Also, honourable metion to Pearl Jam - Ten. I was obessed with this album, it got me into grunge in a big way.
Never before or since seen a whole pub burst into dance like it did when the KLF was played.
Honorable mention Sunday 8pm Faithless.
The 90s are a blur to me as I lived abroad and had kids. Not sure a dad can comment on greatest albums can they?
Anyway, hardly iconic as it echoed the sounds of maybe a couple of decades before it, I’d go for Ragged Glory.
Impossible task, but this is near the top for me.
Love many of the albums already listed, and will add
blood sugar sex magic
travelling without moving
Rage against the Machine.
Can’t believe it hasn’t had a mention yet.
This, and...
blood sugar sex magic
... this. 🙂 /endthread
So many great albums. This one kicked the decade off to a suitably hedonistic start
Who was that by? Can’t find it in the best sellers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_albums_of_the_1990s_in_the_United_Kingdom
However Oasis are number one. 😉 🙂
I’m not sure that list should be allowed to count - it’s got Robson and Jerome on it!!!
No way I can list one album, my list (which will grow as I spend the morning thinking about this):
Nevermind
Logical Progressions
Dummy
OK Computer
Leftism
Maxinquaye
The colour and the shape
Aphrodite
Cream Live
Renaissance
I'd like to add to my vote for Music for the jilted generation, as it's just too difficult to actually have a best album of any time as theres too many variables. Mood being the biggest.
I was 14 in 1990 left school in 1992, started seeing my now wife in 1993, went travelling in 1998. The 90's was where I grew up.
I agree with loads of previous ones. Nevermind, Blue Lines, Definitely Maybe, Blood, Suger Sex Magik, Pills thrills and belly aches ect...even, from that wiki list up there, ABBA Gold!. But want to add The Bluetones, Expecting to Fly, one of favourite albums of all time.
The soundtrack to my 90s was Screamadelica.
A close second for me after the very obvious winner...
I think it was Pitchfork agreed with me (for the first time ever) when they did a list of the best albums from the '90s.
Many other fine records listed above, many of which I'd casually listen to in preference to Loveless, but I think a case can be made that it's both objectively and subjectively the greatest. It was just so original, so accomplished and sounded so incredible.
Screamadelica may cover more bases as one of the best dance music albums ever, by one of it's greatest producers (RIP), and having an indie band peripherally involved.
Both released in 1991. There must have been something in the water 😀
Garbage - Version 2.0
Temple of the dog for all the grunge lovers.
I think it was a 90s album.
I'll throw in RATM and Cypress Hill - Black Sunday
EDIT: not sure this has been mentioned but Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
If we put grunge to one side!... 🙂
I'll go with [b]George Michael - Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1[/b]
But as with all these things it's the association with a time and place - the year I got married and we moved into our first home.
Goldie - Timeless
Roni Size & Reprazent - New Forms
Prodigy - The Fat Of The Land
Jilted was a good shout also but for me the energy and quality of the production in FOTL were just
[img] 
[/img]
It's a long time since Tomorrow's Harvest - I'm fearing that the Warp 30 stuff was the last we'll hear from them.
Boards of Canada - YES. Or Plaid's Not For Threes.
But it always was, and will always be (somewhat inevitably) Cardiacs Sing To God.
Massive Attack - Protection. Still on my Spotify. Still sounds so so good!
The Verve - Urban Hymns
Logical Progression - LTJ Bukem.
Lot's more, but these 3 are still played regularly.
Leftfield - Leftism
Could name a long, long list but I'll just keep it to one.
By far, the best decade for music in my lifetime.
Lots of great albums mentioned already. I don't think anybody's mentioned Nick Cave yet, love Murder Ballads and Boatman's Call. My favourite albums from that period though are Southern Harmony and Musical Companion and Amorica, both by The Black Crowes. I know a lot of people will call it derivative but I can listen to them anytime, any mood. They headlined Glastonbury in 1993 after SHAMC came out and we're on just before Oasis in 1995. I think I heard that Oasis watched them from the sidelines and were blown away and pretty nervous about following them. The bands later toured together on the Brotherly Love tour.
