Top alternative albums of the 1990s

Olivia Tremor Control / Dusk at Cubist Castle
Tortoise / Millions Now Living Will Never Die
Stereolab / Dots and Loops
Pavement / Brighten the Corners

 

People are just listing albums of the 1990s now.

 

My favourite half dozen; no particular order:

Chumbawamba - Anarchy
Bikini Kill - Revolution Girl Style
L7 - Bricks Are Heavy
Hole - Live Through This
Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque
Fugazi - Repeater

 

The most underappreciated album of the 90s is Catherine Wheel's Chrome

 

Another vote here for the Mazzy Star albums - all brilliant. I’d also add Beth Orton’s Trailer Park and Central Reservation.

 

Some favorites
Front 242-Tyranny >For You<, 1991
Front Line Assembly's entire 90's output
Utah Saints-S/T, 1992
Treble Charger-Maybe It's Me, 1997
The Shamen-Entire 90's output
The Refreshments-Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy, 1996
The Psychedelic Furs-World Outside, 1991
The Other Two-The Other Two & You, 1993
(See)-The Ocean Blue, 1996
The Ocean Blue-Beneath The Rhythm And Sound, 1993
The Mock Turtles-Turtle Soup/Two Sides, 1990/1991
Lightning Seeds, all of their 90's output
Swallow-Blow/Blowback, 1992
Skinny Puppy-Too Dark Park, 1990
Second Voice-Approaching Luna/Murder She Said, 1993/1992
Revolting Cocks-Linger Ficken' Good, 1993
Revenge-One True Passion, 1990
Peter Murphy-Cascade, 1995
Nitzer Ebb-Showtime, 1990
My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult-Confessions of a Knife, 1990
Monaco-Music For Pleasure, 1997
Lush-Spooky, 1992
Lead Into Gold-Chicks & Speed-Futurism EP, 1990
KMFDM's 90's output
Killing Joke-Pandemonium, 1994
Curve-Doppelganger, 1992
Bigod 20-Steel Works!, Supercute, 1992/1994
I have a ton of 90's stuff I love, I could go on and on.....

 

I mostly disliked this era, and eventually sold most of the "Alternative" CDs I owned in the mid-90s, but.....

Pixies: Tromp Le Monde (underrated)
Frank Black: S/T, Teenager Of The Year
Throwing Muses: The Real Ramona
Jane's Addiction: Ritual de Lo Habitual
Weezer: "Blue Album"
Natalie Merchant: Tigerlily
Firehose: Flyin' The Flannel
Morrissey: Your Arsenal, Vauxhall and I

 

Laurie Freelove Smells Like Truth
Dharma Bums Welcome
Sundial Other Way Out
Dylans S/T
Plimsouls Kool Trash
Autumn Leaves Treats and Treasures
House of Love: S/T (Butterfly)
Billy Joe Shaver Tramp On Your Street
Sundial Reflecter
Jayhawks : Hollywood Town Hall
Loop: Gilded Eternity
Hedingarna Kaksi!
Deep Jimi and the Zepcreams Funky Dinosaur
Bevis Frond Superseeder
The Droogs Mad Dog Dreams
Sky Cries Mary This Timeless Turning
Paladins Slippin' In

 

Suede's first three albums: Suede (1993), Dog Man Star (1994) and Coming Up (1996). Soundtracked the decade for me.

 

I don't want to hear it. I've included EPs. This alternative music. An EP is an alternative LP. Any arguments, take it up with Trent Reznor.

Tool - Undertow and Aenima
Social Distortion - S/T and Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell
Jane's Addiction - Ritual de lo Habitual
Superchunk - No Pocky for Kitty and Tossing Seeds
Iggy Pop - Brick by Brick
Primus - Sailing the Seas of Cheese
Red Hot Chili Pepers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik & Californication
The Cure - Wish
Beastie Boys - Check Your Head & Hello Nasty
Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted, Watery, Domestic, & Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Helmet - Meantime
Sonic Youth - Goo
Blake Babies - Sunburn & Nicely, Nicely
Yo La Tengo - Fakebook and Painful
The Sundays - Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic
Jawbreaker - Unfun, Bivouac, 24 Hour Revenge Therepy, Dear You
Nine Inch Nails - Broken, The Downward Spiral, & The Fragile
The Smashing Pumpkins - Gish, Siamese Dreams, Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness, & Adore
Nirvana - Nevermind, In Utero, & MTV Unplugged in New York
Slint - Spiderland
Sugar - Copper Blue
Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes, Under the Pink, Boys for Pele, & From the Choirgirl Hotel
Fiona Apple - Tidal
Ministry - ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed & The Way to Suck Eggs
Urge Overkill - Stull ep
Belly - Star
Alice in Chains - Dirt & Jar of Flies
Rage Against the Machine - S/T, Evil Empire, & The Battle for Los Angeles
U2 - Achtung Baby & Zooropa
Rancid - Let's Go & ...Out Come the Wolves
Green Day - Kerplunk! & Dookie
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Extra Width, Orange, & Now I Got Worry
Liz Phair - Excile In Guyville
Porno for Pyros - Good God's Urge
Pearl Jam - Ten & Vs
Weezer - Blue Album & Pinkerton
The Chemical Brother - Exit Planet Dust & Dig Your Own Hole
Sleater-Kinney - Call the Doctor, Dig Me Out, & The Hot Rock
All - Pummel
Foo Fighters - S/T & The Colour and the Shape
Sinead O'Connor - Gospel Oak EP
Blink 182 - Dude Ranch
Southern Culture on the Skids - Ditch Diggin' & Dirt Track Date
Radiohead - The Bend & OK Computer
Beck - Mellow Gold, Odelay, & Midnight Vulture
Hothouse Flowers - Home
Moby - Play

 

Well if I go by albums I think of as alternative I did not participate but if I go by some of the albums posted here I represented.

