1995 Albums ----------- Even as a child, I felt pretty connected to the pop music of the day, and that would intensify as teenager. That said, 1995 was probably the most out of step I would ever be with the music that was being released. I was very much looking back to the sounds of the 60s and 70s and could barely care about the hits of the day. The year that I started high school, I was way more interested in classic rock radio than I was the modern rock most of my peers were listening to. I missed some classic records that I would only discover in retrospect, including my favorites below. .. image:: images/1995.jpg :width: 900 :alt: My favorite albums from 1995 .. raw:: html - *Fun Trick Noisemaker* by **The Apples in Stereo** - I'm a much bigger fan of the latter day, **ELO** tinged incarnation of this band. I like the earlier garage pop version as well, but this is really the only record from that era that stands out for me. I feel like they had things right on this first record, and spent the next 5-6 trying to recreate that sound. I also feel like the amateur production values here suit the music better than the more elaborate productions that were to come. [*Memory*: When this got reissued on vinyl, it was the moment that I realized I would have the opportunity to own the large majority of my favorites on that format.] - *The Great Escape* by **Blur** - The record where they fully embrace their jaunty, hyper-English side. What was hinted at on *Parklife* takes full form here. They must have been such a cheerful, brightly colored alternative to the other BritPop offerings of the day. It would all change again after this of course, but this will always be what they do best in my opinion. I like some of the latter day singles, but this is pretty much my off-ramp for this band. [*Memory*: These guys barely made a dent in the USA, and at this point, they were almost completely unknown. I can only imagine how much my Beatlemaniac self would have loved this at the time. There was no internet to know about this kind of thing back then!] - *Outside* by **David Bowie** - Peak 90s Bowie, and the work of an artist who was still working very hard to innovate while capturing the spirit of the current age. This is "art installation music" and modernist in that very 1990s kind of way. This is the music of the early internet age. It is also still very much a **David Bowie** record, and a great one at that. I didn't really connect with this as much as his classic work back then, but now believe it to stand among his very finest work. [*Memory*: In the late 90s I was a huge Bowie fan, and I worked with another "music person" who only really liked this record of his. We listened to it a bunch back then at work, but I just didn't get it back then.] - *Alien Lanes* by **Guided By Voices** - The second (and final) record from their peak era. A collection of perfect little lowfi pop gems, they would never quite capture this again. [*Memory*: Back in the early days of Pandora, it played "Game of Pricks" for me, and I was instantly hooked.] - *To Bring You My Love* by **PJ Harvey** - An interesting era for Polly Jean. She dialed up the glam and amped up the rock, yet kept the essential character that made the first two records so interesting. Its odd that this was such a commercial breakthrough, but anything seemed possible in the mid-90s. As fast as these changes came, they would be gone and replaced with something else that was new and wonderful. [*Memory*: I never liked this one as much as what came before and after. When the vinyl reissue series happened in the 2020 time frame, I thought long and hard about if I needed to add this one. I got them all, and wow I am glad that I did.] - *Wowee Zowee* by **Pavement** - This is one of those times that I do not agree with the crowd. This is almost universally considered their masterpiece. I like it, but it is a little too long. There is a great single album here, but not everything needed to make the cut. I think the albums before an after are sharper statements, and have better focus in the playful and more serious sounds that proceeded and followed this one. That said, It is a still another great record that I enjoy listening to, just not as much as those others. [*Memory*: There was a used copy of this that sat on the counter at City Lights records for years. I considered buying it, but never did. I never owned a physical copy of this until the circa 2010 vinyl reissues that Matador did.] - *Different Class* by **Pulp** - I did't know about this music in the 90s, but if I did, I would have loved it. Like many American youth of the time, I was attracted to the brightness of English rock music that was a big contrast with the murky post-grunge of the day. This has those wonderful dance elements that you needed to look across the pond to find. It also has the high quality songwriting that blows away the knuckle-draggers that were dominating the radio in the US. [*Memory*: I became aware of these guys and this album when William Shatner's cover of "Common People" was making the rounds in the 2003 time frame. What a strange point of entry, but regardless I'm glad I found my way.] - *The Bends* by **Radiohead** - With how inventive of a guitarist Jonny Greenwood is, It is a real shame that this is their last album as a guitar based act. While the guitars would make their appearances in what came after, this is the last time they had a staring role. A tremendous rock album, and a milestone of the BritPop movement. "My Iron Lung" will always be one of their best songs. [*Memory*: For years I tried to claim this my favorite of their records. I think I was just making some passive resistance to the rise of electronic rock in the early 2000s.] - *Ocean Beach* by **Red House Painters** - I always feel a little guilty that I don't like the music that Mike Kozelek made after he got his life together, as much as I like what he was doing in his darker moments. That said, this pleasant airy folk rock record holds up well to his earlier work. Maybe it is because there is just enough melancholy in tracks like "Summer Dress". [*Memory*: In 2009 I spent some time as a tourist in San Francisco after a business trip to the region. I decided to do a "Red House Painters Walking Tour" where I visited all the places he name checked in the albums/songs, including Ocean Beach.] - *Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness* by **Smashing Pumpkins** - [**1995 FAVORITE**] - There have been quite a few bands in history that for a brief moment in time, managed to completely transcend themselves and make music that seems completely beyond what they should be capable of. Smashing Pumpkins 1995-97 may be the most extreme case of this. A period of stunning creativity and productivity, these three years alone make them legends. This album is so over the top and wonderful from the little piano ditty it starts with, to the lyrically preposterous yet incredible "Bullet With Butterfly Wings", and what feels like countless amazing and blistering rock tunes. People who say *Siamese Dream* is better than this are crazy. [*Memory*: It's hard to separate this from *The Aeroplane Flies High*, which collected the singles and B-sides that were released in their glorious era. I actually loved that first.]