ALAN: The old guard were still floating around, with Van Hagar, I mean Halen, putting out the hilariously titled "F.U.C.K", insisting that the phrase "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" is the origin of the naughty word, and as such they were just educators, not smutty minded long haired tosspots.
Anyway, the album was pretty good, although for me they never regained
the giddy heights of "5150". British rock was pretty dead at the time, but the flag was still being waved, albeit for one last time, by Little Angels, who defied all odds by releasing a second album that bettered the impressive debut. "Young Gods" remains a benchmark for style, quality and shit covers (the original 'Spitfire' name and cover was vetoed by arseholes thinking the military connotations would upset other arseholes)
"we rockers sat in darkened rooms worshipping Satan".
Whilst people at the cinema were chuckling along to "Hook", "Beauty and the Beast", etc, we rockers sat in darkened rooms worshipping Satan and listening to John Mellencamp, who had finally ditched his hated (by him, anyway) 'Cougar' nickname. "Whenever We Wanted" showed a versatility only hinted at previously, and the album contains some surprisingly balls out rockers, some of the last he ever did, with his new album being so dull and Country that I can’t even bring myself to review it on Rock United. I miss you, Mr Mellencamp... Sniff.
Pure melodic rock didn’t have a very easy ride in 1991, but there were still a few albums that crept out to wave their fluffy perms before grunge shat all over them without even wiping it’s bottom. Heartland unfortunately picked the wrong time to emerge with their beautiful debut album, with Dare's 'Blood From A Stone' impressing close behind.
RTZ, featuring Brad Delp and Barry Goudreau from Boston, warmed many cockles with their free flowing and highly melodic debut, whilst Lou Gramm showed he could still make hard assed rock with the debut Shadow King album. Shame he's gone all crappy now, but that's life and all that shite.
Mind you, 1991 had it’s fair share of disaster. The Exxon Valdez got nasty oil all over poor ickle birdies, $300 Million of paintings are stolen from a Boston Museum, Jim Henson dies, thousands of people are killed in an Iranian earthquake and 168 Muslims are killed by Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka'
"it soon became the most annoying song ever released".
As awful as all these are, they pale into comparison with the fateful day in June that 'Everything I Do (I Do It For You)' was released as a single. At first a beautiful ballad, it soon became the most annoying song ever released, as it sat smugly at the tope of charts all over the globe, thumbing it’s nose at other songs and making everyone want to choke Bryan Adams with his own testicles. I like the film, I like Bryan Adams, but if I never hear that bastard song again I will die a happy man.
SO that's 1991, the year good, honest fun in rock music started to get sick, infected by miserable greasy haired shits from Seattle.
Sure, the rest of the decade would still throw up some great albums (although I reckon in some years I’ll be hard pushed to find 20), but the bell was tolling, and it was tolling for us, my permapermed friends.
URBAN: So... where's the fun in '91? Whatever happened to hard rock and heavy metal music this particular year? Oh yeah, this little known place in the states, previously only heard of in the same sentence as Queensryche or possibly Heart, absolutely bombarded us with flannel and smelly hairdos.
"you couldn't turn a corner without noticing at least half a dozen of flannel heads".
We're obviously talking about Seattle and Grunge as 'the reign came down' in '91 and kept any poor lad/lass gasping for air (literally speaking?). You couldn't turn a corner without noticing at least half a dozen of flannel heads (I guess they're all lumberjacks in Seattle? The Monty Phyton version?) strollin' about in their extremely gloomy outfits. We are soooo depressed!
I never understood the image (what image?). But, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, they were all some of my very first CD's. Yes, I got my first cd player and thus why I (finally) waved goodbye to vinyl this year. I must have been one of the very last kids with those huge old platters.
Enuff Z'Nuff recorded their in my opinion best album ever this year. 'Strenght' is such a fine mixture of 80's Glam-Rock, Cheap Trick, Elvis Costello, and Beatles, every household should at least have two copies of this little ripper. 'But I need you now to help me through, to be the one I know is true. To hold my hand to keep the faith, to be my guard - to be my STRENGHT
"knocked us down to the ground in '91 with her 'dangerous curves' and a 'shot of poison'".
