Best Grunge Record based on AMG's Top Grunge Albums

Still listen to regularly: Colour & the Shape, Dust, March to Fuzz
Still listen to songs from: In Utero, Vs., Vitalogy, Stoner Witch, Dayglo, Goat, Sweet Oblivon, Fontanelle, Smell the Magic

Can't choose. Far too many of my fave albums in that.

No "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge"? Mudhoney had other great albums, but this is their best and I can't bring myself to vote for the others.

No "Change Has Come"? The swirling succinct synthesis of psychedelia and songwriting from the Screaming Trees? They stopped off at Subpop for an ep in between their stints with SST and Epic and the result trumps either catalog.

I'll go with "Dayglo". A classic that fell by the wayside and everything that grunge was supposed to be.

Mudhoney s/t

The only "grunge" band I really listened to. Even at that they only were only pretty good.

ugh god

What a lame list; Local H has a few albums better than anything up there; so do Everclear. Would have voted for Stone Temple Pilots's best-of CD if that was up there, too, but it's not. I went with Green River Come On Down, even though I haven't heard it for over 15 years. (I haven't heard Soundgarden's Fopp in even longer, though I did like Screaming Life at the time -- have never had a copy where they're combined onto the same record.) Also, I never thought of Presidents of the USA as a grunge band at all. (Could have voted for Nirvana, I suppose, but I didn't feel like it.)

Oops, Everclear are up there; should have voted for them I guess, but too late. (Never heard of Wool or Hammerbox, I don't think. Barely remember Mad Season, Love Battery, My Sister's Machine, etc.)

man. hard to choose between pearl jam's "ten", alice in chains' "dirt" and stp's "purple". i too am pleased to see everclear's "sparkle and fade" on there. i guess i'm going with alice in chains because it seems so quintessential to me. probably the most typically "grunge" album out of the whole lot.

also: i do not think that the jesus lizard or the presidents of the united states of america were grunge bands.

yeah, I don't quite get those either; jesus lizard to me always seemed to me like a descendant of the immediate post-punk era, while Presidents of the USA were power pop.

I went with Dust. Album was the end of the era, and it was the Trees' best.

DIRT, because it's the only one I've listened to recently, like more than once, and I wish I was listening to it right now.

jesus lizard to me always seemed to me like a descendant of the immediate post-punk era

yeah, that's what i think too - i voted for Goat, which is the only album on the list that i actually own - it's a perfect marriage of Birthday Party/Big Black-style post-punk with the obvious Scratch Acid heritage, which is entirely acceptable in my book, still love the album

i could stand to listen to In Utero or the Screaming Trees records again, but see no point in owning them

voted for Goat even though it doesn't really belong here.

I always confuse Jesus Lizard with Jesus Jones.

/lex

The two worst Tad records are the only options on offer...bah. Salt Lick beats everything else on that list.

Gluey Porch Treatments is the best thing on here but frankly this list is retarded

Man, ilx really hates grunge.

Jar of Flies is grate grate grate! I'm voting for that.

This is an easy one for me. Pearl Jam's Vs. is one of my favorite albums ever, and the only album on this list I ever listen to anymore. There are some really great riffs on that album.

I still listen to Badmotorfinger regularly, but not much else from Soundgarden other than "Pretty Noose" and "Burden in my Hand." When I was really into Badmotorfinger, a friend pointed out how much parts sounded like Yes. That gave me pause, but then made me like it even more. That album strikes me as the peak of the "sharp people playing dumb music" aesthetic that grunge should have been about. Nirvana Unplugged is a great album, still get chills from their "Where Did You Sleep Last Night". Wish I still had a copy of Dayglo.

kingkongvsgodzilla OTM. My vote would definitely go to EGBDF. Summer 1992 I probably listened to Love Battery as much as Pavement (that is, a lot). I need to dig out "Dayglo" again.

Considering all the questionable picks on the list, why not Dinosaur Jr?

Voted for Bleach; didn't see Gluey Porch Treatments. This list is too long to parse.

nirvana unplugged is a great album that still sounds great today.

yeah, I didn't see Bleach. Listened to that album every day for a year, at least.

