There’s a strong case to be made for 1994 being the greatest year for music of the 1990s. A new wave of British rock was emerging, some of the greatest hip-hop albums ever were released, dance music was coming of age and, prior to Kurt Cobain’s tragic death, grunge was still going strong.
Here’s our pick of the best albums of a great year for music.
The 17 best albums of 1994
17. Weezer, Weezer (Blue Album)
Rivers Cuomo’s band brought power-pop into the ’90s with crunching guitars, sparkling melodies, witty lyrics and a barrage of hooks.
The pop perfection of ‘Buddy Holly’ was the breakthrough hit, helped along by an unforgettable Spike Jones video and a solo which single-handedly brought air guitar back, but ‘The Blue Album’ was all killer, no filler, with ‘My Name Is Jonas’, ‘Undone – The Sweater Song’, ‘Say it Ain’t So’ and ‘Only In Dreams’ instant classics.
Key track: 'Say It Ain't So'
16. Beastie Boys, Ill Communication
In 1994, the unthinkable happened – Beastie Boys finally grew up. "I got more rhymes than I got grey hairs, and that’s a lot because I’ve got my share," claimed the much-missed Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch on Ill Communication highlight ‘Sure Shot’, a song that went on to demand respect for women and apologise for the snotty, misogynistic tone of their early material.
But despite their new-found wisdom, the NYC trio’s new material was far from dull. Ill Communication was a sprawling, eclectic joy, taking in apoplectic P-funk/punk (‘Sabotage’), sticky fun jams (‘Sabrosa’), frantic hardcore (‘Tough Guy’), jazz samples (‘Root Down’) and Tibetan monk chants (‘Bodhisattva Vow’).
Key track: 'Sabotage'
15. Blur, Parklife
Blur frontman and songwriter Damon Albarn seized his moment with Parklife, taking an arch look at British life with choruses the whole nation was soon shouting along to. Lead single ‘Girls & Boys’ was a naggingly catchy satire of package holidays that was inescapable during the summer of 1994.
It was fuelled by the musical clashes within the band, as guitarist Graham Coxon later told NME: "I was being a little arty aggro player, a little bulldozer, Alex [James, bassist] was being all bottom-wiggling cheeky… that tension, clash of personalities, and that mix of rhythms kind of helped."
Elsewhere, the title track was a brash knees-up with an unforgettable cameo from actor Phil Daniels and ‘Bank Holiday’ was a frantic punk blast. But Parklife was at its best when the pace slowed.
Melancholy showstoppers 'End Of A Century', 'This Is A Low' and 'To The End' found Albarn writing empathetic and reflective lyrics that touched upon the human condition, rather than the caricature-like character studies he’d mostly dealt in up to this point.
Key track: 'To The End'
14. Nine Inch Nails, The Downward Spiral
The second full-length from Trent Reznor’s industrial rock titans was a harrowing, intensely personal depiction of a harrowing descent into psychological darkness and despair. But despite the terrifying shards of electronic noise, distorted vocals, throbbing death-disco beats and self-lacerating lyrics, Reznor’s songs had a visceral power that still resonates today.
While the haunting ‘Hurt’ became the album’s most well-known song, not least thanks to Johnny Cash’s incredible cover, The Downward Spiral’s dark heart lays with the raw thrash of ‘March Of The Pigs’ and the unsettling stomp of ‘Closer’.
Key track: 'Hurt'
13. Hole, Live Through This
Released days after her husband Kurt Cobain’s tragic death, Live Through This finds Hole leader Courtney Love channelling her rage at media intrusion into her relationship, anger at misogyny, and worries about her relationship into an incandescent howl.
Live Through This finds Hole in the sweet spot between their raw, primitive debut Pretty On The Outside and the polished, FM radio perfection Celebrity Skin – a dynamic, outspoken and vulnerable cry from one of the great songwriters of her time. And as she proves time and time again throughout the album, nobody screams like Courtney Love.
Key track: 'Violet'
12. The Prodigy, Music For the Jilted Generation
A coming-of-age moment for UK dance music, The Prodigy’s second album is a snarling, righteous response to the Criminal Justice Act of 1994, which effectively outlawed outdoor raving.
