30 out of 30: Thirty albums celebrating their 30th anniversary this year

By creammagazine, November 19, 2024

Music in the 1990s was visceral and brilliant all at once. So many great, vivid albums whose songs were packed with meaning and substance, memorable melodies, and sincere verse.

Nineteen ninety-four, in particular, saw an avalanche of musical brilliance wash over the airwaves, some optimistic in title (Parklife, Vitalogy, Grace), occasionally moving into doubt (Definitely Maybe, Live Through This), followed by outright dystopia (The Downward Spiral, Music For the Jilted Generation) whose darkness only drove us back to the jaunty Britpop and freshman American sonics.

If the lyrical lick “I live my life for the stars that shine” or the hip-hop play on words Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age meant something to you, read on.

Cream presents 30 awesome and awe-inspiring LPs that celebrate their 30th anniversaries in 2024. Some of their birthdays have passed, some will be rounding the year off, but all are classic samples from an archive of excellent music.

If you didn’t own a whole bunch of these titles growing up (or didn’t manage to nick them from your Mum’s tasteful CD collection), now’s the time to start downloading or hunting them down on vinyl.

Compiled by Antonino Tati, Lisa Andrews & Michael Mastess

 

PEARL JAM

Vitalogy

From the band who epitomised everything grunge and noir about the ’90s, Pearl Jam cultivated drama, disease, death and despair, and preserved them in one tainted, cracked jar of vital tunes. Still kicking on after all these years, the band have released 12 studio albums to date, but none of them compare to this tome of riff-heavy, mercurial must-hear songs.

 

NINE INCH NAILS

The Downward Spiral

Trent Reznor was still very much an underground character on the music circuit when he released this NIN standout album (that is way before he became on online and film soundtrack big-wig). ‘The Downward Spiral’, as its name suggested, took the listener on a journey of debauchery and debasement, best summed up in the chorus of ‘Closer’: ‘I wanna fuck you like an animal’, he insists. ‘You bring me closer to God.’ What did they say in the Bible about taking the Lord’s name in vain?

 

OASIS

Definitely Maybe

At the peak of the ’90s Britpop explosion, two bands battled for space at the top of the charts, and for headlines: Blur, who were pipped to the post by Oasis, mainly because while the former’s frontman looked like he’d enjoy a cuppa with your Mum, the latter’s Gallagher brothers kept the rock shenanigans a-rolling… just like they sang on ‘Rock’n’Roll Star’ from this here perennial LP. Maybe the biggest British band to enjoy a comeback in 2024? Nah, definitely.

 

BLUR

Parklife

Summarising suburban life in England most aptly, Blur’s ‘Parklife’ was full of pub-type sing-a-long tunes including the “’ere-we-go-’ere-we-go”-like title track and patriotic songs bathed in irony, such as ‘London Loves’, ‘Bank Holiday’ and ‘Magic America’. Our pick of the bunch? The gender-bending mindfuck of infectious fun that is ‘Girls & Boys’ that sounded like a soundtrack to a twisted Contiki holiday and that Pet Shops Boys had the pleasure of turning into brilliant club-catered bliss.

 

Building to a crashing ode to the life of a fucked-up rock star, tongue firmly planted in cheek with its repeating fade-out ‘I’m dying/I’m dying/I’m dying/I’m dying’.

 

SUEDE

Dog Man Star

Too fey or two-faced, it didn’t matter when the music was this good. Suede’s second LP starts with live-like rumbling bass in ‘Introducing the Band’, building to a crashing ode to the life of a fucked-up rock star, tongue firmly planted in cheek with its repeating fade-out ‘I’m dying/I’m dying/I’m dying/I’m dying’. The rest is rip-roaring unadulterated rock that recalls Bowie at his ’70s best and The Smiths at their ’80s damnedest.

 

PUBLIC ENEMY

Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age

With a title that plays on the words “music in our message”, America’s most political rap outfit pointed the finger (gun even) at just about everyone, even dissing gangsta rappers while challenging the black community to confront its problems on an album that’s as infectious in beats as it is impressive in rhymes.

 

THE PRODIGY

Music For the Jilted Generation

Taking dance music, holding it by the neck, and injecting a good dose of punk into its jugular; that’s what The Prodigy’s sophomore album sounded like it was doing. And the kids couldn’t help raving to it, especially to infectious tunes like ‘Voodoo People’, ‘Poison’ and ‘No Good (Start the Dance)’, the latter being so hooky, it made you do so instantly.

 

UNDERWORLD

Dubnobasswithmyheadman

Winning the award for wackiest album title, ‘Dubnobasswithmyheadman’ went beyond ironic semantics to deliver a brilliant, unique brand of dance music. Put it this way: if punters thought Underworld would ever go pop again – a la ‘Underneath the Radar’ – those thoughts were quickly quashed by the way-hard beats and dizzying synths of this album.

 

WEEN

Chocolate and Cheese

Prior to making this album, Dean and Gene Ween were notorious (only just) for releasing rusty four-track home recordings that were barely listenable even by the most avid of indie music fans. But throw in some decent time in a slick recording studio, and hold on to a bit of that DIY ethos, and Chocolate and Cheese saw them crossing over (only just) to the mainstream. The titles of the songs alone will put you in the bizarre postmodern picture: ‘Don’t Shit Where You Eat’, ‘Spinal Meningitis’ and ‘The HIV Song’ being the harshest – and yet, the most likeable.

