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Pearl Jam
Vs.
1993, This is how you make a sophomore album. After the major success of Ten it could have been super easy for Pearl Jam to set things to autopilot and just keep doing what they were doing. Instead they made a follow-up that was far more interesting than their debut. Vs is basically an album that moves the band forward by stripping things down - mostly. There's far less focus on soloing here than on the first record, with tempos leaning towards the slower end and more emphasis on acoustic guitars. It's not really PJ gone folk or anything, but it seems a more naked and vulnerable record. Tracks like "Daughter" or the absolutely gorgeous "Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town" show a side of the band that Ten never did. Though there's still plenty of rocking here. Both "Go" and "Animal" feel like they could have fit on the last album. But "Glorified G" has a groove to it that would have stuck out like a sore thumb, and "Dissident" is absolutely epic. While Ten definitely deserves the 'classic' status it has achieves, for me Vs is where the band really became the Pearl Jam that I love.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Californication
1999, While many fans didn't feel like Dave Navarro meshed well with the band, I thought One Hot Minute was a pretty great record. But there's absolutely no denying that bringing John Frusciante back to the Chili Peppers resulted in instant magic. It's not like the band hasn't had a million lineup changes in the past. But Californication is like a glorious reunion. This combination of players just fucking works. (Oh yeah, Rick Rubin too). Admittedly the record is a bit front-loaded with all the singles appearing in the first half. But whatever. "All Around The World" is a great opener. "Scar Tissue" is still incredible. That single was like a celebration of the return of Frusciante back in the day. "Other Side" and "Parallel Universe" and the title track are all these solid and heavy sort of ballad rockers. There is less straight up funk here than on previous records, but then again One Hot Minute was pretty devoid of funk as well. To me this is just another in a fantastic 90's run for the band.
The Smashing Pumpkins
Gish
1991, Gish is a sort of unassuming debut. Don't get me wrong there's a lot of great stuff here, but it doesn't quite hang together album-wise the way their next few would. That is to say that it feels more like a collection of songs than an album proper in my head. But that's fine. "I Am One" still rocks. And "Rhinoceros" is friggin' gorgeous. As a whole this album definitely leans closer to the more mellow and shoe-gazey My-Bloody-Valentiny side of SP rather than the really stadium rocking stuff that they'd eventually become stars for. Don't get me wrong - this is a great band on this record, but I don't totally feel like they'd found their total identity yet. And truthfully I reach for Gish far less than most Smashing Pumpkins albums, but there's definitely enough here that I consider worth revisiting from time to time.
Sonic Youth
Bad Moon Rising
1985, The first time I heard "Death Valley '69," I got goosebumps. And really nothing has changed in the nearly two decades since I first heard it. Bad Moon Rising sits within Sonic Youth's discography as possibly their scariest album. There's something brilliantly unsettling about this record. And it starts before a single note is struck. Look at that cover art! Bad Moon Rising serves as a study of Americana the same way that Blue Velvet does. There's something totally sinister here. And unrelenting given that each song blends into the next with the help of various tape loops and noise. "Intro" is lovely but doesn't last long before going into the triumphantly dissonant "Brave Men Run." "Society Is A Hole" and "I Love Her All The Time" are sparse and moody pieces that harken back to the sound of the self-titled debut. I've never been a big fan of "Justice Is Might," so the second half sounds slightly less perfect to me as a song cycle, though culminating in "Death Valley '69" is obviously a huge fixer. Four bonus tracks have been tacked onto the CD forever. "Flower" is a pretty solid single that definitely fits the mood of the album, but "Halloween" is the true standout for me. Like it's easily one of my favorite tracks on this whole album. It's slow and creepy as fuck but in a totally beautiful way. As I've said this is probably SY's scariest album. And while it's thematically more focused than Confusion, I tend to prefer that one just slightly. But it's damn close.
Weezer
The Blue Album: Deluxe Edition
2004, The reissue of Weezer's debut includes a bonus disc (aka "Dusty Gems And Raw Nuggets") which reminds me an awful lot of a mixtape that me and some friends assembled back in high school. As each of us managed to get our paws on another new-to-us Weezer b-side from compilations or hard to find singles (remember, this was just around the time that the internet was starting to make online record shopping viable) we'd tack it onto the cassette collection. I still remember that when I finally got a CD burner with graduation money one of the first transfers I did was putting this b-sides collection on a CDR. The actual b-sides are classics. "Mykel & Carli," "Susanne" and "Jamie" are all awesome and could have easily fit on the album proper. "Jamie" in particular is one of my favorite Weezer songs ever. Then there's some live and acoustic tracks, which are certainly worth hearing but nothing revelatory. The previously unreleased stuff is interesting though. "Paperface" and "I Swear It's True" are pretty great and the demo of "Undone" is drastically different. It goes without saying that any deluxe reissue is a for-fans-only deal, but this is definitely one that fans will be pleased with.
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