Best Albums of 1993 (Part 1)

I realized recently that the email header I send to subscribers doesn’t show up on the permanent version of my posts. That’s significant, since I’ve been putting some thought into the quick version of why this newsletter exists - but I’ve only written it in my email header.

So I thought it would be good for posterity (translation: me in six months when I forget) to put that summary in the main post. Many people don’t get the email header if they subscribe through Substack, so here it is (apologies if you’re reading this for the second time in your inbox):

Welcome to Jamwise, my newsletter about how to be a better music listener. I explore the idea of listening critically in order to understand our tastes, reflect on our relationship with music, and most importantly, to find more music we love. Because critical listening shouldn’t be a formal skill reserved for critics and music theory students - it’s something we can all do.

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Thanks for being here!

So there you have it - Jamwise is about learning to listen critically. But I want to take a slightly different approach compared to the traditional way some people think of critical listening. I’m not a critic, dissecting music to see how it works and killing the joy of it in the process. I’m also not listening critically in order to meet some false standard of “coolness” by proving how savvy and smart I am about music, or to somehow prove that I have superior taste (not a thing). I’m listening critically for a very simple reason: to understand what music I like, why I like it, and to use that knowledge to find more music I like.

To be honest, “critical” listening might be too intense of a definition for what I’m trying to do. I’m engaging in something more like “reflective” listening. I often think more about why I feel the way I do than the objective quality of the music itself, although it’s difficult to separate the two sometimes. I want to learn about myself and the world as much as I learn about music - that’s my version of critical listening. It’s inward and outward at the same time. I’m working on it, but that’s why I chose a newsletter as the outlet for this project - it’s meant to evolve over time, and it will.

So that’s Jamwise in a nutshell: I’m exploring, together with all of you, my relationship with music through reflective listening. By doing so, I hope to encourage people to listen more critically and reflectively - not to “improve” their music taste, but to understand it and use it for their own joy.

Best Albums of 1993, part 1

I heavily considered staying in 1992 for another week, which is becoming be the universal Millennial dream at this point. It was an awesome year with lots of great music, but at some point I want to actually get back to the present day, so we have to move on to 1993. I appreciate all the additional 1992 recs - I’ve been listening through them and realizing I should have spent that year jamming to all the new music instead of learning to eat solid foods. Live and learn.

1993 was also a momentous year - I’m pretty sure I said my first word, which was “ball” - and the music scene was almost as exciting.

Any favorites you see missing from the list? I’d love to hear about them!