Top 100 Music Albums of 1995 by desh79

I turned 16 in 1995, so needless to say there are going to be lots of "formative" albums herein.

• Chart updated: 01/12/2024 15:45
• (Created: 01/02/2017 15:41).
• Chart size: 100 albums.

There are 2 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Music Albums of 1995 has an average rating of 89 out of 100 (from 6 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.

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1. (=)

Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness 

 The Smashing Pumpkins

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An album encompassing some of the biggest musical highlights of the decade. Corgan and the Pumpkins were at their zenith here, mixing the brutal hard rock of songs like Jellybelly with more restrained pieces like Cupid de Locke. There are the classics, of course (Bullet with Butterfly Wings, Zero, 1979, Tonight Tonight - the latter two of which I heart, and then some) but also unfairly lesser-known gems like By Starlight, We Only Come Out At Night, or the widely underrated title track that starts off this positively demented magnum opus. The kind of album that made being a teenager in the mid-90s a rather awesome business. [First added to this chart: 07/06/2017]

Year of Release:

1995

Appears in:

1,450 charts

Rank Score:

16,034

Rank in 1995:

3

Rank in 1990s:

16

Overall Rank:

85

Average Rating:

 83 (1,807 votes)

Comments:

161

2. (=)

Tindersticks 2 

 Tindersticks

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Tindersticks were something of an aberration, at least given the zeitgeist of mid-90s Britain. While many of their contemporaries emulated Bowie and the Beatles, Tindersticks drew their inspiration from Leonard Cohen, Serge Gainsborough or Ennio Morricone -- the fact that I listed three influences of different nationalities is no coincidence, because, whereas Britpop (and no, Tindersticks were no Britpop band, but that thing was so unbelievably omnipotent and all-engulfing that any British group that even did so much as look at a guitar in the mid-90s would immediately be compared to it), was, let's face it, a rather nationalistic cultural undertaking, Tindersticks seemed not just time- but also placeless in the best possible sense of the word.

Their musings of dead relationships, of lost affairs, of one day spontaneously packing your bags and moving out of town, somewhere else, far away, somewhere where nobody knows who you are and what you did, only to walk down the street and suddenly fall in love with someone who looks just like your ex-wife, is easily pictured sung in a seedy lounge bar in Barkingside or Tamworth as much as in Buenos Aires or, I dunno, Cape Town.

Because that's the thing: the greatest art knows neither time nor place; it's free of cultural and periodical contraints. In other words, it's universal, and this is precisely what Tindersticks so wonderfully encapsulated at their creative peak, which just happens to be this album. [First added to this chart: 01/02/2017]

Year of Release:

1995

Appears in:

95 charts

Rank Score:

546

Rank in 1995:

56

Rank in 1990s:

498

Overall Rank:

2,819

Average Rating:

 78 (123 votes)

Comments:

0

3. (=)

Disgraceful 

 Dubstar

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I was really looking forward to Disgraceful. I remember reading about Dubstar in an "Acts to look out for in 1995"-article in one of the weeklies. I also remember hearing Anywhere on the radio and rushing to Virgin to buy the single the following day (and being disappointed it only made no.36 or so the following Sunday). Disgraceful was released during the sort of period in your life that will always stick with you - I was 16, had just started sixth form, was working my first part-time job at a local supermarket, and as it happens Disgraceful was one of the first albums I bought with my first ever pay check. In fact, my copy has the classic original vagina cover before it got replaced by the powers that be - a neat illustration of the kind of punk rock aesthetic Dubstar rather latently but most definitely indulged in.

And what an album! There's the scathing dismantling of lad culture in Just A Girl She Said; there's Stars, which according to Hillier was written as a tribute to a shut-down nightclub in Newcastle, but with lyrics ambivalent enough that I personally interpreted them as a testament to how basically every British town centre became a no-go area after Friday pub closing time (a theme VERY prevalent with me during my teenage years); there is OBVIOUSLY the superb Not So Manic Now, often praised for its kitchen sink realism and one of the most striking examples of melody/lyrics juxtaposition out there. There's St. Swithin's Day, which underlined that Dubstar were a band that really knew how to do covers.

If asked to name one album that typified life in mid-90s Britain, I wouldn't quote Morning Glory or Great Escape or any of their Britpop brethren since most of these were either delved in caricature or desperate attempts to rekindle the swinging sixties, much of which was based on mythology anyhow (a lot of Britpop, great and exciting as it was, was never more than a photocopy of a photocopy, though let's face it, all postmodernism is). Much the same way you tear at the edges here and find undeniable darkness underneath the colour, the beautiful melodies and Sarah Blackwood's angelic voice, Disgraceful is basically about a Britain that seems prickly, colourful and confident on the surface but is already slowly but surely falling apart at the seams. On the whole, Disgraceful is an underrated and essential album. [First added to this chart: 07/06/2017]

Year of Release:

1995

Appears in:

28 charts

Rank Score:

91

Rank in 1995:

244

Rank in 1990s:

2,123

Overall Rank:

12,612

Average Rating:

 71 (17 votes)

Comments:

1

4. (=)

Maxinquaye 

 Tricky

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Spring(-ish) 1995. Yours truly walks into Parrot Records (R.I.P., like virtually every other record store) on King's Street, Cambridge while Maxinquaye is playing on the speakers. I listen to the first three songs, then pick up and purchase the vinyl, as you do. To this day, Overcome remains one of my favourite album openers. [First added to this chart: 01/02/2017]

Year of Release:

1995

Appears in:

345 charts

Rank Score:

2,077

Rank in 1995:

15

Rank in 1990s:

163

Overall Rank:

862

Average Rating:

 78 (399 votes)

Comments:

19

5. (=)

