Unfortunately, there are so many deserving LPs that are often underrated by critics and overlooked when compiling “Best of” decade lists. For every album by Beck inducted into the “Best of the 1990s” canon, deserving records by the Lemonheads and Belly are tossed aside. Moreover, for every obvious choice by a well-established artist, more subtly brilliant follow-ups are considered superfluous and therefore overlooked. Listed below, in release date order, are albums that are too often underrated and overlooked among the best of the 1990s.
15. Placebo – Without You I’m Nothing [1998]
Placebo have never really been taken as a serious band. Probably because of lead singer Brian Molko’s ridiculously nasal delivery and the group’s propensity to sing about recreational drug use. Underlying Placebo’s focus on drug use is a magnificent loathing and self-pity that oddly results in an ironic self-reflection.
Although Placebo have stated that it was disappointed with the outcome of Without You I’m Nothing, the album showcases the band at the height of its concentration on drug abuse and how that can result in a moral panic of sexual and emotional self-loathing. Plus, the lead single “Pure Morning” is magnificently bizarre. Album highlights: “Pure Morning”, “Brick Shithouse”, “Scared of Girls”, and “Without Your I’m Nothing”.
14. Hole – Celebrity Skin [1998]
Poor Courtney Love. Poor, crazy, train-wreck Courtney. Celebrity Skin marked the beginning of her brief upswing as a respected artist, with all the talent and charisma she believed she had. This album is often overlooked in favour of Hole‘s superior sophomore album, Live Through This (1994). However, Celebrity Skin is a stellar album in its own right. Remarkably, Hole updated their sound to compete with the increasingly slick recordings permeating throughout the rock scene.
Where Live Through This found strength in its sparse, simple yet superbly poetic (and prophetic) lyrics, Celebrity Skin is replete with more intricate, loquacious (but never overbearing) lyrics. Also, this was the first album Love wrote after the death of her husband, Kurt Cobain, resulting in intense emotional complexities.
13. Smashing Pumpkins – Adore [1998]
Smashing Pumpkins really shot themselves in the foot when, after their over-popularised and overrated double album, Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995) was done, they announced that their next record would be an “electronic” record. Having just fired drummer Jimmy Chamberlin for being a drug addict involved with the death of their touring keyboardist, Adore ostensibly divided almost every fan as the album sold half of its predecessor’s sales and became known as the record that became the demise of one of the biggest 1990s bands.
Hindsight would reveal that Adore is actually a more “acoustic” and delicate offering from a group that, up to this point, had been stuck in teenage-angst alt-rock. Adore showcases a band progressing and maturing like only the best acts can, exploring Smashing Pumpkins’ romantic and adventurous sides.
12. Liz Phair – Whitechocolatespaceegg [1998]
I’m not entirely sure why, when Liz Phair released her third record, Whitechocolatespaceegg, it was reviled by so many of her die-hard fans. At the time, it was Phair’s most accessible record. With greater production values and a newfound love of variance in her recordings, Whitechocolatespaceegg is an outstanding pop record that shows how versatile Phair can be.
Unfortunately, Whitechocolatespaceegg is often overlooked for one of two reasons: 1. Fans see it as an indication of Phair moving past the indie/underground roots of her style; 2. Her practically consecrated 1993 debut, Exile in Guyville, is on every “Best of the 1990s” list, and God forbid there be any more than one entry from a female artist. Particular album highlights: pretty much every song on the album.
11. Sheryl Crow – Sheryl Crow [1996]
Let’s face it. As good as 1993’s Tuesday Night Music Club was, it kind of made Sheryl Crow sound like a lightweight country star. Moreover, every album after her sophomore effort just cemented her spot in the world of “female-artists-who-are-super-popular-but-suck” genre. However, just before she started down that slide of suckery, she released this self-titled LP, which, to her credit, showcased her abilities as a songwriter more so than her debut. What resulted is the coolest album Crow has ever released. Preceded by the mega-hit “If It Makes You Happy”, the record is precisely where country music should have gone. Particular album highlights: “Oh Marie”, “Hard to Make a Stand”, and “Maybe Angels”.
10. Skunk Anansie – Stoosh [1996]
Much like Meshell Ndegeocello, the mainstream buying public simply doesn’t like their lead rock singers as anything other than male, white, and heterosexual. Because of this, this ass-kicking band gets frequently dismissed because of the screeching, bald, black lesbian that fronts this motley crew. Unfortunately, Skunk Anansie‘s 1995 debut, Paranoid and Sunburnt, was pretty uneven, but it reeked of what the group was capable of.
The ensemble’s follow-up, Stoosh, a softer but more precise effort, proved that it wasn’t like any other band—they could shift and reinvent their sound. Much more successful in the UK, Skunk Anansie never found their footing in the US, which is a shame, because Stoosh is a brilliantly accomplished 1990s alternative rock record.
9. The Cardigans – First Band on the Moon [1996]
“Lovefool” was probably the worst thing to happen to the Cardigans. It branded this shockingly versatile band as a “one-hit wonder”, which is a travesty because the remaining ten tracks from this, their sophomore release, combine to make a surprisingly crafty pop record. First Band on the Moon is a brilliant LP, overlooked for being nothing more than Swedish pop lite.
Although it never matched the success of “Lovefool”, First Band on the Moon was a turning point for the Cardigans, who tightened their sound and specialised it for each release. Their previous two records, Emmerdale and Life, reeked of immaturity and of a band finding their balance. On First Band, the Cardigans found that balance.
