Now that I’ve counted down the (very few) 1990 albums that mean something to me, I turn my attention to the ones I don’t know, or don’t know well.
I scoured as many critics’ lists as I could and narrowed the list down to ten albums that appear on all or most of them.
THe album that showed up the most, by far, was Depeche Mode’s Violator. The seventh studio album by the British New Wave act was not just a critical hut but also the best seller in their 35+ year career.
Every few years I remind my readers that I have a soft spot for the band Hanson, particularly their 2000 album This Time Around. This time, the Random iTunes Fairy did the honors.
Scoff all you want, but if you haven’t listed to this infectious batch of power pop and melodic ballads, do yourself a favor and give it a try. Lead singer Taylor Hanson, in particular, is a true talent. In 2009, he formed the supergroup Tinted Windows with another wickedly good pop songwriter, Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger, and members of Cheap Trick and Smashing Pumpkins.
When the Random Weekend iTunes Fairy offers up a stone-cold classic by an artist I have covered exhaustively, I assume — after 3,164 Songs of the Day — it will be a repeat.
But somehow, despite spending a full year on Bob Dylan Weekends, I have never posted his version of ‘All Along the Watchtower.’
As I wrote at the beginning of the week, I had a hard time coming up with five 1990 albums for this list. But I had no problem coming up with my #1, Paul Simon’s The Rhythm of the Saints.
Following up the all-time classic Graceland four years later was no easy task, but Simon delivered, creating an album that similarly married world music with his plaintive melodies.
My second favorite album of 1990 is Sinead O’Connor’s sophomore release, the worldwide smash I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. This was O’Connor’s second album, following the fierce The Lion and the Cobra, but the first impression many of us had of this remarkable talent.
Who can forget that impossibly beautiful porcelain face and bald head singing ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ against a black background on MTV?
Meet Me In Montauk 