Best Album on OUR Favourite Albums of......1991

AMC's Everclear for me, which isn't on the list. Otherwise pretty easily Loveless.

oh it is on the list, dumb me

Unreservedly love Nevermind, KLF, Blue Lines, Loveless, Bandwagonesque, ATCQ, Wedding Present and REM. But this will come down to the impossible choice between Foxbase Alpha and Trompe Le Monde. The latter was my favourite album at the time and instantly transports me back to scenes of jumping around to it in my room and neighbours complaining; I didn't discover the former until a few years later, so I associate it more with the mid-90s if anything, though it mostly has a 'timeless' quality for me (also in the sense that I'm almost never not in the mood to play it).

hard choice between Ghost and Foxbase Alpha..

Achtung Baby, and I’m not even a big U2 guy.

Ask The Ages, without a moment's hesitation. One of the great albums of the decade.

Honourable mentions:

Babes In Toyland - To Mother
Consolidated - Friendly Fascism
Entombed - Clandestine
Prong - Prove You Wrong
Solitude Aeturnus - Into the Depths of Sorrow
Urge Overkil - Supersonic Storybook
Throwing Muses – The Real Ramona
The Fall - Shift Work
Spacemen 3 - Recurring
Son of Bazerk – Bazerk Bazerk Bazerk
Slowdive – Just for a day
PM Dawn – Of the heart, of the soul and of the cross: the utopian experience
Main Source – Breaking Atoms
NWA – Efli4zaggin
Guns n’Roses – Use You Illusions I & II
De La Soul - De La Soul Is Dead
Electronic - s/t
Billy Bragg – Don’t try This at home

and all the death metal, of course

Ultramarine is the one I go back to most often, though Foxbase Alpha is right behind it.

Everclear

This year means so much to me and so many of these records are massive personal favourites. It's really all so rich. But for personal reasons (and because it's the best album) I have to punt on Trompe Le Monde. It's the Pixies best album and one that I play endlessly even now. It's my go to drunk dancing by myself record. It's gorgeous front to back and it rocks hard as hell. When it wants to.

Separately from that, I really have a fetish for -rock bands last albums when it's clear its over- this is a great example.

Didn't it get mixed reviews at the time? Its probably my fave Pixies album these days tbh

the one vote for bandwagonesque

1991 me would be Nevermind so in the end I decided I'd vote for the 18yo me whose life was changed by it.

I do hope LFO gets a vote though as 19yo me loved it when he finally heard it.

btw mike and I had to leave out a lot of other personal favourites.

We thought about doing a poll each but instead we compromised.

1992 is going to be even harder by the looks of things

yep

A Tribe Called Quest is not getting the respect they deserve in this thread

you dont know they aren't getting lurker votes though

relistened to Ultraworld last week and I'm surprised by how well it's held up

I assumed Tribe will will tbh (and uh entered an essentially contrarian/joek vote myself)

will WIN

I love The Low-End Theory

there are at least a few great Sonny Sharrock albums I think but Ask the Ages may be his best

both of the first two Cypress Hill albums are great imo

also, Blue Lines and Loveless are two of my favorite albums of all time

ATCQ or St Etienne right now. Not really in the mood for all those electric guitars I would opted for at the time.

Low-End Theory for me. Just a huge revelation to me at the time and still play it regularly. Cypress Hill’s s/t is close behind it.

Low-End Theory is the album I most associate with memories of high school parties

I'd like to see the pile of booze and drugs I did listening to these records.

At the time it would’ve been Trompe Le Monde. A couple years later I discovered Thinking Fellers Union Local 282’s Lovelyville which would’ve been my pick for a while. Nowadays probably Autopsy’s Mental Funeral. Convulse’s World Without God would also be a contender. Great year.

Blue Lines.

ATCQ

I feel like I’m one of the few melomaniacs who isn’t madly in love with Loveless. I like it alright but there’s at least 5 albums in this list which I like much better.

It's an infuriatingly inconsistent album. I struggled for many years before admitting it to myself.

atcq was a late entry btw replacing de la soul

its tough cutting albums

midnight marauders >>>>>> the low end theory

Incredible year. Nobody's gonna vote for it on this list, including me, but Peggy Suicide is absolute genius.

