Shoes - Propeller (1994)

Shoes' first -- and with the exception of 1995's live Fret Buzz, last -- album of the '90s largely avoids the trap of overproduction that befell their post-Elektra albums of the '80s, which, in retrospect, sound terribly dated. Perhaps inspired by the new flowering of D.I.Y. bands in the early '90s, Jeff Murphy, John Murphy, and Gary Klebe open up their sound a bit more, turning up their distortion pedals and pulling back on the synths that had colored 1989's Stolen Wishes and 1984's Silhouette.

"Propeller is spine-tingling pop of the first rank" wrote Stereo Review in just one of many incredibly great reviews of this 1994 release.