Music: Best Albums of the Year Series: 1994

[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
1978: (TIE) The Police - Outlandos d'Amour / The Cars - The Cars / Van Halen - Van Halen
1979: Pink Floyd - The Wall
1980: AC/DC - Back in Black
1981: Rush - Moving Pictures
1982: Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
1983: Metallica - Kill 'em All
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
1990: Megadeth - Rust in Peace
1991: Nirvana - Nevermind
1992: Alice in Chains - Dirt
1993: Nirvana - In Utero
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
2003: The White Stripes - Elephant
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
2008: (TIE) Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes // Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
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

2013: The National - Trouble Will Find Me (6 votes)

A good album, though certainly not my favourite by them. Much-loved band on HF, it would seem. Was expecting maybe a little more in the way of participation, but the 2010's years never seem to get much love.

With respect to my man Bogart, I've been waiting to re-do 1994 for a while now. This is one of the truly great years in music history, and with the... questionable poll-taking tactics of the original tally, alongside it's disappearance from the boards, it seemed reasonable to give it another go. If anything, it gives us an excuse to talk about some amazing, career-defining works from a variety of genres. I had a suuuuper tough time whittling it down to 29 poll options. And please remember that, to be eligible, an album must be a studio album or original material - hence, the absence of Nirvana's MTV Unplugged. We've withheld live records from the poll up to this point.

With this being the final individual year of the polling, a little heads up on what I'll be doing moving forward. I'll be holding the individual polls on 1900-1964 and 2016-now, which will run following this. After that, I will be bringing together the winners of each individual year into decade vote-offs. These will involve all winners from each decade (tied years means that both albums will be included in the poll), alongside one wild-card entry, which will be the album that received the most votes on the decade without winning. Should be a fun way for us to whittle it down to a final six. Or, at the very least, gives me an excuse to keep talking music with you guys for a little while longer. Enjoy, and Happy Holidays!

Click to read more...

 

[plank]

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
1978: (TIE) The Police - Outlandos d'Amour / The Cars - The Cars / Van Halen - Van Halen
1979: Pink Floyd - The Wall
1980: AC/DC - Back in Black
1981: Rush - Moving Pictures
1982: Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
1983: Metallica - Kill 'em All
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
1990: Megadeth - Rust in Peace
1991: Nirvana - Nevermind
1992: Alice in Chains - Dirt
1993: Nirvana - In Utero
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
2003: The White Stripes - Elephant
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
2008: (TIE) Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes // Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
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

2013: The National - Trouble Will Find Me (6 votes)

A good album, though certainly not my favourite by them. Much-loved band on HF, it would seem. Was expecting maybe a little more in the way of participation, but the 2010's years never seem to get much love.

With respect to my man Bogart, I've been waiting to re-do 1994 for a while now. This is one of the truly great years in music history, and with the... questionable poll-taking tactics of the original tally, alongside it's disappearance from the boards, it seemed reasonable to give it another go. If anything, it gives us an excuse to talk about some amazing, career-defining works from a variety of genres. I had a suuuuper tough time whittling it down to 29 poll options. And please remember that, to be eligible, an album must be a studio album or original material - hence, the absence of Nirvana's MTV Unplugged. We've withheld live records from the poll up to this point.

With this being the final individual year of the polling, a little heads up on what I'll be doing moving forward. I'll be holding the individual polls on 1900-1964 and 2016-now, which will run following this. After that, I will be bringing together the winners of each individual year into decade vote-offs. These will involve all winners from each decade (tied years means that both albums will be included in the poll), alongside one wild-card entry, which will be the album that received the most votes on the decade without winning. Should be a fun way for us to whittle it down to a final six. Or, at the very least, gives me an excuse to keep talking music with you guys for a little while longer. Enjoy, and Happy Holidays!

Thanks for doing these, been fun!

 

[Teemu]

Weezer - The Blue Album
Nirvana - MTV Unplugged in New York
The Offspring - Smash
Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies
Sugar - File Under: Easy Listening
Live - Throwing Copper
Pearl Jam - Vitology

I wanna see how long some of these 1900-1964 lists are gonna be

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Voted for 5:

Weezer - quintessential college/nerd rock album that is also just great start to end. Only In Dreams is one of my favorite songs ever
Green Day - what can you say about Dookie. Best "pop" punk album of all time
NaS - Illmatic might be the best debut album of all time and is one of the GOAT hip hop albums
NIN - predictable for me, but I cant not vote for NIN. Downward Spiral especially really had great music, engaging lyrics and the extra subliminal audio cues make it a great listen
Offspring - what can I say, its one of my favorite albums and is one of my childhood nostalgia CDs

