My Favorite Album From Each Year of My Life #3: The Nifty & Naughty 90s

Including one of the best Spotify playlists in the history of the universe

Over the years, writer and all-around groovy guy Paul Combs has created many great writing challenges for music lovers. In 2022, one of them was called My Favorite Album From Every Year I’ve Been Alive. People (myself included) loved reading the multi-part series in which he shared those albums.

It became a very popular writing prompt on Medium. It inspired me and several other music lovers (like Kevin Alexander, Terry Barr, and Alex Markham) to create and share our own favorites like Paul had. It was all a lot of fun!

When Paul recently created a sort of spin-off of it and wrote about his favorite songs from every year he’s been alive, I was going to follow his lead and do it too. However, to my horror, I suddenly remembered I never finished the one about favorite albums last year! I had done one post about my favorites from the 1960s and 1970s, and another post about my favorites from the 1980s, but that was where I had stopped.

So, before I move forward with Paul’s new challenge, I’m going to finish up that one. I’ll do the 1990s today and another one or two articles later about my favorites from the current century.

The 1990s is often looked at musically as the decade that saw the rise of grunge music, but it was much more than that. The decade also brought us several dancing boy bands, several dancing (and occasionally spicy) girl bands, country and rap artists who crossed over and had huge successes on Top 40 radio and sales charts like never before, and — well, a lot of other interesting and entertaining things too!

Like they’ve usually been, my musical tastes were all over the place back then. I was in my 20s and was a proud member of Generation X. Like a lot of others around my age, I loved listening to songs with lyrics that expressed anger, misery, frustration, etc. In addition to grunge artists like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, another favorite ‘miserable artist’ of mine back then was Morrissey.

Even though I loved a lot of that ‘angry’ music back then, I’m not including very much of it on my below list. With only a few exceptions, I just don’t listen to it much anymore. What can I say? I guess I’m a much happier person now.

The albums I picked here as my favorites were not necessarily my favorites when they were first released. In fact, in some cases (like with a KISS album I mention from 1998), I didn’t even know the albums until years after they were released.

These are my current favorite 1990s albums because they’re the ones I return to most frequently now. In addition to a favorite album for each year, I’m also including honorable mentions for each year.

1990: The Soundtrack from Twin Peaks — Angelo Badalamenti

Even though a big part of why I love this soundtrack is because it features music from one of my favorite TV series ever, I would still love it even if I’d never seen the series.

At times the music is beautiful. At other times it’s heartbreaking. At other times it has a quirky light-hearted charm to it.

It’s simply wonderful.

Honorable Mentions: I’m Breathless: Music from and Inspired by the Film Dick Tracy by Madonna, Missing Links, Vol. 2 by The Monkees, Armchair Theatre by Jeff Lynne, Blaze of Glory — by Jon Bon Jovi, Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. by George Michael, The Razor’s Edge by AC/DC, and Vol. 3 by The Traveling Wilburys.

1991: Nevermind — Nirvana

Quite simply, it’s one of the greatest rock albums ever. Almost every song on it is fantastic.

Honorable Mentions: Out Of Time by R.E.M. and The New York Rock and Soul Revue: Live at The Beacon (multiple artists).

1992: Out of The Cradle — Lindsey Buckingham

This was the first solo album Lindsey Buckingham released after leaving Fleetwood Mac in the late 80s. For reasons I’ve never understood, it wasn’t a big seller at the time. However, a lot of critics and fans like me absolutely love it. Personally, it’s one of my favorite things Lindsey Buckingham has ever done — in or out of Fleetwood Mac.

Honorable Mentions: Adrenalize by Def Leppard, Revenge by Kiss, It’s A Shame About Ray by The Lemonheads, New Miserable Experience by The Gin Blossoms, Our Time In Eden by 10,000 Maniacs, Love Deluxe by Sade, Amused To Death by Roger Waters, and Harvest Moon by Neil Young.

1993: A Tie!

August and Everything After — Counting Crows

There’s not a bad song on this one. I think it’s one of the best debut albums ever by anyone.

And…

Come On Feel The Lemonheads — The Lemonheads

The big hit from this album was the song “Into Your Arms.” I would guess that is the only song that most people are familiar with from the album. While I like it well enough, it’s probably my least favorite song on the album. If you’ve never heard the rest of Come On Feel The Lemonheads, I highly recommend you give the whole album a listen. It’s full of great songs that are a nice ‘alternative’ mix of rock and power pop.

Honorable Mentions: Off The Ground by Paul McCartney, Spilt Milk by Jellyfish, Get A Grip by Aerosmith, Thousand Roads by David Crosby, Kamakiriad by Donald Fagan, Elemental by Tears For Fears, In Utero by Nirvana, Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell by Meat Loaf, and Duets by Frank Sinatra.

