THE THIRTY FINEST TRACKS OF 1991!!!
Well, here I am again. Waxing lyrical about my favourite music, tunes, artists and scenes from days gone by. There's masses of magnificent modern music doing the rounds at the moment and I will focus on everything that is bright, shiny and new in a couple of months time when I regale you all with my Best Of The Year countdown. For now though, I feel the urge to step back in time once more as all the recent lockdowns have given me oodles of hours to scan my dusty old CD shelves and rediscover classic albums of yore. I've also recently suffered a major family bereavement as well as taking a trip back down to the wilds of Surrey and my old stomping grounds for the first time in many, many years. All this activity has pumped up the old nostalgia nads and there has been a veritable splurge of Proustian rushes on an almost daily basis. I have since come to the conclusion that the year of 1991 can easily lay claim to being the greatest year for music in my lifetime. I recently posted a full and thorough tribute to my formative musical years between 1989 and 1992 which touched on all the most marvellous musical moments within those 48 months. I also listed my favourite albums from each particular year and 1991 definitely came out on top when it came to life-enriching records. To that end, I am going to fill this post with my choice of the best thirty songs from that year. It was an extremely difficult list to put together - especially as I gave myself a strict rule of only one track from each artist which meant that my initial plan of every single song from my favourite album of all time went straight out of the window....
So, what follows is my choice of the best songs released in the UK and the US between January 1st and December 31st 1991. I could have stretched it to 40 - even 50 - but I felt there was a pleasing symmetry about the fact that all of these songs are now thirty years old. Which obviously makes me feel extremely ancient indeed.....
(Apologies to the likes of 'Jerry Was A Race Car Driver' by Primus; 'Not Too Soon' by Throwing Muses; 'Rosechild' from Stress; Eg & Alice with 'Indian'; Moby's 'Go'; 'Nothing Can Stop Us Now' by Saint Etienne; 'Dalliance' by The Wedding Present; 'Coma' from Guns 'N' Roses and the epic 'Good Morning Captain' by Slint.)
(And, whilst we're here, please click on this link to listen to all of these tremendous tunes as you're reading. Joyous! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4EsRkYy0jQnYX7wED8xfSj )
30: YOUNG DISCIPLES: APPARENTLY NUTHIN'
London based trio Young Disciples were made up of the two multi-instrumentalists Marco Nelson and Femi Williams and American vocalist Carleen Anderson who was the god-daughter of legendary soul superstar James Brown. Signing to the achingly hip acid-jazz focused Talking Loud record label - also home to the likes of Galliano and Incognito - the band released the tremendously funk-filled 'Road To Freedom' album in the late summer of 91. Hugely critically acclaimed, the album's main single was crisp, tight and impossible not to dance to. It also showed off Anderson's remarkable vocals to stunning effect. The song reached Number 13 in the UK chart before diminishing returns set in over the next few months. Anderson left the following year and embarked on a fitfully successful solo career. Nelson and Williams disbanded the project soon afterwards. Play 'Apparently Nuthin' these days though and I guarantee you'll be sliding around the kitchen floor in your slippers.
"A popularity of invasion, handed down through centuries. A force of arms called gentle persuasion, what have we learned from history?"
29: RAIN TREE CROW: BLACKWATER
"Blackwater, take me with you, to the place that I have spoken. Come and lead me, through the darkness, to the light that I long to see again."
28: SEAL: COME SEE WHAT LOVE HAS DONE
By the winter of 1991, London singer Seal Henry Samuel was one of the UK's biggest music stars. After bursting onto the scene 18 months earlier as the featured vocalist on Adamski's huge rave anthem 'Killer', Seal - as he preferred to be known - had signed with legendary producer Trevor Horn's ZTT label and released his self-titled debut album in the spring to huge success - both critically and commercially. A host of hit singles followed - including the still monumental 'Crazy' - and he swept the board at the Brit Awards in 1992 winning three gongs. However, as fantastic as his first wave of songs were - I could easily have picked the stupendous funk-rock crash of 'Wild' from the album - his finest moment both then and now was this lovely acoustic-tinged soulful blues number hidden away on November's 'Killer....On The Loose' EP which saw him re-record 'Killer' in his own style as well as covering the likes of 'Hey Joe'. But it's this spine-tingling moment of glory that I still go back to all these years later. Seal has been good since - that velvet-drenched voice of his will always make anything sound special - but he's never bettered this.
"As we ride, on the strings of life and Technicolour. Look over there, in the sky, you and I - forget about the hate that made those wars."
27: BLUR: SING
Crashing onto the scene almost fully-formed in the spring of 91, Colchester's fresh-faced indie chancers Blur hit big immediately with the fun-filled baggy beats of 'There's No Other Way' which reached the Top Ten, before struggling to repeat the trick with subsequent single releases. They almost burnt themselves out from touring in 1992 before re-evaluating their career and reinventing themselves as a more traditional 60s inspired beat combo in 1993. This musical volte-face launched them into the burgeoning BritPop movement later in the 90s and they became one of the biggest bands in the UK. Before all of that though, was their debut album 'Leisure' which - on the back of their first big chart hit - was released with no little fanfare in May of 91. In truth, like a lot of debuts, it was a bit patchy but there were some serious pearls to be found. One such corker was this melancholic, piano-led epic that built slowly over it's six minute runtime, repeating the chorus like a mantra. Recorded by the group as a demo, the decision was made to include it on the album untouched as it was deemed to be so strong. It was later used to prominent effect on the soundtrack to 1996's huge movie 'Trainspotting'. Unsurprisingly, considering what a great track it is, it's one of the few early songs that the band continued to play live in their later years.
"Can't feel, 'cause I'm numb. Can't feel, 'cause I'm numb. So what's the worth in all of this, what's the worth in all of this?"
26: NED'S ATOMIC DUSTBIN: THROWING THINGS
By early 1991, the UK indie scene had become fragmented into a whole host of styles, genres and tribes. The baggy scene from a few years earlier was still pretty prevalent and there was a whole slew of shoegaze combos making waves in the weekly music press. Throw in a bunch of Smiths-indebted jangle bands and some discordant art-rock and the outlook was reasonably rosy. The US grunge movement of late 91 would take a broom to it all but for the bulk of the year, things looked good. One scene in particular was astonishingly successful and it came from, of all places, the West Midlands. Both The Wonder Stuff and Pop Will Eat Itself - straight outta Stourbridge - had frequented the charts and embarked on successful tours in the proceeding couple of years and by April it was time for Ned's Atomic Dustbin to make their mark. Named after a Goon Show sketch, this thunderously exciting quintet of raggle-taggle grebo head-thrashers had pricked up the ears of the cognoscenti in late 1990 with a brace of EPs before hurtling into the Top 20 with the boisterous proto-grunge of 'Happy'. Debut album 'God Fodder' followed and it is still one of my favourite albums from that period. Short, sharp and showered with stupendous songs, I could have picked at least five tracks for this list - 'Selfish' and 'Grey Cell Green' came incredibly close. As it is though, 'Throwing Things' makes the cut on account of it's gloriously arm-flailing tune, the wondrously pogo-inducing chorus and the extraordinarily cutting lyrics from lead vocalist Jonn Penney that depict the death throes of a long-term relationship in wince-inducing detail. Outstanding, quite frankly. The band continued on for a few years with moderate success but, as I nodded to earlier, eventually got swept away by the US alt-rock juggernaut of the early 90s. They have reformed sporadically over the years though and are still a going concern on the live front.
"Now you're tying up my heartstrings, I've got no halo, got no wings. We've got verbal constipation, let's start throwing things."
