"Sentenced To Burn"

Not joking at all... This is the one deathmetal song we've ever heard to perfectly align all of the genre's best elements... The absurdity, groove, heaviness, weirdness, darkness... And it had to be a Cannibal Corpse song with George Corpsegrinder on lead vox, because we often doubted Chris Barnes' sincerity.

We think George actually means it. And plus, he wears his own band's shirt in the video...

Speaking of which, metal curiously seems to be the one genre of music where a lead singer can be switched and no one seems to notice or care...

90 Jams From The 90's

Yes we know that this is more than 90 Jams...... There was lots of room for bonus jams which is why this list is so awesome.

(Bonus) Sloan "Pen Pals" (1994)
(Bonus) Busta Rhymes "Dangerous" (1997)
(Bonus) Deluxx Folk Implosion "Daddy Never Understood" (1995)
(Bonus) Stereolab "Ping Pong" (1994)
(Bonus) Ween "Baby Bitch" (1994)
(Bonus) Belle And Sebastian "Like Dylan In The Movies" (1996)
(Bonus) Supergrass "Lose It" (1995)
(Bonus) Beastie Boys featuring Q-Tip "Get It Together" (1994)
(Bonus) Wilco "Box Full Of Letters" (1995)
(Bonus) Ash "Girl From Mars" (1995)
(Bonus) Liz Phair "Supernova" (1994)
(Bonus) Biggie Smalls "Party And Bullshit" (1993)

(Super weird bonus) Jay-Z feat. Foxy Brown "Ain't No *****" (1996)
(Super weird bonus) Hum "If You Are To Bloom" (1998)

(+3) Pinback "Loro" (1999)
(+3) LL Cool J "Around The Way Girl" (1990)
(+3) The Chemical Brothers "Let Forever Be" (1999)

#95 Neutral Milk Hotel "Holland, 1945" (1998)
#94 Smashing Pumpkins "Disarm" (1993)
#93 Mobb Deep "Shook Ones Part 2" (1995)
#92 Radiohead "Black Star" (1995)
#91 Pete Rock & CL Smooth "They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)" (1992)

#90 No Doubt "New" (1999)
#89 Depeche Mode "I Feel You" (1992)
#88 Local H "Bound For The Floor" (1996)
#87 Cat Power "Cross Bones Style" (1998)
#86 The Cardigans "Erase/Rewind" (1999)
#85 The Chemical Brothers "Setting Sun" (1996)
#84 Teenage Fanclub "Alcoholiday" (1991)
#83 My Bloody Valentine "Loomer" (1991)
#82 Add N To (X) "Metal Fingers In My Body" (1999)
#81 The Notorious B.I.G. "Everyday Struggle" (1994)

#80 Dinosaur Jr "The Wagon" (1990)
#79 The Posies "Dream All Day" (1993)
#78 Blur "Sing" (1991)
#77 Beck "Asshole" (1994)
#76 Superchunk "Slack Motherfucker" (1990)
#75 The Jesus Lizard "Puss" (1992)
#74 Green Day "When I Come Around" (1994)
#73 Fiona Apple "Criminal" (1996)
#72 The Breeders "Divine Hammer" (1993)
#71 Underworld "Dirty Epic" (1993)

#70 Modest Mouse "Whenever You Breathe Out, I Breathe In (Positive/Negative)" (1996)
#69 The Notorious B.I.G. feat. Puff Daddy & Ma$e "Mo Money Mo Problems" (1997)
#68 Elliott Smith "Angeles" (1996)
#67 Fiona Apple "On The Bound" (1999)
#66 The Verve "Bittersweet Symphony" (1997)
#65 Yo La Tengo "Sugarcube" (1997)
#64 Green Day "J.A.R." (1995)
#63 Portishead "Sour Times" (1994)
#62 Beck "Diamond Bollocks" (1998)
#61 Screaming Trees "Nearly Lost You" (1992)

#60 My Bloody Valentine "Only Shallow" (1991)
#59 Smashing Pumpkins "Cupid De Locke" (1995)
#58 Pearl Jam "State Of Love And Trust" (1992)
#57 A Tribe Called Quest "Bonita Applebum" (1990)
#56 Janet Jackson "That's The Way Love Goes" (1993)
#55 The Notorious B.I.G. "Juicy" (1994)
#54 Nirvana "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter" (1993)
#53 The Cure "End" (1992)
#52 Jimmy Eat World "Lucky Denver Mint" (1999)
#51 Pixies "Velouria" (1990)

