Album Reviews I Wrote As A Teenager: The Best Albums Of 1995

In which we learn exactly how much I liked "One Hot Minute" when I was 18

When I was 15, I started writing a biweekly column for my local newspaper, the Appleton Post-Crescent. Most of the time, I wrote album reviews. I saved many of them in a blue binder I now keep in my office. I am now sharing them with you. Here is a column about my favorite albums of 1995, from Dec. 20, 1995, published when I was 18 (with occasional commentary by present-day me.)

Every year, I sit down and compile a list of my five favorite CDs of the past 12 months. The process has become kind of haphazard of late. Some of my favorite albums released in 1994 didn’t make my list because I didn’t hear them until 1995. This includes Tom Petty’s Wildflowers, Soundgarden’s Superunknown, and Oasis’ Definitely Maybe.

[My mind is blown. I didn’t hear those albums until 1995? That doesn’t … seem right? At least it’s not how I remember it. But it’s obviously correct? I guess it makes sense because I had to buy every album I heard back then. Which means I had to have the money, and the means of transportation to get to the record store, and neither of those things were easy to procure.

I also have to laugh at the “experienced critic” pose I strike here. I’m pretty sure I didn’t start making year-end lists until, like, 1993, a full two years before I wrote this. How many albums did I even hear in 1995? Was I picking five CDs from maybe 30 or 35 CDs I bought that year?]

So it’s with apprehension that I make my list for 1995. In no particular order …

[By the way, at this point the Post-Crescent was running my photo with every column. It looked like this.]

Matthew Sweet, 100% Fun

The guitar-pop album of the year, maybe even the decade. Sweet draws on the melodic strength of the Beatles and fuses it with the inspired rawness of Neil Young.

100% Fun is loaded with fantastic songs played with the appropriate edginess. Quite simply the most compulsively listenable record since Weezer’s debut last year.

[The guitar-pop album of the decade! Whoa! Bold choice, 18-year-old me. This list is unranked, but the tone of this blurb suggests that this was my favorite album of 1995. I’m listening to it right now and it really is ... pretty good! But it’s not even the best Matthew Sweet album of the ’90s! That would be Girlfriend or — if you’re a true head — Altered Beast.]

Oasis, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory

With their debut, Definitely Maybe, Oasis had one of the best albums of 1994. Now their second album has placed them among the best of ’95.

This feisty five-piece British unit is one of the brightest hopes for the future.

Noel Gallagher has established himself as one of rock’s brightest writers and brother Liam Gallagher’s cockney-infected singing voice is incredible. All of this comes together for tracks like “Some Might Say,” which is the great lost rock classic of the year.

[“Cockney-infected singing voice” — really needed my editor to step in here.]

Red Hot Chili Peppers, One Hot Minute

One Hot Minute may well go down as the first Chili Peppers record with a real guitar player.

Former Jane’s Addiction’s guitarist Dave Navarro added strong sonic punch to the Chili Peppers’ funky stew, resulting in one of the best records.

Whether brooding beautifully with “My Friends” or rocking out with “One Big Mob,” One Hot Minute is a joy from start to finish.

[A very perverse review of one of the least liked Chili Peppers records! The Frusciante diss is insane! Perfect blurb, no notes!]

Bruce Springsteen, The Ghost Of Tom Joad

A haunting experience. Bruce Springsteen may no longer be the multi-platinum star he was in the ’80s, but the power of his great music remains.

Echoing the spark Nebraska released a decade earlier, Ghost Of Tom Joad is a powerful statement for the underclass of America. In a music world dominated by grunge rock and gangsta rap, Springsteen’s quiet intensity speaks loudest of all.

[I love it now but I doubt I played this album all the way through at the time. This blurb sounds like something I would have read in Rolling Stone — likely written by David Fricke or Anthony DeCurtis — and inadvertently regurgitated.}

Smashing Pumpkins, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

A massive double album, rock ‘n’ roll behemoth, the Smashing Pumpkins have established themselves as one of the top bands of today with this document.

Some of the greatest music the Pumpkins have ever created is on this disc: “Bullet With Butterfly Wings, “Porcelina Of The Vast Oceans” and “Where Boys Fear To Tread.”

Billy Corgan, writer of 26 of the 28 songs, is clearly one of the most ambitious students of his generation. In all, the Pumpkins have created a great epic of disillusionment and guitar glory.

[I think I meant it as a compliment but calling Billy Corgan “one of the most ambitious students of his generation” is a pretty hilarious insult.]

Honorable mention: Guided By Voices’ Alien Lanes, which is like garage rock in the style of Abbey Road, and Neil Young’s Mirror Ball.

[Alien Lanes is my current favorite album of 1995, and one of my favorite albums of all time, and the inspiration for the name of this newsletter! But when I was 18, it wasn’t quite as good as One Hot Minute.]