Welcome back to the Q Albums of the 90s thread. If you weren’t here for 1990, this is a thread where we get the chance to review Q’s choices for the top albums from each year between 1990 and 1998 as published in the December 1999 editin of Q.
So, let’s see which 10 albums Q thought were the pick of 1991 (“The Year ofTurbulence”):
Crowded House – Woodface
Cypress Hill- Cypress Hill
My Bloody Valentine – Loveless
Nirvana – Nevermind
Primal Scream – Screamadelica
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Blood Sugar Sex Magik
R.E.M. – Out of Time
Simply Red – Stars
U2- Achtung Baby
Massive Attack – Blue Lines (Album of the Year)
If the 1990 list felt a bit like the 80s were in injury time, then this list feels more like the 90s. And it is, I think, a stronger list, although arguably weighted too much towards Indie. Q’s disdain towards Metal may explain the exclusion of Metallica’s Black album, but not the omission of e.g. Diamonds and Pearls and The White Room. Perhaps 1991 just had a bit more quality in depth than 1990.
It also feels a consequential year. This was the year when Nevermind killed the Hair Metal Dragon after all, and there does seem to be a generational shift here, with Gen X taking over. Or perhaps I’m reading too much into a group of 10 albums. So, once again, what do you think? What’s missing? And of course, how many do you have?
And here’s the scan.
I have 8 of the 10 (missing the Cypress Hill and MBV).
I still rate Stars as an exceptional album (so shoot me), Can’t argue too much with Massive Attack being album of the year. I was late to Nevermind – whilst I remember it being played everywhere, I only bought and appreciated it a year or two later (I’m always on trend).
Notable misses
Tori Amos / Little Earthquakes
Genesis / We Can’t Dance (whilst not their best, I still like it)
Guns N Roses / Use Your Illusion
Nicky Holland / Nicky Holland (one of my obscure pleasures)
Queen / Innuendo (I guess that was never going to make a Q top 10 list)
Kirsty MacColl / Electric Landlady
It was also the year of the film / soundtrack “The Commitments”, which whilst nothing ground breaking, was and is a great fun film / album that still gets regular plays.
Tori Amos was 1992! But will it make the list?
I’ve made this point before, Wikipedia says Little Earthquake was released 6th Jan 92, but that was the worldwide release. It was recorded early 1991, and came out as a low-key release in the UK in the autumn of 1991 (October-ish) and built a word-of-mouth reputation for months.
I had a promo in summer, and booked her to play in Freshers’ Week (late Sep 91) on the strength of it. I left university (and the house I was living in) in July 1991, and I remember playing it to death after my finals. And booking her for 50 quid.
Yep. I remember buying it in 1991 and then seeing her at Manchester Uni early in 1992.
Plus, my iTunes library says 1991 so it must be correct !
Itunes 1, Wikipedia 0.
Funny thing is, I don’t think Wikipedia was around in 1999, yet -spoiler alert – Tori makes it to 1992’s list.
I often recall refusing to have a late night rendezvous soundtracked by Simply Red’s Stars album in 1992. The absolute arrogance of youth. Nowadays any soundtrack for any such event would be gratefully accepted.
Kirsty – great call.
The absence of Low End Theory is pretty glaring. That would make most lists these days. Ditto Metallica.
Also missing; Ten by Pearl Jam, Laughing Stock by Talk Talk, Gish by Smashing Pumpkins, Pretty on the Inside by Hole, De La Soul is Dead, Tromp Le Monde, Use Your Illusion, Slave to the Grind, Spiderland by Slint, and many more.
Lots of great records out in 1991. And very tough to pick a winner.
Ten was 1992!
Just looked it up – August 91.
Such a weird year. Spent most of it obsessed with Guns n Roses, then Grunge broke towards the end of the year and my entire school seemed to do a massive pivot in the space of about a month. Think Achtung Baby came out about the same time, which gave the more MOR kids their standard to rally around at pretty much the same moment.
That month was probably the start of the 90s proper in musical terms (my 90s, anyway). Although I guess you could also make an argument for whenever Blue Lines was released.
August 91? Wow. OK then – spoiler alert – they’ve put it in the 92 list.
Ten was February 1992 in the UK. They played Alive on the Late Show that same month and, while always suspicious of grunge, it became clear within seconds that there was going to be Nirvana, who were alright, and a whole lotta stodge coming in their wake.
Ah, that would explain the Q listing.
I definitely didn’t hear Pearl Jam until ’92, and I was underwhelmed at the time although I grew to love Ten later on.
Alice In Chains and Hole were the two other Grunge acts who really won my heart back then. I was never really convinced it made much sense as a “scene”, but then I guess these things are always primarily inventions of the music press/record labels looking to shift product.
Very much true. It didn’t make sense as a scene even at the time.
It’s clear that Pearl Jam were nothing like Nirvana from that performance. Same with Soundgarden, Alice In Chains and Temple of the Dog. It seemed as much at the time and so was an odd bunch of bands to bring together.
And, looking back, it’s hard to see how Smashing Pumpkins fitted in there.
I think a lot of it was to do with quite how enormous Nirvana became so quickly, and Cobain’s discomfort with that new status. It always felt like he tried to distribute some of his shine to other bands who might never have seen the spotlight otherwise. I’d imagine part of that was generosity, and part of it was a defensive desire to share said spotlight so he wasn’t stood in it alone.
Pearl Jam never sounded much like Nirvana to me. They dressed alike and shared a few lyrical concerns, but that was about it.
Smashing Pumpkins never belonged in any genre really. They were just off to the side doing their own slightly strange thing.
