90s Album Reviews

With his 1994 sophomore solo album Whiskey For The Holy Ghost, Mark Lanegan matured as a songwriter with his take on folk and blues

Built To Spill might have released the guitar rock album of the decade with 1997s Perfect From Now On, balancing songwriting and shredding

Known for their hit "The Way," Fastball's 1998 album All The Pain Money Can Buy is chock full of quality power-pop and tight songwriting

Ricaine's 1996 debut Regret Is An Inevitable Consequence of Life is an undiscovered gem of 90s noise rock that balances the light and dark

Firewater's sophomore album The Ponzi Scheme combines alternative rock and European cabaret and Klezmer with interesting but mixed results

On their 1994 release In A Perfect World, Season To Risk took their major label money and made a decidedly unmajor label post-hardcore album

With their 1994 debut album Dummy, Portishead helped elevate trip-hop from the underground to award-level mainstream prominence

We revisit what might be the most influential 90s album on indie rock bands of the 2000s, Neutral Milk Hotel's In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

Morphine's unique instrumentation and influences are the true alternative to 90s guitar rock, as evidenced by their 1993 album Cure For Pain

For our 500th episode of the podcast, we've convened our biggest roundtable ever to discuss Nirvana's legendary 1991 album Nevermind

The lone solo album by Murray Attaway, 1993's In Thrall, tackles big sounds and big ideas with an even bigger cast of supporting musicians

Instead of Red Hot Chili Peppers or Primus funk, Big Chief channeled 70s blaxploitation films on the 1993 album Mack Avenue Skullgame

On her third album To Bring You My Love, PJ Harvey created a career-defining album that still resonates today

We explore the world of Indian fusion jazz folk and rock, and our first live album, on the 1997 release Desert Rain by Indian Ocean

Cosmic Psychos might be unknown in the United States, but their fuzzed-out punk can be heard in grunge, stoner, and action rock followers

On Born To Quit, the Smoking Popes combine old school rock 'n roll riffing with Ratpack crooning with impressive execution and confidence

Pollyanna hit it big in Australia with their debut, but their sophomore album Hello Halo makes the case for the deep cuts and left turns

Eels sophomore release Electro-Shock Blues is an emotionally devastating record that manages to grow more poignant as its audience matures

We revisit the debut 1993 album by Dig with lead singer and guitarist Scott Hackwith

Ten years after disagreeing over Seaweed's 1993 album Four, we give the 1995 major label follow-up Spanaway a chance to mend the fracture

On Less Is More, Melbourne trio Even competently integrate 90s alternative and grunge sounds with power pop and British invasion melodies

The 1995 album Good Weird Feeling by Odds is the right combo of radio-friendly pop and alternative, so why didn't it score a hit single?

The 1998 debut by Boards of Canada put a chill spin on the 90s trip-hop sound with an analog old school approach that hits the mark

On 1991‘s Ebbhead, Nitzer Ebb incorporated pop elements and traditional song structures that drove a wedge in their EBM fanbase

On his 1999 album Choochtown, Hamell On Trial invokes punk rock swagger and 1970s NYC sleaze with little more than an acoustic guitar

Can a band still make a masterpiece even as they're falling apart? We revisit the 1995 sophomore self-titled album by Sunny Day Real Estate

After the dissolution of Chicago rockers Fig Dish, half the band turned their ears to kitschy 60s sounds for their 2000 release as Caviar

The Walkabouts 1993 album Satisfied Mind collects a wide variety of artists for folk, country, and Americana covers for a timeless album

We revisit the 2000 album 100 Broken Windows by Idlewild and consider if it's the first great indie rock album of the decade

We check out the 1995 debut album Red And Clear by Giants Chair and unexpectedly undercover a 90s Kansas City post-punk math rock scene

On their lone album Hormone Hotel, three-piece Bandit Queen from Manchester make a solid American alternative influenced guitar rock album

They Might Be Giants followed their mainstream breakthrough album Flood with mixed results on 1992's Apollo 18

On their third album Post Orgasmic Chill, Skunk Anansie offer a confrontational musical and lyrical approach balanced with soaring ballads

Animal Bag's self-titled 1992 debut album is a prime example of a band with one foot in '80s metal and the other in '90s alternative grunge

Do you like your music so heavy it makes you dizzy and question reality? Then Sleep's Holy Mountain might be the album for you.

Greta's 1995 sophomore album This Is Greta! is at it's best when ignores the grunge tendencies of the period, crafting big melodic pop hooks