Voted for 'Bleach' - just for 'Negative Creep'.

In Utero! I love that album, the songs are all so distinct. Also Vs. is good, but the lyrics make me cringe. The lyrics on In Utero don't make me cringe for some reason. Also Jar of Flies is good summertime music, and Sparkle and Fade has some great stuff before it peters out. I like the Pop Grunge.

I had so much trouble deciding between Soundgarden and Pearl Jam that I split the difference with TEMPLE OF THE DOG. If No Code was an option I probably would've gone for that, though.

My top 10 of the nominated albums (although I dispute the status of some as 'grunge'): Superunknown, In Utero, TOTD, Vitalogy, The Colour And The Shape, Live Through This, Purple, Badmotorfinger, Jar Of Flies, Nevermind.

It occurs to me that I've been perpetually this close to buying a Screaming Trees record for going on 15 years now.

no BULLHEAD, no cred

do we have to call this stuff 'grunge'? can't it just be 90s rock?

My votes: Alice in Chains, Jesus Lizard, Tad, Mudhoney

i posted before realizing that none of the good albums by those groups (or really any of the groups up there - wtf) are even up there except for Mudhoney s/t - so I picked that one. keep it out of my face, keep it out of my face!

I voted Superfuzz BigMuff/singles comp because that was the first thing I thought of when I saw the poll title before I'd seen any of the choices.

Bleach, now and forever. Mudhoney was the only other band up there I liked for longer than the length of an EP or so. (Tho I suspect I'd have liked the early Melvins stuff more than their later material. And I know that the same applies to Screaming Trees.)

do we have to call this stuff 'grunge'? can't it just be 90s rock?

Choose your battles! If you call this stuff "the best of 90s rock", that's a pretty sad list.

http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/images/univox-superfuzz-orange-top.jpg http://www.activemusician.com/images/store/small/MC_BMUSA.gif

I voted Superfuzz BigMuff/singles comp because that was the first thing I thought of when I saw the poll title before I'd seen any of the choices.

haha me too - altho I would vote for Earth's "Extra-Capsular Extraction" if it were on there

Hey, even though in inputted it, I make no claims for the list. It's pulled directly from the All Music Guide and I agree totally that it's odd, with key ommissions, weird choices, etc., it's a pretty amusing encapsulation of grunge ca. '89 to '94. Personally, I look at the list and I think "We went apeshit over this shite?!"

err... "even though I inputted it..."

Oh, and next week: Britpop!

Truly - Fast Stories from Kid Coma. Lost grunge classic!

goat - best record on that list
the mudhoney collection - best grunge record.

Ahhh...high school.

I'm going with my heart and that means going with the Singles soundtrack. Great Alice in Chains, Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees, and Soundgarden songs. Plus the poppy-happy Westerberg songs. Can't ask for much more than that.

I am the amalgamation of this thread: I voted for Goat, although I agree it's not really grunge, but I like it slightly better than my two runner-ups, Superfuzz Bigmuff and Gluey Porch Treatments, even though those two are more properly considered grunge and the first of the two may be the apotheosis of the genre insofar as it actually exists.

if Jesus Lizard LIAR was on there I prolly would have voted for that. don't have Goat.

If Goat is grunge, then Goat gets my vote. After that, Superfuzz Bigmuff or In Utero.

I have heard so many of these records.

I'd also like to mention The Supersuckers' "Smoke Of Hell" which, on the evidence of this list, is "grunge enough" to be worthy of inclusion. Also, I like it.

In fact, if I could include Urge Overkill's "Saturation" I'd vote for that too, but I guess it's more of a response to grunge than a grunge record.

I never really liked and still don't like Pearl Jam/Soungarden/Alice In Chains.

Babes In Toyland were good though.

wow, a true child of Peel.

