Another year complete!

1994 came with a reasonably high level of expectation, so how did it do?

Pretty well, I'd say - there were plenty of albums I didn't get with but very few I'd consider to be dreadful. We also (unsurprisingly) had a higher ownership ratio than plenty of recent years, getting all the way up to the dizzy heights of 27%, which is somewhat lower than the 30% we saw in '96 but we would have been nudged up to 33% if we hadn't already seen R.E.M., Oasis, and Blur.

Looking at the best selling albums of the year, the top spot was surprisingly (for me) taken by the Bon Jovi best-of - it's sold nearly two million copies here alone and 21 million globally (which just seems mad). Second spot also goes to a best-of, for the slightly more British and infinitely better collection from The Beautiful South. The rest of the top five is at least populated by "proper" albums from the slightly peculiar mix of Mariah Carey, Eternal (a fine effort considering it never got higher than #3) and Pink Floyd.

Other albums of interest from the year-end top 50 are Jimmy Nail (#12 - really?), Enigma (#14 - ditto), this year's Cliff Richard best-of (#15), Oasis (#21 - surprisingly low), this year's Elvis best-of (#32), PJ & Duncan (#46 - impressive since it never got higher than #14) and Chaka Demus & Pliers (#47). Interestingly, and somewhat surprisingly, the only artist with two albums on the list are The Cranberries (#17 and #34).

It's also worth pointing out that since '86, which was the last year we looked at, compilation albums are now considered in a separate chart - unsurprisingly, the top two are Now! 29 (which was actually the best selling album of the year) and Now! 28. The only album of any interest in the top ten is the Four Weddings And A Funeral soundtrack at #10, mostly because the only track I can remember from that film is "Love Is All Around" (and looking at the track listing doesn't help either!). However, despite that, twenty of the top fifty albums in the main chart were still either best-ofs or live albums - it's interesting how long the album charts have been more than a bit broken.

Looking at the albums I was subjected to, we're going to start with groups because, like the year-end chart, the only artist we saw twice was The Cranberries - and they were two of the better albums of the year. Sticking with those bands with a female presence, Eternal, The Brand New Heavies and M People all put in a strong performance with permanent female members and The Beautiful South and Massive Attack were both male dominated line-ups strongly complemented by temporary female members. On the less positive side, Roxette and Ace Of Base both disappointed, whilst 2 Unlimited easily (and unsurprisingly) produced one of the stinkers of the year (and it got to #1!). And, completing the line-up, Senser produced whatever it was that they produced - it's certainly one of the more unusual albums of the year.

Sticking with the ladies, we saw some very quiet, unassuming wallflowers this year - I do wonder whatever became of Mariah Carey, Madonna, Kylie Minogue or Bjork? Bjork's offering was easily the best of the lot, but both Madge and Kylie's could have been far worse. The other solo ladies we saw were Eddi Reader, Toni Braxton, Dina Carroll and Tori Amos with them all doing pretty much what was expected of them.

So, having dealt with all the ladies now, we can declare that they played a prominent part on 20 of this year's albums - which is a pretty decent number, being the highest for any year we've seen from the 20th century yet and only having been beaten by two years from this century which hit 22 (and 2025 isn't on track to get that high, despite the seeming dominance of young female singers). 

Right, let's move on to the solo men - they show a bit more variety, if not necessarily any more quality. Seal and Elvis Costello were the pick of the bunch for me with shout-outs also going to Garth Brooks for being better than expected and Neil Young for not being nearly as bad as expected. Completing the solo men, Morrissey, Meat Loaf and Phil Collins did what was expected of them, Prince disappointed with an album he could have put out in his sleep and Jimmy Nail did something mystifyingly popular.

