Best Songs of 1994

For all of 2014 (and some of 2013), I have been working on lists representing 30, 20, and 10 years ago, along with a list for this year. Unlike every other list, this one might best represent what I actually would have done at the time.

It might also be a representation of my favorite year of music in my lifetime. It's hard to separate the music itself from the fact that I was 15 and impressionable, making a truly objective statement on the matter next to impossible. Still, objectivity is irrelevant when it comes to lists like this. And besides, I can let the music (and my audience) speak for itself.

If the music could speak, it might talk about how 1994 found a great merger between the popular and the critically acclaimed, or how genres like hip hop had matured enough to begin to provide an ever-expanding array of voices and sounds. One might say the same about the evolution of ’80s college rock into what would become known by the middle of the decade as indie rock and its more commercially successful cousin, that nebulous distinction known as “alternative”.

So maybe the greatness of 1994 wasn’t just about my teenage years, but the corresponding teenage years of certain kinds of music. We both found out who we were, and began to see the possibilities that lay before us. Back then, in a time of youth and prosperity and safety and optimism, they were endless.

For these year-end lists, I like to undertake the seemingly impossibly task of creating an hours-long mix. The order you see below represents that effort, which you can listen to via Spotify and my preferred outlet, Rdio. Sadly all 100 tracks aren't available, but you get the general idea. Track notes to come eventually or maybe never.

Show Grid

Sure Shot

Beastie Boys

Ill Communication

Grand Royal

Notes
Cut Your Hair

Pavement

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Matador

Notes
Loser

Beck

Mellow Gold

DGC

Notes
Tractor Rape Chain

Guided by Voices

Bee Thousand

Revolver

Notes
Your Favorite Thing

Sugar

File Under: Easy Listening

Rykodisc

Notes
Supernova

Liz Phair

Whip-Smart

Matador

Notes
Dream Figure

Cardinal

Cardinal

Flydaddy

Notes
Red Right Hand

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Red Right Hand

Mute

Notes
Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon

Urge Overkill

Pulp Fiction

MCA

Notes
Strange Powers

The Magnetic Fields

Holiday

Merge

Notes
Jacking the Ball

The Sea and Cake

The Sea and Cake

Thrill Jockey

Notes
The Wishing Time

Catfish Jenkins

Aware 2 The Compilation

Aware

Notes
Einstein on the Beach

Counting Crows

DGC Rarities Vol. 1

DGC

Notes
Hey Sandy

Polaris

Music from The Adventures of Pete & Pete

Mezzotint

CD actually released in 1999.
Feel the Pain

Dinosaur Jr.

Without a Sound

Sire

Notes
Seven

Sunny Day Real Estate

Diary

Sub Pop

Notes
Shrine

The Dambuilders

Encendedor

Atlantic

Notes
She Is Weird City

Lotion

full Isaac

spinART

Notes
My Pathetic Friend

Noise Addict

Meet the Real You

Grand Royal

Notes
Barbarossa

Sordid Humor

Light Music for Dying People

Capricorn

Notes
Headache

Frank Black

Teenager of the Year

Elektra

Notes
A Higher Place

Tom Petty

Wildflowers

Warner Bros.

Notes
Wild Night

John Mellencamp featuring Meshell Ndegeocello

Dance Naked

Mercury

Notes
Penguins

Lyle Lovett

I Love Everybody

Curb

Notes
Tenor Man

The Greyboy Allstars

West Coast Boogaloo

Greyboy

Notes
Lucas With the Lid Off

Lucas

Lucacentric

Big Beat

Notes
Revival!

Me Phi Me

Reality Bites

RCA

Notes
I Used to Love H.E.R.

Common

Resurrection

Relativity

Notes
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World

Prince

The Most Beautiful Girl in the World

NPG

Notes
Mass Appeal

Gang Starr

Hard to Earn

Noo Trybe

Notes
Back and Forth

Aaliyah

Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number

Jive

Notes
Creep

TLC

Crazysexycool

LaFace

Notes
Crumblin’ Erb

Outkast

Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik

LaFace

Notes
Protection

Massive Attack

Protection

Virgin

Notes
Missing

Everything But the Girl

Amplified Heart

Atlantic

Notes
Fast Changes

Seal

Seal

ZTT

Notes
Live Forever

Oasis

Definitely Maybe

Epic

Notes
Machinehead

Bush

Sixteen Stone

Interscope

Notes
Love Spreads

The Stone Roses

Second Coming

Geffen

Notes
Girls & Boys

Blur

Parklife

Food

Notes
Shipwrecked

Sky Cries Mary

This Timeless Turning

World Domination

Notes
God

Tori Amos

Under the Pink

Atlantic

Notes
Glory Box

Portishead

Dummy

Go! Beat

Notes
Closer

Nine Inch Nails

The Downward Spiral

Interscope

Notes
White, Discussion

Live

Throwing Copper

Radioactive

Notes
Screenwriter’s Blues

Soul Coughing

Ruby Vroom

Slash

Notes
Bring the Pain

Method Man

Tical

Def Jam

Notes
Flava in Ya Ear

Craig Mack

Project: Funk Da World

Bad Boy

Notes
One More Chance (Stay With Me Remix)

The Notorious B.I.G.

