I couldn’t resist trying to do a “best of” list for the 1990s, so here it is. I stopped at 80, rather than going to 100, because that’s as far as I could easily get: in the 1990s, I wasn’t listening to the radio very much, and I found a few genres that I liked and I stuck with them.
This list was a labour of love – this is my favourite decade for music. I only found 80 songs because I limited myself to one song per artist.
If I do the 2000s, I’ll probably be stuck at only 50 songs or maybe even 30 songs – I stopped being in touch with new music sometime in the new millennium. (OK boomer!)
Anyway, here’s the (four-fifths complete) list. I’ve added notes in square brackets on some of them.
- In Spite Of Ourselves – John Prine & Iris DeMent
[the best love song in the history of ever] - Nowhere Near – Yo La Tengo
- Man On The Moon – R.E.M.
- Sennen – Ride
- Where Did You Sleep Last Night – Nirvana
[I didn’t understand the fuss about Nirvana until I heard this version, from the unplugged CD] - Ahead By A Century – Tragically Hip
- Ain’t That Enough – Teenage Fanclub
- Golden Hair – Slowdive
- When It’s Cold I’d Like To Die – Moby
- In This Heart – Sinead O’Connor
- The Wanderer – U2 (featuring Johnny Cash)
- Country Home – Neil Young and Crazy Horse
- Mesmerise – Chapterhouse
- Everlong – Foo Fighters
- Rocket – Smashing Pumpkins
- Dandy Warhols TV Theme Song – Dandy Warhols
- Friday I’m In Love – The Cure
- Story Of My Life – Social Distortion
- Praise You – Fatboy Slim
- Step On – Happy Mondays
- The Life of Riley – Lightning Seeds
- Divine Intervention – Matthew Sweet
- Sing – Blur
- D’You Know What I Mean? – Oasis
- Cannonball – Breeders
- Sworn and Broken – Screaming Trees
- Pictures – Mojave 3
[The saddest song that I know of. “Hello In There” by John Prine is the second-saddest.] - Hesitating Beauty – Billy Bragg and Wilco
- No One Knows – Green Day
- Movie Star – Cracker
- Guns In The Ghetto – UB40
- Two Worlds Collide – Inspiral Carpets
- Black Metallic – Catherine Wheel
- I’m Free – Soup Dragons
- Rolling People – The Verve
- Movin’ On Up – Primal Scream
- Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam – Vaselines
- The Mummers’ Dance – Loreena McKennitt
- Save This House – Spirit of the West
[Rest in peace.] - Run – Collective Soul
- Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth… – Primitive Radio Gods
- Brimful of Asha – Cornershop
- Tubthumping – Chumbawamba
- Godsend – Beat Happening
[I love the very idea of Beat Happening, because they couldn’t play or sing very well. As one book I read described it: if you thought you could play better than them, it was up to you to prove it. If you could, you had yourself a band. If you couldn’t, you had to shut up. Either way, they had proved their point.] - T T T – Buzzcocks
- The Kids Aren’t Alright – The Offspring
- Scar Tissue – Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Mr. Jones – Counting Crows
- Loveless (the entire album, dammit) – My Bloody Valentine
[It’s my list, and I can do what I want. Loveless has to be listened to in its entirety for it to really work.] - Jesus Built My Hotrod (Redline/Whiteline Version) – Ministry
- Roots Radical – Rancid
- The Only One I Know – Charlatans
- Blue Flower – Mazzy Star
- Swallowed – Bush
- Love You All – 54-40
- Seether – Veruca Salt
- Radiation Vibe – Fountains of Wayne
- The Anglo-Saxons – Mountain Goats
- Lost Together – Blue Rodeo
- Omobolasire – Prozzak
- Sunshine After The Rain – Berri
[This is an idiosyncratic choice because of when I first heard it: I was driving in Arizona in a rented car, listening to a Mexican radio station, and this came on. It reminds me of a pleasant memory.] - Steal My Sunshine – Len
- For All This – Holly Golightly
- Feels Blind – Bikini Kill
- Kill Your Television – Ned’s Atomic Dustbin
- Slide – Luna
- Svefn-g-englar – Sigur Rós
- Ich Bin Ein Auslander – Pop Will Eat Itself
[Possibly the least romantic song in the history of music.] - Liquid Indian – Guided By Voices
- Danny Boy – Moe Tucker
- Whip Smart – Liz Phair
- Jack-Ass – Beck
- Friends of P. – Rentals
- Jane Says – Jane’s Addiction
- Zombie – Cranberries
- Turn It On – Flaming Lips
[Included for its rhythm guitar track, which is filthy.] - If It Makes You Happy – Sheryl Crow
- Reverence – Jesus and Mary Chain
- If I Had $1,000,000 – Barenaked Ladies
- Two Princes – Spin Doctors