Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Best albums of the 90

When I was younger, I used to think the folks who went to high school in the 80's and never really evolved in their music taste were lame. I said it, and now I feel bad about it. But back then, I thought that if you were still listening to Motley Crue or Journey is any sort of half-serious manner then you were just someone who refused to mesh with the times. Boy was I wrong. If my pre-teen self could see my iPod she would see these same bands she used to make fun of 15 years ago. But with all the satellite radio stations out there, I noticed that there are a few selected exclusively to playing 90's music. This makes me happy as I love 90's music and have now become the one person I used to make fun of back in the day.

Hip hop was better in the 90's. Rap was better in the 90's. I mean please, Biggie, TuPac, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre...the list can go on. Rock ruled. Live, Soul Asylum, Green Day...come on! Even indie rock was better with Matthew Sweet and Toad the Wet Sprocket breaking into the scene. So this got me thinking to some of the greatest albums of the 90's. Now mind you, this is my opinion and my musical taste doesn't venture much into country, classical, or heavy rap so it might look a bit slanted. But I don't especially care. Here are my picks.

Pearl Jam-Ten
This album is out of control good. Every song on the album can be listened to over and over again. When Eddie Vedder is singing about his long lost father in 'Alive' you can almost feel his confusion and sadness. But the song still rocks out. I dare you to name another band who can pull that off.


Counting Crows-August and Everything After
If you hear Adam Duritz on the radio today, you might change the channel. You've probably heard the same voice and inflection for years from this guy. But there is no doubt that in 1993 when AaEA came out, that you had never heard anything like this before. The lyrics that don't flow but still seem to make sense in a non-logical way. Take a second listen. It's awesome


Smashing Pumpkins-Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
This band just kicks ass. I'm sorry but they do. Siamese Dream was good, but nothing compared to an almost completely listenable double disk. That, my friends, is hard to do. To take a band with their own signature sound and make two disks of songs that all sound different from each other but can somehow stay cohesive is genius. Well done, Billy Corgan. We wish you the best of luck in New Millenium Obscurity.


*The list will continue soon with 3 more albums of the 90's that throw Paula Abdul under the bus.


But that just This Girl talking...

1 comment:

Jeff said...

Use Your Illusion I/II. Boom.