Top 10 Albums of the 90's

Always a fun discussion. Not being a tremendous fan of the genre, I've never given any Public Enemy album a proper listen. Is it safe to assume that Fear of a Black Planet is the best place to start?

 

Here's my Top 10:

 

1. Songs of Faith and Devotion - Depeche Mode

 

2. Electroshock Blues - Eels

 

3. Ritual De Lo Habitual - Jane's Addiction

 

4. Doppelganger - Curve

 

5. Weezer (The Blue Album) - Weezer

 

6. Mezzanine - Massive Attack

 

7. Graffiti Bridge - Prince

 

8. Midnite Vultures - Beck

 

9. Mutations - Beck

 

10. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - The Smashing Pumpkins

 

A quick word about Mellon Collie. I honestly feel that song for song, both Siamese Dream and Adore are stronger SP albums. But as far as an album "experience" goes, Mellon Collie is (to this day) an album that ignites the imagination and takes me places. I love it, flaws and all.

I'll finish out my top ten when I have a clearer head, but my top 3 are pretty much set in stone.

1) Faith No More - Angel Dust ('92)
   Patton unleashed his voice and the band went in all new directions. It's amazing it took a good 10 years before this album was really "dated"(only a few songs showed their age before that, mostly due to some keyboard sounds). A lot of people blame them for the nu-metal stuff, but FNM was already past that before it was a thing, even though the Real Thing was an inspiration no doubt, along with Fishbone, the Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Biohazard, Rage, etc.

2) Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral ('94)

   There are several song I don't care for on this album, including the majority of the hit single, but my god. Still my favorite production job on an album, and the lyrics(something Trent isn't known for) hit me at the right time. It still blows me away with a good pair of headphones, and it's an ALBUM, not just songs thrown together in a certain order.
3) Marilyn Manson - Mechanical Animals ('98)
   My go-to as far as albums you can change your tune on. I was a HUGE Manson fan at this point and absolutely hated this album the first couple times I listened to it. Turns out, it was his peak. The band(which one?) will never top this. Coma White should have been the "big single", not Rock is Dead. Oh well. Last Day on Earth is one of my favorite songs ever.

4) Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine ('91)
   One of the best rock band debuts of all time. Gelled rap and rock extremely well. Lyrics so catchy that many people didn't even realize how ludicrously political they were(anecdotal evidence, but oh my). Tom and Zach get most of the props, but this band may have been PERFECT for what they were trying to accomplish at this point and time.

On phone so explanation later. Broadly those, these are albums I still listen to
Beastie Boys - Check Your Head
Massive Attack - Protection
Janes Addiction - Ritual De Lo Habitual
RHCP - Blood Sugar Sex Magic
Orbital - Insides
Portishead - Dummy
Spiritualised - Pure Phase
Prodigy - Music for the Jilted Generation
Primal Scream - Screamadelica
Radiohead - OK Computer
Edited by Andy Bain - 1/20/13 at 1:21am

Good call on Music For the Jilted Generation. It's not on the same level as far as polish, but I think Experience is more interesting having listened to it a lot recently.

Screamadelica is a great pick, but I'd go with Vanishing Point. Maybe more uneven, but also much more "out there". My list in no particular order would be:

 

Black Love by The Afghan Whigs

 

Dirt by Alice in Chains

 

Everything Must Go by The Manic Street Preachers

 

Songs of Faith and Devotion by Depeche Mode

 

Everything is Wrong by Moby

 

Mezzanine by Massive Attack

 

Achtung Baby by U2

 

69 Lovesongs by The Magnetic Fields

 

Definitely Maybe by Oasis

 

King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime by Faith No More

1. Kiss Revenge

 

2. Motley Crue Motley Crue

 

3. Cinderella Still Climbing

 

4. The Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape

 

5. Queen - Innuendo

 

6. Cake - Fashion Nugget

 

7. D Generation - D Generation

 

8. Judas Priest -  98 Live  Meltdown

 

9. David Lee Roth - DLR Band

 

10. Brain Setzer Orchestra - The Dirty Boogie.

 

I doubt anyone will agree with me, but it works for me. I can't believe I forgot about Queen when I first made my list. It just replaced Cake's Prolonging the Magic.

