SPIN Alternative Record Guide (1995) Top 100 Alternative Albums (1-50)

I was happy Human League and Culture Club got their due. The King Sunny Ade and Fela entries also excellent intros.

amazing list. voting loveless

Re: the Sixties, I put this together during my time at SPIN and you can read it on their dogshit new list design

http://www.spin.com/2013/03/best-100-albums-1960s-sixties-alternative-list/

I never had any of the SPIN books, but several editions of the Trouser Press guide. This is all foreign to me.

― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Monday, March 13, 2017 10:35 AM (nineteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I discovered the Trouser Press '90s alternative guide probably a few months after the Spin book, and then discovered CMJ a few months after that. It was all over from there.

4 Hüsker Dü - Zen arcade (1984)

Not my pick, but this band - and esp this album - kind of towered over 80s/90s American indie & alternative. Wonder if it'd even make top 50 on similar list put together today.

Yes.

my least favorite major Husker album; prefer FYW.

I like it a lot & understand why it's the representative HD album, but it & they don't seem to be held in quite the same esteem these days.

think i may be the only ilxor who actually contributed to this book (cabaret voltaire)

― mark s Hi Mark, Frank K and Chuck E are in there too; maybe John D as well? Seems like there's somebody else. The Top 100 was less useful to me than the deep and sometimes complete discographies (incl. the most noteworthy bootlegs, in several cases) for so many artists, esp. when the internet was so bereft, and other reference books likely to be found were more all-inclusive yet limited by one man's taste and time (xgau's duh) or Boomercentric like those Rolling Stone guides (revising their original kneejerking vs. Stooges, Sabs, for that matter Joplin, and many others later elevated). I didn't agree with every opinion of course, but plenty of info and enjoyable writing.

Don't like the idea of voting for a singles collection, but Run DMC Together Forever is flawless

Don't like the idea of voting for a singles collection, but Run DMC Together Forever is flawless

― Evan R, Monday, March 13, 2017 12:37 PM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Run-DMC is one of my favorite bands of all time, but I'll definitely count "Here's a solo from my homeboy Stanley Brown" as a flaw

lol fair enough

haha, i bought that guide at the time and registered an ilm account a couple of years later...

too many great albums. "loveless", "crazy rhythms", "another green world" and "velvet underground" are the ones i could niot live without. deciding between them is like killing all your babies except one, absolutely impossible. therefore no vote from me.

Tonight's the Night for me.

come the fuck on people

24 Prince Sign o the times 1987

I'm not even saying everyone needs to vote for it but for it not even to have come up yet in the conversation is ridiculous.

Pretty much all good albums, but I don't really get how they are defining "alternative" here. Like Madonna's greatest hits are hardly alt.

I know it's Controversy-al, but SoTT is my least favorite (although still very good) of a solid run of Prince albums that otherwise remain entrenched in my all-time top 100.

Pretty much all good albums, but I don't really get how they are defining "alternative" here. Like Madonna's greatest hits are hardly alt.

― Moodles, Monday, March 13, 2017 1:02 PM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I can't hold your hand through this, used copy is $10

https://www.amazon.com/Spin-Alternative-Record-Guide-Weisbard/dp/0679755748

Pretty much all good albums, but I don't really get how they are defining "alternative" here. Like Madonna's greatest hits are hardly alt.

― Moodles, Monday, March 13, 2017 1:02 PM

Weisbard's introduction addresses this. One of his points is how subcultural phenomena like Madonna or gradations of queerness (Culture Club, also pop) change mainstream tastes.

Besides which, Hootie and the Blowfish was played on alternative stations in the '90s so it's not as if we'd collectively agreed on any hard and fast criteria.

the first Pretenders album is still woefully under appreciated - flawless collection of songs. James Honeyman-Scott was an extraordinary guitarist. such a fucking shame what happened to them

sub-conversation, what's the WORST album on this list. Probably Pavement or Hole

I just voted for Hole.

I'mma get pummelled but Double Nickels is my least favorite on the list. I've never been able to get into it.

what's the WORST album on this list

it's Hole by a considerable margin

oooooooooOOHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!

actually it's Modern Lovers

hi don, yeah i guess i meant current ilxors but i was just stirring the water a bit really to see who else might be here

lol at shakey and his transsparent hared of courtney love

(siren seems an odd roxy music lp to land on)

it's the remains of America's hesitation to canonize Roxy; for a while it was the only album American critics rated, which is why Rob's calling it their best surprises me, especially after his intro paragraph

Lots of amazing stuff on this list--leaning towards voting for Let It Be, but Prince, The Clash, the Ramones debut, Television and De La are nipping at its heels

Flip Your Wig or even New Day Rising should be the Hüskers LP here

I'mma get pummelled but Double Nickels is my least favorite on the list. I've never been able to get into it.

― Milkwalker's World (Old Lunch), Monday, March 13, 2017 10:28 AM (forty-four minutes ago)

i will not pummel, but you'll have to live with my look of wounded confusion for the rest of your life

I'll have to give this one some thought.

Put me down as another who prefers Reckoning to Murmur.

Let's talk about the same albums over and over and over again!

Best: Murmur
Worst: Slanted and Enchanted

I've only heard about half the albums on this list, though.