25: CROWDED HOUSE: FOUR SEASONS IN ONE DAY
After a fair few years of knocking on the door of recognition, New Zealand native Neil Finn and his Crowded House counterparts - bassist Nick Seymour and drummer Paul Hester - finally made the world sit up and take notice in late 91 with the success of their third album 'Woodface'. Although they had scored a big worldwide hit in 1987 with 'Don't Dream It's Over', subsequent releases had fallen short. A shame, as Finn was obviously a hugely talented songwriter. After drafting in his older brother - and former Split Enz comrade Tim - into the fray, Finn threw everything he could at 'Woodface', having been told by his record company that the band would be dropped if they didn't come up with another huge smash. Astonishingly, the song that the band are most well known for - the peerless 'Weather With You' - was only earmarked as the fourth single to be released. Before that, three other tracks were released to moderate success in the last few months of 91, but Finn and the band took on a massive amount of promotional and live duties to push the album before the aforementioned 'Weather With You' sent it stratospheric in the summer of 92. The band went on to win Brits and Grammy's by the bucket-load before releasing their magnum opus 'Together Alone' in 1993. Hidden away in this story though, is the fifth single - and follow-up to 'Weather'.. - that slipped out almost unnoticed in July of 92. Written by Finn in response to the always ever-changing emotional rollercoaster of a relationship he had with his brother, the song took on greater significance after Tim left the band in a huff in the middle of their UK tour in the winter of 91. Soft and dreamy but with a hard edge - typical Neil Finn fare to be honest - the song was always the true standout for me when I bought 'Woodface' and I was flabbergasted that it took so long to be released as a single. Typically, even though it's one of Finn's finest songs, it barely scraped the Top 30. Some years later though, Neil and Tim were touring together as The Finn Brothers - having buried some hatchets - and performed the song nightly as a tribute to Hester who had recently taken his own life.
"Smiling as the shit comes down, you can tell a man from what he has to say. Everything gets turned around, and I will risk my neck again - again."
24: THE WONDER STUFF: MISSION DRIVE
As I alluded to above, The Wonder Stuff had enjoyed a dizzy few years of success in the late 80s before decamping to the studio to record their third album. Released in March of 91, the first fruits of this labour was the huge Top 5 single 'Size Of A Cow' which turned the previously Second Division indie whippersnappers into top tier title contenders. Led by the never knowingly understated Miles Hunt, The Stuffies - as their ever-increasing fanbase loved to call them - very quickly became masters of three-minute pop single wonderment and went on to enjoy a hugely productive 18 months that culminated in the band headlining massive outdoor gigs in the summer of 92 - including the famed Reading Festival. The aforementioned third album - the really rather fantastic 'Never Loved Elvis' - gave them their one and only number one placing in the UK album chart in May of 91 and opened with this gorgeously bittersweet acoustic anthem that climaxes with a full-blown fiddle-infused folk frenzy. Written by Hunt after his acrimonious fallout with his former best friend - and Pop Will Eat Itself singer - Clint Mansell, the song had an all-encompassing 'me-against-the-world' vibe and was made for opening huge live sets by the band which, obviously, it ended up doing. Sadly for Hunt and the rest of The Stuffies, this was as good as it got for them as 1993's follow-up album 'Construction For The Modern Idiot' - although a fine record - couldn't repeat the success of 'Elvis' and the band split in 94. Hunt has reconvened with different iterations of the band ever since but 91 was their high watermark creatively, and 'Mission Drive' their finest four minutes.
"My mission drive, is to open up my eyes - cut the wicked lies and all the shite you say."
23: SWERVEDRIVER: RAVE DOWN
Somewhat erroneously lumped in with the rest of the shoegaze bands of the early 90s, Oxford's Swervedriver were - if anything - far more psych-rock influenced and in thrall to the US college rock scene that begat the likes of Hüsker Dü, Pixies and Dinosaur Jr. Drenched in feedback-laden effects pedals and thrashing guitars, the band - led by Adam Franklin and Jimmy Hartridge - had been drifting around the scene for a while, gigging furiously and self-releasing singles. Signed by Alan McGee to his up and coming Creation Records imprint, their debut album - the mind-melding sonic attack of 'Raise' - was released in the autumn to healthy acclaim from the music press. Featuring the likes of fan favourites 'Son Of Mustang Ford' and 'Sandblasted' - both of which I could easily have picked for this list - the album's centrepiece was this storming ode to small-town life and youthful ennui that thundered along in some style, crashing around your cranium during the chorus and pulverising your pineal gland throughout. The song was a marvel then and still is now. Any momentum that the success of the album - and this song in particular - gave them though was quickly lost in 1992 when the other two members left the band under a cloud, leaving Franklin and Hartridge to start over. A stop-gap single - the monumental 'Never Lose That Feeling' - appeared the following summer to keep the fans happy before they re-appeared in 93 with the even better 'Mezcal Head' opus. The band are still currently active with a brace of excellent albums in recent years and the highlight of any Swervedriver gig these days is always this careering cyclonic maelstrom of stomach shaking noise.
"There's kids on the corner wanna beat-box my brain to bits. You can't cut creed clean, things ain't black or white like they seem."
22: CHAPTERHOUSE: PEARL
Springing into life in the late eighties, Berkshire's Chapterhouse soon found themselves part of the burgeoning shoegaze scene that prided itself on swathes of effects-pedal heavy guitar sounds, swirling percussion and a hefty preponderance of ethereal vocal stylings. Bands like Ride, My Bloody Valentine and Lush became far more successful but for a brief five minutes or so there in early 91, Chapterhouse looked like they might do some serious business commercially. Led by co-singer/songwriters Andrew Sherriff and Stephen Patman, the band hit the ground running with this tremendous opening single that married their three-pronged guitar attack with the still popular 'baggy' influenced drum beats. An impossibly catchy chorus sealed the deal before fellow Home Counties shoegaze alumni Rachel Goswell - vocalist with Slowdive who were having a pretty decent 1991 themselves - turned up at the climax with some dulcet backing vocals. Sadly, 'Pearl' was only a minor hit and even though a pretty solid debut album in 'Whirlpool' followed, by year's end Chapterhouse were nothing more than a footnote. A more US alt-rock inflected second album appeared in 1993 but the jig was up and the band split.
"Burn me out from the inside, turn me upside down. I've got to satisfy my soul, satisfy my soul."
21: METALLICA: SAD BUT TRUE
After building themselves up over the previous few years as the best thrash metal band on the planet, by 1991 San Francisco quartet Metallica were at something of an impasse. After the tragic death of their founding member and bassist Cliff Burton in 1986, the band's subsequent album - the extraordinarily dense and knotty 'And Justice For All' - had been met with slightly less fulsome responses than their previous work. It was also the first record to feature new bass guitarist Jason Newsted and both main Metallica honchos Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield have gone on record in recent years admitting that they weren't particularly happy with Newsted's input and insisted on the bass being turned right down in the mix. As such, 'Justice...' is not very well loved by the band either. So, come the winter of 1990 and the four black-clad horsemen of the heavy metal apocalypse - Ulrich, Hetfield, Newsted and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett - knuckled down in the studio with the explicit intention of making the biggest selling metal album of all-time. To that end - and to the extremely vocal consternation of their rabid fan-base - they hooked up with über-producer Bob Rock who at that stage was most known for his work with the likes of soft-rock hair metal bands like Mötley Crüe and Bon Jovi. Cries of "Sell-Out!" were legion from the hard rock cognoscenti but once the first fruits of their collaboration were released in the summer of 91, everything changed. The monumental world-wide Top 5 single 'Enter Sandman' blew any cobwebs away for band and fans alike and September's 'Metallica' opus - otherwise known as 'The Black Album' - went straight to Number One all over the globe. It eventually sold close to 30 million copies and as such, has allowed Metallica to do whatever the hell they like ever since - whether that be waiting 8 years between releasing albums, performing three hour concerts with the San Francisco Philharmonic Orchestra or duetting with the likes of Lou Reed and Marianne Faithfull, which you'd never see Limp Bizkit attempting. The 'Metallica' album itself was full to bursting with stellar tunes - from the thunderous stomp of 'Wherever I May Roam' and 'Don't Tread On Me' to the more reflective acoustic loveliness of 'The Unforgiven' and every non-Metallica fan's favourite Metallica track 'Nothing Else Matters'. But, at thirty years remove, it's the cerebellum-scrambling mind-meld of 'Sad But True' that stands as their finest moment for me. With a riff for the ages, lyrics that focus on the narrator's dark side taking control and with Hetfield on outstanding vocal form, it's a song that gets better and better as it gets older. Pretty much like the band themselves, to be honest.
