Spin Alternative Record Guide

Spin Alternative Record Guide

Editors	Eric Weisbard and Craig Marks
Authors	64 contributors
Language	English
Subject	Alternative music, discography, music journalism, review
Publisher	Vintage Books
Publication date	October 1995
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (paperback)
Pages	468
ISBN	0-679-75574-8

The Spin Alternative Record Guide is a music reference book compiled by the American music magazine Spin and published in 1995 by Vintage Books. It was edited by the rock critic Eric Weisbard and Craig Marks, who was the magazine's editor-in-chief at the time. The book has essays and reviews from a number of prominent critics on albums, artists and genres considered relevant to the alternative music movement. Contributors who were consulted for the guide include Ann Powers, Rob Sheffield, Simon Reynolds and Michael Azerrad.

The book did not sell particularly well and received a mixed reaction from reviewers in 1995. The quality and relevance of the contributors' writing were praised, while the editors' concept and comprehensiveness of alternative music were seen as ill-defined. Nonetheless, it inspired a number of future music critics and helped to revive the career of the folk artist John Fahey, whose music was covered in the guide.

Content

Ann Powers (right) contributed to the book, while Robert Christgau (left) loaned records from his personal collection to assist in the creation of the guide.

Spanning 468 pages, the Spin Alternative Record Guide compiles essays by 64 music critics on recording artists and bands who either predated, were involved in, or had developed from alternative rock. Each artist's entry is accompanied by their discography, with albums rated with a score between one and ten. Unlike the third edition of The Rolling Stone Album Guide (1992), which limited its discographies to albums currently in-print on CD, the Spin Alternative Record Guide offered more comprehensive album discographies. The entries are accompanied by album artwork.

The book's editors included contributions from noted journalists and critics such as Charles Aaron, Gina Arnold, Michael Azerrad, Byron Coley, Ann Powers, Simon Reynolds, Alex Ross, Rob Sheffield and Neil Strauss. Sheffield wrote the bulk of the guide's entries, while Powers "allowed her home to become command central on the book for many months". Though he did not contribute his own writing, Robert Christgau assisted in the creation of the guide by loaning out records from his personal collection as needed.

The contributors curated an overall "Top 100 Alternative Albums" list in an appendix, ranking the Ramones' 1976 self-titled debut album at number one. A few dozen personal top-ten record lists from contributors and musicians are interspersed throughout the book. The musicians who provided their own top-ten lists are Mark Arm, Lori Barbero, Lou Barlow, Kurt Bloch, King Coffey, Digable Planets (members Craig "Knowledge" Irving and Mariana "Ladybug" Vieira), Tanya Donelly, Greg Dulli, Gordon Gano, Greg Graffin, Kristin Hersh, Georgia Hubley, Calvin Johnson, Jon Langford, Courtney Love, Barbara Manning, Mac McCaughan, Buzz Osborne (listed as King Buzzo), Joey Ramone, Jim Reid, Lætitia Sadier, Sally Timms, Steve Turner and Josephine Wiggs.

Scope and definition of "alternative"

Even by the standards of the time, the Spin Alternative Record Guide took an unusually inclusive approach to the boundaries of what "alternative" could mean. Before 1991, the genre "alternative rock" conventionally referred to post-punk and college rock. Within a few years, "alternative" had broadened into a catchall term for any rock bands outside the mainstream, regardless of their particular style — even as, paradoxically, "alternative" music became hugely popular and commercially successful. As a result, "alternative" was increasingly derided as a vague or even incoherent category.

