As everyone knows I have a problem with lists, but here goes. I’m not exactly sure how to define this list …I think that is nice that each of you have chosen to define it slightly differently.

In my mind, three albums stand above all others in the grunge world. They are:
Nirvana, Nevermind
Smashing Pumpkins, Siamese Dream
Pearl Jam, Ten

These albums have what it takes to be classics; they’re strong from start to finish, flow from cut to cut, contain no filler and where, incidentally, all commercially successful and had a big impact on the public. Earlier I noted Disarm as being my favourite track off of Siamese Dream, because, as it is viewed in context of the album, it is the pivot point in the sequence of the whole. After all, Grunge was big on the turning point. It was all about the contrast, the crispness of acoustic guitar chords juxtaposed against layers of distortion, tender poetic moments contrasted with occasionally truly misogynistic anger, and all wrapped in a tidy package of plaid, angst and on occasions, volume. Most importantly it had to emote the depravity of a disenfranchised generation of youth.

From the top 3 grunge albums
Nevermind, 1) Smells Like Teen Spirit (interesting story about where that song came from), 2)Lithium
Ten, 3)Black & 4)Jeremy (having said what I said about solid albums, I would have cut the tenth of the eleven tracks on the album (Deep) to make it a solid “Ten”)
Siamese Dream, 5)Cherub Rock, 6)Disarm

I think though, that one of the main things that bonds Grunge together into a cohesive style is association. The reason that I bring this up is that when I sit down to listen to various albums and try to decide if they musically fit into the “grunge” slot it becomes difficult. Art Bergman’s Sexual roulette from 1990, for example, fits the mould in many respects but would never have been thought of as grunge.
6) Art Bergmann – Bound for Vegas

One of my favourite grunge tunes is Nirvana’s 7)The Man who sold the World, that is in fact a song that was written twenty years earlier when Cobain was only three. When you go back and listen to Bowie’s recording the performance is intrinsically very similar, but by association we think of it as Grunge when Nirvana performs it. Hmmm, we all know that Bowie was ahead of his time, but 20 years?

Enough wanking from me about what is or is not grunge. Damned if I can put my finger on it, but am indeed interested in digging a little deeper into some of the roots of the scene.

From the top of the grunge charts comes Stone Temple Pilots’ 8) Big Empty, from, in retrospect, a pretty crappy album and Pearl Jam’s 9Better Man.

Brian, I applaud you for your eloquent acronym “GLFWEOOOB” to define the limits of your list. I think that Beck’s 10) Looser might fall in to one of the o’s. I remember working with Stuart when that was first released and we both drove in to the job site and had heard it on the radio and said “WHAT WAS THAT!”
Lemonheads, definitely. 11) Bit Part, ‘cause I luv Juliana Hatfields voice in it.

I took a re-listen to Moist’s Silver and, in retrospect, could not believe how derivative it was. Parts of it almost sound like it where lifted. I had never really thought of it as Grunge for some reason… maybe because it was Canadian and I had a very narrow geographical idea of where Grunge came from. Vancouver is after all a good 20 km from Washington State. In any case, I was so big into Moist at the time that I have to give them the nod with 12) Push.

…and here is where things start to go awry and veer off into various obtuse directions.
Lou Reed’s Magic and Loss is another one of my favourite albums from the era. Deep and moving it is at times shocking and 13) Power and The Glory makes the cut for bringing our life full circle and setting us up for the Magic and Loss.

Next comes the Irish Segment of the listification
James: 14) Sometimes. It’s interesting to listen for the influence of the Waterboys in their music, or maybe it’s just the passion of the Irish!

Irish nod number two goes to U2 for coming back and re-defining themselves in 1991 with the release of Achtung Baby, their first full studio release since Joshua Tree. U2 found a new sound, and a new direction for the band that reflected the world that was changing around them. No it ain’t “GLFWEOOOB”, but you can definitely hear the influence and a lot more on 15) Zoo Station

The Waterboys were granted well on their way down hill when they recorded Dream Harder, however, 16) The return of Jimi Hendrix manages so beautifully to capture the energy the artist’s life. The lyrics are pure poetry …stunningly Irish, although I think the album should have be seriously paired down to an ep!

…brings us back full circle to Seattle, the birth place of lord Jimi …now if I could only be clever and somehow tie it all together! I think there is a thread there somewhere though.

And getting progressively further from GLFWEOOOB
The Lowest of the Low – 17) Bleed a Little While Tonight
R.E.M – 18) Texarcana
Counting Crows – 19) Mr. Jones
Tragically Hip – 20) Little Bones

And lastly, and in part because I don’t know how to count or play games by rules, the start of something completely new, but really not that new at all, sort of; US3 – 20) Cantaloop

This list does not reflect, in whole or in part, the views or opinions of the author!