Best Albums of the '90s

by Slant Staff on February 14, 2011   Jump to Comments (26) or Add Your Own


Laughing Stock

80. Talk Talk, Laughing Stock. Talk Talk's late albums, with their hushed tones and mystical tree covers, invoke a kind of quiet devoutness, an atmosphere that by their last album had reached a level of near-saintly purity. The songs are so quiet it's easy to miss their bountiful movement, pieces slowly locking and unlocking, forming elaborate structures with organic precision. Laughing Stock stands as their finest work both because of the enormous variety it contains, moving from strict ambient minimalism to spooky jazz to bursts of lacerating noise, and its sense of a private sonic world springing up out of primordial nothingness. JC

When the Pawn

79. Fiona Apple, When the Pawn… I don't think I could survive a fight with Fiona Apple. All that bitterness is enough to make you want to icepick your eardrums. But who would she be if she didn't have someone to fight with? Call her what you will, but this privileged craftswoman isn't complacent and her words aren't mush, and in Jon Brion she found the producer she deserved—someone to beautifully color her confessions without ever sounding subservient to them. Like a lover, his beats often indulge her emotion for emotion, running as fast as her angst often does, but there's something almost teasing, not exactly mocking, about Brion's mood-enhancing pop-jazz shadings. Sometimes they push back, threatening to, yeah, fucking go, and by When the Pawn…'s open-ended finale, you don't know if they have. Apple and Brion's special genius is their canny, heartbreaking evocation of uncertainty. EG

janet.

78. Janet Jackson, janet. It wasn't until the third album into her rhythm renaissance before Janet finally let herself explore her own heretofore underutilized pleasure principle. With two fingers, even. janet. (or Janet, Period) is absolutely off the rag. Taking a notable cue from Madonna's Erotica escapades, Miss Nasty drops trou (except on the immortal cover art) and, like a moth to a flame, burns like a fire of good times even Leni Riefenstahl-lensed, production-number socialism couldn't hope to mandate as effectively. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis may have worked with more disciplined results, but their sound never seemed so perceptibly opulent. (As Christgau wrote, "The difference between hearing it on a cheap box and a booming system is the difference between daydreaming about sex and having somebody's crack in your face.") If Janet is their own personal Dietrich, janet. is their Motown-tracked Scarlet Empress. EH

The Battle of Los Angeles

77. Rage Against the Machine, The Battle of Los Angeles. More last roar than last gasp, The Battle of Los Angeles is one of Rage Against the Machine's most pointed efforts, an unnerving blend of socio-political outrage and rock-fueled irreverence that served as an excellent final chapter in the group's too-short career. For a band that was already masters at delivering jackhammering music with both precision and gusto, Zack de la Rocha and company excel in delivering The Battle of Los Angeles's explosive salvos: The siren guitars of "Calm Like a Bomb" wail with urgency, "Guerilla Radio" builds like a restless wave, and "Mic Check" is a foreboding stutter driven by de la Rocha's invectives against overreaching capitalism. KL

Ill Communication

76. Beastie Boys, Ill Communication. Oh my god, this is the funky shit: funny, serious, frenetic, and chill. That partially explains why the Beastie Boys have earned the (polite) respect of the hip-hop community, staying old-school when everyone else had long moved on. With "Fight for Your Right to Party," it wasn't clear yet what these white boys were trying to tell us with their sometimes trite appropriation of black musical modes of expression—and even at their illest (the mettle-proving Paul's Boutique) they still came off as interlopers, adopting a street attitude that clearly wasn't their own. But the Beasties seemed to really grow up on Ill Communication, the clearest, most sincere distillation of their unique musical approach yet—a funky avant-garde brew of rap, hip-hop, and punk heavy on the beatboxing and back-scratching. It's their most consistent, dopest flow of beats and rhymes, boasting their strongest, most audacious singles and their most savory and trippy throwaways. EG

