Ruminations - December 26, 1999
by Stephanie Sollow



Best Of 1999


In the words of the Grateful Dead: "what a long, strange trip it's been." When I think about where I was in January and where I am in December, I realize it has been quite a year.

Read our history, for the details of how John and I got to this point.

In many other places you'll see the "Best of" lists for the year - best movies, best in design, best products, best innovation, instead I'll narrow my "best of" retrospective to just those releases that we've reviewed that were my favourites. They are linked to the reviews I wrote for them, so you can see why they made this list (though if I feel further commentary is needed, you'll know).

I discounted live albums and re-releases, otherwise Djam Karet's Live At Orion and The Lonely Bears' self-titled album would have made the cut -- though making the list the top 12.

The criterion was this: was this an album I felt compelled to play repeatedly (aside from for review purposes)? If I were to be stranded and isolated somewhere with a solar powered CD player, which 10 from this year would I want with me?

Steph's Top 10 for 1999 (rock/metal, listed alphabetically):

·Angra - Fireworks
·Dali's Dilemma - Manifesto For Futurism
·Dream Theater - Scenes From A Memory
·Fish - Raingods with Zippos
·Ice Age - The Great Divide
·Liquid Tension Experiment - LTE2
·Simon Phillips - Another Lifetime
·Porcupine Tree - Stupid Dream
·Spock's Beard - Day for Night
·Rick Wakeman - Return To The Centre Of The Earth

Close contender(s): Jethro Tull, Neal Morse, Yes, and Yokeshire.

Steph's Top 5 releases for 1999 (ambient/electronic/jazz, listed alphabetically):

·Hermetic Science - Prophecies*
·The Rippington's - Topaz
·Steve Roach/Vir Unis - Body Electric
·Spacetime Continuum - Double Fine Zone
·Tangerine Dream - Transsiberia

Close contender(s): Steve Roach - Light Fantastic

* I chose to put Hermetic Science here rather than under the rock/metal list, though it really is on the bridge between rock and electronic.

Send us your "Best of" lists, and we'll post 'em under a new section debuting January 10th - Reader's Picks. Send those lists to sollows@progressiveworld.net with Reader Picks in the subject line.

Some of the 1999 releases still to be reviewed [and obviously were -ed. Sep 2011] are Marillion's marillion.com, Tiles' Presents Of Mind, Angel Dust's Bleed, and Vanden Plas' Far Off Grace among a few others. How will these change the above list? We'll see on January 10th.









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Published on: 1999-12-26 (2197 reads)

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