Third week of the 1992 countdown featuring Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, R.E.M., Th Faith Healers, Spiritualized, Melvins, Babes in Toyland and Trouble.
Anyone who makes music lists regularly know that ranking albums is really inexact science. For the most part, I go with what I enjoy and play the most, but every now and then I balance things out by trying to step back from my personal issues I may have with something like R.E.M.’s eighth album and acknowledge that it’s a great album, even if I’ve more often enjoyed lesser rated albums that hit my pleasure buttons that are tuned to my personal biases. But for every canonical alt rock staple like R.E.M. and Spiritualized, there are several under-appreciated albums, at least in the mainstream. I’m sure Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is a widely known legend and hero in Pakistan, while Th Faith Healers are mostly forgotten outside of music nerds who bought albums unheard solely because they were on the Too Pure label. Melvins have remained prolific and active and are getting more and more recognition every year as the pioneers of stoner, sludge and drone rock, and Babes in Toyland got a fair amount of attention due to their early history with Courtney Love of Hole. Not what they’d prefer to be remembered for, but when they did a reunion tour a few years back, the room was filled with apprciative fans. Trouble’s core audience are doom metal enthusiasts, and man, they were so close to being able to cross over to a wider hard rock audience I’m sure they could taste it. Sadly, Eric Wagner died last year of Covid while touring in the South. Rest in pieces Eric, and y’all, don’t stop wearing masks at crowded indoor shows, FFS. People are still dying.
17. Trouble – Manic Frustration (Def American)
The holier part of the American doom trinity of Saint Vitus and The Obsessed (and Pentagram as sort of gutter-dwelling dogfathers), there was some hope that Rick Rubin’s Midas touch could push Trouble to cross over as well as Slayer, The Cult and Danzig did. Alas, despite some rave reviews, they remained a cult concern on both their self-titled in 1990, and the more psychedelic direction they took on this one. While cocaine turned Black Sabbath from good devil-fearing church boys into drooling degenerates, mushrooms simply expanded Trouble’s concerns from occasionally quoting the bible, to cosmic travelers. Eric Wagner’s needlesharp vocals remind me a bit of Axl Rose but damn, they were a million times better than Guns ‘n’ Roses. They had the chops, the voice and the sound, but probably just not enough hooks. With the thousands of stoner/doom/psych albums that have been released in the wild in subsequent decades, this sounds more important than ever.
16. Babes In Toyland – Fontanelle (Reprise)
The primary genre tags applied to Babes In Toyland — grunge and riot grrrl — are not quite accurate. Noise rock and post-hardcore is closer, but it’s really the epitome of righteous bitch goddess rage that 99% of punk rock failed to achieve, not to mention the valient early efforts of Bikini Kill and Hole. From the very earliest shows I witnessed in ’88 in underground venues like the Speedboat Gallery basement, Babes transcended their unpracticed musicianship through sheer force of will and desire. It was inspiring. Spanking Machine (1990) was a solid start, but Fontanelle was a whole new level of pure catharsis, leaving any indie bands in their dust and competing with the energy levels of Napalm Death. Fucking classic.
15. Melvins – Lysol (Boner)
At the time, after Melvins’ mighty third album, Bullhead (1991), this one initially seemed a toss-off or even a piss-take, with one untitled 31:17 track that appeared to bait CD users. It kicks off with the 10:42 long drone, “Hung Bunny” that spawned Earth, Sunn O))) and Boris, not to mention the entire genre of sludge metal, while they paid homage to their own influences with Flipper’s “Sacrifice” and Alice Cooper’s “Second Coming” and “The Ballad of Dwight Fry.” All three covers feature the same signature heavy Dale Crover drums and King Buzzo’s growling guitars, and are just as entertaining as their closing classic-style Melvin’s rocker, “With Teeth.” They would get a well deserved boost from devotee Kurt Cobain and put out a trilogy of the most awesomely challenging major label albums ever on Atlantic.
14. Spiritualized – Lazer Guided Melodies (Dedicated)
If Jason Pierce’s previous band Spacemen 3 was a beat up interplanetary freighter ship, bouncing between space garbage and reveling in the grittiest of drones found in the least popular VU, Stooges and Suicide tracks, Spiritualized is a shiny new intergalactic cruiser with more celestial destinations. Distorted guitars are still present but smoothed out, augmented by organs, a Farfisa, autoharp and some classical instrumentation via dulcimer, piano, brass and strings. Most tracks feature languid melodies that slowly, majestically crescendo. Every sound is lovingly fucked with for the most pleasing psychedelic effect, with this album serving as a classic template for psychedelic dream pop, space rock and ambient pop.
