At this point, I should probably say something about my rating philosophy. All of the albums in my 1994 top ten are 5 stars. Some people are quite literal about 5 stars and feel every song on the record has to be a 5 star song to amount to a 5 star album. I'm not one of those people. I factor in many different parameters. Overall vibe, it's place in a genre, have I listened to it 20+ times and still love it, even critical consensus. As I mentioned last time, Green Day's Dookie will most likely get bumped up as well. The group of 6-10 is a varied and odd group of albums, but they're all fantastic. Two of them are new discoveries.
10. Jeff Buckley - Grace ( 5 Stars )
This is one of the new discoveries. I have no recollection of Grace in the year 1994. The first time I heard of it was when pop culture started shoving "Hallelujah" down everyone's throat. Of course, this caused me to dig my heels in about Jeff Buckley. When I joined the Tastes Like Music discord group, they had a track elimination game starting for Grace. I decided to stop being a dick and listen to it for the elimination. Turns out, it's great. I still hate "Hallelujah" and wish there was a moratorium on artists covering it, but the rest of Grace is very moving. It was interesting that my favorite tracks were the first ones to be eliminated in the discord group. The consensus last place song was "Corpus Christi Carol", which I agreed with, but it's still interesting. I prefer the edgier songs like; "Mojo Pin", "So Real", "Dream Brother" and my favorite "Eternal Life". I've never heard anyone mention this, but I love the drumming on Grace. I will be adding this to my collection.
9. Nirvana - Unplugged ( 5 Stars )
I wasn't going to included this because it's not a studio album, but it was being counted in the discord group so...it's in. I haven't listened to this album in quite some time, because it's still too raw and emotional for me. I'm not listening to it for this exercise either. But I remember that it's great. It captures a moment where, looking back, Kurt was staging his own memorial service. His performance on "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" is visceral and heart-wrenching. This album exposed the world to the Meat Puppets and Vaseline and an obscure David Bowie song that has been retconed into Bowie's lore. The Nirvana songs in this show are great unplugged, but I prefer to listen to the actual albums. For me, this is a 5 star album based mostly on its context.
8. Digable Planets - Blowout Comb ( 5 Stars )
Unlike the much celebrated Illmatic by Nas, this album is the style of hip-hop that's in my wheelhouse. I went out of my way to find a hip-hop album in 1994 that I liked. Glad I did, because Blowout Comb is phenomenal. Great flow. Great vibes. Very jazzy. Fantastic lyrics. I will probably write a separate post for this album at some point, but I'd like to spend some more time with it first. However, after just a couple listens it's easily a 5 star. If all hip-hop were like this or Del Tha Funkee Homosapien I'd be all about it.
7. Weezer - Blue Album ( 5 Stars )
So, this is the album that fell out of my Mt. Rushmore. Not that I love it less, it's just I hadn't really done a deep dive when I made those Mt. Rushmores. Despite the way Weezer's career has progressed, there's no denying the greatness of The Blue Album. Their sound was so fresh in 1994. My mind was blown the first time I saw the video for "Buddy Holly". Rivers' lyrics on this record are so clever. "If you want to destroy my sweater, hold this thread as I walk away". "My Name is Jonas" is an amazingly bombastic opener. However, I love at the end when they bring the bombast down and Rivers sings "My name is Jonas" over acoustic guitar. "No One Else" probably doesn't hold up as well in our current cultural climate, but I think it's a fun rocker. I love the line in "Say It Ain't So" : "This way is a water slide away from me that takes you further every day, so be cool". And that slow riff at the beginning is great. "In the Garage" is the unofficial anthem for every music nerd kid ever. Oh Weezer, why did you forsake us?
6. Soundgarden - Superunknown ( 5 Stars )
This is another album I hadn't listened to in probably 20 years. I have long moved on from Grunge. When I heard it again recently, I was reminded what a powerful rock album it is. Soundgarden are in top form on Superunknown. Spoiler alert: They have three songs in my top 25. And that doesn't include "My Wave", which is a grooving jam. Obviously, Chris Cornell was an outerworldly singer and Kim Thayil is a guitar wizard. And the rhythm section is pretty awesome too. I will be discussing them more during the song list. Peace.
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