1994--your top 20

[GulDukat]

What a great fucking year--the best year in music in my lifetime, IMO. Pick your top 20.

20. R.E.M.- Monster
19. Gilby Clarke- Pawnshop Guitars
18. Black Sabbath- Cross Purposes
17. Smashing Pumpkins- Pisces Iscariot
16. The Beastie Boys- Ill Communication
15. The Cult- The Cult
14. Jeff Buckley- Grace
13. Beck- Mellow Gold
12. Bush- Sixteen Stone
11. Green Day- Dookie
10. The Crow Soundtrack
9. Hole- Live Though This
8. Motley Crue- Motley Crue
7. Pearl Jam- Vitalogy
6. Stone Temple Pilots- Purple
5. Alice In Chains- Jar of Flies
4. Nirvana- Unplugged
3, Nine Inch Nails- The Downward Spiral
2. Tori Amos- Under the Pink
1. Soundgarden- Superunknown

[Krazy]

It's a damn shame that Pantera's Far Beyond Driven is not on that list... o_O

EDIT: and yes, agreed that that's (easily) the greatest one year for album releases. A ton of amazing films as well (Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, Dumb and Dumber, Shawshank-) just to name a few.

Isnt there a similar thread of 1994 now that I think of it?...

[BRoswell]

Shit. I can't really do a top 20. Will a top 10 suffice?

Aphex Twin-Selected Ambient Works Volume II
Beastie Boys-Ill Communication
Low-I Could Live In Hope
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds-Let Love In
Nine Inch Nails-The Downward Spiral
Nirvana-MTV Unplugged in New York
Slowdive-Souvlaki
Various Artists-Clerks OST
Various Artists-Natural Born Killers OST
Various Artists-Pulp Fiction OST

[thevoid99]

OK...

1. NIN-The Downward Spiral
2. Suede-Dog Man Star
3. Jeff Buckley-Grace
4. Nirvana-MTV Unplugged in New York
5. Soundgarden-Superunknown
6. VA-Natural Born Killers OST
7. Marilyn Manson-Portrait of An American Family
8. VA-The Crow OST
9. Blur-Parklife
10. Oasis-Definitely Maybe
11. Pearl Jam-Vitalogy
12. Pop Will Eat Itself-Dos Dedos Mis Amigos
13. Prodigy-Music for the Jilted Generation
14. Hole-Live Through This
15. Aphex Twin-Selected Ambient Works Vol. II
16. Pantera-Far Beyond Driven
17. VA-Pulp Fiction OST
18. Stone Temple Pilots-Purple
19. Tori Amos-Under the Pink
20. Beastie Boys-Ill Communication
21. Alice in Chains-Jar of Flies
22. Pink Floyd-The Division Bell
23. Korn-S/T
24. R.E.M.-Monster
25. Bush-Sixteen Stone

Honorable Mentions: The Stone Roses-Second Coming, Green Day-Dookie, The Offspring-Smash, & VA-Murder was the Case OST.

[perceptionnexus]

I remember the coolest thing about that year and being 12 years old at that time was the ability to get nearly every album mentioned on this thread via BMG music and Columbia House on only a paper boy's salary. Those two companies were a godsend to a kid back then. You didn't have the coin to drop $60 at a record store whenever you felt the urge, and there were no mp3s and or cd burning at the time. If you didn't have the album or a friend to make you a copy on cassette, you were pretty much fucked.

[blackholesun]

Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Bedhead - WhatFunLifeWas
Codeine - The White Birch
Bark Psychocis - Hex
Lync - These Are Not Fall Colors
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Dirty Three - Dirty Three
Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary
Portishead - Dummy
Drive Like Jehu - Yank Crime
Unwound - New Plastic Ideas
Rodan - Rusty
Caustic Window - Caustic Window LP
Low - I Could Live In Hope
Nas - Illmatic
Three Mile Pilot - The Chief Assassin to the Sinister
Disco Inferno - D.I. Go Pop
Built to Spill - There's Nothing Wrong With Love
Shellac - At Action Park
Harvey Milk - My Love Is Higher Than Your Assesment What My Love Could Be

Some great, underrated stuff this year. The "grunge" stuff has not aged well with me. I'd love to go through and do other years from the 90s as well.

[GulDukat]

It's a damn shame that Pantera's Far Beyond Driven is not on that list... o_O

EDIT: and yes, agreed that that's (easily) the greatest one year for album releases. A ton of amazing films as well (Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, Dumb and Dumber, Shawshank-) just to name a few.

