Satellites
Artist: Big Dish
Pure Guava
Artist: Ween
Community Score: 7.80

By 1993's major label debut Pure Guava, Ween had distilled their unique mix of eclectic pop and crazed humor to its essence. GodWeenSatan: The Oneness and The Pod were fascinating, but occasionally frustrating albums; at 19 songs, Pure Guava is more polished and concise, but it's still sprawling and occasionally sick, featuring the fuzzed-out... Read More

Cracker
Artist: Cracker
Community Score: 5.33

Apart from David Lowery's tendency to slip in some smug, self-serving lyrics, Cracker's debut is a terrific rock & roll record, full of energetic three-chord bashers and surprisingly moving ballads. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide Read More

Seven
Artist: James
Community Score: 7.10

Following the breakthrough success of their previous outing, James released Seven, a record that married the ambitious scope of the lyrics with a grand, anthemic feel. Horns give songs like the lead-off "Born of Frustration" and the surging "Sound" a certain majestic grandeur, sweeping without being overblown. Lead singer Tim Booth is in fine... Read More

Blood
Artist: This Mortal Coil
Community Score: 5.50

The third and final album by This Mortal Coil, 1991's Blood is neither as unfocused as Filigree & Shadow or as conceptually pure as It'll End in Tears, but it's a solidly enjoyable set. Once again, nearly half the tracks are instrumentals (or tracks with minimal and often wordless female vocals) written by Ivo Watts-Russell and John Fryer, but... Read More

The Playhouse
Artist: Skinner Box
Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Artist: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Community Score: 8.19

The Red Hot Chili Peppers' best album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik benefits immensely from Rick Rubin's production -- John Frusciante's guitar is less overpoweringly noisy, leaving room for differing textures and clearer lines, while the band overall is more focused and less indulgent, even if some of the grooves drag on too long. Lyrically, Anthony... Read More

Gold Mother
Artist: James
Community Score: 7.50

James completely revamped their lineup for Gold Mother, adding a violinist, a keyboardist, and a trumpeter to the band and attempting to write grand, ambitious arena-rock that recalled U2 and the Waterboys. Although a few of the tracks captured the sprawling, epic splendor that James wished to achieve, they have difficulty writing convincing... Read More

Drunk With Passion
Artist: The Golden Palominos

The 1991 album Drunk With Passion is the fifth installment of drummer Anton Fier's ongoing, ever-changing project known as Golden Palominos. As always, there's no shortage of musical heavyweights plying their trade on this edition. Guitarist Richard Thompson and bassist Bill Laswell are Palomino veterans. The vocal chores are handled by... Read More

Fossils
Artist: Dinosaur Jr.
Community Score: 8.50

A brief, eight-song compilation of the group's SST singles, Fossils effectively sums up the power and vision of Dinosaur Jr.'s early work. Not only does it contain the two masterpieces from You're Living All Over Me and Bug -- "Little Fury Things" and "Freak Scene," respectively -- but it also gathers several excellent B-sides, including... Read More

Aion
Artist: Dead Can Dance
Community Score: 7.80

Their reputation growing by leaps and bounds, including a huge underground following in the U.S. -- they were able to tour there even without one domestic release available, while at one point Dead Can Dance was the biggest selling band in 4AD's history -- Perry and Gerrard once again did the business with Aion. Its cover taken from Bosch,... Read More

White Dirt
Artist: Chickasaw Mudd Puppies

Calling the Chickasaw Mudd Puppies both roots-rock and alternative rock may seem like a contradiction, but both terms would be appropriate in describing White Dirt. This unorthodox band, which enjoyed a small cult following, has a delightfully bluesy, Louisiana-influenced swamp boogie foundation that owes a strong debt to Creedence Clearwater... Read More