No Prince, Madonna or MJ?!?!

by Bill

If I would have told you on January 1, 1988 that my list of the top 131 albums of the 90′s would only include 1.5 albums from Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson, U2 and The Replacements, you would have told me I was crazy.  Then you would have said, “why the hell are you ranking the top 131 albums of the 90′s, don’t you have anything better to do?”  But then I would have also told you that when I wrote this list, you would weigh 24 more pounds than you did on that day— so now who wins the argument fatty– ha!

Anyway, the reason that would have sounded so insane in January of ’88 is that those  5 groups/artists placed no less than 23 albums on a similar list of the 80′s.  Who knows when a music career will suddenly flame out? None of those acts actually disappeared, though one turned a whole different color in the 90′s.  They all kept turning out music, but none of it other than a couple of songs here and there was any good.  I say 1.5 albums, because the ‘Mats album probably doesn’t belong on the list.  You just never know– come someday and my list of the teens best albums may have Kings of Leon as “the third greatest band of all-time” or none at all.  I certainly wouldn’t have guessed that I would pretty much stop buying cd’s in 2004.

I definitely would have guessed right about your weight gain though– that was a pretty easy call.

On we go…

80. Los Lobos– “Kiko”

Released: May 26, 1992

4.5 out of 5 stars from AllMusic and 4 out of 5 from Rolling Stone.  Though 87′s “By The Light of the Moon” is my favorite Los Lobos album, this was by far their most critically loved album. No singles quite as good as “One Time One Night”, but still plenty of good songs– the band was close to commercial success, but never could quite make it mainstream.  I can’t think they didn’t just shrug their shoulders when Los Lonely Boys hit it huge with their 2004 single, “Heaven” and an album that sold over 2 million copies.

Key songs: Kiko and the Lavender Moon, Reva’s House, Whiskey Trail, Dream In Blue, Arizona Skies

79. Pavement–  “Slanted and Enchanted” and “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain”

Released: April 20, 1992 and February 2, 1994

More music blasphemy having these two albums this low– whateves…. I guess I was in the group that liked them ok, but I just never saw the genius of it all. A couple of decent records is what I heard– and I saw a frontman that thought he was a hundred times cooler than Johnny Depp. (I’ve since learned that he’s a sports fanatic, and even though I realize how stupid it is, my opinion of him has gone up). “Slanted and Enchanted” was listed at #134 on Rolling Stone’s top 500 albums of all time and “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain” was listed at #210. History will show that Pavement was pretty comparable to The Replacements in terms of critical success and an undying fan base but no mainstream success. For me the difference is that The ‘Mats had about 30 great songs and Pavement had 2 or 3.

Key songs: Summer Babe (Winter Version), Trigger Cut, Cut Your Hair, Gold Soundz, Range Life

78. Sister Hazel– “…Somewhere More Familiar”

Released: February 25, 1997

Now here’s a band that I thought would go on to a lot more success than they did. This album hit huge in the summer of 1997, led by the huge success of “All For You” (reached #11 on the Billboard singles chart)– and led people to go buy their first album, “Sister Hazel”– which also had a lot of good songs, most notably “Feel It”…. but the Gainsville, Florida bunch could never really again match what they did on this album on any of their 5 releases in the past 10 years. Put on a great show at the Basilica Block Party in July of 1997.

Key songs: All For You, Just Remember, Happy, Think About Me, Cerilene

77. Stone Temple Pilots– “Purple”

Released: June 7, 1994

Did you know STP had 7 singles hit #1 on the Billboard rock charts? Or that the band sold over 40 million records worldwide, making them one of the most successful bands of the 90′s?  Pretty good numbers for a disfunctional group whose lead singer was a hard-core heroin addict.  On the heels of the monster hit that was the single, “Plush”– STP came back with a second album that was probably better than anybody expected.  “Purple” debuted at #1 and sold over a million copies in just 4 months. Soon after that though, Weiland would get arrested for drugs for the first time which would lead to the band breaking up.  They got together again just a few months later and have broken up and gotten back together 27 times since then. Weiland is a pretty talented guy, you wonder what might have been.

