Insanely Great 90s Songs You're Not Sick of: 1997

 1997 not only saw the continuing decline of the musical class of 1991 but also the decline of acts signed in the wake of Nirvana's black swan success. But that doesn't mean there weren't some big albums and a wide variety of very exciting music released that year.

Better yet, someone finally asked out loud the question that had been on everyone's mind for 20 years: How did Geddy Lee's voice get so high? Did he speak like an ordinary guy?

With sales starting to cool, the major record labels coordinated three responses to the onrushing commercial collapse of early 90s alternative rock: a Latin pop explosion spearheaded by Ricky Martin, British Techno, and, um, Robbie Williams. 

The Latin pop wave was reasonably, though not spectacularly, successful, but Techno largely fell flat. And US audiences proved once again they had no need for Robbie Williams music.

Meanwhile, Ska-Punk and Nu Metal, two genres the majors had very little faith in at the time, burst forth from the shopping malls and frat houses to eventually become the new sound of young suburban America. Pop-punk and Emo punk would be hot on their heels.

Of course, 1997 is probably best known for what is probably the most cringeworthy event in the history of contemporary music: U2 queefing out some drab, low-T dad-rock in the lingerie department of the Astor Place K-Mart Superstore in the East Village. The event was meant to promote their '97 wince-fest Pop, but they didn't even play a cut off the album: they played the B-side from their stinky new single, "Discotheque."

It was at this point that U2 went from being tiresome to being outright loathsome, at least for me. How about you? Tell us in the comments.

You'd never know from listening to Pop, but U2 had originally set out to do what they'd done since day one: present a safe and inoffensive simulacrum of ideas circulating in the underground scenes. Since the record companies were already pushing the techno music U2 were haplessly trying to appropriate, no one had much interest in U2s O'Doul's version of it. Pop was their worst selling album after 1981s October.

David Bowie also built a career lifting from other people's work, albeit with far greater finesse than U2. His '97 set Earthling stole some thunder from the short-lived and now-forgotten Jungle fad (a kind of prototype for Dubstep, only with undanceable beats). 

The hit single from it didn't nick any Jungle "beats," since Bowie had cowritten it with Brian Eno a couple years prior. The hit was the version remixed by Trent Reznor, which wasn't nearly as interesting as this album version.

Reznor's former indentured servant Richard Patrick had enjoyed success with his band Filter, and enjoyed some more as they teamed up with techno wizards The Crystal Method.

Techno was hampered as a commercial venture because it was largely made by nerdy dudes who largely eschewed full-time singers. But the Chemical Brothers had a nice little hit with this block-rocker.

And one-man music factory Aphex Twin traumatized an entire generation with this inconceivably disturbing video for "Come to Daddy." I can't rightly think of any high profile artist who ever made a video this insanely fucked-up. Can you?

Early 90s rave giants The Orb had been getting a little somnolent from all der schmokedy-schmoke in the mid 90s, but perked up a bit with this bouncy toe-tapper.

Fellow former ravemaster Biosphere went in the exact opposite direction, and created one of my very favorite albums as a result. I guess this would be its closest thing to a rock song, which tells you a lot about the rest of the CD. Just sheer, utter magic, ripped straight from my dreams.

French duo Air used 90s technology to produce some very 70s sounding music, including this slow-burner.

Radiohead burst into Rock's premier league with their Neo-prog opus OK Computer. I still like The Bends more, but there are a lot of great cuts on the follow-up, like this heartstring-tugger.

Foo Fighters morphed from post-Nirvana novelty to full-time hit machine with 97's The Color and the Shape. You don't need to hear anything off that ever again by now, but have you heard this scorching cover of Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street," released as a B-side? This is by far my favorite thing ever to emerge from the Nirvana orbit.

Fleetwood Mac made big dollars in 1997 when the Rumours line-up reformed for a live concert. The hit off it was a song I remembered well from way back in the day, since it was heavily played on the soft rock radio station my dad tortured me with.

Bay Area neo-power pop outfit Third Eye Blind released their classic debut, from which many, many songs were culled for hit singles. This is my favorite track from it.

Brit Pop had already peaked by 1997 and this psychedelically tinged act never got their due. But this is still a great single.

Our Lady Peace were big in their native Canada, but enjoyed only mild success outside of it. Shame, too, because this a great song and a nearly-archetypal 90s alt.rock single.

The Dandy Warhols were kind of the opposite: they were successful in the UK but strictly a cult act in their native US. You get the feeling they really didn't care, hence the keyboardist waving her dirty pillows all over their videos.

Jaded GenX neo-folk rockers Marcy Playground offered this great track as their entry into the One-Hit Wonder Hall of Fame.

The Sundays completed their Holy Trinity with Static and Silence and ironically, have been silent ever since. Some say they simply made the same album over and over and released it under three different titles, but why mess with perfection? When something works -- and by "works," I mean "makes all the angels in the Seven Heavens weep with joy" -- you stick with it.

Aside from a few scattered tidbits like a song for South Park, Joe Strummer largely sat out the 90s. But he enlisted drum god Rat Scabies and bass god Segs for the Grosse Point Blank soundtrack and this lost classic.

Japanese Joe Strummer fans Cornelius unleashed their debut LP, and showed they were also familiar with the Sonic Youth and Jesus and Mary Chain catalogs as well.

So how about your top fave raves from 1997? Fill us in down in the comments down below. I finally got the comments section sorted out so drop by early and often.

Don't forget The Secret Sun Institute of Advanced Synchromysticism, now holding classes in the highly strange. Some new lessons up you can't afford to miss.

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