Mount Rushmore of albums from the 1990s
 

Hey all,

It is the return of Mount Rushmore. Been a while since we've had one of these. You know the rules, your 4 (and only 4) choices for top albums of the 1990s.

Here's mine to start things off:

1. Jagged Little Pill - Alanis Morrisette
Just a great album, start to finish
2. Sublime - Sublime
A band whose time was cut way too short
3. The Chronic - Dr. Dre
Dre proved he didn't need NWA to make it big
4. OK Computer - Radiohead
An overachieving concept album that exceeded the expectations

Just missed:
Nevermind - Nirvana
Four great songs, but a few filler songs on there as well
Achtung, Baby! - U2
Contains one of my all-time favorite songs (One)

The basic Mount Rushmore concept stated and violated in record time. Impressive.

They weren't carved into the mountain, but were among the names considered. Hence the non-bolded nature and lack of number. Consider it the equivalent of "other receiving votes" in a Top 25 poll.

It's like Quik hasn't even seen the little statues of James K. Polk and Andrew Johnson in the Mount Rushmore visitors center. Jeeze.

LS, think your picture belongs in the guy slapping the toddler thread from yesterday.

To go back on topic:

OK Computer
Nevermind
The Chronic
No Fences

Beck - Odelay
Dr. Dre - The Chronic
Pearl Jam - 10
Metallica - Metallica

NIN - Pretty Hate Machine
Nirvana - Nevermind
U2 - Achtung Baby
Radiohead - OK Computer

To be fair, Pretty Hate Machine came out in October of 1989.

Snoop Doggy Dogg - Doggystyle

It took full advantage of the springboard Dr. Dre's 'The Chronic' provided it. While The Chronic came first, this was the album that every high school kid/young adult had the day it dropped, white, black, hispanic, or asian.


Weezer - S/T (The Blue Album)

Impossible not to feel good while listening to this record, even today. It had two huge singles, and Guitar Hero may have turned another song into the most popular one of all.

Nirvana - Nevermind

Not much needs to be said here. Everybody knows the story already. Therefore, it belongs.

Sublime - Sublime

As passe as Sublime is to me now, there's almost no question in my mind that this belongs on here. Once college kids started co-opting Bob Marley, this was the next logical step. A dub band of kids from Long Beach that were actually really good. Maybe it's just because summer is winding down, and I'm feeling sentimental, but I don't think I'm alone in saying a lot of great times and memories were scored by this album that I can barely even stomach any more.

Nirvana -- Nevermind, Pearl Jam -- Ten, Alice in Chains -- Dirt

I've still never convinced myself which album is better but those three to me define the 90s. Two of them have to go but I'm not sure which one I'd dump. I think I believe Ten is the best of the three but Nirvana's Cobain factor tends to bump them up. Tough call and maybe I create a crazy three-headed monster with it.

Dr. Dre -- The Chronic -- definied rap at the time.

Alanis Morisette -- Jagged Little Pill -- I still listen to this CD from time to time. There's part of me that believes she might be the coolest chick on the planet.

Green Day -- Dookie -- I always felt this CD brought in a new era of music.

BTW, I like the Jagged Little Pill picks. That was a unique moment in music, having her at the top of the charts.

Seeing as how Nevermind changed the face of the music industry in a seismic fashion, any Mt. Rushmore that doesn't include it (presumable as #1), is an epic motherfucking fail.

The album isn't all that good.

<3

It's obvious from the general reaction it gets that Nevermind is of critical musical importance.

For me personally, I can't stand it, or the whole depressing, stupid Seattle scene. IMO, it set back music years, and over-exposed depression-themed, anti-melodic songs and little-range artists massively throughout the whole decade, pushing aside better played and sounding music.

I listen to music to hear music. Not sounds that seem created from someone hitting the gas in neutral over and over again.

While I can see an argument that the album "as a whole" isn't that good, the first 24 minutes of it changed the face of the music industry completely.

Total, absolute paradigm-shift.

I fail to see the "epic motherfucking fail" you claim. Nevermind is not one of my 4 choices for top albums of the 1990s. Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em was pretty important, too.