Edited by Chaz - 1/20/13 at 2:36pm

Good god, yes. Such a great album.

Ahhhh the 90's. This list could be different on any given day, so this is just off the top of my head. It's difficult enough for me to narrow it down to 10, actually ranking them is out of the question.

 

Tom Waits - Bone Machine/Mule Variations (yeah this is cheating, but it's Waits)

 

Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile

 

Smashing Pumpkins - Gish

 

DJ Shadow - ...Endtroducing

 

Tool - Undertow

 

Ani DiFranco - Living in Clip (Are live albums allowed? Because this is probably the best one ever)

 

Nirvana - Nevermind

 

Squirrel Nut Zippers - Hot

 

The Fugees - The Score

 

Nas - Illmatic

 

EDIT: Mixed up dates.

Edited by Zach Russell - 1/20/13 at 7:07pm

Hmmm....Is The Fragile really the best of NIN's work in the 90's?

 

 

I kind think Reznor said everything he needed to say from Pretty Hate Machine in '89 up to The Downward Spiral with his regression from complicated synthpop into shrieking noise rock, and everything else (film scores aside) is just a variation on that theme.

 

100000000000000000% agreement on Waits. Is it self-parody? Who cares, it's awesome.

I was under the impression we were going with personal favorites rather than trying to be objective. I wouldn't argue with any ranking of NIN's discography (so long as post-Fragile stuff isn't at the top).

I don't know about "top," but here are my favorite (in no particular order.)

 

1 NIRVANA, In Utero

2 BEASTIE BOYS, Ill Communication

3 THE FLAMING LIPS, The Soft Bulletin

4 JOHNNY CASH, American Recordings

5 MY BLOODY VALENTINE, Loveless

6 MINISTRY, Psalm 69

7 HOLE, Live Through This

8 DANZIG, IV

9 DAVID BOWIE, Outside

10 SONIC YOUTH, Goo
 

1) The Fragile - Nine Inch Nails

- Standouts: "Just Like You Imagined", "Into The Void", "Where is Everybody?"

2) Mechanical Animals - Marilyn Manson

- Standouts: "The Speed of Pain", "User Friendly", "Coma White"

3) Saturation - Urge Overkill

- Standouts: "Nite & Grey", "Woman 2 Woman", "Positive Bleeding"

4) Down on the Upside - Soundgarden

- Standouts: "Burden in my Hand", "Boot Camp", "Ty Cobb"

5) Endtroducing - DJ Shadow

- Standouts: The whole goddamned thing. You can't listen to this in bite sized pieces.

6) Why Do They Rock So Hard? - Reel Big Fish

- Standouts: "The Set-Up (You Need This)", "Down in Flames", "Everything is Cool"

7) The Gold Experience - Prince

- Standouts: "Endorphinmachine", "Gold", "Shy"

8) Midnite Vultures - Beck

- Standouts: "Debra", "Mixed Bizness", "Milk & Honey"

9) The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner - Ben Folds Five

- Standouts: "Lullabye", "Magic", "Don't Change Your Plans"

10) Powertrip - Monster Magnet

- Standouts: "Baby Gotterdammerung", "See You in Hell", "Powertrip"

OK, explanation time, for what it's worth

 

Beastie Boys - Check Your Head  Still my favourite album of all time.  I love the variety, the energy and the sheer aliveness of this album. It ticks all the right buttons for me.  I can remember being excited when Ill Communication came out, and just being a little bit disappointed that it didn't have the energy of CYH.

Massive Attack - Protection - This was a real difficult one to choose.  Blue Lines, Mezzanine - both amazing albums but for me this one won out just because I think it's the strongest song wise over all.  Also the last one with Tricky.  Combine this with the Mad Professor remix No protection and it's greatness all round.