'Lita, Lita, Lita - so sweet I wanna eat ya'. Ms. Ford knocked us down to the ground in '91 with her 'Dangerous Curves' and a 'Shot Of Poison'. Oh, 'We were riding high like flames against the shy - innocent and wild, we were playing with fire'. It's a more than decent effort by the former runaway...
Lost heroes: Steve Clark, guitarist of Def Leppard dies at the very start of the year (January 8). Eric 'The Fox' Carr (drummer of KISS) dies on November 24 (cancer), but hardly anyone noticed, since this is the day when Freddy Mercury (Queen) dies due to Aids compilications. Well, I noticed, since Kiss were my fave band and to be perfectly honest, I still thought of Queen as a crappy pop-band (due to their 80's POP albums and image including hits such as 'Radio Gaga' which I didn't like at all as a kid). I discovered the 'rock band' Queen the following year when Metallica, Def Leppard, Extreme, etc. took part of the Freddy Mercury Tribute. Sad but true (hmmm... there's a Metallica joke here, somewhere?). Johnny Thunders R.I.P.
"the same arena rock cliches that all these other bands were doing".
Speaking of Metallica, they became 'popular' and 'commercial' this year as every darn kid sang the words to their MTV hit single 'Enter Sandman'. Obviously a complete 'sell-out' according to a bunch of old fans. Not one but two ballads? My oh my. Suddenly they are doing the same arena rock cliches that all these other bands were doing. I guess they decided to make some money for a change and the greedy ol' dane (Lars) hasn't looked back since ($$$). It's a great album though and so what if it's a sell-out?
Hell, the grandfather of Thrash (Lemmy) tried to make some money too in '91. Motorhead's album of the year "1916" - their most commerical sounding platter ever and poor Lemmy came up with a couple of ballads or three. Not quite the success as 'The Black Album' and a couple of bum notes here and there. Nontheless, it's a fun effort in my humble opinion
"the mad lookin' "Rambo on steroids" typed guitarist".
Europe were 'Prisoners In Paradise', Bad English caused a serious 'Backlash' and Michael Morales told us to 'Thump'. The biggest surprise of the year and quite the white elefante - Kane Roberts and his 'Saints And Sinners'. You may, might? recognize him as the mad lookin' "Rambo on steroids" typed guitarist of the Alice Cooper band in the mid/late eighties. You know? machine gun shaped guitars including a rocket shooting dito, the whole she-bang.
Ehhh, no? Anyhow, Kane came up with his second solo platter and it's a real party starter. Way better than his old pal's (Coop') effort of the year - titled 'Hey Stoopid' - it takes one to know one. Desmond Child co-wrote the Roberts' tunes and came also up with his one and only solo album, 'Discipline'. Very smooth at times and not quite as much rock as the A+ material he wrote for Alice Cooper, Kiss, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, etc. His clients nowadays are the likes of The Rasmus, David Archuleta, Kelly Clarkson, Scorpions, Hilary Duff, Meat Loaf, Tokio Hotel, and Mika.
The crazy ol' states strikes again - this year it's Ozzy's turn to face a lawsuit since a couple believed their son was inspired to attempt suicide by listening to Ozzy Osbourne's music. By the way, Dr. Jack Kevorkian is no longer allowed to assist suicidal folks for that matter.
"business as usual in other words".
In other news, Mike 'Girlie-Voice' Tyson is arrested and charged with raping Desiree Washington (Miss Black America contestant). The body of publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell is found floating in the Atlantic Ocean. The KGB officially stops operations, Iraq fires 'Scud' missiles into Israel, and Michael Jackson signs a $1 Billion!!! contract with Sony Records. Business as usual in other words.
KIMMO: With 1991 being the year of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and the flannel-frenzy in general, I'd like to point out that the tide didn't change overnight. In fact, hair metal and grunge co-existed for a while. Even I thought that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was a pretty cool tune (and still think it is)...
A lot of melodic rock was still being released by the major labels, but looking at my own Top 40, not a lot of those albums were major hits. Apart from Metallica, Adams and Marx that is, those did sell a lot. That's not to say they weren't good, in fact I rate '91 as one of the best years in history of music.
[ 1991 ] Back to the nineties' index
Alan, Bandi, Kimmo, Martien, & yours truly, Urban of RockUnited.Com have once again been spending weeks, months, wading through a bunch of nasty looking artcovers and albums. Only this time it's the nineties and not like our first massive series of the eighties! Indeed, not an easy task, tracking back in space and time, especially since most of us are still mere kidz (early teens) at the early days of this era of grand and fantastic music. Check out the left-side border for our yearly write-up in 'black', and this is RockUnited's official 'Best-Of-Album Chart of 1991', calculated from the individual charts. No live-ones, EP's or compilations are included, merely studio albums. You can find them all and complain about our personal taste (or rather the complete lack of it) further down this page! This is merely our humble and tiny celebration of the 90's metal days or daze for that matter. Enjoy or not - this is the nineties: 1991.
THE ALBUMS OF THE YEAR: 1991
100.Overkill - Horrorscope
99. Artch - For The Sake Of Mankind
98. 38 Special - Bone Against Steel
97. Four Horsemen - Nobody Said It Was Easy
96. Aldo Nova - Blood On The Bricks
95. Kik Tracee - No Rules
94. Novella - One Big Sky
93. The Scream - Let It Scream
92. Big House - Big House
91. Morbid Angel - Blessed Are The Sick
90. The Violet Hour - The Fire Sermon
89. King Of The Hill - King Of The Hill
88. Great White - Hooked
87. Sacred Warrior - Obsessions
86. Tesla - Psychotic Supper
85. Blind Guardian - Tales From The Twilight World
84. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991
83. Samael - Worship Him
82. Quarterflash - Girl In The Wind
81. Blackeyed Susan - Electric Rattlebone
80. Bathory - Twilight Of The Gods
79. MSG - Msg
78. Coroner - Mental Vortex
77. Vinnie Moore - Meltdown
76. Temple Of The Dog - Temple Of The Dog
75. Tangier - Stranded
74. Idle Cure - Inside Out
73. Pink Cream 69 - One Size Fits All
72. Eddie Money - Right Here
71. Roxus - Nightstreet
70. FM - Takin' It to the Streets
69. Red Hot Chili Peppers - BloodSugarSexMagic
68. Running Wild - Blazon Stone
67. Beckett - Beckett
66. Bonfire - Knock Out
65. Skull - No Bones About It
64. Tall Stories - Tall Stories
63. Richard Marx - Rush Street
62. Walter Trout – Prisoner Of A Dream
61. Warrior Soul – Drugs, God and The New Republic
60. Honeymoon Suite - Monsters Under The Bed
59. The Levellers - Levelling The Land
58. Drive She Said - Drivin' Wheel
57. Baton Rouge - Lights Out On The Playground
56. Petra - Unseen Power
55. Southgang - Tainted Angel
54. The Cult – Ceremony
53. Fate - Scratch & Sniff
52. Cher - Love Hurts
51. Tattoo Rodeo - Rode Hard and Put Away Wet
50. The Dan Reed Network - The Heat
49. Motorhead - 1916
48. Fates Warning – Parallells
47. Erika - In The Arms Of A Stranger
46. David Lee Roth - A Little Ain't Enough
45. Heartland - Heartland
44. RTZ - Return To Zero
43. Steve Plunkett - My Attitude
42. John Cougar Mellencamp - Whenever We Wanted
41. Foreigner - Unsual Heat
40. Enuff Z'Nuff - Strength
39. Marillion – Holidays In Eden
38. Guns N'Roses – Use Your Illussion
37. BB Steal - On The Edge
36. XYZ - Hungry
35. Badlands - Voodoo Highway
34. Chicago - Twenty 1
33. Sepultura – Arise
32. Lita Ford - Dangerous Curves
31. Tuff - What Comes Around Goes Around
30. Danger Danger - Screw It!
29. Ozzy Osbourne – No More Tears
28. Casanova - Casanova
27. Nirvana - Nevermind
26. Richie Sambora - Stranger In This Town
25. Little Angels - Young Gods
24. Shotgun Messiah - Second Coming
23. Queen – Innuendo
22. Chrissy Steele - Magnet To Steele
