This year is widely seen, even as it continues, as being one of the worst years in history.
Political upheaval, bloody conflict and ecological collapse are all themes of the year, as is celebrity death. The latter has been particularly true in music with a number of musical legends leaving us this year.
It has also been a year of notable musical anniversaries with loads of excellent albums celebrating their 10th, 15th, 20th, or 25th anniversaries.
Most notable to me has been the number of great albums from 1991 that celebrating a quarter of a century this year. It may be my age (I was a music obsessed 19 year old in 1991) but it is striking just how many amazing records were released in that year.
Among the albums released were debuts by acts as varied Blur, Mercury Rev, The Smashing Pumpkins, Orbital, 2 Pac, Massive Attack, St. Etienne, Pearl Jam and Mr. Bungle. Julian Cope, Throwing Muses, Dinosaur Jr, Uncle Tupelo, Slint, KLF and Talk Talk all released albums that were arguably their career best during the year.
The best of year lists for 1991 read like those “100 albums to hear before you die” books with Primal Scream’s Screamadelica, REM’s Out of Time, My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless and Nirvana’s Nevermind all hitting the shelves of HMV and Virgin.
It also marked the release of Teenage Fanclub’s Bandwagonesque, an album that doesn’t get talked about as much today but beat all of the above to be voted album of the year by Spin magazine, and is one of the albums that I always go back to.
So here, in honour of its 25th anniversary, is a selected Top 10 of 1991.
10. Pixies – Alec Eiffel
9. Talk Talk – Myrrhman
8. Mercury Rev – Car Wash Hair
7. Slint – Good Morning Captain
6. Dinosaur Jr – The Wagon
5. Throwing Muses – Counting Backwards
4. REM – Half a World Away
3. Julian Cope – Beautiful Love
2. Uncle Tupelo – Watch Me Fall
1. Teenage Fanclub – Alcoholiday
Compiled by Dorian Rogers
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