Best Songs of 1991

Maybe I just think this because I was 12-going-on-13 in 1991, but looking at this list, it feels like a transitionary year in music. The funny thing about decades in pop culture is that they rarely align on the 0s and 9s. If anything, 1991 feels like the last year of the ’80s to me, and you can see that reflected here.

Sure, there are some huge records that went on to be generation-definining, and sure, they even had plenty of immediate impact. But they were still butting up against all this other stuff that sounded a little older, a little cheesier, or a little more obscure.

Some of it stayed in the shadows, too. A handful of these songs were ones I had to dig up over the past decade or so of collecting songs and albums in my effort to complete these lists. That said, a very large portion of these songs were ones I listened to at the time, and throughout the early ’90s. That I still listen to them so often today—well, most of them—is less surprising, for the music we discover at this age tends to stay with us for ever.

For these year-end lists, I like to undertake the seemingly impossibly task of creating an hours-long mix. The order you see below represents that effort, which you can listen to via Spotify. Sadly all 100 tracks aren't available, but you get the general idea. Track notes to come eventually or maybe never.

Show Grid

Hunger Strike

Temple of the Dog

Temple of the Dog

A&M

Notes
Come As You Are

Nirvana

Nevermind

DGC

Notes
Rhinoceros

Smashing Pumpkins

Gish

Caroline

Notes
Under the Bridge

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Blood Sugar Sex Magik

Warner Bros

Notes
Ripple

Jane’s Addiction

Deadicated

Arista

Notes
Valerie Loves Me

Material Issue

International Pop Overthrow

Mercury

Notes
Rave Down

Swervedriver

Raise

Creation

Notes
Only Shallow

My Bloody Valentine

Loveless

Creation

Notes
Clouds

Hole

Pretty on the Inside

Caroline

Notes
Feels Blind

Bikini Kill

Revolution Girl Style Now

self-released

Notes
Outshined

Soundgarden

Badmotorfinger

A&M

Notes
Don’t Cry

Guns N’ Roses

Use Your Illusion II

Geffen

Notes
The Unforgiven

Metallica

Metallica

Elektra

Notes
Long Division

Fugazi

Steady Diet of Nothing

Dischord

Notes
Bed of Roses

Screaming Trees

Uncle Anesthesia

Epic

Notes
The Curse

Mekons

The Curse of the Mekons

Rough Trade

European release
Crabwalk

American Music Club

Everclear

Alias

Notes
It’s You

Heavenly

Heavenly vs. Satan

Sarah

Notes
True to Life

Uncle Tupelo

Still Feel Gone

Rockville

Notes
Good Things

BoDeans

Black and White

Slash

Notes
Flying Saucer Dudes

Bela Fleck & The Flecktones

Flight of the Cosmic Hippo

Warner Bros

Notes
Straight Image

The Bats

Fear of God

Mammoth/Flying Nun

1991 New Zealand Release, 1992 US release
Daylight

Judybats

Native Son

Sire

Notes
100,000 Fireflies

The Magnetic Fields

Distant Plastic Trees

Red Flame

UK release; 1994 US release (with The Wayward Bus)
American Music

Violent Femmes

Why Do Birds Sing?

Slash

Notes
My Life Is Starting Over Again

Daniel Johnston

Artistic Vice

Shimmy Disc

Notes
Bring It All Back

The Tragically Hip

Road Apples

Universal

Notes
Little Wing

Stevie Ray Vaughan

The Sky Is Crying

Epic

Notes
Living With the Law

Chris Whitley

Living With the Law

Columbia

Notes
I Can’t Make You Love Me

Bonnie Raitt

Luck of the Draw

Capitol

Notes
Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me

George Michael & Elton John

Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me

Columbia

Notes
Silver Thunderbird

Marc Cohn

Marc Cohn

Atlantic

Notes
All This Time

Sting

The Soul Cages

A&M
Weather With You

Crowded House

Woodface

Capitol

Notes
Walk on the Ocean

Toad the Wet Sprocket

Fear

Columbia

Notes
Sweet Pain

Blues Traveler

Travelers & Thieves

A&M

Notes
Jimmy Olsen’s Blues

Spin Doctors

Pocket Full of Kryptonite

Epic

Notes
Now and Then

The Smithereens

Blow Up

Capitol

Notes
Girlfriend

Matthew Sweet

Girlfriend

Zoo Entertainment

Notes
3 Strange Days

School of Fish

School of Fish

Capitol

Notes
There’s No Other Way

Blur

Leisure

Food

Notes
Right Here, Right Now

Jesus Jones

Doubt

Food

Notes
Rush

Big Audio Dynamite

The Globe

Columbia

Notes
O.P.P.