The pre-Later… compilation “The Late Show: no Nirvana” is one of my fave bits of music telly. Pearl Jam, Belly, Dinosaur Jr, Smashing Pumpkins, Jane’s Addiction, Sugar, Sonic Youth, REM, RATM, er, Screaming Trees.
Here we go (missing RATM, though):
When compiling a personal albums of the year list, there’s always a temptation just to chuck in albums because they’re by one of your favourite artists, regardless of whether they are truly great or groundbreaking. Knowing all that, I still think Rumor and Sigh should be in there.
I’ve only got one of that list. It’s funny how the memory plays tricks. I was living in Melbourne in 1989 and I could have sworn Woodface soundtracked my time there. Apparently not.
Teenage Fanclub- Bandwagonesque
Is the correct answer.
Hard to choose twixt Blue Lines and Screamadelica for me. Two monumental albums that are both strong candidates for best album of the decade.
Another excellent soundtrack album from 1991 is Until The End Of The World. I really liked the film when I saw it at the cinema, but years later I watched it on small screen and found it boring. But the music is superb:
Sax and Violins – Talking Heads
Summer Kisses, Winter Tears – Julee Cruise
Move with Me – Neneh Cherry
The Adversary – Crime & the City Solution
What’s Good? – Lou Reed
Last Night Sleep – Can
Fretless – R.E.M.
Days – Elvis Costello
(I’ll Love You) Till the End of the World – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
It Takes Time – Patti Smith
Death’s Door – Depeche Mode
Calling All Angels – Jane Siberry with k.d. lang
Humans from Earth – T Bone Burnett
Sleeping in the Devil’s Bed – Daniel Lanois
Until the End of the World – U2
Nearly all excellent songs – some my favourites by the respective artist – and they seem to fit together well and suit the futuristic atmos of the fillum. The four lovely pieces of original music by one Graeme Revell fit in well too. Two important and beautiful songs from the film are missing from the album (Breakin’ the Rules by Robbie Robertson and Blood of Eden by Peter Gabriel) but my clever computer has managed to rectify that.
Here’s the scene with the latter (“They did it… they shot down the satellite… it’s the end of the world”):
Until the end of the World is my favourite U2 song. I wish all their songs were like that. I wish all their albums were like Achtung Baby if I’m honest.
It’s a very Gen X album Achtung Baby isn’t it? I bet it has a poster of Winona Ryder in its bedroom.
Happy with Woodface and Out of Time, since they’re the only ones I’ve ever listened to more than once (or more than not at all). Two of my faves from 1991, if the criterion is do you still play it, would be Luck of the Draw by Bonnie Raitt and Damn Right I’ve Got the Blues by Buddy Guy.
They seem to be missing Carter USM – 30 Something …
I might need new glasses, I can’t see The KLF – The White Room
I bought Nevermind and Screamadelica on the same day (in the same shop – Jay’s Records, Burleigh Street, Cambridge). Not a bad day’s shopping, that.
I bought Screamadelica and System 7 self-titled debut on the same day (cassettes, Our Price, Southampton) – both still great albums.
Same (but different shop – Our Price, Reading).
Also got Metallica’s Black Album.
Screamadelica is/was the best of the bunch
Other ‘double-whammy purchases from the same Reading shop’ would be The Wonder Stuff – Hup and Jesus Jones – Liquidizer from that place at the top of the escalator in the Broad Street mall. But that was late 1989, I think.
Listen Records – with the classy Black and Gold bag.
Did a nice line in notched imports
Record shop at the top of an escalator in a mall in Reading? That would have been where I bought Sandinista! at a bargain price for 3 discs, I thought at the time.
That’s the one. I bought New Order’s Technique on US import (on Quincy Jones’ QWEST label) in there.
I feel a new thread coming on…
I rate the previously-mentioned Achtung Baby, Blue Lines, Diamonds and Pearls, Screamadelica, The White Room.
My chosen top ten of others from 1991 would be:
1. Jah Wobble & The Invaders of The Heart: Rising Above Bedlam
One of my all time favourites – just love this
2. Ultramarine: Every Man & Woman Is A Star
Bucolic electro-folk. Seeing them at Glastonbury from the hillside on a sunny afternoon was pure magic – still uncovering samples from the oddest places in it. I wish they had done more in this vein
3. Julian Cope: Peggy Suicide
A record of its times – road protests and Swampy, and pretty much the start of me ‘getting’ Cope
4. System 7: System 7
Who’s this old hippy, then? Actually really enjoyable beats
5. The Orb: Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
My favourite Orb is when they emerge in a Peel session from ambient noodling into a full on version of No Fun, but Loving You is a a Proustian rush back to the days of youth
6. Spacemen 3: Recurring
Not their best, but their last. There were some great Spiritualized 12”s released that year that surpassed it
7. Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Weld
Never heard Arc-Weld, probably nothing to miss, but this was a great wallow in their live sound
8. Saint Etienne: Foxbase Alpha
Casino Classics is my favourite, but this was a good start
9. James: Seven
A bit ‘stadium’, but I did like the big sound. Laid nailed it for me later
10. The Golden Palominos: Drunk With Passion
Somewhat obscure, maybe, but I loved this Michael Stipe-contributing album
First heard anything from The Orb’s Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld getting in late from a much-delayed flight, with its mix of Minnie Ripperton, birdsong and Steve Hillage being just right for that time of night and state of tiredness. It may have been the Peel session version of A Huge, Ever-Growing… but it was a perfect confluence of mood and music. Next day purchase.
a James pedant writes. Seven was released in 1992.
