Albums in My Life: 1992

I was still very young in 1992, but I was finally starting to gain some memories. The first album on this list is one of the first records that was released during my lifetime that I actually have memories of.


The Barenaked Ladies- Gordon
My dad used to make many trips to Toronto, and on one trip, he stopped by Sam the Record Man (the "late night record shop" described in 'Brian Wilson') and picked up the Barenaked Ladies' debut. This record is very interesting to me and had songs that appealed to young me and current me. I remember loving 'Grade 9' when I was a kid because it was kind of goofy, not hearing the Rush musical cues. Now I'm kind of into 'Box Set' and it's weird description of filler that's in a lot of musical box sets. If all you know by Barenaked Ladies is 'One Week' or 'If I Had $1000000', you should definitely check out more. You might be surprised with what you hear.


Gin Blossoms- New Miserable Experience
I used to hear the singles from this album on the radio all the time as a kid, but I didn't ever hear the album in its entirety until much later. It has such a quintessentially '90s sound to it, and every time I hear that jangly guitar sound it brings me right back. I really love the mix of REM-esque college rock, soft rock, and California country into a sound that is very familiar but altogether unique. Gin Blossoms are a lot more than 'Hey Jealousy' and I think they're a pretty underrated band in the '90s alt rock conversation.





Nine Inch Nails- Broken
Broken was a stepping stone from the goth synth pop of Trent Reznor's debut Pretty Hate Machine to the all out industrial noise onslaught of The Downward Spiral. This EP is super dark (and the accompanying film even darker. Seriously, don't watch it if you're not prepared. It will scar you for life.) but retains a lot of the catchy dance music portions that made Pretty Hate Machine a hit at the goth club. It's a step towards the more aggressive fare that made Nine Inch Nails one of my favorite groups during teenage years.



Rage Against the Machine- Rage Against the Machine
The first time I heard anything by Rage Against the Machine was when I was 10 or 11 and I heard 'Wake Up' at the end of The Matrix. I heard other tracks here and there during the following years but I didn't pick up the first album until I was in high school, and needless to say, it blew my mind. The anger, Tom Morello's innovative guitar playing, the politics of it all; this band was a game changer. I later found Inside Out, Zack de la Rocha's previous band, and the connection to hardcore punk makes this album make so much more sense. It's a little disappointing that they lasted for only a few albums, because Audioslave, Prophets of Rage, and the other splinter groups are not an acceptable substitute. The current world we live in could use a band like Rage to call out all the injustices.


Sonic Youth- Dirty
The first time I heard Sonic Youth was probably when they mangled the Simpsons theme for the Hullabalooza episode, but I didn't actively seek them out until I heard 'Kool Thing' on Guitar Hero (people bash those games, but they turned me on to some good music). Dirty is one of my favorite Sonic Youth albums because it really embraced the Seattle Sound (the band put on Nirvana and had them open on a European tour in 1991) and pushes the feedback to freakish levels. '100%' is an amazing album opener and the aggression doesn't ever really let up.



What are your favorite or most formative albums of '92? Next week, I'll discuss 5 albums from 1993 that made me who I am today.




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