Yeah, why not...
Jul. 29th, 2008 10:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tommoMy Top 50 favourite albums, as of right now, complete with extremely brief descriptions.
50. The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol 1 (1999) A hazy, sprawling epic of psychedelic pop/rock and sound collaging, which alternates between being mind-bendingly trippy and cheerfully catchy.
49. Sonic Youth - Sister (1987) This fuzzed out rocker arguably marked the very beginning of Sonic Youth's shift into more accessible territory (although it's still pretty dense, challenging listening), and in my opinion, it's their finest work.
48. Nirvana - In Utero (1993) While Nevermind contains all the more fondly-remembered singles, personally I think its crunchy, acerbic followup has aged significantly better.
47. Squarepusher - Music is Rotted One Note (1998) Quite possibly drum 'n' bass's crowning achievement, in which Tom Jenkinson creates an organic electro/jazz-fusion hybrid by pre-recording all instrumentation and then building the entire album from the ground up.
46. Beck - Midnite Vultures (1999) Beck's foray into funk/soul/r&b is one of the catchiest, most enjoyable, most creative and most concisely flab-free recordings I've ever heard, and is relegated strictly to "party starter" status waaaaay more than it deserves to be.
45. Nick Drake - Pink Moon (1972) Drake's final album is a sparse, beautiful display of simple, folky melodies and weathered, sleepy vocals, showcasing a combination of huge songwriting talent and carefully-considered brevity.
44. Cornelius - Fantasma (1997) An eclectic, energetic and enthusiastic work of unfocused noise-art, in which Keigo Oyamada seems to tie down a multitude of musical ideas into a tight bundle and then cut the strings, recording the breathtaking explosion that follows.
43. Magma - Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh (1973) Aliens, fictional languages, supreme beings, mind-blowingly intense instrumentation, extraterrestrial gospel choruses, powerfully cyclical percussion, chanting that elevates into feverish screaming - this album is an unconventional, one-of-a-kind masterpiece, which at times feels like something bordering on religious experience.
42. Duke Ellington - Money Jungle (1962) Combine the piano skill, songwriting and band-leadership of Ellington with percussion of Max Roach and the bass of Charles Mingus and you've truly got an all-star production, resulting in my favourite jazz album I've heard thus far.
41. David Bowie - Lodger (1979) Hugely underrated, and occasionally cited as a "weak point" in Bowie's late 70s output, this album of exotic pop music is immensley catchy, creative and uplifting.
40. Beck - Mutations (1998) Standing in sharp contrast to the hyperactive albums that neighbour it (Odelay and Midnite Vultures), this recording of mellow, densely layered songs is mature and slightly melancholy, while still retaining a fair amount of the eclecticism that's one of Beck's best known trademarks.
39. Television - Marquee Moon (1977) When you combine Tom Verlaine's swaying, charismatic vocals with the group's punchy rythmn section and complex guitar-work you end up with a collection of songs that reach jaw-dropping heights, full of clever structures, highly idiosyncratic melodies and solos that sound like they go on forever but never begin to drag.
38. Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand (1994) A collection of 20 very brief rock songs - which frequently border on sounding more like conceptual fragments that fully, fleshed-out tracks - channelled through a grainy, lo-fi recording technique that, despite its limitations, seems to suit the nostalgic vibe of the album perfectly.
37. Gastr Del Sol - Camoufleur (1998) Post-rock stalwarts David Grubbs and John McEntire utilize elements of jazz, classical, country, folk, singer-songwriter, film music and found sounds, and then blend these elements in exciting, original ways, making for an album that's as warm and lively as it is fascinating and complex.
36. Françoise Hardy - La Question (1971) A short, sweet album of graceful, delicate chanson that's silky smooth, provocative and sensual.
35. Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison (1968) Cash's performance on this - easily my favourite live recording - is full of humour and playfulness, and hearing not only the terrific music, but also his interplay with the band, the inmates and future-wife June Carter, is a real joy.
34. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam (2007) The Collective's most straightforward, focused, accessible effort is a work of highly emotive, ultra-weird folk music, that's playful but never goofy, sentimental but never sappy and surreal but never inpenetrable.
33. Deerhoof - The Runners Four (2005) It's truly awe-inspiring to listen to a group with such a powerful grasp on pop songwriting combined with such an overwhelming desire to be willfully unusual and keep on pushing the envelope over and over, and that's exactly what's presented on this album.