The decade of my teenage years too, remember having a cassette with Dookie on one side and Nevermind on the other.
I'll forever be a indie/rock kid, but one of the stand out albums for me, which just sneaks into the 90's by a month is 2001 by Dr Dre.
Seamonsters by The Wedding Present is the one for me.
Post Lunchtime Dog walk pondering I came to the conclusion the greatest albums of the 90s For <span style="text-decoration: underline;">ME</span> (aged 12-22 during the 90s..):
Tragic Kingdom - No Doubt
Metallica - Metallica
Nevermind - Nirvana
Ten - Pearl Jam
Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine
Significant Other - Limp Bizkit
Use Your Illusion (I don't care what anyone says it's a single album) - Guns and Roses
...And out come the wolves - Rancid
Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) - Wu-Tang Clan
Korn - Korn
Vulgar Display of Power - Pantera
There is a great Podcast "60 Songs that Explain the 90s" on Spotify (and only Spotify apparently) that does exactly that...
Way too hard - such a strong decade.
Lots of time for everything mentioned above, but two others i remember listening to a lot at the time:
Stereo MCs - connected
The Shamen - Boss Drum
The best of Jive Bunny.
Scrolling through, I don't see Underworld's Dubnobasswithmyheadman. Surely worth an honourable mention?
Maybe, just maybe, Massive Attack's Blue Lines pips this and other excellent suggestions above.
Holy Bible or Everything Must Go.
Being 42 and living my teenage years in the 90s, sooooo many good ones that have shaped my love of music.
Oasis - Definitely Maybe & Whats The Story - yes its cool to hate them now (and I'm not that keen anymore) but those two albums are undeniably two of the (my) greatest musical influences
Stone Roses - Second Coming and if we're allowing it, The Complete Stone Roses - as above, two more albums that shaped my love of music.
Toadies - Rubberneck- most famous for Possum Kingdom, theres some absolute rippers on this album like Tyler even though I reckon they get better with age (and this was their only 90s album). One of my favourite ever bands.
Bluetones - Expecting To Fly - words don't do justice to how good this album is
Metallica - Metallica - seen it mentioned already but worth mentioning again
AC/DC - Ballbreaker - with Toadies, another of my favourite bands ever and Ballbreaker is quality. Anything with The Furor and Hail Caesar on it can't not be in this list...
yes its cool to hate them now
One of the nice things of living in France is being able to pick an acoustic guitar and rattle off some Oasis songs without anyone taking the piss. If there are any Brits present I start with Wonderwall just to see if they dare to take the piss and risk the wrath of the locals. I played it to some Germans and they joined in.
My teenage years! Lots of good music, chronologically:
MBV - Loveless (probably the best)
PJ Harvey - Rid of Me
Earth 2
Pavement - crooked rain crooked rain
Nick Cave - Let love in
Godspeed you! Black emperor - F# A# infinity
Plastikman - consumed
Yo la tengo - I can hear the heart beating as one
Flaming Lips - Soft bulletin
Edit forgot Sleater Kinney - Dig me out
For me it was probably Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works. Never heard anything like it before or since, it almost re-invented music.
If it was by The Prodigy then Experience was the one. I think they went a bit downhill from there but I realise that's not a common/popular view on them.
Definitely Maybe was a great album. I can't decide whether it was truly 'great' or just the pub jukebox music of my era but either way, for me Oasis put out some of the greatest songs of the 90s.
I think the general answer might be Nevermind, it had more impact than pretty much anything else at the time or later in the decade. It left me completely unaffected, maybe I just wasn't angry enough at that age. It wasn't metal enough for my tastes either. But if I listen to it in more recent years it's amazing.
Great threads - working my way a few of the nominations that I hadn't heard before.
That *Dookie* keeps being mentioned intrigued me enough to put it on... I've never listened to it before... not sold on it yet all... can't see how it holds a candle to many of the other suggestions. Might retreat into some of the old favourites mentioned before through to the end of the album... Metallica, SAW, Violator, Loveless, Nervermind, OKC, Leftism, Dubnobasswithmyheadman, Jilted, Screamadelica, Mezzanine, Music Has the Right... all amazing and "complete" albums.
