s the kind of thing that makes me think humans are capable of communicating with the machines we’ve spent so many years creating.