LOL

valid point - if it is all about personal taste then it's wide-open to interpertation of what was a "top" album

i'm not gonig to pickup the mantle of "Nirvana defender" in this thread - I'll save that for someone who likes them more than me.

Now if anybody tries to go off on Green Day...watch the fuck out.

It revolutionized those balloon pants, and the way we play side step defense in basketball.

Well, as the album that brought rap to white people, you could argue it did even more to change the music industry than Nevermind. If that's the rubric we're using.

IMO, if you assume that brought rap to white people, you need to give more love to Vanilla Ice.

Anti-melodic? The reason Nirvana got so huge is that they had instantly memorable melodies. Everything else, that's just how you feel.

Memorable is not melodic.

Meh, PHDHE was nearly a half a year before Ice, and I could be wrong but I would guess the majority of the purchases were by whites.

Dude, just...dude. I relent. You win. I'm going to go eat lunch.

I can't name one Radiohead song, and yet so many people seem to like them.

Were they really that good? Apparently I missed Radiohead while I was working nights and my wife was having babies.

WOOHOO! :D

Creep, IIRC, was their first really big hit. I am pretty sure you would know it.

Radiohead, Weezer, Green Day, it's funny these are groups that kinda got their start in and around the grunge time, and you can see the influence in their songs. But these bands, IMO, far transcended their beginnings and developed and became much more.

Speaking of Nirvana before, while I am not a fan there, I think Dave Grohl and his work with the Foo Fighters is terrific.

Okay, I vaguely remember Creep.

I listened to snippets of half a dozen songs from OK Computer on YouTube just now. I didn't recognize any of them.

I hate it when I completely miss out on seminal albums. :)

*doesn't know any Radiohead songs*
*barely knows any Weezer songs*
*crazy rabid Green Day fan*

:eek:

+100

Even though I liked some songs on Dookie, in my mind, at the time of that release, Green Day was just another grunge-ish offshoot, STP was the same way for me (liked them better than Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, but only by a little). Green Day grew beyond that, though, and I consider them to be a much better developed band now. By comparison, STP didn't really develop, IMO, although that was probably because Weiland was always hopped up or in rehab.

Radiohead and Weezer had roots influenced by grunge, but of course, they both sound completely different from that, from each other and from Green Day. They all three have distinctive sounds that work for them and their fans. My personal favorite of the three is Weezer.

Ok, I have do this favor for you...From Nirvana's allmusic.com biography...pretty much the biggest music encyclopedia the internet has ever seen:


Q: What else could you be?


A:ALLLLLL APOLOGIES

EDIT: Link http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg...ifexqr5ld6e~T1

Didn't know this was the Mount Rushmore of Shit.

I don't deny their influence. I even point that out above in my first post in thread.

But it's not a sound I like. The music is too guttural and low, not enough free flowing. Specific to Nirvana, Cobain's voice is awful, and even if it's an intentional affectation, it doesn't make it any better to listen to. The only thing I generally like about Nirvana music is the lead guitar melodies, when they're not using it to produce the "white noise" mentioned in your link. For instance, the counterplay chorus riff in "All Apologies" or the opening lead in for "Come As You Are".

IMO, the overall sound of Nirvana and the grunge scene was never really appealing musically. It was new and innovative, and interesting the first few times. But it got tiresome quickly--much more quickly than radio stations stopped overplaying it unfortunately. A lot of grunge, I found, relied on using off-notes, tunes that don't conform with the natural hearing tendencies of the human ear. I think this can be well used to a point, but if you use it too much, it can become maddening. "All Apologies" is a good example actually--lots of off notes in that one. I can only listen to that so long.

An example of a song that does this that is one of my favorites is the Beatles' (Harrison's really) "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". It's a beautiful song that often sounds off-chord, but they bring it together well, and don't over-do it with the off-tunes.

Nirvana did a lot of things great. But for me personally, they screwed up a whole decade with their sound. Remember, the guys copying Nirvana were not themselves Nirvana, so that didn't help. Just my opinion, take it for what it's worth.