1997 was a bit of a belter;
Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space - Spiritualised (can't believe that's only had one mention)
OK Computer
Urban Hymns
Its not really in albums but DJ sets and playlists
In that area, since it was a mix album - maybe Northern Exposure.
Enjoying Laughing Stock. Can see why I missed it or wouldn't have given it time in the early 90s but it's timeless.
Oh, only a day has passed, buy I've already REALLY like to change my original nomination... but that's the thing... everyone's "one choice" probably changes all the time... anyway, right now, today... Electronic by Electronic. Original 90s version, the orange one... not the re-release with an extra track (but no tacky badge) in a silver sleeve and the Wim Crouwel inspired design watered down to bland nothingness. Record companies suck.
On Oasis... I can listen to one or two songs off any of their albums and enjoy them... but they have never released a whole album that's worth repeated listens, for me. Couldn't pick one to recommend anyone listens to all the way through.
I see your Laughingstock, acknowledge it, and raise it with Mark Hollis by Mark Hollis.
@Waderider - it's lovely... some of the stuff probably as good or better than that on Laughing Stock... but it isn't a "complete album" like Laughing Stock... something that absolutely demands listening to in its entirely, without skips or breaks.
maybe Northern Exposure
If we're going down that route... to introduce any young person to "the Ninetees"... it has to be Renaissance...
https://www.discogs.com/release/349449-Sasha-John-Digweed-Renaissance-The-Mix-Collection
My favourite album from the 90's and the 'greatest' album would probably be different.
Favourite based on how often its been played (and just squeaks in at March 90) is I do not want what I haven't got by Sinead O'Connor
I think the greatest would have to be an album that inspired the most people to listen to music, go to gigs and form bands.....and that has to be Nevermind
Electronic Raise the Pressure is no way the best album. It is so watered down electronic pop. Even the pet ship boys were more hardcore! Electronic music the genre run rampant in the nineties and splintered into a thousand sub genres.
Can I go with half an album? The first half of I care because you do, is blinding. I like the 2nd half too, but the first few tracks just blew my rattly little pea brain mind.
Well to continue the love for the Cowboy Junkies in the '80s thread (Trinity Sessions) I'm going Pale Sun Crescent Moon.
Or possibly Richard Thompson, Mirror Blue.
The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs was released in 1999 actually, so I think that's worth a mention.
Possibly the most-influential album that most people haven't heard of?
Can I go with half an album?
No, of course not.
The first half of I care because you do, is blinding.
Yes, it is.
Anyway, if we're going to start choosing half an album.... let's double up... first half of I care because you do, followed by second half of the Richard D James album. So much... "how can this be called music... but bloody hell it's amazing"... and not just when listening in the last century... still sounds rule breaking and mind warping even now.
Deliberately not read the previous posts before posting mine (no change from normal then) to avoid influencing my choice(s).
Difficult to pick just the one, but if I had to then the Prodigy 'Music for the Jilted Generation', but notable mentions for the following, all of which I still listen to frequently:
Air 'Moon Safari'
Chemical Brothers 'Dig Your Own Hole'
Daft Punk 'Homework'
Gomez 'Bring It On'
Faithless 'Reverence'
Leftfield 'Leftism'
Massive Attack 'Mezzanine'
Orbital '02'
Paul Van Dyk '45 RPM' (I rate 'Vorsprung Dyk Technik' betterer but technically that's a compilation)
some great and terrible suggestions in this thread!
But I can't believe no-one has suggested Orbital's 'In Sides' - up there with the great electronic music albums of the 90's IMO.
The first half of I care because you do, is blinding.
Alberto Balsalm is the 10th track though.
But I can’t believe no-one has suggested Orbital’s ‘In Sides’ – up there with the great electronic music albums of the 90’s IMO.
Do you rate it higher than the brown album?
Not Primus' best.
