{"id":1252019,"date":"2022-10-27T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1252019"},"modified":"2022-10-27T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T11:00:00","slug":"the-25-best-indie-pop-albums-of-the-90s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1252019","title":{"rendered":"The 25 Best Indie Pop Albums of the \u201990s"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lists & Guides<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The 25 Best Indie Pop Albums of the \u201990s<\/h1>\n
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While alternative rock raged in the 1990s, the softhearted sound of bands like Heavenly, Tiger Trap, and the Pastels welcomed listeners into their own secret world.<\/div>\n
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By <\/span>Pitchfork<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Image by Callum Abbott, photos via Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The genre that would come to be known as indie pop first emerged during the late 1970s and early \u201980s in Great Britain. Weary of punk\u2019s anger and aggressive masculinity, bands like Television Personalities, Orange Juice, and the Pastels began to make music that retained its uncompromising DIY spirit while channeling a more melodic sound, releasing their music on community-driven independent (\u201cindie\u201d) labels like Postcard and Creation. NME<\/em>\u2019s massively influential C86 compilation would further cement the burgeoning scene\u2019s association with jangly, shambolic guitar music. One year later, the beloved label Sarah began releasing 7″ singles\u2014an intentionally accessible format, in accordance with its founders\u2019 anti-capitalist principles\u2014tied together by handmade artwork and the pursuit of sweet pop sounds.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in North America, a similar scene was emerging out of Olympia, Washington. Centered around Calvin Johnson and his label K, early North American indie pop was proudly rudimentary; Johnson\u2019s own band, Beat Happening, used whatever materials were at its disposal, like yogurt containers, to make clumsy, sentimental rock songs. By the early \u201990s, K was at the forefront of a scrappy subculture. Indie pop musicians leaned proudly left-of-center, rejecting the latest fashions in favor of thrift-store finds and embracing feminism and progressive politics. (This is a good place to mention that while indie pop was inclusive in terms of gender and sexual orientation, its lack of racial diversity remains an unignorable flaw.)<\/p>\n

Before long, major labels took notice of indie music\u2019s popularity and began trying to capitalize on the underground. In August 1991, a month before Nirvana released Nevermind<\/em> and forever changed the meaning of alternative, K hosted the International Pop Underground Convention, a six-day festival that promised to reject \u201cthe corporate ogre.\u201d (Kurt Cobain, who had a tattoo of the label\u2019s logo, was disappointed to miss it.) The gathering\u2019s legendary Girl Night became a catalyst for the burgeoning riot grrrl movement, marking the musical debuts of Rose Melberg and a pre-Sleater-Kinney Corin Tucker. Elsewhere, labels like Slumberland and Harriet were championing their own regional bands, forming a cross-pollinating indie pop ecosystem.<\/p>\n

By the end of the \u201990s, the definition of indie pop had been diluted. These days, the descriptor is less a mark of independence or stylistic allegiance than it is a vague suggestion of authenticity: Sometimes it describes pop-oriented music that exists slightly outside of the mainstream, or incorporates influences more commonly associated with underground music. Maybe, as Stephen Pastel wrote in the liner notes of the Pastels\u2019 1993 compilation Truckload of Trouble<\/em>, indie \u201cwas never meant to be a genre.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The following collection of records, presented in chronological order, represents an overview of what \u201990s indie pop meant, in all the forms you\u2019d expect from a genre so intimate and loosely bound. Some acts released only a handful of 7″s, while others have rich catalogs; some existed for just a few years while others remain active today; some favor a bubblegum bounce while others channel shoegaze complexity. Yet these projects exist within the same family tree, varying in sound but sharing their commitment to forthright emotion.<\/p>\n

Read Pitchfork\u2019s list of the best songs of the 1990s<\/em>here<\/em>and best albums of the 1990s<\/em>here, and check out our full \u201990s package<\/em>here<\/em>.<\/p>\n

(All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors. When you buy something through our retail links, however, Pitchfork may earn an affiliate commission.)<\/em><\/p>\n

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The Sundays: Reading, Writing and Arithmetic<\/em> (1990)<\/h2>\n

