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101 Best Songs of 1990 - #1 George Michael - Freedom '90 (2 Viewers)

scorchy said:
#64 - Pixies - Velouria

As the lone (AFAIK) mega-fan of Pixies in my podunk hometown, I was so excited to learn a new album was dropping the week that I left for college. I rushed to the mall to buy it so I could have time to dub a copy to play in my car a few times on the long drive to Florida. Compared to Surfer Rosa and Doolittle, Bossanova was a grow-er and not a show-er. But on that 13-hour solo drive, it did grow on me, and even includes my sometimes-favorite Pixies tune. That tune is not lead single Velouria, thought that's pretty good too.
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One of my favorites from them, even liked the slow mo video that went with it.
 
scorchy said:
plinko said:
( not the title track either, which is hokey )

( whatever nevermind )
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Yeah, I thought I loved the title track. It rocks. Then I listened to the lyrics for the first time in ages when putting this thing together and thought "damn, this is some police-state nonsense."
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Not unique for Queensryche, considering Operation: Mindcrime and all. Empire's an album with 5 strong songs, but thinking about, 2-3 in the top 100 is about right, even before you mentioning Jet City Woman counting as 1991.

As a side note, I caught them during the Building Empires tour (though not til 1991), with previously mentioned Suicidal Tendencies opening up for them.
 
I should have realized you meant JCW as one of those 91’s, duh. Scatterbrain day, homeward bound. Keep up the good work here.
 
I never liked Empire. I was a big Operation: Mindcrime fan, but could never get with the toned-down elements that made up Empire. Just me, though, because everybody seemed to like it besides me.

Jet City woman. . .
 
scorchy said:
#66 - Queensryche - Best I Can

Earlier, I made a joke about Steve Vai being overly popular among the dudes in my dorm, but he had nothing on Queensryche. I'm pretty sure on the day Empire was released (Sept 4, 1990), at least a half dozen of the guys on my floor were in line at Schoolkids' Records to buy it. That same week was always when the giant poster market would come to the student union and new Queensryche posters soon populated the walls.*

Even though it wasn't in my wheelhouse, I learned to like Queensryche simply via osmosis. We usually played Spades most nights in my buddy Dean's room (mine was too messy thanks to Bob) and Empire always seemed to be his soundtrack of choice (or could just be that the other three of us nixed the Steve Vai and Joe Satriani solo records). The two big radio hits from Empire were both released in '91 (and full disclosure, I loathe Silent Lucidity anyway) but it's impossible for me to think of 1990 and not list a couple Queensryche songs.

* I loved poster week, and with my son getting ready to head to college in 2 weeks, my wife and I were wondering whether they're still a thing. Small sample size and all, but I can say for sure that Queensryche posters were not a draw for the ladies, as the five guys I knew who hung them up went 0-fer in the the dating department that year. I initially came to UF with a bunch of Orioles stuff but quickly realized my mistake, replacing it with posters repping Jane's Addiction, The Smiths, and a David Lynch movie. They tended to draw compliments from the kind of girls I was chasing till Bob's stinky laundry and loud guitar playing drove them out.
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I had a Miller’s Crossing and an Italian Clockwork Orange poster. Legitimately great posters, but no match for my lack of game.

And I was an Operation Mindcrime guy who LOATHED Empire from the first listen.
 
Ramsay Hunt Experience said:
I had a Miller’s Crossing and an Italian Clockwork Orange poster. Legitimately great posters, but no match for my lack of game.
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My David Lynch poster was Wild at Heart. On the few occasions a girl commented on it, I had enough game to know I couldn't pull off the Nic Cage line I desperately wanted to try out:

Did I ever tell you that this here leather jacket represents a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom?
 
Mt. Man said:
scorchy said:
plinko said:
( not the title track either, which is hokey )

( whatever nevermind )
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Yeah, I thought I loved the title track. It rocks. Then I listened to the lyrics for the first time in ages when putting this thing together and thought "damn, this is some police-state nonsense."
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Not unique for Queensryche, considering Operation: Mindcrime and all. Empire's an album with 5 strong songs, but thinking about, 2-3 in the top 100 is about right, even before you mentioning Jet City Woman counting as 1991.

As a side note, I caught them during the Building Empires tour (though not til 1991), with previously mentioned Suicidal Tendencies opening up for them.
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Queensryche has been my favorite band since their EP. I like the Empire album but it’s my fourth favorite QR album. My favorite QR show was when they opened for Metallica but they were great when they headlined the Buildong Empires tour.
 
Bulldong Empires

Agree with the sentiment that Empire was an unexpected sound but I still liked it very much. 4th favorite as well, and then there’s also the EP, and you can keep the rest, though Sign of the Times (this name was taken) had some OK tunes.