"I'm your dream, mind astray. I'm your eyes while you're away. I'm your pain while you repay - you know it's sad but true."
20: MATTHEW SWEET: DIVINE INTERVENTION
Hailing from Nebraska but based for most of his life in R.E.M.'s hometown of Athens in Georgia, singer/songwriter Sweet had released a couple of sixties influenced records in the late eighties before striking it lucky in 91 with the still utterly magisterial 'Girlfriend' album. Expanding on his previous sound and adding a healthy slab of crunchy power-pop and gnarly proto-grunge (as well as some dulcet Americana) Sweet was joined on the recording sessions by NYC art-rock royalty Robert Quine and Fred Maher - both of whom had played with Lou Reed - as well as Richard Lloyd from the legendary Television and our very own Lloyd Cole who had decamped to New York a few years earlier. The album slipped out quietly in late 91 - although it really didn't pick up any traction in the UK until a year or so later - and I fell in love with it immediately. Picking a track from it for this list was as close to impossible as things get, seeing as the first half of the record - Side One in old money - is as good an opening salvo to an album as you'll ever hear. The sparkling, jangle-filled glory of 'I've Been Waiting' and 'Looking For The Sun' came close, as did the crunchy, funk-inflected title track, but this epic ode to spiritual salvation - complete with soaring guitars, goosebump-inducing solos and a chorus to die for - takes the prize. Sweet never quite fulfilled the promise of this album, following it up with some very good records and some so-so efforts. He's still out there though - this year's 'Catspaw' opus was a lovely return to former glories - but he'll never beat 'Girlfriend'.
"I cannot understand my God, I don't know why it gets to me. One day my life is filled with joy, and then we find we disagree."
19: RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS: MY LOVELY MAN
By the late eighties, the short-lived 'funk-rock' genre had broken through into the mainstream with the likes of Faith No More and Living Colour selling millions of records and garnering serious critical acclaim. The time was right then, for Los Angelinos Red Hot Chili Peppers to stake their claim and take their place at the top table. The band had been knocking on the door for a few years but their first couple of records were a tad patchy. Tragically, just before going into the studio to record album number 3, their lead guitarist Hillel Slovak died of a drug overdose. Although understandably devastated, the rest of the group - singer Anthony Kiedis, bass monster Flea and drum titan Chad Smith - recruited the young, raw, but monumentally talented John Frusciante to take Slovak's place. 1989's 'Mother's Milk' was the first recorded output from the new line-up and, although decent in parts, didn't quite set the world alight. All that changed though in the summer of 91 with the release of the epic 'BloodSugarSexMagik' opus which quickly turned the quartet into worldwide superstars. Covering a whole gamut of styles from thumpingly sweaty funk workouts like 'Give It Away' and 'Suck My Kiss' to delicate acoustic numbers such as 'Breaking The Girl' and the still ubiquitous 'Under The Bridge', 'BSSM' is an absolute blast from soup to nuts. For my money though, the finest songs on the album are to be found deep in it's latter stages where the band really let loose. I could easily have picked 'Apache Rose Peacock' or 'Naked In The Rain' for this list but it has to be Keidis's heartfelt tribute to his old friend - and fellow junkie - Slovak. Careering out of the blocks at a hundred miles an hour and never letting up, the song is funky as hell and tight as a drum. It also contains one of Frusciante's finest ever solos. I defy anyone listening to it not to get up in front of the mirror and give it some major air guitar action. Frusciante left the band not long after the end of the 'BSSM' touring schedule and was replaced - for one album - by Dave Navarro of Jane's Addiction. But he was back in the hot seat for the Chili's imperial phase during the late 90s and early noughties before jumping ship again. Remarkably though, he's since rejoined and the classic lineup will be back on tour next year with new material. Whatever they regale us with though is very unlikely to be as good as this track.
"Just in case you never knew, I miss you, Slim, I love you too. See my heart it's black and blue, when I die I will find you."
18: PIXIES: U-MASS
By the summer of 1991, Boston's legendary alt-rock noiseniks Pixies were close to burning out. Having changed the face of indie rock over the previous three years with their incendiary and seminal albums 'Surfer Rosa', 'Doolittle' and 'Bossanova', the four-piece - Frank Black, Kim Deal, Joey Santiago and Dave Lovering - found themselves in a creative lull and at logger-heads personally. Black and Deal's relationship in particular was as fractured as it had ever been. Incredibly though, despite all the inter-band upheaval, they were able to get together in the studio and pull off one final hurrah. Most fans will contend that 'Trompe Le Monde' is the weakest of the albums from the Pixies first phase and it's certainly true to say that it never scales the heights of 'Rosa' or 'Doolittle'. But let's be frank here - how many other records do? Taken on it's own merits, 'Trompe..' is a fine album containing some real humdingers. First single 'Planet Of Sound' was a tremendously thrilling opening gambit and the likes of 'Alec Eiffel' and 'Subbacultcha' are still aired live by the band to this day. However, nothing else on the album holds a candle to Black's tribute to his alma mater, the University Of Massachusetts. Opening with a scorching riff from Santiago and some pummelling drum action from Lovering, the song is three minutes of utter joy as Black hilariously recounts the life of a wide-eyed student and his first experiences of college life. The icing on the cake of course, is Black's inimitable scream during the chorus. All together now: "IT'S EDUCATIONAL!!!" The band toured the album for a good 6 months or so - indeed, I was fortunate to see them during the UK leg - but Black broke up the band the following year. By fax, no less. It was a full 12 years before the original foursome returned and they've been active ever since - although Kim Deal bailed a few years ago.
"And redneckers, they get us pissed. And stupid stuff, it makes us shout. Oh dance with me, oh don't be shy..."