Even if the Sundays hadn\u2019t named their debut Reading, Writing and Arithmetic<\/em>, its bookish nature would\u2019ve been apparent. Harriet Wheeler sings like she\u2019s trying to get the librarian\u2019s attention without disturbing others, and guitarist David Gavurin strums with a studied focus. Across 10 songs, the Sundays assemble a buoyant collection of jangly guitar riffs, hazy stories, and dream-pop crescendos. Much of the album\u2019s transfixing power lands on Wheeler; she sings as if from atop a hill, prompting comparisons to everyone from the late Dolores O\u2019Riordan to Elizabeth Fraser. From the open-ended \u201cA Certain Someone\u201d to the bite-sized advice in \u201cMy Finest Hour,\u201d Reading, Writing and Arithmetic<\/em> is an indie pop classic that bowls you over on first listen. \u2013Nina Corcoran<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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Saint Etienne: Foxbase Alpha<\/em> (1991)<\/h2>\n

Saint Etienne\u2019s postmodern take on indie pop questioned if other eras of music could offer the same simplicity and respite as \u201960s guitar pop. The francophone radio babble that opens the London band\u2019s debut sets false expectations: Foxbase Alpha<\/em> was going to be another indie pop album full of romantic guitar melodies and innocent adventure. Then the opening disco beats of their Neil Young cover kick in. Like showing up to the rave in a demure school uniform, Foxbase Alpha<\/em> is a grand gesture towards subcultural merger. \u201cCarnt Sleep\u201d is a smokey dub ballad for dancing solo at 1 a.m., and \u201cNothing Can Stop Us\u201d is a mellow funk groove for shuffling in your slippers even later. Saint Etienne found a way to create \u201980s club music for soft-spoken guitar kids, and Foxbase Alpha<\/em> is evidence that even the most bashful young adults need a dancefloor from time to time. \u2013Nina Corcoran<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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Teenage Fanclub: Bandwagonesque<\/em> (1991)<\/h2>\n

In the 1980s, Norman Blake was already active in Glasgow\u2019s fertile music scene. His early band the Boy Hairdressers even had a 7″ on Stephen Pastel\u2019s label 53rd & 3rd, where their peers included indie pop stalwarts like the Vaselines, Beat Happening, Talulah Gosh, Shop Assistants, and BMX Bandits. Teenage Fanclub\u2019s debut, 1990\u2019s A Catholic Education<\/em>, feinted in a heavier direction, but its follow-up, Bandwagonesque<\/em>, established the Blake-led group as purveyors of sparkling power-pop par excellence. Cherished by the likes of Liam Gallagher and Ben Gibbard, the album retains the shambolic intimacy of the community that birthed it but strains irresistibly for the classic-rock brass ring, with sweet vocal harmonies and finely wrought codas that collapse the distance between overpriced arenas and dank indie dives. \u2013Marc Hogan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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The Vaselines: The Way of the Vaselines<\/em> (1992)<\/h2>\n

Few bands better dispel the myth of indie pop as somehow sexless than the Vaselines. Formed in 1986 around then-couple Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee, the Glasgow band\u2019s brightly tuneful, noisily off-kilter songs bounce along on horny chemistry, from the sunlit bedroom in \u201cSon of a Gun\u201d to the more over-the-top double entendres of \u201cRory Rides Me Raw.\u201d Although the sole album from the band\u2019s initial run, Dum-Dum<\/em>, was released in 1989 via Stephen Pastel\u2019s 53rd & 3rd, the Vaselines famously found a fan in Kurt Cobain. The 19-track collection that Sub Pop released at Cobain\u2019s suggestion, The Way of the Vaselines<\/em>, has long been the best way to listen in on Kelly and McKee\u2019s flirty chaos. Since expanded and reissued as Enter the Vaselines<\/em>, the set also features \u201cJesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam,\u201d whose ramshackle religious subversion leaves Nirvana\u2019s reverent MTV Unplugged<\/em> take sounding rather overdressed. \u2013Marc Hogan<\/p>\n

Listen:<\/strong> YouTube<\/p>\n

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Heavenly: Le Jardin de Heavenly<\/em> (1992)<\/h2>\n