Blimey : U2, Orb, KLF, Julian Cope, Public Enemy, Swans, LFO, Massive Attack, Orbital.
Each and every one of those is a classic album in my world (and still get listened to on a regular basis).

I like Loveless but it has settled into being one of those Important albums that I rarely feel the need to listen to anymore (Nevermind is another).

i bet nevermind is the one everyone thinks others will vote for and nobody does

I voted for it so I'll be the guy you all point at.

For me Talk Talk is no question, Tribe up there, Nirvana, Massive Attack, REM, Slint, Pumpkins, MBV, Sharrock, St. Etienne are all very good. Big improvement from the 1990 list.

midnight marauders >>>>>> the low end theory

This says absolutely nothing about whether The Low End Theory is better than the other albums on this list

Peggy Suicide is good but like The Low End Theory I much prefer the one after too

the best year in rock music i'd say. very hard to chose between adventures beyond the ultraworld, bandwagonesque, gish, goat,laughing stock, loveless, nevermind and sreamadelica. in 1991 out of time was my fave i think but god did that album got destroyed by over exposure.

trompe le monde

Remember when Black Francis said Trompe Le Monde was going to be their heavy metal album? I wonder if that put critics off at the time?

I remember thinking at the time that the only songs on Trompe Le Monde I actually cared about where "Planet of Sound" and "Alec Eiffel"; there is no way I'd ever say it was better than Doolittle or Surfer Rosa

I love Loveless but I'm one of those weirdos who prefers Isn't Anything.
Truth be told, I listen to mbv more than Loveless and might even prefer it.

The tinny, mangled sound of 'Loveless' has kep me at some distance for 20-odd years. Which always confused me as it's held as a paragon of incredible production.

What sometimes gets lost in critical discussion is that the production is incredible in that it makes an artistic statement out of exploring the possibilities of what is usually thought of as shitty sound:

"The sound that we were going for was more like the sound that we were hearing all the time, which was either hearing music through ghetto blasters or cheap record players or small gigs coming through Bose PA systems. All very boxy-sounding and meshed in.”

they made it sound way better than "music through ghetto blasters or cheap record players or small gigs coming through Bose PA systems" in my opinion

Definitely. But you get a loss of spatial clarity, frequency, and dynamic range from those sources, with a lot of crowded midrange, which your average engineer would try to avoid: Shields went all-out in embracing this and exploring the psychedelic extremes to which you can take boxy, murky sound. The tinny, mangled sound is the whole point, in a way, which might throw someone off if they're coming to it expecting "incredible production".

"and frequency and dynamic range"

that's a great description

My biggest gripe is with the songwriting rather than the production, which does exactly what it needs to do (well, except for the drums – that'll never quite cut it): I'm invariably tempted to skip 'When You Sleep', 'Come in Alone', 'Blown a Wish' and especially 'What You Want'. Everything else is fine, although I prefer m b v.

I'm invariably tempted to skip 'When You Sleep'

They do write pop songs despite the textural guitar coating so I think it's fair to also judge them on that basis. As it so happens, some melodies click with me more than others (the less saccharine ones, usually, but my tolerance for twee is exceptionally low).

I can't believe I'm the first to rep for Goat.

Goat is incredible but this is 1991.

talk talk

I can't believe I'm the first to rep for Goat.

Sorry, must have scrolled past without noticing.

goat is my runner-up

Electronic's debut is all time.

tons of great stuff, voted for The Orb, would have voted for Shift-Work as it's possibly my favorite Fall album

Left to my own devices, I would have definitely submitted Shift-Work. It was the first Fall album I ever heard. Its their poppiest, "edinburgh man" is such a lovely song and coming from The Fall that makes it even more sweeter.

I've still never heard Slint! Which given the amount of words I read about them in the 90s...

then it's time you did

you should listen to "spiderland", its well creepy

deciding what to leave out for 92 poll is hard

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

The Jesus Lizard - Goat, 1
Pearl Jam - Ten 1
Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger , 1
KLF - The White Room 1
Fudge Tunnel - Hate Songs In E-Minor 1

I thought they would get more than 1 vote each tbh

Best Album on OUR Favourite Albums of......1992