Re: AMF Favorite Albums of All-Time -- RESULTS
Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 2:05 am
I'm a fan of the breaking ball.
Discussions About the Most Recommended Albums and Songs of All Time
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My post was a bit disparaging, but I didn't dismiss the entire genre. Also, if you consider pop-punk as having punk-influenced albums - which I think is pretty reasonable - then I voted for quite a bit of those, since that's largely what I grew up listening to.Jackson wrote:Here are the punk or punk-influenced albums I voted for in my top 200. I'd recommend digging in on the catchier side first, which may be more to your liking (stuff like the Undertones, the Buzzcocks, and McLusky). While some of them may be more difficult, these albums have some of the best energy, most inspired performances, and most interesting riffs in all of rock music, so I can't see how you would dismiss punk as a whole genre.andyd1010 wrote:You might be on to something there. I really enjoy London Calling and All Mod Cons, and I like a couple of songs by The Gun Club (though I don't like any of those artists as much as the critics). But I have not gotten anything out of the other albums, and I guarantee the vast majority of people I know have never heard of any of them besides The Clash and The Sex Pistols... An alarming number of people around here haven't even heard of those two.DaveC wrote:Well, firstly "London Calling" isn't a punk album (although I admit it is usually categorised as such). Just to add fuel to the fire. I voted for The Clash, The Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, The Gang of Four, Wire, Stiff Little Fingers, and The Jam (again not really Punk). But only one genuine US punk act (The Gun Club). I wonder if Punk's poor showing is partly down to a trans Atlantic taste discrepancy.
5 | Pixies | Doolittle
17 | The Clash | London Calling
26 | Ramones | Ramones
27 | Fucked Up | David Comes To Life
32 | Hüsker Dü | Zen Arcade
39 | The Stooges | Fun House
40 | The Gun Club | Fire of Love
51 | Sleater-Kinney | One Beat
53 | Wire | Pink Flag
60 | Minutemen | Double Nickels on the Dime
85 | McLusky | McLusky Do Dallas
103 | The Stooges | Raw Power
140 | Television | Marquee Moon
143 | Wire | Chairs Missing
154 | Fugazi | The Argument
163 | Gang of Four | Entertainment!
165 | Wipers | Youth of America
174 | The Undertones | The Undertones
175 | Buzzcocks | Singles Going Steady
Do people see these things as mutually exclusive?Jirin wrote:Clearly, there has been a shift in voting population to value good pitch more and to value mood and raw energy less.
Which singers do you find provide the combination of pitch quality, mood and raw energy?andyd1010 wrote:Do people see these things as mutually exclusive?Jirin wrote:Clearly, there has been a shift in voting population to value good pitch more and to value mood and raw energy less.
I love it when a singer can hit the right notes, convey a mood, and still showcase raw energy. And I wish more singers strove for that combination. There are plenty of fantastic technical singers that sing boring, relatively emotionless songs, and there are plenty of songs with raw energy that I think could have potential if the singer could hit a few more of the right notes.
I would say Paul McCartney is the best example. I think Dustin Kensrue of Thrice is a great example, although most people aren't familiar with him.Henry wrote:Which singers do you find provide the combination of pitch quality, mood and raw energy?andyd1010 wrote:Do people see these things as mutually exclusive?Jirin wrote:Clearly, there has been a shift in voting population to value good pitch more and to value mood and raw energy less.
I love it when a singer can hit the right notes, convey a mood, and still showcase raw energy. And I wish more singers strove for that combination. There are plenty of fantastic technical singers that sing boring, relatively emotionless songs, and there are plenty of songs with raw energy that I think could have potential if the singer could hit a few more of the right notes.
To me, the discussion regarding mood and raw energy has some correlation to composition as well as performance.
The Pixies got more melodic as they went along. So Bossanova & Trompe le Monde are well worth a listen.andyd1010 wrote: Pixies are so strange. At times they're amazing - Wave of Mutilation, Here Comes Your Man, and Hey, are no-doubters for my top 1,000, and Monkey Gone to Heaven is close. But some other songs on that album are just completely bizarre (and kind of scary), and I feel like, if I played them in the presence of anyone else, they would ask me, "What the hell are you listening to?" And I wouldn't have a good answer.
Old fashioned fastball ball, up and in.Jirin wrote:I'm a fan of the breaking ball.
I'll have to give Kensrue some more attention. I think that Rob Thomas also fits the bill and perhaps the Style Council version of Paul Weller.andyd1010 wrote:I would say Paul McCartney is the best example. I think Dustin Kensrue of Thrice is a great example, although most people aren't familiar with him.Henry wrote:Which singers do you find provide the combination of pitch quality, mood and raw energy?andyd1010 wrote: Do people see these things as mutually exclusive?
I love it when a singer can hit the right notes, convey a mood, and still showcase raw energy. And I wish more singers strove for that combination. There are plenty of fantastic technical singers that sing boring, relatively emotionless songs, and there are plenty of songs with raw energy that I think could have potential if the singer could hit a few more of the right notes.
To me, the discussion regarding mood and raw energy has some correlation to composition as well as performance.
ah yes, the "high hard one"bootsy wrote:Old fashioned fastball ball, up and in.Jirin wrote:I'm a fan of the breaking ball.
Funny thing - totally the other way around for me. I like the high energy, aggressive side of music, and more so as I got older.veganvalentine wrote:I generally agree with andyd1010 regarding punk (and he and I seem to have similar taste in music), but I think a lot of it depends on what you want out of music. Especially as I get older, the music that moves me the most is often music I would describe as beautiful, complex, and bittersweet (e.g., I'm a sucker for major 7th chords and minor chords in general).
I've listened to plenty of great punk, hip-hop, and dance songs, but that uptempo and/or aggressive headspace isn't really what I turn to music for, so I don't listen to those genres as often as others. I can still appreciate and enjoy them, but I accept that a punk diehard and I will never convince each other that our preferred music is "better," and there's nothing wrong with that.