Janes Addiction - Ritual De Lo Habitual.  Not as good (for me) as Nothing's Shocking but still jaw droppingly good.  Three Days is a song for the ages.  It breaks my heart that Perry Farrell is on Married to Rock (or whatever shit) and Dave Navarro sold his soul to reality TV many times over.

RHCP - Blood Sugar Sex Magic - For me the perfect RHCP album, stripped down with a raw intensity, simplified Flea bass and Frusciante, while still having some blistering solos and rock attack

Orbital - Insides It was a toss up between this and Richie Hawtin's (Plastikman) Decks, EFX and 909 for best techno album, but this won because of the The Box.  Cinematic in the extreme this is a great album.  Decks, EFX is like going to a really good techno club, but has to be listened to in it's entirety for that reason.  You can dip into In Sides. (although, best clubbing experience I've had was seeing Orbital at Princes ST Gardens, Plastikman was the opener, then going to Sativa club after where Plastikman did a secret set.  Amazing).

Portishead - Dummy Just a beautiful, beautiful album.

Spiritualised - Pure Phase.  I have to be in a very specific mood to listen to this now.  Heartbreaking, and very drug influenced, but layered so well.  Half of it drifts in and out, undercut by phase, and the other half rocks hard, but never overtly, and always at the right time.  The phase stuff can lull you almost to sleep, then along comes a song like Lay Back in the Sun to lift you up.  Also, the first pressing came in a mint glow in the dark cover which I still have.

Prodigy - Music for the Jilted Generation - The harder edge to this album won it out over Experience for me, which I still find a little too "happy hardcore".

Primal Scream - Screamadelica  Again, difficult to choose between this and Vanishing Point, but this one won out because of the variety within it.  While Vanishing Point chugs along relentlessly (mainly due to Mani's bass lines) but this one lifts you up with a huge variety of influences.  Higher than the Sun is just stunning.  My best gig experience was seeing Primal Scream at the Glasgow Corn Exchange on the Vanishing Point tour.  They had Kevin Shields with them so had this amazing wall of sound going on over their own amazing wall of sound, and when the played Higher than the Sun it just lifted the roof off the place, it built and peaked so amazingly.  

Radiohead - OK Computer  - a game changer.

1. Dream Theater: SCENES FROM A MEMORY

2. Radiohead: THE BENDS

3. Alice In Chains: DIRT 

4. Dream Theater: AWAKE

5. Radiohead: OK COMPUTER

6. Soundgarden: SUPERUNKNOWN

7. Pearl Jam: VS

8. Joe Satriani: CRYSTAL PLANET

9. Rush: ROLL THE BONES

10. Fates Warning: A PLEASANT SHADE OF GREY

 

Lots of prog and grunge in there.

 Tom Kiefer of Cinderella was Jack White before there was a Jack White. He can sing play lead and rhythm guitar, paino and saxaphone. I saw Cinderella last summer and they crushed. They had the crowd eating out of their hand. Here is a cut from that CD.

 

 

 

 

Yes that is the Crue the album without Vince. Finally the only thing worst than Van Hagar is Van Cherone.

Only two to add that I have not seen

Phish - Rift

Tool - Aenima

Yes! Such a great album!

 

Having had the good fortune to see Waits live, he certainly gives the impression he's mocking SOMETHING - himself, the audience, probably just the world in general. 

These were my top 10 during the '90s.

 

1. "Cracked Rear View" - Hootie and the Blowfish

2. "Pocket Full of Kryptonite" - The Spin Doctors

3. "The Sign" - Ace of Base

4. "Alapalooza" - "Weird Al" Yankovic

5. "Batman Forever: Official Movie Soundtrack" - Various Artists

6. "Mariah Carey" - Dreamlover

7. "Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell" - Meat Loaf

8. "The Crow: Official Movie Soundtrack" - Various Artists

9. "Aquarium" - Aqua

10. "Ten" - Pearl Jam

 

I was an odd kid.