Music For The Jilted Generation is teeming with anti-authoritarian anger, from the hulking riffs and colossal beats of ‘Their Law’ (featuring Pop Will Eat Itself) to the fizzing, junglist energy of ‘Poison’ (the first vocal from Maxim Reality) and the eternal dancefloor filler ‘No Good (Start The Dance)’.
Their follow-up, 1997’s Fat Of The Land, would be their global breakthrough, but Jilted Generation captures the rave movement at the moment when it was the ’90s equivalent of punk.
Key track: 'No Good (Start The Dance)'
11. Jeff Buckley, Grace
Though critically acclaimed at the time, Jeff Buckley’s only album, Grace, was a slow burner, only becoming one of the decade’s most beloved albums following his tragic death on 29 May 1997.
Buckley originals such as ‘Grace’, ‘Last Goodbye’ and ‘Lover, You Should’ve Come Over’ represent the flowering of an extraordinary talent, through drama-filled alt. rock that drew on influences as disparate as Led Zeppelin, Édith Piaf and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan to create something all of Buckley’s own.
Then there was that voice, capable of sounding angelic and ecstatic one second, and blasting tortured vitriol the next. Grace’s influence has loomed over music ever since, from Radiohead to Lana Del Rey, but who knows what he might have gone on to do?
Key track: 'Last Goodbye'
10. Massive Attack, Protection
Massive Attack emerged from Bristol’s bass-heavy soundsystem scene with a unique spin on the hip-hop, dub and breakbeat records they loved. Languid and brooding, heavy with melancholy, unfiltered and understated, the music press labelled it ‘trip hop’.
Their 1991 debut Blue Lines established the blueprint for this defiantly Bristolian blend, and its follow-up Protection expanded upon it, with the deliciously languid title track (featuring Everything But The Girl’s Tracey Thorn on vocals), the gloomy claustrophobia of ‘Karmacoma', the buoyant dub of the Horace Andy-featuring ‘Spying Glass’, and ‘Euro Child’, a collaboration with old pal Tricky, among its highlights.
Key track: 'Protection'
9. Suede, Dog Man Star
Following the meteoric success of their 1993 self-titled debut, Suede set about making their masterpiece. The only thing was, the band had become divided, with guitarist and musical backbone Bernard Butler on one side and the rest on the other.
Butler worked on his own in the studio composing grand, experimental epics – according to bassist Mat Osman, early versions of ‘The Asphalt World’ were 25 minutes long with an eight-minute guitar solo – which singer and lyricist Brett Anderson then worked on separately.
Meanwhile, Anderson was holed up in a gothic mansion, in an intense and solitary creative state, watching Performance on repeat and "having visions about songs." Eventually, disagreements over the production pushed Butler over the edge, and the guitarist quit the band, leaving the rest of them to complete his masterwork.
Despite all this, Dog Man Star has moments of genuine, tortured greatness: ‘We Are The Pigs’ is a swashbuckling rabble rouser; ‘Still Life’ is an opulently orchestrated squalid splendour, while ‘The Wild Ones’ is a glam anthem Bowie would’ve killed to write.
Key track: 'The Wild Ones'
8. The Notorious BIG, Ready To Die
The debut album by 22-year-old New Yorker The Notorious BIG changed hip-hop history. In a time of West Coast dominance, Biggie’s rap masterpiece was the catalyst for an East Coast resurgence with its symphonic soul samples, funky breaks and brutal wordplay.
Biggie poured his life into these songs, not holding back on the stress, self-loathing and nihilism that came with the territory of surviving on the mean streets of New York City.
The result was a fearless and rough hip-hop landmark, from his portrayal of a neighbourhood gone to seed on ‘Things Have Changed’ to the title track’s account of a man obsessively pursuing wealth at the expense of everything else. On the all-time classic ‘Juicy’, the guard drops, and we meet the music-obsessed kid before life dealt him hard knocks, set to an irresistible groove.
