Tag Archives: Decades

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Song of the Day #2,611: ‘Eden’ – 10,000 Maniacs

our_time_in_edenOur Time in Eden was the last 10,000 Maniacs album to feature Natalie Merchant on lead vocals, and therefore the last 10,000 Maniacs album worth hearing.

I am familiar with only two of the five albums that do feature Merchant — this one and their 1987 breakthrough In My Tribe — but I love both of those records whole-heartedly.

I was actually surprised to discover that Our Time in Eden came out in 1992, because I don’t really associate it with that summer. I believe that’s because I listened to it briefly and dismissed it as an inferior follow-up to Tribe. Only later did I pull it back out and come to truly appreciate it.

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Song of the Day #2,610: ‘Arthur McBride’ – Bob Dylan

goodasibeentoyouBob Dylan’s late career resurgence is generally tied to the 1997 release of Time Out of Mind, which won Grammy’s Album of the Year award and kicked off a spate of original albums that number among his best.

But I would peg the start of that comeback to a modest release five years earlier — Dylan’s first covers album, 1992’s Good As I Been to You.

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Song of the Day #2,609: ‘Nashville’ – Indigo Girls

rites_of_passageI’m not a big Indigo Girls fan — they’re too studied and too repetitive for my taste — but I have to give props to their 1992 album Rites of Passage.

On their fourth album, Emily Saliers and Amy Ray introduced a host of new sounds, including strings and exotic percussion, to add muscle to one of their strongest batches of songs.

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Song of the Day #2,608: ‘Until I Fall Away’ – Gin Blossoms

gin_blossoms_new_miserableMy readers are clamoring for another installment of “In the Year of…” and who am I to deny them?

I started this series by looking at my birth year, 1972, highlighting my top five albums of the year and ten records (new to me) that received critical acclaim. I then jumped forward a decade and gave the same treatment to 1982, discovering a few gems along the way.

Now I’ll skip ahead another ten years and spend the next four weeks on 1992.

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Song of the Day #2,584: ‘Heat of the Moment’ – Asia

asiaWhile New Wave was the defining sound of the early 80s, the #1 album of 1982 was the self-titled debut by prog-rock band Asia. Asia spent more than two months at the top of the U.S. album chart.

The band was created by former members of Yes, King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer and their debut album outsold anything any of those other bands ever produced.

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