Just listened through both of those. Not the same top-end brilliance as Doolittle, besides Velouria, but pretty consistently enjoyable. I would consider putting both of them in my top 500 (Bossanova more likely than Trompe le Monde) after a few more listens.DaveC wrote:The Pixies got more melodic as they went along. So Bossanova & Trompe le Monde are well worth a listen.andyd1010 wrote: Pixies are so strange. At times they're amazing - Wave of Mutilation, Here Comes Your Man, and Hey, are no-doubters for my top 1,000, and Monkey Gone to Heaven is close. But some other songs on that album are just completely bizarre (and kind of scary), and I feel like, if I played them in the presence of anyone else, they would ask me, "What the hell are you listening to?" And I wouldn't have a good answer.
If music doesn't have hooks, I think it can still be great if either it has really great instrumental chops or it really brings the mood and feeling. Two different ways to get in your brain. I'm curious what you would define as 'self important', and whether you meant to equate that with not having hooks. I've found that terms like 'Pretentious' or 'Self important' are very subjective and often really meant as 'Ambitious in a way I didn't connect with'.spiritualized wrote:Funny thing - totally the other way around for me. I like the high energy, aggressive side of music, and more so as I got older.veganvalentine wrote:I generally agree with andyd1010 regarding punk (and he and I seem to have similar taste in music), but I think a lot of it depends on what you want out of music. Especially as I get older, the music that moves me the most is often music I would describe as beautiful, complex, and bittersweet (e.g., I'm a sucker for major 7th chords and minor chords in general).
I've listened to plenty of great punk, hip-hop, and dance songs, but that uptempo and/or aggressive headspace isn't really what I turn to music for, so I don't listen to those genres as often as others. I can still appreciate and enjoy them, but I accept that a punk diehard and I will never convince each other that our preferred music is "better," and there's nothing wrong with that.
What gets to me nowadays is art-pop, or self-important music with no hooks to grasp your attention. I am very intolerant to it. I can nonetheless that any given musical genre can generate the same emotional response to anyone...
The nice guys finished first. Queens-born and -bred A Tribe Called Quest brought you egoless hip-hop that let you dance to their smooth, jazzy sounds, chock with horns and upright bass and chill alongside their laid-back attitude. Producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad polished the mix, and MC Phife played a great second fiddle in rhymes about SkyPagers, the record industry and girls ("Tanya, Tameeka/Sharon, Karen/Tina, Stacy/Julie, Tracy"), but, really, it was Q-Tip's show. His distinct nasal voice light and delicious, his liquid flow as warm and comforting as an electric blanket, his natural charisma shining through the speakers, Q-Tip makes The Low End Theory feel like an easy conversation with an old friend.
--Rolling Stone
The songs zip gleefully from genre to genre, mostly grounded in R&B and funk, but spinning out into rap, pastoral British folk, psychedelic rock, disco, cabaret, cinematic scores, and whatever else strikes her fancy. It's about as bold as mainstream music gets, marrying the world-building possibilities of the concept album to the big tent genre-mutating pop of Michael Jackson and Prince in their prime. Monáe describes The ArchAndroid as an "emotion picture," an album with a story arc intended to be experienced in one sitting, like a movie. It most certainly works in this way, but at first blush, it's almost too much to take in all at once. The first listen is mostly about being wowed by the very existence of this fabulously talented young singer and her over-the-top record; every subsequent spin reveals the depths of her achievement.
--Matthew Perpetua, Pitchfork
White Blood Cells is The White Stripes strongest album, the one where they left behind the limitations of their deconstructed blues format and made something which stood entirely on its own merits. The slide guitar which had been all over the previous two albums had been dispensed with, which had the unusual benefit of improving Jack White's guitar skills. The album combined the energy of The White Stripes with the maturity and skill of De Stijl. Even Meg's drumming seemed to have improved considerably, though she endearingly stuck to her none-more-basic technique. Sure Jack White was still arrogant and outspoken, but he never made any effort to disguise that fact, so kudos to him.
--p_q, RYM
Dylan's second LP was not only his first genuine masterpiece, it was also a landmark in the very way that popular music was created. After writing just two songs on his 1962 debut, he wrote 12 of the 13 songs on Freewheelin' – including such classics as "Blowin' in the Wind," "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" – permanently altering the relationship between singer and songwriter. And he did so with a collection of compositions that displayed a dizzying range, from blistering social commentary (tackling such topics as civil rights and nuclear holocaust) to nuanced romance, from comic talking blues to melancholy heartbreak.
--Alan Light, Rolling Stone
As with The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads, the title of Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul offers a clue about the feeling of the album. The most straightforward interpretation suggests that Otis will delve into sorrowful territory. And what exactly makes Otis Redding blue? For starters, the recent tragic death of Sam Cooke clearly dealt Otis a heavy blow. His admiration for Cooke was apparent with covers of "You Send Me" and "Nothing Can Change His Love" present on his previous albums, so it stands to reason that Cooke's untimely passing would have an impact on his music. Otis Blue pays homage to the late Cooke with covers of three vastly different songs performed with such visceral conviction that they went on to become seminal versions in their own right. First up is "Change Is Gonna Come", which had become an anthem of the Civil Rights movement. As horns announce the tune with a reverent tone, Otis delivers arguably his best vocal effort yet, culminating in a climax that simultaneously exhibits more passion and control than I thought humanly possible. Witness - yes, witness - the way that he pours such feeling into the words "please" and "knees" around the 3 minute mark, and there is no questioning the magnitude of his inspiration.
--Moonbeam, RYM
Oasis were also a signpost of hope for an emerging new version of England that was finally mobilizing after being beaten down by the Thatcher years. Against this backdrop, the Gallagher brothers and company emerged: All the anger and nihilism of a go-nowhere existence channeled through Noel's blaring guitar tones and brash, drugged-up lyrics, along with Liam's attack-dog snarl. Definitely Maybe is the sound of people who feel like they need to scream to be heard—and even then, the chances of anyone actually listening seems depressingly unlikely.
--Ryan Dombal, Pitchfork
The Wall is a stunning synthesis of Waters' by now familiar thematic obsessions: the brutal misanthropy of Pink Floyd's last LP, Animals; Dark Side of the Moon's sour, middle-aged tristesse; the surprisingly shrewd perception that the music business is a microcosm of institutional oppression (Wish You Were Here); and the dread of impending psychoses that runs through all these records — plus a strongly felt antiwar animus that dates way back to 1968's A Saucerful of Secrets. But where Animals, for instance, suffered from self-centered smugness, the even more abject The Wall leaps to life with a relentless lyrical rage that's clearly genuine and, in its painstaking particularity, ultimately horrifying.
