A return to form after the disappointing '90 list. No doubt the #1 pick on the list will win the poll, but it would only be 5th or 6th on my personal list. Out Of Time has held up surprisingly well (aside from 2 tracks that were obvious boners even at the time), and the Mekons once again get screwed by being in the company of so many acknowledged classics (as does Matthew Sweet), but for me, the year belongs to My Bloody Valentine, who were arguably as influential as Nirvana - in any case, they influenced much better bands than Nirvana did. Happy voting.
No question for me: “Loveless.” But a good number of worthy contenders here.
Achtung Baby is my favorite U2 album, and a much more interesting/diverse collection of songs than Joshua Tree. Gets my vote.
Yeah, wow. Will likely vote for Nirvana because Nirvana. I was never caught up in their impact, but see it all around me in the rock world to this day.
The others on this list, like Loveless, Achtung Baby, Out of Time (not my REM, but respect it’s impact and durability), Metallica, etc…
ETA: can I just say I love the song Girlfriend by Matthew Sweet? Really has stuck with me. Fun to play, too - I do a Stones/Crowes-y version in Open G tuning…
Lloyd Cole, Robert Quine, Richard Lloyd, Ivan Julian - Girlfriend is a great guitar album.
I’ll skip voting for “Out of Time” because I can (and will) vote for the superior overall “Automatic For The People” in the 1992 poll. “Achtung Baby” would have gotten my vote in weaker years (like 1990) but there’s just too much competition here. I’m not voting for “Metallica” for what is probably a stupid reason - the fact their previous three albums, all better than this one, failed to hit the top 15, so why vote here? Nirvana is, well, Nirvana, and certainly could get my vote. But I am going a different direction.
Richard Thompson gets my vote here. “Rumour and Sigh” is a masterpiece.
“Rumour and Sigh”, because of 1952 Vincent Black Lightning.
Richard Thompson. A pretty flawless album and I’ve felt a little guilty about not voting for him in some of those earlier polls ;).
I voted for U2 in 1987, and have voted for their songs on the Alternative Charts. I have never voted for Nirvana, and while there are good albums on this list, for 1991 I will vote for the big game and not the underdog. Nirvana is 1991 and so it gets my vote.
Nirvana because of the impact of that album (for better or worse).
But I’ll be happy if My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless lands in the top 3.
I like Loveless best, but had to vote for Nirvana just on the impact it had on current music at the time.
About time Richard Thompson got a little love.
P.S. Yes, RT is Scottish-English. From England. But surprise, the album title is actually American-spelled Rumor and Sigh.
Yeah, I still pull that record out for a listen. There’s no question in my mind that it’s the best one on the list.
I love that song, too. When it’s in someone’s collection, I know we probably have things to talk about.
Yes it is. That album was an explosion, but for some reason there are only a couple of songs I listen to from it now.
This is one of his top 3 albums for me, and it has one of the top five songs I would love to learn to play on guitar (see above). The album is slightly marred by “Psycho Street”, his Australian soap opera spoof, but no big deal.
Has to be Loveless. It still sounds like nothing from this planet.
For me it’s a easy pick, because, along with Pet Sounds, those two albums have been consistently and easily my two favorite rock albums of all time for about a decade, with no other albums really offering any serious competition. So, I’m kind of set in my ways at this point, and they’re cemented in for me. They both still sound great and fresh.
That said, if I was going by albums I had heard at the time (I didn’t get to Loveless until about a decade later), I think Matthew Sweet’s “Girlfriend” was my favorite album from that year.
A terrific list for me (strange how certain years before and after leave me thinking “huh?”).
The last U2 album I liked, a great Richard Thompson LP, an R.E.M. album that, while it isn’t their best, remains a sentimental favorite…
…and they all bow before Nevermind.
Someone had to restore balance to the universe after that Fleetwood Mac album you might have heard of.
(Yes, I know FM contained a couple of Brits, but come on, they were as California as the Beach Boys).