One for tomorrow if it is missing….
Do agree though, love the big sound of it & to start an album with the trio of Born of Frustration/Ring The Bells/Sound is some going
Oops! I’ll update my records, thanks. I’ll replace it with this, then
9: Outback: Dance The Devil Away
Not as fantastic in its interweaving of guitar and didgeridoo as their debut, Baka, but still a good album to reference. Martin Cradick (like Justin Adams from Invaders in The Heart) is a superb guitarist who continued making beautiful music (in his case with Baka Beyond). Graham Wiggins was a bit of a polymath with a doctorate in physics who sadly died in 2016 overshadowed by the passing of so many other musicians that year.
I love Rising Above Bedlam, too. Except for Wobble’s voice which drones on somewhat. Sometimes, I think it activated my system that, subsequently, reacted so violently to Damon Albarn.
It’s his spoken word poetry that appeals least….
I find it an elevated section that rises above bedlam. Maybe it’s a solitary affair,, exploring the meandering streams of sentimentality?
To be honest, it’s his bassline and guitar strokes that are a few of my favourite things about it.
Now, those I like.
Great series of threads…
Between my wife and I…9 of those albums. I have seven, she contributed Woodface and Stars and I would no more have the RHCP in my house than I would the bubonic plague.
The music I listened to in 1991 was the same indie foundation with a mix of hip hop and dance. And so the albums of 1991 were The Orb, Blue Lines, Cypress Hill, Death Certificate, The White Room, Gish, Goat (Jesus Lizard), and Trompe le Monde.
Apocalypse ’91 – Public Enemy. Not as good as Fear of a Black Planet. The album version of Shut It Down isn’t as good as the Pete Rock Remix.
My Bloody Valentine…saw them at the Ritz in Manchester before buying the album. Went out the next day to buy Loveless from a second hand record shop and saw first hand the clearest sign of the disconnect between critical opinion and punter opinion. The shelves were almost heaving with copies of Loveless. But it’s an incredible album.
Laughing Stock by Talk Talk was an album I only appreciated much later.
But it’s The Real Ramona by Throwing Muses that I unequivocally loved at the time. Favourite band. One of their best albums. Bought the album/t-shirt/singles/tickets.
Ooh, I was at the MBV gig at Manchester Ritz, I’m guessing it was November 1991, but I can’t remember. About all I can remember about that gig was it was bloody loud and they had a flautist in the band.
December 10 1991. Had to look it up. Six days after Nirvana played the Academy.
I was sure that it opened with Only Shallow but it was played after Glider and When You Sleep. I know it’s a cliche to say how loud they were…But they were really, hugely, incredibly loud.
6 for me this year, think they may not have dated as well as the previous year. Only one of those 6 I have played in the last couple of years is Out of Time, thought it was great at the time, but now I much prefer the predecessor and the follow up. It has moments of greatness though.
Stars was the best-selling album of 1991 AND 1992 in the UK. That’s pretty astonishing, whatever you think of the music.
I wouldn’t argue with Massive Attack as number one – it still stands up as a great record that had a deep impact on what followed. I own that, plus the U2 (their best record), Simply Red, REM, and Crowded House. Had we been doing an Afterword poll that year I would probably also have had Fellow Hoodlums by Deacon Blue, Hymns to the Silence by Van Morrison, and Storyville by Robbie Robertson on my list.
But without a doubt the record which is the best of the year for me isn’t a record of new material at all. 1991 saw the release of Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series Vols 1-3 – a magnificent collection and the harbinger of so much great stuff to come ever since.
1991 was a bonanza of box sets. Besides Bob:
Ray Charles – The Birth Of Soul: The Complete Atlantic Rhythm And Blues Recordings
James Brown – Star Time
Phil Spector – Back To Mono
Howlin’ Wolf – The Chess Box
Stellar music, albeit sometimes produced by not very nice people.
Of the Q list, I’d choose Blue Lines as the one I liked most at the time and that has endured.
I’d like to add in Lloyd Cole’s second solo album Don’t Get Weird on Me Babe. I think it’s his best solo album (apart from the dreadful single Butterfly) and I’ve listened to it consistently since it came out.
Looking back at 1991 I think Bomb the Bass’s Unknown Territory was the soundtrack to my year. There was quite an overlap between them and Tackhead at the time and seeing their chart success was somewhat at odds with the more cutting edge shows they were doing under the Night of Interference banner. This album has never got the credit it deserves as an influence on the Big Beat acts to come. Brilliant production by Tim Simenon of course.
I came back to a few of the Q top ten after the fact, but during the year itself, I only bought REM and U2
1991 was a good year for live Zappa. I bought Make a Jazz Noise Here; and
Best Band you’ve Never Heard in your Life
Also, The Mix by Kraftwerk – a bit controversial at the time as it was remixes rather than new toons, but taken on its own terms, an absolute belter.
Throwing Muses – The Real Ramona – my contender for the actual album of the year, I think.
Honourable mentions for Robert Wyatt’s Dondestan and Wire’s The Drill.
Ah yes, those are both good Zappa albums. That was one of his best touring bands. I prefer Make a Jazz Noise to Best Band.
The Mix was a bit controversial, but if you’ve seen them live, the versions on this album are what they play live more than the original arrangements.
Agree about Jazz Noise…
And yes: I saw Kraftwerk on the Mix tour, at Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow – really superb! But it’s a great album anyway, the controversy seemed to be because it was “nothing new” – maybe the naysayers didn’t actually listen to it, turned up loud with lashings of bass! I love (and listen to) all their albums and The Mix can hold its own, in my view – just take it on its own terms…
I agree about The Mix. Radioactivity and Music Non-Stop are completely transformed.