Critics at the time rejected Heavenly as overly twee, too fixated on feminine emotions and childhood clich\u00e9s to be taken seriously. It\u2019s a lot harder to pull off the kind of generosity on display on the band\u2019s second LP, Le Jardin de Heavenly<\/em>. In \u201cDifferent Day,\u201d Amelia Fletcher imagines her crush\u2019s heart not as a trophy to be won, but as a place that\u2019s warm and kind. When the protagonist of \u201cOrange Corduroy Dress\u201d waits in vain for the man who bestowed the garment to return, the band is sympathetic to her plight. And though \u201cI\u2019m Not Scared of You\u201d is a story of betrayal, the real takeaway is self-respect: \u201cIf things start to fall apart\/I\u2019ll know down in my heart\/It isn\u2019t worth the dream.\u201d Stacked vocal harmonies and sugary guitars mark Le Jardin de Heavenly<\/em> as quintessentially \u201990s indie pop, but it\u2019s the band\u2019s lyrical benevolence that makes these songs so tasteful. \u2013Nina Corcoran<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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Jonathan Richman: I, Jonathan<\/em> (1992)<\/h2>\n

Modern Lovers founder Jonathan Richman was 41 when he released this sunny solo record, but he looks half that, nearly teenaged, on the album\u2019s cover. He sounds it, too. Richman\u2019s lyrical concerns involve the magic of new love, the despair of a disagreement with a roommate, and the joy of losing oneself on the dancefloor in a lesbian bar. I, Jonathan<\/em> marries the airtight pop construction of Brian Wilson to the crustpunk ethos of K Records as it narrates all the triumphs and tribulations of 20s adolescence. Timeless is the word. \u2013Peyton Thomas<\/p>\n

Further Reading: I, Jonathan<\/em> Sunday Review<\/div>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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Lois: Strumpet<\/em> (1993)<\/h2>\n

Before founding her eponymous project, Lois Maffeo could be found around Olympia, Washington, writing for fanzines, hosting an all-girl radio show, and performing in a number of bands, including the short-lived duo Courtney Love with Pat Maley (who would produce many of the artists on this list). The followup to Lois\u2019 1991 debut, Butterfly Kiss<\/em>, Strumpet<\/em> features members of Bratmobile, Team Dresch, and Codeine and was produced by Calvin Johnson. \u201cYou say I\u2019m walking around like I own the whole place\/Well I do,\u201d she sings sweetly on the title track. By the time Strumpet<\/em> wraps up with an a cappella cover of the Zombies\u2019 \u201cThe Way I Feel Inside,\u201d Lois will own your whole heart. \u2013Quinn Moreland<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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Tiger Trap: Tiger Trap<\/em> (1993)<\/h2>\n

The short-lived Sacramento quartet Tiger Trap was founded on the purest of beliefs: that being in a band was \u201cthe coolest thing\u201d imaginable. Their sole record, 1993\u2019s Tiger Trap<\/em>, has a thrilling immediacy; when Rose Melberg celebrates new love on \u201cPuzzle Pieces,\u201d she sings like she\u2019s experiencing pure happiness for the first time, invigorated by scrappy melodies reminiscent of UK guitar bands like Talulah Gosh and Shop Assistants. Later, when she describes the cruelty of heartbreak, she is assured in her innocence and<\/em> her anger: \u201cHow could you do something so ugly when you had\/Just said you loved me moments before?\u201d While their songs about crushes may have made Tiger Trap appear less radical than their riot grrrl peers to the North, the band\u2019s unflappable tenderness was its own sort of rallying cry. \u2013Quinn Moreland<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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The Pastels: Truckload of Trouble<\/em> (1993)<\/h2>\n

By 1993, the Pastels were iconic. In the decade since the band emerged from Glasgow\u2019s independent music scene, they had become emblematic of a scene and a style. Their jangly, \u201960s-inspired guitar music heralded imperfections, from charmingly awkward vocals to instrumental amateurism. Meanwhile, their bookish, wallflower image\u2014singer-guitarist Stephen Pastel (n\u00e9 McRobbie) was an actual librarian\u2014rejected the stereotypical rock star image in favor of an unassuming cool. From the scrappy poetics of \u201cCrawl Babies\u201d to the aching purity \u201cNothing to Be Done,\u201d the band\u2019s 1993 compilation Truckload of Trouble<\/em> captures these shambolic early years, wherein the Pastels inspired a generation of could-be musicians. \u2013Quinn Moreland<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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Velocity Girl: \u00a1Simpatico!<\/em> (1994)<\/h2>\n

