Yep. 89 & 94 are worthy
1990 Fugazi - Repeater
1991 Nirvana - Nevermind
1992 Beastie Boys - Check your head
1993 No Use For A Name - Daily Grind
1994 New Bomb Turks - Information Highway Revisited
1995 One Inch Pinch (Mid Youth Crisis) - Lost In what we lack
1996 Bodyjar - Rimshot
1997 Mid Youth Crisis (One Inch Punch) - Happiness and Authority
1998 The Living End - The Living End
1999 …meh
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1990 Sonic Youth - Goo
1991 Nirvana - Nevermind (culturaly significant album)
1992 Dr Dre - The Chronic
1993 Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream (still relevant today)
1994 The Notorius B.I.G. - Ready to Die (most important album of decade)
1995 Raekwon - Cuban Linx
1996 Tool - Enima
1997 Radiohead - OK Computer (still one of the greatest albums of all time)
1998 Massive Attack - Mezzanine
1999 Eminem - The Slim Shady
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Illmatic > Ready to Die hands down.
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It was a tough decision.
If they didn’t come out in the same year I would have had both.
For mine I think the Biggie album is better but both albums are regularly called the best Hip Hop albums of all time.
'90 Charmed Life - Billy Idol
'91 Achtung Baby - U2
'93 In Utero - Nirvana
'94 Nirvana Unplugged
'95 The Gold Experience - Prince
'96 Travelling Without Moving - Jamiroquai
'97 The Fat of The Land - The Prodigy
'98 Adore - Smashing Pumpkins
'99 Californication - RHCP
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ok my B-list…sorry no self-control
1990 Mother Love Bone - Apple
1991 Nirvana - Nevermind
1992 Temple of the Dog - Temple of the Dog
1993 Nirvana - In Utero
1994 Pearl Jam - Vitalogy
1995 Mad Season - Above
1996 Screaming Trees - Dust
1997 Brad - Interiors
1998 Pearl Jam - Yield
1999 Mr Bungle - California
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I’ll have to stay out of this one. Interesting reading all the lists. In truth I know some of the band names and their individual songs, but I have never heard of many of the album titles let alone ever listened to the full thing.
I’ve been trying to put together what happened to me in 1990s such that I checked out of current music. A few things:
- I moved from Melb to Sydney and the new friends I made in Syd were much more into dance clubs than live bands,
- I finally bought a CD player and so stopped buying vinyl.
- I liked NWA and public enemy, but they spawned all the gangsta boasta copies and I lost interest
- Never really took to grunge - it didn’t say anything to me that all my punk vinyl hadn’t already said.
- But what did grab my interest in 91/92 was acid jazz - and I started exploring where all these sounds were coming from. This lead me to 50s & 60s jazz and 60s & 70s soul and funk, and African blues and funk. Much of which was then being reissued on the new format (CDs). So that is mostly what I bought and listened for the rest of the 90s.
I don’t mean this as a dismissal of 1990s music - more an explanation of why I don’t have a list. I’m enjoying reading your lists and will probably check out some of the stuff on youtube.
EDIT: Actually I have one:
1990 - The Sundays - Reading Writing and Arithmatic. In which Harriet Wheeler appears to effortlessly make music that Bjork only dreamed of making.
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Yeah, I got into 60s / 70s Blue Note via US3 etc…
Switched from guitar to bass & things got a bit funky & syncopated.
And I’d been into reggae & dub since the 70s, so the trip hop sounds of Massive Attack etc. spoke to that side of things.
I noticed that your lists for 70s and 80s were the most similar to something I would have done. Sounds like we followed a similar progression.
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1990 - Painkiller by Judas Priest
1991 - Metallica self titled
1992 - Rage Against The Machine self titled
1993 - Heart Of A Killer by Winter’s Bane
1994 - King Of The Kill by Annihilator
1995 - Burnt Offerings by Iced Earth
1996 - Aenima by Tool
1997 - Visions by Stratovarious
1998 - Symphony Of Enchanted Lands by Rhapsody
1999 - Significant Other by Limp Bizkit
1990, 1998 and 1999 were hard to pick (‘99 the easiest as the LB were my introduction to “heavier” music and I still blast Significant Other).
The other years I had a fairly narrow selection eg I’ve only listened to all of Aenima once or twice.
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1991 , 94 and 97 were sensational years for music.
I cant understand pearl jam fans putting any of their albums above 10 in 91… Likewise with Tool. Undertow is an incredible album. easily their best…aenema doesnt touch it.
plus the 90s just had so much other good stuff under the radar as well. amazing decade.
I think teenagers living in California had it absolutely made.
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Or living in Melbourne. Whatever you liked you could find it any night of the week.*
*probably still true, but I wouldn’t know where to start…
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Tool’s best ‘album’ as a body of work I think maybe comes in the form of lateralus. that will prob make my noughties list.
but undertow IMO is the real special one. thats where they ‘progress’
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Cant really agree with that considering undertow was their first studio albumn. Not sure what they progressed from.
