90’s Albums Worth Revisiting (PT1)
90’s Albums Worth Revisiting
(PT1)
The 1990s produced no shortage of celebrated albums, but plenty of great albums went under-appreciated beneath the weight of Britpop, grunge, electronic music and the decade's bigger narratives. Away from the obvious names, independent labels and small scenes were producing records that were stranger, more inventive and often considerably harder to categorise.
Here are ten albums from the decade that deserve to be heard again.
1. Drugstore — Drugstore
Go! Discs
Drugstore's self-titled debut occupies a particularly interesting corner of 90s alternative music. There is darkness, but also a strong pop instinct: distorted guitars, melancholy melodies and songs that can move from fragile to abrasive without warning. Isabel Monteiro's vocals give the record much of its character, adding a detached, slightly mysterious quality to the band's guitar-driven sound. It feels connected to the alternative rock of its time without ever sounding entirely comfortable within it.
Standout Tracks:
Solitary Party Groover
Fader
Super Glider
2. New Bad Things — Freewheel!
K Records
New Bad Things sound like they never received the memo about making everything neat. Freewheel! has the loose, homemade quality that made so much 90s underground indie music compelling. The songs are scrappy, the performances deliberately unpolished and the whole thing feels driven more by enthusiasm than studio perfection. Rather than treating rough edges as something to overcome, New Bad Things make them part of the appeal. It captures the DIY side of the decade at a point when independent music still felt wonderfully disconnected from the mainstream.
Standout Tracks:
Josh Has A Crush On A Femme From Reed
Goethe's Letter To Vic Chesnutt
I Suck
3. Tiger — We Are Puppets
Trade 2/Island Records
Tiger were never an obvious fit for the dominant British indie scene of the mid-90s. We Are Puppets throws together sharp guitars, keyboards, nervy rhythms and unconventional pop songwriting, resulting in something considerably more angular than the era's mainstream guitar music. There is an experimental streak running through the record, but Tiger never completely abandon the idea of a good tune. It's an awkward, energetic and often surprisingly catchy album — precisely the sort of record that makes the margins of the 90s far more interesting.
Standout Tracks:
My Puppet Pal
Race
On The Rose
4. Scarfo — Luxury Plane Crash
Deceptive Records
Luxury Plane Crash sounds tense. Scarfo build their songs around clipped guitar lines, forceful rhythms and a sense that everything is being held just slightly too tightly. Rather than chasing the polished alternative-rock sound becoming increasingly common in the late 90s, they lean into something more abrasive and nervy. There are hooks here, but they arrive through jagged guitars and restless arrangements rather than obvious choruses. A good example of the darker, less fashionable side of British guitar music from the period.
Standout Tracks:
Elo
Alkaline
Cosmonaut No.7
5. The Minders — Hooray For Tuesday
Elephant 6/spinART
There is something almost deceptively simple about Hooray For Tuesday. The Minders deal in concise pop songs, harmonies and bright melodies, but underneath that surface is a fascination with 60s psychedelia and slightly wonky home-recorded pop. It belongs to the same broad world as the Elephant 6 collective, although the album has enough personality to stand apart from that scene. Cheerful without being saccharine, strange without becoming difficult, it is one of those records that seems to get better the further you get from the decade in which it was made.
Standout Tracks:
Hooray For Tuesday
Yeah Yeah Yeah
Red Bus
6. Quickspace — Precious Falling
Domino/Kitty Kitty Corporation
Precious Falling sounds like a band deliberately refusing to tidy things up. Quickspace combine noisy guitars, repetition, electronics and experimental structures, creating music that can be hypnotic one minute and completely unruly the next. The album has the feel of a group following an idea wherever it happens to lead rather than working towards a conventional rock song. For anyone interested in the more adventurous end of British independent music in the late 90s, it's an album worth rediscovering.
Standout Tracks:
Quickspace Happy Song
The Minors
Goodbye Precious Mountain
7. Magoo — Vote The Pacifist Ticket Today
Chemikal Underground
Magoo were operating somewhere between noisy guitar music, experimental pop and outright musical mischief. Vote The Pacifist Ticket Today is full of distorted guitars and unconventional ideas, but the band never seem particularly interested in making noise for noise's sake. Melodies keep appearing beneath the fuzz, while the arrangements take unexpected turns. Released through Chemikal Underground, it also sits neatly within the label's long tradition of championing British music that doesn't fit comfortably anywhere else. A messy, inventive and thoroughly individual record.
Standout Tracks:
Vote The Pacifist Ticket Today
Swiss Border Escape
Holy Smoke
8. Add N To (X) — Avant Hard
Mute Records
Few albums on this list sound as though they could have been assembled in a laboratory. Add N To (X) took analogue electronics, synthesizers, percussion and noise and pushed them into something that felt part electronic music, part punk experiment. Avant Hard is deliberately excessive in places, with sounds colliding rather than settling into a comfortable groove. It has a sense of humour too, which stops the experimentation becoming overly serious. Released in 1999, it feels like a useful snapshot of where electronic music could go when nobody was particularly interested in following the rules.
Standout Tracks:
Robot New York
Skills
Metal Fingers In My Body
9. Piano Magic — Low Birth Weight
Rocket Girl
Low Birth Weight belongs to the quieter end of this list. Piano Magic create atmosphere through repetition, sparse electronics, guitars and vocals that seem to hover rather than dominate the arrangements. The music is intimate but never particularly cosy, with a slightly distant quality that gives the album its identity. It is the kind of record that works best when given some space — less concerned with immediate impact than with creating a particular mood and letting it gradually take hold.
Standout Tracks:
Snowfall Soon
Not Fair
Waking Up
10. Salako — Musicality
Jeepster Records
Salako's Musicality is one of the more curious records here. It takes the melodic instincts of indie pop and gives them a homespun, slightly eccentric treatment, resulting in an album that feels expansive without ever becoming grand. Acoustic instruments, gentle guitars and unconventional arrangements give the songs plenty of breathing room. There is a warmth to it, but also enough oddness to prevent it becoming simply another example of late-90s twee or indie pop. An understated record with considerably more going on beneath the surface.
Standout Tracks:
The Bird And The Bag
Come! Follow Me
Look Left
