Cast Your Vote: Four 90s Albums, One Podcast Feature
Gene Loves Jezebel, Half Man Half Biscuit, Insane Jane, Belly—who wins?
Here’s how this works: our listeners bring the albums, we dig through them on the show. This one’s no different—four albums submitted by listeners who saw something special worth fighting for. Vote for your favorite, and the winner gets the full treatment on an upcoming episode of Dig Me Out.
Gene Loves Jezebel — Kiss of Life
Here’s a band that understood the assignment but arrived fashionably late to the party. Gene Loves Jezebel stripped away the goth trappings and went full-throttle pop metal hookiness on Kiss of Life. Was it a calculated gamble to finally crack the US market? Absolutely. Did it work? Not exactly. But there’s something brave about watching a band swing for the fence like that, even if the timing was just off. They’d spent years building their dark aesthetic, and then suddenly they’re like, “You know what? Let’s try radio.” The bones are solid here—clean production, radio-ready melodies—but it landed when American listeners were looking for something else. Sometimes the bravest move is also the least rewarded one.
Suggested by: Keith P Miller
Half Man Half Biscuit — McIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt
Let’s talk about deceptive brilliance for a second. Half Man Half Biscuit makes their point with a banana when The Clash would use a sledgehammer. Nigel Blackwell is that lyrical poet nobody talks about at the cool kids’ table, yet he’s out here weaving Violent Femmes-level absurdity with Robyn Hitchcock’s mysterious juxtapositions like it’s no big deal. This is the album that hides in plain sight—masterpieces often do. There’s this droll wit running through McIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt that rewards the listener who actually pays attention. Pop culture references that hit different. Lyrics that make you laugh and think simultaneously. These guys proved you don’t need bombast to destroy pretension.
Suggested by: Patrick Testa
Insane Jane — Each Finger
Sometimes you just want pure, soaring female vocals cutting through ATL’s alt-rock underground. Each Finger delivers exactly that. An MC5 name-drop on “I’m Flying”? Bonus points for keeping that raw, early-70s rock spirit alive when grunge was taking over the conversation. Insane Jane felt like the band the alternative radio stations should’ve been champion-level promoting but didn’t quite make it into the mainstream rotation. That’s the tragedy of deep cuts—sometimes the best stuff just… exists in the corners.
Suggested by: Eric Peterson
Belly — Star
Tanya Donelly’s debut with Belly is the dream-pop fever dream nobody knew they needed. Stepping out from The Breeders to form something completely her own takes guts. Star captures that ethereal, energetic collision of alt-rock and dream-pop—it’s got the poetic softness but also that raucous undercurrent that keeps it from ever getting too precious. Listen to a song once, catch a melody hook. Listen again, find something skeletal and haunting you missed before. That’s the gift of this record. It’s the kind of album that rewards obsessive listening because there’s always something new lurking in the production, another layer beneath the surface.
Suggested by: Bob Ramakers