Blast From The Past Vol.5: 1995-1999

The search into the dustier parts of our record collection continues for the fifth installment of "Blast From The Past". The aim of this series of posts is to pick our 50 favorite albums from a different 5-year period each time. As a rule, only one album is permitted from each group or solo artist. This means that we also have to decide on the best release from each band in this 5-year period.

The focus this time is on the second half of the '90s, the post-grunge come down years. After the tragic end of the Nirvana story and the realization of the music industry that no more easy money could be made by signing up every new act with loud guitars, the gates of the mainstream started to close for decent rock music and the pop charts returned to their normal boring state. Once again, as it was the case in the ’80s, the most intriguing new rock sounds were created in the fringes.

Understandably, the late '90s were nowhere near as exciting as the first half of that decade. I mean, how often can you get albums of the caliber of "Nevermind" or "Rid of me" or "Dirty"? So, after the tidal wave of landmark rock records in the early ’90s, the second half seems poor in comparison, but there was still a great wealth of excellent music to be found as you can see in the Top 50 below.

This time there is no clear choice for the best album of this particular period. The three albums that I feel are the most deserving to occupy the number one spot of our list is "House of GVSB", perhaps the best album of the mighty fine Girls Against Boys (one of the best live acts I’ve ever had the pleasure to witness), "Celebrity skin", the third album from Hole, where Courtney Love set out to make a perfect sounding classic rock record and hit the bull’s-eye, and "The hot rock" by Sleater-Kinney. In the end, the group formed by Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein in Olympia, Washington, took the honor as it was probably the best new band of this period, showing tremendous progress in a short amount of time. Their fourth album from 1999 blends flawlessly the incendiary riot-grrrl sounds of their early work with an overwhelming pop sensitivity and truly brilliant melodies. Their previous album, 1997's "Dig me out" (their first with Janet Weiss as their drummer), is also highly recommended.

Top 50 Albums of 1995-1999

1. The hot rock - SLEATER-KINNEY
2. Celebrity skin - HOLE
3. House of GVSB - GIRLS AGAINST BOYS
4. 1965 - THE AFGHAN WHIGS
5. Deadsexy - SCARCE
6. University - THROWING MUSES
7. The magic city - HELIUM
8. To bring you my love - P.J. HARVEY
9. No joke! - MEAT PUPPETS
10. Scream, dracula, scream - ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT
11. White light white heat white trash - SOCIAL DISTORTION
12. Dust - SCREAMING TREES
13. Mellon collie and the infinite sadness - SMASHING PUMPKINS
14. Garbage - GARBAGE
15. New adventures in hi-fi - R.E.M.
16. A thousand leaves - SONIC YOUTH
17. The light user syndrome - THE FALL
18. Murder ballads - NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS
19. My brother the cow - MUDHONEY
20. Powertrip - MONSTER MAGNET
21. Acme - THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION
22. Hello nasty - BEASTIE BOYS
23. Foo Fighters - FOO FIGHTERS
24. Into the pink - VERBENA
25. The slow-motion world of Snowpony - SNOWPONY
26. The Italian flag - PROLAPSE
27. Too many days without thinking - SWELL
28. Do the collapse - GUIDED BY VOICES
29. The soft bulletin - THE FLAMING LIPS
30. Deserter’s songs - MERCURY REV
31. Keep it like a secret - BUILT TO SPILL
32. Madonna - …AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD
33. In the long still night - GALLON DRUNK
34. Brighten the corners - PAVEMENT
35. Urban hymns - THE VERVE
36. Butch - THE GERALDINE FIBBERS
37. One part lullaby - THE FOLK IMPLOSION
38. Cha Cha Cohen - CHA CHA COHEN
39. The Dandy Warhols come down - THE DANDY WARHOLS
40. I can hear the heart beating as one - YO LA TENGO
41. The Sebadoh - SEBADOH
42. Tales of great neck glory - SAMMY
43. Electriclarryland - BUTTHOLE SURFERS
44. Munki - THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN
45. Cobra and phases group play voltage in the milky night - STEREOLAB
46. Maxinquaye - TRICKY
47. All eyez on me - 2PAC
48. Second toughest in the infants - UNDERWORLD
49. Whitechocolatespaceegg - LIZ PHAIR
50. Yield - PEARL JAM

And here's 20 more albums equally worthy of inclusion: End hits - FUGAZI, Sleepy eyed - BUFFALO TOM, Boss Hog - BOSS HOG, Debt and departure - THOSE BASTARD SOULS, Little plastic castle - ANI DIFRANCO, Odelay - BECK, It was written - NAS, Elastica - ELASTICA, (What 's the story) Morning glory? - OASIS, Without you I’m nothing - PLACEBO, Le Tigre - LE TIGRE, Wu-Tang forever - WU-TANG CLAN, The fat of the land - PRODIGY, Dig your own hole - THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS, The Contino sessions - DEATH IN VEGAS, Liquid swords - GENIUS/GZA, Blur - BLUR, Indoor living - SUPERCHUNK, Only everything - JULIANA HATFIELD, King - BELLY.

There are certainly dozens more of excellent albums to be considered for this Top 50. Even with the one LP per band rule, the original list had more than 100 albums, but the final cut has to be based on personal taste and vices. Objectivity, as I usually say, is out of the question! This doesn't mean that we wouldn't appreciate your comments on the albums that you think that should have been in here...