a) it sounds so 90s, c) it was 1990 before I dove into it, and c) it's so damn great. I recently played the whole thing through on a car ride, windows down, full volume, and it was glorious. When I think of great 1990s rock, this is the sound I think of - music that's both hard and soft at the same time and in just the right ways.

But it was 1989. *shrug*

See also: Vulgar Boatmen "You & Your Sister."

Anyhow. I'll break it up a little bit:

Jangle & more-or-less straightforward roots-rock

The Sundays - Reading, Writing, Arithmetic (jangle, 1990)
Uncle Tupelo - Anodyne (roots rock, 1993)
Richard Thompson - Rumor & Sigh (singer-songwriter, 1991)
John & Mary - Weedkiller's Daughter (jangle, 1993)
Ani Difranco - gonna go with Living in Clip; it's about the most 'rock' she got (roots rock, 1997)
Pernice Brothers - Overcome By Happiness (Chamber Pop)
The Iguanas - Super Ball (NOLA Latin rock)
Col. Bruce Hampton & the Aquarium Rescue Unit - s/t (jazz rock with a bit of bluegrass thrown in)
Soul-Cialist Escape in Lost Homeland (Japanese roots-rock with Irish and Okinawan influences and an Albert Ayler medley)


Celtic, Japanese & global roots-rock
Boiled in Lead - Orb (global roots-punk)
Dead Can Dance - Toward the Within (global roots rock)
Ashley MacIsaac - Hi, How Are You Today? (Canadian Celtic rock)
Levellers - Levelling the Land (British roots rock)
3 Mustaphas 3 - Shopping (Balkan/global roots-rock)
Ivo Papasov & His Bulgarian Wedding Band - Orpheus Ascending (Balkan roots-rock)
Marta Sebastyen - Apocrypha (Hungarian new-age trad synth pop)
Mouth Music - s/t, mo-di (electroCeltic, worldbeat)
The Boom - Tropicalism, 0 Degrees (global/Brazilian roots-rock from Japan); Japaneska (Okinawan/Jamaican-influenced rock) (this band's whole 1990s output is a winner though)
Kodo - Ibuki (okay not a rock album, but Bill Laswell's production makes it hit like one. It's a rock album by FEEL if not by strict genre assignation.)
Shokichi Kina & Champloose - CHAMPLOO! (Okinawan roots rock)
Shoglenifty - Venus in Tweeds (Celtic rock)


Ska:
v/a - Skaville Japan!
v/a - Mash It Up '93, More Ska & Bluebeat
Mighty Mighty Bosstones - More Noise & Other Disturbances
Bim Ska La Bim - Live at the Paradise


AND:
Brand New Heavies s/t (funk)