Top 10 Pop albums of the 90's. A MUST listen for everyone.

Top 10 Albums of the 90s’ (towards Pop)

For this review, we’re not choosing albums seeing their critical reception or sales. They may or may not be a commercial success (although good music is hard to go unnoticed). But our selected few are albums that are a must-listen-to for any music fanatic; each song offers a special something to the listener.

Number 10: On the 6 (1999) By Jennifer Lopez 

“Let’s Get Loud” as J Lo channels her Hispanic roots producing cleverly composed love songs in English and Spanish that one can dance, laugh and cry to. The lyrical content is strong and motivational with “Feeling So Good,” “Got rid of my fears that were holding me…” and also very commanding in “Open Off My Love” and “It’s Not That Serious.” ,“Could This Be Love” and “Waiting For Tonight” are precious musical gems of the album. And in “No Me Ames” Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony present a beautiful Spanish ballad of why must and mustn’t the singers fall in love. It earns a score of 7/10.

Number 9: Don’t Ask (1994) By Tina Arena

Starting with the dramatic beats of “Chains” then the singer’s prayer of “Heaven Help My Heart” wondering whether “Love Is the Answer” or not, the album works via incredible beats and meaningful poetry. Couldn’t one “Be a Man” and understand “That’s the Way a Woman Feels?” Because that’s the “Message” and she’s “Standing Up” fusing drums and guitars in a melodious fashion with her peculiar voice being one of the strongest components of the album. It earns a score of 9/10.

Number 8: Janet. (1993) By Janet Jackson

The album starts as a power house dynamo of a pop and hip-hop ball of fire coming towards the listener with “You Want This” and “If”. Then opera fuses into the dance beats impressively, followed by a provocative “Throb". Dramatic beats continue with hints of Jazz and finally a turn brings us to the slow sensual side with “Where Are You Now” and “The Body That Loves You” .  A sequence of narrative interludes between the tracks follows throughout the album bringing it to life even more.
All in all, the album is a charismatic and tempting progression of bold and daring lyrics with energetic instrumentality. It earns a score of 9/10.

Number 7: Shepherd Moons (1991) By Enya

For times when one wants to leave the bitter tragedies of the world and submerge oneself in a state of calm and poise, the album offers tranquil music to ease the mind. Music that makes the scorching sun a little less bright and the thunderous rain a little more calm. With themes of belief in oneself (Caribbean Blue) and “no storm can shake my inmost calm” (How Can I Keep From Singing), and “no day, no night, no moment can hold me back from trying” (Book of Days). The album uplifts and carries the listener to fantastical fantasies and Elvish inspired lands (Lothlorien) through melody. After the trance of calm, comes great melancholy in “Evacuee” and “Smaointe…” through Enya’s heavenly Gaelic vocalization and the sublime use of uilleann pipes.
The album is a beautiful amalgamation of Gaelic, Latin and English language that captures the beauty of a mix of classical music, opera and the Celts. It earns a score of 9/10.

Number 6: Let’s Talk About Love (1997) By Celine Dion

An album which features Celine’s finest vocals swimming between themes of strength and weakness, love gained and lost. The album features many tremendous covers and duets with renowned artists like in “Immortality” (Bee Gees), “Tell Him” (Barbra Streisand), “I Hate You Then I Love You” (Luciano Pavarotti) and others. “Amar Haciendo El Amor” pops up as an energetic Spanish song. “Miles To Go” melts the heart, followed by the rib-rattling “Us” then a little bit of choir and dance with “Just a Little Bit of Love” lightens the mood. Finally the majestic “My Heart Will Go On” serenades the audience followed by more heavy-hearted ballads.
The album’s pop and dance vibes with and hints of latin, reggage, opera and classical music inspired melodies guarantee ultimate euphony. It earns a score of 9/10.

