Favorite Overlooked Album of the 90s

Example by For Squirrels

 

Not overlooked in their time, but certainly now. And here in the States, Portishead would be a cult band at best. Certainly no major cultural footprint at the time or now. And Tiny Music is rarely mentioned now as one of the great 90s albums. STP are long overdue for cultural reassessment.

 

Yep, Dummy got a huge amount of respect in the UK at the time. Certainly not overlooked from this side of the pond.

Out of those listed, I voted:

You'd Prefer An Astronaut
New Adventures in Hi-Fi*
Adore
A Northern Soul
Gentlemen
Trompe Le Monde
Last Splash
Going Blank Again**

* R.E.M. were huge at the time, but interest in them seemed to wane somewhat around then, at least in the UK. I'm not sure why as I've always felt this album doesn't get the credit it deserves.

** Certainly not overlooked in terms of the 'Indie' following in the UK. In terms of the mainstream, they were never gonna be chart toppers, but then Leave Them All Behind reached No.9 in the singles chart, and GBA No.5 in the album chart, which is quite impressive really.

I will come back as I could be at it all day posting obscure / overlooked stuff in here

 

I guess things are a little different in Canada. The hits from Tiny Music still get some radio airplay on the classic rock station around here. Portishead not so much, I'll admit.

 

I know it's not the popular view, but I've always thought the loss of Shannon Hoon (and thus Blind Melon) was a bigger blow to music than that of Kurt Cobain (and thus Nirvana).

Just my opinion, and both conventional critical consensus and record sales would argue for the primacy of Nirvana ("cool," dissonant punk rock "voice of a generation") over Blind Melon (hippie-ish druggie jam/rock band), but that's where I stand. Kurt was just so nihilistic and negative, and while Shannon had plenty of darkness in his music, there were enough flashes of hope and optimism (however misplaced, given how things turned out) to make Blind Melon's albums preferable to me.

 

My absolute favorite album of the 90's is "Saturation" by Urge Overkill. Pretty unpopular even in its own time, almost entirely forgotten now.

Another of my faves from the decade is Sloan's "One Chord To Another" but, then again, I'm not Canadian. The band may be unavoidable north of the 49th parallel, but they are still largely unknown south of it.

And another vote for "Welcome to Wherever You Are", my 2nd most favorite INXS album (next to Kick).

...and some more:
"Pain Makes You Beautiful" by The Judybats
"My Brother The Cow" by Mudhoney
"Sweet F.A." by Love & Rockets

 

Some overlooked albums of the 90s, no particular order.
Juliana Hatfield "Bed"
Lauren Hoffman "Megiddo"
Mary's Danish "Circa"
Poster Children "Daisy Chain Reaction"
The Mysteries of Life "Keep A Secret"
Mudhoney "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge"
Velo-Deluxe "Superelastic"
Afghan Whigs "Congregation"
Local H "As Good As Dead"
Sebadoh "Bakesale"

 

Many of the albums listed in the poll are hardly "overlooked" in my opinion (i.e., someone please explain how REM's New Adventures in Hi-Fi is overlooked). The note above about Collins's Dance Into the Light (1996), however, is more the kind of thing I hoped to see here. Dance is not a well-known album, even to casual Phil fans; most people know only the few tracks from it that have appeared on compilations, if they know any of its tracks. And yet it's one of his strongest, most solid albums, I think.

 

Here's another:



Plus its accompanying EP:

 

Wow...not sure how I missed Saturation as I owned that and crushed it in the summer of 1993. Great call!!!

And sadly, not only is REM's cultural standing in the US slipping (talk to anyone under 30 about the band...it's sad), but New Adventures is hardly ever mentioned as one of their "must listen" albums.

 

New Adventures places easily in the top half of their discography.

 

Keziah Jones - Blufunk Is A Fact!

 

Shoutout for the Judybats.

Native Son was a fantastic debut…And for whatever reason (cough)Nirvana/Grunge(/cough) styles shifted.

 

As good as Saturation was, Exit the Dragon was waaayy better. At least Sister Havana got its 15 minutes of fame, but they were totally ignored on their next album and its a damned shame.

 

Beck's Stereopathetic Soulmanure is not, in my opinion, quite as good as One Foot in the Grave; but it still offers a lot of great stuff. And yet I sometimes run into other Beck fans who claim to have "everything" but are missing Stereopathetic. Some claim never even to have heard about it.

 

I used to see her perform in the T station in Boston.

 

1997

 

I choose Phaseshifter by Redd Kross

 

The Lapse - Betrayal (1998) seems almost completely forgotten. Great band, great original guitar music. Chris Leo was a creative force at the time. The vocals may take some getting used to if you didn't grow up in the culture of pop-punk / emo / indie rock.

 

Weston - Got Beat Up (1996) Great melodic pop-punk band from Pennsylvania. Not sure if they were known at all outside the region.

 

Soup by Blind Melon

 

Hellacopters - Grande Rock (1999) This is a popular rock band in Europe but never got their due in the US. Not really "overlooked", but if you are a fan of big rock music like Stooges, Aerosmith, Dictators, Alice Cooper, etc. (a lot of us on this forum!) I think you will like this band.

 

Strongly agree with this, for me this is a MUCH better example of a 90's album that is "overlooked". I absolutely love "Saturation", I still listen to it fairly regularly. Not a bad track on the album, and "Heaven 90210" is to this day one of my all time fave songs- somehow it's just so weird and unique, although I appreciate other people might call it "dated".

But I have to say, I think they were well loved at the time, I saw them in decent size venues twice in 93 and 94 and it was sold out both times. I knew a lot of people back then that loved it. The follow up "Exit The Dragon" was decent, but everything about it was just a few steps down in quality from "Saturation"- songwriting, production- it fairly broke my heart at the time.

 

Disagree. Listen to it again. Exit the Dragon is a massive improvement in every way.