Key songs: Vaseline, Interstate Love Song, Big Empty, Unglued, Pretty Penny

76. Martin Zellar– “The Many Moods of Martin Zellar”

Released: 1998

Kind of a weird title for a pretty unassuming guy. Yeah, we get it, you’re going to be doing some different things on here– of course it seemed like everything Zellar did was always tongue and cheek, so I’m sure this album title has something to do with Marty rolling his eyes at the industry. Some odd songs on this one, but some great songs too. You sort of get the sense that in “Freeze This Feeling” Marty knew his highest highs as a performer were probably behind him– but that he was ok with that and looked forward to simpler times. The guy had an outstanding pop sensibility and a one-of-a-kind voice.

Key songs: Blown Kisses, Time and Time Again, Freeze This Feeling, 1,000 Miles Away, All I Need

75. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers– “Into The Great Wide Open”

Released: July 2, 1991

Just sort of padding their stats on a Hall of Fame career here. The eighth studio album from the Heartbreakers was produced by ELO’s Jeff Lynne, who had produced TP’s hugely successful solo effort, “Full Moon Fever”.  The album received 4 out of 5 stars from Rolling Stone and a B+ from the new pop culture magazine, “Entertainment Weekly”.  “Learning To Fly” hit number one on the alternative singles chart, tying  “The Waiting” for the longest number one song the Heartbreakers ever had.

Key songs: Learning To Fly, Into The Great Wide Open, Out In The Cold, You and I Will Meet Again, Two Gunslingers

74. The Lemonheads– “Car Button Cloth”

Released: October 15, 1996

Evan Dando had been the poster-child for the slacker/alternative/hipster rock of the early 90′s– he was even named as one of People’s 50′s sexiest people alive in 1993.  Crack and herion grabbed hold, however, and The Lemonheads disappeared as fast as they had hit the scene.  A couple of infamously horrific interviews where Dando couldn’t speak because he was so high and he very quickly lost his standing as “slacker sex-kitten”.  Dando rallied in 1996 though and re-formed the group with friends from both Dinasour Jr and .38 Special.  After this album and a succesful tour, Dando disappeared from the scene again and has only returned sporatically to minimal success.

Key songs: If I Could Talk, I’d Tell You, It’s All True, The Outdoor Type, Knoxville Girl, C’mon Daddy, Something’s Missing

73. Third Eye Blind– “Blue”

Released: November 23, 1999

Tough to follow up the staggering success of the first album, but this San Francisco band still sold about 1.5 million copies of “Blue” at a time when music was beginning to shift away from the “alternative” sound of the early half of the decade.  3EB will always be one of those bands you thought might have gone on to more popular success– but this second solid album has them solidly positioned as one of the better bands of their era.  Lead singer Stephen Jenkins has fashioned a pretty odd career– getting cast in a pretty prominent role in “Rock Star” opposite Mark Wahlberg– and also for picking several odd fights with Matchbox Twenty lead singer Rob Thomas through the media over the years. The bands both hit at relatively the same time and Jenkins seemed like he felt it was his duty to declare 3EB as the more legit band– and absurd argument that to my knowledge, Thomas has pretty much ignored. And enjoyed far more success.

Key songs: Anything, Faster, Never Let You Go, Wounded, 10 Days Late, Deep Inside of You

72. Oasis– “Definitely Maybe”

Released: August 30, 1994

Welcome to the world, Oasis. Are they popular in the UK? Well, they have a Guiness Book of World Records for “Longest Top 10 UK chart run by a Group”– with an astonishing 22 straight singles that have reached the top 10 in England.  This album entered the UK charts at #1 and was the fastest selling debut ever in the country.  It didn’t take long for the band’s “hedonistic” lifestyle to catch up with them, as they gave a legendarily horrible performance in Los Angeles, when lead singer Liam was on crystal meth– leading to the first of Noel’s departures (although this one was just a matter of hours).  Older brother Noel was not an original member of Oasis, but after seeing one of their early gigs, he decided they might be a good enough outlit for the tons of songs he had written and stored.  He joined the band only on the premise that he would be the sole song-writer and leader of the band.  Guitarist Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs says “we were just mucking about with 4 songs until Noel joined, and he just had loads of songs and ideas.”  Thus began the long and disfuncitional union of the Gallagher brothers– one with the words and the musical talent, the other with the golden voice. In America, this album only reached #58 on the charts, but it would go on to sell over 7.5 million copies world-wide.

