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Spiderland (1991)

Album Info
Spiderland is the second and final studio album by the American rock band Slint. It was released on March 27, 1991, through Touch and Go Records. Featuring dramatically alternating dynamics and vocals ranging from spoken word to shouting, the album contains narrative lyrics that emphasize alienation. Spiderland was Slint's first release on Touch and Go, and the group's only album to feature Todd Brashear.Although Spiderland was not widely recognized on its initial release, it eventually sold more than 50,000 copies and became a landmark album in underground music after Slint broke up. The album has been influential on the styles of many bands in the post-rock genres. In 2005, 2007 and 20132014, Slint reunited for a tour consisting of performances of Spiderland in its entirety.

Artist Info

Slint is an American rock band consisting of Brian McMahan (guitar and vocals), David Pajo (guitar), Britt Walford (drums and vocals), Todd Brashear (bass on Spiderland), and Ethan Buckler (bass on Tweez). They formed in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, in 1986. Slint's first album Tweez was recorded by engineer Steve Albini in 1987 and released in obscurity on the Jennifer Hartman Records label in 1989. It was followed two years later by the critically acclaimed Spiderland, released on the independent label Touch and Go Records.They have reunited sporadically since 2005.
Post-rock
Wikipedia entry

Achtung Baby (1991)

Album Info
Achtung Baby ( ) is the seventh studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and was released on 18 November 1991 on Island Records. Stung by criticism of their 1988 release, Rattle and Hum, U2 shifted their musical direction to incorporate influences from alternative rock, industrial music, and electronic dance music into their sound. Thematically, Achtung Baby is darker, more introspective, and at times more flippant than their previous work. The album and the subsequent multimedia-intensive Zoo TV Tour were central to the group's 1990s reinvention, by which they abandoned their earnest public image for a more lighthearted and self-deprecating one.Seeking inspiration from German reunification, U2 began recording Achtung Baby at Berlin's Hansa Studios in October 1990. The sessions were fraught with conflict, as the band argued over their musical direction and the quality of their material. After tensions and slow progress nearly prompted the group to disband, they made a breakthrough with the improvised writing of the song "One". Morale and productivity improved during subsequent recording sessions in Dublin, where the album was completed in 1991. To confound the public's expectations of the band and their music, U2 chose the record's facetious title and colourful multi-image sleeve.Achtung Baby is one of U2's most successful records; it received favourable reviews and debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 Top Albums, while topping the charts in many other countries. Five songs were released as commercial singles, all of which were chart successes, including "One", "Mysterious Ways", and "The Fly". The album has sold 18 million copies worldwide and won a Grammy Award in 1993 for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Achtung Baby has since been acclaimed by writers and music critics as one of the greatest albums of all time. The record was reissued in October 2011 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of its original release.