#50 Weezer "El Scorcho" (1996)
#49 Gin Blossoms "Hey Jealousy" (1992)
#48 Wu-Tang Clan "C.R.E.A.M." (1993)
#47 Blur "Coffee + TV" (1999)
#46 Jawbox "Savory" (1994)
#45 Dr. Octagon "Blue Flowers" (1996)
#44 Beastie Boys "Sabotage" (1994)
#43 Depeche Mode "Personal Jesus" (1990)
#42 Wu-Tang Clan "Triumph" (1997)
#41 Nirvana "Lithium" (1991)

#40 Megadeth "Holy Wars...The Punishment Due" (1990)
#39 Genius/GZA "Liquid Swords" (1995)
#38 Eric B & Rakim "Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em" (1990)
#37 Smashing Pumpkins "Cherub Rock" (1993)
#36 Ginuwine "Pony" (1996)
#35 Ice Cube "It Was A Good Day" (1992)
#34 Deee-Lite "Groove Is In The Heart" (1990)
#33 Nirvana "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (1991)
#32 Built To Spill "I Would Hurt A Fly" (1997)
#31 Pavement "Cut Your Hair" (1994)

#30 Dr. Dre "Nuthin' But A 'G' Thang" (1992)
#29 Smashing Pumpkins "1979" (1995)
#28 LL Cool J "Mama Said Knock You Out" (1990)
#27 Raekwon "Ice Cream" (1995)
#26 Weezer "Falling For You" (1996)
#25 Jeff Buckley "Last Goodbye" (1994)
#24 Nas "The World Is Yours" (1994)
#23 Radiohead "Airbag" (1997)
#22 Nirvana "Scentless Apprentice" (1993)
#21 Beastie Boys "So Whatcha Want" (1992)

#20 Bell Biv Devoe "Poison" (1990)
#19 Radiohead "Let Down" (1997)
#18 Souls Of Mischief "'93 Til Infinity" (1993)
#17 Pavement "Summer Babe (Winter Version)" (1992)
#16 The Cure "Pictures Of You" (1990)
#15 Nirvana "In Bloom" (1991)
#14 My Bloody Valentine "Sometimes" (1991)
#13 Foo Fighters "Everlong" (1997)
#12 A Tribe Called Quest "Electric Relaxation" (1993)
#11 The Notorious B.I.G. "Hypnotize" (1997)

#10 Dinosaur Jr. "Out There" (1993)
#9 Nirvana "Heart Shaped Box" (1993)
#8 Stardust "Music Sounds Better With You" (1998)
#7 Wu-Tang Clan "Shame On A *****" (1993)
#6 Depeche Mode "Enjoy The Silence" (1990)
#5 Aaliyah "One In A Million" (1996)
#4 The Notorious B.I.G. "Gimme The Loot" (1994)
#3 Nirvana "Aneurysm" (1991)
#2 Aphex Twin "Windowlicker" (1999)
#1 Radiohead "Paranoid Android" (1997)

And now for what the fans have really been waiting for... let's take a look at the results by year....

1990: 13
1991: 9
1992: 11
1993: 15
1994: 16
1995: 11
1996: 12
1997: 11
1998: 5
1999: 9

Unsurprisingly, 1994 ended up as the big winner with a whopping 16 jams, although somewhat surprising that it only lost out to '93 by 1 single jam. Congrats to both years. You have earned your place among the mighty titans of rock.

Shame on 1998 for a somewhat unsurprisingly dismal turnout, although 5 isn't bad (and better than 1986 in the 80's Jams which only presented 2 jams). However, congrats are somewhat owed to 1999 who we suspected would have an equally unimpressive number to '98. A good list, overall.

90's Jams (Bonus): Biggie Smalls "Party And Bullshit" (1993)

And here it is... The final 90's Jam. It's been quite a run these past- ... 10 months? Damn, where did the time go.. And I hope no one is groaning too much that we're closing things out with yet ANOTHER Notorious jam... But not just any. It's (probably) Andrew WK's favorite Notorious jam, and that's gotta count for something. And plus, this was back when he was still going by "Biggie Smalls." Honestly, it was either gonna be this or "Gin & Juice" which I don't know if I can handle for the 500th time right now... At the time of "Party's" release, "Gin & Juice" was arguably the biggest hiphop jam of that year, while Biggie was quietly plotting in the shadows, ready to put an end to West Coast's short-lived reign... "Smokin' blunts was a daily routine since thirteen, a chubby nigga on the scene..."