21. Michael Morales - Thump
20. Savatage - Streets (A Rock Opera)
Savatage started out as a primeval heavy metal act 'ala Judas Priest in the early eighties. However, they became slightly more progressive and melodic over the following years and their 1991 release is a concept album. It's a 'Rock Opera' actually and most folks thought they went barking mad and singer Oliva decided to leave shortly afterwards. Neat.
19. Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
Formed already back in 1984 and hardly part of the "new" Seattle sound as they were always more about metal and Black Sabbath. Their third album 'Badmotorfinger' became "grunge" anyhow, somehow? (mostly due to media and the Seattle hype) and their breakthrough to the masses. Peaked at #30 on the U.S. chart and we all did 'The Jesus Christ Pose'
18. Pearl Jam - Ten
"Jereeeemy's calling"... The song was inspired by a true story in which a high school student shot himself in front of his classmates. Yes, it's gloomy and Jam's are a hopeless grunge band. Cobain accused them of selling Grunge out by making it commercial? Ten stayed on the U.S. charts for +two years, one of the highest-selling rock records ever, 13x platinum!!!
17. Alice Cooper - Hey Stoopid
The difficult follow-up to one of his most successful albums ever (Trash) and with guest appearances from Slash, Ozzy, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars. Coop dug up his fictional character/alter ego Steven for the first time in 15 years (the track "Wind-up Toy"). Did good in UK, not as much in US... Wayne's World saved him tho.
16. Bad English - Backlash
Clash of egos! AOR supergroup consisting of John Waite, Neal Schon (Journey) and a bunch of ex and future Baby's and Journey members. They had already parted company before 'Backlash' had been mixed, since half of the band wanted a harder edge record. It's a shame really since this is a fun album with plenty of great songs. #21 in the Swedish chart?
15. Dare - Blood From Stone
'We don't need a reason - we don't need a reason". Fair enough, but seriously, why did they have to go changing the sound from their excellent debut, 'Out Of The Silence'??? Now it's merely some leftover material from the likes of Thin Lizzy, Gary Moore and all that 'Over The Hills And Far Away' schtuff. Decent enough for #15 at our RockUnited chart of 1991.
14. Rush - Roll The Bones
The 15th studio album by Canadian power trio and 'progressive' rock band Rush. 'Roll The Bones' became their best selling album since 1981's 'Moving Pictures' peaking at #3 on the U.S. Billboard 200. The album went platinum and is regarded as an transition from the band's 1980s style to their sound in the 1990s (well, duh!). Experimental as always...
13. Harem Scarem - Harem Scarem
Yeah, I recall watching the Canadian teen series Degrassi Junior High and heard these sweet melodies coming out of the tele. In fact, eight songs from Harem Scarem's debut album were predominantly featured in the series. Formed in 87 by Pete Lesperance and Harry Hess (ex- Blind Vengeance), it's typical 80's AOR with catchy hooks.
12. Skid Row - Slave To The Grind
No compromise!!! Quite a change from the commercial approach on their debut album. Then again, 'commercial' is just another word for 'successful' and 'Slave To The Grind' is indeed notable for being the first heavy metal album to debut at #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200. There's two versions out there since the yanks banned the song, 'Get The Fuck Out'
11. The Storm - The Storm
Ex-Journey members (again?) with a new AOR project and singer that sound exactly like their former band and Perry. The Storm featured Gregg Rolie, Ross Valory, Steve Smith, vocalist Kevin Chalfant (707), and Josh Ramos. Nicely produced by Beau Hill and it's all very professional done. "I've Got A Lot To Learn About Love", a minor hit in U.S. Very nice!