1994: The Division Bell — Pink Floyd

A lot of Pink Floyd fans dismiss this album because founding member Roger Waters wasn’t with them when they recorded it — but I’m actually grateful he wasn’t there. Because he wasn’t, this album had the chance to become more of a ‘band effort’ than the last few albums had been when Waters was with them, where he had pretty much controlled the lyrics and themes of the band’s recordings.

While those albums were great, in some ways they felt more like Roger Waters’ solo albums than Pink Floyd’s albums. On The Division Bell, I felt like I was truly getting more of a ‘full’ Pink Floyd again. Musically, the band branched out a bit. While they retained their classic sound, they also tried some new things. For example, the music in the song “Coming Back To Life” sounds downright funky — and downright awesome — at times.

Honorable Mentions: Talk by Yes, Last of The Independents by The Pretenders, Weezer by Weezer, Purple by Stone Temple Pilots, Sleeps with Angels by Neil Young & Crazy Horse, and Sixteen Stone by Bush.

1995: Orange Crate Art — Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks

Unless you’re a diehard fan of Van Dyke Parks and/or Beach Boy Brian Wilson, it’s unlikely you’ll be familiar with this album. The two musicians and songwriters had worked together three decades earlier on The Beach Boys’ legendary album Smile, with Parks writing the lyrics to the songs and Wilson writing and producing the music. While that album was famously not completed back then (and would ultimately not be released until the 21st Century) several of the songs (including “Heroes And Villains” and “Surf’s Up”) from those sessions were later used on other albums by The Beach Boys and are now considered to be classics.

For Orange Crate Art, Van Dyke Parks did most of the composing and producing, but he felt his old partner Brian Wilson would be a much better choice than himself to sing the songs on the album since the entire thing takes a nostalgic and warm look at the history of California.

After all, who better to sing songs about California than the original leader of The Beach Boys, right? Right!

The vocals, music, and lyrics on the album are wonderful. I love it.

Honorable Mentions: A Boy Named Goo by The Goo Goo Dolls, Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette, I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times by Brian Wilson, Raoul and the Kings of Spain by Tears For Fears, Tails by Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories, and Anthology 1 by The Beatles.

1996: That Thing You Do! — Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

The soundtrack to one of my favorite movies ever. If you’ve never seen That Thing You Do!, I strongly suggest you watch it sometime very soon. Seriously — do it!

Honorable Mentions: Mercury Falling by Sting, Fountains of Wayne by Fountains of Wayne, Justus by The Monkees, Recovering The Satellites by Counting Crows, Trial By Fire by Journey, Archeology by The Rutles, Rock Spectacle by Barenaked Ladies, and Anthology 3 by The Beatles.

1997: Flaming Pie — Paul McCartney

I’ve been a big fan of Paul McCartney for most of my life and I’d rank this among my Top 5 favorites of his album as a solo performer. There’s not a bad song on it.

Honorable Mentions: Still Waters by The Bee Gees, Return To Paradise by Styx, The Dance by Fleetwood Mac, and Surfacing by Sarah McLachlan

1998: Dizzy Up The Girl — The Goo Goo Dolls

This album is one of my favorites ever by anyone. I never get tired of listening to it.

Honorable Mentions: Psycho Circus by KISS, Train by Train, III by Van Halen, Imagination by Brian Wilson, Stunt by Barenaked Ladies, and One Night Only by The Bee Gees

1999: Bury The Hatchett — The Cranberries

Oh, I loved this band so much. This album may not have been quite as popular as some of their earlier recordings, but it’s my all-time favorite by them. I think it’s their most solid album and has no skippable songs on it.

NOTE: The third track above, “Baby Blues” was from a ‘special edition’ of the album that was released not long after the original.

Honorable Mentions: Tao by Rick Springfield, 14:59 by Sugar Ray, and Utopia Parkway by Fountains Of Wayne.

While putting together the above, I also decided to create a Spotify playlist to include songs from the albums I mentioned in my post. However, the playlist then took on its own life and now features a lot of other songs from the 1990s too. It currently has over 240 songs on it and I’ll probably keep adding more to it in the future. If you’d like to give it a listen, here it is.

Enjoy!

P.S. — Here are links to the earlier pieces I wrote for my ‘Favorite Album From Each Year of My Life’ series:

Thank you for reading! If you’d like to connect with me outside of Medium, you can also find me on X, Substack, YouTube, Instagram, Threads, and Goodreads. I’m also the host of the Gotta Pop podcast. Links to all of those things can be found here.