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BBC R2 - Your Ultimate 90s Album Revealed!

I didn’t listen to a lot of Pop/Rock in the 90s and didn’t own any of the below at the time, but in my limited experience (and mostly discovered by me after the 90s ended) I’d choose these:

Pearl Jam - Ten
Alice in Chains - Dirt
Nirvana - Nevermind
R.E.M. - Out of Time
Stone Temple Pilots - Core
Massive Attack - Mazzanine
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Mad Season - Above
Eels - Beautiful Freak
Helmet - Meantime
 
Many I would think of have already been mentioned. Therefore, apart from those;

REM, Out Of Time
Grant Lee Buffalo, Fuzzy
RHCP, Californication
Soundgarden, Superunknown
Metallica, epon.
Depeche Mode, Violator
Moby, Play
Gomez, Bring It On
Anthrax, Sound Of White Noise

With more thought that could be a full 10 and the list could easily change ;)

EDIT: Crossed posts with Nagraboy...
2nd EDIT: Thought of a 10th to make a complete list... Screaming Trees, Dust.
 
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Prefab Sprout - Jordan The Comeback = not only the best album of the 90's by a light year but would be in my top 5 of all time!

Bjork - Debut = still her best album IMHO

Jeff Buckley - Grace

Paul Weller - Wildwood

Paul Weller - Stanley Road

Massive Attack - Mezzanine

Gomez - Bring it on

Travis - The Man Who

The Waterboys - Room to Roam

Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory

Interestingly I found that MUCH more difficult than the 80's one... and I only named 10 rather than 20 this time! so many I wanted to include but turned out to be 1989 or 2000 as well.

No Radiohead, Manic's or Verve as all seemed to follow some new "whoa is me I'm so upset I could just burst into tears whilst gazing at my shoes" thang... although all made at least some good music.
Never got why people rate "Bitter Sweet Symphony" above "The Drugs Don't Work" either... the first is far too repetitive with that stones sample looped over and over... I cover the latter myself at buskers nights and it seems to go down well.
 
Distinct lack of Psyence Fiction or Two Pages so far. As a complete curveball I would also suggest that Boss Drum could be up there as well.
 
The La's album, which just missed being in the '80s because Lee Mavers arsed around so much, must top the list.
After that, in no particular order:

The Boo Radleys: Giant Steps
The Boo Radleys: Wake Up!
Mazzy Star: So Tonight That I Might See
HMHB: This Leaden Pall
HMHB: Four Lads Who Shook The Wirral
HMHB: Voyage To The Bottom Of The Road
Portishead: Dummy
Julian Cope: 20 Mothers
Black Grape: It's Great When You're Straight ... Yeah
 
No. 1 is Chicane - Far from the Maddening Crowds

Others in no particular order:

Primal Scream - Screamadelica
U2 - Achtung Baby
Peter Gabriel - Us
REM - Monster
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Depeche Mode - Violator
U2 - Zooropa
Leftfield - Leftism
Orbital - Snivelisation
Orb - Orbivilion
Pet Shop Boys - Very
Kate Bush - The Red Shoes
Oasis - What's the Story
Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Soul II Soul - Vol. II: 1990 – A New Decade
The Fugees - The Score
69 Love Songs - The Magnetic fields
The Downward Spiral - Nine Inch Nails
Booth and the Bad Angel -Booth and the Bad Angel
 
I think I’ve got all but 2, 4, 8 & 10. The problem with many of them is they aren’t even the best album by that band, e.g. I’d take Kid A, Amnesiac or In Rainbows over OK Computer, any IRS REM over Automatic (though it is still a great album, as is OK), Bleach over Nevermind, His ‘n’ Hers over Different Class, Boy over any other U2 album, which kind of makes Screamadelica the winner there by default!
Am I missing something, IRS REM doesn’t qualify for the 90’s.

The only Radiohead records I listen to regularly are OK computer & The bends but I have the others mentioned. In probably need to revisit them, Kid A always sounded like a ‘in a silent way’ rip-off for some reason.
 
Prefab Sprout - Jordan The Comeback = not only the best album of the 90's by a light year but would be in my top 5 of all time!

