The 90's - My Top 50 Albums
I've been told, "Ron, you don't seem much like a 90's kind of guy!" - Why not? I lived through the entire 1990's! And now I will share a list of My Top 50 albums from the 90's. I recommend each and every album on this list. What are your favorites? What did I miss in the 90's? To be honest, I spent a lot of the 90's buying re-issues of 50's / 60's / 70's / 80's music! It simply wasn't possible to 'rank' these titles - so they're alphabetical. And a hint: My 80's list is a "Top 100"!
LES 5-4-3-2-1’s – 1973, JPN
A CERTAIN RATIO – Change The Station,
AFRO CELT SOUND SYSTEM – Vol. 1 – Sound
BARBIE BONES – Death In The Rockinghorse Factory, NOR
BOOM CRASH OPERA – Born, AUS
ALAIN CHAMFORT – Trouble, FR
LEONARD COHEN – The Future, US
CORDUROY – Out Of Here,
CORNELIUS – 69/96 – 96/69, JPN
CHARLELIE COUTURE –
THE CRUEL SEA – The Honeymoon Is Over, AUS
ETIENNE DAHO –
VANESSA DAOU – Slow To
STEPHEN DUFFY –
F.F.F. – Blast Culture, FR
FANTASTIC PLASTIC MACHINE – (self-titled debut), JPN
FRAZIER CHORUS –
GOLDEN EARRING – Bloody Buccaneers, NL
JOHN GREAVES – Songs,
HARUOMI HOSONO & MIHARU KOSHI – Swing Slow, JPN
HIDEKI KAJI – Mini Skirt, JPN
KATERINE – Mes Mauvaises Frequentations, FR
JO LEMAIRE – Duelle, BEL
LIO – Des Fleurs Pour Un Cameleon, FR
LITTLE RABBITS – Yeah!, FR
THE LOUNGE LIZARDS – Queen Of All Ears, US
MAM – Stout, NL
MOMUS – Ping Pong,
CHISATO MORITAKA – Summer Will Be More Better , JPN
MR. OIZO – Analogue
JEAN LOUIS MURAT – Le Manteau De Pluie, FR
THE NECKS – Next, AUS
HERMETO PASCOAL – Eu
PIZZICATO FIVE – Bossa Nova 2001, JPN
MICHEL POLNAREFF –
LES RITA MITSOUKO – Systeme D, FR
IRMIN SCHMIDT – Impossible Holidays, DE
SCHNELL FENSTER – OK Alright A Huh Oh Yeah, AUS
SCRITTI POLITTI –
SKYLAB – Skylab 2: 1999, JPN
YOSHINORI SUNAHARA – The Sound of 70’s, JPN
HAJIME TACHIBANA – Bambi, JPN
TIPSY – Trip
YANN TOMITA – Music for Astro Age, JPN
TORTOISE –
TOY MATINEE – (self-titled debut), US
WATERMELON – Out of Body Experience, JPN
THE WHITLAMS – Undeniably, AUS
YELLO – Baby, SW
ZAZIE – Zen, FR
- Ron K
posted by Ron Kane @ 6:39 AM
4 Comments:
Re: 90s
By the 90s a lot of the fizz had left the soda I call popular music. I think this was a by product of the inexorable 20 year cycle of popular culture. I feel that it repeats itself every 20 years with any differences being introduced by the now current technology. But it does seem like a LOT of the 90s was the 70s [and not the parts I liked] redux. Having grown up in the wasteland of 70s top 40 music, I'm certain that anyone who grew up in the 50s-60s would have looked askance at the watered down crap kids were listening to. Because it was watered down from the sources that generated it a generation earlier. I loved the 80s in comparison to the 70s because the 80s was the 60s with new technology! [musically, at least]
I was with you, Ron. A switch went off in '92 when I realized that I would soon be able to record my own CDs.
At that point, buying obscure vinyl not yet on CD became more important to me than buying current CDs. And being a collector, buying import CD singles was always a priority over the albums from which they came! The albums would stay in print a relatively long time but availability of CD singles was chancy and best gotten on top of up front. For groups I collected, I found I was buying 6 CD singles [3 singles in 2CD sets] from typical albums at a cost of up to $100 for artists I collected and waiting years to eventually get the album, usually under $10 if at all possible. And if it wasn't, I was content to wait.
Also, I have not paid much attention to radio in nearly 30 years. I stopped commercial radio cold when I had about 50 albums to listen to. I stopped watching TV entirely in 1993 and up to then, what new music I encountered was in that medium.
All of this and yes, music I considered massively sucky, conspired to make the 90s a practical non-issue for me. I was more interested in the obscure stuff I had missed earlier in the late 70s early 80s in my quest for more obvious items. It was in the 90s when I became unable to make a yearly top 10 list because I can guarantee, I probably have not bought more than 5 new albums a year since then. In the new century, that number has probably dropped!
Yep, only a Top 50 for the 90's - when the 60's, 70's & 80's all have "Top 100" lists...it remains to be seen if I can come up with better than a "Top 50" for the 00's!
I totally concur with Brother Jim here. Very early on in the 90s, staying hip and current just no longer mattered. Probably 50% of what I've acquired over the last 15 years has been home burned CDs, along with a large percentage of oldies or reissues.
Although I'm pretty much alone in singing their praises, two bands that had their origins in the 90s that I've enjoyed and followed right up until the present are Barenaked Ladies and Garbage.
Duffy is a seriously underated album. So damn underated that you can't even purchase it on iTunes.
Wish I'd never given away my copy.
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