My wife Kristen, who, along with being very cool and very smart, keeps a pop music blog. Recently she posted her Top 90 songs of the ’90s. For any self-aware entities familiar with the concept of music, is worth a read and a listen. We should also make it clear at this point that she is way better at writing about music than me.
(Edit: I’ve also now done an ’80s list.)
The two of us talk about music a lot, and are obsessed with countdowns. So we have frequently discussed putting together lists like this. But she actually followed through, so has inspired me to commit to the effort. I believed it would be fairly easy. I was super wrong. All of the qualifications and difficulties Kristen discussed w/r/t her list are thoroughly in play for me, too. Limiting to just 90 songs meant hundreds of very good songs didn’t make the cut, so I’m pretty much only including songs I’ve had obsessions about at some point. It’s impossible to really balance what I liked the most then vs. what I like the most now vs. what I’ve actually listened to the most vs. what is the Most 1990s For Me. All of those categories are represented here. Every time I revisited my list I rearranged things a little, so I have had to force myself to accept it will never be perfect, just good enough. So it’s in no way a permanent list, rather more like a snapshot of how I feel on March 25, 2018. Anyway, these are just some dude’s opinions, a dude who leans alt-rock/shoegaze as favorite genres, but dabbles across genres. I have absolutely overlooked things accidentally or on purpose, and under- or over-rated things throughout.
So here’s the list, with some commentary. Here’s the Spotify playlist.
Made some revisions October 2019. These are reflected on the playlist but not below.
- Whale – “Hobo Humpin’ Slobo Babe”
- I thought Kristen’s choice of Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy” made for a fantastic #90. I like a good flyer pick for the last choice off the board. So I’m going with Whale’s nutty “Hobo Humpin’ Slobo Babe.” Whale are a bunch of weird Swedes that perhaps knew English. I pay little or no attention to lyrics, as my choices will eventually make clear, so I can forgive some good nonsense, but, my, what nonsense. The video is no less clarifying, which mostly consists of them wandering around a coal pit mugging for the camera. Still, it was an important song for me. I spent the early ’90s (i.e. high school) getting cleansed of my early indoctrination to Top 40, and Whale’s raucous bit of fun was an example of something that I loved and would never, ever sniff mainstream acceptance. Also worth noting that I generally hate all screaming vocals, so the fact that this one gets a little screamy is quite atypical.
- Spacehog – “In The Meantime”
- Toad the Wet Sprocket – “Fall Down”
- En Vogue – “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It) ”
- Cypress Hill – “Insane in the Brain”
- Thoroughly childish. But so, so fun. I love that there is a vocal group whose entire concept is: we have one guy with a piercingly high-pitched nasal screech, and another guy who just repeats what the first guy says, with a peculiar vocal strain that sounds like he’s always attempting to lift a fridge. And it somehow works. Music is amazing.
- Hole – “Doll Parts”
- Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Breaking the Girl”
- Green Day – “Geek Stink Breath”
- Some of these choices represent full albums. Insomniac was probably my most-listened-to Green Day.
- Pearl Jam – “Release”
- My PJ interest begins and ends with Ten, but it was a major album for me, so this is the first of three entries in my list. This one is the closing track and not a single, but always really dug the melody.
- Snow – “Informer”
- Nirvana – “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle”
- Another full album representative. If I was ranking albums, In Utero would be higher. Hard to pick any one song so I’ll go with a deep cut that never got much attention.
- Guns N’ Roses – “November Rain”
- I can’t believe how well GNR has held up. I thought this was so ridiculous back in the day. It still sort of is. But these guys are as much geniuses as they are idiots. Slash’s guitar performance is an all-timer.
- Arrested Development – “Tennessee”
- Hum – “Green To Me”
- Oasis – “Wonderwall”
- Magnapop – “Firebrand”
- Magnapop is one of about a billion alt-rock groups with one or zero songs most anyone remembers. But Rubbing Doesn’t Help album is a quintessential ’90s favorite.
- Primus – “Tommy the Cat”
- Primus headlines the category of “Bands I Was Super Into When I Was Younger But Never Ever Listen To Anymore.” I still appreciate their talent and creativity but no longer have a niche for extended jams about disgusting food. Still, I owe “Tommy the Cat” a place in my list.
