Continuing my look at the year 1991 in music, I’ll now count down my personal top ten albums of that year.
At #10 is U2’s Achtung Baby, the band’s seventh studio album and the first proper follow-up (setting aside the soundtrack album Rattle and Hum) to 1987’s classic The Joshua Tree.
Achtung Baby was a massive hit, with 18 million copies sold worldwide, second only to The Joshua Tree among their discography.
Hard to believe it’s already two years since Aimee Mann released her last album, the gorgeously melancholy Mental Illness. This was the sweetest, saddest Aimee Mann album an Aimee Mann fan could ever hope for.
Mann’s lyrics are always beautifully evocative even when they’re maddeningly inscrutable. Today’s SOTD, ‘Philly Sinks,’ appears to be about a man who abuses both alcohol and women, but that’s just a guess.
This is a very timely Random Weekend selection, as Eminem’s 1999 The Slim Shady LP celebrated its 20th anniversary exactly one week ago.
This was Eminem’s second full-length album and his first with Interscope records. While his debut album, 1996’s Infinite, sold only 1,000 copies, this record was a massive success, going quadruple platinum and kicking off a period where he was the most talked about and listened to rapper in the industry.
Nirvana is the grunge act that receives most of the credit for popularizing the genre, but fellow Seattle band Pearl Jam was just as successful and influential. The band’s 1991 debut, Ten, is neck-and-neck with Nevermind in terms of domestic album sales, both topping 10 million.
I love several tracks on Ten, including ‘Black,’ ‘Evenflow,’ ‘Alive’ and today’s SOTD, hit single ‘Jeremy.’ The rest of the cuts are either a little too loud, a little too meandering, or both.
Red Hot Chili Peppers’ breakthrough 1991 album Blood Sugar Sex Magik sold 7 million copies in the U.S. and doubled that worldwide. It was the commercial peak of a career that has been remarkably consistent. I was surprised to see that every one of the half-dozen albums they’ve released since this one has gone Gold or Platinum.
I’ve never been much of a Chili Peppers fan, but I gave this album a lot of attention in 1991. If you’re in the mood for the band’s brand of L.A. soulful funk, this record is a minor masterpiece.
Meet Me In Montauk 