Don't you have something better to do? Like running into other mongoloids inside of a sweaty teen center while some bratty kids have epileptic fits on a stage?

Yeah, despite our differences on Nirvana, I have to agree with Karl here. Nevermind's already spoken for. Sublime might be my favorite album from the 90s. And Weezer's terrific. Never gave Snoop a full listen, but I know enough of his songs to know I would probably enjoy the above album (and probably know half the songs already).

Faith No More - Angel Dust: The best album by the best rock/metal band of the 90's. Such a diverse CD that showcased the brilliance of Mike Patton and co, and ushered in the (unfortunate) era of "nu-metal" years later.

Down - NOLA: The best real rock album of the 90's. Just a great album with a lot of southern influences. The best thing Phil Anselmo has ever done besides heroin.

Alice in Chains - Dirt: The only Seattle band worth a damn, this one album made up for all the other shit Nirvana and Pearl Jam spewed out. A great rock album that holds up well today.

Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion: C'mon, it was an epic that ended up being the last great thing GNR ever did. Two discs of epic songs.

Sorry, I couldn't hear you over your awful music tastes.

Faith No More had a couple really great songs, but I got tired of them faster than I got tired of Nirvana.

Alice In Chains is in the same group for me as STP. They had a sound I liked better, but they never developed far enough to grow out of it.

I don't know Down.

Loved Use Your Illusion in its day. Don't listen much anymore, but it was a good listen while I had it in my regular rotation.

Im kinda surprised Slim Shady or Devil without a Cause hasnt slipped onto someone's list

For me the 90s
1) GnR UYI 1 &2 (admit it it was 1 album)
2) Jagged Little Pill (kinda unique musical time as mentioned earlier)
3) No Fences (Who can forget the 90ss urban cowboy movement, I literally remember a 90210 episode with Friends in Low Places playing at a Beverly Hill Party)
4) All Eyez on me - If you are going to throw the token rap album in there, at least let it be the best one of the decade.

They've all been mentioned already but Dookie, Nevermind, OK Computer, and Weezer (blue album) for me.

Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet
Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole
U2 - Achtung Baby

Haven't offered mine up yet...

Sublime-Sublime
Metallica-Metallica (Black Album)
Tragic Kingdom--No Doubt
Weezer--Weezer (Blue Album)

Really tough to get this down to four, especially after the first two.

And the Beastie Boys make either claim irrelevant.

1. Metallica - Metallica (The Black Album)
2. Garth Brooks - No Fences
3. Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory
4. Kid Rock - Devil Without a Cause

(now that's a token rap album)

The Use Your Illusions never really crossed my mind despite the fact Appetite for Destruction would easily be on the Mount Rushmore of 80s albums. If I could package them together I could think about it...but as they were doing that, the scene had changed so much as to not make them nearly as relevant as they could have been a couple of years prior.

Radiohead - OK Computer
The Flaming Lips - Soft Bulletin
Air - Moon Safari
Mr Bungle - California

Live - Throwing Copper

Lots of good shit there.

One of the ones I considered in my run down to four. Very good album.

I've never been a huge fan of Live, but I listened to Secret Samadhi last week for the first time in like 10 years and man, it's pretty good. I don't remember being all that fond of it back then.

U2 - Achtung, Baby - They completely changed their sound, and it resulted in their pinnacle album.

Def Leppard - Slang - DL's Achtung, Baby - They completely changed their sound, but most people weren't going to give DL the time of day in the nineties, and it was a complete flop commercially. I put it on par with Hysteria and Pyromania.

Bon Jovi - Keep The Faith - After several meh albums following Slippery When Wet, Bon Jovi put out their single best album.

Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill - This one came out of nowhere. Great album.

The nineties in general weren't good for me musically. They were a rebellion against the music I loved. Screw the nineties.

It's tough not to include Jagged Little Pill I guess, considering how much of a smash it was. I've heard it that many times over the years, but I still like most of the songs OK.

I actually think the follow up album - though can't remember the title anymore - was pretty good as well, but at the same time far darker and less commercial than JLP, so I'm not surprised it didn't fare nearly as well.

