Overrated Albums of the 90s.

I know we have a 90s thread, but I decided to get barbecued(high)last night and put on a bunch of 90s albums I realized I never listened to all the way through. I figured it'd be a cool trip down memory lane to list some albums that were/are completely overhyped.

1.

Not only is this album on pretty much every single "best albums of the 90s" list, it even makes a lot of "greatest albums of all-time" lists. While some of the writing is pretty solid and it's obvious that Muse based pretty much their entire sound around this album, I just don't get the praise for it at all. Maybe there's a technical side to this album that I don't understand as a non-musician, but as a listener, this is easily my most overrated album of that decade.

2.

Outside of November Rain, I don't think I really recognized a single song from this album. Sure, this album isn't as highly received as something like OK, Computer, but I've still seen it pop up on a lot of "best of" type lists. Not something I think really deserves the praise.


3.

While many bands put out a "rough" first album, I've seen Foo Fighters get a lot of praise for their debut album. I think The Colour and the Shape was fantastic, but their debut is pretty awful. Maybe it was the fact it came at a time when grunge was in the midst of its quick death, but a lot of songs on this album just seem like noise and faux "anger".

Alasliasolonik said:

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I couldnt stand this shit on the radio every day. I get it, I know every song but it was never on any ipod or anything I owned. Never had a cd but I saw them live and hes a Cubs fanatic so hes only half as bad.

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But both "Black" and "Release" are on that album. Release might be one of my all-time favorite "long" songs. Plus, you have things like Oceans. Sure, shit like Jeremy and Even Flow got a metric fuckton of radio play, but they are still solid songs despite it. While I think it might be a bit of a stretch to include it on "all-time" type lists, I think it's hard not to have it on a "best of" 90s list.

Vanessa said:

Coma was a multi-key changing sprawling epic of a song off that album that I really liked! But overall I'd say that UYI 1 was the more inferior of the two (UYI 2 being king... more 'hits' )

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This is my submission. Now hear me out! I'm not denying their overarching influencing on pretty much taking hair-metal bands and curbstomping that entire genre out of existence. That cheeve is well earned on their part.

I put this as an overrated album strictly from a musician's point of view. Whilst the hair-bands that Nirvana overtook were cheesy in retrospect, they still commanded great musical talent in their music... much more so in heavy metal like Metallica and Prog Rock like Rush from the era pre-Grunge. Nirvana took a shit on all of that. Their songs were catchy, I give credit, but they were mind-numbingly basic from an artistic point of view and I realize that was kinda their point. A revolt and social dissonance to the established and polished rock/metal scene and sound of the late 80s very early 90s.

I'm sure I'll rustle some jims with picking Nirvana but again... Culturally? Yes, they had a significant place in music history but musically? Overrated as f00k.

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I 100% agree with you that Nirvana as a band are overrated as fuck and mostly made popular by Kobain's suicide(I think if he hadn't offed himself, they would've had a very similar career track to Smashing Pumpkins. Plus, we likely don't get a Foo Fighters in that case and Foo Fighters > Nirvana). But, you absolutely can't deny the effects this album had on music at the time and since. It was pretty fucking massive. And since this is an overrated albums list and not bands list, I'm not sure it deserves to be listed.

Sevens said:

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Worst album ever....whiny snot nosed little bitch just boo hoo'ing about everything. God I hate this band

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Fucking great call. This definitely deserves to be up there. I remember all the dick sucking they got after "When I Come Around" broke them out and by the time shit like "Brain Stew" came around, I just wanted them to fucking stop.

OU Ariakas said:

This was my issue with the album format in general. There are a handful of albums that I can listen to from start to finish and really enjoy. Most of them have a TON of filler with about 4-5 good-to-great songs. It makes me wish that they had just asked bands to work on 3 to 4 singles a year that could be released as EPs and then after they complied ten plus songs you bundle them together with a fresh track or two for the new album. It would have made some bands much more successful and reduced the glut of shitty music.

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Well, I think that's really the differences between what constitutes a decent, good, and "all-time" great album. Albums that end up on "best-of" or "all-time" type lists tend to be those that you can listen to either the entire album without skipping, or almost the entire album.

Furry said:

Best and worst albums are very subjective to the listener and you change as you age. IMO OK Computer is/was some pretty good stuff, but now I'm gonna check if it's just nostalgia.

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Completely agree. I tried to be as objective with my thoughts as possible and filter through a contextual lens of the genre/music of the era. It's why I made sure to do another complete listen of every album I listed as well as several others I thought might be overrated, but after listening again, realized they were actually pretty damn good(Ten is good example of this).