17: A TRIBE CALLED QUEST: CHECK THE RHIME
The magnificently erudite and supremely cerebral New York City hip-hop crew A Tribe Called Quest began the 90s on something of a roll after the success of their debut album 'People's Instinctive Travels And The Paths Of Rhythm' and, in particular, it's huge hit single 'Can I Kick It?' Part of the Native Tongues/Daisy Age rap collective - also featuring De La Soul and The Jungle Brothers - Tribe were a real breath of fresh air and a welcome move away from the increasingly misogynist and bravado-embracing world of the 'Gangsta Rap' scene. Led by co-rappers Q-Tip and Phife Dawg, Tribe's beats and rhymes were an absolute joy to listen to - all hazy grooves and sparkling wit. Their second album 'The Low End Theory' - released in the late summer of 91 - was not only the best hip-hop album of that particular year, but, to my ears, is close to being the greatest hip-hop album of all time. Combining the groups confident rap sound with laid back, smoky jazz textures, the album was a giant leap forward. With a stripped-back and minimalist production that focused purely on the vocals, drums and bass, it gave Q-Tip and Phife the room to flex their rhyming skills and intertwine together in a gloriously life-affirming manner. Touching on a whole range of subjects from date-rape, racism, record company politics and the modern American age of consumerism, the album was as much a history lesson as it was a phenomenal hour of music. The first single from the record - the still astonishing 'Check The Rhime' - showed the interplay between Q-Tip and Phife at it's absolute best, with the duo waxing lyrical about their early days as aspiring rappers in the Queens projects. Whilst the impossible not to dance to groove samples the likes of Minnie Ripperton and The Average White Band, the vocal duo deliver some of their very finest lyrics. It's an absolute marvel of a song and quite rightly garnered award nominations and critical acclaim by the truck-load. The group continued their success throughout the nineties before disbanding in 1998. They reconvened in 2008 as a touring entity just before Phife announced he was suffering from diabetes. A final album - the tremendous 'We Got It From Here' - was released in tribute to Phife who passed away in 2016 at the age of 45.
"Now here's a funky introduction of how nice I am. Tell your mother, tell your father, send a telegram. I'm like an energizer 'cause, you see, I last long. My crew is never ever wack because we stand strong."
16: DINOSAUR JR.: THUMB
Massachusetts-based alt-rock linchpin J Mascis began the 90s at something of a loose end. His band Dinosaur - the Jr was added later after some legal trouble - had started out in the mid-80s as a tremendously thrilling fuzz-encrusted power trio comprising Mascis on vocals and guitars, Lou Barlow on bass and the succinctly monikered Murph on drums. Pummelling their way through a trio of albums and the monstrously catchy indie disco classic single 'Freak Scene' through the latter half of the decade, saw the group courted by a host of major labels as 1990 dawned. Signing to Warner Brothers and knuckling down to record their first material for their new paymasters seemed like the perfect next stage for Mascis and his cohorts. Unfortunately though, creative differences were rife between the trio and before the album could be released, Mascis had fired Barlow - who went on to form Sebadoh and Folk Implosion - and relegated Murph to appearing on only a handful of tracks. The resulting record - the brilliant 'Green Mind' - eventually saw the light of day in the spring of 91 and is ostensibly a J Mascis solo project in all but name. Full to bursting with fantastic songs - the likes of 'The Wagon' and 'Blowing It' barrel along magnificently, all crunchy riffs and wailing solos - it's the quieter moments toward the back end of the album that show Mascis's songwriting abilities in a different light. In particular, the laid-back, mellotron-infused bluesy drawl of 'Thumb' which connected with me back in 91 in a major way. One of the few tracks on the album that feature Murph on drums, the song is a woozy and winding wonder depicting the lethargic stasis of a co-dependent relationship on it's last legs, and that ends with Mascis embracing his love for Neil Young in monumental style, wigging out with his guitar as if his life depended on it. Utterly sublime. Mascis and Murph reconvened in 93 - along with new bassist Mike Johnson - for the hugely successful 'Where You Been?' album before drifting apart again a few years later. The original trio reunited in 2006 and have since released five excellent albums, including this years lovely 'Sweep It Into Space'.
"Stepping out, I tried to fix it. Pulled a thumb out of that hole. Give me ingredients, I'll mix it. How can you move without a goal..."
15: THE REAL PEOPLE: WINDOW PANE
Liverpool quartet The Real People were a bunch of weed-loving, lank-haired roustabouts who came out of nowhere in the spring of 91 with their still supremely confident debut album which married the joyful jangle of fellow Scousers The La's - who had released their own wondrous debut only 6 months previously - with the shuffling, baggy beats of the likes of The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays. Led by the Griffiths brothers - Tony on bass and vocals and Chris on guitar and vocals - the band's sound also incorporated the group's love of beat groups from the 60s. Unsurprisingly, considering their birthplace, there was a strong Beatles influence too. The album's 40 minute run-time didn't have an ounce of waste on it - oozing with tunes from top to bottom - and during my springtime tenure working at my local record shop, my day wasn't complete unless I'd played it at least once. Running the gamut from sparky rockers like 'Everyday's The Same' and 'I Can't Wait' to more reflective, acoustic numbers such as 'For You' and 'Words', the whole thing hangs together quite gloriously and is underpinned by perfectly judged double harmony vocals from the Griffiths siblings and janglesome guitar frills to die for. Lead single 'Window Pane' thrills my core to this day, opening the album in boisterously magnificent style as it lurches from it's opening riff to it's mighty backbeat to a guitar solo that twists and turns all over the place in it's middle section without ever falling apart. I absolutely loved it then and still do now. A second album two years later - despite a couple of singles making the Top 40 - was never officially released and by the time the band were able to get new material out there, the world had moved on. As a postscript, when Oasis burst onto the scene in 1994, I was adamant that Noel Gallagher must have been a fan, as 'Definitely Maybe' had such a similar sound. Turns out that whilst Noel was working as a roadie for the Inspiral Carpets in the early 90s, he'd met The Real People and become good pals - even borrowing their studio to record with the nascent Oasis. Chris Griffiths then went on to co-write the Oasis song 'Rockin' Chair' with Noel as well as contributing backing vocals to 'Supersonic'. Alas, the fortunes of each group deviated wildly over the next decade or so and The Real People became a footnote. They're still going though, with the odd album here and there and live dates lined up for 2022. The Griffiths brothers have kept themselves afloat financially too by writing songs for the likes of Atomic Kitten, Ocean Colour Scene and even Cher. In an ideal world though, 'Window Pane' should have been the song to catapult them to worldwide glory.
"Seeing life through a window pane, feels like love but it's not the same. Dream a dream and it all starts coming true, but what can you do? It's all up to you..."
14: LENNY KRAVITZ: WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND
By the beginning of 1991, New York City troubadour Lenny Kravitz had broken through to the mainstream after the huge success of his wonderful debut album 'Let Love Rule' that had seen this strikingly talented young man - he was only 24 when it was released - selling a million records and touring with the likes of Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and David Bowie. Playing almost everything on the album, Kravitz was quickly regarded as a genuine wunderkind and great things were expected of his sophomore outing. Embracing his love of all things 60s and 70s and running with it, 'Mama Said' - released in April of 91 - saw Kravitz beefing up his sound with a full band and venturing further into the realms of psychedelic rock, blue-eyed soul, gnarly funk, piano ballads and all-round cosmic wonder. The album was another huge hit and his calling card commercially too with the massive worldwide hit single 'It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over' broadening his appeal. He toured the album to death across 91 and 92 before venturing back into the studio for album number three. Since then of course, Kravitz has maintained that early success and become a global superstar though, for me, he's never quite scaled the heights of his first two records. There have been moments across his subsequent 9 albums that have certainly thrilled but the songs on 'Let Love Rule' and 'Mama Said' are still his finest. For this list I could easily have picked the crunchy grooves of 'Fields Of Joy' or 'Always On The Run' - both featuring stellar guitar solos from Lenny's old school chum Slash - or indeed the blues-inflected deep soul of 'More Than Anything In This World', but I've gone for the tremendously funky and jazz-tinged splendour of 'What Goes Around Comes Around' which sees Kravitz adopting his finest Curtis Mayfield falsetto and warning the citizens of Planet Earth to heed the lessons of history and take care of each other before it's too late. Combining a sharp drum beat and an impossibly slinky organ riff that runs throughout, the song is dominated by an extraordinary 60 second saxophone solo from the mighty Karl Denson - who had played sax on 'Let Love Rule' and went on to play with The Greyboy Allstars - which is so good it defies description. Outstanding fare.
