|
|
"the wild, the innocent, and the yankee hotel shuffle": ten great albumsMar 01 '05 Write an essay on this topic.
Popular Products in Music
The Bottom Line You've waited for it for years! And if you haven't been waiting for it, at least you can be somewhat entertained now that it's here.
Of the ten albums i've classified here as "top" - because "best" is too broad a term, and "favorite" too subjective, so "top" must be some loose, as-i-see-fit amalgamation of the two - four of them were released in the past five years. I am assuming that, from an objective point of view, this potentially says a few things about me: (a) that i am young (depends on how you'd define young, of course, but despite my occasional penchant for world-weariness with only two full decades under my belt, I'd still say, yeah, I'm young, at least in the scheme of things); (b) that i am impulsive, perhaps as a corollary to A or, maybe, just as a component of my easily-swayed personality (which could be implied by the inclusion of such new albums in such a list, the implication being that my momentary love of an album could lead me to prematurely include it on such a monumental list, and we'd all be royally screwed then; an opinion you'd be entitled to hold, surely, but i think you'd be off-base; then again, i'm biased); or, (c) that because i am young, and a relatively new album collector (i've only been amassing my collection for five or six years, which i'm sure is pretty paltry compared to some folks who've surely been accumulating since people knew who Berlin were), newer music kind of naturally shapes and refines my tastes. And that would be a bull's-eye. Before launching willy-nilly into such a list, of course, the question of criteria must be raised; why only ten albums, for starters? It's simply a necessary restrictor, that's why, a writer's parameter set for myself so I can avoid rambling on about album after album, frittering my day away in front of the computer, getting fat and slovenly; also, i'd totally run out of steam. As it is, I'm hoping I'm not spent after the wordy intro. Why rank the albums, instead of, say, just listing them alphabetically or chronologically, which would totally be easier? To give some semblance of preferance, that's why; there are people out there who really like my work and take seriously any recommendations I could give, and I'd like to try to give pretty accurate recommendations to both of them. Oh, and why aren't there any albums by Dylan, the Beatles, the Stones, Public Enemy, the Velvet Underground, Neil Young, or Winger on here? Screw you, it's my list. That's why. ** 10. The Roots, Phrenology Things Fall Apart may have been the moment of the Roots's shift from smooth, moody jazz-hop to glorious traditionalism; but Phrenology, the follow-up, was the kicker, a drastic, dark, rap-rock album from hip-hop's most innovative instrumentalists. Conceptual and cerebral, Phrenology is a nervous, freewheeling head trip, twitchy and paranoid and absolutely brilliant. The tracks were still funky, still soaked in that unique Roots vibe (which i totally can't explain to you until you've heard a Roots album for yourself), but they were also rawer, more experimental. Normally, and i know this dashes any music-reviewing credibility I could've drummed up for myself, "experimental" isn't at all a word that piques my interest, simply because I get this notion of, I dunno, robotic, grinding beats, and abstract rhymes and maybe weird whirring noises floating in and out of the background .. which isn't necessarily *bad*, mind you, but if I can't dance (or, rather, perform the weird off-kilter Caucasian polyrhythms that i call dance) to my music, it doesn't keep my interest for all that long. But the Roots's "experimental" is different than other folks's "experimental"; they just fiddle around with different genres, working under the theory that hip-hop can be successfully blended with anything if you know what you're doing (which is true). And that is precisely what makes Phrenology so varied, so creative, and so damn *exciting*. steal these tracks: "Thought@Work": Black Thought rips it over some drums and a biitchin' horn sample. "Break You Off": because hip-hop always needed to be formally introduced to Marvin Gaye-style bedroom balladry. "Puussy Galore": a thoughtful 'sex sells' salvo, ironically wrapped up in the second-sexiest instrumental on the album. 9. Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot I'm a big Wilco fan, so when choosing my Wilco selection for the top ten (a stipulation i forgot to mention: one album per artist, simply in the interest of variety and the avoidance of overcrowding), I had three albums I can safely call masterpieces at my disposal: Being There, Summerteeth, and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. YHF made waves in 2002 for being the "little album that should," an offbeat record, shunted from one label to another, from an offbeat but congenial band, unfairly given the shaft for just doing their thang. The fact that the album was released at all was a big deal, because everyone loves an underdog's success story, but when it turned out to be, well, really damn good, that was just kind of icing on the cake. And so for awhile there loving Yankee Hotel Foxtrot became a little bit fashionable (at least one album does every year - this year, for example, it's probably American Idiot, although its en vogueness doesn't change the fact that it, like Foxtrot, deserves every bit of adoration), and so i figured i should do the right thing and put Being There on this list. And it's a decision I totally could have lived with, too, except we're talking albums here, and it occurred to me that Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is simply a better *album*. Being There may be a catchier collection of songs - it plays like the greatest hits of the most awesome unsung seventies rock band in the world - and I love it to death, but as one big concrete work of art Foxtrot is simply a towering achievement. Wilco's time-warp Americana finally entered the 21st century with a bang and a clatter and a flurry of brilliant tunes, working as the best concept album tunes should: brilliant on their own, brilliant-er with each other. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is simply a beautiful dissertation on how romance factors into the American dream, a roadmap marked by great tunes with perfect melodies. I hate to be accused of hyperbole, but it's kinda perfect. steal these tracks: "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart": detached, abstract, brilliant; the off-key piano solos alone would give it plenty of beauty. "Jesus, Etc.": finally, the tune that ventures to say that, at the end of the day, even Christ could use a pal. "Reservations": and, finally, the album's mission statement, kinda - "i've got reservations about so many things, but not about you." 8. Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense I've often wondered if the aspect of visual spectacle doesn't account for at least a portion of my love of this particular Talking Heads concert. Yes, Stop Making Sense *is* a live album - which, no doubt, along with it being top-heavy with albums from the new millenium, makes my list that much more suspect - one that famously accompanies a popular concert film. And the concert film of the same name is one of my favorite films ever, so the question remains: do i love Stop Making Sense, the album, as much as i do because it's a great album, or because it's paired to a great movie? Next question: who cares? Stop Making Sense does sort of work as a "greatest hits" of sorts, meaning that any Talking Heads track that John Q. Recordbrowser could possibly care about - "Burning Down the House," "Life During Wartime," "Once in a Lifetime" - can be found here; but, beyond that, Stop Making Sense has an arc, an almost storylike set of acts that build and climax as a good concept album would. The concept, of course, is great music performed by great musicians, but it's structured like the most awesome mixtape in the world. It starts with solo David Byrne and adds a musician a song until - BAM! - convoluted, full-band, twitchy funk-rock glory. Scrumptious. steal these tracks: "Psycho Killer": without a full band, Byrne still sounds amazing - and that much more paranoid and creepy. "Life During Wartime": a driving, ominous shadow looming over its studio counterpart - this song's definitive recording. "Take Me to the River": holy shiit, they're funkier than AL GREEN? 7. Mos Def, Black on Both Sides Since Black on Both Sides, Mos Def has come to be known as the hip-hop community's most restless experimentor, and its pre-eminent defection to thespianism - both of which are fine by me, since he's great at both, although i doubt Mighty Mos was ever really concerned with getting my permission to do so - but back when Black on Both Sides, his solo debut, dropped, he was just so good it hurts. Mos's flow is warm, magnanimous, and accessible, but tons more deft and fluid than one would expect from those first three adjectives; and on Black on Both Sides, he just raps, and raps well, and sings every now and again to boot. Don't ask me how such a simple formula parlayed so effectively into one of the greatest albums ever made. I just dare you to listen to it and think otherwise. steal these tracks: "Ms. Fatbooty": BEST. TITLE. EVER. "Rock N Roll": when it's a sung meditation on white co-opting of black styles, it's smart and important; when halfway through it turns into a raging punk freak-out, it's awesome. "Know That": when i first heard this song, i almost cried .. i was just that happy. 