#259: New Order - Low-Life (1985)

Zack: It’s been a while since we listened to Joy Division, and I haven’t really gone back and listened to anything by them in a while. I knew New Order was basically Joy Division sans lead singer, and a friend had told me that New Order had their moments but generally weren’t as good. Still, when I first started listening to this album, I was struck by how different it sounded than my memory of Joy Division. It reminded me a lot of some of the happier tracks by The Cure. Wikipedia informs me that this is the album where New Order really started to break away from its post-punk ancestry and adopt a new face as a dance rock group. That definitely shone through. At first, I wasn’t really feeling this album. It had the popiness of Scissor Sisters or The Cardigans, both of whom I loved, but with that certain '80s cheese. But I realized comparing Low-Life to either of the albums by those two bands we listened to isn’t a fair comparison. What I should be comparing Low-Life to is all those other post-punk albums from this era, which I have repeatedly bashed for all sounding the same. This definitely didn’t sound like those, and I appreciated it for that. Most of the songs had a catchy riff, and Elegia was a phenomenal instrumental track. It wasn’t the best pop rock album I’ve ever listened to, but it was solid and certainly contributed a few songs to a playlist I may make sometime in the future. Isn’t that what really matters?

Favorite Tracks: Elegia; This Time of Night; Love Vigilantes

Emily: I'm usually a fan of the '80s pop/new wave/post-punk albums we listened to. Their bright, synthesizer-enhanced sound draws me in and gets me to dance or at least bob my head for a good 45 minutes, as I happily rank each song as excellent or very good. However, after the initial listen and blog post, I rarely go back to these albums. They're like candy for the ears: sweet for a bit, but with no lasting value. And listen too much, and you'll definitely get sick of it. That's how I felt about New Order. Low-Life has whispers of the band's post-punk incarnations, but with a glossy '80s synthesizer pop sheen. I really liked it for the first few tracks, then got a little bored (though the last track pulled me back in). And will I listen to this album again? Doubtful, but at least I know it's here if I need a little ear candy.

Favorite Tracks: Love Vigilantes; This Time of Night; Face Up

#258: Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - The Message (1982)

Zack: I’ve been thinking a lot about the legacy of rappers lately, partially because I think it’s an interesting topic and partially because it affords me an opportunity to stop thinking about other, real-life stuff. What brought me to this topic was the release of Eminem’s latest album, Marshall Mathers LP 2. Beyond just the title, the album is often a blatant reflection on his legacy as an artist and where he’s matured and where (more often) he’s just the same as he was back when the Slim Shady and Marshall Mathers LP were both being denied to prepubescent children across the land by parents who didn’t find being regaled by tales of stapling English teachers nuts to stacks of paper as obviously fantastic as they clearly are. MMLP2 is, overall, a pretty good album that has a handful of absolutely brilliant moments. More importantly, it’s my second favorite rap album of the 2013. Now obviously I can’t listen to everything and this could certainly change if Atmosphere somehow set a date for their “late 2013” release. Still, considering this was Eminem’s eighth studio album and his best since his fourth (The Eminem Show – also the first one I was actually allowed to get), it’s a pretty impressive accomplishment. Also impressive is the two rappers on either side of his. Kanye West’s Yeezus (his seventh solo album) and Jay-Z’s Magna Carta…Holy Grail (his eleventh solo album) take the pole position and a distant third, respectively. Staying power is actually achievable for modern hip-hop artists. Meanwhile, there’s Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. On the strength of just one song, they’ve had some of their material preserved in the Library of Congress and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. One. Song. That’s incredible. And that’s not to say that all of The Message (the album) isn’t fantastic – it is. But it’s that one song, that seven minutes right at the end, that cemented a legacy. After that, well there’s White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It) that I guess add to Melle Mel’s status as one of the top socially conscious guys to ever bless the mic, but even them I’ve always just rolled my eyes at that song as just another example of 80s cheesiness. Like any copies of the record sold should come with a sticker of the Gipper with a perm giving a thumbs up. That’s pretty much it, but that was more than enough to book time at the Grammy’s for a reunion more than 25 years later. And the early years of hip-hop are littered with similar stories (see: Blow, Curtis). But now? The rap world – the one created by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five – is one where artists can actually achieve consistent commercial and critical success. The genre has progressed wildly since the final seven minutes of The Message came out, but I don’t think any of that change would be possible if the annals of rap were short those seven minutes.

Favorite Tracks: The Message; She’s Fresh; You Nasty

Emily: What I didn't realize about Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five before today is that The Message is essentially their only album. They broke up soon after, reunited in '88 with most of the the full lineup, and then disbanded entirely save for the reunion at the Grammy's a few years back. I thought they were significantly more prolific than that - they are certainly well-known and well-respected, enough to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame no less. But no, The Message is their one and only success, and its title track their long-lasting legacy. Every hip-hop group in the '80s seems to be like that, except for Run-DMC, and perhaps others that have slipped my mind. But each one has become so influential because they shaped the genre that has become one of the most popular, prolific, and critically acclaimed 30+ years later. I see that with The Message, as an album but more specifically with the song. It draws from funk and other sounds of the era, bringing the beats together with rhymes and tongue twisting lyrics - some silly, some serious, but all fitting together to help shape what hip-hop was, is, and will become.

Favorite Tracks: The Message; She's Fresh; Dreamin'

#257: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1976)

Emily: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is one of those bands that's always around, but I don't really know anyone who's actually a big fan of them. Or even anyone who could name more than 2 of their songs off the top of their heads. But yet, every summer they're touring outdoor amphitheaters and headlining music festivals, somehow drawing huge crowds year after year after year. My exposure to Petty has been limited, albeit, so I had hoped that listening to this album would shed some light on the Heartbreakers ongoing popularity. Well, 30-some minutes later, I still don't get it. This self-titled debut is a perfectly pleasant collection of American rock-and-roll songs, and would probably work quite well as background tunes at a summer barbecue. But, beyond the classic American Girl, it wasn't anything that special. Certainly not worth paying arena or festival prices to see live. But hey, maybe their whole catalog is a bit more impressive than this just-okay debut.
Favorite Tracks: American Girl; Breakdown; Strangered in the Night

Zack: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are such a perfect representation of Americana rock and roll that arguably their most well-known song was featured in a Scrubs montage. I know of no higher honor. And, as JD so eloquently puts it, “Wow.” American Girl is what we – in the modern day – would refer to as a “banger.” I also like to think that The Guess Who traveled forward in time, heard it, then decided to upgrade the subject to woman status before penning their own masterpiece. Anyway, Tom Petty’s debut is loaded with heartland rock jams like American Girl, and I can certainly appreciate it for that. I’d never listened to this album, but I went through a pretty hard Full Moon Fever phase a few years back that prepared me for the Tom Petty Experience. No song is ever too deep that it requires real concentration. They’re all simple, yet still elegant. Their debut is no different: it’s not the most challenging of albums, but it’s still plenty enjoyable.

