Poll: Bandwagonesque v. Nevermind v. Loveless

also read "youths" as rhyming with "soothes."

i do think loveless has hooks. it's really pretty catchy. and i just like how it sounds. i might even love how it sounds. and i like those singles that go with that album. it really DOES sound great loud. i wish i had a copy here to play now, actually.

loveless has ENORMOUS hooks, and hooks within hooks, etc amen

there is one memorable loveless song and it is "Sometimes." that song i really liked, and like.

is that because "sometimes" is a lot sparser than the others? it seems to operate along more of a single melody than the other tracks, which bend and soar and dive all at once in (imo glorious) guitar-chaos

i mean, "when you sleep" for instance has hooks a mile wide but Shields piles on layer after tremeloed layer on top of them, an effect which for me strengthens the hook, but might for someone else detract from it

fwiw "loomer" is my loveless favourite, that chorus is elemental, even if (especially if) it does sound like it's being played underwater

I'm guessing the people who are listing 20+ albums they're claiming are "better than Nevermind" probably haven't listened to it since 1991.

Seriously.. Heart In Motion?? Use Your Illusion???

Also the 2nd half of Nevermind has Lounge Act, Stay Away and On A Plain which are all badass.. I'm not sure what anyone is talking about with how it's a poorly sequenced record.. Up until this thread, I've never heard a single person use this argument against Nevermind.

"Loomer" is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard.. I wish it was longer than 2:40.

there is one memorable loveless song and it is "Sometimes." that song i really liked, and like.

the best songs on Loveless sound like they should be on Souvaki ("Sometimes" and "When you Sleep"). In my opinion, Souvlaki is a far better album, and one I return to much more than Loveless.

I can't really comment on the sequencing of Nevermind (haven't really ever ingested it as an album per se) but I do have major qualms with the thin production. They were promising a remixed "heavier" 10th anniversary edition, but that never happened. I'm still holding out for this to occur so I can enjoy it. I think the songwriting is great. But the sound is pretty lame... especially following a budget recording that is so much meatier and more satisfying.

Nevermind is thin? It sounds quite beefy to me, especially in comparison to, say, In Utero.

really love all 3 albums for different reasons ...
i was 13 years old in 1991 living in mexico, so my musical tastes have shifted with the times ....

If it wasnt for Nevermind I guess 90% of my generation would still be listening to hair metal, so Nirvana was alpha and omega for me the start of it it all, i wouldnt have listened to TFC or MBV for that matter, if i hadnt bumped into Kurt, Dave and Chris trashing everything in SNL.

I really enjoyed Bandwagonesque, know all the lyrics at heart, but lacks any life changing expiriences at least for me. I remember the trek in my bicycle to my local record shop to buy that cassete tape very fondly though.

But Loveless does it for me, i didnt hear it untill i was 19-20 years old and still come back to it at some time or another, a true classc, and aural orgasm.

Heart in Motion?!?!!?!

And no irony or anything.. just straight up "Yeah, Amy Grant is better than Nirvana.. that's how cool I am, that I contain an opinion that's just so subversive"

What, no Cooleyhighharmony? Just to round things out?

I remember my reaction to Loveless when I first heard it being "wow, I can't believe something this fuzzy and indistinct is so tuneful catchy!" Also, I was a big big fan of "Soon" before I heard the album.

"If it wasnt for Nevermind I guess 90% of my generation would still be listening to hair metal"

instead of what, nickleback? thanx a bunch, nirvana.

ALBUMS FROM 1991 THAT ARE BETTER THAN NIRVANA COS THEY IS JUST SO OVERRATED

2 LEGIT 2 QUIT
Waking Up The Neibhbors
THE "JEREMY" SINGLE I LOVE THAT "YELLOW LEDBETTER" gets to me every time i heard it
We Can't Dance by Genesis
Paula Abdul "Spellbound" FOr the vocal performance on "Hush Hush" alone
The Mo Money soundtrack
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (I cried the first time I saw the "Right Now" video)

instead of what, nickleback? thanx a bunch, nirvana.

True, these bands are sonically identical.

"And no irony or anything.. just straight up "Yeah, Amy Grant is better than Nirvana.. that's how cool I am, that I contain an opinion that's just so subversive"

LOTS of people prefer amy grant to nirvana!

I'm sure they do, but why discuss this on a thread comparing 3 alternative rock albums??

Also of all the bands to pull out, Nickelback really isn't bad. It's not like they're pulling a Coldplay where they're doing bland middlebrow shit very, very badly; they do bland middlebrow shit very, very well and most people who object to them object to that entire milieu.

nirvana begat stp who begat creed who begat all the other horrible constipation rock that gets played ad nauseum on the radio. there is definitely a line from nirvana to nickleback.

i don't like nickelback's songs. they are dreary and completely unmemorable to me. i hear them on the radio and i go BLAH.

xp scott but black sabbath and the beatles and flipper and black flag and the pixies and the vaselines and blah blah blah begat nirvana so by that logic thank you, flipper, for nickelback?

There's also a line from Nirvana to Lil Wayne.. The Beatles also influenced lots of bullshit.

It's not one band's fault that other shitty bands have existed.