"My cup over runneth with fullness and grace, yet people push bullshit in my face. The future can't hold what your money can't buy, My brother keep striving, your child relies."
13: SOUNDGARDEN: SLAVES AND BULLDOZERS
As anyone with even the slightest interest in modern rock music will know, 1991 was the year of grunge. A full-blown annus mirabilis for modern-day alternative rock, by the end of the year the soft-rock hair metal bands that had been filling the charts over the previous few years were starting to look increasingly dated and in need of some serious competition. When you consider that the most popular rock songs from the early part of 91 were the truly awful 'Wind Of Change' by the leather-clad Scorpions and the possibly even worse 'More Than Words' by Extreme - a more insipid 'rock' band would be hard to find - then you can see how much things needed to change. Bands like Jane's Addiction, Living Color, Faith No More and the previously mentioned Red Hot Chili Peppers had been making a fair bit of noise for a few years but it was Nirvana who blew the doors off in September with the release of 'Nevermind'. Fellow Seattle bands such as Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains and Screaming Trees - as well as the likes of Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Temple Pilots from other parts of the US - all went on to have a hugely productive few years before burn-out, fractious relationships and a steady diet of hard drugs brought things to a halt. Another band from Seattle - the heroically heavy Soundgarden - had been loosening the screws of many a head for a good few years before signing with a major label on the back of their monstrous 'Louder Than Love' album. Fronted by the ridiculously good-looking Chris Cornell - blessed with the hair of a Native American chieftan and a voice from the heavens - and with a sound that married the Sturm und Drang of Black Sabbath with psychedelia, classic Americana and free jazz, Soundgarden were a real breath of fresh air for rock fans as the Nineties dawned. The classic four-piece lineup - Cornell, guitarist Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron on drums and bassist Ben Shepherd - released their third full-length opus 'BadMotorFinger' in late 91 and set down a marker that few bands have been able to match. Containing three outrageously good singles in the searing 'Jesus Christ Pose'; the blues-infused thump of 'Outshined' and the riff-tastic 'Rusty Cage', choosing just one track from the album for this list was a tough call. I've gone for the swarthy and spine-shaking shudder of 'Slaves And Bulldozers' though, which sees Cornell and the band rail against the vagaries of the music industry and, in particular, slate those that tried to pull a fast one over the band in their early years. With Thayil drop-tuning his guitar throughout - and laying down his favourite ever solo - Cornell's vocals are arguably the best he ever produced. An absolute beast of a tune. Soundgarden went on to achieve huge success a few years later with the mega-selling 'Superunknown' album before splitting in 97. They reunited 15 years later but, tragically, Cornell died in 2017 at the age of 52 in mysterious circumstances. He is, of course, hugely missed.
"Virgin eyes and dirty looks, on what I have and what I took. Counting all the hands I shook, now you know why I've been shaking..."
12: SMASHING PUMPKINS: RHINOCEROS
Another previously small-time alt-rock band that were given a serious push from their record company in the wake of Nirvana's success were Chicago quartet Smashing Pumpkins who, at the back end of 91, released their debut album 'Gish' to some pretty decent notices. It took a few more months of solid gigging and regular single releases before commercial success came their way but when it did, the band never looked back. Helium voiced frontman Billy Corgan was their driving force, with guitarist James Iha, drum titan Jimmy Chamberlin and whey-faced bass chanteuse D'arcy Wretzky falling into line. Later albums saw the group splinter on a regular basis - mainly due to Corgan's extreme demands in the studio - but the results, especially 93's epic 'Siamese Dream', were always worth the drama. Back in 91 however, the group were as harmonious as they ever were and the songs on 'Gish' were an absolute joy to listen to. Ranging from ear-splitting wig-outs like 'Siva' and 'I Am One' to more reflective acoustica such as 'Crush' and the D'arcy sung 'Daydream', the highlight was this superb melding of the two which saw Corgan and Iha swapping riffs and fills as the song ebbed and flowed slowly over six increasingly brilliant minutes of crackly dream-pop before exploding into a speaker shaking climax of feedback and crashing drums. Astounding. Production fans took note too, as 'Gish' was produced by Butch Vig who followed his work on this by hooking up with Nirvana to twiddle the knobs on 'Nevermind'. The Pumpkins got bigger and bigger as the 90s progressed, selling 10 million copies of their mammoth double album from 1995, 'Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness'. It couldn't last of course, and diminishing returns set in before they eventually split. Like most bands of their era though, the original lineup - minus D'arcy - have been back at it in recent years with two relatively decent albums since 2017.
"Panda show, trees and balloons. Ice cream snow, see you in June. Could have known, I would reveal. Should have known, I would conceal your way."
11: PRIMAL SCREAM: COME TOGETHER
Glasgow's lank and languid Primal Scream had been struggling to gain a foothold on the indie-rock ladder of success throughout the late 80s, veering from Paisley-clad jangle rockers to leather trousered Velvet Underground wannabes with little to show for it. They'd certainly had their moments - the glorious rush of 'Imperial' from the 'Sonic Flower Groove' album is a thing of utter wonder - but it wasn't until frontman Bobby Gillespie, along with his companions Andrew Innes and Robert 'Throb' Young, discovered ecstasy, Acid House and the mighty DJ and producer Andrew Weatherall that fortunes began to shift for them. Remixing the band's laid-back Stonesy shuffle 'I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have' into the magisterial 'Loaded' was the first sign that Weatherall was an inspired choice by the band to sprinkle some magic on to their material. A huge hit in the summer of 1990, 'Loaded' was followed by the gospel-tinged delight that was 'Come Together'. Featuring the rich, soulful vocals of Mancunian singing legend Denise Johnson throughout the track, there were a number of different single versions released before the final - and greatest - version which appeared slap bang in the middle of the track-listing of the band's seminal third album 'Screamadelica' which was released in late September of 91. Fusing psychedelia, dub, techno, classic dance textures and balls to the wall glam rock into one huge stew of glory, the album was an instant success and turned Primal Scream into one of the UK's most well-loved combos. They're still out there these days, recording stellar records and touring solidly - although sadly without both Throb and Denise Johnson who have moved onto different realms - but, for my money, they've yet to surpass the ten minutes of joy that is the album version of 'Come Together', even if Gillespie's vocals aren't even featured!
"Today on this program you will hear gospel, and rhythm and blues, and jazz. All those are just labels, we know that music is music..."
10: MASSIVE ATTACK: BLUE LINES
Undoubtedly the coolest song on this list - by a country mile - the title track from Bristolian hip-hop trio Massive Attack's fabulous debut album sees main lyricists and vocalists Robert '3D' Del Naja and Grant 'Daddy G' Marshall trading verses and rapping in a hushed and downbeat style - almost as if whispering in your ear. Also joining in on the vocals was Adrian Thaws - otherwise known as Tricky - who had been part of The Wild Bunch musical collective in Bristol that spawned not only Massive Attack but also Neneh Cherry and Nellee Hooper. The album itself took almost five years to put together as the band were, by their own admission, "lazy Bristol twats". It was well worth the wait though, featuring epic string-laden soul in the shape of the peerless 'Unfinished Sympathy', laid-back reggae jams such as 'One Love' and claustrophobic, bass-driven electronica like 'Safe From Harm' and 'Five Man Army'. But it's the title track that takes the prize, with it's chilled jazzy backbeat (sampled from US saxophonist Tom Scott) driving the song forward and the crisp production from the quiet one of the band - Matthew 'Mushroom' Vowles - leaving space for the three rappers to let their lyrics flow. When the album was released in April of 91, my ears were always drawn to this track and, in particular, the vocal interplay from 3D and Tricky which as well as being immensely cool to listen to, was also the first time I'd heard strong West Country accents on any recordings since The Wurzels back in the 70s. Massive Attack - who had been forced to drop the Attack from their name upon the album's release due to the ongoing Iraq War - were quickly anointed the new kings of UK hip-hop and 'Blue Lines' became commonly known as the first 'Trip-Hop' album - a phrase the band came to loathe. However, along with fellow Bristolians Portishead and Tricky himself, huge success came their way over the course of the next decade or so with albums like 'Protection' and 'Mezzanine' securing their place in history.