Prior to 1991, I enjoyed the occasional dance remix. Kraftwerk opened a portal to a world I hadn’t fully appreciated before.
I listened to Techno Pop/Electric Cafe just recently. Take away The Telephone Call and Sex Object and its a pretty good album! Maybe you could pimp it with Tour de France and have a very good, if short, Kraftwerk album.
Well, the shame…
I missed a serious contender (along with The Real Ramona) for the album of the year. My only excuse is that I forgot which year it was released. It is, of course –
Girlfriend by Matthew Sweet. Robert Quine and Richard Lloyd in excelsis…
A great year. I have 5 of those and could easily complete a top 10 with Bandwagonesque, Rumor and Sigh, The Orb’s Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld, The White Room, Luck of the Draw, Peggy Suicide. All this and so far as I can see no one has mentioned Blur’s debut Leisure yet.
Leisure is no great shakes, can’t see how it would be in top 10 of the year. Of course all those suggesting other albums would need at least a top 50 to include them all
I loved it at the time, and played it more than I ever did any other Blur album, but I can’t remember the last time I heard it. Or any other Blur come to that. For me they’re a band to file under ‘of their time’.
I think they developed nicely through the 90s from their inauspicious debut
Seamonsters by The Wedding Present recorded (not produced) by Steve Albini was underrated in 1991 but has aged well compared to some of the band’s earlier and even later efforts.
Love Loveless by My Bloody Valentine even now and follow up MBV in 2013 is also no major step down in quality from Loveless. Must be due another album…soon.
When listening to Achtung Baby now it’s surprising how it’s mostly a standard U2 album despite the hype at the time about it being a huge direction change for U2. The Fly single airing on radio before the album release was definitely a memorable astounding “is that U2?!” moment. Much of the subsequent Zooropa album and even the much maligned Pop (by the band itself too) arguably more unconventional than U2’s usual sound.
1991 was a great year admittedly for albums looking at that Q list and seeing others listed in comments here. Woodface was indeed massive in 1991 although in retrospect isn’t even Crowded House’s consistently best album despite containing some of their most popular songs. 1993’s Together Alone is much better.
I’ve got a Seamonsters sweatshirt… what are the chances!
Got persuaded to go to Manchester to see the Wedding Present somewhere in Manchester, f*** knows where, and reasoned I could (a) get pissed cheaply and … erm… get to football somewhere the following day. Rochdale, Stockport County etc.
The sweatshirt I bought – for not a lot – is still a goer. In one of those unlikely events, it’s of very good quality and acts as a great undergarment. Superb effort.
Following morning, it’s a case of get me anywhere there’s a game… on the way back (bizarrely) North, we go right past Old Trafford and some lads offer tickets to us… who are they playing?… Man. City… this was very much a middle-of-the-table end-of-season fixture – who knew? – frankly, who would know now! … how much? £15. It was twice the ticket price, even I thought I was being undersold, great seat, “OK, why not.”
1-0. Probably the least memorable Manchester Derby in history of Manchester Derbies.
I’m amazed I can remember it.
Oh yeah…
The most important, and enjoyable, release of 1991 is the first Bootleg Series entry.
On the previous thread, about 1990, did anyone mention the Dylan album of 1990 – I’d have thought the same people who shelve out significant wedge for appalling Dylan box-sets of that era would have mentioned it.
Did you know that Spin that year placed Teenage Fanclub’s Bandwagonesque above Nevermind, Loveless and Screamadelica? Rightly so, in my opinion, but it may have had something to do with former Orange Juice drummer Steven Daly being a senior editor there).
NB/ My three would be Bandwagonesque, Screamadelica and Foxbase Alpha
I’d agree with that…the only reason I didn’t mention Bandwagonesque in my comment was that I didn’t buy it in 1991. I’m imposing strict rules on myself in this thread!
There have been many fine albums named so far.
But no one has yet mentioned my favourite album of 1991. So I will.
It is, of course, Elvis Costello’s “Mighty Like a Rose” – a record which includes what, in my view, is the Beloved Entertainer’s greatest ever song:
“…So toll the bell or rock the cradle
Please don’t let me fear anything I cannot explain
I can’t believe I’ll never believe in anything again”
(Couldn’t Call It Unexpected No. 4)
Low End Theory – A Tribe Called Quest
First Orbital album
Albums I thoroughly enjoyed at the time:
Robert Wyatt – Dondestan (I was a committed fan buying all of his albums as they came out)
Rain Tree Crow (out of nostalgia but surprisingly good: Japan in all but name)
Gonzalo Rubalcava – The Blessing (always loved a bit of Latin piano)
But, the album overlooked by many, which is better with every listen, and would be in my top ten now:
Eg and Alice – 24 Years Of Hunger
I played 24 Years of Hunger again last week. Still great.
Rain Tree Crow – good choice!
Getting more into my thang now.
Screamadelica, Achtung Baby and Blue Lines were my first foray into current music. (Although ’91 in general was me still in thrall to the past, discovering Hendrix, Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Yes, and a few others for the first time – a magical year for me!)
The Orb album was also a big one for me.
There are only two of those top ten that have stood the test of my time: Achtung Baby and Blue Lines.
Nevermind has just two good tracks and one is a Pixies rip off. These days, I prefer later Primal Scream albums. I can’t stop playing those original Memphis recordings, for example. Simply Red’s is a fine, fine album but not for me. Loveless always was and still is a difficult listen and I fear for my hearing. Cypress Hill’s next is the one for me and Out Of Time is low down my REM pecking order. Never took to the Peppers or Crowded House.