Doggystyle

75. Snoop Doggy Dogg, Doggystyle. Snoop Dogg's career has proven to be more about durability than steady quality, finding the right hit just often enough to constantly stay afloat. Ranging through different riffs on his blunt-chewing, slang-dubbing persona, he's never been much of an innovator, working in the safe milieu of established sounds. His best incarnation was undoubtedly his first, following in the footsteps of G-funk pioneers like DJ Quik and Dr. Dre. Like a soul record focused on bedding women without actually wooing them, Snoop puts on his best ice-cold loverman, soft and silky while dodging any admittance of feeling, constantly reminding us how he don't love them hos. JC

Tidal

74. Fiona Apple, Tidal. It's not that Janeane Garofalo didn't have a point about Fiona Apple when she skewered the singer's infamous "This world is bullshit!" VMA acceptance speech in A Reading from the Book of Apple, but it's not like Apple's debut album, Tidal, didn't lay bare her brattiness from the get-go. Raw and unpolished, it's an immature album that's equal parts angst and hubris, with Apple's forceful piano playing and husky alto portending every last note and syllable with a lifetime's worth of gravity. But that actually works in the album's favor, in the way that it suggests that Apple knew that the full extent of her talent had yet to be tapped, but that she was already awfully damn good. Go with yourself. JK

Diva

73. Annie Lennox, Diva. With her debut solo album Diva, Annie Lennox placed all of her insecurities, pretentions, frustrations, and triumphs on display like finely polished diamonds, at once haughty and stubborn but equally delicate and transcendent. The Eurythmics singer is in total command of her craft here, using her strikingly contralto voice to lead the record through plush, penetrating pieces like "Why" with the same amount of sensual power that graces playful pop songs like "Walking on Broken Glass." Diva is ultimately Lennox's greatest work: a warm, soulful, rhythm-fueled pop masterpiece that established her as not only one of the best female vocalists of the '90s, but of any age. KL

Little Earthquakes

72. Tori Amos, Little Earthquakes. Blurring the line between artist and cult leader, Tori Amos's epistles are intimate and seductive, allowing anyone who has ever been a victim or who has ever struggled to find his or her own voice to derive deeply personal meanings from her mishmash of religious iconography, pop culture non sequiturs, and harrowing first-person details. Her mythology has become more convoluted and frankly insufferable over the years, but Amos's Little Earthquakes still plays like a revelation, with its cutting turns of phrase ("Boy, you'd best pray that I bleed real soon" remains perhaps the most loaded line in her catalogue) and simply masterful piano work causing seismic upheavals that are anything but little. JK

Dig Me Out

71. Sleater-Kinney, Dig Me Out. More raw than what passed as emo and more rebellious than what passed as punk, Sleater-Kinney's Dig Me Out found a trio of reformed riot grrls crashing the alt-rock boys club in unimpeachable style. The searing guitar licks on "Words and Guitar" showed that they could play with as much swagger and ingenuity as any "classic" rock act, while "Little Babies" called out patronizing male fans even as it gave them something to dance to. But their secret weapon was Corin Tucker's hurricane wail, never put to better use than on the standout "One More Hour." Here Tucker anguishes over her breakup with bandmate Carrie Brownstein; the fact that the band stayed together and stayed awesome for the next decade suggests that the song must have been as hugely cathartic to perform as it is to hear. MC

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Comments

JRHG1 on February 14, 2011, 12:14 AM

Nice to see The Velvet Rope make the cut. Janet J. had a nice four-album arc there, from Control-Velvet Rope, before the albums took a mediocre turn. The last couple of albums, on the whole, just did not register with me. That whispery voice she started using more also doesn't help the cause.

trotchky on February 14, 2011, 01:08 AM

the richard d. james is album is top 10 material, EZ

JRHG1 on February 15, 2011, 12:16 AM

Wow at Bedtime Stories. Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty good album. But, it's been so under-rated with critics compared to some of her other albums. It's nice to see it get a shout-out in a list like this.

Three of Beck's albums have appeared, leaving Odelay. A few acts have two albums a piece. Maybe Madonna will snare three, if Erotica makes the cut.