David Byrne -- Feelings
Jellyfish -- Spilt Milk
Pet Shop Boys -- Very
Sundays -- Blind

Nirvana -- Nevermind
Pearl Jam -- Ten
Alanis -- Jagged Little Pill
Counting Crows -- August and Everything After

Nevermind - Nirvana
Blood Sugar Sex Magik - RHCP
The Presidents of the United States of America - The Presidents of the United States of America
Licensed to Ill -Beastie Boys

Rage should probably be on there ahead of PUSA, but giving love to the 2 string bass.

Blood Sugar Sex Magik was pretty damn good

Licensed to Ill came out in '86, so room now for RATM.

mmmm - August and Everything After!!! :D:D:D:D

I guess I should be looking these up...

I can think of a ton of stuff I liked better than some of these, but are they in no way Rushmore worthy, as they aren't in any way revolutionary.

So RATM it is

pretty crazy that Rolling Stone only had 3 5 star rated albums for this decade.


I'll take
REM-Automatic for the People
Pavement-Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain(honestly I know S&E was rated better,but I prefer this one)
Alanis-Jagged Little Pill
Hootie-Cracked Rear View

2 that were only mentioned by one person each
No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom
2pac - All Eyez on Me (double album)

1 for changing the commercial landscape
Spice Girls - Spice

Everyone wants to throw Alanis Morrisette on, but to paraphrase the (Chris Rock?) joke, the Spice Girls CD sold 23 million records, and I've never met a single person who bought one. Brought back bubblegum pop music (then BSB took over the next year.)

1 for being the best album ever
Nas - Illmatic

Not very commercially successful compared to other picks, but still the best rap album of all time start to finish. No filler, no skits, just a quick intro and 9 of the best songs ever laid down. If I was forced to listen to one CD on repeat for the rest of my life, I could live happily with this.

For me, it's a tie between "Wowee Zowee" and "Brighten the Corners".

Okay, I spent way too much time on this. And then came up with a very standard list.

Ok Computer
Superunknown
10
Blood Sugar Sex Magic

I listened to them then. I listen to them now. The problem with Rage is the same problem I have with the Beatles: they just don't have that one album that really stands out as flawless. Same with the Pixies. Okay, that's enough, especially since no one's even reading this thread anymore.

I'd say Wowee Zowee is by far their best.

My '90s indie Rushmore:

Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Modest Mouse - Lonesome Crowded West
Braid - Frame and Canvas

I debated putting Hootie on here. It wasn't groundbreaking at all but if you were on a college campus when it broke, it's just about all you heard. I still think it's a good CD even listening to it 15 years later.

Nirvana - Nevermind
Weezer - Weezer (The Blue Album)
Oasis - Definitely Maybe
Beck - Odelay

I'm actually surprised I'm only the second person to mention "Odelay"

If you asked me back in the 90s I probably would have picked:

Ten - Pearl Jam
OK Computer - Radiohead
Ben Folds Five - Ben Folds Five
Green - REM

However, now with a decade to reflect on it, today I pick:

OK Computer - Radiohead
Mirror Ball - Neil Young
Lonesome Crowded West - Modest Mouse
Weezer - Weezer

Nirvana- Nevermind
Pearl Jam- Ten
RHCP- Blood Sugar Sex Magic
Alanis- Jagged Little Pill

Based purely on my own current, personal preferences:

Chavez - Ride the Fader

Silver Jews - American Water

Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Palace Music - Viva Last Blues

Among everyone else's lists, this one is one I would lean the closest to. Jagged Little Pill was damn good too. Kudos to the brave soul who brought up the Spice Girls. Pop had its place in the 90s, including TLC's Crazy Sexy Cool, Britney, Spicers, and Hanson.

My own list would be:

1. U2 Achtung Baby
2. Soul Asylum Grave Dancers Union
3. REM Automatic for the People
4. Matchbox 20 Yourself or Someone Like You

I know this comes as no surprise, but good call on "American Water". "Ride the Fader" is a good one too.

I'm like a Matador groupie.

Very is an amazingly good album.

Can;t believe someone hasn;t mentioned Garth Brooks yet.