Artist Info

U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin formed in 1976. The group consists of Bono (lead vocals and rhythm guitar), the Edge (lead guitar, keyboards, and backing vocals), Adam Clayton (bass guitar), and Larry Mullen Jr. (drums and percussion). Initially rooted in post-punk, U2's musical style evolved throughout their career, yet has maintained an anthemic sound built on Bono's expressive vocals and the Edge's effects-based guitar textures. Their lyrics, often embellished with spiritual imagery, focus on personal and sociopolitical themes. Popular for their live performances, the group have staged several ambitious and elaborate tours over their career.The band formed at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in 1976 when the members were teenagers with limited musical proficiency. Within four years, they signed with Island Records and released their debut album, Boy (1980). Subsequent work such as their first UK number-one album, War (1983), and the singles "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "Pride (In the Name of Love)" helped establish U2's reputation as a politically and socially conscious group. By the mid-1980s, they had become renowned globally for their live act, highlighted by their performance at Live Aid in 1985. The group's fifth album, The Joshua Tree (1987), made them international superstars and was their greatest critical and commercial success. Topping music charts around the world, it produced their only number-one singles in the US, "With or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For".Facing creative stagnation and a backlash following their documentary/double album, Rattle and Hum (1988), U2 reinvented themselves in the 1990s through a new musical direction and public image. Beginning with their acclaimed seventh album, Achtung Baby (1991), and the multimedia-intensive Zoo TV Tour, the band integrated influences from alternative rock, electronic dance music, and industrial music into their sound, and embraced a more ironic, flippant image. This experimentation continued through their ninth album, Pop (1997), and the PopMart Tour, which were mixed successes. U2 regained critical and commercial favour with the records All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000) and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004), which established a more conventional, mainstream sound for the group. Their U2 360 Tour of 20092011 is the highest-attended and highest-grossing concert tour in history. The group's thirteenth album, Songs of Innocence (2014), was released at no cost through the iTunes Store, but received criticism for its automatic placement in users' music libraries.U2 have released 14 studio albums and are one of the world's best-selling music artists in history, having sold more than 170 million records worldwide. They have won 22 Grammy Awards, more than any other band, and in 2005, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility. Rolling Stone ranked U2 at number 22 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". Throughout their career, as a band and as individuals, they have campaigned for human rights and social justice causes, including Amnesty International, Jubilee 2000, the ONE/DATA campaigns, Product Red, War Child, and Music Rising.
Alternative Rock
Wikipedia entry

The White Room (1991)

Album Info
The White Room is the fourth and final studio album by British electronic music group The KLF, released in March 1991. Originally scheduled for 1989 as the soundtrack to a film of the same name, the album's direction was changed after both the film and the original soundtrack LP were cancelled. Most tracks on the original album version are present in the final release, though in significantly remixed form.A darker, harder complementary album called The Black Room was supposed to follow The White Room, but that plan was abandoned when KLF disbanded in 1992.

Artist Info

The KLF (also known as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, furthermore known as The JAMs and The Timelords and by other names) were a British electronic band of the late 1980s and early 1990s.Beginning in 1987, Bill Drummond (alias King Boy D) and Jimmy Cauty (alias Rockman Rock) released hip hop-inspired and sample-heavy records as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, and on one occasion (the British number one hit single "Doctorin' the Tardis") as the Timelords. The KLF released a series of international hits on their own KLF Communications record label and became the biggest-selling singles act in the world for 1991. The duo also published a book, The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way), and worked on a road movie called The White Room.From the outset, they adopted the philosophy espoused by esoteric novel series The Illuminatus! Trilogy, gaining notoriety for various anarchic situationist manifestations, including the defacement of billboard adverts, the posting of prominent cryptic advertisements in NME magazine and the mainstream press, and highly distinctive and unusual performances on Top of the Pops. Their most notorious performance was a collaboration with Extreme Noise Terror (and Barney Greenaway of Napalm Death) at the February 1992 BRIT Awards, where they fired machine gun blanks into the audience and dumped a dead sheep at the aftershow party. After this performance the duo departed the music business and, in May 1992, deleted their entire back catalogue.With the KLF's profits, Drummond and Cauty established the K Foundation and sought to subvert the art world, staging an alternative art award for the worst artist of the year and burning one million pounds sterling. Drummond and Cauty remained true to their word of May 1992; the KLF Communications catalogue remains deleted in the UK, but The White Room is still being pressed in the U.S. by Arista. They have released a small number of new tracks since then, as the K Foundation, the One World Orchestra and most recently, in 1997, as 2K.
Electronica
Wikipedia entry

Blue Lines (1991)

Album Info
Blue Lines is the debut studio album by English trip hop group Massive Attack, released on their Wild Bunch label through Virgin Records on 8 April 1991. A remastered version of the album was released on 19 November 2012.

