Today we’re publishing the first 20 of our 100 (#100-81), and we’ll be publish another 20 each day this week, with #20-1 revealed on Friday. Our perception and understanding of the past is always changing and always, we hope, improving.Īnd so it begins. If we had compiled the list last year, or next year, it would look broadly similar to the one you’re looking at now, but certainly not identical. At the end of the day, this is a list of the best albums of the ’90s from a very precise and peculiar vantage point: 2012. Many of the chosen LPs we discovered during the 90s, many we discovered more recently.
No false nostalgia, no sacred cows, no going through the motions. We’ve sought to include as many personal favourites of our staff members as possible (we’ve also gathered quotes and requested blurbs from some of our favourite contemporary musicians), and above all we’ve done our best to be honest: these are records that we truly love, records that we truly enjoy listening to even now. The result is a list that above all reflects our preferences and our prejudices. It’s not a process into which we’ve entered lightly, but along the way we’ve tried to keep the debate fluid, fun and above all personal. We’ve been chewing over this selection for nearly two years now, on and off. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to The 100 Best Albums of the 1990s. Like this? You can read FACT’s rundown of the 100 Best Albums of the 1980s here.