Staff Playlist #7: The 1990s

Our playlist series rumbles on. The 1990s was the first decade that all the No Ripcord writers will remember at least some of, even if they didn't necessarily fight in the shoegaze wars at the start of the decade. In the 1990s, we saw the tail end of acid house, baggy, grunge, Britpop and manufactured pop truly reigning, but what were the songs that we loved? Read on to find our favourite tracks - including, for the first time, one track chosen by two different writers - and to find why we love(d) them.

As always, you can listen to the playlist yourself, whether it be on last.fm, Spotify (Europe only), 8tracks or - for the very first time - Grooveshark. We'd also love to hear your thoughts on our choices, so get involved either on the Twitters or using the comment field at the bottom of the page.

Pulp - Bar Italia

While it was tempting to throw in something a little bit more leftfield – a Squarepusher track perhaps, or something off of 69 Love Songs – submitting Pulp for the 90's playlist seemed a lot more honest. I can define my music appreciation into two clear periods, BDC and ADC: Before and After Different Class. Not that I didn't have favourite bands before hearing my cousin's copy of the CD over the 1995 Christmas holidays, but it was the first time that I became properly obsessed with one. I may have moved on since then, but the album still manages to raise a smile whenever I stick it on, and I find that this, its closing track, has actually become more appealing over the years. Perhaps because it was the closest Jarvis Cocker got to admitting his advanced age, by pop star standards, when he finally did hit the big time. And, as an added bonus, it's one of the few Britpop songs that isn't about fucking Camden. Mark Davison

Swervedriver - Duel

How can you take the decade that basically shaped your whole outlook on music, a ten year period responsible for soundtracking your life from age 9 to 18, and narrow it down to two songs? It's an impossible task. I could have taken a million different paths here, but for this selection, I've decided to pick a track from an unheralded classic album. I've harped on about Swervedriver before, awarding the re-issues of Raise and Mezcal Head a rare 10/10 rating, but I still sincerely belief that this band deserves a larger audience and a greater level of respect. Duel is a great starting point for anyone new to the Swervies and singer/guitarist Adam Franklin has even described it as the most definitive Swervedriver recording. Listen, enjoy, and then devour the band's glorious back catalogue. David Coleman

My Bloody Valentine - Come In Alone

The New York no-wave scene from the late 70s/early 80s may have sown the seed, The Jesus & The Mary Chain may have popularized it, but it was My Bloody Valentine who oversaw the perfect marriage of reverb-drenched noise rock and pop songs. This track comes from their 1991 album, Loveless. When push comes to shove, Come In Alone is the most intimate track I’ve ever heard that is inherently designed – its cosmic guitars, ethereal vocals, and pounding rhythm – to disturb your neighbors. There’s simply no capacity for this song to be heard without the properly agonizing, deafening levels. At this point, you transcend into the core of 90s sentimentalism – whatever miserable mess of a world that may be. And whatever it is, it begins here. Press play, and play it loud. David Hogg

The Kinks - Scattered

Oasis and Nirvana represented the spirit of the age, yet I keep going back to Scattered by The Kinks, found in Phobia (1993). The loss of loved ones inspired this song, a meditation on life’s brevity and the mystery of existence. In true Kinks fashion, there is ambiguity. The departed left behind scattered clues that bring forth feelings of despair and yearning. But those feelings also lead to a quest for meaning, and there are intimations of immortality along the way. The song should rank among Ray Davies’ best. Angel Aguilar

Josh Wink - Higher State Of Consciousness

Frequently included on lists of the greatest dance music tracks of all time, Josh Wink's 1995 classic Higher State of Consciousness is the meeting of techno and acid-house, two genres that epitomise 1990s dance music. A deadly breakbeat drum pattern and the increasing distortion of one of the simplest, most recognisable riffs in the history of dance music are used together to great effect as the track slowly crescendos to off-the-wall heights. Craig Stevens

Radiohead - Climbing Up The Walls

It’s rare for the emotions in a song to physically manifest themselves in real life. Each time I listen to Climbing up the Walls though, I can actually feel a gentle tap on my shoulder, only to turn around and find nothing other than an eerie sense of tension. This song, for me, comes closest to summing up the abstraction of Radiohead and serves as an enchanting precursor to the fanatic experimentation they indulged in, which resulted in the masterpiece that is Kid A at the turn of the century. Not that OK Computer isn’t a masterpiece in itself too. Akhil Sood

Pavement - Trigger Cut/Wounded-Kite At :17

My second track – and the second single – from Pavement's era-defining Slanted and Enchanted sounds as fresh to me today as it did the first time I heard it eleven years ago. Yes, the lyrics are total gibberish, the guitars are a mess, the percussion is gloriously sloppy, but there's an energy to Trigger Cut... and the rest of its parent album that elevates it above every other indie-rock release of the decade. Britpop may have dominated the UK music press in the 90s, but the first three Pavement albums will always mean more to me than the entire careers of Oasis, Blur and Suede combined. David Coleman

