Tag Archives: Decades

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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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Song of the Day #5,033: ‘Lover, You Should Have Come Over’ – Jeff Buckley

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

#6 – Grace – Jeff Buckley

Jeff Buckley isn’t really part of the collective pop culture consciousness anymore. I can’t recall the last time I heard a song of his on the radio, or in a TV show or movie.

Even ‘Hallelujah,’ the Leonard Cohen song Buckley turned into a near religious experience and an unlikely hit, has now been covered by so many other artists that his definitive version is unlikely to surface before anybody else’s.

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Song of the Day #5,032: ‘Lover Lay Down’ – Dave Matthews Band

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

#7 – Under the Table and Dreaming – Dave Matthews Band

I was shocked, when choosing which song to post today, to realize that I have never featured a song from Dave Matthews Band’s Under the Table and Dreaming through more than 5,000 Songs of the Day. Wild.

I think that’s because my admiration for Dave Matthews Band crested and waned well before I started the blog. It was a decidedly mid- to late-90s love affair.

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