088. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream (1993)




Wow. I'm officially over this album. It was never my favorite Pumpkins disc but, listening to it this time, I barely enjoyed it.

The only tracks I liked were 'Today', 'Disarm', and 'Mayonaise'. Corgan's voice has never annoyed me before but I couldn't even sit through 'Quiet' this time because of it. I used to like this album a fair bit but I pretty much have no need to listen to it ever again, as of right now at least.

It's weird how things like that happen.

Wait, there are people who like the Smashing Pumpkins, but don't like Gish and Siamese Dream? No wonder people like the Silversun Pickups.

089. The Juliana Hatfield Three - Become What You Are (1993)




This is the album that made me fall in love with Juliana Hatfield. In fact, I could pinpoint it to one exact moment if I had to. That moment is track nine. 'Spin The Bottle'

It's a lovely, catchy, upbeat, cute song and she shines on it. When she drifts into harder rock, sometimes the results are mixed. But tracks like the aforementioned one are ace.

I pretty much love this entire disc straight through. I love how the lyrics to 'Supermodel' are as relevant today when applied to celebrities like Paris Hilton as they were then. "And she's famous for nothing at all."

I think if I could hook up with any female musician, Ms. Hatfield would still lead the race. Apologies to Lisa, Joanna, Isobel, Jenny, and all the other also-rans.

Heh. Amen. Only Pumpkins discs that DON'T annoy me are these two.

I think there's some people here whose musical identity was formed in 1994. Which is fine; once one is aware of it, one can use it to make sense of opinions which are baffling to oldsters and yungins alike.

090. Counting Crows - August And Everything After (1993)




This is definitely a top three-r from my pre-indie rock life. I was obsessed with this album in junior high. Fuck listening to emo for your teenage angst, this works just as well.

I still love the band and own everything by them. But I can't play this album as much as I used to. Though certain tracks like 'A Murder Of One' I still find myself rocking to.

This is one of the discs that started me down the "lyrics, not the music" path. I like the music, of course. But this is where I really started to get into the poetry of song lyrics. Even today, when I listen to new records like the new Joanna Newsom, I pay attention to the lyrics and singing more than anything else. That's the writer in me, though.

091. The Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen (1993)




This album is so good. I can't believe I don't play it more often or include songs off it on more mixes to expose to as many friends as possible.

The first five tracks are all incredible. As is track seven. I'm not a fan of 'Fountain & Fairfax' and some of the last few aren't that good but the rest is gold.

'66' off 1965 was the first song I ever heard by them. Based on that, it could have been very likely that I wouldn't like anything else by the band. Thankfully that's not the case. I love this band.

092. The Lemonheads - Come On Feel The Lemonheads (1993)




One of my favorite albums of all time. I love this album so, so much.

'Rick James Style' is the only track on here that I don't love. And I can usually tolerate it. I love the music. I love the lyrics. I love the pop of it, the upbeatness, and Juliana Hatfield's vocals bring that extra dimension to the Lemonheads that I've always felt they've lacked since.

My favorite song on this changes from day to day. It might be 'Being Around'. It could be 'It's About Time'. I could be singing along to 'The Great Big No'. There's no way I could pick a single favorite.

I wish, wish I had friends who would appreciate this. But none of them respect a perfect pop song. It's their loss.

093. Buffalo Tom - Big Red Letter Day (1993)




This is a decent album. And there are moments on it where I really love the band. 'Treehouse' is easily the standout track. But the problem is that, even at their best on this, all their best does is make me want to listen to the song 'Mineral' instead. Because I love that song. And I just kind of like the rest of this.

094. E - Broken Toy Shop (1993)




I am a huge Eels fan. They're one of my top three acts of all time. They fight amongst Guster and Belle And Sebastian, depending on the day. So I'll be apologetic and say "of course I love this album, what did you expect?"

I'll admit it's not as strong as later Eels work, especially not their debut Beautiful Freak which would follow three years later. Tracks like 'She Loves A Puppet' are pretty weak and almost corny.

But tracks like 'My Old Raincoat' and 'A Most Unpleasant Man' foreshadow later works like 'My Beloved Monster' and many of the tracks off Blinking Lights.

'The Only Thing I Care About' is a catchy little number and 'Manchester Girl' hits. I have never heard a song mentioning Henry Miller that hasn't hit, but there you have it.

Any Eels fan should love this.

095. Pavement - Crooked Rain Crooked Rain (1994)




Quite a solid album but I still don't like it nearly as much as Slanted. I recall a poll on this board debating the two and it was pretty much completely even the entire time between the two but there's quite a few songs on here that I only sort of like whereas I love nearly everything off their debut.

Some of the tracks on here, like 'Range Life', 'Gold Soundz', 'Cut Your Hair' are incredible. This is certainly a band that deserved the acclaim it got. And, while I've only heard a couple of songs from their later work, this is certainly more than enough to ensure I pick up the next reissue set.

Now that you're up to 1993 I'm surprised you don't have any Posies in your collection.


You'd probably like them a lot.

I have a bunch of songs downloaded but don't own anything by them. They'll probably wind up on my shopping list sooner than later.

096. Beck - Mellow Gold (1994)




I thought I hated this one. Guess not.

For 75% of my life, 'Loser' was the only song I knew by Beck Hansen. I assumed he was a one hit wonder. I thought he was the son of Jeff Beck, though I had no idea who Jeff Beck was. This wouldn't have been the first album I heard by him. That would be Odelay!.

