Essential 90s?

elwoodicious

This came up in the end of eMu thread and I was curious what album (right at this particular moment) people might find essential in representing what the 90s were to them. For me it would be Fugazi's In On The Kill Taker though DJ Shadow's Entroducing or Future Sound of London's Lifeforms would likely be my pick if you ask me again in 5 minutes.


(url=>amz)

jonahpwll

Spiritualized - "Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space"



Sums up my views of the decade and the life I lived through it.

kargatron

My favorite song from my favorite pop album of the 90s:

New Radicals - I Hope I Didn't Just Give Away The Ending

I really love the lyrical fourth wall there. (If you've not actually heard it, its slow intro is nearly 2 minutes long - in case you're not feeling patient.)

Brighternow

Definitely:


Future Sound of London - Lifeform (1994)

- And:

denver

Automatic For the People comes to mind first, but I suppose more will follow. The first two that occurred to me turned out when I went to verify their era to have been released in the '80s.

And another popped up right away, Brazil Classics, Vol. 3: Forro, Etc.:

luddite

I glanced through my physical CD collection and identified about 12 albums that came out in the 90's that I somehow developed a particular affinity for... this one is the one I decided to go with:


... and in a diametrically opposed corner I realized this was a product of the 90's as well.... I still dig this way too much (probably more so than the above).

Daniel, Esq.

okay, i can wholeheartedly cosign this ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

urge overkill sometimes lacked tunes, but they made up for it with attitude, style and swagger. this is a great album. see, e.g., dropout.

amclark2

Honestly the 90's feel like two different decades for me, so:

90-94 is best summed up by:



95-99 is best summed up by:



Not that there wasn't a lot lot more. Love seeing UO here, and that second Aphex Twin ambient comp was much loved too. Shout outs to Smashing Pumpkins, Bjork, Beck, Beastie Boys, Red House Painters. Ooh, and can't forget Moby. Loved Moby.

I'm gonna have to dig out all my old Moby albums now. I wonder what I even have anymore? Probably not Animal Rights. Hopefully have Play. I think s/t and Ambient were only ever on tape. Play was the last one I got I think... Much digging to do.

I loaded up an iPod with Beck, Beasties and Bjork thanks to this topic. This is fun!

cafreema

It just so happens that the most important album in my life was released in the 90s:



This album changed me. It showed me what music could be and opened me up to a whole new world. Siamese Dream is the reason I am posting on this board today.

I still can't hear the opening drum rolls to "Cherub Rock" and not get chills.

Craig

Brighternow

This seminal album by The Legendary Pink Dots was released in 1991 and recently added to their Bandcamp page in an excellently remastered 2012 version:

denver

That Forro comp was just one part of a decade I spent listening largely to Latin American music--Mercedes Sosa, Guardabarranco, Illapu (maybe the best live show I've ever seen), Inti-Illimani, Sukay, Silvio Rodriguez, Victor Jara, Pablo Milanes, and on and on... It had a lot to do with the non-profit I was working at then, my interest in liberation theology, and what had been going on in that part of the world. And when I wasn't listening to that I was likely to be listening to Irish music. I think my daughter was conceived in 1995 at an Irish music festival in Dallas. I've never heard any of the albums on this thread at all, except for Spiritualized, which I didn't hear until a few years ago. And I've never listened all the way through to Nevermind, which I would have expected to be mentioned here. I guess I was very out of touch in the '90s. For that matter, I've never watched Seinfeld or Friends, either.

Brighternow

The Maria Dimention by the LPD's is part 3 of what could be called the Golden Trilogy (well, that's at least what I choose to call it). The Golden Age from 1989 is part 1 and this truely gorgeous album from 1990 is part 2.
Please note that tracks 8 - 12 is not a part of the original vinyl release, but a 12" released about the same time called Princess Coldheart. - I never thought that it was a bright idea to extend such a perfect and truely gorgeous Lp.
- Anyways, also @ Bandcamp:


The Crushed Velvet Apocalypse

BTW: Did I mention that the LPD's is one of the bands that have changed my life and in importance is up there with Pink Floyd, Mothers of Invention and many others ? - And that their first vinyl album is called Brighter Now ? - well, now I have.

ETA: A must check out for old hippies ! (Greg)

ETA 2: the mindblowing guitar is played by the late Bob Pisdoor.

denver

Listening now to what Spotify calls the LPD's "Top Hits."

Brighternow

LPD's "Top Hits."

- Sounds like a joke . . .

denver

I feel like I may have sounded antagonistic and disdainful again. If so, that wasn't my intention and I'm sorry.

Brighternow

Oh no, not at all. . .
It's just, Lpd has never been even close to having a hit, - Thats why I found it kinda funny.

amclark2

Denver - did you mean antagonistic and disdainful about the LPD or about the 90's - because I thought your 90's sounds really cool and different than the typical college- slacker nin listening 90's, ad to boot, lists some interesting Latin stuff to check out. So no worries.

Germanprof

Hmm. Wanted to at least post something here but I am still struggling to find musical evidence that I was alive during the 90s. I think I might have been kidnapped by aliens for the decade or something. Just took a look back at my "music that has influenced me" list - nothing from the 90s (though I have important stuff from 1989 and 2000). I think my major music exploring years were just the 1980s (teenager and student, collecting records) and the download years (since about 2003). Only albums I can think of that made an impression in the 90s were by Bruce Cockburn - hard to pick between these two:



Locating those in memory tells me that I was also collecting early black gospel at the time. That was probably a better bet than much of what I have seen of the 90s. Am going to have to listen to some of the stuff you are all posting though just for education - I do not think I have ever listened to a single Björk track, for instance.

