The ’90s is often associated with grunge music. Sometimes it even overshadows its overarching umbrella genre, “alternative rock.” This was a time when this writer began authoring album reviews for Florida International University’s student newspaper and spinning records at its radio station while discovering many sub-genres of popular alt-rock, which saw the rise of Pearl Jam, Nirvana and The Smashing Pumpkins. We rock music writers used terms like slow-core, shoegaze, sad-core, dream pop, post-rock, noise pop, lounge, lo-fi, noise pop, among others, to distinguish between certain groups of musicians. There were also some legends of earlier eras of the alternative music scene who released some of their more interesting work in a while, including John Cale, Brain Eno, Tom Waits, R.E.M. and lets not forget David Bowie. Also on this list is one local from the Miami music scene who I will always exalt as having produced an album that deserves to be among this company, Xela Zaid. There’s a link to his record as Ho Chi Minh on Bandcamp, as it’s not an album that’s easy to find but worth discovering. But mostly this list is about new discoveries and bands reaching some piques in their careers. Below is and as best as I could rank them are the greatest albums I discovered during that decade. Note: some band names that are bolded link to interviews, news or reviews on this site.
- Spiritualized – Lazer Guided Melodies
- Stereolab – Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements
- Red House Painters – “Rollercoaster” album
- Swans – Love of Life
- Tortoise - Millions Now Living Will Never Die
- Pulp – His ‘n’ Hers
- Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral
- Belle and Sebastian – The Boy with the Arab Strap
- David Bowie – The Buddha of Suburbia
- Yo La Tengo – Painful
- Verve – A Storm in Heaven
- Tom Waits – Bone Machine
- Arab Strap – Philophobia
- His Name is Alive – Mouth by Mouth
- Mogwai - Come On Die Young
- Swell – …Well?
- Brian Eno and John Cale – Wrong Way Up
- R.E.M. – Automatic For the People
- Sebadoh - Weed Forestin
- Ho Chi Minh (aka Alex Diaz aka Xela Zaid) – Motorama
- The Sea and Cake – The Fawn
- Radiohead - OK Computer
- Spacemen 3 – Recurring
- Air – Moon Safari
- My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
- Björk – Homogenic
- Ween – Pure Guava
- Portishead – Portishead
- Sigur Rós - Ágætis Byrjun
- The Clean - Unknown Country
- Aphex Twin – Richard D. James
- Galaxie 500 – This Is Our Music
- Majesty Crush – Love 15
- Hum – You’d Prefer An Astronaut
- The Magnetic Fields – Get Lost
- Blur – Parklife
- Cranes – Forever
- The Kitchens of Distinction – Strange Free World
- Rollerskate Skinny – Shoulder Voices
- Lush – Spooky
- Unrest – Perfect Teeth
- Slowdive – Souvlaki
- Electronic – Electronic
- The Field Mice – Coastal
- Macha – Macha
- The Jesus and Mary Chain – Stoned and Dethroned
- Komeda – What Makes It Go?
- Possum Dixon – Possum Dixon
- St. Johnny – Speed Is Dreaming
- The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa – “…fluidtrance centauri…” (EP)
