The Best Albums of 1991
The albums of 1991 the retrospective best-of lists keep naming are mostly not the ones that sold. Rank them and see. Three of 1991's fourteen American number ones qualify, two of the fourteen are 1990 records, and fourteen-times-platinum Ropin' the Wind is named by one of these four rankings. Entry needs an original studio album first released anywhere in 1991; concert recordings, compilations, EPs, soundtracks, remix collections and earlier reissues are each barred outright. Then two or more of four retrospective 1991 rankings name it: Slant (2017), Paste (2021), uDiscover (2022) and classical-music.com (2026). A ranking older than a record could not have ranked it; all four postdate 1991, so every denominator is four, and the bands are four mentions, three and two. Where a qualifying act has two or more 1991 records, the one on more rankings stays; a tie drops both. Each album links to the earliest edition Spotify carries, judged by track count and track titles and never by a printed date; where the 1991 master cannot be pinned down, the item says so.
Massive Attack — Blue Lines (1991) is #1 on “The Best Albums of 1991”.
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Massive Attack — Blue Lines (1991)
Named by four of four, and the open question is the master rather than the edition. Wikipedia records a 2012 Mix/Master with LOUD Mastering credited for remixing and remastering. Album of the Year links the record to an Apple page reading blue-lines-2012-mix-master, so the tape Spotify serves may not be the 1991 one. Safe From Harm is where it starts.
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R.E.M. — Out Of Time (1991)
Four of four, on a record out on 12 March 1991 that Spotify holds under four separate ids, among them a (U.S. Version) and a 25th Anniversary Edition, so the bare-titled eleven-track id is the one matching the original eleven. Radio Song opens with a spoken-word introduction from KRS-One, before the band plays a note.
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Nirvana — Nevermind (1991)
Unanimous twice over, because four rankings of four name it and four of four put it first. Killing Joke said the riff of Come As You Are took from their 1985 single Eighties, and Wikipedia records conflicting reports about whether a lawsuit was ever filed. The release date is 24 September 1991, making 24 September 2026 the thirty-fifth anniversary to the day. Spotify's twelve-track carrier prints the 26th and leaves out the hidden Endless, Nameless.
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My Bloody Valentine — Loveless (1991)
Paste, uDiscover and Slant all place it second, while classical-music.com places it fifteenth of seventeen, so membership is four of four and position is anyone's guess. to here knows when is where the bent pitch stops reading as an effect and starts reading as the instrument. Eleven tracks, every title in lower case on the carrier, the way the sleeve has them.
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A Tribe Called Quest — The Low End Theory (1991)
Jive released it on 24 September 1991, the same day as Nevermind and Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and it takes a mention from each of the four rankings. Excursions opens the fourteen tracks at 3:55. Spotify files the closer under a mix name and the other thirteen plainly.
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U2 — Achtung Baby (1991)
Four mentions from four rankings, on a record U2 began at Hansa in Berlin in October 1990 and finished across Dublin studios by September 1991, with the band, as Wikipedia has it, having "considered breaking up". Zoo Station opens the twelve. U2's Spotify page lists a Deluxe Edition and a 30th Anniversary Edition and nothing else, and a bare-titled id prints the correct 18 November 1991 date over twenty-six tracks, while the twelve-track id is not on that page.
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Talk Talk — Laughing Stock (1991)
All four counted have it, and the spread is the story, with classical-music.com second of seventeen against a twenty-second of thirty at Paste and a sixteenth at uDiscover. New Grass runs 9:40 of a record that lasts 43:29 across six tracks. Verve and Polydor put it out on 16 September 1991, and Spotify's carrier is those same six under bare titles.
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Primal Scream — Screamadelica (1991)
All four rankings include it, and the first Mercury Music Prize followed in 1992. Creation issued it in Britain on 23 September 1991 and Sire in America on 8 October, both inside the year, so the first-territory rule never had to choose. American pressings substitute a Terry Farley mix of Come Together, and the id this one replaced printed exactly that, while three of the eleven titles here carry a mix name of their own.
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Slint — Spiderland (1991)
Touch and Go released it on 27 March 1991, and the ranking count is three of four, with Britt Walford and Brian McMahan both coming through Squirrel Bait. Washer runs 8:50, the longest of the six tracks. Spotify prints 15 March on the carrier, twelve days early.
