Well, my Mt. Rushmore for 1991 is kind of boring. There's really only one that is at all surprising. Even that one isn't if you have followed my blog at all. First, the list of albums that missed the cut: My Bloody Valentine Loveless, Chili Peppers Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik, Soundgarden Badmotorfinger, Mercury Rev Yerself is Steam, Dinosaur Jr. Green Mind, RUSH Roll the Bones, Swervedriver Raise, Crowded House Woodface and Matthew Sweet Girlfriend. Pretty sweet list of albums.
Alright, I'm not going to be a pretentious dick. Number one is Nirvana's Nevermind. I wasn't going to, but let's be real. This album kicked in the door that The Pixies, Husker Du, Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr had just cracked open. It mercifully put the nail in the coffin of power ballad metal and crap like Guns 'n' Roses. Alternative rock ruled the '90's after the release of "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Sure it eventually lead to lame, middle-of-the-road alternative, but it was still better than Poison and Warrant. As I'm typing this I am looking at My Kurt Cobain POP figure, which is next to my Nirvana CD boxed set on the shelf of my writing desk. I've gotta keep it real. Nevermind...number one!
The album that was going to be number one, but is now number 2 is Bandwagonesque by Teenage Fanclub. This is their first great album transitioning from the early shoegazing stuff like "Everything Flows" to power Britpop. It has my second favorite song of all-time, "Star Sign", as well as Fannie classics like "The Concept", "December", "What You Do To Me", "Metal Baby" and "Alcoholiday". These guys really should have been huge.
Number three is Achtung Baby by U2. I know it's cool to shit on Bono and the boys, but U2 are an iconic band and this was an important transitional album for them as well. I almost kept this off the list due to my hatred of the song "One", but the rest of the album is tremendous. I particularly love "Ultraviolet". I have to admit at the time I hated this direction for U2, especially all that Zoo and McPhisto shit. My wife actually brought me back to U2 and I grew to appreciate this period of the band. So, don't be haters.
Finally, the surprise pick is Uncle Tupelo's Still Feel Gone. I love alt-country and Uncle Tupelo pretty much invented the genre. Jay Farrar is amazing and I have grown to enjoy Jeff Tweedy as well. "Gun" is a dynamite opening track (Tweedy) and is followed up by the powerful song "Looking For a Way Out" (Farrar). The playing and lyrics on this album are stellar. If you are interested, check out my old post on this album. I have mellowed out on Tweedy and Wilco since I wrote that several years ago. You live and you learn. Always keep an open mind kids. Peace.
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