--Kurt Loder, Rolling Stone
While mostly accurate, dismissing Never Mind the Bollocks as merely a series of loud, ragged midtempo rockers with a harsh, grating vocalist and not much melody would be a terrible error. Already anthemic songs are rendered positively transcendent by Johnny Rotten's rabid, foaming delivery. His bitterly sarcastic attacks on pretentious affectation and the very foundations of British society were all carried out in the most confrontational, impolite manner possible. Most imitators of the Pistols' angry nihilism missed the point: underneath the shock tactics and theatrical negativity were social critiques carefully designed for maximum impact. Never Mind the Bollocks perfectly articulated the frustration, rage, and dissatisfaction of the British working class with the establishment, a spirit quick to translate itself to strictly rock & roll terms. The Pistols paved the way for countless other bands to make similarly rebellious statements, but arguably none were as daring or effective. It's easy to see how the band's roaring energy, overwhelmingly snotty attitude, and Rotten's furious ranting sparked a musical revolution, and those qualities haven't diminished one bit over time. Never Mind the Bollocks is simply one of the greatest, most inspiring rock records of all time.
--Steve Huey, Allmusic
Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) remains one of the most astounding debuts from any artist in any genre. It's an album which challenges you, from the very outset. Literally: the first voice you hear is a martial arts movie character saying things like "Do you think your Wu-Tang sword can defeat me?" and "En garde!" But aside from the belligerent insistence, backed up by kung-fu crunches and punches, that 'Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing Ta Fuck Wit', it was an album which threw down a sonic gauntlet to the rest of hip hop. Just as Public Enemy had five years previously, the Wu-Tang Clan had made all other rap records sound instantly outdated. (Tellingly, when a 1986-vintage Beasties guitar chord is used to bleep out the F-word on 'Protect Ya Neck', it actually sounds older than any of the dusty snatches of Thelonious Monk on the album.)
--TheQuietus
The quiet, understated, unpretentious beauty of A Rush of Blood to the Head caught me completely off-guard. Coldplay always seemed like a good band before, but not this good. The fact that the band had it in them to put out an album as assured, as exquisite as this one has to be one of the biggest surprises of the year. This album launches Coldplay into new territory, and it’s only a matter of time now that new “satellite” bands start ripping Coldplay off, hovering around the band’s orbit, waiting to see what they pull off next. On the magnificent album closer, “Amsterdam”, Martin sings, “Oh, my star is fading.” You’re much too modest, Chris. Coldplay is just getting started.
--Adrien Begrand, Popmatters
A bit unfair. There is definitely a share of the music world that, for want of a better word, is "arty-farty". Have someone listen to unstructured music and after enough listens, they will detect some musical phrases they can connect with. The most recent case I can think of is Bjork's latest. I have watched her music go down in melody with the years. "The gate" is unbearable at the first listen.Jirin wrote:
If music doesn't have hooks, I think it can still be great if either it has really great instrumental chops or it really brings the mood and feeling. Two different ways to get in your brain. I'm curious what you would define as 'self important', and whether you meant to equate that with not having hooks. I've found that terms like 'Pretentious' or 'Self important' are very subjective and often really meant as 'Ambitious in a way I didn't connect with'.
I agree. Plenty of music in my musical experience which requires multiple listens to fully enjoy. But there's nothing like the immediacy of a good hook. And if the song lacks them, I tend to look somewhere else.Jirin wrote: think you can make great music with intricate melodies, and you can equally make great music just yelling over power chords, and even by minimal instrumental touches over so long as you know how to bring the feels.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on these matters.spiritualized wrote:A bit unfair. There is definitely a share of the music world that, for want of a better word, is "arty-farty". Have someone listen to unstructured music and after enough listens, they will detect some musical phrases they can connect with. The most recent case I can think of is Bjork's latest. I have watched her music go down in melody with the years. "The gate" is unbearable at the first listen.Jirin wrote:
If music doesn't have hooks, I think it can still be great if either it has really great instrumental chops or it really brings the mood and feeling. Two different ways to get in your brain. I'm curious what you would define as 'self important', and whether you meant to equate that with not having hooks. I've found that terms like 'Pretentious' or 'Self important' are very subjective and often really meant as 'Ambitious in a way I didn't connect with'.
I agree. Plenty of music in my musical experience which requires multiple listens to fully enjoy. But there's nothing like the immediacy of a good hook. And if the song lacks them, I tend to look somewhere else.Jirin wrote: think you can make great music with intricate melodies, and you can equally make great music just yelling over power chords, and even by minimal instrumental touches over so long as you know how to bring the feels.
Sometimes overshadowed by the later albums which play host to the more widely known Zeppelin tracks the importance of “Led Zeppelin” should not be under estimated. Whilst it is clearly their bluesiest album it also laid down the foundation for the heavier rock tracks of their career and that of a whole generation of rock bands. There are also elements of folk and jazz evident in the arrangements although there is still a good argument to be made that this was the heaviest album released by a British band at the time.
--MartinLeedham, RYM
A remarkably expressive and intimate record, it's a work of consummate craftsmanship. Always a superior pop composer, King reaches even greater heights as a performer; new songs like the hits "It's Too Late" and "I Feel the Earth Move" rank solidly with past glories, while songs like "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" take on added resonance when delivered in her own warm, compelling voice. With its reliance on pianos and gentle drumming, Tapestry is a light and airy work on its surface, occasionally skirting the boundaries of jazz, but it's also an intensely emotional record, the songs confessional and direct; in its time it connected with listeners like few records before it, and it remains an illuminating experience decades later.
--Jason Ankeny, Allmusic
Ask the NoCal turntable nerds, the trip-hoppers, the frat boys, the hippies or the ravers stoned on the beach at sunrise: Endtroducing... is deeply spiritual. Not in the conventional sense, but in the spirituality of the soul that lives in your chest and got there from the ether and returns to the collective unconscious-- the one you feel when you feel things. That's the spirit that saves us from being fleeting and disposable: If I necked with that one girl that one sunset, with Endtroducing on the car stereo, then no matter who else did the same thing, I'm me and that moment's still mine. Dig?