Much great 1990s indie pop hailed from the UK or the Pacific Northwest, but the East Coast had a thriving scene too, and Velocity Girl were proof. Taking their name from a C86 classic by pre-fame Primal Scream, the Washington, D.C.-area band picked up the British scene\u2019s \u201cit was easy, it was cheap, and go and do it\u201d spirit with early 7″s and EPs for locally formed label Slumberland. Their effects-swathed debut album, 1993\u2019s Copacetic<\/em>, could\u2019ve been a transatlantic cousin to My Bloody Valentine. But their more tuneful follow-up, \u00a1Simpatico!<\/em>, sounds like quintessential indie pop, with punk-spiked bubblegum about heedless grins and endless recriminations. Trading off lead vocals were Sarah Shannon, with nonchalant exuberance, and founding member Archie Moore, who notably played in another key DMV-area indie pop group, Black Tambourine. \u2013Marc Hogan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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Cub: Come Out Come Out<\/em> (1995)<\/h2>\n

In the mid \u201990s, a new subgenre of indie pop called cuddlecore embraced bright, unabashedly childlike aesthetics, reclaiming a cuteness that others might write off as infantile. The Canadian group Cub was one of the flagship cuddlecore bands, and its 1993 debut Betti-Cola<\/em> was stuffed with charmingly twee songs about picnics and pet chinchillas. But first impressions can be deceiving: Cub\u2019s second album, 1995\u2019s Come Out Come Out<\/em>, is undeniably dark. Sometimes the danger is just a flicker, as on \u201cMy Flaming Red Bobsled,\u201d or in their melancholy cover of the Go-Go\u2019s 1982 hit \u201cVacation.\u201d Then, on songs like \u201cTomorrow Go Away,\u201d the fire is screaming: \u201cAnd we eat lunch with your parents\/While you\u2019re wishing I was dead.\u201d \u2013Quinn Moreland<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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Various Artists: There and Back Again Lane<\/em> (1995)<\/h2>\n

No label more singularly epitomized the indie pop spirit than Bristol, UK-based Sarah Records, which began shipping 7″s in 1987. Driven by feminism and an understated leftism, the imprint released such cult favorites as Heavenly and St. Christopher, whose tender melodicism captivated fans as much as it repelled certain British music magazines\u2019 critics. But when you see a band named the Sweetest Ache, you should know instantly what you\u2019re getting. In a scene geared toward singles and EPs, Sarah\u2019s swan song, There and Back Again Lane<\/em>\u2014a 21-track compilation spanning eight years\u2014is an appropriately bittersweet summation, from the Field Mice\u2019s bedroom-pop swooner \u201cSensitive\u201d to Even as We Speak\u2019s indie-disco sendoff \u201cDrown.\u201d As recounted in journalist Michael White\u2019s book Popkiss<\/em>, Sarah announced its planned finale with lavish half-page ads in Melody Maker<\/em> and NME<\/em>. Call it the sweetest \u201cfuck you.\u201d \u2013Marc Hogan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify<\/p>\n

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The Apples in Stereo: Fun Trick Noisemaker<\/em> (1995)<\/h2>\n

If the Apples in Stereo seem curiously underrated today, perhaps it\u2019s because they were so quietly influential during the 1990s. Led by falsetto-wielding frontman Robert Schneider, the Denver-based band upped the ante for homemade power-pop with its debut album Fun Trick Noisemaker<\/em>, whose gleefully psyched-out bubblegum heralded a new generation\u2019s burgeoning obsession with Pet Sounds<\/em>. Despite the geographical distance, the Apples were also at the forefront of Athens, Georgia\u2019s Elephant 6 collective\u2014Schneider produced Neutral Milk Hotel\u2019s 1998 touchstone In the Aeroplane Over the Sea<\/em>. The Apples have been quiet since the 2012 death of keyboardist Bill Doss, and several of their later albums, particularly 2007\u2019s New Magnetic Wonder<\/em>, offer cleaner entry points to their prolific catalog. But the shambolic charm of Fun Trick Noisemaker<\/em> captures a particular turn toward sunny exuberance in the indie zeitgeist. \u2013Marc Hogan<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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The Softies: It\u2019s Love<\/em> (1995)<\/h2>\n

