I like doing the Decades series because it exposes me to new music I’ve missed over the years, but that’s just half the appeal. I’m equally happy to revisit albums I haven’t listened to in ages and remember how much I love them.
Jackson Browne’s I’m Alive has climbed up my 1993 list to #5, after starting toward the bottom half of the top ten when I first started planning these posts. All it took was for me to listen to the damn thing again.
I’m surprised I’ve never featured a song from Van Morrison’s 1997 album, The Healing Game. Not because it’s a favorite of mine — I don’t think I’ve heard it all the way through since my initial listens — but because I have a clear memory of buying it.
On Wednesday, I recalled my then-girlfriend, Alex, and I buying two copies of Billy Joel’s River of Dreams because we didn’t yet live together. Well, today’s album is likely the first one Alex and I bought after getting married.
Here’s a blast from the not-too-distant past — the opening track of V.V. Brown’s 2009 debut album, Travelling Like the Light. Brown is best known for that album’s breakout single ‘Shark in the Water,’ a song that still gets plenty of play in my family’s musical rotation.
While ‘Shark in the Water’ remains a staple, I haven’t revisited this album in about a decade, despite the glowing review I posted on this very site. Browsing through it now after this song popped up for today’s Random Weekend selection, I find it just as delightful as I did back then.
Liz Phair’s 1993 debut album, Exile in Guyville, is probably the most critically-acclaimed album on my list. In fact, it landed at #1 on Village Voice’s annual Pazz & Jop poll, which aggregates hundreds of critics’ top ten lists.
It will have to settle for #6 on my own list, but that shouldn’t diminish its importance as a trailblazing achievement for the independent rock scene. This album gave a voice to a new generation of young women unafraid to be frank about their sexuality. It still sounds great, too.
My #7 album of 1993 is Bob Dylan’s World Gone Wrong, the second of back-to-back albums featuring covers of classic folk and blues songs.
This album, and its predecessor Good As I Been To You, fulfilled a recording contract Dylan had signed five years earlier and can reasonably be looked at as a low-effort way of meeting that obligation. But the entirely acoustic recordings feature some wonderful performances. World Gone Wrong even won a Grammy, for Best Traditional Folk Album.
Meet Me In Montauk 