It looks like we're done with concerts for 2024, and we'll be publishing a recap of this year's live adventures shortly. In the mean time, since we have a little time on our hand, we've started this little project: it's a sort of an alternative guide to the greatest albums of the nineties. But you won't find Use Your Illusion, Doggystyle or Baby One More Time in this list.
Being born at the very end of the seventies, I was a little too young to enjoy the eighties music in real time. I was subjected to it, for sure. And my musical awakening dates back to those days, but it was in the nineties that I really forged my taste. It was then that I was able to buy records by myself, discover artists on my own and enjoy new albums as they were released. I was in high school during grunge, britpop and the rap wars: I was these movements' target demographic.
Revisionist musical history teaches us that the nineties were a radical departure from the preceding decade. Kurt Cobain and grunge came in and destroyed everything that the eighties stood for: the careless, insouciant hedonism of the L.A. music scene, the indulgence of pop, the misogyny and homophobia of... well, pretty much everything. But what this take conveniently forgets is:
a/ The seeds of grunge and a backlash to some of metal's excesses had already been planted in the eighties. Look no further than the Replacements or R.E.M. for a template of the alt-rock to come. But more importantly...
b/ The chasm between fans of "indie" and "commercial" rock wasn't as clear cut as today's musical press articles would have you believe. It was perfectly acceptable for people to like both Pearl Jam AND Guns N' Roses, Nine Inch Nails AND Poison, Michael Jackson AND R.E.M. One only needs to look at the charts for proof. In fact, the dichotomy only seems to exist in music magazines. Just like Beatles vs. Stones, East Coast vs. West Coast, London vs. Liverpool, L.A. vs. San Francisco, Blur vs. Oasis, this "war" was created and fueled mainly by music critics.
The nineties were not only a continuation of the eighties, they were an amplification and a culmination of every one of its trends. The house music that had permeated the rock idiom and gave birth to bands as diverse as New Order or Joy Division exploded into Nine Inch Nails and full blown electro-metal bands like Fear Factory.
The collusion (collision?) between rap/funk and rock initiated by Run DMC and Aerosmith would create an entire genre that would occupy the charts for most of the nineties with Faith No More or Red Hot Chili Peppers and would eventually lead to atrocities like Limp Bizkit...
Through its experimentations and fusions with other genres, Jazz had finished evolving into a form that was so far removed from its roots that many purists had declared it dead. The only artists that kept performing a recognizable iteration of the idiom were self-confessed reactionaries, purposely playing a scholarly form of the genre like historians practicing a dead dialect.
Prefab pop bands like New Kids on the Block, Bros or Milli Vanilli, which had taken their cues from older acts like the Monkees or Sha Na Na had now given way to even slicker, blander copies like NSync, Take That or Backstreet Boys.
The business model of veteran bands embarking on stadium tours every five years to milk the fans for all they are worth with astronomical ticket prices, like The Rolling Stones' Steel Wheels tour, would become the norm, starting with the Eagles' Hell Freezes Over tour, famous for being the first time a band charged more than 100 USD for a concert ticket. Sadly, that price seems laughably low by today's standards...
A multiplying factor is the fact that albums were getting longer, thanks to the predominance CDs had taken in the record-buying public... artists then had to resort to releasing albums with more filler material, or taking longer to produce their records.
All this is why the nineties are understandably vilified by a large section of music lovers everywhere. And while one can be sympathetic to the notion that it was the worst decade for music when listening to some of the garbage churned out by the hordes of nu-metal, faceless pop, soulless Rn'B and watered-down clones of Kurt Cobain, there were some absolutely brilliant, groundbreaking records that came out. Some are now rightly considered classics, while some are now unfortunately somewhat forgotten. This is a list of the albums that I feel made the decade not only a decent but a fantastic one for rock music, and popular music in general.
I've only included one album per artist, because even though some bands have released several great albums during that decade, there only needs to be one to exemplify my point. I have also limited my list to studio recordings: no Hell Freezes Over by the Eagles, no AC/DC Live... Similarly, there are no compilations and no greatest hits record, because that would be cheating now, wouldn't it?
Also conspicuously absent from my list are behemoths like Metallica, U2, AC/DC, Rolling Stones, Depeche Mode, Snoop Doggy Dog, Bob Dylan, Guns N' Roses, R.E.M. Nirvana, Prince, Oasis, Iron Maiden Eric Clapton, Alanis Morrissette, Dr. Dre, Bruce Springsteen, Genesis, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Blur, Queen... Even though they all released remarkable material during the decade, no one really needs to be made aware of them.
