Music: Best Albums of the Year Series: 1990

[Saturated Fats]

1965: The Beatles - Rubber Soul
1966: The Beatles - Revolver
1967: The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
1968: The Beatles - The White Album
1969: The Beatles - Abbey Road
1970: Black Sabbath - Paranoid
1971: Led Zeppelin - IV
1972: Neil Young - Harvest
1973: Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
1974: Supertramp - Crime of the Century
1975: Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
1976: Eagles - Hotel California
1977: Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
1978: (TIE) The Police - Outlandos d'Amour / The Cars - The Cars / Van Halen - Van Halen
1979: Pink Floyd - The Wall
1980: AC/DC - Back in Black
1981: Rush - Moving Pictures
1982: Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
1984: Metallica - Ride the Lightning
1985: Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair
1986: Metallica - Master of Puppets
1987: Guns 'n Roses - Appetite for Destruction
1988: Metallica - ...And Justice for All
1989: Pixies - Doolittle
1991: Nirvana - Nevermind
1992: Alice in Chains - Dirt
1993: Nirvana - In Utero
1995: Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
1996: (TIE) Soundgarden - Down on the Upside // Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire
1997: (TIE) Radiohead - OK Computer // Foo Fighters - The Color and the Shape
1998: (TIE) Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill // System of a Down - System of a Down
1999: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
2000: Radiohead - Kid A
2001: The Strokes - Is This It
2002: Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
2003: The White Stripes - Elephant
2004: (TIE) Madvillain - Madvillainy // The Killers - Hot Fuss // Green Day - American Idiot
2005: Coldplay - X & Y
2006: Tool - 10,000 Days
2007: Radiohead - In Rainbows
2009: Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures
2010: The National - High Violet
2011: No definitive winner
2012: (TIE) Kendrick Lamar - good kidd, M.A.A.D. city // Deftones - koi no yokan
2014: Behemoth - The Satanist
2015: Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly

1983: Metallica - Kill 'em All (18 votes)

A little surprised by this, to be honest. I'm not the biggest Metallica guy, so I went back and listen to the album - and I'm not sure it holds up to their best stuff. Feels very bare and almost derivative at times. Anyway, one man's opinion.

1990 is an excellent and thoroughly under-appreciated year for music. Tons of great stuff, on both the undercard and on the popular end. Not sure there's a clear favourite here, either

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[plank]

1. Ass Ponys - Mr. Superlove
2. Uncle Tupelo - No Depression
3. The Black Crowes - Shake Your Moneymaker
4. Social Distortion - s/t
5. Traveling Wilburys - Vol. 3
6. Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Ragged Glory
7. Reverend Horton Heat - Smoke 'em if You Got 'em
8. Sinead O'Connor - I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got
9. World Party - Goodbye Jumbo
10. Los Lobos - The Neighborhood
11. The Flatlanders - More a Legend Than a Band
12. The Sundays - Reading, Writing and Arithmetic

 

[Teemu]

Uncle Tupelo - No Depression
Depeche Mode - Violator
The Black Crowes - Shake Your Money Maker
Pixies - Bossanova

Check out this guy putting Uncle Tupelo as a poll option

 

[Osprey]

I feel like I lived through a different 1990 . I've never heard of almost a dozen of those artists and nowhere to be found are all of what I was listening to that year:

AC/DC - The Razor's Edge
Poison - Flesh & Blood
Jon Bon Jovi - Blaze of Glory
M.C. Hammer - Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em
Warrant - Cherry Pie
Wilson Philips - Wilson Philips
Winger - In the Heart of the Young
Living Colour - Time's Up

Maybe I was listening to crap and I didn't know it .

 

[MoreOrr]

Violator - Depeche Mode, just edging out X - INXS (which really should be on that list).

 

[Chili]

Added:

Scorpions-Crazy World
Van Morrison-Enlightenment

 

[Mescaleroman]

Midnight Oil - Blue Sky Mining
Kevin Kinney - MacDougal Blues
Sinead O'Connor - I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got
Concrete Blonde - Bloodletting
Happy Mondays - Pills N' Thrills and Bellyaches
the Ruts - Peel Sessions Album

 

[frisco]

Other than Violator:
Gold Afternoon Fix-The Church
Blue Sky Mining-Midnight Oil
The Highwaymen 2-The Highwaymen
Change Of Season-Hall And Oates
X-INXS
Bloodletting-Concrete Blonde
Edge Of The Century-Styx

My Best-Carey

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Nothing mesmerizing, but a pretty solid top-5, after that there's a huge drop.

