Best rock album of the 90s?

[Roma_Victrix]

Some of you might say I'm committing blasphemy by not nominating an album by Nirvana, Soundgarden, Silverchair, Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Alice in Chains, Butthole Surfers, Rage Against the Machine, etc., but I have to say, my all time personal favorite rock album from the 1990s has to be Frank Black and the Catholics' self titled album from '98.



With this one, Frank Black truly surpassed anything put out by the Pixies. Black's later stuff from the 2000s is arguably just as good, but for me this album simply represents the musical cap and crescendo of all that was achieved in the 20th century. If you've never heard it and are skeptical, just listen to the whole album all the way through before you criticize or critique it (not just the first song). Don't knock it till you've tried it!

Although this album represents everything that was great about the 90s, surprisingly, I think it's not as good an album as Show Me Your Tears (2003). For a small sample:

[RubiconDecision]

Rolling Stone has a big list but it's terribly biased toward certain groups. A best album is tough to pull off as much is often artistic filler. Grunge and its legacy is impossible to remove given its cultural relevance.

I don't know about best, but certainly in the top 20 would be Evil Empire (1996)Rage Against the Machine. Easily found on youtube, but loaded with profanity breaking ToS.

[Killerbee]

Rolling Stone magazine have the nasty habit of not realising/appreciating an album's potential when it comes out (like Nirvana's Nevermind or Radiohead's Kid A, which both got mediocre reviews at best) and then compensating that by overblowing it when they make retrospetive lists/reviews a decade later.

[Roma_Victrix]

Yeah, Rolling Stone has some good articles now and then, but they are super corporate, and their album reviews are usually way off the mark.

[RubiconDecision]

Don't know about "Weight" 1994 Rollin's Band's album, but Liar was one of the best songs from 94.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Disconnect pretty great too.

They should film political conventions dubbing "Liar" to the entire grotesque spectacle.

Red Hot Chili Peppers' funk fusion rock poetry in Blood Sugar Sex Magik 1991 would be on the top of the list, but would break ToS


I think Under the Bridge the only one I can put up.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Henry of Grosmont]

Soundgarden - Superunkown.









/case closed

*and if you're still skeptical

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[RubiconDecision]

I definitely played that CD over-and-over.
....
In 1991, Lenny Kravitz's debut album "Let Love Rule" was released.It was a remarkable first album and still one of my favorites.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Lenny Kravitz "Mr. Cab Driver"


"Let Love Rule"

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

are you gonna go my way lenny kravitz 1993

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The album that shattered the barrier into 1990 was Temple of the Dog featuring folks soon to spin into many directions:Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Mother Love Bone

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Kyriakos]

My personal favorite was Therapy?





"The world is 'd, and so am i... Maybe it's the other way round i can't seem to decide..."



Therapy rule

"I'm bitter. I'm twisted...: James Joyce is <cencored> my sister"

[RubiconDecision]

Tool Ænema
Stinkfist 1996

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Highly experimental, completely altering what rock sounded like, intentional creating mathematical patters in their music, challenging lyrics that were in-your-face. Who even dreamed that that flavor of nightmarish dread in a music video before? More grim then NIN. Postmodern Hieronymus Bosch.

[mishkin]

In the nineties I guess I would have said Mellon Collie, Achtung baby, Pablo Honey, Wish, Pretty hate machine... Now I dont know. My tastes have changed and I'm tired of some of them

[Kyriakos]

^I never got why Pablo Honey is regarded by some as a good album. It pretty much has no other song which would stand out, apart from Creep, which sustained RH as a band virtually up until 1996 (i don't like The Bends either ).

I had bought PH and the Bends, likely just as the Bends was first released.

For a funny rock hit from the early 90s:

[mishkin]

I mentioned Pablo Honey because it was his first success/record. I have checked the record, and it is full of very good songs (Stop whispering, Ripcord, How do you, etc).

[Halie Satanus]

Nirvana - Nevermind. Game changer.
Nirvana - MTV Unplugged in New York - After the rehearsal the sound crew thought it was going to be a disaster. Pure classic.
Janes Addiction - Ritual de lo Habitual - A band in full on self destruction mode.
Pearl Jam - Vitalogy - Post Cobain's death, the first Album to address the passing of an Icon, they just hit the mood on the head.
Radiohead - The Bends - Every song a classic.
Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory?: Beer, parties and fun.
RHCP - Californication - The return of John Frusciante one of the best guitar players, ever.
U2 - Achtung Baby - Just a great album.
The Verve - Urban Hymns - Just a great album.
Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger - Superunknown was good, BMF was better.

@Rube - I saw Rollin's do a spoken word at the LSE around the mid 90's. He's a great speaker, funny, engaging. To be honest his spoken word was better than his music.

[Roma_Victrix]

Don't know about "Weight" 1994 Rollin's Band's album, but Liar was one of the best songs from 94.


Disconnect pretty great too.

They should film political conventions dubbing "Liar" to the entire grotesque spectacle.

Red Hot Chili Peppers' funk fusion rock poetry in Blood Sugar Sex Magik 1991 would be on the top of the list, but would break ToS


I think Under the Bridge the only one I can put up.

LOL. I have a distinct memory watching that Liar music video for the first time back in the 90s on Beavis and Butthead, who did a good job critiquing the video.

Also, Blood Sugar Sex Magik by Red Hot Chili Peppers is honestly the best album they ever produced. It's certainly a competitor for best of the 90s.

Soundgarden - Superunkown.









/case closed

*and if you're still skeptical

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Dave Grohl might have just swayed me. It's pleasing to hear him talk about other alternative/grunge bands and nice to know this album had such a huge impact on him.