10. White Lion - Mane Attraction
It's 'MANE Attraction'... because they luuuuv the white lion? They were hardly the main attraction since the fiasco of the 'Big Game'. It's a shame since they recorded two great albums - pre and post the turkey. This is back to basics and good melodic rock. Peaked at #61 in U.S. and the decided to call it a day in September 91. Damn, Vito, come back...
9. Desmond Child - Discipline
The main songsmith of the eighties with his first and only solo album. Desmond co-wrote the hits for Bon Jovi, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Aerosmith, Cher, etc, etc. He's also responsible for the #2 album on RockUnited's 1991 list. 'Discipline' is a v-e-r-y slick and poppy AOR/Rock album and it feature both new and old Des' songs. Smooth and not 'really' metal...
8. Shadow King - Shadow King
AOR studio project featuring the two ex-Black Sheep (early/mid 70's rock band) members Bruce Turgon and Lou Gramm. The latter obviously a 'Foreigner' too and they would both return to "foreign soil" afterwards. Ex-Dio, Whitesnake, guitarist Viv Campbell would later join Def Leppard. Classy melodic rock and quite similar to you-know-what...
7. Bryan Adams - Waking Up The Neighbours
'Everything I Do - I Do It For You' - the worst moment on this platter really. Nontheless, that darn Robin in d'Hood song topped the charts in 16 countries and sold over 8 million copies, one of the biggest selling singles of all time. 16 consecutive weeks at #1 in the UK singles chart (the longest in British chart history), one of the best selling albums...
6. Europe - Prisoners In Paradise
'We're just children of tomorrow - hangin' on to yesterday'. Yeah, they were apparently 'Prisoners In Paradise' as Sweden's biggest hard rock band ever!!! decided to hang up their boots at the end of the 'PIP' tour. I believe they reformed a couple of years ago? It's a more than decent effort by the swede lads and 'Cry For You', a minor hit in the U.K.
5. Mr. Big - Lean Into It
'To Be With You' - yet another sappy ballad we've heard too many times in the past to still think it's any good by now. It became the band's first and only song to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the follow-up, "Just Take My Heart", yet another ballad, peaked at #16 in the states. It's a great success story by the band and Martin is a top class performer.
4. Van Halen - For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
Clever chaps, huh? F.U.C.K. - It's otherwise a 'back to basics' kind of effort as it featured, once again, Ted Templeman as producer and songs that are guitar driven rather than based on synth sounds. Eddie messed around with power drills and power riffs and the album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart. Success... "Right Now"...
3. Metallica - Metallica
'The Black Album - Exit Light - Enter Night', etc, etc. Yet another metal album at the number one spot on Billboard's 200 album chart in 1991. Obviously their biggest selling album ever and a real 'sell-out' according to a bunch of old fans. Yep, it's a 'catchy' effort with over 15 million copies sold in the U.S. It became popular and trendy to enjoy Metallica.
2. Kane Roberts - Saints And Sinners
Kane Roberts, who??? Ehem, his real name is actually Robert William Athas and you may recoginize him as the mad 'Rambo' guitarist of Alice Cooper. Huge physique (steroids?) and rocket shooting guitars shaped like a machine gun - ring any bell? His second solo album, all songs co-written by Des Child and it's extremely catchy melodic hard rock.
1. Tyketto - Don't Come Easy
Tyketto? What the hell is a Tyketto??? Well, it's a U.S. melodic hard rock band put together by former Waysted (Save Your Prayers - 1986) vocalist Danny Vaughn. They were unfortunately a couple of years too late with their debut album since the seattle wave came down hard on these guys. The song, 'Forever Young', one of the all-time best AOR anthems!!! [all album comment nonsense by: Urban]
INDIVIDUAL LISTS OF 1991 *Personal Stuff* |
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Urban:
1. Metallica - Metallica
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Kimmo:
1. Kane Roberts - Saints And Sinners |
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Martien: 1. Pearl Jam - Ten Alan: 1. Little Angels - Young Gods
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Bandi: 1. Desmond Child - Discipline
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So you think we're way off mark? Well, here's your chance to cast your vote!
PS. If the form doesn't work, just copy the question to your e-mail program and send your answers to giveaway "at" rockunited.com.
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