Gila on February 15, 2011, 02:50 AM

The early placement of Talk Talk's "Laughing Stock" pains me. "Bedtime Stories" is a better album, really?

adamant_cocoon on February 15, 2011, 05:10 AM

Even when Erotica snagged all the ballyhooing, song for song, it's Madonna's most underrated album, and probably her best. It should appear high on the list (Top 30 at least). I'll leave it along with Live Through This,Loveless,Brick Are Heavy, Rid of Me, Call The Doctor, whitechocolatespaceegg, Maxinquaye, I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One, some Sebadoh, all of Pavement's, a Sonic Youth album or two, M People, Belly, P.M. Dawn, Built To Spill, The Breeders, Belle & Sebastian, Sugar,Imperial Teen, perhaps Arto Lindsay and especially Bjork.

Do I also wish for Foo Fighters, Soundgarden, Smash Mouth, Archers of Loaf, Sublime, Veruca Salt, Le Tigre, Green Day, Fugees and DJ Shadow? Not as much. But I'm loving the look of this list, in spite of Beck's MG (Top 10? I groove to it better than Odelay) and DiFranco's Dilate being put so low.

Andrew Schenker on February 15, 2011, 07:21 AM

Curse of the Mekons please.

Billy on February 15, 2011, 09:28 AM

Let me guess who the victim will once again be: given that "Butterfly" hasn't appeared already, I doubt Slant has included it at all. It's pretty clear in the intro of the list after all.

JRHG1 on February 15, 2011, 02:16 PM

adamant- it's likely that Ray of Light will place higher than Erotica. As one of Madonna's two seminal albums, how can it not?

Billy- I would not necessarily count out Butterfly yet. I'm guessing that "R&B; chaneteuse" is meant to describe that album, and "hip-hop skank" is directed at Rainbow? Nonetheless, if Mimi were going to appear on an all-inclusive Best of the 90s list, it would be this one.

JRHG1 on February 16, 2011, 12:30 AM

Surprised Ray of Light is "only" at No. 47. Will that be it for her Madgesty, or will Erotica pull an upset?

In terms of acxts with multiple appearances, I'm thinking that Blur will have 1-2 more albums appear. Nirvana and Radiohead, of course And we have yet to get to Bjork, who may have three albums.

adamant_cocoon on February 16, 2011, 02:08 AM

I wager for an upset with Erotica (please!). But this is an early sign that it's an impasse for Madge. Fine — I'm looking to Yo La Tengo, Hole, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, the quintessential Pavement, two or three more Harvey's, any of Liz's and the indefatigible Bjork finishing nicely in the rest of this list.

I no longer warm to the thought of Nirvana although their inclusion will be obvious enough. Radiohead, ditto. Err...how about The Dismemberment Plan and Modest Mouse?

JRHG1 on February 16, 2011, 10:26 AM

The only Liz Phair album I'd expect is Exile in Guyville, which is one of those usual 90s suspects.

ogqozo on February 16, 2011, 06:24 PM

There are some differences between this list and the one of Pitchfork's: Slant likes Pavement less. And there's less rock on the list, so it seems we're not gonna be seing Breeders, Pixies, Alice in Chains or more Sleater-Kinney. Nevermind's gonna be ahead of In Utero, Bjork high, some Jeff Buckley love, Radiohead on the top, probably Nas somewhere in top 5? I'm just wandering what the few positions unique for this certain list are gonna be. I hope there'll be some.

roco133 on February 16, 2011, 06:54 PM

"In the mid '90s, the act in our #2 spot recorded the best album of the decade?and then two years later, that same act recorded an even better album."

So obviously that's Bjork and Bjork?if you guessed Radiohead, you don't know Slant.

Can I still be pretty darn heartbroken that 'Car Wheels On a Gravel Road' won't be making this list? Anyone? I bet Keefe's got my back on this one...

adamant_cocoon on February 17, 2011, 06:12 AM

Erotica barely one-upping Debut, the least (imo) of all Bjork records, and a few notches below PJ's and Liz's? Phew. It's a close call, but I am still grateful it's in the Top 30 (that's almost bliss, I tell you). Placing Hole above Pavement is slightly confounding but I have to admit I couldn't resist Live Through This's riot grrl tempest better than I'd stay away from Slanted's alt-cornucopia.

