The Top 100 albums of the 90s : 80 to 71

Here is another installment, you know what we are doing... winding our way down not the albums that sold the most or were even the most critcally acclaimed at the time but what has held up over the years. https://www.facebook.com/abysmalhymns/ 80- Godflesh- "Selfless" Justin reached a balance of industrial pound and musicality with enough room to experiment with more electronic elements. More daring and heavier than Helmet.

  79- Elliot Smith-x/o

If you were depressed and driven to drink in 1998 why would you have wanted to listen to anything else. This morose singer songwriter created the perfect soundtrack for the lowest of swings, was pretty good hangover music , if memory serves me. I got to catch him in concert before he died in 2003. I can't really imagine him doing anything else but dying of a self inflicted stab wound samurai style, take that Bright Eyes. >
&n 78-the Faint-"Blank Wave Arcade" They got darker and heavier and more grandiose, but this album has something sleazy about it that I like and was a sign things were changing in 1999. Brilliant lyrics they predicted the rise of the hipster. Many of today's new wave revival bands could take notes from this album. 77-Monster Magnet -"Dopes to Infinity" At one point in my life all my stories began with "Once when I was tripping..." My weirdest memory was the song below was playing while I was tripping and playing with a ouija board by myself in the hallway of an old apartment. My room mate's door was open and his fan was blowing out into the hall way. Not knowing this I assumed it was evil spirits blowing into my mind and turning me into the re-incarnation of a 14th century French Prince. Sure if had a radio hit on it, but that happened on their own terms. Literally mind blowing. 76-Life of Agony-"The River Runs Red" Their singer's river does run red now, but this album was gritty and desperate . Like if Stone Temple Piolots had been a hard core band before being influenced Pearl Jam influence, since any band influenced by Pearl Jam would suck, they had elements of Biohazard and Type O mixed, with a brilliant story woven into the album. 75-Tears for Fears- "Raoul and the Kings of Spain" If you weren't ready to let go of the 80s by 1995 , these guys released their 5th album, which holds a slight Latin undercurrent, but proved that they were not just a new flux and could make serious music when they weren't shouting to let it all out. 74-Primus- "Sailing the Seas of Cheese" The rubber bass of Claypool, slapped this album that was heavy due to the thick angular groove, but also managed to weave some hooks in with his nasal voice. 73-Lenny Kravitz- "Mama Said" Sure you would eventually go to get tired of hearing this guy all over the radio on the albums that followed, this one was diverse and soulful, pulling from every one from Prince to Lennon to Marvin Gaye and Sly Stone. Slash showed up on the album and it rocked in many different ways. 72-White Zombie-"Astro Creep 2000" When I first heard these guys it was during the 80s off an album called "Make Them Die Slowly" it sounded like a deranged horror version of Iggy Pop, so when "la Sexorcisto" came out I thought how the hell did they turn into Metallica. This album was a breath of fresh air and sounded pretty good when lots of drugs were ingested, the industrial turn worked better than their stab at thrash. 71-Pixies- "Trompe Le Monde" Their final album rocked harder than perhaps even "Doolittle" . It was a fitting swan song with it's incredible guitar tones and the band hitting the perfect balance between poppy and weirdness that flips onto an almost punk craze on a dime. They also cover the Jesus and Mary Chain.