50 songs from 1994 i'm probably supposed to like way more
please don’t tell current 93 i said that stuff
for those of you who hadn’t yet boarded the gbogn train last year, i began doing a now-annual project where i listen to 50 singles from the highest-rated releases of 30 years ago that i’ve never heard (well, 31 years in the case that i publish this list a little late), as ranked on RYM, and jot down ignorant thoughts and disgraceful opinions on them. in essence, it’s hashtag music writer february—the trend that annoyed me to the point that i started this newsletter in the first place.
an undocumented version of this practice dates way back to the early-pandemic period, when i explored every individual year of the 2000s through a similar approach, quickly realizing that the appeal for me was less about finding new music to appreciate than it was about figuring out what, like, natural snow buildings is all about. and in running a piece on 1993 last year, it quickly became apparent that the followers of this newsletter are less interested in shaming me for my ignorance than they are in having their basest hater opinions confirmed by a mostly unbiased source.
unfortunately, 1994 felt to me like a vast improvement on the prior year, with hip-hop and black metal in particular connecting with me a little more across the board. all the songs by britpop bands i thought i’d get into after last year, meanwhile, sounded terrible to me, and all the songs by britpop bands i thought i hated last year sounded really cool. as always, there were things i was supposed to take very seriously which i thought were actually very silly.
once again, the songs listed below are tiered under headings that represent my general feelings towards them, rather than being given grades or any other helpful markings. like, i don’t think biggie’s music needs a blogger’s mostly-indifferent praise to be metacriticized. ok, thank you and sorry!
hell yeah
failure, “undone” zero difference between this and what deftones would start doing a few years later: shoegazing grungecore so that horny preteen boys would quietly be explaining lines like “let me come undone in your mouth” to each other in after-school programs for years.
gang starr, “mass appeal” yes i accidentally included a song on this playlist that i’ve heard one thousand times via the THPS4 soundtrack despite not knowing it by name; no i didn’t appreciate how hard it goes when i was, like, 14 and was too excited about making jango fett skitch to notice it.
gravediggaz, “2 cups” got really into gravediggaz a few years ago when i started getting into contemporary horrorcore, somehow missed that RZA was one of the members? currently discovering all the places in my itunes library where prince paul and frukwan have materialized, including that last sightless pit album.
hole, “violet” occurs to me i’ve maybe never heard a hole song in my entire life? really redeems courtney from everything else i know about her (i mean her involvement in people vs. larry flint, of course).
lync, “pennies to save” surprised to hear how much closer this is to the modest mouse/BTS end of the PNW scene than the unwound end—a very specific and useless spectrum, by the way, which i’ve devised right now to make a point.
outkast, “player’s ball” seems weird to think i’ve never heard an outkast track from this early in their career, but that must be the case because big boi’s vocals are nearly unrecognizable they’re so high.
sunny day real estate, “in circles” somehow never heard a SDRE song prior to getting into how it feels a few years ago and was really thrown off by what that sounded like in contrast to what i expected a band listed in “taxi driver” by gym class heroes to be—this earlier/grungier sound would’ve been an easier in, i think.
UGK, “front, back & side to side” love the minimalism and repetition of this beat for 5+ minutes almost as much as i love hearing pimp lose his breath thinking about seeing booties from behind.
eh maybe i kinda get it
arthur russell, “this is how we walk on the moon” cool instrumental, vocals kinda turn me off though. can kinda see where anohni got, like, 40% of her whole thing from.
autechre, “slip” not nearly as chaotic or glitchy as the newer stuff of theirs i’ve heard, think i can finally appreciate them beyond their inherent meme qualities.
darkthrone, “transilvanian hunger” evidently 1994 black metal is monumentally better than 1993 black metal. what’s the deal there?
drive like jehu, “golden brown” always preferred when conrad sings on trail of dead songs.
guided by voice, “hot freaks” i could listen to one of this song easily, not so sure about 40+ albums of it.
nas, “N.Y. state of mind” possibly the most THPS ass beat that never made it onto a THPS soundtrack. only nas track i really know is the one where he raps over “in-a-gadda-da-vida” with the help of will.i.am as he says stuff about hip-hop being dead, so this is at least an improvement on that.
nine inch nails, “hurt” always thought it was weird trent got into doing OSTs based on who in my 8th grade class got excited when NIN came to my hometown, but listening to these songs post-social network it kinda makes perfect sense.
the notorious B.I.G., “juicy” you know that thing where you grow up under the impression that black sabbath and more contemporary artists like marilyn manson are terrifying and unaccessible metal artists when in reality they’re kind of just pop music? it’s funny how wholesome this deeply funky song with compelling and sympathetic narrative lyrics sounds now post-period of gangsta rap anxieties.
still don’t get it
aphex twin, “#3” didn’t realize “church boy” was part of this guy’s repertoire. is this the track that’s the subject of that one video about aphex twin that youtube keeps trying to make me watch where the thumbnail says “MORALLY WRONG”?
beastie boys, “sure shot” these guys are seemingly both deeply influential on everything i’ve ever loved and deeply annoying and every time i hear a new one of their songs i’m a little impressed at how well they continue to manage that balance.
digable planets, “jettin’” simply too funkay. well, maybe too jazzay.
elliott smith, “roman candle” i don’t have to love this man’s music, i just have to know how many L’s and T’s are in his first name.
jeff buckley, “lover, you should’ve come over” first thought was that this scans as too adult-contemporary for my taste but now i’m realizing that may just be the case because i was not yet an adult in the ’90s so i worry i’ll never be able to shake that. plus the permanent arrested development thing, but that’s another issue.
