posted 10-30-2000 05:02 AM               

1-3) Lifes Rich Pageant, Automatic for the People, New Adventures in Hi-Fi, all by R.E.M. It will become abundantly clear in the future, if it is not already, that I am a huge R.E.M. fan. I will not bore you with details, until Kevin and I get our hands on their next album. But these three discs are my favorites, and each strikes me as the culmination of a phase in the band’s career. It may be nearly impossible to tell what the heck Michael Stipe is saying in half these songs, but you can always tell what he’s feeling, thanks in no small part to the musicianship of Bill Berry, Peter Buck and Mike Mills. Check out “Fall on Me”, “Nightswimming” and “Leave” if you don’t believe me.

4) In Reverse by Matthew Sweet. I almost feel sorry for the guy. Ten years of putting out pretty solid work and people have been asking him when he’d do something as good as Girlfriend. His latest album, from 1999, does just that. The thing is just beautiful to listen to, with the usual layers of guitar and vocal harmonies augmented by more diverse instrumentation than Sweet’s used in the past. My wife considers Sweet’s voice whiny, and I can see where she gets the idea, but I think his lyrics add some emotional texture to the music, and his voice serves the lyrics well. “Future Shock,” “What Matters” and parts of “Thunderstorm” are among the CD’s high points.

posted 10-30-2000 05:11 AM               

2. Turnstiles, Billy Joel. There will always be a warm place in my heart for Billy Joel and especially for this particular effort. The reasons for this are pretty obvious: I was born in 1976 (the year it was released) in New York City (yup, “New York State of Mind” is on it) and my dad played it constantly on our state-of-the art turntable in our seventies-chic den. There is another reason, however: track six. The Prelude to “Angry Young Man” is my all-time favorite piano work from Joel. I would point out that many of the truly exceptional songs on this album did not make it onto Greatest Hits I and II, which I feel bad about. So maybe my affinity for Turnstiles comes from that fact that I see it as the little Joel album that could. By the way, the copy that I listen to isn’t mine so many thanks to my husband for bringing it into the marriage. My dad would not have been pleased if I swiped his vinyl.

3. Fumbling Towards Ecstacy, Sarah McLachlan. Talk about your mood music. Feeling introspective? Need to mellow out and unplug? No? Well listen to this CD anyway, it’s darn good. I don’t want to give the impression that this is elevator music with lyrics because I use it to unwind. That would be a crime because a) the music and lyrics are too beautiful and have far too much depth to be called that and b) when I’m really tense, I can make coffee nervous so a ballad does not have to be sleepy to do the job. My favorites: “Good Enough” and “Hold On.”

4. The Key, Vince Gill. Want to know the fastest way to show you’re not the hippest girl in your college dorm? Hang a Vince Gill poster in your room. It works particularly well if you’re from New York and people assumed you were going to be the cool, street smart one. You’ll want to have a camera on hand for the funny looks you’ll get. Nevertheless, I’d be happy to endure all those looks again if Vince keeps putting out albums like this one. He’s always been one of my favorite artists because of his wonderful ballads, phenomenal guitar abilities and, of course, great voice. This particular effort is proof that the best country comes straight from the heart as he turned some personal crises into powerful music. I love: “Don’t Come Crying to Me” and “What They All Call Love.” Easily one of my smarter purchases, poster not included.

5. Greatest Hits, The Judds. I tried. I swear I did. I made a rule that I wasn’t going to list a Greatest Hits compilation as one of my top five. I felt it was cheating. Well, I’m breaking that rule. For one thing, it’s pretty darn hard to leave out a GH album when talking about country because there are so many of them. Don’t believe me? Take a gander in the country section of your music provider; country artists who’ve been around for only four or five years will put out a GH collection. I don’t know why, but they do. Secondly, I’ve always felt that this album is more of a story about the state of county in the early eighties than a compilation. Most of the female country artists I respect today have given major credit to the Judds for their focus on clean, simple song writing and melodies. Included among them, the aforementioned Chicks, Kathy Mattea, Trisha Yearwood, and Martina McBride. (You’ll notice the absence of a certain Shania and Faith, there are reasons for that which you probably don’t want me to go into right now.) Like those artists, I love this album because it reminds me of just how good traditional country music is at telling stories. Good examples of this: “Grandpa” and “Why Not Me.”

posted 10-30-2000 05:25 AM               

Before I describe my fave albums, I should point out that I have changed locations approximately 6,453 times in the past four years, and as a result, my CD collection has become badly fragmented. Sadly, I’ve lost some old favorites and surely forgotten many of them. When I read Dave’s list, I had completely forgotten Puzzle and the times I played it for days on end, surely annoying my neighbors. When I came home to listen to it, I couldn’t find it. Bummer.

So, here they are: Kevin’s Five Faves, more subject to change than the X-Men’s roster:

(1) Dave went with three R.E.M. albums as his top choices, but as much as I love the boys from Georgia, I’ve chosen to limit my selection to one so as not to create an imbalance. The winner is New Adventures in Hi-Fi. I feel this disc is the best representation of the band’s evolution. Songs like “So Fast, So Numb” and “Electrolite” hearken back to R.E.M.’s early days while still being wholly, unmistakably modern. You can hear tones of Lifes Rich Pageant in “The Wake-Up Bomb,” but there’s also a clear post-Automatic for the People feeling there. And “Low Desert” and “Leave” are nothing short of amazing, the kinds of tunes that make you want to wear sunglasses and look unconcerned. Great stuff.

(2) I had a choice here between Sarah McLachlan’s The Freedom Sessions and Shawn Colvin’s Steady On. Both are mellower than a Guinness on a warm night, both sound great when you’re alone with the lights turned down, and both are great tools if you need to get a roomful of people happy in a hurry. I used Colvin’s album as dinner music when I deejayed a friend’s wedding, and it was one of about twenty or thirty perfect moments I’ve been lucky enough to witness. But the trophy has to go to McLachlan here. Lots of albums can mellow you out (Vince Guaraldi’s A Boy Named Charlie Brown and Suzanne Vega’s Nine Objects of Desire achieve this to a degree few others can). The Freedom Sessions, a collection of acoustic versions of songs from Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, mellows on about fifty different levels. Starting with the grinding, sweaty sexuality of “Elsewhere,” the disc traverses a number of emotions - longing, serene satisfaction, uncertainty, love - before it lands at “Ol’ 55,” a cover of a Tom Waits song (which, incidentally, is also covered by Colvin on a b-side somewhere). I remember coming home from a party that lasted until about 5 a.m., and my then-roommate Karl was listening to the song. Watching the stars fade and frost form on the cars outside my window, I listened with Karl and realized how really great my life was at that point. Without the song, the moment would have passed unnoticed. McLachlan has performed pretty disappointingly since the birth of the Lilith Fair (Motto: “A Celebration of Women’s Music and Four-Dollar Spring Water”), but her warbling lilt and the comfort that accompanies it will never fade from this album. A postscript: One unfortunate thing about The Freedom Sessions is that it’s an early attempt at Enhanced CD technology. The first track is multimedia information that’s unreadable by CD players. It makes shuffling the disc impossible, but this is a disc that should be enjoyed as it is presented. The most annoying part: It also makes repeating the disc impossible.

(3) Dave is going to either mock me incessantly or outright kill me for putting Liquid Todd’s Action on this list. In high school, I believed there was a direct link between techno music (in all its forms, particularly house techno) and global warming. In the intervening years, however, my tastes have broadened substantially. (I didn’t even complain when Shannon, another former roommate, downloaded N’Sync to my hard drive. N’Sync!) That said, Action is an instant party. I’ve only just been getting into serious techno, and I honestly have no idea whether this disc - or DJ Liquid Todd himself - is taken seriously in rave circles. Fatboy Slim and the Chemical Brothers are featured on the disc, and I don’t know whether they’re considered gods in tech circles, or whether they’re passe because they’ve gotten substantial radio play. Neither of those artists are the highlight of the disc, however. That honor belongs to the Dub Pistols, whose “Cyclone,” with its cool rap vocals that take the listener by surprise, urges me to shake my groove thing more than any song I’ve ever heard. “Cyclone,” like all the other tunes, is deftly tossed into the mix by Todd, who is a master at letting your ass know it’s hearing a song before your brain does. If Todd ever plays at a club in Pittsburgh or Philly, don’t let me go. Afterwards, I won’t be able to move my sore legs for weeks.

