Favorite Albums of the 90s

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Stalvern
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Re: Favorite Albums of the 90s

Postby Stalvern » May 4th, 2018, 12:16 am

The '70s had the best music.

jon
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Re: Favorite Albums of the 90s

Postby jon » May 4th, 2018, 1:23 am

I'll go as far as to say music's sucked since the 90's. But I won't put that whole decade on a pedestal. The last half of the 90's sucked. There were basically no great rock albums released after 1995, and rock declined to the point that it became a joke. Rock from '96-'99 is a joke.

CaptainCruch
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Re: Favorite Albums of the 90s

Postby CaptainCruch » May 4th, 2018, 2:04 am

Best album of the 90s for me:
Enter the Wu-Tang (Wu-Tang Clan)

Robotrek
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Re: Favorite Albums of the 90s

Postby Robotrek » May 4th, 2018, 12:44 pm

jon wrote:I'll go as far as to say music's sucked since the 90's. But I won't put that whole decade on a pedestal. The last half of the 90's sucked. There were basically no great rock albums released after 1995, and rock declined to the point that it became a joke. Rock from '96-'99 is a joke.


No great rock albums?

The Missing Piece (LA Guns)
Broken Bones (Dokken)
Rock you face off (Kix)
Inferno (Motorhead)
Unfinished Business (Loverboy)

New music is still coming out all the time from some pretty damned good bands!

David
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Re: Favorite Albums of the 90s

Postby David » May 4th, 2018, 2:01 pm

jon wrote:I'll go as far as to say music's sucked since the 90's. But I won't put that whole decade on a pedestal. The last half of the 90's sucked. There were basically no great rock albums released after 1995, and rock declined to the point that it became a joke. Rock from '96-'99 is a joke.


That’s funny. I think 80s hair metal is the worst music in the entire history of modern music. I’m not a huge Nirvana guy, but bless them for essentially ending the crap that was 80s rock scene.

Not necessarily my absolute favorite albums, but some great ones that aren’t already listed:

Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill
Third Eye Blind - Self titled
Incubus - Morning View
Suede - Dog Man Star
Sublime - Selt titled

I forgot how good Alanis is until I purchased that album again recently. The whole thing is pretty great. Third Eye Blind too. Really good record that everyone probably remembers just for the hits, but the whole thing is solid. Incubus had some really good early stuff. They started as a rap/metal band, but as the matured they came out with softer songs in addition to their rock stuff and ditched the rap. Suede is a really great British band that is like a rockier version of The Smiths. And Sublime is just great. Bradley Nowell’s death anniversary is in a few weeks so I was listening to their stuff and it makes you wonder what their legacy would’ve been had he not died. Or maybe they wouldn’t have been big at all if he hadn’t. Who knows?

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velcrozombie
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Re: Favorite Albums of the 90s

Postby velcrozombie » May 4th, 2018, 2:47 pm

jon wrote:I'll go as far as to say music's sucked since the 90's. But I won't put that whole decade on a pedestal. The last half of the 90's sucked. There were basically no great rock albums released after 1995, and rock declined to the point that it became a joke. Rock from '96-'99 is a joke.


Can't agree at all. In fact, I had to replace a bunch of albums on my list because I later realized they were from 2000-2002 and I'd gotten my dates wrong. There are lulls from time to time in certain genres but there's always something good that you've never heard before or something good just around the corner. Call me simplistic or naive, but I never run out of things worth my time. I also dig around in the past to find what influenced the bands I like and to understand where they came from, especially since I've been recently writing music for an upcoming project.

jon
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Re: Favorite Albums of the 90s

Postby jon » May 6th, 2018, 2:48 pm

Fair enough. I will say this. Music in the late 90's was better than where video games were headed. There was some good rock, and pop was a million times better than it is now. I'm not saying their aren't great albums released. Some artists that I like to name a few are Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds (although obviously his legacy was built in '94-'95), Audioslave, Warrant (one of their albums someone here recommended ended up being really good), Institute, and some really good grindcore albums (324, Lock-Up).But there was something about that time in the early 90's when Nirvana broke and those years before Kurt Cobain died. Of course I was enjoying video games more than I ever have, which might be giving me more of a soft spot for that era.

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LoganRuckman
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Re: Favorite Albums of the 90s

Postby LoganRuckman » July 29th, 2018, 1:32 pm

Here's a yearly breakdown of my personal favorites. And a few runners up.