As summarized by the scholar Gayle Wald, the book's introduction defined "alternative" rock as "an aesthetic that disavows, or evinces critical mistrust of, earlier rock subjectivities as well as the music industry itself". Rather than limiting its scope strictly within the musical genre of "rock" per se, the guide's coverage encompassed a wide range of non-rock artists who had adopted an anti-commercial stance or were aligned with a particular subculture. In an introductory essay titled "What Is Alternative Rock?", Weisbard explored the genre's origins and, more broadly, "alternative sensibilities" in other musical traditions. "Alternative rock lacks the proud boundaries that rock's original tradition kept so well guarded," he wrote:

More than jazz, blues, country, or any other musical genre, old-style rock was defined by a mass appeal you didn't have to sneer at, the mythic popularity of the universal youth music that turned the repressed fifties into the rebellious sixties ... Alternative rock, on the other hand, is still anti-generationally dystopian, subculturally presuming fragmentation; it's built on an often neurotic discomfort over massified culture, takes as its archetype bohemia far more than youth, and never expects that its popular appeal, such as it is, will have much of a social impact.

ABBA, 1979

John Zorn, 2003

From A–Z: the 379 entries in the guide run alphabetically from the Swedish pop group ABBA to the American avant-garde saxophonist Zorn.

The book's selection of music was shaped by the generation gap between the baby boomers and Generation X. Marks said that he and Weisbard "saw [the book] as a way to give definition to second-generation rock 'n' roll". In this respect, the book was both intended and received as a generational counterpoint to The Rolling Stone Album Guide.

The guide has 379 entries in total. An entry in the book typically covers a single artist or band, a set of closely affiliated artists, a multi-volume series of various artists compilations or a selected discography representing an entire musical genre. Records in the guide were chosen from a variety of genres considered relevant to alternative music's development. These include 1970s punk rock, 1980s college rock, 1990s indie rock, noise music, reggae, electronic, new wave, heavy metal, krautrock, synthpop, disco, alternative country, hip hop, grunge, worldbeat and avant-garde jazz. Acknowledging the possibility that their selections and exclusions would be objectionable to some readers, Weisbard wrote in the introduction, "Not all these choices are defensible: As stated at the onset, alternative lacks strong boundaries. But we had to draw the line somewhere." Weisbard and Marks said the book was meant to be "suggestive" of alternative music, rather than "comprehensive".

Most artists associated with classic rock are excluded. For example, the guide omits the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Cream, Peter Gabriel, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, Van Halen and Frank Zappa — even though each of these artists meaningfully influenced "alternative" music to some extent. However, a handful of artists associated with the "classic rock" era can be found in the guide, among them Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Neil Young and AC/DC.

A range of mainstream pop artists spanning a variety of styles are given entries, including Culture Club, Duran Duran and Lenny Kravitz. Some pop musicians are afforded prominent placement and a perhaps surprisingly high degree of acclaim. For instance, the very first alphabetical entry is the Swedish pop supergroup ABBA. Madonna's 1990 greatest hits album The Immaculate Collection is ranked as the 11th best alternative record. Other non-rock artists reviewed in the book include the jazz composer Sun Ra, the country singer-songwriter Lyle Lovett and the Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

Rating system

The guide's 10/10 records by decade, not including compilations.

  1950s (2.2%)

  1960s (8.9%)

  1970s (35.8%)

  1980s (36.6%)

  1990–1995 (16.5%)

Records received a rating between one and ten points based on the judgment of the reviewer. A red dingbat beside a record's title indicated that it also appeared in the Top 100 at the back of the book. Several records in the Top 100 received a score lower than 10, while many records that received a 10 did not appear in the Top 100, because an individual reviewer's assessment could conflict with the list's collective consensus (and vice versa). Still, there was some editorial oversight and control of the ratings, as Weisbard later explained:

I don't remember messing too much with what writers said. I remember Byron Coley wanted to give every single thing he wrote about practically a 10 [laughs], and I thought that was a little excessive, so I remember taking all of his number scores down a couple of pegs—and that's probably in some ways reflective of me not being as close to Byron Coley—but in most cases, I didn't worry about it too much. I have a vague memory of arguing with Rob Sheffield about giving Madonna's Immaculate Collection less than a 10 when we were going to put it in the Top 100 ... Rob is somebody who very much has his own vision of things, but has earned the right to have that. But so, if I remember correctly—and I might not, it's been twenty years—we let that one go and it's just a difference of opinion within the book.

