Picks

[viridian5]

Rolling Stone has some good picks on its "100 Best Albums of the Nineties," though of course there are some artists and genres on it I don't listen to. One cool thing is that alternative music in the 90s was often high profile enough that Rolling Stone counted some albums from it, but they didn't get it all so here are some of my choices they didn't get:

• Ultra by Depeche Mode. I appreciate Violator already being on RS's list, but Ultra is great too, as well as being DM's introduction to their post-80s direction. (Songs of Faith and Devotion was pretty good but I felt it was too strongly influenced by all the guitar rock going on at the time, a bit of the identity crisis a lot of 80s bands went through at the time and thus not totally Depeche Mode, proven to me by how they backed off from this sound somewhat in albums to come.)
• Version 2.0 by Garbage
• The Three Calamities by Switchblade Symphony (Bread and Jam for Frances had some really strong songs but also some I thought were just unnecessary filler, so I can't say it's a best album.)
• Darkest Days by Stabbing Westward
• Ænima by Tool
• Vision Thing by the Sisters of Mercy
• Visual Audio Sensory Theater by VAST
• Dirt by Alice in Chains
• Mexican Moon by Concrete Blonde
• Concentration by Machines of Loving Grace
• Prick by Prick
• Virtuosity soundtrack
• Strange Days soundtrack

Can an EP like Broken by Nine Inch Nails count?

I'm sure I've forgotten a few (and some I wanted to include actually came out in 2000 or 2001). What have Rolling Stone and I missed/what are some of your choices?