Now: That's what I call my formative years!

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Apparantly them folks who create those "NOW" compilation albums (used to be once a year, now seems like every few months) have been chucking them out for 25 years now.

SOOOOOooooooo.

I thought it'd be kinda cool to list my own "NOW" album of my formative musical years which for me were basically the mid-late 90s.

There's gonna be 25 tracks and only two from any one group.

If you fancy giving it a go, go for it.

The previso is that it's not just your FAVOURITE SONGS EVAH~~!!! but something evocative of the time when music became big for you.

Animal Nitrate - Suede ('93)

Connection - Elastica ('94)

Parklife - Blur ('94)

Caught By The Fuzz - Supergrass ('94)

Daydreamer - Menswear ('95)

What Do I Do Now - Sleeper ('95)

Inbetweener - Sleeper ('95)

Common People - Pulp ('95)

Charmless Man - Blur ('95)

Girl From Mars - Ash ('95)

Slight Return - Bluetones ('95)

Not My Idea - Garbage ('95)

Three Lions - Lightning Seeds ('96)

Born Slippy NUXX - Underworld (saw them last year in Birmingham and this STILL blew me away) ('96)

Me And You vs The World - Space ('96)

Sweet 16 - Feeder ('96)

Drop Dead Gorgeous - Republica ('97)

Hundred Mile High City - Ocean Colour Scene ('97)

Sunny In England - 3 Colours Red ('97)

Firestarter - Prodigy ('97)

5 Years - Bjork ('97)

Hanging Around - The Cardigans ('98)

The Rockafella Skank - Fatboy Slim ('98)

Teardrop - Massive Attack ('98)

Under The Influence - Chemical Brothers ('99)

Turns out that 1995-1997 are the central years of music for me. Interesting.

Firestarter is not my favourite Prodigy track but it is the most evocative of the period. Under The Influence gets in because at university in our student house we'd plug my mate's CD player into these proper, big speakers and crank the bass up. Incredible.

It turns out that "Surrender" the Chemical Brothers album with Under The Influence on was put in the third Blue Peter time capsule. Groovy.

[Colly]

Frightened. Barring the big beat and Chems stuff that I largely grew bored of towards the end of the 90's, the first half is so similar to mine its scary. Especially Girl From Mars, Animal Nitrate, the Sleeper songs (I'd have Sale of the Century in there though) and Menswe@r! No one else I know listens to Menswe@r while I hold Nuisance up to be the single greatest album I've ever bought for two pounds 8-9 years after its release...

[Cactus Drags]

I was gonna pimp Sale of the Century too.

I think if I were to make a Now! compilation like that, it'd be early 00's. Me and a guy at work are always on about how 2001 fucking ruled for music.

[METALMAN]

Music was always something I enjoyed. I've been playing instruments and that sort of thing for years but the time when I really got obsessively into music wouldn't be too long ago to be honest. Possibly when I was about 14/15 and the likes of the Libertines and the Strokes came along.

I think if I was to credit any one band with me getting into music it would be the Strokes. There are many bands I like a lot more of than them but their's was one of the first "proper" albums I bought so it will always be pretty special to me. At that time I also listened to loads of the Cure, Smiths, Beatles but they weren't at all new at the time despite being extremely evocative of that time so I left them out.

So anyway, the music that's really evocative of this period isn't strictly speaking even the best music I listened to then. It's just what reminds me of it you know because it was some of the first music I picked up on as soon as it was released.