Key track: 'Juicy'
7. Johnny Cash, American Recordings
It sounds unthinkable now, but in the early ’90s Johnny Cash found himself out of favour and without a record deal.
In October 1992, producer Rick Rubin saw Cash perform ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’ with June Carter Cash at Bob Dylan’s 30th anniversary bash at Madison Square Garden and was struck by the undimmed power of the country legend.
The following year, Rubin offered Cash a contract with his label, American Recordings, telling him, "I would like for you to do whatever feels right to you." The pair built up a friendship and introduced each other to songs – Cash brought spirituals and traditional material; Rubin hand-picked modern songs that he thought would suit that unmistakable voice.
Songwriters of the calibre of Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan (‘Down There By The Train’) and Nick Lowe (‘The Beast In Me’) contributed material, and the album was mostly recorded stripped back, just Cash’s guitar and vocals in the singer’s Tennessee cabin or Rubin’s LA living room.
The results were revelatory, with Cash’s age-weathered vocals bringing a lifetime’s experience to classics by Leonard Cohen (‘Bird On A Wire’), Kris Kristofferson (‘Why Me Lord’) and – most unexpectedly – former Misfits singer Glenn Danzig (‘Thirteen’), as well as Cash originals, including ‘Drive On’ and ‘Let The Train Blow The Whistle’.
Cash continued to record with Rubin until shortly before his death on 12 September 2003, completing a further five albums and enough additional material to fill four discs of the 2003 box set Unearthed.
Key track: 'The Beast In Me'
6. Nirvana, MTV Unplugged
When Nirvana finally agreed to perform a set for MTV’s Unplugged series, the TV network was overjoyed, but they should’ve known that Kurt Cobain’s band wouldn’t play by the rules. The band decided to do things their way, and that meant not playing the hits.
‘We knew we didn’t want to do an acoustic version of "Teen Spirit’," drummer Dave Grohl later said. "That would’ve been horrendously stupid. We felt it would be better if we found other songs." Prior to the taping, the band rehearsed for two days, working on a host of cover versions, including songs by indie country-punk trio Meat Puppets, who were touring with Nirvana at the time.
When MTV executives heard that Nirvana would be playing with special guests, they were overjoyed, hoping for buzzworthy stars such as Eddie Vedder or Tori Amos – when they heard it would be the relatively obscure Meat Puppets they were crestfallen.
They needn’t have worried – the 18 November 1993 show at Sony Studios, New York City, was one for the ages, with the acoustic approach highlighting the melodic strength of Cobain originals such as ‘About A Girl’ and ‘Pennyroyal Tea’ while bringing the raw emotion of his vocals to the fore.
A trio of Meat Puppets covers were chosen (‘Plateau’, ‘Oh Me’, ‘Lake Of Fire’) – giving a leg-up (and hefty royalties) to their touring partners – as well as songs by The Vaselines (‘Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam’), David Bowie (‘The Man Who Sold The World’) and an unforgettably intense ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night’ by Lead Belly.
Key track: 'Where Did You Sleep Last Night'
5. Portishead, Dummy
The debut album from Bristol-based trio Portishead drew upon a heady mix of torch songs, John Barry soundtracks, hip-hop and dusty old blues records to create a wholly original sound.
Devonian singer Beth Gibbons was the secret ingredient, a singer capable of totally transforming a track with exquisite and haunting vocals that channel Billie Holiday, while retaining a style of her own.
‘Sour Times’ imagines an Angelo Badalamenti and DJ Shadow collaboration; ‘Wandering Star’ is a bewitching, bass-heavy exploration of grief, but they save the best till last with ‘Glory Box’, a languid lope of a track given an edge by Adrian Utley’s gnarled electric guitar line and Gibbons extraordinary vocal, which ricochets between tender pleas and cries of desperation.
Key track: 'Glory Box'
4. Pavement, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
The opening seconds of ‘Silence Kid’ say so much – what sounds like new drummer Steve West testing his kit, stray squalls of guitar, an off-mic conversation – but suddenly it coalesces into a questing jam, all spiralling guitar riffs and swooning melodies. Most bands would have edited that messy start out, but not Pavement.