Tough to leave off smashes like Vitalogy, Purple, Superunknown, Jar of Flies. Just that those aren't any of their best works (IMO) so I couldn't give them a vote

 

[ghostnights]

Oasis- Definitely Maybe

 

[plank]

1. The Brooklyn Side - The Bottle Rockets
2. Wildflowers - Tom Petty
3. Vitalogy - Pearl Jam
4. Superunknown - Soundgarden
5. Purple - Stone Temple Pilots
6. Jar of Flies - Alice in Chains
7. s/t - Weezer
8. Electric Rock Music - Ass Ponys
9. King of California - Dave Alvin
10. s/t -The Sea and Cake
11. Sleeps with Angels - Neil Young & Crazy Horse
12. Foolish - Superchunk
13. Four - Blues Traveler
14. Teenager of the Year - Frank Black
15. Throwing Copper - Live
16. Monster - R.E.M.

 

[plank]

Weezer - The Blue Album
Nirvana - MTV Unplugged in New York
The Offspring - Smash
Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies
Sugar - File Under: Easy Listening
Live - Throwing Copper
Pearl Jam - Vitology

I wanna see how long some of these 1900-1964 lists are gonna be

It was more singles released back then, so I only have about 20 albums from 1954-1963. I do have a big ass list que'd up for 2016-now.

 

[Langdon Alger]

Superunknown, Wildflowers and Throwing Copper for me.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I was glad to go back to this one... I'll redo all of the first polls at some point where I was just throwing stuff out without looking through my stuff.

Please take your time for the multi-years polls!!!

1. John Frusciante - Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt
2. John Zorn & Fred Frith – The Art of Memory (1994 is also the year Zorn's original Masada project started, with 3 albums – I have the first 10 albums 94-98 and like them all, but can't really tell them apart)
3. Controlled Bleeding & Doc Wör Mirran – Pets for Meat / The Gylsboda Snake
4. Caroliner – Banknotes, Dreams and Signatures / Caroliner – Rings On The Awkward Shadow
5. Praxis – Sacrifist
6. Today Is the Day – Willpower (this has to be one of the best 'metal' album opening ever)
7. Milk Cult - Burn or Bury
8. Painkiller - Execution Ground
9. Bügsküll – Phantasies and Senseitions
10. Beck - Mellow Gold
11. Merzbow – Venereology
12. Melt-Banana - Speak Squeak Creak
13. Renaud - À la belle de mai
14. Boredoms - Chocolate Synthesizer
15. God Is My Co-Pilot – How To Be / God Is My Co-Pilot – Mir Shlufn Nisht / God Is My Co-Pilot – Sex Is For Making Babies

HMs:
Doc Wör Mirran – The Music of Blood (DWM has a few other recordings from 1994 but I couldn't find them – this one is very good, but nowhere near as fun or interesting as their split with Controlled Bleeding)
Fushitsusha - Pathétique
Cherubs – Heroin Man
Daniel Johnston - Fun
R.L. Burnside – Too Bad Jim
Subsonic 1: Fred Frith & Marc Ribot – Sounds Of A Distant Episode
When – Prefab Wreckage
Seefeel – Starethrough
Optical*8 – Gender / Optical*8 – Bug (Gender is a much better album than Bug, but it's still far from Optical*8's best stuff)
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Orange
Company 91 – Volume 1 / Company 91 – Volume 2 / Company 91 – Volume 3
O'rang – Spoor E.P.
Shellac – At Action Park
Disco Inferno – D. I. Go Pop
New Bomb Turks – Information Highway Revisited
Black Lung – Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars
Palace Songs – Hope / Palace Brothers – Days In the Wake
Laika – Silver Apples of the Moon
Suicidal Tendencies – Suicidal For Life
Codeine – The White Birch
Ween – Chocolate and Cheese
Dirty Three – Dirty Three
Beastie Boys – Ill Communication

Curiosities:
Fred Frith – Quartets (this is a masterpiece and if I was a little more intelligent, it would be top-5)
Kazutoki Umezu – Eclecticism (it's live and it's amazing)
Café Tacvba – Re
Bob Drake – What Day Is It?
Seigen Ono – Bar del Mattatoio / Seigen Ono – Montreux 93-94 (live)
Shu-de – Voices From the Distant Steppe
Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works Volume II
22-Pistepirkko – Rumble City, LaLa Land
Digable Planets – Blowout Comb
Huun-Huur-Tu – The Orphan's Lament
Radial Spangle – Syrup Macrame
Laurie Anderson – Bright Red

 

[plank]

I was glad to go back to this one... I'll redo all of the first polls at some point where I was just throwing stuff out without looking through my stuff.