I still pine for Yo La Tengo, Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine in the Top 20. I echo roco133—totally forgot about Lucinda's. It's probable that a lot of what I've cited in my first post should elude, too.

alexbwolf on February 17, 2011, 06:59 AM

I think Nirvana is a better guess for the top 2 list.

I really like this list, although I would replace 'Bedtime Stories' or 'Ray of Light' with 'I'm Breathless.' I would also replace any Radiohead albums with albums that are actually good.

JRHG1 on February 17, 2011, 09:55 AM

Erotica's high placement is refreshing (even if it's not my favorite Madonna album). Outside of this, it's barely gotten any all-time/best-of love; same for Bedtime Stories. I'm Breathless is a fun concept album, and shows her range, but I would not place it in a Best Albums of the 90s list.

No-Personality on February 17, 2011, 11:40 AM

Erotica is my favorite Madonna album.

ogqozo on February 17, 2011, 01:51 PM

Alexbwolf, I'm sure 1991 is not "mid 90's" as they've written, so no Nirvana at top. I don't suppose it's even possible to like both In Utero and Madonna. Considering how warm Slant always is towards Bjork, I guess she's the act they're writing about.

Mingy Jongo on February 17, 2011, 07:47 PM

I'm hoping Slint (Spiderland), MBV (Loveless), Tortoise (Millions Now Living Will Never Die), and Amon Tobin (Bricolage) make the list.

No-Personality on February 17, 2011, 08:10 PM

I actually prefer Debut to Homogenic. Never much took to Sleater Kinney myself. I was too partial to Heavens to Betsy ("Waitress Hell" being a personal anthem for a few years, even though I'm a guy and have never waited tables) and Cadallaca (especially "Night Vandals"). I'm shocked as hell to see Midnite Vultures on the list. But hell, it gives me a chance to mention how much I love "Pressure Zone," absolutely one of my favorite Beck songs. I'm also almost shocked Tidal made the list, but every song on it is unbelievably beautiful. I haven't been able to find out who yet, but I vividly remember reading some scumball online (surprisingly: not a random Amazon.com'er) 3-out-of-5 that album.

You know something? Sal's dig at the Lilith Fair artists has come up in my mind almost every single day since I watched that vid on Slant, but Joan Osborne's Relish has always been one of my top 10 favorite albums, and even if their albums weren't great- I have untold love for Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories' "Do You Sleep?" and Paula Cole's "Feelin' Love." I'm really glad to see Siamese Dream in the top 30. As for the "hip hop skank" (ha), I still adore "Heartbreaker." And, though I enjoyed Eric's jokes (which wrote themselves) at Moby, he belongs on this list (was "Inside" ever released as a single?). If The Downward Spiral comes in at #45, I do expect something heavier than it to rank somewhere higher. (And no, pre-'97 Radiohead doesn't quite do the trick. I've always felt The Bends was a little overrated, and I can't stand "Creep"- call me a Stone Temple Pilots guy if you must; though the reason I stress "a little" is that I do have some love for "My Iron Lung").

Ogpozo - if Nirvana is in the top 5, aren't they still at top somehow?

adamant_cocoon - some excellent mentions there (though there's no way Imperial Teen could make the top 20- sucks that their 90's albums are out of print now, I still haven't replaced my lost copy of What is Not to Love yet). Although, even though most critics wouldn't agree, I prefer The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum over Bricks Are Heavy. Music criticism is a mystery to me- I know most serious critics feel Bricks is a masterpiece, but I never much took to "Slide," "This Ain't Pleasure," or "Monster." They always seemed like duds to me. While, "Me, Myself & I" was the only dud on Process. And it was more like a half-dud. Another great riot-grrrl classic: Fontanelle ("Bluebell," "Bruise Violet," "Handsome & Gretel," "Jungle Train," "Pearl," "Won't Tell," "Gone," "Blood" - killer album). And Bratmobile's Pottymouth.