"Lies and betrayals, fruit-covered nails, electricity and lust won’t break the door," drawls Stephen Malkmus on one of the greatest openings to a song ever recorded and arguably one of the finest songs in the much admired Pavement canon. Released as a single off one of the 90s' most important albums (Slanted and Enchanted) the effortless beauty of Trigger Cut... has all the flowing immediacy for which Pavement are now known and loved. Pierce Brown

Polaris - Hey Sandy

I'm a child of the 80s, but a product of the 90s. As such, some of my best memories involve watching the shows on Nickelodeon: Rocko's Modern Life, Ren and Stimpy, and Double Dare. But out of all the shows I watched growing up, none enthralled me more than The Adventures of Pete and Pete. And boy, if this show didn't have the best soundtrack ever for a kids' show, supplied primarily by Polaris, a side-project of Miracle Legion's Marc Mulcahy. If you're like me, you probably remember this song, and how flippin' awesome it was compared to other television shows' theme songs. If you don't, listen to it. Now. Preston Bernstein

Guided By Voices - Buzzards & Dreadful Crows

A two minute behemoth, this is from the classic Guided By Voices lineup lifted off their 1994 breakthrough album and lo-fi indie-rock landmark, Bee Thousand. Not only is this one of the great album tracks of the 90s, it may be the ultimate rock song. Recorded in a beer-drenched basement, gifted songwriter Robert Pollard wastes not a second within its tight, ultra-compact hooks and grinding chords. His now-legendary faux-British vocals drenched in reverb to simulate a mammoth sized auditorium, although the true power of the tune transcends any limitations within the 4-track format. A rock monster from one of the most important rock bands of the 90s. Pierce Brown

Deftones - Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away)

Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away) came out at a time when I was escaping private school and moving away from my parents for the first time; a perfect song for unjustified teenage rebellion. Even though I wasn't actually running from anything worth noting, except maybe a lame uniform and a curfew, Deftones gave me something to scream while anticipating the next phase of life. Chino's soothing cries falling over a punching bass line was the perfect sexy/dangerous sound I was looking for at the time. I still revert back to this song when I get the itch to move. Randi Dietiker

Aphex Twin - Windowlicker

I've never been particularly patriotic. Aside from the BBC and baked beans, there are few things that make me pleased to be British. However, the fact that the record-buying public made this a UK Top 20 hit in 1999 gives me a twinge of national pride. It's the kind of song that messes with your brain completely, it's full of ticks, glitches and samples, and never seems to quite settle down. It's not just astonishingly inventive, Windowlicker is also a spot-on parody of contemporary R&B that seems more relevant today than ever. As well as being a phenomenal track, there's also the landmark accompanying - and extremely NSFW - video. If you haven't seen it, you should definitely check it out, just don't come running to me if you have nightmares. Joe Rivers

Manic Street Preachers - 4st 7lbs

The Holy Bible is perhaps one of the most troubled and most brilliant albums ever to be unleashed on the world; the product of Richey Edwards' lyrical expression, it explored many of the darkest places of the human psyche with very little reservation. 4st 7lbs is one such example, delivering lines like, "I want to be so skinny / that I rot from view," horrifically chronicling the descent into the anorexia Edwards once suffered. It provides a harrowing portrait of the physical and mental deterioration of the nameless protagonist in unflinching detail - you may not want to hear it again, but you should certainly face it once. Joe Iliff

The Offspring - Have You Ever

Keeping aside the tedious accusations of selling out, the fact that The Offspring wrote powerful and catchy punk songs is hard to dispute. Have You Ever, the opener to their classic album, Americana, is just one of those songs that appears out of nowhere and hits you right in the face, setting the tone for a scathing satire of American existence masked by aggressive drums and memorable, hook-filled choruses. It’s got a youthful and infectious energy which pretty much sums up the 90s for me; relentless pursuits of sounds which one can, for all purposes, actually relate to, and not merely admire (or mock). Akhil Sood

Air - La Femme D'Argent

Air's début album, Moon Safari, was released in 1998 to near-universal critical acclaim. The opening track, seven-minute instrumental La Femme D'Argent, is a perfect introduction to the long-player, beginning with a chilled African-style beat before the introduction of bass guitar and jazz organ, eventually progressing to synth strings, piano and otherworldly electronic sounds. It is a magical, mysterious track and one which is often overlooked in favour of the band's more commercial successes. Craig Stevens