 

1978, actually, so you could probably toss something else in there.

 

 

As for me, this is kinda what I'm feeling today:

 

The Curse of the Mekons, The Mekons
Dig Me Out, Sleater-Kinney
Exile in Guyville, Liz Phair
Girlfriend, Matthew Sweet
The La's, The La's
The River, Ali Farka Touré
Rumour and Sigh, Richard Thompson
The Snake, Shane MacGowan and the Popes
Television, Television
A Thousand Leaves, Sonic Youth

 

Fucking AWESOME albums.  I used to beat the shit out of that Matthew Sweet cd in college.

 

Brain fart. I meant Ghost of Tom Joad. Those two have been getting a lot of play lately, along with Nebraska. 

 

Though looking at my list I might have to take either that or Squirrel Nut Zippers out in favor of Nas - Illmatic.

That Squirrel Nut Zippers album was quite a bit of fun.  We used to play that all the time in the CD store that I managed.  Thanks for reminding me of that one.

Aerosmith - Get a Grip. A great fun Rock.n.Roll record. For all the shit they get this is one of the best records they ever made.

 

DJ Shadow - The Printing Press. Endtroducing may get the accolades but I think this is as good if not better.

 

Kelly Joe Phelps - Shine Eyed Mister Zen. This album completely redefined blues for me, Phelps voice is rustic and mercurial and his guitar playing is incredible. Pure blues.

 

Kyuss - Sky Valley. Absolutely tremendous rock album. If Led Zep were around in the 90's they'd probably sound like Kyuss.

 

Ben Folds Five - The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. Sprawling and ambitious, it really showed what BFF were capable of as a unit. Narcolepsy is such an epic gorgeous track.

 

Fiona Apple - Tidal. I initially dismissed it when I first heard it but I came back to it and it weaved it's spell.

 

Underworld - Beaucoup Fish. This is probably the most minimalist album they ever made but it's packed with energy. Shudder: King of Snake and Kittens explode with energy.

 

A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory. Their masterpiece of lyrical rhythm's and jazz beats.

 

De La Soul - Buhloone Mind State. One of their most focused and tightest records. Patti Dooke is a fantastic jazzy attack on selling out.

 

Pink Floyd - The Division Bell. Floyd couldn't have got a better, wistful sendoff. High Hopes as the last track is just about perfect I think.

Okay, considering I spent most of the 90s in the UK some of these albums will probably fly over everyone's heads - but trust me, they're great.


The Wildhearts - Earth Vs. The Wildhearts

After twenty years, still my all-time favourite album. The Wildhearts have over a twenty-plus year career come close to Replacements/Husker Du levels in the 'No-one's heard of them but influenced all the bands everyone has' stakes. Every tosser and his dog is mixing punk, pop and metal these days but when this album came out it was like someone cracked some alien code and turned it into music. Seriously great music. It's testament to the band that their work, and this album in particular, is so well-regarded despite their penchant for drug-fuelled drama arguably preventing them from reaching the heights the music deserved. This album is so good, it made me want to make my own music.


Sugar - Copper Blue

Speaking of Husker Du, sort of... To me this album (Along with the Beaster mimi-album, which was recorded as part of the same sessions) is the pinnacle of Bob Mould's career, where he found the ideal blend of melody and scathing volume. This album provided the blueprint for a million other alterna-rock albums, none of which managed to get close to its sheer magic. Sugar's meagre discography was re-released last year with a ton of b-sides and live tracks (And, believe it or not, one of those rare remastering jobs that actually sounds better than the original) and comes wholly recommended.



Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible

If the Manics have always known one thing, it's how to keep people guessing. Virtanen already brought up their 'breakout' album Everything Must Go, but for me The Holy Bible, the last album to feature ill-fated lyricist/guitarist Richey Edwards, is their finest moment and one of the decade's best. Dropping the cock rock affectations of their early material, they came up with an album of snarling, wiry punk rock that touched subjects no other rock band of the era would dare consider. The Holocaust, anorexia, self-harm - basically, stuff you'd never see Oasis and the like even think about. Probably one of the angriest albums ever made, but utterly compelling for it.