32. Tom Zé - Estudando o Samba (1976) This is probably the most unusual collection of samba music I've come across thus far, and I really like Tom Ze's blend of infectious melody, lazy delivery and the general air of quirkiness surrounding the songs.
31. Roxy Music - Roxy Music (1972) Otherwordly, hugely theatrical electro/rock music that's funky as hell on the upbeat songs and surprisingly tender on the slower ones - the first half is in particular is absolutely phenomenal.
30. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods (2005) Laden with massive hooks, self-indulgent guitar solos, thunderous drumming and joyously noisy vocals, and chanelling equally from 70s psych-rockers like Hendrix and 80s/90s noise-rockers like Sonic Youth, this is probably the most colossal, thunderous, everything-turned-up-to-eleven sounding album to emerge in years.
29. Elvis Costello - This Year's Model (1978) Blistering new-wave that's equally poppy and punky, Costello's second album is a real tour de force that starts in 4th gear and never looks back.
28. The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground (1969) While I love the ...and Nico album, I enjoy the Velvets most when they're limiting themselves to simpler, tighter, more melodic songwriting, and with highlights like "What Goes On" and "Beginning to See the Light", this album treads that ground better than anything else they've done.
27. Comus - First Utterance (1971) I love how First Utterance starts out all "gypsy collective traveling through the forest", with earthly harmonies and feelings of being "at one with nature" left, right and centre, with only the mildest hint of menace lingering underneath - it makes it all the more unnerving when that santuary quickly unravels into a downright nightmarish experience.
26. Radiohead - Kid A (2000) Radiohead borrow from Aphex Twin, Phillip Glass, Brian Eno and numerous other pioneers of experimental music to craft a fantastic album that wanders through ambient soundscaping and melodic rock music, in which they push themselves well and truly out of their comfort zone.
25. King Sunny Adé - Juju Music (1982) The two things I love most about Juju Music are the combination of tribal percussion/chants with the almost-anachronistic-feeling-under-these-circumstances, Westernised slide guitar style, and the unmissable feel-good vibe running constantly throughout.
24. David Bowie - Low (1977) So perfectly split down the middle that if someone had told me it was a double EP I'd probably have believed them - first you have "Speed of Life" through to "A New Career in a New Town", with it's avant-garde electro-pop grounded by fairly conventional song structures, then from "Warszawa" onwards, the aesthetic of the first half is replaced by moody, atmospheric soundscapes.
23. Talking Heads - Fear of Music (1979) The group's third album updates their punkish roots by borrowing significantly from ambient electronica and world music, to create an album of new-wave experimentation, which trades off the group's passion and energy against a more paranoid, sinister vibe.
22. Jackie-O Motherfucker - Fig 5 (2000) A work of warmth and creativity that takes an overtly exploratory approach to the soulful twang of Southern folk, in which the improvvy music is driven along by multiple guitarists, touches of banjo, varying percussion, harmonica, free-jazz and even some sparse sampling.
21. Roxy Music - Stranded (1973) Roxy Music's third album - their first without Brian Eno - spectacularly exceeded my expectations, confirming that Brian Ferry's vocals are indeed my absolute favourite thing about this band.
20. Ned Collette - Jokes and Trials (2006) Australian songwriter Collette evokes Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen and even a young Slim Dusty through his vocals and lyrics, and then combines this delivery with exceptional guitarwork which utilises numerous layers of both acoustic and electric output, creating one of the most intimate, moving singer/songwriter recordings I've ever heard.
19. Can - Tago Mago (1971) This might be regarded as cheating, but I always cull the overlong "Aumgn" and "Peking O" from the tracklisting when I listen to this album, as it turns a bloated, 75 minute krautrock album with fairly frequent moments of genius into a tight, 45 minute album that's just about brimming over with it.
18. Nina Nastasia and Jim White - You Follow Me (2007) One of the singer/songwriter genre's most idiosyncratic albums, in which the impressive skills of each participant are highlighted with equal measure, and the juxtaposition of White's chaotic style of drumming against Nastasia's tender vocals and guitarwork provides a fascinating aspect to an album that's otherwise full of warmth and simplistic beauty.
17. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Yanqui U.X.O (2002) As far as I'm concerned, this album trumps the more popular choice of Lift Yr Skinny Fists... as Godspeed's best album, as it's more consistent, tightly structured and meticulously arranged, and the affecting gravitas that the group are known for is in glorious effect to an extent not seen since their debut.
16. Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Mender(2004) The idiosyncratic vocal style, vivid lyricism, exquisite harp-playing and heartfelt, sentimental delivery combine to make Newsom's debut sound utterly magical, yet no matter how lyrically knotty her songs become, everything she sings still sounds completely sincere.
15. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless (1991) The distortion and feedback here is just glorious, as all those squally, swirly, syrupy-thick layers of sound - so intricate and textured and meticulously structured - make Loveless end up sounding like guitar soup.
14. The Books - The Lemon of Pink (2003) By creating a sonic collage of delicate vocals, found sounds and gentle instrumentation, that's artificial by its very nature and yet sounds so human, The Books have managed to make an album that's deeply satisfying on two very different levels - it's an absolute joy to deconstruct and examine, but it's also one of the most powerfully emotive albums you'll hear.
13. Talking Heads - Remain in Light (1980) It's widely regarded not only as Talking Heads' greatest achievement, but also one of the best albums of all time - with good reason, as it sees the group refining their sound even beyond that of the extremely impressive Fear of Music, and stretching both their experimentatal and more poppy tendencies to the limit.
12. Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure (1973) With this, just their second album, Roxy music reached creative perfection, in which Ferry's theatricality and Eno's experimental mindset are perfectly in tune with one another.
11. Love - Forever Changes (1967) Combine the beautiful harmonies, the abstract lyricism, the touches of majestic backing instrumentation and the tight songwriting aesthetic and you're left with my favourite album of the psychedelic era.
10. The Sonics - Here Are the Sonics!!! (1965) This display of garage-rock in it's earliest stages also shows the genre at its absolute sexiest, where every song is infused with ferocious energy, wild, shouty vocals and a general feeling of totally reckless abandon, all of which was years ahead of its time.
9. The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat (2004) A modernised progressive-pop/rock masterpiece that's overflowing with brilliant ideas, scattered like pieces of buried treasure throughout the album's sprawling cavalcade of experimental garage and fractured storytelling.
8. Talk Talk - Laughing Stock (1991) Alternating between sparse expanses of moody instrumentation and chaotic bursts of percussive guitar, this is - hands down - the single greatest album post-rock has to offer, and should be considered essential listening by anyone with even a passing interest in the genre.
7. Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun (1999) A seemingly unending cascade of spiralling rhythms, top-calibre percussion and songs overflowing with so much energy and celebratory sparks that they fill your heart with joy and make your pulse go through the roof.
6. Jorge Ben - A Tábua de Esmeralda (1974) Ben's guitarwork on this album of samba-rock is playful and lively, but loaded with numerous highly memorable chord progressions and changeups, while his vocals are downright exquisite, and every last moment is a stirring and beautiful experience.
5. The Microphones - It Was Hot We Stayed in the Water (2000) Phil Elverum and co bring together a multitude of musical influences - folk, Beach-Boys-style pop, psychedelia, fuzz-rock, noise and minimalist ambient to name a few - and channel them through a lo-fi world of reversed tape loops, sheets of distortion and incredibly clever production tricks, resulting in one of the most original (and deeply moving) albums I've ever heard.
4. Beck - Odelay (1996) On Odelay, Beck genre-hops like few have ever genre-hopped before, touching on folk, blues, country, hip-hop, electronic, noise-rock, punk and turntablism (with more besides), blending these disparate elements into a memorable, cohesive whole that's a wonder to behold and an absolute blast to hear.
3. Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire de Melody Nelson (1971) To start with, you have Serge's spoken word vocals, which are just so smooth and syrupy and ... French, but then there's also the slinky instrumentation, the majestic string sections, subterranean bass and distant touches of horns that together lift this album to magnificent heights.
2. Joanna Newsom - Ys (2006) For Newsom's second album, the artist moved forward by leaps and bounds, sharpening her songwriting and yet maintaining all of her rustic charm, resulting in a truly gorgeous album of sentimental vocal turns, perfectly timed key-changes, subtle style-shifts and glorious crescendos, which sweep the listener away over and over.
1. Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998) You know, I don't think I'll even bother writing about this one. Every time I try to articulate the way listening to Aeroplane makes me feel I'm reduced to a drooling fanboy, trading in what sounds like absolute truth to the devoted few and overwhelming hyperbole to everyone else. You know how it is.
Holy crap, I'm exhausted. That was an epic undertaking. Any comments/discussion would be awesome :)
50. The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol 1 (1999) A hazy, sprawling epic of psychedelic pop/rock and sound collaging, which alternates between being mind-bendingly trippy and cheerfully catchy.
49. Sonic Youth - Sister (1987) This fuzzed out rocker arguably marked the very beginning of Sonic Youth's shift into more accessible territory (although it's still pretty dense, challenging listening), and in my opinion, it's their finest work.
48. Nirvana - In Utero (1993) While Nevermind contains all the more fondly-remembered singles, personally I think its crunchy, acerbic followup has aged significantly better.
47. Squarepusher - Music is Rotted One Note (1998) Quite possibly drum 'n' bass's crowning achievement, in which Tom Jenkinson creates an organic electro/jazz-fusion hybrid by pre-recording all instrumentation and then building the entire album from the ground up.
46. Beck - Midnite Vultures (1999) Beck's foray into funk/soul/r&b is one of the catchiest, most enjoyable, most creative and most concisely flab-free recordings I've ever heard, and is relegated strictly to "party starter" status waaaaay more than it deserves to be.
45. Nick Drake - Pink Moon (1972) Drake's final album is a sparse, beautiful display of simple, folky melodies and weathered, sleepy vocals, showcasing a combination of huge songwriting talent and carefully-considered brevity.
44. Cornelius - Fantasma (1997) An eclectic, energetic and enthusiastic work of unfocused noise-art, in which Keigo Oyamada seems to tie down a multitude of musical ideas into a tight bundle and then cut the strings, recording the breathtaking explosion that follows.
43. Magma - Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh (1973) Aliens, fictional languages, supreme beings, mind-blowingly intense instrumentation, extraterrestrial gospel choruses, powerfully cyclical percussion, chanting that elevates into feverish screaming - this album is an unconventional, one-of-a-kind masterpiece, which at times feels like something bordering on religious experience.
42. Duke Ellington - Money Jungle (1962) Combine the piano skill, songwriting and band-leadership of Ellington with percussion of Max Roach and the bass of Charles Mingus and you've truly got an all-star production, resulting in my favourite jazz album I've heard thus far.
41. David Bowie - Lodger (1979) Hugely underrated, and occasionally cited as a "weak point" in Bowie's late 70s output, this album of exotic pop music is immensley catchy, creative and uplifting.
40. Beck - Mutations (1998) Standing in sharp contrast to the hyperactive albums that neighbour it (Odelay and Midnite Vultures), this recording of mellow, densely layered songs is mature and slightly melancholy, while still retaining a fair amount of the eclecticism that's one of Beck's best known trademarks.
39. Television - Marquee Moon (1977) When you combine Tom Verlaine's swaying, charismatic vocals with the group's punchy rythmn section and complex guitar-work you end up with a collection of songs that reach jaw-dropping heights, full of clever structures, highly idiosyncratic melodies and solos that sound like they go on forever but never begin to drag.
38. Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand (1994) A collection of 20 very brief rock songs - which frequently border on sounding more like conceptual fragments that fully, fleshed-out tracks - channelled through a grainy, lo-fi recording technique that, despite its limitations, seems to suit the nostalgic vibe of the album perfectly.
37. Gastr Del Sol - Camoufleur (1998) Post-rock stalwarts David Grubbs and John McEntire utilize elements of jazz, classical, country, folk, singer-songwriter, film music and found sounds, and then blend these elements in exciting, original ways, making for an album that's as warm and lively as it is fascinating and complex.
36. Françoise Hardy - La Question (1971) A short, sweet album of graceful, delicate chanson that's silky smooth, provocative and sensual.
35. Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison (1968) Cash's performance on this - easily my favourite live recording - is full of humour and playfulness, and hearing not only the terrific music, but also his interplay with the band, the inmates and future-wife June Carter, is a real joy.
34. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam (2007) The Collective's most straightforward, focused, accessible effort is a work of highly emotive, ultra-weird folk music, that's playful but never goofy, sentimental but never sappy and surreal but never inpenetrable.
