One year. One shot. One impossible choice.

It’s 1995. The internet is still a rumor. Mixtapes are sacred currency. MTV is still playing music videos. And for one perfect hour, you’re standing in your favorite record store, heart pounding, trying to make a decision that feels like life or death.

You’ve only got enough cash for one album.
Not two. Not three. Just one.

The walls are stacked with sonic gold — shelves bursting with albums that would go on to define a generation.

To your left, there’s Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill, a grenade of heartbreak and righteous rage.
To your right, Oasis is daring you to be a rockstar with (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? — guitars strut, egos clash, magic happens.
You flip through and spot Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, a sprawling, dreamy galaxy of distortion and beauty.
Further down, Radiohead‘s The Bends whispers in riddles, warning you the future is already cracking.
2Pac’s Me Against the World stares back at you — raw, wounded, unfiltered truth set to beat.
Then there’s PJ Harvey, Sonic Youth, Green Day, Tricky, Portishead, Silverchair, Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Moby, and Garbage — each one offering a different escape, a different identity to wear.

Do you choose rebellion?
Melancholy?
Heartbreak?
Hope?
Truth?
Noise?

Every CD cover feels like a map to your future self.
Every tracklist is a possibility.
You hold one in your hand. Feel the weight of it.
This is the soundtrack that’ll get burned into your memory. It’ll play when you fall in love for the first time. When you scream into your pillow. When you walk home alone under streetlights. When you discover who you are — and who you’re not.

You don’t know it yet, but this album will stay with you long after your Discman breaks, long after the store closes, long after the decade ends.

 So here’s the question:
What album did you choose?
What did you take home that day in ‘95 — and how did it change you?
Drop your pick in the comments. Tell us the story. Let’s build the ultimate time capsule of the ‘90s — one album at a time.