Black Grape - It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah

Formed from the (Most likely freshly-smoked) ashes of the Happy Mondays by frontman Shaun Ryder and dancer/shuffling totem Bez, Black Grape was essentially a slightly more complex version of their former band that came up with possibly the most fun album of the 90s. Also contains the genius lyric: Jesus was a black man/No, Jesus was Batman/No, no, no - That was Bruce Wayne! Funk/rock/indie genius.



Pulp - Different Class

This album saw Pulp evolve from retro-kitsch curios to legitimate superstars, refining their pop smarts and bone-dry wit to create a near-perfect set of songs. Everyone knows the soon to be Shatnerized 'Common People', but many forget just how much of an impact the song, one of the most acerbic depictions of the class divide in the UK to come along in years, had in a music scene that was becoming increasingly about empty patriotism and rote hedonism. The poke in the eye to 'slumming' upper-class kids made the band heroes, but they were always much smarter than the scene into which they were lumped (See: 'Sorted for Es & Wizz', a hilarious pisstake of the very rave culture everyone else was falling head over heels to celebrate/glom onto). One of the greatest albums of the Britpop era, and easily the smartest.



Therapy? - Troublegum

Another great band whose influence has far outstripped their commercial success, Therapy? learned on this album to combine their utterly, wonderfully weird techno-with-punk-guitars-via-Helmet sound with a slicker, more metallic feel. The result was an utterly compelling blend of pop-metal triumps ('Screamager', 'Die Laughing') with savage yet darkly comic punk screamers ('Knives, Trigger Inside'). Cleverly sequenced so that each song blends seamlessly into the next, Troublegum is at is most satisfying when you take the whole thing in one dose. Just be warned: youmay come out of the other and a blade-wielding psycho clown (But in a good way).



Tom Waits - Mule Variations
 
It was a toss-up between this and Bone Machine, but while BM was a landmark in its industrial sturm-und-drang, Mule takes that approach and peppers in a more organic, soulful element. And even then, we're only talking about a miniscule difference. I've listened to mule what feels like a million times, and I find something new on each listen. A genuine classic, by a classic.



Ween - The Mollusk

The quiet achievers of the 90s alternative crowd, Ween began as a drum-machine laden novelty then gradually revealed an ocean of genuine talent. With 1994's Chocolate and Cheese they left behind the cheesy programmed drums and became a fully-fledged band, to some success. The Mollusk, however, saw them finally pull their diverse songwriting talents into what must be the greatest prog-shanty-folk album in history. Many 90s bands tried to trade off quirk, but precious few really knew how to let the music be paramount. Ween were the best.



Devin Townsend/Ocean Machine - Biomech

The Ocean Machine moniker may have only lasted one album, but what an album. Biomech was an album ahead of its time, one of the few metal albums of the day that balanced melody and heaviness without any of the dunderheaded chest-beating of the burgeoning nu-metal crowd. This was real metal, modern sounding yet steeped in a classical spirit, and was not just the first sign of the talent Townsend was to become but remains one of his strongest albums to this day. IMo THE best metal album of the 90s.



The Wonder Stuff - Never Loved Elvis

The Stuffies never did get the credit they deserve. Like Ween, their tendency to make fun of themselves and refusal to do the 90s thing of either getting in the Hedonism Box or the Angsty Box gave them a reputation as a novelty act, but I defy anyone to deny songs like 'Mission Drive', 'Maybe' and 'Here Comes Everyone'. A great band who very possibly split before their full potential had been reached.

