Music Gourmets Presents 60 Years of Great Music - 1993

[Zeeba Neighba]

I think I’ve already used the line “A Day late and a dollar short” but what applies to being two days late!? Oh well...

Here's the next year in our "Great Music" thread

Welcome to 1993!

Here's the rules:

Each Friday (typically) we'll introduce a new year from 1957 through 2016. Each member selects an album released in that year with a few lines (or more) on why you picked it/enjoy it. Your selection does not have to be the most important release or the most admired release of that year (though it certainly can be), simply an album that grabs you and that you really love.

However, once an album is selected by a member, you must choose a different album.

Together we will compile quite the canon of "Great Music" and, who knows, maybe inspire each other to check out some new artists (or to revisit old forgotten classics).

This week - the albums of 1993

 

[axolotl]

Time change today meant I'm actually early for once.

https://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/album/1993

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream



I've read multiple instances of audiophiles complaining about the sound quality of this album. I don't know why, it's always sounded pretty great to me. I also checked out the remaster, and it just sounded louder and more compressed.

 

[LeslieC]

Counting Crows - August and Everything After

 

[patrikc325]

Morphine - Cure for Pain

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Morphine - Cure for Pain

The sound quality of this album is phenomenal!

 

[Mattafett]

Tad - Inhaler

With the pumpkins gone, this is the obvious second choice for me. I saw them during this tour (opened for Soundgarden) and Tad Doyle is a fucking monster. This guy is a musical genius.

 

[lpfreak1170]

Pumpkins would have been my choice *glares at Unsom*.

Suede - S/T


Sweet, sweet Britpop.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Pumpkins would have been my choice *glares at Unsom*.

Suede - S/T


Sweet, sweet Britpop.

I love that album. Damn my procrastination!

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

^
Oh well, turns out it wasn't that hard a decision after all

Blur - Modern Live is Rubbish

Some great Britpop over the next few years

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Hey all! This week has flown by - tomorrow is the next year. Get yer 1993 album choices in

 

[lpfreak1170]

Hey all! This week has flown by - tomorrow is the next year. Get yer 1993 album choices in

I'm very close to having my '94 choice made...down to 2 amazing albums.

 

[Postalboy]

Jellyfish - Spilt Milk

 

[Worm]

Michael Nyman - The Piano
I can't work out how to get the RYM image here.

Edit for image

 

[Mattafett]

Michael Nyman - The Piano
I can't work out how to get the RYM image here.

I just use Google images, it is easier.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Michael Nyman - The Piano
I can't work out how to get the RYM image here.

Copy the BBCode link, paste it and then insert "https:" after the first

[ img ], before //e.snmc.io.

 

[axolotl]

Arvo Pärt ~ Te Deum; Silouans Song; Magnificat; Berliner Messe
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir / Tallinn Chamber Orchestra / Tõnu Kaljuste



One RYM reviewer wrote the following:

Where does this piece of music fit in? Arvo Pärt's music is often described as “sacred minimalism.” But how does all the drama of religion sneak into minimalism without tearing it apart? Although minimalism sacrifices many elements of the drama, it most often retains tonality. Pärt finds God in the trinity of tonality, the triad. He uses a technique he calls tintinnabulum, whereby the three notes of the triad ring out like bells, and form the foundation of the piece. The drama now consists in sounds pulling themselves out of the void, in the patches of silence that tend to subsume everything, and in the divine relationship between pure tones.

Is this a cop-out? Has minimalism been torn from staring into the abyss to contemplating the infinite? For me there is no difference. Steve Reich was fond of Pärt's compositions, and said that they filled an essential human need. According to Reich they missed the zeitgeist of the times, but thereby generated their own appeal. This music is on many levels a reaction—a response to the detachment of atonality as well as the excesses of Romanticism. But more than this it is an affirmation. Arvo Pärt went through a long period of silence. Like John Cage, he may have come to the conclusion that the artist betrays himself by speaking. Ultimately, however, something led him to compose—and the results are divine.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

HM's:

Nirvana - In Utero



Red House Painters - s/t



Yo La Tengo - Painful



Stereolab - Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements



PJ Harvey - Rid Of Me



Kingston Wall - II

 

[Old Uncle Toe]

Asleep at the Wheel - Tribute to the Music of Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys



Historically, Country music hasn't been a big hitter in my world. But somewhere along the line I grew very fond of Texas Swing. This modern take on those old songs is delightful. And there are big named guest artists a-plenty.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Freakwater - Feels Like The Third Time

AMG sez:

Freakwater's third album finds them treading similar ground to their first two albums, but since no one else really does what they do, more of the same is welcome. The beautiful harmonies of Catherine Irwin and Janet Bean remain the focus, and Dave Gay, as always, provides solid support on the upright bass; this time out augmented by Brian Dunn on guitar and Lisa Marsicek on fiddle and mandolin. Cathy Irwin's songwriting continues to progress, as this time she accounts for half of the album's tunes. Janet Bean contributes one song with choice covers by the likes of Woody Guthrie, Conway Twitty, and Nick Lowe. Similar in sound to the Carter Family and Gillian Welch, Freakwater stands apart because their lyrics are so firmly rooted in the modern world; no dustbowl ballads here. Sounding more traditional than most neo-traditional country acts with lyrics that have a more modern bite than most contemporary country, it's Freakwater's ability to effortlessly straddle these two worlds that makes them such a special band.

No one else would have dared to put a dead baby song on the same album with a gender-reversed version of Conway Twitty's seductive "You've Never Been This Far Before". Yep, alt country was well under way by 1993.