Other

U2 - Achtung Baby
Pixies - Trompe le Monde
Cypress Hill - Cypress Hill
Fugazi - Steady Diet of Nothing
.......

i am just going to stop now...alot of really good shit came out that year

'Other' is blowing away the contestants in this poll!

The 1991 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll

Albums
1. Nirvana: Nevermind (DGC) 1699 (134)
2. Public Enemy: Apocalypse '91: The Empire Strikes Black (Def Jam/Columbia) 923 (86)
3. R.E.M.: Out of Time (Warner Bros.) 879 (80)
4. U2: Achtung Baby (Island) 651 (58)
5. P.M. Dawn: Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross: The Utopian Experience (Gee Street) 637 (56)
6. Richard Thompson: Rumour and Sigh (Capitol) 466 (42)
7. Matthew Sweet: Girlfriend (Zoo) 383 (34)
8. Metallica: Metallica (Elektra) 374 (39)
9. Chris Whitley: Living With the Law (Columbia) 344 (31)
10. Mekons: Curse of the Mekons (Blast First import) 344 (29)
11. Guns N' Roses: Use Your Illusion II (Geffen) 339 (27)
12. Ice-T: O.G.: Original Gangster (Sire/Warner Bros.) 337 (33)
13. Jimmie Dale Gilmore: After Awhile (Nonesuch) 335 (36)
14. My Bloody Valentine: Loveless (Sire/Warner Bros.) 327 (30)
15. Sonny Sharrock: Ask the Ages (Axiom) 322 (28)
16. Ice Cube: Death Certificate (Priority) 315 (22)
17. Neil Young: Arc/Weld (Reprise) 311 (29)
18. Pixies: Trompe le Monde (Elektra) 308 (26)
19. Seal: Seal (Sire/Warner Bros.) 275 (25)
20. Guns N' Roses: Use Your Illusion I (Geffen) 264 (26)
21. Van Morrison: Hymns to the Silence (Polydor) 243 (24)
22. Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3: [Rare and Unreleased] 1961-1991 (Columbia) 242 (20) *
23. John Prine: The Missing Years (Oh Boy) 241 (29)
24. Bonnie Raitt: Luck of the Draw (Capitol) 232 (27)
25. Massive Attack: Blue Lines (Virgin) 231 (22)
26. Robbie Robertson: Storyville (Geffen) 219 (22)
27. American Music Club: Everclear (Alias) 219 (21)
Cypress Hill: Cypress Hill (Ruffhouse/Columbia) 219 (21)
29. Billy Bragg: Don't Try This at Home (Elektra) 216 (22)
30. De La Soul: De La Soul Is Dead (Tommy Boy) 204 (20)
31. Teenage Fanclub: Bandwagonesque (DGC) 194 (22)
32. A Tribe Called Quest: The Low End Theory (Jive) 186 (19)
33. Linton Kwesi Johnson: Tings an' Times (Shanachie) 179 (14)
34. Sam Phillips: Cruel Inventions (Virgin) 178 (17)
35. Dave Alvin: Blue Blvd (HighTone) 171 (16)
36. Prince and the New Power Generation: Diamonds and Pearls (Paisley Park/Warner Bros.) 168 (18)
37. Dinosaur Jr.: Green Mind (Sire/Warner Bros.) 166 (15)
38. Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians: Perspex Island (A&M) 149 (14)
39. Marshall Crenshaw: Life's Too Short (Paradox/MCA) 134 (15)
40. Kirsty MacColl: Electric Landlady (Charisma) 134 (11)


This poll compiles ballots from 300 critics, who divided 100 points among 10 1991 albums. Points determined placement, with total mentions (indicated in parentheses) used for tie-breaking. Maximum per album: 30. Minimum: 5.

Others to consider:

The Feelies: Time for a Witness
The Pooh Sticks: The Great White Wonder
Eleventh Dream Day: Lived To Tell
Motorhead: 1916
Barbara Manning: One Perfect Green Blanket
The La's

Observatioin: Loveless wasn't as high as I would have guessed. Not that #14 isn't high, but in a 14 year later vote, it's Top 4 at worst.

Similarly, A Tribe Called Quest 'The Low End Theory' would be MUCH higher than #32.

I have never even heard that Chris Whitley album and don't remember anybody talking or writing about it. yet it's 9. Anbody vouch for it?

Damn good call.

