Those Gold Soundz

Are you Prepared for the list of the greatest albums/songs of the 90's? Good. Out of sheer boredom, here it comes, the greatest thing that ever happened to music 21 - 11 Years ago.



#25 The Downward Spiral - Nine Inch Nails

 

#24 Music Has the Right to Children - Boards of Canada

  

 #23 If You're Feeling Sinister - Belle & Sebastian

#22 Endtroducing.. - DJ Shadow

#21 - Grace - Jeff Buckley 

#20 - Summer Teeth - Wilco

#19 Achtung Baby - U2

#18 Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space - Spiritualized

#17 Post - Bjork

#16 Siamese Dream - Smashing Pumpkins

#15 I See a Darkness - Bonnie "Prince" Billy

#14 Blue Lines - Massive Attack

#13 The Low End Theory - A Tribe Called Quest

#12 Definitely Maybe - Oasis

#11 The Bends - Radiohead

#10 Selected Ambient Works 85-92 - Aphex Twin (1993)

Here is the best album by the man who has done more for electronic music than anyone since Brian Eno. One could talk about Aphex Twin for days and days, but it would all come back to this perfect little album he started with. The whole thing feels so entirely human and emotional, that one would forget he made it with a keyboard and mouse. The opening track, "Xtal", although it has no words, feels like it's speaking to you directly. "Pulsewidth" shimmers with some kind of joy. And "I" feels empty and lonely. The whole thing is the most perfect example of Pre - Daft Punk electronic music, and what led up to their big Discovery.

#9 - Screamadelica - Primal Scream (1991)

Screamadelica is the best example, to me, of when a band completely redefines themselves and changes everything about their sound, and creates the best thing that band did, or has ever done. Primal Scream, before Screamadelica, sounded like a band trying to be The Rolling Stones (although judging by their name, you'd probably think they were some kind of Heavy Metal). Before Screamadelica, they were simply just another rock band. After Screamadelica, they were the most forward thinking, different sounding, and completely original rock band around. Just listen to the song "Loaded" or "Slip Inside This House" for proof. By mixing their roots of rock with electronic influences, they created an experience unlike any other. Nobody's tried to replicate what Primal Scream did here, and nobody will probably try. You only get this much lightning in a bottle once.

 #8- The Soft Bulletin - The Flaming Lips (1999)

 

Following 1997's ambitious but pretentious album Zaireeka, The Soft Bulletin represents The Flaming Lips' marvelous return to form. With gorgeous orchestral accompaniment throughout, and their trademark childlike lyrics, this is the essential Flaming Lips album. Before Yoshimi Battled the Pink Robots, before they had were in search of a mystic, and way before they tried to remake The Dark Side of the Moon, The Flaming Lips became legends with The Soft Bulletin. And because of The Soft Bulletin, they still are.

#7 Nevermind - Nirvana (1991)

Almost 20 years since this album came out, people still don't quite understand just how important this thing was. I don't understand how important this thing was, all I hear is the stories. The stories of how before Nirvana, Alternative rock meant to the record industy "lowest selling". How before Nirvana, Indie Rockers didn't stand a chance, and how after Nirvana, the whole record industry's grapple hold on what sold was entirely dismantled. Initially, the record label only pressed 5,000 copies of this album because Alt. Rock "just doesn't sell". And 26 million sales later, Nirvana disproves that again and again. Although it's true that the record industry slowly got it's control of what was popular back again, for this brief shining moment they lost it. Because of Nirvana, even today, people can make their own music and sell it themselves, and have the confidence that the do it yourself attitude works. Because for Nirvana it did.

#6 - MTV Unplugged in New York - Nirvana (1994)

This is one of the saddest, most emotional albums ever made. Not only because Kurt Cobain killed himself very shortly afterword, not only because it proved just how talented Nirvana was before their short time ended, but because it has all of Kurt Cobain's greatest songs, stripped down and sang directly to an audience in an extremely pleading, begging way. The two highest points, the cover of David Bowie's  "The Man Who Sold The World" and their own "All Apologies", are almost too hard to listen to. And Kurt Cobain's jokes in between songs just make it even more unbearable. But it is beautiful, and completely easily to relate to, because who is a person who doesn't go through some form of agony? Some form of hopelessness? This is the best album I know of to capture that feeling, because on this album, that feeling is real. 

