1994 in music. • Page 2

1. Weezer - Weezer
2. Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
3. Pearl Jam - Vitalogy

A fucking vintage year.

 

The Weezer v Oasis battle of Chorus.fm RAGES ON lol

 

everyone that likes one of those bands likes the other haha

 

Maybe I glazed over it and missed the point but I vaguely recall some sort of shouting matches in Weezer threads about Oasis being better.

We're splitting hairs here, obviously when talking about the prime of both bands.

 

the only thing i recall was some people tried to say to ignore me bc weezer was my favorite band or something along those lines and i responded that if they thought i was annoying about weezer, they must not pay attention to any oasis conversations lol

 

Yes?

 

please listen to Oasis?

 

1. Soundgarden- Superunknown
2. Green Day- Dookie
3. Pearl Jam- Vitalogy

 

1. Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible
2. Morrissey - Vauxhall And I
3. Weezer - Blue

What a ridiculously good year.

 

1. Nas - Illmatic
2. Weezer - Blue
3. BIG -Ready to Die

 

On my radar. In my defense, I have heard Morning Glory and Be Here Now

 

1. Tom Petty - Wildflowers
2. Green Day - Dookie
3. Oasis - Definitely Maybe

How often does someone make their foremost masterpiece 18 years after their debut? Somehow, Tom Petty did. And yeah, I know there's lots of debate about which Petty record is the greatest Petty record, but Wildflowers is my favorite. It's got everything: acoustic Petty; full-band Petty; beautiful, poignant, melancholy Petty; big, loud, fun bar-band Petty; songwriter Petty; frontman Petty; and so on. I always liked and respected this record, but I fell really hard for it last year when the reissue came out, which just happened to coincide with when my grandma passed away. It's an album really tied up in that time for me, and it imbues some of these songs ("Wildflowers," "Time to Move On," "A Higher Place") with a lot of emotion.

I didn't get my first CD player until I was 11, which meant I listened to a lot of music on tape when I was a kid. My first "albums" were albums my brother owned on CD that he'd make cassette tape copies of for me on his boombox. Dookie was one of the first two albums he copied for me, alongside Weird Al's Bad Hair Day. Hugely inappropriate to be listening to this album as a five-year-old kid, but I don't think I even registered the lyrics. What I cared about were the melodies, and I think that's what really makes Dookie special. Green Day realized they could be a punk band, but could still have catchier pop hooks than most of what was on pop radio at the time. It's not my favorite Green Day record -- American Idiot ended up meaning a lot more to me in the long run -- but there's still so much I love about this record. If I had to pick one song to sum up my childhood, it might be "When I Come Around."

Don't worry Pat, I'm going to give Oasis a number 1 vote soon. Definitely Maybe is one of the great called shots in rock 'n' roll history. Imagine having that much bluster and ego on your debut album...and then making good on everything you said was going to happen for you? I love the swagger of this record, love how deafeningly loud it sounds, and love how it's both stacked with legendary singles but also overflowing with killer album tracks. Just one of the greatest debut albums of all time. They arrived fully formed and made a greatest hits on their first shot.

Going to throw out some quick honorable mentions for this year, because there are a bunch of albums I wanted to fit into my top 3.

• Billy Walsh - Art, Sex, and Religion: My uncle! An incredibly gorgeous voice, and great songs to boot. A lot of what I know about songwriting, I learned from listening to Uncle Bill. (@cshadows2887 I genuinely think you'd love this album)
  
  
• Jeff Buckley - Grace: For my money, the most well-sung album of all time. I still can't believe what he does on the title track, and the way he sings "Hallelujah" is so overwhelmingly emotional that listening to anyone else cover it just makes me want to listen to his version.
  
  
• Nas - Illmatic: Did this one for MWE last year and was just blown away by it. I'll link what I wrote about it then.

• R.E.M. - Monster: Tends to be a punching bag in the R.E.M. catalog (and I never saw more used copies of any album back in the day when I used to spend a lot of time browsing the shelves at FYE) but I really came around on it a few years ago. Hearing them go this loud, this heavy on distortion and tremolo and guitar, this NINETIES, is thrilling.
  
  
• Weezer - The Blue Album: Just a goddamn blast. I'll never get tired of listening to this album in the car and shouting along to "Buddy Holly" and "Say It Ain't So."

 

this year won't be remotely close, which is honestly kind of shocking to me

 

I know. Stones in the Road is just so clearly the winner I can’t believe it’s not winning unanimously. Oh well.

 

1. Big - Ready to Die
2. UGK - Super Tight
3. Nas - Illmatic
4. Outkast - Southernplaya

 

How can you be surprised that Weezer and Green Day's landmark albums are running the show here

 

more so the gap between first and everything else, considering just how many great albums there are. kind of expected more parity, like for ‘93.

 

As alway, the winner will be the consensus/common ground. That’s probably going to lean disproportionately toward a certain strain of rock band logically. And that’s fine. The lists are all a nice mix so far

 

Banger year though.
Downward Spiral, Nirvana Unplugged, Dookie, Ill Communication, Blowout Comb, Bee Thousand, There's Nothing Wrong With Love, Vitalogy

 

i am most surprised at the downward spiral only getting one vote, when it seems to be one of the consensus picks for among the best of the decade

 

I don't think this site is a hotbed of NIN fandom but that record's just outside my top three.

 

there have been more than a handful of winners through the years that aren’t typical for this site but yeah, pitted again weezer and green day, it makes sense

 

A lot depends on how crowded different years are. Probably ~20 albums from this year that could have run the table in the 1990 thread, for instance.

 

The Downward Spiral would be my number 4 but that's one I've only heard a few times.

 

1. Hole - Live Through This
2. Biggie - Ready to Die
3. Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral