Wednesday, March 5, 2008




Welcome back everyone. I took a little break last week because I was a little busy with school and work. It happens. Regardless, we are moving on to the new top ten list. I have focused most of my efforts into a movie list one way or the other, which is a trend that will continue, but this week I decided to give you a little taste of what kind of music I listen to. Most of my favorite music is pretty rocking. I'm not saying that I only listen to metal or that I need distortion on the guitars in order to like what I hear. I just like rock n' roll in all forms. Old or new, mainstream or underground, it just has to be good. Obviously I can't give you a full overview in just one list, but I shall do my best. So without further delay, this week's list is:

Top Ten Albums of the '90s.


10. Sublime by Sublime. I like Sublime. Who doesn't? Well my roommate doesn't, come to think of it, but that is besides the point. The point is, whether or not you love the music of Sublime or not, or whether or not you think they had a huge impact on the music scene of the nineties, there is no denying that whenever a crowd of people here's a Sublime song come on the radio, everyone sings. Everyone knows the words and has fun singing along to "What I Got," or "Santaria" or whatever the tune might be. They know how to play their instruments well, the late greate Brad has a beautiful voice for the ladies, and they can rock. Even my roommate knows the words and he hates Sublime.

9. Smash by the Offspring. I remember the day I bought this CD. I was in the eighth grade on my field trip to Sacramento, which was okay, but the highlight of the trip was this album. It's rocking from cover to cover and has a shit load of songs that get stuck in your head. That can be viewed as both good and bad, but in this sense, I view it as a positive.

8. Third Eye Blind by Third Eye Blind. I know what you're thinking; you're thinking that Third Eye Blind is a pretty pussy band for me to put on a top ten list, and I would agree with you. But despite there later lameness, Third Eye Blind the album, not the band, is very good. The songs are catchy and they flow extremely well with each other up and down the album. It's a good album to relax to.

7. The Colour and Shape by the Foo Fighters. "Hero." "Everlong." "Monkey Wrench." Awesome. This is just a kick ass record all around. Dave Grohl is a man among boys being on this list in two different bands, among other reasons. Fun Fact: The Foo Fighters got their name from a WWII era word for UFOs.

6. And Out Come The Wolves by Rancid. Let me start off by saying that I am not really a rancid fan. I have another album of theirs, but don't like it and rarely listen to it. I have seen them live, and though they play a good show, I did not know many of the songs or like the ones that I heard for the first time. Having said that, let me also note that it is very rare for an album, especially albums with the amount of songs (19) that you can listen to without skipping a track. It is even more rare when you don't like the band. "And Out Come the Wolves" is one of these albums. If you like rock n' roll or punk rock, go buy this album.

5. Dookie by Green Day. During the time when grunge artists were singing of depression and heroin addictions, Green Day came along, lightened the mood, and reminded us that there are more important things to sing about... like masturbation. Green Day made rock music fun again with their most acclaimed album of the nineties.

4. Nevermind by Nirvana. Arguably the most influential album of the decade, "Nevermind" made music important again. Before Nirvana changed things, rock n' roll was all about growing the longest hair and getting the most girls, even though all the artists looked more feminine than the girls they were hooking up with. But along comes Nirvana and changes all of that. Nirvana is one of the few grunge bands that I actually like. Most of them were no better than the hair metal bands except they didn't wash their hair, which is why the arrival of Green Day was so refreshing. But Nirvana did it right and "Nevermind" is a great album.

3. Weezer (The Blue Album) by Weezer. This is one of the catchiest albums of all time in my opinion. It just makes me happy. The first seven songs on the CD are totally awesome and just flow right through each other. Plus it doesn't take itself too seriously and just kicks ass.

2. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by the Smashing Pumpkins. Not to many double discs exist in the CD era, and what ones do exist usually aren't very good. This one is one of my favorite albums of all time. I can listen to the whole thing all the way through. I just saw them live almost a year ago when they got back together and played at the Fillmore. It was a great show. They played for three hours without a break. The band took a short break but Billy did an acoustic set during that time so we still got music. It was totally awesome. I took my brother for his sixteenth birthday.

1. Nimrod by Green Day. This is my favorite album of all time. It kicks serious ass but at the same time is diverse enough to not sound monotone. I can't believe it doesn't get more respect when Dookie and American Idiot do. The first of those, as I have mentioned, is great, the second is pretty good too, but Nimrod is far and away Green Day's best album. If you haven't heard it before, I feel sorry for you and if you have and don't like it then you probably shouldn't be reading this blog. It's the best of the best in my opinion and should be to everyone else.

Just missed it:

Odelay by Beck. Great album. Innovative, creative, never disappointing, Beck can do it all.

Californication by The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Better than "Blood Sugar Sex Magik."

Rage Against the Machine by Rage Against the Machine. Rage!

7 comments:

Grant said...

Thanks for posting another Top 10 list, Josh. It's interesting selection of '90s rock albums you picked. It's good to see that Green Day, Nirvana, and Third Eye Blind made the list. However, I'm a little sad that RHCP's "Californication" didn't make the list. If you look at the top 100 of the 90s from each music genre, maybe you could make a new top 10 list according to this.

Shera said...

Oh my, the good old 1990's. I used to own a copy of Nevermind (nevermind what happened to my copy of Nevermind). I'd be curious to know your take on the TEN WORST bands of the 90's, in your opinion. If you're feeling nostalgic, check out this compendium of Top 100 Hits of the 1990's

lorena zuluaga said...

I like your blog. Although it purely states your opinion, I will have to say, it may be something I check out before I am going to buy a movie or a cd. I like that you wrote a small paraghrapgh for each album because is short enough for the reader to stay interested but long enough to state your opinion in why you like it. However, if you don’t mind, I would like to give you some advice. I think that if you were to put some statistics on how good the album did for its time, as well as other people’s opinions of it, it would give your blog some credibility. Your readers maybe more interested in what you say, if you show them the basis in why you are saying it. If you can prove that many people agree with you, people could use your blog as a reference for public opinion. If you decide to continue with the movie topic, this is an exmaple of the type of site that you can use to link to your posts. This website shows the top ten movies in the boxoffice by decade. It seems to me like some of the music and movies you choose are mainstream so you may be able to find your selection in a site like this, that way your opinion is backed it up.

JiratuX said...

Wait... Nirvana lower than Greenday? Explain yourself mister. What was the criteria for the list?

James said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
James said...

I love the Offspring also. Their CD brings back a lot of memories. I haven't been keeping up with their band but here is a where I checked them out.

John Eightclip said...

2 of those records are on my top list. Nimrod as number one though? Nimrod was their throw together record. I respect the opinion, however I really wish you had swapped the Green Day records. One was classic, made Green Day huge, ruined punk rock forever. The other, it was just one of those filler records between Dookie, and their latest award winning record. Thats just me, wish they were switched.