They were my favorite band from ‘88 until I found the Afghan Whigs. Sign of the times.
 
#63 The Breeders - Iris

Moving on from Pixies to a band where Kim Deal actually was able to shine. Released less than 2 months apart, I've always preferred the Breeders' debut record Pod to Pixies Bossanova - same goes for most future releases too. Kim was able to be gloriously weird with the Breeders, which I feel like Frank mainly reserved for himself on the post-Doolittle Pixies releases. For what it's worth, in 1992, Kurt Cobain named Pod as his favorite album. For me, Kim's warble in Iris makes it my pick and probably explains why I had such an affinity for Hopalong a few years back.

Hey @plinko , check out Tanya Donnelly playing guitar in the video.
 
I thought about the Breeders, maybe in countdown #50. Love ‘em but I liked Belly better in the day, and Tanya has more stuff, including a few juicy nuggets from before all this.

“Kim Deal” as a whole would compete easily, but tying in the Pixies felt a little more like cheating.
 
#62 Tesla - Signs

Bit of discussion earlier about how Tesla was unfairly lumped in with the hair bands and I couldn't agree more. I know that Five Man Acoustical Jam wasn't the impetus for all the great unplugged albums to come (the first season of MTV Unplugged launched in late 1989) but it did bring the sound to the radio listening masses. Signs wasn't my favorite cover on the album (that would be Mother's Little Help) but it was inescapable in the winter of '90/'91 and undoubtedly the song that non-metal fans most strongly associated with Tesla. An original vinyl copy of Five Man Acoustical Jam remains near the top of my "wanted" list on Discogs - whenever I go to record store it's one of the first things I search for but 10 years on and still no luck.
 
scorchy said:
#62 Tesla - Signs

Bit of discussion earlier about how Tesla was unfairly lumped in with the hair bands and I couldn't agree more. I know that Five Man Acoustical Jam wasn't the impetus for all the great unplugged albums to come (the first season of MTV Unplugged launched in late 1989) but it did bring the sound to the radio listening masses.
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Might be a chicken and the egg argument, or did MTV start releasing those on CD before Tesla had this unexpected success?
 
FatMax said:
Being from the Sacramento area, I was required to sign a pledge to always love Tesla and Cake. Telsa is a just a good blues based rock band. They're still touring. I saw them live a couple of years ago, and they still rocked it.
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Frankie Hannon is one of the more unheralded guitarists from that era. Dude can really shred.
 
scorchy said:
plinko said:
Might be a chicken and the egg argument, or did MTV start releasing those on CD before Tesla had this unexpected success?
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Right you are. Looks like the first official MTV Unpluggged CD wasn't released until 1992.
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But at the same time if there's no MTV Unplugged there's probably no Five Man Acoustical Jam... in any case, this one slays most of those except Nirvana, and REM's was good but I think it was only available as a bootleg
 
FatMax said:
plinko said:
Also Deftones eat Cake for breakfast :oldunsure:
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I always forget about them. Mainly because I've never been a huge fan. That could get my *** kicked if uttered around here.
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I'm sure you're not alone, a lot of people still lump them in with KoRn

One of my top five favorite bands in current times. Speaking of, I got to fist bump a guy in a Local H shirt on my way out of Chicago
 
plinko said:
FatMax said:
plinko said:
Also Deftones eat Cake for breakfast :oldunsure:
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I always forget about them. Mainly because I've never been a huge fan. That could get my *** kicked if uttered around here.
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I'm sure you're not alone, a lot of people still lump them in with KoRn

One of my top five favorite bands in current times. Speaking of, I got to fist bump a guy in a Local H shirt on my way out of Chicago
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A friend of mine has met Chino several times. I guess their families are friends or something. Though I've never witnessed it in person, I guess my friend usually locks up because he is fan-girlling so hard.
 
FatMax said:
plinko said:
FatMax said:
plinko said:
Also Deftones eat Cake for breakfast :oldunsure:
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I always forget about them. Mainly because I've never been a huge fan. That could get my *** kicked if uttered around here.
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I'm sure you're not alone, a lot of people still lump them in with KoRn

One of my top five favorite bands in current times. Speaking of, I got to fist bump a guy in a Local H shirt on my way out of Chicago
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A friend of mine has met Chino several times. I guess their families are friends or something. Though I've never witnessed it in person, I guess my friend usually locks up because he is fan-girlling so hard.
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In the discussion for best rock singer of his (our) generation, I would fanboy out too. He can scream his head off then sing Sade
 
Last edited:
#61 Primus - John the Fisherman

A little bit of Primus goes a long way, but back in 1990, all we had was a little bit of them. They were always a mixtape kind-of band for me, i.e., I thought a bunch of their songs were a lot of fun but I never wanted to hear two in a row. And if Queensryche was the equivalent of bug repellent for the ladies, then Primus was like the industrial-strength insecticide they used to spray from prop planes. John the Fisherman will never not make me smile though.
 