13. Th Faith Healers – Lido (Too Pure)
“I say madness is too pure like mother sky.” It’s fitting that the first band signed to the Too Pure label would cover Can’s “Mother Sky,” here in a compressed 4:17 version. Like I mentioned in the Stereolab blurb, this label gave me hope for a more colorful, interesting and psychedelic future. Th Faith Healers delivered it on their debut album, along with the essential companion compilation of their first three EPs, “L” packaged within the dirty, fuzzy little noise pop creatures spawned in the dark corners between garage psych and German kosmische. They certainly delivered the most spastic punk energy among their labelmates on tracks like “Hippy Hole” and “Love Song.” The band would sadly disband over just their second album (1993’s Imaginary Friend), with Tom Cullinan forming Quickspace, which narrowed Th Faith Healer’s potential scope rather than expanded. But they they did leave a litter of noisy kosmische garage psych critters in the entire roster of John Dwyer’s Castle Face record label.
12. R.E.M. – Automatic for the People (WB)
It’s a testament to how great Murmur (1983) was that, while each subsequent R.E.M. album was a little worse than the previous one, even at a nadir with Out of Time (1991), they were still a great band. AFTP reversed that trend, with their most cohesive album, a study of autumnal melancholy. While many consider it their masterpiece, I still rate it below Document (1987) and possibly even the Chronic Town EP (1982). That’s probably not fair, but to me even the difficult to love Fables of the Reconstruction (1985) was more exciting than their polished folk rock seven years later. Plus, it took me 30 years to get over hating the overplayed “Everybody Hurts” and “Man on the Moon.”
11. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – Love & Devotional (Real World)
Originally issued as two separate albums – Love Songs & Devotional Songs, in it’s combined state (which is all I ever knew, as i had the CD) is one of the most enchanting, addictive world music albums in the 90s. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan gained a following in Pakistan by releasing over 50 albums between 1973 and 1983, mostly cassette, and playing at weddings for five or more hours. Given that it’s sung in Urdu, he might as well be reciting a grocery list, and his voice would remain ethereal, augmented by a very simple setup of tablas and harmonium. A highlight among his releases on Peter Gabriel’s Real World label, it’s become a Qawwali Kind of Blue, at least to many Westerners like me, who played it hundreds of times. Jeff Buckley was a fan, saying Nusrat was his Elvis before covering “Yeh Jo Halka Halka Saroor Hai” on Live at Sin-e (1993).
iframe style=”border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;” src=”https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3321301964/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=e99708/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/” seamless>Love & Devotion by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan- R.E.M. – Automatic For the People (WB) | USA
- Catherine Wheel – Ferment (Mercury/Polygram) | UK
- The Comsat Angels – My Mind’s Eye (Caroline/Renascent) | UK
- Melvins – Lysol (Boner) | USA
- Solitude Aeturnus – Beyond The Crimson Horizon (Roadrunner) | USA
- Black Sabbath – Dehumanizer (EMI) | UK
- The Wedding Present – The Hit Parade (RCA) | UK
- Luna – Lunapark (Elektra) | USA
- Ride – Going Blank Again (Sire/Reprise) | UK
- Snatches Of Pink – Bent With Prey (Caroline) | USA | Bandcamp
- Sonic Youth – Dirty (WB) | USA
- Th Faith Healers – Lido (Too Pure/Elektra) | UK
- Souled American – Sonny (Rough Trade ) | USA | Bandcamp
- Moonshake – Eva Luna (Too Pure) | UK
- Bark Psychosis – Scum EP (3rd Stone) | UK
- Alice In Chains – Dirt (Columbia) | USA
- Spiritualized – Lazer Guided Melodies (Dedicated) | UK | Bandcamp
- Godflesh – Pure (Earache) | UK | Bandcamp
- Buffalo Tom – Let Me Come Over (Beggars Banquet) | USA | Bandcamp
- Moonshake – Secondhand Clothes EP (Too Pure) | UK
- Babes In Toyland – Fontanelle (Reprise) | USA
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