Key songs: Supersonic, Live Forever, Shaker Maker, Cigarettes and Alcohol, Rock ‘N Roll Star, Slide Away.

71. Dave Matthews Band– “Crash”

Released: April 30, 1996

The second album is always the toughest…. the first one is worked on over a long period of time and if it hits, the world wants a second one and they want it fast. This Charlotte, Virginia jam band followed through– with an album that would end up selling over 7 million copies. One reviewer wrote, “the Matthews ensamble sounds even crisper on their solid follow-up and proves that their previous record wasn’t just an intriguing oddity.”  DMB sounded different than the “alternative” music of the time– more instruments, more free-wheeling and a South-African on vocals whose voice was just quirky enough to work.  ”Crash Into Me” became the biggest single the group would have and was certainly one of the best singles of the decade.

Key songs: Crash Into Me, Tripping Billies, Proudest Monkey, Two Step, Say Goodbye

70. Sheryl Crow– “Sheryl Crow”

Released: September 24, 1996

For her second album Crow decided to tackle really simple themes: abortion, homelessness and nuclear war. The album became one of the first to be banned by Wal-Mart because one of the lyrics said that guns bought at Wal-Mart were too easily falling into the hands of children. The lead single, “If It Makes You Happy” became a monster hit and won Crow two Grammy awards. Three other songs off the album would become huge radio hits: “A Change Would Do You Good, Everyday Is a Winding Road” and “Home”– it was always weird to me that her best song ever, “Hard To Make a Stand” never made it to the radio. The album sold over 4 million copies in the US and received 4.5 out of 5 stars from AllMusic and was listed at #39 on Entertainment Weekly’s list of the top 100 albums of the last 25 years.

Key songs: If It Makes You Happy, Everyday Is a Winding Road, Home, Hard To Make a Stand, Love Is A Good Thing

69. REM– “Monster”

Released: September 26, 1994

When the 90′s hit, “alternative” music hit with it and long-time college radio favorites, REM, was leading the charge.  REM released it’s two most successful commercial albums at the start of the decade– but with “Monster” they made a return to a more “rock” album. The record debuted at #1 in both the US and in England and sold over 9 million copies and contained the band’s last “top 40″ American singles, “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth” and “Bang and Blame”. The album dealt with the nature of celebrity– Peter Buck saying, “all the characters on this album are really fucked up, I don’t know who they are, but they aren’t Michael.”

Key songs: What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?, Bang and Blame, Strange Currencies, Crush With Eyeliner, Star 69, I Took Your Name

68. The Wallflowers– “Bringing Down The Horse”

Released: May 21, 1996

Second album released four years after the very modest debut, “The Wallflowers”– the son of the legend hit it huge himself with this massive release in the summer of 1996. Album sold over 4 million copies and the single “One Headlight” reached #2 on the Billboard charts and was voted the video of the year for 1997 on VH-1 and Bruce Springsteen joined them to sing it live at the 1997 MTV Music Awards. Backed by Adam Duritz of Counting Crows, “6th Avenue Heartache” also cracked the top 40 chart.

Key songs: One Headlight, 6th Avenue Heartache, The Only Difference, Three Marlenas

67.  Goo Goo Dolls– “Superstar Car Wash”

Released: February 16, 1993

The fourth album from the Buffalo, NY threesome was a turning point that switched the band from a  struggling, punk/garage band to a more shiny, alternative band.  Johnny Rzeznik took over full-time singing duties from Robbie Takac. Takac has sung full-time on the first two albums and the two had split duties on the third album, with Rzeznik’s “There You Are” and “Two Days In February” becoming the band’s two most popular songs. With the release of “Superstar Car Wash” the Goo Goo Dolls quickly took on a critical label of “Replacements Wanna-bes”– which the band thought was fantastic– “that’s exactly what we were, actually”.  Rzeznik even reached out to his idol, Paul Westerberg, and the two co-wrote the biggest hit off of “Superstar”, “We Are The Normal”. The album got plenty of play on college and independent radio and was featured regularly on MTV’s “120 Minutes”. Superstardom was around the corner.

