Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group – Motorbooks and to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

This book was so much fun! There are many albums that have been the soundtrack to my life on this list as a person growing up in the 90's.

This book is fabulous and would make a fantastic gift for someone.

The Nineties witnessed the final great last hurrah of the album. It was the last decade where large numbers of people regularly bought pop, rock, dance albums on CD or cassette.
.The album sleeves would often have the lyrics of each individual song printed on them, alongside a cover picture, sometimes a memorable one, perhaps of some greyhounds racing round the track or of a baby in a swimming pool, seemingly in pursuit of some money floating in front of him.
Given that I am British and this book is American, it's not surprising I don't entirely agree with all the albums selected in this enjoyable book. There is nothing in here by Suede, for example. Or Pulp. This is nevertheless a fine selection with a discussion of many of the great records of the final decade of the second millennium and more, including offerings from Oasis, Radiohead, Nirvana, Beck, Massive Attack, Lauren Hill, Madonna, Buena Vista Social Club and iconic movie soundtrack albums like Pulp Fiction and Trainspotting and more.

A book such as this is always going to ruffle some feathers because someone's favourite will be inevitably missed. I understand this completely. But.. to not have Bon Jovi!?

I understand Slippery When Wet is their most successful album of all time and it had already come and gone but, absolutely nothing? Keep The Faith wasn't THAT bad, was it? And for argument's sake, Cross Roads was in the mid-90s! It is a greatest hits but it featured "Always" which is still their most successful ballad of all time and one of their top, TOP hits.

Anywho.. so far as constructive criticism goes, I would have very much appreciated if all the albums were in chronological order within their decade! There I was thinking I'd been wrong all along and Christina released her album before Britney, but no, they aren't in order.

I also have to agree regarding the limited information for each album. It's understandable given the 501 of them, but if you're going to tackle something that huge, you may as well go all in.

On a highly positive note, I did very much love the inclusion of The Lion King soundtrack 💛🦁

This book included so many albums and artist that i had forgotten about and ones that made me very nostalgic, lots of songs for me to relistened to.

I think this book suffered from a case of quantity over quality. There wasn't much new or interesting information written about each album and I think I would have enjoyed the book a little more if fewer albums had been covered in greater depth. I did like the range of genres that were represented though!

As I grew up in this era, I loved the music and it was fun seeing some of my favorite albums and some of the history bits for the albums featured. It also reminded me of albums I had forgotten about! Overall a fun read.
Thank you to the author and publisher for this arc.

This is an absolutely wonderful, rich, nostalgic and collective item.
If you lived the '90s or like the era's music, you will cherish this book.
The design, the contents, the information and the diversity of the albums included are all awesome.

Ahhh. What a magical trip down memory lane. I loved every bit of this… What surprised me was how much I enjoyed seeing the album covers again. Brought me back to my middle school, high school, and college years…
This read is a must for Gen X and Millennials… or in my case, Xennial.
I liked the format where the albums themselves were not ranked….
The fact soundtracks were included was super cool. Of course I’m thinking of albums I would have included, but this is not an easy list to create
Thanks to Net Galley and the Publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely love this! Reading and looking through this book brought back so many memories. I would definitely like to pick this up when it releases and I highly recommend!

This is an interesting collection of music from the 90s. The music covers wide genres and lots of fun albums. There is lots of good information and lots of pictures. I viewed a digital version but I could see that this would be an amazing coffee table book to revisit over time.

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this title.

“This is a book that’s designed to start arguments.”

Right off the bat, this book acknowledges that music lists are just someone’s opinion, and this ranking aims to showcase the diversity of the music that defined the 90s, while also giving attention to each year (I particularly liked how it covered many genres, including film soundtracks). It’s no small feat and this is an insightful read that hopefully inspires people to try out some music they have not listened to before.

Although this was a digital copy, I can imagine that this will be a wonderful conversation starter on someone’s coffee table. The artwork is both nostalgic and eye catching, without being tacky.

Thank you to Quarto Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Great coffee table book for any pop culture fan imo. I enjoyed flipping through all the pages of these iconic albums. Some I’ve forgot and will listen to now. Love the visuals.

Quick easy way to get high level exposure to a variety of albums from the 90s. The details/information on the albums was a little lack luster. It didn't really provide anything new or interesting.

I am a huge fan of music in general and of the music of the 90s in particular. Thanks to this very informative book, I could not only reminisce, but also learned new facts about my favorite decade in music.
All in all, a very interesting read that would make an excellent coffee table book.

Very interesting. This would make a great coffee table book for music lovers. Some interesting facts .

Overall, the book was well written, captured my attention and I did really enjoy it. Thank you for this advance copy!

This was a neat book to flip through and didn't take me very long to read. The pictures are great and I liked learning more about albums that I liked. The book starts out by stating that it's meant to cause arguments. I wouldn't argue over much in this book except for the fact that it relegated Freak on a Leash by Korn to a small blurb and didn't mention AFI at all.
A lot of different genres and artists are covered in the book. I hadn't even heard of some of them and I grew up in the 90's. I loved seeing Green Day's Dookie, The Offspring's Smash, The Spice Girls' Spice and Hanson's Middle of Nowhere in the book. It's also entertaining that Blink-182's Enema of the State and Backstreet Boys' Millennium are next to each other. If you know, you know.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

501 Essential Albums of the 90s includes a wide range of artists and albums, and information about them. There were many that I have never heard of, so I am curious about the pool of sources used to put these all together. I also wonder how layout decisions were made (who would get a full spread, page, or half page). For example, NSYNC is mentioned in the description, but then was a half page mention, so that felt like a bit of a disconnect. It's an interesting concept and great for those feeling 90s nostalgia.

Thanks to Quarto Publishing Group - Motorbooks and NetGalley for an eARC of this book for an honest review.