Favorite albums of 1994

#9 – Lyle Lovett – I Love Everybody

This is an odd album from Lovett. First off eighteen songs is...a lot. And all eighteen were written before Lovett's first album was released in 1986. So there's kind of a feeling of getting leftovers here. Now, leftover Lyle Lovett is still a darn good thing, but it still tastes a bit re-heated. The album also comes on the heels of "Lyle Lovett and His Large Band" and "Joshua Judges Ruth" both of which pushed boundaries for Lovett (who had already pushed country music boundaries his entire career). So it feels kind of safe.

All of which seems like I'm condemning it. But it's still Lyle Lovett. The writing is still witty and thought provoking and frequently down right fun. Lovett's rhythm section is absolutely on point the entire album. It's a solid album. It's just safe and a bit tired. For someone like Lovett who is known to push boundaries and who isn't particularly prolific when it comes to recording, you want just a little bit more.

Yeah, "Confederacy chic" hasn't worn well, has it?

Primal Scream - I remember hearing a song by them that I really liked around this time, the early 90s, but can't remember what it was now and I'm not even sure I'd recognise it if I heard it again, it was so long ago. I don't think it was this one, but nice guitar riff.

#9 - Be a Girl by The Wannadies



Swedish band The Wannadies are likely best remembered – if they're remembered at all! – for their track "You and Me Song", which was featured in Baz Luhrmann's film Romeo + Juliet and became a hit as a result. That song is included on the band's third album Be a Girl, but it didn't actually become a hit until 1996, when Luhrmann's film came out.

At their heart, the Wannadies are just a great power-pop band, with exuberant, Beatle-esque melodies and raging guitars. Singer-songwriter Pär Wiksten's twee, wide-eyed indie vocal delivery gives a mid-90s Britpop vibe to a collection of songs so sweetly effervescent that they're likely to induce a sugar rush in the listener. Not there isn't occasional darkness in Wiksten's lyrics, mind you, but any melancholy tends to get buried beneath an avalanche of up-tempo guitar exuberance.

Stand out tracks would include "Might Be Stars" (a manifesto for aspiring pop stars), "Love in June", "How Does it Feel?", and "Dreamy Wednesdays". But it's the band's biggest hit that I've chosen to showcase the album. "You and Me Song" is a great illustration of the album's appeal; I love its quiet-loud-quiet arrangement, as the song alternates between the cosy, intimate whispered verses and the explosive chorus that joyusly captures the energetic rush of young love.

Hey @kal, did you delete a post from the thread? I could've sworn you posted a run down of 1994 albums that incuded Mellow Gold by Beck. How come?

By the way, I stumbled onto a really good album by an artist with whom I was completely unfamiliar on YouTube (the algorithm apparently recommended it because I was looking for tracks by, e.g., Funkadelic, Betty Davis and Quincy Jones when compiling my 1974 list):


What Color is Love (1972) by Terry Callier. I'll admit, that very alluring album cover got me to click the link, but I ended up liking the first track, "Dancing Girl" quite a bit, and gave the whole thing a listen, and ended up listening to it a few times more. It's very nice music, a sort of combination of folk and soul/R&B, with occasional jazzy elements.

Yeah, I love Beck too. Mellow Gold only just missed my Top 10, as I think it's actually kinda patchy, though utterly brilliant in places. Later albums are much more consistant for me. But that's why I spotted your deleted post, because I thought, "oh great, somebody else has picked Mellow Gold."