(4) Jaime, my current roommate, plays Warhammer 40,000, a game that pits armies composed of handpainted models against each other. He recently bid a total of $272 on eBay for three or four models - fiscally, not the wisest move he could’ve made, but he felt damn good doing it. That’s sort of how I feel about adding Shonen Knife’s Happy Hour to this list. Musically, there are better selections, but this disc is just so much fun I couldn’t resist. Consider the lyrics to “His Pet:” “It can understand your words/ Always has a strange look on its face/ It can swim very fast like a torpedo shark/ It’s a multicolored carp/ Dressed in black, red and white/ Growing bigger and bigger/ Gills, gills, gills, gills.” Really! There’s no meaning here! It’s about a fish! Fish are actually a recurring theme on Happy Hour, which, like Shonen Knife themselves, is kind of a neo-Hello Kitty Japanese feminist thing. From the girly fun of “Sushi Bar” (“I wanna go to a sushi bar/ I wanna go with you/ Hamachi, ika, ebi, tako/ Maguro, Kaibashira”) to the Kafka-by-way-of-Sailor-Moon kookiness of “Fish Eyes” (“My God! I’ve got fish eyes! My God! I’ve got fish eyes! My God! I’ve got fish eyes!”), the piscean plays a major role on this disc. But it’s not all about the decorative carp; on other songs, the Knife girls sing the praises of cookies, banana chips, hot chocolate and that sheep that got cloned. Happy Hour also features some masterful jangle-pop guitar work by Naoko Yamano, and apparently the Presidents of the United States of America appear on the disc, but being unfamiliar with anything but “Lump” (which I enjoyed), I can’t tell where. The disc finishes up with a great rendition of “Daydream Believer” which is worth the price of the disc.

(5) Jazz is one of those things you feel reluctant to talk about unless you’re a walking encyclopedia on the topic, since just about every jazz fan seems to have (or at least, pretend to have) extensive knowledge about eveihry album ever made involving a trumpet or tenor sax. That said, it’s hard to explain why I’m putting John Coltrane’s Blue Train on this list. There may be a lot of Blue Train I’m not getting simply because my knowledge of jazz is pretty inadequate. But I do know how proud I feel when I invite a friend to my apartment and the friend arrives about halfway through the disc. There’s something unquestioningly cool about walking into a room where there’s some great tenor sax playing, and Blue Train captures that coolness better than any other Coltrane album I’ve heard. If Action is a party on a disc, Coltrane’s signature work is chicken Marsala and great conversation on a disc.

posted 11-05-2000 07:53 PM               

2)Dookie: Green Day. Green Day used to be my fav. but then I started get into hard rock and my friends started to think I was a little weird because I didn't like rap. I still do like hard rock but now my fav is Alternative because it is rock lyrics but a rap wannabe beat.

3)The Wall: Pink Floyd. This is a great album I think because it tells a story, I'm not sure about what, but on a long car trip it is soothing and will make me go to sleep and that should make the ride go faster.

4)Bad Hair Day: Weird Al. This is a very special CD for me because it was the first CD I got and it's so special to me. What the heck am I saying it's just freakin' hilarious.

5)Greatest hits: Simpsons. This isn't anything big I just think it's very funny.

posted 11-05-2000 08:55 PM               

1)Nirvana, Nevermind. A great album in my opinion. Okay so the cover is kinda sick, but I love it. Smells Like Teen Spirit sets the tone for the album well. The first 6 seconds with the guitar rifts really strikes a chord with me(no pun intended). The other tracks provide an outlet for anger as well.