scorchy said:
#73 Soho - Hippychick

Another one-hit wonder that I love maybe more than I should. How can I not, given it’s built around a sample of one of my favorite songs ever? Hippychick has such great vibes that it even made Smiths-loving saddos crack smiles on the dancefloor. It somehow reached #14 on the Hot 100 despite the lyrics being total nonsense:

Today, we'll sit here drinking coffee in your incident room
Tonight, you'll close the door and lock me in that bare bulb gloom
Love, it ain't something riding on a motorbike
And love, I stopped loving you since the miners' strike.

Or so I thought. According to the band, “Hippychick was written from the perspective of a young woman arrested by her boyfriend (who is a policeman) on a demonstration. She is basically telling him it’s over, because, as a cop, he supports an establishment she wants to get rid of.”
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Been so long since I heard this, this is the one with the “How Soon is Now” sample?
They also covered one of my favorites, Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream) from the Icicle Works. The Soho version appeared in the closing credits to the original Scream movie
 
scorchy said:
#61 Primus - John the Fisherman

A little bit of Primus goes a long way, but back in 1990, all we had was a little bit of them. They were always a mixtape kind-of band for me, i.e., I thought a bunch of their songs were a lot of fun but I never wanted to hear two in a row. And if Queensryche was the equivalent of bug repellent for the ladies, then Primus was like the industrial-strength insecticide they used to spray from prop planes. John the Fisherman will never not make me smile though.
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First thing I think of when I hear Primus is this video: https://youtu.be/aYDfwUJzYQg?si=J6Nyzk3CjLEyTLTJ
 
scorchy said:
#61 Primus - John the Fisherman

A little bit of Primus goes a long way, but back in 1990, all we had was a little bit of them. They were always a mixtape kind-of band for me, i.e., I thought a bunch of their songs were a lot of fun but I never wanted to hear two in a row. And if Queensryche was the equivalent of bug repellent for the ladies, then Primus was like the industrial-strength insecticide they used to spray from prop planes. John the Fisherman will never not make me smile though.
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I'm like this with most ska.

I have seen them twice, Woodstock 94, and in Boston a while later, hooked up by a friend from Interscope Records, Rodney. Part of Rodney's job was to represent the label when bands came through Boston. So he always had backstage passes and such. Super good friend to have.

Rodney brought a friend and I backstage at the Horde Tour (1997? 98?) and it was Neill Young, Beck and Primus the big acts. We got really stoned with Rodney and some Primus crew members, and we noticed that every person who walked by, you knew immediately which entourage they were with. Primus girls do not look like Beck girls who do not look like Neil Young....women.

So whoever was talking, anytime someone walked by, they would stop and say, quietly, 'Beck' or whoever. We missed the first half of Neil cause we were backstage laughing for an hour, playing this stupid game. 😆
 
Hugsy_Malone said:

Sailing The Seas of Cheese is this nerd's guilty pleasure. Industrial-strength insecticide indeed.

"My Lord, can't you hear it?"

"I -- I can. I can hear the running of the women! From the room playing Primus!"
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@Hugsy_Malone is my name
and I say unto thee
Say baby, do you wanna lay down with me?
Say, baby, do you wanna lay down by my side?
Baby, do you wanna lay down with me?
Say, baby, say, baby
 
#60 - Mariah Carey - Someday

Trying to hide this one here in the Saturday morning FFA deadzone... Still, can't talk about 1990 without mentioning Mariah Carey. Someday was the third consecutive #1 single from Mariah's self-titled debut. I was done with R&B ballads at midnight on prom night, so the first two (Vision of Love and Love Takes Time) didn't register at all. Someday at least had a bit of the new jack swing thing going on, and my roommate Bob and I would definitely watch her dance around in the video, maybe with the sound down a bit. She obviously went on to better things, including one of my favorite tracks of the entire 90s five years later.
 
#58 Charlatans UK - The Only One I Know

Back to Madchester, even though the Charlatans were actually from Birmingham. The Only One I Know was the lead single from their debut album and it was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, top 10 on both the UK Pop and US Alternative charts. The Charlatans were one of the few bands from their scene to maintain a semblance of mainstream success after Britpop took over, with their most recent album (14th in total) earning excellent reviews and sales in 2017.
 
scorchy said:
#58 Charlatans UK - The Only One I Know

Back to Madchester, even though the Charlatans were actually from Birmingham. The Only One I Know was the lead single from their debut album and it was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, top 10 on both the UK Pop and US Alternative charts. The Charlatans were one of the few bands from their scene to maintain a semblance of mainstream success after Britpop took over, with their most recent album (14th in total) earning excellent reviews and sales in 2017.
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They were never close to being on the level of the Happy Mondays or the Stone Roses, but I just never really dug into them like the other bands. So maybe more my fault.
 
scorchy said:
#58 Charlatans UK - The Only One I Know

Back to Madchester, even though the Charlatans were actually from Birmingham. The Only One I Know was the lead single from their debut album and it was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, top 10 on both the UK Pop and US Alternative charts. The Charlatans were one of the few bands from their scene to maintain a semblance of mainstream success after Britpop took over, with their most recent album (14th in total) earning excellent reviews and sales in 2017.
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The two chord organ riff is dead simple but oh so effective.