That sense of irreverence echoes singer and principal songwriter Stephen Malkmus’ lyrics, from the infamous Smashing Pumpkins takedown during the countrified bliss of ‘Range Life’ to ‘Cut Your Hair’ ("I really don’t care, did you see the drummer’s hair?").
But there’s so much more than louche smartassery here, ‘Stop Breathin’’, ‘Gold Soundz’ and ‘Fillmore Jive’ showed their capacity for emotional depth and unexpected musical shifts, such as the Dave Brubeck-like ‘5-4=Unity’ were brilliant curveballs.
Key track: 'Range Life'
3. Manic Street Preachers, The Holy Bible
"Rock and roll is our epiphany," sang Manic Street Preachers on ‘Little Baby Nothing’, from their 1992 debut Generation Terrorists, "Culture, alienation, boredom and despair." The band’s third album, The Holy Bible, saw lyricist Richey Edwards take that manifesto and run with it.
"He was reaching some sort of peak of intelligence," lyricist and bassist Nicky Wire later told BBC Radio 2. "He was reading so much stuff, and this was the pre-digital age, that we couldn’t keep up with him. Some of his lyrics are like brilliant bits of prose."
Where the two bandmates had previously traded lines, the deeply troubled Edwards took the lead on The Holy Bible, tackling thorny subjects including fascism, religion and capital punishment with a savage wit and unflinching honesty.
Meanwhile, guitarist and singer James Dean Bradfield and drummer Sean Moore somehow reflected Edwards’ bleak worldview by adopting taut, visceral post-punk (‘Faster’, ‘Archives Of Pain’, ‘4st7lb’).
On 1 February 1995, the eve of a US trip and after a stint in hospital, Edwards’ car was found near the Severn Bridge. Though a body has never been found, Edwards was declared legally dead in November 2008.
Key track: 'Faster'
2. Nas, Illmatic
The greatest hip-hop album of all time? The debut album from NYC rapper Nas is certainly high on the list. Though he was only 20 at the time of Illmatic’s release, there’s a lifetime’s worth of experience and wisdom packed into these lines.
Set to huge beats, rolling piano, Rhodes organ licks and jazz and funk samples, Nas holds a mirror to the hopelessness of growing up in the projects (‘NY State Of Mind’, ‘Memory Lane’, ‘Ain’t Hard To Tell’).
But there is positivity here too – on the message of empowerment and ambition in all-time classic hip-hop anthem ‘The World Is Yours’ and ‘One Love’, a series of messages to friends behind, offering hope and solidarity while depicting the reality of life on the streets.
Key track: 'The World Is Yours'
1. Oasis, Definitely Maybe
There’s manifesting your own destiny, and then there’s Oasis. When Noel Gallagher wrote ‘Rock ’N’ Roll Star’, he was nothing of the sort; by the time it opened Definitely Maybe, it was a possibility; 30 years later, stadiums full of fans of all ages are still singing it back to him.
Definitely Maybe is by far Oasis’ greatest album, before the endless guitar solos, trite lyrics, Rolls-Royce-in-the-swimming-pool-and-Johnny-Depp-on-slide-guitar years.
Its songs still resonate because they’re about escaping – from humdrum jobs, the streets you were born in, a lack of ambition – either through decadence (‘Supersonic’) or fantasy (‘Slide Away’, ‘Live Forever’).
The angst and self-loathing of grunge were nowhere to be found here, instead there is a feeling of being alive to whatever the world is offering you – "I need to be myself," sings the endlessly cocksure Liam Gallagher, "I can’t be no-one else" – and a celebration of everyday lives that Noel would never attempt again (who else was referencing Mr Clean, the Big Issue and lasagne?).
And then there’s the sound of it, all snarling, Sex Pistols guitars, massive choruses and caveman drumming. Definitely Maybe is the album on which Oasis’ legend rests.
Key track: 'Slide Away'
Artist photos Getty Images
Top image Photo of Oasis, L-R: Tony McCarroll, Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs, Noel Gallagher, Liam Gallagher, Paul 'Guigsy' McGuigan - posed, group shot, 1994
