44 Days

[Thenop]

So I saw a picture of a stack of cassettes form the 90's and it had as text:
'released within 44 days from each other' It was flaoting around the social media, so I guess more people will have seen that.
I was quite taken aback to be honest, at the time I did not realize it but this must be one of the most succesful streaks of all time. Obviously the music is most important here, but I think it shows us how the industry has changed. It intrigued me to the extent I just had to look this up. So here goes (give or take few 100.000 copies, which is nothing in the greater scheme), worldwide sales for 7 albums in 1991:

Metallica - Black Album           31 million
Nirvana - Nevermind               30 million
Guns 'n' Roses - UYI 1            18 million
Guns 'n' Roses - UYI 2            18 million
Pearl Jam - Ten                   15 million
RHCP - BSSM                       13 million
Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger       2 million

That is a 127 million copies since release, of which most were sold in the first year or so, which is massive.

So what about the music?

Well honestly, Nirvana's Nevermind was a thing of it's time, never did a lot for me to be honest (but I do like In Utero a whole more than nevermind) but I appreciate it for what it is: a game changer. And also, honestly? I was glad to see all that puffed up hair metal crap gone. Most of it was terrible, let's be honest, and the good ones, well they survived.

Metallica then, I was a huge fan at the time and really needed to swallow this...it was ehm..different. Radio friendly Metallica But I think the time has been kind and it still sounds awesome, because production wise, this was a game changer as well. Saw them several times that tour, and the shows seemed to get bigger every time. Good memories!

GNR then, the 2 album scam. Because a double album would have cost about 75% of what the price was for 2 albums. They managed to basically screw everyone over with that one....having said that, there is more than 1 decent album spread over 2 discs, so that justifies it a little bit. But nothing justities Don't Cry 2 times. They lost some swagger with Steven Adler gone, but they were a tight unit with Matt Sorum. Saw them on that tour more than once as will, again good memories but in reality, nowadays I never listen to these 2 discs. If I feel the need to hear GNR, I pick up Appetite...

RHCP - learned to appreciate them. This album is good, but it is overly long. What else can I say? Frusciante is a brilliant guitar player, Kiedis a horrible singer. Fantastic live band though, saw them on a festival around that time and they below everyone away.

Pearl Jam - Ten. Well can be said about the album that can never be topped? That it is beneath that thick layer of echo, delay & reverb, simply a classic rock album. And a very good one at that. I have the remix as well, and it brings it a little more to the surface, but I think the orignal mix still is a great listen. I listen to it, every now & then, but not a great deal.

No I think the album I listen to most out of these 7 is Soundgarden. I LOVE that album, it has nothing to do with grunge, zero, nada. This is metal, pure & simple, with a brilliant vocalist, superb songwriting on this (all downhill from here!) and all that knotty & twisty odd time signatures stuff on here: bring it on. They went out of their way to make an album as inaccesible as possible and still sold well over 2 million copies and managed to gain the attention of the general public in spite of the 125 million copies sold of the afore mention bands. I applaud them for that, and more importantly, for the music itself. Because out of the 7 albums, this one resonates with me most.

[Slim]

Of those, I have Nevermind, Ten, Blood Sugar Sex Magik and Badmotorfinger. Probably listened to BSSM most.

That's interesting, what you say about Badmotorfinger. I got into Soundgarden after Superunknown like most people probably and to me that's where their sound, and especially their songwriting all comes together - it seems a huge improvement over their earlier records.

[Thenop]

I do like Superunknown, and it propelled them into stardom, but to me Badmotorfinger has never been topped.