Indeed, the Memphis Recordings was no “novelty, found it in the loft” affair. It really does add to the legacy and makes one wonder how much cocaine was going round for them to ditch the original in favour of George Drakoulias and George Clinton sodding about with it
Heaps of cocaine (on every surface) if in the company of George Clinton back then.
Here are three jazz albums from 1991 that I enjoy.
Note: I wasn’t listening to them in 1991, as I didn’t like jazz at all then.
But I like ’em now…
Sonny Sharrock – Ask the Ages
Muhal Richard Abrams – Blu Blu Blu
Keith Jarrett – The Cure
I’ve just realised that Bill Frisell’s Where in the World? was released in 1991. The late 80s and early 90s was a good period for this sort of thing.
5 great records there, 5 average ones. But hey, that’s lists for ya.
Anyone going to shout for Senseless Things – First Of Too Many.
Nope – just me then …
And it can’t just be me that believes Nirvana’s Nevermind is an OK album – it’s good, but is it as good as the reputation?
And REMs Out Of Time is not their best work. And nor is 1992’s Automatic For The People.
I rate it equal to Green, but they all fall behind the IRS albums.
Top of the heap: Monster (but then I’m slightly mad)
Automatic is indeed their best album, Murmur second for me. Monster is the worst of the Bill Berry years. Recently foolishly bought the box set at a reduced price. The live stuff is great, the rest not so much. Said it before, there’s a great track EP in there
I’m not a massive REM fan, and my favourite is Out of Time. So maybe that’s it? It’s the one with mainstream appeal, and maybe the more hardcore fans prefer other albums.
It’s like me preferring The Final Cut to Dark Side of the Moon.
Out of Time is mostly great but I couldn’t bear Radio Song. Awful.
I agree with you re Nevermind, Mr Digit – having said that, it could never be as good as the reputation!
REM – my personal favourite remains Fables of the Reconstruction. I do like Green and Document, a lot. And Out of Time is better than Automatic…, for Country Feedback alone…
All REM albums with Bill Berry are excellent. As good a run as any. Out Of Time is no exception. Not as much mainstream appeal as Automatic surely but quite a lot. The last three tracks are sublime. Texarkana might be my favourite. It’s not an unreasonable choice for best of 91. I do generally prefer the early stuff though, the melodies just seemed to flow effortlessly. The lyrics were less noticeable. A good thing IMO. 🤔
Out of Time is mostly great but the ubiquity of Losing My Religion and Shiny Happy People has soured it for me. But Low, Near Wild Heaven, Half a World Away, Texarkana and Country Feedback and all terrific songs. The video for Low is a marvellous thing indeed.
And, no, you’re not wrong about Nevermind. It’s alright but I couldn’t quite see the fuss either then now now. I wasn’t quite dragged to see Nirvana in late ‘91 but they weren’t high on my list of bands to see that year. However, I do remember that a lot of people I knew then were huge fans of Nirvana and had been since Bleach so they weren’t completely unknown.
Of course, years later, they are the one band I saw back then that my children wanted to know anything about.
I tell the youngsters today how I DIDN’T see Nirvana. They played QM Student Union at Glasgow Uni in 1991 and, seeing the name and the big poster, I assumed they were some kind of baggy Madchester-y types so I gave them a miss. I think it was the next week or so they went stellar with Smells Like Teen Spirit. I hadn’t heard about them until that.
My best of 91 choices…
The Blue Aeroplanes “Beatsongs” …takes the formula from 1990s Swagger and, well, continues it. Love it just as much today.
Teenage Fanclub “Bandwagonesque”… heavy but tuneful without tipping over into the dreaded grunge.
Crowded House “Woodface”…tuneful, literate and witty without being annoying.
St. Etienne “Foxbase Alpha” which opened a door into a world of sampling and refreshing pop culture references.
Billy Bragg “Don’t Try This At Home” in which the bard of Barking goes pop.
Couldn’t stand Nevermind and Screamadelica is good but just a bit overrated. There. I’ve said it…
Well it’s about time someone mentioned Sir William Bragg’s corking 91 offering. I believe Workers Playtime is Bill’s best, but the very fact that you’ve nailed it with a tight set is what gives you licence to stretch your legs on the follow up and embrace different sounds and styles (and even try singing).
I hold Electronic’s debut album in very high esteem.
It gets bumped up my list perhaps unfairly because when I re-bought it on CD they’d included the brilliant Getting Away With It single. I love how different this album sounds to how I imagined a Sumner/Marr collaboration would go in my head.
I think maybe people are right that Screamadelica is not quite as great as we thought at the time, but it’s difficult for me to agree as I only ever listen to my own pimped edit which is authentically ace.
I also have a mega Julian album combining the best of Peggy Suicide and Jehovahkill, although that’s not to knock PS which is standalone fine, especially side 4, but cos I can never listen to Jehovahkill from start to finish and it all fits together as a piece..
Most of that early 90s American guitar stuff is an affront to my ears, although I will concede SLTS is a good tune..
To answer the OP, I own three.
Only own two in the Q list, one I never liked (RHCP), the other I’d agree is the best of the year (MA).
My ten of -91 would be:
Massive Attack – Blue Lines
Mylene Farmer – L’Autre…
Dream Warriors – And Now, The Legacy Begins
Prince – Diamonds and Pearls
Julian Cope – Peggy Suicide
De La Soul – De La Soul Is Dead
A Tribe Called Quest – Low End Theory
Joe Jackson – Laughter & Lust
Bonnie Raitt – Luck of the Draw
Which album from 1991 do I play the most nowadays?
