Came here to post about this book. Genuinely changed my life discovering Will Oldham, Smog etc. through this book.
I’m still discovering new stuff through it even now!
Are we allowed EPs?
Is so, Bleach by Nirvana is a good place to start.
Orbital - Insides
Chemical Brothers - the first three albums
Primal Scream - XTRMNTR
NIN - The Fragile
Deftones - White Pony
Massive Attack - The first three albums
Marilyn Manson - Mechanical Animals
Underworld - dubnobasswithmyheadman
Deltron 3030 - 3030
Godspeed… - Lift yr Skinny Fists
1989 (Great EP though)
My go to answers for underrated 90s albums.
Prolapse - The Italian Flag
Five years later it might have done alright but 1997 wasn’t the time to release a double album mixing ambient soundscapes and jarring, spiky guitars with duelling female/angry Scothman vocalists.
Drugstore - Drugstore
Sublime indie guitar pop.
His Name is Alive - Home is in Your Head.
Could’ve been any one of their 4AD albums really. Unclassifiable genre mashups given the 4AD art-production sheen despite their own best efforts.
Seefeel - Succour
If you like Loveless, this is essential.
Definitely this. Although I might recommend Distance or Chorus as more immediate starting points. All great though.
Would probably go for Quique by Seefeel (if you like Loveless) rather than Succour (which is much more metallic and clanking).
TBH, the 90s are so absolutely riddled with good music, I couldn’t even start to list it all.
A good portion of 90s post-rock and more experimental indie was summarised in this double CD, which I would say is an excellent springboard to that side of things:
Wow. That is an excellent selection. Those first few Third Eye Foundation albums are so good.
Spiritualized - Lazer Guided Melodies
Eels - Electro-Shock Blues
You can get it pretty cheap these days. Virgin were absolutely awesome at double CDs around that time.
You had the Ambient IV Isolationism compilation:
then four doubles accompanying David Toop’s Ocean of Sound book, each dealing with different themes and all as continuous mixes):
Ocean of Sound (just music and sound in general, all mixed together):
Booming on Pluto (early electronica):
Guitars on Mars (guitars!):
Crooning on Venus (vocals):
Despite the constraints of the themes, they are genre busting in a way that I can’t imagine many would bother to release these days.
Nice one. Always remember the title of Crooning on Venus for some reason but not the others.
Never heard of this and can’t find a picture of the cover in high enough resolution to read the band names properly but might take a punt on it
Loads have already been mentioned, but of the ones that haven’t…
PJ Harvey - all of her 90s albums are essential imo, but To Bring You My Love is my favourite
Mogwai - Young Team
Leftfield - Leftism
Slint - Spiderland
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing…
Dirty Three - Ocean Songs
Robert Wyatt - Shleep
Goldie - Timeless
Talk Talk - Laughing Stock
Six By Seven - The Things We Make
Sparklehorse - Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot
And then there’s the obvious band that I guess nobody’s mentioning for max indie points…?
There isn’t nearly enough electronic music on there (Autechre, The Black Dog, Nightmares On Wax, The Orb, Orbital, Plaid, Underworld and more are arguably more important/relevant than some of the indie picks) but that’s a really decent 90s starter list.
Also no Mogwai which is a colossal oversight.
Such an extreme decade, when things really opened up I feel. Anything bubbling under the surface or with ideas blossoming in the 80s just came out full force by 99. Something which I feel slowed in the 00s, probably because where else could they go?
Iris Dement