The Year Punk Broke

Ten of the best albums of 1991, the year alternative rock went overground. The name comes from Dave Markey's film of Sonic Youth's European festival dates that August, with Nirvana on the bill, a month before Nevermind came out.

It starts with the records that made the title true: Nevermind, Pearl Jam's Ten, Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger and the Smashing Pumpkins' Gish. Ten came out a month before Nevermind, and Butch Vig produced both Nevermind and Gish. Nevermind and A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory were released on the same day, 24 September.

Then the set widens past grunge to show how much else happened that year. Loveless and Screamadelica came out of Creation Records six weeks apart; Screamadelica, shaped by Andrew Weatherall's remixing, won the first Mercury Prize. Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque beat Nevermind to Spin's album of the year. Slint had already broken up when Spiderland was released. Massive Attack's Blue Lines is their first album and the start of what got called trip-hop, and The Low End Theory, with jazz bassist Ron Carter on one track, closes the set as the year's best rap record.

If you only have time for one, play Nevermind. It is the record that turned the title from a joke into a fact.