In alphabetical order, here’s Part 1: 88 albums that meant the world to me in the 1990’s but never got the respect I felt they deserved. When appropriate, I’ll pop in with comments. Part 1! Enjoy!
- Aerosmith – Nine Lives (better than Get A Grip)
- Armored Saint – Symbol of Salvation (John Bush lead vocals, nuff said)
- Barstool Prophets – Last of the Big Game Hunters (from Ottawa Ontario Canada, great album)
- Big House – Big House (from Edmonton Alberta, long forgotten hard rock classic)
- The Black Crowes – Amorica (my favourite)
- Black Sabbath – Cross Purposes (bleak gooder from the Martin-era Sabs)
- Blue Rodeo – Nowhere To Here (psychedelically delicious)
- Blue Rodeo – Tremelo (acoustically psychedelically delicious)
- Bon Jovi – These Days (their most mature albeit darkest work to date)
- Gilby Clarke – Pawnshop Guitars (the all time best GN’R solo album)
- Alice Cooper – The Last Temptation (fans love it in hindsight, but it sold poorly in 1994)
- Corrosion of Conformity – Deliverance (I was hooked upon hearing “Clean My Wounds”)
- Coverdale Page – Coverdale Page (unrightfully ignored? well, most just disrespected)
- Cry of Love – Brother (guitarist Audley Freed plays his Fenders like bluesy butter)
- Deep Purple – Slaves & Masters (I have a soft spot for this ballady Deep Rainbow disc)
- Deep Purple – The Battle Rages On (there are some strong forgotten tracks here)
- Deep Purple – Purpendicular (one of the best records of their career)
- Def Leppard – Slang (ditto)
- Bruce Dickinson – Balls To Picasso (I believe I’ve discussed these enough in my in-depth reviews)
- Bruce Dickinson – Accident of Birth
- Bruce Dickinson – The Chemical Wedding
- Dio – Strange Highways (it took a while to grow on me, but at the time it was criminally ignored)
Part 2 of 4 coming tomorrow…
mikeladano.com 
The Armored Saint album is amazing! Have you heard the Demo version? Wow.
Great list. Why 88? A couple of things I’d maybe like to try out again. Dio appealed to me when it came out but I just didn’t get it in the end. Battle Rages On and Slaves and Masters are on my to-hear list as well.
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No, I don’t have the remastered Saint with all the bonus stuff. Worth buying?
Why 88? Because when I wrote down all the titles and counted them, it came to 88. Seemed like an easy number to split into 4 posts :)
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Definitely. It’s got the demos of the whole album and they are incredible. The band feel the album didn’t quite live up to the demos so if you like the album it’s well worth getting.
Can’t wait to see the other 66!
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Question: Do the demos have the Dave Pritchard performances on them? I know the final album only had one solo, before he died…I think they had to salvage it from demo tapes.
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Yeah, Pritchard is on all the demo tracks except one.
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This is great. Man, all I said was off the top of your head… then you attacked your list… Hence the alphabetization too, I’m sure.
You really think 9 Lives was better than Get A Grip? Hm. I’d have to revisit. Oh man, Barstool Prophets! There was that one song that was everywhere for a while… what was it? Something about beer? …I always get it all mixed up with that Semisonic song and the one about standing outside a broken telephone booth and the entire 90s mix of songs we had back then.
And I have to say it: I still cannot believe Amorica is anybody’s favourite record by the Crowes. I know, I know, chacun son gout and all that. But AMORICA? Really? Sigh.
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So I looked up the Barstool Prophets. The record I had in my head was called Crank, and the song I had in my head had nothing to do with beer. It was Little Death. Very Lady MacBeth. Yes I played that disc a lot.
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Little Death is a great tune! But I think they really ponied up on the second album.
They also have an indy release called Deflowered. So named because their original name was The Wallflowers, before Jakob Dylan used that name for himself.
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Haha I like that. Because Jakob Dylan should get his way because he is Bob Dylan’s son. Twat.
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Nine Lives blows Get A Grip away. Get A Grip was over 50% filler.
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I won’t argue that. I think I just heard Get A Grip WAY more often than Nine Lives.
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I’m with Mike on Nine Lives and Amorica too! I love Southern Harmony but it’s just one of those albums that I seemed to have worn out. Cry of Love I couldn’t really get into, I had it for a while but I just thought it was ok.
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I would toss in Brother Canes debut as a gem as well..great hard rock blues….
Big Houses Dollar In My Pocket was a great track……
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Deke, I had Brother Cane on an early draft of this list…and then I realized I don’t own it. I know I did at one point. NO idea what happened to it!
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With you on Amorica – a big fan favourite and one of their best. Took me about eight years to realise it though. Not convinced that Nine Lives blows anything away. I liked Cry of Love (a Kerrang! end of year album fave) and the Purple records (first two – didn’t hear the third). Nice list!
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I love Nine Lives. I vastly prefer it to Get A Grip. But it’s all subjective no?
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Absolutely. And in the case of which ’90s Aerosmith album is the best – it’s like arguing for which Duran Duran album has the most artistic merit…
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Ahaha! This is COMMENT OF THE WEEK!
