True Alternative: The Top 100 Songs of the ’90s Underground

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50-220px-Mogwaiyoungteam50. Mogwai – “Like Herod
from Mogwai Young Team (1997; Chemikal Underground)

While Scottish post-rockers Mogwai were still somewhat underground, Robert Smith claimed they were his favorite new band at the time. And if Robert Smith liked them, there had to be something to it. In 1999, most post-rock had not yet crossed over into the metal side of rock, so Mogwai managed to bring to the table a balance of sonic heaviness that mixed with ambiance in a way indie rockers in the ’90s had not seen much of up to this point. Not only was Mogwai breaking new ground in the way they were delivering these narcotic laced space dirges, but on this explosive, 11-minute epic, also allowed the composition to flow in an organic manner. – WL


49-220px-Drive_Like_Jehu_-_Yank_Crime_cover49. Drive Like Jehu – “Luau
from Yank Crime (1994; Interscope)

As much as the ’80s felt like a surreal fever dream, the ’90s make less sense the further away we get away from them. For instance, why did a band such as San Diego post-hardcore quartet Drive Like Jehu get signed to major label Interscope back in 1994? It likely has more to do with John Reis’ other band, Rocket from the Crypt, who had a handful of radio hits at the time. By comparison, Drive Like Jehu played a more progressive, less commercially friendly form of punk, caught somewhere between math rock and screamo. I can’t imagine what the suits at Interscope thought when they heard “Luau,” a nine-minute death waltz of serpentine guitars and Rick Froberg’s throat-shredding screams. But it’s also quite beautiful in its relentless pile-on of rhythmic dissonance, rising up to a truly heroic passage of six-string majesty in its final third, after Heavy Vegetable’s Rob Crow makes a brief appearance to yelp a snappy catchphrase. No, “Luau” isn’t a hit single, nor was anything else on the pretty-much-perfect Yank Crime. But there’s not another song on this list that provides a ride quite like this one. Suit up! – JT


48-220px-Cat_Power-Moon_Pix_(album_cover)48. Cat Power – “Cross Bones Style
from Moon Pix (1998; Matador)

Over the years, Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power, has been one of indie-music’s most elusive shape-shifters, second only, perhaps, to more drastic transformations made by an artist like Scott Walker. Sure, all of her music can be summed up by the phrase “indie rock” but, in the end, what does that really mean? Like her contemporary Thom Yorke, Marshall has always seemed more interested in chasing new ideas than getting stuck in a popular place. In the late ’90s, that meant following up the blues-influenced What Would the Community Think with the moodier, slow-core leaning Moon Pix. The eerie climax of that LP was its penultimate track, “Cross Bones Style” which, in all honesty, plays out more like a morbid meditation than a typical pop song. Over dark, shimmering guitar and a simple but unsettling beat, Chan croons verse after verse, reflecting on her experience in Africa, where she met orphans whose parents had died working in the local diamond mines. It’s worth mentioning that Marshall had been spending a fair amount of time with singer/songwriter Bill Callahan around the time this song was written. Both have an uncanny gift for writing understated, yet absolutely devastating, masterpieces.– ATB


47-220px-The_Orb_-_Adventures_Beyond_the_Ultraworld47. The Orb – “Little Fluffy Clouds
from The Orb’s Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld (1991; Big Life)

The record that defines the era when UK rave culture really had—as the intro wryly suggests—become synonymous with the British summertime. Before, that is, John Major’s government illegalised the public exposure of “sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats” in 1994. Nevertheless, The Orb’s 1990 masterpiece is a reminder of a happier, giddier time—indeed, for all its pandering to the E-dependent kids who were just after an enjoyable end to their week, “Little Fluffy Clouds” is notable now for its innocence. Rickie Lee Jones talks of her childhood Arizona stargazing, and Alex Paterson’s muffled ambient house beats caress rather than pound. Listening to this in 2015, it’s hard to imagine what the government was so scared of. – MP


90s alternative underground de la soul46. De La Soul – “Stakes Is High
from Stakes Is High (1996; Tommy Boy)

In 1996, when De La Soul released “Stakes is High,” the Native Tongues collective of which De La was a major part had started to decline. A Tribe Called Quest was recording and promoting Beats, Rhymes & Life as its members began to hate each others’ guts, Black Sheep had broken up… it was bad. And De La knew it. So, the De La Soul on “Stakes is High” is not the goofball 3 Foot High and Rising group with sample-pastiche, fun-loving Prince Paul production. They’re angry—at the genre’s commercialization, the absurd decadent bullshit of the Bad Boy era (which was only about to get worse), the societal factors damaging the black community and so much more. Posdnuos and Dave rap some of their fiercest verses on this song, and the production by a then-unknown J Dilla is as sparse but masterful as you’d expect. – LG


45-220px-RufusWainwright_AlbumCover_1998_RW45. Rufus Wainwright  – “Foolish Love
from Rufus Wainwright (1998; Dreamworks)

Known for his recurring cameos on soundtrack listings and dabblings with the opera world, Wainwright is, in all definitions of the word, a Renaissance man. From his 1998 self-titled debut, “Foolish Love” is just one of the many lenses into how ever-changing the ’90s could be. Influencing Wainwright in remarkable ways, the era gave way to incredible works on his first album. The track is five minutes of pure honesty, nostalgia and hope. With oozing strings and enticing lyrics, the track is only the beginning of Wainwright’s abilities. Still, “Foolish Love” has got to be one of the greatest starts to a debut, ever. – VC


