Jamwise #36 - Best Albums of 1990

This week, we're focusing on the greatest albums from the year 1990: Madonna, Depeche Mode, Public Enemy, Ice Cube, LL Cool J, Sonic Youth, Cocteau Twins, Sinead O'Connor

Introducing the Decades Project

I’ve recently realized that there are 101 albums released in the 90’s on the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list. Being a Millennial, this decade is the one that I’m supposed to be the most connected to (even though most of my formative years were spent listening to 2000’s music, but whatever). That’s what social media says, so that’s what I’m going to dive into - the 90’s were king for my generation, and who am I to argue?

On top of that, I’m getting a little tired of the decade whiplash caused by listening to the albums from the Rolling Stone list at random. I’m feeling a little bit lost in time, and I think I’ve been missing some of the nuances of the different decades, as well as the view of where these artists fall in the timeline. Will I complete the list at random, or by decade? Who the heck knows. Let’s see how fun this 90’s sub-project is, and then we’ll figure that out.

So without further ado, this week’s issue is dedicated to the year 1990. The RS list has a whopping 8 albums from 1990 - buckle up!

The Immaculate Collection - Madonna

This compilation is from Madonna’s 80’s singles, so it might not really fit in this 1990 list. But whatever, I grew up with a weirdly high awareness of Madonna, and so she stays in the 1990 retrospective.

Madonna seems like the ultimate pop chameleon. I get the feeling she’d thrive in the current era of TikTok trends, where everybody makes a video in an identical format and changes it just a little to make it sort of their own. That’s how her songs feel to me, just a master capitalizing on every trend she comes across, and blurring the lines between “she copied it” and “she invented it.” Maybe an 80’s music expert could dissect that statement, but from my perspective looking back, I don’t really see the difference - Madonna took ownership of pop, and whether she invented it or just perfected it, that’s pretty damn impressive. She’s like a pop robot - whether she’s self aware or programmed by someone else, the end result is the same.

I think a lot of her appeal is in her pseudo-innocent voice mixed with very, ah, not innocent lyrics and imagery. This let her relate to kids and young folks who might idolize her and want to follow in her footsteps, and it let her appeal to adults who wanted… other things. But at the same time she feels utterly devoid of emotion to me, presumably because she’s focusing on sounding impish at the expense of all else. She’s at her best, to me, on the dance floor on tracks like “”Into The Groove” where depth of emotion isn’t the point.

Madonna may have invented or perfected all the things that have made me dislike pop in the past. Shallow lyrics, totally inoffensive beats and synths and backing tracks that could be the soundtrack to a Disney kids show, themes that slap you across the face in order in case the core concept of SEX SEX SEX is too subtle to grasp. And those traits have become features of pop at times, not bugs.

HOWEVER: I’m learning that nothing I complain about above makes the music bad - it makes it pop. And pop has a very important place in the music world. It’s not like Madonna is hiding what she’s doing - “Material World” is a braggy confessional of who she is, and if that’s not authenticity (the trait I love most in music) then I don’t know what is. This is pop distilled. It’s authentically and unapologetically plastic, like a toy for a 3-year-old, all primary colors and gloss, to be tossed out in a few weeks for a replacement.

Madonna’s music, and the millions of pop songs she inspired, are the simple sugars of our music diet. Yes, you need complex carbohydrates and proteins and vitamins to really have a healthy diet, but simple sugars are fun, too. 

Jams

• “Material World”

• “Into The Groove”

Violator - Depeche Mode

Another theme of the 90’s is that, well, the 80’s were over. Nobody told Depeche Mode, though - they were just gaining strength as 1990 rolled around, and this album was considered their songwriting peak. These phrases may mean different things to different generations, but to me this album goes from goth kids on the dance floor music, to the backing track to a vampire drama, to the trance-ey brooding of a misunderstood, overlooked genius. That’s not meant to sound reductive - rather, take each of those tropes and elevate it to something sophisticated, at times something darker and almost twisted, with a pulse of unsettling obsessive energy lurking just under - or above - the surface, and you’ve got Violator.

I’ve learned that I don’t like droning, formless music. But after hearing the vampiric “Waiting For The Night” I’ve decided there’s a place for droning music with a pulse. Maybe my ADHD mind just can’t handle completely unstructured music, but give me a little beat to latch onto and a little hint of melody to guide me through the song and I’m back onboard. 

It takes taste to restrain yourself when you’ve got such a huge library of new sounds at your disposal, and DM does a stellar job of using their new electronic sounds, which were probably emerging every day in 1990, in a controlled and additive way. The song is king here, and there’s no designing around a cool sound at any point, which is another feature of some other artists I’ve found off-putting.

Jams

• “Personal Jesus”

• “Waiting For The Night”

• “Policy Of Truth”

Fear Of A Black Planet - Public Enemy

Nonstop energy rolling and rolling and rolling. The commentary is still relevant in 2024 - a sad fact, to be honest - and the delivery, which is almost matter of fact even when covering Hollywood racism or misguided white outrage, is brilliant and somehow uplifting. It gives the feeling that we might as well keep our heads up and dance despite all the bullshit. It’s constructive outrage, and I love it. 

Jams

• “911 Is A Joke”

• “Welcome To The Terrordome”

• “Who Stole the Soul?”

• “Can’t do nuttin for ya”

Amerikkka’s Most Wanted - Ice Cube

Same musical energy as Public Enemy, but with much more focus on self promoting of crime credentials than social commentary. It’s like a middle school playground version of the Public Enemy album, all “me me me” with no focus on the outside world.