1 Nirvana - Nevermind
2 Massive Attack - Blue Lines
3 Primal Scream - Screamadelica
4 U2 - Achtung, Baby
5 My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
6 Pearl Jam - Ten
7 R.E.M. - Out of Time
8 Metallica - Metallica ("The Black Album")
9 Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
10 A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
11 Slint - Spiderland
12 Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque
13 The Orb - The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
14 Cypress Hill - Cypress Hill
15 Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
16 Talk Talk - Laughing Stock
17 The KLF - The White Room
18 Crowded House - Woodface
19 Guns 'n' Roses - Use Your Illusion II
20 Public Enemy - Apocalypse '91 - The Enemy Strikes Back
21 Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Weld
22 Pixies - Trompe le Monde
23 Guns 'n' Roses - Use Your Illusion I
24 De La Soul - De La Soul Is Dead
25 Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend
26 Ice-T - O.G. - Original Gangster
27 Ice Cube - Death Certificate
28 Lenny Kravitz - Mama Said
29 Gang Starr - Step in the Arena
30 Electronic - Electronic
31 Smashing Pumpkins - Gish
32 Simply Red - Stars
33 PM Dawn - Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross: The Utopian Experience
34 Sebadoh - III
35 LFO - Frequencies
36 Richard Thompson - Rumor and Sigh
37 American Music Club - Everclear
38 Joe Henderson - Lush Life: Music of Billy Strayhorn
39 Mercury Rev - Yerself Is Steam
40 Jesus Lizard - Goat
41 Seal - Seal
42 Fugazi - Steady Diet of Nothing
43 John Lee Hooker - Mr. Lucky
44 Throwing Muses - The Real Ramona
45 The Wedding Present - Seamonsters
46 Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers - Into the Great Wide Open
47 Van Morrison - Hymns to the Silence
48 Prince & The New Power Generation - Diamonds and Pearls
49 Julian Cope - Peggy Suicide
50 Young Disciples - Road to Freedom
51 Billy Bragg - Don't Try This at Home

Which lists have been included for the compilation of the Acclaimed Music lists?

Almost all critics lists I have got my hand on, including best-of-year lists, best-of-all-times lists etc., from critics, artists and music industry people all over the world. Lists by people who work with music. Personal critics lists have been omitted with the exception of lists published in books and special essays in magazines, like Elvis Costello's in Vanity Fair.

Interesting when you are able to take the worldwide view of albums from publications that came out compared to individual lists. Thanks for posting that Buck but wanted to give a slightly different view of rock albums from that same year. Things like Richard Thompson and Chris Whitley in the top 10 doesn’t make much sense to me, though they could be great albums. So you can see why I love referring to Acclaimed but check stuff like NME, because they weren’t always that bad.

Makes a lot more sense to me than Massive Attack. so to each his own I guess. Richard Thompson is pretty much top ten every year he releases a new year for me, this year included.

Oh come on Billy, I have admitted to not hearing either one but know about each. A list that doesn’t include Primal Scream at all and has My Bloody Valentine at 14 is ridicules, IMO. A list where PM Down is five, M. Sweet is seven, and Makons is ten than I have to question that list. On Acclaimed these albums were 33, 25 and Mekons does not rank makes more sence.

Blue Lines is considered one of the best albums of the 90s and get a 5 star from AMG: The first masterpiece of what was only termed trip-hop much later, Blue Lines filtered American hip-hop through the lens of British club culture, a stylish, nocturnal sense of scene that encompassed music from rare groove to dub to dance. The album balances dark, diva-led club jams along the lines of Soul II Soul with some of the best British rap (vocals and production) heard up to that point, occasionally on the same track. The opener "Safe From Harm" is the best example, with diva vocalist Shara Nelson trading off lines with the group's own monotone (yet effective) rapping. Even more than hip-hop or dance, however, dub is the big touchstone on Blue Lines. Most of the productions aren't quite as earthy as you'd expect, but the influence is palpable in the atmospherics of the songs, like the faraway electric piano on "One Love" (with beautiful vocals from the near-legendary Horace Andy). One track, "Five Man Army," makes the dub inspiration explicit, with a clattering percussion line, moderate reverb on the guitar and drums, and Andy's exquisite falsetto flitting over the chorus. Blue Lines isn't all darkness, either -- "Be Thankful for What You've Got" is quite close to the smooth soul tune conjured by its title, and "Unfinished Sympathy" -- the group's first classic production -- is a tremendously moving fusion of up-tempo hip-hop and dancefloor jam with slow-moving, syrupy strings. Flaunting both their range and their tremendously evocative productions, Massive Attack recorded one of the best dance albums of all time.

Yes Richard Thompson also ranked but was a bit more reasonable at 36. It was just another adult-contemporary album that AMG gave a 4 star rating to.

Massive attack does nothing for me...truthfully the genre of trip hop does nothing for me. I love Horace Andy, but I think I'll listen to his albums instead thanks. While I can appreciate what people like about My Bloody Valentine, I'm not personally a big fan.

