I Love 1997: Buena Vista Social Club & Metallica

Our I Love the 90s series lands on 1997, the year Titanic and As Good as It Gets arrived in theaters and Tiger Woods won his first Masters. Don and Dude take on "the rest" and rock, pairing a gathering of Cuban musical veterans celebrating their country's traditions with a metal heavyweight chasing bluesy riffs and unexpected sounds.

The Albums

Buena Vista Social Club – Buena Vista Social Club (1997)

Assembled for these sessions rather than a standing band, the group came together through Juan de Marcos González, with Compay Segundo guiding the repertoire, Ibrahim Ferrer pulled back from shining shoes, pianist Rubén González out of retirement, Eliades Ochoa bringing eastern Cuba's country music, and Omara Portuondo on the only female lead vocal. After visa problems kept the originally planned Malian players away, Ry Cooder and World Circuit's Nick Gold changed course, cutting about a week of dance songs, boleros and instrumentals at Havana's EGREM studios in 1996, mostly live in the room.

Metallica – Reload (1997)

Sixteen years after Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield met through a newspaper ad, the lineup with Kirk Hammett and Jason Newsted had moved from thrash through the Black Album into the blues and alternative rock of Load. Reload came from those same Bob Rock sessions in Sausalito, built from songs left unfinished and reworked in 1997 with heavier grooves, contrasting guitars, a Marianne Faithfull guest vocal, and stray hurdy-gurdy and violin.

Diggin' Albums

Stanley Simmons – Dancing While the World Is Ending (2026)

Evan Stanley and Nick Simmons, sons of KISS members Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, skip arena metal for a Rob Cavallo produced debut steeped in '70s folk, Americana and roots rock.

Creed – My Own Prison (1997)

The Tallahassee band's roughly $6,000 debut, self-released before Wind-up remixed it, turned Scott Stapp's songs about faith, guilt and redemption into one of late-'90s post-grunge's defining records.

Bloc Party – Anatomy of a Brief Romance (2026)

The British indie rock band's seventh album, produced by Trevor Horn, wraps Kele Okereke's account of a new romance after a long separation in synth-heavy arrangements.

The Proclaimers – You May Offend (2026)

Scottish brothers Craig and Charlie Reid return with their thirteenth studio album and first since 2022's Dentures Out, taking on contemporary Britain and freedom of speech.

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"You'll have bad times, but it'll always wake you up to the good stuff you weren't paying attention to." - Sean Maguire (Robin Williams), Good Will Hunting (1997)