1. Badmotorfinger by Soundgarden
2. Black Love by The Afghan Whigs
3. Dummy by Portishead
4. I Should Coco by Supergrass
5. Brighten The Corners by Pavement
6. To Bring You My Love by PJ Harvey
7. Bone Machine by Tom Waits
8. In Utero by Nirvana
9. Vs by Pearl Jam
10. Where You Been by Dinosaur Jr
11. Queens of The Stone Age by Queens of The Stone Age
12. Let Love In by Nick Cave
13. Killjoy by Shihad
14. Pinkerton by Weezer
15. Siamese Dream by Smashing Pumpkins


Y'all will all know these just fine, with the exception of NZ rocksters Shihad.


Also Star by Belly-Cypress Hill by Cypress Hill-... And The Circus Leaves Town by Kyuss-Troublegum by Therapy?-Exile in Guyville by Liz Phair-Metallica by Metallica-Chocolate and Cheese by Ween-Mad Season by Mad Season-Girlfriend by Mathew Sweet-Odelay by Beck-Dirt by Alice In Chains-Double Your Strength, Improve Your Health and Lengthen Your Life by HLAH-Achtung Baby by U2-Weight by Rollins Band-Morning Glory by Oasis-Temple of the Dog by Temple of the Dog-The Color and the Shape by Foo Fighters



I found it really hard to put hip-hop albums on my list because for me hip-hop has always been a singles game for the most part. I also didn't really get much into hip-hop, in spite of living in The Brown Part Of Town, until the 2000s, when I finally shrugged off the chip I had on my shoulder from arguing for years with my polynesian and maori mates that hip-hop wasn't real music. It was Missy Elliot who showed me how dumb I was, but not until 2001.

Most of mine have been mentioned, but I don't believe R.E.M. (Out Of Time, Automatic for the People, Monster, New Adventures in Hi-Fi, Up), Bjork (Debut, Post, Homogenic), or Tori Amos (Little Earthquakes, Under the Pink, Boys for Pele, From the Choirgirl Hotel, To Venus and Back) have been mentioned at all.  And we cannot have that.

I thought a lot about Automatic For The People, which was massive for me at the time, but it's an album which makes me unbearably sad to listen to these days so I couldn't include it.

I still think Nightswimming is one of the prettiest songs of all time though.

 

Everybody hurts, sometimes.

Here's mine (things sort of seemed to click mid-decade):

 

1. Ænima - Tool

 jamz: "H.", "Hooker With A Penis", "Die Eier Von Satan"

 

2. The Downward Spiral - Nine Inch Nails

 jamz: "Closer", "The Becoming", "A Warm Place"

 

3. Come To Daddy - Aphex Twin

 jamz: "Come To Daddy (Pappy Mix)", "Flim", "Funny Little Man"

 

4. Murder Ballads - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

 jamz: "Stagger Lee", "Song Of Joy", "The Curse Of Millhaven"

 

5. Alice In Chains (Tripod) - Alice In Chains

 jamz: "Again", "God Am", "Over Now"

 

6. Sailing The Seas Of Cheese - Primus

 jamz: "Tommy The Cat", "Sgt. Baker", "Those Damn Blue Collar Tweakers"

 

7. Sehnsucht - Rammstein

 jamz: "Du Hast", "Sehnsucht", "Engel"

 

8. Smash - The Offspring

 jamz: "Genocide", "Bad Habit", "Self-Esteem"

 

9. The Fat Of The Land - The Prodigy

 jamz: "Breathe", "Smack My Bitch Up", "Funky Shit"

 

10. ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ (Psalm 69) - Ministry

 jamz: "Psalm 69", "Just One Fix", "Scare Crow"

 

All of these are albums that I still listen to on regular rotation.

Tool - Aenima

Radiohead - OK Computer

NIN - The Fragile

Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

Slayer - Seasons In The Abyss

Pearl Jam - Vs.

