If you found it tough being told that 1994 was thirty years ago when we compiled our list of 10 iconic albums celebrating their 30th anniversary last year, you're not going to find this list any easier. Yes, it's now 1995's turn for a 30th birthday retrospective, and while that might make you feel even older than you did the last time around, at least there's some great music to soften the blow.
1994's list went big on grunge and alternative music, and while there's plenty more on display here, we've got experimental electronica meeting jazz hip-hop, punk rock and a little bit of Britpop for good measure. You might want to ditch that plaid shirt and grey jeans and dig out your branded polo and oversized track jacket instead.
Garbage – Garbage
Between Shirley Manson’s distinctive vocals that veer from rebellious snarl to whispery, sultry emotion and Butch Vig’s superb production, Garbage’s self-titled debut album is a melting pot of noises and genres that defined the mid-90s. The grungy textures of the guitars juxtaposed with electronica-inspired loops and samples result in a textured, layered sound that is fun to pick apart and enjoy as a whole. Manson herself has said that the album “unlocks sensations and feelings that you keep inside, that society doesn't allow you to show", and the darker undertones of her lyrics contrast deliciously with the glossy, poppy shine of the album’s production.
Only Happy When It Rains and Stupid Girl stand out for good reason with strong hooks, crunchy electronic guitars, deep, agile basslines and, in the latter, the glitchy, scratchy sound of a broken DAT player; Vow could easily soundtrack a mean girl black comedy movie; Queer shows off its hazy trip-hop influences. Standing out above it all is Manson’s deep, sardonic voice, which remains defiant and unique after all this time.
Words by Kashfia Kabir
Michael Jackson – HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I
Following a particularly troubling period for the world's greatest popstar, Michael Jackson released a defiant double album. The first disc, HIStory Begins, comprised 'greatest hits' from his four previous studio albums and included the likes of Billie Jean, Black or White, Bad, Thriller and Beat It. The second disc, HIStory Continues, contained Jackson's first new material in four years – a raw and anger-fuelled response to his accusations and, more so, his media treatment, resulting in the angriest and most personal record he would ever make.
Contentious themes and controversy aside, the latter delivers some of his best pop work, including hit singles Scream with his sister Janet, They Don't Care About Us and Earth Song. What it lacks in the melodic dancefloor charm of his previous records it makes up for in the sit-up-and-listen scale and dynamism befitting a protest record. The album's ballads, such as You Are Not Alone, Smile (one of Jackson's favourites) and Stranger in Moscow (one of mine, and which laid the foundation for the second disc's creation), are sumptuous and among his finest, but it's the emotionally – and electrically – charged, industrial-sounding tracks, superbly produced as always, that will really give systems something to chew on and spit out.
Words by Becky Roberts
Buy HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I on Amazon
PJ Harvey – To Bring You My Love
It's odd to think that, at the time at least, To Bring You My Love was considered to be PJ Harvey's breakthrough record, especially given that the English singer-songwriter had already bestowed the acclaimed Dry and Rid of Me upon a grateful universe.
The clue's in the name with To Bring You My Love, as Harvey flips convention on its head as only she could: bring me your love? Oh no, I'm going to bring you mine. A raw, grungey and sometimes unsettlingly erotic record, it's one of the starkest displays of assertive female sexuality that the 90s ever produced, with tunes such as Meet Ze Monsta, Long Snake Moan and the title track itself exuding a gritty, sultry charm that smacks you across the forehead while surreptitiously burrowing deep into your bones. Harvey's raw, powerful wail is the centre of all things, and with the best systems, it should sound like she's screaming directly into your soul. Good luck.
Words by Harry McKerrell
Buy To Bring You My Love on Amazon
The Herbaliser – Remedies
By the mid-90s, hip-hop was over celebrating its jazz heritage and focusing on breathing new life into the genre (witness Guru’s Jazzmatazz series, whose Volume 1 was released in 1993). Back then, The Herbaliser consisted of Ollie Teeba and Jake Wherry making purely sample-based low-fi tracks, but soon evolved into a full eight-piece band that combined the duo’s cut-and-paste aesthetic with live jazz melodies. Their debut album, Remedies, has one foot firmly in the hip-hop camp (it samples Method Man and Ultramagnetic MCs, among others), but couldn’t be further from the ‘put your hands in the air’ nonsense of Kriss Kross and House Of Pain.
Rather, its jazz influences help create a soundscape that is brooding and cinematic, the stuff of nightcaps, not nightclubs, and helped set the stage for DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing… the following year, which proved trip-hop was ready for the big time. Remedies is rarely without a double bass, providing a constant workout for your system’s low-end handling, while its tempo changes will test its sense of timing.
The Herbaliser’s current line-up might look more like a team of plumbers than jazz revivalists, but Remedies is a reminder that sometimes it’s evolution, rather than imitation, which is the sincerest form of flattery.
Words by Joe Svetlik
Rancid – ...And Out Come The Wolves
If we were to judge 1995's albums on value alone, this one would beat out all competition for its 19 tracks that remain all killer, no filler 30 years on. As one of a quartet of American bands that reignited punk in the mid-’90s (along with Bad Religion, The Offspring and Green Day), Rancid's distinctly Anglophile love of ska revival and The Clash set them apart, with a sound best exemplified by the cracking Ruby Soho, Timebomb, Roots Radical, Old Friend… I could literally just write the tracklist here.
While this sort of bouncy, pacey punk could sound messy, simple but tidy production ensures the guitars of Tim Armstrong and Lars Frederikson, alternately skanking and power-chording, should be distinctly placed through the right system. All the while, Matt Freeman's fast but super-melodic basslines fly around yet anchor things in the most astonishing way – check out his playing on Journey To The End Of The East Bay. Heard through decent hi-fi, if each and every track on this album doesn't get your feet moving and put a massive smile on your face, I don't know what will.