2, 3, 4)Metallica, Master of Puppets, The Black Album, andS&M. As an avid fan of the heavy metal, I really enjoy Metallica. Master of Puppets is all about domination. The title track has to be the best with over a minute of guitar and drum solos, It ROCKS. The Black Album is about the strange and "evilness" of the world. S&M is the most moving, I think. When you hear those Metallica classics with the whole string ensemble, it's enough to send goosebumps down your back.

posted 11-07-2000 02:35 AM               

1. Soundtrack from "Sleepless in Seattle": I am a sucker for soundtracks. Probably because you tend to get a somewhat ecclectic collection of music. This one's not as good as "When Harry Met Sally" on my personal soundtrack rating scale, but it's a keeper.

2. "Phantom of the Opera" orignial cast recording: I'm a nut for musicals. Ironically, not that much of a nut for Gilbert and Sullivan, however. This is always good to screech to in traffic. Yes, I screech, I do not sing. At least not well.

3. "This Desert Life" Counting Crows: out of the 3 CD's of theirs that I have, this is the most well balanced of the bunch. Plus, happy, head-bobbing tunes!

4. "Tuesday Night Music Club" Sheryl Crow: great album, still. Great songs. Good variety between sappy and angry. Her voice is great. Plus, references to "Santa Monica Blvd" make me wax nostalgic for my youth in LA.

5. "Unforgettable Fire" U2: I still can't get enough of U2. I first heard them on KROQ when I was about 11. The lyrics, on this album especially, are beautiful. Once again, makes me think of college and my spotting of Bono and the Edge eating pizza in Westwood.

6. "Dookie" Green Day: Fast, loud, and mostly angry. Nothing better when you are stuck behind a million dotcom-ers in horrific traffic. I guarantee it!

Can I just add, to whomever mentioned Tool, I normally can't stand metal bands. And it's not like I don't hear them, Mr. sl is a guitar player who loves metal riffs. I constantly hear bands such as GWAR, Forbidden, Angel of Death, and such. I love Tool. They have some of the best (and convinently, understandable) lyrics out there. Especially about pain, despair, hurt, and basically being treated poorly. Highly recommended. And this is coming from a gal who revels in early '80's new wave and punk with an undying passion. Tool's even more depressing than the Smiths.

And, if for some strange reason, this doesn't tell you all you want to know about my musical tastes, you may want to read my review of an '80's mix tape. Or not.

[Edited to say, after a darn year of these UBB boards, you would think I could link stuff. You'd be wrong.]

posted 11-13-2000 04:33 PM            

5. Talking Heads, Remain In Light

This one sometimes fights with "Fear Of Music" in my book for best Talking Heads album ever, but it usually wins. The combination of American funk with African rhythms (plus David Byrne's ever-weird lyrics) makes this, in my opinion, one of the best records ever.

4. Public Enemy, Fear Of A Black Planet

First off: Chuck D is the greatest rapper EVER. Seriously. Secondly, this record (and its predecessor, It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back) brought political realities to the masses as opposed to the party atmosphere that dominated early rap and the gangsta styles that followed.

3. Radiohead, OK Computer

A beautifully produced, wonderfully written ode to future shock, depression and paranoia. Enough said.

2. Nine Inch Nails, The Downward Spiral

Sometimes a bit of a stretch in these enlightened post-Trent days, but this record still ranks very high in my personal list. Trent married extreme noise to pop melodies and came out with one of the coolest records of the early 90's. Also, at the age of 16, this was the best thing I had ever heard.

1. Faith No More, Angel Dust

posted 11-14-2000 11:35 AM               

I thought this would be a good place to get my feet wet. There's been quite a bit of good stuff posted here -- the REM, Tool's "Undertow," and Faith No More's "Angel Dust" (one of the most underated albums of the 90's, in my opinion) come to mind. Here's what I can offer:

1) Yo La Tengo: Almost anything, but especially "I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One" and "And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out." Much like Neil Young, Hoboken's finest (Frank who?) write songs ranging from the achingly quiet and beautiful to feedback laden rockers.

2) "Phantom Power:" The Tragically Hip. Why haven't these guys broken big in the US? In their native Canada, they sell out hockey arenas and stadiums, but they're virtually unknown here. Straight-ahead, Stones influenced rock without any bells or whistles. Lead singer Gord Downie may be the best lyricist I've ever heard, and that's what sets them apart.

3) "If You're Feeling Sinister:" Belle and Sebastian. If you like The Smiths, this is a band not to be missed. Infectiously catchy (yet semi-depressing) songs.