Bjork - Debut = still her best album IMHO

Jeff Buckley - Grace

Paul Weller - Wildwood

Paul Weller - Stanley Road

Massive Attack - Mezzanine

Gomez - Bring it on

Travis - The Man Who

The Waterboys - Room to Roam

Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory

Interestingly I found that MUCH more difficult than the 80's one... and I only named 10 rather than 20 this time! so many I wanted to include but turned out to be 1989 or 2000 as well.

No Radiohead, Manic's or Verve as all seemed to follow some new "whoa is me I'm so upset I could just burst into tears whilst gazing at my shoes" thang... although all made at least some good music.
Never got why people rate "Bitter Sweet Symphony" above "The Drugs Don't Work" either... the first is far too repetitive with that stones sample looped over and over... I cover the latter myself at buskers nights and it seems to go down well.
This adds to my contention that the 80s contained more varied music than the 90s. I quite like a few on your list but think Radiohead produced two of the decades better albums. I think ‘the man who’ stands up very well.
 
This adds to my contention that the 80s contained more varied music than the 90s. I quite like a few on your list but think Radiohead produced two of the decades better albums. I think ‘the man who’ stands up very well.

.... and it only got worse as time went on... By the time we get to the 2010's I may struggle to name 10 albums I really like never mind name a top 10! Tony L will no doubt love this... but that forces me to look a bit harder at how little attention I've given to searching out new music in my dotage:rolleyes:
Ultimately we're both right in many ways.... We are no longer exposed to really good new music on the radio, TV, juke box down the pub etc etc in the way we once were, so, having good new music "seep in" and enthuse us to go and get the album not common any more (yeah there's Jools Holland and Radio 6 and they have inspired purchases but not the same "national shared experience" where say Bob Marley/Human league/whoever were on TOTP's and everyone was "did you see that last night!?")

I certainly don't accept that one's taste necessarily has a "sell by date" or anything like that but yes I guess "the yoof of today" has completely different ways of hearing about/becoming exposed to new music that just don't even occur to me.. off my radar entirely. My top few up to date bands or artists I heard about from recommendations here on pfm in fact. Has to said they are all either "timeless genres" (folk etc) or of a style that they could of been released in 1975... ie The Delines
 
Missing....Presumed having a good time

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The story of this album was great - Knopfler, who was becoming a recluse after he got fed up with DS, made the album with and as a favour for his old mate from Leeds Steve Phillips, so that Phillips could afford to buy a house after his divorce...
 
Yep, I know that but wasn’t sure what Tony meant. I think I bought Green when it first came out, great album IMO.

I love Green too, probably my favourite from the Waner period.

For me think the decline started when Bill Berry left the band.
I had a ticket for their '95 Monster tour which ended up getting cancelled after Berry's collapse on stage...
 
A few of mine, no particular order, some glaring omissions

Live Through This - Hole

Last Splash - The Breeders

Trompe Le Monde- Pixies

Nevermind- Nirvana

His ‘n’ Hers - Pulp

Dusk - The The

Tonight You Are The Special One - Earl Brutus

The Fat Of The Land - The Prodigy

Leftism - Leftfield

Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space - Spiritualized

Dirty - Sonic Youth

Extricate - The Fall

Teenager Of The Year - Frank Black

The Holy Bible - Manic Street Preachers

Republic - New Order

Automatic For The People - REM

Garbage - Garbage

ACR:MCR - A Certain Ratio

Rock Art And The X-Ray Style- Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros

Queens Of The Stone Age -Queens Of The Stone Age
 
Am I missing something, IRS REM doesn’t qualify for the 90’s.

My point is every decade is so full of amazing stuff I’d not be filling a list with less than the best very from a band. I know I’m being unfair on Automatic For The People as it is a bloody great album, but if I had to choose I’d take Life’s Rich Pageant or Document from the previous decade ahead. As for Radiohead I know loads of people prefer the more ‘guitar band’ stuff of Bends and OK Computer, but to be honest I’ve played neither for decades, it is Kid A, Amnesiac and In Rainbows that I always reach for, so I’d personally not pick them, especially in a top ten where I’d had to leave out things such as MBV, Pete Namlook, Tortoise, Aphex Twin, Black Dog Productions, Fugees, Portishead etc. I should really have done a 20. There was tons of great stuff in that decade, as there is in every decade.
 


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