10 Forgotten 90s Rock Bands Worth Rediscovering

It's a cliche, but also a truism, that distance brings clarity. Whichever decade might be your personal favourite, the 1990s, with hindsight, proved to be a very memorable time for music.

Gone were the hair-bands, stadium rockers, and icily detached synth groups of the '80s. Step forward a new generation of smart, cool, and suitably irreverent kids, ready to upend the past with a glib and polished spanking new sound.

In reality, of course, things don't change overnight, and history is far more nuanced than presented above. That said, decades do provide a convenient slice of history, within which to examine cultural and political shifts. Is one ever going to be objectively better than the rest?

Alongside fluffy, manufactured pop and Spinal Tap clones, the '80s also gave us hip-hop, new-wave and a host of original greats. The '90s, however, are only just beginning to receive appropriate recognition for their contributions to music.

It's a natural cycle, as those who lived through those years are now old enough to look back with fondness upon both the good and the bad which the '90s had to offer. With the profusion of artists from that period, it's small wonder that, for every Radiohead and Oasis, many other worthy acts slipped into relative obscurity.

Any group who list Joni Mitchell, Echo & The Bunnymen and The Teardrop Explodes among their influences is sure to be, at the very least, worth checking out. Step forward the wonderfully-named Ned's Atomic Dustbin (the moniker derives from The Goon Show, a ground-breaking radio comedy which paved the way for Monty Python and all which was to follow).

Formed in Stourbridge, UK, Ned's Atomic Dustbin (hereafter abbreviated to NAD) took the unusual move of featuring two bass-players in their line-up.

The band re-united for live gigs in the early 2000s, some of which is documented on record, but for a proper introduction you should check out the three studio albums which the group put out between 1991 and 1995. NAD mixed a post-punk aesthetic with an accessible pop sound, injecting some wonderful hooks into their warm, cerebral music.

NAD are one of those groups whose many loyal fans seek out anything and everything they can get, and rightly so - NAD remain one of the most singular and fascinating outfits to come out of the 90s. If you're looking for the perfect balance between post-punk and pop/rock, then you won't regret checking them out.