25 Best Albums of 1990

The greatest records from the year the '90s forgot.

Throughout 2022, I became exhausted with the amount of new releases that were coming out in the world of music. I was tired of singles, EPs, and especially albums. With Internet culture being as fast as it is, with the idea of needing to have a take or an opinion on the hotly discussed album being promoted, I instead found myself becoming detached from the new releases. Around this time of burnout, I saw that Twitter user Kent Beeson was about to start his final ‘90s tournament, “The Best Albums of 1990”. A tournament page in which users vote for their favorite albums of each year. He had been doing this since 2016, and the ‘90s decade was about to reach its conclusion by going to the beginning to the decade. I had followed these tournaments since they did the Best Albums of 1997, but hadn’t participated in every single one due to my lack of knowledge about most of the records. Because these pages act as a celebration of music, and because 1990 is a year in music that is overlooked, especially compared to 1991, 1994, and 1999, I decided to follow along this tournament and listen to every album nominated. 128 albums in total, a mishmash of different genres, countries, continents, styles, and because of the amount of variety and new surprises from artists I hadn’t heard of, I didn’t feel tired listening to all of these records. I felt like an explorer going through a time capsule for a year I had close to zero knowledge of when it came to its music. I knew hair metal was on its last legs, new jack swing was huge and dominating the charts, and new wave acts were still crossing over with big hits, but what about even further than that? I realized how the music industries were preparing for the eventual alternative trends, and it seemed like everyone involved was banking on bands such as Jane’s Addiction to bridge the gap between pop and alternative rock before Nevermind came out of nowhere.

1990 was a year full of several great records, even though history regards it as one of the worst years for popular music (Ross). But look beneath the surface, beneath the Vanilla Ices and “Black Velvet”s of the world, and you will find plenty of treasure, with some of the most eclectic and captivating releases of the entire ‘90s to be packed in this year.

25. Monie Love, Down to Earth

    

Monie Love is a British rapper who settled in New York City before the making of her first record, Down to Earth. She had become friends with the Jungle Brothers, an NYC hip-hop trio who put her on the Native Tongues collective, featuring artists such as Queen Latifah, A Tribe Called Quest, and De La Soul. This would lead to one of the most important and fruitful scenes in hip-hop: The New York alternative hip-hop scene. Monie was one of the first of the group to get radio hits, with "It's a Shame (My Sister)" cracking the top 40, and lead single "Monie in the Middle" being a big hit on the dance charts.

Down to Earth is a stellar rap album that offers anything that anyone is looking for. Political commentary that doesn't feel dated in the worst way possible? You got it. Hooks for days and beats that can make you jump up and down? It's there. Are you just looking for someone who can flow for days? Right here. Monie Love manages to bring everything to the table and never sound exhausted or running low on ideas. Even with an hour-long runtime, there's enough energy and bounce on this record to make it zip by, with varied instrumentals and creativity, including a borderline hard rock song with “I Do as I Please”. I just had an enormous amount of fun with this record, and Monie is such a playful and sharp personality on the mic.

24. Slayer, Seasons in the Abyss

Seasons in the Abyss is the best album to come from the Big 4 of thrash metal in 1990. The most powerful, the most urgent, the most explosive. The guitar tones from Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King perfectly evoke the apocalyptic, wicked atmosphere that Tom Arya is singing about with his lyrics from serial killers (“Dead Skin Mask”) to the atrocities of war (“War Ensemble”) to Satan himself (“Spirit in Black”). Dave Lombardo is one of the best drummers in metal, with the track “Blood Red” fusing these powerful blast beats with swing rhythms, creatively pushing what thrash metal could be. The transitions between each song are incredibly clean, and they know how to experiment with different types of metal, knowing when to slow down when they can, to add more doom metal elements to their songs, like on the godlike title track. One of the best thrash metal records of all time.

23. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Good Son

    

Nick Cave is a legendary Australian singer-songwriter, a musician who is still relevant to the alternative scenes today, one who continues to experiment and become even more ambitious. After two dark, harrowing albums, The Good Son is one of the first that attempts to focus on newfound love. He was living in Brazil, had fallen in love, the sun was there every day, and this record takes inspiration from that joy. There are still moments of darkness, as it is a Nick Cave record, and the title refers to Abel, "the good son", whose murder leads to the violence of humanity in a Biblical sense. There's also the first track, "Foi na Cruz", whose chorus and title comes from a Brazilian Christian hymn about how Jesus died on the cross. As Brazil is a very Catholic country, you can hear those influences on his writing. Catholicism teaches you to fear God, to kneel before him, to put the fear of sin deep into your blood, which also is there on tracks such as "The Hammer Song" and "Lament", but what I came away most with was the declarations of love on tracks such as "The Ship Song", a beautiful, stunning piece of work, and also the richness on the duet with Bad Seeds member Blixa Bargeld on the track "The Weeping Song", sung from the perspective of father and son. Or the beautiful lament of love which is "Lucy", where the outro suggests light shining through. With every listen, I come away with something new, one of Nick Cave’s best records.

22. Paris, The Devil Made Me Do It

    

A militant, angry hip-hop record that deserves to be put in the same conversation as records like Amerikkka’s Most Wanted and Fear of a Black Planet. Paris brings forth great lyrics, phenomenal flow, and grimy, hard-hitting beats to the table. Beats to make you headbang and start a moshpit such as “Ebony”, and lyrics that make you immediately want to kill a cop such as “Brutal”. A record that was banned from shelves due to its album cover (the original was of a cop putting a Black boy in a chokehold), so it didn't have the exposure it needed, but he definitely showed the truth with his lyrics, his anger, and the atmosphere he evokes with his instrumentals. An intense, hard-as-nails rap record from one of the most underrated artists of the ‘90s.

21. Angelo Badalamenti, Music from Twin Peaks

    

The sound of a town with too much darkness to keep hidden away. There is genuine love among the people, beauty across the landscape, and yet that makes the acts of violence and murder impossible to ignore, especially with how they tie in to the people of a small town, who failed a woman in every sense of the word and ignored her. Angelo Badalamenti's compositions and Julee Cruise's soaring voice together voice the sound of everyone who wants to finally escape from where they lived, but are trapped by whatever keeps them there. And yet, they also voice the sound of Dale Cooper, the sound of someone enamored with the tall trees, with the people of the town. That mixture of melancholy and joy, of love and hate, of violence and peace, thrives all throughout Twin Peaks.

20. Fugazi, Repeater

The opening guitars of “Turnover” sound like an orchestra tuning and warming up their instruments. Repeater, the debut full-length album from Washington DC post-hardcore band Fugazi show them wanting to take hardcore punk to its most cinematic form as well as its most rebellious. Guitarists and lead vocalists Ian Mackaye and Guy Piccoto embraced more grandiose atmospheres and more challenging rhythms on previous bands they were in such as Embrace and Rites of Spring, and in Fugazi, they perfected that sound. Mackaye and Piccoto’s guitars sound like chainsaws buzzing all over the song while maintaining their melodies and rhythms. Their angry vocals by the two of them are my favorite aspect of the record, from Mackaye’s full-chested baritone to Piccoto’s throaty shrieks. Brendan Canty and Joe Lally’s bass are the reasons why every math rock band in the future exists, playing these complex, yet intricate rhythms on their instruments. Together, they are one of the most tight-knit punk groups of all time.

19. Babes in Toyland, Spanking Machine

    

Babes in Toyland were a Minnesota punk band, and Spanking Machine is their debut album. They are emblematic of the alternative scene of the time, from the grungy crunch of bands like L7 and Tad (shoutout also to the producer Jack Endino who produced records from each band), to the fiery ambitious punk of fellow Minnesota band Husker Du to the early sludge metal of the Melvins. Kat Bjelland had one of the most intense, powerful roars in the game. Her screeches and bluesy howls over melting, wailing guitar is a perfect summation for what the band is all about, alongside some thoughtful, surreal, and poetic lyrics. “Dogg” and “Swamp Pussy” are two of the most essential hard rock songs of the ‘90s. Underrated, incredible album.

18. The Breeders, Pod

The birth of '90s indie rock in one glorious little package. The same amount of snark and atmospheric production that would influence the direction of classic records such as Nirvana’s In Utero and Hole’s Live Through This, that same combination of pop and the underbelly of darker, more atmospheric alternative rock. If you want to know what makes Steve Albini so good as a producer, check this out, listen to the sound of Britt Walford's drums on tracks like "Glorious" or how Kim Deal's voice cracks are left in and how they add so much character to the record. Kim Deal and Tanya Donnelly just know how to add zest and flavor to their guitar parts. Even if these songs look so simple on paper, the way they sound makes this one of the most creative and fun rock records of its era. Josephine Wiggs’ bass lines and bass tones have been ingrained into my soul ever since I first heard this record.

17. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Mustt Mustt

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is considered to be one of the greatest Qawwali singers of all time, a genre dedicated to making music and using your voice for Allah in Islamic cultures. While I have no personal connection to faith in a higher power, I cannot deny that the music is nothing short of incredible and I find myself smiling along with each note sung or played on the harmonium by Khan, or with multi-instrumentalist Michael Brook’s incredible guitar work. Most of the songs on the record are traditional vocal exercises rather than being fully lyrical, which explains the universality of the work, how the main focus is just grandiose melodies. This record was a way to bring Qawwali music to a new audience (even with legendary trip hop band Massive Attack even remixing the title track into a club hit), and we got a wonderful, joyous record in the process.

16. The KLF, Chill Out

The KLF, a British duo known for their electronic and acid house music, drop a fantastic ambient record full of A&R rock samples, throat singing, sheep baaing, televangelists preaching, and slide guitar. It's like staring out the window while a train passes through farmland and your "Liked Songs" playlist is on shuffle to block out someone on the train trying to be a Bible-thumper towards you. What seemed like a hard left turn at the time is now seen as one of the greatest ambient records ever recorded, a peaceful journey through beautiful, elegant music.

15. John Zorn, Naked City

John Zorn is a New York City composer and multi-instrumentalist, though his main weapon of choice is the saxophone. He is primarily known for his work in jazz and in experimental music, though both are not mutually exclusive at all. To give some background, he had done an album of Ennio Morricone covers called The Big Gundown, taking these movie score themes, and radically reworking them into avant-garde interpretations. He had also released a record called Spy vs Spy, which was an Ornette Coleman covers record, turning his compositions into full on punk or grindcore tunes. And one year later, he released Naked City, a fucking nuclear bomb of a record, a combination of grindcore, free jazz, surf rock interpretations of film noir soundtracks. This was just an absolute blast, the band on this record is somehow with each other and fighting against each other, making this beautiful contrast of destruction and rebirth. There are 8 tracks that run less than one minute (some less than 20 seconds) that feel like a shotgun blast of noise and violence. Yamantaka Eye, frontman for noise rock band Boredoms, leads the vocals on those songs, and his style and inflections are chaotic and cryptic. He matches the eccentric, violent nature of the band. Yet the cover of Jerry Goldsmith’s "Chinatown" theme sounds beautiful, a re-imagining of the dark shadows of film noir, and there's "Latin Quartet", a jazz track that will make you dance immediately. One of the most versatile and cinematic records of 1990, it is impossible not to have fun and be surprised while listening to it.

14. Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shooting Straight in the Dark

Mary Chapin Carpenter is one of country music’s best storytellers. Not just through her blunt yet lyrical turns of phrase, but how she delivers them. “When She’s Gone” is a perfect ballad showcasing someone defeated while trying to stay in a relationship where their spark is gone, where he spends more time at the bar than at home. “Middle Ground” is a track all about the comfortability and boredom of being in your 30s. My favorite song, “You Win Again” is soaked in poetic imagery about trying not to get into that relationship-destroying fight, so she just tells him what she wants to hear to keep the peace. The fear of being alone looms over the track, beyond that bouncy, jaunty instrumental and guitar solo, but as the track continues, she grows more sarcastic towards him, and she has the fullest intention of leaving. The album never forgets to have fun as well, tracks like “Down at the Twist and Shout” and “Right Now” are incredibly catchy bangers with fierce fiddle work and honky tonk pianos that would fit in a country bar. Carpenter’s work feels extremely underrated in the world of country, and this album convinced me that she is one of the best.

13. A Tribe Called Quest, People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm

A Tribe Called Quest’s debut album is a perfect amalgamation of New York City. The instrumentals sample all types of genres, from alternative rock, to jazz, to pop, showcasing the thriving musical scenes in the city. From the laid back, chilled Lou Reed-sampled groove of “Can I Kick It?” to the Stevie Wonder-sampled horns of “Footprints”. The group tells stories of life in NYC, how Tip, Phifer, Ali, and Jarobi thought differently than their contemporaries through their lyrics and how they approached their sound. Ali would go on to speak about how they wanted to be different than the tough guys of hip-hop, how they wanted to be looser and more light-hearted than other MCs of the time, to not attempt to be tough just to sell an image. Here they succeed, through their sillier storytelling in tracks like “I Left My Wallet in El Segundo” and “Luck of Lucien”. An excellent debut, a perfect kick-off to one of the greatest rap groups of all time.