One More Chance

Bad Boy

Notes
Give It Up

Public Enemy

Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age

Def Jam

Notes
Ease My Mind

Arrested Development

Zingalamaduni

Chrysalis

Notes
This Ain’t Living

G. Love & Special Sauce

G. Love & Special Sauce

Epic

Notes
American Life in the Summertime

Francis Dunnery

Fearless

Atlantic

Notes
Locked Out

Crowded House

Together Alone

Capitol

Notes
Sometimes Always

The Jesus and Mary Chain

Stoned and Dethroned

Warner Bros.

Notes
Am I Wrong

Love Spit Love

Love Spit Love

Imago

Notes
American Dreaming

Dead Can Dance

Toward the Within

4AD

Notes
Reasons

Built to Spill

There's Nothing Wrong With Love

Up

Notes
Whir

Smashing Pumpkins

Pisces Iscariot

Virgin

Notes
Last Goodbye

Jeff Buckley

Grace

Columbia

Notes
Not Even the Trees

Hootie & The Blowfish

Cracked Rear View

Atlantic

Notes
Warehouse

Dave Matthews Band

Under the Table and Dreaming

BMG

Notes
Eleanor

Shannon Worrell

Aware 2 The Compilation

Aware

Notes
Bad Reputation

Freedy Johnston

This Perfect World

Elektra

Notes
Stay

Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories

Reality Bites

RCA

Notes
Walk Away

Ben Harper

Welcome to the Cruel World

Virgin

Notes
Hole in the Bucket

Spearhead

Home

Capitol

Notes
Nappy Heads (Remix)

Fugees

Blunted on Reality

Ruffhouse

Notes
I Remember

Coolio

It Takes a Thief

Tommy Boy

Notes
Murder Was the Case (Remix)

Snoop Doggy Dogg

Murder Was the Case

Death Row

Notes
Regulate

Warren G featuring Nate Dogg

Regulate… G Funk Era

Def Jam

Notes
Behind Bars (Dum Ditty Dum Mix)

Slick Rick

Behind Bars

Def Jam

Notes
It Ain’t Hard to Tell

Nas

Illmatic

Columbia

Notes
Swept Away

The Roots

Do You Want More?!!!??!

DGC

Notes
Rollin’

Luscious Jackson

Natural Ingredients

Grand Royal

Notes
Buildings and Bridges

Ani DiFranco

Out of Range

Righteous Babe

Notes
Pandora

Shawn Mullins

Big Blue Sky

SMG

Notes
No Name #3

Elliott Smith

Roman Candle

Kill Rock Stars

Notes
Windmills

Toad the Wet Sprocket

Dulcinea

Columbia

Notes
Streets of Philadelphia

Bruce Springsteen

Philadelphia

Epic

Notes
Crazy Mary

Victoria Williams

Loose

Mammoth

Notes
Alternative Girlfriend

Barenaked Ladies

Maybe You Should Drive

Sire

Notes
If You Don’t Love Me (I’ll Kill Myself)

Pete Droge

Necktie Second

American

Notes
Good

Better Than Ezra

Aware 2 The Compilation

Aware

Notes
Backwater

Meat Puppets

Too High to Die

London

Notes
Possum Kingdom

Toadies

Rubberneck

Interscope

Notes
Longview

Green Day

Dookie

Reprise

Notes
Self Esteem

The Offspring

Smash

Epitaph

Notes
Salvation

Rancid

Let's Go

Epitaph

Notes
Stranger Than Fiction

Bad Religion

Stranger Than Fiction

Atlantic

Notes
Say It Ain’t So

Weezer

Weezer

DGC

Notes
Your Ghost

Kristin Hersh

Hips and Makers

Reprise

Notes
Touch Me Fall

Indigo Girls

Swamp Ophelia

Epic

Notes
Star 69

R.E.M.

Monster

Warner Bros.

Notes
Still Remains

Stone Temple Pilots

Purple

Atlantic

Notes
Superunknown

Soundgarden

Superunknown

A&M

Notes
Corduroy

Pearl Jam

Vitalogy

Epic

Notes
I Stay Away

Alice in Chains

Jar of Flies

Sony

Notes
Asking for It

Hole

Live Through This

DGC

Notes
Where Did You Sleep Last Night

Nirvana

Unplugged in New York

DGC

Notes