jim emerson on February 17, 2011, 11:52 PM

From the moment I heard it I thought Hole's "Live Through This" was a terrific album. But if you can't hear Nirvana (loud-quiet-loud) in it, you're not really listening. I have no idea if Kurt Cobain co-wrote some songs, but comparisons are obvious in the music, if not the lyrics. The record obviously sounds more like any Nirvana record ("Bleach," "Nevermind," "In Utero") than it does like Hole. Listen to "Live Through This" (1994) side by side with Hole's "Pretty On the Inside," and then with Nirvana's "Nevermind" — both of which were released in September, 1991. Even if you didn't know the songwriters became personally and professionally intertwined after the release of the earlier records, you'd hear the connections. (I saw Hole and Nirvana a number of times before Cobain and Love hitched up, and her band went through a major pop transformation in 1992-1993.) Anyway, I understand where charges of misogyny might come in — but I don't think they apply in this particular case. The evidence — which is audible but circumstantial — is in the music. (BTW, the "Carrie"-esque album cover is one of the greatest of the '90s, too.)

JRHG1 on February 18, 2011, 12:51 AM

Here's the breakdown of acts with 2+ entries. Together, these 20 acts account for 46% of the top 100. (I think I got them all covered)

4 Albums

Beck

3 Albums

Bjork

Madonna

Nirvana

PJ Harvey

2 Albums

Tori Amos

Fiona Apple

Beastie Boys

The Chemical Brothers

Deee-Lite

Janet Jackson

Massive Attack

Outkast

Pavement

Portishead

Radiohead

R.E.M.

Smashing Pumpkins

A Tribe Called Quest

Weezer

adamant_cocoon on February 18, 2011, 05:28 AM

@ No-Personality: The only other L7 records I've heard are Smell The Magic and Slap-Happy. I'm not too fond of either, but Bricks Are Heavy, irrespective of the critics that may have overestimated it, is superb (same gripe about "Monster" though). And I love Sleater-Kinney to bits. Imperial Teen makes inexhaustible tunes, too.

So it's a Bjork one-two? Hear, hear! (Too bad for Yo La Tengo and Sonic Youth, then?) Although if I were to make a Top 10 right now, she wouldn't make it easily w/o a fight from the alt/indie demographic. This is how "definitive" I'd get:

1. Arto Lindsay, Mundo Civilizado

2. Sonic Youth, Dirty

3. Yo La Tengo, I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One

4. Beck, Mellow Gold

5. Madonna, Erotica

6. Built To Spill, Perfect from Now On

7. Sebadoh, Bakesale

8. Tricky, Maxinquaye

9. Imperial Teen, What Is Not to Love

10. Sleater-Kinney, Call The Doctor

Had to let the rest populate my Top 100. Good list to go, Slant! But also, why the Alanis omission?

Ed Gonzalez on February 18, 2011, 09:44 AM

Bjork should star in David Lynch's next movie.

JRHG1 on February 18, 2011, 10:06 AM

I overlooked Nine Inch Nails when tallying the acts with multiple entries. So, it's 21 acts with at least two albums on the list- they account for 48% of the titles.

Alanis probably was in the 120-100 range. hehe

No-Personality on February 18, 2011, 10:32 AM

^ "Don't say that, Tina."

(- to Ed.)

adamant_cocoon - Slap-Happy is actually my favorite L7 album. I would say that album is to that band what Midnite Vultures is to Beck: just silliness and experimentation, beautifully trashy and raunchy, a whole album full of funky, grindy "Gas Chamber"s. "Stick to the Plan" is the only song I don't love on it. I've only owned one Sonic Youth, Washing Machine. It was lost with my Imperial Teen's (though, I have since re-bought Seasick).

I seriously expected Jagged Little Pill to make the top 20. Alanis's omission from the 100 is just plain wrong. I could never do a fair Top 10, but ...The Dandy Warhols Come Down and Imani Coppola's Chupacabra (also tragically out of print) would definitely make my Top 100. While, Odelay just might be my vote for #1 of the decade. I'm not much of an album person (probably the reason I think Blue Lines is inferior to Mezzanine and that I could actually find duds on Bricks, Lines, Automatic for the People, and several on Dummy), but I'm quite proud to say I have 4 out of the top 5 here (the one I'm missing is Nevermind).

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