1991 Survey Mix

This is the second in the 1990s survey mix series, which will come out monthly in chronological order through this year. It’s important for the ‘90s to be presented in order, because the story of music in that decade is basically a trilogy in which each act ends in tragedy – the suicide of Kurt Cobain, the murders of Tupac and Biggie, and the toxic masculinity run rampant at Woodstock ’99. You can find the 1990 mix here.

1991 is the proper beginning of the ‘90s aesthetic, though it’s not fully formed just yet. There’s still plenty of the glossy, optimistic post-80s vibe that was all over the 1990 survey, but the darker, earthier, and more abrasive tones that would come to dominate the early part of the decade are abundant here. It’s worth noting that a lot of the “sea change” albums of this year – Pearl Jam’s Ten, Nirvana’s Nevermind, Primal Scream’s Screamedelica, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magik, A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory, Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger, My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless, U2’s Achtung Baby, and 2Pac’s 2Pacalypse Now – came along near the end of the year. Everything changes after the summer, and the vibe is set for the next five years at least.

Thanks to Paul Cox, Rob Sheffield, Sean T. Collins, Chris Conroy, and Chris Ott for their valuable assistance in putting this set together.

DOWNLOAD DISC 1

Nirvana “Smells Like Teen Spirit” / U2 “The Fly” / Siouxsie and the Banshees “Kiss Them for Me” / Throwing Muses “Red Shoes” / My Bloody Valentine “To Here Knows When” / P.M. Dawn “Set Adrift On Memory Bliss” / Lenny Kravitz “It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over” / The KLF “Justified and Ancient (Stand by the Jams Mix)” / Mariah Carey “Emotions” / Amy Grant “Baby Baby” / Paula Abdul “Rush, Rush” / Toad the Wet Sprocket “All I Want” / R.E.M. “Losing My Religion” / Metallica “Enter Sandman” / Fugazi “Reclamation” / Pearl Jam “Alive” / Guns N’ Roses “You Could Be Mine” / A Tribe Called Quest “Scenario” / Naughty by Nature “O.P.P.” / Cypress Hill “How I Could Just Kill A Man” / Massive Attack “Unfinished Sympathy” / Temple of the Dog “Say Hello 2 Heaven” / Boyz II Men “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday”

DOWNLOAD DISC 2

Michael Jackson “Black or White” / Prince “Cream” / Shanice “I Love Your Smile” / The Divinyls “I Touch Myself” / EMF “Unbelievable” / Red Hot Chili Peppers “Give It Away” / Blur “There’s No Other Way” / DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince “Summertime” / Del tha Funkee Homosapien “Mistadobalina” / De La Soul “A Roller Skating Jam Named ‘Saturdays’” / Cathy Dennis “Touch Me (All Night Long)” / Big Audio Dynamite “The Globe” / Matthew Sweet “Girlfriend” / Pixies “U-Mass” / Hole “Teenage Whore” / Slint “Good Morning, Captain” / The Smashing Pumpkins “Rhinoceros” / Pavement “Debris Slide” / Roxette “Joyride” / Heavy D and the Boys “Now That We Found Love” / Another Bad Creation “Iesha” / Color Me Badd “I Wanna Sex You Up” / Negativland “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” / Mark Cohn “Walking In Memphis” / Bonnie Raitt “I Can’t Make You Love Me”

DOWNLOAD DISC 3

Primal Scream “Movin’ On Up” / Jesus Jones “Right Here, Right Now” / N.W.A. “Alwayz Into Somethin’” / 2Pac “Brenda’s Got A Baby” / MC Lyte “When In Love” / 3rd Bass “Pop Goes the Weasel” / C&C Music Factory “Things That Make You Go Hmmmmm…” / Gerardo “Rico Suave” / Pizzicato Five “Baby Love Child” / Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch “Good Vibrations” / Nitzer Ebb “Godhead” / Orbital “Belfast” / Enya “Caribbean Blue” / Vanessa Williams “Save the Best for Last” / Mr. Big “To Be With You” / Garth Brooks “Shameless” / Extreme “More Than Words” / The Field Mice “Tilting At Windmills” / The Tragically Hip “Little Bones” / Brooks & Dunn “Brand New Man” / Genesis “Hold On My Heart” / Ween “Dr. Rock” / Kyuss “Son of a Bitch” / Scorpions “Winds of Change” / Natalie Cole & Nat King Cole “Unforgettable”

DOWNLOAD DISC 4

Primus “Jerry Was A Race Car Driver” / Ministry “Jesus Built My Hotrod” / Anthrax featuring Public Enemy “Bring the Noise” / Soundgarden “Slaves & Bulldozers” / Morrissey “Sing My Life” / Voice of the Beehive “Monsters and Angels” / Hi-Five “I Like the Way (The Kissing Game)” / Kool Moe Dee “Rise N Shine” / Geto Boys “Mind Playing Tricks On Me” / Moby “Go” / The Commitments “Chain of Fools” / Londonbeat “I’ve Been Thinking About You” / Pet Shop Boys “Where the Streets Have No Name/Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” / Lords of Acid “The Most Wonderful Girl” / Rozalla “Everbody’s Free (To Feel Good)” / Troop & Levert featuring Queen Latifah “For the Love of Money / Living for the City” / Sarah McLachlan “Into the Fire” / Live “Operation Spirit (The Tyranny of Tradition)” / Sam Phillips “Now I Can’t Find the Door” / Trisha Yearwood “She’s In Love with the Boy” / Tom Petty “Into the Great Wide Open” / Spin Doctors “Jimmy Olsen’s Blues” / Crash Test Dummies “Superman’s Song” / Phranc “Gertrude Stein” / Liz Phair “Divorce Song (Girlysounds version)” / Spacemen 3 “Big City”

