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

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

(Actually I think the problem is that I hate "The Sad Punk" so much that I never make it to the rest of the album)

"When I get down, I give what go around
And when I cough, I do my best to cut off
Don't claim to be a teacher, not known to be a preacher
But I'm grown
I try to be a man on my own
Never could follow a man with a bottle
He's a baby with a beard; not a feared role model
They ask me where I get it, I got it from my pops
Put a man in the house and all the bullshit stops
And I sing a song about what the hell is going wrong
You never know if you only trust the TV and the radio
These days, you never know who's in cahoots
`Cuz now the KKK wears three piece suits"

The fact that I can type that from memory without actually having heard the record in well over a decade is proof enough for me who the clear winner is.

I went with Blue Lines over The Low End Theory. The remixes were a crucial part of the equation.

Some other big albums I remember from this year: Luther Vandross’s Power Of Love, Jodeci’s Forever My Lady, and Sezen Aksu’s Gülümse.

I just cannot even comprehend how someone could hate The Sad Punk. It's fucking awesome. I might listen to it now.

xxxxp I really haven't experienced Loveless as inconsistent, I have listened to it straight through with more satisfaction than with almost any other album

"The Sad Punk" always sounded like meandering self-indulgent nonsense to me.

Can't not vote for Loveless.

― Uptown VONC (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, July 3, 2019 8:42 AM (two days ago)

^^ yeah I mean, come on. this is a strong list but only one of the choices is the best album of the 90s

apologies to spiderland, the low end theory, death certificate, laughing stock, no pocky for kitty

I'm sure the nirvana and pearl jam albums are great but I guess this is the time where I admit I have never really even listened to grunge

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. Ultimately I've ended up preferring MBV from before and after 'Loveless'.

doesn't sound tinny to me at all, mangled yes but that is one of its amazing features

Talk Talk but no Rain Tree Crow makes me sad.

Gonna toss this one to Cope so he doesn't get shut out though.

low end theory by a very small margin over ask the ages

everything else is just not even close

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'

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