Maybe Grant McLennan’s solo debut, “Watershed”
Is there a chance of him pitching correctly?
One more nomination: Levelling The Land by The Levellers. Seemed a huge record for about 5 mins, and then vanished off into the ether. Don’t think I’ve listened to it since.
Also: Strange Days by The Doors. 1991 was a big year for them.
Strange Days. How so? It was released in 1967.
1991 I bought
Prince – Diamonds and Pearls, which I still like, especially Cream
Pixies – Tromple Le Monde, been a while since I heard it, has it’s moments
Dinosaur Jr. – Green Mind: it’s all right, not as good as Where You Been?
REM – Out of Time. Greatness lies therein
MBV – Loveless, an album I played a lot for a while. Something charismatic about it. The cover, the way the band were not so visible and more.
What I got later:
Screamadelica. Loaded is far and away the best thing on it but it’s pretty good still in parts.
Teenage Fanclub – Thirteen. I think I like this album best of their’s. Especially The Concept.
St Etienne – Fox Base Alpha. I should have got into them earlier. I really like the mix of dance and retro pop. That side of 90s bands that weren’t all about guitars.
Nevermind. I also got In Utero, Incesticide, The Muddy Banks of the Wishkah and Unplugged so I guess I like them. I like that abandon plus tunes. Aneurysm is a favourite.
Bandwagonesque, maybe?
Quite right
Nirvana will never be the darlings of the Afterword, but there remains an argument that they were the single most culturally significant band of the 90s.
In terms of raw sales, they’re certainly up there (though Nevermind isn’t my personal favourite). They dragged a ton of other bands into the mainstream who otherwise wouldn’t have had any business being there. Virtually overnight, they killed the momentum of several bands who were caught heading in the “wrong” direction. They influenced fashion, lyrical concerns, gender norms, what was expected from rock stars and how Gen X was both viewed and viewed itself.
They’re also a classic example of a band who you probably needed to first hear as a teenager to ever truly understand.
For me, In Utero is their peak, but for an awful lot of people the intro to Smells Like Teen Spirit was and remains the precise moment the 90s began. Looking back, it’s crazy that the window from the release of that single to Cobain’s death was only two and a half years. It felt like far, far longer and the impact they had in that period on popular music (particularly in the US) was crazy, particularly given the way they sounded.
In terms of overall impact for this decade, I think it’s probably them, Metallica, Tupac and the Spice Girls, and they have the others beat in terms of their peak.
A friend of mine’s wife left him for Tupac.
Perfect opportunity for him to tell said wife; I ain’t mad at cha.
I bet he was though. He’s still got a massive tattoo of her face on his chest. It’s a bizarre story: he’s a guy who was busking around Naples while staying on a friend of mine’s floor. He stayed on my sofa a couple of nights. Very sweet and laid back chap, turns out he used to be married to Quincy Jones’s daughter, who ditched him for Tupac. Dunno where he is now though. He moved to Sweden a few years ago, then just sort of disappeared.
Kidada Jones. She was engaged to Pac when he died. Also dated LL Cool J.
EVERYBODY dated LL Cool J. Hence his moniker.
Still waiting my turn, dude.
Strong words! Nirvana, Metallica, Tupac and the Spice Girls, eh? I’m trying to think who I would have identified as the big musical figures of the 90s….
Nirvana I can probably agree with.
U2? To me, Achtung Baby felt like a sea change, certainly for mainstream, stadium rock bands, a whole load of whom took on a new sense of ironic cool (some more successful than others) and a “dance element”.
Massive Attack have got to be in there, surely? Godfathers of all that is trip hop. After them and Portishead, a new kind of urban chill music was born (which very quickly blanded out into hair salon music).
Jeff Buckley? I’m sure I could name dozens of sensitive male songwriter-y types who emerged from his musical gene pool.
Radiohead must be up there. They seem to have had a twin influence, for “art rock” in general, but also that kind of stadium-indie type stuff (Elbow, Coldplay, etc).
I would argue Beck is a contender. That clash between beat poet, Gen-X-feel and hip-hop feels like it oozed into the culture in a big way.
I think you’re looking at those acts through the prism of Afterword-influence, rather than wider cultural influence. There are probably several billion people who couldn’t pick Massive Attack, Jeff Buckley, or Beck out of a line up.
I think you can make an argument for Radiohead. The rest either peaked in the 80s, never really crossed over, didn’t sell that many records in the grand scheme and/or died before they got going.
Look at it another way: if you take the Spice Girls out of the 90s, the 90s probably look quite different. If you remove Jeff Buckley, we lose some lovely music and sacrifice a few falsetto vocalists (maybe Muse change their sound up), but otherwise life continues apace.
Dumpy’s Rusty Nuts, surely?
Is that a hamper?
..in your inbox? Or are you just pleased to see Dumpy?
And Take That.
Formed in 1990, broke up in 1996. The begat many, many boy bands and if the nineties has any significant musical cultural movements, it’s boy bands.
Not that I like Take That but they were, and remain, huge.
They were bubbling under on my list, along with Garth Brooks and Mariah Carey. Wasn’t quite sure about the That’s reach beyond the UK.
I love the contrast that Damaged brings to Screamadelica. The Stone Roses did a bit of a similar thing with Elizabeth My Dear, but Damaged worked better. That contrast makes the album for me. And I love its guitar solo, one of my favourites. Plus all the other tracks are great too. Fantastic album.