Opiate was a mishmash ep.
Then again, each to their own.
It has taken me a good few hours over the past few days to trawl through various sources to compile this list.
- The Good Son – Nick Cave. His best set of songs. Nick is the younger brother of mate l went to college with and l have had dinner with him twice, in another lifetime. Just to show how long he has been around l first saw him play live in 1978 at the Collingwood Town Hall.
Honourable mention: The Neighbourhood – Los Lobos. My favourite record of theirs. Ask me another day and l would probably reverse these two.
Blue Sky Mining – Midnight Oil.
The River – Ali Farka Toure. - 24 Nights – Eric Clapton. No one said l couldn’t choose a live album, so l have. This one has a bit of everything. Perhaps it has even been rereleased with extra tracks on it by now. Includes a great version of the theme from the Edge of Darkness soundtrack.
Honourable mention: Blue Lines – Massive Attack, one of the great debut efforts, ever. l fell upon them by accident. After watching and listening to the video for Unfinished Symapthy l was hooked, without knowing a thing about them, l had no details to go on, and drove people l knew crazy trying to find out who was singing. It turns out that track went on to be voted the 10th greatest song of all time in a poll by The Guardian.
Doughboy Hollow – Died Pretty. - Honey Steels Gold – Ed Keupper. The former Saint at his most wistful. This is music that never fails to transport me, it just helps me get lost whenever l want to get away from things.
Hand on the Torch - Us 3 – debut. This is about as close as l ever get to jazz, but l loved the sense of fun being had throughout, l found this fresh and jumping with energy. - The Zen Kiss – Sheila Chandra. I am not at all religious, but after hearing her live at Womadelaide in 1992, l like to think that angels might sing as sublimely sweet as she. She claims that she is not a musical anthropologist, but mixes Irish folk tunes with Indian ragas, and does so with ease.
- No Quarter – Page & Plant. Zed Leppelin went to N. Africa and created something new and unique, as they not just crossed genre lines, but kicked them down. Contains my preferred version of Page’s fave track, Kashmir. I caught this act live at Rod Laver in 1996 when they were at the end of their world tour. A 5 piece rock band, with 8 musos from N. Africa and 24 strings from the Melb. symphony orchestra. Words fail.
Honourable mention; Talking Timbuktu – Ry Cooder & Ali Farke Toure. A multi Grammy winning album that transcends all sorts of boundaries, national, musical, whatever. - Music for the Native Americans – Robbie Robertson. Another soundtrack. This one to a PBS TV series in the US. Ethereal and evocative. His best work since Northern Lights / Southern Cross. Clapton talked about doing an album with him, but it hasn’t happened yet, and they may run out of time before they get the chance to record together, that would be a pity.
- Ocean Colour Scene – Mosley Shoals. This was another one of the 3 albums l used for entertainment purposes. Not just a guitar based album, this one has swing as well as rock.
- Urban Hymns – The Verve. I love every majestic sweep, l can understand it being stolen to be used on TV for the cricket, even though l have mixed feelings about it being done. This was one of the three albums l would always put on when l was entertaining in Bangkok.
- Mezzanine – Massive Attack. If this is trip hop, then count me as a fan, actually a fan regardless of what it is called. This album takes the promises made on their debut effort Blue Lines and delivers on all of them. This was the first album l would play when l was entertaining, perfect for setting the mood.
Honourable mention: Mermaid Avenue Vol 1 & 2. Wilco & Billy Bragg, put Woody Guthrie’s poetry to music. I recently found out there is another volume, which l will have to investigate. - The Journey – Maryam Mursal (also my fave non English language album). A Somalian refugee who spent 9 months walking to freedom. Peter Gabriel then put her into a studio with some musos from Scandinavia, and the result is nothing less than sensational.
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ahem rock music.
Undertow is landmark album.
Aenema is good.
Lateralus is great.
their last was compared only ok. too polished
In order of quality, best to worst.
1993 Suede
1994 Definitely Maybe
1990 The Good Son
1992 Your Arsenal
1995 Different Class
1996 Coming Up
1991 Screamadelica
1997 Tellin’ Stories
1999 Mermaid Avenue
1998 This is Hardcore
Honourable mentions: Moon Safari, Parklife, Pod, 1992 the Love Album, Woodface, Last Splash, Hourly Daily, Henry’s Dream, Shape, Vauxhall & I, What’s the Story (Morning Glory), Saturation. All well ahead of ‘98 and ‘99 winners. Also a great period for " n’ " albums, besides Tellin’ Stories please consider Pills Thrills ‘N’ Bellyaches, His ‘N’ Hers, even the Boatman’s Call.
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You don’t know many Pearl Jam fan’s right? Most have No Code or Yield above Ten. Myself having seen PJ more than 15 times live and been a member of TEN CLUB since '95 I place No Code as their best album…Album flow, darker/weird vibes, interesting textures and sounds,experimental and ambitious