"No. Autobiographically"
"That sounds..."
"Comforting? It is."
By the way, I should have explained first that a few people have been posting top ten album lists, and as the biggest wanna-be music nerd I decided to jump on the band-wagon. I do not pretend to know anything about music... well actually I do pretend, but when pushed I'm usually honest about my cluelessness. Anyways, favourite albums post 1990 are:
1)
Tori Amos: Little Earthquakes
1991
Key tracks- "Silent All These Years", "Precious Things", "Me and a Gun"
My aunt said she got tired of this album after playing it a million times over. I have yet to experience a similar fatigue. I'll just have to try for two million I guess.
2)
The Dave Matthews Band: Crash
1997
Key tracks: "Two Step", "Crash", "#41", "Say Goodbye", "Trippin' Billies"
You can file this under TMI if you like, but most of my adolescence was consumed dreaming that Dave himself would make love to me tracks 2 through 6. In fact that's pretty much still my ultimate goal in life.
3)
Weezer: The Blue Album
1994
Key Tracks: Buddy Holly, Undone (the Sweater Song), Say it Ain't So
This album is in the key of rock and goes out as a dedication to Rhonda from Adam. And for anyone other than Joe: the sweater song made a surprisingly good campfire sing-a-long for disenfranchised counsellors after our camp director banned "Red-hooded Sweatshirt".
4)
Radiohead: The Bends
1996
Key Tracks: "Fake Plastic Trees", "The Bends", "High and Dry", "Blackstar"
Actually I could have kept that list going. I know that OK Computer is the best known and mostly highly rated Radiohead album, and it probably is of superior musical quality, but I just can't tear myself from The Bends. I think it speaks to me lyrically more than any of the others, and I have the most fun listening to it. Anyone that doesn't know... secretly... I don't own it! I own every song and have played them in order on several occasions, but I don't have the actual album. Sigh. I don't think Thom Yorke needs my money THAT badly.
Hm, OK so blogger is giving me a hassel about uploading pictures, so the remainder of the post will have to be album coverless. I try not to judge an album by its cover however...
5)
Ani DiFranco: Evolve
2003
Key tracks: "Icarus", "Evolve", "Shrug", "Welcome to:"
Of all the covers not to be able to show, this one actually won a Grammy for Best Album Art, and deservingly. I think it's a shame however that it's musical merit was overlooked in favour of who knows what. I love Ani, and this album is the beginning of a jazzier sound for her with a new band. Evolve is an alltime favourite song of mine: "It took me too long to realize that I don't take good pictures 'cuz I have the kind of beauty that moves"
6)
The White Stripe: Elephant
2003
Key tracks: "Seven Nation Army", "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself", "In the Cold Cold Night" and the disturbingly addicitve "It's True That We Love One-Another"
When my friend Greg in first year started cranking the White Stripes in his dorm room I had no idea that lasting relationship that was forming. Not with Greg, I don't really know what he's up to right now, but rather with the White Stripes, who I understand were recently on The Simpsons.
7)
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Fever to Tell
2002
Key Tracks: "Date with the Night", "Maps", "Pin", "No, No, No"
I went straight from a White Stripes addiction to a serious Yeah Yeah Yeahs addiction. A natural transition for many reasons. There are obvious similarities, also though, I attribute the recent rebirth of rock and roll in large part to both bands. This album is my "party album" I have been known to use it to get ready for a night on the town, or just to make life suck less. Some how it works everytime. They are now #1 on my list of bands I want to see in concert.
8)
The Shins: Chutes too Narrow
2003
Key tracks: "Kissing the Lipless", "Pink Bullets", "Those to Come"
The Shins have in fact changed my life. In so much as I am exactly 12% happier having heard their music, and an additional 16% happier having heard their music from four rows away. There is a point in nearly every song where they hit a note that gives me happiness shivers. I just realized that these are the silliest album reviews of all time. I really hope some day a Rolling Stone writer writes something like "the notes give me happiness shivers".
9)
Iron and Wine: Our Endless Numbered Days
2003
Key Tracks: "Naked as we Came", "Love and Some Verse", "Each Coming Night", "Sodom, South Georgia"
And not just because I have an autographed copy! "Each Coming Night" is the most played song on my Windows Media Player playlist at 143! Which is actually a little disturbing. I got the song about 10-11 months ago, which means I play it roughly once every other day.
10)
Wolf Parade: Apologies to the Queen Mary
2005
Key Tracks: 6-9 Are everything pure and wonderful in the world
It was hard sorting through all of my most recent album acquisitions. I believe a friend recently called it a "musical enlightenment". Via the Rootman himself I've been finding more and more current music that fits my taste and of all the albums I've actually been able to purchase this one amazingly stands out. I seem to end up making a lot of people Wolf Parade CDs when I play them "I'll Believe in Anything", which is simply an incredible song, and strikingly so right from the get-go. Time will tell if I ever get sick of it, but for now I'll keep playing the same disc every night
Runners-up:
Coldplay: Parachutes
Ben Folds Five: Whatever and Ever Amen
Fiona Apple: When the Pawn Hits...
Death Cab for Cutie: Plans
The White Stripes: White Blood Cells
The Dave Matthews Band: Under the Table and Dreaming
Radiohead: OK Computer
Greenday: American Idiot
and many more...
No comments:
Post a Comment