1. Bob Ostertag (with Zorn & with Frith) – Attention Span
2. Caroliner – I'm Armed With Quarts of Blood
3. Richard Desjardins – Tu m'aimes-tu
4. Sun City Girls – Torch of the Mystics
5. Naked City – Naked City / Naked City – Torture Garden
-
6. Slayer – Seasons In The Abyss
7. Daniel Johnston – 1990
8. Ween – GodWeenSatan: The Oneness
9. The Mummies – Shitsville (yeah, it's only 9 minutes long, but damn it's fun – they have a couple of other songs released that year, That Girl is pretty cool too)
10. Suicidal Tendencies – Lights...Camera...Revolution (certainly a nostalgic tainted ranking, but love this album)

HMs:
Dwarves – Blood Guts & p***y
Jean Leloup – L'amour est sans pitié
Ruins – Stonehenge
The Dead Milkmen – Metaphysical Graffiti
Cows – Effete & Impudent Snobs
Lou Reed & John Cale – Songs For Drella
Hanatarash – 3: William Bennett Has No Dick
:zoviet*france: – Just an Illusion / :zoviet*france: – Look Into Me
Primus – Frizzle Fry
Steel Pole Bath Tub – Tulip / Steel Pole Bath Tub – Lurch (EP)
Merzbow – Rainbow Electronics
Laibach – Macbeth
The Gerogerigegege – Tokyo Anal Dynamite
Whitehouse – Thank Your Lucky Stars
Jazz Passengers – Implement Yourself
Kronos Quartet – Black Angels
Autopsia – Death Is the Mother of Beauty
Marc Ribot – Rootless Cosmopolitans
Boyd Rice and Friends – Music, Martinis, and Misanthropy (again surrounded with some racist controversy, but I think a song like People, no matter the original intention, is highly effective in slowly causing discomfort and making you suddenly realize at the end the type of discourse you were at first willingly associating with)
The Dead C – Trapdoor f***ing Exit
Anthony Braxton – Eight (+1) Tristano Compositions 1989 for Warne Marsh
Skinny Puppy – Too Dark Park
Jah Wobble (Invaders of the Heart) – Without Judgement
Pixies – Bossanova
Traveling Wilburys – Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3
Lard – The Last Temptation of Reid (with better vocals, this would be amazing)
Sacred Reich – The American Way

Curiosities:
Seigen Ono – NekonoTopia NekonoMania (love Ono, but this is a little too soft for me)
Marianne Faithfull – Blazing Away (if only to hear Marc Ribot play Working Class Hero)
Danielle Dax – Blast the Human Flower (oh well... and that Tomorrow Never Knows version...)
Anthrax – Persistence of Time (had to include them, their cover of Got the Time is in regular rotation in my stuff)
Jeff Lynne – Armchair Theater (kind of corny, but with a few pretty nice covers)
Bastro – Sing the Troubled Beast
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – The Good Son
Už Jsme Doma – In the Middle of Words / Uprostřed slov
Sinéad O’Connor – I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got
Ride – Nowhere
The World of Skin – Ten Songs for Another World
Angelo Badalamenti – Soundtrack From Twin Peaks
Biohazard – Biohazard

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I feel like I lived through a different 1990 . I've never heard of almost a dozen of those artists and nowhere to be found are all of what I was listening to that year:

AC/DC - The Razor's Edge
Poison - Flesh & Blood
Jon Bon Jovi - Blaze of Glory
M.C. Hammer - Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em
Warrant - Cherry Pie
Wilson Philips - Wilson Philips
Winger - In the Heart of the Young
Living Colour - Time's Up

Maybe I was listening to crap and I didn't know it .

I could have put the JBJ album in my curiosities, I think there's actually a few good songs in there - something that's pretty rare from BJ as a group (of course there's a few exceptions - favorite Bon Jovi song? Love For Sale).

 

[Babe Ruth]

Voted for the Alice in Chains & Fugazi albums. Write-in vote for Danzig II: Lucifuge.