Bad Thoughts

No one has mentioned Loveless?

elwoodicious

I am still struggling to find musical evidence that I was alive during the 90s.

That's my challenge for the 00's since that decade was more about widening my listening habits and I began disregarding release dates completely.

Craig, I love that you have such a good memory of Cherub Rock, when I hear those opening drum rolls I get a visceral reaction of, "Fuck. She is such a goddamn bitch!" Smashing Pumpkins were a favorite band of an truly toxic ex-girlfriend and to this day I will rip a car stereo out and hurl it onto the highway if any of their music comes on.

greg

I'm with you GP - the 90s was a decade when my musical interests sunk to a relative low. I kept up with certain key artists from previous decades but I had moved away from what was really going on in the music scene, with one or two exceptions (Belle and Sebastian springs to mind - but was that early 2000s?) In some ways it was when I started downloading music that I really began to get back to listening to new artists and expanding my musical interests.

Daniel, Esq.

Hmm. Wanted to at least post something here but I am still struggling to find musical evidence that I was alive during the 90s. I think I might have been kidnapped by aliens for the decade or something. Just took a look back at my "music that has influenced me" list - nothing from the 90s (though I have important stuff from 1989 and 2000). I think my major music exploring years were just the 1980s (teenager and student, collecting records) and the download years (since about 2003).

describes me to a tee.

yeah, loveless. bandwagonesque, too! now that i think about it, that may be my fav from the 90s!

Daniel, Esq.

whoop whoop

lock thread.

Bad Thoughts

I remember in November 1999 I paid a heft fee for an import copy of Ágætis byrjun based entirely on a three sentence review in some magazine. It was a favorable review, comparing the music to Loveless, but it reminded me that so many shoegazer bands were considered retreads and that the Loveless sound was largely a dead end. That thinking has been turned around.

jonahpwll

It shouldn't be forgotten that two great, related, and personal favorites of mine came out around the same time...



Wilco "Summer Teeth" & Son Volt "Wide Swing Tremolo"

Aside from representing the momentum of the alt-country movement of the second half of the 90s, they are both great albums, and come in a close second and third place behind the (above-mentioned) Spiritualized album as far as personal favorites and representing my own life during that decade (well, the second half of the decade).

cafreema

amc - It's amazing how personal experiences can get tied up with music and create a truly visceral reaction.

Craig

Brighternow

- From 1995:



- "One of the all time classics of modern electronica, Last Train to Lhasa is an incredible sonic journey whose globally inspired, groove infested soundscapes helped to form the blueprint for much of today's global electronica.

Following the success of his debut album Maya and a European tour with Transglobal Underground, Toby Marks travelled the world collecting inspirations. He joined The Tibet Support Group, and as a response to the decision to build the Qingzang railway between the cities of Xining and the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, in 1995 Marks recorded a 12-minute long track with looped Tibetan chants. This track inspired the creation of the whole album.

As a political statement, Last Train to Lhasa's subtle grace is an effective and eloquent way to express the tragic destruction of Tibetan culture in the face of Chinese occupation. But the strength of the listening experience will keep you coming back, regardless of your stance on the issue. The two-disc set jumps from choppy, Goa-style trance (Kuos) to blue-room chill tunes (China), the chugging locomotive techno of Last Train to Lhasa to the pan-cultural rhythmic stew of Kincajou and the burbling Orient-meets-the-Orb synthesizer textures of 887.

Brighternow

- From 1993 and still as brilliant as it was way back when . . .



- The opening track Plainsong from Youtube.

thomnottom

Some great albums listed so far. Glad to see some Aphex Twin and Seefeel represented here. I was going to list a few, but if you're going to hold me to one I'll go with:



It's actually not even my favorite of theirs from the 90s (I'd place it 3rd), but it represents my first real foray into indie rock. I had asked one of my sisters for recs on some "outside the mainstream" music and she said to check out YLT. Since I was heading out to college in Hoboken it seemed appropriate so I picked up their latest release and was pretty much blown away. In particular "False Alarm" was the beginning of my addiction to noise.

confused

Well, if I can only pick one artist that was essential to me in the 90's, then I'll choose Peter Case. He got me through the divorce (Breaking the Chain), was instrumental in me meeting my true love (Until The Next Time, Moves Me Deeply, This Could be the One) and played our wedding waltz in 2000 (Waltz Of The Angels).

He introduced me to lots of interesting folks and reminded me of some old friends, and for that I'm truly grateful. Thanks for....T-Bone Burnett, Marvin Etzioni, Gurf Morlix, Victoria Williams, Bob Neuwirth, Tom Russell, Tonio K., Billy Swan, Andrew Williams, Don Heffington, Tammy Rogers, Fontaine Brown, Greg Leisz, Carlos Guitarlos, The Plimsouls, Beat Farmers, Sam Phillips, Marshall Crenshaw, The Dream Syndicate and most recently Dead Rock West.

He played in our hometown on the night of our wedding, but we were whooping it up out at Emerald Lake in BC with some great friends and family. I missed seeing him play live here again, just recently, but one of these days.......

-always

PS. Oops, I meant to say that the album that is essential to me for the 90's is Torn Again