When they started the Softies in 1994, Tiger Trap\u2019s Rose Melberg and All Girl Summer Fun Band\u2019s Jen Sbragia didn\u2019t expect their new side project to amount to much. By the following year, they had a striking debut album and an eager audience. It\u2019s Love<\/em> casts a spell, inviting listeners to re-embody their younger selves: to bask in naivety, act on the feeling that time is endless, ask simple questions and embrace straightforward answers. \u201cIt\u2019s really comforting to put yourself in a childlike state of mind,\u201d explained a 23-year-old Melberg. The album\u2019s prosaic imagery\u2014charm bracelets, Converse sneakers, a cigar box filled with keepsakes\u2014offers that comfort, calling on shared emotion as a kind of protective armor. Because, as the duo sing in harmony, \u201cIt\u2019s a hard world, that\u2019s no lie.\u201d \u2013Nina Corcoran<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify<\/p>\n

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Rocketship: A Certain Smile, a Certain Sadness<\/em> (1996)<\/h2>\n

Borrowing its title from a classic bossa nova record, Rocketship\u2019s 1996 debut A Certain Smile, a Certain Sadness<\/em> is hopelessly devoted to indie pop\u2019s twin pillars of emotion. From the giddy regret of \u201cI Love You Like the Way I Used to Do\u201d to the earnest sentimentality of \u201cFriendships and Love,\u201d Dustin Reske yearns for romantic companionship while steadying himself for inevitable heartache. Reske, who lived in Sacramento and also produced albums for Henry\u2019s Dress and the Softies, draped his ornate songs in droning organs that recall Felt and Stereolab. Conjuring a bittersweet longing for a happiness that\u2019s just out of reach, the band\u2019s masterpiece pushed beyond homespun indie pop toward a more ambitious sound. \u2013Quinn Moreland<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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Henry\u2019s Dress: Bust \u2019Em Green<\/em> (1996)<\/h2>\n

By the time Henry\u2019s Dress released their first and only LP, 1996\u2019s Bust \u2019Em Green<\/em>, they had refined their sludgy shoegaze into full-blown noise pop with immense hooks and bouncy energy (the reverse My Bloody Valentine, if you will). With Amy Linton and Matt Hartman switching between guitar\/vocals and drums and Hayyim Sanchez on the bass, the San Francisco-via-Albuquerque trio rip through 12 fuzzy tracks about scooters and tree forts in under 30 minutes. Although Henry\u2019s Dress would break up just a year later\u2014Linton notably went on to form the Aislers Set\u2014their lasting influence touched their Albuquerque peers the Shins and, years later, inspired the Pains of Being Pure at Heart. \u2013Quinn Moreland<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen:<\/strong> YouTube<\/p>\n

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Tullycraft: Old Traditions, New Standards<\/em> (1996)<\/h2>\n

Tullycraft\u2019s 1996 debut, Old Traditions, New Standards,<\/em> walks a fine line between satire and sincerity. Take the hyper-referential, deliciously snotty \u201cPop Songs Your New Boyfriend\u2019s Too Stupid to Know About,\u201d which urges an ex to ditch her U2-loving beau in favor of a narrator with superior<\/em> taste (\u201cJust you and me and Halo Benders\/Hey, that\u2019s pretty hot!\u201d). But then the Seattle band comes in with a song like \u201cSuperboy and Supergirl,\u201d an empathetic appeal to the titular heroes\u2019 vulnerabilities. As the track builds to its jangly, pumped-up conclusion, Sean Tollefson\u2019s pinched vocals grow increasingly raw, and Tullycraft pushes through its defense mechanisms. \u2013Quinn Moreland<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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Belle and Sebastian: Tigermilk<\/em> (1996)<\/h2>\n

Word-of-mouth fandom worked its magic on Tigermilk<\/em>. With only 1,000 copies initially pressed, it took time for Belle and Sebastian\u2019s debut to find its audience\u2014an embarrassed Stuart Murdoch watched the color fade from one copy as it sat untouched in the window of a local Glasgow record store for months. But the album eventually charmed its way to cult-classic status, going on to influence, if not define, indie pop for years to come. There\u2019s something honorable about Murdoch\u2019s delicate acoustic ballads and tongue-in-cheek confessionals about peer pressure and falling in love, as if he\u2019s invited you over to spill his secrets in hopes of getting your advice. On \u201cMy Wandering Days Are Over,\u201d he mythologizes his project\u2019s future: \u201cYou know my one-man band is over.\u201d As the music unspools and trumpet and violin players join in, the shape of the band as a whole takes form\u2014a reminder that fostering community is just as key to the genre as lyrical content. \u2013Nina Corcoran<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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Belle and Sebastian: If You\u2019re Feeling Sinister<\/em> (1996)<\/h2>\n

