Acclaimed Music Top 30 Albums from 1990 poll

i almost didn't do this for this summer, was going to take a year off. i then looked at the list and got inspired again. plus my vacation from this board needed to end, though i have popped my head in a few threads here and there.

anyways, the 90's looks like it will be fun. i also went from the Top 25 to a Top 30 as i felt like we needed a few more albums as music was getting a bit more diverse in the 1990's.

Behaviour is one of my ten favourite albums ever but I'm so tempted to vote for Reading, Writing & Arithmetic as it's just that time of year.

this list is outstanding, every album in the Top 10 is golden outside that Neil Young album that i do not know.

but this has to be Violator, with Nowhere second? will think about it though.

even outside the Top 10 Reading, Writing & Arithmetic, Heaven or Las Vegas, Chill Out and even World Clique are great.

Cocteaus over Sundays

Tough call between Violator and Heaven or Las Vegas. I went with the one that soundtracked more collegiate trysts.

From the global village
In the age
of communication

Violator, obviously.

Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic is one of the most important albums in my life. So that's easy. Heaven or Las Vevas is coming in close behind.

This was the year I first started paying attention to music, but I was really listening to commercial pop radio rather than album-oriented music, so I'm not that familiar with a lot of stuff on here. Voted Heaven or Las Vegas, because it's excellent.

3 420 Jane's Addiction - Ritual De Lo Habitual

tried again this the other day on a whim and jesus christ it is unlistenable

Pod.

Songs for Drella is amazing!

It's either that or Tribe for me...

Naked City

Whoops I missed heaven or las vegas when I first scanned through these, pretend I voted for that.

Bunch of great choices. Tough call.

Prefab Sprout over La's and Ride. That PS album still melts me everything I play it.

3 420 Jane's Addiction - Ritual De Lo Habitual

tried again this the other day on a whim and jesus christ it is unlistenable

OTOH I tried this again today and will probably listen to it nonstop for the rest of the day; "Three Days" through "Classic Girl" is one of my favorite sequences of songs of all time.

Honestly though this poll is impossible

They are right with this one, Fear of a Black Planet is best.

Ritual De Lo Habitual has some great stuff on it but, overall, it severely pales in comparison to its predecessor. I'd say roughly the same of Pills 'n' Thrills.

The relationship between Nothing's Shocking and Ritual de lo Habitual is fascinating to me. Over the years, I've always held that one was their best overall album while the other had their best songs on it, but my designation of which one was which keeps flipping depending on my mood. Right now, I'd agree that Nothing's Shocking hangs together better as an album but there aren't any other songs in the JA catalog that come close to touching "Three Days", "Then She Did", "Of Course" and "Classic Girl" for me.

Maybe it's brought up before, but is there a reason why Acclaimed Music so diligently strips out metal and classical in their lists? If you compare this chart with the RYM one for 1990 it's pretty striking.

What a great year. I could vote for 10 or 15 of those, but it comes down to Fear of a Black Planet or Repeater for me, and I'm going with the latter since I'm afraid no one else will....

No one's mentioned Mama Said Knock You Out, so I will.

Hmm. PE vs. Sinead vs. Neil, for me. Guess I know what I'm gonna spend my weekend listening to.

Also, a former co-worker has repeatedly insisted over the years that I should listen to the La's album. Should I? I only know the one song that everybody knows.

I thought the La's album was really disappointing. "There She Goes" is good, and I think there's one other song that's not bad, but most of it is pretty bland and samey.

Only counting the albums I've heard start to finish, these are all incredible:

1 131 Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet
2 366 Happy Mondays - Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches
3 420 Jane's Addiction - Ritual De Lo Habitual
4 434 Sinéad O'Connor - I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got
5 437 Depeche Mode - Violator
7 530 Pet Shop Boys - Behaviour
12 762 A Tribe Called Quest - People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm
14 905 Ride - Nowhere
15 1091 LL Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out
16 1125 Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas
17 1161 Ice Cube - AmeriKKKas Most Wanted
21 1286 The KLF - Chill Out
22 1333 Deee-Lite - World Clique
29 1984 Living Colour - Time's Up

I mean, the weakest album here is the Living Colour album, which is fucking great.

Yeah. Still had to go with Fear of a Black Planet.

I'm leaning heavily towards Tribe

Tribe barely over Cube

No 'Extricate'.

here are the next 10:

31 Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks Soundtrack
32 Digital Underground - Sex Packets
33 Midnight Oil - Blue Sky Mining
34 Brian Eno & John Cale - Wrong Way Up
35 Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss
36 The Charlatans UK - Some Friendly
37 Garth Brooks - No Fences
38 Uncle Tupelo - No Depression
39 The Fall - Extricate
40 Ali Farka Touré - The River

I doubt I'd vote for it but I feel like Garth Brooks should be way higher

Don't have particularly strong feelings about 31-40 outside of the Twin Peaks soundtrack, which is probably up there with SAWII among the music I've not-necessarily-intentionally listened to the most. It makes for excellent background music, is what I'm saying.

And it really is fantastic, as well. Didn't mean to slight it.

There are better albums on this list but no album meant more to me in 1990 then Nowhere, so it gets my vote.

Just realized the production on Liz Phair - Whip Smart is indebted to Heaven or Las Vegas

Tribe is the worst rap album here. Voted PE over Gang Starr.

Heaven Or Las Vegas and Behavior are both in my top albums of all time. It's like chosing between chocolate or wine.

Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic is one of the most important albums in my life. So that's easy.

^^^

Any Happy Mondays love? A beautiful apex of their arc.

right here, played it probably the most out of any other album on this list. i went to this concert as it was called Call the Cops and i can say it changed my life, forever. did not listen to any Goth type of music (what i played before that show) for a few years.

in regards to the La's, it's a tight 30 or 35 minutes album. it had something like five singles from it iirc and is a very catchy pop album. i also played it a lot at the time but haven't heard the album probably since the 90's.

Proud to say I know the "Dennis and Lois" of the Happy Mondays track

I have owned at least half of these at one time or other and I still play the Nick Cave record more than the rest combined so The Good Son gets my vote.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

After spending the weekend with my three favourite records on this list, I finally concluded that as much as I dig Black Planet and Ragged Glory, Sinead's was the one I most enjoyed spending some time with again.

Proud to say I know the "Dennis and Lois" of the Happy Mondays track

is there a story where you can share here?

voted Violator.

when people say that Pills n' Thrills is just singles and filler I point them to "Dennis and Lois", probably the most blissful tune they ever wrote

HoLV, just ahead of Pod and Naked City.

World Clique, then Sinéad and Reed/Cale.

Fear of a Black Planet is an easy choice here. It still sounds like the future of music to me.

Oh god yeah, 'Dennis and Lois' is one of the Happy Mondays' finest moments... not to mention it seems to have been an inspiration for U2's 'Until The End Of The World'.

Bossanova

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