90's Jams (Bonus): Liz Phair "Supernova" (1995)

Wikipedia reveals that Whip-Smart is Phair's highest selling album to date, and that SPIN really did give this album a 9?? Really?? I barely remember most of it, although I do recall considering the title track as quite awkward.. Yeah, whatever.. Memory/nostalgia-wise, "Supernova" gets lumped in with song's like Dinosaur Jr's "Feel The Pain" and Stereolab's "Ping Pong.." I'm pretty sure these songs were on 120 Minutes right around the same time. P.S. This information is meaningless.

For whatever reason, the retardedly simple guitar-riff screams out "90's cool" in a way that surpasses the goodness of "Fuck And Run" or "Divorce Song." And real quick, can we have a show of hands for anyone else who digs the line "You fuck like a volcano?" Nice, I knew there were a few of you out there. Instead of embarrassing herself years later by collaborating with The Matrix and trying to sound like Avril Lavigne, an album full of "Supernova" ripoffs would have been gladly welcomed.

90's Jams (Bonus): Ash "Girl From Mars" (1995)

This is starting to get weird.. I think all of the "Bonus" 90's Jams release dates extend only between 1993 and 1996. Meh.. whatever. So I was just about to post something along the lines of "Damn, I read somewhere that Ash wrote this song in 10 minutes back when they were only like 16," but then I remembered that I often confuse the stories between "Girl From Mars" and its sister-Jam "Kung Fu.." So that story does not pertain to this song. I was also going to mention that it's included on the Angus soundtrack, but it turns out that was also regarding "Kung Fu."

However, the entire 1977 LP was written and recorded while the band was only 16, so I guess that part of the story still holds up... I suppose it's notable that "Girl From Mars" had a different music video in the UK than in the US. I think I like the UK one better..

90's Jams (Bonus): Wilco "Box Full Of Letters" (1995)

We've previously posted the same video on our somewhat aborted blog project called Country Caravan which was supposed to coincide with a radio show that ended up only lasting 4 or 5 weeks in the summer of 2010. I haven't heard all of Wilco's first record yet, but this song specifically has been beckoning me to check out the rest.. Considering the most perfect examples of fusions of power-pop and alt-country, this is the best one we could find so far..

90's Jams (Bonus): Beastie Boys featuring Q-Tip "Get It Together" (1994)

I don't see how this couldn't be the result of Q-Tip & Beastie Boys playing around in the studio with about a pound of weed and just throwing out the first things that come to mind... They try their best to pull it together, and more than likely have no memory whatsoever of laying down one of the most understated and alltime best party tracks..

90's Jams (Bonus): Supergrass "Lose It" (1995)

"Lose It" is hardly recognized as Supergrass's best song, and it's probably not.. There's really nothing special or more perfect about it compared to "Caught By The Fuzz" or "Alright," but we strongly believe it's their most exciting-sounding song, and the one that sounds best on the radio. The opening riff pretty much begs the listener to crank up the volume.. Supergrass doesn't try to make it anything more than a loud kickass pop song.. Nothing pretentious. Just rock.

90's Jams (Bonus): Belle And Sebastian "Like Dylan In The Movies" (1996)

I've still never seen Don't Look Back.. With the exception of "How Soon Is Now," this is better than pretty much any Smiths song... It's wussy shit, but I can't help it.. this song is amazing.

90's Jams (Bonus): Ween "Baby Bitch" (1994)

This song is kinda remarkable since Ween ended up spoofing Elliott Smith probably before ever hearing what he sounded like.. except it doesn't sound like a joke, it sounds sincere, and was probably Ween's most straightforward song lyrically up until that point..

90's Jams (Bonus): Stereolab "Ping Pong" (1994)

Good keyboards in this one...

90's Jams (Bonus): Deluxx Folk Implosion "Daddy Never Understood" (1995)

You gotta give the kids something to scream along to and bang their heads to... The 10 second mellotron solo gives it that extra layer of depth it fucking deserves... Strangely, I'd bet this actually was NOT the shortest video ever played on 120 Minutes... and probably not even the shortest within this episode... Also, handclaps...

90's Jams (Bonus): Busta Rhymes "Dangerous" (1997)

I'm not sure how this video didn't make it into the "20 best videos" list from a little while back.. Also special props for sampling the chorus from a scary-as-fuck anti-drug PSA from the early 80's... ... well either scary as fuck or cute as fuck, depending on your POV...

90's Jams (Bonus): Sloan "Pen Pals" (1994)

There's 12 more 90's jams... after #90 the numbers really don't matter quite as much, so they won't be announced in any specific order...

