Nirvana - Heaven is a Hoax (1997)

 

1. Drowned in the Sun
2. Suffer
3. Lavender
4. Flower on a Grave
5. Cuts
6. Like New (feat. Layne Staley)
7. Star
8. Dream Song
9. Culture Abuse
10. Come on Death
11. Seattle Abridged
12. Vasectomy in Four Countries

In my Nirvana alternate universe discography, I only made one posthumous album which was Bliss from 1995 because I didn't feel as though there was enough material to make a second one. But in the years since then, there were a lot of fan made Nirvana albums being uploaded to YouTube, some tracks using Kurt soundalike AI vocals to make completely new songs. The most famous example would be Drowned in the Sun, which was supposedly all created by AI to sound like a Nirvana song but was uploaded by a YouTuber named Good Luck Chuck. Then there was the fan made song Smother which had AI written lyrics that were in the style of Nirvana but was recorded by a YouTuber named Kurt Connor. However I feel like this one is less original, but I found a similarly named song called Suffer made by If Kurt Cobain Lived. 

The idea for this person's album is that by 2000, Kurt Cobain was working on his first solo album, but it would be intentionally unlistenable to piss off any record executive that would be interested in releasing it. I loved this idea, especially the idea that at least one track would be a sound collage made from the experimental tracks from the Montage of Heck soundtrack. This can be represented on the track Culture Abuse. Lavender might be an answer song to Hole's Violet, and some other songs like Flower on a Grave could also be a hit single. The instrumentation was all fan made which gives some songs a loose feeling and make some vocals sound more robotic. 

Technically there were some fan made band mockups that I didn't use on the last album, as well as tracks from the Foo Fighters' album The Colour and the Shape, though the idea of making a solo album with songs that used AI vocals intrigued me. There is also the idea of simply using songs by obscure bands that sounded like Nirvana, though I don't necessarily like this idea. 

They Might Be Giants - Then: The Earlier Years (1997)

1. Critic Intro
2. Now That I Have Everything
3. Mainstream U.S.A.
4. Fake Out in Buenos Aires
5. Greek Number Three
6. I Hope That I Get Old Before I Die (Demo)
7. I’m Def
8. Don’t Let’s Start (Demo)
9. Hell Hotel
10. ‘85 Radio Special Thank You
11. Kitten Intro
12. Weep Day
13. The Big Big Whoredom
14. I’m Gettin’ Sentimental Over You
15. Become a Robot
16. Swing is a Word
17. Which Describes How You’re Feeling (Demo)
18. Doris Cunningham
19. Counterfeit Fake
20. Schoolchildren Singing “Particle Man”

This is a single album version of They Might Be Giants’ compilation album Then: The Earlier Years. It was pretty easy to make since I just had to cut out all the material previously released on their first two albums and their first compilation album Miscellaneous T. I had this version of the album on my computer for years before remembering that it’s technically a single album version of a double album release. 

Five of the songs were previously released on the 1985 demo tape and two of the five previously appeared on The Statue Got Me High EP. Because of this I’m also including the song Hell Hotel from the demo tape which was the only track to never be re-released. 

Metallica - Load (1997)

1. Fuel
2. Ain't My Bitch
3. The Memory Remains
4. 2 X 4
5. Devil's Dance
6. King Nothing
7. Better Than You
8. Fixxxer
9. Bad Seed
10. Wasting My Hate
11. Prince Charming
12. Thorn Within
13. Attitude
14. The Outlaw Torn

This is my theoretical construction of a single album version of Metallica's Load and Reload albums. For this I enlisted the help of my friend Andrew to work on a track listing. The final result is a little over 79 minutes but the fade out in The Outlaw Torn happens earlier.

When Metallica released Load in 1996, the album did well on the charts but the critical response was mixed. Some criticized the album for not being as heavy as their Black Album and accused the band of selling out. 3 of the 4 singles were mellow with one of them being described as a country song. They originally planned on releasing both albums as a double album but had to release them separately cause their rigid touring schedule prevented them from being able to finish all the songs on time.  

I thought it would be atypical for them to release an album that didn't include a mellow song but maybe it would get a better response if it was all heavy. Each album had 4 singles so I got rid of the mellow singles and kept the heavy ones. But then Andrew also wanted me to get rid of Cure and Slither despite them ranking among the shortest songs on both albums. It was a little tough.