6. Tom Waits, Rain Dogs It's not, mind you, that i have no respect for Tom Waits's other albums, that they're inferior in some way, less deserving of a spot on this oh-so-exclusive album invitation-only album party I'm throwing here; Frank's Wild Years, Swordfishtrombones, who doesn't love 'em? His growl, the way that growl relates his tales of the disenfranchised and the poetically seedy, his almost-comical - in that creepy sort of way - carnival-barker stance; they're Waits trademarks, and Rain Dogs, like every other Tom Waits album, fulfills every last one of them. Here's what, in my mind, makes Rain Dogs as painfully good as it is: against all odds, Waits gives these stories *melody*. And this is precisely the moment at which newbies cease to be impressed - but when you have a voice like Tom Waits, beautiful melodies are rather hard to come by, one'd think. But on Rain Dogs, song after song is thrown at you, and, even better than that, song after song sticks. Maybe it should be more revolutionary to be my number-six album of all time, but when they stick this hard, that's enough for me. steal these tracks: "Jockey Full of Bourbon": Waits as demented dance caller, lurching to the most twisted tango ever... "Time": anyone that thinks Tom Waits isn't capable of beauty is full of shiit. "Downtown Train": so is anyone that thinks he can't write great pop songs. 5. Blackalicious, Blazing Arrow And, because i wanted to piiss off hip-hop fans and Tom Waits fans in equal numbers, here's a hip-hop release that's had all of, oh, two years to grow on me. Things like Abbey Road and Born to Run and Kind of Blue have been getting me luck-- er, that is, shaping my musical influences for years and years, and what do I do? Slap the sophomore release of some semi-underground hip-hop crew on my top ten. John and George kick and writhe in their graves; the Boss shakes his fist at me from Jersey, waiting to kick my asss next time i come back; and I rejoice in the knowledge that everyone wants to kill me but the long arm of the po-po prevents them from doing so. In reality, I'm sure that this inclusion won't polarize nearly as many people as I'm making it seem; actually, it seems to be pretty universally adored, but i'd love to pretend i'm anywhere near the kind of freethinking, freewheeling, trend-bucking mavericks Blackalicious are. Blazing Arrow is simply the kind of album that is audacious only in its willingness to just *exist*; to offer no emotional catharses, complicated concepts, or avant-garde backbeats, but just to *be*, to be funky and fun and different and exuberant and, well, kind of beautiful. steal these tracks: "Intro: Bow and Fire": yup, the intro .. that's how good it is! "Release": if there are any other hip-hop suites like this, I haven't heard them; and they'd better be damn good, because I'm spoiled now. "Day One": a smooth, necessary comedown; the perfect (and criminally overlooked) "morning after" track. 4. Miles Davis, Kind of Blue A part of me wishes that my lone jazz selection on this list could have been something a bit more obscure; a dusty bit of vinyl, maybe, that i found at a flea market or an underground record shop, or a long-forgotten classic, or even a less obvious Miles Davis album. But keeping in mind that instrumental jazz is that most elusive of genres about which I know next to nothing (and since I am an absolute fount of musical knowledge and taste, the idea that I may be less than knowledgeable regarding such a topic is, of course, quite the revelation), Kind of Blue sounds to me, like, well, heaven, or at least what I imagine Heaven sounds like around twilight, when the sun's starting to set, while Saint Peter is still prepping the pork chops. Every note is gorgeous to me, a bit pensive, a bit sensual, a bit suave .. it's like God tossed it down from the heavens, maybe with a little post-it note: "Here, you guys deserve something nice. Enjoy. - G." 3. Jeff Buckley, Grace There's also a part of me that would have liked to include a more obscure Jeff Buckley recording, just to show how much more enlightened I am than you Grace devotees. But, then, few albums are quite