#GreatAlbums1990s – TOP 20 - #PublicEnemy - #FearOfABlackPlanet (1990). Bottomless sonic complexity, grooves that rock as hard as James Brown, and lyrics that manage to be both outrageous and hilarious made FOABP a furious delight that hasn’t dated a minute in the last 33 1/3 years. “911 is a Joke” and “Fight the Power” get the most air due their continuing social relevance, but the whole disc gave popular music a much-needed kick in the ass. A generational milestone.
#GreatAlbums1990s – TOP 20 - #SmashingPumpkins - #SiameseDream (1993). Billy Corgan understood that if you took the raw angst of grunge and polished it up in the studio (to the level of, say, Boston’s debut), you could satisfy multiple generations at once. And let’s face it, nobody had updated Pink Floyd’s ethereal space boogie in a couple of decades. So, opportunity knocks, Corgan answers, and six million kids pretend they’d rather listen to Mudhoney or Fugazi.
#GreatAlbums1990s – TOP 20 - #Nirvana - #Nevermind (1991). Mixing Beatlesque melodies with punk attitude and metal intensity feels obvious in hindsight. But just like it took a quartet of misfits from Liverpool to elevate the art of rock, it took a trio from Seattle to crystallize the urban underground in a way kids in burbs could appreciate. And with hooks even fans of The Wiggles could sing in their cribs, who couldn’t catch the elemental pop beneath all the irony? #GreatRockAlbums, #Grunge
#GreatAlbums1990s – TOP 20 - #Radiohead - #TheBends (1995). It turned out Radiohead had bigger ambitions in mind, but at the time this disc articulated the symptoms behind the vacant eyes you see on the subway or in the hallway between the cubicle and the lunchroom. “High and Dry,” “Fake Plastic Trees” and “Black Star” are basically the blues for well-fed, privileged people who haven’t yet figured out why that smile on the billboard feels like a grimace. #GreatRockAlbums, #Britpop, #RockMusic
#GreatAlbums1990s – TOP 20 - #LaurynHill - #TheMiseducationOfLaurynHill (1998). A premier neo-soul album of the 90s, Hill’s only studio solo CD fused rap, reggae and new jack soul with incisive lyrics about love/ spirituality/ sexuality. Even diss songs like “The Lost Ones” are eloquent, and the rugged social commentary on “Everything is Everything” recalls Marvin Gaye at his best. The disc’s influence resonates in the music of Amy Winehouse, Beyoncé, etc. #GreatPopAlbums, #Soul, #GreatRapAlbums
#GreatAlbums1990s – TOP 20 - #Soundgarden - #Superunknown (1993). With its dark afflictions of angst and depression on tracks like “Black Hole Sun” and “Fell on Black Days,” Superunknown was an exorcism of emotion for the masses. Developing their metal-meets-rock lexicon, Soundgarden piledrives through tricky tunings and time signatures (“My Wave” manages to be heavy plus funky in 5/4 time) to prove themselves one of the finest rock bands of the 90s or any other era.
#GreatAlbums1990s – TOP 20 - #Bjork - #Post (1995). As eclectic as they come, Bjork deepens the mix of 93’s Debut with the deep strut of “Army of Me” and ethereal electro of “Hyper-Ballad.” Just when you think you’re caught the groove, she launches a big band on the Lang-Reisfeld chestnut “It’s Oh So Quiet.” All bets are off from that point. The loveliness of “Possibly Maybe” and Tricky’s production turn on “Headphones” make Post a landmark dissertation of out-there pop.
#GreatAlbums1990s - #ShaniaTwain – #ComeOnOver (1997). The guitars twang and the odd fiddle invades the mix, but this is pop music by any sane definition. Mutt Lange’s glistening production is sweet enough to rot teeth, but there’s no arguing with the craft of songs like “Man! I Feel Like a Woman” and “You’re Still the One.” Plus, as Klosterman notes, for every person who bought Live Through This, 14 bought a copy of Shania – and guess who Taylor Swift prefers.
