BACKDATED FOR EASE OF BROWSING
I enjoyed Pitchfork’s list of the Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s. The decision to limit the list to one song per artist opened things up to tons of songs, probably even whole genres, that would have been excluded if folks like Bjork and Beck and Radiohead each had five songs a piece or what have you; moreover it started a whole different set of discussions than “‘Let Down’ should have been ranked higher than ‘Creep,'” which is probably what you’d have gotten otherwise. Still, as with any exercise of this sort, there are bound to be lacunae, oversights, goofs, choices you’d have made differently, artists you’d have better represented, and of course outright crimes against all that is holy. LOL srsly the closest thing I have to a substantive philosophical criticism of the list is that in the end, the voters admittedly went with comfort for their #1; given that the list has frequently been positioned as a statement about indie music today, read into that what you will. In my case, seeing the #1 vote-getter (no spoilers here!) simply reminded me that my 1990s were different from those of a lot of other critics–less “indie rock,” more “alternative,” electronic, heavy, and industrial.
So in the interest of showing my ’90s off a bit, here, in alphabetical order by artist, are 80 wonderful songs from that wonderful decade for music that didn’t make Pitchfork’s cut. I applied three rules in making this list:
1) Like Pitchfork, I limited myself to one song per artist.
2) If an artist made Pitchfork’s Top 200 list, I couldn’t use them–in other words, I wasn’t adjudicating whether “Donkey Rhubarb” would have been a better pick than “Windowlicker.” (Although it is.)
3) Pitchfork very helpfully and very smartly included two or three “see also” suggestions with every entry, in order to give relevant sounds/scenes/artists that much more props. I didn’t let this rule out artists who were thus listed, but I did let it rule out the individual songs that were cited. As a practical matter this meant that several songs which all things being equal I’d have included on any Top Whatever List didn’t end up making it in, because the song Pitchfork had suggested as a “see also” was so clearly the right choice–“Stars” by Hum, “Gett Off” by Prince, “Woo-Hah!! Got You All in Check” by Busta Rhymes, “Jump Around” by House of Pain, and “Unsung” by Helmet all come to mind. But more often than not I had the leeway I wanted.
So there you have it. There was a lot of great music made in the days of my youth; here’s some of it, in convenient video form. I hope you enjoy!
1. 1000 Homo DJs – Supernaut
2. Christina Aguilera – What a Girl Wants
3. Alabama 3 – Woke Up This Morning
4. Tori Amos – Silent All These Years
5. Fiona Apple – I Know
6. Archive – So Few Words
7. Backstreet Boys – Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)
8. Ben Folds Five – Army
9. Bizarre Inc. – I’m Gonna Get You
10. Blahzay Blahzay – Danger
11. David Bowie – I’m Deranged
12. Butthole Surfers – Who Was in My Room Last Night?
13. Cake – The Distance
14. Mariah Carey feat. Ol’ Dirty Bastard – Fantasy
15. Johnny Cash – Delia’s Gone
16. Cypress Hill feat. Erick Sermon, Redman, and MC Eiht – Throw Your Hands in the Air
17. The Dandy Warhols – Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth
18. Deftones – Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)
19. DJ Kool – Let Me Clear My Throat
20. DNA feat, Suzanne Vega – Tom’s Diner
21. Erasure – Always
22. Everything But the Girl & Deep Dish – The Future of the Future (Stay Gold)
23. Faith No More – Mid-Life Crisis
24. Fishbone – Unyielding Conditioning
25. Folk Implosion – Natural One
26. Peter Gabriel – Digging in the Dirt
27. Garbage – Vow
28. Genius/GZA – Duel of the Iron Mic
29. GusGus – Believe
30. Sophie B. Hawkins – Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover
31. Michael Jackson – Remember the Time
32. Junior M.A.F.I.A. – Player’s Anthem
33. King Missile – Detachable Penis
34. KMDFM – Juke Joint Jezebel
35. Kool Keith – Sex Style
36. Korn – Blind
37. Lenny Kravitz – It Ain’t Over ’til It’s Over
38. LL Cool J – 6 Minutes of Pleasure
39. Lords of Acid – The Crablouse
40. Nick Lowe – The Beast in Me
41. Madonna – Vogue
42. Manic Street Preachers – Faster
43. Marilyn Manson – The Beautiful People
44. Ricky Martin – Livin’ La Vida Loca
45. Meat Beat Manifesto – Asbestos Lead Asbestos
46. Metallica – The Unforgiven
47. Ministry – N.W.O.
48. Ned’s Atomic Dustbin – Grey Cell Green
49. Pantera – This Love
50. CeCe Peniston – Finally
51. Photek – K.J.Z.
52. Pigface – Chikasaw
53. Placebo – Pure Morning
54. The Presidents of the United States of America – Lump
55. Primitive Radio Gods – Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand
56. Primus – Jerry Was a Race Car Driver
57. The Prodigy – Poison
58. Rage Against the Machine – Freedom
59. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Give It Away
60. The Rentals – Friends of P
61. Rollins Band – Liar
62. Roni Size/Reprazent – Share the Fall
63. Ruby – Salt Water Fish
64. Sade – No Ordinary Love
65. Salt-n-Pepa feat. En Vogue – “Whatta Man”
66. Seal – Killer
67. Sloan – Money City Maniacs
68. Snap! – The Power
69. Soul II Soul – Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)
70. Soundgarden – Rusty Cage
71. Sparkle feat. R. Kelly – Be Careful
72. Britney Spears – Baby One More Time
73. Sugarcubes – Hit
74. Sunscreem – Love U More
75. Teenage Fanclub – Is This Music?
76. Temple of the Dog – Hunger Strike
77. Tool – Aenema
78. U2 – The Fly
79. Whale – Hobo Humpin’ Slobo Babe
80. White Zombie – More Human Than Human