So, the last blog post was about re-working my favourite albums of 1994. I had so much fun writing that one, I decided to re-visit 1995. This time, I'm not bound by any list I created 31 years ago, so this is going to be a list of the albums from that year that have grown with me. And there were a lot of amazing albums that came out 31 years ago.
First off, maybe you know this but Oasis' "(What's The Story) Morning Glory?" is my favourite album of all time, thus it is my favourite album of 1995. So it gets the elevated pass. It's like the CEO on the top of the org chart and, therefore, I'm not going to put it on this list. Sweet, already breaking non-existent rules I've set for myself. So, this is the best of the rest so they say, and maybe I'll expand the list to 15 just for shits and giggles. But I really need a list of 30. Hmm, okay, we will do this, but only because I've neglected the blog for so long and it's supposed to be a writing outlet.
1995 was the year I graduated from high school and started university. A "transition" year if you will. And all these albums helped with that transition. And they still help today. As an aside, the first album I bought at university was Lenny Kravitz's "Circus" and it did not make the list of 30...crazy but I recently found the cassette for $3, listened to it for the first time in 30 years, and gotta say it's an uneven album. Lenny really leaned into irony on "Rock and Roll Is Dead", but did he need to make that track so dour and serious?
Also, I think Candlebox's "Lucy" was the second or third CD I bought at university. Their debut is super solid, one of my fave debut albums of all time. Lead single "Simple Lessons" was also pretty awesome, despite the lack of a guitar solo. So I was excited for "Lucy". And unfortunately it did not meet my expectations. So, it also did not make the list.
Also x 2, lots of people like The Presidents Of The United States Of America (the band). I am not one of these people. The first time I heard the song "Lump" I was like no. When I heard "Peaches" I was like hell no. So, this one did not make the list either. Anyway.
Remember my de-facto #1 is "WTSMG" by Oasis (it is the CEO of my musical hierarchy) so this is why it is not on the list. There is a whole blog post devoted to this album, it might be the second blog post I ever wrote, if you are so inclined.
Let's get on with the list!
30. "You'd Prefer An Astronaut" - Hum. I like all the albums this band has released and I hate to be the person that calls out the hit single, but goddamn "Stars" nails the quiet/loud dynamic so well and still kicks so much ass.
29. "Balance" - Van Halen. This was the first VH album I ever bought and while some people dislike this one, I gotta say, it has a lot of killer tracks. "Not Enough" is such an amazing power ballad, and you should listen to me as I'm a power ballad aficionado.
28. "A Boy Named Goo" - Goo Goo Dolls. Again, lots of people like to pick on the GGD, but they have a lot of solid tracks, many from this album. "Name" was the big track here. In the 90's, every rock / alt rock band (unless your name is Rage Against The Machine or Tool) needed a ballad, preferably with acoustic guitars to appeal to like everyone. Hey, every band likely wants one of their songs to be played in a grocery store. That said, "Naked" is still my favourite track on this album and I feel it does not get enough love (it does not even appear on the GGD's Greatest Hits album, come on, GGD!).
27. "To Bring You My Love" - PJ Harvey. How good is the song "Down By The Water"? So good. Yes, I'm calling out the hit single again. This was my first taste of PJ Harvey and is still a great listen.
26. "The Woman In Me" - Shania Twain. I fully credit my sisters for getting me into this one, and, come on, "No One Needs To Know" is on the "Twister" soundtrack and everyone loves that movie. I think it was years later I realized that Shania's songs sounded like countrified Def Leppard, and that made me enjoy her music more.
25. "100% Fun" - Matthew Sweet. Such great power pop. I have been re-visiting this album a lot lately and the closing tune "Smog Moon" is a gem. It is a ballad, yet nary an acoustic guitar can be found, which is likely why it wasn't huge and doesn't get played in the grocery store. Still, get it on your playlists stat!
24. "Medusa" - Annie Lennox. I love Annie Lennox. Yes, this is a covers album, but Annie makes the tunes her own. Also, "No More I Love You's" is such a super weird single but it works in all the best ways possible. Ah, the 90's.
23. "One Hot Minute" - Red Hot Chili Peppers. This was the first RHCP album I ever bought. Have I ever told you I lived in the wilderness era and neglected music between the years 1989 and 1991? I missed a lot of seminal albums, including "Blood Sugar Sex Magic". This is their only album with Dave Navarro. I like this, but to be honest, my fandom of RHCP has fallen off in recent years, so it's harder to connect with their material. Still, this album has "My Friends", so that RHCP could also jump on that 90's ballad train.
