Skip to content
Lists

30 Great Albums From 1990 That Deserve Their Own 30th Anniversary Pieces

Hindu Love Gods – Hindu Love Gods
Hindu Love Gods was the name that the members of R.E.M. used in the mid-‘80s to play casual sets of cover songs, occasionally with Warren Zevon. And when Bill Berry, Peter Buck, and Mike Mills backed Zevon on his 1987 album Sentimental Hygiene, the quartet logged one drunken late-night session as the Hindu Love Gods, covering mostly blues and folk standards. The recordings sat in a vault for 3 years as R.E.M. got bigger and bigger, and Warner Bros. decided to release the accidental supergroup’s only album, with their rendition of Prince’s “Raspberry Beret” becoming a minor Modern Rock radio hit.

INXS – X
X was INXS’s last hurrah as one of the biggest bands in the world, spinning off hits like “Suicide Blonde” and “Disappear” before American audiences began to view them as a dated ‘80s act. But it was a worthy follow-up to Kick, featuring “The Stairs,” a poignant deep cut that Michael Hutchence called “the most ambitious song I’ve ever written” and featured on the band’s Greatest Hits collection.

Little Feat – Representing the Mambo
Little Feat was one of California’s greatest cult bands under the leadership of founder Lowell George until his 1979 death. And his surviving bandmates revived the Little Feat name for 1988’s Gold-selling Let It Roll. The follow-up, Representing the Mambo, wove together blues rock, country, zydeco, and Latin rhythms, and topped the Album Rock Tracks chart with “Texas Twister,” but it would be their last album with longtime label Warner Bros.

The Lemonheads – Lovey
The Lemonheads’ major-label debut was a transitional record from their punkier beginnings to the jangly sound that Evan Dando would find greater fame in the ‘90s, lurching unpredictably from the heavy opener “Ballarat” to the twangy “Half the Time.” Lovey was also the last Lemonheads album to feature founding bassist Jesse Peretz, who went on to direct music videos for the Lemonheads and other bands, as well as TV comedies and feature films including Our Idiot Brother.

Living Colour – Time’s Up
Coming off of the multi-platinum success of 1988’s Vivid, Living Colour pulled out all the stops for their second album, blending genres with an impressive guest list that included Little Richard, Mick Jagger, Doug E. Fresh and Maceo Parker. But despite a Grammy win and great songs like “Love Rears Its Ugly Head,” sales stalled and the band wasn’t able to repeat its earlier successes.

David J – Songs From Another Season
One of the recurring themes of the first two years of Billboard’s Modern Rock chart was Bauhaus alumni. Love and Rockets and solo singles by Peter Murphy and David J all went to #1 on the chart in 1989 or 1990, with the dreamy accordion hook of “I’ll Be Your Chauffeur” launching David J’s most successful album, Songs From Another Season.

Jellyfish – Bellybutton
The best album of 1990 that had the worst cover art, the debut album from San Francisco band Jellyfish is a power-pop cult classic that married Beatles-esque tunes to Queen bombast. But founding member Jason Falkner for a solo career left soon after, and the remaining members only managed one more album before splitting up. The Bellybutton track “Baby’s Coming Back” belatedly topped the UK charts in 2007 when it was covered by McFly.

Mazzy Star – She Hangs Brightly
David Roback and Hope Sandoval’s indie debut album didn’t make the same waves as 1993’s platinum-selling So Tonight That I Might See. But She Hangs Brightly’s dreamy psych-rock sound had its fans, including Kurt Cobain, who included it on a famous handwritten list of his top 50 favorite albums. And in 1995, the album’s lead track “Halah” belatedly became a radio hit when re-released by Capitol Records.

Mother Love Bone – Apple
There was probably no band in Seattle at the dawn of the ‘90s that was more convinced they would conquer the world than Mother Love Bone. But the band’s story tragically ended before it began when charismatic frontman Andrew Wood overdosed on heroin in March 1990, just before their debut album’s release. Bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard would go on to form Pearl Jam seven months later.