(no subject)
Just another dead meme: the reader may skip this section without penalty.
Know how to get an ironist to shut up? Ask him what he really means. Know how to get a record shop guy to admit what he really obsesses about? Take him out of the shop for a year, let the snowglobe of his mind settle a little, and then have him work a by-no-means-complete-or-definitive list of 30 or so albums with he has from earliest childhood to callowest youth and incipient dotage for various reasons obsessed over, and not always in a healthy fashion. Not to be confused with a canonical best-of list, these are just the albums that I'll probably wake up listening to five minutes after I'm dead. Admittedly, it's heavily weighted toward the music of my, uh, younger days, but the main criteria I used for inclusion was having been immediately floored by the first listen in a way that was new to me, then having spent a good chunk of time afterwards working out what it was that I found so fascinating. A few albums snuck their way on by virtue of the varous folks past and present with whom they are irrevocably associated, and in those particular cases I was as much obsessed with working out what it was that I found so goddamned wonderful about them. In any case, I'll proudly stand by them, then and now. The records, that is.
So this post is, selfishly, pretty much just for me. Hence, the cut. Still, I'd be flattered by feedback.
Beatles - Rubber Soul
Bach: Organ Favorites (E. Power Biggs)
Big Star - 3rd/Sister Lovers
Glenn Branca - Symphony No. 3 (Gloria)
Buzzcocks - Love Bites/Another Music in a Different Kitchen(tie)
Johnny Cash - Live at San Quentin
Clash - Clash (UK version)
Elvis Costello - This Year's Model/Emotional Fascism(tie)
dB's - Stands for Decimals/Repercussion(tie)
Dickies - Night of the Living Dickies
Charles Ives - Centennial Box
Tommy Keene - Places That Are Gone(EP)
Alvin Lucier - I Am Sitting in a Room
Magnetic Fields - The Wayward Bus/Distant Plastic Trees(taken as a whole)
Joni Mitchell - Blue
Modern Lovers - Modern Lovers
Thelonious Monk - Monk Plays Ellington
R. Stevie Moore - Trial and Error
Randy Newman - Good Old Boys/Live(tie)
Harry Nilsson - Nilsson Sings Newman
Johannes Ockeghem - Missa ma Maitresse/Missa au Travail Suis
Public Image Limited - Metal Box
Robert Quine/Fred Maher - Basic
Steve Reich - Variations for Winds, Strings, and Keyboard/John Adams-Shaker Loops
Replacements - Let It Be
Jules Shear - Watchdog
Specials - Specials
Spoon - Kill the Moonlight
Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food
Television - Marquee Moon
Richard & Linda Thompson - I Want To See the Bright Lights Tonight
Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator)
Wire - Pink Flag
Yep, I know, precious few surprises here, but I was going for strict biographical accuracy. Each one a bona-fide winner, though.
Know how to get an ironist to shut up? Ask him what he really means. Know how to get a record shop guy to admit what he really obsesses about? Take him out of the shop for a year, let the snowglobe of his mind settle a little, and then have him work a by-no-means-complete-or-definitive list of 30 or so albums with he has from earliest childhood to callowest youth and incipient dotage for various reasons obsessed over, and not always in a healthy fashion. Not to be confused with a canonical best-of list, these are just the albums that I'll probably wake up listening to five minutes after I'm dead. Admittedly, it's heavily weighted toward the music of my, uh, younger days, but the main criteria I used for inclusion was having been immediately floored by the first listen in a way that was new to me, then having spent a good chunk of time afterwards working out what it was that I found so fascinating. A few albums snuck their way on by virtue of the varous folks past and present with whom they are irrevocably associated, and in those particular cases I was as much obsessed with working out what it was that I found so goddamned wonderful about them. In any case, I'll proudly stand by them, then and now. The records, that is.
So this post is, selfishly, pretty much just for me. Hence, the cut. Still, I'd be flattered by feedback.
Beatles - Rubber Soul
Bach: Organ Favorites (E. Power Biggs)
Big Star - 3rd/Sister Lovers
Glenn Branca - Symphony No. 3 (Gloria)
Buzzcocks - Love Bites/Another Music in a Different Kitchen(tie)
Johnny Cash - Live at San Quentin
Clash - Clash (UK version)
Elvis Costello - This Year's Model/Emotional Fascism(tie)
dB's - Stands for Decimals/Repercussion(tie)
Dickies - Night of the Living Dickies
Charles Ives - Centennial Box
Tommy Keene - Places That Are Gone(EP)
Alvin Lucier - I Am Sitting in a Room
Magnetic Fields - The Wayward Bus/Distant Plastic Trees(taken as a whole)
Joni Mitchell - Blue
Modern Lovers - Modern Lovers
Thelonious Monk - Monk Plays Ellington
R. Stevie Moore - Trial and Error
Randy Newman - Good Old Boys/Live(tie)
Harry Nilsson - Nilsson Sings Newman
Johannes Ockeghem - Missa ma Maitresse/Missa au Travail Suis
Public Image Limited - Metal Box
Robert Quine/Fred Maher - Basic
Steve Reich - Variations for Winds, Strings, and Keyboard/John Adams-Shaker Loops
Replacements - Let It Be
Jules Shear - Watchdog
Specials - Specials
Spoon - Kill the Moonlight
Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food
Television - Marquee Moon
Richard & Linda Thompson - I Want To See the Bright Lights Tonight
Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator)
Wire - Pink Flag
Yep, I know, precious few surprises here, but I was going for strict biographical accuracy. Each one a bona-fide winner, though.