Listening to this now, I pretty much like this. Frankly, I don't like any Beck album all the way through. I like a lot of stuff by him but no real album, per se, and his two newest are really starting to sour me on him altogether. Not so much a disliking as a disinterest. When his next one comes out, I probably won't even bother downloading it.

The first half of this I quite like, though. The second half I kind of lost interest in. But so be it.

097. The Lowest Of The Low - Hallucigenia (1994)




This album apparently got ran down when it first came out. I'll admit it took a while to grow on me but I love a large portion of it now.

'Gamble' was a fairly solid single. 'Dogs Of February' is perhaps one of the best Low songs. 'Black Monday' and 'City Full Of Cowards' are touching. 'Beer, Graffiti Walls...' is a folkish-punk song in the tradition of Billy Bragg and features some of my favorite lyrics by the band. 'Penedono's Hand' is catchy and foot-tappable. And the rest of it fills out decently enough.

Admiteddly, it still ranks in last place in my list of favorite Low albums. But there's enough gems on here to make it worth seeking out.

098. Morrissey - Vauxhall & I (1994)




I thought this album sucked. The artwork certainly does. The pink/purple hue to the entire thing and Moz putting on his best James Dean act.

The music itself is much better than I remember, though. Despite owning nearly all of them, Moz's solo releases aren't really that strong. But this one has a bunch of his better known solo songs including 'Now My Heart Is Full' and 'The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get'.

It's a pretty decent outing all the way through and about as good as a Morrissey solo album can be.

099. Hole - Live Through This (1994)




As if I don't get enough flack for my disliking of the Beatles, Radiohead, and Led Zeppelin, here's more fuel for the fire. I like Hole a million times more than I like Nirvana.

I own two Hole cd's. I own zero Nirvana cd's. I really want to read Courtney Love's diaries. I sold Kurt's. I've actively sought out many movies that Love was in just because she was in them. I've skipped over magazine articles on Cobain. And I am genuinely fascinated with Courtney Love. I think Kurt was a decent enough musician and lyricist but never lived up to his potential.

I forgot how good this album is. The only way I could like this album more is if I were female. If I had been, I would've been a total riot grrl in high school. Babydoll dresses, smeared lipstick, bleached blond hair, I'm sure. My infatuation with this album as a twenty-one year-old male is strong enough. Every song on this kicks my ass.

I even like the Young Marble Giants cover more than the original.

I'm a big fan of Live Through This as well. I like three or four songs on Celebrity Skin.

It has struck me on occasion that every song that I like on either of those two albums may or may not have been written by Kurt Cobain or Billy Corgan, but I'm not sure its a big deal.

Love this thread alongwaltz. If I remember this came out shortly after Cobain's narcissistic suicide (or murder, if you listen to the tin foil hat crowd). Like maybe a week later. I haven't listened to this in at least five years, but I did like the singles at the time. What are your thoughts AW on the conspiracy theory that Cobain wrote these songs for Courtney? Like many other albums you've reviewed, I'm gonna throw this on and get nostalgic.

LTT came out four days after his body was found. Making the title so deliciously ironic.

I don't buy into the murder theories. It's well-documented that he purchased a ton of guns in the years prior to his death. His depression/uneasiness about how to deal with his fame is noted. His stomach illnesses that caused him severe pain.

And my easiest answer is, if Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic believe he killed himself, who am I to say different? They'd probably have a better idea than anyone.

100. Frente! - Marvin The Album (1994)




Speaking of my being a girl, I love this band too. This album in particular, though. 'Labour Of Love', 'No Time', and 'Accidently Kelly Street' are the high points. Everyone knows their New Order cover, which is nice, as well.

Frente fall into my Lisa Loeb category where I really love them and everything about them and sometimes I'm remiss to admit it because I know I'll be made fun of. But sometimes I also will just say that I do and whatever, take your shots, if you must. This thread's all about one hundred percent honesty so I'm not going to make excuses here.

319 to go.

I agree about it not being a murder, though the documentaries on YT implicating CL are fascinating to watch. But to answer my question, do you think Kurt wrote those songs. I, for one, think he lent some ideas, but ultimately don't care. Corgan, for instance, claimed he wrote the riff on the song Celebrity Skin, but he didn't need the songwriting credit because he was richer than God at that point. It seems pretty clear to me that Cobain must have been quite influential on that album, not that that takes anything away from it. Thoughts AW?

There's theories that he wrote all of the songs himself and just gave them to her. I don't know about that. I think, if anything, it's a partnership thing. You're married to someone, living with someone, you both play/write music. I picture them both sitting around the house trying to write riffs and come up with songs. She gets an idea for a bit, he suggets something, she builds on that. That sort of thing. He may have influenced/helped tinker with a bunch of the songs but I don't buy into him writing all of them himself and giving them to her.

You reminding me of Frente made me go try to look up what the radio hit from their second album was (it's "What's Come Over Me"), but I also learned that Marvin the Album originally came out in 1992 on a label called White, before being re-released in 1994 on Atlantic.

You didnt ask me but I'd venture to guess that Kurt probably wrote some of the songs either knowingly or not; I'm with you though that it doesnt make much difference.

Pardon me for not knowing but what did Kurt ever have to say about Hole's music during the making of that album?