Records that received a 10

The following 172 records received the guide's highest score from the reviewer who rated the discography of the given artist, compilation series, or genre. A record with a 10 was deemed to be either "[a]n unimpeachable masterpiece or a flawed album of crucial historical significance".

Key † Indicates a various artists compilation album; the name listed is either the name of the compilation series or the name of the record label. # Indicates the record is a compilation of either a particular artist or various artists.

Records assigned a score of 10 in the Spin Alternative Record Guide Artist / series / label Title Year Reviewed by Ref. ABBA The Singles: The First Ten Years # 1982 Barry Walters ABBA Gold # 1992 Air Air Lore 1979 K. Leander Williams Albert Ayler Spiritual Unity 1964 K. Leander Williams Nuits de la Fondation Maeght, Volume 1 1971 Beastie Boys Licensed to Ill 1986 Rob Sheffield Paul's Boutique 1989 Beck Mellow Gold 1994 Eric Weisbard The B-52's The B-52's 1979 Johnny Huston Big Star Radio City 1974 Eric Weisbard #1 Record/Radio City # 1992 Third/Sister Lovers 1978 Black Flag Damaged 1981 Eric Weisbard Blondie Parallel Lines 1978 Rob Sheffield Boogie Down Productions Criminal Minded 1987 dream hampton David Bowie Changesbowie # 1990 Rob Sheffield Buzzcocks Singles Going Steady # 1979 Barry Walters John Cage The 25-Year Retrospective Concert of the Music of John Cage 1994 Neil Strauss John Cale Paris 1919 1973 Ann Powers Can Soon Over Babaluma 1974 Simon Reynolds Captain Beefheart Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) 1978 Jeff Salamon Cheap Trick Cheap Trick 1977 Jim Greer Chic Dance, Dance, Dance: The Best of Chic # 1991 Barry Walters The Clash The Clash 1977 Rob Sheffield The Clash [US version] 1979 The Clean Compilation # 1986 Ornette Coleman Something Else!!!!: The Music of Ornette Coleman 1958 K. Leander Williams The Shape of Jazz to Come 1959 Ornette! 1962 Ornette on Tenor The Unprecedented Music of Ornette Coleman 1968 Dancing in Your Head 1977 Of Human Feelings 1982 Ornette Coleman & Pat Metheny Song X 1986 Elvis Costello This Year's Model 1978 Bill Wyman 2½ Years # 1993 Descendents Milo Goes to College 1982 Eric Weisbard Two Things at Once # 1987 Dinosaur Jr. You're Living All Over Me 1987 Rob Sheffield The Disco Years series † The Disco Years, Volume One: Turn the Beat Around (1974–1978) # 1990 Chuck Eddy Joe Ely Honky Tonk Masquerade 1978 Terri Sutton The English Beat I Just Can't Stop It 1980 Will Hermes Brian Eno Another Green World 1975 Ann Powers Brian Eno II: Vocal # 1993 Brian Eno I: Vocal # 1994 Fairport Convention Unhalfbricking 1969 Derk Richardson The Fall Slates 1981 Mike Rubin This Nation's Saving Grace 1985 458489 A Sides # 1990 The Feelies Crazy Rhythms 1980 Eric Weisbard The Flesh Eaters A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die 1981 Byron Coley Flipper Album – Generic Flipper 1981 Andy Newman The Flying Burrito Brothers The Gilded Palace of Sin 1969 Eric Weisbard Farther Along: The Best of the Flying Burrito Brothers # 1988 Funkadelic Maggot Brain 1971 Mike Rubin The Best of the Early Years Volume One # 1977 One Nation Under a Groove 1978 Music for Your Mother: Funkadelic 45s # 1992 Gang of Four Entertainment! 1979 Ivan Kreilkamp The Go-Betweens 1978–1990 # 1990 Eric Weisbard The Go-Go's Beauty and the Beat 1981 Rob Sheffield PJ Harvey Rid of Me 1993 Ann Powers To Bring You My Love 1995 Hole Live Through This 1994 Ann Powers Michael Hurley /
The Unholy Modal Rounders /
Jeffrey Frederick & the Clamtones Have Moicy! 