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

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