Artist Info

Massive Attack are a British musical group formed in 1988 in Bristol, consisting of Robert "3D" Del Naja, Grant "Daddy G" Marshall and formerly Andy "Mushroom" Vowles ("Mush"). Their debut album Blue Lines was released in 1991, with the single "Unfinished Sympathy" reaching the charts and later being voted the 63rd greatest song of all time in a poll by NME. 1998's Mezzanine, containing "Teardrop", and 2003's 100th Window charted in the UK at number one. Both Blue Lines and Mezzanine feature in Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.The group has won numerous music awards throughout their career, including a Brit Awardwinning Best British Dance Act, two MTV Europe Music Awards, and two Q Awards. They have released five studio albums that have sold over 11 million copies worldwide.
Trip Hop
Wikipedia entry

Screamadelica (1991)

Album Info
Screamadelica is the third studio album by Scottish alternative rock group Primal Scream, released on 23 September 1991 in the UK by Creation Records, and 8 October 1991 in North America by Sire Records.It was the group's first album to be a commercial success, peaking at number 8 on the UK Albums Chart upon its initial release. The album received positive reviews and has been frequently named one of the best albums of the 1990s in critics' polls. Screamadelica also won the first Mercury Music Prize in 1992. It has sold over 3 million copies worldwide.

Artist Info

Primal Scream are a Scottish rock band originally formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Bobby Gillespie (vocals) and Jim Beattie. The current lineup consists of Gillespie, Andrew Innes (guitar), Martin Duffy (keyboards), Simone Butler (bass) and Darrin Mooney (drums). Barrie Cadogan has toured and recorded with the band since 2006 as a replacement after the departure of guitarist Robert "Throb" Young.The band performed throughout 19821984, but their career did not take off until Gillespie left his position as drummer of The Jesus and Mary Chain. The band were a key part of the mid-1980s indie pop scene, but eventually moved away from their more jangly sound, taking on more psychedelic and then garage rock influences, before incorporating a dance music element to their sound. Their 1991 album Screamadelica broke the band into the mainstream. Their latest album Chaosmosis was released on 18 March 2016.
Alternative dance
Wikipedia entry

Bandwagonesque (1991)

Album Info
Bandwagonesque is the third album by Scottish alternative rock band Teenage Fanclub, released in November 1991 on Creation Records. The album gave the band substantial US success when the single "Star Sign" reached number four on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, becoming their biggest hit in that country, with "What You Do to Me" and "The Concept" also becoming top 20 hits on that chart. Bandwagonesque was voted 'album of the year' for 1991 by American music magazine Spin, famously beating Nirvana's landmark album Nevermind.

Artist Info

Teenage Fanclub are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in Bellshill in 1989. The band consists of Norman Blake (vocals, guitar), Raymond McGinley (vocals, lead guitar), Gerard Love (vocals, bass), Francis MacDonald (drums) and Dave McGowan (keyboards), with songwriting duties shared equally among Blake, McGinley and Love. In concert, the band usually alternate among the three songwriters (who all sing lead vocals on their own songs) giving equal playing time to each one's songs. Although often pegged as alternative rock, the group have incorporated a wide variety of elements from various music styles in their songs.Teenage Fanclub have had a succession of drummers, including Francis MacDonald, Brendan OHare and Paul Quinn, who left the band after recording the album Howdy. Quinn was replaced by the returning Francis MacDonald. Keyboardist Finlay MacDonald (no relation) has also been a member. As of September 2016, the band have released ten studio albums and two compilation albums.
Alternative Rock
Wikipedia entry

Metallica (1991)

