Tag Archives: Decades 1993

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Song of the Day #4,361: ‘Divorce Song’ – Liz Phair

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.

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Song of the Day #4,360: ‘Jack-a-Roe’ – Bob Dylan

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.

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Song of the Day #4,359: ‘The Great Wall of China’ – Billy Joel

I didn’t know back in 1993 when I bought Billy Joel’s River of Dreams that it would be the last album of pop songs he’d ever release. Maybe Joel has a surprise in store 27 years later, but it sure seems like this was his swan song.

This is far from my favorite Billy Joel album — a quick glance at his discography suggests I’d rank it at #11 of 12 — but it’s plenty good enough to be my #8 album of 1993.

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Song of the Day #4,358: ‘Babyface’ – U2

When U2 released Zooropa, its eighth studio album and my #9 album of 1993, the band was coming off a run of blockbuster albums that sold 10+ million units apiece. The Joshua Tree, Rattle and Hum and Achtung Baby had cemented the Irish rockers as the world’s biggest band.

So this album’s left turn in the direction of electronic dance music was unexpected and risky. But it paid off, both creatively and commercially. Zooropa didn’t sell as well as its predecessors, but it did move 7 million copies and it won a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album.

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Song of the Day #4,357: ‘Who Am I (What’s My Name)?’ – Snoop Doggy Dogg

It’s time for the next installment of my Decades series, wherein I dive into the albums from a certain year across four decades. Currently I’m on the 3’s, having covered 1973 and 1983. That brings us to 1993, the year I turned 21.

I generally have a pretty low opinion of the 90s as a musical decade, at least in terms of what dominated the radio and the charts. But I hope to unearth some gems.

As always, I will start by counting down my own favorite albums of 1993 before highlighting ten albums new to me that received critical/commercial acclaim.

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