The topic I'm starting on message boards around the world...Top 10 albums of the 1990's

(I'm taking a survey, with the goal to construct a website shining a spotlight on the decade's most enduring albums, and to prove to my parents' generation that my music is as valid as theirs; they just got lucky because the best music back then was in the top 10)

my top 10:
1. Jeff Buckley: Grace
2. A Tribe Called Quest: The Low End Theory
3. Massive Attack: Mezzanine
4. Wu-Tang Clan: Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
5. My Bloody Valentine: Loveless
6. DJ Shadow: Endtroducing...
7. Smashing Pumpkins: Siamese Dream
8. Bjork: Homogenic
9. Radiohead: The Bends
10. Radiohead: OK Computer

I'd also add these to that list:
Pulp - A different class
Beck - Mellow Gold
Semisonic - Feeling Strangely Fine
Pavement - Slanted And Enchanted
Ben Fold's Five - Ben Folds Five

These should not be left off of the list:

Beck - Mellow Gold, Odelay, Midnite Vultures
Tricky - Maxinquaye
Dr Octagon - Dr Octagonycologyst
Guns and Roses - Use Your Illusion I
Sonic Youth - Goo
Basement Jaxx - Remedy

Why not Beck's Mutations? It's absolutely terrific, far better than Mellow Gold and Midnite Vultures IMO.

To the list add Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works, Selected Ambient Works Vol. II, I Care Because You Do, and Richard D. James Album, all of which I would place in the top 50. Also recommended are both Olivia Tremor Control albums (Dusk at Cubist Castle and Black Foliage, Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, the Buena Vista Social Club album, and Tortoise's Millions Now Living Will Never Die.

Just a few other possibilities off the top of my head:

Beastie Boys- Check Your Head
Blur- Parklife
Boards of Canada- Music Has The Right To Children
Cocteau Twins- Heaven or Las Vegas
The Flaming Lips- The Soft Bulletin
Jesus & Mary Chain- Honey's Dead
Luna- Bewitched
Magnetic Fields- 69 Love Songs
Meat Beat Manifesto- Subliminal Sandwich
Mercury Rev- Deserter's Songs
The Orb- The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld [UK version]
Portishead- Dummy
Primal Scream- Screamadelica
Spiritualized- Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
Tindersticks- s/t [first album]
Underworld- Dubnobasswithmyheadman or Second Toughest In The Infants
Yo La Tengo- Painful, Electr-o-pura or I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One

In terms of sheer impact, you have to include Nirvana's _Nevermind_ on the list.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Vykromond:
Why not Beck's _Mutations_? It's absolutely terrific, far better than _Mellow Gold_ and _Midnite Vultures_ IMO.

---

Because Beck Mutations isn't a 90's album!

Mutations came out in 1998 ... and I second that nomination. It's my favorite Beck Album.

Most ev everything I would name is already on there, but I would also say

Jane's Addiction: Ritual de lo Habitual
Primal Scream: Screamadelica
Bjork: Debut
Suede: Suede
The Verve: A Northern Soul and Urban Hymns
Manic Street Preachers: Everything Must Go, and The Holy Bible
The Chemical Brothers: Dig Your Own Hole
Supergrass: In it for the Money
Belle and Sebastian: The Boy With the Arab Strap

Good choices (especially Painful-I can hear the heart Yo La Tengo), but can't forget...

Elliott Smith - Either/Or or Self Titled
Built to Spill - Nothing Wrong w/Love
Modest Mouse - Lonesome Crowded West
Boards of Canada - Music has the Right to Children
Blackstar - Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Blackstar
Bonnie Prince Billy - I See a Darkness
Dismemberment Plan - Emergency and I
Wilco - Summerteeth
Nas - Illmatic
Weezer - Blue Album
Talk Talk - Laughing Stock

Also, I like Crooked Rain and If You're Feeling Sinister better then Slanted and Boy with the Arab Strap...but that's just me. Both great artists, and all four records are rad.

Oh yeah, I forgot about it the first time out, but this record means a lot to me, and I think it deserves more recognition then it gets.

Pedro the Lion - It's Hard to Find a Friend

OK, well not that anyone should care and clearly I took most of the 90s off (raising kids and other things unmentionable that may get me dinged by the M/C cops), but here's the stuff I know (so much more I don't):

1. Nirvana - Nevermind
2. You Am I - #4 Record
3. Nirvana - In Utero
4. The Popes - The Snake
5. Radiohead - OK computer
6. Eels - Beautiful Freak
7. Matthew Sweet - Altered Beast
8. Billy Bragg and Wilco - Mermaid Ave
9. Beck - Mutations
10. Los Lobos - Kiko

Some of this is obvious choices (Nirvana Radiohead, maybe Beck and Los Lobos). But it includes my favorite Pogues album, You Am I (who should be better known), an alternative (to Girlfriend) Matthew Sweet and Mermaid Ave, which I assured my 14 year old boy and his friends kicked ass even though I knew they wouldn't think so.

