Music: Best Albums of the Year Series: 1995

[Saturated Fats]

1965: The Beatles - Rubber Soul
1966: The Beatles - Revolver
1967: The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
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
1975: Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
1976: Eagles - Hotel California
1977: Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
1979: Pink Floyd - The Wall
1980: AC/DC - Back in Black
1982: Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
1984: Metallica - Ride the Lightning
1985: Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair
1987: Guns 'n Roses - Appetite for Destruction
1988: Metallica - ...And Justice for All
1989: Pixies - Doolittle
1991: Nirvana - Nevermind
1992: Alice in Chains - Dirt
1996: (TIE) Soundgarden - Down on the Upside // Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire
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
2004: (TIE) Madvillain - Madvillainy // The Killers - Hot Fuss // Green Day - American Idiot
2005: Coldplay - X & Y
2007: Radiohead - In Rainbows
2010: The National - High Violet
2011: No definitive winner
2014: Behemoth - The Satanist

2012: (TIE) Kendrick Lamar - good kidd, M.A.A.D. city // Deftones - koi no yokan (6 votes)

3rd Place: Rush - Clockwork Angels (4 votes)
4th Place (TIE): 5 albums with 3 votes

A little bit more involvement than in some of the past 2010's-era polls, and likely because it's a year with some classics. Kendrick is a bit of a surprise, but only with respect to this board not seeming to go in much for hip-hop. Deftones is in keeping with what I would expect, and is also a great album.

In putting together my list for 1995, I suddenly realized that this is a monster year. Maybe the best of the 90's (which is saying something, considering 91 and 94). So much to love and appreciate here, I'm having a helluva time putting together a Top 10. Maybe not the most commercially successful, but the top-end is crazy good.

10/20: 1981
10/22: 2006
10/24: 1974

Click to read more...

 

[frisco]

Other than Tragic Kingdom:
The Road Goes On Forever-The Highwaymen
The Ghost Of Tom Joad-Bruce Springsteen
Made In Heaven-Queen

My Best-Carey

 

[plank]

Awesome year for alt/country

1. Trace - Son Volt
2. Wrecking Ball - Emmylou Harris
3. Where'd You Hide the Body - James McMurtry
4. s/t - The Presidents of the United States of America
5. Train a Comin' - Steve Earle
6. A.M. - Wilco
7. Tomorrow the Green Grass - The Jayhawks
8. Down by the Old Mainstream - Golden Smog
9. Dirt Track Date - Southern Culture on the Skids
10. Forever Blue - Chris Isaak
11. Dublin Blues - Guy Clark
12. Dog Days - Blue Mountain
13. Lost Dogs + Mixed Blessings - John Prine
14. Walk On - John Hiatt
15. Fade Away Diamond Time - Neal Casal
16. Mirror Ball - Neil Young
17. Wreck Your Life - Old 97's
18. Relish - Joan Osbourne
19. Viva Last Blues - Palace Music
20. Old Paint - Freakwater
21. The Utterly Fantastic and Totally Unbelievable Sound of - Los Straitjackets

 

[Oxbow Lakes]

Pavement - Wowee Zowee
Goodie Mob - Soul Food
Aphex Twin - ...I Care Because You Do
Tricky - Maxinquaye
The Consumers - All My Friends Are Dead
DJ Screw - 3 ’n the Mornin’: Part Two [Blue]
Leevi and the Leavings - Rakkauden Planeetta
Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...
Guided by Voices - Alien Lanes
Unwound - Unwound

 

[Eisen]

Satanic Surfers - Hero of our time
Venerea - Shake your Booty
Kyuss - ...and the circus leaves town
Crowbar - Time heals nothing
Tocotronic - Digital ist besser
Tocotronic - Nach der verlorenen Zeit

Very strong year.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Liquid Swords

Tragic Kingdom a close 2nd.

Really a damn good music year where every genre had massive albums. I'd have a hard time naming only a top 10 nevermind a favorite

 

[Teemu]

Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Wilco – A.M.
Goo Goo Dolls - A Boy Named Goo
Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Favorite album of all-time at the #1 spot here. After that the drop is huge. Rest of the top-20 is very good, but not great.

