The grunge phenomenon of music may be the most important and culturally influential music movement of the last 30 years. I could probably argue that all day long, but that’s a conversation for a different time.
What we do know about the grunge era is that it influenced fashion of the late 80’s to the mid 90’s, completely dominated the charts, and nearly erased hair metal of the previous decade from existence. Dozens of classic albums were made – Sub Pop Records became the record label and cultural touchtone for a generation. Vocalists like Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder became revered legends – icons like Mark Lanegan and Aaron Stauffer (of Screaming Trees and Seaweed fame) less so, but with no less impact. Alice In Chains even had a heavy influence on the genre of sludge metal – forging new trails to blaze.
It’s hard enough drawing the line at 25 or even 15 essential albums from the era – so here’s ten important albums of grunge for you to digest. Put your flannel on, your Layne Staley and Kurt Cobain posters on the wall, and teleport yourself back to Seattle in 1991 – an age before the Internet, and when a cultural explosion was happening in the music world.
Honorable Mention:
L7 (Bricks Are Heavy)
Other than maybe Courtney Love and Hole, there are no better poster girls for the grunge era. Bricks Are Heavy is overall their most consistent album, and with hits like “Pretend We’re Dead” and “Shitlist”, they became the rising stars of a male-dominated genre.
Stone Temple Pilots (Core)
Before Scott Weiland went off the deep end with drugs, he and Stone Temple Pilots released Core – though not quite grunge, they were immediately thrown into the category. That said, you couldn’t go an hour in the early to mid 90’s without hearing “Sex Type Thing” or “Plush” on the radio. That has to count for something.
Screaming Trees (Buzz Factory)
The band’s most underrated and overlooked release, Buzz Factory was released in 1989, barely 2 short years before grunge’s commercial breakthrough. Screaming Trees would have a massive hit in 1992 in “Nearly Lost You”, but this overlooked gem is possibly the best merging of the band’s psychadelic, blues, and hard rock influences. Recommended.
Alice In Chains (Facelift)
Not as essential as Dirt, as it has much more filler – but “Man In The Box” made the band a potential star, and it’s one of a few great songs here. “Sea Of Sorrow” ranks as one of the band’s hidden gems.
Soundgarden (Badmotorfinger)”Rusty Cage”, “Outshined”, “Jesus Christ Pose”, “Room A Thousand Years Wide”, and “Slaves And Bulldozers” on the same album? Soundgarden may have broken out 3 years later with Superunknown, but it’s Badmotorfinger that might just be the more consistent album overall.
Melvins (Houdini, Bullhead)
You could probably put half a dozen Melvins albums here and be set. King Buzzo, Dale Crover, and company played a large part in establishing the sludge metal genre – and Houdini and Bullhead continue to bludgeon the listener with riffs, riifs, and even more riffs after that.
#10A/B: Screaming Trees (Dust, Sweet Oblivion)
In a perfect world, Screaming Trees would’ve experienced the success that their peers Nirvana and Alice In Chains did. They were part of the Founding Fathers of grunge. 1992’s Sweet Oblivion was a big hit, but success still eluded them. And then it took them 4 years to follow up with 1996’s Dust. Kurt Cobain had died 2 years earlier, post-grunge was taking over the airways, and there was just no way it was going to happen for Screaming Trees.
That’s too bad, because both Sweet Oblivion and Dust were absolutely essential grunge recordings – any album with an iconic song like “Nearly Lost You” can’t be left out, while Dust is the band’s strongest overall album – maybe it just came a year or two too late.
#9: Seaweed (Weak)
I considered putting their next album, Four, after this – but Weak is 30 minutes of pounding, melodic punk rock – if you listen to Title Fight’s first two records, you know Seaweed is a large, understated influence on them. Plus, who did they tour with growing up? They had close ties with bands like Superchunk and Quicksand – bands who may not have been “grunge”, but were close enough in spirit. I also considered their album Spanaway here, too.
#8: Temple Of The Dog (Temple Of The Dog)
Eddie Vedder and Chris Cornell on the same album. It’s a tribute to fallen Mother Love Bone vocalist Andrew Wood, who would’ve been an incredible star of the era – in fact, Pearl Jam likely only exists because of his death. Any album with “Hunger Strike” instantly transports you to 1991.
#7: Tad (Inhaler)
How Inhaler didn’t make Tad a much bigger household name is astounding, listening to it today. Metal riffs upon riffs, Tad was probably the grunge band influenced the most by metal rather than punk (other than Alice In Chains), and album opener “Grease Box” is a pounding stomp that sees its momentum last the entire album. This is the one album on this list you probably haven’t heard before, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.