--Chris Dahlen, Pitchfork
Paranoid is a phenomenal album, Sabbath at their purest. A heavy fog of doom hangs over everything, as the title refers not just to the song, but the overall mood, a dread sense of foreboding over nuclear annihilation. "Electric Funeral" paints a picture of the world in ruins after this apocalypse, a hard, trudging dirge. "War Pigs" opens the album with that legendary, slow, drowning guitar part and the wail of air raid sirens, then it speeds up and Iommi just goes mad with his shredded finger-nubs, the closing "Luke's Wall" section of the song is intense. Then, the revved-up, dangerously psychotic child of "Born to Be Wild" - the hopping mad title track, the delirious and mournfully unsettling "Planet Caravan" and of course, Ozzy's showpiece "Iron Man" as that sharp, shrill voice pulls the song around despite the powerful virtuosity of the rest of the band.
--jshopa, RYM
Starting with the arresting cover art by Gerhard Richter, and continuing with the whopping 71 minutes of music therein, Sonic Youth’s sixth album brazenly attempted to be iconic when it first came out in the fall of 1988, and it succeeded on every level. Similar to what the Velvet Underground did on The Velvet Underground and Nico in 1967, and Television on Marquee Moon in 1977, Daydream Nation achieves the kind of musical trifecta that so perfectly suits a band hailing from New York City, in which the avant-garde, the primal, and the pop-oriented coalesce into one groundbreaking whole.
--Adrien Begrand, Popmatters
Two decades have passed since the release of Nas' seminal debut album, "Illmatic," in which the hip-hop artist chronicles brutal inner-city life with a mix of autobiography, journalism and poetry. The album creates a near-cinematic vision, immersing listeners in a drama that vividly unfolds in their mind's eye.
--Martin Tsai, LA Times
Combining these swathes of Freddie Mercury and the band’s vocals (both Brian May and Roger Taylor were also perfectly adequate singers) with a thousand guitar lines and Taylor’s Zeppelinesque drums had crossed the pop/rock divide with ease. But this was a band with ambition in spades. …Heart Attack had hinted at a working knowledge of 19th century parlour balladry, 20s ragtime and Jimi Hendrix. A Night At The Opera was to add opera, trad jazz, heavy metal and more to the mix.
--Chris Jones, BBC
At the time, most of the folksy songs on Murmur didn’t fit within pop radio’s limitations—these were songs to be listened to, not just danced to. Despite its urgent, Chronic Town-like guitar licks and clickety-clack percussion, “Radio Free Europe,” the album’s only toe-tapper, offers up some of the most playful yet pointed political sarcasm of the band’s career. Inspired by the Radio Free Europe radio station (funded by the U.S. to promote institutional values to countries behind the Iron Curtain), Stipe’s propaganda-hating self-rule is passionate, pointed and biting without sacrificing the rhyme and ingenuity of his lyrics: “Beside defying media too fast/Instead of pushing palaces to fall/Put that, put that, put that before all/That this isn’t fortunate at all.”
--Slant
In the Court of the Crimson King must have blown people's minds in 1969. There were other bands exploring the outer reaches of rock and roll possibility at the time, but none brought it all together so perfectly. On this astonishing debut album, King Crimson fused elements from Folk, Jazz, Classical and Heavy Psychedelic Rock into a loosely assembled concept that chronicled the fear of insanity, cosmic futility, pantheistic worship, and a mythological sense of impending doom and despair. There are so many later developments in music that can be traced back to this album, but like The Velvet Underground and Nico, nothing that came after could match the power and beauty of the original. In a word, Majestic.
--unearth, RYM
Yeezy’s debut changed hip-hop for the better, spawning more and worthier imitators than any rap record since. (Quippy, celebrated Chicagoan Chance the Rapper would not exist without Dropout.) It taught underground heads that plainspoken, simplistic rapping could be a valuable substitute for show-offy technicality. It was the first significant hip-hop album to prominently display a bear graphic on its cover and helped the genre become tolerant to bountiful self-deprecation. ’Ye has had a fire under his ass in recent years. Both Yeezus and 2010’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy are unselfconscious, minutely researched and fearless in their exploration of sounds foreign to their maker: coke-rock, reggae, electro sleaze, even Gary Glitter. Today he is a denizen of the avant-garde. Yet Dropout remains the only album of his so resonant—so immutably true—its lessons can never stray far from the recesses of one’s mind and conscience. We would humbly submit that it’s the quintessential coming-of-age hip-hop album. All those weepy, excitable, sped-up soul samples sum up Kanye’s gamut-running emotional state perfectly.
--M.T. Richards, Vibe
Tom Waits: start with "Closing Time" and "The heart of Saturday night" - his voice is still ok on these early records.Henry wrote: The most acclaimed artists that I struggle with include:
1) Tom Waits - meets my lyrics criteria but the vocals have so far prevented me from enjoying his music,
2) Pavement - the vocals and unstructured presentation are not enabling my enjoyment for this band's songs, and
3) Public Enemy - not melodic enough for me in most songs
4) Beastie Boys - more yelling than singing
5) Captain Beefheart - too much unresolved dissonance and purposeful noise for me
I share most of these struggles, besides Rage Against the Machine. Yelling over power chords isn't as much of a problem for me, although there needs to be more to the song than that. I listened to dozens of Tom Waits songs before I was willing to give one a second listen. I still have a hard time with his voice sometimes, but for me, the entry point was Downtown Train. Amazing song. In the Neighborhood and Jersey Girl are also great.Henry wrote: I must admit that I do not generally enjoy yelling over power chords or unresolved dissonance, but I am very willing to accept that others do enjoy such musical expression and earnestly wonder why. For those that do enjoy listening to these two types of music I invite you to provide us with a description of these songs touch you, e.g., is there a particular set of moods they evoke that you are seeking.