"Skip hip data to get the antimatter, blue lines are the reason that the temple had to shatter. To the sound of silence surrounded by the mass, her face is on the paper not the strangers that I pass. The ones are looking back to see if they are looking back at me. Are you predator or do you fear me?"
9: CATHERINE WHEEL: BLACK METALLIC
Hailing from the wilds of Norfolk, psych-rock tinged shoegaze crew Catherine Wheel piqued my interest toward the back end of 1991 with a brace of self-released EPs that scratched my feedback-drenched atmospheric indie itch with some style. Eventually signing to Fontana records in early 92, the band's debut album 'Ferment' gained favourable reviews and led to a healthy year of gigging before the band changed direction in 93 and became more grunge-influenced in an attempt to sell records in America. This worked for a bit with their second album 'Chrome' doing well on the US college circuit. Eventually the band's constant shift of musical styles - they veered into proggier territory for album number three - saw most of their early fans drift away and the group called it a day in 1999. Before all of that though was the extraordinary 'Black Metallic'. Released as a stand-alone single in October of 91 - before being re-recorded for 'Ferment' - this absolute epic of a track saw lead vocalist Rob Dickinson (cousin of Iron Maiden's Bruce) delve into his psyche as he describes the darkness bubbling under a supposedly happy relationship. With the rest of the band building up a head of steam around him with walls of guitars and a drifting drum beat, the song takes it's time to thrill with a seven minute runtime that enables it to have a little breather about halfway through as the entire song breaks down before crashing back to life magnificently for it's final coda. It's all quite fantastic and still sounds utterly tremendous three decades on.
"I think of you when you're sleeping, of all the secrets that you're keeping. You can't spend all day under the covers, 'cause under there you'll discover..."
8: ELECTRONIC: GET THE MESSAGE
Back in 1989 both Bernard Sumner from New Order and ex-Smiths guitar hero Johnny Marr were having a pretty solid year. Sumner and his New Order cohorts had just released thier greatest and most critically acclaimed album 'Technique' and Marr was continuing his gun-for-hire activities with a hugely successful stint in his old friend Matt Johnson's The The collective, appearing as the lead guitarist on their 'Mind Bomb' album. A chance meeting in Ibiza during the late summer saw both men finally decide to work together. Returning to Manchester, naming themselves Electronic and drafting in Neil Tennant from the Pet Shop Boys on extra vocals, the first fruits of their new collaboration was the truly sublime 'Getting Away With It' single which hit the Top Ten in December. A wonderful slice of downbeat synth-pop and janglesome guitar trills, the song still nestles snugly in my favourite tunes of all-time list - which may or may not see the light of day on this blog some time in the future. Other commitments kept Sumner and Marr away from each other for a good year or so before a follow-up could be put together. The self-titled debut album was finally released in May of 91 and the lead single - the blissed-out Balearic anthem 'Get The Message' - reached Number 8 a few weeks before. Combining Marr's multi-tracked guitar parts with a stomping baggy dance beat and parping synths, the song sees Sumner questioning the extra-curricular activities of his romantic partner whilst all the while trying to keep a handle on things. With Marr grooving away in the background on his trusty six-string, it really is impossible not to cut a rug to. Having the late and very great Denise Johnson turn up at the climax for some ear-caressing backing vocals is just showing off quite frankly. Both Sumner and Marr have stated many times over the years how important this track was to each of their musical journeys - Marr in particular has admitted that it's "probably the best song I've ever been involved with" - and it's very easy to see why. The duo re-appeared sporadically over the next decade or so with two further albums but they never surpassed this.
"Hark the herald angels sting, please repair my broken wing. Why won't you look at me? I live and breathe."
7: NIRVANA: BREED
Nirvana's 1991 really was earth-shattering and life-changing for the fuzz-encrusted power trio from Washington State. Beginning the year as just another Seattle alt-rock band - albeit one with a monstrously talented songwriter in their midst - they ended it by dethroning Michael Jackson and U2 from the top of the album charts in America and by mid-92 were arguably the biggest rock band on the planet. The speed of their ascent across the globe - in the UK they went from being third on the bill behind Tad and Mudhoney at the Charing Cross Astoria to headlining the Reading Festival in the space of a year - was not only astonishing for the plaid-wearing indie rockers that made up their fanbase, but also for Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl as well. How the three of them coped and made the transition from sleeping in cars and under bridges in 1990 to selling 15 million copies of their 'Nevermind' album by 92, beggars belief. Of course, by April 1994 we all knew that Cobain hadn't been able to cope at all but for a brief moment there - probably the few months between the release of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' in September 91 and all the magazine cover features the following spring - it looked like the trio would be ok. Looking back at thirty years remove is it possible for those of us who were there to pinpoint exactly why it was Nirvana and not, say, Alice In Chains or Soundgarden who took the rock world by the scruff of it's neck and almost ripped it's head off? I really don't think so to be honest. It was just one of those perfect 'lightning in a bottle' moments that make music so downright exciting. Cobain's astounding songwriting talent and extraordinary voice were a hugely important factor of course, and 'Nevermind' is an impeccable album. The aforementioned 'Teen Spirit' along with 'Lithium', 'Come As You Are' and 'In Bloom' were nailed-on singles from the get-go and are still quite rightly played to death on modern rock radio stations to this day, but my go-to tunes then and now were always the raw-throated pummelling rock workouts like 'Stay Away', 'Territorial Pissings' and the frankly bloody brilliant 'Breed' - a track so downright exciting it should come with it's own health warning. I was exceedingly fortunate to see Nirvana live during that first year of mayhem and they were magisterial. Before all the craziness, before the drugs and before Courtney Love, Cobain really did seem to be enjoying himself and both Noveselic and Grohl came across as two of the nicest guys in the world. What followed has been written about in microscopic detail over the years - 'In Utero'/heroin/rehab/Rome/'Unplugged'/Frances Bean/overdose/April 94 - that I need not go into it here. Best to remember Cobain and Nirvana at their apex by playing 'Breed' on repeat and turning it up VERY LOUDLY.
"Even if you have, even if you need. I don't mean to stare, we don't have to breed. We could plant a house, we could build a tree. I don't even care, we could have all three. She said...."