Isnt there a similar thread of 1994 now that I think of it?...

Kind of hard to narrow it down to 20!

[ChipRock]

I was actually thinking about this the other day. Absolutely my best year for music. I turned 17 in '94 and it seemed like there was so much good stuff.

01 The Downward Spiral (Obvs)
02 Troublegum - Therapy?
03 Vauxhall & I - Morrissey
04 Dummy - Portishead
05 Music For The Jilted Generation - The Prodigy
06 The Holy Bible - Manic Street Preachers
07 Dos Dedos Mis Amigos - Pop Will Eat Itself
08 Dog Man Star - Suede
09 No Quarter - Page & Plant
10 Natural Born Killers Soundtrack
11 Point Blank - Nailbomb
12 The Crow Soundtrack
13 If The Beatles Had Read Hunter... - The Wonder Stuff
14 Snivilisation - Orbital
15 Under The Pink - Tori Amos
16 Safe Sex, Designer Drugs... - Baby Chaos

Not sure I can add any more albums that I love from that year, but I know there was stuff from Nick Cave, The Auteurs... the My Iron Lung single from Radiohead... plus there was a lot of stuff carrying over from '93, but that's another list.

[Exocet]

Im not looking back through rose tinted glasses, it was a landmark year for music but it was a nasty fucking year for the world geopolitically in general. A very harsh year and the groundbreaking dark powerful music released in 94 oddly mirrored that.
20 records is not even enough room for the amount of good music that year its insane.

1..NIN.. Downward Spiral
2..Portishead..Dummy
2..Manic Street Preachers..Holy Bible
4..Massive Attack.. Protection
5..Autechre..Amber
6..Machine Head..Burn my Eyes
7..Jeff Buckley.. Grace
8..TLC..Crazy Sexy Cool
9..Notorious BIG..Ready to Die
10..NAS..Illumatic
11..The Fall.. Middle Class Revolt
12..Aphex Twin..Selected Ambient Workings
13..Air Liquide..The Increased Difficulty of Concentration
14..Soundgarden..Superunknown
15..Global Communication..76.14
16..Kyuss..Sky Valley
17..Hole..Live Through This
18..Trent Reznor..Natural Born Killers
19..Lush..Split
20..Prodigy..Music for Jilted Generation.

[GulDukat]

Im not looking back through rose tinted glasses, it was a landmark year for music but it was a nasty fucking year for the world geopolitically in general. A very harsh year and the groundbreaking dark powerful music released in 94 oddly mirrored that.
20 records is not even enough room for the amount of good music that year its insane.

But isn't every year pretty bad for people around the world? But yeah, the zeitgeist of that era was pretty dark.

[xmd 5a]

Rough order:

Bark Psychocis - Hex
Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman
Massive Attack - Protection
Orbital - Snivilisation
Cranes - Loved
Nine Inch Nails - Downward Spiral
Portishead - Dummy
Difference Engine - Breadmaker
Bikini Kill - The C.D. Version of the First Two Records
Seefeel - Starethrough EP
Disco Inferno - D.I. Go Pop
Lync - These Are Not Fall Colors
Low - I Could Live In Hope
Nas - Illmatic
Godflesh - Selfless
Drive Like Jehu - Yank Crime
Unwound - New Plastic Ideas
Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger
Moss Icon - Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly
Melt-Banana - Speak Squeak Creak

[Millionaire]

God, what a year. I won't try to make a top 20 since it would be pretty hard for me, but I will say The Downward Spiral, The Crow Soundtrack, and Portishead- Dummy were very formative records in my musical tastes.

[Atu]

I'm not sure it was such a great year, as I wasn't able to find 20 I would listen now with similar enjoyment.

(No order)
NIN - The Downward Spiral
Machine Head - Burn My Eyes
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Let Love In
Milla Jovovich - The Divine Comedy
Pantera - Far Beyond Driven
Rollins Band - Weight
Massive Attack - Protection
Slayer - Divine Intervention
Nirvana - Unplugged in New York
At the Drive-In - Hell Paso EP
Korn - s/t

[GulDukat]

On a related note, the most memorable concert that I ever attended was Green Day's free show at the Hatchshell in Boston in September of 1994. I was right up front and got crushed. I started high school the following week, so I see this as the official start of my high school years.