 

REM

Monster

With the frequency dead-set on college radio, REM kept their indie swing with an album packed with raw-sounding six-strings, slick percussion, and the occasional distorted synth. From the bump and grind of ‘King of Comedy’ to the Freudian piss-taking, fuel-injected ‘Circus Envy’, we spent hours reading between the lines between the riffs. Our pick of the bunch, though, would have to be ‘Crush With Eyeliner’ – a subtle dig on Michael Stipe’s behalf to ex-lover and all-round troublemaker, Courtney Love.

 

Who could have anything negative to say about Tori’s first big hit ‘Cornflake Girl’, what with all its warped lyrics that take the listener down the proverbial rabbit hole but, ultimately, up into sonic heaven. 

 

TORI AMOS

Under The Pink

Don’t judge a record from its first bits of twinkling piano. Once the delicate opener ‘Pretty Good Year’ sighs to an end, it’s back to the grit and grind. ‘God’ is a daring ‘up-yours’ to the big man upstairs (‘God, sometimes you just don’t come through; do you need a woman to look after you?’) while ‘Past the Mission’ is like Kate Bush on a funky bent. And who could have anything negative to say about Tori’s first big hit ‘Cornflake Girl’, what with all its warped lyrics that take the listener down the proverbial rabbit hole but, ultimately, up into sonic heaven. 

 

KORN

Korn

The eponymous debut album by Korn helped posit ‘nu metal’ firmly on the mainstream music map. Odd for its constant reference to two controversial themes – drug use and child abuse – ‘Korn’ nonetheless kept metal-heads jumping up and down in mosh-pits the world over; fists in the air even though half the lyrics went over their whacked-out heads.

 

HOLE

Live Through This

No female artist got into more strife in the ’90s than Hole’s Courtney Love. Kurt Cobain one-time partner proved she didn’t need the Nirvana god on board to make cutting-edge music, herself injecting a good dose of oestrogen into an otherwise male-dominated grunge soundscape. From the sonic ultraviolence of ‘Violet’ right through to the self-deprecating autobiography of ‘Rock Star’, there was plenty on here to rip your hair out to.

 

SOUNDGARDEN

Superunknown

Certainly a departure from the hand’s earlier albums, ‘Superunknown’ drew from a diverse range of musical influences – namely heavy metal, glam rock, even punk-turned-pop (‘My Wave’). The killer pick of a damned good lot would have to be hit single ‘Black Hole Sun’ – which, sonically and lyrically, singlehandedly summed up a decade of global warming despair, Y2K scare tactics, and dark, twisted noir.

 

TUPAC

Thug Life: Volume 1

Undoubtedly the rawest, grittiest, and most critical hip-hop heard to date. Standout tracks include ‘Cradle to the Grave’ (the artist tragically inching his way closer to one), ‘Pour Out a Little Liquor’ (which appeared on the soundtrack to the 1994 film Above The Rim), and ‘How Long Will They Mourn Me?’ Well, the answer to that last one is very.

 

POWDERFINGER

Parables for Wooden Ears

From the very first moody strings, ‘Parables’ sounds like a warning of two things: that grunge wasn’t going anywhere fast, and that Australian music was about to go through a major makeover. Some critics complained about the album’s fixation on emulating an American ‘garage band’, but we firmly believe frontman Bernard Fanning’s Aussie twang kept things nationalistic enough. It did, in the end, inspire an army of peers including Silverchari, Jet, and Perth’s Eskimo Joe.

 

JEFF BUCKLEY

Grace

Believe it or not, this was the only complete studio album by Jeff Buckley before his untimely death by drowning (tragically following the dead of his father, Tim, by suicide). Ethereal to the point of haunting, ‘Grace’ gets as close to religious-sounding as can without going full Christian. Every second of the album is touching. From ‘Hallelujah’ to ‘Corpus Christi Carol’, ‘Eternal Life’ to ‘Last Goodbye’, spirit and soul abound throughout. And then there’s ‘So Real’, a ballad that scarred the psyches of even the toughest of dudes.

 

Now, if Madge would only get more onboard with getting “unconscious, honey” these days, we might hear more decent recordings from her instead of being subjected to all that TikTokking.

 

MADONNA

Bedtime Stories

Upon meeting kooky songstress Björk, Madonna got the Icelandic queen to contribute lyrics to a couple of songs for this here album and inspire a lot of the rest of it, seeing it transform into an altogether ‘deeper subconsciously layered’ recording than her previous pop offerings. Now, if Madge would only get more onboard with getting “unconscious, honey” these days, we might hear more decent recordings from her instead of being subjected to all that TikTokking.

 

PORTISHEAD

Dummy

Trip-hop was a big term in the ’90s, but where most of it was of a gritty, testosterone-fuelled sort (Tricky, Massive Attack), Portishead’s Beth Gibbons lent the genre a sensitive touch. Songs like ‘Numb’, ‘Glory Box’ and ‘Sour Times’ proved that bittersweet music can be beautiful. The perfect album to play while pottering around the house on a Sunday while regretting having gone hard on the gin the night before.

 

THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G.

Ready to Die

Nineteen-ninety-four seemed to be the year for massive debut records by rap artists who left a greater indelible mark after their untimely deaths: Tupac and Biggie being the key names to drop here. ‘Ready to Die’ was as much an awesome audio autobiography as it was a spooky omen. Even spookier is the fact that Biggie was murdered just days prior to the release of this record’s follow-up, that is the just as eerily titled ‘Life After Death’.

 

And THESE EXCELLENT TEN…

MASSIVE ATTACK Protection

NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS Let Love In

PINK FLOYD The Division Bell

SAINT ETIENNE Tiger Bay

LAURIE ANDERSON Bright Red

KYLIE MINOGUE Kylie Minogue

SMASHING PUMPKINS Pisces Iscariot

BEASTIE BOYS Ill Communication

TLC CrazySexyCool

BECK Mellow Gold