He's actually been mentioned several times, I believe. No Fences was put up there at least twice. I think another one by him is on someone's list, too.

Abe's (for the music I listen to, these are iconic):

Depeche Mode - Violator
Includes, what I think many consider the greatest song in electronic music history, imo, Enjoy the Silence, and two amazing classics in Personal Jesus and Policy of Truth.

Moby - Play
Spiritual, haunting, delicious, fast, slow, melodic, harmonic, Moby's Play moves through the various human emotions until you feel something you've never felt before. Just a classic, amazing album. The first album, ever, with every track licensed for commercial use, and featured a remarkable NINE singles.

Pet Shop Boys - Very
Very few American audiences know how PSB continued to evolve and develop their sound after the 80s. Never released a bad album to this day. This is their best. They have found their voice, their music, and their muse.

The Wedding Album - Duran Duran
With amazing songs like Ordinary Day, Come Undone, Shelter, Sin of the City, and Too Much Information, this was a great album with some enduring hits that everybody likes (Ordinary Day).


In the gift shop, close, but no cigar.


Electronic - Electronic
What do you get when you combine guitarist Johnny Marr of The Smiths, signer and singwriter Bernard Sumner of New Order, singer and songwriter Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys, and Karl Bartos of Kraftwerk. I help you out - you get awesome.

New Order - Republic
A great album, several hits, after the hit happy 80s, smoother and more consistent. This was in my top 4 until I looked up Play.

Enigma - MCMXC a.D.
When I first heard this, my understanding of what you could do musically changed forever. A great, great album, genre defining, genre changing, and amazing.

EDIT - Whoops, just realized (Moby - Play) was released in 1999 and I changed my list.

Good, cause I didn;t see it, and that would be silly.

Nice, another D-Mode devotee. It's funny, I stayed away from nominating some of my personal favorites from the 90s by bands which, IMO, did better work in the 80s (Duran Duran, D-Mode, New Order, and U2 among them).

Love Enjoy The Silence, although my second fave on the album is World In My Eyes. I was also a big fan of later album Songs of Faith and Devotion.

Agreed. Strangely enough, I only didn't nominate Garth Brooks not because I didn't think he was iconic or worthy of it, but because I couldn't really decide which album I liked the most. I got into his music through the first Greatest Hits, which was amazing, but I don't think GH albums are worth being placed in lists like these.

Plus, probably my two favorite songs by GB are If Tomorrow Never Comes and The Dance, and they were on his first album--released in 1989 (of course).

SOFAD is awesome, and I personally like it better than Violator, but Violator is the standard by which DM is judged.

I had to come up with a second five. This really was my decade for music (as I assume it is for a few others on this board)


Creed -- My Own Prison (you couldnt go anywhere without hearing a Creed song for a while there)

Seven Mary Three -- American Standard (Cumbersome, Waters Edge, and My My are still on my Ipod)

Genesis -- We Can't Dance

Foo Fighters -- The Colour and the Shape

We have someone from the Cape on here? (And yes, I considered Britney, NSync and Hanson* before choosing Spice Girls there. Can't believe I forgot TLC. If we were going singles, Waterfalls hands down.)

* - 1 of the 4 tapes (I'm old) I first bought in... 1996?. Hanson MMMbop, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Offspring Ixnay On the Hombre (in contention for my Mt. Rushmore) and Tragic Kingdom. Mock me if you will, but I will rep all four (and MMMbop the song stands up through time.)

I certainly can't mock you for Tragic Kingdom, since it's on my Mt Rushmore as well. I think front to back it's an excellent album, with some of the best band pop songs of the decade, and No Doubt was at the forefront of the new punk ska scene that was going around about that time.

1. Rage Against The Machine - Evil Empire - Classic all the way through, their best, IMO.

2. Nas - Illmatic - Legendary Album by one of the best theres been. Pure hip hop.

3. Pantera - The Great Southern Trendkill - Best album by a hard metal band I heard in the 90s.

4. White Zombie - Astro Creep 2000 - Still nothing like it out there aside from other stuff by them and Rob.

I can think of another 5 or 10 I would like to include, but can't.