12. Depeche Mode, Violator

At this point in legendary synthpop band Depeche Mode’s career, they were only getting better. Fresh off of Music for the Masses, one of their boldest and most experimental records, they released arguably their magnum opus, Violator, a victory lap where they showcase their mastery of phenomenal pop hooks and chilling, brooding atmosphere. From the blues/synthpop fusion of lead single “Personal Jesus”, to the dark love anthem “Enjoy the Silence”, to my favorite song on the record, the nightmarish ache for death “Waiting for the Night”. I cannot get enough of the synthesizers in that song. If the darkness is enveloping the members of Depeche Mode no matter what, why not dance?

11. Daniel Johnston, 1990

Daniel's record 1990 showcased his first foray into a recording studio rather than making the album from home on a tape recorder. He had visited New York City, became friends with Sonic Youth (Steve Shelley and Thurston Moore play drums and guitar on "Spirit World Rising"), and had stopped taking his medication. He falsely believed he would perform better on stage if he was off of them, instead of thinking that he was already a fantastic performer because he was a charismatic figure onstage. There are some raw, intimate live recordings on this album. "Don't Play Cards with Satan" is one, where he screams parts of the final verse, his lyrics about God and his tortured screams bring to mind the live performances of Lingua Ignota. Then there's the hauntingly intimate "Careless Soul", which is a straight-up gospel track, where he sounds like he is on his knees, crying, praying with the Lord to help him overcome his mental health problems. Closer "Funeral Home" is where he leads the audience in a sing-along on one of the most depressing lyrics of the record, "I'm going down to the funeral home / And I'm never coming back".

Despite the achingly sad nature of the live tracks, 1990 is filled with some of his most beautiful songs. "True Love Will Find You in the End" is arguably the most life-affirming song he ever wrote, a less-than-2-minute acoustic gem about being optimistic about finding true love. His voice here makes me cry every time, it's such a hopeful song. "Some Things Last a Long Time" is also beautiful, about not being able to let go of a previous relationship. The production and usage of feedback shows the influence that Johnston was taking from NYC's alternative and experimental scenes. The influence of God and the Devil on Johnston's work has been well-documented, especially as his parents were conservative Christians who would frame his bipolar disorder as "the devil being in him" rather than full medical terms, which led to his belief that he was fighting Satan every day.

I love this album. It is arguably the toughest listen in the Johnston discography that I've heard because of where he was as an artist and as a person, but with each dark, desolate piece and concert recording on the record, there is also life blooming from his piano. A haunting, beautiful album. I miss him so much.

10. They Might Be Giants, Flood

In some ways, the most important album to my musical taste on this list. They Might Be Giants are my favorite band, and Flood was the first album that I had listened to from them. I quickly became obsessed with John Linnell and John Flansburgh, these two nerdy Brooklynites who sang about night lights shaped like blue canaries, being resurrected as a grocery bag, or even serious issues such as exploitation of workers by corporate higher-ups or condemning those who tolerate racist friends. Linnell’s prose is hilarious as well as rich with detail and emotion, with “Birdhouse in Your Soul” working as a song about how this nightlight is a protector to this child while they sleep, or “Particle Man” being a strange, funny meditation on life via the characters Particle Man, Triangle Man, Universe Man, and Person Man. And that’s not to snub Flansburgh, who writes some of TMBG’s best songs on this record, such as country break-up ballad, “Lucky Ball and Chain”, in which the narrator realizes that he had been lying to himself about how good of a partner he was when she leaves him, or “Twisting”, a power pop song filled to the brim with hooks and yet only under two minutes. Every time I listen to this album, I still get the same chills and excitement that I did when I was in college, discovering this band. Listening to “Birdhouse” still gives me the same chills when I hear those key changes or that crescendo onto the first chorus. An immensely fun, silly, yet emotional album.