22. "Mirror Ball" - Neil Young. Pearl Jam joins as Uncle Neil's backing band and the results are ramshackle and rocking. I just picked up the vinyl reissue and I forgot how good this record is.
21. "Post" - Bjork. "Hyper Ballad" is my favourite Bjork song of all time and the rest of this record also delivers. "Enjoy" is such a jam.
20. "Grand Prix" - Teenage Fanclub. This band was not on my radar in 1995. But "About You" is the best song The Hollies never wrote. Super solid jangle pop (my family still does not believe this is an actual genre of music).
19. "Alice In Chains" - Alice In Chains. I like this album, but sometimes I find it difficult to listen to, which is why it is not higher on the list, even though the cover shot is quite memorable.
18. "The Great Escape" - Blur. This is the second or third album I bought at university. As mentioned in the previous blog post, hearing "The Universal" broke my hatred of Blur. That said, this album is somewhat uneven, IMHO, but the highs soar above the clouds.
17. "Insomniac" - Green Day. Is "Walking Contradiction" one of their most underrated singles? I think it is. I feel they made a conscious decision to be less commercial on this one, but it's a solid album which I spin more than "Dookie" but less than "Warning".
16. "Collective Soul" - Collective Soul. Did he really put Collective Soul ahead of the heavy hitters above? Yes, he did. This album is still so super solid. And the band played homecoming at Guelph for our first year and I'll always respect them for that. Also, Canada's Rusty opened and their album "Fluke" is an honorable mention for best of 1995. This album doubles down on the acoustic ballads with two that were released as singles, including one that incorporates strings. This is also CS' best selling album. I rest my case.
Like Bon Jovi sang, we're halfway there. If you aren't bored yet, I invite you to read on!
15. "On" - Echobelly. I spin this album once a month. "King Of The Kerb" is what dreams are made of, and if I still could make mixtapes, I'd put "Go Away" on all of them.
14. "Stanley Road" - Paul Weller. Paul Weller was also not on my radar in 1995, besides being part of Oasis' "Champagne Supernova" in some capacity and duetting with Noel Gallagher on "Talk Tonight" on some "White Room" performance from a free cassette I got from Q Magazine in 1995 (RIP Q Magazine). But Paul Weller has been on my radar since 2008; he is now one of my favourite artists, and this album has aged like fine wine.
13. "Soup" - Blind Melon. Such an unfairly maligned band...in no universe should they be "one hit wonders". One, their debut is solid. Two, "Walk" is so, so good and, three, "Galaxie" legit was on every mixtape I made in the 90's.
12. "Foo Fighters" - Foo Fighters. The start of a 30+ year career I don't think anyone saw coming. I just saw FF in Toronto this summer and I forgot how many good songs they have. This debut is so assured, even though it is a glorified demo. "For All The Cows" rules.
11. "...And Out Come The Wolves" - Rancid. Old people reading this: did you ever have a blank tape at the ready so you could stealth tape a song you liked off the radio? "Ruby Soho" was that song for me in December 1995. This album still kicks so much ass.
It's time to break into the Top 10!
10. "A Northern Soul" - The Verve. Title track rules, as does "This Is Music" and "A New Decade". And they sneak in an acoustic ballad ("On Your Own"), plus a symphonic acoustic ballad ("History") between extended jams. Note, both these ballads were released as singles.
9. "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" - Smashing Pumpkins (or is it The Smashing Pumpkins?). This was a very fertile period in SP's career. "The Aeroplane Flies High" boxset of b-sides is killer. However, as with any 28 track double album, there is filler here, but like "The Great Escape" the highs SOAR. Example: "Bodies"? Underrated and amazing.
8. "Jagged Little Pill" - Alanis Morissette. Crashed towards the earth like the meteor in "Armageddon" and still gives a visceral thrill listening today, even if the examples of irony are questionable. Wait, is that ironic?
7. "Above" - Mad Season. Of the two AIC-related records released in 1995, this one has grown with me more. Bluesy, dark, uplifting, a real showcase for Mike McCready's guitar and Layne Staley's lyrics.
6. "A Different Class" - Pulp. If someone asked me to define Britpop by one song, I'd pick "Common People". This is lightning in a bottle stuff. And Jarvis Cocker is one of the coolest people on the planet. While I'm glad I was 19 when this album came out, I finally saw Pulp last year live and I'm happy to report that hearing "Common People" live at age 49 with 16,000 others singing along still hits in the same way.
Before we hit the top 5, we will pause for some honorable mentions:
- Aforementioned "Fluke" by Rusty. Just reissued on vinyl so I can re-visit it regularly!
- "Up" - Great Big Sea. Great Canadian band that I had the pleasure of seeing multiple times in university. This is true "feel good" music.
