best album 1990 decade

Grandiose guitar blowouts don’t come much more epic.A potentially great UK Number One that was robbed of the top spot by cruel coincidence? James Dean Bradfield proffered one of his finest vocal performances too.Only The Chief himself really knows if ‘Wonderwall’ was written for his ex-wife Meg Mathews or, as he’d later claim, an “imaginary friend”.

It revolves around some very Peter Hook bass and looped “Trip hop progenitor ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ is really a slick piece of hip-hop soul blessed with Shara Nelson’s broken bawl and some muted beats and cowbells from 3-D, Mushroom and Daddy G. It came out under the more politically sensitive band name of Massive during the first Gulf War and ensured the collective remained the urban sophisticate’s artist of choice for the next decade.It was no coincidence that this track was chosen to soundtrack a key moment in Not content with giving the middle finger to the grungesters, Damon and co showed their bums in the general direction of hedonistic club culture with this, their, er, most clubby song to date.

The music - always incendiary, forever affecting - speaks for itself.Before he deliberately - and arguably cynically - pivoted to trying to become the biggest pop star on the planet, Abel Tesfaye, aka House of Balloons, later packaged inside 2012's Trilogy, now stands as a reminder of how searing, scathing and stunning The Weeknd can be when he's not pissing about doing an endless Michael Jackson impression.The artwork alone, showcasing the celebratory aftermath of black revolution on the grounds of the White House, is provocative and timely enough.And then you get to the music; a sprawling (yet contained), combative (yet sensitive) and truly defiant fusion of hip hop, jazz and spoken word genius that could only have come from the mind, body and soul of Very much the hipster's choice when it comes to post-metal (it's a thing, don't @ me), San Francisco quintet No easy feat and very much a 'not for everyone' entry here, but goddamn.A contender for the greatest one-and-done album of all time.Steeped in pretentious intrigue, the four-piece would go one step further by splitting up in 2012. Damon Albarn took to studying from the Bible Of Ray Davies and from it came a new lyrical view full of character studies, everyday whimsy and what we now call Britpop.

In a just world, ‘Lazarus’ would be a chart-topping behemoth; sadly, it failed to even dent the Top 40, but its seamless blend of dub lines, honking horns and slinky harmonies was all evidence of a band at the peak of their powers.Angelo Badalamenti wrote the music (the instrumental was the theme song for The duo of Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter managed to create a dance track that was almost krautrock in its determination not to deviate from the framework of repeated bass line and vocodered hook. Was there more to them, though? Originally recorded with new collaborator Shep Pettibone for the B-side of ‘Like A Prayer’ single ‘Keep It Together’, ‘Vogue”s melding of old Hollywood lyrical references, house pianos and heavy referencing of The Salsoul Orchestra’s ‘Ooh, I Love It (Love Break)’ was too good to go to waste as a mere flipside.The Verve’s triumphant return after one of their myriad splits was marked by a new ‘The’ in front of their name and a whole heap of Allen Klein-baiting cowbells. Based on a true story, it broke free of the specific and became an anthem for the lot of us.The world's defining voice in music and pop culture since 1952. The RZA’s beats were rudimentary but they provided the perfect platform for unforgettable verses from Method Man, Ghostface, ODB and GZA.The fact Thom Yorke penned ‘Creep’ on an acoustic guitar while he was at Exeter University seems perfect; you can imagine him looking at the cool collegiate lot who were “The emotional opposite of Bjork’s biggest 90s hit ‘It’s Oh So Quiet’, ‘Hyperballad’ was an earnest attempt to try and make old love alive once more. After the stake in the ground that was 1995’s ‘The Bends’, ‘Paranoid Android’ was a rash comeback, a ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’-style epic with Jonny Greenwood trying new and exciting axe shapes and Thom Yorke sneering at Gucci piggies. In many ways, ‘Song 2’ seemed like Blur’s dumbest song, a two-minute slab of “woo hoos” and massive riffs, but as the age old adage states, it takes someone pretty clever to make something sound so stupid and ‘Song 2’ knew exactly what it was doing.Would this have been that stellar breakthrough smash if it hadn’t been for the Shocking as it was (and still is), the truth is Eminem’s opening gambit was a moment Marshall Mathers never matched again. ‘Down By The Water’ was her purest pop song to date, but there was something more complicated lurking below. But rather than chasing the grunge money train, ‘Sugar Kane’ saw Kim and Thurston stick to their strengths, casually tossing out a knockabout pop melody charged with raucous riffs and scuzzy guitars.Legend has it Gwen Stefani discarded the early, slushy version of ‘Don’t Speak’ after her relationship with No Doubt bassist Tony Kanal fell apart. With culture’s ever-reliable 20-year cycle meaning that all things 90s are very much back in vogue, now seems as good a time as any to take a look back at the original artists that did it first. It was a bold move that paid off. ‘It’s A Shame About Ray’ – the album’s title track – was inspired by a mix of vague stories about newspaper headlines and a bar owner who called everyone Ray, but its melody is crystal clear and quite lovely.Away from the Pixies, Kim Deal could exercise her ultrapop muscle, teaming up with sister Kelley, Josephine Wiggs and Jim MacPherson to make the quirkiest of alternative hits.

Singer James Hetfield was so aghast at the prospect of ‘Enter Sandman’ being too catchy that he set about penning some of the most disturbing lyrics he could muster, with lines such as “Forced to carry on as a three-piece after the disappearance of Richey Edwards, ‘A Design For Life’ saw the Manics backed into a corner but coming out fighting against elitism and displaying the proud battle-scars of class conflict, as Nicky Wire’s near-perfect lyrics become entangled in the grandiose string arrangement. Klein owned the rights to Andrew Oldham’s arrangement of The Rolling Stones’ ‘The Last Time’ from whence they were lifted, and he sued Richard Ashcroft and co to within an inch of their royalties.

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