After a brief detour through delightful jangle pop territory, 1990 brings back the noise with Fugazi’s Repeater.
The Washington, D.C-based band is described as “post-hardcore,” which basically mean hardcore punk with a little more thought put in. It still sounds like a whole lot of screaming and thrashing to me. I wonder about the mental and emotional state of somebody who finds comfort or release in music like this.
Now this is more my style.
Liverpool-based The La’s released their first and last album in 1990. The self-titled record is one of those you hear described as the best album you’ve never heard of.
The dozen jangle pop songs on The La’s sound like they could have been released three decades earlier, when another group of spunky Liverpudlians were about to take over the world.
I’m traveling back in time to 1990 again this week, with better results, I hope. Last week’s batch of critically-acclaimed albums leaned toward the loud and anti-melodic. Was this pop culture’s reaction to the Reagan years?
Kicking off this week is another loud and anti-melodic album, but one from a group I admire and at least occasionally enjoy. Public Enemy followed up their seminal 1988 album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back with Fear of a Black Planet, another burst of righteous defiance.
Sonic Youth belongs in a category of classic bands that are just too loud for me to ever get into. I’ve heard nothing but praise for the work of (one-time) married couple Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon but the music I’ve heard is just too damn noisy.
1990’s Goo, the band’s sixth studio album, is one of their most acclaimed (along with its predecessor, 1988’s Daydream Nation. Even so, I don’t hear a lot on it that grabs me.
After Cocteau Twins and Ride, Jane’s Addiction feels downright conventional, in a good way. I was never a big fan of Perry Farrell’s alternative rock band but I could see the anarchic appeal.
The band’s second album, Ritual De Lo Habitual, was released in 1990 to critical acclaim and strong sales. It turned out to be their last album before their first breakup, as drugs and egos drove the band apart.
Meet Me In Montauk 