(I edited it to make it a top-20 as there's another drop after that)

1. Mr. Bungle – Disco Volante
-
2. Chipfarm – Chipfarm
3. Les innocents – Post-Partum
4. Trumans Water – The Peel Sessions / Trumans Water – Milktrain to Paydirt (for some reason, every version I've found of Milktrain to Paydirt sound like they've been recorded through a wall, maybe not the best production)
5. Optical*8 – All Over
6. Faith No More – King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime
7. Death Ambient – Death Ambient
8. Yat-Kha – Yenisei-Punk
9. Klezmatics – Jews With Horns
10. Pain Teens – Beast of Dreams
11. Derek & the Ruins – Saisoro / Ruins – Hyderomastgroningem (Hyderomastgroningem is a subpar Ruins album, it's really their collaboration with Derek Bailey that keeps them in my top-15 for the year)
12. P – P
13. Miossec – Boire
14. Scholl, Erismann, Niggli, Frith, Koch & Kowald – Nil
15. Genocide Organ – Mind Control
16. Melt-Banana – Scratch or Stitch
17. PJ Harvey – To Bring You My Love
18. Ground Zero – Null and Void
19. Anthony Coleman – Sephardic Tinge
20. Ikue Mori – Painted Desert / Ikue Mori – Hex Kitchen

HMs:
Foetus – Gash / Foetus – Null (EP)
Tindersticks – Tindersticks Second Album
Brighter Death Now – Necrose Evangelicum
Yamataka Eye & John Zorn – Nani Nani
Bassholes – Haunted Hill!
Keiji Haino – I Said, This Is the Son of Nihilism / Keiji Haino – Tenshi No Gijinka
Brigitte Fontaine – Genre humain
Bjork – Post
Bardo Pond – Bufo Alvarius, Amen 29:15 / Bardo Pond – Big Laughing Jym (EP)
Bruce Springsteen – The Ghost of Tom Joad
Haus Arafna – Blut (Trilogie des Blutes): Life / Selection / Death / Haus Arafna & Karl Runau – Take One - Get Two (EP)
Love 666 – American Revolution
The Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Oblivians – Soul Food
Current 93 – Where the Long Shadows Fall (Beforetheinmostlight)
Guided by Voices – Alien Lanes
Pere Ubu – Ray Gun Suitcase

Curiosities:
Mystic Fugu Orchestra – Zohar
Leftfield – Leftism
Arnold Dreyblatt – Animal Magnetism
Blood Axis – The Gospel of Inhumanity
Thurston Moore – Psychic ♥♥♥
The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath a Cloud – A New Soldier Follows the Path of a New King
Brian Wilson – I Just Wasn't Made for These Times
Ved Buens Ende – Written in Waters
Marc Ribot – The Book of Heads / Marc Ribot – Don't Blame Me (I have nothing but admiration for these two records, they're just not much fun to go back to – for me anyway)
Helga Pogatschar – Mars: Requiem
Elvis Costello – Kojax Variety (just a fun album)
The Mono Men – Those Mono Men Recorded Live! At Tom's Strip-N-Bowl (Doesn't sound like there's more than half a dozen spectators for this “live” record, lots of fun)
Makigami Koichi – Kuchinoha (that's too much, even for me!)

This might move your ass:


And this might blow your brain:

 

[kihei]

Radiohead--The Bends
Oasis--What's the Story, Morning Glory
Cesaria Evora--Cesaria
Bjork: Post
Swervedriver--Ejector Seat Reservation
The Verve--A Northern Soul
Teemage Fanclub--Grand Prix
Pat Metheny Group--We Live Here
Porcupine Tree--The Sky Moves Sideways
Annie Lennox--Medusa/
Blur--The Great Escape

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Radiohead--The Bends

I expect this to win, but to me The Bends was an amazing "song" (in 10 parts) in 1995 and a relatively bland album.

 

[Mescaleroman]

Paul Weller - Stanley Road
the Catherine Wheel - Happy Days
Pulp - A Different Class
Guided By Voices - Alien Lanes
Foo Fighters - s/t
Rancid - And Out Come the Wolves
the Verve - A Northern Soul
Nathalie Merchant - Tigerlilly
the Presidents of the United States of America - s/t
Supergrass - I Should Coco

 

[reckoning]

1) To Bring You My Love - PJ Harvey
2) Garbage - Garbage
3) A.M. - Wilco
4) Foo Fighters - Foo Fighters
5) The Bends - Radiohead
6) Wrecking Ball - Emmylou Harris


Jagged Little Pill would get my vote as worst album of the year, and possibly worst album ever.

 

[ghostnights]

Great year

 

[Mescaleroman]

@Saturated Fats
I'm almost certain we've done 1972 already.
At first I thought it may have been the year the imposter posted the poll but it seems to me it was more recent than that.
Just a heads up.
If my memory serves me correctly , Harvest won.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

@Saturated Fats
I'm almost certain we've done 1972 already.
At first I thought it may have been the year the imposter posted the poll but it seems to me it was more recent than that.
Just a heads up.
If my memory serves me correctly , Harvest won.

Here it is: Music: - Best Albums of the Year series: 1972

 

[kook10]

From list (no order):
GZA - Liquid Swords
Radiohead - The Bends
Björk - Post
Supergrass - I Should Coco
Chemical Brothers - Exit Planet Dust
Pulp - Different Class
Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...
Aphex Twin - '... I Care Because You Do'

Other:
Autechre - Tri Repitae
Yo La Tengo - Electro Pura
Sonic Youth - Washing Machine

 

[ItsFineImFine]

The only good Oasis album was released that year but I have to go with The Bends, holds up a bit better I guess.