And, nearly finally, the men in groups - and boy did we get some variety here. Suede gave us easily the album of the year for me, but I've always really liked that one. I was also previously aware of Future Sound Of London, which is a lovely atmospheric offering and The Manic Street Preachers, which is also atmospheric but not quite so lovely. Albums I didn't know beforehand and liked were the somewhat unusual combination of Sugar, The Prodigy and Enigma and in the "better than expected" camp we have The Stone Roses (it's really not that bad), Pearl Jam, The Black Crowes (a terrible album cover though), Megadeth (this was surprisingly bearable), Jamiroquai and Crash Test Dummies. Further down the quality line we have Skin, The Rolling Stones, Take That, Pink Floyd, Erasure and The Spin Doctors at "tolerable, but not for me", Ride at "no, that doesn't work", Pantera at "not even tolerable" and then, finally we have Primal Scream at "completely unforgiveable". It's quite the mix of genres though - I was surprised '94 gave us such variety. 

All of which leaves two albums which don't fit into the usual categories - the duo of Chaka Demus & Pliers (we've really not seem many duos over the years - except for Robson & Jerome who we couldn't avoid for a bit) who did their thing well and then there's the Gershwin compilation which was very peculiar indeed and best not mentioned again.

Looking at the other statistics of interest, the number of #1 debuts this year was 13, which feels low but sits nicely between the 9 we saw in '90 and the 16 in '96 - we also had a re-entry this year which is very rare (oooh, exciting!).  We had 29 #1 albums throughout the year, which is considerably more than expected and the most we've seen so far from any year in the 20th century - conversely, we've only seen one year in the 21st century with less than that. The albums that spent longest at the top were Mariah Carey, Bon Jovi and Wet Wet Wet all with five weeks and The Beautiful South and Pink Floyd with four weeks. We actually only listened to the #1 album of the week twice - once for The Beautiful South because it was the first album of the year and once for Morrissey because it plummeted down the chart very quickly after debuting at the top. 

The generally accepted (by the internet or me!) best albums from the year that we didn't get to see are Superunknown by Soundgarden (peaked at #4 - they were unlucky), The Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails (#9), Dummy by Portishead (#2, but not until '95), Dookie by Green Day (#13, but also not until '95), Grace by Jeff Buckley (#31, but not until '14 - with The X Factor being responsible), Ill Communication by The Beastie Boys (#10), The Blue Album by Weezer (didn't chart), Live Through This by Hole (#13), His 'n' Hers by Pulp (#9), Throwing Copper by Live (#37 - I really like this album), Teenager Of The Year by Frank Black (#21), Sixteen Stone by Bush (#42, but not until '96), American Thighs by Veruca Salt (#47), Mellow Gold by Beck (#41), Whip-Smart by Liz Phair (didn't chart), Illmatic by Nas (#81, but not until '22), Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain by Pavement (#15), Snivilisation by Orbital (#4 - and I chose the Gershwin monstrosity over this!), Dubnobasswithmyheadman by Underworld (#12) and Troublegum by Therapy? (#5 - again unlucky). I certainly don't love (or even know) all of them, but there's certainly some pretty decent albums on this list and very few of them didn't chart, which is quite unusual.

Right, we're on the last lap now with the final pointless statistics (I promise!). The most expensive album we saw all year was a signed numbered limited edition album (complete with dog tags) from Morrissey which would have set you back £850 - imagine how much more it would be worth if he hadn't signed it? (meow). The most read post of the year was, by some distance, M People and the least read post was, also by some distance, Senser - I'm guessing this tells us that people like to read about things they recognise! 

Readership has been relatively high for this year compared to others though and I think that's an indicator of the overall quality and breadth of the albums we've seen. Suede, Massive Attack, Future Sound Of London, Bjork and The Cranberries (twice) produced the best ones for me - all of which I own so let's also give Elvis Costello a shout out for the best previously unheard offering. There were plenty of albums I didn't like, but nothing came close to 2 Unlimited for sheer unlistenableness - and obviously it wouldn't be right if I didn't mention one final time how disappointed I still am with the Primal Scream offering.

We're off to the naughties next, but the exact destination is a decision for the new year - thanks for all your comments throughout the year and have a very merry Xmas!

02/01/94 - A bit downbeat and long, but otherwise OK