#GreatAlbums1990s – TOP 20 - #JeffBuckley – #Grace (1994). Of all the artists who’ve mined the Zeppelin riff factory, Buckley was one of the few to care less about virtuosity and bombast than the emotional heights he could scale by wailing like Robert Plant. Of course Jeff’s dad, Tim Buckley, wailed as assuredly – but it’s more his dad’s ethereal folk informing the unearthly covers of “Lilac Time” and Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” God only knows what he’d have done if he’d lived. #GreatRockAlbums, #Rock
#GreatAlbums1990s – TOP 20 - #DepecheMode – #Violator (1990). Dark leathery synth tones create tension under the catchy hooks of “Personal Jesus,” “Halo,” and “Enjoy the Silence” on this immaculate set from Basildon’s finest. “Waiting for the Night” recalls early Roxy Music and “Clean” adapts a Pink Floyd riff into new landscapes of emotion. “Never again is what you swore the time before” propels the anthemic “Policy of Truth” to an epic status rare in pop.
#GreatAlbums1990s – TOP 20 - #ATribeCalledQuest – #TheLowEndTheory (1991). Classic jazz samples, minimalist production, and a thick bass groove (with jazz legend Ron Carter on one track) provide the backdrop for Q-Tip and Phife Dawg’s fluid rapping on this landmark of progressive hip hop. “Check the Rhime” and “Jazz (We’ve Got)” bristle with positive vibes, while “The Infamous Date Rape” and “What?” bring humor and empathy to serious subjects.
#GreatAlbums1990s - TOP 20 - #LucindaWilliams – #SweetOldWorld (1992). Balancing her early traditional influences with the country-rock she’d adopt later on Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, Louisiana-born Williams defined the 90s Americana movement with songs drawn from personal experience and enough drive to appeal to a rock audience. The concluding Nick Drake cover (before his critical resurgence) showed Williams’s awareness of roots traditions writ large.
#GreatAlbums1990s - TOP 20 - #Tool – #Aenima (1996). Tool plowed through the morass of metal pretenders out of L.A. while shattering the era’s notion of prog rock as music for aging nerds with greying ponytails. Here, the songs reach epic proportions (“Eulogy,” “Pushit,” and “Third Eye” all top 8 minutes) with interludes adding ironic counterpoint to the songs (the cheeseball organ intro to “Jimmy,” etc.) – reaffirming the album as a complete listening experience. #GreatMetalAlbums, #Rock
#GreatAlbums1990s – TOP 20 - #RedHotChiliPeppers – #Californication (1999). After a hot decade and temporary lapse, this disc revived the RHCP’s creative spirit as John Frusciante, fresh from rehab, rejoined the band with his furiously creative riffs. Anthony Kiedis sang with newfound confidence as the disc’s opening gambit – “Around the World,” “Parallel Universe,” “Scar Tissue,” “Otherside” – played like a best-of. Flea & Chad Smith’s funk hammered the foundations. #GreatRockAlbums, #Rock
#GreatAlbums1990s – TOP 20 - #PharaohSanders - #MessageFromHome (1996). Although jazz critics prefer Sanders’s Coltrane-oriented Crescent with Love (1993), MFH was a fascinating hybrid of modern jazz, African worldbeat and R&B. Sanders’ virtuosic sax is just one element among funky bass and drums, chanted vocals (“Our Roots Began in Africa” – surely one of the era’s great earworms), and the kora (on the lovely “Kumba”). A crossover gem for jazzers and non-jazzers alike. #GreatJazzAlbums, #Jazz
#GreatAlbums1990s TOP 20 - #AliceInChains – #Dirt (1992). One of the darkest-ever visions of addiction & turmoil by a major band, Dirt reflected Layne Staley’s (finally tragic) war with heroin on songs torn from the pages of a stark confessional script. Jerry Cantrell’s leathery guitar tones and the Sabbath-infused grind of the rhythm section give “Dam That River,” “Down in a Hole,” and the blistering “Rooster” gravitas as profound as any rock/ metal disc of the time. #GreatRockAlbums, #Grunge
#GreatAlbums1990s - TOP 20 #JanetJackson – #TheVelvetRope (1997). A true album artist, JJ delivers a complete musical arc from beginning to end. Interludes between songs vary from the inspirational “Twisted Elegance” to the edgy “Speaker Phone” (a sexually charged phone chat between Janet and Lisa Marie Presley). Songs cascade from the dance pop of “You” to the sexually frank “Go Deep” and gender fluid “Free Xone.” A delight for the mind and body. #GreatDanceAlbums, #GreatPopAlbums
#GreatAlbums1990s – TOP 20: #Pavement - #CrookedRain, Crooked Rain (1994). By the time Stephen Malkmus sarcastically wails “Career! Career!” at the end of “Cut Your Hair,” you know these would-be clowns of indie rock aren’t joking about the pitfalls of nineties fame. And although the clattering drums and wobbly intonation sound naive, there’s enough rootsy charisma in “Range Life” and jazzy knowhow in “5-4=Unity” to show they’re way smarter than they let on.