Ed Kuepper’s finest album Honey Steel’s Gold came out in 1991.
I think the albums I listened to the most in 1991 from 1991 were this lot-
MBV- Loveless
RHCP- Blood sugar sex magick
Chapterhouse- Whirlpool (named after the dishwasher brand I assume)
5:30- Bed
Senseless Things- First of too many
Mercury Rev- Yerself is steam
Carter USM- 30 Something (you forget how big they were back then)
Blur- Leisure
Wonderstuff- Never loved Elvis
Nirvana- Nevermind
Neds Atomic Dustbin- God Fodder
Swervedriver- Raise
Spacemen 3- Recurring
Dr. Phibes- Whirlpool (named after the hot tub brand, I presume)
Teenage Fanclub- Bandwagonesque
There’s not too many of those albums that I have listened to since, perhaps 5.30 and Spacemen 3 are ones that I play regularly now (Nirvana, Teenage Fanclub and MBV I’ve played once in the last year). Over the years since I’ve got into Screamadelica, Blue Lines and Copper Blue and these all get played a lot.
5.30? Interesting…saw them supporting (maybe) Gallon Drunk and thought they were great live but not as good on record. Bought the long sleeve T-shirt with the swearing on the back and the fluorescent swirl on the front. Junk Male was much better live than on record.
And it’s great to see someone mention Yerself Is Steam. An album where not only can anything happen but frequently does several times in the one song, most of all with the guitar-meets-flute-meets-jet-engine of Chasing A Bee. Never going to make the Q best albums of the year list, not in a century of 1991s, but Select gave it a very decent review.
I saw both acts at Reading ’91 (along with all of the grunge bands). 5.30 were a great live act, for some reason the album has stayed with me from those early days.
Must give it another listen. For such a comparatively minor band of that era, they have lingered wether other bands of that era haven’t.
Bob Stanley wrote a front piece on their influence on the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2013/dec/16/pre-britpop-bands-world-of-twist-five-thirty
Good article. I’d never given WoT a listen before, although I know a lot rate them.
I popped on Quality Street on the school run this morning. Mini Paws declared that “it sounds like the sort of thing you listen to.” Guess that’s about right.
I am slow posting to this thread and “Yerself is Steam’ would also have been my addition to the lists. . Holds up well as leftfield stoner rock yet not quite representative of what the band became ( with different line-up?)
Is it bad form to nominate a compilation?
The Specials – Singles
Only 10 years since the original split, but largely forgotten about in a decade. Select magazine devoted a whole page to a review (Stuart Maconie, I think)
Was 1990/91 the time when it was OK to start looking backwards for inspiration, and was that looking backwards a key cornerstone of Britpop? (Maconie, again)
Regardless of when a compilation is released, I try to link it to the year when the last release on the album was put out. Otherwise, it just doesn’t make sense.
I think the Beatles red and blue albums are associated with the year they came out as they relaunched the band to a new generation. It happened with 60s soul in the 80s too. Kept it alive.
That’s an interesting approach, for sure – when a compilation from an earlier era inspires music in the era when it’s rereleased.
I mean that they are major releases for that time they come out as much as any other contemporary release, in a few exceptional cases.
I suppose those are event compilations. It seems to me some artistes seem to have a compilation released every few years, maybe for example capitalizing on a recent mention in the press or a song being used as part of a tv soundtrack.
Maybe I’m alone among the AW coterie in happily scooping up such inconsequential, and cheap, best ofs.
Morrissey seems to put out a compilation every few years – usually when he changes label.
As if having a compilation vs studio album ratio of 2:1 for The Smiths, wasn’t enough.
His first was in 1990 – 2 years after the release of his debut album
Oh the shame!
Shh! Don’t say a word. I’ve got away with it for a decade.
*hidden in plainsight*
Don’t think so. The red and the blue albums give a clue in their actual titles 1962-66 and 1967-70
Hello Mr Literal. The albums came out in 1973 as you are no doubt aware and my thought was that they were examples of compilations that were as significant in that year as many releases of other acts new material. In terms of impact for example. There are other such compilations in other years I would suggest. Just a thought. Possibly misgiven as all of my thoughts are.
Do you have a bustle in your hedgerow?
A euphemism??
There’s a film called 1991 The Year Punk Broke that follows Sonic Youth on tour and features other bands sympathetic to that music like Dinosaur Jr., Nirvana, Babes In Toyland. It’s quite a slight affair. Interesting for some candid, behind the scenes moments and interesting performances. I have the video somewhere. I seem to remember footage of a turd being flushed. That was a scene that came out of the 80s. Sonic Youth especially and The Pixies showed the way where others followed. Even Oasis had some of that sound at the beginning. Also Supergrass. It was a lasting influence that gave us some great records.
Not the biggest seller but the one I go back to most often from ’91 is Living With The Law by Chris Whitley. A Country / Blues sound produced by a member of Daniel Lanois team I seem to remember it getting a bit of a promotional push at the time e.g. support slots in the States with Tom Petty.
Stardom wasn’t the route for Mr W (possibly due to health and substance issues) and he seemed to fall out with the production releasing albums that were far more raw sounding but that never grabbed me in the same way. Anyway it hit me at the time and still sounds fresh every time I go back to play it which is often. For example I’ve had the intro from one track as my phone ringtone forever which says something.
There’s a documentary on YouTube covering his career for anyone interested with an hour or so to spare.
6/10 for me.
Bandwagonesque would have to be on the list for me.
