10 alt-rock albums from the ‘90s you should pick up on vinyl now
10 alt-rock albums from the ‘90s you should pick up on vinyl now
We’ve gone digging through the shelves to cherry pick 10 1990’s alt-rock and grunge albums that are well worth revisiting on vinyl.
Dust off the turntable and turn off the bluetooth, because vinyl sales are showing no signs of slowing down. Sure, most people might have a few Beatles classics or some Zeppelin on wax, but labels are starting to dig deeper into their catalogs on the reissue market. For Gex X-ers, that’s turning out to be very good news.
A decent amount of modern day releases are already getting vinyl runs at release, alongside CDs and digital, and of course the classics have been on LPs for decades, available at most thrift stores or used record shops. But the 1990s tunes — which landed in the awkward transition phase of cassettes and CDs — have been a barren wasteland. Until now-ish. If the album was an alt-rock hit over the past couple decades, there’s a decent chance a label has pulled it off the shelf and pressed it on vinyl.
So, we’ve gone digging through the shelves to cherry pick 10 1990’s alt-rock and grunge albums that are well worth revisiting now that they’ve been re-issued on vinyl. From Oasis to Goo Goo Dolls, here’s what we’ll be spinning while rocking some flannel.
Bush - Sixteen Stone
This 1994 rocker, Bush’s debut record, put the band on the map. The band would go on to have some great releases, but none of them matched the perfect storm of alt-rock and monster hits of Sixteen Stone. The album was host to No. 1 singles like” Comedown,” “Glycerine” and “Machinehead,” all of which still get regular spins on the airwaves. Beyond the remembered commodities, though, the entire album is a churning romp. There’s a reason it made Bush a household name in the 1990s.
Buy Sixteen Stone: [Amazon] [SRCVinyl]
Counting Crows - August and Everything After
This album went Platinum about as many times as an album could go platinum, and for good reason. Almost every song on this record turned into a hit single, from “Mr. Jones,” to “Round Here,” to “Rain King.” It’s a snapshot of that particular brand of country alt-rock that fell into vogue in the era, and top to bottom, is still a fantastic set of songs.
Buy August and Everything After: [Amazon] [SRCVinyl]
Oasis - (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?
Don’t worry, we’re not leaving Britpop alt-rock off the list. Oasis’ second album is arguably the band’s best, anchored by “Wonderwall,” “Champagne Supernova” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger.” It’s even more fun on vinyl, with a bit of pop and warm hum to really bring the guitars home. The band may all hate one another now, but there was a shining moment when they could work together and make one hell of a good record.
Buy (What's the Story) Morning Glory?: [Amazon] [SRCVinyl]
Pearl Jam - Ten
It’s not a ‘90s rock rundown without a heaping dose of Seattle on the list. Most of us probably still have an old cassette copy of Ten laying around somewhere between the car seats, but now it’s available on vinyl, too. You know, in case your record collection is lacking a bit of that flannel rock that only “Even Flow,” Black,” or “Jeremy” can provide.
Wallflowers - Bringing Down the Horse
It’s been a long road since this one hit shelves in 1996. In the years since Jakob Dylan released his seminal album with The Wallflowers, he went on to carve out a decent solo career and eventually revived the Wallflowers name once again. But, nothing has matched the hit-making power of Bringing Down the Horse. It spawned three Grammy nominations and songs you’re probably still humming under your breath, like “One Headlight,” “6th Avenue Heartache,” and “Three Marlenas.”
Buy Bringing Down the Horse: [Amazon] [SRCVinyl]
Green Day - Dookie
Before Green Day was putting together epic political rock operas, the band was just a little ball of California punk fury. That raucous attitude came to a perfect head with Dookie, the band’s major label debut, and one of the best little punk albums of the ‘90s loaded with head-bangers like “Longview” and “Basket Case.” Green Day would go on to make plenty of fantastic records after this one, but this is the snapshot where the band went from punk up-starts to living legends.
Buy Dookie: [Amazon] [SRCVinyl]
Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
The band would eventually sputter and fall apart a bit later, but there were few alt-rock bands bigger than the ‘Pumpkins for a good run of the ‘90s. In Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Billy Corgan’s boundless, rambling ambition actually paid off with lightning in a bottle. The sprawling double album was loaded with fantastic tracks that would dominate the airwaves, including “Zero,” “Tonight, Tonight,” “Bullet With Butterfly Wings,” “1979” and more. It’s seriously hard to fathom how many monster singles were packed on this release. The vinyl release falls on the pricier side (the cost of being a massive double album in the first place), but well worth it.
Buy Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness: [Amazon] [SRCVinyl]
Our Lady Peace - Clumsy
The Canadian alt-rockers didn’t leave quite the legacy as some of the bigger names on this list, but regardless, few albums were better than Clumsy from top to bottom. Raine Maida’s trademark falsetto blasts through hits like “Superman’s Dead” and “Clumsy.” Beyond the singles, though, deep cuts like “4AM” and “Car Crash” make for a compelling return to an album most of us probably forgot about a decade or so ago.
Buy Clumsy: [Amazon] [SRCVinyl]
Nirvana - Nevermind
No ‘90s alt-rock list would be complete without the OG on the rundown. Nirvana’s Nevermind is an iconic work of grunge rock. It will never grow old, it will never lost punch, and it will always make you start banging your head when you hear the opening notes of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The album is largely responsible for ushering grunge and alt-rock into the mainstream, so it might be obvious, but it doesn’t make it any less awesome.
Buy Nevermind: [Amazon] [SRCVinyl]
Goo Goo Dolls - Dizzy Up the Girl
Some rock fans already knew the Goo Goo Dolls before Dizzy Up the Girl, but this one turned the band into a radio and ‘90s staple. it already had great songs like “Dizzy,” “Slide,” “Broadway,” and “Black Balloon” on it — but those paled in comparison to the rollover soundtrack hit “Iris,” which became about the biggest song in the world for a hot minute when the film City of Angels was released (which itself featured a memorably weird Nic Cage performance FYI). Again, you probably have this one on cassette somewhere, but it’s high time to replace it with something fresh.