1976 Craig Marks and Jeff Salamon Hüsker Dü Zen Arcade 1984 Eric Weisbard New Day Rising 1985 Ice Cube Death Certificate 1991 Michael Eric Dyson The Jam Sound Affects 1980 Rob Sheffield Freedy Johnston Can You Fly 1992 Eric Weisbard Joy Division Closer 1980 Evelyn McDonnell Kronos Quartet Morton Feldman: Piano and String Quartet 1993 Evelyn McDonnell Fela Kuti Zombie 1977 K. Leander Williams Original Sufferhead 1984 Army Arrangement 1985 Original Sufferhead: Classic Fela # 1991 Lyle Lovett Pontiac 1987 Greg Sandow Luaka Bop (label) † Brazil Classics 1: Beleza Tropical # 1989 Will Hermes Madonna Like a Prayer 1989 Rob Sheffield Meat Puppets Meat Puppets II 1984 The Mekons Fear and Whiskey 1985 Eric Weisbard Original Sin # 1989 The Mekons Rock 'n Roll [UK version] Mercury Records † Electronic Music/Musique Concrète # 1979 Neil Strauss Minor Threat Complete # 1988 Terri Sutton Minutemen Double Nickels on the Dime 1984 Rob Sheffield Mission of Burma Mission of Burma # 1988 Moby Everything Is Wrong 1995 Charles Aaron The Modern Lovers The Modern Lovers 1976 Rob Sheffield Motörhead No Sleep 'til Hammersmith 1981 Jonathan Gold My Bloody Valentine Loveless 1991 James Hunter New Order Substance # 1987 Andrew Goodwin New York Dolls New York Dolls 1973 Andrew Goodwin Rock'n Roll # 1994 Nirvana Nevermind 1991 Eric Weisbard NRBQ At Yankee Stadium 1978 Jim Walsh Peek-A-Boo: The Best of NRBQ 1969–1989 # 1990 Nuggets series † Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968 # 1972 Byron Coley N.W.A Straight Outta Compton 1988 Greg Sandow The Only Ones The Only Ones 1978 Jim Walsh Special View # 1979 Parliament Mothership Connection 1975 Mike Rubin Parliament's Greatest Hits # 1984 Gram Parsons Grievous Angel 1974 Eric Weisbard GP/Grievous Angel # 1990 Pavement Slanted and Enchanted 1992 Pere Ubu The Modern Dance 1978 Dub Housing Lee "Scratch" Perry Some of the Best # 1985 Milo Miles Pet Shop Boys Introspective 1991 Rob Sheffield Liz Phair Exile in Guyville 1993 Pixies Surfer Rosa 1993 Eric Weisbard Pogues Rum Sodomy & the Lash 1985 Rob Sheffield The Pretenders The Pretenders 1979 Ann Powers Prince Dirty Mind 1980 Eric Weisbard Sign o' the Times 1987 The Hits/The B-Sides # 1993 Public Enemy It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back 1988 Michael Eric Dyson Public Image Ltd Metal Box 1979 Simon Reynolds Second Edition 1980 The Raincoats The Raincoats 1993 Rob Sheffield Ramones Ramones 1976 Rocket to Russia 1977 R.E.M. Murmur 1983 Eric Weisbard The Replacements Let It Be 1984 Rob Sheffield The Roches The Roches 1979 Ann Powers Roxy Music Siren 1975 Rob Sheffield Run-DMC Raising Hell 1986 Eric Weisbard Together Forever: Greatest Hits 1983–1991 # 1991 Sasha & John Digweed Renaissance: The Mix Collection # 1994 Barry Walters Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols 1977 Eric Weisbard Shanachie (label) † The Indestructible Beat of Soweto # 1985 Will Hermes Sonny Sharrock Guitar 1986 Mike Rubin Ask the Ages 1991 Siouxsie and the Banshees Once Upon a Time: The Singles # 1981 Joy Press Slayer Reign in Blood 1986 Greg Sandow The Slits Cut 1979 Joy Press The Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream 1993 James Hunter Patti Smith Horses 1975 Rob Sheffield The Smiths The Queen Is Dead 1986 Sonic Youth Daydream Nation 1988 Eric Weisbard The Stooges The Stooges 1969 Mike Rubin Fun House 1970 Sugar Hill Records † Old School Rap – The Sugar Hill Story (To the Beat Y'all) # 1992 Milo Miles Sun Ra Sun Song 1957 K. Leander Williams The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra 1961 The Magic City 1965 Sound of Joy 1968 Solo Piano 1977 Somewhere Else 1993 Talking Heads Remain in Light 1980 Jeff Salamon Television Marquee Moon 1977 Rob Sheffield Richard and Linda Thompson I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight 1974 Derk Richardson Shoot Out the Lights 1977 Henry Threadgill Just the Facts and Pass the Bucket 1983 K. Leander Williams Throwing Muses Throwing Muses (1986) 1986 Evelyn McDonnell A Tribe Called Quest The Low End Theory 1991 Colson Whitehead U2 Achtung Baby 1991 Ann Powers Edgard Varèse Poème Électronique 1990 Neil Strauss The Vaselines The Way of The Vaselines: A Complete History # 1992 Eric Weisbard Caetano Veloso A Arte de Caetano Veloso # 1988 Will Hermes The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground & Nico 1967 Eric Weisbard The Velvet Underground 1969 1969: The Velvet Underground Live 1974 Violent Femmes Violent Femmes 1983 Bill Wyman Lucinda Williams Lucinda Williams 1988 Craig Marks Wire Pink Flag 1977 Eric Weisbard X Wild Gift 1981 Rob Sheffield X-Ray Spex Germfree Adolescents 1978 Young Marble Giants Colossal Youth 1980 Eric Weisbard Neil Young Tonight's the Night 1975 Rust Never Sleeps 1979

