Listed below are the best albums of 1995 as calculated from their overall rankings in over 58,000 greatest album charts. (Chart last updated: 4 hours ago).
"One of the greatest albums of the 90s and perhaps of all time, Radiohead truly demonstrated it's maturity and ability to create great music with this album. Unlike most Radiohead albums, which generally challenge the listener to delve into their minds( Kid A, Ok Computer, Amnesiac) this album bri...""One of the greatest albums of the 90s and perhaps of all time, Radiohead truly demonstrated it's maturity and ability to create great music with this album. Unlike most Radiohead albums, which generally challenge the listener to delve into their minds( Kid A, Ok Computer, Amnesiac) this album brings the listener to the deepest parts of their souls. An introspective album that captures darkness, beauty, and range of emotions of the human condition. Radiohead may have strayed very far from this sound in their future albums, but that only adds to the gravitas and significance of this emotional journey.
Best Tracks: Fake Plastic Trees, Street Spirit Fade Out, High and Dry
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"People (especially hipsters) love to hate on Oasis. I can understand; they got quite arrogant, they wear their influences boldly, and they didn't grow much after this. But this is a cracking album. Gifted melodies, clever hooks - the Gallagher boys know pop-rock. This is good stuff. Shame they ne...""People (especially hipsters) love to hate on Oasis. I can understand; they got quite arrogant, they wear their influences boldly, and they didn't grow much after this. But this is a cracking album. Gifted melodies, clever hooks - the Gallagher boys know pop-rock. This is good stuff. Shame they never matched or topped it..."[+]Reply
"mellon collie is huge and is often knocked for being too bloated. Many critics say, if it was trimmed to a single album, it'd be even better than siamese dream. Even if it were bloated, that statement itself says that mellon collie based on some of its parts is better than siamese dream, and i'd ...""mellon collie is huge and is often knocked for being too bloated. Many critics say, if it was trimmed to a single album, it'd be even better than siamese dream. Even if it were bloated, that statement itself says that mellon collie based on some of its parts is better than siamese dream, and i'd agree. Where siamese dream is great because of great songs and the freshness of the pumpkin sound, mellon collie is even better because it has more great songs and perfects the pumpkin sound. They rock harder here than on SD -- check out "zero" or "an ode to no one" or "where boys fear to tread" or "x.y.u.". (These songs rocked harder than most of roblee's metal/rock.) They're more beautiful than on SD. They've written just as catchy pop songs as SD -- mellon collie even topped "today" with "1979". They capture frustration and pain and love perfectly.
Since this is one of my favorite albums of all-time, i'll give a track-by-track review.
DAWN TO DUSK [disc 1]
MCATIS: Pleasant intro track.
Tonight, Tonight: Sweeping and epic. Lovely and delicate. "Time is never time at all / you can never ever leave / without leaving a piece of you". I'm a fan of even-better-than-the-rest-of-the-song endings and this song has it in its particular grand summation. Believe in me...tonight.
Jellybelly: Situated between two radio releases, this song holds its own between the epic and the fiery self-deprecation. It's a little overreaching with its lyrical emptiness stating "living makes me sick", but the rocking riffwork and vocal delivery makes up for the little lyrical inadequacy here. I like this wordplay: "give in to your forevers / and live for always".
Zero: The shrieking "YOU!" ending "jellybelly" leads into this song which i basically have memorized. Interesting metaphors/analogies in here, like "i'm the face in your dreams of glass" and "my reflection / dirty mirror / is no connection to myself" and "emptiness is loneliness, and loneliness is cleanliness and cleanliness is godliness, and god is empty just like me ". And this song has a mad rush of terror at the end punctuated by loneliness.
Here is no Why: The loneliness continues here as billy sings about "the lonely towers of long mistakes /to forgotten faces and faded loves ". Nice song to bridge the power of "zero" and "bullet".
Bullet with Butterfly Wings: Interesting metaphor. Song starts out "the world is a vampire" and is about "betrayed desired" culminating in a chorus that says "despite all my rage, i'm am still just a rat in a cage". (Take "rat in a cage", remove almost all the inside letters, and you end up with "rage". Was this intended?)
To Forgive: This song is a beautiful comedown from "bullet" starting "ten times removed / i forget about where it all began / bastard son of a bastard son of / a wild eyed child of the sun ". About "holding back the fool again" where "i forget to forget nothing is important".
An Ode To No One: I think the "i'd never be the shine in your spit" lyric sums this song up. It's grating, pissed off and in your face. And it rocks. "This message is for anyone who dares to hear a fool". "Destroy the mind / destroy the body / but you cannot destroy the heart". A lot of fun lyrics. This song shreds at the end screaming "I DON'T NEED YOUR LOVE TO DISCONNECT!".