- "Return Of The Rentals" - The Rentals. Matt Sharp from Weezer's side project that created some super catchy jams like "Friends Of P" (just put it on a playlist the other day)
- "The Ghost Of Tom Joad" - Bruce Springsteen. I wasn't yet in my Springsteen immersion phase, that took another 5 years. I respect this album even if I can't fully get into it.
- "Misery" & "Just Like Anyone" - Soul Asylum (from "Let Your Dim Light Shine"). "Frustrated Incorporated" from the former, genius wordplay and the latter had an awesome video featuring Claire Danes sprouting wings.
- "Fire In The Head", "The Bazaar", "Sister Awake" - The Tea Party (from "The Edges Of Twilight"). Great live band and IMHO a great singles band. Can't really get into their albums except maybe "Transmission". Still, these three tunes are very good.
- "Side Of The Road" - Blue Rodeo (from "Nowhere To Here"). One of my favourite Blue Rodeo songs, but following up "5 Days In July" would always be tough.
5. "Infernal Love" - Therapy? This is a dark masterpiece. I have listened to this album consistently for 31 years and my least favourite songs are actually the singles, "Loose" and "Diane" (lead single "Stories" does rule and I would love to name my still not finished novel "Happy People Have No Stories". Alas, I'm writing the blog instead of the book). The rest...it's so weird in a great way, and a departure from "Troublegum" in almost every sense. Except the dark lyrics. "Me vs. You" is my dark horse favourite on this one - menacing and like "Stars" totally nails the quiet/loud dynamic.
4. "Elastica" - Elastica. So much fun. I think it's 16 tracks in like 38 minutes. This is a killer debut that they never properly followed-up on. I mean, "The Menace" was not good. But this album = pure gold. Lightning in the bottle once again. Did they rip off other artists? As an Oasis fan, I don't really care if they did, as they painted everything with their own brush.
3. "Garbage" - Garbage. Speaking of amazing debuts...Garbage has been one of my favourite bands for 30+ years because of this album. Many years ago, there was an Instagram tag going around in the vinyl community where you had to post your 10 most influential albums without explanation. This was one of mine, mostly because it introduced me to different genres of music...for an almost exclusive, guitar-music loving person like me, it was a real eye-opener.
2. "The Bends" - Radiohead. Simply one of the best guitar rock albums ever made (after #3 on my list, is this ironic?).
1. "These Days" - Bon Jovi. I have written two lengthy posts on Bon Jovi, explaining my "complicated" relationship with them. Maybe I need to do a third now that I'm back in blogging mode. In 1995, Bon Jovi were my favourite band and while Oasis has surpassed them and "WTSMG" did surpass this album in 1995, "These Days" is my favourite Bon Jovi record, in my top 10 of all-time, and is a musical path I wish they would have ventured down for the rest of their career. While some of the songs still ooze with cheese, many are introspective, with great lyrics and amazing Richie Sambora guitar solos. The CD singles from this era focus on spectacular live versions from the Bon Jovi catalogue. 1995-96 are their peak live years. At any rate, this album is still great, and the title track is one of my all time favourite songs.
So that is 1995. Looking back, this may be one of my favourite music years. This top 30 is stacked and I didn't even include albums by No Doubt, Hayden, Moby, The Cardigans, Supergrass or The Chemical Brothers. Wow. Also, you may note the lack of hip hop on this list. In 1995, I was all about rock music, but you will see some different genres in future lists, I promise.
Can I do some random rambling about other awesome music stuff that came out in 1995? It's my blog so of course I can. One, I gotta talk about Def Leppard's first greatest hits album, "Vault 1980-1995" because the "new" song on the comp, "When Love And Hate Collide" is one of the best "new" songs on any greatest hits album, and also re-established their relevance in the mid-90's, which they threw away when they released "Slang" in 1996 (no shade from me, I really like this album). "WLAHC" is a ballad, of course AND has some strings. People, this is not a coincidence.
The best "new" songs on greatest hits albums (as curated by Ted):
- "Mary Jane's Last Dance" - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
- "Always" & "Someday I'll Be Saturday Night" - Bon Jovi
- "Not The Girl You Think You Are" - Crowded House
- "Again" - Lenny Kravitz
- "Changes" - 2Pac
- "Electrical Storm" & "The Sweetest Thing" - U2
- "Murder Incorporated" - Bruce Springsteen
Also, the best soundtrack of 1995 is "Empire Records". Just so many great songs by so many great bands. Also, the movie is great.
The blog has been revitalized and I feel there will be a 1996 retrospective coming soon.
Until next time...