Which is not to say that the albums I've selected are all obscure, under-the-radar records. In fact, it's all pretty mainstream stuff, some of which has been quite successful. It's just a personal list of records from the decade that I've loved, and still love. So take it for all its subjective worth. In fact, they are presented here in no particular order. So let us know at our socials or on our forums which albums you would include in your list.
Also, click on the links in the articles to buy or stream the albums on Apple Music. If you need a subscription you can get one HERE.
Being a fan of Clapton and the whole British Blues Boom, I already knew some of John Mayall's 60's and 70's records but this was the first album of his that I discovered upon release. As usual, the covers are a few notches above the originals. Opener Mail Order Mystics, originally by Chris Smither (more on him later) sets the tone: muscular, no nonsense Blues/Rock. Flanked by hot shot guitarist Coco Montoya and guests like Mavis Staples, Buddy Guy and ex-Blues Breaker Mick Taylor, John Mayall is in fine vocal form (never his strongest asset) and kills it on the harmonica. While not an essential entry in the British Blues icon's discography, it's still one of the best albums of his post-seventies output.
I discovered Bill Laswell through an album entitled Funkcronomicon which compiled under the name Axiom Funk various funk artists he had produced for his Axiom record label. I was obsessed with Bootsy Collins (more on that later) at that time, which is why I bought that compilation. It led me to this fantastic album, my favorite recorded under the name Material. A loose collective with a malleable line-up, they recorded some great avant-garde, post-punk stuff in the early eighties, released a quasi-reggae album around the end of that decade then came out with this masterpiece in 1994. Bill Laswell is known to assemble musicians from different genres and horizons, and this is the epitome of his experimental spirit: a collision of dub, jazz, new-wave, ambient, world-music and funk, beautifully produced and featuring a slew of incredible musicians: Zakir Hussain, Trilok Guru, Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell, Nicky Skopelitis, Jonas Hellborg, Wayne Shorter, Sly Dunbar... A rare album you can both dance to and relax to.
Angra was a fairly pedestrian speed-metal band, heavily indebted to Helloween, Iron Maiden and the likes. They had some cool songs, but were lost in the heap of similar artists until this phenomenal album which fused their metal identity with classical flourishes and traditional Brazilian music. Powerful melodies, grandiose arrangements and a bunch of killer riffs make this one of the best, most unexpected Metal records of the decade. Unfortunately, the band would implode soon after, and lead singer/composer Andre Matos would eventually die of a heart attack, shattering any chance of a decent follow-up to one of the genre's most adventurous releases.
This is an album I've listened to so many times I can longer hear it. Whenever I put it on, it's like it's part of the furniture. I know it so well, inside and out, that I now barely notice when it's playing. This is a problem, obviously. This is why I seldom play it these days, in the hope that it becomes audible to me again. Everything about this record is sublime: the singing and guitar playing obviously, the songwriting, the sparse but pristine production, the Robert Johnson covers... This is not just a blues album, or an Americana album, or a soul album... It's an essential album.
After buying and absolutely loving King Crimson's classic debut in my early teenage years, I wondered where to go from there. Reading about the band left me intimidated by their discography: it was apparent that this was a band like no other and I didn't know how to approach its output. I figured the best thing was to buy their current album. Although I knew not to expect anything resembling ItCotCK, I had no idea what I was in for. What I got was an eclectic, intense album halfway between Jazz and Grunge. Was Fripp inspired by Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz when he decided to assemble this insanity of a line-up, known to Crim-Heads as the Double-Trio? Possibly. But the music sounds unlike anything else, even in the unusually wide-ranging KC catalogue.
Sure, there are some nods to the past. Beautiful, almost ethereal tracks like Walking On Air, which harkens back to Matte Kudasai on the Discipline album, furious Jazz/Metal like the instrumental title track which is reminiscent of Red, or Dinosaur, a Power Pop gem that would have fit on one of Adrian Belew's solo albums... but the arrangements here are what gives this music this futuristic, otherworldly feel. The interaction between the players, how their parts intertwine, complement themselves or sometimes clash against each other. The light and the shade, the tension and release... Crimson has always been unique, and this one is certainly that. Unique in its sound, in its approach to composing and performing... Nothing before or since even ressembles this strange, captivating album.
This is quite simply Alice Cooper's best record since Welcome To My Nightmare and his last true masterpiece. It's a concept album (check out the graphic novel companion HERE to understand how the story unfolds) but it also works as a simple Heavy Rock record. There is not one bad track on the whole album, and the production is at once dark and slick, bringing Alice in the 90's alt-rock world without losing his musical and thematic identity. Alice tackles all of the forms he has been associated with: Hard Rock, Power Pop, Ballads, Heavy Metal, Broadway Musical, Punk and Prog... Just an insanely good Rock album, and beautiful artwork by Dave McKean.