Words by Chris Burke
Buy...And Out Come The Wolves on Amazon
Radiohead – The Bends
Every Radiohead album has its own character and reputation among fans: The King of Limbs for when you're feeling sad. Kid A for the casual musos. Amnesiac for the proper musos. Hail to the Thief is all about political disaffection. You're supposed to adore OK Computer. Don't talk about Pablo Honey.
Perhaps more than any of its esteemed companions, The Bends is a bit of a paradoxical oddity, birthing the angst-laden introspective that would take hold during OK Computer while still maintaining the guitar-centric indie soul found on the group's now-maligned debut record. While some self-styled experts urge you to treat it with the same disdain as poor old Pablo Honey, there's just no getting away from the doom-laden enjoyability The Bends brings. A colossally influential album in shaping the sound of post-2000 Brit-pop – for better or for worse – it's a constant stream of banger followed by banger followed by banger. From the raucous indulgence of the album's title track to the peerless, slightly tongue-in-cheek balladry of Fake Plastic Trees, it's a record that simply doesn't miss.
Words by Harry McKerrell
The Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
You'd be perfectly within your rights to associate The Smashing Pumpkins with the angst-driven, wall of noise sound that, to be extremely reductive, typified a certain cultural aspect of the 1990s. They're the sort of band who, to once again fall back into cliché, would accompany documentaries about angry teenagers or an MTV montage of the week's best skateboarding tricks.
Mellon Collie, however, is the Pumpkins in their full pomp, a lavish double album that sees the group's grungier alternative roots of Gish and Siamese Dream evolve into star-spanning theatricality. The guitars remain as loud as ever, but in come soaring strings, twinkling pianos and far more robust orchestration, all aided by the record's sumptuous, sparkling sense of scale.
The title's tortured pun still grates, but if you can get past that small hurdle, Mellon Collie is nothing but pure pleasure.
Words by Harry McKerrell
Buy Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness on Amazon
Blur – The Great Escape
Following on from 1994's Parklife can't have been easy. To many, the album's cover of two rapacious greyhounds absolutely hooning it around the bend of a sandy racecourse remains the defining image of the entire '90s, especially if you spent the decade in a Fred Perry polo and bucket hat wallowing in the hazy days of Britpop-mania.
This was, of course, the year that What's the Story, Morning Glory? landed. Oasis's mammoth effort continues to be the favourite record of many nostalgic lovers of the period, but for our money, The Great Escape is a more innovative and eclectic record work useful courtesy of the likes of The Universal, Charmless Man and Fade Away. If you're seeking a Britpop test record, this is the one to go for.
Words by Harry McKerrell
Buy The Great Escape on Amazon
Mr. Bungle – Disco Volante
Fronted by Mike Patton of Faith No More fame, Mr. Bungle is a band that’s unashamedly obtuse with its willingness to jump genres, experiment and generally be weird, and its 1995 album Disco Volante is a great showcase of why this makes it such an exciting group to listen to. The bass-heavy opener Everyone I Went to High School is Dead is probably the most normal song on the album, but even this sounds like what would happen if a Doom Metal band collaborated with Gene from Bob’s Burgers.
It doesn't take long for things to rapidly escalate, starting with the almost trip-hoppy beats in Carry Stress in the Jaw before ending on the outright schizophrenia jazz-come-hammer horror show Platypus. Make no mistake, this album is an outright assault on the senses from start to finish that will stress test your nerves and hi-fi system in equal measure. While that may put some people off, I love it for its willful belligerence in the face of songwriting convention and ability to continue to surprise me all these years later.
Words by Alastair Stevenson
Björk – Post
![Björk - Post (1995) Full Album [HQ] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Y0WO2Km-r94/maxresdefault.jpg)
"Again? Another fawning Björk mention?" says the baying crowd that, for now at least, exists predominantly in my mind. "Give it a rest, won't you?".
To that I simply say: "No".
Everything that Björk does is amazing, whether it's her early work with the Sugarcubes, her ever-evolving solo output or just the Icelandic superstar taking apart her television set and talking about its internal circuitry. What an absolute legend she is.
Many consider Post to be peak Björk, though with a catalogue so varied it's nigh-on impossible to pick a singular creative apex. Maybe it's best simply to be diplomatic in stating that the 1995 release is many fans' favourite album, a break-neck sightseeing tour that starts with the sledgehammer attack of Army of Me, stops off at the superlative Hyperballad, explodes back into life with It's Oh So Quiet and is rounded off beautifully with Possibly Maybe and Cover Me.
Pick one, pick them all, just as long as you pick something from Post.
Words by Harry McKerrell
Leftfield – Leftism
In an epic year for dance music, 1995 saw the release of Chemical Brothers' Exit Planet Dust and Goldie's groundbreaking drum'n'bass opus Timeless, just for starters, but it's Leftfield's debut that best encapsulates a time that had so many smiley-wearing indie-rock kids gurning all hours.
A shrewdly judged mix of trance, soul, progressive house, deep dub bass and even punk rock, it remains an album of bangers and a great test of a system for its ability to track instrumental strands, even as genres collide, sometimes dramatically. Take Open Up, featuring John Lydon's trademark sneering, snarling punk vocals combined with a deep, churning bassline, relentless floor-filling hi-hats and Middle-Eastern inspired melodies, shot through with a gloriously relentless groove.
Curve's indie songstress Toni Halliday's swooning, noir vocals attractively decorate the dubby Original, with its scratchy snare, swirling synths and a kitchen sink's worth of electronic experimentalism. Take time to really listen to everything that's going on in Release The Pressure and the wibbling modulations of Song For Life; if your kit is up to it, it will squeegee your mind clean, even 30 years on.
Words by Chris Burke
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