1991, Reconsidered
Top 50 Albums of 1991:
1. A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
2. De La Soul - De La Soul Is Dead
3. U2 - Achtung Baby
4. Talk Talk - Laughing Stock
5. Nirvana - Nevermind
6. Geto Boys - We Can't Be Stopped
7. Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion II
8. Temple Of The Dog - Temple Of The Dog
9. Ice Cube - Death Certificate
10. The Nation Of Ulysses - 13-Point Program To Destroy America
11. Metallica – Metallica
12. Main Source - Breaking Atoms
13. Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
14. Gang Starr - Step In The Arena
15. DJ Quik - Quik Is The Name
16. Primus - Sailing The Seas of Cheese
17. Pearl Jam - Ten
18. Seal - Seal
19. Black Sheep - A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing
20. Scarface - Mr. Scarface Is Back
21. Mariah Carey - Emotions
22. Massive Attack - Blue Lines
23. Smashing Pumpkins - Gish
24. Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Majik
25. Squeeze - Play
26. Crowded House - Woodface
27. Superchunk - No Pocky For Kitty
28. Fugazi - Steady Diet of Nothing
29. Van Halen - For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
30. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
31. Cypress Hill - Cypress Hill
32. Prince - Diamonds And Pearls
33. 2Pac – 2Pacalypse Now
34. Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion I
35. fIREHOSE - Flyin' The Flannel
36. Queen Latifah - Nature of a Sista'
37. Dinosaur Jr. - Green Mind
38. The Meat Puppets - Forbidden Places
39. Slick Rick - The Ruler's Back
40. Tom Petty - Into The Great Wide Open
41. Screaming Trees - Uncle Anesthesia
42. The Spin Doctors - Pocket Full Of Kryptonite
43. Fishbone - The Reality Of My Surroundings
44. Shudder To Think - Funeral At The Movies
45. R.E.M. - Out Of Time
46. Poster Children - Daisychain Reaction
47. Michael Jackson - Dangerous
48. Slint - Spiderland
49. Hole - Pretty On The Inside
50. Elvis Costello - Mighty Like A Rose
I had been doing these posts about once a month last year, but then after the 1992 one I took a break, which ended up lasting almost a year. And that's partly because, as I said then, '92 was kind of my 'year zero' for taking an interest in popular music and buying CDs and watching MTV religiously and all that. But of course, a lot of the albums I started checking over the next couple years were the big era-defining rock albums that, as it happened, were mostly released in '92 (Pearl Jam, Nirvana, U2, Metallica, RHCP, R.E.M., GNR, etc.) And what's interesting to me, about this list, is how much better most of those blockbusters still sound to me than most other stuff, including the much cooler indie rock touchstones from that year that I've heard since then (one exception: Talk Talk, which I only just checked out this week and lived up to the hype). But I wasn't checking out rap albums yet, and obviously had a lot of great stuff to catch up on, including Native Tongues having probably the best year any rap crew has ever or will ever have (1, 2, 19, and 34 on this list plus a Leaders of the New School album I haven't heard).
Top 100 Singles of 1991:
1. DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - "Summertime"
2. Geto Boys - "Mind Playing Tricks On Me"
3. Boyz II Men - "Motownphilly"
4. Soundgarden - "Outshined"
5. LL Cool J - "Mama Said Knock You Out"
6. Naughty By Nature - "O.P.P."
7. Seal - "Crazy"
8. School of Fish - "3 Strange Days"
9. Metallica - "Enter Sandman"
10. Mariah Carey - "Emotions"
11. Bonnie Raitt - "I Can't Make You Love Me"
12. Nirvana - "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
13. The Black Crowes - "She Talks To Angels"
14. Lenny Kravitz - "It Ain't Over 'til It's Over"
15. Jesus Jones - "Right Here, Right Now"
16. EMF - "Unbelievable"
17. Janet Jackson - "Love Will Never Do (Without You)"
18. Dr. Dre f/ Snoop Dogg - "Deep Cover"
19. Pearl Jam - "Alive"
20. A Tribe Called Quest - "Check The Rhime"
21. Cypress Hill - "How I Could Just Kill A Man"
22. Marky Mark And The Funky Bunch featuring Loleatta Holloway - "Good Vibrations"
23. 3rd Bass - "Pop Goes The Weasel"
24. Ozzy Osbourne - "No More Tears"
25. Metallica - "The Unforgiven"
26. Boyz II Men - "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday"
27. Violent Femmes - "American Music"
28. Heavy D & The Boyz - "Now That We Found Love"
29. Guns N Roses - "You Could Be Mine"
30. Chris Isaak - "Wicked Game"
31. Tom Petty - "Learning To Fly"
32. Van Halen - "Poundcake"
33. U2 - "The Fly"
34. Gerardo - "Rico Suave"
35. Big Audio Dynamite II - "Rush"
36. Main Source - "Looking At The Front Door"
37. R.E.M. f/ KRS-One- "Radio Song"
38. Primus - "Jerry Was A Race Car Driver"
39. Genesis - "I Can't Dance"
40. Garth Brooks - "The Thunder Rolls"
41. LL Cool J - "Around The Way Girl"
42. Dinosaur Jr. - "The Wagon"
43. Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Give It Away"
44. Babyface and Pebbles - "Love Makes Things Happen"
45. Jane's Addiction - "Been Caught Stealing"
46. Soundgarden - "Jesus Christ Pose"
47. Guns N Roses - "Don't Cry"
48. C+C Music Factory - "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)"
49. Alice In Chains - "Man In the Box"
50. De La Soul - "A Rollerskating Jam Named 'Saturdays'"
51. Prince - "Gett Off"
52. INXS - "Bitter Tears
53. Paula Abdul - "Rush Rush"
54. 2Pac - "If My Homie Calls"
55. Amy Grant - "Baby, Baby"
56. Queensryche - "Silent Lucidity"
57. Sting - "All This Time"
58. Hammer - "2 Legit 2 Quit"
59. The Simpsons - "Do The Bartman"
60. Keith Sweat - "I'll Give All My Love To You"
61. Van Halen - "Runaround"
62. Tom Petty - "Into The Great Wide Open"
63. Color Me Badd - "I Wanna Sex You Up"
64. The Divinyls - "I Touch Myself"
65. Prince - "Cream"
66. R.E.M. - "Shiny Happy People"
67. Fishbone - "Sunless Saturday"
68. Leaders of the New School - "Case Of The P.T.A."
69. Extreme - "More Than Words"
70. Nirvana - "Come As You Are"
71. Sarah MacLachlan - "Into The Fire"
72. Lenny Kravitz - "Always On The Run"
73. Big Audio Dynamite II - "The Globe"
74. U2 - "Mysterious Ways"
75. DJ Quik - "Tonite"
76. Freddie Jackson - "Love Me Down"
77. Primus - "Tommy The Cat"
78. De La Soul - "Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)"
79. Mark Cohn - "Walking In Memphis"
80. Elvis Costello - "The Other Side of Summer"
81. Guns N Roses - "Live And Let Die"
82. The Scorpions - "Wind of Change"
83. Freddie Jackson - "Do Me Again"
84. Bonnie Raitt - "Something To Talk About"
85. R.E.M. - "Losing My Religion"
86. Van Halen - "Top Of The World"
87. Bryan Adams - "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You"
88. Alice Cooper - "Feed My Frankenstein"
89. Michael Jackson - "Black Or White"
90. The Pixies - "Head On"
91. 2Pac - "Brenda's Got A Baby"
92. En Vogue - "You Don't Have To Worry"
93. Extreme - "Hole Hearted"
94. Ice Cube - "Steady Mobbin'"
95. Matthew Sweet - "Divine Intervention"
96. Smashing Pumpkins - "Rhinoceros"
97. Boyz II Men - "Uhh Ahh"
98. A Tribe Called Quest - "Jazz (We've Got)"
99. Damn Yankees - "High Enough"
100. Queen - "The Show Must Go On"
As usual, it's the singles list that makes me feel far more nostalgic. There are just so many songs here that are basically running through my veins, that I can't remember ever thinking about enjoying the way I overthink enjoying things now, things that just sounded great to me as a kid without really registering beyond that. There's a lot of rewritten history about how the early '90s were absolutely terrible for pop music before Nirvana Came Along And Changed Everything, but fuck that, there was a lot of great stuff around that they had nothing to do with and weren't necessarily better than.
