Critics' Choice 1994

1. Neil Young and Crazy Horse Sleeps With Angels [reprise]
Old Neil had been on a roll, both with and without Crazy Horse, since 1989’s Freedom, but Sleeps With Angels was partially a lament for Kurt Cobain that harked back to Young’s mid-70s wake for Bruce Berry and Danny Whitten, Tonight’s The Night. It was also a Cormac McCarthy-esque portrait of a desolate America stricken with drive-by shootings, gang violence, consumer exploitation and CNN overload. The Beckett-like austerity of ‘Safeway Cart’ seemed to provide the album’s hinge image: a lone and ragged figure wandering through an urban wasteland.
2. REM – Monster [warner brothers]
3. Oasis – Definitely Maybe [creation]
4. Elvis Costello – Brutal Youth [warner brothers]
5. Nirvana – Unplugged In New York [geffen]