The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

Various Artists

[#] No Alternative (1993)

I don't get it.

Reviewed August 16, 2021

(This is an album that was previously covered on the Rediscovering! Click the link in the table to read a wordier and possibly less accurate version of my feelings on this album.)

Do me a solid and, next time you're bored, go read up on Red Hot. Red Hot is an AIDS awareness organization that set out in the 80s to use pop culture and new technology to reach communities that traditional outreach campaigns often couldn't. It's all for a good cause! From day one, their compilations attracted the likes of David Byrne, U2, Tom Waits, Iggy Pop, and Debbie Harry to contribute material—and with names like those, it's no surprise that the age of the benefit compilation had begun, all thanks to Red Hot. Where Red Hot ran white hot was No Alternative, a wall-to-wall selection of the biggest bands of early 90s alt at their peak of relevance, a well-loved disc that even received a Record Store Day reissue in 2013—and one I found more interest in reading about than listening to.

Yeah, I was disappointed by this one. I should love it, given the likes of Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, Bob Mould, and the Breeders showing up on here (not to mention a little unlisted track from Nirvana), but it's so overly long and mild, the highlights ("Iris", "Show Me", Soul Asylum's "Sexual Healing" cover) not being all that high, and some really baffling song choices to boot (one of the Beastie Boys' least rock tracks for a rock compilation? That fucking Pavement track?). The three really striking moments on here have to Nirvana's "Sappy", Patti Smith's touching a capella tribute to Robert Mapplethorpe, and American Music Club's "All Your Jeans Were Too Tight", a deadpan stream-of-consciousness recount of a breakup, kinda like a less fantastical Beck track. I'm not here to dunk on a good cause, but No Alternative is just plain more interesting from a historical perspective than it is from a musical perspective.

Essential:	"All Your Jeans Were Too Tight", "Memorial Song", "Sappy"
Quintessential:	"Sexual Healing"
Non-Essential:	"Unseen Power of the Picket Fence"
Rating:
Further listening:	No Alternative's Rediscovering entry