Also the debuts by Cast and Gene, a couple underrated. Longpigs and kent debuts as well and a really good album called Waterpistol by a Liverpool band called Shack.

 

[Cas]

1995 was a good year.

Behemoth - Sventevith (Storming Near the Baltic)
Blind Guardian - Imaginations from the Other Side
Cathedral - The Carnival Bizarre
Death - Symbolic
Gamma Ray - Land of the Free
Iced Earth - Burnt Offerings
Isengard - Høstmørke
King Diamond - The Spider's Lullaby
My Dying Bride - The Angel and the Dark River
Running Wild - Masquerade
Saint Vitus - Die Healing
Symphony X - The Damnation Game
Usurper - Diabolosis
Vader - De Profundis
Vital Remains - Into Cold Darkness

Land of the Free is probably a top ten power metal album of all time in a year with a lot of great power metal. I might put Burnt Offerings in that same group, but I'm going to pick Gamma Ray - Land of the Free as my album of the year.

 

[Smelling Salt]

Damn this was a good year. My most listened to album of 95 was probably from 94 though (Pantera - Far Beyond Driven).

1. Bon Jovi - These Days
2. Collective Soul - Collective Soul
3. Extreme - Waiting for the Punchline
4. Harem Scarem - Voice of Reason
5. Our Lady Peace - Naveed
6. Down - NOLA
7. Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill
8. Steve Vai - Alien Love Secrets
9. Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
10. Van Halen - Balance

HM:
The Tea Party - The Edges of Twilight
Silverchair - Frogstomp
Dream Theater - A Change of Seasons
Fear Factory - Demanufacture
Tom Cochrane - Ragged Ass Road

 

[Saturated Fats]

@Saturated Fats
I'm almost certain we've done 1972 already.
At first I thought it may have been the year the imposter posted the poll but it seems to me it was more recent than that.
Just a heads up.
If my memory serves me correctly , Harvest won.

Thanks, friend. You're absolutely right. I'll update the main post.

 

[Langdon Alger]

Damn this was a good year. My most listened to album of 95 was probably from 94 though (Pantera - Far Beyond Driven).

1. Bon Jovi - These Days
2. Collective Soul - Collective Soul
3. Extreme - Waiting for the Punchline
4. Harem Scarem - Voice of Reason
5. Our Lady Peace - Naveed
6. Down - NOLA
7. Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill
8. Steve Vai - Alien Love Secrets
9. Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
10. Van Halen - Balance

HM:
The Tea Party - The Edges of Twilight
Silverchair - Frogstomp
Dream Theater - A Change of Seasons
Fear Factory - Demanufacture
Tom Cochrane - Ragged Ass Road

Ha I forgot about Frogstomp coming out that year. I listened to that a lot when I was a teenager.

I think the second CD I ever bought was the Collective Soul self titled album when I was 13. Not a bad song on there, and the slide guitar on “Reunion” is pretty sweet.

95 was the year I really got into music, so I have good memories from that year.

 

[Smelling Salt]

I think the second CD I ever bought was the Collective Soul self titled album when I was 13. Not a bad song on there, and the slide guitar on “Reunion” is pretty sweet.

Absolutely. It's all killer though funny enough I think Reunion is the weakest tune.

 

[Langdon Alger]

Absolutely. It's all killer though funny enough I think Reunion is the weakest tune.

Really? Always loved that one. Great hidden gem from a band that has plenty of those.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Other:

1. Down - NOLA

2. Crowbar - Time Heals Nothing

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Not a great year, but here are my top picks:

Iron Maiden - "The X Factor". I wrote about this recently in another post. Most critics hated this album. So did most of the band's fans, but a few, myself included, think this is one of their greatest works. Steve Harris, the band's bassist and primary songwriter, was dealing with the death of his father and the dissolution of his marriage, so the songs here are dark, with lyrics about the futility of life, losing faith, and PTSD. You won't find Maiden's trademark operatic vocals or high-speed galloping here; but there's lots of great riffs, some excellent guitar solos, Harris's greatest bass solo, and one of the finest epics in their catalogue (the 11-minute "Sign of the Cross").

Oasis - "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?". One of the greatest pop rock albums of all time. The ballads are generally the stronger material, but the energetic title track might be Oasis's best song.

The Roots - "Do You Want More?!!!??!". One of my top five or ten hip-hop albums of all-time. The best fusion of rap and jazz that I've heard. The band provides great live instrumentation. There's lots of variety too - classic hip-hop storytelling, slam poetry, beatboxing, an R&B ballad, etc.