This aged far less well. The lyrics speak of bitches and street deeds and abortions and the fact that it is, in this album’s worldview, a man’s world.

We should just forget this album entirely, in my opinion. Let me know where I find the instrumental version and I might be back in. It’s a shame because Ice Cube has a great voice and delivery, he just spends this entire album using it to deliver complete bullshit. Perhaps it was inventive at the time, and the beats are undeniably great, but it’s not something I’ll play for my grandkids when boring them to death with stories about the golden age of hip hop.

Heaven Or Las Vegas - Cocteau Twins

There hasn’t been a more thorough dismantling of English phonetics since Buddy Holly or Sting. But where Buddy Holly’s mangling of words feels performative and Sting’s feels like the rumblings of an oncoming mental disorder, the Cocteau Twins make their mumbling sound completely endearing. It’s got the would-be innocent energy of an anime theme song. Were they singing about sunshine and fluffy pillows or summoning a demon? I have no idea. I’m onboard either way.

Lacking discernible words, we’ll judge this one based on pure vibes. And not to worry, those are strong. The dreamscape world of this album is all cotton candy, but there’s a wistful air to many of the songs - I can almost see the lights of the Vegas strip blurring into the fluffy yellow clouds of a Charmin Ultra Soft commercial. 

Jams

• “Cherry Coloured Funk”

• “Pitch The Baby”

• “I Wear Your Ring”

Mama Said Knock You Out - LL Cool J

It’s cool to compare 3 major hip hop albums from the same year. LL Cool J’s sound is a little more dated to me - more focused on enunciation and funk sounds than a more rough-edged voice and max-energy mixes like Ice Cube and Public Enemy. 

Maybe it’s my perception of LL Cool J, who I know mostly from his TV and award show hosting roles, but his voice sounds more corporate at times than the other hip hop in this issue. “Mr. Goodbar” sounds completely performative, like he tossed it in the album because you had to have a sexual braggadocio song to be considered acceptable in 1990 hip hop. But the beats are interesting and varied - almost industrial on “Eat Em Up L Chill”, more jazz/funky on “Farmers Blvd. (Our Anthem)” and “To Da Break Of Dawn”.

It’s interesting to compare the lyrical content between the 3 acts as well. LL Cool J is somewhere between Public enemy (lots of commentary) and Ice Cube (nothing but street cred chest thumping), but much closer to the Ice Cube side. It’s less challenging material, more self-celebratory than anything else, which is really just a genre norm (or perhaps a “sell more albums” strategy).

Jams:

• “Farmers Blvd. (Our Anthem)”

• “Mama Said Knock You Out”

• “To Da Break Of Dawn”

Goo - Sonic Youth

Abstract experimentalism morphed into structured tune-based songs by this album

Song for Karen has such a cool structure - instead of breaks we get accelerating beats and driving energy

Alt rock pioneers with a bit of cross pollination with grunge from the perspective of 30 years later. I think the clinical term for SY is noise rock. 

“Disappearer” is a cryptic ode to the sun, as best as I can tell. 

This is the kind of DGAF I love. Smart musicians, not giving a fuck, writing smart music that somehow doesn’t take itself too seriously. The random noises help with that effect, paradoxically - I’ve often felt abstract noise music is too self celebratory in general, but not here. Songs like “Cinderella’s Bog Score” where the melody is buried in a discordant noise sandwich drove the point home - Sonic Youth’s noise is like the difference between a sung note and a scream - a clean guitar to a distorted one - they just took typical sound and structure and ideas and ran them all through a conceptual distortion pedal, twisting them but with enough respect to the original to identify it. This isn’t pure abstraction - it’s distortion of recognizable things. Picasso, not somebody slinging paint cans in a basement and calling it art (cough cough, Kid A, cough cough). Sonic youth is like the artists who paint detailed and clear paintings and then smudge the hell out of them, rather than others who go straight for the abstract chaos without wasting time on the structure beneath. It’s an easy call to me which requires more skill. 

I love the juxtaposition of a couple of British mods on the cover against the distinctly American alt and grunge-adjacent attitude and noise. I can see the spirit of the mods picked up here, but without the grey-skies gloom that seems to hover over so many British acts. This is more joyful, somehow. I loved it.

Jams

• “Disappearer”

• “Cinderella‘s Big Score”

• “Dirty Boots”

• “Mary-Christ”

I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got - Sinead O’Connor

The award for the most retro-looking album cover goes to I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. An instagram filter for someone trying to photographically revive the 80’s. Heck, this style is probably trending again in 2024. 

This album is, simply put, painful. But don’t get me wrong, that seems to be the intent - the groove varies from acoustic and folky and sparse (“Three Babies” to semi-funky, almost industrial (“I Am Stretched On Your Grave”), to pseudo-upbeat pop rock (“The Emperor’s New Clothes”, but the lyrics don’t let up at any point. There are only variations of sadness and pain - sometimes witchy, sometimes brooding, sometimes ironic, sometimes full of rage, but always depressing. I have no clue what O’Conner was going through, but it sounds massive and crushing. There’s no veil between O’Conner’s innermost feelings and the music - this is perhaps the most efficiently communicated sense of despair and gloomy anger I’ve ever heard. It comes to a head with the cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U”, which pretty much floored me with its longing energy. 

This album is raw human emotion artfully expressed, and it makes me feel like complete shit. But it’s an achievement without a doubt. 

Jams

• “I Am Stretched On Your Grave”

• “Nothing Compares 2 U”