Richard Thompson however is totally another story. Possibly one of the five most talented guitarists of any genre to ever walk the face of the earth and a great songwriter too. Nearly everything he's done is very good to great imo. I know we have different taste and I don't expect you to agree but you could at least have the courtesy of respecting differing opinions. Especially when you admit that you've never even heard the album.

AMG: "While Richard Thompson's devotees will tell you the man is a triple-threat genius -- passionate vocalist, compelling songwriter, and sterling guitarist -- even his most loyal supporters will concede that the dour nature of his songs and the no-frills production of many of his albums make the bulk of his catalog tough sledding for the uninitiated."

I was not trying to show disrespect. My point was that in 1991 there where three albums that changed music Nevermind, Loveless and Blue Lines. Massive Attack created something brand new which speaks for itself. The thing that really pissed me off was no Primal Scream. That album means so much to me personally and is respected but didn’t make this list at all. To me if you look at each list than one makes much more sense and wonder how the other one could be so off. IMO

These two paragraphs were not written by the same person. Just sayin'.

And Bee, I know it's petty but please do me a personal favor: the word is ridiculous not ridicules.

Really I don't have my panties in a bunch. I'm not sure I'd put Rumor & Sigh in a top 10 for that year either. I don't own Rumor & Sigh anymore although I'm a much much bigger Richard Thompson fan now than I was when I traded it in. I don't find the thought that anyone else would ridiculous in the least though.

Only on an indie music board could someone argue with a straight face though that those three bands changed music, implying that they've had more influence than Richard Thompson. Nirvana may have changed popular culture, but I challenge you to name one good band or album that wouldn't have existed if not for Nevermind. And hell, I like Nevermind. I'm pretty sure it made my listmania. I just don't buy that it was all that influential.

I agree with that. I mean, I can understand how a certain age group might maintain that Nirvana and My Bloody Valentine "changed music", but only if they either haven't done their homework or if they're blinded by their own sense of nostalgia.

Hey, a music thread that has some real good relevance. Maybe changed music was the wrong two words. I should have said that these were landmark albums and that is why they are regarded as they are.

Rolling Stone put out the best 500 albums of all time in 2003. These are considered Rock and Rolls most important albums. Nevermind was number 17 with Loveless coming in at number 219. Massive Attack third album made the list but not this one. Richard Thomas didn’t make this list either and I double checked.

Don’t need to explain Nirvana but the killed heavy metal. MBV is the only album that is remembered from the whole shoegazer scene. Blue Lines subsequently became one of the most influential British records of the 1990s, inspiring other projects such as Portishead and Morcheeba. Blue Lines ushered in a new genre of music best referred to as "the Bristol sound", but the press began to use the label "trip hop.”

So yeah say what you want but I do know (only at times) what the fuck I’m talking about. Hell Rolling Stone could be wrong and the whole list is worthless but have a sourse Just dismissing what I said is just as ridiculous as I was not saying Primal Scream was a landmark album though some would say so convincingly.

Just needed to defend my manhood because yes I did or rather know in this case and went back and did my homework.

maybe i'm just an unfrozen caveman lawyer but i've never even heard of richard thompson. who was/is he?

blue lines influenced a very small group of artists who have mostly abandoned the influence. in retrospect it's a pretty normal album that wasn't too far removed from what Sade was doing 10 years earlier.

if you love it, enjoy. but i don't see it as a huge cultural influence.

I have never heard it, as I pointed out upthread So there is no way for me to defend it. I think most people from the UK would argue otherwise, just saying.

edit: we should look at 1984 again!

Founding member, lead guitarist and primary songwriter for British Folk Rock Band, Fairport Convention in the late '60's and early 70's. He went solo in '71.

Put out a bunch of solo albums with his wife at the time, Linda Thompson including the seminal albums "I Want to see the Bright Lights Tonight" & "Shoot Out the Lights". They split right around the time of Shoot out the Lights, and he's been putting out solo albums ever since of a remarkably consistent quality. Go to AMG if you want more detail.

thanks, i've seen those albums with linda around.

Tough choice, but I went with my gut. Nevermind.

What? How can you say Loveless didn't change music? If you could see how many bands cite Loveless as an influence, you'd piss yourself (maybe not happily, but all the same).

I mean, it's one thing not to like it, but it's blind to say that it wasn't important.

And Blue Lines >> Sade. That's not even a realistic comparison. Completely different. Sade == jazzy pop; Massive Attack ~= trip hop.

massive attack sounds more watery and bland to me than Sade. Sade's got that nasty funk.

having heard the stories of how that album launched trip hop, i don't understand it. It's so . . . i dunno . . .it's just hardly there. The only song i like that has good hooks and an edge is an old soul cover.

by the way, i'm only talking about "blue lines"