[Deepvoid]

I went through the list on Wikipedia and found 12 that truly marked my 1994.

1. NIN - The Downward Spiral
2. Green Day - Dookie
3. The Offspring - Smash
4. Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Volume II
5. Bad Religion - Stranger Than Fiction
6. NOFX - Punk In Drublic
7. Lagwagon - Trashed
8. Our Lady Peace - Naveed
9. Beastie Boys - Ill Communication
10. Nirvana - MTV Unplugged
11. Bush - Sixteen Stone
12. Aerosmith - Big Ones * (Greatest Hits)

[LaneSax]

20 wow, this is gonna be fun and tough haha
In no order, cept maybe the first few

1. Jar of Flies - Alice in Chains
2. Superunknown - Soundgarden
3. Definitely Maybe - Oasis
4. Portrait of an American Family - Marilyn Manson
5. KoЯn - KoЯn
6. NIN - Downward Spiral
7. Pantera - Far Beyond Driven
8. Pearl Jam - Vitalogy
9. blur - Parklife
10. Smashing Pumpkins - Pisces Iscariot
11. Mercyful Fate - Time
12. Beasite Boys - Ill Communication
13. Portishead - Dummy
14. Slayer - Divine Intervention
15. Refused - This Just Might Be...the Truth
16. REM - Monster
17. Live - Throwing Copper ( I am SHOCKED this hasn't been mentioned yet!)
18. Beck - Mellow Gold
19. Sonic Youth - Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star
20. Weezer - The Blue Album (another one I am surprised is not mentioned yet!)

[kel]

weird to see 'sixteen stone' on here so much. it was a joke at the time and a real shit stain on alternative radio.

nothing activates my gag reflex faster than fucking "glycerine".

[newmodel87]

I tried my best to narrow it down to just twenty. In no particular order:

Cradle of Filth – The Principle of Evil Made Flesh (my favourite)
Satyricon – The Shadowthrone
Dimmu Borgir – For All Tid
KoЯn - KoЯn
Marilyn Manson – Portrait of an American Family
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Suspiria - Tragedy
Fear Cult - A Bouquet of Songs
Sopor Æternus - ...Ich Töte Mich Jedesmal Aufs Neue…
Christian Death - Sexy Death God
Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger
Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss
Satyricon - Dark Medieval Times
Graveland - Carpathian Wolves
Graveland - The Celtic Winter
Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom. Sathanas
Abigor - Verwüstung / Invoke the Dark Age
Ancient - Svartalvheim
Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse
Gehenna - First Spell

[frankie teardrop]

Rough order:

Bark Psychocis - Hex
Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman
Massive Attack - Protection
Orbital - Snivilisation
Cranes - Loved
Nine Inch Nails - Downward Spiral
Portishead - Dummy
Difference Engine - Breadmaker
Bikini Kill - The C.D. Version of the First Two Records
Seefeel - Starethrough EP
Disco Inferno - D.I. Go Pop
Lync - These Are Not Fall Colors
Low - I Could Live In Hope
Nas - Illmatic
Godflesh - Selfless
Drive Like Jehu - Yank Crime
Unwound - New Plastic Ideas
Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger
Moss Icon - Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly
Melt-Banana - Speak Squeak Creak

apologies for stealing half your list here, but you had to figure we'd have a ton of overlap :


Unwound - New Plastic Ideas
Disco Inferno - D.I. Go Pop
Difference Engine - Breadmaker
Bark Psychosis - Hex
Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman
Massive Attack - Protection
Orbital - Snivilisation
Cranes - Loved
Low - I Could Live In Hope
REM- Monster
Aphex Twin- Selected Ambient Works Vol. II
Nine Inch Nails - Downward Spiral
Portishead - Dummy
Hole- Live Through This
Manic Street Preachers- The Holy Bible
Suede- Dogmanstar
Nick Cave & the Badseeds- Let Love In
Lush- Split
Saint Etienne- Tiger Bay
Smashing Pumpkins- Pisces Iscariot
Dead Can Dance- Toward the Within

[aggroculture]

No one has yet mentioned Melvins - Stoner Witch.

And Bush? After hearing those shitty pandering fake Nirvana wannabe singles I avoided their album. I have a hard time believing it belongs anywhere beyond a shittiest albums list.

Nice Baby Chaos reference: I liked them, but to me they never quite lived up to the hype.

Also yes, I do believe we did have a 1994 thread, maybe on the old board. We're getting ewld.