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Pearl Jam — Ten (1991)
Out on 27 August 1991, weeks before the other two Seattle records of that year, with three mentions across the four rankings. Black was never released as a commercial single. Epic pressed eleven tracks and Spotify carries exactly those eleven, with a Ten (Legacy Edition) alongside them.
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Pixies — Trompe le Monde (1991)
A record out on 23 September 1991, the day before Nevermind, and its count is three from a possible four. Fifteen tracks, closing on The Navajo Know at 2:20. Spotify has two ids for this one, and the linked id carries fifteen bare titles where the original had fifteen, with the band splitting up two years afterwards.
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Soundgarden — Badmotorfinger (1991)
Three rankings name it, out of four, with classical-music.com placing it third of seventeen against uDiscover's twenty-fourth. A&M released it on 8 October 1991, twelve tracks running 57:42, and New Damage closes it. The original half-inch master burned in the 2008 Universal vault fire and the 25th anniversary edition was built from a backup digital tape, so no carrier can be shown to come from the 1991 one.
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Red Hot Chili Peppers — Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991)
Named by three, out of four, on a record issued on 24 September 1991, which is also Nevermind's date and The Low End Theory's. Paste has it fifteenth of thirty, uDiscover seventeenth and classical-music.com sixteenth of seventeen. Breaking The Girl arrives third among the seventeen, and a Deluxe Edition id carries nineteen while printing the same 1991 date.
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De La Soul — De La Soul Is Dead (1991)
Tommy Boy put it out on 14 May 1991, and it takes three mentions from the four rankings. The CD ran twenty-seven tracks and the vinyl twenty-two, five short, so the twenty-seven-track carrier is the CD shape rather than an expansion. Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey) sits at twenty-one. De La Soul's Spotify page does not list this album at all.
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Metallica — Metallica (1991)
Three of a possible four carry it, and uDiscover has it fourth while Paste leaves it in the bottom third of thirty. Twelve tracks, out on 12 August 1991, closing on The Struggle Within. Hetfield and Ulrich take a production credit alongside Bob Rock, the three of them named together, and Rock had expected the job to be easy.
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Teenage Fanclub — Bandwagonesque (1991)
Two mentions across the four rankings, and Spin's 1991 album-of-the-year pick was this one, a fifth opinion outside the four counted. Creation shipped it on 4 November 1991 and DGC followed in America on the 19th, so both halves of the split land in 1991. Is This Music? is Gerard Love's closer at 3:18, the twelfth of twelve.
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Dinosaur Jr. — Green Mind (1991)
Two rankings of a possible four, and the record came out on 19 February 1991 carrying ten tracks with the title track last. The reachable Spotify id shows a bare Green Mind on its album page while its own track pages print the album as Green Mind [Digital Version] [with Bonus Tracks] and count thirty-four. The id used instead has the original ten.
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The Orb — Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld (1991)
Counted twice by the four rankings, and the edition question is geographic. Britain got two CDs running 109 minutes and the American single CD is a shorter edit at 70, with Back Side Of The Moon on the first and not the second. Spotify spells the closer's subtitle Live Mix Mark 10 where the sleeve has Mk 10, and either way it names a track and not an edition.
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Prince and the New Power Generation — Diamonds and Pearls (1991)
Out on 1 October 1991, credited to Prince and the New Power Generation, with two of the four rankings carrying it. Thirteen tracks, which is exactly what Spotify holds under that plain title. Live 4 Love closes it, although the sleeve adds Last Words from the Cockpit to that title. The 2023 super deluxe stacks thirty-three unreleased recordings on top.
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Fugazi — Steady Diet of Nothing (1991)
Eleven tracks, two mentions of a possible four, and a date that shows why the printed one is useless: Wikipedia has it out on 1 July 1991 while Spotify's page says 1 August. KYEO ends the record either way, and the carrier holds eleven bare titles against an original eleven.
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Primus — Sailing the Seas of Cheese (1991)
Shared its release date, 14 May 1991, with De La Soul Is Dead, and two rankings of the four name it. The most reachable Spotify id runs sixteen tracks under a bare title while the thirteen-track original sits on the artist page. Los Bastardos closes the thirteen.
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Matthew Sweet — Girlfriend (1991)
Fifteen tracks, not the twelve a 2014 vinyl reissue used, and two mentions out of four rankings. Spotify's bare-titled id has all fifteen. Its twin there is the 2006 Legacy Edition: eighteen on disc one after three bonus tracks, then a thirteen-track second disc of demos and live versions called Goodfriend, which is where thirty-one comes from. Nothing Lasts closes the original.
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