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Top 20 albums of the 1990s

think4yourself:

alcaniglia:

I got a lot of feedback from my compilation of the Top Ten Albums of the 2000s, so I decided to look back another decade and put together my top 10 albums of the 1990s.  My main requirement in this list is that it is an album that I listened to either then or now.  Also, the whole album has to be strong - rather than a compilation of hits.  There are some strong bands/albums that don’t make the top 10, so I am giving you the top 20.  Finally, I also limited it to no more than one album per artist, which probably cost Nirvana a second spot.

• 20. Hootie and the Blowfish - Cracked Rear View
  • This was and is a great album, even if the band has almost become cliche.  Top selling album of 1995.  Go back and give this a listen and you’ll see why.
• 19. Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever Amen
  • My sister first had this CD back when she loved the song “Brick.”  (Nothing brings out the screaming teenage girls like a song about abortion).  She had the annoying habit of putting the one song on repeat, to the point where I actually disliked the band for many years.  Besides the hit song, it also features great songs like “One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces”, “Song for the Dumped”, “Kate”, and “The Battle of Who Could Care Less.”
• 18. Blink 182 - Enema of the State
  • Senior year of high school.  “Adam’s Song”, “What’s my Age Again?” and “All the Small Things” highlight this album.
• 17. No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom
• 16. Pearl Jam - 10
• 15. Sublime - Sublime
  • I knew the hits in high school (“Santeria”, “What I got”, and “”), but it wasn’t until college that I discovered the whole album, including favorites “April 29, 1992 (Miami)” and “Caress Me Down.”
• 14. Cake - Fashion Nugget
  • This album is very strong from start to finish.  It really captures the “Who fucking cares?” spirit of the 1990s.  The biggest hit (“I will Survive” cover) is probably the worst song on the album.  Some other favorites include “Stickshifts and Safetybelts”, “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps”, “The Distance” and “Italian Leather Sofa.”
• 13. Green Day - Dookie
• 12. Barenaked Ladies - Stunt
  • This album is probably higher on my list than anyone elses.  I listened to this CD almost every day when I was a high school exchange student in Esenta, Italy.  In many ways, it captured the excitement and loneliness of that time.  I spent hours learning the words to “One Week.”  Other favorites include “In the Car”, “Never is Enough”, and “Alcohol.”
• 11. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
  • Some people love old school RHCP and think they have ‘sold out’ in their last three albums.  Personally, I didn’t really like the 80’s and early 90s RHCP.  Only “Under the Bridge” is really a song I love from old RHCP.
  • When Californication came out, however, I became a fan.  The album is so strong that by the time they released the best song on the album (“Californication”), most people already had the album and weren’t blown away.  “Scar Tissue”, “Around the World”, “Otherside” “Parallel Universe”, and “Road Trippin” are all fantastic songs.
  • The album is outside the Top Ten because I can’t stand “I Like Dirt.”  I have to actually skip this song everytime I listen.
• 10. Sheryl Crow - Tuesday Night Music Club
  • This, for me, is one of those quintessential 90s albums.  “All I wanna do” will still put me in a good mood anytime I hear it.  I love the descriptive nature of the lyrics and since I was 11, I have always wanted “to drink beer at noon on Tuesday/in a bar that faces a giant car wash.”
  • The rest of the album is equally good.  The plaintive sound of Crow’s voice in “Leaving Las Vegas” makes you feel her pain as her hopes and dreams have been dashed.  You can’t help but understand her rationalization in “Strong Enough” (“Lie to me/I promise I’ll believe/but please don’t leave me”)
• 9. Dave Matthews Band - Under the Table and Dreaming
  • This album captures one of the definitive sounds of the 1990s.  With such great songs as “What would you say”, “Satellite”, and “Ants Marching” the album provides the soundtrack the mid-1990s.  The deeper tracks (“Dancing Nancies”, “Jimi Thing”, “Warehouse” and “Typical Situation”) are almost as good.
• 8. Nirvana - MTV Unplugged
  • This was probably the hardest decision on this list.  Should I include Nevermind, the consensus best album of the 1990s or should I include Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged.  I went with Unpluggedfor two reasons: (1) It hearkens back to when MTV was worthwhile for something besides pimping cars, as I really loved the Unplugged series; and (2) I prefer to listen to Unplugged over Nevermind.
  • Unlike other concert albums, this doesn’t feel like a mash of greatest hits.  Nirvana thought about song selection and the arrangements when they put this together.  Even so, the album feels spontaneous.  I love the lines in between songs (especially the line about tuning a harp).  Favorite songs on the album include “Lake of Fire”, “Polly”, “Come as You Are” and “Jesus don’t want me for a sunbeam.”