#5 - Slanted & Enchanted - Pavement (1992)

Quick, name the best American band of the 90's. Did you say Pavement? No? Guess again. To an indie rocker, Pavement is as good as The Beatles. To everybody else, Pavement is one of the most original, honest, and influential bands of the decade. Their debut album, Slanted and Enchanted, shows us all why. Starting off with the classic "Summer Babe (Winter Version)" and ending with "Our Singer", this is one of the albums that defines the nineties, and is the album that defines independent music. Now it has countless accolades to prove that, but everybody who listened to it knew the first time they heard it that this was something very special. 

 

#4 In The Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel (1998)

The Elephant 6 Collective was responsible for some of the better albums of the 90's, including The Apples In Stereo's Fun Trick Noisemaker and The Olivia Tremor Control's Dusk At Cubist Castle, but none of that compares with Jeff Mangum's masterpiece writing on In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. With it's completely nonsensical lyrics that somehow speak to everyone, and it's minimalist arrangements that eventually become full blowouts, this is the best thing any Elephant 6 band has ever done or will ever do. But it's more than that. It's one of the best thing's ANY band has ever done or will ever do. And it's touched more hearts, more minds, and influenced more bands than most bands will ever do to. Win Butler, the singer for Arcade Fire, says that this is the greatest album ever made, and one of the reasons they signed to Merge Records. Now if I ever get a record deal, I'm hoping it's from Merge to. 

#3 Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain - Pavement (1993)

The debate will always go on about which Pavement album is the better one. Some people say it's Slanted, some people say it's Crooked. While they're both central so essential, I have to side with Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. Why? Because this album represents Pavement at their most stripped down and honest, which is what the band was always going for anyway. It has their best songs, "Cut Your Hair", "Range Life", and the absolutely gorgeous classic that is "Gold Soundz". It has some of the most clever lyrics ever written, and some of the most simple, gorgeous arrangements. While this album isn't as straight forward as Slanted, or as refined, it represents exactly what Pavement is. Which is just a couple of ordinary guys, playing extraordinary music.

#2 Loveless - My Bloody Valentine (1991)

Loveless represents the pinnacle of noise rock and dream pop, both at the same time. Everything that bands like Galaxie 500, The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Stone Roses, and perhaps even Sonic Youth were trying to accomplish in the 80's, My Bloody Valentine did in the 90's. Although they have perhaps the most misleading band name of all time (hearing My Bloody Valentine, I definitely thought they were some kind of abrasive emo band), this album has some of the most beautiful melodies ever crafted, on top of some of the weirdest sounds and noises. This album is almost like a study between what is noise and what is music, and playing with the idea that perhaps they are are both interchangeable and completely different. The most perfect example of this comes right at the beginning with "Only Shallow", but continues throughout the whole thing. And by the time you reach the classic "Blown a Wish", you realize that the type of musical experience this album provides is a one time thing, and something you'll want to revisit over and over again. I don't think the human mind can really get sick of something like "Loveless". Constant repeats only reveal that there is so much more about this thing to discover.

#1 OK Computer - Radiohead (1997)

No matter how much music I discover, no matter how many new albums I buy, no matter how many new songs I write, and no matter what happens in my life, I keep coming back to this album. This is the first album I ever bought where I truly fell in love, where I could sit on my bed and listen to it for hours and hours and never get sick of it, even when it repeated for the umpteenth time. This album is very much responsible for the reason I love music, and just hearing bits and pieces of it automatically feel me with joy. Without OK Computer, I don't know what my music taste would be. I don't know how much my personality would change. Without OK Computer, I could very well be a different person, that's how much impact it's had on me. And that is why OK Computer is, and always will be considered the very best album of the 90's. Because it has music that gets inside your soul and connects to you on an extremely personal level, and will sympathize with you when your sad, and expand your joy when you are happy. It has an immediate cleansing effect from anything else, because it isn't like anything else. OK Computer is simply put the greatest album of the 90's, and more than that, one of the greatest musical accomplishments of all time.


YAY!! We're done!! Almost.. Now it's time for el songs.

10. One - U2
9. Only Shallow - My Bloody Valentine
8. Xtal - Aphex Twin
7. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
6. Loser - Beck
5. All Apologies - Nirvana
4. Common People - Pulp
3. Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead
2. Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
1. Gold Soundz - Pavement

YAY!! NOW we're done. I hope you all enjoyed such things, and I hope if you don't own some of those things, you will check them out! It's definitely worth it. And so ends our list of the things that win at EVERYTHING FOREVER in the nineties. :)