937. Le Revancha Del Tango

Le Revancha Del Tango
Gotan Project
2001

Tracks
1. Queremos Paz
2. Epoca
3. Chunga's Revenge
4. Triptico
5. Santa Maria (Del Buen Ayre)
6. Una Musica Brutal
7. El Capitalismo Foraneo
8. Last Tango In Paris
9. La Del Ruso
10. Vuelvo Al Sur

I guess outside of the US this is a vastly overplayed album, but as an American I haven't heard It much. So while others' annoyance with it will come from hearing it a zillion times, my irritation comes from hearing it once.

I have resigned myself to my fate of having to listen to hundreds of electronica albums, but I found the instrumentals on this one particularly grating. I guess it might be interesting to some people to see Gotan Project drag tango kicking and screaming into the 21st century, but it wasn't to me.

Skippable.

RATING: 2/5

929. Amnesiac

Amnesiac
Radiohead
2001

Tracks
1. Packt Like Sardines In A Crushed Tin Box
2. Pyramid Song
3. Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors
4. You And Whose Army?
5. I Might Be Wrong
6. Knives Out
7. Morning Bell/Amnesiac
8. Dollars & Cents
9. Hunting Bears
10. Like Spinning Plates
11. Life In A Glasshouse

Radiohead brings us another satisfactory album that even pleases me, a self proclaimed electronica dissenter. I often feel like I can't enjoy the electronica album because I'm not in a club setting. But Radiohead is enjoyable no matter where you are, or when you are. It's even enjoyable in the hellscape that is 2020.

So Radiohead continues to move away from a mainstream sound but they still manage to stay accessible. It's good chill music but manages to be challenging at the same time.

Still more Radiohead to come, and I'm looking forward to it.

RATING: 4/5

922. Felt Mountain

Felt Mountain
Goldfrapp
2000

Tracks
1. Lovely Head
2. Paper Bag
3. Human
4. Pilots
5. Deer Stop
6. Felt Mountain
7. Oompah Radar
8. Utopia
9. Horse Tears

I need something calming after the general douchebaggery of the last album. This fit the bill perfectly.

So this was just peaceful, slightly dark music that almost felt like it was a supporting a larger story. This style of music isn't my favorite, but I enjoyed the ride and they didn't overstay their welcome. 

A fairly short but memorable album. 

RATING: 4/5

910. Kid A

Kid A
Radiohead
2000

Tracks

1. Everything In Its Right Place
2. Kid A
3. National Anthem
4. How To Disappear Completely
5. Treefingers
6. Optimistic
7. In Limbo
8. Idioteque
9. Morning Bell
10. Motion Picture Soundtrack

Radiohead is officially feeling themselves, and I guess that means moving away from commercial friendly, accessible tracks. Instead, they give us something much more cerebral and oh joy, even more electronica.

This is still really good despite not being my favorite style of music. Yes, they can be a little full of themselves, but at least they are justified. This album is full of great songs that really seem to build to something. I still prefer The Bends, but I enjoyed this more than OK Computer.

I'm pleased we still have a couple more Radiohead albums to go.  I am curious to see where they go from here.

RATING: 4/5

891. Play

Play
Moby
1999 

Tracks
1. Honey
2. Find My Baby
3. Porcelain
4. Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
5. South Side
6. Rushing
7. Bodyrock
8. Natural Blues
9. Machete
10. 7
11. Run On
12. Down Slow
13. If Things Were Perfect
14. Everloving
15. Inside
16. Guitar Flute & String
17. Sky Is Broken, The
18. My Weakness

I think this album got a lot of play when it was first released. But you don't meet many self-proclaimed Moby fans nowadays. Actually, you don't meet many people in general.

Ongoing apocalypse aside, this was actually a pretty decent album. I know I have complained loudly and often about electronica music, but this is much more coherent than normal electronica. For one thing, the tracks aren't 12 minutes long. For another, the songs clearly build up to something. It's not just endless loops designed to pad the runtime for god knows what reason.