Ride - Here And Now

Highly regarded as the second pillar of the shoegaze movement, Ride redefined the genre by approaching it with a more accessible, less brainy approach. While My Bloody Valentine attacked with a heavy artillery of guitar squall to achieve its novel aspirations, Nowhere mainly relied on emblematic songwriting elements to interweave with the more challenging guitar techniques at hand. Nowhere is the blossoming of a gentler, new dawn after the sweeping storm. Of all the memorable moments heard on Nowhere, Here And Now is the one song I find myself revising with immense delight. Peculiarly, it is also the least “shoegazey” - it opens with lush, cascading guitars swathing against the shore like a gentle swoon until a haunting harmonica enraptures the scenery. It proceeds to chug a mid-tempo rhythm to coalesce with the striking minor-key chord progressions, heavily contrasting the rest of the album's whirling distortions with its chiming tonality. Ride's legacy may not be as celebrated, but it exemplified a more faithful representation of the slew of acts that later tried to emulate a more tactile form of the genre. Juan Edgardo Rodriguez

Kylie Minogue - Confide In Me

In 1993, after leaving the production line confines of the now legendary Stock, Aitken and Waterman hit factory, Kylie signed to dance label Deconstruction - home of Sasha, N-Joi, Black Box and Way Out West. This dalliance with the hipster crowd boosted her club credentials and resulted in Confide In Me, arguably her finest moment. Ominous strings are layered over hip-hop beats and an eastern sounding sitar arrangement inspired by The Doors’ The End. The atypical pop chorus, new influences and edgier production broke the Kylie-pop mould and showcased her surprising vocal range for the first time. Confide In Me is a daring pop record which still sounds suitably sophisticated and stylish. Gary McGinley

A.C. Acoustics - Like Ribbons

A.C. Acoustics were never an innovative band, but they were quite a distinctive one. So it's a shame that they've largely been overlooked, only ever rarely remembered for Brian Molko wearing one of their t-shirts for much of the summer of 97. Like Ribbons' playful, ethereal guitar pop may be one of the great lost singles of the decade. Admittedly it's now slightly less 'lost' following its inclusion on the Understanding Music re-release last year, but still nowhere near as well known as it deserves to be. Mark Davison

Refused - New Noise

Punk and the 90s never really mixed. The alternative scene was dominated by grunge and lo-fi; it was introspective, and rough around the edges. Independent music lacked a sense of urgency. Enter Refused: New Noise’s intro drifts unexpectedly from the taut guitar riff into a pulsing electronica beat, until the spacey atmosphere is shattered by the lyric “CAN I SCREAM?!” This moment embodies the vitality Refused were trying to inject into music with their ambitiously-titled album The Shape of Punk to Come, and New Noise offers a much-needed antidote to the “pop-punk” of Green Day et al. You can’t help but agree: “WE DANCE TO ALL THE WRONG SONGS!” Stephen Wragg

The Dismemberment Plan - The City

Back in 2000, there was a tour deemed The Death and Dismemberment Tour that featured competing underground acts Death Cab for Cutie and The Dismemberment Plan. The Plan would go on to break up in 2003, while Death Cab went on to gloat about in their commercial popularity. A year before this tour however, The Dismemberment Plan released an album that would eventually become more of an indie-underground influence than all of Death Cab for Cutie’s albums combined: Emergency & I. In its prophetic opus, The City, singer Travis Morrison details the universal dystopian fuck-up his life has become, stranded in an urban wasteland (D.C.). And while the influence of The City can be seen throughout the past decade, its roots are undoubtedly in debt to the 90s – just listen; it’s an age when singers were not afraid of singing melodiously. David Hogg

Catch 22 - Keasbey Nights

In the 90s, ska experienced a bright, if brief, resurgence as bands like the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, No Doubt and Reel Big Fish dominated airwaves. New Jersey-band Catch 22 emerged as an iconic powerhouse near the end of the decade and the third-wave ska revival. With its punching horn lines and party chorus, Keasbey Nights, the title track from their 1998 album of the same name, remains a classic ska-punk anthem. Andrew Davison

McAlmont & Butler - Yes

In retrospect, it must have seemed a pretty odd move for Bernard Butler to team up with soul vocalist David McAlmont for his first post-Suede project. However, as far as début singles go, Yes is an absolute triumph. In a sane world, it would have the same popularity and presence as Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive, as it's an anthem of the defiance for the jilted. Sweeping strings and a full orchestra build strength at the same rate as the song's protagonist. "Yes, I do feel better, yes I do, I feel alright," croons the honey-voiced McAlmont, "I feel well enough to tell you what you can do with what you've got." It's a British kind of inner strength, not resorting to cheap name-calling or petty squabbles. McAlmont knows that the best way of getting revenge is to turn his life around and, lucky for us, we get a huge, Motown-inspired tune as the soundtrack for the victory. Joe Rivers

Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

Neutral Milk Hotel's In The Aeroplane Over The Sea was fresh, beautiful and haunting when it debuted in 1998 and remains just as much so over a decade later. The title track effectively showcases the blend of eerily musical flourishes and imaginative lyrics that elevated the entire album. The minor turn roughly halfway through and the slightly flat trumpet make In The Aeroplane Over the Sea a moving, dirge-like reflection on youth and mortality. Andrew Davison

So, whaddaya reckon? Disagreements, feedback and your own track suggestions are welcomed using the Disqus form below.