The most acclaimed artists that I struggle with include:
1) Tom Waits - meets my lyrics criteria but the vocals have so far prevented me from enjoying his music,
2) Pavement - the vocals and unstructured presentation are not enabling my enjoyment for this band's songs, and
3) Public Enemy - not melodic enough for me in most songs
4) Beastie Boys - more yelling than singing
5) Captain Beefheart - too much unresolved dissonance and purposeful noise for me
Some acts that I previously struggled to enjoy have at least escaped this bottom 5 for me, including: The Stooges and the Cocteau Twins. But, I still struggle with many songs from the following performers: Run-DMC, Muddy Waters, Manic Street Preachers, The Prodigy, The Notorious B.I.G, Gang of Four, N.W.A., Fugazi, DJ Shadow, Eric B and Rakim, Howlin' Wolf, Wu-Tang Clan, Snoop Dogg, and Rage Against the Machine.
What are you trying to say in that last sentence, Stevie? Overall I get what you're saying, but I still have the same issues as Henry. I'm not a poetry fan; I'm a music fan - music can't be "all about the lyrics" or else it's not about the music anymore. The music needs to be compelling. I agree that production can make relatively unmelodic rap interesting, and I see how Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys were innovative in their production styles. But by the time I got into rap, artists like Kanye West had already taken production to the next level. And there are so many socially conscious songs with powerful lyrics and great musical backdrops. So by comparison, I have a hard time getting into many of the rap acts Henry mentioned.StevieFan13 wrote:I sense a theme. Rap isn't really supposed to be melodic, in the same way that poetry isn't supposed to be melodic. That isn't the point...For two of the rap groups you name, Public Enemy were very much against melody, because that wasn't the Police by.
Thanks for the Tom Waits suggestions. I just listened to both Downtown Train and Jersey Girl again. I don't yet particularly enjoy either of them. But, my appreciation for the lyrics, compositions and performances are starting to help me get there despite the less than enjoyable vocals.andyd1010 wrote:I share most of these struggles, besides Rage Against the Machine. Yelling over power chords isn't as much of a problem for me, although there needs to be more to the song than that. I listened to dozens of Tom Waits songs before I was willing to give one a second listen. I still have a hard time with his voice sometimes, but for me, the entry point was Downtown Train. Amazing song. In the Neighborhood and Jersey Girl are also great.Henry wrote:
The most acclaimed artists that I struggle with include:
1) Tom Waits - meets my lyrics criteria but the vocals have so far prevented me from enjoying his music,
Well yeah, I know that, but I still have no idea what you were trying to say with "because that wasn't the Police by."StevieFan13 wrote:That, Andy, was a typo.
I'll admit I haven't heard Red all the way through, but from the two songs I did hear, there was a lot less structure and consonance. I'm not into jazz, and there's a good portion of Starless where they play a lot of notes really quickly that aren't in a particular key and sound dissonant together - I have a hard time enjoying that kind of music. But I have been meaning to give the whole album a listen, and maybe it will work better together as a whole.Jackson wrote:Interesting the In the Court of the Crimson King beat Red by so many places. Both are great, but if you like one, why not the other?
#100. Sigur Ros | Ágaetis byrjun (1999)A little elf stares at me
Runs towards me, but doesn’t move
From its place – itself
A staring elf
Sigur Rós is music at its most basic, and most advanced. They have crafted a masterpiece of revolutionary proportions that will be hard to outdo. How does one describe the sound of glaciers drifting slowly apart; a lonely ribbon of highway; the most beautiful girl/boy you'll never see; the insanity and wonder of a planet in a solar system that is perhaps just beyond the reach of reason or heaven. The group's sonic experimentations transmute outwardly. Like spiritualized without the freely falling dope, Sigur Rós is a cerebral, ecstatic combo that celebrates density of execution and hypnotic airiness. Ridiculously moving.
--outof_Nowhere, RYM
#99. Blondie | Parallel Lines (1978)I had to interrupt and stop this conversation
Your voice across the line gives me a strange sensation
I'd like to talk when I can show you my affection
The impact of “Heart of Glass” has been dulled over the years by rampant overexposure, constantly recycled on budget disco compilations and new wave collections, but hearing it on Parallel Lines emphasizes its virtues. The fact that hard-core club-goers of the era might repudiate the song’s viability in favor of, say, anything from the Salsoul label, is beside the point. “Heart of Glass” was the sound of a band with unapologetic pop aspirations and firm underground roots. It bridged two sensibilities that were diametrically opposed to one another.
--Christian John Wikane, Popmatters
#98. Lou Reed | Transformer (1972)Just a perfect day
Drink Sangria in the park
And then later
When it gets dark, we go home
Thirty years on, Transformer still sounds startlingly fresh, free from many of the clichés that taint other similarly minded records of the period. It also works as an interesting diversion from most of VU's work: where they clearly had a full-band aesthetic, and often leaned toward the avant-garde, Transformer took the strong pop undercurrent that ran throughout their records and indulged. It's still fascinating to hear Reed outside the messy underproduction of the Velvets, yet even with Bowie and Ronson broadening the arrangements, Transformer feels remarkably natural. Their production work was so loaded that, were it not for the incredibly focused songs beneath, it might have been overbearing. But with a solid base, the ornate arrangements help bring these songs to life, lending Reed's music a broader palette. Lou himself, by contrast, sounds as intimate as ever on the record's more sedate tracks, crooning in a sensitive lilt that maintains his blissful, effortless cool.
--Matthew Stephens, Pitchfork
#97. Led Zeppelin | Physical Graffiti (1975)Talk in song from tongues of lilting grace
Sounds caress my ear
And not a word I heard could I relate
The story was quite clear
Physical Graffiti is an exhausting, whirlwind 82 minutes. And it’s shocking how much territory Zeppelin covered even during the Headley Grange sessions: mystical, progressive hard-rock (“In My Time of Dying,” “In the Light”), metallic funk (the clavinet-tinged “Trampled Under Foot,” “Custard Pie”), Eastern-symphonic bombast (“Kashmir”). No doubt, Graffiti would have made a killer single LP—but it’s infinitely more fascinating in its scattershot final form. The country-rock of “Down By the Seaside” would have never fit stylistically on Led Zeppelin IV, but its soulful tremolo twang makes perfect sense within Graffiti’s hodgepodge; ditto Page’s shimmering acoustic instrumental “Bron-Yr-Aur” (tracked for the third album in 1970) and the tossed-off 1972 blues jam “Black Country Woman,” during which Page tosses off a tasty harmonica solo and Bonham’s bass drum thumps like a goddamn marching band.