 

My personal favorite 50 alternative rock of the 1990s, if I was to make a thoughful list, but not go through lists of everything I have to check to see if it's perfect.

One can get down a slippery slope of defining virtually anything with an electric guitar released between 1990 and 1999 not made by a legacy band as "alternative" so the scope I used was for any bands typically thought of as alternative *at the time*, as well as anything released in the 1990s considered grunge, shoegaze, Britpop, and Madchester. If something was on the fence I just went with what felt right, which is why I included Beck (who sampled and sometimes kind of rapped but who was solidly part of the alternative rock scene in the mid 1990s) but not Wilco or Stereolab. I didn't go for anything that was "alt"+ something else, like alt-country. I didn't include heavy metal, even if it got played on MTV with the grunge stuff (so no Tool) and nothing that would more properly be defined in a genre ending in "core." With the exception of what is now considered "post-hardcore," which is inclusive of Fugazi. But Fugazi was in the alternative mix back in the early '90s, so I included them. Did not include albums that sounded grunge or alternative by bands that had already established an identity as non-alternative (that's U2, but not REM). No electronica (and its sub-genres, like trip-hop), no post-rock, and no hip hop.

Ass Ponys - Electric Rock Music
Beck - Odelay
Beck - Mutations
Boo Radleys - Giant Steps
Boredoms - Super AE
Built to Spill - Perfect From Now On
Built to Spill - Keep It Like a Secret
Calexico - The Black Light
Dinosaur Jr. - Where You Been?
Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
Flaming Lips - Transmissions From the Satellite Heart
Flaming Lips - Soft Bulletin
Fugazi - Red Medicine
Fugazi - End Hits
Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand
Guided By Voices - Alien Lanes
Guided By Voices - Mag Earwhig!
The Jesus Lizard - Liar
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Orange
L7 - Bricks are Heavy
Latin Playboys - St
Luna - Penthouse
Ministry - Psalm 69
Morphine - Cure For Pain
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Nirvana - In Utero
Pavement - Crooked Rain
Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted
Pavement - Wowee Zowee
Pearl Jam - Vitalogy
Pixis - Bossanova
Pulp - Different Class
Radiohead - The Bends
Radiohead - OK Computer
REM - Automatic For the People
REM - New Adventures in Hi Fi
Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come
Screaming Trees - Dust
Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
Sonic Youth - Goo
Sonic Youth - Dirty
Sonic Youth - Washing Machine
Sonic Youth - A Thousand Leaves
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
Swervedriver - Mezcal Head
Super Furry Animals - Fuzzy Logic
Super Furry Animals - Radiator
Yo La Tengo - Painful
Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart...

 

Any 90ies list without a Ween record is false.

 

I don’t know about ‘top’, but these got the most play from me as a teenager in the early to mid 90s:

Blur ‘Parklife’
Curve ‘Doppelgänger’
The Divine Comedy, ‘Promenade’
Dinosaur Jr. ‘Where you Been’
Ned’s Atomic Dustbin ‘Are You Normal?’
The Stone Roses ‘Turns Into Stone’
Radiohead ‘The Bends’
Smashing Pumpkins ‘Siamese Dream’
Suede ‘Dog Man Star’
The Wonder Stuff ‘Never Loved Elvis’

I retain a lot of affection for the above, but my taste got a bit more diverse over the years!

 

I'm going to go out on s limb here and guess that you are from the UK based on your list?

 

Belly - Star

 

Soundgarden-Badmotorfinger, Superunknown and Down On The Upside
Depeche Mode - Violator and SOFAD
U2-Achtung Baby and Zooropa
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
R.E.M. - Automatic For The People
Suede-Dog Man Star

 

are U2 considered 'alternative' ??

 

or indeed Depeche Mode ??

 

The 90's stuff I like (& there's a fair bit) must be alternative to the alternative that is listed here because there has been very little listed that I like.

The 1990's was an excellent decade for blues albums.

 

Do you happen to have a box set of NMH?

 

Don't hate me, but as a kid in the Nineties those seemed pretty mainstream to me, not really alternative.

I mean, they were everywhere. And MTV kept regurgitating them. With a partial exception for Placebo, maybe.

 

The 90s was the decade where “alternative” became mainstream. That’s gotta make yer head spin a little...

 

Guided By Voices -- Under the Bushes Under the Stars
Pavement -- Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Built to Spill -- Keep It Like a Secret
Jayhawks -- Hollywood Town Hall
Neutral Milk Hotel -- In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Radiohead -- OK Computer
Yo La Tengo -- I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One
Smashing Pumpkins -- Siamese Dream
Flaming Lips -- The Soft Bulletin
Teenage Fanclub -- Songs from Northern Britain

Wilco -- Summerteeth
Silver Jews -- American Water
Olivia Tremor Control -- Dusk at Cubist Castle
Whiskeytown -- Strangers Almanac
Liz Phair -- Exile in Guyville

Luna -- Penthouse
Sleater-Kinney -- Dig Me Out
Sugar -- Copper Blue
Breeders -- Last Splash
Elastica -- s/t

 

Oasis weren't alternative. They were mainstream rock / Britpop.