Apologies about the Beck mutations comment, the website i looked on had it listed as 2001!

Wtih apologies to Lionel Hutz, Hal, I don't use the word 'hero' lightly, but you are the greatest hero in American history.

I'm with you. I took most of the 90s off for a variety of reasons, so I've actually spent the past few years discovering a lot of the best the decade had to offer. _Kiko_, however, is an overlooked gem from that decade. So is _Teenage Symphonies To God_ from Velvet Crush.

Tesla - Psychotic Supper

One of the criminally overlooked post-hair metal bands of the late 80s/early 90s. If you are a fan of the Blood Brothers, then the singer will sound strangely familiar.

Stone Temple Pilots - Purple

I personally like Tiny Music... better, but Purple would more likely be the definitive Stone Temple Pilots album. Back in the 90s, when the rock star was dead and the internet still came through the phone line, Stone Temple Pilots were that great band that actually got played on the radio. I have a special place in my heart for them.

DJ Shadow - ENDtroducing......
Wu-Tang - 36 Chambers
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie.....
OutKast - Aquemini
Dr.Dre - The Chronic
Snoop Doggy Dogg - Doggystyle
Nas - Illmatic
Jay-Z - Reasonable Doubt
Prodigy - Fat Of the Land
REM - Automatic For The People
Nirvana - Unplugged in New York
The Roots - Do You Want More?!?!!!?

Once again in no particular order (why worry?, it'd probably change tomorrow.) Magnetic Fields "69 Love Songs", The Feelies "Time for a Witness", Grant Lee Buffalo "Jubilee", Moby "Play", Bjork "Homogenic", Pavement "Slanted and Enchanted", Yo La Tengo "I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One", Radiohead "OK Computer", Beck "Mutations" and Bob Dylan "Time Out of Mind." I know I forgot many others, and I already had to trim Chris Isaak "Forever Blue", Sebadoh "bakesale", Nirvana "Nevermind" and Smashing Pumpkins "Siamese Dream." I guess I also had to leave out Jeff Buckley's "Grace", even though his version of "Hallelujah" might be the best song of the decade. Oops, better start a new thread.

Here's my list...(NB...after the 2000's thread, I found one record that I thought was from the 00's in the 90's, calling for a rethink...)

1. Jayhawks-Hollywood Town Hall
2. REM-Automatic for the People
3. Matthew Sweet-Girlfriend
4. Jellyfish-Bellybutton
5. American Music Club-Everclear OR Mercury
6. Fountains of Wayne-Utopia Parkway
7. Echo & The Bunnymen-What Are You Going to Do with Your Life?
8. Uncle Tupelo-No Depression/Anodyne
9. Red House Painters-s/t (the "Rollercoaster" cover)
10. The La's-s/t
11. Jason Falkner-Author Unknown/Can You Still Feel?
12. Bottle Rockets-24 Hours a Day

This message has been edited. Last edited by: philosopherEric,

[QUOTE]Originally posted by LinnTate:
Wtih apologies to Lionel Hutz, Hal, I don't use the word 'hero' lightly, but you are the greatest hero in American history.

WOW!! I'm on Metacritic Forums one day and this. I wasn't sure I should post anymore, where can I go from here? But now that my head is light enough to lift off the floor again, I'll accept the hero label, sure...but LinnTate, after saying that I am the greatest hero in American history, we may have to re-evaluate whether or not you really do use the word hero lightly.

OK wait, I was a little vague. The final list will not be 10 albums, but the Top 200albums, culled from everyone's personal Top 10 lists, which I then score (10 points for #1, 1 point for #10). So, post your Top 10's.

Also, someone mentioned this over on the 80's albums thread: by all means, make those albums your favorites. Don't feel like you have to put Nevermind on there because of its impact. Put it on there if you love it. The greatest thing about doing this is seeing that the best albums are the ones that endure anyway. That's why you have The Flaming Lips in the top 20 and Alanis Morissette at #150

and yes, Beck's Mutations is indeed 1998.
(and as such, currently sits at #103 on the list)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: cutshallow,

Okay, strictly favorites then. These are striclty the albums I was listening to in the 90s as opposed to all of the great stuff from that decade that I missed.

10. Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
9. Iris DeMent - My Life
8. Keb' Mo' - Keb' Mo'
7. Dar Williams - The Honesty Room
6. Annie Lennox - Diva
5. The Beautiful South - 0898
4. Conjure - Cab Calloway Stands In For The Moon
3. Ben Folds Five - Ben Folds Five
2. Moxy Fruvous - Bargainville
1. Los Lobos - Kiko

Now Playing: "Stove By A Whale" Ted Leo & The Pharmacists _The Tyranny of Distance_