Notes

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Publication and reception

Co-editor Eric Weisbard at the Pop Conference in 2015

In October 1995, Vintage Books published the Spin Alternative Record Guide in the United States. It was the first book compiled by Spin. After nine years in the red, the magazine had its first profitable year in 1994. Looking to expand into other print media, its founder and publisher, Bob Guccione Jr., struck a deal to publish three books through Vintage. Its release was roughly timed to commemorate the magazine's 10th anniversary. The book's suggested retail price was US$20 (equivalent to $40 in 2023). The price was comparable with its competitors, with most music reference books priced at or below $25 in 1995. It was published simultaneously by Random House of Canada, where it retailed for CA$27.95 (equivalent to $50 in 2023). According to Matthew Perpetua, the guide was reportedly "not a huge seller".

Reviewing the book in 1995, Adam Mazmanian from Library Journal recommended the Spin Alternative Record Guide to "both public and academic libraries". He found its reviews superior in "length and scope" to The Rolling Stone Album Guide (1992), which also offered complete discographies of artists ranging from Jonathan Richman to Throbbing Gristle. Mazmanian further argued that "this guide fills a gap in the literature of modern music" at a time when "alternative" has developed a ubiquitous presence in the marketing of popular music. In New York magazine, Kim France called it "a well-edited, unpretentious, and comprehensive look at all the crazy stuff the kids are listening to these days". Matt Kopka of Publishers Weekly wrote that Spin's guide "may be as close to a surefire hit as the season can offer".

The Booklist critic Gordon Flagg was more qualified in his praise. He applauded the accuracy of the artist entries and the quality of the contributors' reviews, but found Weisbard's conception of "alternative" ill-defined and recommended The Trouser Press Record Guide (1991) as a more comprehensive option. Even more critical was Billboard magazine's Beth Renaud, who called much of the writing biased and the organization unencyclopedic. She said Weisbard's "obligatory" essay is outdated and vague in defining alternative rock and that the contributors "gush" over artists usually covered by Spin's magazine publication, with many relevant artists omitted in place of more perplexing additions. In a 1999 survey of various music guides for the Riverfront Times, Jason Toon labeled the Spin Alternative Record Guide as a "must to avoid" and dismissed it as a "flimsy, shallow ... slicked-up cash-in job".

