The Onion AV Club is Wrong About Music Again
Recently I posted about how the Onion AV Club missed the boat about The Rockin'-est Song of All Time. Now they're trying to tell me that 1997 was some sort of watershed year for music. The theory seems to be that Radiohead's OK Computer came out in 1997, as did 17 other albums that supposedly make it a great year (none of which are very interesting to me). First of all, The Bends is a better Radiohead album, so 1997 isn't even the best year for Radiohead. Second no mention of the only other 1997 album I consider to be great, Ben Folds Five's Whatever and Ever Amen.
Another AV Club writer wrote a rebuttal, claiming 1998 and 1999 were better.
Both writers are way off.
The truly great year for nineties music was.... 1991.
Exhibit A: Nirvana, Nevermind
Exhibit B: U2, Achtung Baby
Exhibit C: REM, Out of Time
Exhibit D: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Exhibit E: Pearl Jam, Ten
Exhibit F: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Into the Great Wide Open
Exhibit G: Lenny Kravitz, Mama Said
Exhibit H: Toad The Wet Sprocket, Fear
Exhibit I: Bonnie Raitt, Luck of the Draw
Exhibit J: Metallica, The Black Album
Exhibit K: Matthew Sweet, Girlfriend
Look at that list. Are you kidding me? All those came out the same year?
Seriously. I've listed these exhibits in order of importance... Pearl Jam's monumental debut, arguably one of the most important albums of all time was merely the FIFTH most important album of the year. Because there were four albums that were even MORE important. And you know how much I love Tom Petty... One of my absolute favorite Tom Petty albums was released in 1991, and it didn't even crack the top five!
1997? Yeah, right. 1991 is THE YEAR for nineties music, and you know it, AV Club.
posted by Justin S. @ 9/17/2007 10:49:00 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
Absolutely agree with you. (Well, except about the Black Album/Self-Titled.)
But not even one hip-hop album mentioned? Come on, man.
For starters:
* A Tribe Called Quest: The Low End Theory
* Brand Nubian: All for One
* Cypress Hill: Cypress Hill
* De La Soul: De La Soul is Dead
* Main Source: Breaking Atoms
* Naughty by Nature: Naughty by Nature
Plus, Tupac's debut on Digital Underground's "Same Song".
And about a hundred more.
Yeah, when I found the list I linked to, I figured that was all the research I needed for the post. And, I was admittedly a bit prejudiced toward hip-hop at the time, so I'm sure there was alot of great music I missed in addition to what I mentioned.
Having said that, A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul were two of the few hip-hop bands that caught my attention at the time. And while I was probably laughing at Naughty By Nature at the time, I can't help but sing along to "Hip Hop Hooray" when I hear it now.
As for your not liking the Metallica album, I'm already on record saying Metallica is overrated, but that's the one album of theirs that I actually think is pretty good. Same goes for Nirvana... I'm convinced they would have faded into oblivion had Kurt not killed himself, and they were already on that route by the time In Utero came out. But Nevermind happens to be the most important album of the last 20 years.
I agree about '91 (you forgot Gish by The Smashing Pumpkins), but one of the commenters at the AV Club had a good point about '93.
smashing pumpkins - siamese dream
pearl jam - vs.
liz phair - exile in guyville
nirvana - in utero
bjork - debut
radiohead - pablo honey
blur - modern life is rubbish
counting crows - august and everything after
tool - undertow
Plus ones they forgot:
Deluxe - Better Than Ezra
Last Splash - The Breeders
Candlebox - Candlebox
Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? - The Cranberries
The Wedding Album - Duran Duran
Altered Beast - Matthew Sweet
'97 doesn't compare to either of those years.
Yeah, 1993 was a good year too. Siamese Dream, Vs., Exile in Guyville, Debut and Last Splash are all top notch.
While we're at it, splitting the difference, 1992 gave us REM-Automatic For the People, Alice in Chains-Dirt, Dr. Dre-The Chronic, Sublime-40 Oz. to Freedom, k.d. lang- Ingenue, Tori Amos-Little Earthquakes, Eric Clapton-Unplugged, Arrested Development-3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life of..., Stone Temple Pilots-Core, They Might Be Giants-Apollo 18, Mary Chapin Carpenter-Come On Come On, Blind Melon-Blind Melon, The Black Crowes-The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, Neil Young-Harvest Moon, Lemonheads-It's A Shame About Ray, The Cure-Wish and Peter Gabriel-Us.
Now it just feels like we're making lists of my favorite CDs.
Dara:
That '93 list looks like a compilation of second-best efforts. Pshaw.
Justin:
The Black Album was the beginning of the end for Metallica. It's better than the subsequent stuff, but scarcely recognizeable as the band that gave us "... And Justice for All" and *owned* real 80's heavy metal.
I had the same thought about the '93 list... Vs., In Utero, Pablo Honey, are clearly inferior to other releases by the same bands. Siamese Dream is my favorite SP album though. Overall, '93 doesn't hold a candle to '91, but it still kicks '97's ass.
Guess we'll have to agree to disagree on Metallica. It's kind of a minor point as far as '91 goes... it was merely Exhibit J.
Joe: I agreed that '91 is superior. I was merely pointing out that a commenter on the A.V. Club article had made a similar argument to Justin's argument with '93, and that it too trumped '97.
Justin: I agree about Siamese Dream, In Utero vs. Nevermind, and Pablo Honey vs. later Radiohead. I respectfully disagree with the generalization about Vs. - it might not be as good as Ten, but it's definitely not one of Pearl Jam's weakest. Rearviewmirror is one of my favorite songs.
I'm not sure what you're disagreeing with... I said those albums were inferior to other releases by those bands, but I didn't say ALL other releases by those bands.... In fact, I think Vs. is clearly Pearl Jam's second best album.
Okay, then I think we agree.
Although, I think that we could have made a simpler argument that the early '90s were vastly musically superior to the late '90s. Here it is in two words:
Boy Bands.
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