The [your name here] Awards!

My favorite off of the first SOAD album is almost certainly Sugar, also love me some Dragula.  Never cared much for Whiskey in the Jar, my preferred "radio single off of a late 90s/early 2000s Metalica side project" song was always No Leaf Clover.

1997

Best Film:

Boogie Nights
The Ice Storm
Jackie Brown
L.A. Confidential
Princess Mononoke

Winner:

Best Song:

Well, this year is a little problematic for me. Musically speaking, the most accomplished Metal album might just be Children of Bodom's debut Something Wild, but I'm not crazy about Alexi Laiho's vocals. Comparatively, bands I loved put out relatively weak stuff. Megadeth's Cryptic Warnings has one pretty solid song, but most of the album is just lame, Jugulator is from the era of Judas Priest which didn't feature the immortal Rob Halford on vocals so as far as I'm concerned it doesn't even count, and while I like that Metallica's Reload is better than some people give it credit for, I generally don't find too much of it to be award worthy. So all that to say, weak year for me.

"Deadnight Warrior" by Children of Bodom


A very solid introduction to one of the most significant Metal bands of the late 90s and 2000s. They've never exactly been a favourite of mine, but I certainly recognise the talent and I appreciate the heavy sound being kept alive.

"Fuel" by Metallica


Probably the song from Reload with the most staying power.

"Lake Bodom" by Children of Bodom


Wonderful melodic sound and very heavy. Vocals aren't my favourite but I love the riffing.

"Trust" by Megadeth


Also probably Megadeth's most memorable song from the otherwise mediocre Cryptic Warnings. Not on the level of prime Thrash era Megadeth, but a pretty good tune all the same.

"The Unforgiven II" by Metallica


Probably not as good as "The Unforgiven", but I like that it plays within the same sound and I think it's a pretty cool track. There's something about the song that I find very compelling and catchy.

Winner:

Best Score:

The Game
L.A. Confidetial
Men in Black
Princess Mononoke
Titanic

Winner:

In 1997, everyone at my school was obsessed with Usher.

Try not to cringe:




This one holds up, but Dracula will disagree:




Probably the biggest song of the year:




It's embarrassing how everyone loved Puff Daddy back then:

Eh, I think both albums are more or less equally decent but ultimately not too good. Each one has a handful of songs I like, but a lot I don't and nothing that measures up to their classic work. As far as I'm concerned Metallica's first three albums are perfect masterpieces of Metal, with And Justice for All being pretty good too but also a clear step down. Since then, I think everything they've done has been diminishing returns culminating with the abysmal St. Anger. Death Magnetic was the first album they made in a long time that was clearly better than the one which preceded it.

Best Movie
Fargo
Hamlet
Lone Star
12 Monkeys
Trainspotting

Winner: 

Worst Movie
Mary Reilly
Chain Reaction
Jingle All The Way
Harriet The Spy
Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders

"Winner:" 

Best TV Show
Homicide: Life on the Street (Season 4)
Seinfeld (Season 7)
The Simpsons (Season 7)
Star Trek: Deep Space 9 (Season 4)
The X-Files (Season 3)

Winner:

Best Video Game
Mario Kart 64 (N64)

1996 was a bit of an awkwardly transitional year for the video game industry as the 2D consoles yesterday gave way to the newer 3D consoles that would power the next generation.   Console makers were just starting to get a grip on how they were going to make this transition and few games did more to ease that transition than Mario 64.  The way the game used the control stick and the camera would be heavily imitated and its platforming structure would also be replicated.

Resident Evil (PS1)

Resident Evil didn't invent the survival horror genre but it certainly popularized it and did a lot to make horror games in general work.  The game's limits on the number of saves drastically upped the game's tension and while its control scheme seems like a mistake in retrospect it did play in an interesting way.  Most importantly, the game had a sense of atmosphere and style which a lot of previous games lacked.  

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (N64)

This game does not hold up.  Frankly I don't know that it was all that great back in the day either but it's here for a reason.  Mainly because I spent endless hours playing the damn thing back in the day.  Really the game isn't bad so much as it's uneven.  The first level, a recreation of the Hoth battle from Empire, is legendary.  It was a fun bit of vehiclular combat which allowed you to wrap an AT-AT's legs with a cable.  Might not sound amazing now but that was some awesome shit back in the day.  However, the game also had a bunch of clunkier third person shooter levels that are harder to defend.  Mixed bag of a game but I have good memories of it.

Super Mario 64 (N64)

I never actually owned a copy of this game but I played it at a number of other kids houses back in the day and it is certainly my favorite installment of the cart racing series.  I'm generally  not a big fan of driving/racing games but this series has always been able to make the act of driving in circles a lot more fun by adding weapons and power-ups that you can use to screw over your friends.  There was also the cool battle-mode that focused largely on this aspect of the game.