Album Info
Metallica (commonly known as The Black Album) is the self-titled fifth studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica. Released on August 12, 1991 by Elektra Records, it received widespread critical acclaim and became the band's best-selling album. Metallica produced five singles that are considered to be among the band's best-known songs, which include "Enter Sandman", "The Unforgiven", "Nothing Else Matters", "Wherever I May Roam", and "Sad but True". A sixth song, "Don't Tread on Me", was also issued to rock radio shortly after the album's release, but the song did not receive a commercial single release. The album marked a change in the band's sound from the thrash metal style of the previous four albums to a slower and heavier one rooted in heavy metal. Metallica promoted the album with a series of tours. In 2003, the album was ranked number 252 on Rolling Stone's 500 greatest albums of all time.The recording of Metallica was troubled, and during production the band frequently entered conflicts with the band's new producer Bob Rock. The album debuted at number one in ten countries and spent four consecutive weeks at the top of the Billboard 200, making it Metallica's first album to top album charts. By February 2016, the album spent 363 weeks on the Billboard album chart, making it one of the ten longest running discs of all time. Metallica is one of the best-selling albums worldwide, and also one of the best-selling albums in the United States since Nielsen SoundScan tracking began. The album was certified 16 platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2012, and has sold over sixteen million copies in the United States, being the first album in the SoundScan era to do so. Metallica played the album in its entirety during the 2012 European Black Album Tour. Metallica is preparing the album for a 2018 remastered re-release.

Artist Info

Metallica is an American heavy metal band based in San Francisco, California for most of their career. Drummer Lars Ulrich and vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield started the band in Los Angeles, California. The group's fast tempos, instrumentals and aggressive musicianship made them one of the founding "big four" bands of thrash metal, alongside Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer. Metallica's current lineup comprises founding members Hetfield and Ulrich, longtime lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo. Guitarist Dave Mustaine (who formed Megadeth) and bassists Ron McGovney, Cliff Burton and Jason Newsted are former members of the band.Metallica earned a growing fan base in the underground music community and won critical acclaim with its first five albums. The band's third album, Master of Puppets (1986), was described as one of the heaviest and most influential thrash metal albums; its eponymous fifth album, Metallica (1991), the band's first to root predominantly in heavy metal, appealed to a more mainstream audience, achieving substantial commercial success and selling over 16 million copies in the United States to date, making it the best-selling album of the SoundScan era. After experimenting with different genres and directions in subsequent releases, the band returned to its thrash metal roots with the release of its ninth album, Death Magnetic (2008), which drew similar praise to that of the band's earlier albums.In 2000, Metallica led the case against the peer-to-peer file sharing service Napster, in which the band and several other artists filed lawsuits against the service for sharing their copyright-protected material without consent; after reaching a settlement, Napster became a pay-to-use service in 2003. Metallica was the subject of the acclaimed 2004 documentary film Some Kind of Monster, which documented the troubled production of the band's eighth album, St. Anger (2003), and the internal struggles within the band at the time. In 2009, Metallica was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The band wrote the screenplay for and starred in the 2013 IMAX concert film Metallica: Through the Never, in which the band performed live against a fictional thriller storyline.Metallica has released ten studio albums, four live albums, a cover album, five extended plays, 37 singles and 39 music videos. The band has won nine Grammy Awards from 23 nominations, and its last six studio albums (beginning with Metallica) have consecutively debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Metallica ranks as one of the most commercially successful bands of all time, having sold over 125 million albums worldwide as of 2018. Metallica has been listed as one of the greatest artists of all time by magazines such as Rolling Stone, which ranked them at no. 61 on its 100 Greatest Artists of All Time list. As of 2017, Metallica is the third best-selling music artist since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991, selling a total of 58 million albums in the United States.
Metal
Wikipedia entry

Slanted and Enchanted (1992)

Album Info
Slanted and Enchanted is the debut studio album by American indie rock band Pavement, released in April 1992 on Matador Records.

