Best Songs of 1996

I have long held the belief that 1994–1996 is my favorite 3-year-period of music in my lifetime. A lot of that—well, maybe all of that— has to do with the fact that I was in high school at the time, and the most formative part of the formative years of our lives might be the music that soundtracked it.

Still, and please feel free to debate me on this, I think these songs tend to hold up pretty well, even if you were out of college by 1996, or even if you hadn’t even started preschool yet. Like most of my lists from this period, nearly all of these songs were ones I was listening to at the time. What is amazing to me about this in hindsight is how diverse the list is, at a time well before the internet allowed access to basically anything you wanted to hear.

I am not sure if that says more about my adventurousness at the time, or more about the diversity of radio stations & playlists, MTV, or the Tower listening stations I frequented, but my guess is the answer lies somewhere in between. This explosion of styles and genres was not exactly new, as you can see plenty of aural exploration in my 1991 and 1986 lists, for example, but to my eye this list presents the beginning of the middle spiraling out toward the fringes.

Again, I am probably projecting. But whereas those fringe artists & songs from my earlier lists felt like they were just that, and the popular songs were ones that everyone knew (and still knows), this list feels more like it’s full of fringe. Or maybe everything lies in the middle of the Venn diagram between fringe and popular, like everyone was just starting to form the little groups of fandom that would splinter even further in the internet age.

So anyway, this is one of my favorite lists, and not just because of some crazy theory I have about how it presages the future of music. Mostly I just love these songs. I rate all my iTunes music, and this list has one of the highest percentages of 5 star tracks of any of my now-30+ best-of lists, at 86%. Bonus points if you can guess which ones only garnered 4 stars.

For these year-end lists, I like to undertake the seemingly impossibly task of creating an hours-long mix. The order you see below represents that effort, which you can listen to via Spotify. Sadly all 100 tracks aren't available, but you get the general idea. Track notes to come eventually or maybe never.

Show Grid

Virtual Insanity

Jamiroquai

Travelling Without Moving

Work

Notes
Woo Hah!! Got You All in Check

Busta Rhymes

The Coming

Elektra

Notes
Pony

Ginuwine

The Bachelor

550 Music

Notes
California Love (Original Version)

2Pac & Dr. Dre

All Eyez on Me

Death Row

Notes
Doin’ Time

Sublime

Sublime

Gasoline Alley

Notes
What They Do

The Roots

Illadelph Halflife

DGC

Notes
The Idiot Kings

Soul Coughing

Irresistible Bliss

Slash

Notes
El Scorcho

Weezer

Pinkerton

DGC

Notes
Popular

Nada Surf

High/Low

Elektra

Notes
SuperSonics

The Presidents of the United States of America

SuperSonics

self-released

Notes
Sucked Out

Superdrag

Regretfully Yours

Elektra

Notes
Mother Mother

Tracy Bonham

The Burdens of Being Upright

Island

Notes
Caught a Lite Sneeze

Tori Amos

Boys for Pele

Atlantic

Notes
Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?