6: MY BLOODY VALENTINE: SOON
Originally hailing from Dublin and made up of guitarist and sonic provocateur Kevin Shields, bassist Debbie Goodge, Belinda Butcher on guitars and vocals and drummer Colm Ó Ciosóig, My Bloody Valentine have - across their 35 year career - released only three full-length albums. This is mainly down to Shields and his extreme perfectionism but it's also fair to say that once you record an album as mesmerisingly magnificent as 1991's 'Loveless' then where else can you go? It's no surprise that Shields took 22 years to follow it up - a break so long that the rest of the band recused themselves from MBV duty and took up 'proper' jobs. Signed to Alan McGee's Creation Records label in 1990, the recording costs for 'Loveless' were so huge that the label came close to bankruptcy by the time the album was released. No mean feat when you consider that 91 also saw Creation release albums by Primal Scream, Teenage Fanclub, Swervedriver and Slowdive. In fact, things were so precarious that the only sensible action to take was to drop the band. So, incredibly, by the time 'Loveless' was taking it's place at the top end of many an Album Of The Year list in December 91, MBV were on the look out for a new home. They eventually signed to Island Records who - magnificently - were long out of business by the time that the 'mbv' album saw the light of day in 2013. Since then, there's been no new music from Shields and company, although he's been very busy tinkering away on the old albums - both 'Loveless' and 1988's debut 'Isn't Anything' have been remastered and rereleased more than once. Back to 'Loveless' though and listening back to it in 2021 is akin to being strapped to the back of a rocket and shot into space whilst off your napper on mushrooms and undergoing the old 'Clockwork Orange' Ludovico technique. It is still a monumental mind-melding assault of sound and feel, with swathes of dissonant noise, feedback up the wazoo and all kinds of experimental merriment that stands in a field of one. Touching on dream-pop, shoegaze, jazz textures, art-rock, drone, fuzz and post-punk soundscapes, Shields manipulates his guitar sound to such an extent that it really doesn't sound like a guitar at all - it could easily be a jumbo jet plane ploughing through the listeners brain. Drenched in reverb, sustain and a whole smorgasbord of drop tunings, it sounded like nothing else then and nobody else has come close since. Just as important too are the vocals of Belinda Butcher, recorded way down in the mix to sound like as much of a musical instrument as the guitars and drums. The combination of the two are at their best on the stunning 'Soon' which I've possibly listened to a hundred times and I'm still nowhere near to fully understanding how the band put the song together. The original is an utter marvel of a track - all driving rhythms, thunderous drums and searing guitar work from Shields - but there's also a phenomenal remix version out there by the dearly departed Andrew Weatherall that is more than worthy of your listening pleasure.
"Come back, don't be afraid of me soon. That I'll harm you, your eyes are blue. Blue jewels, yeah..."
5: TEMPLE OF THE DOG: HUNGER STRIKE
Into the Top 5 then and it's interesting to note that the final few tunes on this list are all ballads. I imagine it's an age thing as I'm pretty certain that if I had put this countdown together even ten years ago, the final 5 would have been slightly more uptempo. Who knows - maybe I'm just a sucker for a slow jam. In at Number 5 we have a full-blown Seattle supergroup. Put together in early 91 by Chris Cornell, Temple Of The Dog was ostensibly a solo project by the Soundgarden singer wherein he wanted to pay tribute to his best friend Andrew Wood who had succumbed to a heroin overdose in 1990 at the ridiculously young age of 24. Wood was the lead singer with the glam-heavy Seattle rock band Mother Love Bone and he and the group were on the cusp of stardom before he died. Cornell, understandably bereft, poured his emotions into a suite of songs that he felt were 'too emotional' for the next Soundgarden album so, with the help of his bandmate Matt Cameron on drums, he booked studio time to put the songs down on tape. Joining him on the recordings were Wood's MLB cohorts Jeff Ament on bass and guitarist Stone Gossard. They had recently been recording with an old guitarist friend of theirs called Mike McCready with a view to forming a new band. Unbeknown to Cornell, Gossard had been communicating with a singer from Los Angeles called Eddie Vedder who had written some lyrics that Gossard and Ament were both hugely excited by. Eventually of course, Pearl Jam would be born from these sessions but first, Cornell wanted to get the Temple Of The Dog album out on the shelves and make some money for Andrew Wood's family. The one-off album is a veritable feast of all things grunge - anthemic choruses, gnarly riffs, epic song structures - all topped off with Cornell's once-in-a-lifetime voice. I could quite easily have picked 'Say Hello To Heaven' or 'Reach Down' for this list as they convey Cornell's emotions in spine-tingling detail but really, once you hear the incredible duet between Cornell and Vedder on 'Hunger Strike' then all bets are off. Over the years this has quite rightly become a proper rock standard and I'm hard-pressed to think of many vocal performances from either man that come close. As originally envisaged, the 'TOTD' album was a one-off but 25 years on the original group - minus Vedder - got back together for a brief North American tour that culminated with a brace of dates at the famed Paramount Theatre in their hometown of Seattle. Further activity was talked about but tragically, Cornell left us less than 12 months later.
"I don't mind stealin' bread, from the mouths of decadence. But I can't feed on the powerless when my cup's already overfilled."
4: JELLYFISH: SHE STILL LOVES HIM
A surprise, perhaps, for those of you out there who know me well to find the garishly-attired San Francisco power-poppers Jellyfish only at Number 4 on my list. It just shows you how extraordinarily strong 1991 was for music that the architects of my favourite album of all time are unable to dislodge the three acts at the top. That aforementioned album - the giddy sugar-rush perfection of 'Bellybutton' - was actually released in America in late 1990 but didn't hit UK shores until April the following year. I can remember exactly when and where I was when I discovered it too. I was working in my local branch of the late, lamented Our Price Records music chain and opening a big box of new release records on a Monday morning. Rummaging through one such box led me to the weirdest cover art I had ever seen - all crazy colours, cotton candy, bright blue toothpaste and psychedelic loon pants - and a quick spin on the store stereo for said album and my life was changed. I spent the summer of 91 travelling around Europe and even though I had a bunch of music with me on that jaunt, 'Bellybutton' was the album I kept going back to, sometimes playing it over and over on my crappy little Walkman until it ran out of juice. Formed by principal songwriters Roger Manning Jr - who also played keyboards - and stand-up singing drummer Andy Sturmer, the original Jellyfish lineup was completed by the youthful guitar prodigy Jason Falkner and Manning's younger brother Chris (who was credited on the album as 'band witch-doctor and mime'). Rising from the remnants of long-lost Californian pop crew Beatnik Beatch, Sturmer and Manning had stockpiled a veritable feast of glorious songs, dripping in Beatles pop-smarts, catchy choruses, wit, fizz and joyous singalong moments. I fell in love with 'Bellybutton' immediately and picking just one song from it for this list has been one of the hardest parts of this endeavour. Over the years the pristine production and whizz-bang ear candy of 'That Is Why' and 'The King Is Half-Undressed' have been my favourite tracks, and then life takes it's turns and I'm totally enamoured with the more laid-back soft-rock of 'I Wanna Stay Home' or 'Bedspring Kiss'. However, for thirty years, Sturmer's stunning emotional wallop of 'She Still Loves Him' has always come out on top. Telling the tragic tale of an abused wife who is stuck in a violent relationship that she's unable to extricate herself from, the song starts with a heart-tugging gospel piano intro before moving into pure AOR territory that brings to mind the likes of Supertramp and ELO at their finest. The gorgeous guitar solo from Falkner at the climax is the icing on the cake. Just wondrous. Falkner left the band after the 'Bellybutton' tour and Chris Manning didn't return for the second album 'Spilt Milk' in 93. By this time however, Sturmer had become disillusioned with the music game and by late 93 Jellyfish were no more. An absolute travesty.
"So she recalls the days when they were younger, flowers could heal her wounds. But now those days are gone forever, now her pain just fills every room."