Artist Info

The discography of Pavement, a Stockton, California-based indie rock group, consists of five studio albums, four double-length reissues, one compilation, ten extended plays, and five singles. This list does not include material performed by members or former members of Pavement that was recorded with Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Silver Jews, Preston School of Industry, Free Kitten, The Crust Brothers, or any other associated solo or side projects.Pavement was formed in 1989 by Stephen Malkmus (guitars, vocals) and Scott Kannberg (guitars), although Malkmus stated that at this stage they "weren't a real band." Pavement's debut, the 1989 EP Slay Tracks (1933-1969), was recorded in a day with drummer and producer Gary Young and released on Kannberg's self-owned label Treble Kicker. The band subsequently released the EPs Demolition Plot J-7 and Perfect Sound Forever on Drag City, and in 1992 released their debut album, Slanted and Enchanted, on Matador Records. The band was joined by additional percussionist Bob Nastanovich, who assisted the increasingly erratic Young in keeping time, and later by bassist Mark Ibold. The 1992 EP Watery, Domestic was the band's first recording with their two new members, and the last with Young. Young, known for his bizarre onstage behavior with the band, was replaced by Steve West in 1993. After this, Nastanovich's role in the band expanded to also include his playing keyboards.Pavement's first three EPs were re-released together for the 1993 compilation Westing (By Musket and Sextant). The band's next studio album release, 1994's Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, featured the singles "Cut Your Hair" and "Gold Soundz" which nearly broke Pavement into the mainstream. The 18-song follow-up to Crooked Rain, 1995's Wowee Zowee, was more experimental than its predecessor and was initially criticized as evidence that the "defiantly anti-corporate" band was "simply afraid to succeed;" the album did not sell as well as Crooked Rain. The band's 1997 album Brighten the Corners "brought [the band]
back" according to West, although shortly after the 1999 release of Terror Twilight Malkmus broke the band up. Since then, Pavement's former members have worked on various side projects, and the band's first four albums have been reissued featuring previously unreleased songs, b-sides, and compilation tracks.
Indie rock
Wikipedia entry

Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (1992)

Album Info
Selected Ambient Works 8592 is the debut studio album by the English electronic musician Richard D. James under the pseudonym of Aphex Twin, released as a very limited import in late November 1992 by Apollo Records, an imprint of the more prominent label R&S Records, and later widely in February 1993. The 1992 LP was James' third release overall, and collected tracks dating back as early as 1985. An analogue remaster was released in 2006, and a digital remaster in 2008.Selected Ambient Works 8592 received widespread acclaim and has been characterised as a landmark of electronica, ambient music, and IDM. It was followed by Selected Ambient Works Volume II (1994). On the week ending 27 September 2014, the album entered at #30 in the UK Dance Albums Chart after the release of his 2014 album Syro.

Artist Info

Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), best known by his recording alias Aphex Twin, is an electronic musician from Cornwall, England. He is known for his influential and idiosyncratic work in styles such as ambient techno and IDM in the 1990s, for which he received widespread critical acclaim.Initially releasing acid techno music under aliases such as AFX and Polygon Window, James first received widespread acclaim for his 1992 debut album Selected Ambient Works 85-92. He also co-founded the record label Rephlex with Grant Wilson-Claridge. He rose to mainstream popularity with the 1997 EP Come to Daddy and 1999 single "Windowlicker" as well as for their respective music videos directed by Chris Cunningham.After his 2001 album Drukqs, James did not release any official recordings until the Analord series of EPs in 2005 under his AFX alias. Aphex Twin returned in 2014 with the new album Syro, which won him a Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album.
Ambient techno
Wikipedia entry

3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of... (1992)

Album Info
3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life Of... is the debut album by American hip hop group Arrested Development, released on March 24, 1992. The album's chart success was the beginning of the popularization of Southern hip hop. 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life Of... stood in stark contrast to the gangsta rap that ruled the hip hop charts in 1992 (such as Dr. Dre's The Chronic), in its focus on spirituality, peace and love. The album's title refers to the length of time it took Arrested Development to get a record contract.The song "Tennessee" is part of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list.

Artist Info

Arrested Development is an American alternative hip hop group that formed in Atlanta in 1988. It was founded by Speech and Headliner as a positive, Afrocentric alternative to gangsta rap popular in the early 1990s.
Hip Hop
Wikipedia entry

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