Tuesday Top Ten: 90's Albums

It started in the 90's. You'd rush to the store to buy a CD and then rush home while trying to rip off the wrapper that was placed on really tightly that it seemed like you were trying to break into a vault. You would get home and put the CD into the stereo (or CD Walkman) and realize the CD sucked. Sure there was that one really good song that was played on the radio and Much Music but the rest of the CD had maybe one or two other good songs worth having. It become quite depressing realizing that buying music was becoming a chore. You couldn't just rely on the fact that your favorite artists would put out good CDs. You had to do research. I subscribed to magazines like Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone to read album reviews before buying. I still got stuck with a lot of bad CDs but I was a kid in a small town that had nothing better to do with his money and didn't want to turn to drugs. Those were my choices: CDs or Drugs. Extreme but sadly true. I'm not always sure I made the right choice.

So with that long winded blurb done here are my favorite ten albums from the 1990's:

10. Smashing Pumpkins: Siamese Dream

Best Song: Disarm

Other Highlights: Today, Cherub Rock

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness sold a lot more albums and rocketed them to fame but track for track this is a far better album.   From start to finish the CD is great and while Mellon Collie had some tracks I liked better it was a double CD with a lot of filler that I always skipped over. Plus Disarm is one of my all time favorite songs so this ones out for that song alone. 

 

9. The Fugees: The Score

Best Song: Ready or Not

Other Highlights:  Killing Me Softly, No Woman No Cry, How Many Mics

One of the best Hip Hop albums ever. There styles blended so well and it's a shame Wyclef and Pres ended up hating each other and Lauryn Hill went crazy. 

 
 8. Nirvana: Nevermind 

Best Song: Smells Like Teen Spirit

Other Highlights: Come as You Are, Lithium, Polly

I was never as big a fan of Nirvana as a lot of other people. Personally I always thought they were a little overrated and liked Dave Grohl better in Foo Fighters. But I can't deny that this was a really good album.

 7.  Live: Throwing Copper
 

Best Song: Lightning Crashes

Other Highlights:  Selling the Drama, I Alone, Iris, Waitress

I remember seeing the video for Lightning Crashes and being moved by the concept of it. I bought the album based on that song but the other tracks on the CD are just as well written and Ed Kowalczyk has such a haunting voice that really gets you into the music and words.

 

6. Alanis Morrisette: Jagged Little Pill
 

Best Song: Ironic

Other Highlights: Hand in Your Pocket, You Oughta Know, You Learn

I didn't buy this album until after she had released four singles. By the time the album was released I had learned to wait until after several singles were released or I borrowed it from someone else to give it a listen. Although Ironic is my favorite track on the CD it was You Learn that convinced me to buy the CD. I liked the message of the song and even spent extra money on the CD because Zellers was sold out and Music Dick over charged for all their CDs. 

5. Lauryn Hill: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
 

  

Best Song: Everything is Everything

Other Highlights: Doo Wap (That Thing), Lost Ones, Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You

Even though this is a great CD it is sad to think how much talent seems wasted by Lauryn Hill. She could have had such an amazing career like Alicia Keys and she just seems to have thrown it all away. 

4. Bush: Sixteen Stone

 

 Best Song: Comedown

Other Highlights: Glycerine, Everything Zen, Machinehead, Alien

I bought this CD when they were Bush X in Canada and I remember when I sold the CD I was able to get $50 for it on ebay. I wasted that $50 on rum and pepsi at my university bar. I still listen to this album all the time on my iPod so it was stood the test of time.

3. 112: 112

Best Song: Only You Remix

Other Highlights: Cupid, This Is Your Day,  I Will Be There

I found this CD by accident. I had filled out a form for Columbia House and had wrote the wrong number for a CD I wanted. This was before they had the brilliant idea to use stickers.  Anyways I received the CD and had no clue who the band was. Columbia House made it so expensive to replace CDs that I ended up keeping it and was thinking of just saving it for a birthday or Christmas present for my friend Jen but ended up giving it a listen and loved the album. I ended up getting Jen a copy of it anyways and we then proceeded to listen to it all the time and ensured that Cupid and Only You would be played at all Escuminac school dances. 

2. Pearl Jam: Ten

Best Song: Jeremy

Other Highlights: Alive, Even Flow, Oceans

I always liked Pearl Jam better then other grunge bands. They were the first concert I ever went to. This first album was amazing and was always made better because my sister Tara hated it so I would blast the volume when our mom wasn't home to annoy her.

 
 1. Oasis: (What’s The Story) Morning Glory

 

Best Song: Don't Look Back In Anger

Other Highlights: Morning Glory, Wonderwall, Champagne Supernova, She's Electric

Sure the lead singer was kind of an asshole but it doesn't take away from the fact that they were a great band before they let egos kill them.

"Don't Look Back in Anger" and "Champagne Supernova" almost sound like updated songs that could have been on The Beatles catalog and although I always thought Wonderwall was an overrated song it is still better then most songs released in the 90's.