1996

1996 was not the best year in my life, being upset having to move from the house I grew up in.




Albums

My last year listening exclusively to country music, but I don't have much nostalgia for many of the albums in this year.

Rank Album Artist Title Label Impression
1 Less Than Jake Losing Streak Capitol

This album represents the pinnacle of my teenage love of ska, even though I think Hello Rockview is slightly better from covering Johnny Quest Thinks We're Sellouts at the high school talent show to being one of the favorite driving CDs, this album will always hold a special place in my heart.

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2 Descendents Everything Sucks Epitaph

I don't want to be like other adults because they've already died.

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3 Reel Big Fish Turn the Radio Off Mojo

Ska got a bit of a goofy reputation because of this album, but it still has a lot of fun songs that maybe haven't aged that well.

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4 MxPx Life in General Tooth and Nail

Yeah that bass line in Chick Magnet is still really fun to play for people who don't know how to play bass well.

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5 The Suicide Machines Destruction by Definition Hollywood

A lot of you might know them from New Girl on the Tony Hawk soundtrack, but the rest f this album is really good too.

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6 Texas is the Reason Do You Know Who You Are? Revelation Records

Revelation Records' best-selling album and mid 90's emo classic.

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7 Belle and Sebastian If You're Feeling Sinister Jeepster

The Scottish indie pop's breakout album.

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8 Anti-Flag Die for the Government New Red Archives

Anti-Flag doesn't get enough respect, because their political songs are intentionally simplistic, and because of that remain timeless.

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9 Goldfinger Goldfinger Mojo

Anxiety Answers Anything.

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10 Weezer Pinkerton DGC

God damn these questionable lyrics, that do it for me every time.

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Books


Rank Book Title Author Impression
1 Rats Saw God Rob Thomas

Before Rob Thomas went on to write my favorite TV Show Veronica Mars, he wrote this good young adult novel.

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Movies

The English Patient won the oscar for the best film of the year so this one was one of the weaker years.

Rank Movie Title Impression
1 Sling Blade

Some folks call it a sling blade, I call it a great movie.

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2 Fargo

That accent.

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Video Games

Rank Game Title Developer Impression
1 Super Mario 64 Nintendo

The first 3D platformer and still impressive that it was a Nintendo 64 launch game.

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2 Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars Revolution Software

Paris in the fall, the last months of the year, at the end of the millenium.

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3 Tex Murphy: The Pandora Directive Access Software

The best Tex Murphy game for fans of bad puns and 90's cheesy FMV.

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4 Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail! Sierra On-Line

The last of the classic Leisure Suit Larry games where they finally did everything right with the humor and gameplay design.

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5 Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow Disney

A forgettable 90's mascot platformer for most people, but Toy Story was the first video game for the new Windows 95 computer and featured ads for this game prominently so I wanted to play it really bad. When I finally got a copy it didn't quite live up to my expectations, but it's still a perfectly fine game.

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