Please take your time for the multi-years polls!!!

1. John Frusciante - Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt
2. John Zorn & Fred Frith – The Art of Memory (1994 is also the year Zorn's original Masada project started, with 3 albums – I have the first 10 albums 94-98 and like them all, but can't really tell them apart)
3. Controlled Bleeding & Doc Wör Mirran – Pets for Meat / The Gylsboda Snake
4. Caroliner – Banknotes, Dreams and Signatures / Caroliner – Rings On The Awkward Shadow
5. Praxis – Sacrifist
6. Today Is the Day – Willpower (this has to be one of the best 'metal' album opening ever)
7. Milk Cult - Burn or Bury
8. Painkiller - Execution Ground
9. Bügsküll – Phantasies and Senseitions
10. Beck - Mellow Gold
11. Merzbow – Venereology
12. Melt-Banana - Speak Squeak Creak
13. Renaud - À la belle de mai
14. Boredoms - Chocolate Synthesizer
15. God Is My Co-Pilot – How To Be / God Is My Co-Pilot – Mir Shlufn Nisht / God Is My Co-Pilot – Sex Is For Making Babies

HMs:
Doc Wör Mirran – The Music of Blood (DWM has a few other recordings from 1994 but I couldn't find them – this one is very good, but nowhere near as fun or interesting as their split with Controlled Bleeding)
Fushitsusha - Pathétique
Cherubs – Heroin Man
Daniel Johnston - Fun
R.L. Burnside – Too Bad Jim
Subsonic 1: Fred Frith & Marc Ribot – Sounds Of A Distant Episode
When – Prefab Wreckage
Seefeel – Starethrough
Optical*8 – Gender / Optical*8 – Bug (Gender is a much better album than Bug, but it's still far from Optical*8's best stuff)
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Orange
Company 91 – Volume 1 / Company 91 – Volume 2 / Company 91 – Volume 3
O'rang – Spoor E.P.
Shellac – At Action Park
Disco Inferno – D. I. Go Pop
New Bomb Turks – Information Highway Revisited
Black Lung – Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars
Palace Songs – Hope / Palace Brothers – Days In the Wake
Laika – Silver Apples of the Moon
Suicidal Tendencies – Suicidal For Life
Codeine – The White Birch
Ween – Chocolate and Cheese
Dirty Three – Dirty Three
Beastie Boys – Ill Communication

Curiosities:
Fred Frith – Quartets (this is a masterpiece and if I was a little more intelligent, it would be top-5)
Kazutoki Umezu – Eclecticism (it's live and it's amazing)
Café Tacvba – Re
Bob Drake – What Day Is It?
Seigen Ono – Bar del Mattatoio / Seigen Ono – Montreux 93-94 (live)
Shu-de – Voices From the Distant Steppe
Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works Volume II
22-Pistepirkko – Rumble City, LaLa Land
Digable Planets – Blowout Comb
Huun-Huur-Tu – The Orphan's Lament
Radial Spangle – Syrup Macrame
Laurie Anderson – Bright Red

I've spent the last few months listening to(and enjoying) the albums I have for each upcoming poll but eventually I'm going to circle back and start randomly picking out and listening to albums on your lists.

 

[Mikeaveli]

9/10:
1. Vangelis - Blade Runner
2. Fishmans - Orange
3. Nas - Illmatic
4. Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Vol. II

8/10:
5. Jeru the Damaja - The Sun Rises in the East (Underrated album)
6. Autechre - Amber
7. Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die
8. Digable Planets - Blowout Comb
9. Drive Like Jehu - Yank Crime

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I've spent the last few months listening to(and enjoying) the albums I have for each upcoming poll but eventually I'm going to circle back and start randomly picking out and listening to albums on your lists.

I often pick random stuff from yours! You'll probably think a lot of albums from my lists are a little too much on the "heavy" side, but I'm sure you'll find quite a few different things to your taste.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

I agree with others that this has been a lot of fun. I’ve revisited some albums I haven’t heard in years and listened to some that I’ve never heard before based on other posters’ recommendations. I’ve got a list of a lot of others to listen to as well.

Other:
Cranberries: No Need to Argue
Live: Throwing Copper
Neil Young and Crazy Horse: Sleeps with Angels

From the List:
Green Day: Dookie
Tom Petty: Wildflowers
Jeff Beck: Grace
Weezer: Weezer
Oasis: Definitely Maybe
Green Day: Smash (edit)
REM: Monster

 

[plank]

I often pick random stuff from yours! You'll probably think a lot of albums from my lists are a little too much on the "heavy" side, but I'm sure you'll find quite a few different things to your taste.

