By GERRY GALIPAULT

(May 1999)

Have you seen the world lately? It's crazy out there.

The nightly accounts of the continuing bombing of Yugoslavia and the refugees' plight gloss over a numbed public, conjuring up reminders of Vietnam casualty totals on the "Huntley-Brinkley Report" a generation ago, but damn if the nation isn't lining up for miles for the opening of "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace." Our priorities are in order.

Amy Fisher, ex-lover Joey Buttafuoco and his wife, Mary Jo, are planning to stage a televised reunion. Pay per view, no doubt. Will Jerry Springer be the referee?

Schools are becoming armed camps, and yet gun owners and dealers say banning firearms won't prevent murderous rampages such as the one in Littleton, Colo. Thousands still pluck down cash to attend gun shows, and many more visit insane Web sites such as www.shotgunnews.com and www.ak-47.net. Yeah, God bless America and the NRA.

Did you happen to notice the NBA and NHL playoffs are limping along? Don't worry, no one else has either. Farewell "Mad About You" and "Home Improvement"; good riddance "Melrose Place."

It's nearly summertime, so that must mean another Will Smith single, a sure indication another blockbuster movie and endless radio/music video airplay aren't far behind, and get a load of MTV touting all the premiere videos it's airing this month. Takes you back to the day when that's all they did: SHOW VIDEOS!

But we digress ...

Every month, P&P is counting down 10 significant '90s albums in its march toward the next decade. Volume 4 springs up in May. By the end of November, you will have read synopses of 100 LPs. These are, in one column's humble opinion, the Top 100 essential albums of the 1990s.

Singer Brian Burns of the rock quintet Disappointment Incorporated and drummer Jerry Terwilliger of the Poughkeepsie, N.Y., rock group Pound size up this month's selections. Disappointment Incorporated recently made its Time Bomb Recordings debut with "F=¿," while Pound's debut Island/Mercury LP, "Same Old Life," was released May 11 and contains its rising mainstream rock hit "Upside Down." Both will be featured in upcoming editions of P&P.

(The following albums are not listed alphabetically, chronologically or in order of importance. Anything that came out in the 1990s - even greatest-hits packages, box sets and compilations - is eligible for inclusion. That's right, everything's fair game.)

AL GREEN/GREATEST HITS, Al Green (The Right Stuff, 1995) - This remastered version of his 1975 hits collection featured five bonus tracks. Fittingly, fans of the 1970s' definitive male soul singer snapped this up, putting him back on the LP charts for the first time in eight years. Great songs never die, they just continually resonate. Burns: "I love Al Green. He's a hero of mine. 'Tired of Being Alone' just kills me. He's one of those artists who's the dividing line between the good and the bad. It doesn't matter what they do, I'm going to go out and buy it and listen to it, because he's established himself as part of culture, as opposed to someone who has one part of one song that I like. I'm always interested in what he's doing." Prime cuts: "Tired of Being Alone," "Let's Stay Together," "I'm Still in Love With You," "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)."

BLOOD SUGAR SEX MAGIK, Red Hot Chili Peppers (Warner, 1991) - Those naked guys wearing sweat socks over their private parts made their commercial breakthrough with this Rick Rubin-produced LP. It stretched pop's boundaries, ranging from the infectious repetitiveness of "Give It Away" to the uncharacteristically pensive "Under the Bridge." Burns: "Not crazy about it, to be honest with you. They never did it for me. It's not authentic for me." Terwilliger: "It doesn't knock me off my butt, but I love their rhythm section." Prime cuts: "Give It Away," "Under the Bridge," "Breaking the Girl," "Blood Sugar Sex Magik."

I DO NOT WANT WHAT I HAVEN'T GOT, Sinead O'Connor (Ensign, 1990) - The indignant singer-songwriter from Ireland committed career suicide in 1990 by tearing up a picture of Pope John Paul on "Saturday Night Live." She hasn't been the same since. Too bad, because she's blessed with a potent voice, brutally honest lyrics and loads of untapped promise. Now used-CD store owners can't give this album away. Burns: "I like it, I like it a lot. I like Sinead O'Connor, but I thought her tearing up the picture of the pope was a bad idea, regardless of my own trials and tribulations with the Catholic Church. I thought it was a real tasteless move and it offended a lot of people. She hurt herself by doing it, and quite frankly, it's made it difficult for me to appreciate what she does now." Terwilliger (laughing): "I'm not going to say anything bad about her, she never did anything to me." Prime cuts: "Nothing Compares 2 U," "Emperor's New Clothes," "Three Babies," "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got."

IT'S A SHAME ABOUT RAY, The Lemonheads (Atlantic, 1993) - For a brief period, Evan Dando was the darling of the alternative rock world. He had long hair, looked grungefully disheveled, didn't dress for success and ruminated about lost loves and other casualties in his life. It's a shame it didn't last longer. Burns: "I'm not a fan of the Lemonheads. I thought the best thing they ever did was that cover of Simon & Garfunkel's 'Mrs. Robinson.' " Prime cuts: "It's a Shame About Ray," "My Drug Buddy," "Mrs. Robinson," "Confetti."