 

[kihei]

Baden Powell--Afro Sambas
The La's--The La's
Kate and Anna McGarrigle--Heartbeats Accelerating
Pat Metheny Trio--Question and Answer
Youssou N'Dour--Set
The Charlatans--Some Friendly
Ali Farka Toure--The River
Midnight Oil--Blue Sky Mining
Steve Winwood--Refugees of the Heart
Neil Young--Ragged Glory

 

[Smelling Salt]

I feel like I lived through a different 1990 . I've never heard of almost a dozen of those artists and nowhere to be found are all of what I was listening to that year:

Poison - Flesh & Blood
Jon Bon Jovi - Blaze of Glory
Warrant - Cherry Pie
Wilson Philips - Wilson Philips
Winger - In the Heart of the Young

Maybe I was listening to crap and I didn't know it .

Nah man I loved all those and still do.

 

[Smelling Salt]

I could have put the JBJ album in my curiosities, I think there's actually a few good songs in there - something that's pretty rare from BJ as a group (of course there's a few exceptions - favorite Bon Jovi song? Love For Sale).

Oh man I love Love For Sale. Fun little album closer.

I too love JBJ - BOG. Fits the mood of the movie well. The title track is a banger obviously, but the ballads like Dying Ain't Much of a Livin, Santa Fe and Blood Money (ballad-ish) are fantastic.

His backing musicians on the album is also a murderer's row of talent. That album is probably also JBJ's best vocal performance.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

I voted for Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic by The Sundays. I still listen to it, actually think it's better than Heaven or Las Vegas. Maybe it's because it holds up better over time or takes longer for some songs to grow but it's a fantastic album by a band that disappeared too sooner.

 

[Smelling Salt]

My faves:

Extreme - Pornograffitti
Steve Vai - Passion and Warfare
Slaughter - Stick it to Ya
The Black Crowes - Shake Your Money Maker
Depeche Mode - Violator
Poison - Flesh & Blood
Nelson - After the Rain
Jon Bon Jovi - Blaze of Glory
Winger - In the Heart of the Young
Pantera - Cowboys From Hell
Jellyfish - Bellybutton
Firehouse - Firehouse
Alice in Chains - Facelift
Ratt - Detonator
Warrant - Cherry Pie
Tesla - Five Man Acoustical Jam
Queensryche - Empire
Suicidal Tendencies - Lights... Camera... Revolution!
Cinderella - Heartbreak Station
2 Live Crew - Banned in the USA

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Pantera - Cowboys From Hell

Megadeth - Rust In Peace

Alice In Chains - Facelift

 

[Osprey]

Nah man I loved all those and still do.

So do I. I was just trying to be lighthearted and not come across as critical.

BTW, it's always you who likes my posts when I mention my 80s musical tastes. You must've been the Canadian version of my young self .

 

[Cas]

1990 was a big year for less famous bands:

Artillery - By Inheritance
Black Sabbath - Tyr
Blind Guardian - Tales From the Twilight World
Cancer - To the Gory End
Count Raven - Storm Warning
Death - Spiritual Healing
Deicide - Deicide
Demolition Hammer - Tortured Existence
Entombed - Left Hand Path
Iced Earth - Iced Earth
Judas Priest - Painkiller
King Diamond - The Eye
Master - Master
Nocturnus - The Key
Obituary - Cause of Death
Razor - Shotgun Justice
Riot - The Privilege of Power
Sadus - Swallowed in Black
Winter - Into Darkness

Spiritual Healing is my favorite Death album.

 

[Stylizer1]

Mama Said Knock You Out - LL Cool J was a really good album.

 

[MakeTheGoalsLarger]

I only voted for :
Pixies - Bossanova

Would have voted for:
ACDC - The Razor's edge
Scorpions - Crazy World

 

[kook10]

other:

Brand Nubian - One For All
Gang Starr - Step In The Arena
Lord Finesse - Funky Technician

eta - The La's and Passion and Warfare (good calls!)

 

[beowulf]

Anthrax - Persistence of Time
Steve Vai - Passion and Warfare
Queensrÿche - Empire
Mother Love Bone - Apple

 

[Smelling Salt]

Anthrax - Persistence of Time
Steve Vai - Passion and Warfare
Queensrÿche - Empire
Mother Love Bone - Apple

Oh shit I didn't put Vai on mine. That's probably a top fiver for me. Along with Extreme's Pornograffitti it made me want to pick up the guitar.

 

[Oxbow Lakes]

Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet
Ministry - In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up (Live)
Ice Cube - AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted
Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas
A Tribe Called Quest - People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm
Poison Idea - Feel the Darkness