8. Tori Amos – Boys for Pele [1996]
This record is often overlooked simply because Tori Amos‘ brilliant Little Earthquakes (1992) is one of the only records in her catalogue chosen for inclusion in most “Best of the 1990s” lists. However, it’s this, her “sonic novel”, that is a truly inspired masterpiece, underrated as well for its oftentimes inaccessibility. There’s no denying that Amos’ quirky and confusing tendencies have alienated many music fans, but if you just suspend your disbelief for five seconds, you’ll find yourself enveloped in one of the most chaotic and emotional rides that ever graced “break-up” music.
Boys for Pele begins with the stark “Beauty Queen/Horses” and gallops through various heavyweight themes such as blood sacrifice, suicide, adultery, religion, and the South. There are so many musical shifts and nuances that Boys for Pele is truly we-inspiring and is just as deserving a place in the “Best of the 1990s” canon as her debut.
7. Belly – King [1995]
There were a number of female alterna-darlings in the mid-1990s: Juliana Hatfield, Liz Phair, Kristen Hersh, and Tanya Donelly. Women were making a big impact, proving that rock wasn’t relegated solely to men. Unfortunately, most of these women get passed over for their mediocre male counterparts when anyone does a thorough reflection on the best music of the decade.
Although many fans will argue that Belly’s debut Star is the superior of the two albums, after the occasional sloppiness of the first record, Tanya Donelly’s post-Throwing Muses band tightened its act, took some songwriting lessons, and produced this magnificent 11-track rock record. Brimming with shining guitars and Donnelly’s sweet, high-pitched voice, King epitomised the Gen X phenomenon, giving it a contemplative voice that was too often dismissed as fatalistic.
6. Sam Phillips – Martinis and Bikinis [1994]
Few of you probably even know who Sam Phillips is. Once a Christian rock star, now a superb songwriter, Phillips truly outdid herself with this, the best album of her career. From the darkly comedic record cover of Philips lying on a bed with a row of dead men underneath, to the sparse and affecting cover version of John Lennon‘s “Gimme Some Truth”, Martinis and Bikinis contains both some of the best conceptual and emotional songs ever to grace the pop scene. It’s unfortunate that, given the sheer fact that most people haven’t even heard this album, most people haven’t discovered Philips earlier. Particular album highlights: “I Need Love”, “When I Fall”, and “Black Sky”.
5. The Lemonheads – Come on Feel the Lemonheads [1993]
The Lemonheads‘ cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson” got them on commercial radio, but it was their follow-up, Come on Feel the Lemonheads, that showed what a mastermind of alterna-pop lead singer Evan Dando can be. Arguably the inspiration for such pop/rock indie darlings as Death Cab for Cutie and the Shins, the Lemonheads’ music was often overshadowed by Dando’s notorious drug abuse and the revolving door of bandmates.
Come on Feel has a continuous one-two punch, beginning with “The Great Big No” and ending with “Big Gay Heart”. Unfortunately, this record never gave the Lemonheads the push into the limelight they deserved, mainly because many other bands, like Gin Blossoms and Tonic, achieved just enough mediocrity to reach the top of the charts.
4. Meshell Ndegeocello – Plantation Lullabies [1993]
At some point, Meshell Ndegeocello was pigeonholed as a weepy female singer/songwriter—probably because she toured with Lilith Fair for a couple of years. It’s a shame, really, because her debut album, Plantation Lullabies, is nothing short of a masterpiece. The album is a whirlwind of insightful political and social thought—regurgitated in the most verbose manner in many graduate sociology courses—tempered with some heartbreaking, emotional tunes.
Ndegeocello played practically every instrument on this album, earning her the idiom of “the female Prince”. The powerhouse tune that takes the cake, though, is the post-feminist kick-ass “If That’s Your Boyfriend (He Wasn’t Last Night)”, which is made better (if you can believe it) by its stunning video. Plantation Lullabies encompassed every bit of the 1990s that everyone in the 1990s refused to acknowledge.
3. Madonna – Erotica [1992]
There was a whole lotta naked Madonna being thrown at us in the early 1990s. Unfortunately, her (let’s admit it) amazing nakedness obscured the quality of this, her most adventurous record. A gritty, dirty release, Erotica is often overlooked as the album that followed the mega-hit single “Vogue”. Although there are moments that falter on the album, conceptually and cohesively, it was the first time Madonna proved she could create a fully focused, intense little record, as only a true sexual icon could. Though Erotica failed to produce a number one hit, tracks such as “Erotica”, “Bad Girl”, and “Secret Garden” remain among the best of her career.
2. Annie Lennox – Diva [1992]
When the Eurythmics announced that they would be parting ways, there was some speculation that Annie Lennox would flop without her partner-in-crime, David Stewart. She floored pretty much everyone when “Why” hit and proved that a partner would only provide needless filler to her magnitude. The aptly named Diva was less a reflection of Lennox’s persona and more an intelligent and beautifully crafted album by the solo female singer. The record managed to remain on the charts for 72 weeks, and proved that mainstream hits can favour diversity when she released singles “Walking on Broken Glass” and “Little Bird”.
1. En Vogue – Funky Divas [1992]
En Vogue had class coming out of the wazoo, and it wasn’t until its 1992 sophomore release, Funky Divas, that this became painstakingly apparent. En Vogue, the girl group brainchild of Thomas McElroy and Denzil Foster, recorded a masterful R&B classic on this LP. Rollercoastering through a topsy-turvy of various musical genres, Divas managed to remain intact as a solid R&B album. Terry, Maxine, Cindy, and Dawn proved that pop stars can be sexy without being half-naked floozies.
Unfortunately, this stellar record is often underrated simply because En Vogue was (admittedly) not formed organically. The girls were brought together by their producers, and for too many of them, this form of music-making was too cold and sterile to be truly worthwhile. Little did we know that this would fail to be an issue about 15 years later.
15 Underrated Albums of the 1990s
This article was originally published on 9 May 2012.