In 1996, Belle and Sebastian approached perfection, twice. First came Tigermilk<\/em>, a quietly profound debut recorded as a school project. If You\u2019re Feeling Sinister<\/em> arrived a few months later, an album that presses its nose against a windowpane and peers out at the world beyond, yearning to indulge in beauty and ugliness alike. Writing in the shadow of his yearslong struggle with chronic fatigue syndrome, frontman Stuart Murdoch emerged as a Glaswegian Salinger, a storyteller with an eye for misfits: a track and field star as accomplished in sex as she is in athletics; a curmudgeonly veteran with nostalgia for Roxy Music; a suicidal girl who enjoys S&M and Bible studies. Set atop gorgeous arrangements inspired by swooning \u201960s pop and the Velvet Underground at their most melodic, these songs set the standard for pretty much all indie pop that was to come. \u2013Quinn Moreland<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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Chrysalis \/ EMI<\/p>\n

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White Town: Women in Technology<\/em> (1997)<\/h2>\n

A computer-OK homebrew of 1980s synth-pop, 1930s big-band jazz, and 1990s sexual ambiguity, White Town\u2019s \u201cYour Woman\u201d stands as one of the unlikeliest global hits of all time. Originally issued via tiny Illinois label Parasol, the breakout single by Indian-born British \u201cphilosopher, semi-pro songwriter, and career pervert\u201d Jyoti Mishra vaulted its creator from the artsy margins to the pop mainstream. If Derby, England-based Mishra had previously gone in for jangling guitars, his major-label debut album mirrored post-punk precursors Scritti Politti\u2019s New Pop metamorphosis, yielding worldly electro-soul that felt more Janet Jackson than Calvin Johnson. With its smash hit more recently championed by Vampire Weekend and sampled by Dua Lipa, Women in Technology<\/em> remains a testament to how fiercely principled do-it-yourself pop\u2014equal parts ambitious and eccentric by design\u2014can transcend the indie scene. \u2013Marc Hogan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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Drive-In<\/p>\n

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The Cat\u2019s Miaow: Songs for Girls to Sing<\/em> (1997)<\/h2>\n

There\u2019s no clear reason why the Cat\u2019s Miaow never achieved the popularity of some of their peers\u2014maybe it was because the Australian quartet rarely played live or because its members were simultaneously working on other projects. It certainly wasn\u2019t a lack of great material: Songs like \u201cNot Like I Was Doing Anything\u201d and \u201cNote on the Table\u201d are miniature pop gems with a plainspoken sensitivity. The group had a prolific run of physical releases throughout the \u201990s, some of which would be compiled into the 1997 collection Songs for Girls to Sing<\/em>. The tracks featured include many home-recorded originals, several live cuts, and covers of songs by Patsy Cline, the Ronettes, and Melbourne pop peers the Sugargliders. Heartfelt and gentle, each song is worth tucking away. \u2013Quinn Moreland<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Apple Music | Spotify<\/p>\n

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Gaze: Mitsumeru<\/em> (1998)<\/h2>\n

The Vancouver band Gaze was founded in the late \u201990s by singer-guitarist Miko Hoffman and singer-bassist Megan Mallett. They soon found an (inexperienced) drummer in Rose Melberg, who\u2019d relocated to the city while still playing with the Softies. Though Melberg didn\u2019t participate in the songwriting, it\u2019s easy to hear an echo of her prior band, Tiger Trap, in Gaze\u2019s first album, Mitsumeru<\/em>. But instead of powering through heartache on a sugar high, the trio spend more time exploring murky miscommunications, failed relationships, and jealousy. In a genre that often indulges escapism, Gaze balanced sweetness and painful truths. After all, as they assert at the end of \u201cPreppy Villain,\u201d \u201cLife isn\u2019t just a bunch of snowflakes\/Taking their sweet time as they float to the ground.\u201d \u2013Quinn Moreland<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n

