5 Incredible Albums Released 35 Years Ago This Month

The year 1990 remains a fascinating era in the history of music. Hip-hop greats were releasing classics on the regular, while alternative music was starting to make a huge dent on those tiring of overproduced rock. Those genres are represented in this list of five incredible albums released 35 years ago this month. And that still leaves room for an elegy delivered by two long-feuding legends.

Videos by American Songwriter

‘Fear Of A Black Planet’ by Public Enemy

Fear Of A Black Planet needs no context to thrill and inspire. But when you consider just how much animus was aimed towards Chuck D and company at the time of its making, it’s even more impressive. The Bomb Squad production team deserves a great deal of credit for the claustrophobic, unrelenting funk that they devise. Flavor Flav delivers what might be his two most effective leads on “911 Is A Joke” and “Can’t Do Nuttin’ For Ya Man”.

Beyond that, it’s Chuck D.’s show, as he rages eloquently and unapologetically against injustice and hypocrisy on tracks like “Brothers Gonna Work It Out”, “Burn Hollywood Burn” (with Ice Cube and Big Daddy Kane), and, of course, “Fight The Power”.

‘Songs For Drella’ by Lou Reed and John Cale

It took the death of Andy Warhol to finally put Lou Reed and John Cale back together. The former Velvet Underground buried the hatchet for a little while to deliver this mostly unsentimental, yet still moving, tribute to their former mentor, Andy Warhol.

Cale brings some of the formality of his solo work to the proceedings, while Reed’s lead guitar has rarely been as lyrical. The pair doesn’t shy away from their occasional frustration with Warhol. But they also humanize him to a great extent, from humble beginnings (“Smalltown”) to a lonely end (“A Dream”). We said mostly unsentimental above, because Reed takes the opportunity for a heartfelt goodbye on “Hello It’s Me”, which lays bare his regrets at their estrangement.

‘People’s Instinctive Travels And The Paths Of Rhythm’ by A Tribe Called Quest

No one begrudges an act taking an album or two to find their sound. But A Tribe Called Quest dispensed with all that, coming right out of the gate with their jazzy, trippy approach pretty much intact. This is one of the most incredible albums of the 1990s.

These guys have the reputation of being on the softer side of the rap spectrum. If you believe that, you need to listen again to blistering tracks like “Public Enemy” and “Go Ahead In The Rain”. The memorable singles (“I Left My Wallet In El Segundo” and “Bonita Applebaum”) found them getting alternately surreal and sultry. Q-Tip was the mastermind, both in terms of lyrics and production. But how can we forget Phife Dawg’s one-for-the-ages verse on “Can I Kick It?”

‘Reading, Writing And Arithmetic’ by The Sundays

Legions of fans around the world still hope that this British band that left us wanting more might one day come back and do it again. The Sundays released just three incredible albums and then stepped off the stage. When you listen to Reading, Writing And Arithmetic, you can understand why the demand is so high.

Songwriters Harriet Wheeler and David Gavurin deliver a set of achy narratives, which were perfect for Wheeler’s high-arcing vocals. Musically, the interweaving guitars naturally propel the material into epic territory. When it all comes together, as on “Here’s Where The Story Ends” and “Joy”, they balance delicacy and power in ways that few bands can.

‘Days Of Open Hand’ by Suzanne Vega

The follow-up to the hit album often gets a bit fussier, a bit more ornate, maybe a little bit harder to pin down. And those are all fair assessments of this album. Three years earlier, Vega broke through with Solitude Standing. While there’s nothing on Days Of Open Hand as immediately accessible as her surprise hit single “Luka”, the songs included reward those with the space and the patience to give them their proper attention.

“Book Of Dreams” emits some dreamy fun, “Room Off The Street” teems with brilliant storytelling and character sketching, and the Philip Glass collaboration “Fifty-Fifty Chance” succeeds at a high degree of difficulty.

Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images