[piggy]

Yes, there was something in the water in 1994. I only listed 10 albums, though.

1. Nine Inch Nails, The Downward Spiral
2. Pearl Jam, Vitalogy
3. Morrissey, Vauxhall And I
4. R.E.M., Monster
5. Jeff Buckley, Grace
6. Soundgarden, Superunknown
7. Stone Temple Pilots, Purple
8 Slowdive, Souvlaki
9. Mark Lanegan, Whiskey For The Holy Ghost
10. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Let Love In

[onthewall2983]

No-Man's Flowermouth came out that year. It was the first really solid album Steven Wilson was part of, partly eschewing the group's ambition for commercial success and instead indulging in their more expansive influences.

[jmtd]

The Cure - Burn (from the Crow OST). "Dredd Song" is OK too, from Judge Dredd- The OST was 1995 but the movie was '94. (note: not nominating the movie!).

[kel]

I remember the coolest thing about that year and being 12 years old at that time was the ability to get nearly every album mentioned on this thread via BMG music and Columbia House on only a paper boy's salary. Those two companies were a godsend to a kid back then. You didn't have the coin to drop $60 at a record store whenever you felt the urge, and there were no mp3s and or cd burning at the time. If you didn't have the album or a friend to make you a copy on cassette, you were pretty much fucked.

oh man ... i dicked those two companies over soooo many times as a broke asshole kid. even a 14-year-old knows that contracts with minors aren't binding. nothing was better than getting home from school and having a big box with eight cd's (or cassettes at first) in the mailbox.

[GulDukat]

weird to see 'sixteen stone' on here so much. it was a joke at the time and a real shit stain on alternative radio.

nothing activates my gag reflex faster than fucking "glycerine".

I was never a fan of Sixteen Stone when it was popular. About ten years later I bought it used for two bucks (out of nostalgia) and found that I really enjoyed it. Yes, they were a Nirvana rip-off, but they wrote catchy, rocking songs and Rosdale has a lot of charisma. And in hindsight, Bush were a lot better than what was to follow for the next few years on AOR stations--Limp Bizkit, Stained, etc.

[Dr Channard]

There were plenty of great albums from 94. A few personal favorites not already mentioned.
　
Regulate... G Funk Era - Warren G

Murder Was the Case (The Soundtrack) - Snoop Doggy Dogg

Rubberneck - Toadies

[vivisection13]

What a great fucking year--the best year in music in my lifetime, IMO. Pick your top 20.

20. R.E.M.- Monster
19. Gilby Clarke- Pawnshop Guitars
18. Black Sabbath- Cross Purposes
17. Smashing Pumpkins- Pisces Iscariot
16. The Beastie Boys- Ill Communication
15. The Cult- The Cult
14. Jeff Buckley- Grace
13. Beck- Mellow Gold
12. Bush- Sixteen Stone
11. Green Day- Dookie
10. The Crow Soundtrack
9. Hole- Live Though This
8. Motley Crue- Motley Crue
7. Pearl Jam- Vitalogy
6. Stone Temple Pilots- Purple
5. Alice In Chains- Jar of Flies
4. Nirvana- Unplugged
3, Nine Inch Nails- The Downward Spiral
2. Tori Amos- Under the Pink
1. Soundgarden- Superunknown

Thanks for having the balls to put Motley on there. GREAT overlooked album.

[GulDukat]

Thanks for having the balls to put Motley on there. GREAT overlooked album.

Yeah--it flopped, but MC94 has always had its fans and is kind of a cult album.

[GulDukat]

Really good list:
https://uproxx.com/music/best-alt-rock-albums-of-1994/

Looking for 25th anniversary deluxe editions of Nirvana Unplugged and STP's Purple.

[Helpmeiaminhell (is now in hell)]

1. Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
2. Pantera - Far Beyond Driven
3. Beck - One Foot In The Grave
4. Beck - Mellow Gold
5. Ice Cube - Bootlegs & B Sides
6. Beck - Stereopathic Soulmanure
7. Dinosaur Jr - Without a Sound
8. Snoop Dogg - Murder Was The Case
9. Gary Numan - Sacrifice
10. Nirvana - Unplugged
11. Alice In Chains - Jar of Flies
12. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Let Love In
13. Sebadoh - Bakesale
14. Sonic Youth - Experimental Jet Set Trash
15. Jesus & Mary Chain - Stoned & Dethroned
16. Oasis - Definitely Maybe