I've seen them both but I still get the Charlatans and Chameleons confused sometimes. What are the chances that two bands come out of Manchester about the same time, both fronted by unrelated guys named Burgess and both forced to append a "UK" to their name for American trademark purposes.
 
This is the only one I know by them

But Tim’s twitter listening parties were good fun during the pandemic. Seems like a super excellent dude.
 
scorchy said:
# 59 Uncle Tupelo - Whiskey Bottle

I won't pretend I was listening to Uncle Tupelo's debut record No Depression in 1990, but it's just too damn good not to get a mention here (so good they named a scene and magazine after it). I was always team Jay Farrar/Son Volt even as Jeff Tweedy/Wilco became the critical darlings. I get why, but Farrar's stuff always spoke to me more.
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I found UT when Anodyne came out and they were about to break up. I saw them on their final tour and thought Farrar was going to be a huge deal: The Lennon to Tweedy’s McCartney, the Young to Tweedy’s Stills, or what have you. I was wrong. Son Volt’s first album is great but after that their material mostly doesn’t really move me.
 
#57 - The La's - Timeless Melody

I went out fishing on my kayak at 6 am this morning and am pretty beat so I'm just going to copy what I wrote about The La's from the 1988 countdown:

Lee Mavers is kind of like a scouser Axl Rose. His band - the La's - get signed by Go! Records in 1987 and release their debut single. It goes nowhere. The band start to record an album, but Lee Mavers is a perfectionist, can't get along with his bandmates or the producer, and all that gets pressed is a second single, 1988's There She Goes. The song was praised by the music press but still only made it to #59 on the UK charts and didn't get any traction in the States.

Mavers reconfigured the band with new members several times and kept toiling away on the album. It wasn't until late '89 that The La's paired up with uber producer Steve Lillywhite and actually started laying down tracks. But Mavers still hated the results and the band decided to scrap the record. Go! convinced Lillywhite to cobble together whatever he could and the label eventually released the self-titled album in October 1990 - more than 3 years and a dozen bandmates after initial recording started. The album reached #30 and the re-released single of There She Goes hit #13 in the UK and got plenty of play on U.S. alt radio (#2 on the Modern Rock charts). Mavers still hated it.

The La's/Mavers spent the better part of the 90s working on a follow up record that never happened. The stature of There She Goes, however, has only grown with age. British magazines NME and Q both have it among their top 50 songs of all time, Rolling Stone lists the La's among the best one-hit wonders, and There She Goes has been a major influence on hordes of indie bands across the world.
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Yes, I'm quoting myself... I probably should have used the re-release date for There She Goes given it hit big over here in 1990, but the second single Timeless Melody is a decent enough consolation prize.
 
massraider said:
They were never close to being on the level of the Happy Mondays or the Stone Roses, but I just never really dug into them like the other bands. So maybe more my fault.
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The Charlatans highs weren't nearly as high as either of those other two, but maybe consistently being pretty good rather than occasionally great helped them to avoid burning out. That and avoiding crack.
 
Pip's Invitation said:
I found UT when Anodyne came out and they were about to break up. I saw them on their final tour and thought Farrar was going to be a huge deal: The Lennon to Tweedy’s McCartney, the Young to Tweedy’s Stills, or what have you. I was wrong. Son Volt’s first album is great but after that their material mostly doesn’t really move me.
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Totally agree. It's just that a few songs on that first album move me more than anything Wilco ever did. Like rock, I have a blind spot.
 
scorchy said:
#57 - The La's - Timeless Melody

The La's/Mavers spent the better part of the 90s working on a follow up record that never happened. The stature of There She Goes, however, has only grown with age. British magazines NME and Q both have it among their top 50 songs of all time, Rolling Stone lists the La's among the best one-hit wonders, and There She Goes has been a major influence on hordes of indie bands across the world.
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Yeah, I like the song fine, but it's stature is because someone decided it was the first Britpop song. I have no idea myself.

But for that same kind of upbeat sound from a Brit band that sounds like they might be from Cali, I recommend checking out the Thrills.
 
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