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User
Album Ratings 102
Objectivity 33%
Last Active 12-17-10 11:07 pm
Joined 12-17-10
Review Comments 2
| 10 All-time Personal Favorite Albums
Cross: posted from my Last.fm account.rI've always wanted to write a journal entry on here, so I guess now is as good a time to start as any. Music's meant a lot to me my entire life, and I feel like it'd be worthwhile to take a second and reflect back on the albums that have helped develop my understanding of myself and the world around me in powerful ways. I've chosen the arbitrary number of ten for purposes of limiting this entry's length; I'd be here all day otherwise. Trying to rank them individually would be an exercise in futility, so I'm just going to go alphabetically. Self-indulgence, here we go. | | 1 |  | Bruce Springsteen
Darkness on the Edge of Town
I was probably six years old, far too young to understand the poignancy behind the lyrics to "Badlands," my mom's favorite song and consequently a mainstay in her car's CD player, but even at my young age I recognized the deep conviction and burning righteousness the song held. It might've been the first time in my sheltered young life I sensed that everything might not be okay with the world, that there were those waging battle against forces of evil in their lives. When I finally listened to the Darkness on the Edge of Town album in its entirety in my college years, I became fully aware of how attuned Springsteen was to the suffering and injustice he saw around him. "The Promised Land," "Spirit in the Night," and the title track are equal parts personal introspection and spiritual revival-leading. Springsteen to this day remains one of the few cultural figures worthy of reverence, an uncompromising, selfless, and compassionate role model, whose music continues to light the path of righteousness in the lives of so many. | | 2 |  | The Clash
London Calling
In many ways, London Calling signifies the same principles and convictions that Darkness on the Edge of Town does in my life. Faith in people, distrust of authority, belief in self and the importance of love and brotherhood. "The Guns of Brixton," "Death or Glory," and "The Card Cheat," like the best songs on Darkness, are both haunting and uplifting, fully aware of the life's perils and tragedies, and yet eager to face them, head on, without compromise, with full devotion of heart and intellect. | | 3 |  | Gang of Four
Entertainment!
As an American, each song on the album rings true as an indictment of the modern society in which we all partake. Guantanamo Bay in Ether (Trapped in Heaven lifestyle (Trapped in Long Kesh)/You're looking out for pleasure (H-Block torture). False premises for war in Ether (There may be oil!). Manipulation of the masses through sex in advertising in Natural's Not in It (Repacked Sex/Your Interest!). Bias in the teaching of History in classrooms in Not Great Men (No weak men in/the books at home). The shallowness of celebrity-obsessed journalism in I Found that Essence Rare (The worst thing that happens any week?/A scandal on the front page.). The impersonalizing of war in mass media in 5.45. (Guerilla-war struggle is a new entertainment!). Just a damning confirmation of the sins of the West, written by four art students living in their own nation-as-dying-Empire thirty years ago. | | 4 |  | Interpol
Turn on the Bright Lights
Musically, this is probably my all-time favorite album. Post-Punk and grandeur, by their very nature, should not co-exist, but they positively thrive on this album. The rhythm section seethes with primordial intensity. Lead vocals and guitar vacillate between moments of unsettling austerity and cries for help. The whole thing sounds like a world on the verge of self-destruction. There's something about the way the music and lyrics come together to form a fully-realized psychological profile, shrouded in darkness, that proves both captivating and terrifying. Turn on the Bright Lights is a white-collar album, with a high-paying career, large bank account, trust fund, and loft apartment downtown. It also is full of songs written by someone that deep down, fucking hates himself. | | 5 | | Pavement
Slanted & Enchanted
An album that doubles as mission statement, defining Pavement's fearlessly ramshackle take on the world. Order is a joke, status is for pussies, fun is underrated. Little things jump out in the songs, reminders of the perspectives we lose on our lives when we get caught up in far too much bullshit.You can actually hear the smirking grin on Malkmous's face in those stream-of-conscious, detached, and yet incisive lyrics of "Summer Babe." The opening riff to Perfume-V casually melts your face off without even trying. Should be prescribed as a therapeutic remedy for every over-achieving, O.C.D. person alive. | | 6 | | The Strokes
Is This It?