#6: Nirvana (Nevermind)
Originally expected to sell around the same amount of copies as Sonic Youth’s Goo, Nevermind instead went on to dethrone Michael Jackson’s Dangerous at the top of the Billboard charts. In Utero may be the true alternative anthem, but no album with the most iconic grunge song, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, can miss this list.
#5: Mudhoney (Mudhoney)
Probably the most important band on this list that never quite “made it”, Mudhoney’s self-titled album (and the Superfuzz Bigmuff EP – specifically the song “Touch Me I’m Sick”) were instrumental in getting the band signed to a major label. Notably, Mudhoney was one of Kurt Cobain’s favorite bands – and one of the bands that influenced Nirvana the most. Also, there’s a rather good documentary you can buy here that covers Mudhoney and the story of the band more in-depth than I ever could.
#4: Pearl Jam (Ten)
You can often judge an album’s staying power and importance by hearing how often it’s still played on the radio, on TV, or elsewhere in the media. It may be a very basic calculation, but I hear “Black”, “Alive”, “Jeremy”, and “Even Flow” everywhere I go – that has to count for something. But it’s deeper cuts like “Porch” and Eddie Vedder’s charisma that define Ten. There’s a passion in songs like “Jeremy” (arguably Eddie Vedder’s most passionate performance) and “Oceans” that many other bands past and present just don’t have. Oh, and don’t forget the epic 9 minute closer, “Release”.
#3: Nirvana (In Utero)
The cultural importance of Nevermind cannot be overstated, but it was In Utero that was the bigger artistic statement – the record Nirvana wanted to make. With producer Steve Albini behind the controls, In Utero is an intentionally abrasive and noisy record that only fans of the band could really appreciate. “Serve The Servants” is the perfect album opener, and “Heart-Shaped Box” is both an accessible song and a gem that serves as one of the best songs of the 90’s. The fact that this album is cited by just about every alternative rock band being of utmost importance, means there are plenty of reasons to keep it in yours – if you like your alternative rock extremely challenging.
#2: Soundgarden (Superunknown)
Good luck finding a weak track on Superunknown, because there is a complete absence of filler. It’s an album that’s filled with some of Kim Thayil’s most vicious riffs in “Limo Wreck” and especially “4th Of July” – the latter of which contains one of Chris Cornell’s best vocal performances. We haven’t even talked about the singles yet, especially “Black Hole Sun”, which is a truly iconic song. Drummer Matt Cameron is the star of the show, though – never missing a beat, and also showing his skills with a fantastic drum solo in “Spoonman”.
#1B Mother Love Bone (Apple)
Andrew Wood and Mother Love Bone were the “grunge” band that never reached the sky, thanks to Andrew’s untimely passing from a drug overdose. MLB had all the tools to succeed – they were signed to megalabel Geffen (who were ready to market the band as the next Guns N’ Roses), they had the charismatic frontman in Wood (who brought the glam element to the band – he was an absolute showman, and born to be a star), and a rocking rhythm section (which featured Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard – future members of Pearl Jam). In fact, it can probably be said that Pearl Jam never would’ve existed if Andrew hadn’t died.
Apple, sadly MLB’s only full-length album, is buoyed by both serious songs (“Crown Of Thorns”, “Stargazer”) and lyrically playful ones (“Holy Roller”. The opening one-two punch of “This Is Shangrila” / “Stardog Champion” sets the tone for the rest of the album quite well – there’s also much in the way of blues influence in the album, which separated MLB from the rest of the pack. The wailing guitars easily portend the future sound Pearl Jam would produce in 1991, too.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Mother Love Bone, not Nirvana, would’ve been the biggest band on this list. Considering how not dated Apple is 25 years later, that’s a damn shame. Stardog Champion, indeed, if only for a minute.
1A: Alice In Chains (Dirt)
I recently wrote a long article about the impact this album had on myself (check it out here). I won’t go into too much detail, but it’s arguably the most harrowing and haunting album I’ve ever heard – decrying the horrors of drug addiction – and sadly foreshadowing Layne Staley’s imminent demise. It contains songs both accessible (“Would”, “Them Bones”) and challenging (“Rooster:”, “Angry Chair”). Listening to it with that in mind, it’s also an incredibly sad album. Listening to Dirt will indeed make you want to hug a teddy bear. But it’s the most powerful and important statement that grunge ever had to offer.
What albums would you rank as the best grunge albums in existence? Sound off below.