At first I was thinking it's either Goat or Gluey Porch Treatments for me, but today at work for some reason I had Mexican Seafood(the song) stuck in my head. So now that I think about it I think I'm going to have to go with Incesticide, because it covers a lot of these bands styles on one album. You got yer straight-ahead Grunge type of songs, to Pop Rock, to Punk, to slower heavier stuff, onto the weirder quirkier songs, to classic rock riffing, and ending back with the Grunge.

wow, a true child of Peel.

=D

Also, that Love Battery record is ok. Or, it was.

Love Battery is a band I've never heard actually.

Boy, that's a high school and college soundtrack right there. :-) Though the grunge designation, in retrospect bothers me; all of the hard rock derived from punk and the college rock of the '80s pretty much qualifies in the minds of the lazy historians these days (AMG, for instance). I mean, Veruca Salt, Presidents of the USA and Everclear were NOT grunge.

Have to agree with Chuck ... the STP best-of blows everything on that list out of the water ... they were the Jethro Tull of their era ... average albums marked by masterpiece singles.

In the absence of that, In Utero is the easy answer, followed by Dust.

I, too, also wonder why they left the Local H record off the list. That was a fantastic album that spawned a huge modern-rock hit.

Never heard of Wool
Dave Grohl's patronage only gets one so far, it seems.

I still listen to the Melvins, Mudhoney, and the Screaming Trees fairly often. Nirvana once in a while. Most of the rest of this stuff turned me off back when it was released, if I heard it at all - though I did enjoy Babes in Toyland live a few times.

You know, that Paw album, "Dragline", is kind of a gem. I'm surprised it's even on the list. I tried to get several of my friends to see the light, but they couldn't get past the hick vibe of the album, which was what appealed to me about it. I mean, I think half the songs on that album were about dogs. The guy's voice was a bit much at times, but some of the rhythm guitar work was really beautiful. I haven't heard the album in probably 10 years, but I bet I'd still like it.

I also really liked Brad, and I'm surprised they aren't on there at all.

I had the Jessie single. Never heard anything else by them (That I can remember at least).

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I am totally tempted to vote for "tiny music" by Stone Temple Pilots just to be a complete contrarian and mess up the results.

(By which I mean it is loathesome in case that needed pointing out)

Tiny Music isn't as good as Purple but it's totally a decent album.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

haha who voted for BOGGY DEPOT?

anyway, the third best grunge album isn't even grunge.

i voted for bigmuff cuz it seemed the most core grunge you could get.

Pearl Jam: Ten 0

AWESOME

Wow. I could've swore I voted for Dayglo. I guess I just talked about it. Oh well.

haha who voted for BOGGY DEPOT?

Someone who read my instructions and didn't care...

Better yet, who voted for SIXTEEN STONE?

The top 15 is a pretty good representation of the genre as it came to be defined. It's pretty interesting to me that at the time '91-'94, some people railed against the grunge term (Down with Corporate Marketing!) but that with a few previously noted exceptions (Jesus Lizard, Presidents of the USA) the artists here all do adhere to a pretty decipherable formula (ie downtuned guitars, moderate tempos--except when you want to be fast and punk and all that--growly vocals, etc.) Surprised that despite a lot of namedropping above, Love Battery and Babes in Toyland didn't get a single vote.

More people probably should have voted for Melvins

Since we're here, and I can't figure out how to search for the appropriate threads, was anyone else into C/Z Records? I loved them at the time. I had some Treepeople, Coffin Break, the Teriyaki Asthma comp, and a great Monks of Doom e.p.

I had that 7 Year Bitch cd until I sold it.

i think Goat (my vote) really kinda fucked up the results.

my second pick would've been Superfuzz FWIW.

I'm surprised that the fave Screaming Trees record is "Sweet Oblivion," which despite having 2 great singles, is kind of weak IMO, sitting stylistcally between the psychedelica of early records and the late fully-realized hard rock of "Dust".

As brilliant as Dust is, I do think Sweet Oblivion is even better. The albums before that are underrated.

I voted for DIRT.

in utero?!?!
the best??!?

I can kind of get behind In Utero. Lyrically & musically it was the most adventurous Nirvana album...

The most overrated era in rock?
OMG shut up. The excessive dissing of 90's/grunge is so fucking stale.

