Honorable mention: Souled American - "Frozen", 1994

Even though their name does not begin with F, three - out of six - albums by this Chicago outfit bear the following names: "Fe", "Flubber", and "Frozen". Plus, their music is _ucking awesome. They have to be credited as the inventors of alternative country. Anyone who heard them, started their own band (the Mountain Goats, Jim O'Rourke). I wanted to put up all their three F-albums, but I can't find "Fe" anywhere, so I'll just stick to my favourite one. "Frozen", their fifth record, was made after their drummer had left the band and the remaining three-piece (Chris Grigoroff, Joe Adducci, Scott Tuma) had decided to carry on sans drumming. It's not alt-country anymore, it's ambient country, for what it's worth. Utterly magical.

_ushitsusha - "Gold Blood", 1998

Just skip the first song and you'll enter the best album from Japan's finest. Played live in the wonderful year of 1996. Apocalyptic and blissful at the same time. Hard to believe it's all written music and not improvised. Crushing beauty. The weirdest a regular rawk line-up (guitar+bass+drums+vocals) can go. Could anyone inform me whether this band still exist?
.mp3 files at the bitrate of 224, 120 Mb altogether: PART 1 and PART 2.

_aust - "Ravvivando", 1999

Some people tend to put down this period of the band. I never could understand why. I rate 'Ravvivando' as their BEST lp, along with 'The Faust Tapes'. Majestic psychedelic/industrial stuff, a bit droney, with very rich production. The cover fits the music perfectly. One of the best albums of the 1990s, really.
I have put this in the .ogg format rather than .mp3 with the bitrate around 320, so the whole album is split into PART 1 and PART 2. (password: the-big-f.blogspot.com)

Leo _erre - Avec Le Temps

The greatest man of the French chanson. Musically, he's much better than Brel et consortes. All you fans of Scott Walker or David Sylvian, give it a try. Even though this is a 'best of' type compilation, it starts off not so well, but each next song is better. The LP ends with the title track, the guy's most beautiful song. It can move you to tears.
Tracklisting:
1. La vie d'artiste
2. On s'aimera
3. Sa t'va
4. La gitane
5. Le bonheur
6. A toi
7. La lettre
8. Cette blessure
9. L'amour for
10. Avec le temps.
Thanks to an anonymous user on slsk for this.

_aman

Not much to be said, though: there is a series of compilation albums on Gear Fab Records called "Psychedelic States" with the 60s garage/psych/proto-punk bands from, ermmm, various US states. This here is track 7 off the "Georgia" cd. The song is called "Hurry". Awesome stuff.

_leet _oxes - leaked LP, 2008

Couldn't find the cover art, sorry.
Each time this album pops up somewhere, the links are immediately removed upon request from Sub Pop. Let's see how long this one lasts.
This, my friends, is a masterpiece. It is so great I just can't tell you. One of these great records of this world. In the vein of CSNY, but much better songwriting (with hints of Popol Vuh or Beach Boys) - ahhh, just brilliant. I'm definitely buying this when it finally comes out in June.

The _all - Imperial Wax Solvent, leaked version, 2008

I'm starting this blog quite appropriately with the leak of the new record by the best band on earth, as John Peel once said. The record is about aging; Mark E. Smith sings "I'm a 50 year old man, and I like it!" (he is 51 this year, btw). Musically, it reminds me of what they did in the early '90s, generic indie rock with harsh synths. Even the cover looks like that of Extricate or Code: Selfish.