1993 in music. • Page 2

"it's bjork, cmon!" is just as valid of a statement though

 

I wouldn't say it's not valid - but (in fairness, I admitted she is a blind spot for me) what I knew of Bjork is to be a "critical darling" rather than a perennial favorite of masses of people, like I would say Nirvana and Pearl Jam are.

 

One song in to Debut and I certainly can say I like it. Very different, but it's working for me so far!

EDIT: Three songs in - yes this is pretty much objectively great. Fascinating for how unique it is musically as well. Very hard to categorize, in the best way.

 

yeah i mean bjork rules. my posts were not meant to be taken that seriously, just having fun in these threads

 

when i see your posts, i'm like "it's phaynes, cmon" so dont worry

 

WHOA - "Big Time Sensuality". I have my headphones in, and it sounds FANTASTIC.

What do the kids say these days? this song "SLAPS" lol

 

Might be editing my top 20 accordingly before the end of the week hahaha

 

we’ve been so nice to each other lately

 

The single mix of Big Time Sensuality is extremely different to the album version - both brilliant.

One to come back with after you’ve finished the album.

 

if you take your finger off the post button, it’s set in stone

 

"holiday magic" or whatever the kids say these days

 

I know and that's why a lot of weeks I wait until Thursday or Friday to post my list hahah

But fuck it it's all good - all about discovery and appreciation of great music.

 

Ugh so many great albums I’m agonizing over for my top 3 spots. Few of which will have any traction in the final vote

 

This is definitely the toughest year for me so far. A clear number 1, but my other picks could be any number of things.

 

lucky for me I never have to think about it, I already have a list of my favs for every year from 1969 to now haha

 

1. In Utero
2. Fugazi- In On The Kill Taker
3. Slowdive- Souvlaki

 

1. Counting Crows - August and Everything After
2. Goo Goo Dolls - Superstar Car Wash
3. Billy Joel - River of Dreams

Excruciating Cuts:
John Berry - John Berry
Garth Brooks - In Pieces

Others I love:
Sheryl Crow - Tuesday Night Music Club
Dwight Yoakam - This Time
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Paul Westerberg - 14 Songs
Warren Zevon - Learning to Flinch
Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville
Pearl Jam - Vs.
Rush - Counterparts
Phil Collins - Both Sides
Bruce Hornsby - Harbor Lights
Duran Duran - The Wedding Album
Wynonna Judd - Tell Me Why
Blue Rodeo - Five Days in July
Brooks and Dunn - Hard Workin' Man

Good ones:
Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
Willie Nelson - Across the Borderline
Sting - Ten Summoner's Tales
Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell
Heart - Desire Walks On
A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders
Janet Jackson - janet.
Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen
Nina Simone - A Single Woman
Nirvana - In Utero
Paul McCartney - Off the Ground
Dan Fogelberg - River of Souls
Melissa Etheridge - Yes I Am
Lenny Kravitz - Are You Gonna Go My Way
Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See
Terence Trent d'Arby - Symphony or Damn
Marc Cohn - The Rainy Season
Mavis Staples - The Voice
Bruce Springsteen - In Concert/MTV Plugged
Jackson Browne - I'm Alive
Lee Roy Parnell - On the Road
Bad Religion - Recipe for Hate

Not a fan:
Ace of Base - The Sign

Targets for listening:
2pac - Strictly for My N.I.G.G.A.Z.
Babyface - For the Cool in You
Bob Dylan - World Gone Wrong
Jamiroquai - Emergency on Planet Earth
Toby Keith - Toby Keith
Patty Loveless - Only What I Feel
Billy Ocean - Time to Move On
Robert Plant - Fate of Nations
Radiohead - Pablo Honey
Tool - Undertow
Auteurs - New Wave
Bjork - Debut
Blur - Modern Life Is Rubbish
The Boo Radleys - Giant Steps
The Fall - The Infotainment Scam
Grant Lee Buffalo - Fuzzy
P.J. Harvey - Rid of Me
Aimee Mann - Whatever
William Orbit - Strange Cargo III
Orbital - Orbital II
Sebadoh - Bubble and Scrape
Snoop Doggy Dogg - Doggystyle
Suede - Suede
Paul Weller - Wild Wood
The Breeders - Last Splash
Aerosmith - Get a Grip
Donald ***en - Kamakariad
Trisha Yearwood - The Song Remembers When
Digable Planets - Reachin'
U2 - Zooropa
PM Dawn - The Bliss Album...?
Tony! Toni! Tone! - Sons of Soul
Cassandra Wilson - Blue Light Til Dawn
Slowdive - Souvlaki
Ry Cooder and V.M. Bhatt - A Meeting by the River
Martina McBride - The Way That I Am

 

Really brutal to cut John Berry, probably my candidate for the best utterly obscure/forgotten country album of the era.

 

Entombed created a new sub genre called Death’n’Roll with their release of Wolverine Blues. It might be my favorite entombed album.

 

it’s very good. they have two classics in two different genres.

 

1. Nirvana - In Utero
2. Wu-Tang - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
3. Slowdrive - Souvlaki

 

hell yeah

 

1. Counting Crows - August & Everything After
2. Sheryl Crow - Tuesday Night Music Club
3. U2 - Zooropa

August & Everything After qualifies for the short list of albums that truly changed my life. “Mr. Jones” is the first song I remember hearing in my life that made me think “I love this.” The band’s early albums were super formative to my music taste and all remain some of my favorite records ever. This is the best of them (though, not by as wide a margin as some people believe). Just an absolute god tier collection of songs, and one of the rare “there are a ton of hits on this album” LPs where the deep cuts (“Sullivan Street,” “Anna Begins,” “Raining in Baltimore,” “A Murder of One”) are as good or better than the songs everybody knows. I love everything about this record: the lyrics, the way Duritz sings them like his life depends on it, the band firing on all cylinders, the ace production by T. Bone Burnett, the title. I will never get tired of hearing it. It’s the second of my top five albums of all time to show up so far in this process, and a runaway number 1 for me this year.

The Sheryl Crow album seems so far ahead of its time. So much of the genre-hopping mentality of modern pop albums (and the overall sonic template of a lot of modern country) is in that record. It hasn’t aged a day, from the big pop singles (“All I Wanna Do” still has a sterling hook) to the straight-up country songs (“Strong Enough,” "No One Said It Would Be Easy") to the heartland rockers ("Leaving Las Vegas" and "Can't Cry Anymore" could both be Petty songs) to the curveball experimental moments (going free jazz meets, like, "Spirit in the Night" in "What I Can Do for You"?) And then you've got "I Shall Believe" holding down the fort at the end as one of the greatest '90s closing tracks.
Also, I don’t think Crow often gets tabbed as a country trailblazer, given that she was more likely to get played on rock or pop or adult contemporary radio in the ‘90s. But I think it’s notable that some of her biggest modern disciples are making music in the Nashville ecosystem (Maren Morris, Natalie Hemby, Amanda Shires, etc.)

Zooropa often gets tabbed as a sequel of sorts to Achtung Baby, but I really hear it as its own thing. More daring in some ways (the sprawl of the title track, the "industrial blues" of “Daddy’s Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car”), more conventional in others ("Stay" and "The First Time" are two of the band's loveliest, most straightforward ballads), and definitely more '90s ("Numb," "Lemon," and "Babyface" all sound very 1993, in a good way). And then they end it by calling in a pre-career-renaissance Johnny Cash to sing an apocalyptic hymn over an electronic arrangement on "The Wanderer." A wild, all-over-the-place record; gotta be one of the weirder albums to hit the top of the Billboard 200.

 

zooropa might be my least favorite u2 record, personally