--Ryan Reed, Paste
#96. Kate Bush | Hounds of Love (1985)But every time it rains
You're here in my head
Like the sun coming out
Ooh, I just know that something good is going to happen
And I don't know when
But just saying it could even make it happen
Kate Bush's obsession with the supernatural has always been a perforating theme across her illustrious discography, but on no other is it represented quite so dauntingly and chillingly as Hounds Of Love. The impeccable juxtaposition of Bush's angelic vocal and a series of beautifully arranged chamber-derived orchestrated production ties together what would become considered widely as one of the greatest albums of the 1980's. And if the aesthetic approach of the release isn't jawdropping enough, the themes of femininity, isolation, and relationships are presented more vividly than a movie, and do all the more to showcase the amount of talent as well as meaning that is wrapped into this project even outside of the already stunning vocal of Kate Bush.
--HotOpinions, RYM
I meant to say "that wasn't the point."andyd1010 wrote:Well yeah, I know that, but I still have no idea what you were trying to say with "because that wasn't the Police by."StevieFan13 wrote:That, Andy, was a typo.
I'll admit I haven't heard Red all the way through, but from the two songs I did hear, there was a lot less structure and consonance. I'm not into jazz, and there's a good portion of Starless where they play a lot of notes really quickly that aren't in a particular key and sound dissonant together - I have a hard time enjoying that kind of music. But I have been meaning to give the whole album a listen, and maybe it will work better together as a whole.Jackson wrote:Interesting the In the Court of the Crimson King beat Red by so many places. Both are great, but if you like one, why not the other?
#95. Beck | Odelay (1996)Pick yourself up off the side of the road
With your elevator bones and your whip-flash tones
Members only, hyponotizers
Move through the room like ambulance drivers
1996’s Odelay found Beck collecting the grooves of generations past and reshaping them into a postmodern tapestry, merging countless samples and styles into one cohesive whole. The resolute confidence with which he accomplishes his sonic experiment becomes all the more important when considering the album’s cultural implications: Odelay isn’t just the product of one artist, it’s a defining statement of an entire generation in the throes of finding its own voice.
--Paul Schrodt, Slant
#94. Van Morrison | Moondance (1970)And when that foghorn blows I will be coming home
And when that foghorn blows I want to hear it
I don't have to fear it
I want to rock your gypsy soul
Just like way back in the days of old
Then magnificently we will float into the mystic
Van Morrison's music cannot really be imitated, because, as with Dylan's music, what one hears is not style, but personality. With each record — Them Again, Astral Weeks, or Moondance — one gets a sense that Van has achieved some ancient familiarity with his band and with his songs; no matter how the music changes, the long inventions of Van's singing, his full command of the musicians that play with him, and the striking imagination of a consciousness that is visionary in the strongest sense of the word create an atmosphere that instantly sets its own terms. Morrison's powers are clear: his strong gift for melody, his ability to move freely within virtually any sort of contemporary instrumentation, his verbal magic as inventive and literate as Dylan's, and most of all, the authenticity of his spirit.
--Rolling Stone
#93. Elton John | Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)Hey kids, plug into the faithless
Maybe they're blinded
But Bennie makes them ageless
We shall survive, let us take ourselves along
Where we fight our parents out in the streets
To find who's right and who's wrong
It was designed to be a blockbuster and it was. Prior to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John had hits -- his second album, Elton John, went Top 10 in the U.S. and U.K., and he had smash singles in "Crocodile Rock" and "Daniel" -- but this 1973 album was a statement of purpose spilling over two LPs, which was all the better to showcase every element of John's spangled personality. Opening with the 11-minute melodramatic exercise "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" -- as prog as Elton ever got -- Goodbye Yellow Brick Road immediately embraces excess but also tunefulness, as John immediately switches over to "Candle in the Wind" and "Bennie & the Jets," two songs that form the core of his canon and go a long way toward explaining the over-stuffed appeal of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. This was truly the debut of Elton John the entertainer, the pro who knows how to satisfy every segment of his audience, and this eagerness to please means the record is giddy but also overwhelming, a rush of too much muchness.
--Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Allmusic
#92. The Cure | Disintegration (1989)Oh, I miss the kiss of treachery
The shameless kiss of vanity
The soft and the black and the velvety
Up tight against the side of me
And mouth and eyes and heart all bleed
And run in thickening streams of greed
As bit by bit it starts the need
To just let go my party piece
Weighing in at over 72 gloriously claustrophobic minutes, Disintegration was a mass of self-pity, crocodilian remorse and existential angst set to a backdrop of ocean-sized keyboards, dense guitars and a relentless intensity that pulled the listener under. However, as was typical of The Cure, a generous helping of twinkling melodies provided perfectly-spaced gulps of oxygen and ensured Disintegration contained some of The Cure's finest songs, be it the ominous plod of 'Lullaby', the cascading emo-pop of 'Pictures Of You' or the utterly monumental vent spleen of the title track.
--John Freeman, TheQuietus
#91. Leonard Cohen | Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967)You met him at some temple, where
They take your clothes at the door.
He was just a numberless man in a chair
Who'd just come back from the war.
And you wrap up his tired face in your hair
And he hands you the apple core.
Then he touches your lips now so suddenly bare
Of all the kisses we put on some time before.
. Cohen's trademark, in his early, brilliant years at least, is an apparently rambling discourse on some convoluted human relationship that invariably takes an interesting position on the fluid sexual politics of the time – remember, Cohen was putting his most classic work together in the late 60s high summer of free love and the permissive revolution. The Stranger Song isn't simply the chronicle of some hippie-era love machine, it's about complicated emotional lives on both sides of the gender divide: "But now another stranger seems/ to want you to ignore his dreams/ as though they were the burden of some other." Compared to your traditional love song, Hey That's No Way to Say Goodbye sees far beyond the demands of the moment in its upbeat fatalism of post-breakup friendship: "You know my love goes with you as your love stays with me/ it's just the way it changes, like the shoreline and the sea." And though it sounds sleazy, Sisters of Mercy is as chaste a depiction of a menage a trois as it's possible to get: "And you won't make me jealous if I hear that they sweetened your night/ We weren't lovers like that and besides it would still be all right." In fact, this is Cohen's special skill, to sound like he's been around the block so many times he's come out the other side; he can stick up for old-fashioned moral values from a position from deep inside the hippy gender war.
