McQ's Favorite Albums Of 1994

Starting February 2024, thru 2025, McQ's Best Of will be reassessing it's 1994 album rankings, repositioning already ranked titles, and adding dozens of new titles to the mix.

05.30.25 - Huge addition of 23 new titles to our year-end rankings as we push through forming the 1994 retrospective mix collection.  TLC's CrazySexyCool leads the way. 

Highest Recommends

1. Dummy - Portishead

2. Dubnobasswithmyheadman - Underworld

3. Definitely, Maybe - Oasis

4. Dookie - Green Day

5. The Downward Spiral - Nine Inch Nails

Strong Recommends

6. Grace - Jeff Buckley

7. Chocolate And Cheese - Ween

8. Ready To Die - The Notorious B.I.G.

9. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain - Pavement

10. Parklife - Blur

11. CrazySexyCool - TLC

12. Illmatic - Nas

13. Live Through This - Hole

14. Superunknown - Soundgarden
15. MTV Unplugged In New York - Nirvana

16. Let Love In - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

17. Second Coming - The Stone Roses

18. Casa Babylon - Mana Negra

19. From The Cradle - Eric Clapton

20. Ill communication - Beastie Boys

21. Troublegum - Therapy?

22. Music For The Jilted Generation - The Prodigy

Solid Recommends

23. Welcome To Sky Valley - Kyuss

24. Whiskey For The Holy Ghost - Mark Lanegan

25. Diary - Sunny Day Real Estate

26. Mars Audiac Quintet - Stereolab

27. Vauxhall And I - Morrissey

28. Vitalogy - Pearl Jam

29. Hips And Makers - Kirsten Hersch

30. Split - Lush

31. His 'n' Hers - Pulp

32. L'Etat Et Moi - Blumfeld

33. Weezer

34. Orange - Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

35. Bee Thousand - Guided By Voices

36. Snivilisation - Orbital

37. Regulate... G-Funk Era - Warren G

38. Selected Ambient Works Volume II - Aphex Twin

39. Purple - Stone Temple Pilots

40. Wildflowers - Tom Petty

41. I Could Live In Hope - Low

42. American Recordings - John Cash

43. Dog Man Star - Suede
44. Monster - REM

45. Teenager Of The Year - Frank Black

Mild Recommends

46. Jar Of Flies - Alice In Chains

47. Whip-Smart - Liz Phair

48. The Holy Bible - Manic Street Preachers

49. Protection - Massive Attack

50. D. I. Go Pop - Disco Inferno

51. Cardinal

52. File Under: Easy Listening - Sugar

53. Mellow Gold - Beck

54. Gideon Gaye - The High Llamas

1994 Albums Of Critical Note I've Yet To Assess In Full

24 Hour Revenge Therapy - Jawbreaker

50th Birthday Concert - Evan Parker

76:14 - Global Communication

Amber - Autechre

Amplified Heart - Everything But The Girl

And She Closed Her Eyes - Stina Nordenstam

Another Thought  - Arthur Russell
At Action Park - Shellac
Bakesale - Sebadoh

Blade Runner - Vangelis
Burn My Eyes - Machinehead

Carry The Day - Henry Threadgill

Cracked Rear View - Hootie & The Blowfish

Da Lama Ao Caos - Chico Science & Nacao Zumbi

Days In The Wake - Palace Brothers

Do Right Man - Dan Penn

Far Beyond Driven - Pantera

For Your Own Special Heart - Jawbox

Geek The Girl - Lisa Germano

Give Out But Don't Give Up - Primal Scream

Gorgeous George - Edwyn Collins
Haunted Dancehall - The Sabres Of Paradise
Hex - Bark Psychosis

Home - Spearhead

Horsebreaker Star - Grant McLennan

How To Make Friends And Influence People - Terrorvision
Icky Mettle - Archers Of Loaf

In My Life - Iris DeMent

In The Nightside Eclipse - Emperor

Korn
Lifeforms - The Future Sound Of London

Mighty Joe Moon - Grant Lee Buffalo

Minimal Nation - Robert Hood

Moodswing - Joshua Redman
Musik - Plastikman
My Life - Mary J. Blige
No Quarter: Unledded - Jimmy Page And Robert Plant
Parallel Universe - 4 Hero

Pony Express Record - Shudder To Think

Punk In Drublic - NoFX

Re - Cafe Tacvba

Resurrection - Common Sense

Roman Candle - Elliott Smith

Ruby Vroom - Soul Coughing

Second Coming - The Stone Roses

Silver Apples Of The Moon - Laika

Sixteen Stone - Bush
Sleeps With Angels - Neil Young
Smash - The Offspring
Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik - Outkast

Stress: The Extinction Agenda - Organised Confusion
Talking Timbuktu - Ali Farka Toure With Ry Cooder

The Charm Of The Highway Strip - Magnetic Fields

The Impossible Bird - Nick Lowe

The Orphan's Lament - Huun-Huur-Tu

The Sun Rises In The East - Jeru The Damaja
There's Nothing Wrong With Love - Built To Spill
Throwing Copper - Live

Tical - Method Man
Timothy's Monster - Motorpsycho
Tortoise
Twice Removed - Sloan
Under The Pink - Tori Amos

Verde, Anil, Amerolo.... - Marisa Monte
Voodoo Lounge - The Rolling Stones

Welcome To Our Cruel World - Ben Harper

Worst Case Scenario - dEUS

Yank Crime - Drive Like Jehu

Last Updated 05.30.25

PAST RANKINGS UPDATES

8.17.24 - Our first 2024/25 adjustment has us adding Pavement's singles-heavy Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and Beastie Boys so cooly retro Ill Communication to the rankings, as well as a big reassessment jump for Oasis's Definitely, Maybe, which plays better to us now than it did the year it was released.

8.27.24 - Our second update to our 1994 rankings sees a revision in the very top ranks.  Portishead's singular Dummy, widely regarded, including here, as the best trip-hop album of all-time, retains 1994's top spot, but right on its heels, vaulting into our 1994 number two position, is an album less consistently heralded in mainstream circles but every bit as fantastic, Underworld's Dubnobasswithmyheadman, which still plays like one of the coolest electronic albums ever made.

9.06.24 - Our third update to our 1994 rankings see a simple confirmation that Nirvana's MTV Unplugged In New York was ranked exactly where it belongs, a fantastic chronicle of the band as a live presence loaded with brilliant cover choices from The Vaselines, The Meat Puppets and David Bowie that come close (if not succeeding) in overshadowing the band's originals.

3.12.25 - Our fourth update to our 1994 rankings sees a ton of additions and slight reshufflings.  Oasis's Definitely, Maybe moves up one spot to #3 on the year, and Nine Inch Nails The Downward Spiral vaults into the year's top five as well. The vastly underrated Chocolate And Cheese by Ween rises all the way to seven, surpassing, in McQ's Best Of's opinion two iconic titles, Ready To Die and Illmatic, with it's wide-ranging, playful musicality.  These are just the most notable of over a dozen additions. 

04.01.25 Update - One new addition to our rankings,  the Manu Chau-led Mana Negra's hyper-energetic Casa Babylon, in feel in many ways a Spanish-language equivalent to The Beastie Boy's Ill communication of the same year, only if anything, even better.