Music: Best Albums of the Year Series: 1993

[Saturated Fats]

1965: The Beatles - Rubber Soul
1966: The Beatles - Revolver
1967: The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
1968: The Beatles - The White Album
1969: The Beatles - Abbey Road
1970: Black Sabbath - Paranoid
1971: Led Zeppelin - IV
1972: Neil Young - Harvest
1973: Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
1974: Supertramp - Crime of the Century
1975: Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
1976: Eagles - Hotel California
1977: Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
1979: Pink Floyd - The Wall
1980: AC/DC - Back in Black
1981: Rush - Moving Pictures
1982: Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
1984: Metallica - Ride the Lightning
1985: Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair
1986: Metallica - Master of Puppets
1987: Guns 'n Roses - Appetite for Destruction
1988: Metallica - ...And Justice for All
1989: Pixies - Doolittle
1991: Nirvana - Nevermind
1992: Alice in Chains - Dirt
1995: Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
1996: (TIE) Soundgarden - Down on the Upside // Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire
1997: (TIE) Radiohead - OK Computer // Foo Fighters - The Color and the Shape
1998: (TIE) Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill // System of a Down - System of a Down
1999: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
2000: Radiohead - Kid A
2001: The Strokes - Is This It
2002: Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
2004: (TIE) Madvillain - Madvillainy // The Killers - Hot Fuss // Green Day - American Idiot
2005: Coldplay - X & Y
2006: Tool - 10,000 Days
2007: Radiohead - In Rainbows
2009: Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures
2010: The National - High Violet
2011: No definitive winner
2012: (TIE) Kendrick Lamar - good kidd, M.A.A.D. city // Deftones - koi no yokan
2014: Behemoth - The Satanist

2015: Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly (8 votes)

2nd Place: Tame Impala - Currents (7 votes)
3rd Place: Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell (5 votes)
4th Place (TIED): Carly Rae Jepsen - E-MO-TION (4 votes)
4th Place (TIED): Mgla - Exercises in Futility



1993 is another year in that massive run from 91-94 where it feels like there is an insane amount of popular and critical quality. Strong year for both hip-hop and alternative, and while there are some obvious favourites here, I expect this will be a pretty active poll.

11/14: 1978
11/16: 2003
11/18: 1983

Years remaining: 1900-1964 (cumulative); 1990; 1994 (i'm re-doing it); 2008; 2013; 2016-now (cumulative)

Thanks for sticking with the project, guys. We're almost there. At the conclusion of each individual year, I'll be running a 'best of the decade' poll, taking the 10 (or so) winners from each decade, and running them up against each other. Should be fun.

Click to read more...

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I'm glad you're redoing 1994, there's a couple others from the earlier polls I'll redo myself for fun because I didn't take the time to look into it seriously. I'm also glad we're getting to the end of it because I have a hard time keeping with the rythm now. That's what I have for 1993, but it's pretty raw, didn't polish the ranking and I'm sure I forgot some stuff.

1. Naked City – Absinthe / Naked City – Radio (Absinthe is my favorite Naked City album, Radio is kind of a throwback to early Naked City sound, lots of fun)
+ John Zorn – Kristallnacht (uneven album, but that opening track feels like the most essential thing you'll ever listen to, the second track came with a warning on the CD as it might damage your ears - I'm putting it here as a side to the NC albums)
2. Barkmarket – Gimmick
3. Steel Pole Bath Tub – Miracle of Sound
4. Ground Zero – Ground Zero
5. God Is My Co-Pilot – Straight Not / God Is My Co-Pilot – What Doctors Don't Tell You / God Is My Co-Pilot – Getting Out of Boring Time Biting Into Boring Pie
6. Cows – Sexy Pee Story
7. Beck – Golden Feelings
8. Praxis – Sacrifist
9. Ruins – Graviyaunosch
10. Unwound – Fake Train
11. Schloss Tegal – The Grand Guignol
12. This Heat – I Repeat
13. Vampire Rodents – Lullaby Land
14. Earth – Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version
15. Old – The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak

HMs:
Boredoms – Wow 2
Gallon Drunk – From the Heart of Town
Bob Drake – What Day Is It?
New Bomb Turks – !!Destroy-Oh-Boy!! / New Bomb Turks – Drunk on Cock (EP)
PJ Harvey – Rid of Me
Ellen Fullman – Body Music
Dog Faced Hermans – Hum of Life
Various Artists/Movie Soundtrack – Judgment Night
Shorty – Thumb Days
Tindersticks – First Album
Suicidal Tendencies – Still Cyco After All These Years
Don Caballero – For Respect
Trumans Water – Spasm Smash XXXOXOX Ox and Ass
Sacred Reich – Independent (I don't know where to put this, it's not really good, just a sentimental pick)

Curiosities:
William S. Burroughs – Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales (all kinds of amazing, still...)
Flying Saucer Attack – Flying Saucer Attack
Marc Ribot – Marc Ribot Plays Solo Guitar Works of Frantz Casseus
Material – Hallucination Engine
Bill Laswell, Ryuichi Sakamoto & Yōsuke Yamashita - Asian Games (title track and A Parade of Rain, the Moon, And A Bride are amazing but the rest has groovy elements that are just not for me)
And Also the Trees – The Klaxon

This should be everybody's introduction to Zorn's genius


All right, let's go, we've got a date with the underground!