Finally seeing MBV live this year gave me a new appreciation of Loveless, but I still don't listen to it that often. I remember seeing Smells Like Teen Spirit on MTV and just thinking "no, not for me." Ignored them forevermore. So Teenage Fanclub gets the vote, just for being the most twee of the three, which is where my heart was at the time.

Trying to remember what the biggest three releases of 1991 would have been for me. Julian Cope's Peggy Suicide for sure, he was my favorite and it was a revelation after the mediocre My Nation Underground and the start of an epic run of yearly releases that would continue until 1996. Pavement's Perfect Sound Forever 10", my gang was wild about Pavement even before Slanted and Enchanted came out and PSF seemed to be the pinnacle. Third would probably be Glass Arcade, since Sarah Records was on an absolute tear from 1990 to 1992 and could do no wrong to my ears.

We did listen to that Public Enemy album in my car all the time, but that was probably because people riding in my car loathed Julian Cope and Sarah Records and would always insist on the Public Enemy that resided permanently in the car's tape case since I never played it in the house. I still love "Lost at Birth." That siren! The whole album sounds like a funhouse ride at Astroworld though.

this thread is taking flight at last

"I'm sure they do, but why discuss this on a thread comparing 3 alternative rock albums??"

it's a thread about three supposedly great albums from 1991. mentioning OTHER supposedly great albums from 1991 hardly seems out of bounds.

you could argue that "safesurfer" has the best guitar solo of 1991

btw I have to vote Nirvana here because at the time I only knew "Soon" (which I loved but didn't bother following up on until 6 years later) and I have always hated Teenage Fanclub without hesitation or reservation

btw i voted Loveless as I listen to it regularly vs. really only putting on Nirvana demos anymore vs. still never having heard a single Teenage Fanclub song

Nirvana ultimately mean more to me than Amy Grant, but Heart in Motion is almost as good as Nevermind. What's so hard to understand?

"xp scott but black sabbath and the beatles and flipper and black flag and the pixies and the vaselines and blah blah blah begat nirvana so by that logic thank you, flipper, for nickelback?"

lots of bands took a dreary watered-down version of nirvana's sound to the bank. nobody did this with flipper. though i do think nirvana themselves were a watered-down version of pixies, husker du, etc, they did have someone in the band with a knack for a catchy tune. very few of the post-nirvana bands did.

Amy Grant is super nice. Like, amazingly stunningly nice.

some folks here in need of a raggetting

― lynndie englisher (country matters), Monday, July 6, 2009 4:55 PM (1 hour ago)

otm. loveless DOES have huge hooks and lots of them, but i'm not entirely sure that's even the point

xp

nirvana begat stp who begat creed who begat all the other horrible constipation rock that gets played ad nauseum on the radio. there is definitely a line from nirvana to nickleback.

― scott seward, Monday, July 6, 2009 6:05 PM (4 minutes ago)

alright but so what, MBV gave rise to a bunch of shitty indie all around us presently. i'm not gonna go to perry-length challops and say nickelback arent god-awful, but it's not like everyone influenced by MBV is any good at all

i don't care if bands rip off other bands till the cows come home! as long as they have something of their own to bring to the table. like a good song. jack white just reminded me of the pixies and the gun club and lots of other people, but he had some catchy tunes. thus, i allowed him to live.

Voted for Nevermind. I listened to bad Robyn Hitchcock instead of Teenage Fanclub in 1991, and didn't discover Loveless until six years later. I'm amazed that I knew Inspiral Carpets, Blur, Slowdive, etc and heard no MBV at all.

and to be inundated by dreary bands who ripped off nirvana but who didn't have the talent of nirvana and to hear their horrible moaning for a decade or more is a bit much, thanks. a thousand shitty bands who ripped off unplugged nirvana at that!

I'm not hating on Amy Grant.. I know the album well and I appreciate its strong yet timely production values and songwriting, and she's an ok singer, but I was 11 years old at the time and I listened to practically anything my parents brought home.. In 2009 I'm throwing on this CD for nothing more than memories and laughs, as contemporary Christian music normally is not something I can stomach.

strong yet timely production values and songwriting

could say this about Nevermind tbh.

i don't care if bands rip off other bands till the cows come home!

But that's 'cause you like the Cows, Scott! You even said so upthread.

New Nickelback single "Burn It To The Ground" is actually fun (rocking "Children Of The Grave" groove and dorky lyrics about having no shirt or class and all), fwiw. (Though obviously I'm just trying to be "cool" and "subversive" for saying so, right.) Don't think I've liked any previous single by them that much, though.

Anyone ensconced in the Christian pop scene at the time, can you describe the furor over Amy Grant going secular? As devastating or as pivotal as Dixie Chicks rejecting Bush?

Right now I'd rather put up with a hundred Heart in Motion clones.

Also: if I didn't know one jot about Amy Grant's beliefs, I wouldn't peg HIM as Christian rock.

I listened to bad Robyn Hitchcock instead of Teenage Fanclub in 1991

Perspex Island > Bandwagonesque

I still own that one!

I wouldn't peg HIM as Christian rock

Actually, I think they're more goth.

xhuxk, wasn't so much complaining about you including that album as that it was mentioned in the 2 posts that followed.. Out of all the albums you mentioned.. I like your list.