4) I'm also into the emo-rock, slow-core, or whatever you want to call it movement. Bands like Low, Mogwai, and godspeed you black emperor! are really pushing the boundaries of what a "song" means. These bands tend to write long, slow instrumentals which build into something very dramatic.

posted 11-14-2000 10:14 PM               

Double-P, are you a Simpsons fan? The episode "D'oh-in' in the Wind" replaces the normal theme song with a version performed by Yo La Tengo.

(Edited to fix Homer's catchphrase, and again to fix my idiot coding errors.)

[This message has been edited by Kevin Ott (edited 11-14-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Kevin Ott (edited 11-15-2000).]

posted 12-29-2000 07:38 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by slgorman:
3. "This Desert Life" Counting Crows: out of the 3 CD's of theirs that I have, this is the most well balanced of the bunch. Plus, happy, head-bobbing tunes!

---

I just reread this thread, and I'm in shock. Counting Crows did an album with happy songs? And of course that's the album I decide not to get. (The end of "Hangingaround" just goes on way, way, way, way, too long.)

quote:

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4. "Tuesday Night Music Club" Sheryl Crow: great album, still. Great songs. Good variety between sappy and angry. Her voice is great. Plus, references to "Santa Monica Blvd" make me wax nostalgic for my youth in LA.

---

This is really odd, because many of the singles from this album had me convinced that Crow couldn't sing all that well and that some of her lyric writing needed work, but the singles from Globe Sessions really grabbed me, and I'm gonna have to borrow Alie's copy of it as soon as possible.

5. "Unforgettable Fire" U2: I still can't get enough of U2.

For some reason I disliked U2 when I was in grade school. I also grew up listening mostly to Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond and Hall & Oates, so I hope that explains some of it. By Achtung Baby I had seen the error of my ways, and I think "Mysterious Ways" has a similr nostalgic value for me -- although in this case for high school.

(I tend to associate senior year of high school with Automatic for the People and senior year of college with New Adventures in Hi-Fi; sophomore year of college is tied to Matthew Sweet's 100% Fun, and freshman and junior years for some reason don't have particular albums associated with them. Did nothing good come out in late 95-early 96?)

quote:

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6. "Dookie" Green Day: Fast, loud, and mostly angry. Nothing better when you are stuck behind a million dotcom-ers in horrific traffic. I guarantee it!

---

posted 01-03-2001 02:24 AM               

Oh, while we're still talking about U2 -- "Where the Streets Have No Name" came on the car radio while we were driving over a road that was still covered in snow, and Pattie just looked where the yellowline should've been and shrugged, "Where the Streets Have No Lane."

posted 11-13-2001 02:24 PM               

I'll try to keep it down to five.

If I can.

Not making any promises.

5. Peter Gabriel - "So"
Everyone will probably remember this album for "Sledgehammer" and "Big Time," but it's got some lesser known gems on it, such as "In Your Eyes," "This Is The Picture (excellent birds)," "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)," and my all-time favorite by Pete, "Mercy Street," a song with an intensely personal meaning to me. I still think this is his best work.

4. Alan Parsons Project - "Freudiana"
The critics always said Alan Parsons should do a soundtrack (other than producing the score for "Ladyhawke"), and he did - but it just wasn't for a movie. "Freudiana", apart from being the last time Project founders Parsons and Eric Woolfson worked together, is the studio recording of a musical Woolfson wrote about the life, times, and influence of Sigmund Freud. (Parsons' albums are famous for their highbrow concepts and they're all worth checking out - it's just that this is the best one.) The tones of the songs vary wildly, from loud and fast to soaring ballads to a couple of hilarious songs that sound like Looney Toons composer Carl Stalling had a hand in them. This is as adventurous and eclectic as Parsons has ever gotten - and also as good.

3. Split Enz - "Time + Tide"
The finest hour of the brothers Finn - Tim and Neil, that is - "Time + Tide" was a radical departure in what had previously been a very whimsical, rock-by-way-of-comedia del'arte sound for Split Enz. There are some powerful rock songs on here, all imbued with the Finns' unmistakable harmonies, Eddie Rayner's flashy piano work, and Noel Crombie's eclectic approach to percussion.