as perfect as his one proper studio record, Grace-- only two, to be exact, but that's neither here nor there-- a long, dreamy meditation on the beauty of music. Jeff's multi-octave range and guitar workouts proved that he was as prodigiously talented as he seemed to think he was-- he wasn't a notorious egotist technically, but implied it by live recordings that seem to showcase how much he loved the sound of his own music (of course, if i could make music like this, i'd love to hear myself too, so no points docked for that)-- but that, beyond all the technical proficiency, there was a genuine soul and personality, one that absolutely oozes in every lusty, airtight, sensual note of Grace. I'm still to this day saddened by Jeff Buckley's death; but a part of me hopes that one of the last things he reflected on was the knowledge that, without the existence of just a few other records, he would've made the greatest album of all time. steal these tracks: "Hallelujah": a Leonard Cohen classic, decked out in breathy vocals and heartbreaking splendor "Lover, You Should've Come Over": i could waste reams of computer paper writing about why this is one of the greatest love songs of all time "Last Goodbye": "kiss me, please kiss me... but kiss me out of desire babe, and not consolation"... yipes. 2. Bruce Springsteen, The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle There's not a ton of stuff i really want to divulge about this album in this particular forum; after all, I haven't properly reviewed it yet. And that's largely because, frankly, I haven't been on my game lately, and I want to have a momentum of at least three consecutive borderline-brilliant reviews before I'm confident enough to tackle my favorite album by one of my favorite artists. Why E Street Shuffle works so well for me can be pretty aptly summed up in two words: it's perfect. There's no use arguing; if you've listened to it you know just as well as I do that it's true. Some things are difficult to debate, because they're such accepted universal truths; and while E Street Shuffle isn't as popular as later Springsteen milestones Born to Run (which is still a masterpiece) and Born in the U.S.A. (which isn't, but is good anyway), anyone who's given a listen to the Boss's entire catalogue knows that he was never as on top of his game as on E Street Shuffle. As energetic as the best rock and roll records, as beautiful as the best folk records, as groovy as the best r&b records, as vivid in story and imagery as the best literature, E Street Shuffle is a collection of seven of the best songs ever written by anyone. I look at it this way: any other album would have blown its load after a song like "E Street Shuffle." On this album, it's just the beginning. steal these tracks: "Incident on 57th Street": if your nipples don't rise, see a doctor: they're defective. "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)": AETYHIGOADHGOIAGHAUGAIOHGAIOH!!!!!1111 "New York City Serenade": seven minutes into this song is when I first decided I would be more than willing to bear Bruce Springsteen's children. 1. U2, Achtung Baby Forget my melodramatic review, for a sec. If I had anything new to say about Achtung Baby, i'd say it, but I don't. It's simply the best album of all time, and if you disagree, you're wrong, deaf, and possibly retarded. This might be a slight exaggeration, for those of you seeking precision and truth, but only slight; Bono and the boys simply outdid themselves with this gritty, apocalyptic rumination on love, commercialism (long before the similarly-themed but goofier Pop), and, well, dance-rock. And probably everything else, too. This is the album that made me give U2 a one-star cushion for every album that came afterwards (it was the overspill from the 20 theoretical stars i'd have given Achtung Baby); this is the album that is most likely to make you dance and cry in such head-spinningly rapid succession; the album to buy if you want to see Adam Clayton's balls; and, yeah, the greatest album ever made. ** And there you go. If there are any disagreements or grievances, please take solace in the fact that I'm right, and that all of these albums are available for purchase (or piracy) for super-cheap, and that you, well, kind of owe it to yourself.  |
| Read all comments (6)|Write your own comment |
- Top 500|
Ads by Google
|
by kiwifella
by George_Chabot
![Jersey Boys [Original Broadway Cast Recording] by Original Broadway Cast Reviews](http://di2.shopping.com/images/pi/95/a4/8a/2006752046-100x100-0-0.jpg?p=p9.68be60394af2c3ff09f6&a=2&c=1&l=8071320&t=120603042309&r=1)