Love: Another great comedown with the foreboding synths of "love" about "my mistakes of cowardace". It sounds offhanded and simple, but the lyric of "love, it's who you know" is generally appropriate. The guitar licks sound synth-lick too. It's like he's saying love has an artificial quality.
cupid de locke: This song sounds sweet but is full of mischief and unfulfilled desires. "Your world be shattered with nary a note / Of one cupids arrow under your coat " ending in what sounds like a first-person insight upon the world of love: "And in the land of star crossed lovers / And barren hearted wanderers / Forever lost in forsaken missives and Satan's pull / We seek the unseekable and we speak the unspeakable / Our hopes dead gathering dust to dust / In faith, in compassion, and in love".
galapagos: "Aint it funny how we pretend we're still a child". Soft-sung at first, this one gracefully builds into a confessional where billy pleads "rescue me from me and all that i believe". It's a song questioning whether to love at all basically saying to believe in love is to be as innocent and naive as a child regarding all the (negative) possibilities of love. In the 3 song suite about love, this concluding number is the most beautiful and endearing.
muzzle: Another song with a Tnotch ending with some revealing lines like "my life has been extraordinary / blessed and cursed and won / time heals but i'm forever broken " where "the world so hard to understand / is the world your can't live without / and i knew the silence of the world ". Love unrequited.
take me down: James Iha sings this one where "all i see is you". It's a nice little number by itself and doesn't seem out of place on the album, but IMO unnecessary in the grand scheme of the album. There's enough of a comedown in "muzzle" to seque well into the first track of the next disc.
TWILIGHT TO STARLIGHT [disc 2]
where boys fear to tread: this slow-build shredder kicks off the "twilight to starlight" second disc. It's an ominous beginning musically detailing the "king of horseflies, dark prince of death" telling of the remnants of a love lost with "A veiled promise to never die / On dead highways".
bodies: "bodies" ups the ante of devastation, both lyrically and with the guitar, stating plainly "love is suicide". Those who perish to love?: "The empty bodies stand at rest / Casualties of their own flesh / Afflicted by their dispossession". You can feel the pain when he screams "no bodies!". "love is suicide" indeed.
thirty-three: The above shreadfest couplet slips into 3 more georgeous songs anticing us back to the arms of love. "33" starts "speak to me in a language i can hear / humor me before i have to go". He's forgiving everyone accepting love's end yet still in denial, self-deprecating in honesty professing "tomorrow's just an excuse away". Beautiful anguish captured in this beautiful lyric "I know I'll make it, love can last forever / Graceful swans of never topple to the Earth". Another tune that can tear me up.
in the arms of sleep: love is a dream. this song continues the sentiments of "33", shuffling along slowly through the residual pain. "peace will not come to this lonely heart" ending wonderfully/tragically "suffer my desire".
1979: You've heard this song. It's a trip along memory lane across a simpler time of youthful fancy. This may be the dream alluded to in the previous song. Upbeat and catchy (it's fun when the drum (machine?) kicks in), a more foot-tapping version of "today". a lot of fun lyrics in here. "on a live wire right up off the street / you and i should meet" for "Justine never knew the rules, / Hung down with the freaks and the ghouls". But no matter what happens regarding the blues or one's destiny "we don't know / Just where our bones will rest / To dust I guess / Forgotten and absorbed to the earth below". Love this song. Upbeat and yet somewhat despondant.
tales of a scorched earth: you can instantly tell this song's gonna kick your ass, with the train wreck of guitar and billy's distorted screams of "farewell goodnight last one out turn out the lights" proclaiming an answer to his torturous question "why do the same old things keep on happening? / because beyond my hopes there are no feelings ". And just when you think the song is losing momentum it kicks your ass again 2/3 of the way. The line "i lie just to be real, and i'd die just to feel" is a little overdramatic, but affective in the context of this slayer.
thru the eyes of ruby: an eerie calm awaits on the other side of "scorched earth". it's the surreal aftermath speaking in tongues like "wrap me in always and drag me in with maybes" and "i believe in never, i believe in all the way" but "belief is just some faith / and faith can't help you to escape". Guitars rise throughout the song following in the momentum of "scorched earth". then it trails off into pretty dreamland as an intro to...
stumbleine: this is the breather between rockers singing "Boredoms in the bathroom shaking out the loose teeth" where, if you were at their concert performing the whole album straight-through, this is where you'd exit for a quick bathroom break. Not saying it's not a good song though. Some more interesting lyrics like "Mommy's in the manger with the little kids / She's got her reasons, got my forgets / Of tears and idle threats / Misplaced". While the album as a whole doesn't really tell a cohesive story, each song seems to tell its own unique story, as "stumbleine" is an example of.
x.y.u.: you know your arse is in trouble again! love this song. always wish i could've seen this done live. This is a masochistic billy singing "i said, i wanna fill you up, i wanna break you, i wanna give you up " and "i couldn't feel her, and it was just a game, / cause i was lonely and she was crazy ". There are some silly lyrics, but they drown under the ferocity. There's a mild break before it ends staring into the eyes of a jackyl frantically singing "now we begin descent, to where we've never been / there is no going back, this wasn't meant to last / this is a hell on earth, we are meant to serve ". This is the last rocker on the album ending the rockfest superbly.