Tomb Raider (PS1)

People say that Super Mario 64 was basically the originator of the 3D third person action game but it is interesting that Tomb Raider, a game released at roughly the same time, managed to do a pretty serviceable job of it as well.  That's in part because the sex appeal of the Lara Croft character has largely overshadowed pretty much everything else about the game in the public mind even though the game's mix of action and puzzle solving was very influential.  And you know, I don't think the game should have to apologize for its sex appeal either, gaming was going to have its first sex symbol eventually and Lara was a pretty good choice to do it.

Winner: 

Best Hit Song
"Tha Crossroads" by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony:

I usually have an allergy for songs with overt religious messages but I usually make an exception for Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's Eazy-E tribute track "The Crossroads."  It's certainly odd to see this otherwise gangsta rap group delivering what is effectively gospel rap but the song remains one of the best showcases of the group's signature ability to meld their raps into effective rapid fire harmonies.  The song's earnest production perfectly keeps this odd mix of elements together and the ambitious music video helped cement the song's legacy as one of the most unlikely 90s hip-hop hits.

"How Do U Want It/California Love" by 2pac Ft. K-Ci & JoJo and Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman:
 


First of all, no, this is not a tie.  These two songs were released on what's called a double A-side which means that according to Billboard rules circa 1996 they are functionally one single despite being two songs and are thus eligible to both be nominated in a single slot and are exempt from the one song per artist rule I generally go by.  Of the two halves of this single "California Love" is almost certainly the more famous.  An anthem to the Golden State it features 'pac and Dr. Dre trading bars that proved to be pretty much the peak of the West Coast rap explosian.  "How Do You Want It" has probably aged a bit more poorly but remains a good example of how Tupac could effectively function as a commercial artist and is a good fusion of rap and R&B.

"No Diggity" by Blackstreet Ft. Dr. Dre and Queen Pen:  


This is a classic track that sort of disappeared for a decade and a half and then suddenly burst back into the public's collective nostalgia a year or two.  It's certainly a song more worthy of nostalgia than most as it remains an immaculately produced single.  An ode to the mannerisms of a prostitute that the group seems to be impressed by, the song does a pretty good job of making this ho seems like a legitimately admirable hustler, and that seems like an oddly progressive outlook for a 90s R&B outfit.

"Wonderwall" by Oasis:

Oasis to me is mostly associated with unfulfilled potential.  I suppose that putting out two great albums is more than 99% of bands accomplish and that that should be enough to cement their place in rock history but the fact that they sort of imploded and mostly put out a lot of music that no one cares about after about two and a half years of relevancy seems pretty disappointing just the same.  They did however go out on something of a bang with this timeless song which is kind of the standard by which modern acoustic rock tracks are measured by.  A soaring and anthemic yet intimate little song with a hell of a hooky chorus and respectably oblique lyrics. 

"You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette:

There are certainly easier ways to break into the mainstream than by writing the pop music equivalent of the movie Fatal Attraction, but that certainly proved to be successful enough for Alanis Morissette.  An epic overshare, this song is largely believed to be an account of Morissette's rage after being dumped by (of all people) Full House cast member Dave Coulier complete with a number of rather blunt details.  The writing in it can be a little melodramatic but there's a certain raw honesty to that, you can tell there's some truth to her spite.  The song struck a chorde and became the go to angry post-breakup song of a generation.

Winner:

Clearly this thread doesn't get the attention it deserves but I'd like to keep going.  Ian are you up to keeping this going in turn, would you object if I ended up hijacking it and going out of turn?

Best Song of 1995




Best Song of 1996




Nah. Just fucking with you guys.


Best Song of 1995




Best Song of 1996

Oh yeah that's fine.  It seems like people lost interest other than you and I so I kinda let it drop.

You fuckin' what, ah kid?

1995

Best Movie
Seven
Casino
Usual Suspects, The
Heat
Before Sunrise

Winner:

Worst Movie
Judge Dredd
Village of the Damned
Goofy Movie, A
Casper
Power Rangers Movie, The

"Winner":

Best TV Show
Homicide: Life on the Street (Season 3)
The Simpsons (Season 6)
Seinfeld (Season 6)
Star Trek: Deep Space 9 (Season 3)
The X-Files (Season 2)

Winner:

Best Video Game

Chrono Trigger (SNES)


When people think of Square RPGs in the 16 bit era the first thing they'll almost always think of the Final Fantasy series first, but the second thing they'll think of is more than likely their 1995 gem Chrono Trigger.  This SNES role playing game was famous for its time traveling fantasy plot and for its use of multiple endings based on player actions.  It also had some interesting RPG combat system which uses Final Fantasy's active battle system while staying on the main map screen and allowing the characters to combine their powers in interesting ways. 

