70 Perfect Albums of the 90s

Once more I got obsesses

A couple weeks ago someone posted a Bluesky prompt asking people to share a perfect album from the 90s. I became somewhat obsessed, and may have put together a list of…70? Yeesh.

Anyway! The rules for the list are it has to be from the 90s (duh) and also has to be something I didn’t see someone else mention. Also the original prompt urged people not to choose Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, or Pearl Jam. (I wouldn’t choose any of those but Nirvana anyway.)

As always, it was kind of interesting to see what other people picked or did not pick. By far, the most selected genre was alternative rock. Hip hop was somewhat well represented as well, but just about everything else—R&B, country, jazz, international, noise, Latin, classical, blues—were pretty sparse. It’s not exactly surprising—rock has long dominated people’s ideas of what a “best album” is. But I tried to challenge that at least a little on this list.

What does a “perfect” album mean? Obviously I tried to pick albums I love. I also feel like the prompt calls for albums which do whatever they’re doing with commitment and flare. That can mean lots of different things, though!

I’ve arranged albums by year, and more or less at random within year. Some cover and some tracks are embedded more or less at random. Enjoy!

1990

Various Artists
The Stained Glass Hour
Rounder collection of gospel bluegrass, mostly from 70s and 80s.

Juan Luis Guerra y 4.40
Bachata Rose
Bachata takes over the world.

Royal Trux
Twin Infinitives
Gutter dwelling, drugged out experimental noise blues rock filth.

Conrete Blonde
Bloodletting
Stentorian goth rock.

1991

Various Artists
Risque Rhythm: Nasty 50s R&B
A collection of double entendre jump blues.

Autopsy
Mental Funeral
Doom-tinged twisted death metal.

Pixies
Trompe Le Monde
Slick production turns the Pixies into breakneck monsters.

Sonny Sharrock
Ask the Ages
Spiritual/fusion guitar jazz, featuring Pharoah Sanders and Elvin Jones.

Tribe Called Quest
Low End Theory
One of hip hop’s all-time triumphs.

fIREHOSE
flyin’ the flannel
Punk-funk weirdos weird out.

Taraf de Haïdouks
Musique des tsiganes de Roumanie
Romanian Roma folk supergroup.

1992

Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth
Mecca and the Soul Brother
Tight, soulful hip-hop classic

The Vaselines
The Way of the Vaselines
Scottish twee grunge pioneers

Emmylou Harris
At the Ryman
Country folk legend’s greatest live album.

Sonic Youth
Dirty
My first Sonic Youth album.

Melvins
Lysol
Doom sludge dinosaur monstrosity

Boredoms
Pop Tatari
Unrelenting Japanoise.

Sade
Love Deluxe
Smooooth R&B.

Sugar Cubes
Stick Around for Joy
Björk’s first band is still great.

Iris Dement
Infamous Angel
Rough-hewn country bluegrass.

C.C.C.C.
Cosmic Coincidence Control Center
The beginning of harsh noise wall.

Deicide
Legion
Sped up aggressively blasphemous Tampa death metal

Darkthrone
A Blaze in the Northern Sky
Genre-defining scratchy Norwegian black metal.

Apator
Masturbate in Praise of Black Satan
Bizarre Dutch spoken word black metal.

Midori
Paganini: 24 Caprices
Virtuosic classical violin.

1993

Sepultura
Chaos A.D.
Brazilian grungy hard rock/metal

Lovesliescrushing
Bloweyelashwish
Somewhere on the borderlands of shoegaze, noise, and ecstasy.

Demilich
Nespithe
Finnish gargling death metal prog.

Carlene Carter
Little Love Letters
Rockabilly mountain music.

Aziza El Meknassia عزيزة المكناسية
Special Gnawa Volume II
Moroccan pop Gnawa.

1994

Johnny Cash
American Recordings
Just-guitar-and-voice late career country triumph.

TLC
CrazySexyCool
Girl group hip hop; crazy sexy cool, like they say.

Fejat Sejdic
Guardian Angel and Lost Lamb
Legendary Yugoslavian brass band music.

African Head Charge
Shashamane Land
Dub eats world music.

1995

Manfred Hübler & Siegfried Schwab
Vampyros Lesbos: Sexadelic Dance Party
Lounge jazz from 70s bottom drawer sexploitation features.

Melt Banana
Scratch or Stitch
Japanese masters of supershort hardcore noise bludgeoning.

Cesária Evora
Café Atlantico
Towering Cape Verdean torch singer.

Tricky
Maxinquaye
Trip hop masterpiece.

Big L
Lifestylez ov Da Poor & Dangerous
New York hip hop of equal grit and goof.

Ikue Mori
Hex Kitchen
Squoogy crystal noise crack splatter jazz.

1996

Aphex Twin
Richard D. James Album
Ominous twee glitz electronica ear assault.

Aaliyah
One in a Million
Hypnotic R&B by an inimitable vocalist; Timbaland/Missy Elliott producing.

Ellery Eskelin
The Sun Died
Hip NYC exploration of Gene Ammons’ greasy blues.

Gillian Welch
Revival
Hypnotic droning country/folk.

Doughnuts
The Age of the Circle
All-female super-tough Swedish death.

Chris Isaak
Baja Sessions
Spooky mournful rockabilly.

1997

Nick Cave
The Boatman’s Call
Slow mournful songs of love and atheism.

Virginia Rodrigues
Sol Negro
Transcendent, overpowering Afro-Brazilian singer mixes jazz, classical, and samba.

Caetano Velosa
Livro
Another amazing album from the Brazilian legend.

1998

Marc Ribot Y Los Cubanos Postizos
Y Los Cubanos Postizos
Fiery electric guitar covers of Cuban giant Arsenio Rodríguez.

Mulatu Astatke
Éthiopiques V 4: Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale, 1969–1974
Groundbreaking compilation of Ethiopian jazz pioneer.

All Natural
No Additives, No Preservatives
Chicago conscious hip hop true believers.

Chris Whitley
Dirt Floor
One of the blues guitarists most stripped-down efforts.

Squarepusher
I Am Rotted One Note
Electronica but fusion.

Shonen Knife
Happy Hour
Japanese pop punk femme cuteness overload.

Steve Reich
Music for 18 Musicians
Re-recording of one of a minamalist classic.

Gorguts
Obscura
The iconic album of twisted Canadian technical death.

Thorr’s Hammer
Dommedagsnatt
Early Stephen O’Malley project of ultra heavy death-tinged doom.

Lee Ann Womack
Some Things I Know
Classic country weepers.

1999

Kelis
Kaleidoscope
The Neptunes produce an album of alt rock R&B.

MF Doom
Operation Doomsday
His own subgenre of hip hop starts here.

Martha Argerich
Chopin: The Legendary 1965 Recordings
Chopin as arena rock.

Le Tigre
Le Tigre
Unbelievably catchy feminist electropop

Necrophagist
Onset of Putrefaction
German technical crazily proggy death.

Destiny’s Child
The Writing’s On The Wall
Maybe still Beyoncé’s greatest moment.

DJ Screw
All Work, No Play
Superslowed down chopped and screwed cough syrup hip hop.

A.R. Rahman
Taal
One of the greatest soundtracks from one of Bollywood’s greatest composers.

Sigur Ros
Agaetis Byrjun
Icelandic post-rock soundtrack for panning across the fjord’s.

Kazumoto Endo
While You Were Out
Noise assault.