TUESDAY NIGHT MUSIC CLUB, Sheryl Crow (A&M, 1994) - This small-town girl rose from rural Missouri to singing backup on Michael Jackson's "Bad" tour and friend Don Henley's "The End of the Innocence" album and writing songs for Eric Clapton and Wynonna Judd. Then she joined in on informal jam sessions with label mate David Baerwald, producer Bill Bottrell and songwriter Kevin Gilbert to fashion the basics for an album right up Bonnie Raitt's alley. It didn't come easily for Crow; the album took a full year to catch on, but once radio and MTV climbed aboard, she soared with a slew of memorable singles. Burns: "I like her. I had my doubts in the beginning; she used a song some guy wrote in a bar, but now that I'm hearing what she's doing, this chick is hanging tough. After being out here (in Los Angeles) for the past two months and scratching and tearing for every inch of territory that we can gain, it's enhancing my appreciation for people who've come and conquered like Sheryl Crow. It's hard enough for a man, but even harder for a woman." Terwilliger: "I like stuff that's more straight up." Prime cuts: "All I Wanna Do," "Strong Enough," "Run, Baby, Run," "Leaving Las Vegas," "Can't Cry Anymore."

HELLO NASTY, Beastie Boys (Grand Royal/Capitol, 1998) - Never count out Adam Horovitz, Adam Yauch and Mike D. They were in peak form on this multiplatinum effort, churning out a noisy firestorm of witty rhymes, samples and driving beats. Burns: "I'm mixed about that. I find myself listening to it and liking it, and other times I turn it on and think, 'God, I can't stand this shit.' I have a schizophrenic relationship with the Beastie Boys." Terwilliger: "It's cool. Those guys are really creative. I don't know how you would categorize them. One minute, they're hip-hop and the next they're alternative or this or that. They're really talented, and if you listen to their records, if you go way back, every record they either go back into something or move forward and create something new, another new noise. You know what they have that's real important? A smokin' gun of a friggin' fan base; they will sell records no matter what. It's like Metallica. Metallica could play Giants Stadium tomorrow with no record, no nothing, and sell the thing out in one hour. They could sell out in Tibet. It's a cult fan base, and the Beasties have that." Prime cuts: "Intergalactic," "Body Movin'," "Three MC's and One DJ," "Remote Control."

ODELAY, Beck (DGC/Geffen, 1996) - In 1994, many were wondering, "Who the heck is this guy who got signed to a huge deal based on one song, 'Loser,' and was the million-selling 'Mellow Gold' album a fluke?" On this, his second release, Beck lived up to the hype, tossing all sorts of odd rhythms, beats and samples into the mix, concocting a musical Hairy Buffalo. Burns: "It's quite good, but because he's part of a very big, powerful music machine with a tremendous amount of leverage. He's given a lot of credit for a lot of things he didn't come up with originally, with all the sampling and such. Mick Jones of The Clash was doing that stuff with Big Audio Dynamite in 1990, but he hasn't received the accolades." Prime cuts: "Where It's At," "Devils Haircut," "New Pollution," "Lord Only Knows."

FUMBLING TOWARDS ECSTASY, Sarah McLachlan (Nettwerk/Arista, 1994) - The Nova Scotia-born singer-songwriter paid her dues on the Canadian folk circuit before dazzling Arista's ears in 1989 with her haunting "Touch" debut album. She took that early promise a step further with "Solace" in 1991 and really came into her own with "Fumbling," her most passionate and endearing to date. A brilliant song like "Possession," for example, speaks on several levels: McLachlan wrote it about an obsessed fan who was stalking her, while others can interpret it as a deeply personal love song. That's a true gift. Burns: "It's not me. She's good at what she does. I think my problem isn't with Sarah McLachlan, it's with the people who play her all the time." Prime cuts: "Possession," "Good Enough," "Ice Cream," "Hold On."

HARVEST MOON, Neil Young (Reprise, 1992) - Rock's greatest chameleon shifted gears from the tried and true rock of "Ragged Glory" two years earlier to the sentimentality of this tender sequel to 1972's "Harvest." The title track, with its enchanting waltz, is easily the best song he has done in the 1990s. Burns: "Amazing. I love Neil Young. Everything he does is redemptive. He's a guy who sets a tone for culture. I love the fact he schedules a concert and you never know what he's going to do when he shows up. He's a living artist. He might come out and play country tunes or something electric. He's unpredictable." Terwilliger: "He's killer. I love him. It's straight up: guitar, bass, drums. That's really what rock 'n' roll's all about. It's the kind of rock that will never die." Prime cuts: "Harvest Moon," "Unknown Legend," "War of Man," "From Hank to Hendrix."

AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE, R.E.M. (Warner, 1992) - Far removed from the density of 1983's "Murmur," Michael Stipe and the others further displayed their heart-on-sleeve pop emotionalism, never more apparent than on the mournful "Everybody Hurts" and "Man On the Moon," the wistful tribute to the late comedian Andy Kaufman. Rolling Stone critics named this the best album of 1992, amazingly beating out Nirvana's groundbreaking "Nevermind." Burns: "Not a huge R.E.M. fan, but I'm a big fan of some R.E.M. songs." Terwilliger: "I'm the same way, I like some of their singles, but live I've seen some bootleg footage of them and they kick it out. It's sort of like us, (our) record doesn't do us justice. They're another band that always adapts. They've broken the rules a little bit and put their stamp on rock 'n' roll." Prime cuts: "Drive," "Everybody Hurts," "Man On the Moon," "Monty Got a Raw Deal," "Nightswimming."