Number 5: MCMXC a. D. (1990) By Enigma

This album is a wonderful composition of heart racing Latin and Gregorian chants followed by erratic dance beats. Seeming like a long play, the tracks take their highs and lows. Being silent, having murmurs or taking an eerie incantatory tone with shifts between English, German and French languages, all the while having perfectly synchronized drums, pianos, shakuhachi flutes and other instruments that fade into one another, creating an outstanding melody. With snippets from other “dark tunes” of the past, narrations of revelations from the Holy Scripture and chants in forward and reverse order, the music of the album is truly an enigma!
The album promises to “take you with us into another world, into a world of music, spirit and meditation,” (The Voice of Enigma) and so it does, majestically. It earns a score of 10/10.

Number 4: Size Isn’t Everything (1993) By Bee Gees

This album has a major theme of love-gone-wrong for which the musicians are “Paying the Price of Love” in a “Haunted House” yet they go back for a “Kiss of Life”. The music is a good combination of fast and mellow, rock and percussion beats, with a hint of Jazz as they go “Above and Beyond” doing “Anything for You!” The brothers Gibb display their gifts of immaculate poetic wisdom fused with sensual melody in each song countering love, death, ache and party anthems (Decandance). “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “Heart Like Mine” are a must listen to for their heart touching musicality.
“Through the tears and the turbulent years” they bring you a Pop Rock album that makes you sway and cry, and simply enjoy. It earns a score of 10/10.

Number 3: HIStory: Past Present And Future Book I (1995) By Michael Jackson

When it’s MJ, one is sure to hear some powerful world betterment lyrics that ask them not to be “2 Bad” but to “Come Together” , “Smile” and know that “You Are Not Alone” with a stupendous combination of musical instruments that make the soul groove and think. But in this album one also gets to hear the singer’s plea to break free from the chains of “Tabloid Junkies” and the economic prison of “Money” ‘cause “They Don’t Care About Us”. From soft tunes of “Strangers in Moscow” lament for “Little Susie” and beautiful “Earth Song” to the cries of children in D.S. the album is HIS-story of being who he was and how there can be no one like him, ever and ever. It earns a score of 10/10.

Number 2: Dangerous (1991) By Michael Jackson

Oh what not to say about this terrifically upbeat, dance, pop-rock and ballad filled album!?
From simple confrontations of a cheating lover and bad love life decisions to the world’s problems, every track in this album has a moving message for the society to help and feel for others, wrapped in a series of tremendous accumulation of drum beats, electric guitars, piano, choir, orchestra and everything you’d like to hear. The album makes one jump and dance ‘cause there’s “divinity in motion” (Dangerous) while also bringing tears to the eyes with lyrics like “Gone Too Soon,” and “you got homeless people with no food to eat…” (Why You Wanna Trip On Me). And also brings inspiration to the soul by singing “no matter what it’s gonna take, you can be a winner” if you just “Keep the Faith.” So when you listen to this album you know you can “Jam” and “Heal the World.”. It earns a score of 10/10.

Number 1: Ray of Light (1998) By Madonna

Unlike any of Madonna’s previous works, Ray of Light encompasses the listeners in a magical realm of mysticism and ancient religion, with ambient, techno and electronic beats. It features many mature, lesson-learning lyrics in “Drowned World,” “Sky Fits Heaven” and “Nothing Really Matters,” and descriptions of the brutal realities of life in “Swim.” As there “Has to Be” tragic love, the feeling “To Have and Not To Hold” her “Frozen” lover, this “Candy Perfume Girl” laments on “The Power of Goodbye.” “Mer Gir” becomes the tipping point for emotions in the album as the singer reminisces her mother’s death. The emotional impact continues but more tenderly with “Little Girl” a dedication to Madonna’s then newborn daughter Lourdes “my life, my soul, you make my spirit whole.”
The album lets the listener explore the worlds of electronica in an eastern and Moroccan style with some grungy drum and bass and overall procession of superbly coordinated ecstatic beats.
It earns a score of 10/10.

Author:Schanza Bukhari