I guarantee I'll find something I like and I don't mind digging through a pile of shit to find a diamond!

 

[WetcoastOrca]

Oasis- Definitely Maybe

Well make up your mind. Are you definitely voting for them or just maybe.

 

[kook10]

other:

If I Were A Carpenter - compilation
Massive Attack - Protection
Gangstarr - Hard To Earn
Plastikman - Musik

 

[Mescaleroman]

Primal Scream - Give Out But Don't Give Up
the Stone Roses - Second Coming

House of Freaks - Invisible Jewel
Pulp - His n Hers
the Lightning Seeds - Jollification
James - Wah Wah
Ten Foot Pole - Rev
Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand
Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible
Bad Religion - Stranger Than Fiction

 

[Langdon Alger]

I agree with others that this has been a lot of fun. I’ve revisited some albums I haven’t heard in years and listened to some that I’ve never heard before based on other posters’ recommendations. I’ve got a list of a lot of others to listen to as well.

Other:
Cranberries: No Need to Argue
Live: Throwing Copper
Neil Young and Crazy Horse: Sleeps with Angels

From the List:
Green Day: Dookie
Tom Petty: Wildflowers
Jeff Beck: Grace
Weezer: Weezer
Oasis: Definitely Maybe
Green Day: Smash Mouth
REM: Monster

I might be in the minority, but I don’t find Monster to be anything great. I guess they were trying to rock out on that one, but other than a few songs, I’m not thrilled with it. I much prefer the one that came before (Automatic for the people) and the one that came after (New adventures in hi-fi).

 

[ItsFineImFine]

So it's The Holy Bible most likely for me and I say that as someone who doesn't even normally listen to punk followed by the Portishead debut. I actually think Definetely Maybe and Parklife are both overrated despite being a huge Britpop fan though I do think Live Forever is one of the best songs of the 90s and Parklife is a really interesting album which deserves more than to just be labelled Britpop.

But anyways, I don't like to rank in these albums but just point out some stuff that no one else posted which I thought was really good. In this case, it's these two albums:

Strangelove kinda had that 'The Bends' era sound which Radiohead did. Obviously not as strong as The Bends but it has a high rating on RYM for a reason, really great album, just the album opener is something.


Lush's sophomore album I think is better than Slowdive's Souvlaki or the stuff Ride was doing in the same era along with Catherine Wheel. It's a bit more on the pop side of shoegaze but maybe that's why I prefer it, it blends the two much better.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

I might be in the minority, but I don’t find Monster to be anything great. I guess they were trying to rock out on that one, but other than a few songs, I’m not thrilled with it. I much prefer the one that came before (Automatic for the people) and the one that came after (New adventures in hi-fi).

I agree with that. Not their strongest album for sure.

 

[Ouroboros]

Iannis Xenakis - Chamber Music 1955-1990 [Helffer/Arditti Quartet] [Modern Classical]
Alban Berg - Streichquartett Op. 3; Lyrische Suite [Arditti Quartet] [Modern Classical/Expressionism]
Krzysztof Penderecki - Matrix 5 [Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra] [Modern Classical]
Morton Feldman - Crippled Symmetry [Hinterhasuer/Schulkowsky] [Modern Classical]

Autocreation - Mettle [Ambient/Minimal Techno]
Omit - Quad [Drone/Ambient/Musique Concrète]
Oval - Systemisch [Glitch/Electronic]
Robert Rich - Trances/Drones [Ambient/Drone]
Autechre - Amber [Minimal Techno/IDM]
Lull - Cold Summer [Ambient/Drone]

Incantation - Mortal Throne Of Nazarene [Death Metal]
Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger [Black Metal]
Morpheus Descends - Chronicles Of The Shadowed Ones [Death Metal]
Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss [Black Metal/Ambient]
Emperor - In The Nightside Eclipse [Black Metal]
Timeghoul - Panaramic Twilight [Demo] [Death Metal]

Fushitsusha - Pathetique [Noise Rock]
Low - I Could Live In Hope [Slowcore/Dream Pop]

 

[Langdon Alger]

Green Day: Smash Mouth

Huh?

 

[WetcoastOrca]

Huh?

I don’t think it’s one of their best albums but I still think it’s one of the top ten albums for 1994. Not a strong year for music imo. I know others will feel differently.

 

[Langdon Alger]

I don’t think it’s their best albums but I still think it’s one of the top ten albums for 1994. Not a strong year for music imo. I know others will feel differently.

No, it’s that you called the album Smash Mouth rather than Dookie.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

No, it’s that you called the album Smash Mouth rather than Dookie.

Cripes! I’m getting senile. I meant Smash. I chose both Smash and Dookie by Offspring.