The Bends 

 Radiohead

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When that quite-good band from Oxford that had done a really-very-good song about alienation (Creep) swiftly outed themselves as rock Gods in-the-making. [First added to this chart: 01/02/2017]

Year of Release:

1995

Appears in:

2,624 charts

Rank Score:

33,283

Rank in 1995:

1

Rank in 1990s:

5

Overall Rank:

23

Average Rating:

 87 (3,827 votes)

Comments:

312

6. (=)

Leftism 

 Leftfield

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A wonderful marriage of dub, techno, reggae, and, er, John Lydon (just before he veered off into self-parody and ironically became one of the very "boring old farts" he used to rail against in his youth). [First added to this chart: 01/02/2017]

Year of Release:

1995

Appears in:

185 charts

Rank Score:

1,026

Rank in 1995:

33

Rank in 1990s:

311

Overall Rank:

1,668

Average Rating:

 77 (222 votes)

Comments:

13

7. (=)

...I Care Because You Do 

 Aphex Twin

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Sandwiched between Richard D. James's ambient/techno phase and his transformation into a deranged pop icon from a parallel universe (courtesy of some rather traumatising Chris Cunningham-directed videos) came arguably his best album. Whether James's claim that he dreams a lot of his music is genuine or just another case of him trolling the music press as bloody usual is probably neither here nor there since the dreamlike quality of songs like Icct Hedral or Alberto Balsam is there for all to notice. [First added to this chart: 01/02/2017]

Year of Release:

1995

Appears in:

124 charts

Rank Score:

940

Rank in 1995:

39

Rank in 1990s:

334

Overall Rank:

1,791

Average Rating:

 76 (203 votes)

Comments:

7

8. (=)

Clouds Taste Metallic 

 The Flaming Lips

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Sometime in late 1995 I had my first part-time job, aged 16, at a fast food outlet which shant be named here. What did I do with my first earnings? Why, I spent all of it on records, of course. This one I bought solely because I liked the cover, having absolutely no idea what to expect musically (that was obviously in the days before Wayne Coyne became the avantgarde rock maestro any halfway self-respecting music fan knows him as nowadays), a decision I did not regret one tiny bit. [First added to this chart: 01/02/2017]

Year of Release:

1995

Appears in:

299 charts

Rank Score:

1,796

Rank in 1995:

16

Rank in 1990s:

194

Overall Rank:

1,000

Average Rating:

 78 (416 votes)

Comments:

24

9. (=)

Different Class 

 Pulp

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One of the more positive side effects of the Britpop hype was that hitherto relatively obscure bands like Pulp could suddenly find pop megastardom. I actually met them backstage when they played the Cambridge Corn Exchange (apart from Jarvis, who, quelle surprise, was surrounded by teenage girls wanting autographs), and unfortunately Candida was about the only person who seemed able to string a coherent sentence together. Regardless, it took nothing from this album, which is still one of Britpop's best. [First added to this chart: 01/02/2017]

Year of Release:

1995

Appears in:

896 charts

Rank Score:

8,828

Rank in 1995:

4

Rank in 1990s:

39

Overall Rank:

185

Average Rating:

 82 (1,016 votes)

Comments:

65

10. (=)

(What's The Story) Morning Glory? 

 Oasis

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The image of Berwick Street you see on the cover? Tinted with nostalgia. That street was *the* place to go for record shops, finding bootlegs and/or rare imports. It's a remnant of a long bygone era, and in fact generally a London that no longer exists courtesy of some extreme gentrification. I can but mourn. In any case, this is the sound of a band utterly confident and about to conquer the world, as well they should. That confidence of course veered way off into unbridled arrogance and famously got the better of them, but it was fun while it lasted. [First added to this chart: 01/02/2017]

Year of Release:

1995

Appears in:

1,705 charts

Rank Score:

18,932

Rank in 1995:

2

Rank in 1990s:

11

Overall Rank:

61

Average Rating:

 81 (2,412 votes)

Comments:

232

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Top 100 Music Albums of 1995 composition

Artist	Albums	%
Aphex Twin	3	3%
Autechre	3	3%
Goo Goo Dolls	1	1%
Jewel	1	1%
The Charlatans (UK)	1	1%
Yello	1	1%
Teenage Fanclub	1	1%
Show all

Country	Albums	%
	48	48%
	33	33%
	5	5%
	4	4%
	3	3%
	2	2%
	1	1%
Show all

Top 100 Music Albums of 1995 chart changes

Biggest fallers
Down 2 from 50th to 52nd Liquid Swords by GZA/Genius
Down 1 from 52nd to 53rd 1. Outside by David Bowie
Down 1 from 53rd to 54th Spanners by The Black Dog

New entries
Waterpistol by Shack

Leavers
Ron Sexsmith by Ron Sexsmith

Top 100 Music Albums of 1995 similarity to your chart(s)

Other year charts (from the 1990s) by desh79

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Top 100 Music Albums of 1995 ratings

Showing latest 5 ratings for this chart. | Show all 6 ratings for this chart.

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Rating	Date updated	Member	Chart ratings	Avg. chart rating
100/100	08/27/2020 19:37	CharlieBarley	478	94/100
95/100	08/10/2020 01:26	zwiebel	188	85/100
100/100	03/19/2020 03:26	DJENNY	4,409	100/100
100/100	01/09/2019 18:30	Rhyner	1,382	99/100
90/100	01/09/2018 19:07	bobbyb5	728	90/100

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Top 100 Music Albums of 1995 comments

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Rating:  

100/100

From CharlieBarley 08/27/2020 19:54

The memories, man!
I was in my first year at Uni the end of this year.
A lot of these albums are the soundtrack to my youth.

Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:  

90/100

From bobbyb5 01/09/2018 19:09

Wow. You got a lot in common with me. And they're all awesome albums.

Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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