Still not the most engaging style of music, but more enjoyable than your average electronica album.

RATING: 4/5

890. The Contino Sessions

The Contino Sessions
Death in Vegas
1999

Tracks
1. Dirge
2. Soul Auctioneer
3. Death Threat
4. Flying
5. Aisha
6. Lever Street
7. Aladdin's Story
8. Broken Little Sister
9. Neptune City (Andrew Weatherall Mix)

We continue to slog our way through electronica albums that occasionally do something different enough to be passably interesting. This was not one of those times.

I am sure there are those that will go gaga over the presence of Iggy Pop in one of the songs. I don't know if the appearance of this particular pedophile really enhanced my experience very much. His was one of my least favorite tracks. 

Just not very interesting to me. I think there was an effort to be commercial, which might displease electronica fans as well.

RATING: 2/5

880. Music Has The Right to Children

Music Has The Right To Children
Boards of Canada
1998

Tracks
1. Wildlife Analysis
2. An Eagle In Your Mind
3. The Color Of The Fire
4. Telephasic Workshop
5. Triangles & Rhombuses
6. Sixtyten
7. Turquoise Hexagon Sun
8. Kaini Industries
9. Bocuma
10. Roygbiv
11. Rue The Whirl
12. Aquarius
13. Olson
14. Pete Standing Alone
15. Smokes Quantity
16. Open The Light
17. One Very Important Thought

I know electronica probably seems overrepresented to me because I don't like it, but I feel secure in speculating that this is the 700th techno album we've had on this List. So yay, another milestone.

I guess this sounded something like Brian Eno. But it doesn't feel much different from the 699 electronica albums we've had before. Just dull background music that doesn't seem to lift a finger in regards to engaging its listener.

And there's also a sanctimonious note at the end about the dangers of censorship. Entirely skippable.

RATING: 2/5 

875. Moon Safari

Moon Safari
Air
1998

Tracks
1. La Femme D'argent
2. Sexy Boy
3. All I Need
4. Kelly Watch The Stars
5. Talisman
6. Remember
7. You Make It Easy
8. Ce Matin-Là
9. New Star In The Sky
10. Jeanne

So more electronica, which is not my cup of drug-laced tea. But this actually felt like more of a throwback than the other recent electronica albums on the List and I enjoyed it just a tad more than other entries.

Notably, there were a few tracks I liked, which doesn't happen very often for me with electronica albums. I liked "Remember" and "You Make Me It Easy." This is probably because those songs resembled Everything But the Girl and Belle and Sebastian more than, let's say, L.T.J. Bukem. 

Still, not my steez. 

RATING: 3/5

844. Let's Get Killed

Let's Get Killed
David Holmes
1997

Tracks
1. Listen
2. My Mate Paul
3. Let's Get Killed
4. Gritty Shaker
5. Head Rush On Lafayette
6. Rodney Yates
7. Radio 7
8. The Parcus & Madder Show
9. Slashers Revenge
10. Freaknik
11. Caddell Returns
12. Don't Die Just Yet
13. For You

We are really in a stretch of unimpressive albums lately. I see there is a Nick Cave album on the horizon, which sounds promising. Hopefully it won't take that long for things to turn around.

So some rather boring electronica here, although I enjoy a James Bond homage as much as the next old guy. Actually, that was pretty much the only part of the album I enjoyed.

Not terrible, but another yawn.

RATING: 2/5

841. Dig Your Own Hole

Dig Your Own Hole
The Chemical Brothers
1997

Tracks
1. Block Rockin' Beats
2. Dig Your Own Hole
3. Elektrobank
4. Piku
5. Setting Sun
6. It Doesn't Matter
7. Don't Stop The Rock
8. Get Up On It Like This
9. Lost In The K Hole
10. Where Do I Begin
11. The Private Psychedelic Reel

I have been able to endure the occasional electronica album, but this was something else. Forget "Wannabe." "Elektrobank" has to be the most obnoxious song ever created.

