Now that concerts are indefinitely cancelled, every year before 2020 is starting to look pretty good by comparison. But some were better than others. Here are the years that we like the best…
If there’s one thing we in Parties in Townies agree on, it’s that Josh needs a bigger truck. But if there’s a second point of agreement, it’s that 1994 was a phenomenal year for music.
The four great Seattle grunge bands (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains) reached their commercial peak.
It brought us three of the greatest hip hop albums ever made: Illmatic (Nas), Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik (Outkast), and Ready to Die (Notorious BIG).
We got our first glimpse of Weezer, Green Day, Oasis, Portishead, Jeff Buckley, Ben Harper, Dave Matthews Band, The Magnetic Fields, Nas, Outkast, Notorious BIG, Beck, Bush, Blur, and Elliott Smith.
Johnny Cash made a comeback.
Woodstock returned (and didn’t end in flames).
Tom Petty (Wildflowers), Nine Inch Nails (Downward Spiral), Alice in Chains (Jar of Flies), Weezer (Blue album), Ween (Chocolate and Cheese), Tori Amos (Under the Pink), Jeff Buckley (Grace), Soundgarden (Superunknown), Portishead (Dummy), Stone Temple Pilots (Purple) all released peak albums.
Pulp Fiction gave us the best soundtrack of the decade (and made surf-rock cool again).
TLC’s “Waterfalls” gave us four-and-a-half minutes of pure pop bliss.
The radio was still playing great stuff from the previous year, including Smashing Pumpkins (Siamese Dream), Counting Crows (August & Everything After), Snoop Dogg (Doggystyle), Wu Tang Clan (36 Chambers), Cypress Hill (Black Sunday), and the Red Hot Chili Peppers (“Soul to Squeeze”).
It was difficult to limit my highlights from the year to just 50 albums. Nevertheless, I persisted:
1. Illmatic (Nas)
2. MTV Unplugged in New York (Nirvana)
3. Grace (Jeff Buckley)
4. Chocolate and Cheese (Ween)
5. Wildflowers (Tom Petty)
6. Weezer (Blue album)
7. Dummy (Portishead)
8. Jar of Flies (Alice in Chains)
9. Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik (Outkast)
10. Downward Spiral (Nine Inch Nails)
11. Ready to Die (Notorious BIG)
12. Dookie (Green Day)
13. Superunknown (Soundgarden)
14. Vitalogy (Pearl Jam)
15. American Recordings (Johnny Cash)
16. Under the Pink (Tori Amos)
17. Vauxhall and I (Morrissey)
18. Parklife (Blur)
19. Ain’t Life Grand (Widespread Panic)
20. Monster (REM)
21. Blowout Comb (Digable Planets)
22. Definitely Maybe (Oasis)
23. Last Splash (Breeders)
24. Hoist (Phish)
25. Purple (Stone Temple Pilots)
26. The Pulp Fiction Soundtrack
27. Welcome to the Cruel World (Ben Harper)
28. Ill Communication (Beastie Boys)
29. Too High to Die (Meat Puppets)
30. Mellow Gold (Beck)
31. Crazysexycool (TLC)
32. No Need to Argue (Cranberries)
33. Stranger than Fiction (Bad Religion)
34. Amorica (Black Crows)
35. His N Hers (Pulp)
36. The Division Bell (Pink Floyd)
37. Let Love In (Nick Cave)
38. Songs for the Daily Planet (Todd Snider)
39. Rubberneck (Toadies)
40. Live Through This (Hole)
41. Lead On (George Strait)
42. Bee Thousand (Guided by Voices)
43. Sleeps with Angels (Neil Young)
44. Diary (Sunny Day Real Estate)
45. Sixteen Stone (Bush)
46. Under the Table and Dreaming (Dave Matthews Band)
47. Voodoo Lounge (Rolling Stones)
48. Smash (Offspring)
49. Roman Candle (Elliott Smith)
50. Throwing Copper (Live)
I made a playlist for the year. Check it out on Spotify.
John picked 1971. The Rolling Stones (Sticky Fingers), Led Zeppelin (IV), the Who (Who’s Next), Joni Mitchell (Blue), Sly Stone (There’s a Riot Going On), Marvin Gaye (What’s Going On), Cat Stevens (Teaser and the Firecat), and Harry Nilsson (Nilsson Schmilsson) were all at their peak. David Bowie (Hunky Dory), Funkadelic (Maggot Brain), Elton John (Madman Across the Water), Leonard Cohen (Songs of Love and Hate), the Allman Brothers (Fillmore East), and Pink Floyd (Meddle) were hitting their stride. John Lennon (Imagine) released his best post-Beatles work, and Jimi (The Cry of Love), Janis (Pearl), and the Doors (LA Woman) left us beautiful swan songs. There are classic rock radio stations devoted entirely to playing songs from this year.