2. Crowded House - "Together Alone"
Damn. I can't find this one on Amazon. This is an album which never got the recongition it deserved in the U.S., even though it's an outstanding slice of atmospheric, mesmerizing rock (not an oxymoron, by the way). Neil, Paul and Nick were at their very best here, and the addition of Mark Hart really cemented the band's post-Tim Finn sound. Just flat-out hypnotic in places.

1. Electric Light Orchestra - "Eldorado"
ELO's never really gotten their due, and they're still often held up as poster boys of the disco era, which does their innovations a disservice. "Eldorado" was not only a commercial success, but the perfect marriage between early-era ELO (where there was no session orchestra, but rather the band's own two cellists and one violinist scraping away on several overdubs) and the later, more polished sound everyone remembers. And you can do no wrong with a song like "Laredo Tornado." Highly recommended - and it's just been reissued in a digitally remastered form too. Good stuff with a big, widescreen film score kind of sound.

OK, a few runners-up, including soundtracks:
Tori Amos - "Little Earthquakes"
Art Of Noise - "(Who's Afraid Of?) The Art Of Noise"
The Beatles - "Revolver"
Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet - "The Juliet Letters"
Depeche Mode - "A Broken Frame"
Christopher Franke - "Babylon 5: Sleeping In Light"
Jerry Goldsmith - "Star Trek: The Motion Picture"
Gustav Holst - "The Planets"
Ron Jones - "Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Best Of Both Worlds"
Meco - "Star Wars And Other Galactic Funk"
Hiroshi Miyagawa - "Space Battleship Yamato"
Moody Blues - "Days Of Future Passed"
The Move - "The Move"
Roy Orbison - "Mystery Girl"
Sergei Rachmaninov - Piano Trio No. 2 in D, Op. 9, first movement (Of course, the other two movements are on this CD as well, but I just happen to favor the first.)
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - "Scheherazade"
Raymond Scott - "Reckless Nights And Turkish Twilights"
Carl Stalling - "The Carl Stalling Project, Volume 1"
John Williams - "The Empire Strikes Back"

posted 11-20-2001 11:10 PM               

1. U2; All That You Can't Leave Behind--I was addicted to this the first time I heard it. It's one of those CDs that grows on you. The more you hear it, the more you need to listen to it. Plus, U2 rocks.

2. Sports Night CD--Can I just say here and now, whomever picked out the songs to play "background" during this 2 season run deserves some sort of special accolade. Consider this it. I adore these songs.

3. My own home grown War CD. Yes, that's right. Many months before the current conflict Reuster and I created this CD. And now I am kinda freaked out by our choices.

4. Best of the Smiths, Volume I--I had been searching high and low for this for months and finally decided to pay full price to get a "new" copy of this. Because I had to have it. Owning "Panic" and being able to play it at will has somehow calmed me during these turbulent times. Added bonus, nothing will make you smile like "Girlfriend in a Coma" because of its happy beat and depressing lyrics. You cannot be having a worse day to a happier tune than this song. Ever.

5. Cake, Prolonging the Magic--I cannot be satisfied. The strange combo of lyrics, music, and funky beats has me addicted. 'Satan is my Motor' had me consistently in tears (yes, you need to find the deeper meaning) and 'Alpha Beta Parking Lot' is such a post-modern, pseudo-yuppie attempt at a love song that it had me enthralled. While not as good as the current Comfort Eagle, it certainly has something to say while doing it with a nice little rhythm going on.

6. My own Stalker, Part I CD--Not that I condone this kind of action, but this particular combo of songs keeps me happy during my current 50 mile one way to work. All the time. Do not ask why.

posted 11-23-2001 02:05 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by slgorman:

2. Sports Night CD--Can I just say here and now, whomever picked out the songs to play "background" during this 2 season run deserves some sort of special accolade. Consider this it. I adore these songs.

---

As I have probably stated elsewhere, Neil Finn's 'She Will Have Her Way' is a damn fine song, and was a great episode-closer. I've had it on my MP3 player for months, and it's got an almost march-like quality to it.