Album of The Year - Endgame

considering an astonishing number of movies / shows / trailers these two tunes appeared on since, this record deserves to be in everyone's top 10!
Yeah I haven't done a good job of tracking the classical side of things in here with my lists. Just a lot of moving parts to keep track of to justify the year that it counts. But with Part being a living composer, I suppose it's a little easier to pin down. I have one of the Arvo Part compilation LPs and listen to it relatively frequently.

Thanks for the reminder! Wouldn't have caught it otherwise.
 
1. Jason Falkner - Can You Still Feel?
2. Beulah - When Your Heartstrings Break
3. Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret
4. Old 97's - Fight Songs
5. Fountains of Wayne - Utopia Parkway
6. Jimmy Eat World - Clarity
7. XTC - Apple Venus, Vol. 1
8. The Deathray Davies - Drink with the Grown-Ups and Listen to the Jazz
9. The Promise Ring - Very Emergency
10. Elf Power - A Dream in Sound

Honorable Mention:
The Apples in Stereo - Her Wallpaper Reverie
Ben Folds Five - The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner
Drive-By Truckers - Pizza Deliverance
Foo Fighters - There Is Nothing Left to Lose
Man or Astro-man? - EEVIAC
The Ocean Blue - Davy Jones' Locker
Pavement - Terror Twilight
Stereolab - Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night
The White Stripes - The White Stripes
Wilco - Summer Teeth
Forgot about that Elf Power record. Olivia Tremor Control, Apples in Stereo, Of Montreal, Beulah, Dressy Bessy...Elephant 6 really rocked it that year.
 
1. Wilco - Summerteeth
2. Sigur Ros - agaetis byrjun
3. Eins Zwo - Gefährliches Halbwissen
4. Get Up Kids - Something to write home about
5. dEUS - The Ideal Crash
6. RHCP - californication
7. Moby -Play
8. Madness - Wonderful
9. Travis - The man Who
10. Sleater-Kinney - The Hot Rock
 
1. Sleater Kinney - The Hot Rock
2. Sigur Ros - agaetis byrjun
3. Moby - Play
4. TLC - Fan Mail
5. Le Tigre - Le Tigre
6. Macy Gray - On How Life Is
7. Kelis - Kalaidescope
8. Eve - Let There Be Eve
9. Dixie Chicks - Fly
10. Lucious Jackson - Electric Honey

I mostly did this to get SK up in there. :)
 
1. Sleater Kinney - The Hot Rock
2. Sigur Ros - agaetis byrjun
3. Moby - Play
4. TLC - Fan Mail
5. Le Tigre - Le Tigre
6. Macy Gray - On How Life Is
7. Kelis - Kalaidescope
8. Eve - Let There Be Eve
9. Dixie Chicks - Fly
10. Lucious Jackson - Electric Honey

I mostly did this to get SK up in there. :)

I’m happy to see Dixie Chicks getting some love!
 
1. Tori Amos - To Venus And Back
2. Fiona Apple - When The Pawn
3. Alanis Morissette - MTV Unplugged
4. The Cranberries - Bury The Hatchet
5. Aimee Mann - Magnolia Soundtrack
6. Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
7. Dido - No Angel
8. Luscious Jackson - Electric Honey
9. Blur - 13
10. Geri Halliwell - Schizophonic
 
1) Built to Spill - Keep it Like a Secret (one of those albums that's like a warm guitar blanket)
2) Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun (flying into Tokyo for my dream vacation earlier this year while listening to the Boredoms is one of my favorite music moments)
3) Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun (hadn't listened to this in a long time, reminded me of how blown away I was the first time I heard it)
4) The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
5) Wilco - Summerteeth (my favorite Wilco album? certainly the one I listen to the most frequently)
6) MF DOOM - Operation Doomsday
7) Fiona Apple - When the Pawn...
8) Arvo Part - Alina
9) The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
10) Bonnie Prince Billy - I See a Darkness
 
This was a really tough one! A lot of standouts for me, and a lot of records I'd never heard before that I checked out this week and were tough to exclude from the top 10.

