Top alternative albums of the 1990s

Yes I agree. Often alternative music is created as a protest to the mainstream and other (rarer) times it is an attempt to be mainstream by an outsider artist who misses the mark and makes something stunning and new. And always the mainstream jumps ship and tries to capture the magic (and always with a bigger budget and glossier aesthetic.)
In art school (where alluding to Hegel was seen as virtuous) it was simply explained as:

Thesis - antithesis - synthesis

 

I made mention of this great Cornershop song, I love it to this day. Their albums are trippy and the pop gems like this shine when they come on. If you like a certain 90s sound (Pulp, Beck, Fatboy Slim, Blur) these guys deserve attention.

 

Sloan - Twice Remoed (1994)

 

HA! This thread doesn't even show in the first 20 results for "Whiskeytown," but I appreciate the tip.
Too bad the only hits were my post, and your snarky response. If someone else mentioned Whiskeytown, they must've deleted it quick.

 

While I appreciate your snarky response to the previous snarky response, you can do a search with "Search this thread only."

 

Well there we go. Looks like I'm the first person in 4 pages to mention another band twice.

 

An 'Alternative' to radio-
Another classic favorite of mine-
Birmingham 6-Error of Judgement, 1996
Filled with a ton of non top 40 hits

 

Agree with lots already mentioned, will add

Sparklehorse - Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot
Talk Talk - Laughing Stock
Nick Cave - The Boatman's Call

Is Tori Amos really alternative?

 

U.S. Maple

 

Alternative - not sure what that means anymore, but to my mind some of the best albums of the 90s include:

Kendra Smith / Five Ways Of Disappearing
Janis Ian / Breaking Silence
John Lee Hooker & Miles Davis / The Hot Spot OST
Rickie Lee Jones / Traffic From Paradise
Ry Cooder & VM Bhatt / A Meeting By The River
Cul De Sac / Ecim
Tortoise / Millions Now Living Will Never Die
Buena Vista Social Club / Buena Vista Social Club
Bob Dylan / Time Out Of Mind
Bonnie Prince Billy / I See A Darkness
Palace Music / Viva Last Blues
Gastr Del Sol / Upgrade & Afterlife
Jim O'Rourke / Bad Timing
Palace Brothers / There Is No-One What Will Take Care Of You
Tom Waits / Mule Variations
Whiskeytown / Strangers Almanac
Jennifer Warnes / Famous Blue Raincoat
P.J Harvey / Rid Of Me
Tom Waits / Bone Machine
Cat Power / Moon Pix
Liz Phair / Exile In Guyville
Elvis Costello with Burt Bacharach / Painted From Memory
Los Lobos / Kiko
Richard Thompson / Rumor and Sigh
Dead Can Dance / Into The Labyrinth
Bob Dylan / World Gone Wrong
Lucinda Williams / Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
Tricky / Maxinquaye
kd Lang / Ingenue
Teenage Fanclub / Bandwagonesque
Jeff Buckley / Grace
Nirvana / MTV Unplugged In New York
Rickie Lee Jones / Pop Pop
Neil Young / Unplugged
The Jayhawks / Hollywood Town Hall
Tortoise / Tortoise
Slint / Spiderland
Beck / Mutations
P.J Harvey / To Bring You My Love
Talk Talk / Laughing Stock
Charlie Haden & Pat Metheny / Beyond The Missouri Sky
Son Volt / Trace
Uncle Tupelo / Anodyne
Ali Farka Toure & Ry Cooder / Talking Timbuktu

 

U2-Achtung Baby
Pulp-Different Class
Radiohead-The Bends
These are some albums I enjoy start to finish...to me the 90s were more about great tunes than great albums...making cd mixes was essential back then.

 

Some great albums mentioned so far.

I'm posting this as I have seen Different Class mentioned a few times but for me personally, this was always my preferred album by Pulp.




Pulp - His n Hers

 

Some great titles listed already, but I'd like to add a little gem that gets overlooked and blew me away at the time: Fantastic Planet by Failure. AMG for some strange reason only rates it a 2.5 stars, which is ridiculous (I wrote them about that travesty). I would give it 4 or 4.5 stars. It's hard rock with a stoner/psychedelic vibe. Wonderful.

 

I'm sure someone has already listed it, but just in case: Happy Mondays - Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches. "God's Cop" has to be one of the sleaziest, strutting, bluesy songs ever.

 

I am not sure others would agree, but I consider Joan Osborne's Relish to be an alternative album, and one of the best of the nineties. Lots of great songs, one of my favorites is Ladder:

 

Post#49 mentioned Whiskeytown.

 

I still have a flame gun
For the cute ones
To burn out all your tricks

 

Here’s one from each year:

1990 - Alice In Chains - Facelift
1991 - Nirvana - Nevermind
1992 - Stone Temple Pilots - Core
1993 - Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
1994 - Oasis - Definitely Maybe
1995 - Catherine Wheel - Happy Days
1996 - Ash - 1977
1997 - Foo Fighters - Colour & The Shape
1998 - Idlewild - Hope Is Important
1999 - Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californiacation

Honourable mentions: Bush - Sixteen Stone (1994), R.E.M. - Out Of Time (1991)

 

~Wilco: "Summerteeth", "Being There", "A.M."... "Mermaid Avenue"(with Billy Bragg)

~Yo La Tengo: "I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One", "Electr-O-Pura", "Painful", "May I Sing With Me", "Fakebook"

~The Mekons: "The Curse Of The Mekons", "I ❤ Mekons", "Retreat From Memphis", "Me"

~The Flaming Lips: "The Soft Bulletin", "Clouds Taste Metallic", "Transmissions From The Satellite Heart"

~The Pixies: "Bossanova", "Trompe La Monde"

~Uncle Tupelo: "Anodyne", "March 16-20, 1992"

~Lucinda Williams: "Sweet Old World", "Car Wheels On A Gravel Road"

~The Replacements: "All Shook Down"

~Chumbawamba: "Swingin' With Raymond"

 

No 90's list is complete without Sugar - Copper Blue.

 

Must include Chavez-Ride the Fader and Seam-The Problem With Me.