44-220px-Orbital_brown_album44. Orbital – “Halcyon + On + On
from Orbital 2 (1993; Internal)

Brit siblings Paul and Phil Hartnoll were perennial bridesmaids, forever just on the verge of the kind of international stardom enjoyed by newly ascendent electronica acts like Moby and The Chemical Brothers. The album version of this cut proved Orbital deserved better than they got: You have nine ecstatic minutes of abstract chants, chattering percussion, and acid-drenched hoots and howls from samples acknowledging rave contemporaries (Opus III’s “It’s a Fine Day”) and typically eccentric British taste (“Leave It” by Yes). A favorite of longtime fans, the song experienced a popular resurgence against the backdrop of mashup culture, as Orbital would stunt-mix Belinda Carlisle and Bon Jovi through the track during their last few years of live dates. – AB


43-220px-Belle_And_Sebastian_-_If_You're_Feeling_Sinister43. Belle and Sebastian – “Get Me Away from Here I’m Dying
from If You’re Feeling Sinister (1996; Jeepster/Matador)

Self-deprecation is a tricky tightrope to walk; it’s good to come across as self-aware and humble, but cross the line into misery and that company it supposedly loves so much can disappear pretty quickly. But wrap it up in a meta-narrative about the power of songwriting or storytelling and sprinkle it with some winking one-liners, and you’ve got one of the most instantly charming songs of the ’90s underground. In their early days, Glasgow’s Belle and Sebastian garnered more than their share of comparisons to The Smiths, in large part because Stuart Murdoch’s witty wordplay rivaled that of a young Stephen Patrick Morrissey. In this sprightly indie-pop jaunt, Murdoch cries for his literary and musical heroes to rescue him from the hell of the everyday, juxtaposing it against his own floundering dreams of stardom: “Look at it this way/ You could either be successful or be us.” It’s an introvert’s dreams of escape, set to a toe-tapping anthem for bookish boys and girls with the prime of their life still just a distant myth. – JT


42-220px-TheShapeOfPunkToCome42. Refused – “Liberation Frequency
from The Shape of Punk to Come (1998; Burning Heart)

After a blistering opening track and about three full minutes of radio-static experimentation, Refused brought the business on The Shape of Punk to Come with this empowering track. The jazz guitar and syncopated percussion turn the intensity up surely but slowly as Dennis Lyxzén proclaims, with an almost comical air of calmness, “We don’t just want airtime/ We want all the time all of the time” before turning the volume (and palpable anger) up to eleven. Even for the ’90s, it was an overstated take on the quiet/loud dynamic, alternating between jazz-influenced rock verses and choruses that pushed closer to the territory off metalcore. It was a merge of styles that would be referenced by later acts, but never successfully imitated—not even by the members of Refused themselves. And maybe that’s too much to expect; after all, “Liberation Frequency” is such a perfect slice of its moment in punk history that it wouldn’t really make sense coming from any other band or time period. – ATB


42-220px-Selected_ambient_works_85-9241. Aphex Twin – “We Are The Music Makers
from Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (1992; Apollo)

Sometimes I feel like Aphex Twin is directly or indirectly responsible for the lion’s share of modern music’s sound. And not just all electronic music that followed in his wake, but huge swaths of hip-hop, pop and indie as well. Turn on “We Are the Music Makers” (or really any song from Selected Ambient Works 85-92) and you can hear aspects of everything from Chvrches to Actress to the production of Zaytoven and Timbaland. It’s astonishing. “Music Makers” is one of the album’s more straightforward tracks—a drum machine, some synth riffs and creepy samples—or maybe it simply feels that way now, due to how weird Richard D. James’ music became and its massive influence. Either way, it’s an intriguing example of a seminal artist figuring his shit out. – LG

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View Comments (10)
  • Perhaps it’s a perversion on my part but I read a lot of these lists. I say perversion because I often hate this kind of list yet read every one. Most are pretty obvious with just enough off the beaten path selections to make the reader sense a larger depth. This by far is the most thoughtful list I’ve ever read. I know fewer of the track than on any other list I’ve read but the ones I know I love. It makes me want to explore so much music that is new to me, which should be the purpose of every such list. All I can say is Thank You.

  • The fact that this list is spread out among 10 pages, and not even to flood me with stupid ads like many spam sites do, is absolutely baffling. Excellent list, shame on you for making me click 9 times for nothing. (and by “you” i more mean the admins for this website. I’m sure KC Mars wouldn’t do that to the world)

  • The most seamless integration of Bob Mould’s Huskers-era merciless guitar attack with his Sugar-era sense of accessibility, with one of his best lyrics to boot. Should’ve been about 50x bigger a hit than it was, but you could say the same about how many dozens of other songs Mould released in his first decade-and-a-half?

  • This list seems to willfully omit any act that was once considered a darling of alternative music but then for shame attained any level of broader success….

      • It’s all there in the opening paragraphs. We wanted to highlight some lesser known stuff. No disrespect to any bigger artists of the ’90s, which we certainly enjoy, we just tried something different this time, and ended up with 100 songs that look a little different than your usual ’90s tracks list. Hope you can enjoy it anyway!

  • I don’t understand the hate – this is an awesome list! An eclectic sample platter of underground 90’s jams – with well-thought out commentary. “Leave it to Kurt Cobain to include mash potato in a song and sound angry doing so” – hilarious.

  • I grew up in the 90s first learning how to navigate music and find what I loved. This list brought me right back to intravenous childhood. Thanks.

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