Pretty much most of what is coming out of the music industry is crap these days. In some ways I view the past decade as kind of a redux of the 1970’s. It seems that the music industry really wants music to be like die cast pieces of metal coming out of a steel foundry.
It explains why hacks like Gwen Stefani, Avril Levigne and Nickleback somehow have a career.
In some ways I see music reverting back to the 1950’s too. With mp3 or other electronic formats I see singles actually making a comeback. We can cherry pick whatever music we want without having to listen to an otherwise shitty album. For example how many people have ever listened to Roxy Music’s Avalon beyond “More Than This”?
It might be that we do not really get great albums anymore. Partially because the music industry seems to have little interest in generating likable much less good albums. And they are shocked when nobody buys their albums and that stealing them is about as much as they are really worth. But also we can sort of pick and chose what we want. We are not saddled with buying a whole album (ie Retrospective: The Knack’s Greatest Hits) because we like one song (My Sharona).
Perhaps mp3’s have turned our music into porn. We can just sift, sort, next, back to whatever turns our fancy. Not a bad thing, but maybe it keeps us from appreciating a greater work… sort of like only watching parts of movies when the actress gets naked rather than the whole thing.
There is a point to all of this. And it is a concept I have been thinking about. What are my favorite albums and why?
Feel free to play along. My only rule is it can not be a greatest hits or live album. Which is painful as I like both those types of albums, but those could fill up lists all by themselves… There is no particular order to the list. The list is also entirely subjective to my music tastes and I am not making any endeavor to be fair, balanced what-so-ever.
Hysteria – Def Leppard
Probably my most unpopular choice as Def Leppard is either loved or hated by people. Not heavy enough for some, too poppy for others. As a Def Leappard fan it is my favorite and it represents the pinnacle of the band in regards.
Hysteria is entire album full of solid songs that are skillfully performed and engineered even more meticulously. Their previous albums were good, but lacked the polish… albums after Hysteria were too polished and lack a certain energy or spontaneity. The digital remaster from last year made an already great album even better, but sound processing technology has improved in the twenty years since its initial release.
Saturation (Urge Overkill)
A rich studio album that contains all songs I either like enough to listen to when they come up in my player or crank to 11 for the ones that knock it out of the park. Urge Overkill had kicked out a few indie albums before and one more mainstream album after. Like a perfect wave those prior albums set forth a force to be reckoned with and their final album was the literal rocks UO crashed upon. I like the album because UO clearly do not take themselves seriously but in turn take the music seriously… plus the exemplify what rock should be about… partying and banging Cuban chicks.
Cut (Golden Earring)
Nominally a story album, which for the most part does not work that well when attempted by other artists (i.e. Styx, whose Mr Roboto was the only salvageable song from an otherwise not so swell album). Cut is also one of the first fully digital albums I can think of that was recorded, so for early 1980’s it sounds very good from that perspective. It is a carefully conceived album, but Golden Earring not being the most serious band alive still pushes some edginess and freewheeling in places.
Twilight Zone is the meat of the album, but like a good sandwich there are nice bits of musical lettuce, cheese and bread wrapped around it. Cut could probably benefit from a re-master but even my near 15 year old CD still sounds sharp.
Elastica (Elastica)
Riding the alternative rock scene of the mid-90’s this is an easy choice. From start to finish the album is packed with great songs mixed in with really solid musical craftsmanship. This is probably to the deficit of the band as the wheels flew off thereafter.
Sandbagging a few of the songs for a quality second album might have made for a better second effort… Connection and Stutter are the songs Elastica is built around, but the rest are damn good in their own right. Elastica is an album that begs for a re-mastering because the original sound engineering was fairly mediocre… not to the point of taking away from the quality songs but it did not add much to them either. Their second album was better engineered but was a fairly bad album…
Splurge (Puffy AmiYumi)
Stateside, Puffy is largely either loved by American Otaki (geeks) or kids… thanks to their being contributors to Cartoon Network shows. I was lucky to have stumbled onto them when they were testing the US and TV shows were still years off. Splurge is a hell of an album from a song and engineering perspective.
It was originally conceived as a 10 year anniversary album for Puffy (Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura) but they turned the concept on its head and instead of being fabulously about them it was about the people they have worked with and wanted to work with.
Thus they collaborated with a diverse group of talent to forge the album. And, it worked, Splurge spawned more singles than several of their previous and almost as good albums… In particular Mogula-Like, Good Buddy and Beginnings are terrific songs that anchor the album and the rest put Splurge over the top. With Splurge done, Puffy proves they have gotten better and not worse in 10 years. Which is not even something I can say about many other bands.
Fever Fever (Puffy AmiYumi)
I tend to look at long running band going in phases. For Puffy Fever Fever represents the end of their first phase. While their self titled album, Solo Solo (a somewhat clever double album that they split CD’s to do all solo material) and Jet are all fine efforts in their own right, Fever Fever builds upon what were pretty good albums. I think it also gave Puffy that push to cement themselves as serious artists and not just a fad, which many J-Pop artists are relegated to.
Black Licorice (Convoy)
I accidentally discovered this group. Not that they are unheard of, I am just a little insulated. Black Licorice is the first and last full release by Convoy who are now Louis XIV. It is a shockingly great album with a lot of surprising skill on both sides of the glass. I would say there a four really great songs and the rest are good enough to warrant even casual listening to. Black Licorice is a well practiced and fun album than is sonically rich.
Never Mind The Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols (The Sex Pistols)
Yes there were punk albums before.
Yes Sid Vicious was to musicians as to what poop is to food.
Yes there have been good punk albums since. (One of the albums being the live album from the 1990’s with original bassist Glen Matlock on board.)
However the time and place was right for Never Mind The Bollocks. It is smarter than I think many people are capable of acknowledging. It is entirely listenable from beginning to end and maybe the Sex Pistols never really doing anything else of note as an entity adds to the mystique. That and Sid killing Nancy and OD’ing certainly helped too…
Whip-Smart (Liz Phair)
Liz Phair was never the best at anything musically, besides being earnest. As she has gotten more polished and more commercial Whip-Smart sets the line in the sand when her earnestness and polish meet head on for a great result. The album has a slew of really solid songs, and the song Supernova stands above the rest (Phair also directed the especially awful video for this song…).
100% Fun (Matthew Sweet)
Probably Matthew Sweet’s most straight forward rock album and it is chunky goodness in regards to songs. Matthew Sweet has always had a lean towards poppiness and that sort of set him apart from the sullen, angsty and serious artists that came up in the alternative rock wave of the 1990’s.
There is a sense of fun in all the songs and 100% Fun seems as appropriate of a title as any. As well, super-producer Brendan O’Brien was on the other side of the glass, which ensured a well assembled album. I also like Matthew Sweet because he is frankly as geeky as me and is not ashamed to be square… Something Huey Lewis and the News could have taken a lesson about…
