Albums in My Life: 1991

After a small break, here is my next installment of the albums in my life. 1991 was still very early in my life, so a lot of these albums were not heard until a lot later.


Guns n' Roses- Use Your Illusion
I couldn't pick which of the two I prefer, so I cheated and just picked both. A lot of songs from these albums are classic. I was barely alive for the hype around these albums, but from interviews and media around this period, the rock world was shaken every time one of their opus length music videos dropped. These were also their last albums of original material for 17 years, and the diversity of the material definitely branched out from Appetite for Destruction and showed the range of Guns n' Roses besides the hardened hair metal.



My Bloody Valentine- Loveless
I first found this album in college, a little while before mbv came out. The layers to pick apart on this record are endless, and I always hear something new every time I listen to it. It's definitely a headphone album, and really changed the way I thought about how vocals are mixed and textures within a song. This was my introduction to shoegaze, and I couldn't have been introduced to that sound with a more classic album. This album is perfect to me, and it gets even better every time I hear a new little sonic Easter egg.



Nirvana- Nevermind
This album is probably one of the most famous and well known albums to come out in my lifetime, and deservedly so. It's not my favorite Nirvana album, but this record and Nirvana's presence on MTV really brought '90s alt rock into the mainstream and made it possible for tons of my favorite bands to exist. I wish I could have been around to see the impact this album had at the time, but I was about a year old when this album broke. I don't really know what to say about this album that hasn't already been said. It's the most critically acclaimed album of the '90s, maybe behind Ok Computer.




Slint- Spiderland
Though many have tried, there is no album that sounds like Spiderland. I wish there were more like this, because Slint's combination of math rock, hardcore and spoken word has created a sound so unique on this album that even Slint's other material sounds nothing like it. There is such a mystique surrounding this LP, and even the 33 1/3 book on this album (which I highly recommend) can't cut through the haze of mystery. While Spiderland has been building a reputation over the years, I still think its very underrated.




The Smashing Pumpkins- Gish
Billy Corgan and company crafted a sound in the '90s that was truly unique. They mixed alt rock with a dreamy, shoegaze polish and had a timbre to the drums and guitar solos like no other group. This is the first of many appearances the Pumpkins will have on this list. With Nevermind stealing a bit of its thunder, it would have been interesting to see this record's impact on the musical landscape, because the Smashing Pumpkins were really on an island to themselves, both in the Chicago scene and in indie rock in general.





So that's it for now. What are albums that have really had an effect on you? Let me know. Off to work on Albums in My Life: 1992.



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