A proverbial bitch slap to Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, and the like upon its release. For all the talk about Julian Casablancas's vocals sounding phoned-in and apathetic, to me his words rang with youthful abandon and cocksure stubbornness. The rest of the band seemed to be in a race to match his emotion, and the result was nothing short of a call-to-arms to a generation of virginal teenagers who needed a lesson or two in coolness. I counted myself among those teenagers, and nearly a decade later, Is This It?, with its timeless theme of teenage rebellion, still holds up. | | 7 |  | Talking Heads
Remain in Light
During the making of the album, legendary producer Brian Eno told lead singer David Byrne to allow his subconscious to dictate his lyrics. Subsequently, much of Remain in Light's prose is written in stream-of-conscious abstraction, its subject matter indecipherable, and as a result, all-encompassing. The album is about the state of being, existing. Rather than limit themselves to the post-punk motifs of their late 70?s material, the band turns Afro-centric and existential, assessing the world in profound, unexplainable ways that I had never before heard in song. Remain in Light is about the recognition of man's individual existence as a part of the natural world, not just a singular organism, but a creature integrated with the people, plants, animals, and environment around him. It sounds trippy, but it's also scientific fact. The band's use of Afro-centric rhythms and sounds to hearken back to the cradle of civilization, man's roots as a being. For me, the album is both the stuff worthy of heavy pondering and an uplifting affirmation of my very existence. | | 8 |  | Three 6 Mafia
When the Smoke Clears
I?m from Memphis, Tennessee. The 901. The City That You Love to Hate. The Sight of Martin Luther King?s Assassination and the Birthplace of Elvis Presley, a.k.a. the white guy who stole rock and roll from its African-American roots. If you're from there, you know what it's like. The whole city carries with it a sense of doom, shit even our beloved college basketball team blew the biggest Championship game in NCAA history two years ago. It annually ranks in Top 10 lists, usually ones counting down the ten poorest/most crime-ridden/most miserable cities in America. It's in Tennessee, but it might as well be the capital of Mississippi, the most destitute state in the U.S. which resides just a few miles south of the city limits. In that regard, When the Smoke Clears might be the last album Three 6 Mafia made almost exclusively for residents of its hometown. Perversely glorifying pretty much every single affliction of their hometown---gang violence, drug abuse, misogyny, etc.---When the Smoke Clears remains one of the single most villainous albums to come out in the past decade. The unofficial soundtrack for my hometown. | | 9 |  | Weezer
The Blue Album
The greatness of Weezer's debut can be traced back to a single fundamental root: it's straight-up the friendliest Alternative Rock album I've ever heard. Weezer want to be your friend. They want to invite you to their parties. They're not interested in cliques, or one-upmanship, or politics. They just want to be guys and have fun. (In fact, they might even be scared of girls.) Incredibly, by acknowledging (owning, really) their own insecurities and remaining authentic to themselves, the band rightfully implicates the relentless posturing and "personal brand" development of the current Indie Rock scene as the sort of activity much lamer than, say, a Dungeon and Dragons obsession. | | 10 | | Wu-Tang Clan
Enter the Wu-Tang
Wu-Tang Clan is the realization of the greatest promise that popular music holds. The promise that society does reward innovation, authenticity, and fearlessness. Rags-to-riches stories do not have to come with compromise. As a senior in college, I watched the Protect Ya Neck music video on YouTube and found confirmation of this ideal. Individual Greatness taken to dizzying heights in the context of cohesive group effort. Hip-hop never gets it due in music circles, often cited as being anti-intellectual and misogynistic. Wu might be guilty of the latter, but listen to these albums and tell me that there?s another song out there that distills the devastating realities of unfettered Capitalism better than C.R.E.A.M.? I've yet to hear a better argument against the Death Penalty than the Master Killah's succinct final verse on 'Da Mystery of Chessboxin.' This album is the essence of hip-hop. The Wu weave elements of Eastern philosophy, socio-political criticism, and imaginative story-telling into every song. In doing so, they advocate a steadfast pride in themselves in individuals as a group, fiercely promoting the ideals of loyalty to community, truth, and radical progressivism throughout. | |
Eko
07.04.11 | 4 is great. never really connected with it personally but some of the musicianship is fantastic. Obstacle 1 is sickkk | sonorirish
07.04.11 | C=8 | KeithStone582
07.04.11 | I am pretty sure that C.R.E.A.M. is Raekwon and Inspecta Deck rapping about living in the ghetto. The whole unfettered capitalism idea is a stretch. | Pyosisified
07.04.11 | "4 is great. never really connected with it personally but some of the musicianship is fantastic. Obstacle 1 is sickkk"
one of the best albums ever
and glad to see the best Pavement album on here | Boudinet
07.04.11 | Thanks everyone for the replies so far.
Keith, I see your point, and I definitely concede that the "unfettered capitalism" theme is only my subjective interpretation, and that Rae and Deck never set out to write the song as an attack on capitalism. But I think that by itself the phrase "Cash Rules Everything Around Me," coming from guys who grew up in poverty and saw people around them struggling on a daily basis to survive, pretty much captures the street-level view of people at the lowest run of the socio-economic totem pole. The song was released following twelve straight years of Reagan/Bush administration slashing of federally-funded programs, many of which were designed to help inner city communities, to offset increasing tax cuts to the middle and upper classes, as part of Reagan's notorious "trickle down" economics plan. I just thought it was interesting that Rae and Deck, who basically rap about how shitty living in the ghetto was, portrayed everything in their immediate environment as slaves to the almighty dollar, day in and day out.
Eko and Pyosis, glad you're feeling me on Interpol. They were just a machine on that debut. And Eko, glad you feel the same way. The only other Pavement album I've listened to in its entirety is Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, also a great album, yet still no comparison. | wheresgodot
10.24.11 | really great list [2] thanks for sharing | InAbsentia
10.24.11 | Love 4 | MisterTornado
10.24.11 | Do you like Huey Lewis and the News? | InAbsentia
10.24.11 | Wait..... Is this a 3-month-old list? |
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