1. Wilco - Summerteeth (10 pts.) - definitely my favourite Wilco record. "Via Chicago", "I'm Always in Love", "A Shot in the Arm", "ELT", oh man.
2. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada. "Moya" is the best single song they ever recorded and it's a perfect bite-sized EP. The dude in the second track who thinks he's Blaze Bayley and reads Iron Maiden lyrics as his poem also rules.
3. The Innocence Mission - Birds of my Neighbourhood. "The Lakes of Canada" is one of my favourite songs of all time and "July" is just a perfect love song. Soundtracked a lot of summers in my 20s.
4. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - I See a Darkness. The upbeat remake of the title track is another of my favourite songs of all time but this is a classic.
5. Jimmy Eat World - Clarity. I've got my older brother to thank for this one. Just a fantastic pop-rock (emo?) album, gets a lot of spins in the winter time.
6. My Morning Jacket - The Tennessee Fire. Not their best but still a hell of a debut for, IMO, the best rock band of the last 20 years.
7. Smog - Knock Knock
8. Opeth - Still Life
9. Saves the Day - Through Being Cool. "Banned From the Back Porch" was my favourite song in 9th grade and the guitar sound is just killer on this record.
10. Sigur Ros - Ágætis byrjun (1 pt.)

Edit: honourable mention:
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity
Neurosis - Times of Grace
The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
Joel Plaskett - In Need of Medical Attention
 
This was a really tough one! A lot of standouts for me, and a lot of records I'd never heard before that I checked out this week and were tough to exclude from the top 10.

1. Wilco - Summerteeth (10 pts.) - definitely my favourite Wilco record. "Via Chicago", "I'm Always in Love", "A Shot in the Arm", "ELT", oh man.
2. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada. "Moya" is the best single song they ever recorded and it's a perfect bite-sized EP. The dude in the second track who thinks he's Blaze Bayley and reads Iron Maiden lyrics as his poem also rules.
3. The Innocence Mission - Birds of my Neighbourhood. "The Lakes of Canada" is one of my favourite songs of all time and "July" is just a perfect love song. Soundtracked a lot of summers in my 20s.
4. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - I See a Darkness. The upbeat remake of the title track is another of my favourite songs of all time but this is a classic.
5. Jimmy Eat World - Clarity. I've got my older brother to thank for this one. Just a fantastic pop-rock (emo?) album, gets a lot of spins in the winter time.
6. My Morning Jacket - The Tennessee Fire. Not their best but still a hell of a debut for, IMO, the best rock band of the last 20 years.
7. Smog - Knock Knock
8. Opeth - Still Life
9. Saves the Day - Through Being Cool. "Banned From the Back Porch" was my favourite song in 9th grade and the guitar sound is just killer on this record.
10. Sigur Ros - Ágætis byrjun (1 pt.)
Forgot about Smog! I'm not sure it would've cracked the top 10 anyways. Oh well.
 
I think this is a sneaky good year if there perhaps isn’t the same heights reached as surrounding years.

1. The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
2. Wilco - Summerteeth
3. Blur - 13
4. Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun
5. Jimmy Eat World - Clarity
6. Mos Def - Black On Both Sides
7. The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
8. XTC - Apple Venus, Pt. 1
9. Fiona Apple - When The Pawn...
10. MF Doom - Operation Doomsday
 
1. The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
2. Mos Def - Black On Both Sides
3. The Roots - Things Fall Apart
4. Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
5. Coil - Music To Play In The Dark
6. The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume 1
7. Fishmans - 98.12.28
8. The Angels Of Light - New Mother
9. Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun
10. Neurosis - Times Of Grace

What a tough list to make! I had to leave a lot out, from indie classics (Agaetis Byrjun, The Soft Bulletin) to underrated gems (The Gay Parade, Internal Affairs). But I guess that just means a lot of great music was coming out that year!
 
The N+G Top 20 Albums of 1999

  1. Sigur Rós - Ágætis byrjun
  2. The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
  3. Fiona Apple - When the Pawn...
  4. Wilco - Summerteeth
  5. Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret
  6. Mos Def - Black on Both Sides
  7. The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
  8. The Roots - Things Fall Apart (tied 8)
  9. Tom Waits - Mule Variations (tied 8)
  10. Moby - Play
  11. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californiacation
  12. Beck - Midnite Vultures (tied 12)
  13. Blur - 13 (tied 12)
  14. Nine Inch Nails – The Fragile
  15. The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
  16. American Football - American Football
  17. Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun
  18. Rage Against The Machine – The Battle Of Los Angeles (tied 18)
  19. Jimmy Eat World - Clarity (tied 18)
  20. Eminem - Slim Shady LP (tied 18)
 
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