I'm pretty sure these dudes were on some serious ass hallucinogens... Okay, I'm taking this information with a grain of salt since I'm reading it from the Youtube comments of this video, but were the lyrics really taken from Nirvana fan letters?

90's Jams #1: Radiohead "Paranoid Android" (1997)

There's a reason why people yawn at statements like "Paranoid Android is the Jesus of rock music" or "Paranoid Android is absolute pinnacle of 90's rock," which is because those people are getting tired of everyone stating the obvious. When the same shit continuously places at #1, even if everyone loves it, the top spot starts to look obvious and boring. But there's a reason why beloved songs are beloved. We at this website will openly admit to being enormous suckers for multi-part epic radio singles, and we will probably forever be guilty of placing the best of these among the best songs of their respective decades... "Oh! Pretty Woman," "Good Vibrations," "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Bad Romance." One of these even made our 90's Guilty Pleasures list with George Michael's "Freedom '90."

Whether "Paranoid Android" is the best of these is up for debate. However, it's just so tightly woven... Every last intricacy.. The woodblock clicks during the acoustic guitar riff.. The text-to-speech voice saying "I may be paranoid, but not an android.." Nigel Godrich's production.. The little off-notes in Jonny Greenwood's ridiculously absurd guitar solos, especially the one in the last 30 seconds or so.. truly one of the greatest of alltime. It may take years to spot every last subtlety and nuance. Its density is surely part of the appeal, and completely necessary considering the weight of its lyrical subject matter. Thom Yorke described it as being about "carnage," while the chaotic and alienating nature of the 2000's and the internet age have surely redefined its subject matter.

Radiohead started putting this song together in 1996 while they were on tour opening for Alanis Morrisette, at just about the halfway point between the cathartic rock heard on The Bends and everything before it, and the progressive Kid A, the signal of everything that was to follow. Arguably, "Paranoid Android" splits the difference of all of Radiohead's best attributes, all in one trippy 6.5 minute little world... Unlike anything else they've ever released, and yet somehow also their most definitive moment. Outside of the modern rock spectrum that was truly built around "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "Android" is the one moment in 90's music with an absolute "before" and "after."

90's Jams #2: Aphex Twin "Windowlicker" (1999)

I very suddenly feel extremely fucking strange. Did someone just slip me a roofie? Wait a sec... Yeah, it's acid. Fuck. No wait... It's the poison. Someone is trying to kill me. The poison is working its way through the system. And "Windowlicker" is the soundtrack to that poison.. the slippery sounds that take place when Richard D James made a 2-song decision (between "Come To Daddy" and this one) to become an ultra-rockstar.. among the greatest ever, in fact. And all without picking up a single guitar or singing a single note of music. Throughout 1999, "Windowlicker" became one of the most bizarre earworms ever, maintaining a melodic structure while ripping through its theme and variations. Its intricacies are done in such a way that the song really demands repeated listenings, and it will get stuck there after around the 5th or 6th listen. At one point, I became convinced that every last sound used in this song was sampled from porn, which is still a strong possibility at this point.

And if that wasn't enough, for those not aware, this is part of the song...


Edit: Okay, I just looked it up and that face is actually on Track 2 of the Windowlicker single, and not in the song itself... However, the very end of "Windowlicker" does include this cool swirley thing:

90's Jams #3: Nirvana "Aneurysm" (1991)

Please forgive our use of "epic" in this case, since the term is virtually meaningless at this point due to its overuse in describing lolcats pics. However, the actual definition of "epic" is probably the best possible single-word description for "Aneurysm," due to its enormous build and release structure. It's simply Nirvana at their most massive, and probably the most perfect combination of metal and punkrock, existing about halfway in the middle of a civil war cannon battle between Black Sabbath and Sex Pistols. It was the logical next step after Nirvana recruited Dave Grohl, which Kurt Cobain clearly understood as it's one of the rare Nirvana songs to issue songwriting credit to all three band members. It would not be obvious until reading Come As You Are that the lyrics are yet another song written "about a girl.." Turns out there were a lot more of those than we thought. And based on the intensity of the music, this particular situation may have been just a bit frustrating.

It's also not typical for such a beloved track within a huge band's catalog to have no definitive version.. The b-side on "Smells Like Teen Spirit" came first and was the rawest... The BBC session take from Incesticide is what most people have heard, which increases the production value and sounds like they've been practicing it a lot. It was recorded in late 1991, a time when really any live version of "Aneurysm" could have been considered just as perfect, especially the Amsterdam version heard on Live! Tonight! Sold Out!

