Jamwise #47 · Years · 1994 (Part 2)
Best Albums of 1994 (Part 2)
More of the best albums of 1994 — Nirvana's MTV Unplugged, Blur's Parklife, Tom Petty, Hole, Nine Inch Nails, and R.E.M.'s Monster, plus a giant crowdsourced list.
Whew, the music of 1994 is exhausting. In the best way, of course.
If you missed part 1, the link is below. It includes some of my favorite albums from 1994 - by Soundgarden, Green Day, Jeff Buckley, Nas, Portishead, Oasis, and Weezer. Also make sure to check the comments (and the list below) for an insanely great list of additional albums - I was only able to sort through a few of them this week, but it seems like a 1994 music appreciation class could last forever. Thanks to all for the recs! I’ll be sorting through them for a few weeks at least. But that’s why I’m here - to learn and listen to all the great music I missed by being born just a little bit late. As always, I love all the new recommendations. Enjoy, and here’s to 1994, a fantastic year in music!
P.S. - apologies to anyone who got last week’s email twice. My mouse got a little too frisky.
Best of 1994 Part 1: Soundgarden, Green Day, Jeff Buckley, Nas, Portishead, Oasis, and Weezer.
A Note on Hurricane Helene
Before we get into the music - if you’re so inclined, please take a look at this list of resources to support victims of Hurricane Helene. The Appalachian regions in the southeastern US affected by the storm aren’t at the forefront of the national media, but this was an unprecedented disaster in many areas, including western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina where I grew up. It’s hard to overstate the destruction this hurricane caused, and much of it was in areas in the mountains totally unequipped to deal with such an intense storm, with limited financial resources to effectively recover and poor representation in the government and the national media.
The link below contains many resources for areas in need of support all across the Southeastern US and Appalachia.
Click here to learn more or support via appvoices.org
The Unofficial Substack Crowdsourced List of Best Albums From 1994 In No Particular Order
At some point during my exploration of each year going forward, I’ll get together an unofficial Substack crowdsourced list of best albums from that year in no particular order (aka the USCLOBAF94INPO, this will undoubtedly catch on as it flows off the tongue so well). Such a list feels like a necessary public service and a thank you to the great comments on last week’s post. The 1994 list is below, sourced from the awesome comments section of last week’s post - I’ll spend at least 1 more week writing about 1994, but in case I don’t get to all of these great albums, enjoy the list! Uh I mean enjoy the USCLOBAF94INPO!
Special thanks to everyone who sent recommendations - I hope I didn’t miss anybody who contributed!
Albums with a *star* have been covered in Jamwise so far - this is mostly for my own sanity. Also these are in a particular order (alphabetical by artist) but we here at Jamwise are afraid the people will riot if we change the name of the USCLOBAF94INPO at this point in its existence, when the name has come to mean so much to so many.
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Vol. ii
Bad Religion - Stranger Than Fiction
Beck - Mellow Gold
Bedhead - WhatFunLifeWas
*Blur - Parklife
Elliott Smith - Roman Candle
Frank Black - Teenager of the Year
*Green Day - Dookie
Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand
*Hole - Live Through This
Jawbox - For Your Own Special Sweetheart
Jawbreaker - 24 Hour Revenge Therapy
*Jeff Buckley - Grace
Johnny Cash - American Recordings
Liz Phair - Whip-Smart
Luna - Bewitched
Lush - Split
Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible
Morrissey - Vauxhall and I
*Nas - Illmatic
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
*Nirvana - MTV Unplugged
*Oasis - Definitely Maybe
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
*Pearl Jam - Vitalogy
*Portishead - Dummy
Pulp - His 'n' Hers
*R.E.M. - Monster
Rancid - Let’s Go
Seal - Seal
Sebadoh - Bakesale
Sick Of It All - Scratch The Surface
*Soundgarden - Superunknown
Stereolab - Mars Audiac Quintet
Superchunk - Foolish
The Cranberries - No Need to Argue
TLC - CrazySexyCool
Toad the Wet Sprocket - Dulcinea
Toadies - Rubberneck
*Tom Petty - Wildflowers
Tori Amos - Under the Pink
Veruca Salt - American Thighs
*Weezer - Weezer
Whew, that’s a lot of great stuff. As always if you see anything missing, let me know in the comments!
My reactions on the most inspiring-to-me albums from 1994 - part 2 of idk, somewhere between 3 and infinity.
MTV Unplugged — Nirvana
This album is possibly the most iconic example of the MTV Unplugged series that strips everything out to display the true talent of the band with no frills, no effects, nothing but some mics and an intimate acoustic set and nowhere to hide.
Parklife — Blur
I don’t have enough examples to prove this, but it seems like a lot of British songwriting in the 90’s was focused on basically observing British stuff happening in British places.
Wildflowers — Tom Petty
This album is beautiful and extremely sad when heard in the context of Petty processing a collapsing relationship, a fact that I think only became apparent after the fact.
Vitalogy — Pearl Jam
This album is an evolution in Pearl Jam’s sound in several ways. They move away from the combination of grunge/guitar anthem heroes towards something a bit more droning, angry, and atmospheric at times than their first two albums.
Live Through This — Hole
The album was recorded in late 1993 and released in 1994, four days after Kurt Cobain’s death.
The Downward Spiral — Nine Inch Nails
NiN’s second studio album begins on a much fuzzier note than their debut, with a sound that blurs into almost an explosion of unidentifiable sound, much like the titular character “Mr. Self Destruct.”
Monster — R.E.M.
“What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” is the art of the attention grabbing album opener, perfected.