9. Sonic Youth, Goo

God, I hate to be the most cliche alternative rock fan imaginable, as everyone even a little familiar with the music of 1990 and with ‘90s alt rock has this on their list, but this album is too fucking good.  When Sonic Youth, one of the best and most ambitious rock bands on the East Coast, signed to a major label, they lost none of their intensity or ambition that was all over their previous record, Daydream Nation, and added incredible hooks and showed how they could be the master of the pop song structure with tracks such as lead single “Kool Thing”. “Tunic (Song for Karen)” is a loving tribute to the late Karen Carpenter, “Titanium Expose” has this perfectly harsh, noisy outro that sounds like it would fit perfectly on their previous albums . The perfect prelude for alternative's eventual massive pop culture impact, as labels began to take more chances on noisier, edgier, more homegrown bands, even foreshadowed by the lead girl of the "Dirty Boots" video wearing a Nirvana t-shirt.

8. Judas Priest, Painkiller

Judas Priest has the comeback story that every artist dreams of. After two flop albums in the late '80s, and dealing with a lawsuit from angry parents that caused this record to be delayed, they needed to reassure the metal community and themselves that they were still on top, still one of the best metal bands around. On Painkiller, they do it with flying fucking colors. Just from the drum intro on the title track/opening track, they let you know that they are not messing around, they are a speedy as hell band with enough heaviness to bring every other metal band working to their knees. Incredible riffs, fantastic drumming, and the God of Metal himself, Rob Halford, singing every high note with enough ferocity and grandiosity to sing to the heavens. What a fucking record.

7. African Head Charge, Songs of Praise

Why I was so happy to do this project was because I got to check out music that would’ve never been on my radar before, and here is one of them: A psychedelic dub record experimenting with field recordings of religious chants from “all across the world”, according to the liner notes. The percussion of Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah and the production of Adrian Sherwood, as well as instrumental contributions from artists such as Skip Macdonald and Style Scott make these chants sound even more monumental and spiritual. By turning the chants into psychedelic anthems, it’s almost as if the listener is in the presence of a higher power, that these songs of praise are bringing them here. Every time I put this album on, I found myself dancing, clapping along, just appreciating the brilliant musicality presented by everyone, from the guitars of “Cattle Herd Chant” to the bass and vocal production of “Dervish Chant”. Spiritual to the highest degree.  

6. Blake Babies, Sunburn

The best American indie rock record of the year. This album and the Blake Babies deserve to be put along the same pedestals as other indie rock legends such as The Breeders or the Pixies. While much more influenced by American jangle pop acts such as R.E.M., this is a band with teeth, with grit, that know how to balance their harder guitar tones with pop hook instincts. Julianna Hatfield’s vocals are equal parts sarcastic and emotional, singing about the quarter-life crises and the struggles of having no money, and her bass lines are colorful and creative. The sound of Freda Love’s drums and John Strohm’s guitars just never gets old here, especially when the latter solos, even when it’s just the vocal melody in guitar form, he manages to give the feeling that it’s the first time the melody has ever been heard. After multiple listens, it never loses any of its steam or any of its melody. I hope the Blake Babies can one day be recognized by more people as one of the most underrated and best of their era.

5. Ride, Nowhere

   

Before masterpieces such as Loveless by My Bloody Valentine and Souvlaki by Slowdive dropped, there was Nowhere by Ride, an essential early shoegaze album, taking all of the melodic and ethereal intent presented by dream pop such as the Cocteau Twins, and giving them the much more earth-shattering and noisier elements of bands such as Sonic Youth. A culmination of multiple influences, yet sounding fresh to this day. From the melodic bassline on “Seagull”, to the way those beautiful strings come in on “Vapour Trail” to the monumental, noisy, high-pitched guitar on “Dreams Burn Down”, I always find myself enticed by one of shoegaze’s greatest records.

4. Public Enemy, Fear of a Black Planet

How could Public Enemy become even more political than their sophomore record, 1988’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back? How could they become angrier, even more blunt, even funnier, even more chaotic in their production? Enter Fear of a Black Planet, which takes all of the controversial and best elements of their previous record and turns them up even further. They achieved worldwide success, and they’re gonna make you listen to every word they have to say. “911 is a Joke” is Flavor Flav’s look at how hospitals ignore Black people who are sick and in pain. “Burn Hollywood Burn” features some of the greatest verses from Chuck D and guests Big Daddy Kane and Ice Cube, looking at how Black people are portrayed in movies. The way the Bomb Squad uses sampling on this record is downright genius, creating layers on top of layers of samples, expanding these samples beyond their original meaning, cutting them up, and looping them to create this bombastic and chaotic work of beauty and noise. They take the mastery of past funk greats and recontextualize them to show what they are doing with hip-hop’s present and future. A magnificent work that still feels as urgent as it did in its time.

