Speeding through these, since these polls only seem to have a shelf-life of a day or so before people stop voting. Another good year - my best friend at the time was working at his college’s radio station, and I used to come in all the time and do his show with him; I remember at the end of the year the staff all voted on the best album of the year, and their #1 and #2 picks were exactly the same as here, except in reverse order. I remember thinking at the time that Arrested Development weren’t really that great (I think history has vindicated my opinion); while there are some absolute classics on this list, for me it came down to Automatic for the People and Copper Blue. I’ve probably listened to both an equal amount over the years, and while I feel it’s not nearly as important an album, I’m going with Sugar here, just because I was so excited at the time that Bob Mould was in a new band.
Geek note: I saw Pavement opening for Sonic Youth in '92, when both were touring their respective albums.
ETA: I saw Sugar in '92 as well, and it remains the loudest concert I’ve ever attended.
Yeah - as I said, it was a toss-up between that and Copper Blue for me; Automatic is front-to-back classic (with the exception of “Everybody Hurts”, which I can’t even listen to). I’d be surprised if it didn’t win the poll handily.
OK, this is the year that I finally get to use my Beastie Boys vote. I wanted to in '89 for Paul’s Boutique, but the Pixies “Doolittle” was in the running, so that got my vote. That said, this is probably my favorite Beastie Boys album, anyway. PB is the classic, but this is the one that really got me into appreciating and eventually loving the Beastie Boys. If it wasn’t on the list, I’d probably vote for Sonic Youth’s “Dirty” for similar reasons. That was the album that got me into Sonic Youth, and also the album that really got me moving farther and farther away from comfortable 70s blues-based rock to more jagged and abstract sounds. It was a perfect bridge for me at that time in my life–certainly a mainstream record by Sonic Youth standards, but just weird enough to spark my curiosity and rethink my ideas of what rock music is and should be.