Paul Cole

This Fire

Warner Bros

Notes
Private Conversation

Lyle Lovett

The Road to Ensenada

Curb

Notes
Feel Alright

Steve Earle

I Feel Alright

Warner Bros

Notes
Climb That Hill

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

She’s the One

Warner Bros

Notes
Roadkill

Citizens’ Utilities

Lost and Foundered

Mute

Notes
Suitcases

Super Deluxe

Famous

Revolution

Notes
Close to Me

The Dismemberment Plan

Give Me the Cure

Corduroy

Notes
Naked Eye

Luscious Jackson

Fever In Fever Out

Grand Royal

Notes
Inside

Patti Rothberg

Between the 1 and the 9

EMI

Notes
Red Umbrella

Kostars

Klassics With a K

Grand Royal

Notes
Side of the Road

Evan Brubaker

Third Floor

self-released

Notes
Waste

Phish

Billy Breathes

Elektra

Notes
Out of Order

Duncan Sheik

Duncan Sheik

Atlantic

Notes
Present Tense

Pearl Jam

No Code

Epic

Notes
Switch Opens

Soundgarden

Down on the Upside

A&M

Notes
Rusty Cage

Johnny Cash

Unchained

American Recordings

Notes
With These Hands

Alejandro Escovedo

With These Hands

Rykodisc

Notes
Everybody Loves a Train

Los Lobos

Colossal Head

Warner Bros
Crawl

Nil Lara

Nil Lara

Metro Blue

Notes
Tres Delinquentes

Delinquent Habits

Delinquent Habits

Loud/RCA

Notes
Jam

A Tribe Called Quest

Beats, Rhymes & Life

Jive

Notes
Sunshine

De La Soul

Stakes Is High

Tommy Boy

Notes
ATLiens

Outkast

ATLiens

Arista

Notes
Let Me Clear My Throat

DJ Kool

Let Me Clear My Throat

American

Notes
Going Out of My Head

Fatboy Slim

Better Living Through Chemistry

Astralwerks

Notes
Da Funk

Daft Punk

Da Funk

Virgin

single release
Lovefool

The Cardigans

First Band on the Moon

Stockholm

Notes
Whoever You Are

Geggy Tah

Sacred Cow

Luaka Bop

Notes
If I Run

Semisonic

Great Divide

MCA

Notes
Radiation Vibe

Fountains of Wayne

Fountains of Wayne

Atlantic

Notes
All Night Diner

Modest Mouse

Interstate 8

Up

Notes
Tahitian Moon

Porno for Pyros

Good God’s Urge

Warner Bros

Notes
Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart

Stone Temple Pilots

Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop

Atlantic

Notes
Hero of the Day

Metallica

Load

Elektra

Notes
H

Tool

Aenima

Zoo Entertainment

Notes
A Walk

Bad Religion

The Grey Race

Atlantic

Notes
I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone

Sleater-Kinney

Call the Doctor

Chainsaw

Notes
Move to Bremerton

mxpx

Life in General

Tooth & Nail

Notes
Here in Your Bedroom

Goldfinger

Goldfinger

Mojo

Notes
Sell Out

Reel Big Fish

Turn the Radio Off

Mojo

Notes
Woo Hoo

The 5.6.7.8’s

Bomb the Twist

Sympathy for the Record Industry

Notes
Prince-S

Sebadoh

Harmacy

Sub Pop

Notes
If I Could Talk I’d Tell You

The Lemonheads

Car Button Cloth

Tag/Atlantic

Notes
The Flame

Fine Young Cannibals

The Finest

MCA

Notes
Desperately Wanting

Better Than Ezra

Friction, Baby

Elektra

Notes
Have You Seen Mary

Sponge

Wax Ecstatic

Columbia

Notes
6th Avenue Heartache

Wallflowers

Bringing Down the Horse

Interscope

Notes
Recovering the Satellites

Counting Crows

Recovering the Satellites

DGC

Notes
Ahead By a Century

The Tragically Hip

Trouble at the Henhouse

Atlantic

Notes
Drive In, Drive Out

Dave Matthews Band

Crash

RCA

Notes
A Common Disaster

Cowboy Junkies

Lay It Down

Geffen

Notes
Kingpin

Wilco

Being There

Reprise

Notes
Only One and Only

Gillian Welch

Revival

Almo Sounds

Notes
Have You Forgotten

Red House Painters

Songs for a Blue Guitar

Supreme

Notes
Forever Is Tomorrow Is Today

David Gray

Sell Sell Sell

EMI

Notes
Better View

Higher Ground

Better View

self-released

Notes
Freakynuts

Willis

Willis

self-released

Notes
Pepper

Butthole Surfers

Electriclarryland

Capitol

Notes
Halo of Ashes

Screaming Trees

Dust

Epic

Notes
Tattva

Kula Shaker

K

Columbia

Notes
The New Pollution

Beck

Odelay

DGC

Notes
Ready to Go

Republica

Republica

Deconstruction

Notes
The Distance

Cake

Fashion Nugget

Capricorn

Notes
Scooby Snacks

Fun Lovin’ Criminals

Come Find Yourself

EMI

Notes
No Diggity

Blackstreet

Another Level

Interscope

Notes
Hit Me Off

New Edition

Home Again

MCA

Notes
Don’t Let Go (Love)

En Vogue

Set It Off

EastWest

Notes
Loungin’ (Who Do Ya Luv)

LL Cool J

All World

Def Jam

Notes
Twisted

Keith Sweat

Keith Sweat

Elektra

Notes
Creep

The Afghan Whigs

Bonnie & Clyde EP

Elektra

promo only
Photograph

The Verve Pipe

Villains

RCA
E-Bow the Letter

R.E.M.

New Adventures in Hi-Fi

Warner Bros

Notes
8

Sunny Day Real Estate

LP2

Sub Pop

Notes
Down in a Hole

Alice in Chains

Unplugged

Columbia

Notes
Joshua

Shawn Mullins

Eggshells

SMG

Notes
Lack of Water

The Why Store

The Why Store

Way Cool/MCA

Notes
This Misery

Wild Colonials

This Can’t Be Life

DGC

Notes
Home

Sheryl Crow

Sheryl Crow

A&M

Notes
Criminal

Fiona Apple

Tidal

Work

Notes
Novocaine for the Soul

Eels

Beautiful Freak

Dreamworks

Notes
Fu-Gee-La

Fugees

The Score

Ruffhouse

Notes
If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)

Nas featuring Lauryn Hill

It Was Written

Columbia

Notes
Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth With Money in My Hand

Primitive Radio Gods

Rocket

Columbia

Notes
She Cries Your Name

Beth Orton

Trailer Park

Heavenly

Notes
Trigger Hippie

Morcheeba

Who Can You Trust?

Discovery

Notes
Christiansands

Tricky

Pre-Millennium Tension

Island

Notes
Born Slippy (Nuxx)

Underworld

Trainspotting

EMI

Notes