Jamwise #47 - Best Albums of 1994, pt. 2

Part 2 Featuring: Nirvana, Blur, Tom Petty, Pearl Jam, Hole, Nine Inch Nails, R.E.M, and the Unofficial Substack Crowdsourced List of Best Albums from 1994

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:

Jamwise #46 - Best Albums of 1994

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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

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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

Kevin Alexander

,

Gabbie

,

Dan Pal

,

Rob Jones

,

Mallie Hart

,

Michael Egan

, and

Xabi

for the 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!

Project BAE - Best Albums Ever - 1994

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. Some of my earliest music memories are from MTV in its glory days of the late 90’s, but I was too young to understand how awesome MTV Unplugged really was.

I don’t know why it’s easier to appreciate the “classical” musicianship of rock bands when they’re playing acoustic sets, but I’ve always found it true. In 2024 it’s even more refreshing to explore acoustic performances or arrangements of popular songs - it’s probably unfair, but sometimes with all the intense computer-aided production of modern music it’s hard to imagine some of today’s artists succeeding in an MTV Unplugged setting. I’m not saying it’s true, I’m just saying the complicated labyrinth of processing that a lot of modern digitalized music goes through makes it harder and harder to picture some artists with a simple guitar singing their songs. And that doesn’t mean artists who still can’t perform their songs acoustically are necessarily less talented, but still - something traditional is being lost, and that can be sad, depending on your age.

To me, it would be sad if society is losing its appreciation of acoustic music, although it’s not for the reason many might think (“because musicians are less talented today”, which is a bullshit take). The reason I miss acoustic sets being massively popular is simply because they have a deeper level of relatability to me. I’ve held and played an acoustic guitar, so it’s easy for me to relate to a few people on a stage doing the same thing. It’s almost like a self-insert fantasy story, where you can picture yourself as the main character. The music is broken down to a digestible level without losing its meaning and artistic core, and that’s a beautiful thing. I don’t think musicians need to prove their talent by doing an acoustic set - that’s only a subset of musical talent, and isn’t the only way to show it off despite what old heads might think - but man, would I love to see someone mega-poppy like Chappell Roan absolutely shredding an acoustic set and letting a bunch of old people see her talent in a way they can understand.

In Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged set (performed in 1993, with the album released in 1994), the most impressive part to me is how controlled Kurt Cobain’s voice is, despite the emotional nature of the music and his penchant for raucous screaming when backed by electrified instruments. Who would have thought the spearheads of rock would sound so darn good singing folksy versions of their songs? Some of these versions of Nirvana songs have become as iconic as the originals for me. “About A Girl,” “Dumb,” “Lake Of Fire”, “Oh Me” (the last 2 are Meat Puppets covers, but still) - all of these songs are represented by the acoustic versions first and foremost to me. That was probably the first way I heard them as a kid, and they’ve stuck that way in my head.

The songs kind of meander a little at the end, but this was a concert first and foremost - the energy flows differently than an album, and it’s cool to hear the crowd and band interacting as the set goes on. The album is focused on Cobain by default, but that’s not exactly a problem. It’s a fantastic snapshot of a talented band showing their range, and it’s both fascinating and tragic to think what musical directions the band might have explored if Cobain hadn’t passed.

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. Lyrics like “walking down the street, there’s a man over there, he’s waiting on a bus with a hole in his umbrellarr” that sound like something you’d write in your journal when you’ve got complete writer’s block. I’m reminded of the Who song “In Tune,” which musically is great but lyrically is one of the most annoying songs ever written in my humble opinion. The song starts:

“I'm singing this note 'cause it fits in well with the chords I'm playing
I can't pretend there's any meaning hidden in the things I'm saying”

It’s nonsense, filler, fluff, and the Who at least seem ashamed enough to admit it. It’s like how every literary novelist writes characters who are also novelists and love libraries and books and cozy cups of hot coffee - another huge pet peeve of mine. I love those things too, but come on, authors could at least pretend they’re not writing just to meet a word count quota instead of having something real to say. The only good example I can think of where the songwriter is songwriting about songwriting is “25 or 6 to 4”, but that song is still carried by the incredible musical arrangement, not the lyrics, which are catchy nonsense. Anyway, rant over. On to Parklife.

Parklife has a lot of that observational, “guy meandering around the park” kind of songwriting, but for some reason I found myself enjoying it far more than other examples I’ve found in the past. Maybe it’s because there’s more of a concept to this album than other examples - sure, Blur is engaging in some observational lyric writing, but it’s not like they’re pretending there’s a deeper meaning to the music like, say, Oasis seems to do. The protagonist wandering around (and sleeping in) the park is the whole point. And it’s also upbeat, without the gray dreariness I also associate (perhaps unfairly) with British observational alt rock songs. The protagonist (is Tracy Jacks the protagonist? In my head he is) has had some bad times, sure, but he’s bopping along with a little electro-pop beat in his head and things feel on the verge of looking up. It’s more “I woke up in a Soho gaol where a policeman knew my name” than “I’m in tune”, like a jaunty rock ‘n roll slice of life story for the alt-rock-but-slightly-electropop-at-times genre.

