10Pavement
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Matador
1994
After the massive wake of Slanted and Enchanted, the world awaited a masterpiece from
Pavement. When Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain hit the streets, the critical reaction was
mixed. Lo-fi purists cried. Really, they did. I have a picture. From that moment on, every
move Pavement made was regarded as a step further down the slope to unimportance, where St.
Johnny dwell. Which is why it's odd that Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain remains so cherished
years down the road. Only now, when the bulk of Pavement's career has been recorded, does
the album seem better. For this is really the "true" Pavement sound. Everything they have
done since references this record. While Slanted and Enchanted will always remain a
revolution, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain seems more like the constitution. -Brent
DiCrescenzo
09Beck
Odelay
DGC
1996
My review of Odelay is one of the dumbest, most idiotic things I can claim to
have ever written. (Give me a break! It was three years ago!) But I meant every
cliched, moronic word. On Odelay, Beck fused genres from every era of music
history in ways no one had ever dreamed possible. His songs meshed soul, funk, blues
and hip-hop with the whitest of whiteboy music: folk and backwoods country. How this
manages to not sound like one big, awful joke is incredible. How it manages to be so
good that it actually stands out as one of the decade's classic albums is just plain
supernatural. -Ryan Schreiber
08Tori Amos
Little Earthquakes
Atlantic
1992
We know what you're saying right now and we understand. "What the fuck?!"
Exactly. How does Tori Amos make our list of our Top 10 favorite albums of the 1990s?
It's unforgivable! Yeah, yeah, I know. I also know that when I was 16, I knew of no
album that compared. Amos' dared to say things that no other rockgirl had ever
dared to say before, paving the way for better, more respectable women like Liz
Phair, PJ Harvey and Jarvis Cocker. I'm not saying that justifies it being in the
Top 10, but when the votes were tallied, it turned out a lot of us had a secret
shame in common. -Ryan Schreiber
07DJ Shadow
Endtroducing...
Mo'Wax/London
1996 (Click for Pitchfork review)
Endtroducing... isn't an album that can be accurately pigeonholed. It's not
electronica, it's not big beat, it's not country. Okay, so it's really not
country. Regardless, almost everything on this record is a sample, despite how
mind- bogglingly organic it sounds. That's because Shadow's a talented man. To
this day, he's the only person alive that's ever turned cheesy horror movie soundtracks
into something timeless. Endtroducing... melded punk, hardcore, incedental
music, hip-hop and big beat, and made them all Shadow's own unique creation. Four
years later it doesn't even sound dated. And that's saying a lot of electronic-
based music. -Ryan Schreiber
06Nirvana
Nevermind
DGC
1991
Strangely, all of the singles came off the album's first half, nearly sequentially. However,
I'll take the second half any day. "Drain You," "Lounge Act," "Stay Away" and "On a Plain,"
could have carried Nevermind's chart dominance to last week. The press lights candles
to this album for "industry revolution." But if anything, the corporate reaction is
Nevermind's greatest fault. Fortunately, a decade down the road, all we're left with
are great songs (well, except for that "Come on people now!" part) and throbbing, limerock
producion. Not even Krist Novelselic, the dumbest guy in rock, could hold them back. -Brent
DiCrescenzo
05Liz Phair
Exile in Guyville
Matador
1993
The genius of Liz Phair's debut is its wonderful simplicity. Phair was as straightforward
as you could get-- her music was incredibly catchy, rootsy pop, fueled by timeless,
original melodies and lyrics whose honesty was refreshing and, occasionally, shocking.
People often mistake Guyville for an album that's only famous because Phair
said "blowjob" on it. In reality, it's because tracks like "Divorce Song" ("It's
harder to be friends than lovers/ And you shouldn't try to mix the two/ 'Cause if you
do it and you're still unhappy/ Then you know that the problem is you") and "Glory"
are some of the finest examples of an artist's ability to express the most complex
emotions in a single line. -Ryan Schreiber
04Guided by Voices
Bee Thousand
Scat
1994
Give Robert Pollard exactly one and a half minutes of your time, 'cause that's all
he needs. In the time it takes to go pee, this guy could crank out a song you'll
carry to your grave. Bee Thousand is Guided by Voices' shining hour. That's
because out of 20 tracks, there's not one that's flawed in any way. Bee Thousand
single- handedly made "lo-fi" a phenomenon, and it's perfect because studio sheen would
have completely destroyed the mood of this record. Pollard casually tosses off one
classic after another while sitting in his living room with a bunch of friends, drinking
beer and fucking around. I encourage you to sit down with a guitar for five minutes
and see what comes out. I guarantee you it won't be "I am a Scientist." -Ryan Schreiber
03Pavement
Slanted and Enchanted
Matador
1992
Steven Malkmus has always tried to sound British. "We Dance" has more sickening affectations
than Suede. But on Slanted and Enchanted, Malkmus wanted to be the Fall's Mark E. Smith,
which is much cooler than wanting to be Richard Butler. I'll always cherish Slanted and
Enchanted more than any other Pavement record because it just sounds more spontaneous.
After their breakthrough, they tread with calculated steps. Even Wowee Zowee, which was
quite obviously random, seemed decidedly so. Most importantly, Slanted and Enchanted
contains the most insanely catchy songs they have ever managed to crank out. Shout it after
me, "Forty Million..." See? You know it. You love it. The guitars crackle from speakers
that sound sliced with razors. The crust sparkles. Truly, on a production dollar to quality
ratio, one of the greatest albums ever. -Brent DiCrescenzo
02Radiohead Radiohead
OK Computer
Capitol
1997 (Click for Pitchfork review)
Every minute another music journalist announces the arrival of "the American Radiohead."
Somehow bands that sound absolutely nothing like Radiohead, such as the Verve Pipe, MK Ultra
(sorry, Nick), Remy Zero, and 12 Rods. Now the press has begun labeling groups "the next
British Radiohead," such as Muse, Unbelievable Truth, Travis, Geneva, and Longpigs. Obviously,
this desperate labeling stems directly from a deep, undying hunger for Radiohead. Must have
more Radiohead. Please, God, give us more Radiohead. When I'm married "Paranoid Android" will
be our first dance; sorry, Honey, whoever you may be. Picture us contorting in tuxedos with
cargo pants and flowing cream dresses to the mindfuck solos. Then we can grind to the angelic
bridge. -Brent DiCrescenzo
01My Bloody Valentine
Loveless
Sire/Warner Bros.
1991
Kevin Shields' guitar tickles like a Harrier jet engine. The brilliance of Loveless
lies in paradox: how can something so incredibly noisy and layered sound so beautiful and
delicate? In no other album, ever, could you describe 20+ tracks of feedback as "gossamer."
In his recent review of Pet Sounds, Ryan really hit it in the head-- Loveless
is the Pet Sounds for our generation. An anal genius spent years carving symphonies
to God. At least My Bloody Valentine can cause deafness and isn't called "The Beach Boys."
This album can be effervescent or lulling. It can be frightening or angelic. It all depends
on a few degrees difference in your volume knob. And it has the most kick-ass opening track,
or chord even, of the 1990s. -Brent DiCrescenzo
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