3: TEENAGE FANCLUB: ALCOHOLIDAY
Glasgow's jangle-friendly indie rockers Teenage Fanclub have been such a constant in my adult life - I first discovered them when I hit 20 - that it's been easy for me to take them for granted. Then, a year like 2021 comes along during which the band have released their finest album in years, I was able to catch them live on two brilliant occasions and I look back to their first flush of fame in 1991 and realise that they are possibly one of the greatest bands that the United Kingdom has ever produced. Formed in 1988 by singer and guitarist Norman Blake, bassist and co-vocalist Gerard Love and lead guitarist Raymond McGinley, the trio were joined by loose cannon drummer Brendan O'Hare before releasing their first album in 1990. By the time Creation Records had signed them in 91, Blake, Love and McGinley were sharing the vocals and song-writing to such an extent that all TFC albums from 91 to 2016 featured four songs apiece by each of them. The first real inkling that this arrangement was a masterclass in song management was the September 91 release of the outstandingly brilliant 'Bandwagonesque' album which was just oozing with splendid songcraft. The likes of Love's 'Star Sign' and Blake's astonishing 'The Concept' were as good as indie-rock got in the early 90s and it didn't stop there. McGinley hit the ground running with the breezy jangle of 'I Don't Know' and there was also room for delicate ballads such as 'December' and 'Guiding Star' - which features one of the greatest lyrical couplets of all time from Love in "Don't you think you've heard this song before? Jesus Christ was knocking at my door. Kinda like the way he wears his hair. Kinda like the way he walks on air". Pure genius. Head and shoulders above everything though is Blakes coruscating response to a partner as they both realise that the relationship they're in - defined by copious amounts of alcohol and meaningless sex - is killing him slowly inside. Built around a warm hug of a riff and a last third solo for the ages, it's one of Blake's greatest ever songs and - partly due I'm sure to his recent marriage break-up - has recently found it's way back in the band's live repertoire after too long away. 'Bandwagonesque' was - quite rightly - a massive critical success for the band and they've been plugging away ever since with a further 9 albums of warm and fuzzy indie-rock that may not set the world alight but always do the business here at No Static Towers.
"All I know, is all I know. What I've done I leave behind me, I don't want my soul to find me..."
2: PEARL JAM: BLACK
The last great survivors of the early 90s 'Grunge Wars', Pearl Jam have settled quite comfortably into the guise of the elder statesmen of alternative rock - a self-sufficient enterprise, beholden to nobody and doing things as and when they please. Last year's sparky 'Gigaton' album was their first in 7 years and a real return to former glories, garnering major acclaim and awards nominations on the way. Sadly, Covid has put paid to any touring plans for said album but hopefully next summer's huge Hyde Park gigs will go ahead and fans can finally hear the new material as it's meant to be heard. In the meantime, it's always worthwhile going back over the band's catalogue of excellent albums and remembering why they became so big in the first place. The main reason, of course, is the 'Ten' album that slipped out quietly in the US a few weeks before Nirvana's 'Nevermind' made the whole world sit up and take notice of what was happening out there in the Pacific North West. By the time 'Ten' hit the racks in the UK in February of 92, Nirvana had gone supernova and the misunderstood youth of the Western world had gone grunge-crazy. In truth, that first Pearl Jam album was more rooted in the classic rock sounds of the early 70s - bands like Free, The Who and Led Zeppelin. It was Eddie Vedder's deep and raw-throated vocal stylings that pushed the band more toward the grungier end of things. Also, of course, songs like 'Alive', 'Jeremy' and 'Even Flow' were tailor-made for the so-called 'Generation X' that had anointed Nirvana's Kurt Cobain as their figurehead. Dripping with angst, turmoil and anti-authoritarianism, Vedder's lyrics became sacred texts amongst young grunge fans - so much so that he had a whole journal of lyrics stolen from his dressing-room whilst Pearl Jam were performing at a European festival in the summer of 92. Like Cobain, Vedder quickly became disenchanted with Pearl Jam's place at the top table of modern rock and subsequent albums became spikier and less commercial. A state of affairs that although pleasing to Vedder, was difficult for the more commercially-minded other members of the band - especially Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard. Eventually though, a tragic accident at the Roskilde Festival in 2000 that saw 9 fans killed in a crush during their performance led the band to take stock and completely re-evaluate their career. They've been ploughing their own furrow ever since. Their modern-day live shows are legendary - sometimes topping three and a half hours - and one track from the band's early days that they never fail to air is the stunning 'Black'. Written by Vedder before he'd joined the band, the song tells the story of a first love that doesn't go the way that either party wants it to. Letting go and moving on. We've all been there, and we all know how that can feel. It's why the song resonates so strongly with the listener. Married to a relaxed, blues-influenced melody and building slowly to the climax, 'Black' is as good as Pearl Jam songs get. And that's saying something.
"I know someday you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be a star. In somebody else's sky, but why can't it be mine?"
1: R.E.M. : COUNTRY FEEDBACK
And so we reach the top of the tree of this run-down and you may not be that surprised to see my all-time favourite ever band claiming the big prize. The finest alt-rock group in history, R.E.M. have been such an important part of my life for almost forty years that placing them in this list after the mega-successful 1991 that they had was an absolute given. That year's 'Out Of Time' album was a real game-changer for the quartet from Athens, Georgia. They had been quietly getting more and more popular and commercially stable for a good few years with 6 albums of tremendously thrilling indie-rock, shot through with an intelligence and socially aware outlook that few other bands had been able to master. By the time of 1988's superb 'Green' opus, Frontman Michael Stipe had, along with his cohorts Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry, fashioned the group into a beefy, stadium-filling rock giant. Two solid years of touring had almost done them in though and by the time they re-convened in the studio to record album number 7, the thought of another full-blown rock album had become anathema to them. to that end, Buck in particular had no desire to plug in his electric guitar and instead focused on acoustic instruments such as his new found love of the mandolin. Mills and Berry swapped roles with the latter focusing on bass instead of drums and Mills sticking behind his piano. The results were a totally different sound for the group - eschewing the driving jangle of early albums for a more downbeat and relaxed feel. Upon it's release in March of 91, first single 'Losing My Religion' catapulted R.E.M. into a completely new area of success, becoming at a stroke their biggest ever worldwide hit. As anyone with a radio knows these days, it's a song that's impossible to escape from too. Just as well it's so good. Looking back though, I have to say that the rest of 'Out Of Time' is a bit of a confusing muddle. Without 'Losing My Religion' on board, would it have become so huge - upwards of 10 million copies sold - and changed the landscape for Stipe and co? The evidence suggests not. There's the ill-advised duet with hip-hop legend KRS-ONE on 'Radio Song' that seemed like a good idea at the time but which has dated horribly. There's the insufferably twee 'Shiny Happy People' that was originally earmarked for the first single before somebody saw sense and which was disowned by the band for the rest of their career. There's also two examples of downbeat, stream-of-consciousness art-rock from Stipe in 'Low' and 'Belong' that, although wonderful, are as far removed from a big, commercial rock sound as you can get. Throw in an instrumental oddity in 'Endgame' and the lovely Mike Mills-sung 'Near Wild Heaven' and it's all a bit of a curate's egg. However, deep in the second half of the album, you'll find a bunch of the finest songs that R.E.M. ever produced. The stunning acoustic-led 'Half A World Away' was a pre-cursor to the band's astonishing 'Automatic From The People' album in 1992, and the other track (after 'Shiny...') that featured Kate Pierson from fellow Georgians The B-52's - the delightful 'Me In Honey' - was a reminder of the band's janglesome past. But it's all about 'Country Feedback' really. It always has been. It smacked me around the chops on first hearing back in 91 and it still does the same to this day. An excoriating description of a dying relationship that winds and wends it's way around a weeping pedal steel guitar riff, this is Stipe firing on all cylinders lyrically and the rest of the band are at the very top of their game musically. I remember telling myself thirty years ago that this track was up their with their finest moments at that point, and twenty further years and 8 more albums released before they split in 2011 did not change my mind. They came close of course - especially on 'Automatic...' and 96's 'New Adventures In Hi-Fi' - but this is their masterpiece. What a band.
"We've been through fake-a-breakdown, self-hurt, plastics, collections, self-help, self-pain, EST, psychics, fuck all. I was central, I had control, I lost my head. I need this, I need this...."