Influence and reappraisal

The guide's entry on John Fahey (pictured in 1984) helped revive the folk guitarist's career.

Having edited the book, Weisbard put his pursuit of a PhD at UC Berkeley on hold and accepted a job offer from Spin, which was the beginning of his career as a rock critic. Meanwhile, the guide's entry on the folk guitarist John Fahey introduced his music to a new generation of listeners. His entry in the guide was written by Byron Coley, who had previously profiled Fahey for Spin in 1994 at a time when the musician lived in reclusion and was commonly believed to be dead. According to Ben Ratliff at the New York Times, Coley's writings helped to revive Fahey's career by drawing renewed attention from record labels and the alternative scene. For his part, Fahey appreciated the guide's effect on his career and especially its association of his music with contemporary alternative subculture. With the arrival of a younger audience, Fahey felt vindicated in his long-standing misgivings about the marketing of his back catalog to an older demographic of listeners interested in traditionalist folk and new-age music. He wrote about the Spin guide in the liner notes of his 1997 album City of Refuge:

My category is alternative, period. I object to another categorization. ... For many years I was listed in the Schwann Catalogue [sic] under popular. That is a much more accurate category than folk or new age. But, the most accurate category is Alternative. If you will only take the time to read the spread on me in the 1995 Spin Alternative Record Guide ... and look at who is included in this book and who is not, and what it says about various people, then you will have a very clear understanding of what I have always tried to do. These people understand what I am doing more than any other group of people ever has.

The book has been cited as a bellwether of trends in critical consensus from the time of its publication. For example, the book's favorable treatment of ABBA marked a significant step in the revival of the band's reputation among critics. While ABBA had always been massively popular on an international scale, earlier critics had tended to dismiss their music as frivolous, unhip, or otherwise unworthy of serious attention. Conversely, the guide's omission of the English band Talk Talk — who had released commercially successful synth-pop before adopting an experimental approach on their last two albums, which were later seen as forebears of post-rock — signaled the low point of that group's reputation among American critics.

Personally, the book introduced me to a wide range of artists, gave me historical perspective, and got me hooked on a style of criticism that is extremely knowledgeable but also conversational and funny.

— Matthew Perpetua

The Spin Alternative Record Guide was a landmark in the construction of an "alternative canon", alongside The Trouser Press Record Guide and Martin C. Strong's The Great Alternative and Indie Discography. It exerted a major influence on the next generation of music critics. American pop culture critic Chuck Klosterman cited the Spin Alternative Record Guide as one of his five favorite books, saying in 2011, "I fear this might be out of print, but it's probably my favorite music book of all time. Since its 1995 publication, I doubt a year has passed when I didn't reread at least part of it." In response to a question from a 2019 interview with The New York Times Book Review, Klosterman named it as the one book he would require Donald Trump to read, providing no further explanation of his choice. Robert Christgau wrote that while most music guides and encyclopedia books were unremarkable, the Spin Alternative Record Guide was one of the few "useful exceptions" because of what he felt was the "sharpest writing" from contributors such as Weisbard and Sheffield. Idolator's Chris Molanphy, on the other hand, said in retrospect that the book's list of the 100 best albums catered to "hipper, Gen-Xier tastes".

In 2011, the Spin Alternative Record Guide was included in the Pitchfork staff's list of their favorite music books. In an essay accompanying the list, Perpetua said the book's writers — either top critics at the time or those who have since become important figures in music journalism — outline the "alternative sensibility" by recognizing and connecting music from disparate genres in "an inclusive, open-minded survey, but it's defined as much by what's left out — pretty much all Boomer-oriented rock — as what it includes". According to Perpetua, the "number of young readers [who] pursued music criticism" because of the book was far greater than the copies it sold. Matthew Schnipper, editor of The Fader, bought the book after it was published and said he used it as a consumer guide for ten years. Along with its influence on future critics, the book was cited by the guitarist William Tyler as his only source of music education growing up in the pre-Internet age, having found it in a bookstore around the time it was published. "They had entries for all these different people that I had never heard of: Can, John Zorn, [John] Fahey, whatever."

