Other than Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, the rap album that showed up on the most year-end lists in 1992 was The Pharcyde’s Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde.
This is the debut album of a Los Angeles rap band that still performs today even though their last album came out a decade ago. in contrast to Dre’s focus on drugs and gang-banging, this album (and group) lean more toward ribald humor.
This trip back to 1992 has resulted in the same experience on repeat — encountering an album by a band I know very well by name but not at all by sound.
Sonic Youth and Thurston Moore sound as familiar to me as The Lemonheads and Evan Dando, but again I can’t name a single song. I know that Moore sang backup on R.E.M.’s Monster, an acknowledgement of his band’s influence on the Athens alt-rockers.
The Lemonheads are familiar to me by name, if not by sound. And the name of bandleader Evan Dando is extremely familiar despite my knowing none of his music. I guess these are just things you pick up by osmosis.
The Lemonheads’ fifth album, It’s a Shame About Ray, was one of the most celebrated releases of 1992, praised as one of the era’s finest alternative pop-rock records.
It’s a bit of a cheat to list Tori Amos’ debut album Little Earthquakes this week, because the album isn’t new to me. In fact, when it came out I was convinced it was close to a masterpiece.
But Amos lost me somewhere down the line… perhaps on her sophomore album, Under the Pink. Not only did I never own another of her records, but I haven’t listened to this one since the year it came out.
Another celebrated 1992 debut album, Pavement’s Slanted and Enchanted is considered one of the most influential alternative rock records of the decade.
I actually own this album — having downloaded it for free somewhere along the way — but I’ve never played it. I’ve always had a bit of a struggle getting into early alt-rockers. R.E.M. is the notable exception.
Meet Me In Montauk 