we only come out at night: Vampiric tale drumbeat pulsating with angelic harp. Cool song. Great contrast to "x.y.u.". Another example of great sequencing on this album (for the most part). Billy tries to comfort: "once again, you'll pretend to know that / There's an end, that there's an end to this begin / It will help you sleep at night".
beautiful: Pretty song. One of the few songs that actually sounds like a love song and not a facade for lovelorn torment. There's an appreciation for (a) love, as familiar as a comfy bedtime pillow. "i'll be under your stars forever ". (Beware, the beauty might be a facade hiding a stalker song!)
lily (my one and only): Pretty song. Another ode to love. This song reminds me of the someone i met in 1996.
by starlight: At this point, i'm on the ballad breaking point. Good song questioning love again. This would make a nice album closer into the deep, dark night. "dead eyes, are you just like me?"
farewell and goodnight: Pleasant goodnight featuing iha & d'arcy singing us out as well, but either this or "by starlight" could've been left off to ease the long nighttime passing."[+]Reply
"In representing 90s brit-pop one can chose Blur's Parklife, this album or either of their first two Oasis records according to preference. For me it isn't close. Jarvis is the most British of the bunch capturing Albarn's campiness and the Galleghar brothers bravado in one fail swoop. Lust licenti...""In representing 90s brit-pop one can chose Blur's Parklife, this album or either of their first two Oasis records according to preference. For me it isn't close. Jarvis is the most British of the bunch capturing Albarn's campiness and the Galleghar brothers bravado in one fail swoop. Lust & licentiousness, class warfare & social mischief its all here and its a hell of a lot of fun while also expertly crafted."[+]Reply
"Maybe some of you have seen "The Wire", which is the greatest television show ever made. This is the musical equivelant, even if it came years before. This is rap that is scary good. I dare say it's a work of art."Reply
"The subject matter throughout this album is extremely edgy and filled with teenage girl angst. I don't think I have ever heard another example of a 90s album with the combination of such raw female vocals, in your face lyrics, and at the same time bubblegum production quality like this album has....""The subject matter throughout this album is extremely edgy and filled with teenage girl angst. I don't think I have ever heard another example of a 90s album with the combination of such raw female vocals, in your face lyrics, and at the same time bubblegum production quality like this album has. I don't think I am alone when I say that I wish she would have selected a different producer to work with on this album. I'm also not sure if I am alone when I say that I wish she would have released this album two or three years earlier. This album would have been better if the production was more raw and if it didn't seem like she was riding on the coattails of the girl-rock movement.
This album makes it seem like Alanis Morissette (or more likely the record label)was just trying to take the sounds of Courtney Love, PJ Harvey, and/or Liz Phair to the masses. I think this album is a classic case of too little too late. It's too bad because the songwriting and eclectic instrumentation on this album is great. It's the concept and the production quality that I have a problem with.
This is an okay or maybe even good album but definitely not great. Most definitely overrated. All I really want is to give it a high score and it makes me a little sad to not do so because this album is sort of a guilty pleasure of mine but it must be done. I would have given this album a much lower rating if it didn't have a couple of saving qualities.
You could say that the production was purposefully done the way it was because she was inventing her own sound. She was trying to break away from the girl-rock movement but it isn't enough for me. I'm not a believer. her sound is still much too similar to artists before her time. I can't believe that the production quality was an attempt to be different. I have to believe that it was an unfortunate attempt to sell a lot of records with someone else's style. If only Courtney Love, PJ Harvey, and Liz Phair had not have beaten her to the punch. "[+]Reply
"Her best album in my opinion. It is also her heaviest and darkest, and she never fully returned to this sound again with only a few exceptions. Probably the most electric and interesting female artist in the past 25 years if you ask me, but I understand she isn't for everyone, and a few of these ...""Her best album in my opinion. It is also her heaviest and darkest, and she never fully returned to this sound again with only a few exceptions. Probably the most electric and interesting female artist in the past 25 years if you ask me, but I understand she isn't for everyone, and a few of these songs, while they are all amazing, do go on just a wee bit too long."[+]Reply
"CONTEXT: Smith's second album is a full realization of his early sound--quiet, haunting, and powerful. MUSIC: Acoustic guitars dominate the record, with a dash of snare drum, electric guitar lines, and organ sprinkled in a few spots. Each song is captivating and well-arranged. LYRICS: Smith asser...""CONTEXT: Smith's second album is a full realization of his early sound--quiet, haunting, and powerful. MUSIC: Acoustic guitars dominate the record, with a dash of snare drum, electric guitar lines, and organ sprinkled in a few spots. Each song is captivating and well-arranged. LYRICS: Smith asserts himself as one of the best wordsmith's of his era. Characters fend off bad relationships, drug addictions, and self-doubt throughout the album. The imagery is stunning and the word choice unique. HIGHLIGHTS: Needle In The Hay, Southern Belle, The Biggest Lie"[+]Reply
junodog4 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +19 votes (20 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
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paladisiac | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +11 votes (11 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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Lastings | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (6 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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GuitarDan | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +7 votes (7 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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