Revisiting My Favorite Albums of The 1990s (Again)

So one year ago tomorrow, if you recall, I published this. In case you don't recall and don't feel like reading that (which would be perfectly understandable; it's very longwinded) I'll give you the highlights. Basically it said that my tastes in music change and I also hear new stuff all the time blah blah blah I'm republishing my Best Albums of Decades albums list! Yeah!

This time around, though, I'll spare you the color-coordinating and whatnot--and by spare you, I mean spare myself; that took me a long time. I also don't think I'll be writing too many (or any) explanations. The albums can speak for themselves, and, to be honest, I don't think the lists have changed too much. The major difference is that I'm including 102 albums instead of 90. So there.

This specific post is, as you can glean from its title, about the 1990s. The 1990s were this weird decade that happened a long time ago but because the people who were young during it are now young adults who produce the indie movies and write the blogs that we all watch and read, we are inundated with references to it, whether that means flannel shirts, shoegaze, Pete & Pete, etc. The thing is, I am sort of one of these people. I'm a little on the young side--I only saw Pete & Pete in syndication--but I definitely identify with the culture of the '90s. As such, the music of the '90s is some of my favorite. I love trip-hop. I love shoegaze. I love acid house. I love post-rock. I love Nirvana. So here goes: my favorite albums of the 1990s. Again. (A sidenote: in the spirit of the '90s I'm going to see Godspeed You! Black Emperor tonight at The Vic. Woo-hoo!)

My Favorite English Songs

Hey, everybody! Long-time-no-impersonal-interaction-over-the-internet! How've you been? I've been pretty good--except I'm gonna be better than pretty good next week, on account of I'm going to the United Kingdom! I'm leaving for London on Saturday, and I'll be spending the following eight days in London (seeing art, being a tourist, buying stuff) and Abergavenny, Wales (farming, hiking, birthing lambs). Neat-o!

Anyways, to get me hyped up, I decided to make a super-awesome playlist with my favorite English songs--English as in from England, not as in songs that are sung in English. When I set out to make the list, I was just going to do a hundred songs, but it quickly got out of hand and became 450. Oops. Whatever.

England (and the U.K. in general) is one of the two most relevant countries in the short-lived history of modern music. (The other is America, of course.) For whatever reason, the blokes across the pond have, for the past fifty or so years, made some of the best and most influential rock, pop, dance, experimental, etc. From British Invasion rock n' roll to psychedelic to punk to post-punk to new wave to shoegaze to acid house to trip-hop, English music has shaped the cultural landscape--dare I say--even more so than American music. (Because I'll also be in Wales, I tossed in a couple Welsh bands: Young Marble Giants, etc.)

So the playlist is just that: a playlist. It's in alphabetical order by artist and, rather than painstakingly type each song below, I've copied my iTunes into the blog. (It's amazing what the computer can do...) The songs aren't necessarily exactly my 450 favorite songs; that list would have about a hundred Beatles tunes. I tried to also give a good picture of what British music is as whole--where it was, where it's going. Enjoy, and next time I see you I'll probably be wearing tweed and have bad teeth.