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. Songs like “Wildflowers,” “It’s Good To Be King,” “You Don’t Know How It Feels,” and “Time to Move On” reflect that sad resigned feeling of a breakup so poignantly I found myself texting my wife to tell her how much I appreciate her (I do that anyway!). Petty’s songwriting is miserable but almost peaceful, like a weight of stress has been lifted, leaving scars and regret and loneliness in its place, and there’s nothing left to do but get to work healing.

Petty seems as down in the dumps on this album as the rest of the 90’s alt-rockers, but he’s got a subtlety none of them can match. He’s a master of writing only the absolutely necessary bones of whatever’s on his mind, like a painter who can flick their brush across the canvas and with a few precise strokes create a perfectly recognizable portrait. I think that takes a special kind of empathetic view of the world to achieve, to see what pieces of something are the most important and assemble them with nothing wasted.

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 big more droning, angry, and atmospheric at times than their first two albums. There are also more experiments, which makes sense as the band was going through a lot at the time; but at the same time this is the first PJ album that for me contains a significant number of filler tracks. But a little bit deeper listen is still rewarding - in my youth I wasn’t the biggest fan of Vitalogy-era Pearl Jam, but with adult ears the sound of this album is more like a band fighting against the need to become adults, unable to embrace grown-up life because they’re still punky garage kids at heart, but by definition that means they have no idea what to do with their lives.

With the benefit of 8 more studio albums after Vitalogy, it’s easy to look back and see that this album feels like a transition to the more modern sound of Pearl Jam. They may have transformed into an Eddie-Vedder led exploration of rock with Vitalogy, but they also never lost their stadium anthem ability. This album is mostly a banger, and if you go in knowing the shift that was happening in Pearl Jam’s sound, it’s only the more enjoyable.

Live Through This - Hole

The album was recorded in late 1993 and released in 1994, four days after Kurt Cobain’s death. Although that fact undoubtedly drew more attention to the album’s release at the time, it’s unfair to speak about it in those terms, although the specter of that history is so large I don’t know how anyone could shake it off.

Courtney Love is an absolute force of nature as a singer, and this album is Hole’s biggest and best attempt to capture their popular potential. That’s not to say it’s poppy - this album is poppy in the way any great grunge-rock album was, mostly by having great hooks and enjoying success in the charts. But like any great genre album that also happens to sell well, the hooks are used as they should be used - as an on-ramp into something deeper.

This album often gets lumped into the “angry girl music” category or even riot grrrl along with some of Hole’s contemporaries, but to be honest that makes me a very angry boy. Maybe society in the early 90’s wasn’t ready to handle a female personality as huge as Courtney Love’s without ascribing her success to other factors, like the dumb rumors that her husband Cobain helped her write the songs on this album. And OK, I get that music historians are always looking for ways to categorize music from 30 years ago in the interest of satisfying their OCD. But we have to grow past that tendency. This is powerful grungey punky rock of a unique flavor, only made better by the fact that the nuanced feelings of frustration and disillusionment come from a female perspective that was underrepresented in 1994. It’s still a little annoying to label this grunge or rock or whatever as I’m kind of doing, because those labels are pretty well-established in the music media to refer to the Vedder-Cornell-Weiland-Corgan-Cobain ruling class, but it’s better than calling this “girl rock” and moving on. This album is visceral and emotive and brilliant, and although Hole doesn’t need to be stuck into a single category, maybe the categories that exist need to include Hole to become more well-rounded descriptors of an awesome musical era. Grunge should be fighting for the honor of counting Hole as part of its roster, even if Hole doesn’t want anything to do with it.

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.” This trend continues throughout a lot of this album - many tracks have a similar staticky production, with the sound compacted together like a garbage truck crunching a bunch of cans, or maybe like voices crowding together in a troubled mind. Their debut had a more open and discrete sound, with the electronic sounds easily distinguishable even when the songs spiral into experimental territory. This album develops the industrial sound further, but this time it’s like we’re in an old factory where the robots need oil and regular people are scared to walk in even with hard hats. Like the cranky robots are about to take over, maybe.

But as with many albums, it’s the concept that makes it brilliant, and the concept is necessary to fully appreciate the work. It’s arranged as the story of a character spiraling down into a nihilistic world of self-loathing and thoughts of self-harm; it’s dark, but it’s so well written and cohesive that even the sunniest among us can appreciate the art that went into its creation.

Monster - R.E.M.

“What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” is the art of the attention grabbing album opener, perfected. The rest of the album can get a bit sleepy, like elevator alt rock. They mostly stick to their bread and butter, low-key rockers and slightly oddball lyrics that can be somewhat morbid at times, despite the upbeat tunes and the addition of crunchy guitars that give constant hints of this being a hard rock album without fully delivering on the promise aside from isolated songs. But that’s not the point. REM’s brand of songwriting is so their own that it can’t be overshadowed by even the most overdriven guitar tones, and the relatively rockish sounds serve mostly as supplements to the band’s signature sound. The band was trying to make an album that innately mocked the glam and pop rock scenes, but ended up creating something almost too authentically REM to be considered parody, like they couldn’t fully commit to the bit of writing cheesy rock. And in the end, the album is better for that fact - REM is what we all came for, after all, not another reboot of 80’s glam rock. I think lifelong REM fans were a little disappointed when this one came out, but to my relatively fresh ears it’s a good one.