 

[Teemu]

Nirvana - In Utero
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Uncle Tupelo - Anodyne
Pearl Jam - Vs

 

[kook10]

Other:

Neil Young Unplugged
Porno For Pyros - Porno For Pyros
Autechre - Incunabula
De La Soul - Buhloone Mindstate
Primus - Pork Soda

 

[Langdon Alger]

Why are you re-doing 1994 out of curiosity?

 

[Ceremony]

Vs.

Also voted Pablo Honey for a laugh

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Wu Tang Clan is my easy choice here.

Other vote for Guru - Jazzmatazz Vol 1.

A truly unique and almost prog version of a hip hop album with Guru recording with a live jazz band

 

[belair]

Souls of Mischief - '93 til Infinity

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Why are you re-doing 1994 out of curiosity?

The thread disappeared from HF!

 

[frisco]

Other:
Zooropa-U2
Common Thread: Songs Of The Eagles-Various
I'm Alive-Jackson Browne
Full Moon, Dirty Hearts-INXS
Size Isn't Everything-Bee Gees

My Best-Carey

 

[Langdon Alger]

Vs.

Also voted Pablo Honey for a laugh

I’ve never heard that album actually. Is it any good?

 

[Azathoth]

Lots of good metal albums this year. In addition to the ones on the list:
Immortal-Pure Holocaust
Burzum-Det som engang var
At the Gates-With fear I kiss the burning darkness
Dark Tranquility-Skydancer
Morbid Angel-Convenant
Demilich-Nespithe

 

[Ceremony]

I’ve never heard that album actually. Is it any good?

It's significantly better than people on this board would have you believe.

 

[Langdon Alger]

It's significantly better than people on this board would have you believe.

The only radiohead albums I’ve listened to are

The Bends
OK Computer
Kid A
Amnesiac
Hail To The Thief

 

[Mescaleroman]

Paul Weller - Wild Wood
the Catherine Wheel - Chrome
the the - Dusk
James - Laid
Cracker - Kerosene Hat
Big Country - The Buffalo Skinners

 

[Saturated Fats]

Why are you re-doing 1994 out of curiosity?

Because it was a crap thread with crap, non-diverse options and the winner was a live album, which isn't in the spirit of what we've been doing. It also disappeared into the ether.

 

[Langdon Alger]

Because it was a crap thread with crap, non-diverse options and the winner was a live album, which isn't in the spirit of what we've been doing. It also disappeared into the ether.

So, only studio albums should be considered?

 

[Ouroboros]

diSEMBOWELEMNT - Transcendence Into The Peripheral [Death Metal]
Ludwig Van Beethoven - The Late String Quartets [Alban Berg Quartett] [Classical/Romantic]
Rippikoulu - Musta Seremonia [Demo] [Death Metal]
Horațiu Rădulescu - Dizzy Divinity; Byzantine Prayer [L'Orchestre de Flûtes Français] [Modern Classical]
Demilich - Nespithe [Death Metal]
Darkthrone - Under A Funeral Moon [Black Metal]
Morton Feldman - Piano And String Quartet [Kronos Quartet/Takahashi] [Modern Classical]
Morbid Angel - Covenant [Death Metal]
Harry Bertoia - Unfolding [Drone/Electronic]
Thomas Köner - Permafrost [Ambient/Drone]
Hoedh - Hymnus [Ambient/Drone]
Iancu Dumitrescu - Galaxy [Compilation] [Modern Classical/Spectralism]

 

[belair]

Because it was a crap thread with crap, non-diverse options and the winner was a live album, which isn't in the spirit of what we've been doing. It also disappeared into the ether.

You could argue that 2004 falls into the same category. American Idiot and Hot Fuss?

 

[Langdon Alger]

You could argue that 2004 falls into the same category. American Idiot and Hot Fuss?

What’s wrong with those options?

 

[MakeTheGoalsLarger]

Nirvana - In Utero

Other:
Meat Loaf - Bat out of hell II

 

[Chili]

Sarah McLachlan-Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
Sting-Ten Summoner's Tales

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Other vote for Guru - Jazzmatazz Vol 1.

A truly unique and almost prog version of a hip hop album with Guru recording with a live jazz band

Agreed - a great album. He released several other albums in the Jazzmatazz series over the years, but none were as good as this one.

 

[belair]

What’s wrong with those options?

Compared to some of the other options, they were mainstream dogshit. Just my opinion, but you could argue the Nirvana live album falls into the same category.

 

[Langdon Alger]

Compared to some of the other options, they were mainstream dogshit. Just my opinion, but you could argue the Nirvana live album falls into the same category.

American Idiot is Green Day’s best album. That’s right I said it. I ain’t afraid of you motherf***ers.