A 1996 Musical Flashback!

I was having fun with Google about a week ago, and I found a website that has immortalized the digest for an old music email list I belonged to in the mid-90s. I couldn’t resist looking back at what I had written! In 1996, I identified the following albums as my “desert island” must haves (in no particular order).

(Incidentally, I also remember having my own website—a sort of blog precursor—back in the day, about a year earlier than this [ I switched jobs and it went by the wayside]. It’s so funny to think that I typed out all of the html code by hand back in the old days! There really weren’t many html editor software packages in 1994-95, and they were quite rudimentary.)

Anyway, here is the 1996 list...

Crowded House - Together Alone
(This is an album that I had listened to over and over when it first was released; I will forever associate it with a trip to the Scottish Highlands. I was with my brother and a friend of his, and we drove from Liverpool (where he lived) to the Isle of Skye (with many, many pub stops in between); we played this album non-stop because it seemed to fit the landscape. I still am a fan of Crowded House, and I always go to hear Neil Finn or the Finn Brothers when they tour.)

The Beatles - Rubber Soul
(Still my favorite Beatles album. I don’t feel I have to defend this selection in any way. I like the Dylan-inspired songs the best, as well as sitar experimentations from my favorite Beatle, George.)

Talk Talk - Natural History
(I was on some sort of 80s nostalgia kick, as I recall. I haven’t listened to this in a while, but I do still like it. I remember being upset when I heard Gwen Stefani’s version of “It’s My Life”…uh, gag!)

Tears for Fears - The Hurting
(Another of my 80s nostalgia albums. Tears for Fears were one of the better pop bands of the time…this album is very electronic and melodic at the same time. Again, I haven’t listened to this for quite a while.)

The Byrds - Greatest Hits
(I still love the Byrds, but this was among one of many 60s-70s folk-rock hybrid albums that I listened to a lot back in the mid-90s, along with Buffalo Springfield, CSNY, Neil Young, Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell, etc.)

The Charlatans UK - Up to Our Hips
(I remember loving this album a lot for about one year. I was a big Charlatans fan, and I thought this their best)

Ride - Going Blank Again
(I had gone through a mild to moderate shoe gaze phase, and loving this album was a remainder...the one album I listened to all the time when I lived in Oxford a couple of years earlier.)

Luna – Bewitched
(Proving to myself that when I was 24, I could spot a great band! I’m not sure why I picked this one over “Penthouse,” but this is an incredible album. I have been a Luna fan for a long, long time…it was very hard to deal with their break-up, and when I attended the Portland show on their final tour, I was still in denial. Maybe considered an acquired taste by some, but they’ve also been called “the best rock and roll band nobody’s ever heard of.” I tend to agree with that assessment.)

World Party - Goodbye, Jumbo
(If they hadn’t put out such crap after this album, they could’ve been a really great band. What in the hell happened?)

The Stone Roses
(Definitely a good album, and pretty much ushered in the music of the 90s, but not one I still feel the urge to put in the player very often. They came, they conquered, they inspired, they disappeared.)

Hmm….What I left out: I don’t remember all that I was into at the time, but I can’t believe I left out Galaxie 500; leaving out one of my favorite current bands, Supergrass, is understandable because, although I liked them in 1996, I really didn’t love them until “In It For The Money” was released later on.

I'm quite glad that my taste in music has evolved a lot since then. I would have to give it some thought regarding which music I would include on such a list today, but I think it would be mostly albums that were released decades ago.