mayhem, “freezing moon” iconic black metal band if only for the way they consistently lived up to their name—vocals suck, though!
nick cave & the bad seeds, “red right hand” with every passing year i become more convinced that i don’t particularly need to perceive nick cave beyond his scene in wings of desire and maybe that one scene in the assassination of jesse james by the dingus casey affleck.
pavement, “gold soundz” no band i’ve accidentally read more positive and negative analysis of in relation to nearly every facet of the music industry dating back to the slacker-era ’90s and for that…it’s always weird when i remember that they just sound like this.
polvo, “solitary set” this song somehow feels like both a second-rate pavement and a second-rate YLT, even though i know this band is primarily neither of these things. “solitary set” feels like a misnomer for their influences.
portishead, “glory box” every time i hear portishead i expect it to sound more like massive attack. every time i hear massive attack i expect it to sound more like NIN. every time i hear NIN i expect it to sound more like wax trax. every time i remember the concept of wax trax i want to watch cool world. every time i watch cool world i think the soundtrack’s gonna be cooler.
shellac, “my black ass” probably the eighth song on my playlist i’d have guessed was a steve albini thing, though if he’d led with the title lyric i would’ve identified it sooner.
soundgarden, “spoonman” that thing where you hear a cover version before the original so you forever think of the original as the cover but it’s chris cornell and the guy from audio adrenaline (i’m sure the whole “forming a new band with ‘audio’ in the name while i was still a kid” thing didn’t help).
tom petty, “wildflowers” t-pett is the new steely dan in the sense that there are so many music folks roughly my age insisting that it’s good, actually, that i’m not sure who they’re talking to when they make this point. well, me, i guess, since to me this is just the type of ’00s indie-folk that morphed into muzak for glade plug-in commercials.
unwound, “entirely different matters” whenever i hear an unwound song that doesn’t sound precisely like this (and there seem to be a lot?) i get deeply confused. maybe for that i appreciate this song.
i mean, it’s not as bad as you all make it seem
alice in chains, “nutshell” honestly this is closer to what i thought buckley would sound like. kinda seems like the nirvana MTV unplugged thing for what grunge would become in their wake.
not at all what i expected (complimentary)
manic street preachers, “faster” always assumed this band was gen-x skate- and/or ska-punk and not brit-grunge glam? just now realizing i’ve maybe been confusing them with with streetlight manifesto.
pulp, “babies” guess my knowledge of this band didn’t expand far beyond jarvis cocker showing up in wes anderson movies sometimes, but this is such a fun blend of britpop and new wave. is it problematic if i tend to gravitate towards the posh britpop groups instead of the ones that pretended to be working class?
not at all what i expected (derogatory)
bark psychosis, “pendulum man” couldn’t tell you why but i always assumed this was like…southern-gothic noise rock? maybe this track is way better than i think it is and i just need some time to adjust my expectations.
current 93, “steven and i in the field of stars” i think i’ve been tricked into listening to this band before, but none of the cool genres they get slapped with feel apt for this ren-faire ass theater-kid bait.
wasn’t familiar, don’t think i’ll retain it
acid bath, “cheap vodka” like if dale crover further infiltrated nirvana with his melvins agenda. i’ll bet a lot of you freaks would’ve loved that.
deru the damaja, “come clean” song called “come clean” on an album where a 9/11 is happening on the cover—maybe i’ll retain that aspect of it.
global communication, “5 23” sounds like john carpenter sabotaging michael mann with a mid score for one of his ’80s movies.
kyuss, “space cadet” swear i mentally filed this in the the “don’t think i’ll retain it” category before i knew josh homme played guitar in this band. but yeah, exists to me as amnesia-core in the exact same way QOTSA does.
lisa germano, “cry wolf” crazy that the former violinist for john mellencamp (?) invented like 30% of what blonde redhead would be.
pete rock & C.L. smooth, “take you there” 1993-ass rap song. it’s 1994 now, fellas. get with it.
was familiar, don’t think i’ll retain it
redman, “can’t wait” the lesser -man given that he’s not cheese in the wire, though this track is fun in a completely unmenorable way aside from his insane-guy laugh at the end.
suede, “the wild ones” nowhere near as memorable as “animal nitrate.” i wonder if there’s an entire britpop band that was good.
wasn’t familiar, do think i’ll retain it
dystopia, “stress builds character” all-i-wanted-was-a-pepsi ass take on metal. seems like a huge crossover moment for sludge people and kids with “no sisters allowed” signs on their bedroom doors.
emperor, “i am the black wizards” tend to avoid symphonic black metal like the plague but the symphony here seems to be little more than choral “ahhs” that sound like they were generated by a casio keyboard so this passes the test.
organized konfusion, “stress” all of my favorite songs about stress are noise-rock or some sort of metal, so this might be good to add to the rotation for a healthier balance.
please! i don’t need to know about this
blur, “parklife” i guess i’ve had a fairly specific idea in my head of what blur is beyond “song 2,” but this makes me realize it’s almost certainly way off. unbelievably silly caricature of britain and forebear to all the ’00s indie bands i remember least fondly.
common, “i used to lover h.e.r.” i only cared about common for one very brief period of my life, and that was when i was convinced that wanted was the greatest movie ever made (this was right before i saw fight club and the non-TBS-censored matrix), and this intro-to-creative-writing ass, fighting misogyny (?) with misogyny (?) extended metaphor of a song won’t change that!
underworld, “cowgirl” if i had to guess what this was i’d say she wants revenge remixed by paul oakenfold for the need for speed underground 2 soundtrack. would rather hear homer sing it.
ween, “voodoo lady” in my mind this is RHCP performing a sandler-penned song as a set piece for a happy madison movie.