18 Oct 2023

31 For 31

I’m turning 31 this year, a number I have a surprising number of feelings about. In recognition, if not celebration, of the occasion, please enjoy 31 songs from 1992. 31 for 31. No, these songs don’t represent 1992 perfectly. I hope, though, that they capture some of what made that year compelling and complicated musically. I also hope they capture some of what I love about the music of 1992. There’s a little metal, though little of it from bands in their prime. (Bolt Thrower is probably the exception there. Or Darkthrone?) There’s a little bit of everything, I suppose. That’s what I want, I think. A little bit of everything with a solid dose of decent riffs thrown in for good measure. Horns up and, as self-congratulatory as this is, here’s to (at least) 31 more years, to more music and complication and wonder.

You can listen to the playlist on Spotify or Apple Music.

Spotify and Apple Music aren’t exactly posterity-proof, are they? Just in case those services wander away into the ether at some point, here is the list in full:

• Dream Theater - “Under a Glass Moon”
• King’s X - “Black Flag”
• Whitney Houston - “I Will Always Love You”
• Mariah Carey - “I’ll Be There”
• Weird Al - “Smells Like Nirvana”
• Iron Maiden - “Fear of the Dark”
• Black Sabbath - “I”
• Blind Guardian - “The Bard’s Song - In the Forest”
• Nine Inch Nails - “Wish”
• R.E.M. - “Find The River”
• Alice In Chains - “Rain When I Die”
• Bolt Thrower - “The IVth Crusade”
• Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth - “Straighten It Out”
• Gang Starr - “No Shame In My Game”
• Terence Blanchard - “Blues For Malcolm”
• Trisha Yearwood - “Down On My Knees”
• Emmylou Harris - “Hard Times - Live”
• Selena - “Si La Quieres”
• Janet Jackson - “The Best Things In Life Are Free”
• Queen and George Michael - “Somebody To Love - Live At The Freddie Mercury Concert For AIDS Awareness, Wembley / 1992”
• Madonna - “Deeper and Deeper”
• Manic Street Preachers - “Nat West-Barclays-Midlands-Lloyds”
• Tori Amos - “Precious Things”
• Darkthrone - “In the Shadow of the Horns”
• Los Lobos - “Kiko and the Lavender Moon”
• Mary J. Blige - “Sweet Thing”
• William Finn - “What More Can I Say?”
• Lucinda Williams - “Sweet Old World”
• Sinéad O’Connor - “Success Has Made a Failure of Our Home”
• Alejandro Fernández - “Necesito Olvidarla”
• Leonard Cohen - “The Future”