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A 100% Definitive, Air-Tight, Non-Negotiable List Of My Favorite Albums Right NowJun 24 '05 (Updated Jun 08 '06) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line fighting meaningless lists with lists, one list at a time.
We (heart) competition and domination. This is the only reason I can think of for relating to music--an art that I always thought was more about celebration, contemplation, and soul-searching than brutish instinct--through making lists. It's hard not to shake your head after glancing through the predictable and ultimately disposable "100 Greatest Albums From 1985-Now", published by the hype machine we know simply as "Spin". There's no doubt to me that albums like Radiohead's "OK Computer", The Smiths "The Queen Is Dead", or De La Soul's "3 Feet High and Rising" are great and deserve to be immortalized by a press that does not forget, but they do not deserve to be remembered in terms of, "'OK Computer' is the #1 best album of the past 20 years, four spots ahead of 'The Queen Is Dead', because Public Enemy, Nirvana, and Pavement released albums of slightly higher quality, relevance, or hey, whatever other arbitrary standard of overall musical excellence we can come up with." There's no soul to that, baby! And if there's no soul, there's really no purpose. It's simply the origins of music, and never can the soul and the art be separate. When you hear Nas spit, "Inhale deep like the words on my breath / I never sleep, 'cause sleep is the cousin of death", on "Illmatic", it's not about being objectively excellent, because in art, the way a person perceives a single creation will be relative to their situation and beliefs whether you like it or not. Really, it's about feeling his plight as someone coming from the streets explaining to you in witty, gritty, and expressive prose what goes on in the forgotten about places. Should the legacy of "Illmatic" be that you felt it and that it made a difference to a whole lot of people, or should it be that it was the seventeenth best album from 1985-2005 according to Spin? Unfortunately, that is also relative to who you talk to. Lists are comforting in an American (and other places, I'm sure) society, where people fight and do whatever they can to dominate, to be on top, to be the best, with gratification coming in pay raises, bonuses, and promotions. In this strictly objective performance-based society, we have a need not merely to know what others think is good or worthy of our time; we need detailed comparative rankings that come to a conclusion that there's one album to rule them all, be it in a given year, quarter, or hell, 20 years. Then we have the need to argue it, as if one person's standards of music made more sense than the next one's. The idea of forgoing a bit of the absolutism in favor of indulging multiple valid viewpoints is uncomfortable for people in this society, I find. I say, "give me soul", they say, "give me hierarchy." Perhaps this is why so many are content in being politically powerless cubicle tenants with repetitive routines. It's stable. Comforting. It's easy, too. Making lists is easy because if relativity prevails, and nothing is indeed absolute, how can anyone argue and logically defeat your position? It's also easy because any Joe M. Music Fan can throw together a top 10 list and explain to you why they think these albums "rawk!". They can even make it sound definitive with tricky language and strong, well thought-through philosophy. Hey, I've made several top 10 and top 20 lists right here on Epinions.com, but I've felt compelled to trash them all for various reasons, which includes everything I've already explained, and the additional fact that my taste in music evolves constantly, and in turn my favorite albums change on quite a regular basis. So let's catch lightning in a bottle right now. Let's look in on what I, Eric Thompson, declare to be my favorite albums of right now. Not all-time favorites; not even guaranteed to be favorites tomorrow; just favorites of right now. I'll even make the list with hierarchy, because we'd never want to leave loose ends in the search for what's absolutely dominating my rotation. The number of albums included is simply what I can fit into my music listening life. #8: Various Artists - "Definitive Jux Presents III" (2004) Third compilation (obviously) from New York's indie hip-hop giant. Volume three really isn't that great, mostly because the newer portion of the Jux roster is full of cats who think they're far more talented than they really are. But it's what I'm listening to right now because of the Murs contribution, "You're Dead To Me", which is such a cool song, I'll put the album on the list. Rediscovering music you loved is one of the more fun things about being a music fan. Some stuff is never outside of reaching distance, while other stuff gets lost in the shuffle, for various reasons. This time it's that the "Rocky"-feeling track provided by Aesop Rock to Murs on "You're Dead To Me", or El-P's earth-shattering beat on the remix of Hangar 18's "Beat Slope", with all its hauntingly manipulated vocal samples and insanely perfect neck-snapping percussion, get buried on an album of pretentious accomplished-nothing new-jacks. Volume three wears on me, but it's worth hearing the excellence of the good tunes from hip-hop's most groundbreaking label. #7: Broken Social Scene - "You Forgot It In People" (2003) It's taken half a year, but I'm finally coming around to the excellence of the experimental/orchestral rock (if you could possibly slap a genre on...) "You Forgot It In People". It reminds me (ironically, considering the next album on the list) of the greatest of Ghostface Killah verses: it's full of scattered beauty where fragmented brilliances consumes the project's entirety, as Ghostface's fragmented stanzas iron out to something so much greater. The soothing jazz atmosphere and subtle guitar strums of "Looks Just Like the Sun"; the soft and whimsical chanting of "Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl"; the uplift and pure beauty of the composition in "Pitter Patter Goes My Heart". The musical treasures only stop when the album does. #6: Ghostface Killah - "Supreme Clientele" (2000) As for Ghostface himself, the guy's just a trip. His rhymes are even intense when you are questioning his sense and sanity. "Clientele"'s success basically rests on a diverse group of no-name producers (Allah Mathematic's, anyone?), and the fact that Ghost took the last few awesome RZA beats to lay down his scatterbrained mad raps. From soulful speak on the rougher parts of society to absolute grit and trash talking, you really can't front on the greatness of "Supreme Clientele". #5: Death From Above 1979 - "You're A Woman, I'm A Machine" (2004) A dizzying 35 minute experience. This album may not be the first completely rough love album ever, yet it still makes me rethink of what a love album is all about. Some say it's supposed to be tender, sweet; something to make you feel what love is supposed to make you feel. As for the rest of us who've actually dated other individuals, "You're A Woman, I'm A Machine" scores in its understanding of the more sour emotions of love, with the duo of Sebastian Grainger and JFK grind out barely lucid bass riffs and cymbal-heavy drumming making you get down all the way. Yet, it's their ability to paint a range of the more sticky emotions/problems in a relationship--anxiety, stress, manipulation--that make this album one you can really feel. And damn, whoever thought you could bring metal to the disco? This stuff is FUN! #4: Stars - "Heart" (2003) OK, so this is a pretty love album, and I adore it all the same. I have to admit, some of it is kinda corny. On a couple of occasions the synths are just out of control (hello "Death to Death"!), but it's not hard for me to put such rare moments out of mind. The combination of melancholy empty feelings, and the importance of striving and never giving up on love--all with the sweet singing of Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan, and the lush pop/electro/orchestral compositions--make this one a beaut. #3: Gorillaz - "Demon Days" (2005) It's hard to pack all that this album is in one capsule. One moment it's a spacy trip-hop type production with Danger Mouse's weighty keyboard work dominating the soundscape. Next it's piano and Gorillaz founder/Blur frontman Damon Albarn's gripping singing. After that you're surrounded in a rap world of MF Doom or Roots Manuva riding a straight-up banging beat. Then, before you know it, the orchestra is repeating a song's main theme in dramatic fashion. Fun, eclectic, and also pretty mixed in its emotions as it contemplates everything doom, "Demon Days" is a straight-up monster. #2: Edan - "Beauty and the Beat" (2005) Hardcore hip-hop loops get a Jimi Hendrix makeover? Oh yeah, and it's straight smokin'. Emcee/producer/DJ Edan comes with a concise psychedelic hip-hop offering that seems like it has way too many good ideas and sounds to just be 34 minutes long. From sweet organs to trippy synths and rhythm with all the vintage brash hip-hop speak, Edan is simply indomitable in '05. #1: Sleater-Kinney - "The Woods" Wow. That was about as articulate as I got when I first heard the alt-rock trio of Sleater-Kinney's seventh studio full-length, "The Woods". After that, I listened intensely, and just internalized everything about this effort. "The Fox" kicks the crap out of you from the top with its colorful freak-out guitar harmony and pleasing representational story delivered courtesty of the ever-wailing (and simply splendid) lead singer/guitarist Corin Tucker, and doesn't stop until the eleven minute rock-out super-soloing of "Let's Call It Love", and the more-than apt closer, "Night Light". This time around the ladies went for more of a classic rock sound, as I'm sure you read, and they also show a good amount of psychedelia in their arsenal. A lot gets said about their politics, and truth be told, Tucker wears her activism on her sleeve. That's fine and that's completely relevant to the edge and social aspect of the Sleater-Kinney sound. But regardless of what you think about them in that aspect, this album just frickin' rocks brutally and beautifully. And hey, they rock with a vigor, a zest, and a purpose. Now I have no wonders about why some murmur quietly that this may be the best band on the planet. But hey, tomorrow this all might change. I highly doubt I'll be turning on Sleater-Kinney or Gorillaz anytime soon, but maybe Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" will just hit home with what I'm going through. Or perhaps it's Blueprint's "1988" going to a party. Who knows? At least I know these options exist, and that at any moment another great album sitting on my shelf could do the trick. And really, what difference does it make if Rob Blogger or Spin has the albums you love in their petty lists if they make your life a little bit more worth living? There comes a time where you can't put a rank on that kind of value. * * * * * * * * * * For more information about Cryptic Cradle and his reviews, please click here. * * * * * * * * * * Written by Cryptic Cradle for Spike-A-Delic Productions  |
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