--Andrew Pulver, The Guardian
I can see why In the Court is more liked by some (it definitely has the group's best known song, and arguably their two best known tracks), but I basically view the two albums as equals.Jackson wrote: Interesting the In the Court of the Crimson King beat Red by so many places. Both are great, but if you like one, why not the other?
You should try what antonius suggested: one of Tom's first two albums ("Closing Time" is your best bet). Try the song "Martha" to see what he could do with his "normal" voice. That said, I see Tom's vocals post mid-70s as a feature, not as a flaw. [Unlike say, Billy Corgan: many people consider his voice annoying but I got used to it, just I wouldn't say that it's one of the things that makes Smashing Pumpkins great for me.] So those early Tom Waits albums, while having some pretty enjoyable material, are never as great as what he would do later, but may be the best way to introduce him to someone having trouble with his later vocals.Henry wrote: Thanks for the Tom Waits suggestions. [...] my appreciation for the lyrics, compositions and performances are starting to help me get there despite the less than enjoyable vocals.
andyd1010 wrote:What are you trying to say in that last sentence, Stevie? Overall I get what you're saying, but I still have the same issues as Henry. I'm not a poetry fan; I'm a music fan - music can't be "all about the lyrics" or else it's not about the music anymore. The music needs to be compelling. I agree that production can make relatively unmelodic rap interesting, and I see how Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys were innovative in their production styles. But by the time I got into rap, artists like Kanye West had already taken production to the next level. And there are so many socially conscious songs with powerful lyrics and great musical backdrops. So by comparison, I have a hard time getting into many of the rap acts Henry mentioned.StevieFan13 wrote:I sense a theme. Rap isn't really supposed to be melodic, in the same way that poetry isn't supposed to be melodic. That isn't the point...For two of the rap groups you name, Public Enemy were very much against melody, because that wasn't the Police by.
Fair enough. Lyrics are important. He did say “all about the lyrics,” which is going too far.BleuPanda wrote:andyd1010 wrote:What are you trying to say in that last sentence, Stevie? Overall I get what you're saying, but I still have the same issues as Henry. I'm not a poetry fan; I'm a music fan - music can't be "all about the lyrics" or else it's not about the music anymore. The music needs to be compelling. I agree that production can make relatively unmelodic rap interesting, and I see how Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys were innovative in their production styles. But by the time I got into rap, artists like Kanye West had already taken production to the next level. And there are so many socially conscious songs with powerful lyrics and great musical backdrops. So by comparison, I have a hard time getting into many of the rap acts Henry mentioned.StevieFan13 wrote:I sense a theme. Rap isn't really supposed to be melodic, in the same way that poetry isn't supposed to be melodic. That isn't the point...For two of the rap groups you name, Public Enemy were very much against melody, because that wasn't the Police by.
Why can't music be mainly about the lyrics? Isn't a rather important part of musical history its use of passing down tales?
I feel like you're trying to define what music is in a way that discredits styles of music you don't like instead of admitting you, like everyone else, have your own set of biases.
I also don't see how you can view Kanye West as an extension of Public Enemy. Kanye West has always been about a smooth production style, while Public Enemy intentionally carries a rough edge. Even if their both 'rap,' their production style is almost nothing alike. Public Enemy's aggressive jabs wouldn't work with a focus on melody. This music isn't supposed to be easy to listen to.
Well 'millions' implies 2 or more million. So maybe hundreds of thousands would be closer to the literal truth.luvulongTIM wrote:One of my favorite bands the Cocteau Twins, make up their own language I believe so lyrically I have no idea what they’re singing about but boy can Liz sing. And their influence can be heard in literally millions of bands that have followed.
Yeesus is anything but smoothBleuPanda wrote:andyd1010 wrote:What are you trying to say in that last sentence, Stevie? Overall I get what you're saying, but I still have the same issues as Henry. I'm not a poetry fan; I'm a music fan - music can't be "all about the lyrics" or else it's not about the music anymore. The music needs to be compelling. I agree that production can make relatively unmelodic rap interesting, and I see how Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys were innovative in their production styles. But by the time I got into rap, artists like Kanye West had already taken production to the next level. And there are so many socially conscious songs with powerful lyrics and great musical backdrops. So by comparison, I have a hard time getting into many of the rap acts Henry mentioned.StevieFan13 wrote:I sense a theme. Rap isn't really supposed to be melodic, in the same way that poetry isn't supposed to be melodic. That isn't the point...For two of the rap groups you name, Public Enemy were very much against melody, because that wasn't the Police by.
Why can't music be mainly about the lyrics? Isn't a rather important part of musical history its use of passing down tales?
I feel like you're trying to define what music is in a way that discredits styles of music you don't like instead of admitting you, like everyone else, have your own set of biases.
I also don't see how you can view Kanye West as an extension of Public Enemy. Kanye West has always been about a smooth production style, while Public Enemy intentionally carries a rough edge. Even if their both 'rap,' their production style is almost nothing alike. Public Enemy's aggressive jabs wouldn't work with a focus on melody. This music isn't supposed to be easy to listen to.
Probably why Yeezus is one of my least favorites of his.VanillaFire1000 wrote:Yeesus is anything but smoothBleuPanda wrote:andyd1010 wrote: What are you trying to say in that last sentence, Stevie? Overall I get what you're saying, but I still have the same issues as Henry. I'm not a poetry fan; I'm a music fan - music can't be "all about the lyrics" or else it's not about the music anymore. The music needs to be compelling. I agree that production can make relatively unmelodic rap interesting, and I see how Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys were innovative in their production styles. But by the time I got into rap, artists like Kanye West had already taken production to the next level. And there are so many socially conscious songs with powerful lyrics and great musical backdrops. So by comparison, I have a hard time getting into many of the rap acts Henry mentioned.
Why can't music be mainly about the lyrics? Isn't a rather important part of musical history its use of passing down tales?
I feel like you're trying to define what music is in a way that discredits styles of music you don't like instead of admitting you, like everyone else, have your own set of biases.
