I realize my last post was quite somber, so I thought I’d try to come up with something less depressing. Not interesting, mind you, but less depressing.
Have you seen High Fidelity? No? What the hell is wrong with you? Here, you can borrow it. Just have it back sometime soon.
My Top Five All-Time Albums (in no particular order):
1. Counting Crows – August and Everything After. This was one of the first tapes I ever bought, circa 1993 or so. Amazingly, it’s still one of my all time favorites. With well written, talented instrumentals and Adam Duritz’s clear (if occasionally whiny) vocals, this is a truly soothing and relaxing album. It mixes well with the end of a long day and a drink. It’s an album that must be listened to all the way through, in order. It’s so well paced and “mooded” that flipping through can only detract from the experience.
Track four, “Perfect Blue Buildings”, could quite possibly be the most depressing song ever written.
2. The Ataris – So Long, Astoria. This is a fairly recent addition to my CD library, and I’m a little surprised that I included it. A truly great album becomes like an old friend: no many how times you’ve heard the same stories, you enjoy hearing them anyway. You’ll probably notice that most of the albums I’ve listed here are 90’s alternative. This isn’t just because I love 90’s alternative and dislike most of the generic rock that’s being churned out today. A really great album needs time to mellow in a CD case for a while. If I can pick it up year after year and enjoy it more than the first time I heard it, it’s got the staying potential to be a true favorite.
Despite this aging period I generally put my CDs through, So Long Astoria seems to have bypassed it and jumped straight into my favorites list. I don’t know how many times I’ve listened to this album since I bought it at the end of last year, but I’d guess somewhere in the twenties. It’s just that good. The lyrics are highly personal, intelligent, and really make me feel as though I have a window into the life of the writer. The backing instrumentals are driving melodic punk burning with energy. I can’t help but crank it every time I pop in this disk.
I do have one problem with this album, though… I’ve bought a couple of The Ataris earlier CDs, and they just don’t stack up to the quality of their latest offering. So Long Astoria ruined the rest of their discography for me.
3. Barenaked Ladies – Stunt. Yes, I like the Barenaked Ladies. I admit it. This album is just fun. With their pseudo-retro style (there’s at least one song that contains “ooh-la-la-la” in the chorus) and funny yet sometimes bitterly angry lyrics, this is an album I can listen to over and over again. For example, in “I’ll Be That Girl”:
If I had a gun, there’d be no tomorrow
If you will not have me as myself
Perhaps as someone else
Perhaps as you
I’ll be worth noticing
That’s right, it’s a song that deals with a guy so desperate to get a girl he wants to become her to get her to notice him. He also hates and wants to kill her.
The tone of the album varies widely from the pure fun of “Alcohol” to the somber song “Call and Answer,” but it’s another “experience” album–one that should be listened to start to finish as recorded.
4. Beck – Odelay. The musical equivalent of Seinfeld. Nothing, and I mean nothing about this album makes sense. Take these lyrics from “Devil’s Haircut:”
Love machines on the sympathy crutches
Discount orgies on the dropout buses
Hitching a ride with the bleeding noses
Coming to town with the brief case blues
Seriously, what the fuck does that mean? Anything? I think Beck has to be the laziest lyricists ever. I seriously doubt that his lyrics even make sense to him. At one point, I had a goal of doing enough drugs that Beck lyrics would actually make sense to me. (I never did it. I think I’d need rehab afterwards, assuming that it’s even possible.) I find there’s something almost hypnotic about this album. I can listen to it over and over again, not having any clue what it is that Beck is talking about, yet singing along at the top of my lungs anyway.
5. Radiohead – OK Computer. This is probably one that critics agree with me. Well, fuck critics. Very few of them actually evaluate works on their own merit, and prefer to instead compare works to obscure indie bands and long-forgotten solo works of other even more obscure artists. (Guess how much I like music critics. Go on, just guess.) I like this album because it’s creative, original, atmospheric, and genuinely interesting to listen to. Every time I hear it I discover some tiny touch that I’d missed on previous listenings.
Honorable mention:
Sugarcult – Start Static. While I love this album, I don’t know that it can stand the test of time. I’ve listened to it over and over, and I’m starting to get sick of it. Overall, though, this is a great album. Maybe if I ignore it for a few months I’ll be able to really enjoy it again.
Green Day – Dookie. This one was narrowly edged out of the top five by Beck, but it’s still a very influential album. My sister got it through the BMG Music Club, and found out she hated it. She gave it to me, and I fucking love it. It was my first punk CD, and more than that, it was the first real breakthrough punk album to become mainstream. If it hadn’t been for Green Day blazing the path for artists like Blink 182, we wouldn’t have the Warped Tour and Good Charlotte touring the country today.
Incidentally, I slashed my right pinky with a knife while attempting to whittle down a too-big-for-the-toaster-slot bagel this morning. I had to put a band-aid on it to stop the bleeding, and it’s making it difficult to type. You can attribute any typos I missed to that.
Stupid question of the day:
What’s more kick ass: robot pirates or space ninjas? Consider your answer carefully.