1997 was a great summer. “The summer of Rock”, some might say. In general 1997 was a great year for music. It may be just ’cause that was the year that I really started to get into music in general, but after a number of conversations on the same topic, I have concluded that it just was a great year for music. It was during the summer that lead into ‘97 that I was introduced to musicians such as Beck and Pavement. [My fate as a lifelong Beck fan was sealed when he came to play the Mudslinger Music Festival that Summer and my sister and I were forced to sit on the hot driveway listening to Beck sing in the distance, as our dad refused to drive us to the University (only 2 suburbs away!!!) to stand outside and listen].

Anyways, reminiscing aside, 1997 did produce some kickass albums, which begs the question, Ten years on, will this good fortune be replicated?? As the eternal optimist, I think ’sure, why not?’, there are some great bands and even some hangers on that are creating some great music at the moment, and in Melbourne we’ve had some excellent bands play already, with plenty of tasty gigs to whet the appetite…

So I thought I’d do a recap of some of the albums that made 1997 great, and some of the albums that could potentially make 2007 great:

Back In ‘97 we had the following releases:

Beck -Odelay

Pavement- Brighten the Corners

Mogwai- Young Team

Marcy Playground- Marcy Playground

Chemical Brothers- Dig your own hole

Nimrod- Green Day (I had to add this for mu 14 year old self)

Portishead- Portishead

Radiohead- Ok Computer

The Prodigy- The Fat of the Land

Regurgitator- Unit

Sleater Kinney- Dig Me Out

Elliot Smith-Either/ Or

Sneaker Pimps- Becomming X

Stereolab- Dots and Loops

Ween- The Mollusk

The Verve- Urban Hymns

U2- Pop

Supergrass- In it for the Money

Oasis- Be Here Now

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – The Boatman’s Call

Blink 182- Dude Ranch

Ben Folds Five- Whatever and Ever Amen

Aphex Twin- Come to Daddy (Simply for the famous video)

Guided by Voices- Mag Earwig!

Bjork- Homogenic

Blur- Blur

Daft Punk- Homework

Other releases include Bob Dylan, Dr Dre, Echo & The Bunnymen, Everclear, Faith no More, Hole, Jay-Z,MxPx, The Offspring, Primus, Silverchair, They Might Be Giants, Veruca Salt and Travis.

While many of these bands weren’t quite my cup of tea, and many I would care to forget (‘Pretty Fly for a White Guy’ anyone?) there is no doubt that 1997 produced a flood of new releases.

(As a side note, 1997 saw the creation of some future successful bands such as Death Cab for Cutie, The Shins, Coldplay, The White Stripes, Mates of State and The Black Heart Procession)

So, what’s in store for ‘07 then you ask? Thus far, there have been the following new releases:

The Arcade Fire- Neon Bible,

Andrew Bird- Armchair Apocryoha

Low- Drums and Guns

Decembrists- Practical Handbook (DVD only?)

Son Volt- The Search

Love of Diagrams- Mosaic

Modest Mouse- We were dead before the Ship even Sank

The Shins- Wincing the Night Away

Of Montreal- Hissing Fauna, are you the Destroyer?

Deerhoof- Friend Opportunity

Clap your Hands Say Yeah- Some Loud Thunder

Bloc Party- A Weekend in the City

Apples in Stereo- New Magnetic Wonder

!!!- Myth Takes

Air-Pocket Symphony

Ok, so not too bad thus far. Coming up:

The Prodigy- Return of the Mac

Bright Eyes- Cassadaga

Nine Inch Nails- Year Zero

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club- Baby 81

Tori Amos- American Doll Posse

Travis- The Boy with No Name

Wilco- Sky Blue Sky

Jeff Buckley-Life Eternal: An Introduction to Jeff Buckley

Ryan Adams- Easy Tiger

The White Stripes- Icky Thump

Lupe Fiasco- The Cool

The Black Keys

Gogol Bordello

Plus as yet untitled albums from Coldplay, Massive Attack, Radiohead, Interpol and Elbow.

So I guess in conclusion, we might not be expecting the volume of new releases that indundated us in ‘97, but I think we should have enough to keep us busy throughout the year. Lets just hope they’re good.

And you just know Sufjan Stevens has something up his ironed sleeves for us.