- Weezer – “Pink Triangle”
- Digable Planets – “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)”
- Lenny Kravitz – “Are You Gonna Go My Way?”
- Screaming Trees – “Butterfly”
- Cornershop – “Brimful of Asha”
- I think Cornershop is generally considered a one-hit wonder (at least in the U.S.), but the whole album is a rock/Indian/electronic fusion delight. I’ve actually recently discovered their larger catalog, and have been really digging them.
- Nirvana – “Sliver”
- In high school, all Nirvana CDs were on constant rotation. Over time, I sort of played out each one and they disappeared from the regular rotation. The Incesticide compilation is what comes back out the most, as it turns out.
- Oasis – “Champagne Supernova”
- I didn’t get Britpop at all at the time, but (with help from a lot of exposure via Kristen) I’ve come around on it completely. I don’t have a solid Blur vs. Oasis vs. Pulp opinion, and though I like tons of all their songs, Oasis is the only one that ultimately made the top 90 cut (twice).
- Weezer – “Only In Dreams”
- 1994 Josh cites the Blue Album as his favorite record.
- Faith No More – “Midlife Crisis”
- The ’90s were post-peak for FNM but they were still putting out some solid stuff.
- Catherine Wheel – “Balloon”
- Your warning shot that a lot more shoegaze is coming.
- U2 – “Zooropa”
- My U2 fandom peaked in the early ’90s, but survives through Zooropa. I didn’t discover Brian Eno until I was older, and he’s among my favorites now, so it’s not really surprising that I latched onto this album, perhaps their most Eno-est. Otherwise I think it’s a generally unusual choice for a favorite U2 album, its singles were weird experiments and as a whole has decidedly mixed reviews. But I think it established a template for Radiohead’s postmodern languor and I continue to listen to it. I’ll go with the title track/opener for my list.
- Ned’s Atomic Dustbin – “Happy”
- Tough call on which Ned’s song to include. Could’ve rolled with “Grey Cell Green” or “Walking Through Syrup.” They’d be on a slightly longer list.
- Hum – “Little Dipper”
- The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – “Where’d You Go?”
- Green Day – “Longview”
- Bel Biv DeVoe – “Poison”
- Urge Overkill – “Positive Bleeding”
- REM – “What’s the Frequency Kenneth?”
- The Lemonheads – “Confetti”
- Sponge – “Molly (Sixteen Candles)”
- Liz Phair – “Supernova”
- Spin Doctors – “Two Princes”
- I really hate the decades-later trite hipster slamming of certain music of the time that seems maybe like too sincerely 1990s. Hootie and the Blowfish and the Spin Doctors both come to mind as regular targets of such Pitchfork-ish smarm. One can like them or not, but this usually arrives in the form of lazy, un-nuanced bashing. I don’t know why I’m even reacting to Pitchfork, honestly. That’s just what they want me to do. I’m just saying that, given how there’s a pretty reliable correlation between positive Pitchfork ratings and male band members’ beard lengths, you’d think they’d be into the Spin Doctors.
- REM – “Ignoreland”
- Lush – “Sweetness and Light”
- You are all lucky I don’t have 12 Lush songs in here. As a shoegaze staple, more are coming.
- Catherine Wheel – “Flower to Hide”
- And 12 Catherine Wheel songs, for that matter. Also more coming.
- Lilys – “Tone Bender”
- Boyz II Men – “Motownphilly”
- Semisonic – “Closing Time”
- Naughty By Nature – “OPP”
- AC/DC – “Thunderstruck”
- I’m not an AC/DC fan as a rule but feel very strongly about this track. A full post about it has been in draft form for about a year. When I can satisfactorily articulate my complex opinions about it, I will complete the post and publish it.
- Polaris – “Hey Sandy”
- This is the theme song from The Adventures of Pete and Pete. I’m not trying to capture what I liked during the ’90s with this list. In fact, I never even watched Pete & Pete until Kristen introduced me to it in maybe 2008 or 9. But it was an instant favorite. It no doubt gets a boost from associations with the show and watching with K, but it’s still a good song (and a really good album as a whole).
- Ben Folds Five – “Army”
- Pearl Jam – “Alive”
- Ride – “OX4”
- Smashing Pumpkins – “Hummer”
- This is a similar choice to “Frances Farmer…” and “Only in Dreams” in that I’m using it to represent full great albums, and by coincidence, my actual favorite track wasn’t one of the singles.