Does anyone still listen to any of these regularly? Does anyone care?
YES. And YES.

^^ this, for real!

It's a toss-up between In Utero and the first Foo Fighters album for me. Superunknown is a close third and then maybe Vs.

Does Sugar count as a Grunge band? I definitely still listen to them pretty frequently.

billstevejim: I was just asking cheeky questions. Dissing '90s grunge may be stale, but it became relatively easy at the time with the ascent of really bad aor crap (see Candlebox et al).

Does Sugar count as a Grunge band? I definitely still listen to them pretty frequently.

of course not! i think it's obvious, Sugar are more power-trio pop/rock with a secret shoegaze fetish than anything "grunge" related, and had Copper Blue been on this poll, it would have risen close to the top despite its having nothing to do with "grunge" music (a la Goat in this poll).

(btw, i voted for Goat, but would've had trouble deciding btw. Goat and Copper Blue...)

Whatever. That Candlebox single is pretty sweet.

Re: Sugar and the 'grunge' label... at the time, almost any American rock band playing loud non-metal (or at least not TOO metal) got lumped into it. Sub Pop's own "Grunge Years" comp had the Walkabouts and Beat Happening on it. In 1992 every article about Sugar was required to use the phrase "with the success of Nirvana" so there was usually at least an implication. But now, a lot of bands that were considered grunge then are not now (like how Alice in Chains became retroactively metal recently).

Even the spin doctors and the lemonheads got labelled grunge at the time.

Drench I think that implication that Sugar or 'anything' was grunge was extremely mild. People did not seriously think that. On the other hand, I believe that an overarching umbrella of "alternative" was placed on many things, but that grunge was a listed as a distinct sub-genre of that, and that those were the working labels then. I seriously doubt that the Spin Doctors were ever labeled 'grunge' seriously -- quote? As for Alice in Chains, I fail to see how they were not 'grunge', given that they like Nirvana and Soundgarden worked heavy metal riffs into their music in similar ways.

Alice In Chains totally did not "became retroactively metal recently." They were frequent guests on Headbanger's Ball, "Man In The Box" was a big hard rock radio hit pre-Nirvana, before blowing up they dressed all glam metal and opened for Van Halen. Their legacy as a metal/hard rock band definitely kinda took off posthumously with bands like Godsmack biting them hard, but they really always had one foot in that scene.

They also were quoted as saying they were the first Seattle band to bring heavy metal into ... something. Hazy brain, but I know they always claimed that scene.

jah to join the amen corner alice in chains was on CLASH OF THE TITANS tour dude!...also mike inez played in ozzy's band too.

plus, pre-nirvana everything was heavy metal, even if it wasn't, like i just thought of jane's addiction as a weird heavy metal band (which i guess that's pretty much what they were anyway)...i first read abt. jane's in circus magazine.

haha word. I read a lot of Circus and Hit Parader during the grunge years and they covered all the Seattle bands pretty heavily and tried in vain to adapt to the times.

They did? You can get Hit Parader over here and it always seemed to be some crappy down on its luck glam band or someone like Jackyl or Love/Hate on the cover.

well yeah their bread and butter was still like Enuff Z'nuff, but there were always stories about Pearl Jam and Soundgarden in their too

Most grunge was metal (and Alice in Chains were just more metal than most, maybe.) I'm not sure I see the contradiction there (but then, I was writing about the Melvins and Green River and Soundgarden etc. in Creem Metal as early as 1986 or 1987, so maybe I'm not the one to ask.)

I never heard anybody call Beat Happening or Sugar grunge, though that doesn't mean that nobody did.

And if I had noticed Live Through This on the list, I would've voted for it. But I didn't; oh well.

My point above was that labels can be fluid (ha) and relative. In 1978 Journey and Cheap Trick might be "heavy metal" and in 1966 the Mamas & the Papas were a "rock and roll" group etc.

I brought up AiC because in the early 90s they (along with Soundgarden and Nirvana) were getting airplay on US "alt rock" radio stations that would at the time never admit to playing metal (no Metallica or Anthrax on those playlists), even though they were.