Here goes:

1. 12:51 - The Strokes

2. Death On The Stairs - The Libertines

3. Don't Look Back Into The Sun - The Libertines

4. Party Line - Adam Green

5. 32 of December - Babyshambles

6. Jesusland -Ben Folds

7. All Of This - blink-182

8. Banquet - Bloc Party

9. Landlocked Blues - Bright Eyes

10. The Suffering - Coheed and Cambria

11. Cannonball - Damien Rice

12. I Believe In A Thing Called Love - The Darkness

13. 16 Military Wives - The Decemberists

14. Tumble and Fall - Feeder

15. Meantime - The Futureheads

16. Gimme Some Love - Graham Coxon

17. (Don't) Give Hate A Chance - Jamiroquai

18. Deadweight On Velveteen - José Gonzalez

19. This Is The Last Time - Keane

20. Molly's Chambers - Kings Of Leon

21. Eddie's Gun - The Kooks

22. Make A Move - Lostprophets

23. First Of The Gang To Die - Morrissey

24. Time Is Running Out - Muse

25. Stumble and Fall - Razorlight

26. By The Way - Red Hot Chili Peppers

27. Blueside - Rooney

28. Crumb By Crumb - Rufus Wainwright

29. Firecracker - Ryan Adams

30. Mary - The Subways

31. Come On, Feel The Ilinoise - Sufjan Stevens

32. Pain Killer - Turin Brakes

Yeah so mostly the years 2003-2005 for me.

[GoGo Yubari]

I'm going to go with 2002 - 2006 as when my taste in music evolved and developed to its present state, and I ended up settling on 26 tracks, one for each singular artist. Not in chronological order of the song's release as much as it's about when I got into what, so there might be minor discrepancies here and there if you look at it from a year by year basis.

1. "All Cried Out" by Vendetta Red

2. "Wasted and Ready" by Ben Kweller

3."Burndt Jamb" by Weezer

4. "Ain't No Room" by The Vines

5. "Another Woman" by Moby

6. "The Air Near My Fingers" by The White Stripes

7. "12:51" by The Strokes

8. "On the Way to the Club" by Blur

9. "Independent" by Ayumi Hamasaki

10. "Thank You, My Twilight" by the pillows

11. "Y Control" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs

12. "Experimental Film" by They Might Be Giants

13. "Take Me Out" by Franz Ferdinand

14. "Dirty Harry" by Gorillaz

15. "Us" by Regina Spektor

16. "Redcoats" by The Divorce

17. "Caring is Creepy" by The Shins

18. "Love Blind" by Jamiroquai

19. "Modern Girl" by Sleater-Kinney

20. "Little Round Mirrors" by Harvey Danger

21. "Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)" by The Decemberists

22. "Days of Our Lives" by De La Soul

23. "Crush on Radio" by Visqueen

24. "Touch the Sky" by Kanye West, feat. Lupe Fiasco

25. "New Years" by Asobi Seksu

26. "Burnt Offering" by Blue Scholars

.... fuck, metalman and I both used the same Strokes song.

[probablyoliver]

I'm focussing on a five year gap, 1997 to 2002. No other reason than it was the time I got into music. In '97 I was 8 years old, and my sister was pumping out the likes of Portishead, Prodigy, Radiohead, Massive Attack and the ilk, which really molded me into the elitist bastard I am now.

Aereogramme - Post-Tour, Pre-Judgment ('01)

American Football - I'll See You When We're Both Not So Emotional ('99)

Antony & The Johnsons - Hitler In My Heart ('98)

Bear vs Shark - Ma Jolie ('02)

Bright Eyes - The City Has Sex ('02)

Broken Social Scene - I'm Still Your Fag ('02)

The Bronx - They Will Kill Us All (Without Mercy) ('03)

Deftones - Knife Party ('00)

Elliott Smith - Say Yes ('97)

Fat Boy Slim - The Rockafella Skank ('98)

Incubus - Drive ('99)

Less Than Jake - All My Friends Are Metalheads ('98)

The Magnetic Fields - The Luckiest Guy On The Lower East Side ('99)

Million Dead - Smiling At Strangers On Trains ('02)

Modest Mouse - Medication ('99)

The Mountain Goats - Jaipur ('00)

Owen - The Ghost Of What Should Have Been ('02)

Prodigy - Diesel Power ('97)

R.E.M. - Imitation Of Life ('01)

Radiohead - Idioteque ('00)

Sunny Day Real Estate - How It Feels To Be Something On ('01)

TV On The Radio - YOUR God ('02)