- Skee-Lo – “I Wish”
- Never heard this song until maybe 2-3 years ago. It’s amazing. Rock and hip-hop have a lot of braggadocio that I don’t really care for generally. This one is Skee-Lo’s lament about being short, stinking at basketball, and having a crappy car. Also it’s groovy as hell.
- Radiohead – “Creep”
- Most ’90s lists have 1-3 songs entitled “Creep.”
- Luna – “23 Minutes in Brussels”
- Hum – “The Scientists”
- Catherine Wheel – “Show Me Mary”
- New Radicals – “You Get What You Give”
- Beck – “Loser”
- REM – “Man on the Moon”
- Blind Melon – “No Rain”
- I bought a Blind Melon t-shirt in high school. Usually I dressed pretty standard for the period—flannels, jeans, Chuck Taylors. The Blind Melon shirt unnaturally stood out among the rest of the rotation and taught me about observation bias. Every time I wore it people noticed my clothing, and they didn’t notice otherwise, ergo, everyone thought it was the only thing I ever wore and teased me about it. I don’t know what the lesson is. High school is stupid, maybe.
- Liz Phair – “Polyester Bride”
- Radiohead – “Let Down”
- TLC – “Waterfalls”
- Deee-Lite – “Groove is in the Heart”
- We often hang out with our neighbors on New Year’s because (a) they are nice, fun people we like and (b) no way I’m driving anywhere on New Year’s. One year we listened to an extended countdown of the greatest party songs of all time on the radio. We had certain disagreements with the list, so we brought together a list of our own personal favorites the next year. All four of us, with a variety of musical interests and backgrounds, brought this song. Hence: Greatest Party Song of All Time.
- Everclear – “Santa Monica”
- Presidents – “Peaches”
- The greatest song about food ever?
- Alice in Chains – “Would?”
- Ride – “Leave Them All Behind”
- The Sundays – “Here’s Where the Story Ends”
- Harvey Danger – “Flagpole Sitta”
- Screaming Trees – “Nearly Lost You”
- They Might Be Giants – “The Statue Got Me High”
- It’s hard to compare TMBG to anything not-TMBG, so I decided to settle for only one from them on this list. There could be…a lot.
- Sponge – “Plowed”
- The Rotting Pinata album is bloody brilliant, but still overlooked, despite having two singles a lot of genre fans would recognize.
- Pearl Jam – “Even Flow”
- Lush – “Nothing Natural”
- That Dog – “Hawthorne”
- Another lost gem album alert.
- The Breeders – “Invisible Man”
- A Tribe Called Quest – “Scenario”
- Nirvana – “Come As You Are”
- I mean, almost anything off Nevermind is fine here.
- Pavement – “Cut Your Hair”
- James – “Laid”
- Catherine Wheel – “Crank”
- If I have one 1990s music cause, it’s that Catherine Wheel deserved better. Go listen to Ferment, Chrome, and Happy Days now please.
- All Natural Lemon & Lime Flavors – “Your Imagination”
- “All Natural Lemon & Lime Flavors” might have the worst band name on my list. They are also lost to obscurity: they don’t even have a Wikipedia page. But they have (at least) three excellent psychedelic/electronic/shoegaze albums. This track is a noise monster.
- Cracker – “Low”
- Pavement – “Summer Babe (Winter Version)”
- Ride – “Vapour Trail”
- My Bloody Valentine – “Only Shallow”
- My all-time favorite band. I find it hard to rank individual songs for them, so I’ll tuck the best Loveless representative here behind two others that meant a bit more as singles.
- Hum – “Stars”
- I settled on three songs on this list from one of my favorites, the painfully underappreciated Hum. ’90s alt-rock enthusiasts might remember this one, maybe. I got obsessed with them.
- The Breeders – “Cannonball”
- My ultimate ’90s song: important to me, and importantly OF the ’90s. It was a gateway drug into a wider world of music that wasn’t strictly radio-friendly, that didn’t make sense on the surface, but went for some deeper, lasting level.
Countdowns are such natural controversy generators. I wrote this list myself and 18 months later I’m not altogether happy about it. I did say it was just a snapshot, but it’s probably 10% wrong *already*. Where’s Public Enemy? Pulp? Only one Tribe song? Only one TMBG?