Astro Creep 2000 was very good. I enjoyed Vulger Display of Power more than The Great Southern Trendkill, but I cannot knock you for the choice.

This has become favorite albums instead of mount rushmore of albums. There's no way a Pantera album, as much as I might like them, is on Mount Rushmore.

1. Noir Désir -Tostaky : deezer linky
Best rock album of the 90s, really.

2. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Only second to Noir Désir, but really cool rock.

3. Nirvana - Nevermind
No need to explain why, really.

4. Lenny Kravitz - Mamma said
album looks so-so compared to other on that list, Ben Harper (The will to live) was also considered there.

I was just going by the way the question was worded. What is MY mount rushmore? That one.

I would definitely pick a different 4 which would be WAY more diverse if I were picking those I perceived to be the 4 greatest without factoring in my own personal opinion.

Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
Uncle Tupelo - Anodyne
Afghan Whigs - Black Love
Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand

Aight, time for me to throw up a list on here.

I just woke up, so it'll be a few minutes.

The '90s might well be the greatest decade in the history of music. In terms of quality and variety of musical streams, it's possible that it may never be surpassed. As a result of this, the Mt. Rushmore of this 10 years needs to take into consideration those albums which were truly epic and, in some cases, whose ramifications might even echo down into the present day.

Nirvana - Nevermind
It's been mentioned by several others and yes, it belongs here. I say this as someone who despises Nirvana, Kurt Cobain, the group's music and the hordes and hordes of Cobain shirts following his suicide, most worn by girls. This album singlehandedly launched the Seattle grunge movement and alternative as a whole into the mainstream and in a major way. So major that alternative music was one of the dominant music types of the decade. I can't attest to Nirvana's influences in terms of music, because I don't listen to this type of stuff but I believe it's there.

Boyz II Men - Cooleyhigharmony
In many ways, the 1990s was the last decade where true, pure R&B singing was in the mainstream, before it was replaced by a complete fusion with rap. Foreshadows of this union came with the New Jack Swing sound, which, ironically enough, also created some of the best R&B ever. Like Nirvana's Nevermind did for grunge and alternative, this album skyrocketed new jack swing-flavored R&B to the top of the national conscience and paved the way for groups like Shai, Jodeci, TLC (though they were slightly different in their sound) and so on to break out. As a bonus, the second run of Cooleyhigharmony included the record-breaking chart-topper, "End of the Road".

Real McCoy - Another Night
Eurodance was another smash hit genre of the '90s. I really struggled with this one in terms of finding an album that really launched the Eurodance craze. You could suggest Ace of Base - The Sign and have an argument, but to me, Ace of Base isn't that much of a pure eurodance group. So instead, I'm going to take Real McCoy's top-selling album as a representative of the genre. Terrific beats, gorgeous female vocals and fun lyrics were all hallmarks of the eurodance scene, in its own way as mainstream (though on a lesser scale) than the two previously mentioned genres.

Spice Girls - Spice
It's been mentioned by someone else and I agree it belongs. Yes, Hanson, preceded them, but there was no lasting impact from the three brothers, who were essentially a flash in the pan. The Spice Girls, on the other hand, were an international sensation, one that re-ignited the power of bubblegum pop sound and created an opportunity, as somebody earlier mntioned, under which boy band groups like Backstreet Boys and N-Sync could flourish and be dominant in the '00s. We'd also be remiss, I think, if we ignored the Girl Power message that the Spice Girls helped popularize. It gave girls and women a creed to stand on and perhaps in some small way helped bolster their self-esteem (okay that may be a bit of a stretch). Truly a worthy conclusion to these four epic albums.

Damn, I feel like I got outflanked by Real McCoy. Did you know that Another Night, by RM, got me into electronic music permanently?

I also would respect someone giving love to Brian Setzer Orchestra which helped to put swing back on the map.

Agree I tried to go with 4 albums that would universally recognized as oustanding. My personal Rushmore would have included items from the 90s I am still listening to much more often than those I listed, but I can understand they are not Rushmore-worthy.