If you were to ask me what the best album released in the 1990s was, I would unhesitatingly say Hedningarna's Trä... I just didn't really care for the 'grunge' scene, it was just slow, sludgy riffs on a style perfected by the Pixies, a band I have always loved, but devoid of the Pixies' humor. I did, however, love the slew of guitar-heavy bands fronted by female singers, such as Velocity Girl and Belly.
Another similar band was Boston's Fuzzy, who put out some great music, but didn't achieve monster hitmaker status. I listen to a lot of college radio, and Fuzzy's 1994 single Flashlight came up on a recent WFDU 'New Music Smorgasbord' playlist:
Sweet vocals and crunchy guitars... what's not to love? The band recently played a benefit for NARAL Pro-Choice America:
Resistance sure has a great sound.
Hmm. Best album of the 90s, you say.
ReplyDeleteThat's HARD. I absolutely LOVED 90s 'alterno' music, much as I loved the music of the 70s like all young people love the music that defines their time. After a long decade of the 80s that was bereft of interesting melodious music.
I guess I'd have to go with Counting Crows "August and Everything After" as the best album, but honorable mention has to go to Bush's "Sixteen Stone", Punkins "Siamese Dream" and Hole's "Live through This". Also worth noting that G&R's 'Use Your Illusion' came out in the 90s too...
OMG! I almost forgot Soul Asylum's "Grave Dancers Union". That had to be the best album of the 90s, tied with The Refreshments "The Bottle and Fresh Horses", which is one of the truly great albums of all time...
ReplyDeleteI think the 80s had a lot of great music that was largely ignored. I was lucky to have a really great commercial radio station, the legendary WLIR, in transmission distance and quickly learned to find the great 'left of the dial' college stations.
ReplyDeleteThe real problem is that most commercial radio stations fall back on playing the same forty or fifty songs ad nauseam.
Speaking of Soul Asylum, a friend and co-worker of mine saw them in concert recently and took a picture with Dave Pirner, who he described as a genuinely nice guy. I have to admire the band for using the video for 'Runaway Train' to raise awareness about missing children.