1990: The Pixies- Bossanova
1991: Teenage Fanclub- Bandwagonesque
1992: Alice In Chains- Dirt
1993: Nirvana- In Utero
1994: Weezer- The Blue Album
1995: Green Day- Insomniac
1996: Weezer- Pinkerton
1997: Shai Hulud- Hearts Once Nourished With Hope And Compassion
1998: Hole- Celebrity Skin
1999: Jimmy Eat World- Clarity

1990 runner up: Alice In Chains- Facelift
1991 runner up: Pearl Jam- Ten
1992 runner up: Pavement- Slanted And Enchanted
1993 runner up: Smashing Pumpkins- Siamese Dream
1994 runner up: Sunny Day Real Estate- Diary
1995 runner up: Hum- You'd Prefer An Astronaut
1996 runner up: Talulah Gosh- Backwash (technically, I own Was It Just A Dream, which is a later compilation with additional demo songs, but it's essentially a deluxe edition of Backwash with bonus tracks)
1999 runner up: The Get Up Kids- Something To Write Home About (I really considered putting Through Being Cool by Saves The Day, as it is neck and neck with STWHA, but I ultimately decided on Get Up Kids).

I need to listen to some more 1997 and 1998 albums before I can decide runners up. I know, you're probably like "where's OK Computer or In The Aeroplane Over The Sea," but the answer is I simply haven't listened to them yet.

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SpaceGuitarist
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Re: Favorite Albums of the 90s

Postby SpaceGuitarist » July 29th, 2018, 6:46 pm

A big shout to the guy who mentioned Lemonheads - I had completely forgotten about that record!!

A few more that haven't been mentioned so far, off the top of my head (there's loads more though):

The first two Verve albums, can't remember the names
Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs (often criticised but I still think it has legs)
Neil Young - Ragged Glory and the live album Weld (from the Ragged Glory tour) - best thing Neil did since the mid-70s
Primal Scream - Screamadelica and Vanishing Point
Scott Walker - Tilt - Scott Walker's first record in 11 years, an album inspired by Pasolini's films/poetry - this alone makes the 90s worth living
Jonathan Richman - I, Jonathan - probably his best solo record
Goldie - Timeless - this really captured the 90s nightclubbing scene
Lou Reed & John Cale - Songs for Drella - first collaboration by VU founding members in +20 years
Built to Spill - Perfect from Now On (their major label debut I think? What a way to go mainstream...)
Songs Ohia - basically anything this wonderful man/band recorded during the 90s

then there's a bunch that probably won't make any sense to people outside of Europe but still worth mentioning:

The La's - The La's
The Stairs - Mexican R'n'B
Spiritualized - Lazer Guided Melodies
Shack - Waterpistol
Super Furry Animals - the first two albums

The 90s were great if you weren't watching MTV.

lynchie137
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Re: Favorite Albums of the 90s

Postby lynchie137 » July 29th, 2018, 10:24 pm

A few of my faves with a thought or two on each one:

Metallica- "Metallica" (aka "The Black Album") The album that got me into the heavier side of metal.

Slayer "Seasons in the Abyss" Their last truly great album. Don't get me wrong, they put out some good stuff afterwards. But to me, this was the last one to truly kick ass from start to finish.

Judas Priest "Painkiller" Priest goes all thrash metal on us... And proceeds to show the young pups how it's done. Ironic, since most of the thrash and speed metal bands cite them as an influence.

Carcass "Heartwork" The album that got me into death metal. Love the guitar work by Bill Steer and Michael Amott. And Jeff Walker's vocals sound raw, violent and completely feral. To this day, he's still one of my favorite vocalists in the entire sub genre of death metal.

Megadeth "Rust in Peace" Their strongest and most creative album. Every song is a master class in what can be done within the confines of metal. I'll never get tired of listening to this one.

Guns n Roses "Use Your Illusion 1" Both UYI albums are really good. But I've always preferred the first one just because of the song 'Coma" that closes it. This to me is one of the best songs they ever done...

The Offspring "Smash" The soundtrack to my senior year in high school. And to be quite honest, it's the only one of their albums I can sit down and listen to from start to finish. It's just a great set of really catchy tunes that'll stick in your head and will not let go.

Pantera "The Great Southern Trendkill" It's as dark and dirty as New Orleans swamp water. And as mean and as nasty as a junkyard dog who hasn't been fed in a month. I listened to this one a ton back in the day.

Alice in Chains "Dirt" Dark, heavy and bleak. Just like a good grunge album should be.

Nirvana "Nevermind" Erm... Never mind all the hoopla about them changing the face of music (see what I did there? haha). This is just a really great rock album with some really hooky songs with instantly memorable choruses. Not a duff track on it imho..

There are, of course, many more albums I could mention here and now. But these are some that immediately come to mind. Thoughts?


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