Key songs: We Are The Normal, Fallin’ Down, Lucky Star, Girl Right Next To Me, So Far Away

66. Rancid– “…And Out Came The Wolves”

Released: August 22, 1995

Along with fellow Bay Area groups Green Day and The Offspring, Rancid helped revive “punk rock” in the early to mid 90′s. It never mattered what kind of music it was– if it was good it would catch on, and this album was great. The album was named after the bevy of major record labels that began stalking the group after their successful 1994 release, “Let’s Go”– the title also being taken from the punk/poet Jim Carroll’s, “The Basketball Diaries”.

Key songs: Ruby Soho, Roots Radicals, Time Bomb, Maxwell Murder, Lock, Step and Gone

65. Bruce Springsteen– “Lucky Town”

Released: March 31, 1992

Springsteen released two different albums on the same day– one was really good, the other, not so much.  There was a whiff of dissatisfaction from the Springsteen fan base– his early work was a desperate plea for happiness, his middle work became a fear and dis-trust of happiness and then he moved to Los Angeles and wrote a couple of records about embracing happiness. He was always truthful in what he wrote about and these two albums came on the heels of his divorce from his first wife, actress/model Julianne Phillips, a union that never seemed to make sense to anybody. Though “Human Touch” sold more (on the strength of the single, “Human Touch”), “Lucky Town” was the better reviewed of the two and for my money was a far better album. Springsteen wanted to add one more tune to “Human Touch” which was done first, and ended up with 10 more songs, so he just decided to release both albums. Though they were both successful relatively speaking, they hit a “lull” in his career and were followed by his panned “MTV Unplugged” album and the shaky “The Ghost of Tom Joad”.  After stepping away for awhile, Springsteen would re-claim his spot as rock legend in the 2000′s. “Lucky Town” will always go down as one of the more underrated Springsteen albums.

Key songs: Better Days, Lucky Town, Local Hero, If I Should Fall Behind, My Beautiful Reward

64. Hole– “Live Through This”

Released: April 12, 1994

So did she have him killed? Released just 4 days after her husband was found dead, conspiracy theorists abound that Courtney Love had some involvement in the death of her husband, Kurt Cobain. Anyway, “Live Through This” became one of the best reviewed albums of the 90′s– was it pity? Was it deserved? It’s a great album, but probably not as great as it’s reviews, which make it very similar to “Nevermind”.  It sold over 2 million copies, a great success for the alternative genre. Just before the release of the album, the last song– “Rock Star” was taken off the album as it had many references to Nirvana and joked about the misconceptions of fame and that it might just be better to die. Then he died, so the song was taken off. The band followed this album with “Celebrity Skin” later in the decade, which was also a good album, but veered even more towards “pop” and away from the punk roots of the band. Love has gone on to lead a very normal life with healthy relationship with her daughter.

Key songs: Violet, Miss World, Doll Parts, Softer-Softest, Asking For It

63. Garth Brooks– “In Pieces”

Released: August 31, 1993

When it’s all said and done, nobody will have a more meteoric musical career than Garth Brooks. The dude absolutely owned an 8-year stretch and then he was gone and it was very quickly like he was never even there. Brooks sold nearly 70 million albums in that span, making him the biggest selling musical act in the sound-scan era (basically 1990 on)– outselling his nearest competitor, The Beatles, by 7 million. He hit at sort of a perfect time– 80′s music was dead and anybody 30 and over sort of felt like hopping on to the grunge and rap music was just too much work at that age. And what Brooks was selling wasn’t as much “Country” music as we knew it, it was more like 70′s AM radio music. The guy absolutely crushed it for a 7 album stretch and was voted the artist of the decade for Country music.

Key songs: Standing Outside The Fire, Ain’t Goin’ Down (Til the Sun Comes Up), The Red Strokes, Callin’ Baton Rouge, American Honky Tonk Bar Association