Review: '501 Essential Albums of the 90s: The Music Fan's Definitive Guide'

 

"This is a book that's designed to start arguments." That's the way editor Gary Graff begins 501 Essential Albums of the 90s: The Music Fan's Definitive Guide, and really, it's the only way it could begin. Graff knows as well as anyone who has yet to even crack the cover of a book of this sort that there are going to be painful omissions and a fair share of painful inclusions. Even though I've written a book along these lines and know the pitfalls of doing such a thing all too well, I still allowed my teeth to grind at the absence of anything by Grant Lee Buffalo, Suzanne Vega, Throwing Muses, Belly, Juliana Hatfield, Shudder to Think, and quite a few other artists that I feel any guide that calls itself "definitive" can't do without. I also gagged at the inclusions of objectively crappy artifacts from the likes of Brian Adams, Meatloaf, Sponge, Bush, Britney Spears, Korn, and...well...I can really go on and on and on on that account.

So, having wiped the spittle off my chin, can I sit back and rationally offer anything positive to say about a book that makes room for that corny album Elvis Costello made with Burt Bacharach in 1998 but not the rocking one he made with Nick Lowe in 1994? Well, sure, because the thing that insulates a book like this from criticism more effectively than declaring that it was designed to start arguments is the format. 501 is a lot of albums, so for every MIA CD that left me irritated, there were plenty of albums that gladdened me with their presence. Obviously Beck's Odelay was going to find a spot, but the even better yet less celebrated Mutations wasn't necessarily guaranteed, so it was nice to see that one make the grade. One selection each for consistently exceptional artists like Guided by Voices and Sloan is clearly insufficient, but it's still nice that such culty types were acknowledged. 

As you may be able to tell from the artists I've chosen to focus on here, "the 90s" means "alternative rock to me. But, obviously, that's not true for everyone. So if you prefer hip-hop, country, teeny-bop pop, R&B, metal, middle-of-the-road crooners, or any of the other genres that made a significant mark in the nineties, you'll find somethings to appreciate in this book and somethings to bug the shit out of you. 

Actually, my biggest qualm with this book is the inclusion of some music I really love, as I don't necessarily think that such collections of sixties/seventies music as The Beatles Anthology, Hendrix's First Rays of the New Rising Sun, and the Rushmore soundtrack really belong in a book about nineties music just because they were released during that decade 

So how about the content beyond the selections? Well, a book that covers 501 albums can't get too deep into the digital grooves, and a lot of its shorter entries, many of which do not even hit word-count 100, are inadequate. However, the longer, full-page ones do a fairly good job of hitting on why the album in question is significant, what led up to and went into its making, and which songs stand out. Plus the full-color, image-heavy design is very nice, even if it means we have to revisit the absolutely horrid covers of Barenaked Ladies' Stunt and Blink-182's Enema of the State. At least we aren't forced to revisit the music. Blecch.