Tag Archives: Decades 1994

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Song of the Day #5,040: ‘Wildflowers’ – Tom Petty

Continuing my look at 1994, first by counting down my own top ten albums of that year.

#1 – Wildflowers – Tom Petty

Naming my favorite album of 1994 was very easy. Wildflowers is one of Tom Petty’s best albums, and one of the best of the decade. It’s a wide-ranging blend of folk, blues and rock that shows Petty in peak songwriting form.

One of Petty’s three solo releases (though it features almost all of the Heartbreakers), Wildflowers sits just behind Full Moon Fever</em, tied with Damn the Torpedoes, as his second most successful album in terms of sales.

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Song of the Day #5,039: ‘Nanci’ – Toad the Wet Sprocket

Continuing my look at 1994, first by counting down my own top ten albums of that year.

#2 – Dulcinea – Toad the Wet Sprocket

I know this is an album I love, because it’s almost tapped out in terms of representation on this blog. Today’s track is the ninth of its 12 songs to feature as a Song of the Day.

Dulcinea is Today the Wet Sprocket’s fourth album, and the first new release after I became a fan of the band. My future wife and I had bonded over our love of their previous album, Fear, and we eagerly anticipated the release of this one.

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Song of the Day #5,038: ‘Plenty’ – Sarah McLachlan

Continuing my look at 1994, first by counting down my own top ten albums of that year.

#3 – Fumbling Towards Ecstasy – Sarah McLachlan

I’m embarrassed to have only two albums by women on this top ten, a reflection of both the industry at the time and (more so) my narrow focus as a 22-year-old male music fan.

Despite that narrow focus, I did find room for the undeniably great Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, the third album by Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan (this album was released in Canada in late ’93, but I’m counting it as a ’94 release because it debuted in the U.S. in February of that year).

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Song of the Day #5,037: ‘Strange Currencies’ – R.E.M.

Continuing my look at 1994, first by counting down my own top ten albums of that year.

#4 – Monster – R.E.M.

Comparing R.E.M.’s 80s output vs. their 90s output makes for an interesting showdown. While their early albums embody the jangly pop rock sound that helped revolutionize the alternative rock landscape, the later work took that sound to darker and stranger places, resulting in some of the band’s most memorable songs.

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Song of the Day #5,036: ‘Hannah Jane’ – Hootie and the Blowfish

Continuing my look at 1994, first by counting down my own top ten albums of that year.

#6 – Cracked Rear View – Hootie and the Blowfish

At some point it became cool to hate on Hootie and the Blowfish, or at least uncool to like them, but in 1994 it was impossible to deny the appeal of their muscular folk rock debut album.

Cracked Rear View was a hit both critically and commercially, eventually selling more than 21 million copies in the U.S. alone to become one of the top twenty best-selling albums of all time.

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