DOWNLOAD DISC 5

Stereolab “Super-Electric” / Shudder to Think “Red House” / Unrest “Yes She Is My Skinhead Girl” / Nation of Ulysses “You’re My Miss Washington DC” / Bongwater “The Power of Pussy” / Mercury Rev “Car Wash Hair” / Teenage Fanclub “The Concept” / Dinosaur Jr. “The Wagon” / Fishbone “Everyday Sunshine” / Autoclave “Go Far” / Heaven to Betsy “My Red Self” Sebadoh “The Freed Pig” / Superchunk “Seed Toss” / Ugly Kid Joe “Everything About You” / Screeching Weasel “Guest List” / Susana Hoffs “My Side of the Bed” / Crystal Waters “Gypsy Woman” / Queen Latifah “Latifah’s Had It Up 2 Here” / Jodeci “Forever My Lady” / Gang Starr “Who’s Gonna Take the Weight?” / Keith Sweat “Keep It Comin’” / Public Enemy “Can’t Truss It” / Coil “Answers Come In Dreams II” / Slowdive “Celia’s Dream” / Sun City Girls “The Court Magicians of Agartha”

DOWNLOAD DISC 6

Van Halen “Poundcake” / Ice-T “O.G. Original Gangster” / MC Hammer “Too Legit to Quit” / Vanilla Ice “Ninja Rap” / Mr. Bungle “Squeeze Me Macaroni” / Type O Negative “Xero Tolerance” / Uncle Tupelo “Gun” / Therapy? “Meat Abstract” / Jawbox “Consolation Prize” / Sting “The Soul Cages” / Randy Travis “Oh, What A Time To Be Me” / George Strait “If I Know Me” / Widespread Panic “Mercy” / Martika “Love…Thy Will Be Done” / Kirsty MacColl “Walking Down Madison” / Talk Talk “After the Flood” / Ned’s Atomic Dustbin “Kill Your Television” / Nice & Smooth “Sometimes I Rhyme Slow” / White Trash “Apple Pie” / Urge Overkill “The Kids Are Insane” / Scrawl “Please Have Everything” / The Judybats “Don’t Drop the Baby” / Blake Babies “Take Me” / Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 “Four O’Clocker 2” / Unwound “You Speak Jealousy”

DOWNLOAD DISC 7

George Michael and Elton John “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” / Catherine Wheel “Black Metallic” / Drivin’ and Cryin’ “Fly Me Courageous” / Cannibal Corpse “Meat Hook Sodomy” / Sepultura “Arise” / Tesla Edison’s Medicine” / Jimmie Dale Gilmore “After Awhile” / Alan Jackson “Don’t Rock the Jukebox” / Mekons “The Curse” / The Ocean Blue “Ballerina Out of Control” / Chris Whitley “Living With the Law” / American Music Club “Sick of Food” / fIREHOSE “Walking the Cow” / AMG “Bitch Betta Have My Money” / Ice Cube “Steady Mobbin’” / Leaders of the New School “Case of the PTA” / LFO “LFO” / Linton Kwesi Johnson “Story” / Hoodoo Gurus “Miss Freelove ’69” / Sonny Sharrock “Little Rock” / Billy Bragg “Sexuality” / Chapterhouse “Falling Down” / Take That “Do What U Like” / NOFX “The Moron Brothers” / Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson “Beauty and the Beast” / Reba McEntire “For My Broken Heart”

DOWNLOAD DISC 8

Madonna “Rescue Me” / Lisa Stansfield “Change” / Electronic “Getting Away With It” / Erasure “Chorus” / L.A. Style “James Brown Is Dead” / Consolidated “Friendly Fascism” / The Fall “Shiftwork” / Alice Cooper “Feed Me Frankenstein” / Pennywise “Living for Today” / Entombed “Sinners Bleed” / Butthole Surfers “Hurdy Gurdy Man” / Tin Machine “You Belong In Rock N’ Roll” / Queen “These Are the Days of Our Lives” / Skid Row “Monkey Business” / Monster Magnet “Pill Shovel” / Screaming Trees “Bed of Roses” / Crowded House “Weather with You” / k.d. lang “Barefoot” / Elvis Costello “The Other Side of Summer” / Bratmobile “Girl Germs” / The Field Mice “Tilting At Windmills” / DJ Quik “Born and Raised In Compton” / Christopher Williams “I’m Dreaming” / L.A. Guns “Over the Edge” / Deacon Blue “Your Swaying Arms” / Daisy Chainsaw “Love Your Money” / Julian Cope “East Easy Rider” / Curtis Stigers “I Wonder Why” / Michael Bolton “Time, Love, and Tenderness” / Bryan Adams “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You”