Another Bill Laswell project, but in a completely different genre from Material's Hallucination Engine. In fact, much like its counterpart, it can't be narrowed down to one genre. This fuses Funk, Metal, Hip-Hop and Jazz in a furious roller-coaster of sounds and collages. The cast is impressive: Bootsy Collins on bass and occasional vocals, Bernie Worrell on keyboards, Buckethead on guitar and Bryan Mantia on drums, this album actually spawned a single and a video: Animal Behavior is perhaps the most accessible track of the album, but the entire thing is worth immersing yourself into. Not an easy album by any means, but very rewarding and fun.
This was Ted Horowitz' major label debut under the ribald moniker Popa Chubby and it was produced by none other than the legendary Tom Dowd (check out our Tom Dowd playlist HERE). Popa's years as a Punk Rock guitarist in New York City inform some of the attitude on the record, but the music here is pure Blues Rock. Covers of songs by Freddie King or Bessie Smith rub shoulders with killer originals like Sweet Goddess Of Love And Beer and our personal favorite Healing In Her Hands. His singing is strong and emotive while his guitar playing is at once muscular and fluid. With its pachydermic grooves and incendiary guitar playing, this is one of the best Blues records of the decade.
Bernard Allison, son of late Chicago Bluesman Luther Allison, went on a funk tangent with this killer album which succeeds in capturing the essence of 1970's Funk. Finally stepping out of his father's shadow and eschewing the excellent but derivative Blues he had been famous for, Allison released this highly danceable, lascivious record full of groove and fantastic tunes. Unfortunately, Funkifino would remain a one-off in Bernard Allison's discography, as he reverted back to a more straightforward Chicago Blues sound immediately after its release.
Little Axe is a project initiated by Skip McDonald and his friends in Tackhead and musicians for Sugar Hill Records house band that took the traditional Blues idiom, only to subvert it with modernist production techniques, samples, synths and an ambient funky rhythm section. Earthy yet psychedelic, this record showed one path the genre could've evolved in, but never did. Nowadays, McDonald has adopted Little Axe as his moniker and, as the sole remainder of this unusual project, has turned to other equally adventurous ways to mine the Blues idiom and bring it into the 21st Century.
Melvin Taylor @& the Slack Band - Melvin Taylor & the Slack Band
Unlike the previous entry, this is a very academic Blues record but it's also one of the best of the whole decade, thanks to the dazzling virtuosity of guitarist and bandleader Melvin Taylor. The repertoire is predictable but serves as an excuse for stunning displays of musicianship that are never ostentatious. Slow blues, jump blues, shuffle, rock n' roll, funk and jazz all combine to inform his music and his playing and make one hell of a party record. Unfortunately, it seems that this album is unavailable on digital...
John Campbell's One Believer is a more somber affair: this isn't a good-time blue album. This is a dark, mystical, swampy record and its aura is made all the more eerie by the tragic passing of its creator a little over a year after its release, at the young age of 41.
This short-lived supergroup (Bootsy Collins on bass and vocals, Buddy Miles on drums and vocals and Stevie Salas on guitar and vocals) spawned this lone gem of a record, which sounded like a 90's take on Jimi Hendrix' Band of Gypsys. Produced by Bill Laswell (him again!), the only gripe I have as a fan of Bootsy is that his bass playing is not featured enough. He seems content to just lay down a fat groove and support the song. But keep an ear out for a little bomBASStic bar in What's Goin' Down... Hard Rock, Funk, Soul, Blues... A banger of an album.
Electronic project Lords of Acid was already somewhat famous for its lascivious approach to rave music and gained some notoriety with some of their earlier songs like I Must Increase My Bust and The Most Wonderful Girl which was included in the Sharon Stone erotic thriller Sliver. But on Voodoo-U, their second LP, they decided to add some guitars, and while the result isn't exactly Ministry, this gave the album a sort of Industrial quality. And since the songs were top-notch, this was a great example of a Dance record that also worked as a Pop record AND a (somewhat) Hard Rock album. Great music to smush to, too. The production is insane with layers upon layers of instrumentation and sound effects, making it one hell of a trip... If you're into that sort of thing.
