21 replies to this topic

[J. Henry Waugh]

I would never have considered this a worthy topic if not for the 1991 hoopla last year. That and the 500 CCM thread have me on a stroll down memory lane.

My favorite album, Adam Again's DIG, turns 20 this year. I think of it as a 1993 album, because that was when I bought it on tape. It was a different world then for people buying records with lawn-mowing money.

My favorite album The best album from my second favorite band in HS was also released in 1992. (My favorite of theirs is Fables of the Reconstruction).

Other favorites from that year include the following:

Screaming Trees: Sweet Oblivion (Lanegan's best work, I think; listened to it all the time then and still do from time-to-time)
Lost Dogs: Scenic Routes (listened to this a million times)
T-Bone Burnett: Criminal Under My Own Hat
King's X: King's X
Vigilantes of Love: Killing Floor (played this non-stop in 1998)
77's: Pray Naked (admittedly, some duds included)
Jayhawks: Hollywood Town Hall (didn't hear this one until 1995)
The Cure: Wish (the last Cure album I listened to without distance)
Michael Knott: Screaming Brittle Siren
Uncle Tupelo: March 16-20, 1992 (didn't hear until 1996)
Soundgarden: Badmotorfinger (a decade has passed since I last heard this, but I loved it at the time)

Notes:

I love Morphine, but never got into Good. I hate to not mention The Chronic, but it is not a record I listen to. Outside of seeing the video on 120 Minutes, I didn't listen to the Pavement album from that year until 2007. I listened to Bride's Snakes in the Playground a lot then too.

Edited by J. Henry Waugh, 21 February 2012 - 05:04 PM.

[Crow]

Yes, Adam Again's Dig is one of my all-time favorite albums as well, as well as Vigilantes of Love's Killing Floor.

That is an excellent list. I will always remember 1992 for the release of Mark Heard's final album, Satellite Sky and for his unfortunate passing.

Edited by Crow, 21 February 2012 - 04:09 PM.

[Overstreet]

My 1992 favorites, in no particular order:

Tom Waits - Bone Machine
They Might Be Giants - Apollo 18
Talking Heads - Sand in the Vaseline
T-Bone Burnett - The Criminal Under My Own Hat
Suzanne Vega - 99.9F
REM - Automatic for the People
PJ Harvey - Dry
Peter Gabriel - Us
Over the Rhine - Patience
Neil Young - Harvest Moon
Michelle Shocked - Arkansas Traveler
Leonard Cohen - The Future
The Cure - Wish
Cracker - Cracker

Edited by Overstreet, 21 February 2012 - 04:18 PM.

[J. Henry Waugh]

Overrsteet, I botched it by not including The Criminal Under My Own Hat. That is an album I bought in in 1993 based on it showing up on so many Harvest Rock Syndicate "best of" Lists. The other album I failed to mention was the self-titled King's X. Back in pre internet time, a 14 year-old kid could actually learn about albums for the first time by spotting them in a record shop.

Edits to my previous post will include those albums.

[opus]

Just listened to Wish a few days ago... My first Cure album, still one of my favorites, and yes, the last consistently solid album that they recorded.

[Overstreet]

opus, on 21 February 2012 - 05:23 PM, said:

Just listened to Wish a few days ago... My first Cure album, still one of my favorites, and yes, the last consistently solid album that they recorded.

I completely agree. Strangely enough, songs from that were popping up on my iPod shuffle commute soundtrack this morning. I saw that tour as well, and it was a strangely joyous event.

Edited by Overstreet, 21 February 2012 - 07:28 PM.

[Kyle]

I must admit, I'm a bit on the young side so my pickings from 1992 are rather slim. It's probably not until 1994 or 95 that I'd be able to put a list that I'm excited about. Of these I don't listen to any of them a ton. If I had to choose, I'd go with Saint Etienne or Morrissey:


Social Distortion “Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell”
Saint Etienne “Foxbase Alpha”
Morrissey “Your Arsenal”
Lois “Butterfly Kiss”
Stereolab “Peng!”
REM “Automatic for the People”
Pavement “Slanted and Enchanted”
The Pharcyde “Bizarre Ride to the Pharcyde”
The Mr. T Experience “Milk, Milk, Lemonade”
Stereolab “Switched On”
Spiritualized “Lazer Guided Melodies”

[Darren H]

Regrettably, in 1992 I was in my smoke-clouded jam-band phase. I was surprised to discover just now that most of the bands I was listening to then (Phish, Widespread Panic, Blues Traveler, Aquarium Rescue Unit) released albums in '91 and '93 but not '92. The "new" albums I listened to most often in '92 were:

The Jayhawks Hollywood Town Hall
Peter Gabriel Us
REM Automatic for the People
The Sundays Blind

[winter shaker]

In 1992 I was two but here are some of my favourites from that year:

Mark Heard - Satellite Sky (second favourite album of all time)
Vigilantes of Love - Killing Floor
Adam Again - Dig
Leonard Cohen - The Future
The Violet Burning - Strength

I only just found out that Jars of Clay covered the song "Dig". Sounds great too!

[Overstreet]

Darren H, on 22 February 2012 - 09:23 AM, said:

The Sundays Blind

Oh, yes! I need to dig that one up.

[Andy Whitman]

In '92 I was listening to T-Bone, Victoria Williams, Mark Heard, Tom Waits, The Jayhawks, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Uncle Tupelo, and lots of Kiwi Pop, particularly The Bats, The Chills, Bailter Space, The Clean, Crowded House, Tall Dwarfs, and Straitjacket Fits.

