Here at Vanyaland, we love anniversaries, especially when it comes to album releases. But as 2018 sets in, the anniversary possibilities for the year ahead are pretty much endless. Today (January 2), we start with perhaps the strongest collection of album birthdays ever, tracing back 25 years ago to 1993, when the CD racks at your local Sam Goody or Strawberries were jammed each week with soon-to-be-classic new releases. Our initial plan was to hype 25 records turning 25 in 2018, but our list ballooned then to 50, and then to 70. We were going to cut a few, but quickly locked in what we had. Sure, Paw's lost masterpiece Dragline might not be considered a classic (it damn well should be), and KMFDM's Angst may only be notable if you were 14 the first time you heard "Light" (ahem), but both those LPs and several others here represent a certain time, place, and musical landscape. The heavyweights here are plentiful -- Nirvana! U2! Smashing Pumpkins! Pearl Jam! -- and alternative rock reigned supreme. Boston had a huge year as well, with albums from Guru, The Juliana Hatfield Three, Morphine, The Bosstones, Belly, Buffalo Tom and others repping the sound of our town. But the real sound of 1993 was all over the map, with several essential hip-hop releases, experimental noises, and debuts defining the year. We don't think you've truly lived unless you listened to Einstürzende Neubauten's Tabula Rasa on a taped-over cassette on the bus en route to high school, but everyone's own story is theirs alone, and it's likely that what happened in 1993 is still influencing everyone's tastes 25 years later. [Note: Release dates are pulled from a variety of online sources.]
November 23: Archers of Loaf, Icky Mettle
