Your top 5 the 90's alt.rock albums?

Doolittle was released in early '89.

My 5 faves off the top of my head right now:

U2 - Achtung Baby
Depeche Mode - Violator
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Smashing Pumpkins - Gish
R.E.M. - Automatic For The People

 

Of the choices I went with:

Sonic Youth- Goo
Beck- Odelay
Jane's Addiction- Ritual De Lo Habitual
Morphine- Cure for Pain
Blind Melon- Soup

I'd like to add a few lost gems, though and personal favorites from that time period:

Deconstruction-After the implosion of Jane's Addiction in early fall of '91, it originally transpired that this side project included all but Perry Ferrell, only for drummer Stephen Perkins to bail out, being replaced by Michael Murphy, but the album that surfaced in 1994 is an overlooked and lost gem, featuring the talents of Eric Avery and Dave Navarro together, I find this one to be a really cool release. Key tracks are "America", "Big Sur", "L.A. Song" and "Get At 'Em".

Son Volt- Trace- With Uncle Tupelo splintering into side/solo projects of Farrar's band here and Jeff Tweedy's Wilco, this debut release of Jay's is a really cool album and featured the radio hit, "Drown" with other notable cuts in "Catching On", "Tear Stained Eye", "Loose String" and a cover of Ron Wood's "Mystifies Me", Farrar and co. continue the americana roots style that was stamped out from the former Uncle Tupelo with a touch more crunch of rock that makes for a great record of its day.

Television- Released in 1992, the unheralded reunion of the innovative outfit from the mid/late 70's, the eponymous titled third release hears the band locked firmly in sync. Although songwriting credits are dominated by leader Tom Verlaine, material brimming through like "Call Mr. Lee", "In World", "No Glamour for Willi" and "The Rocket" reaffirms the strength and solidarity of an eclectic, but still innovative, group of musicians.

 

Sonic Youth! Washing Machine, Thousand Leaves, etc
Kim Gordon's knuckles.

 

my real top 5

The Negro Problem - Post Minstrel Syndrome
Beck - Stereopathetic Soulmanure
Hole - Pretty on the Inside
The Muffs - The Muffs
Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs

 

huh? I voted for it! (probably the one I like best from that list in fact)

 

from the list..

Jane's Addiction- Ritual De Lo Habitual

R.E.M. - Automatic For The People

____

other..

Lemonheads - It's a Shame About Ray

Buffalo Tom - Let Me Come Over

Juliana Hatfield - Hey Babe

 

Of those listed
1. Primal Scream - Screamadelica.
2. U2 - Achtung Baby
3. Beck - Odelay
4. R.E.M. - Automatic for the People
5. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream

6. NIN - the Downward Spiral
7. Radiohead - the Bends
8. The Breeders - Last Splash
9. Pavement - crooked rain
10. Wilco - summerteeth
11 red hot chili peppers - blood sugar sex magik
12 Blind Melon - soup
13 Weezer - blue album


These guys I don't much care for by bands I really like:
1. Bossanova (the stain in the Pixies initial run, has a few great tunes (is she weird, havalina, down to the well, all over the world, rock music) but it's just not "out there" enough for the pixies and is frankly boring

2. Sonic Youth Goo. I love SY, but Goo is one of my least favorite of theirs (Dirty may be my least favorite). Goo has an awesome cover, but just seems like they were trying too hard

3. Foo Fighters - the Colour and the Shape. I guess I don't really like the Foo Fighters but I did really like their self titled debut and I wanted to love this guy. It's not quite bad (better than Goo and Bossanova) and from what I've heard is better than the rest of the Foo's later output, but just doesn't do it for me. I want to like Dave Grohl too always have but I just wish he'd have stuck to drums with the occasional tune (a la Beatles era George of course GH had the amazing All Things Must Pass which I would have rather had the Beatles split to hear rather than be piecemealed out over 5-10 yrs).

5 albums that should be here (among many)
1. Radiohead - OK CPU
2. Flaming Lips - Clouds Taste Metallic (ok Soft bulletin too but I'm picking my fave first)
3. Sonic Youth - washing Machine
4. Pearl Jam - 10
5. Oasis - what's the story morning glory

 

Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape
Weezer - Pinkerton
Nirvana - Nevermind
U2 - Achtung Baby
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream

 

This morning I threw a bunch of long-neglected tunes into rotation on my iPod, one of them being the NP's "If You Would Have Traveled on the 93 North Today", which I hadn't heard for ages. I listened to it three times in a row. Melody, arrangement, everything is so good. It's like they're slightly channeling Jimmy Webb and the 5th Dimension there, which also sounding fresh and current. I have to go back and revisit the album.

 

I Can Hear the Heart Beat as One - Yo La Tengo
There's Nothing Wrong with Love - Built to Spill
Slanted and Enchanted - Pavement
Spiderland - Slint
Escape Trick - John Eller & the DT's

 

I know that this thread is old now, but I think the OP doesn't know much about alt-rock in the 90s based on the omissions of Green Day, the Offsping, Social Distortion, Sugar, Nirvana, Catherine Wheel, the Meat Puppets, Yo La Tengo, Fugazi, Dinosaur Jr, Bad Religion, Sebadoh, Guided by Voices, etc etc etc.

 

Why no Nirvana?

 

Of the ones listed I would say these 5 in order:
Achtung Baby
Automatic
Bossanova
Gentlemen
Crooked Rain

 

The Mermen- Krill Slippin'
Pere Ubu- Worlds in Collision
Grandaddy- Under The Western Freeway
Grant Lee Buffalo- fuzzy
Calexico- The Black Light

From your list: Wilco- Summerteeth/ Beck- Odelay/ Primal Scream- Screamadelica / Sonic Youth- Goo/ Tim Buckley- Greetings From L.A.

 

From the list...
Red Hot Chili Peppers BSSM
Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream
NIN Downward Spiral
Tool Aenima
Weezer blue

Although...
FNM came a close fifth
Also I woulda added:
Green Day Dookie
Pearl Jam Ten
Soundgarden Badmotorfinger
Soundgarden Superunknown
Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie
Nirvana Nevermind
AIC Dirt
AIC Facelift
Then maybe it wouldn't have been fair I guess...

 

Agreed: Juliana Hatfield and the Lemonheads were the big omissions for me. Britpop would bounce off a huge proportion of the existing list, as well--Paul Weller, Blur, Oasis. But way up there, right next to "Automatic" and "Achtung, Baby" would be "Priest=Aura" by the Church.

 

Where is Ok Computer?

 

Hard to differentiate alt. rock from regular rock of the 90s decade... Alternative Rock means different things to different people, but I would have:

The Cranberries - Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We
Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend
Toad The Wet Sprocket - Dulcinea or Fear
Barenaked Ladies - Stunt
Counting Crows - August and Everything After

Some may view this as regular rock of the decade, but these would be classified as Alternative Rock in my book.

 

If Garbage are in the list, then surely Curve should have been as well.

My picks:
1. Curve - Come Clean
2. Curve - Doppelganger
3. Curve - Public Fruit
4. Curve - Cuckoo
5. Sonic Youth - Goo