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I just have one thing to say to all you supposed Crowes “fans”…
SOUTHERNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!
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Also, a message to Mr. Jovi: I had that record, and I’m sorry: you left your balls at the door YEARS ago. I don’t care what Mike says, it’s been middle of the road for you so long, you don’t even know where the ditches are.
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Jovi never had balls. Listen to the first record. He’s always been lite rock. Which is fine.
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Yeah I guess I would agree with Mike that Nine Lives is better than Get A Grip.
The raw production of Nine Lives was pretty rocking I mean some of those songs rock like Does the Noise inside my head Bother You…Taste Of India…..Nine Lives….good rocking underrated Smith record that along with Done With Mirrors is kind of forgotten about.
Caught this tour in Aug of 97 in The Twin Cities..great show with Jonny Lang opening….they played about 6 tracks of this record but the clincher for me was Last Child which they jammed with Lang and a 10 minute jam of Rats In The Cellar…..
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Jonny Lang! I remember him, I liked that first album he did. Talented kid.
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Yep, Lie To Me. His best one. I think he made a few more. But he was 16 years old, or something crazy like that, when that first one came out. Opened for the Stones when he toured it, too. What were YOU doing when you were 16? ;)
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Wishing I was in his shoes.
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Also, I preferred Izzy’s Ju-Ju Hounds to Gilby. By far. And yes, I am the Stones fan, over here, so that should make perfect sense.
And I doubt anybody underrated Blue Rodeo. I mean, come on. Yes, we know those records are classics in hindsight, but I’m sure they sold well in their day, too. Lots of fans for that band, always has been.
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I thought Ju-Ju Hounds was a great album. But I’ve not heard Gilby’s so I can’t compare!
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Ju Ju Hounds was good, but it never clicked with my properly, aside from a couple tracks.
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I have both records, and I’d play the Izzy over the Gilby any day of the week. Just more my sound, I guess. And sure, it’s a Stones-fest. Ronnie Woods even appears on it!
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I have a CD single from that Izzy album. I’ll have to post a review for you. It popped into the store one day. I even have a Cry of Love CD single.
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Coverdale-Page might be the most underrated and ignored great albums of all time, but certainly of the ’90s. I’m with you on the Black Crowes, Sabbath, Dickinson, Alice Cooper and Purple titles as well. I’ve got a number of albums from that decade that no one seems to remember. A lot of them may not be in your wheelhouse, but I’ll hold off on mentioning any of them until I see all 88 on your list. You’re off to a great start (although I’ve never liked anything by Bon Jovi…for me their stuff ranges from catchy & inoffensive to utter crap, which is usually when Jon tries to be Springsteen).
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Well Rich Bon Jovi were one of those bands that meant a lot to me in my late teens, but I was pleased that they had really grown with These Days. I can’t say enough good stuff about that album. Unfortunately since then, I think they’ve been really adult contemporary. I can’t say that I’ve really liked anything they’ve done in the last decade. But I bought them all dutifully…I am a completist!
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I totally understand why a lot of people like Bon Jovi, and they were certainly one of the best bands of the hair metal era, but they never did anything for me. I totally understand the completist mentality…I’m only just recovering from that affliction in my mid-40s.
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So there’s a cure for the completist mentality? Good, there might be hope for me.
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I wasn’t cured, but I’m in remission. There are still artists where I need to buy everything, but I used to be that way with nearly every artist I liked.
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Yup me too Rich. Basically the Internet has shown me that I was a lot further from complete than I thought I was with a lot of these bands. And there’s only so many dollars to go around!
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I’ve heard that before, about Coverdale Page. I should just buy the friggin’ thing and see for myself, eh?
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I agree that you MUST buy Coverdale-Page. I’m sure it can be had for a very reasonable price these days. If you like Zeppelin, especially Page’s guitar playing and one-of-a-kind production, and Coverdale at the peak of his powers, it won’t disappoint. And I know I’ve said this many times before, but Denny Carmassi’s drumming on that album is phenomenal. He’s still the only drummer I’ve ever heard who captures everything that made John Bonham the best of all time. Happy listening.
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Carmassi — very underrated drummer. He continued on in Whitesnake, and in fact you’ll be reading about THAT record when we get to Part 4…
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I’m going to stick up for Mike here.These Days is a great album! The HMOverlord has spoken.
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All bow before the mighty HMO HMO.
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Ahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaa!
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Yes, kneel before HMO! It’s the power of Jovi that compels you.
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Translate Bon Jovi into English and what do you get? “Good Jovi”. Doesn’t that say it all?
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I too agree with the “coverdale-Page” album! going to it now, it sounds a bit dated, but i was all over it when it came out
and YES…Brother Cane!!! yes yes yes! those guys kicked ass! I had both albums too Mike…and I do NOT know where they are now either!
FUCK
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I’m sure I could find them fairly cheap. It was the first album with Got No Shame that I really liked.
Damon Johnson’s in Thin Lizzy now…
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I love that record from Gilby Clarke, a truely underrated album
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I think so too…I think it was a lot better than the one Slash did at the same time.
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