Favorite Tracks: American Girl; Anything That’s Rock ‘N’ Roll; Luna

#256: Billy Bragg & Wilco - Mermaid Avenue (1998)

Zack: I have absolutely no experience with the music of either Billy Bragg or Woody Guthrie (whose lyrics are being sung here). But I’ve now listened to enough Wilco that people just assume I’m middle age due to my exposure to Dad rock. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, as has been documented here, was an eye-opening album for me on what I had been missing. Since then, I’ve moved through several more of their albums and enjoyed them (although certainly nothing has compared to the brilliance of I Am Trying to Break Your Heart). Anyway, Jeff Tweedy’s presence here was enough of a sell for me to move all in on this album before I even pressed play. I rated my excitement at a 9 out of 10, which is pretty damn good for any album that I haven’t seen ranked on a “Top 10 Albums That Will Make You Weep Openly and Without Shame” list. Mermaid Avenue definitely lived up to that hype too. It had the folksy appeal that Wikipedia tells me I should cherish from Guthrie, but there was more complexity to the actual music to match the insightfulness of the lyrics. Because of the nature of this album, I don’t really know who to attribute my enjoyment of it too, so I’ll just say a hearty thank you to all parties involved that brought Mermaid Avenue Volume 1 (and the subsequent Volume 2 which I plan on listening to post-haste) into existence.

Favorite Tracks: California Stars; At My Window Sad and Lonely; Eisler on the Go

Emily: What I loved about this album was just how it came together. You see, Woody Guthrie left behind more than 1000 unrecorded songs upon his death, and Guthrie's daughter approached Billy Bragg to see if he was interested in recording some of them. The catch is, however, that Guthrie didn't write any music for the songs, just lyrics with very limited musical notation. It was essentially a giant catalog of poems, but instead of publishing them in a posthumous anthology, Guthrie's daughter thought it would be best to carry out the music in her late father's folk tradition. Bragg, recruiting Wilco along the way, was tasked with turning unfinished folk poems into folk songs, all while keeping the spirit of Woody Guthrie alive in the recordings. It was a tall order indeed, and it was accomplished beautifully in Mermaid Avenue. Without this background knowledge, it would be impossible to tell that the music and lyrics of these songs were separately developed decades apart by men who probably never even met each other. I think Guthrie would be pleased with how Bragg and Wilco melded their own musical senses and spirits with the spirit of his lyrics. Each song takes the emotional tone of the lyrics and reflects it in the music, as if the two were always meant to be together. 

Favorite Tracks: California Stars; Hoodoo Voodoo; Birds and Ships

#255: Kate Bush - The Dreaming (1982)

Emily: Hello again! It's been quite a while since we last posted, which is mostly my fault. You see, Zack and I have started grad school and law school, respectively, and said at the beginning of the semester we would try to get through 20 albums by the end. But then the crushing amount of work that comes along with graduate studies took hold, and I started to slack on my album listening. Zack decided to stop too, so he wouldn't get ridiculously far ahead of me. Now here we are, 3 months since our last post and 2 days from our last finals, and with renewed vigor and a significant increase in free time we return to our humble blogging pursuits. We start back on a somewhat obscure note with Kate Bush. As is the case with a lot of the early-80's alternative on this list, Bush was big in England but less so stateside. Her sound is certainly unique and borders on strange, which may explain why it failed to take off in a country still weaning itself off disco. I thought it was a good kind of strange though, not off-putting like a Captain Beefheart, but an engaging kind of strange that made me pay attention and listen closely. Bush takes dreamy art-pop and twists it into something experimental and new, with sounds ranging from spacey synths to a rolling didgeridoo. Sounds weird, but it makes total sense once you take notice.
Favorite Tracks: Sat in Your Lap; The Dreaming; All the Love

Zack: If both Bjork and Big Boi cite an album as one of their favorites of all time, you know it must be good.  And, yeah, The Dreaming is definitely worthy of both of their appreciations. From start to finish, it finds inventive ways to combine a sort of ethereal, swirling feel (a la Bjork) with some early alternative sentiments. You can tell it’s a true artist feeling out her ability to experiment. In a way, it almost reminds me of the last few Kanye album; someone trying to push the boundaries of a genre they’ve been placed in as far as they can. I don’t know much (anything, really) about Kate Bush’s music beyond this one album I’ve listened to. But if the rest of her stuff is as ambitious as this, then I’ve got some catching up to do.

Favorite Tracks: Night of the Swallow; Sat in Your Lap; The Dreaming

#254: Blondie - Parallel Lines (1978)

Emily: When I was around 7 or 8, my gymnastics class did our recital routine to One Way or Another, probably the most well-known single from Parallel Lines. Granted, it was approximately 1998 and we were in the second grade, so we didn't actually use the Blondie version. Instead, it was a cover from The Rugrats Movie that I'm pretty sure was sung by Angelica Pickles. Of course, I thought it was awesome. I realized later, though, that the original version was even more awesome. However, I didn't like Parallel Lines as a whole as much as I liked the song. I really like Blondie when they take new wave and pop and add something totally different - a rock edge in Call Me or One Way or Another, disco in Heart of Glass, and even hip-hop in Rapture. Otherwise, however, the music was catchy but just not that exciting. A few tracks show their potential for pop-crossover greatness, but it seems that it took them a few years to really develop their sound. This is Blondie's only album featured on the list, so I'll have to take some time to check out their later albums.
Favorite Tracks: One Way or Another; Heart of Glass; 11:59

Zack: I didn’t really know what to expect form Blondie other than One Way or Another, perhaps the most montage-able song of all time. What I got was a pop rock masterpiece, sort of like a Sister Sisters ancestor. From start to finish, Parallel Lines was unstoppably catchy, yet never really bordered on corny like so many other New Wave bands of the era. Blondie clearly managed to avoid many of the pitfalls of their contemporaries while putting together an album with the exact same spirit.

Favorite Tracks: Will Anything Happen; One Way or Another; Fade Away and Radiate

#253: Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Shaka Zulu (1987)

Emily: The only I (and probably most people) have heard of Ladysmith Black Mambazo is from Mean Girls. Cady is supposed to go to Madison with her parents for a concert and decides to throw her party instead and her mom gets mad and says, "But you love Ladysmith Black Mambazo!" And thus, when we came to this album I had to choose it. However, it seems that Cady made the right choice to skip the concert. Shaka Zulu can best be described as a cappella African folk music. It's certainly an acquired taste. I liked a couple songs, especially the hand-clap love song Hello My Baby, but overall I wasn't really a fan. The songs all kind of sound the same, but their simplicity could perhaps lead to interesting live interpretations and improvisation.
Favorite Tracks: Hello My Baby; Rain, Rain, Beautiful Rain; King of Kings

Zack: Every time we’re due to cover a world music album, I try to send Emily three albums representing vastly different cultures and musical influences. She almost always chooses the salsa one, to varying degrees of success. So this time I forced her hand. I picked almost all African-oriented albums, and it seems to have blown up in my face. I really disliked this album. It was just so stripped down that I found it boring. I probably should have been prepared for that, given my aggressive apathy towards Graceland. But there was just no preparing for how simplistic each song was going to be. Maybe I’m just uncultured, but I just couldn’t wait to be done and move on.

