Best Albums of the 90s

April 29th, 2008 Sheppard Posted in General |

Now I know this list is going to turn many heads. The 80s post had a lot of feedback and I think this one will have even more. Being that I was actually alive and actively listening to music in this decade, I can say with some confidence that these albums had the greatest impact on my musical taste. Compiling a list of only ten albums was very difficult for me. Therefore I would like to give some honorable mentions to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness from Smashing Pumpkins, Brining Down the Horse from The Wallflowers, Metallica (The Black Album) from Metallica, and Definitely Maybe from Oasis. I would have loved to have included those albums, but it just wasn’t possible. I am sure everyone is going to be upset that I left off Ok Computer, but Radiohead never really took off for me. I am no where near downplaying that as a good album, because it is, but I believe it is very overrated. So, with out further a due, here is the list:

Best Albums of the 90s:

10) Blues Traveler – Four
9) Pearl Jam – Ten
8) Spin Doctors – Pocket Full Of Kryptonite
7) Foo Fighters – The Colour And The Shape
6) Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication
5) Nirvana – Nevermind
4) Weezer – Pinkerton
3) Oasis – (What’s The Story) Morning Glory
2) Green Day – Dookie
1) Weezer – Weezer


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9 Responses to “Best Albums of the 90s”

  1. Chris Says:
    April 30th, 2008 at 12:04 am

    Yeah, I really like Radiohead. I’m not a huge Neutral Milk Hotel fan, but that might make my list. Pavement. Slint. Fugazi. GY!BE. Probably some rap and hip hop.

    Nirvana is a safe pick, and I’d have that in my top five. A Weezer album would be near the bottom of my top ten.

  2. Frank Incropera Says:
    April 30th, 2008 at 5:53 pm

    Wrong. The greatest album ever released in the 90s is the Forrest Gump soundtrack.

  3. Shaka Says:
    May 1st, 2008 at 1:58 am

    I really feel me and shepherd have more in common than we think. I can’t see making any 90s album list and Nirvana not being 1.

    Spin Doctors and Blues Traveler should NOT be on that list. Nor should a 2nd Weezer album.

    HAVE to put OK Computer on the list. Rage? Achtung Baby?

    Also, I would put Sublime on it, that album has legs.

  4. Sheppard Says:
    May 1st, 2008 at 9:53 am

    I actually debated for a while of having RATM instead of Blues Traveler. However, that Blues Traveler album really made an impact on me. It introduced me to a more jam oriented music, which I believe led me to listening to bands like the Allman Brothers and the Grateful Dead. I still find myself listening to Four every now and again.

    The Spin Doctors were the first real rock music experience I ever had. Pocket Full of Kryptonite was the first album I ever owned and the Spin Doctors/Gin Blossoms was the first concert I ever went to. So, for myself I think they deserved it.

    Everyone knows that I love Weezer, but I really do believe that Pinkerton deserves to be on the list. Pinkerton was the first mainstream “EMO” album. I am not saying they created the genre, but they did impart it on the mass public for the first time. It was also the first time that you saw a band with previous success writing songs that weren’t designed to be popular.

  5. cwod Says:
    May 1st, 2008 at 10:21 am

    Nevermind is important, no doubt, but maybe in a bad way. In the words of Wayne Coyne:

    It’s better to be overrated than underrated. Besides, it’s not the musicians’ fault Nevermind is overrated - it’s the public’s, or the critics’. But you don’t find yourself ever longing to listen to it, because there were - still are, in fact - so many mediocre bands that sound like it, that you’re constantly experiencing it. I never get out Nevermind and think: what great production, what great songs. Nevermind had a poisonous, pernicious influence. It legitimised suffering. The sainthood of Kurt Cobain overshadows the album: Kurt’s lyrics, his attitudinising and navel-gazing, were hard to separate from the band’s image. You can never just hear the record. For me, Bleach and In Utero are superior. Even the album cover seems cheap: that stupid dollar bill just seems to have been airbrushed in there. If Alice in Chains had done it, we’d have thought it was a joke, but because it was Nirvana we thought it was oh-so-clever. If you think you’re going to hear an utterly original, powerful and freaky record when you put on Nevermind, as a young kid might, Christ you’re going to be disappointed. You’re going to think, “Who is this band that sounds just like Nickelback? What are these drug addicts going on about?

  6. Greg Says:
    May 1st, 2008 at 11:19 am

    Nirvana sucks.

    Wodicka told me to post that, I I believe it also.

  7. Sheppard Says:
    May 1st, 2008 at 11:32 am

    I am not even going to respond to that last post, but I am going to address C-Wods post. Nirvana was more about timing than anything. They altered the musical scene and in a sense killed hair metal. That is not going to been seen by young kids today. Nevermind seemed to initiate the rise of grunge, where as its predecessor, Bleach did not. Obviously this album is going to have more significance for people who were over the age of 10 when it came out. I wasn’t even that age then but looking back on my childhood I can see the impact that it made. Thats why this album deserves to be on the list.

  8. cwod Says:
    May 1st, 2008 at 11:42 am

    It replaced one evil with another, I say. Death to post-grunge!

    Let’s all go back into our caves and listen to Guided by Voices b-sides.

    I don’t even listen to Guided by Voices.

    I respect Nirvana, even listen to them sometimes, definitely prefer them over the music in Greg’s car, but I think their (read: Kurt Cobain’s) lack of anything resembling technical ability and Kurt’s culturally ubiquitous “tortured artist” persona hold them back. It’s not his fault. Blame the social forces that created and later crushed his “genius.”

    I mean, whatever.

  9. Shaka Says:
    May 1st, 2008 at 2:27 pm

    Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand

    Best Album of the 90’s. Case Closed

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