So without further ado, here are my Top 10 Greatest Albums of the 1990s That I Actually Cared about During the 1990s (#10 - #6):
10.) Sugar Ray - 14:59
14:59 was on heavy rotation on my portable CD player. "Someday" and "Every Morning" were undeniable - the ultimate sunny hits. Plus, I thought Mark McGrath and his frosted tips was as effortlessly cool as you could get. Definitely tried that look in 8th grade. You know you did too. It's hard to separate oneself from music loved as a child, but upon re-listening to some of these tracks, it's obvious what I liked about the album. It's full of incredibly catchy, summery tunes, and it featured flourishes of the alt-rock/rap-rock that would become even more important to me in the early 2000s. Interesting to note how many of these albums contain covers, samples, or guest performances by artists I would come to know years later. For its part, 14:59 boasts a cover of "Abracadabra" by the Steve Miller Band and even a couple of rap verses from KRS-One.
9.) Puff Daddy and the Family - No Way Out
Along with Coolio, this was probably my introduction to rap music in the 90s, much to the annoyance of my parents. They were kind enough to buy the album for me - considerately purchasing the censored version from Wal-Mart - although they didn't enjoy it much when I played it in the car. Still, there were a few knockout singles on this record, namely "I'll Be Missing You," (my introduction to the notion of sampling), "Been Around The World," "can't Nobody Hold Me Down," and "It's All About The Benjamins," although I might have preferred the Weird Al version of that last one (honorable mention to Running With Scissors - just missed the top 10). I didn't have any sense of who Notorious B.I.G. was, and in retrospect it's a little weird to think all that West Coast/East Coast stuff was going on not long at all before Puffy released this one. Still, it had enough hits to get me hooked.
8.) Kid Rock - Devil Without A Cause
Another "clean" version. This album was probably my earliest love in the rap-rock genre which would dominate my world until around the time Wes Borland quit Limp Bizkit. The intensity of the relentless and infectious "Bawitdaba" and its accompanying video was what hooked me at first, although I ended up liking a lot of his other songs. It felt sort of dangerous at the time, but it's actually pretty tame. I think the lyrics being so easy to understand (compared to other rappers) probably had a hand in me liking it so much. Kid Rock is so nauseatingly middle-of-the-road now, it's hard to remember what was appealing about him to a young kid, but there is certainly some character and persona here. In retrospect there are a lot of crazy classic rock samples and references that went right over my head. Whatever it was about Kid Rock, I liked this stuff so much that I actually bought an Uncle Kracker record, too. Sheesh!
7.) *Nsync - *NSYNC
I was pretty much the original boy-band fan in my elementary school. In 4th grade I would get into fights with the girls in my class over whether Backstreet Boys or Spice Girls were better. *Nsync always played second fiddle to BSB in my mind, but they still had plenty of great tunes. Listening to these now, it's amazing how Europoppy the songs are, especially the perfect pop hits "I Want You Back" and "Tearing Up My Heart." I also loved "I Drive Myself Crazy" and the accompanying video. Musically, this is actually fairly different from the sound of No Strings Attached. For some reason, the album also features an earnest cover of "Sailing" by Christopher Cross. Impossible for me not to smile when listening to these tracks, especially considering how many of the lyrics I've managed to remember. I was Lance Bass for Halloween once.
6.) Hanson - Middle of Nowhere
Even in 1997, I had to do a whole lot of defending this album. The long hair thing was pretty much make-or-break for most people. I had plenty of friends who were into BSB, 98 Degrees, maybe even LFO, but would still give me crap for being a Hanson fan. However, of all the boy-bands, you'd think they'd be the easiest to defend, considering that they wrote and performed most of their own songs (not that I really care about that, but many do). Lots of filler here, but "Mmmbop" is great of course, along with "Thinking of You" and bonus track "Man From Milwaukee," which at age 9 was my absolute favorite song. They do some pretty decent harmonies, and when they get it right, the music is clean, infectious pop. I liked it so much, I bought their weird demos/B-sides album! Bet you didn't know this record was produced by the Dust Brothers.
This has been the first half of my list. Stay tuned for the Top 5! What are some of your favorite 90s albums?