33. Deerhoof - The Runners Four (2005) It's truly awe-inspiring to listen to a group with such a powerful grasp on pop songwriting combined with such an overwhelming desire to be willfully unusual and keep on pushing the envelope over and over, and that's exactly what's presented on this album.
32. Tom Zé - Estudando o Samba (1976) This is probably the most unusual collection of samba music I've come across thus far, and I really like Tom Ze's blend of infectious melody, lazy delivery and the general air of quirkiness surrounding the songs.
31. Roxy Music - Roxy Music (1972) Otherwordly, hugely theatrical electro/rock music that's funky as hell on the upbeat songs and surprisingly tender on the slower ones - the first half is in particular is absolutely phenomenal.
30. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods (2005) Laden with massive hooks, self-indulgent guitar solos, thunderous drumming and joyously noisy vocals, and chanelling equally from 70s psych-rockers like Hendrix and 80s/90s noise-rockers like Sonic Youth, this is probably the most colossal, thunderous, everything-turned-up-to-eleven sounding album to emerge in years.
29. Elvis Costello - This Year's Model (1978) Blistering new-wave that's equally poppy and punky, Costello's second album is a real tour de force that starts in 4th gear and never looks back.
28. The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground (1969) While I love the ...and Nico album, I enjoy the Velvets most when they're limiting themselves to simpler, tighter, more melodic songwriting, and with highlights like "What Goes On" and "Beginning to See the Light", this album treads that ground better than anything else they've done.
27. Comus - First Utterance (1971) I love how First Utterance starts out all "gypsy collective traveling through the forest", with earthly harmonies and feelings of being "at one with nature" left, right and centre, with only the mildest hint of menace lingering underneath - it makes it all the more unnerving when that santuary quickly unravels into a downright nightmarish experience.
26. Radiohead - Kid A (2000) Radiohead borrow from Aphex Twin, Phillip Glass, Brian Eno and numerous other pioneers of experimental music to craft a fantastic album that wanders through ambient soundscaping and melodic rock music, in which they push themselves well and truly out of their comfort zone.
25. King Sunny Adé - Juju Music (1982) The two things I love most about Juju Music are the combination of tribal percussion/chants with the almost-anachronistic-feeling-under-these-circumstances, Westernised slide guitar style, and the unmissable feel-good vibe running constantly throughout.
24. David Bowie - Low (1977) So perfectly split down the middle that if someone had told me it was a double EP I'd probably have believed them - first you have "Speed of Life" through to "A New Career in a New Town", with it's avant-garde electro-pop grounded by fairly conventional song structures, then from "Warszawa" onwards, the aesthetic of the first half is replaced by moody, atmospheric soundscapes.
23. Talking Heads - Fear of Music (1979) The group's third album updates their punkish roots by borrowing significantly from ambient electronica and world music, to create an album of new-wave experimentation, which trades off the group's passion and energy against a more paranoid, sinister vibe.
22. Jackie-O Motherfucker - Fig 5 (2000) A work of warmth and creativity that takes an overtly exploratory approach to the soulful twang of Southern folk, in which the improvvy music is driven along by multiple guitarists, touches of banjo, varying percussion, harmonica, free-jazz and even some sparse sampling.
21. Roxy Music - Stranded (1973) Roxy Music's third album - their first without Brian Eno - spectacularly exceeded my expectations, confirming that Brian Ferry's vocals are indeed my absolute favourite thing about this band.
20. Ned Collette - Jokes and Trials (2006) Australian songwriter Collette evokes Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen and even a young Slim Dusty through his vocals and lyrics, and then combines this delivery with exceptional guitarwork which utilises numerous layers of both acoustic and electric output, creating one of the most intimate, moving singer/songwriter recordings I've ever heard.
19. Can - Tago Mago (1971) This might be regarded as cheating, but I always cull the overlong "Aumgn" and "Peking O" from the tracklisting when I listen to this album, as it turns a bloated, 75 minute krautrock album with fairly frequent moments of genius into a tight, 45 minute album that's just about brimming over with it.
18. Nina Nastasia and Jim White - You Follow Me (2007) One of the singer/songwriter genre's most idiosyncratic albums, in which the impressive skills of each participant are highlighted with equal measure, and the juxtaposition of White's chaotic style of drumming against Nastasia's tender vocals and guitarwork provides a fascinating aspect to an album that's otherwise full of warmth and simplistic beauty.
17. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Yanqui U.X.O (2002) As far as I'm concerned, this album trumps the more popular choice of Lift Yr Skinny Fists... as Godspeed's best album, as it's more consistent, tightly structured and meticulously arranged, and the affecting gravitas that the group are known for is in glorious effect to an extent not seen since their debut.
16. Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Mender(2004) The idiosyncratic vocal style, vivid lyricism, exquisite harp-playing and heartfelt, sentimental delivery combine to make Newsom's debut sound utterly magical, yet no matter how lyrically knotty her songs become, everything she sings still sounds completely sincere.
15. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless (1991) The distortion and feedback here is just glorious, as all those squally, swirly, syrupy-thick layers of sound - so intricate and textured and meticulously structured - make Loveless end up sounding like guitar soup.
14. The Books - The Lemon of Pink (2003) By creating a sonic collage of delicate vocals, found sounds and gentle instrumentation, that's artificial by its very nature and yet sounds so human, The Books have managed to make an album that's deeply satisfying on two very different levels - it's an absolute joy to deconstruct and examine, but it's also one of the most powerfully emotive albums you'll hear.
13. Talking Heads - Remain in Light (1980) It's widely regarded not only as Talking Heads' greatest achievement, but also one of the best albums of all time - with good reason, as it sees the group refining their sound even beyond that of the extremely impressive Fear of Music, and stretching both their experimentatal and more poppy tendencies to the limit.
12. Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure (1973) With this, just their second album, Roxy music reached creative perfection, in which Ferry's theatricality and Eno's experimental mindset are perfectly in tune with one another.
11. Love - Forever Changes (1967) Combine the beautiful harmonies, the abstract lyricism, the touches of majestic backing instrumentation and the tight songwriting aesthetic and you're left with my favourite album of the psychedelic era.
10. The Sonics - Here Are the Sonics!!! (1965) This display of garage-rock in it's earliest stages also shows the genre at its absolute sexiest, where every song is infused with ferocious energy, wild, shouty vocals and a general feeling of totally reckless abandon, all of which was years ahead of its time.
9. The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat (2004) A modernised progressive-pop/rock masterpiece that's overflowing with brilliant ideas, scattered like pieces of buried treasure throughout the album's sprawling cavalcade of experimental garage and fractured storytelling.
8. Talk Talk - Laughing Stock (1991) Alternating between sparse expanses of moody instrumentation and chaotic bursts of percussive guitar, this is - hands down - the single greatest album post-rock has to offer, and should be considered essential listening by anyone with even a passing interest in the genre.
7. Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun (1999) A seemingly unending cascade of spiralling rhythms, top-calibre percussion and songs overflowing with so much energy and celebratory sparks that they fill your heart with joy and make your pulse go through the roof.
6. Jorge Ben - A Tábua de Esmeralda (1974) Ben's guitarwork on this album of samba-rock is playful and lively, but loaded with numerous highly memorable chord progressions and changeups, while his vocals are downright exquisite, and every last moment is a stirring and beautiful experience.
5. The Microphones - It Was Hot We Stayed in the Water (2000) Phil Elverum and co bring together a multitude of musical influences - folk, Beach-Boys-style pop, psychedelia, fuzz-rock, noise and minimalist ambient to name a few - and channel them through a lo-fi world of reversed tape loops, sheets of distortion and incredibly clever production tricks, resulting in one of the most original (and deeply moving) albums I've ever heard.
4. Beck - Odelay (1996) On Odelay, Beck genre-hops like few have ever genre-hopped before, touching on folk, blues, country, hip-hop, electronic, noise-rock, punk and turntablism (with more besides), blending these disparate elements into a memorable, cohesive whole that's a wonder to behold and an absolute blast to hear.
3. Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire de Melody Nelson (1971) To start with, you have Serge's spoken word vocals, which are just so smooth and syrupy and ... French, but then there's also the slinky instrumentation, the majestic string sections, subterranean bass and distant touches of horns that together lift this album to magnificent heights.
2. Joanna Newsom - Ys (2006) For Newsom's second album, the artist moved forward by leaps and bounds, sharpening her songwriting and yet maintaining all of her rustic charm, resulting in a truly gorgeous album of sentimental vocal turns, perfectly timed key-changes, subtle style-shifts and glorious crescendos, which sweep the listener away over and over.
1. Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998) You know, I don't think I'll even bother writing about this one. Every time I try to articulate the way listening to Aeroplane makes me feel I'm reduced to a drooling fanboy, trading in what sounds like absolute truth to the devoted few and overwhelming hyperbole to everyone else. You know how it is.
Holy crap, I'm exhausted. That was an epic undertaking. Any comments/discussion would be awesome :)
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no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 04:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 05:16 am (UTC)Kid A > Amnesiac > The Bends > OK Computer > In Rainbows > Hail to the Thief (haven't actually heard Pablo Honey), but I've seen people rank them in just about every possible order.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 05:19 am (UTC)It's a taste thing.
Anyone who think Bjork's best work was after Post, however, is just clearly bugfuck insane.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 05:29 am (UTC)How would you rate their other albums?
I love Post, but it's also the only Bjork album I've heard in its entirety! This is something I've been meaning to fix for ages.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 05:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 05:32 am (UTC)Homogenic seems to be very highly regarded, so I've been meaning to check it out for a while, but I like Bjork's singles enough that I should really be looking into just about everything she's done. One of these days I'll get to that.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 05:34 am (UTC)Hail to the Thief was very enjoyable, but felt too much like a poor photocopy of OK Computer. After the two CDs I hated though, that was a bit of a relief and it certainly went on high rotation on the house stereo for a while.
I have to admit I still haven't listened to In Rainbows more than the odd track here and there.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 06:07 am (UTC)In Rainbows is decent. I like it a lot less now that I did on first listen, though. It's too inconsistent (in terms of quality - stylistically it's probably the most consistent thing they've ever done).
no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 06:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 06:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 06:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 06:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 06:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 06:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 05:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 06:10 am (UTC)Hmm, maybe I should write a "Generic Top 20 Albums of All Time" list :P
no subject
Date: 2008-08-02 11:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 06:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 07:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 07:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 10:07 am (UTC)Guess how many of those albums I recognized and went hey, I _know_ that album.
It fits on one hand :P
no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 10:52 am (UTC)(Scarily enough, more than half of the ones I own I bought, not got from Penny who got it from Dr.Tom, who got it from Tommo.)
no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 10:56 am (UTC)Well, I own In Utero and kinda 'own' At Folsom Prison. I'm fairly sure Chris has some of the others, but I am scared of his music collection sometimes, after a certain incident with Primus. Anyway that's kinda like muliple items owning :)
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Date: 2008-07-29 12:08 pm (UTC)That being said, Dr Tom probably owns me when it comes to new stuff coming out this year. I've hardly been keeping track.
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Date: 2008-07-29 12:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 10:31 am (UTC)I couldn't agree more. Nevermind has always seemed a bit more mainstream to me, even in the nineties. In Utero is certainly acerbic and it times the album, depending on my mood, can really grate on my nerves. I wonder if I still have my tape of In Utero from the nineties. My brother gave me heaps of his tapes when he replaced them with CDs. Loads of Roxy Music, Bowie, New Order, Echo and the Bunnymen and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Unfortunately, he'd played them so much, they started to get too worn and many of them broke.
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Date: 2008-07-29 12:11 pm (UTC)Your reply has reminded me that I need to listen to some Echo and the Bunnymen and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
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Date: 2008-07-29 12:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 10:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 12:09 pm (UTC)bah!
Date: 2008-07-29 12:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-30 05:58 am (UTC)Thinking about what would be in my top list: at least one Steeleye Span album, maybe 'Sails of Silver' or 'Back in Line'; "Gaudi" by Alan Parson's Project; a Nicki French album I can't think of the name of; a couple of kids albums by Connie Kaldor - "A poodle in Paris" and "A duck in New York City"; 'Bought the Farm' by Captain Tractor; something by Vangelis (I can't decide which is my favourite without listening to them again, which I haven't done in a while); 'Evita' (the version with Julie Covington); one (or both) of the Tom Lehrer albums I own; "Late Again" by Peter Paul and Mary; "If you don't fight you lose" by Redgum; "When the Wind Blows" by Eric Bogle; Belinda Carlisle's debut album.
More than that, I'd have to go home and have a look through what I've got, because I suspect that there would be a lot of 'ooh, I forgot that one, must listen to it *now*'
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Date: 2008-07-30 05:59 am (UTC)(shall stop now. Will try and remember to look through this evening)