90's Jams #4: The Notorious B.I.G. "Gimme The Loot" (1994)

In probably his most intimidating and rawest performance, here lies the proof that Big Smalls was hiphop's most convincing and greatest storyteller.. (Nothing that happens in this song is true.) And probably the best song for tricking people into believing that he collaborated with ODB... Turns out Biggie & Puff Daddy thought up the brilliant idea of trying to make the same voice sound like a gang of rappers, since #1 the intensity of the rhymes calls for some lyrical overlap, and #2 Have you ever actually tried rapping along to this song with the same vocal inflection and pitch? You WILL run out of breath... It's like running a fucking marathon.. Although that doesn't stop people from trying (Artie Lange did an ok job).. While "Juicy" is the jam that permanently placed his name in the history books, "Gimme The Loot" is the kind of stuff that can turn someone from "amazing" to "legendary.."

90's Jams #5: Aaliyah "One In A Million" (1996)

Timbaland's canvas was as huge as the entire great big starry moonless fucking 2AM sky, and he filled in every last spot with layers upon layers of precious subtlety. As a result, there is a very strong chance, upon the first listen, that the listener will NOT AT ALL get what makes this song the absolute pinnacle of not only 90's R&B, but 90's pop singles, period. Within "One In A Million's" dozens of brilliant subtleties, the absolute standout would have to be its inventive arrangement, showcasing motherfucking cricket noises as a percussion instrument... and backwards-reverb on a recurring soul-guitar fill... Let's just take a moment to really let those 2 elements sink in, considering this song was played on Hot 97 constantly, and sounded nothing like anything else in the world of radio R&B at the time, but somehow set a course in place (along with a handful of other radio singles, most notably "Pony" and "The Rain") to permanently alter pop music production over the next 6-7 years.

Other noteworthy brilliant subtleties, in no particular order:
#1 17-year-old* Aaliyah's barely not-that-innocent delivery, although no more naughty than what high school kids are normally concerned with... We do miss her so.
#2 The vocal arrangement and lyrics were more than likely Missy Elliott's biggest contribution, mostly noteworthy for how they blend so perfectly with Timbaland's warm and silky keyboard arrangement..
#3 This particular style of percussion arrangement, with its slight nods to early 90's drum-n-bass, spent a good 2-3 years lingering within the top 10 singles chart in tracks like Usher's "Nice And Slow" and Christina Aguilera's "Genie In A Bottle," although it was never quite like the first time..

(*Considering Bieber and Earl Sweatshirt and that chick from iCarly are now the same age as Aaliyah when the One In A Million LP was released, she seems notably mature in comparison... And as far as we can tell, her particular style of "teen-girl subtly hinting at promiscuity" predates everyone else, albeit much more tastefully than what followed...)

And that's the bulk of it... With this song, Missy & Timbo kicked off their trippy futuristic sci-fi party. There's a fitting night shot at the end of this video with Aaliyah riding with some motorcycle dude over a bridge with the stars above them. You can listen to this during the day if you want to, but "One In A Million" is a perfect jam for the stars...

90's Jams #6: Depeche Mode "Enjoy The Silence" (1990)

From Wikipedia: 4′33″ (pronounced Four, thirty-three) is a three-movement composition by American experimental composer John Cage (1912–1992). It was composed in 1952 for any instrument (or combination of instruments), and the score instructs the performer not to play the instrument during the entire duration of the piece throughout the three movements. It is commonly perceived as "four minutes thirty-three seconds of silence." In a 1982 interview, and on numerous other occasions, Cage stated that 4′33″ was, in his opinion, his most important work.

4'33 seems to be a celebration of all Earthly sounds, no matter how quiet. And when Dave Gahan sings "All I ever needed is here in my arms" and starts denouncing all spoken words, it seems like the "silence" he explains is "absence of words" and not necessarily "absence of all sound." In either case, there IS sound. In "The Sounds Of Silence," Simon & Garfunkel sang about moments within the "silence," which were the sounds that were heard in 4'33. So Gahan wants us to embrace (or enjoy) those sounds (the silence). And if you're gonna sing about embracing the silence, your synths better sound like a cathedral and your guitars better sound like riding on horses in the desert - in other words, a lonely experience, since the inevitable words like violence will break the silence and come crashing in, ultimately putting an end to what's there in his arms... It's a weighty message, and one that could ironically only really be told the best way through a gorgeous pop song.

Never knew this existed until a few minutes ago, but here's an alternate version of the video shot from the roof of the World Trade Center in 1990: