I never really got into Yo La Tengo or Pavement. But, yeah, people rave about them.
Off the top of my head, some great albums from the 90s:
Pearl Jam "Ten"
Morphine "Cure for Pain"
Jane's Addiction "Ritual de lo Habitual"
Butthole Surfers - "Independent Worm Saloon"
Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Blood Sugar Sex Magick"
Chris Whitley - "Living With the Law"
Verve - "Storm in Heaven"
Spiritualized - "Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating In Space"
Ween - "The Mollusk"
Smashing Pumpkins - "Siamese Dream"
Flaming Lips - "The Soft Bulletin"
Mercury Rev - "Boces" & "Deserter Songs"
Tom Waits - "Bone Machine"
Nirvana - "Unplugged"
Mojave 3 - "Out of Tune"
Faith No More - "King for a Day; Fool for a Lifetime"
Acetone - "Cindy"
Colorsound - "You're Only As Good As Your Sound"
yeah. i hate pearl jam, the RHCP, and the pumpkins with the heat of a thouusand exploding supernovas. but some of those others look intriguing. i like the idea of tom waits more than i've loved his work, but i know a lot of people rave about bone machine. i somehow missed spiritualized in its prime. i have that album -- even have it now loaded on my ipod! -- but i've rarely listened to it. if you had to pick one song on that disc as an entry point, which song would it be?
An aspect of that Spiritualized album is that it almost acts as a concept album... needs to be listened from beginning to end to really appreciate it. I can't imagine putting it on shuffle.
That said, if you had to listen to one song:
1. If you're feeling like rocking: Electricity
2. If you're feeling like crying: Broken Heart
3. If you're feeling like raging: Come Together
4. If you feel like a little of all three: I Think I'm In Love
Echo that. Homogenic was the only thing on that list I really agreed with, and I turned 17 in 1990, so the '90s were sorta my decade. Not that much of the music I loved in the 90s was any better than the stuff on that list. I liked Jesus Jones. EMF. The Farm. The Wonderstuff.
I started a 48 hour free trial of Spotify, which I hadn't found any use for. I just keep thinking I'd rather listen to what's cued up on my iPod. But then I thought about Homogenic, and how hard it would be to find my copy... So yeah, streaming might be worth paying for, especially if I can temporarily download stuff so that I don't kill my battery by streaming over 3G.
Ohhhh, I forgot about the Wonderstuff. Never Loved Elvis was a delightful album. Totally forgot about them. Thanks, AMC2! Hup wasn't bad either. But oh man, Never Loved Elvis. I wonder if I still have that cd! Oh, I sense hours searching through boxes of cds. Very excited.
I've come late to this discussion (weekend looking after an eighteen month old and three and half year old - lovely time had by all four of us, "grandad, why....?") Having lived through more decades than most here, there was great music in all, but some, shall we say, less than great music. A lot depends upon the decade you grew up musically, as amc2 and others indicate. But with time you then start to reflect on each decade in a different light. At one stage I thought the 60s was the key decade musically, but now I probably play only half a dozen or so 60s artists with any regularity. Inevitably the Beatles stand way above any artist from that period. But each decade has key artists, and a lot will depend upon what was happening to you personally too, as certain albums capture key life moments. But we all have 'lost' decades too, as GP points out, when life got in the way. In many respects that was true for me in the 90s too (marriage in 89 then illness and bereavement in the late 90s, key job and house move in the middle and so on) and I know less about that decade musically than any other, other than the 'star' artists - Springsteen, Genesis, Clapton etc. Looking at the lists from the 90s here I have few of those albums, maybe some exploration is needed...?
Seems like at least one Guided by Voices album should get mentioned. That seems much more eMu-ish. The problem for me is I missed them in the 90's and started with their greatest hits album. I tweeted Alien Voices to Emu but there are probably other likely contenders.
i missed them, too. i have a GBV album, and some of it is pretty great, actually. one song in particular, called rape tractor or something like that. i guess that's your 90s lo-fi blueprint.
i also think emusic should stay away from those "essential discs of an era"-type sales, since they're inevitably littered with discs that people now find in the cutout bins (e.g., stone-temple-pilots; that pearl jam disc; others). bad impression imo.
Amazon's latest $2.99 sale, hits a lot of '90's (and cutout bin) high points. Even the stuff I don't like (Jagged Little Pills*) is still pretty important 90's-wise. Has anybody mentioned Odelay here yet? Definitely a 90's essential.
I'll admit that my dislike of Jagged Little Pills may stem mostly from a camping trip with my girlfriend (now wife), my housemate, and his recent ex-girlfriend who was still living with us. She made us listen to that damn album till I was ready to throw it out the window. The whole thing seems like a classic 90's episode though, come to think of it.
ETA: the sale seems to be over, or broken or something. I guess it was a four hour sale.
I'll admit that my dislike of Jagged Little Pills may stem mostly from a camping trip with my girlfriend (now wife), my housemate, and his recent ex-girlfriend who was still living with us. She made us listen to that damn album till I was ready to throw it out the window.
Odelay should definitely be on that list. Beck is totally a product of the 90s, even though, arguably, his best music came after the turn of the century.
My wife is a huge GBV fan. I'm sure if I perused her supply, I could find a decent rec or two. Not a huge fan myself, but there's one or two that I don't mind listening to.
I'm not generally into best of's, but i think that GBV best of is a good place to start - there are so many different albums, sounds, and really Bands, under the GBV label; the best of helps in finding which is for you.
Tempted to replace my lost copy of Achtung Baby - that had some good songs. Though I am totally puzzled as to why certain tracks are more expensive on Amazon. I could understand the singles being at a higher price. But Zoo Station? Love is Blindness? Really? And four different price points for single tracks on the same album?
John Cale & Brian Eno - "Spinning Away" (Wrong Way Up, 1990)
- Wonderful wonderful song from, as I remember it, a wonderful album, - got to find a replacement for that old worn out cassettetape !
- Thanks Kargatron.
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actually they made clear this was happening. but still -- OMINOUS
Aaargh. And I was so looking forward to downloading the new Simon Scott album this morning. They have an amazing knack for being broken or unavailable on those days when I really wanted to download something.
@Daniel, "they made clear this was happening" - was there a notice on the board? I see there are no tweets for the last 12 hours+ - perhaps the staff are undergoing scheduled maintenance. Was there any explanation?
By the way, this is a useful link for checking if emusic is really down: http://www.websitenotworking.com/emusic.com. Funny that the message "Site emusic.com is down for everyone, it is not just you." would feel reassuring.
I just noticed myself that emusic was down and headed over here to see if anyone knew why. It's the middle of the day here (not that the UK is their priority!) and no tweets to explain it, even though the page directs you to the Twitter feed.
Thanks for that link, Germanprof. After it said emusic was working for everyone else, I checked and it did indeed load. Or at least, it is loading slowly. One step at a time!
Comments
Off the top of my head, some great albums from the 90s:
Pearl Jam "Ten"
Morphine "Cure for Pain"
Jane's Addiction "Ritual de lo Habitual"
Butthole Surfers - "Independent Worm Saloon"
Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Blood Sugar Sex Magick"
Chris Whitley - "Living With the Law"
Verve - "Storm in Heaven"
Spiritualized - "Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating In Space"
Ween - "The Mollusk"
Smashing Pumpkins - "Siamese Dream"
Flaming Lips - "The Soft Bulletin"
Mercury Rev - "Boces" & "Deserter Songs"
Tom Waits - "Bone Machine"
Nirvana - "Unplugged"
Mojave 3 - "Out of Tune"
Faith No More - "King for a Day; Fool for a Lifetime"
Acetone - "Cindy"
Colorsound - "You're Only As Good As Your Sound"
I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch of good ones.
That said, if you had to listen to one song:
1. If you're feeling like rocking: Electricity
2. If you're feeling like crying: Broken Heart
3. If you're feeling like raging: Come Together
4. If you feel like a little of all three: I Think I'm In Love
I started a 48 hour free trial of Spotify, which I hadn't found any use for. I just keep thinking I'd rather listen to what's cued up on my iPod. But then I thought about Homogenic, and how hard it would be to find my copy... So yeah, streaming might be worth paying for, especially if I can temporarily download stuff so that I don't kill my battery by streaming over 3G.
John Cale & Brian Eno - "Spinning Away" (Wrong Way Up, 1990)
I'll admit that my dislike of Jagged Little Pills may stem mostly from a camping trip with my girlfriend (now wife), my housemate, and his recent ex-girlfriend who was still living with us. She made us listen to that damn album till I was ready to throw it out the window. The whole thing seems like a classic 90's episode though, come to think of it.
ETA: the sale seems to be over, or broken or something. I guess it was a four hour sale.
hatehatehatehatehatehatehate that album.
My wife is a huge GBV fan. I'm sure if I perused her supply, I could find a decent rec or two. Not a huge fan myself, but there's one or two that I don't mind listening to.
Craig
@amclark. Thanks. I want to get one of my fianc
- Thanks Kargatron.
actually they made clear this was happening. but still -- OMINOUS
By the way, this is a useful link for checking if emusic is really down: http://www.websitenotworking.com/emusic.com. Funny that the message "Site emusic.com is down for everyone, it is not just you." would feel reassuring.
Thanks for that link, Germanprof. After it said emusic was working for everyone else, I checked and it did indeed load. Or at least, it is loading slowly. One step at a time!