It consists of somebody saying "Who is dis doin' this synthetic type of alpha beta psychedelic funkin'?" so many times, that it broke me. I am not being too hard on myself, I think it would have broken most people. 

I'll be generous and say that I could perhaps see how this music might be mildly tolerable if it was played in a club setting. But it's 2020, so no chance of that happening.

RATING: 1/5

703. The White Room

The White Room
KLF
1991

Tracks
1. What Time Is Love?
2. Make It Rain
3. 3 A.M Eternal (Live at the S.S.L)
4. Church of the KLF
5. Last Train to Transcentral (Live From The Lost Continent)
6. Build A Fire
7. The White Room
8. No More Tears
9. Justified and Ancient

I took a break from listening to albums yesterday because it was my birthday, and I cannot tolerate any electronica on that day. I am doubling up on albums today though, which I might actually start doing anyway so I can finish this project by the end of the year. It would be a satisfying way to end a year remarkably devoid of satisfaction.

I have a feeling this is one of those albums that you were supposed to listen to on drugs. Soberly, it wasn't very interesting. "What Time is Love?" was very obnoxious, and none of the other tracks really stuck.

Definitely not a birthday worthy album. 

RATING: 2/5

665. En Tact

En Tact
The Shamen
1990

Tracks
1. Move Any Mountain
2. Human NRG (Massey)
3. Possible Worlds
4. Omega Amigo
5. Evil Is Even [Edit]
6. Hyperreal Orbit
7. Lightspan
8. Make It Mine
9. Oxygen Restriction
10. Hear Me
11. 666 Edit
12. Make It Minimal
13. Hyperreal Selector
14. Lightspan Soundwave
15. Progen 91 (I.R.P. In the Land of Oz)

Ugh, another rave album which would only be interesting if you were attending an actual rave. As is, this is just another boring electronica album.

This probably says more about me than the album, but at one point in listening to this, I fleetingly forgot I was playing music and my stomach dropped, thinking the sounds being emitted from my speakers meant my laptop was broken. 

So entirely skippable, and I hope the presence of this and 808 state doesn't indicate an upswing in the amount of electronica we have to endure.

RATING: 2/5

370. Trans-Europa Express

Trans-Europa Express
Kraftwerk
1977

Tracks
1. Europa Endlos 
2. Spiegelsaal 
3. Schaufensterpuppen 
4. Trans Europa Express 
5. Metall Auf Metall 
6. Abzug
7. Franz Schubert 
8. Endlos Endlos

I was only about two minutes into this album when my sister shouted from the other room that she hated it.  Unfortunately, that was the best part of the album so hopefully, the pointed door slam and the subsequent lack of complaining means that she was able to block it out.  I was not so lucky and had to listen to the whole thing.

There are two different types of this album, the English and the German version.  I listened to the English one, since I am pretty sure that is what the book was referring to.  However, I suppose for a more "authentic" experience, you should listen to the German one.

Did anyone else find the mirror song incredibly annoying?  How many times were they going to repeat the same line? The few mildly entertaining melodies surely weren't worth that!

RATING: 2/5

363. Oxygene

Oxygene
Jean-Michel Jarre
1976

Tracks
1. Oxygene I
2. Oxygene II
3. Oxygene III
4. Oxygene IV
5. Oxygene V
6. Oxygene VI

We have been hit with a lot of instrumental albums lately and I have to say, I have been enjoying the ride.  Whenever someone says "electronica" I usually picture weird guys in their basement playing with their keyboard's sound effects.  However, this was pretty beautiful album; it was certainly better than some symphonies I have heard.

I don't really have a whole lot to say about this album.  It is pretty hard to tell the tracks apart, but every once awhile you will hear a melody that is truly gorgeous.  I was writing at the time and had to stop sometimes just to sit and listen.

I hope this string of good albums doesn't end soon; if you are looking for a good rant, however, check out my movie blogs.  We are in a real slump over there.

RATING: 4/5