Gibson Guitar's Top 50 '90's Album List

Full Top 50 ’90s Albums List, Readers Poll Revealed

04.29.2011

With today’s announcement of the Top 10 Albums of the ’90s, Gibson.com’s list of the greatest albums of that decade is in the books. You can see the entire list, in order, below. For more information on each album, click here for #50-41, #40-31, #30-21, #20-11 and #10-1. We’d like to thank all of the Gibson.com editors, writers and – particularly – the readers for voting.

In fact, if you scroll down, you can see the results of the readers Top 25. Further down, you can check out the list’s “repeat offenders” and see how the albums broke down by year.

1. Nevermind, Nirvana
2. OK Computer, Radiohead
3. Achtung Baby, U2
4. Definitely Maybe, Oasis
5. Automatic for the People, R.E.M.
6. Ten, Pearl Jam
7. Metallica, Metallica
8. Time Out of Mind, Bob Dylan
9. Grace, Jeff Buckley
10. The Bends, Radiohead
11. Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Red Hot Chili Peppers
12. Siamese Dream, The Smashing Pumpkins
13. Odelay, Beck
14. In Utero, Nirvana
15. Live Through This, Hole
16. Bandwagonesque, Teenage Fanclub
17. Parklife, Blur
18. Being There, Wilco
19. Rage Against the Machine, Rage Against the Machine
20. The Chronic, Dr. Dre
21. Dookie, Green Day
22. Exile in Guyville, Liz Phair
23. (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, Oasis
24. Shake Your Money Maker, The Black Crowes
25. The Soft Bulletin, The Flaming Lips
26. Weezer, Weezer
27. The Downward Spiral, Nine Inch Nails
28. Fear of a Black Planet, Public Enemy
29. 69 Love Songs, The Magnetic Fields
30. Endtroducing….., DJ Shadow
31. Blue Lines, Massive Attack
32. To Bring You My Love, PJ Harvey
33. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Smashing Pumpkins
34. Check Your Head, Beastie Boys
35. Foo Fighters, Foo Fighters
36. Screamadelica, Primal Scream
37. The Colour and the Shape, Foo Fighters
38. Rust in Peace, Megadeth
39. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Neutral Milk Hotel
40. Dirt, Alice in Chains
41. MTV Unplugged in New York, Nirvana
42. Vitalogy, Pearl Jam
43. Ready to Die, The Notorious B.I.G.
44. Unplugged, Eric Clapton
45. Dummy, Portishead
46. Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morissette
47. Mule Variations, Tom Waits
48. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Lauryn Hill
49. Happy Days, Catherine Wheel
50. Ballbreaker, AC/DC

Readers Poll – Top 25 Albums of the ’90s

The final list and the fans’ selection agreed upon the best album of the decade (Nirvana’s Nevermind), and most of the readers poll picks ended up on the overall list. There are a few notable exceptions: two albums by Rammstein, Wilco’s Summerteeth, AC/DC’s The Razors Edge and Guns N’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion I andII (most fans voted for them together, even though they were released separately).

1. Nevermind, Nirvana
2. Metallica, Metallica
4. Use Your Illusion (I and II), Guns N’ Roses
3. Ten, Pearl Jam
5. Being There, Wilco
6. OK Computer, Radiohead
7. The Colour and the Shape, Foo Fighters
8. Dookie, Green Day
9. Bandwagonesque, Teenage Fanclub
10. Achtung Baby, U2
11. Shake Your Money Maker, The Black Crowes
12. Ballbreaker, AC/DC
13. Herzeleid, Rammstein
14. Definitely Maybe, Oasis
15. The Razors Edge, AC/DC
16. (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, Oasis
17. Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Red Hot Chili Peppers
18. Rust in Peace, Megadeth
19. Sehnsucht, Rammstein
20. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Neutral Milk Hotel
21. Summerteeth, Wilco
22. Dirt, Alice in Chains
23. Siamese Dream, Smashing Pumpkins
24. In Utero, Nirvana
25. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Smashing Pumpkins

Repeat Offenders

It’s not enough for some bands to land only one album on the list, some had to come back for seconds (and thirds!). Here’s a list of the artists that the voters thought released more than one great album in the ’90s.

Nirvana: 3 (Nevermind, In Utero, MTV Unplugged in New York)
Radiohead: 2 (OK Computer, The Bends)
Oasis: 2 (Definitely Maybe, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?)
Pearl Jam: 2 (Ten, Vitalogy)
Smashing Pumpkins: 2 (Siamese Dream, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness)
Foo Fighters: 2 (Foo Fighters, The Colour and the Shape)

Year-by-Year Breakdown

So which was the best individual year for music in the ’90s? According to this list, 1994. Gibson.com’s Top 50 Albums of the ’90s featured 11 albums from that year.

1990: 3
1991: 8
1992: 6
1993: 3
1994: 11
1995: 8
1996: 3
1997: 3
1998: 2
1999: 3