Favorite Tracks: King of Kings; Hello My Baby; Rain, Rain, Beautiful Rain 

#252: Dexys Midnight Runners - Too-Rye-Ay (1982)

Emily: As a big fan of any and all Vh1 shows featuring the '80s, one-hit wonders, and countdowns, I am exceedingly familiar with Dexys Midnight Runners in the context of their one and only American hit, Come On Eileen. Their impossibly catchy song and ridiculous hillbilly-farmer-meets-the-city-and-plays-the-fiddle video have popped up on I Love the '80s, the 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders, the 100 Greatest Songs of the '80s, the Greatest '80s One-Hit Wonders, and I Love the One-Hit Wonders of the '80s (okay, I made that last one up, but you can't argue that it doesn't fit perfectly with the others). This one song has brought the band so much recognition even to this day, but why didn't they take off more than that? Honestly, after listening to Too-Rye-Ay, I really don't know. Dexys Midnight Runners make great pop music; here, it's infused with a bit of country-rock fiddling and a bit of new-wavey vibes. Sounds weird, but it totally works. Come On Eileen is certainly the best song on the album, but a few others could have been singles. I guess America just wasn't ready for Dexy in 1982 - or not until Vh1 started making '80s nostalgia shows.

Favorite Tracks: Come On Eileen; All in All (This One Last Wild Waltz); Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)

Zack: The jury is still out on why, exactly, Dexys Midnight Runners have three albums on the list when only one of said albums contains Come on Eileen. But this is the one with Come on Eileen and it is a lot better than expected. On a scale of 1 to 10, I put my interest in this album at a 3 before listening. But I was proven wrong, because Too-Rye-Ay is sort of a masterpiece of pop music that blended a lot of styles into a really cohesive album. It sort of reminded me of Madness, but a lot better (not to be interpreted as a knock on Madness). Obviously, the big takeaway is the best single and final song on the album, Come on Eileen. But there were one or two other songs that I had no clue were by DMR as well as a few songs that I hadn’t heard before but really enjoyed anyway. Too-Rye-Ay was a really great album by a band that should probably be known for more than just one song.

Favorite Tracks: Come On Eileen; The Celtic Soul Brothers; Jackie Wilson Said (I’m in Heaven When You Smile

#251: X - Wild Gift (1981)

Zack: This album didn’t make me feel as many emotions as I expected. I read beforehand that most of the lyrics are just straight poetry and that comparisons were drawn to the likes of Charles Bukowski, which persuaded me to think that I was going to feel things somewhere deep down. But, on a first listen anyway, I didn’t really feel much at all. It just came off as pretty good, which certainly isn’t what Rolling Stone, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and Village Voice had in mind when they named it the best album of the year, I’m sure. I definitely want to relisten to it soon (I have a long bus ride coming up in a few days that will likely provide the perfect context) in hopes that maybe I just wasn’t paying enough attention. One little thing that did catch me off guard was how the album seemed to be such a mash-up of punk and early alternative. Some songs would be those prototypical minute and a half rushes, but others were slowed down and more…deliberate I guess. I initially chalked that up to band progression, but apparently X actually became more punk on their sophomore album. What other band pulls that off?

Favorite Tracks: It’s Who You Know; Adult Books; In This House That I Call Home

Emily: It took me a bit to come up with what I wanted to write about Wild Gift. I enjoyed it, but I didn't take away much from it upon one listen. The sound bridged the gap a bit between punk and more mainstream rock, adding more guitar and subtracting the standard thrashing around. I thought the best tracks on the album were the ones that really strayed from the short, 3-chord, scream-sung expectations of punk music - not that I don't like that sound; as previous reviews indicate, I'm quite a punk fan. The longer songs, however, seemed fuller and more developed, with strong musicianship and even stronger vocals that often dueled between male and female. It seems, though, that the real creativity lies in the poetic lyrics. I couldn't pick up on that through just one listen, so I'll definitely have to give it at least one more chance.

Favorite Tracks: Adult Books; It's Who You Know; In This House That I Call Home

A Quarter of the Way There

Now that we’re one whole quarter of the way through, we decided to take a second to examine how this voyage (nearly 3-years-worth!) has affected the top 5 lists we each made at the very start. The results were, well, see for yourself

Zack: I looked back at what I had picked as my Top 5 favorite bands/artists when this began and what I wrote, and well, lol. Hendrix still reigns supreme, but the rest of my Top 5 has been completely shaken up. I’m relistening to Harvest Moon as I write this, so Neil Young has earned his place. Kanye has dropped two incredible solo albums and helped make this happen, while Lupe has produced 2 subpar albums and 1 good mixtape in that time, leading to a major switch. Hilariously, I made it a point to say that “Country pretty much sucks,” which now seems to have come back and bitten me since I have to include Johnny Cash here. Oh, and I finally opened my horizons and listened to the Clash (minus their debut and Cut the Crap). What happened after that was practically destiny.

Top 5 Bands (as of 8/25/13)

1. The Jimi Hendrix Experience

2. Neil Young

3. Kanye West

4. Johnny Cash

5. The Clash

Emily: Revisiting this Top 5 bands/artists list was more difficult than I expected. It was pretty easy when I did it the first time when we started the blog since my musical tastes were fairly narrow. However, after exploring 250 albums that were mostly unknown and hearing new music all the time as it has been released (and from Zack, of course), I barely knew where to start with this list. Two bands came to mind quickly; one my favorite since middle school that I could never give up, and the other a newer favorite that was cemented by seeing them live and from 15 feet away. After that, I didn't know how to continue. Should I pick the best live bands? The ones whose albums I keep coming back to? What about the ones I've just started to explore? To try to sort this all out, I decided to sit down with my breakfast and a mug of green tea to sort through old blog posts and iTunes and hopefully come to a conclusion. The results were even more inconclusive. I thought of how much I love Jeff Buckley and the Dead Kennedys, but does listening to one album qualify as a favorite? What about my evolving fandom of Kanye West? I've listened to way more of his stuff than those other two, but I can count that as a favorite. And then there are the concerts - I've seen the Killers, Muse, fun., and a slew of other artists in the past few years. Does that count as a favorite? I think my ultimate conclusion is that I don't really have favorite artists anymore. I now listen to music on an album-by-album basis, and those albums - not a discography, not an artist - are what have become my favorites. Regardless, the task was 5 artists, and that is the list I will provide - though it doesn't really give my music favorites justice.

Top 5 Bands (as of 8/25/13)

1. Green Day

2. Foo Fighters

3. fun.

4. Kanye West

5. The Killers

#250: Bjork - Vespertine (2001)

Emily: My general impression of Bjork can be summed up by her infamous swan dress, which she actually wore around the same time Vespertine was released. She even had an egg-shaped purse! So avant garde! Or, more likely, batshit crazy. Luckily for us, there was a significant lack of swan involved in this album - as well as a significant lack of crazy reflected by said swans. What I expected would be filled with earsplitting experimentation was actually a beautiful collection of ambient music, punctuated by Bjork's ethereal singing. The album has a dreamlike quality that softens background noise into fantasy, fitting quite well with the Harry Potter book I've been re-reading. I imagine it would work well as an antidote to studying as well - perhaps I'll try it out in the coming semester. I guess Bjork really was going for avant garde with the swans after all.
Favorite Tracks: It's Not Up to You; Sun in My Mouth; Heirloom

Zack: Bjork is pretty much known for being Icelandic and a little crazy (I’m not sure if the two can be mutually exclusive, and I have no idea if that joke was funny), so I didn’t really know what to expect here. What she delivered was an album of lush soundscapes that envelop you. There’s almost a certain mystical quality to it. Like each song may have come from a really dynamic scene in Spirited Away. Her singing can be hard to understand some time, but it fits in with the music perfectly. Overall, Vespertine was a very unique album that seemed to whirl and whisk across the room while it was playing.

Favorite Tracks: Pagan Poetry; It’s Not Up to You; An Echo, a Stain

#249: Elvis Costello and the Attractions - This Year's Model (1978)

Zack: It’s been a while since we listened to My Aim Is True, but I’ve relistened to it a couple dozen times at this point. I think I mentioned back then how impressed I was with the genre versatility, and that’s definitely why I still appreciate it. Costello flies between styles from track to track, creating a diversity that most musicians (let alone musicians in their debut album) would be afraid to tackle. This Year’s Model, his second album, doesn’t vary as much, but it does have several really good songs. And, as we should all expect, the lyrics to those songs are extremely clever and even a bit cryptic. For example, Pump it Up – which used to be played all the time at the large retail establishment that I worked for – is about masturbating. Anyway, I liked My Aim Is True Better, but This Year’s Model was still a solid album.

Favorite Tracks: (I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea; Lipstick Vogue; Pump it Up

Emily: For many of the artists that have multiple albums on this list (especially those with 4 or more), we've tried to intermingle them with other albums in order to spread them out more or less evenly (and not to end up with, say, 4 Byrds albums in the last 100). The next step is to listen to each in chronological order. We could listen to them out of order just because, but this way we can really see how these artists evolve in terms of musicianship, lyrics, genre, and connection with the audience. Since these artists tend to be those included in the pantheon of popular music, it also allows us to see why and how they became so highly regarded in the first place. Elvis Costello happens to be one of those artists, and he's one that I initially knew next to nothing about. I really enjoyed My Aim is True and have relistened to it since we reviewed it way back when, and This Year's Model built on the successes of that debut. Costello knows how to create great pop music. The album is upbeat with hints of pop, punk, and new wave, and the lyrics are creative enough to keep you listening closely even while you're dancing along. Though this was a great album, I'm still trying to figure out why Elvis Costello has been placed on the level of the other artists with multiple albums on the list. The evidence is building, and I guess I'll find out more in a couple hundred albums or so.

Favorite Tracks: (I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea; The Beat; Lipstick Vogue

#248: Antony and the Johnsons - I Am a Bird Now (2005)

Emily: From the photo that makes up I Am a Bird Now's album cover, one could assume that they were in for something dark, depressing, and/or weird. The hospital bed, the sad girl with dark lipstick, the name of the file on Wikipedia including the word "deathbed" - it all points to that. In this case, however, you just can't judge an album by its cover art. I Am a Bird Now, while not exactly upbeat, is neither dark nor depressing nor weird. It's a collection of simple songs full of emotion and personal connections. Antony Hegarty, the lead singer, clearly pours his heart into his work. This shows in the lyrics and music, but it comes through most strongly in the way he sings. The result is a beautiful album that will stay with you, just waiting to be listened to again and again.

Favorite Tracks: You Are My Sister; Fistful of Love; My Lady Story

Zack: The first person to tell me about Antony and the Johnsons was my freshman year suitemate. He hyped it to me in the spring of 2010 because he was excited about their fourth album coming out the following fall in light of their third album, which he had fallen in love with the previous year. Considering his other big recommendation for me was G. Love and the Special Sauce, whose debut album I still enjoy years after we first listened to it for blog-related purposes (BRP), I probably should have heeded it back then. I Am a Bird Now, while not one of the two albums he had such a passion or high expectations for, is just very sweet sounding. It sort of reminded me of Nick Drake, not in tone (definitely not in tone, at all), because of their mutual simplicity. While Antony Hegarty was able to form a complete band and bring in a who’s-who of guest musicians – Lou Reed, Rufus Wainwright, Devendra Banhart and (surprisingly) Boy George! – there’s no denying that the driving force of each song is Hegarty’s piano work and his singing. Even when he cedes some control of the song over to one of these legendary or, at the very least, exceptionally talented musicians, it’s still very clear that each and every song is his creation.

Favorite Tracks: Fistful of Love; My Lady Story; You Are My Sister

#247: Les Rythmes Digitales - Darkdancer (1999)

Zack: Full disclosure: I was in a really foul mood when I listened to this album and there’s a pretty decent chance I let it bleed into my experience. Regardless, I’ve been in bad moods before and listened to an album for the blog and found that it settled me down or picked up my spirits or something. This was not one of those cases. All I kept saying to myself was “Jeez! More of this shit?” Pretty much every track was a test of perseverance against extreme annoyance. Each song was seemingly endlessly repetitive, looping the same aggravating sounds over and over and over again. It seemed like Daft Punk’s Rollin’ and Scratchin’ -  by far the worst track on an otherwise pretty solid Homework – stretched over an entire 55 minutes. I wanted to throw my laptop to the other side of the room and go drink some herbal tea. I may do the latter now as a means of coping.

Favorite (?) Tracks: Damaged People; Hypnotise; Sometimes

Emily: Unlike Zack, I was in a pretty good mood while I listened to this album. It was my last day of work, and I was merrily slicing up flyers with a paper cutter for my boss. This ended up being quite a good environment for listening to Les Rythmes Digitales. Yes, each track was extremely repetitive and could probably have been half as long and created a similar effect. However, the production is very clean to hear - it doesn't have a lot of the earsplitting scratching and other sound effects that turn me away from electronic music as a genre. I found myself bobbing up and down as I did my work, as full-out dancing is generally discouraged when your boss can walk in at any moment, with visions of European discos playing in my head. For a genre that I generally dread listening to, Darkdancer was a remarkably pleasant surprise.
Favorite Tracks: Music Makes You Lose Control; (Hey You) What's That Sound?; Dreamin'

#246: Drive-By Truckers - Southern Rock Opera (2001)

Zack: I was mildly interested in listening to this up until the time I saw it was a double album. Country and Southern rock have been so hit-or-miss for us that I was terrified of investing more than 90 minutes into something I might come to loathe. I pushed it back a few days. Finally, I figured, I was going to have to listen to it eventually and I might as well try and enjoy it. I’m glad I made it a point to go in with an open mind, because this album is a really impressive feat of musical ingenuity. Southern Rock Opera is, as the name suggests, a southern rock (with some alternative country and even a dash of cowpunk here or there)-styled rock opera that aims to deconstruct the Deep South mythology. If it wasn’t for the three-guitar based assault that’s constantly whirring about, it would practically be academic. Drive-By Truckers have no interest in glorifying the South and its larger-than-life figures, a la Lynyrd Skynyrd, or even condemning its – ahem – checkered past like Neil Young famously does in Southern Man and (the fabulous track from Harvest) Alabama – a well-known dispute touched upon on SRO in the second track, Ronnie and Neil. Instead, they want to focus on the grey that lies between those two extremes. Or, as it’s put in a few songs, breaking down “the duality of the ‘Southern Thing.’” And when their attention is clearly devoted to that goal, SRO is magical. I think things tend to get a bit hazy when they jump into the secondary theme of exploring things from Skynyrd’s point of view, and the insistence on doing so adds quite a few unnecessary tracks, especially on the album’s shaky back end. But when Drive-By Truckers are trucking along in their investigation of southern dichotomy, they take both the southern rock and alternative country genres to a level of intelligence and sophistication I haven’t seen elsewhere.

Favorite Tracks: Birmingham; Wallace; The Southern Thing

Emily: True to its name, Southern Rock Opera tells quite an operatic story of the South. By personifying the different experiences and elements of the "Southern thing" through icons such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, George Wallace, and Neil Young as well as other unnamed Southerners and members of the Drive-By Truckers themselves, Southern Rock Opera creates a nuanced image of the South in the 1970s and beyond. The first half of the album is especially successful. Southern rock and country provide a backdrop to the story, which could effectively work as a staged musical. Well, maybe not one with a cohesive story, but perhaps a series of vignettes that all tie together as elements of the band's Southern thing. This idea really came to mind while hearing The Three Great Alabama Icons. The rock of this song is more subdued to make way for a spoken-word story of the narrator, a young Southerner, and his interpretation of the great looming figures of his home state - Ronnie van Zant (of Lynyrd Skynyrd), Bear Bryant (Alabama's head football coach in a football-loving state), and George Wallace (the infamous Alabama governor who became the face against the civil rights movement in the '60s). The storytelling was so vivid that I could envision the scenes being acted out as the narrator spoke, and it continued into the next song, Wallace, which describes George Wallace's entrance into hell - from the perspective of the devil. Unfortunately, the second half of this double album wasn't nearly as unique or successful. But the first half? It presents the South in music from an original, honest, and realistic perspective, a perspective that seems to be lacking in most other country and Southern rock music.

Favorite Tracks: The Three Great Alabama Icons; The Southern Thing; Birmingham

#245: The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man (1965)

Zack: Behold, the band that makes everyone say, “Wait, they have how many albums on this list?” The fact that The Byrds have five albums deemed to be among the 1001 best is such a head-turner that we forgot all about them until I realized that we should be listening to one every 200 albums or so and we were about 240 albums in. So here is our first foray into a band deemed to be as sonically significant as Led Zeppelin, The Who and Radiohead, and I thought it was about as campy as Hitchcock’s movie sounds on paper. It was that semi-folk rock sound that tends to dominate classic rock radio stations more than it should and that we’re bumped into a few times before here. I typically find this sound to be unimpressive, and this wasn’t really a change. Mr. Tambourine Man had its moments, but it was, for the most part, just sort of boring. Hopefully The Byrds change it up somewhere down the line, because four more version of this would be hard to stomach.

Favorite Tracks: I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better; It’s No Use; Mr. Tambourine Man

Emily: Zack told me that I had to pick a Byrds album in this batch. In fact, he even listed them under 2 categories to make sure I didn't forget. Even though they have 5 albums on the list, I guess I've just skipped over them every time we've decided to listen to folk. Having listened to their debut, I'll probably end up skipping over them again later on. The band had seen A Hard Day's Night and decided they wanted to sound like the Beatles, so they bought similar instruments and worked with that mid-'60s pop-rock sound, adding some folk in as well. They came up with a pleasant enough collection of songs made for radio play, but Mr. Tambourine Man is nothing remarkable. If you want a mid-'60s Beatles sound, just listen to the real thing instead.

Favorite Tracks: Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe; I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better; Here Without You

#244: Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible (1994)

Zack: It’s been my impression that musicians typically write the music before coming up with lyrics. Or, at best, they were devised in tandem. Apparently, Manic Street Preachers decided to switch up the formula, because Wikipedia leads me to believe that lyrics were priority No. 1, with writing suitable music for the subject material but a secondary concern. The result is frequently very smart, analytical lyrics with music devised to accentuate. Finding a suitable comparison for Manic Street Preachers is difficult, but it really reminded me of Pink Floyd. Okay, I’m sure I just lost everyone who has ever listened to even a single song from each, so let me explain myself. Everyone knows how Syd Barrett was the leader of Pink Floyd up until the time that his mental illness became too debilitating and he had to leave. Well, the lyrics from Holy Bible are clearly the product of a similarly unwell individual, and the exploration is fascinating. Take, for example, the song 4st 7lb, which is a reference to the minimum weight doctors say an anorexic person can be before they’re dead (4 stones, 7 pounds). Well, the leader of Manic Street Preachers suffered from anorexia – along with masochistic tendencies and alcoholism – and weighed only 6 stones. I don’t have internet right now, so I’m not sure what that is in human terms, but I’m guessing not good. Holy Bible has plenty of such dark inversion. But the entire album isn’t internal meditations. In plenty of places, the band favored highly political content. The most obvious example of this is probably IfWhiteAmericaToldTheTruthForOneDayIt'sWorldWouldFallApart. Besides for tricking every reader into thinking that my space bar had broken, it’s also a strong condemnation of American exceptionalism specifically and American politics generally. Other targets include British imperialism and the death penalty. The balance of this intense introversion and extroversion is really pretty special, and makes this album a very well hidden gem.

Favorite Tracks: IfWhiteAmericaToldTheTruthForOneDayIt'sWorldWouldFallApart; 4st 7lb, Yes

Emily: On the surface, the inclusion of this album seems like just more proof that this list is incredible Brit-centric. I had kind of heard of the Manic Street Preachers before from my Anglophile best friend, but other than that they don't seem to have achieved significant success outside the UK. It's just another random band that no one here cares about, I thought, but maybe it'll be more interesting than some of the others. Well, even though they may not hold as much renown as many of the artists on this list, the Manic Street Preachers certainly deserve to be invited to the party. With a post-punk inspired sound during the era of grunge, The Holy Bible hearkens back to the beginnings of alternative music, while the duality of political and personal lyrics makes it unique. Of course, with such a lyric-driven album and my propensity to not focus on lyrics during an initial listen, I'm sure there is much I missed, especially in Richey Edwards' emotional turmoil of addiction and depression. It's certainly worth multiple listens, which I will hopefully partake in soon enough.

Favorite Tracks: She is Suffering; IfWhiteAmericaToldTheTruthForOneDayIt'sWorldWouldFallApart; Faster

#243: Neil Young - Harvest (1972)

Emily: So Zack listened to this album almost 2 wweeks ago as he was packing up his old apartment. And he told me that he loved it. Loved it so much that he listened to it again and again and again until finally writing an essay of an album review. Clearly, this increased my anticipation for this album. My goal was, however, to listen to it without any information about why he gave it such a ringing endorsement. To do so, I didn't read his review nor did I really discussed the album with him (and I won't read his review until I finish writing this). And you know what? I really enjoyed it too. Harvest is a bit more country than my usual musical taste, but the rock influences and storytelling within the songs drew me in until the end. I definitely need to relisten to it in order to more fully flesh out my opinion, but for now I want to see what Zack had to say without further ado.
Favorite Tracks: There's a World; Old Man; Heart of Gold

Zack: It was but a week ago that I was complaining to Emily that no album had really separated itself from the pack as a leader for our slowly approaching 300 album award post. Obviously, there was and is still time, but seeing as we were rapidly approaching halfway through, the fact that nothing had really stuck out was alarming. Then I listened to Steely Dan and Bob Dylan and felt somewhat relieved. “Maybe a jaw-dropping album is too much to ask for,” I thought to myself. “Maybe I’ll just have to settle.” And then, ladies and gentlemen, Harvest. I took a few seconds away from packing up all of my worldly belongings to hit play, and immediately hit play again once it was over. From top to bottom, Harvest was fantastic. As much as I love Rust Never Sleeps, I had to admit that this was the superior product. You see, I’ve been delving into the Neil Young repertoire ever since I was floored by Rust Never Sleeps, or as best as I could. When an artist really wows me, I tend to do so. It got a bit complicated here, though, since Mr. Young has so many albums on the list (in a four-way tie for most with seven), and I didn’t want to listen to any of them before it was time. So I cheated a little but – I made a Neil Young Pandora station and listened to one or two live albums. I’ve heard some of these songs from those avenues. But something about hearing them all together is just so perfect. I think because the album really serves as a harvesting (see what I did there?) of all Neil Young’s influences. There are folksy songs, country songs, southern rock-esque songs (that lament the racist nature of the south at the time), and traditional 70s rock songs. Some songs are philosophic meditations and others are deeply personal laments. Some are bare bones, acoustic guitar and vocals while others are much more grandiose, even seeming like they belong on the Inception soundtrack. And all of it comes together to form something beautiful. Being pressed to pick favorite songs is hard because each song was tremendous in its own special way. Even the songs that I didn’t like as much I could easily see someone else really connecting with. Seriously, I’m going to pick three songs, but just know that Alabama or Old Man or Are You Ready for the Country or really any of the other songs could be in any of these places depending on the day and my mood.

Favorite Tracks: The Needle and the Damage Done; Heart of Gold; There’s a World

#242: T. Rex - Electric Warrior (1971)

Emily: Zack originally classified this album under psychedelic rock. Wikipedia says its glam rock. Both of those label, however, are somewhat misleading. There were psychedelic influences throughout Electric Warrior, as well as some grooving glam tracks, but the album transcends those genre lines and draws on a bunch of different sounds from the era. The result is fun, upbeat, and rockin'. Get it On, T. Rex's big international hit and the best-known song from this album, sounds almost like disco a few years early (with the awesome addition of glammy guitars). Is Electric Warrior the greatest of any of the genres it explores? Of course not, but it's still a great time to be had.
Favorite Tracks: Get it On; Mambo Sun; Rip Off

Zack: This album was a major disappointment, in that there wasn’t a single roar from a prehistoric apex predator. Really, that’s all I’ve ever wanted from an album. Once I got over that crushing blow, I came to be quite fond of Electric Warrior. It did a great job at embodying some of the musical trends that developed in the late 60s and early 70s while also avoiding the common pitfall of sounding dated. It wasn’t the greatest album of that year (I actually looked it up, and Who’s Next, What’s Going On, Sticky Fingers, From Fillmore East, Pearl, Blue and L.A. Woman were all released that year. And those are just the ones we’ve listened to already.) But it still was pretty solid overall and worth checking out.

Favorite Tracks: Get it On; Life’s a Gas; Mambo Sun

#241: Ice Cube - The Predator (1992)

Zack: More than any other West Coast G-funk album, I’ve been dying to listen to The Predator. More than Straight Outta Compton or The Chronic (which I’ve already listened to, but not in several years) or even Ice Cube’s more well-known album, AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted. Besides for the inclusion of It Was a Good Day, a song so fantastic that it has the inherent ability to make any day a good day, I knew his album served as somewhat of a chronicling of the emotional aftermath of the L.A. Riots. In that respect, The Predator is especially dynamic. The recording encompassed a long enough stretch that some songs clearly were recorded before the Rodney King cops’ verdict, and some after. Because of this distinction, some songs seem to really capture the visceral fury that people felt while others feel more like explanations for the aftermath. Most notably among the latter is We Had to Tear This Motherfucka Up, which details exactly why they had to tear that motherfucka up. Imbedded throughout the album are “inserts,” which effectively serve as skits like you see on so many other hip-hop albums. But these are way more interesting because of their content. One of the inserts is a clip from an interview where Ice Cube explains how his earlier albums were almost prophetic of the riots. Oh, and on top of all this, some songs sample the movie Predator 2, which you may remember as the one where a Predator hunts cartel members and police officers in Los Angeles. When all of this is mixed together, the product is an intensely smart, if often abrasive, political manifesto about race relations in a major urban center during a time of extreme crisis. And it’s even more impressive than I thought it would be.