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Slumberland<\/p>\n

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Black Tambourine: Complete Recordings<\/em> (1999)<\/h2>\n

Black Tambourine didn\u2019t need to release a proper album to become iconic. The Silver Spring, Maryland band\u2019s lineup was already a who\u2019s who of \u201980s and \u201990s indie music: Mike Schulman, head of Slumberland; Pam Berry, co-founding editor of the beloved zine Chickfactor<\/em>; and Archie Moore and Brian Nelson, who also played in Velocity Girl. Luckily, 1999\u2019s Complete Recordings<\/em> collects the handful of songs they recorded between 1989 and 1991. One of those tracks, \u201cThrow Aggi Off the Bridge,\u201d would go down in indie pop history as the genre\u2019s premiere diss track, with Berry entreating the Pastels\u2019 Stephen Pastel to toss bandmate (and one-time girlfriend) Annabel \u201cAggi\u201d Wright into a river (\u201cpurely for pro-Stephen crush emphasis purposes,\u201d Berry later clarified). Less sceney but equally invigorating is \u201cFor Ex-Lovers Only,\u201d which offers some of the decade\u2019s best blissed-out shoegaze-does-\u201960s-girl-group dissonance. \u2013Quinn Moreland<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Spotify<\/p>\n

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Eastworld<\/p>\n

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Advantage Lucy: \u30d5\u30a1\u30f3\u30d5\u30a1\u30fc\u30ec (Fanfare<\/em>) (1999)<\/h2>\n

While the U.S. and UK were experiencing an explosion of cardigan-clad indie pop, Japan was quietly building a world of its own within the genre. Among the scene\u2019s standouts were Advantage Lucy, a Tokyo quartet that fused sunny jangle pop with horns, jazzy drums, and retro vocal harmonies. After ditching their original, Peanuts<\/em>-inspired moniker Lucy Van Pelt, they released \u30d5\u30a1\u30f3\u30d5\u30a1\u30fc\u30ec (Fanfare)<\/em>, their debut album as Advantage Lucy, in 1999. Like the best indie pop of the era, the album welcomes fans to reimagine the humdrum of life with an optimistic curiosity. \u201c\u30ab\u30bf\u30af\u30ea\u306e\u82b1\u201d floats through a dreamy guitar melody dotted with glockenspiel and recorder, while fan favorite \u201cSolaris\u201d is the most exuberant ode to milk you\u2019ve ever heard. Decades later, the album is still charming new generations of fans at home and abroad. \u2013Nina Corcoran<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Buy\/Listen:<\/strong> YouTube<\/p>\n

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Merge<\/p>\n

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The Magnetic Fields: 69 Love Songs<\/em> (1999)<\/h2>\n

After Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness<\/em>, but before Sufjan Stevens promised to write an album after every state, the most ambitious music project known to indie heads was 69 Love Songs<\/em>. The album delivers exactly what the title says, styled as cowboy ballads, folk songs, synth pieces, and countless other genres, all tied together with Stephin Merritt\u2019s devastatingly clever lyrics. Merritt has maintained that it\u2019s not an album about love, but about love songs\u2014devotional, yes, but only to the tropes of the genre. He\u2019s a scholar of pop music, and Love Songs<\/em> is his thesis. But all of that is easy to forget once immersed in the world of the album itself, which is endlessly generous with its vignettes and listeners alike. They wouldn\u2019t be love songs if they didn\u2019t charm us off our feet, waltz us through familiar scenes which suddenly feel eye-openingly new, and leave us swooning\u2014even when we think we should know better. \u2013NM Mashurov<\/p>\n

Listen\/Buy:<\/strong> Amazon | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

Source URL: http:\/\/pitchfork.com\/features\/lists-and-guides\/the-best-indie-pop-albums-of-the-90s\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lists & Guides The 25 Best Indie Pop Albums of the \u201990s While alternative rock raged in the 1990s, the softhearted sound of bands like Heavenly, Tiger Trap, and the Pastels welcomed listeners into their own secret world. By Pitchfork October 27, 2022 Image by Callum Abbott, photos via Getty Images The genre that would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[54],"class_list":["post-1252019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-pitchfork-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1252019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252019\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1252019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1252019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1252019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}