Tool Ænema
Stinkfist 1996

Highly experimental, completely altering what rock sounded like, intentional creating mathematical patters in their music, challenging lyrics that were in-your-face. Who even dreamed that that flavor of nightmarish dread in a music video before? More grim then NIN. Postmodern Hieronymus Bosch.

Ænema is certainly one of the most unique albums of all time. Danny Carey, the drummer for Tool is awesome; it's rare that the sheer personality of a band's drummer comes out as so pronounced and instantly recognizable on any record. He perhaps doesn't have the speed or technicality of the best death metal drummers out there, but he certainly has an extraordinary style influenced by Jazz and even Indian percussion.

[Kyriakos]

Iirc the guy who did the video for "Sober", also created this classic video

[Roma_Victrix]

Iirc the guy who did the video for "Sober", also created this classic video

That's easily one of my favorite claymation videos of all time.

[RubiconDecision]

Guns N' Roses Use Your Illusion 1991

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

There's something so noble and honorable in giving the totally of your life when young, delaying your chances for love, wealth, and opportunity to serve for your country in War.

Even in the time of Christ, young soldiers were concerned about the contradiction between their profession and Jesus' words
He said:

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14Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”
He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”Luke 3:14

He didn't say being a soldier was contradictory at all.

The problem noted by rock musicians is the abuse of trust in War, where the real goals are seldom honorable, and the methods ignoble.

This is why Civil War by Gus N' Roses so relevant and so laudable. Stirring honest words.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It is a protest song on war, referring to all war as "civil war" and stating that war only "feeds the rich while it buries the poor". In the song, singer Axl Rose asks, "What's so civil about war, anyway?"

[Henry of Grosmont]

Tool Ænema
Stinkfist 1996

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Highly experimental, completely altering what rock sounded like, intentional creating mathematical patters in their music, challenging lyrics that were in-your-face. Who even dreamed that that flavor of nightmarish dread in a music video before? More grim then NIN. Postmodern Hieronymus Bosch.

Hehehe.
I take my words back. Forgot that this masterpiece is from the 90's. It's timeless... Aenima it is then - one of the best albums in rock ever and my top 5 easily.

[RubiconDecision]

Hehehe.
I take my words back. Forgot that this masterpiece is from the 90's. It's timeless... Aenima it is then - one of the best albums in rock ever and my top 5 easily.

Yeah that song is hypnotic, makes the entire mind/body/soul resonate like a tuning fork in harmonics to another. It's driving the listener, bewitched and overcome. I feel like a spinning dervish when I listen to that song. Can lyrics be in a video, or does that break ToS? There's a better video with commentary of the poetry of the lyrics.
"I choose to live and grow..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty_Six_%26_2

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Popular belief dictates that the song title references an idea first conceived by Carl Jung and later expounded upon by Drunvalo Melchizedek concerning the possibility of reaching a state of evolution at which the body would have two more than the normal 46 total chromosomes and leave a currently disharmonious state.^[2][3] The premise is that humans would deviate from the current state of human DNA which contains 44 autosomes and 2 sex chromosomes. The next step of evolution would likely result in human DNA being reorganized into 46 and 2 chromosomes, according to Melchizedek.

Furthermore, it is believed the song references a wish to experience change through the "shadow"; an idea which represents the parts of one's identity that one hates, fears, and represses, this exists as a recurring theme in the work of Carl Jung.^[4]

The song is mostly in 4/4 time with some sections of 7/8 in between. In the intro, Danny Carey plays 4 measures of 7/8 on his ride cymbal over the rest of the band playing in 4/4, and they all meet up on the downbeat of the 5th measure in 4/4. During the bridge there are 3 measures of 7/8 followed by one measure of 4/4. During a particular quad fill, the drums are in 3/8, the guitar plays one measure of 9/8 followed by one in 5/8 all while the bass keeps time in 7/8

This is thematically reminiscent of The Doorways of Perception by Huxley and The Doors Break on Through to the Other Side.
Compare

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

By 12:30 pm, a vase of flowers becomes the "miracle, moment by moment, of naked existence". The experience, he asserts, is neither agreeable nor disagreeable, but simply "is". He likens it to Meister Eckhart's "istigheit" or "is-ness", and Plato's "Being" but not separated from "Becoming". He feels he understands the Hindu concept of Satchitananda, as well as the Zen koan that "the dharma body of the Buddha is in the hedge" and Buddhist suchness. In this state, Huxley explains he didn't have an "I", but instead a "not-I". Meaning and existence, pattern and colour become more significant than spatial relationships and time. Duration is replaced by a perpetual present.^[31]
Reflecting on the experience afterwards, Huxley finds himself in agreement with philosopher C. D. Broad that to enable us to live, the brain and nervous system eliminate unessential information from the totality of the Mind at Large.^[32]

[Halie Satanus]

Guns N' Roses Use Your Illusion 1991

I saw GnR at the Marquee around 86-7' on their first tour of the UK with Appetite. At the time they were just coming out of the hair rock/songs about girls genre with songs about poverty and substance abuse. Appetite was initially a flop on both sides of the pond, but after Geffen convinced MTV to play 'Welcome to the Jungle' in it's late night schedule the album took off and GnR became one of the biggest acts in the world. GnR really laid the foundation for the fledgling grunge scene to take on the commercial rock scene which they never really got credit for. For me UYI never really lived up to the raw power of Appetite or the mini album Lies with the controversial 'One in a Million.' Ironically GnR became a bit of a dinosaur before their time once Grunge took over and made being famous while still having a cult status fashionable. UIY 1-2 felt bloated with a lot of filler when a single album could have been immense. These days GnR have become a Vegas style parody of what they once were, shame really, Appetite was such an awesome album.