Naughty By Nature

Naughty By Nature

Tommy Boy

Notes
Summertime

DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince

Homebase

Jive

Notes
Rico Suave

Gerardo

Mo’ Ritmo

Interscope

Notes
Pop Goes the Weasel

Third Bass

Derelicts of Dialect

Def Jam

Notes
I Can’t Dance

Genesis

We Can’t Dance

Atlantic

Notes
Into the Great Wide Open

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

Into the Great Wide Open

MCA

Notes
Losing My Religion

R.E.M.

Out of Time

Warner Bros

Notes
So Like Candy

Elvis Costello

Mighty Like a Rose

Warner Bros

Notes
You Woke Up My Neighborhood

Billy Bragg

Don’t Try This at Home

Redeye

Notes
September’s Not So Far Away

The Field Mice

September’s Not So Far Away 7"

Sarah

UK release
Cerulean

The Ocean Blue

Cerulean

Sire

Notes
Yr Own World

The Blue Aeroplanes

Beatsongs

Chrysalis

Notes
The Girl From Washington

the Windbreakers

Electric Landlady

DB Recs

Notes
Black-Haired Girl

Sebadoh

III

Homestead

Notes
Toolin’

fIREHOSE

Flyin’ the Flannel

Columbia

Notes
New Year’s

Codeine

Frigid Stars

Sub Pop

Notes
The Concept

Teenage Fanclub

Bandwagonesque

Creation

Notes
The Wagon

Dinosaur Jr.

Green Mind

Sire

Notes
Porch

Pearl Jam

Ten

Epic

Notes
Mother Earth Is a Vicious Child

Live

Mental Jewelry

Radioactive

Notes
Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses

U2

Achtung Baby

Island

Notes
It Ain’t Over ’Til It’s Over

Lenny Kravitz

Mama Said

Virgin

Notes
Remember The Time

Michael Jackson

Dangerous

Epic

Notes
Emotions

Mariah Carey

Emotions

Columbia

Notes
Nights Like This

After 7

The Five Heartbeats

Capitol

Notes
I Wanna Sex You Up

Color Me Badd

C.M.B.

Giant

Notes
Sometimes I Rhyme Slow

Nice & Smooth

Ain’t a Damn Thing Changed

Def Jam

Notes
The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)

Black Sheep

A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

Mercury

Notes
Mind Playin’ Tricks on Me

Geto Boys

We Can’t Be Stopped

Asylum

Notes
Pass the Plugs

De La Soul

De La Soul Is Dead

Tommy Boy

Notes
Scenario

A Tribe Called Quest

The Low End Theory

Jive

Notes
Case of the P.T.A.

Leaders of the New School

A Future Without a Past…

Elektra

Notes
Motownphilly

Boyz II Men

Cooleyhighharmony

Motown

Notes
Iesha

Another Bad Creation

Coolin’ at the Playground Ya Know!

Motown

Notes
Round and Round

Tevin Campbell

T.E.V.I.N.

Qwest

Notes
Diamonds and Pearls

Prince & The New Power Generation

Diamonds and Pearls

Warner Bros

Notes
Set Adrift on Memory Bliss

P.M. Dawn

Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross: The Utopian Experience

Gee Street

Notes
Come & Talk to Me

Jodeci

Forever My Lady

Uptown

Notes
Brenda’s Got a Baby

2Pac

2Pacalypse Now

Interscope

Notes
Kiss You Back

Digital Underground

Sons of the P

Tommy Boy
Now That We Found Love

Heavy D & the Boyz

Peaceful Journey

Geffen

Notes
Unbelievable

EMF

Schubert Dip

EMI

Notes
How I Could Just Kill a Man

Cypress Hill

Cypress Hill

Ruffhouse

Notes
New Jack Hustler

Ice-T

New Jack City

Giant

Notes
Born Killer

Scarface

Mr. Scarface Is Back

Rap-a-Lot

Notes
Juice (Know the Ledge)

Eric B. & Rakim

Juice

SOUL

Notes
Can’t Truss It

Public Enemy

Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Back

Def Jam

Notes
2 Legit 2 Quit

MC Hammer

Too Legit to Quit

Capitol

Notes
Good Vibrations

Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch

Music for the People

Interscope

Notes
Justified & Ancient

The KLF featuring Tammy Wynette

The White Room

Arista

Notes
Groovy Train

The Farm

Spartacus

Sire

Notes
Unfinished Sympathy

Massive Attack

Blue Lines

Virgin

Notes
Higher Than the Sun

Primal Scream

Screamadelica

Sire

Notes
The City Sleeps

MC 900 Ft. Jesus

Welcome to My Dream

I.R.S.

Notes
Crazy

Seal

Seal

Sire

Notes
Kiss Them for Me

Siouxsie and the Banshees

Superstition

Geffen

Notes
Grey Cell Green

Ned’s Atomic Dustbin

God Fodder

Columbia

Notes