Since retro nostalgia goes in about a 20 year time cycle (the time it takes a generation to move from tender impressionistic teenage years to being the dominant workers and consumers in a culture) right now the 90s are big and will probably stay big within our backwards directed (non)culture for awhile. So to add fuel to the 90s retro pyre, I will now make a list of my favorite nineties albums, because that’s what was truly important back then – sitting around and listening to whole albums. Sadly I can’t remember the last time I just sat down and just listened to a whole ‘Long Player’ the whole way through while not doing anything else, but back when I did these were the albums that mattered to a midwest kid living in a sonic cocoon made out of college radio (KJHK!) brit pop hype(NME!) and music reviews in magazines(EW!)

Top 15 90’s Albums

Built to Spill – Keep It Like a Secret



Next Step: There’s Nothing Wrong with Love

Belle & Sebastian – If You’re Feeling Sinister



Next Step: Push Barman to Open Old Wounds

Flaming Lips – The Soft Bulletin



Next Step: Clouds Taste Metallic

Radiohead – OK Computer



Next Step: The Bends

Pavement – Crooked Reign Crooked Reign



Next Step: Brighten the Corners

Magnetic Fields – The Charm of the Highway Strip



Next Step: Future Bible Heroes – Memories of Love

Guided by Voices – Bee Thousand



Next Step: Alien Lanes

Elliott Smith – XO



Next Step: Either/Or

DJ Shadow – Entroducing..



Next Step: Unkle – Psyence Fiction

Wilco – Summerteeth



Next Step: Billy Bragg & Wilco – Mermaid Ave.

Mercury Rev – Deserter’s Songs

Sparklehorse – Good Morning Spider

Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Aeroplane Over the Sea



Next Step – On Avery Island

Sigur Ros – Ágætis byrjun

U2 – Zooropa



Next Step: Achtung Baby



Also Worth A Listen

My Bloody Valentine – Loveless

Air – Moon Safari

Divine Comedy – Casanova

REM – Automatic for the People

Grandaddy – The Sophtware Slump

Lucinda Williams – Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

Mogwai – Fear Satan

Bjork – Post / Homogenic

Pulp – Different Class