I also don't see how you can view Kanye West as an extension of Public Enemy. Kanye West has always been about a smooth production style, while Public Enemy intentionally carries a rough edge. Even if their both 'rap,' their production style is almost nothing alike. Public Enemy's aggressive jabs wouldn't work with a focus on melody. This music isn't supposed to be easy to listen to.
Just as at a general glance I would say hip-hop is doing better compared to the 2014 poll.
#90. Bruce Springsteen | Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)On a rattlesnake speedway in the Utah desert
I pick up my money and head back into town
Driving cross the Waynesboro county line
I got the radio on and I'm just killing time
Working all day in my daddy's garage
Driving all night chasing some mirage
Pretty soon little girl I'm gonna take charge
It's probably fair to say that after the rose-tinted romantic idealism of Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen needed to offer his audience something a little more down to earth and produce an album that dealt with what happens when those same dreams give way to a reality of daily struggle and broken hearts. Darkness on the Edge of Town is that album and it's a belter.
Darkness on the Edge of Town finds The Boss at his most empathetic and least annoying. This isn't the sound of audio escapism, this is an audio documentary of the unvarnished story of day to day toil and struggle in an everyday town, an album full of characters that deserve to live the dream but find it consistently just out of their grasp and are therefore left to celebrate the few tiny victories in their life which are punctuated by huge gaping chasms of mundanity or heartache.
--p_q, RYM
#89. Bruce Springsteen | Born in the U.S.A. (1984)Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go
Though it looks at hard times, at little people in little towns choosing between going away and getting left behind, Born in the U.S.A, Bruce Springsteen's seventh album, has a rowdy, indomitable spirit. Two guys pull into a hick town begging for work in "Darlington County," but Springsteen is whooping with sha-la-las in the chorus. He may shove his broody characters out the door and send them cruising down the turnpike, but he gives them music they can pound on the dashboard to.
He's set songs as well drawn as those on his bleak acoustic album, Nebraska, to music that incorporates new electronic textures while keeping as its heart all of the American rock & roll from the early Sixties. Like the guys in the songs, the music was born in the U.S.A.: Springsteen ignored the British Invasion and embraced instead the legacy of Phil Spector's releases, the sort of soul that was coming from Atlantic Records and especially the garage bands that had anomalous radio hits. He's always chased the utopian feeling of that music, and here he catches it with a sophisticated production and a subtle change in surroundings — the E Street Band cools it with the saxophone solos and piano arpeggios — from song to song.
--Debby Miller, Rolling Stone
#88. Arcade Fire | The Suburbs (2010)They heard me singing and they told me to stop,
Quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock,
These days, my life, I feel it has no purpose,
But late at night the feelings swim to the surface.
'Cause on the suburbs the city lights shine,
They're calling at me, 'come and find your kind.'
With The Suburbs, Win Butler has never felt more human. As epic and sweeping and emotional a record like Funeral may be, there’s something distant about its songs. Take “Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)” or “Rebellion (Lies)”, for instance. They’re wonderful, they’re classics, but they lack a certain connection. The former remains an aggressive rocker, letting the distortion overtake everything, while the latter comes across as a church anthem, designed to ignite audiences and not just individuals. Now, take a song like “Wake Up”, which is arguably just as hard-hitting as the aforementioned, and notice the difference in intimacy. It’s less alien than “Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)” and far more direct than “Rebellion (Lies)”. When Butler exclaims, “I guess we’ll just have to adjust,” there’s no question that you don’t feel he’s speaking right at you, tugging at your sleeve to come along for whatever journey he’s about to go on. That’s a beautiful thing, right? Okay, focus on that feeling and you’re close to how the majority of the songs feel here. It’s an important nerve to strike, especially given the record’s lyrical context.
The idea behind The Suburbs is simple, if not universal. It’s about aging. Of course it’s deeper than that, but if you were to summarize all the underlying emotions and just cut right to the chase, it’s really about coming to grips with the full package that is growing up. Incentives include: cutting off friends, figuring out what to do with nagging memories that still seem so important, discovering the ugly truths and illusions of childhood, and the evolution of everyone’s inner morals. Fuck, if you don’t think that’s one hell of an ambitious agenda for a rock album, then, well, you should probably stick to classical literature, instead.
--Michael Roffman, Consequence of Sound
#87. Led Zeppelin | II (1969)If the sun refused to shine, I would still be loving you.
When mountains crumble to the sea, there will still be you and me.
Led Zeppelin II has been called, and held responsible for, many things. From the birth of heavy metal and the first example of a shredding guitar solo to the end of The Beatles reign as Kings of the music world. Far more consistent in quality than most peoples preferred choice of IV Led Zep II is the album that perfectly blends all of their styles. There is plenty of blues, and more original blues too, than on the first album. There is the sheer power of hard rock and yet there is still plenty of hippy folkiness and sixties ideology on offer too.
--Martin Leedham, RYM
#86. The Beatles | Magical Mystery Tour (1967)Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see
It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out
It doesn't matter much to me
Let me take you down, cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about
Strawberry Fields forever
In almost every instance on those singles, the Beatles are either whimsical or borderline simplistic, releasing songs that don't seem sophisticated or heavy or monumental (even though most of them are). In that sense, they're all like "All You Need Is Love" or childhood memories or Lewis Carroll-- easy to love, fit for all ages, rich in multi-textual details, deceptively trippy (see Paul's "Penny Lane" in particular, with images of it raining despite blue skies, or the songs here that revel in contradictions-- "Hello Goodbye"'s title, the verses in "All You Need Is Love"). More than any other place in the band's catalogue, this is where the group seems to crack open a unique world, and for many young kids then and since this was their introduction to music as imagination, or adventure. The rest of the Magical Mystery Tour LP is the opposite of the middle four tracks on the EP-- songs so universal that, like "Yellow Submarine", they are practically implanted in your brain from birth. Seemingly innocent, completely soaked through with humor and fantasy, Magical Mystery Tour slots in my mind almost closer to the original Willy Wonka or The Wizard of Oz as it does other Beatles records or even other music-- timeless entertainment crafted with a childlike curiosity and appeal but filled with wit and wonder.
--Scott Plagenhoef, Pitchfork