90s Album Reviews

The debut album Picture of Health by Headstones makes us wonder why aren't there more straight-up rock bands like AC/DC or The Angels

Industrial supergroup C-Tec filled their debut album Darker with a variety of textures and sounds that criss cross the industrial genre

Sandpit's lone album from 1998 finds the right balance between downbeat slowcore and noisier Sonic Youth tendencies

After leaving Straightjacket Fits, Andrew Brough layered shimmering guitars and lilting melodies for Bike's lone album Take In The Sun

Infectious hooks mixed with dreamy and distorted guitars save the 1993 album Bring It Down by Madder Rose from a flat production

The jangly bedroom indie-pop of East River Pipe's 1994 compilation Shining Hours In A Can foretold a coming revolution in home recording

Karate's understated post-rock album In Place of Real Insight showcases subtle jazz and blues influences but suffered from sameness

New Radicals lone release spawned a timeless single in You Get What You Give, but the rest of the album isn't quite as sharp or catchy

Defryme's 1994 album faithfully recreates the funk metal sounds of Faith No More and Living Colour but misses the mark on originality

Fusing metal, pop, progressive rock, and new wave, Faith No More forged their own freakish alternative path on 1992's compelling Angel Dust

Powderfinger's 1996 album Double Allergic wove alternative rock tropes into a stellar sophomore effort brimming with confidence and skill

The laid back fuzz of Pure's Generation Six-Pack recalls finds a sweet spot between Pavement's slacker vibe and Hum's wall of noise

The self-titled debut by Deathray is a tightly constructed power-pop record full of studio gadgetry and sugary melodies missing some grit

On their 1990 debut Nowhere, Ride owes as much to the 1960s jangle and dream pop of The Who and The Byrds as 1980s noise and indie rock

Shaun Ryder picked up the broken pieces of the Happy Mondays for a creative reboot with Black Grape and their 1995 debut album

The 1999 self-titled debut by The White Stripes ended the 90s with a minimalist blues recording that would reorient rock music for a decade

The Art of Rebellion from 1992 by Suicidal Tendencies is a rare occasion where creative ambitions and commercial success properly align

Vets of the indie rock world, the Meat Puppets released their commercial breakthrough in 1994, but does it stand the test of time?

Clouds' 1991 album Penny Century sounds like a lost college rock album that would have fit nicely alongside Belly, Lush, and The Breeders

The 1993 collaboration between Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and Whitesnake's David Coverdale is a listenable but not quite classic rock album

Always out of step with the 90s alternative rock explosion, The Black Crowes released their most confident album with 1994's Amorica

With 1993's Today's Active Lifestyles, Polvo creates a guitar-centered indie rock album unlike almost any other from the decade

On 1997's Give It Back!, The Brian Jonestown Massacre overcome influence to successfully combine '60s psychedelia with '90s indie rock

Six years ago, The Wildhearts debut didn't drive us wild. Will their 1995 sophomore album be more of the same or win over our hearts?

The 1997 debut Exile on Coldharbour Lane by Alabama 3 somehow combines trip-hop, acid house, country, blues, and gospel and make it all work

Phantom Blue's second and final album Built to Perform got lost in the early 90s alternative wave but is a hard rock record worth revisiting

Creeper Lagoon's 1998 debut I Become Small and Go finds the right balance between Dust Brothers production and lo-fi

Tom Waits' Grammy Winning eleventh album Bone Machine from 1992 is a wild ride of strange characters and stripped-down production

Mixing catchy garage rock, fuzzy desert rock, and psychedelic weirdness make the 1999 album by Wellwater Conspiracy a frustrating listen

The intimate minimalism of Pinback's 1999 self-titled debut paralleled the downbeat post-hardcore of the era but left us wanting more

Layered vocal harmonies, sparse arrangements, and subtle genre-mixing entrance the listener on Ida's 2000 album Will You Find Me

Dual bassists helped Ned's Atomic Dustbin standout in the crowded alternative scene, we revisit their 1992 sophomore album Are You Normal?

On their lone self-titled album from 1995, Chicago's Wicker Man laid down bruising riffs with enough variety for any kind of metal fan

On their 1995 debut Fluke, Rusty criss-cross genres with layers of ragged garage rock fuzz over raspy shredded vocals to maximum effect

Can a mid-90s alternative rock radio staple produce a solid album's worth of material? We check out Disciplined Breakdown by Collective Soul

Can southern rock jam band Widespread Panic successfully capture their legendary live performance on the studio album Bombs and Butterflies?