#GreatAlbums1990s – TOP 20: #ElliottSmith - #XO (1998). Smith’s melancholy drips through the Beatlesque charm of his melodies, creating an essential tension that inhabits songs like “Sweet Adeline” and “Independence Day.” Although some prefer the lower-fi sound of earlier discs like Either/Or, the fuller production here expands Smith’s palette with the Brian Wilsonesque flourishes of “Waltz #2” and straight-up rock of “Amity.” A brilliant artist, sadly doomed. #GreatRockAlbums, #AlternativeRock
#GreatAlbums1990s - The next batch of six albums feature artists that absorbed traditions of the past only to bust, break and mold them into their own unique -- decidedly modern -- creations.
#GreatAlbums1990s – #dEUS – #WorstCaseScenario (1994). This band of Belgian oddballs sounded like the Flaming Lips nursing a hangover after bingeing all night to Frank Zappa. (The singer is aptly named Tom Barman). For all the chaos, there’s enough downtown soul and beat-poet jazz to make this more than another continental leap at the alt-rock gravy train. At Reading 1995, the guitarist kept ambling off-stage, like he had to check on the pot brownies cooking backstage. #GreatRockAlbums, #Rock
#GreatAlbums1990s – #NickCaveAndTheBadSeeds – #LetLoveIn (1994). The middle disc of Cave’s furious five during the 90s sees him balancing the gothic intensity of 1992’s Henry’s Dream with the sparser roots he’d favour by 1997’s The Boatman’s Call. “Do You Love Me?” channels Scott Walker torch in an anthemic opening, while “Red Right Hand” follows Tom Waits down a shady back alley. “Jangling Jack” and “Thirsty Dog” rage cathartically in the middle of the set.
#GreatAlbums1990s – #GillianWelch – #Revival (1996). Produced by T-Bone Burnett, Welch & Dave Rawling’s debut disc brought influences like the Carter Family and Stanley Brothers into a modern folk context. Critics who doubted Welch’s authenticity (she was raised in NYC by adoptive showbiz parents before attending Berklee) missed her keenness at channeling personal experience into deeper, universal narratives – as “Orphan Girl” exemplifies beautifully. #GreatCountryAlbums, #FolkMusic, #Americana
#GreatAlbums1990s – #16Horsepower – #Sackcloth ‘N’ Ashes (1996). If modern country is mostly feelin’ good about feelin’ bad, Denver’s 16 Horsepower were there to remind us of the fire and brimstone/ devil on your tail implications of country’s earliest roots. Perched somewhere between the Louvin Brothers and Nick Cave, 16 Horsepower invoked stark mythos and god-fearing gospel on “Black Soul Choir,” “Horse Head” etc, playing archaic instruments with grungy attitude. #GreatRockAlbums, #Americana