Click to reveal the Apple Music player
Wilco made some objectively better albums after their debut A.M.: they opened up their sound, became at once more experimental and more accessible. But this is the one I discovered them with and the one that holds a special place in my heart. The sweet, folk/pop of opener I Must Be High got me hooked as soon as I heard it. And then Casino Queen, which is the best song Jagger/Richards forgot to write. Box Full of Letters deservedly became one of their classics, but the entire album is flawless. Much like their career, really. The melodies are effortless and instantly memorable, the sound is warm and organic, Jeff Tweedy's voice is as endearing as his lyrics... The first of many Wilco masterpieces.
Trouble was an excellent Doom Metal band, heavily endebted to Black Sabbath and some of the more lysergic proto-metal bands of the sixties like Blue Cheer. With Manic Frustration, they opened their sound to psychedelia, pop, blues-based hard rock and even folk to create a masterpiece of seventies-inspired rock. Close your eyes and imagine long-haired, moustachioed musicians in bell bottoms playin wha-wha guitars, surrounded by incense and lava-lamp projections... This is the vibe of Manic Frustration, which again would remain a one-off in their catalog since they would eventually return to their Doom Metal sound before splintering into separate projects.
In all fairness, this isn't Black Sabbath's best 90's record. Dehumanizer is. The return of Ronnie James Dio to the Sabbath fold gave them their last real masterpiece, without treading the same waters they had left in the 80's. But Cross Purposes is greatly underrated, for several reasons. For one, it was 1994 and endless line-up changes as well as a string of mediocre albums had turned Sabbath into a joke. Second, after reunions with two of their most famous vocalists, the public was disappointed to see them return with faceless Ronnie clone Tony Martin. While he may not have the charisma of any of his predecessors, and while his voice might be somewhat generic in the Metal realm, he does these great songs justice and if tracks like Cross Of Thorns or I Witness had come out in the eighties they would have become bona fide Metal classics, if not actual hits. The Tony Martin albums had been out of print for years (because Sharon Osbourne is the devil) but they were recently re-released as part of a lavish box set and are now available in digital format for the first time. Yay!
This album shook the Metal world upon its release and became a blockbuster in the mainstream realm. Nearly thirty years later, it's as potent as it was upon release. Of course, it was instrumental in re-shaping the genre and helping give birth to stuff like Korn or Slipknot, but at the root (pardon the intentional pun) of it all is the primal sound of hardcore punk. Having stripped away all the accoutrements of Thrash and Death Metal, the Brazilians discovered that this more simplified music was just as aggressive as their previous sound and had a lot in common with some of their country's traditional tribal music. Unfortunately, the band would implode shortly after that with singer/guitarist Max leaving the band, and neither faction ever continued exploring the possibilities of this new crossover sound.
OK, hear me out. Don't leave. Yes, we all know Warrant for being one of the worst offenders of the Hair Band era, purveyors of such Pop/Metal cheese as Cherry Pie or Down Boys. While these songs and the albums they're from are undeniably guilty pleasures, 1993's Dog Eat Dog is an actual statement that stands the test of time. A little heavier perhaps (like that's a bad thing), with songs that might be a little less immediate, but that are more ambitious in their construction and themes. Terrific riffs, a unique voice, this is the perfect example of an album that was released too late, or too early. No one wanted to hear what Warrant had to present in the nineties, and that's a shame because this is a solid Hard Rock record.
Slayer slowed down their tempos on their previous record South of Heaven and somehow they managed to sound heavier and even more evil. Seasons In The Abyss album reconciles both of their approaches: the furious, hardcore fury of Reign In Blood and the demonic dirge of South of Heaven. This is the album that makes the best use of their Judas Priest-endebted twin guitar riffs, and if the solos are slightly less atonal they still sound twisted, demented and raw. This is also the apex of their composing powers. The title track is probably Slayer at its darkest, most haunted and that's saying something. This would also be the original line-up's final record until 2006's Christ Illusion.
In 1994, Testament was pretty low on the Metal food chain. Their star lead guitarist had left the band. They were eating the dust of other California Thrash bands like Megadeth, Slayer and of course Metallica on one side and were surpassed in heaviness and intensity by younger, more brutal bands like Pantera or the whole Death Metal scene on the other. For all of these reasons, this album is considered a minor entry in their discography but, in my opinion, it's actually one of their strongest. From the cover artwork by the great Dave McKean to the clean, crisp and precise production by Garth Richardson, this is a fantastic release full of great songs, the best of which is the ferocious title track which actually could have been a hit in an era that saw Metallica and Pantera hit the charts with similarly brutal slabs of Groove Metal.
Stay tuned for part two of our series The Inessential 90's Discography! While we know what albums will be featured, we don't know when we will publish the list, so watch this space!
For further references, check out these related playlists we've published in the past years: