Articles

As I love doing these lists (like many people on Last.fm journals, it seems), here’s another one. One that required quite a decent amount of thought and research and reminiscing...

An avid music listener can of course pull together a TOP 100 when it comes to favourite records of the decade; I had to leave a lot out as well and just make some difficult choices. But here they are finally – a shiny carpet of cover art that has been divided into four sections. The albums in each section come in no particular order...



1 - 25


http://i860.photobucket.com/albums/ab168/SonicView_2009/Untitlerttd-2-1.jpg

I’m looking at this first batch and all I gather from it is that I have a fondness for dark androgynous frontmen with a cigarette, lol... and Nelly Furtado. Oh well... I could have replaced her with Lifehouse, no big difference in quality. There are a few things in here that surprise me (like Muse), but overall it’s a pretty fair picture of music that’s been the closest to my heart for the past 10 years
…

1. Tori Amos, "Scarlet's Walk" (2002)
2. Gillian Welch, "Time (The Revelator)" (2001)
3. Brooke Waggoner, "Heal for the Honey" (2008)
4. Arcade Fire, "Funeral" (2004)
5. Dixie Chicks, "Home" (2002)
6. The Innocence Mission, "Befriended" (2003)
7. Björk, "Vespertine" (2001)
8. Tori Amos, "American Doll Posse" (2007)
9. Bright Eyes, "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning" (2005)
10. Sufjan Stevens, "Seven Swans" (2004)
11. Laura Veirs, "Saltbreakers" (2007)
12. Mark Knopfler And Emmylou Harris, "All the Roadrunning" (2006)
13. Regina Spektor, "Begin to Hope" (2006)
14. The Acorn, "Glory Hope Mountain" (2007)
15. The Swell Season, "Once (Music from the Motion Picture)" (2007)
16. Bic Runga, "Beautiful Collision" (2002)
17. Tori Amos, "The Beekeeper" (2005)
18. Midlake, "The Trials Of Van Occupanther" (2006)
…

•Spiritualized "Songs In A&E"--Sometimes the exact right piece music comes to you at the exact right time, and I think that this is a case of that, as "Beyond" was for me this time last year. I actually think it's a better album than "Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space" (without anything quite as perfect as that album's title track) or even "Playing With Fire". The phrase "laser guided melodies" seems so apt to me--Jason Pierce's songs are composed and arranged with a surgical precision. What sets this album apart from previous efforts is the raggedness Pierce’s voice has taken on--it's a perfect contrast and compliment to the careful craft of his songwriting and production. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the album's unexpected and profound emotional tone was informed by Spaceman's brush with death. But most amazing thing, for me at least, is that I can not only relate to these songs, but actually match them to specific events in my life.
…

"Country music comes from the heart," someone told me once.

"No," I replied, "it definitely comes from an internal organ of some kind... but one lower down."

I felt kind of hypocritical saying that, because I grew up on country and western music (that's right... I remember Western music). My dad was always listening to the likes of Merle Haggard, Charley Pride, and Glen Campbell. In the car, we loved singing along with The Oak Ridge Boys and Larry Gatlin & The Gatlin Brothers. I still remember giving Dad the Trio album for Christmas 1987. (Yes, THAT album was an LP vinyl recording, smart guy.)

As I write this, I have a number of artists that can really only be called "country" in my collection. I have the inevitable collections of Hank Williams and Johnny Cash stuff, and mp3s of Rusty Cage and I've Been Everywhere; I have The Devil Went Down to Georgia; and I have a bunch of Lyle Lovett CDs. …

Alben:

Night Ripper
SMiLE
Spiderman of the Rings
Van Lear Rose
Pet Sounds
The Slow Wonder




Tracks:
Ohio
The Crystal Cat

Tech:

EPs:

errorsmith #2
Faceless Mind

Tracks:

110 cloches

OK Tom Waits fans, anyone else think that Orphans is his best release ever? There are a few contenders (perhaps Seven Swans, Illinois, Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs, or maybe Van Lear Rose), but I think this is the best album of this new millenium.

Discuss.

(My humble review, if yr interested.)

The other day I found out that I wouldn't be moving away for the summer like I anticipated, so I'm probably going to end up saving quite a bit of money in return. Today I've decided to splurge and finally begin replacing my downloaded music library with actual albums. Many of these have been some of my favorite albums for years now, so I figured it was about time that I take the plunge. So far, here are today's purchases (and yes, now I'm totally broke):

Illinois
Michigan
Seven Swans
Grace
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Five Leaves Left
Bryter Layter
XO
Either/Or
A Sun Came!
Pink Moon
Heartbreaker
Figure 8
The Lonesome Crowded West
Blood on the Tracks
Highway 61 Revisited
Richard D. James Album
Talking Voice vs. Singing Voice
Disintegration
Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs
I Am A Bird Now
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Revolver
The Queen Is Dead
Vespertine
Old
American III: Solitary Man
At Folsom Prison
…

Compilations, soundtracks, and greatest hits are excluded. Yay.

20) I Phantom
19) Beggars Banquet
18) Stankonia
17) Our Endless Numbered Days
16) Lapalco
15) Ten
14) The Moon and Antarctica
13) Demon Days
12) Songs for the Deaf
11) Superunknown
10) Vs.
9) The White Stripes
8) Van Lear Rose
7) Badmotorfinger
6) At San Quentin: The Complete 1969 Concert
5) Led Zeppelin III
4) Temple of the Dog
3) Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs
2) Disraeli Gears
1) Abbey Road

There we go - Honorable mentions include: Apple, Paranoid, Slowhand and the rest of my library.

This is more for myself to see where I was at a year or so from now.