Rethinking the best of the 90's

When I was in college, 1994, I had the idea to do a zine that only reviewed records a few years old. Too often the only review for a record comes right when it comes out. Reviews think about the album before it has any real context. I have always found albums years after they were released to love them later. This happens with albums that I heard when they came out and did not like at the time like Strightaways
and albums that I did not hear about until later like In the Aeroplane Over the Sea .

I never made that zine, but I am happy that Pitchfork Media's recently revised list of the Top 100 Albums of the Ninties. It is interesting to see how things moved from their old list.

Here is the only list of my own I could dig up. I am missing everything I wrote between 9/99 and 5/00 because of a hard drive crash. I am not sure how true these things are for me anymore. I hope you like my list.

Best CDs of the 90s
Nirvana - Nevermind
Hole - Live Though This
Paleface - Paleface
Wu Tang - 36 Chambers
Richard Thompson - Rumors and Sighs
Pavement - Crooked Rain Crooked Rain
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Massive Attack - Blue Lines
R.E.M. - Automatic For The People
Soul Coughing - Ruby Vroom

Best Singles:
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
Geto Boys - My Mind's Playing Tricks On Me
Coolieo - Fantastic Voyage
Beck - Loser
Belly - Feed The Trees
Tori Amos - Silent All These Years
Suzanne Vega - Blood Makes Noise
Onyx - Slam


Favorite CDs of the 90s:
Lemonheads: It's a Shame About Ray
Matthew Sweet: Altered Beast
Pavement: Crooked Rain Crooked Rain
Son Volt: Trance
Sundays: Reading, Writing, & Arithmetic
U2: Actung Baby
R.E.M.: New Adventures In Hi-Fi
Crowed House - Together Alone
Judy Bats - Pain Makes You Beautiful
Harvey Danger - Where have all the Merry Makers Gone?

Best Acts:
Pavement
R.E.M.
Beck
Massive Attack/Tricky
Dr. Dre
Pearl Jam

All of this goes nicely with the End of Year Mix CD Challenge.

I have to thank Jeremy for this one.