• 7. The Wallflowers - Bringing Down the Horse
  • Given how long The Wallflowes took between albums and that their successive efforts have not been as good, you may have forgotten how great this album is.  Both the singles - “The Difference”, “Three Marlenas”, “6th Avenue Heartache” and “One Headlight” - and the deeper tracks - “God Don’t Make Lonely Girls”, “Josephine” and “Laughing Out Loud” - offer a profound combination of music and lyrics.
• 6. Garth Brooks - No Fences
  • No one can deny the star power and magnetism that Garth Brooks puts out.  How else would a pudgy middle aged guy who sings in a niche genre become one of the biggest stars in America.  You may dismiss Garth because he is kitschy, sings country, or put out that unwise Chris Gaines pop album, but you still know the chorus to “Friends in Low Places.”
  • I went through a country phase in the early-mid 90s and I am pretty sure that it had everything to do with Garth Brooks.  This album is so good that my parents (who dislike almost every other country song ever) love this album.
  • The most ironic aspect of this album is that it doesn’t even contain my favorite Garth Brooks’ songs (which would be “The River” and ”The Dance”).  But the album has great songs such as “The Thunder Rolls”, “Unanswered Prayers”, “Wild Horses” and, of course, “Friends in Low Places.”
• 5. Matchbox 20 - Yourself or Someone Like You
  • In my mind, this album will always be paired with Bringing Down the Horse.  They came out around the same time and both had a different sound.  The album has solid singles, “Real World”, “3 am”, “Push” and “Long Day”, as well as great deep tracks, such as “Kody” and “Shame.”
  • If recent Rob Thomas has made you forget, go back to the source and you will remember why we all loved Matchbox 20.
• 4. R.E.M. - Automatic for the People
  • “Everybody Hurts” remains one of my favorite I’m depressed songs of all time.  The music allows you to wallow in your suffering, while the lyrics (for me at least) usually lift me up.  The whole idea that everyone goes through this at some point makes me realize that it won’t always be like this.  I can have my personal pity party for a while, but really, it will get better.
  • Throw in “Drive” and “Nightswimming” (my all-time favorite REM song) and you have a great album.
• 3. Tom Petty - Wildflowers
  • The first time I heard this album, I was riding from Omaha to Shenandoah with my Mom.  She had just bought the CD and wanted to listen to us, but had to warn her teenage children that just because she liked the song “You don’t know how it feels” did not mean she was advocating drug use with its lyrics of “Let’s get to the point/Let’s roll another joint.”  (This may have something to do with me getting into trouble in kindergarten or preschool for singing the lyrics to “Casey Jones” - “riding that train/high on cocaine”).
  • I don’t think my Mom knew then that she was introducing me to one of the best albums ever.  There is no weak point in this album.  It is both chill and hip at the same time.  The music is great and the lyrics match.
  • Some of my favorites include “It’s good to be king” (“It’s good to be king and have your own world/It helps to make friends, it’s good to meet girls”), “Wildflowers” and “Wake Up Time.”
  • My favorite lines on the whole album - “it was me and my sidekick/I was drunk and he was sick/we got caught up in a barroom fight/til an indian shot out the light/i’m so tired of being tired/sure as night will follow day/most things I worry about/never happen anyway.”
• 2. Alanis Morissete - Jagged Little Pill
  • Nothing says angry female rock like Jagged Little Pill.  Listen to the lyrics of “You oughta Know” - “I want you to know/that I am happy for you/I wish nothing but the best for you both/An older version of me/Is she perverted like me/would she go down on you in a theater?/Does she speak eloquently/And would she have your baby/I’m sure she’d make a really excellent mother.”  The sarcasm in the lyrics is so thick, it’s almost scary.  For fourteen year old Al, it was a mind-blowing discovery that women could say these things, let alone say these things on the radio.
  • The album even starts of angry “Do I stress you out?/My sweater is on backwards and inside out/And you say “How appropriate.”  Alanis is a woman who does what she wants, what feels good to her, the world be damned.
  • Another one of my favorite songs on the album is “Right Through You” where Alanis looks back at the people who doubted her or pushed her aside and essentially gives them the metaphorical finger.
  • Plus, you can’t forget “Ironic”, “Hand in my pocket”, “Maryjane”, and “You Learn.”  This album also has my all-time favorite hidden track (wow, did ipods destroy the hidden track), where she is creeping around the guys house.
• 1. I will announce this when I have time to write it up at home.

My guess is Will Smith - Big Willie Style