Mortal Kombat 3 (Arcade)


Most people will probably agree that Mortal Kombat 3 is probably the lesser of the original Mortal Kombat trilogy, in part because those dial-a-combos are really annoying, but the game does have a lot going for it just the same.  Firstly, it's a really sharp looking game.  I has some really great fighting arenas and I dig a lot of the new characters.  Also this was the only Mortal Kombat game that let you fight against a centaur with a metal scorpion tail... that has to count for something.

Star Wars: Dark Forces (PC)


LucasArts' usual MO has been to take whatever game genre is popular at the moment and make a Star Wars version of it, and it usually works.  One of their first attempts to do that was to make a Doom-Clone and replace the demons with storm troopers and the shotguns with blasters.  That would seem to be cynical but it most worked.  On top of that, they did make one noticable improvement to the Doom formula by adding a lot of verticality to the levels and by allowing the character look up and down... which seems like a rather archaic thing to be impressed by in retrospect but it seemed pretty cool in '95.

Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (PC)


Remember when the Warcraft was still still an RTS series and not a massive online RPG and freakin' movie series?  Seems like an eternity ago.  I'm probably always going to view the Warcraft universe more as Starcraft's older underachieving brother than as the multi-media empire it became but that's a fine legacy just the same.  This was bigger and better than the original Warcraft in almost every way and it also set up a lot of how storytelling could be done in this genre.  

Yoshi's Island (SNES)


In the west Yoshi's Island was billed as a sequel to Super Mario World, which probably set the wrong expectations as the film is in many ways its own unique kind of platformer.  The game's egg shooting mechanic was unique and its "save baby Mario" system for taking damage was also different, but what really set it apart was its beautiful and rather trippy art style which was unlike any other Mario game.  Beyond that this is the same great level design you expect from Nintendo. 

Winner:

Best Hit Song

"1st of the Month"
by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony:

"1st of the Month" is one of those rap songs that you kind of feel uncomfortable commenting on because it's talking about an aspect of hood life that it's hard for someone like me to relate to, namely celebrating the day that welfare checks arrive.  If anything the first of the month has an opposite effect on me given that it's when I tend to pay off my credit card.  Still it's hard not to get caught up in the celebratory joy of this song, especially when Bone Thugs start up with that "wake up, wake up" chorus.  

"Big Poppa" by The Notorious B.I.G.:


"Juicy" is popularly considered to be Biggie Smalls' most famous classic, but I think no song captures the spirit of the late rapper (at least the fun side of it) quite like his 1995 hit "Big Poppa" which described the experience of hanging around in a club like few other hits of the time.  It's one of those songs you can totally live vicariously through, it's like the ultimate ideal of what being the coolest guy in the club must be like and the life of luxury he describes using some really clever rhymes is really appealing.

"Boombastic
" by Shaggy

Lyrically this is a fairly silly little song where a dude brags about his sexual prowess for four minutes, but it more than makes up for it with its groove.  That drum loop is a real toe tapper and the vocal samples in the background add to the whole experience.  On top of that there's Shaggy's voice, which remains a rather fun thing to listen to no matter what he's saying.  Then there's that chorus which sort of slows down and speeds up as it goes.  

"Gangsta's Paradise"
by Coolio Ft. LV:

Coolio isn't taken very seriously any more and even this, his most popular single, is often seen as a sort of curio in part because it doesn't fit perfectly in the general narrative of what was going on in Hip-Hop in 1995 but it does remain a very compelling track on many levels.  The song of course uses Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise" as its basis, but it isn't a lazy sample and they achieve a lot by lowering it a few octaves and adding the choir in the background.  Coolio himself doesn't have quite the rhyming ability of a Nas or a Biggie but on this song he does a very good job of setting an atmosphere and quoting deep sounding biblical-ish things.  It was the first and last time anyone took this guy seriously.

"Kiss From a Rose" by Seal

From what I've heard, Seal actually doesn't really like this song very much and is kind of embarrassed by it.  Possibly this is because the lyrics are kind of cryptic and non-nonsensical, or maybe he just sort of sees it as a sell-out moment... or possibly because it means he'll forever be associated with Batman Forever (which is unfair because, movie quality aside, that was one of the best "music inspired by" soundtracks of all time).  Still, this remains one of the great sort of epic ballads and the production on it is immaculate and Seal's vocal performance really sells it.

Winner:

1995

Movie of the year
Nominees

Apollo 13
Braveheart
Seven

Winner:




Show of the year
Nominees

Seinfeld S6
The Simpsons S6
The X-Files S2


Winner:




Game of the year
Nominees

El Grande
Settlers of Catan

Winner: