1997
Noah’s Barks pages covering things relating to the year 1997.
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Primal Scream – “Vanishing Point” (1997)
Vanishing Point is an album I’ve always wanted to like more, and that sentiment applies to Primal Scream in general. The album is so clearly cool. But the textures just aren’t to my preference. I like “Get Duffy” for its crystalline melody, but the vast majority of this album is rhythmically acidic. Just ain’t my… (read more)
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Mega Man X4
A contender for my favorite game in the series, ‘Mega Man X4’ takes advantage of its new hardware to make the action more stylish than ever with its detailed sprites—and it’s helped even further by the addition of Zero as a wholly unique playable character. (read more)
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Portishead – “Portishead” (1997)
The self-titled album from Portishead has really cool production. Unfortunately, the majority of the beats and rhythms are exactly the fuckin’ same and can’t carry the brutally drawn-out song lengths. The monotone nature of this album hurts it. Sure, it’s consistently dark—as a matter of fact, it’s all dark. But it’s not an evolving journey like their… (read more)
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Sixpence None the Richer – “Sixpence None the Richer” (1997)
I remember hearing “Kiss Me” played on the radio all the time as a kid. Listening to it now brings a smile to my face, bringing back feelings of simpler times. I figured I’d finally repay Sixpence None the Richer for all those happy feelings and listen to a full album. This is actually a… (read more)
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Blur – “Blur”
“Beetlebum” and “Song 2” are really great songs, so what the hell happened to everything else on Blur? Sounds like they weren’t even trying with the rest and the album is just a vehicle for those singles. What if it is? What if all of it is bad, and I’m just fooling myself? What if… (read more)
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Björk – “Homogenic”
Undoubtedly one of Björk‘s greatest albums, but I can’t imagine myself ever liking Homogenic more than Post. As a matter of fact, even putting aside my personal feelings, I still consider Post to be the superior album. Homogenic falls off a bit in the album’s second half, and lacks the adventurism of Post to help… (read more)
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Cheap Trick – “Cheap Trick” (1997)
‘Cheap Trick’ (1997) follows in the steps of ‘Woke Up With a Monster.’ Same grunge stylings, minus the embarrassing aesthetic. But is it as good? (read more)
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Foo Fighters – “The Colour and the Shape”
Similar pop songwriting ideals of the debut album, but the hooks are bigger and the production is cleaner. Loses the more lo-fi, garage-y, punk feel of the debut that made it so charming. Almost all songs are midtempo, and there’s only two types of songs: brash rockers and strummed mellow electric guitar ballads. The latter… (read more)