[Jason Panella]

Some of my favorite '92 albums. I discovered most of these in the mid-'90s, but a few when they were actually released:

Afghan Whigs - Congregation
Alice in Chains - Dirt (admittedly, I'm not really a fan, but I still think some of the songs on this album are fantastic)
Buffalo Tom - Let Me Come Over
Nick Cave/Bad Seeds - Henry's Dream
The Cure - Wish
Gin Blossoms - New Miserable Experience (another one I got in '92)
The Jayhawks - Hollywood Town Hall
The Lemonheads - It's a Shame About Ray
Los Lobos - Kiko (my vote for their best album)
Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted
R.E.M. - Automatic for the People (got in '92)
Sloan - Smeared (their least-good release, but has a few gems)
Sonic Youth - Dirty
Soul Asylum - Grave Dancers Union (I could listen to "Somebody to Shove" all day long)
They Might Be Giants - Apollo 18 (got it in '92!)
Ween - Pure Guava

Looking at some of these makes me feel old.

Edited by Jason Panella, 22 February 2012 - 11:17 AM.

[opus]

Jason Panella, on 22 February 2012 - 11:11 AM, said:

Gin Blossoms - New Miserable Experience (another one I got in '92)

There was a span of time during '92 when this was all that I listened to. My friend and I would drive all around Omaha in his battered old Toyota, and it felt like those songs were written expressly for us. Indeed, this album is so tightly locked into that specific point in history that I'm not sure I could listen to it today. It'd be sort of like revisiting your favorite childhood TV shows: they belong in that other era, and no other time.

[Jason Panella]

opus, on 22 February 2012 - 11:31 AM, said:

There was a span of time during '92 when this was all that I listened to. My friend and I would drive all around Omaha in his battered old Toyota, and it felt like those songs were written expressly for us. Indeed, this album is so tightly locked into that specific point in history that I'm not sure I could listen to it today. It'd be sort of like revisiting your favorite childhood TV shows: they belong in that other era, and no other time.

Agreed completely. I really don't listen to it much (or at all) these days. Some of the songs are just so catchy, though, that I hum them to myself.

[Andy Whitman]

Jason Panella, on 22 February 2012 - 11:40 AM, said:

opus, on 22 February 2012 - 11:31 AM, said:

There was a span of time during '92 when this was all that I listened to. My friend and I would drive all around Omaha in his battered old Toyota, and it felt like those songs were written expressly for us. Indeed, this album is so tightly locked into that specific point in history that I'm not sure I could listen to it today. It'd be sort of like revisiting your favorite childhood TV shows: they belong in that other era, and no other time.

Agreed completely. I really don't listen to it much (or at all) these days. Some of the songs are just so catchy, though, that I hum them to myself.

New Miserable Experience, indeed. Doug Hopkins, the main singer/songwriter, took his life shortly after this album. Apparently he wasn't kidding. The band was never the same after that.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Using this TST-centric timeline as my guide, I am reminded that 1992 was the year in which I listened to:

• Various artists -- Shirley, Goodness & Misery
  
• Various artists -- No Sense of History
  
• Daniel Amos -- Doppelganger (1982 album re-issued on CD for the first time, with bonus tracks)
  
• Daniel Amos -- Vox Humana (1984 album re-issued on CD for the first time)
  
• Lost Dogs -- Scenic Routes

I thought Daniel Amos's Motor Cycle came out that year, too, but apparently it wasn't released until February 1993.

Oh, and 1992 was the year in which Undercover released one of my absolute favorite albums of theirs, Devotion.

[Christian]

I don't know where to access lists of 1992 releases that might jar my memory. I know that I was graduating college that year, still mired in my singer/songwriter stuff -- a few years into it but, as it turns out, on the front end of that phase -- while having one foot planted in the CCM world.

Reaching back and typing a few artists into the AllMusic.com search engine, I learn that in 1992 I was listening to :

Shawn Colvin's Fat City
Rich Mullins' The World As Best As I Remember It: Vol. 2
Mary Chapin Carpenter's Come On Come On
Lucinda Williams' Sweet Old World
Tracy Chapman's Matters of the Heart

[Kyle]

Christian, on 22 February 2012 - 02:18 PM, said:

I don't know where to access lists of 1992 releases that might jar my memory.

You mean everyone doesn't have word documents that identifies every album you've ever owned and is categorized and filed by year in order to have easy answers to questions like this?

[Andy Whitman]

Kyle, on 22 February 2012 - 05:11 PM, said:

Christian, on 22 February 2012 - 02:18 PM, said:

I don't know where to access lists of 1992 releases that might jar my memory.

You mean everyone doesn't have word documents that identifies every album you've ever owned and is categorized and filed by year in order to have easy answers to questions like this?

Using iTunes, where you can sort by year, might be a tad easier. Of course iTunes didn't exist in 1992. But CDs you can burn to your computer did.

[Kyle]

Andy Whitman, on 22 February 2012 - 07:28 PM, said:

Kyle, on 22 February 2012 - 05:11 PM, said:

Christian, on 22 February 2012 - 02:18 PM, said:

I don't know where to access lists of 1992 releases that might jar my memory.

You mean everyone doesn't have word documents that identifies every album you've ever owned and is categorized and filed by year in order to have easy answers to questions like this?

Using iTunes, where you can sort by year, might be a tad easier. Of course iTunes didn't exist in 1992. But CDs you can burn to your computer did.

I've been tempted to go through and do that. It would be fantastic for making quick playlists.

But one of the advantages of my list format is that I can continually revise my ranking of favorite albums. Why is this important to me? I could not say. Sometimes I am amazed by just how lame I am. Sometimes I really wish I didn't care about this stuff.