1991
By You Can't Hear it on the Radio
October 18, 2010
While their actual release and effect on the musical landscape is well-trod ground, as I entered high school and discovered that things like music could help you make friends, these albums were revelatory. This isn’t a particularly unique experience, and none of these albums are surprises – especially if you were listening to music in 1991 – but for a 14-year-old, they were monumental. Even now, they’re the foundation of much of my current musical taste. I won’t bother doing any sort of review of these albums, as I’m certain there isn’t much new to add to that discussion.
Pearl Jam’s Ten (released August 27, 1991) was the first album I remember knowing I had to have. I remember picking the tape off of the shelf in Sam Goody and taking it home. I remember listening to it repeatedly and trying to mimic Eddie Vedder’s deep, anguished howl. This was the first album that I turned to in moments of teenage angst and one that I still go back to if I’m in the right (wrong) mood. The best representation of this is that I remember being on vacation with my family and furious with my mother when I was about 15 or 16 (though I have no idea why). As usual, I turned to Ten for solace, turned up my Walkman and started to listen. This time, however, I decided to sing along…at the top of my lungs (and, no doubt horribly). I believe my howling made my mother cry.
Ten is one of the few albums I’ve purchased multiple times – tape, CD, and reissue. Pearl Jam, aside from being the first band I ever skipped school to go buy music for (their second album – Vs.) also led me to Neil Young, who led me to Bob Dylan who led me to everyone. I’m still a big Pearl Jam fan today, they have been a consistently interesting and evolving part of my music life since I first heard them.
The least influential of these four albums, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magik (September 24, 1991) is also the only album (and group) from which I’ve long since moved on. But at the time, I remember being amazed by it. For whatever reason, I strongly associate this album with the historic cemetery near my high school. I believe I was listening to it while we were touring the cemetery with a class.
In any case, Blood Sugar Sex Magik is still the only album from the Chili Peppers worth listening to again, something I don’t actually do. I’ve moved on from the Chili Peppers, but this album helped lead me to Jimi Hendrix, who led me to Led Zeppelin…
I don’t remember where I was when I first heard “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, but like everyone else, I remember hearing it. Nirvana’s Nevermind (September 24, 1991) was the first album that nearly everyone I knew had and could agree on. Aside from providing a cultural touchstone that brought Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and the Chili Peppers along with them, Nevermind is one of the few albums that topped charts and was actually outstanding – and remains so nearly 20 years later.
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