Pet Shoppers Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, after a good four year run of smash hit singles but inconsistent albums, turn in a masterpiece of thinking man’s dance music. Softer, slower and far more personal (Tennant begged, however, "Please don’t use the word ‘mellow.’") than pervious outings, the Pet Shop Boys show tremendous growth in songwriting, subject matter and sound compared to 1987’s Actually, their last proper album before Behavior. (1988’s Introspective was more of a remixes and B-sides project with a couple new singles) "Being Boring," based on the famous quote "We were never bored because we were never boring," is arguably the best PSB song ever, while "The End of the World" delicately balances between being deliriously danceable and achingly sad. The final track, "Jealousy," was one of the first songs the band had written, and it is an instant classic, beautifully capturing that insecurity and pain that all lovers feel at some point. One of the best albums of the ‘90s, in my humble opinion. *****

REM finally act their age and in the process create their best album since moving into the Warner camp, if not their best album ever. Following the direction they took with 1991’s Out of Time, REM opened up the landscape a bit, adding strings (beautifully arranged by Led Zeppelin bass player John Paul Jones), organs, and layers of acoustic guitars and mandolins. Michael Stipe is far less cryptic than he had been, writing songs about the right to die ("Try Not to Breathe"), and Andy Kaufman ("Man on the Moon"). Some detractors think REM really lost their edge with Automatic, but I think what they really did is create an album for the ages. *****

If you had told me then that four years after Radiohead released "Creep," the modern rock anthem for those lacking in self esteem, that they would release OK Computer, a mind blowing collection of dark, disconnected songs for a future generation and beyond, I never would have believed you. But that they did, and in the process have garnered a massive fan base and that oh so important quality, critical praise and street cred. Closer in idea to Pink Floyd than any of their current contemporaries (though they don’t even have much in common with Floyd either), Radiohead have created a whole new sound by combining traditional rock with white noise, synthesizer bleeps and static rhythms. "Paranoid Android," a six minute mini-symphony of alienation and passive aggressive behavior, is challenging as hell but equally riveting. Radiohead didn’t just break through the walls that had trapped modern rock, they tore the house down. *****

Seal had the audacity to release this incredible debut album the same year that Manchester tried to take over the world, only to lose badly to Seattle. Lost in the shuffle for a couple years was Sealhenry Samuel, who with Trevor Horn came up with a wholly unique pop record that has monster dance beats, folk songs and heartbreaking ballads. Seal finally achieved his long overdue success with this follow up record in 1994, courtesy of submitting "Kiss From a Rose" to the Batman Forever soundtrack. But here is where he establishes himself as an intelligent songwriter with the soul of ten men. ****

Most people don’t realize this, but Squeeze and the Grateful Dead have something in common: People love to see them live, but nobody buys their records. Squeeze jumped labels in 1991 and released Play, which is arguably, amazingly, the best album they’ve ever done. And no one ever heard it. The subject matter is classic Difford and Tilbrook, the hell that is a relationship. But they hired Tony Berg to produce and he creates a dazzling landscape for the band to work with. "House of Love" stands with their best as a biting recrimination of an unfair lover ("She wasn’t a princess, I told her/And so I witnessed the slaying of my life/That lasted half the night"), with some very Beatlesque tones to it. The album’s closer, "There is a Voice," is a lovely spirit lifter, for anyone who felt it couldn’t get any worse: "Each day’s a hope, each day’s a prayer/That I’ll rebuild, and I’ll repair." Not as upbeat as people expect from Squeeze, but that’s a small grievance for an otherwise great album. **** ½

Squeeze jump back to the label that supported them during their watershed years and releases an album that is good, but seems a bit of a letdown after 1991’s marvelous Play. Lead singer Glenn Tilbrook gets a bigger production credit here (and thanks Tony Berg in the liner notes for the tricks he learned during the Play sessions), but he seems a little unsure of how far to take any trick he unveils. The biggest change with Some Fantastic Place, however, is the return of Paul Carrack on keyboards, which seems to have created an identity complex. Carrack’s singing contribution, "Loving You Tonight," sounds too much like a sequel to "Tempted," which makes the band sound a lot more desperate than they really are. Not a must-have, but definitely worth picking up used if you’re a Difford and Tilbrook fan. *** ½