Adam picked 1997. Some of the best albums of the decade (arguably ever) were released in ‘97, including OK Computer (Radiohead), The Mollusk (Ween), and Either/Or (Elliott Smith). Nick Cave (The Boatman’s Call), Bjork (Homogenic), Blur (self-titled), Built to Spill (Perfect from Now On), the Foo Fighters (The Color and the Shape), Portishead (self-titled), Ben Folds (Whatever and Ever Amen), and Modest Mouse (Lonesome Crowded West) continued their run of solid albums. Erykah Badu (Baduizm) and Death Cab For Cutie (You Can Play These Songs With Chords) had strong debuts, while Bob Dylan (Time Out of Mind) began a late career surge that would last three albums and help cement his Nobel Prize. Adam also mentioned a lot of great music that I don’t know: F#A# Infinity (Godspeed You Black Emperor), Young Team (Mogwai), Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space (Spiritualized), Mag Earwhig! (Guided by Voices), S.C.I.E.N.C.E. (Incubus), Around the Fur (Deftones), and Hand It Over (Dinosaur Jr.). My knock on 1997 is that radio, which Napster had not yet made obsolete, was transitioning from grunge to boy bands, nu metal, and dental R&B. But even an outbreak of Limp Bizkits and Backstreet Boys could not erase the enduring influence and discomforting beauty of OK Computer.
Josh didn’t give me a specific year, but texted: “70/80s… The Cure. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers… Boys Don’t Cry.” So I choose 1979, which lies near the average of Josh’s range and that brought us both the Cure’s debut (Three Imaginary Boys) and the Heartbreakers best work (Damn the Torpedoes). ‘79 had other highs, including London Calling (The Clash), The Wall (Pink Floyd), Unknown Pleasures (Joy Division), Survival (Bob Marley), Rust Never Sleeps (Neil Young), Blue Kentucky Girl (Emmylou Harris), Fear of Music (Talking Heads), Look Sharp!/I’m the Man (Joe Jackson), and Labour of Lust (Nick Lowe). Hip hop was starting to expand beyond the South Bronx. ACDC (Highway to Hell) and Van Halen (II) offered shredheads a blueprint for 80s hair metal. Most importantly, 1979 is the year of the greatest fiddle feud in the history of ever: Charlie Daniels 1, Satan 0.
I almost chose 1968, a year that produced three of my favorite albums (Astral Weeks, Electric Ladyland, and Music from the Big Pink), or 1973, when many of my favorite artists (Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, the Stooges) were peaking. But the music in 2015 was far more diverse. Also, every year from 1967-1973 was great. No one year from that era stands apart like 2015, which is currently lapping its 21st century competitors.
But I might be biased. 2015 was a very good year for me. I got married, landed my dream job, and published three big papers. The Patriots won the Super Bowl. The Green Feet, my wiffle ball team, won the championship at the Royal Chelsea Invitational Tournament of Frolf. Corona was still only a beer, Barack Obama was still President, and David Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen, Merle Haggard, and Phife Dawg were still alive.
2015 was also a very good year for music. Jason Isbell (Something More Than Free) and the Alabama Shakes (Sound and Color) dropped two of the best albums of the century (thus far). We heard the decade’s best hip hop album (Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly), best comeback album (Sufjan Stevens’ Carrie & Lowell), best one-hit-wonder (Elle King’s “Ex’s and Oh’s”), best tribute (Ryan Adams’ reinterpretation of Taylor Swift’s 1989 in the style of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska), best tribute to a tribute (Father John Misty’s reinterpretation of Ryan Adams’s cover of Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” in the style of the Velvet Underground), the snarkiest album (Father John Misty’s I Love You Honeybear), and best concept album about professional wrestling (The Mountain Goats’ Beat the Champ). The year brought killer debut albums from Christ Stapleton (Traveller), Leon Bridges (Coming Home), Courtney Barnett (Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit), Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats (self-titled), Jamie XX (In Colour), Wolf Alice (My Love is Cool), Natalie Prass (self-titled), and Jessica Pratt (self-titled). Lana Del Rey (Honeymoon), Calexico (Edge of the Sun), Kurt Vile (b’lieve i’m goin down…), the Decemberists (What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World), Dawes (All Your Favorite Bands), Mumford & Sons (Wilder Mind), Josh Ritter (Sermon on the Rocks), John Moreland (High on Tulsa Heat), Rayland Baxter (Imaginary Man), Gary Clark Jr. (The Story of Sonny Boy Slim), The Lone Bellow (Then Came the Morning), Houndmouth (Little Neon Limelight), Deerhunter (Fading Frontier), Torres (Sprinter), Beach House (Depression Cherry), Beirut (No No No), and Tame Impala (Currents), all continued their momentum. Veteran songsmiths James McMurtrey (Complicated Game) and Ray Wiley Hubbard (The Ruffian’s Misfortune) dropped their best album in decades. 2015 was so good that even Selena Gomez released a strong album (Revival). Check out its closing track, “Perfect,” whose title aptly describes not just the song but the entire year.
I also made a playlist for 2015. Listen to it on Spotify.