Yeah can't really choose one album over others by a lot of those bands, another reason for caring more about the descriptions of discographies. Without knowing the deadline for this 1995-published collection, I would like to plug one late-'94 release, Nirvana's MTV Unplugged in New York, which cogently combined originals and cover versions of songs by The Vaselines, David Bowie, Lead Belly, and Meat Puppets, whose Cris and Curt Kirkwood joined Nirvana onstage and made it work, by cracky. In retrospect seems like it might have served some listeners as gateway (back and forward) to thee more effective kind of "acid folk" etc. inclusiveness.
As Wikipedia also points out, it has become the group's most successful posthumous release, having been certified 5x platinum in the United States by 1997. (source: RIAA.com). It's several of my friends' most-played Nirvana by far, and in some cases only-played, incl. those who never did care about any of their other albums.

LJ, you have a point. You should work your way through all of the ILX threads that aren't to your taste and make your voice heard. You're changing minds and lives with your good works.

Let's talk about the same albums over and over and over again!

― an uptempo Pop/Hip Hop mentality (imago), Monday, March 13, 2017 11:23 AM (three minutes ago)

I guess you missed the thread title. These are the 50 top alternative albums ever.

xxp Unplugged is my favorite & most listened to besides In Utero

Voted Public Image but I probably like the two Velvets records and the Modern Lovers as much. Just picked it as the bassline to Poptones appeared in my head when I read it.

I had no idea the Spin Record Guide existed at the time but bought a secondhand copy after seeing it mentioned a lot on here... This whole list is an interesting snapshot, definitely a few things that have fallen out of favour but it actually seems more in line with today's indie/alternative canon than I would've guessed.

Voted Murmur just over Radio City.

voted B-52's cuz are we not men? isn't an option

the group's most successful posthumous release

not much competition tbf

lol

Easier would be a list of the ones from this I don't still listen to on the semi-regular... Went with Ramones because I have likely played that more often than anything else on the list.

I couldn't not vote for Daydream Nation but Another Green World put up a good fight.

seems a little unfair to have so many comps on here

idk what the best is but Licensed to Ill is probably the worst, in my humble opinion

Slanted and Enchanted 4EVA.

The most unlikely thing on this list could be More Songs About Buildings and Food. It's a great record obviously but Remain In Light seems to be the consensus pick. It was in 1995 too.

never read this, I did have rolling stone's 90s "alternative rock" book which had Lou Barlow' grilled cheese sandwich recipe and a bunch of other random "essays" and lists

Voted Nation of Millions without a moment's hesitation, even as roughly 25+ other life-changing records lurked beneath.

How does Barlow make grilled cheese?

yeah, a few of those sets could be had for very cheap at some point (maybe still) but things like OTC and the cellar door tapes never got a cheaper reissue afaik. which is lame.

I have that miles columbia box, whiney

i do regret not buying the OTC box and the other ones but I couldnt afford it. I only have the in a silent way box. The complete columbia only has the actual albums

I would kill for every back issue of Motorbooty.

― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Wednesday, March 15, 2017 11:00 AM (two hours ago)

twice, even

big chief were kind of bad tho

OTC box is definitely the best one imo

Big Chief is a bit like Kyuss in what they were doing kinda fit more to the late 90s than when the records were actually coming out. The guitar playing and riffs on those Big Chief records are great. They are one of those bands I liked much more years later and have listened to them quite a bit the past few years.

Big Chief definitely fits along side the stoner rock bands like Fu Manchu, Clutch, Kyuss etc. than the grunge bands.

I fucking loved Big Chief!

re: big chief

i dug the early singles ("chrome helmet", "get down & double check", "time dirt money", the surprisingly good "superstupid" cover), but the albums were relatively short on punk energy & hooks. and the fake blaxploitation shtick never sat right. prescient in retrospect, tho.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

So unfucking fair to have to (with Whiney's Glock at my head) vote for just one, but: VU & Nico---what other has such range & depth, groovy toons & scary sounds incl. some of the words etc., so limber & locked etc.? And even if there are several, can't vote for more than one, but mention 'em anyway.

VU & Nico---what other has such range & depth, groovy toons & scary sounds incl. some of the words etc., so limber & locked etc.?

It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back?

I hear young ppl aren't feeling that one

If I could pick more than one, I'd pick that (not being burdened with youth).

But before it, maybe one not quite so testosterone-(almost?)-only.

nation of millions or 3ft high.

Second Johnny Fever's preference of Wild Planet.
Overrated: Mekons Fear and whiskey. Does anyone actually listen to the Mekons? Zzz.

I still like Fear and Whiskey, esp. as the main part of their Original Sin round-up. Also really enjoy their 2016 album Existentialism, which is rough and slick in all the right ways.

where is Third Eye Blind's first record?

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

damn! What a spread!

lmao i think i was the winning vote for zen arcade

was Shoot Out the Lights even discussed upthread

I wish it had been. Shoot Out the Lights is a great album.

glad to see Murmur do so well.

Shoot Out the Lights is one of hose albums I've introduced to friends, and they've responded "Dammmmmn" but tend to forget it when naming their favorite albums.

*those