3. Pauline Oliveros, Crone Music

   

Pauline Oliveros was a pioneer in experimental music, a legendary composer who, like the great experimental artists, smashed what she knew to pieces and put together something new with the broken shards. Crone Music was a record that was released as a soundtrack to the Mabou Mines Theatre avant-garde production of King Lear. She makes drone music on an accordion, playing around with the ways an accordion can sound, using it to create a dark, dramatic, oppressive atmosphere, building the environment in which a man’s power slowly but surely becomes crumbles away from him, and war looms on the horizon through the fault of his own and his kin. Chilling pieces of music for characters about to fall, and one of the most creative albums I’ve heard. I’m blown away by its grandiose yet quiet power every time.

2. The Sundays, Reading, Writing, & Arithmetic

The album title is a pun, as lead singer Harriet Wheeler is from Reading, England, and a lot of the songs on this record express the disillusionment she faces with her hometown and the idea of being young and stuck in general. Hiding behind a mask of feeling too good for your home but afraid of the insecurity that is underneath. And yet, love blooms through all of this music, especially as Wheeler and guitarist David Gavurin were a happy couple, and wrote the majority of these songs together. Love from "a certain someone" can tear down their walls, and the jangly guitar from Gavurin showcases how there's hope beyond the cynicism of being stuck, beyond taking it all out on other people, it's all gonna be over soon. The musicianship in general on this record is incredible, the rhythm section especially. Playful, complex, and fun basslines from Paul Brindley match the creative drumming from Patrick Hannan. And there's Harriet Wheeler's voice, and her voice is one of the most beautiful I've heard all throughout this tournament, her falsettos, the way she soars above the instrumentals. And the production from the band and Ray Shulman is just incredible, every instrument is heard to their fullest potential, and the guitar tones here are the best that jangle pop has to offer.

Throughout listening to records from this year, I had given jangle pop so much shit, especially the jangle pop acts from the UK, but it was never the genre's fault. The artists just tended to be uninteresting or just pretty good with one flash in the pan, just one great song that showcased they could do better. This band, however, is a showcase of the genre at its best. All of the pieces finally came together. Catchy, dreamy songs that never outwear their welcome. A band who had incredible chemistry and brought out the best in each other. I cried twice the first time I listened. Just the outro to “Joy” still brings me to tears.

1. Cocteau Twins, Heaven or Las Vegas

   

I remember where I was the first time I heard this album. It was snowing outside, I was in a terrible mood, and I decided to put it on after hearing its praises from different corners of music blog sites and music nerds on Twitter. I put it on, needing something dreamy and atmospheric to help accompany my sadness. And what I heard was one of the most beautiful works of art I had ever experienced. The dreamy guitar from Robin Guthrie on “Cherry-Coloured Funk” put me in a trance as I watched the falling snow. Elizabeth Fraser’s vocals felt like a dream that I never wanted to wake up from. I couldn’t understand what she was saying, yet her voice was calling to me, like some higher being. The way she played with notes through her vocal phrases, effortlessly sliding from one note to the next, just had me breathless and excited for the next nine tracks. Listening to these songs, that same feeling never went away. The layerings on Elizabeth Fraser’s impossibly good voice on “Iceblink Luck”, the surprisingly groovy bassline from Simon Raymonde on “Pitch the Baby”, the outro on “Fotzepolitic”, where Guthrie’s guitar just ascends and builds to the glorious climax, every track had something new to latch onto. The title track had me sobbing. The tone of Guthrie’s slide guitar as he went from one high note to the next, matching Fraser’s voice moved me beyond words. To this day, I struggle to explain why, but I will try my best:

Heaven or Las Vegas was made after the birth of Guthrie and Fraser’s child, and the record is filled to the brim with joy, with enrichment, with fulfillment, and “Heaven or Las Vegas” is a song that, to me, represents  the brightness and the beauty of the world. A brightness so radiant that you can’t possibly look away. And while I was listening in my depressed state, with the snow falling outside, with the absolute misery that the previous year had brought me, all I could do was finally let out some sort of emotion.

Heaven or Las Vegas is one of the greatest albums of all time. The pinnacle of dream pop, three musicians working together to bring this album full of life and death, of grief and celebration, and after countless listens, it has yet to lose even the slightest bit of its power. The best album of 1990.