Also, Mlah by Les Negresses Vertes – (I swear they had a dog on stage when I saw them)
Peggy Suicide – St’ Julian’s greatest. I saw him at Newcastle Riverside on that tour with my ex and future partner and that evening both of them would have followed him to the ends of the world. Charisma in abundence.
Berties Brochures – Fatima Mansions. Only an EP? Mini-album? Cathal at his diverse best
Rumour and Sigh – Richard Thompson’ last attempt at popularity, including Vincent Black Lightning?
As a compilation, I’m your fan – mostly great versions of Laughing Len including that defining version of Hallelujah by John Cale
I’m beginning to think the 90s were quite god.
I think you mean LNV’s Famille Nombreuse – Mlah was 1988.
I meant Mlah, but got the year wrong. My bad.
Great band though.
Bloody hell @hawkfall have barely digested 91 and you’ve moved on. Anway, here are my thoughts. By common consensus a year of great change, but I might surmise is also the last year where ‘everything changed’. Looking at the singles chart it is stuffed full of acid and house stuff, including Charly by the Prodigy – the first recording by ‘dance bands’ who would go on and all release albums over the next few years (Underworld, Chemicals, Leftfield etc). It’s also the year of the remix – far more important perhaps than anything else. As well as Loaded, it’s worth noting the Perfecto remix of U2’s Even Better Than The Real Thing which is a 92 remix of a 91 song was almost as important – with Weatherall Oakenfold was the first of a brand of superstar djs who would sprinkle dance stardust over your mediocre rock/indie.
Sorry! Time waits for no one and all that. I think you’re making a good point that a lot of the more innovative music in this period was being released as 12” singles rather than albums. Albums never tell the whole story, but perhaps especially so in this period.
After all, the best record made in 1990, wasn’t any of the albums we discussed. It was Groove is in the Heart.
Yes definitely single of the year, however the album would make nobody’s list ever of best albums of 1990, and I own it.
Now… Don’t mock me… but I’ve just realised Enya’s Shepherd Moons came out in 1991. Love her or hate her, you can’t deny she had a style of her own. I always (secretly) liked her, and always bought my mum her latest albums as a christmas present as an excuse to buy them!
Shepherd Moons is almost on a par with Watermark, the album that put her on the map. Obviously not for those who can’t stand winsome celtic soundscapes and tinkly pianos, but she had a good few earworms. And I really respect her as an individual artist forging her own path against the grain of taste and fashion.
I never knew at the time but in Japan “Out” by White Heaven was released in 1991, and is a classic J-rock acid test and PSF label showcase.
This Mortal Coil – Blood. I had no idea where most of the songs came from at the time, and maybe it doesn’t stand up *that* well all this time later but anything with You and Your Sister, Mr Somewhere, With Tomorrow, Late Night has to have something going for it. I listened incessantly at the time.
Another one I forgot about: did anyone like On Every Street by Dire Straits? I thought it was a fine mini album buried in an overlong, bloated album. If you took the best four or five songs (the title track, Iron Hand, Calling Elvis…) it would be a nice little epitaph to their career.
I didn’t do an album list then, but I compiled a CD with my favourite tracks:
1991 SONGBOOK
1. Angelo Badalamenti | Theme From Twin Peaks
2. Sam Phillips | Lying
3. R.E.M. | I Walked With A Zombie
4. John Prine | You Got Gold
5. Dream Warriors feat. Slim Gaillard | Very Easy To Assemble But Hard To Take Apart
6. Son Of Bazerk | Trapped Inside The Rage Of Jahwell
7. John Lee Hooker/Miles Davis/Taj Mahal | Bank Robbery
8. The Art Ensemble Of Chicago | Round Midnight
9. Pixies | I Can’t Forget
10. John Wesley Harding | The Person You Are
11. Brendan Broker | Heart And Home
12. The Desert Rose Band | It Takes A Believer
13. Rain Tree Crow | Backwater
14. Dire Straits | Ticket To Heaven
At Art School we had one of the first devices to burn your own audio CD (from a MiniDisc). I listened to it last night – and it still plays fine!
Apart from “Blue Lines” which I only bought several years later and “Stars”, which I bought at the time and have since misplaced, there’s nothing of interest to me in the O.P. listing.
Release of the year for me has to be the 9-CD boxset “The Complete Stax-Volt Singles 1959-1968”. Memphis soul heaven.
Also up there are:
“The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Utraworld”
“Barzakh” by Anouar Brahem
“The White Room” by KLF
The “Beat The Boots” boxset (particularly “Picantique – Stockholm 1973”), “You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 4”, “Make A Jazz Noise Here” and “The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life” all by Frank Zappa
I once had three of them.
I now have two.
I still play those two.
Guessing again:
Crowded House and R.E.M.
Nirvana the one discarded
Girlfriend by Mathew Sweet was my album of 1991.
Trivia fact. Guitar effect pedals were banned in the recording of the album.
Same here…
…well, Girlfriend and The Real Ramona, jointly…
Interestingly (?) I recorded a live-in-the-room demo for band a couple of weeks ago. Everyone played through FX and Amp Simulator pedals, so there were no guitar amps at all. There were no minitors, and everyone wore IEMs.
Everything sounds very clean. The drums sound fantastic, probably as there was no spill from anything else.
I’m not 100% sure it was an improvement.
I suspect your recording arrangement above sounded very different to Matthew Sweet’s. No pedals, but straight into some loud crunchy amps – versus amp sims? I believe they are very good – but your summing up suggests that they are not quite there yet?
I think Peter Bardens was quoted at some point as being anti – effects pedals, on the basis that they nearly always reduced his signal level in a way that was unacceptable to him…