Favorite Tracks: It Was a Good Day; Say Hi to the Bad Guy; We Had to Tear This Motherfucka Up

Emily: I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't get to actually listen to this album with Zack. He tends to be way more informed about rap, and knows what to listen for depending on the artist and album. Alas, I did this one on my own - but I think I did okay. The political themes caught my attention more. The sketches throughout the album illustrate different perspectives on race relations in the early '90s, including the police, the white perspective portrayed in the media, and most importantly the view of young African-Americans. Since Ice Cube recorded this album in LA during the Rodney King saga, the anger and sense of futility about these issues from the era is evident throughout. The effect is often abrasive, but the issues couldn't be addressed honestly in any other way. Ice Cube's album reflects the time and place it was made in, making it necessary listening to truly understand what was going on.

Favorite Tracks: It was a Good Day; Who Got the Camera?; When Will They Shoot?

#240: Todd Rundgren - A Wizard, a True Star (1973)

Zack: I read Wikipedia the day before listening to the album because I was bored and it’s like a billion degrees and I didn’t want to do anything else that might mean moving away from the fan. So I came into this album thinking it would be some sort of experimental version of The Beatles, sort of like Frank Zappa. And, in some places, it was. But in others, it sounded more like mid-to-late career Pink Floyd, which is impressive since it actually pre-dates mid-to-late era Pink Floyd. The most notable thing about this album is how short most of the songs are. That’s a problem I’ve run into with quite a few punk albums, because you look up and all of a sudden you’re 5 songs further in than you thought you were and you have to go back and figure out what songs you liked and didn’t. It wasn’t even that all the songs sounded the same – that’s actually very far from the truth. It was that all these different noises blended together very well, but in a way that was cohesive enough that actual changes in song were easily confused for just twists and turns in the melody of one song in particular. I want to go back and listen to this again under a set of circumstances that doesn’t involve having to formulate an opinion that I can write about because I think I’ll enjoy it more like that. For now, all I can really say is that it seemed to me to be something you have to listen all the way through. Picking just a few tracks here or there won’t give you the right idea of what it’s all about.

Favorite Tracks: Zen Archer; Rock and Roll Pussy; Just One Victory

Emily: As I listened to this album through my commutes to and from work today, I made sure to listen closely. Zack told me that the tracks tend to blend together since many are super short, and sometimes I tend to zone out while I'm multitasking during an album listen. The commute environment, while not always ideal by its tendency towards ambient noise that is way louder and more unpleasant than ambiance should be, worked really nicely today to eliminate any distractions so that I stayed intently focused on A Wizard, a True Star. It's kind of hard to evaluate the album on a song-by-song basis. Most of them on their own aren't spectacular; some are pretty lame in fact. However, when put together, it all makes sense. They flow into each other one by one, though not as one sound. Each is distinct, pulling from genres as diverse as psychedelic, progressive, early '60s pop, and soul. They fit together like a kaleidoscope, different and distorted and sometimes weird, but all making up the same picture. Only a nonstop listen will do this album justice, and I highly recommend that you do so.

Favorite Tracks: Zen Archer; When the Shit Hits the Fan/Sunset Blvd; I Don't Want to Tie You Down

#239: Fugazi - Repeater (1990)

Zack: My only real exposure to Fugazi was from a Philly-centric blog that swore by “Fugazi Friday.” Even then, I would only bother to actually listen to the song every once in a while, even though I liked what I heard. I wasn’t exactly surprised that Fugazi put together a solid discography in their time, most notably their debut album here. And I wasn’t really surprised by how solid of an album it was overall. What did surprise me was the degree to which it was a balance between a late-80s punk album and an early 90s alternative album. Considering this is their debut, I really was expecting more of a straight punk experience. But the balance really made it stand out from all the other debut punk albums on the list.

Favorite Tracks: Blueprint; Repeater; Two Beats Off

Emily: I too read the Philly-centric, Fugazi-Friday-featuring blog that Zack mentioned above. However, I never even bothered to listen to the Fugazi songs at all. Mostly because I usually read said blog at work or in other places where playing music is frowned upon, but also because I wanted to read about Philly rather than listen to seemingly unrelated songs. I've read a bit about Fugazi as well, though I forget where, and they're quite the influence on later alternative and punk music. Through all that, Fugazi seemed like the kind of band I would like but never bothered to check out. Now, presented with the opportunity to check them out (or else), I found out whether I actually would like them - and I did. Repeater, the band's debut, has a punk edge but isn't a punk album persay. It seems to bridge the gap between punk and the grunge/alternative sounds that emerged a few years later. This innovative combo makes it clear why Fugazi and this album in particular, while less successful than their later peers, was so influential for years to come. And it's a great listen to boot.

Favorite Tracks: Blueprint; Brendan #1; Shut the Door

#238: Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde (1966)

Emily: On an album like Blonde on Blonde, you can't help but be blown away by Bob Dylan's songwriting. The instrumentation is simple, just an acoustic guitar and harmonica solos. While sometimes the harmonica was a bit screechy for my taste, the overall subtlety and simplicity allow the lyrics to shine through. Dylan is a storyteller through and through, and here we get elegantly painted stories inspired by and with a backdrop of the blues. Rather than exploring social messages and issues, Dylan takes us through the stories of individuals, of cities, of love, of loss - beautiful stories of humanity. I guess I can't count myself in the anti-Dylan cohort anymore, because I know I'll return to Blonde on Blonde again and again.
Favorite Tracks: Visions of Johanna; Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again; One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)

Zack: I meant to relisten to Highway 61 Revisited before listening to this because I know that both take place in Dylan’s random electric phase and I wanted to compare them.  But then I decided just to listen to it with my brother instead because, hey, screw it. I’m kind of glad I did because it allowed me to appreciate Blonde on Blonde by itself in a vacuum of harmonica solos and screechy vocals. And damn, it was great. It was a double album, but it never seemed to get old or lag or anything. Every song felt fresh and unique from all the others. From reading Wikipedia’s helpful breakdown of each individual song (really useful on Dylan albums because it can give you a snapshot of what he’s talking about – not exactly easy when really compelling instrumentation meets classic Dylan crytpiticism,) I learned that this variation was caused mostly from different blues influences. Some were Memphis blues, some were Delta blues (hell yeah, Lightnin’ Hopkins!), some were Chicago blues, and so on. All of it was fantastic. Now that I’ve finished, I think I’d like to go back and listen to both Highway 61 and Blonde on Blonde back-to-back to get an idea of which I like better. But both definitely stand apart as really great albums.