Bjork - Homogenic

Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes

Hole - Celebrity Skin

Sarah McLachlan - Fumbling Towards Ecstasy

Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend

 

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Orange

 

Built to Spill - Keep It Like A Secret

 

Radiohead - OK Computer

 

REM - New Adventures in Hi-Fi 

 

Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power

 

Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream

 

Digital Underground - Sex Packets

 

Nirvana - In Utero

 

U2 - Achtung Baby

I never got the hate for that album. I like it a lot.
 

 

OK, this makes me want to swop out Ritual De Lo Habitual for Underworld - DubNobasswithmyheadman which I still play waaay more than Ritual.  That album is all about Cowgirl for me.

 

And this wants to make me swop Spiritualised for Black Grape, as again I still play that heaps.  Brilliant album and you did pick my favourite lyric on there :)  And the Wonderstuff were great, but I never really got into Never Loved Elvis, I was more a Hup/8 Legged Groove Machine man.

 

I was unaware of Shihad till I moved here.  Saw them supportign AC\DC.  They do indeed rock :)

 

Edited by Andy Bain - 1/21/13 at 11:21am

I'm swapping out Fates Warning for Shudder to Think: PONY EXPRESS RECORD.  Can't believe I forgot that one.  One of the great underrated albums of the 90s.

In no particular order, my most listened to albums of the 90's:

 

Bruce Dickinson - The Chemical Wedding

U2 - Achtung Baby

The Beastie Boys - Check Your Head

David Bowie - Outside

Pearl Jam - VS

The Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen

Faith No More - King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime

Marilyn Manson - Mechanical Animals

Concrete Blonde - Mexican Moon

Jeff Buckley - Grace

 

Nice.  That was easily Bruce's strongest solo effort, and that Bowie album is incredibly underrated in his catalog.  

Gomez - Liquid Skin needs to go in my list somewhere.

 

10 is too small a number...

While I love Bruce being back in Maiden and I've enjoyed the albums that they've done since then, there is something so potent about the pairing of Bruce and Roy Z.  It makes me wish that Roy would produce one of the Maiden albums instead of Kevin Shirley. 

Roy did a great job on the Halford solo albums as well.

 

Admittedly, it was very close between NLE and Hup. Really, all three albums constitute a hell of a run. Call me a bad fan, but I've kind of avoided the post-reformation albums because I just can't see them matching them (Well, that and Miles Hunt's dive into even deeper pretention after the Stuffies broke up).

 

 

 

My thoughts exactly. Chemical Wedding's a bloody good pick. As much as I love Maiden, I'm getting the itch again to see Dickinson, Adrian Smith and Roy Z cook something up. They were onto a brilliantly modern yet melodic sound, and  it's a shame that they haven't/haven't been allowed to incorporate it into Maiden.

Oddly enough the first thing I put down on my list was Concrete Blonde's Bloodletting, but somewhere in a pre-post reshuffle it disappeared. Johnette Napolitano doesn't have the sexiest name ever but she does have a wickedly sexy voice. Even more oddly I like Mexican Moon even more than Bloodletting so I was a fool to even write that one down initially. I should have had Grace on there too because I thrashed that sucker like crazy at the time and learned at least half of the songs on guitar. I really have to brush up on my list-making skills.

The shitty thing about these lists is that I always forget something. Like Bone Machine, Electro-Shock Blues, Vulgar Display of Power, Automatic for the People, etc... I also owe it to my late teens that I mention the untitled debut album by Slipknot here. Still one of the best openings I've heard. "Mother-fuckeeeeer!"

Fates Warning

I played Ivory Gate of Dreams and Part of the Machine all the time in high school. About a year ago I started looking for the older prog stuff. Perfect Symmetry, while cold, still holds up. No Exit, not so much.

1.Depeche Mode-Violator

2.Dr.Dre- The Chronic 2001

3.Pearl Jam-Vs

4.Weezer-The Blue Album

5.Red Hot Chili Peppers-Blood Sugar Sex Magik

6.U2-Achtung Baby

7.Alice in Chains-Dirt

8.Soundgarden-Superunkown

9.The Notorious B.I.G.-Life After Death

10.2Pac-All Eyez On Me