You’ll find few people this decade with the ability to turn a phrase better than Frank Reader, lead singer of Scotland’s Trash Can Sinatras. And Cake, the band’s debut album, is absolutely chock full of some of the wittiest lyrics I’ve heard recently (the ones I can figure out, that is: Reader’s also got a pretty thick brogue to go with them). The opening track, the ultra-jangly "Obscurity Knocks," is almost one long mind twister (I like your poetry but I hate your poems, looking at my watch and I’m half past caring). If there’s anything that holds Cake back, it’s that it came out in the middle of the jangle pop movement in the early ‘90s, and as a result sounds just like REM, The Smiths, and The Ocean Blue, among others. But the tunes here are strong, the musicianship tight, and the words are devilishly clever. And the best part is, the band actually got much better, which speaks volumes given they had this to follow up. *** ½

The Trash Cans team up with producer and former Gentle Giant member Ray Shulman to make I’ve Seen Everything, an album that shows them a little older and a whole lot better. Much less wordy and a lot more melodic, singer Frank Reader sounds more comfortable and confident singing here, whereas the band’s debut Cake had moments where he sounded like he was worried about tripping over his own words. The opening track, "Easy Read," features a string section and Frank crooning about "Disco dancing in the morning," and being "over the moon and under the influence" (The strong lyrics are still here, it’s just that melody is more important). Equal parts sentimental and morose, it sounds more like a ballroom ballad than the same band that sang "Only Tongue Can Tell." I’ve Seen Everything is a pretty, if a bit precious, snapshot in the evolution of one of the most underappreciated thinking man’s pop bands of the ‘90s. ****

This Boston quintet never quite took off nationwide, and that’s too bad, because they were a very unique rock band. Singer Janet LaValley had a throaty alto that gave her a Gothic quality that even Siouxsie Sioux would have killed for, and their songs had pop music immediacy while also containing some great offbeat time signatures ("Rescue Me," "Jakpot"). With producer Gil Norton (The Pixies, Del Amitri) adding a nice shine to the mix, Tribe showed they could rock, harmonize, and swoon with the best of them. A very sadly overlooked gem. ****

Roland Orzabal, the surviving Tear from ‘80s chart toppers Tears For Fears, jumps ship from Mercury to Sony to release his most adult album to date. Orzabal found an ideal collaborator in coproducer and co-songwriter Alan Griffiths that he never really had with original bassist Curt Smith. That partnership showed promise on Tears’ 1993 album Elemental, but they really get things cooking on Raoul. Orzabal may seem a little too eager to put his ‘80s glory days behind him by making records that sound more steeped in classic rock ("Sketches of Pain" is a beautiful song, but it bears more than a passing resemblance to "Dust In The Wind"), but when he and "Woman in Chains" cohort Oleta Adams close the album with "Me and My Big Ideas," arguably one of Roland’s best songs, all is immediately forgiven. *** ½

After being the indie darlings of 1994 with their debut American Thighs, Veruca got pummelled by critics for this, their second full album. Perhaps it was the arena rock production of Bob Rock (Aerosmith, Metallica) that turned them away, because it meant that Veruca didn’t care about indie cred anymore. Personally, I liked this album, even if it did sound like Joan Jett from ten years ago. Nina Gordon really honed her songwriting skills on this album, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she wound with a career like Aimee Mann’s, meaning loyal but limited fan base. It’s big, loud, dumb rock, sure, also very catchy and fun. ***

Former Waterboy Karl Wallinger finally realizes his vision of a beautiful world on this third album. With influences ranging from ‘70s funk ("Give It All Away") to ELO ("All I Gave") to experimental Beatles (most of the rest of the album), Wallinger, who I think is one of the most underrated singers in rock, assembles a lovely album that makes it good to be alive. ****