50 Years Of MyTunes: 1991

1991 was a great year for new music. Three albums tied for best IMHO:

Blood Sugar Sex Magik by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They dedicated their fifth album to Mike Watt, which was way cool of them. I didn't realize that somebody made a film called Funky Monks about the making of this album. Favorite song: Give It Away.

Out Of Time by R.E.M. After watching these guys rise so slowly for so long it was nice to see them score big commercially with this one. Stipe was starting to suffer from political hubris though. Favorite song: Near Wild Heaven. The B-52's Kate Pierson has a noticeable presence on this album: Me In Honey and especially on Shiny Happy People.

Trompe Le Monde by The Pixies. Their last and IMHO best album. I was fortunate enough to see them at a LoDo club in Denver around this time. Favorite song Subbaculture.

Nirvana of course got famous that year after releasing Nevermind. I liked the album but thought the band itself was overrated along with the whole "Seattle Scene." Grunge was just a moniker for what had been gestating for years. Kurt Cobain was smart enough to realize that he didn't really measure up to some of the hype either. I first heard of Nirvana in the summer of 1991 when Mike Watt passed through Zurich with his band fIREHOSE. He used to like to walk around the audience before his shows shooting video and talking to people and that's where we met. This was a few months before the release of Nevermind and I remember him saying "everybody's into Nirvana".

Gish The only Smashing Pumpkins album I like. Rhinoceros.

Bandwagonesque by Teenage Fanclub.  I saw these guys play in Zurich around this time and liked them so I include them here. Favorite song: What You Do To Me.

1991 Singles

Enter Sandman by Metallica

Jesus Built My Hot Rod by The Ministry

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers remained significant with Learning To Fly from the album Into The Great Wide Open.

She Moves In Mysterious Ways by U2 from Achtung Baby.