On That Note: With 6 You Get Egg Roll (part 2 of 3)

[cyclones500]

Welcome to another edition of On That Note. This is part 2 (of 3) for our annual albums-by-decade series.

Post from your favorite LPs released in 1986 and/or 1996. (Those years only, NOT the entire decade.)

Include up to 3 sound clips. In addition to the tracks, we encourage you to expound on why the album is meaningful, including personal history of your relationship with the record and its music.

Choices should focus on studio albums. Avoid greatest hits/live LPs/compilations. We allow it, but it should be a definitive element of an artist’s body of work that isn’t otherwise available from studio output.

If someone posts an album on your list before you get to it, you are free to reference it, but please use different song clips.

If you’re more singles-oriented, you may substitute favorite singles from either of those years.

OTN is featured weekly on Cyclone Fanatic by @MeanDean, @CycloneRulzzz and cyclones500.

Link to Part 1 here


I'll do one or two from '86 first, then on to '96 and back again.

Lifes Rich Pageant — R.E.M.
July 28, 1986

My favorite R.E.M. album. Keeping my tracks to a minimum, it could be a somewhat common pick.

My favorite opener from an R.E.M. album ("Harborcoat" from "Reckoning" is a close 2nd)




Good tempo-buster between "What If We Give It Away?" and "Swan Swan H."

 

[cyclones500]

Odelay — Beck
June 18, 1996

 

[MeanDean]

Crowded House - Crowded House 1986

I remember liking both of the hits from this and I remember standing in the record store and debating whether to buy the album. I did not. At that time, anyway. It wasn't until 1997 when I picked up a Best of Collection that I got hooked - then went back and bought all 4 of the pre-break up LPs.

 

[MeanDean]

BoDeans - Love and Hope and Sex and Dreams 1986

This got rave reviews in Rolling Stone, and it sounded like something I might like. So I took a chance. They never really made it huge nationally but they were legends in Chicago and Milwaukee. And if I have my facts correct, they are the musical act that had more appearances on Letterman than any other.

 

[cyclones500]

Camper Van Beethoven (self-titled/3rd)
August 1986


Possibly the most “definitive” CVB album in its initial run, good mix of experimental/psychedelia & straight-ahead pop leanings. (Contains a solid cover of "Interstellar Overdrive," which I won't include here).







Cool album-closer … Among other lyrical gems: “I’ve got a dollar-15 and nothing better to do // I’ve got a half-tank of gas and nowhere to go.”

 

[pourcyne]

1986 I was working 50+ -hr weeks. I swear to God this is the only American thing I remember iistening to on those hella commutes (and probably the only cassette in English I have from the era):

 

[MuskieCy]

 

[MeanDean]

With Soccer a big deal this summer this LP title seems appropriate

London 0 Hull 4 - The Housemartins 1986



I must have listened to this song dozens of times before I realized it was about younger employees being 'forced' to socialize with the bosses after hours. So even though it's SOUNDS happy, it's kind of not a happy situation.

 

[cyclones500]

Being There — Wilco
Oct. 29, 1996

Cheating the "3 tracks" guideline, but it is a double album, so ...

Wilco has never gotten completely away from the "alt-country" tag, but this might be the last one with a majority of songs that fit that niche, until maybe Sky Blue Sky and couple from post-2010 period.

 

[pourcyne]

1996 - Samedi Soir sur la Terre Francis Cabrel

Song from the point of view of a bull in a bullfight - yes, a protest song against the cruelty and brutality



Le Noceur = Party Dude



Octobre (October)

 

[cytor]

 

[MeanDean]

Elvis Costello - King of America 1986

Not one of my top 5 EC albums but still quite amazing.





A cut from the LP, but a live version - I, somewhere, have a 12" copy of this live from some radio show.

 

[cytor]

 

[cytor]

 

[MeanDean]

I have this on a CD single. From 1996

 

[MeanDean]

Yourself Or Someone Like You - Matchbox 20 1996

 

[MeanDean]

1996 Release

 

[cyclones500]

Under the Bushes Under the Stars — Guided By Voices
March 26, 1996

—> I have a special place for the predecessor, “Alien Lanes,” but this might be a more “complete” work, a bridge between the lo-fi beginnings and an attempt at “indie-arena rock” of its follow-up.

 

[Buster28]

Belinda Carlisle's debut solo album, Belinda from 1986. It spawned the #3 Hot 100 hit "Mad About You" (which was originally intended for the Go-Go's 4th studio album before they dissolved). She was such a knockout back then. Can't overstate how much I love her.



"I Feel the Magic"


"Band of Gold" (live duet with Freda Payne)

 

[cyclones500]

Released as single April 10, 1996 ... from "Insomniac" LP (1995)