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.

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.

Highest Recommends

1. Dummy - Portishead

2. Dubnobasswithmyheadman - Underworld
3. Dookie - Green Day

4. Definitely, Maybe - Oasis

Strong Recommends

5. Grace - Jeff Buckley

6. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain - Pavement

7. Parklife - Blur
8. The Downward Spiral - Nine Inch Nails
9. MTV Unplugged In New York - Nirvana

10. Ill communication - Beastie Boys

Solid Recommends

11. Second Coming - The Stone Roses

Mild Recommends

12. Monster - REM
13. Whip-Smart - Liz Phair

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
American Recordings - John Cash

Amplified Heart - Everything But The Girl

And She Closed Her Eyes - Stina Nordenstam

Another Thought  - Arthur Russell
At Action Park - Shellac
Bakesale - Sebadoh
Bee Thousand - Guided By Voices

Blade Runner - Vangelis
Burn My Eyes - Machinehead

Carry The Day - Henry Threadgill

Casa Babylon - Mana Negra
Chocolate And Cheese - Ween

Cracked Rear View - Hootie & The Blowfish
CrazySexyCool - TLC

Da Lama Ao Caos - Chico Science & Nacao Zumbi

Days In The Wake - Palace Brothers
Diary - Sunny Day Real Estate
Disco Inferno - D. I. Go Pop 

Do Right Man - Dan Penn
Dog Man Star - Suede

Far Beyond Driven - Pantera

File Under: Easy Listening - Sugar
For Your Own Special Heart - Jawbox

From The Cradle - Eric Clapton

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

Hips And Makers - Kirsten Hersch

His 'n' Hers - Pulp

Home - Spearhead

Horsebreaker Star - Grant McLennan

How To Make Friends And Influence People - Terrorvision
I Could Live In Hope - Low
Icky Mettle - Archers Of Loaf
Illmatic - Nas

In My Life - Iris DeMent

In The Nightside Eclipse - Emperor

Jar Of Flies - Alice In Chains
Korn
Let Love In - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
L'Etat Et Moi - Blumfeld

Lifeforms - The Future Sound Of London
Live Through This - Hole
Mars Audiac Quintet - Stereolab
Mellow Gold - Beck

Mighty Joe Moon - Grant Lee Buffalo
Minimal Nation - Robert Hood

Moodswing - Joshua Redman
Music For The Jilted Generation - The Prodigy
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
Protection - Massive Attack

Punk In Drublic - NoFX

Purple - Stone Temple Pilots
Orange - Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

Re - Cafe Tacvba
Ready To Die - The Notorious B.I.G.

Regulate... G-Funk Era - Warren G

Resurrection - Common Sense

Roman Candle - Elliott Smith

Ruby Vroom - Soul Coughing

Second Coming - The Stone Roses
Selected Ambient Works Volume II - Aphex Twin

Silver Apples Of The Moon - Laika

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

Stress: The Extinction Agenda - Organised Confusion
Superunknown - Soundgarden
Talking Timbuktu - Ali Farka Toure With Ry Cooder
Teenager Of The Year - Frank Black

The Charm Of The Highway Strip - Magnetic Fields
The Holy Bible - Manic Street Preachers

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
Troublegum - Therapy?
Twice Removed - Sloan
Under The Pink - Tori Amos
Vauxhall And I - Morrissey

Verde, Anil, Amerolo.... - Marisa Monte
Vitalogy - Pearl Jam

Voodoo Lounge - The Rolling Stones
Welcome To Sky Valley - Kyuss
Weezer
Welcome To Our Cruel World - Ben Harper

Whipsmart - Liz Phair

Whiskey For The Holy Ghost - Mark Lanegan
Worst Case Scenario - dEUS

Yank Crime - Drive Like Jehu

Last Updated 09.02.24

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.