Contributors

The full list of 64 contributors appears at the back of the book. Each write-up in the guide has a single author with the exception of the entry on the 1976 album Have Moicy! and its associated artists, co-written by Marks and Salamon. The table below notes the number of entries written by each contributor, as well as the number-one record on their top ten list (if one was provided).

Spin Alternative Record Guide contributors

Name of contributor	#	Top record choice		Ref.
		Title	Artist
Charles Aaron	5	Nevermind	Nirvana
Grant Alden	1	—
Steve Anderson	5	Marquee Moon	Television
Gina Arnold	14	—
Michael Azerrad	1	Nevermind	Nirvana
Jonathan Bernstein	10	The Lexicon of Love	ABC
Jesse Berrett	1	—
Jason Cohen	1	Singles Going Steady	Buzzcocks
Cheo Coker	2	—
Byron Coley	11	—
Carol Cooper	4	—
Renee Crist	4	Slanted and Enchanted	Pavement
Michael Eric Dyson	2	—
Chuck Eddy	3	Appetite for Destruction	Guns N' Roses
S. H. Fernando Jr.	2	—
Jen Fleissner	5	Wild Gift	X
Lee Foust	1	—
Elysa Gardner	2	—
Richard Gehr	1	Lick My Decals Off, Baby	Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band
Jonathan Gold	3	—
Andrew Goodwin	2	—
Jim Greer	2	—
dream hampton	2	Ask Rufus	Rufus & Chaka Khan
Howard Hampton	1	—
James Hannaham	6	Entertainment!	Gang of Four
Will Hermes	7	The Velvet Underground & Nico	The Velvet Underground
James Hunter	9	Gentlemen	The Afghan Whigs
Johnny Huston	6	Throwing Muses (1986)	Throwing Muses
Frank Kogan	2	—
Ivan Kreilkamp	5	Fear and Whiskey	The Mekons
Bob Mack	1	—
Peter Margasak	1	—
Craig Marks	4	Wild Gift	X
Evelyn McDonnell	5	Easter	Patti Smith
Rob Michaels	2	—
Milo Miles	9	Soul Makossa	Manu Dibango
Paul Miller	2	—
Ed Morales	1	—
Andy Newman	3	—
Chris Norris	8	It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back	Public Enemy
Ann Powers	14	Entertainment!	Gang of Four
Joy Press	7	Throwing Muses (1986)	Throwing Muses
David Prince	2	—
Simon Reynolds	9	Fun House	The Stooges
Derk Richardson	1	—
Alex Ross	5	Terminal Tower: An Archival Collection	Pere Ubu
Jeffrey Rotter	1	Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)	Brian Eno
Mike Rowell	1	—
Mike Rubin	6	Fun House	The Stooges
Jeff Salamon	7	—
Greg Sandow	4	—
Rob Sheffield	54	Germfree Adolescents	X-Ray Spex
Doug Simmons	1	—
Mark Sinker	1	The Modern Dance	Pere Ubu
Natasha Stovall	5	Paid in Full	Eric B. & Rakim
Neil Strauss	8	Forever Changes	Love
Terri Sutton	8	London Calling	The Clash
Stephen Tignor	1	—
Jim Walsh	3	The Clash	The Clash
Barry Walters	5	Aladdin Sane	David Bowie
Eric Weisbard	58	Zen Arcade	Hüsker Dü
Colson Whitehead	6	—
K. Leander Williams	5	—
Bill Wyman	5	—

See also

• 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die
• Album era
• Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s
• Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies
• Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s
• Our Band Could Be Your Life
• Trouser Press

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External links

• Spin Alternative Record Guide in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Spin Alternative Record Guide at Google Books ("snippet view")
• "Top 100 Alternative Records", from the appendix of the Spin Alternative Record Guide, at RockListMusic.co.uk