1. A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
2. De La Soul - De La Soul Is Dead
3. U2 - Achtung Baby
4. Talk Talk - Laughing Stock
5. Nirvana - Nevermind
6. Geto Boys - We Can't Be Stopped
7. Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion II
8. Temple Of The Dog - Temple Of The Dog
9. Ice Cube - Death Certificate
10. The Nation Of Ulysses - 13-Point Program To Destroy America
11. Metallica – Metallica
12. Main Source - Breaking Atoms
13. Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
14. Gang Starr - Step In The Arena
15. DJ Quik - Quik Is The Name
16. Primus - Sailing The Seas of Cheese
17. Pearl Jam - Ten
18. Seal - Seal
19. Black Sheep - A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing
20. Scarface - Mr. Scarface Is Back
21. Mariah Carey - Emotions
22. Massive Attack - Blue Lines
23. Smashing Pumpkins - Gish
24. Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Majik
25. Squeeze - Play
26. Crowded House - Woodface
27. Superchunk - No Pocky For Kitty
28. Fugazi - Steady Diet of Nothing
29. Van Halen - For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
30. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
31. Cypress Hill - Cypress Hill
32. Prince - Diamonds And Pearls
33. 2Pac – 2Pacalypse Now
34. Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion I
35. fIREHOSE - Flyin' The Flannel
36. Queen Latifah - Nature of a Sista'
37. Dinosaur Jr. - Green Mind
38. The Meat Puppets - Forbidden Places
39. Slick Rick - The Ruler's Back
40. Tom Petty - Into The Great Wide Open
41. Screaming Trees - Uncle Anesthesia
42. The Spin Doctors - Pocket Full Of Kryptonite
43. Fishbone - The Reality Of My Surroundings
44. Shudder To Think - Funeral At The Movies
45. R.E.M. - Out Of Time
46. Poster Children - Daisychain Reaction
47. Michael Jackson - Dangerous
48. Slint - Spiderland
49. Hole - Pretty On The Inside
50. Elvis Costello - Mighty Like A Rose
I had been doing these posts about once a month last year, but then after the 1992 one I took a break, which ended up lasting almost a year. And that's partly because, as I said then, '92 was kind of my 'year zero' for taking an interest in popular music and buying CDs and watching MTV religiously and all that. But of course, a lot of the albums I started checking over the next couple years were the big era-defining rock albums that, as it happened, were mostly released in '92 (Pearl Jam, Nirvana, U2, Metallica, RHCP, R.E.M., GNR, etc.) And what's interesting to me, about this list, is how much better most of those blockbusters still sound to me than most other stuff, including the much cooler indie rock touchstones from that year that I've heard since then (one exception: Talk Talk, which I only just checked out this week and lived up to the hype). But I wasn't checking out rap albums yet, and obviously had a lot of great stuff to catch up on, including Native Tongues having probably the best year any rap crew has ever or will ever have (1, 2, 19, and 34 on this list plus a Leaders of the New School album I haven't heard).
Top 100 Singles of 1991:
1. DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - "Summertime"
2. Geto Boys - "Mind Playing Tricks On Me"
3. Boyz II Men - "Motownphilly"
4. Soundgarden - "Outshined"
5. LL Cool J - "Mama Said Knock You Out"
6. Naughty By Nature - "O.P.P."
7. Seal - "Crazy"
8. School of Fish - "3 Strange Days"
9. Metallica - "Enter Sandman"
10. Mariah Carey - "Emotions"
11. Bonnie Raitt - "I Can't Make You Love Me"
12. Nirvana - "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
13. The Black Crowes - "She Talks To Angels"
14. Lenny Kravitz - "It Ain't Over 'til It's Over"
15. Jesus Jones - "Right Here, Right Now"
16. EMF - "Unbelievable"
17. Janet Jackson - "Love Will Never Do (Without You)"
18. Dr. Dre f/ Snoop Dogg - "Deep Cover"
19. Pearl Jam - "Alive"
20. A Tribe Called Quest - "Check The Rhime"
21. Cypress Hill - "How I Could Just Kill A Man"
22. Marky Mark And The Funky Bunch featuring Loleatta Holloway - "Good Vibrations"
23. 3rd Bass - "Pop Goes The Weasel"
24. Ozzy Osbourne - "No More Tears"
25. Metallica - "The Unforgiven"
26. Boyz II Men - "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday"
27. Violent Femmes - "American Music"
28. Heavy D & The Boyz - "Now That We Found Love"
29. Guns N Roses - "You Could Be Mine"
30. Chris Isaak - "Wicked Game"
31. Tom Petty - "Learning To Fly"
32. Van Halen - "Poundcake"
33. U2 - "The Fly"
34. Gerardo - "Rico Suave"
35. Big Audio Dynamite II - "Rush"
36. Main Source - "Looking At The Front Door"
37. R.E.M. f/ KRS-One- "Radio Song"
38. Primus - "Jerry Was A Race Car Driver"
39. Genesis - "I Can't Dance"
40. Garth Brooks - "The Thunder Rolls"
41. LL Cool J - "Around The Way Girl"
42. Dinosaur Jr. - "The Wagon"
43. Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Give It Away"
44. Babyface and Pebbles - "Love Makes Things Happen"
45. Jane's Addiction - "Been Caught Stealing"
46. Soundgarden - "Jesus Christ Pose"
47. Guns N Roses - "Don't Cry"
48. C+C Music Factory - "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)"
49. Alice In Chains - "Man In the Box"
50. De La Soul - "A Rollerskating Jam Named 'Saturdays'"
51. Prince - "Gett Off"
52. INXS - "Bitter Tears
53. Paula Abdul - "Rush Rush"
54. 2Pac - "If My Homie Calls"
55. Amy Grant - "Baby, Baby"
56. Queensryche - "Silent Lucidity"
57. Sting - "All This Time"
58. Hammer - "2 Legit 2 Quit"
59. The Simpsons - "Do The Bartman"
60. Keith Sweat - "I'll Give All My Love To You"
61. Van Halen - "Runaround"
62. Tom Petty - "Into The Great Wide Open"
63. Color Me Badd - "I Wanna Sex You Up"
64. The Divinyls - "I Touch Myself"
65. Prince - "Cream"
66. R.E.M. - "Shiny Happy People"
67. Fishbone - "Sunless Saturday"
68. Leaders of the New School - "Case Of The P.T.A."
69. Extreme - "More Than Words"
70. Nirvana - "Come As You Are"
71. Sarah MacLachlan - "Into The Fire"
72. Lenny Kravitz - "Always On The Run"
73. Big Audio Dynamite II - "The Globe"
74. U2 - "Mysterious Ways"
75. DJ Quik - "Tonite"
76. Freddie Jackson - "Love Me Down"
77. Primus - "Tommy The Cat"
78. De La Soul - "Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)"
79. Mark Cohn - "Walking In Memphis"
80. Elvis Costello - "The Other Side of Summer"
81. Guns N Roses - "Live And Let Die"
82. The Scorpions - "Wind of Change"
83. Freddie Jackson - "Do Me Again"
84. Bonnie Raitt - "Something To Talk About"
85. R.E.M. - "Losing My Religion"
86. Van Halen - "Top Of The World"
87. Bryan Adams - "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You"
88. Alice Cooper - "Feed My Frankenstein"
89. Michael Jackson - "Black Or White"
90. The Pixies - "Head On"
91. 2Pac - "Brenda's Got A Baby"
92. En Vogue - "You Don't Have To Worry"
93. Extreme - "Hole Hearted"
94. Ice Cube - "Steady Mobbin'"
95. Matthew Sweet - "Divine Intervention"
96. Smashing Pumpkins - "Rhinoceros"
97. Boyz II Men - "Uhh Ahh"
98. A Tribe Called Quest - "Jazz (We've Got)"
99. Damn Yankees - "High Enough"
100. Queen - "The Show Must Go On"
As usual, it's the singles list that makes me feel far more nostalgic. There are just so many songs here that are basically running through my veins, that I can't remember ever thinking about enjoying the way I overthink enjoying things now, things that just sounded great to me as a kid without really registering beyond that. There's a lot of rewritten history about how the early '90s were absolutely terrible for pop music before Nirvana Came Along And Changed Everything, but fuck that, there was a lot of great stuff around that they had nothing to do with and weren't necessarily better than.
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