1995 was another remarkable year for alternative music. Foo Fighters released their debut album in the summer, marking Dave Grohl’s first project since the end of Nirvana. Over in the U.K., Blur and Oasis battled it out within the Britpop space, with each band dropping a song on the same day. Then there was Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill, which spawned a collection of perennial breakup songs, particularly “You Oughta Know.” It’s simply hard to believe that these moments are 30 years old. With nostalgia on our minds, we asked our readers to name the best albums of 1995. Find the top fan picks ranked below.
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5. Green Day – Insomniac
Dookie cast a long shadow over Green Day, so it was always going to be hard to follow up, but Insomniac deserves its own moment in the sun. The band were still reeling from a loss of credibility after signing with a major label — Billie Joe Armstrong was called a sellout while walking around Haight-Asbury, they were still banned from Gilman, and their shows were picketed. Thus, they channeled all of their rage, hurt, and uncertainty into the music. The result was searingly bleak blasts that rarely exceeded three minutes: “Geek Stink Breath” and “Brain Stew” fixate on methamphetamine use, whereas “Panic Song” dealt with debilitating anxiety over fast riffs. Definitely one of 1995’s greats.
4. Rancid – …And Out Come the Wolves
Rancid’s …And Out Come the Wolves is probably their most instantly recognizable album. But the title is much deeper than you may think, referencing the major-label bidding war that resulted in the band staying with Epitaph. That was an important move for them, as the album was released during punk’s rise to the mainstream (Dookie and Smash came out the year before), but kept their credibility intact. All the while, their raw street punk melded with the slick ska of Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman’s former band Operation Ivy. The combination yielded undeniable hits — “Time Bomb,” “Ruby Soho,” and “Roots Radical” — that made them mainstays on MTV.
3. Oasis – (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?
The sophomore slump was nowhere in sight for Oasis’ (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? While there isn’t much left to be said about this 1995 great, the album remains a thrilling time capsule of the Britpop movement that dominated the U.K. throughout the ’90s. As much as their mythos fueled their own popularity — the ego, public feuds, and outlandish quotes in the media — these songs possess loads of swagger and catchiness, all the way through. It’s swagger and catchiness, all the way through. When you think about it, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? hosts some of the band’s most immortal songs — “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” “Wonderwall,” and “Champagne Supernova” — that they’re bound to play on their reunion tour this summer.
2. The Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
For their third studio album, the Smashing Pumpkins got extremely ambitious, creating a double album that Corgan described as “The Wall for Generation X.” Once you dive in, the comparison holds true. Over the next 28 tracks, the band created generational anthems (“Bullet With Butterfly Wings,” “1979”), got introspective (“Thirty-Three”), and didn’t shy away from their own ferocity (“Zero”). At a time when double albums were seen as a risk, the Smashing Pumpkins shone through. It was both a critical and commercial hit, giving them the power to stretch the limits of their imagination, so of course it made this list.
1. Radiohead – The Bends
After the immense success of Radiohead’s “Creep,” the pressure was exacting. Even its title points to this, referring to a decompression sickness that deep-sea divers experience when they come up too quickly (which alluded to their rapid popularity). The Bends, however, made it clear that they wouldn’t write the same song twice, taking their lyricism and sound to a much deeper place. They shared the melodicism of their contemporaries but mixed in paranoia, anxiety, and outsiderism while getting more adventurous with their use of guitars, increasing the distance from “Creep” — and ultimately paving the way for OK Computer.