Favorite Tracks: Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat; Pledging My Time; Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again 

#237: The Fall - Live at the Witch Trials (1979)

Emily: Live at the Witch Trials is an early post-punk album. To me, it was so early that it still sounded like punk. The lead singer sounds a lot like the lead singer of the Dead Kennedys (perhaps it's the accent), so the whole time I listened I kept comparing the two. The Fall has a bit more range than the Dead Kennedys, branching out into the fuzzy rock sounds of post-punk, and their lyrics aren't as harsh. However, I have to give this one to the Dead Kennedys, whose explosive punk sounds capture the anarchist spirit of punk rock perfectly. The Fall don't come close to achieving that punk attitude, probably because they arrived on the scene a few years later when it was transitioning towards post-punk and other sounds. I'm curious to see where they go on later albums, as they get further removed from the punk scene and become more and more prolific. Guess I'll find out in a few hundred albums or so.
Favorite Tracks: Mother Sister!; Industrial Estate; No Xmas for John Quays

Zack: Wikipedia felt comfortable describing The Fall as a band with little populist success but an impressive cult following, so I feel comfortable saying it too. Wikipedia also felt comfortable noting that the band has seen high amounts of turnover at pretty much every instrument and that The Fall's incredibly prolific catalog features some wildly different styles. I gathered as much when I started listening to this album, considering I’d read just a few days prior about how they were a major influence in the Madchester scene, much like Happy Mondays. This worries me, sine we usually like to switch it up between albums instead of lingering in one particular genre or era. But, lo and behold, this album sounded nothing like Happy Mondays, but instead much like all of those typical post punk albums we’ve heard and I tend to have difficulty distinguishing. Admittedly, this one was a bit difference, since it didn’t appear to be too far post the punk. There was still a lot of aggressive energy palpable. But it certainly was no Madchester or even alternative album. Perhaps the other The Fall albums on the list (three albums, three separate decades) will gear more that way. But Live at the Witch Trials certainly wasn’t, but would be a great listen for any Talking Heads, Joy Division, or The The fans out there.

Favorite Tracks: Frightened; Two Steps Back; Underground Medecin 

#236: Steely Dan - Aja (1977)

Zack: Last summer, a friend strongly hyped Aja to me, but I kind of shrugged it off because something in my brain registered Steely Dan as being lame. Now I don’t want to say that I was wrong, so I’ll just say that I definitely wasn’t right. Holy shit. This was a smooth, flawless merging of rock, pop and jazz. We saw other bands like Spirit try the formula, and I vaguely liked it then. No more. Why settle for a cheap substitute when you can get that raw, uncut shit like Aja? If you don’t believe me, then just read what Ian Dury said about it. “It's a record that sends my spirits up, and really when I listen to music, really that's what I want.” Yeah. It’s just so good that it makes you happy to be listening to it. I don’t necessarily agree with Mr. Dury on the last sentence (sometimes I don’t want my spirits lifted, and then I listen to Nick Drake or The Cure), but if you want your spirits up on the fucking roof, Aja is for you.

Favorite Tracks: Josie; Peg; Deacon Blues

Emily: I like jazz, and I like rock, but jazz rock just doesn't seem like it would be my thing. I thought it would be boring or trying too hard to be cool when it just ends up sounding like what your dad (okay, my dad) wants to blast during his evening commute. After listening to Steely Dan's Aja, however, I have to admit that my preconceptions were wrong. This album takes the edge of rock and smooths it out with jazz and pop undertones. It's smooth without leaning towards the extremes of boring or sleazy. And many of the tracks are just fun and upbeat. Though I wouldn't say I loved Aja (and definitely not as much as Zack did), I can't deny my ears' enjoyment.

Favorite Tracks: Peg; Home at Last; Black Cow

#235: David Bowie - "Heroes" (1977)

Zack: For our second Bowie foray, we jumped entirely over the Thin White Duke phase and landed squarely in mid-Berlin. This incarnation of Bowie features some Krautrock flair and a dash or minimalism, both of which really shine through on the second half of the album. Honestly, I wasn’t too impressed with that part, but I quite enjoyed the first half. That said, I do distinctly remember being a bit unappreciative towards Ziggy Stardust when I first heard it, but subsequent listens have made it one of my favorites. I really hope that also happens here, because I want to trust Bowie and not just think that this was merely an okay effort from him. Especially when this same era spawned Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life, which I love so dearly.

Favorite Tracks: “Heroes”; Beauty and the Beast; The Secret of Arabia

Emily: Must be tough to be a Bowie fan. One album you're grooving to space rock on Mars with Ziggy Stardust, and just a few years later you're...cruising down the Autobahn? "Heroes" is part of David Bowie's Berlin period, heavily influenced by German Krautrock and experimental ambient music. Honestly, I wasn't really a fan. I really enjoy Bowie when he sounds like, well Bowie. Without the vocals, without the pop flair, without the storytelling, it just sounds like another synth-driven album of background noise. I did enjoy a few tracks though, and they were the ones where he takes the minimalist influence and turns it on its head through rock and pop. But overall, I'll take Ziggy Stardust any day.
Favorite Tracks: "Heroes"; The Secret of Arabia; Blackout

#234: Happy Mondays - Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches (1990)

Emily: As a big fan of my writing escapades, my dad tries to keep up with this blog (when he remembers, at least). Around when we first started, he shared it with a few of his coworkers. This was mostly because he's proud of me and whatnot, but also because one guy is really into music - I'm talking 50,000 songs in his iTunes library into music. I went to my dad's office one day to give him something, and he took me around to meet some of his coworkers, and the music guy mentioned my blog when we were introduced. He mentioned a few of the bands he was a big fan of - mostly punk and underground that I had a passing familiarity with - and when I told him about my interests in alternative and punk, he recommended that I give the Happy Mondays a listen. Well, it's taken a while, but I finally listened to the Happy Mondays! It's upbeat alternative music with hints of world music influence and more than a hint of scandal and sexiness. My dad's musically inclined coworker was right - I thoroughly enjoyed Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches, and I'll be sure to listen to it again.
Favorite Tracks: Bob's Yer Uncle; Loose Fit; God's Cop

Zack: This is our latest foray into the mysterious world of Madchester, a super-specific subgenre of music that involves blending the then-emerging sounds of alternative with some psychedelicness for good measure. Oh, and the band has to originate in the Manchester region of the UK. I’m not sure why that is, but my only guess, which is informed by my admittedly limited knowledge about soccer abroad, is that Manchester is an area unsatisfied unless it is laying claim to everything and anything that other people may want. It’s like the younger sibling of the world. Anyway, the last trip was when we listened to The Stone Roses, which you may remember me liking but still be underwhelmed due to the album’s tremendous amount of hype. Well, this album didn’t really have all the hype to me, and I think it was better for it. I really liked this blending of music, which occasionally incorporated an organ right out of an Iron Butterfly jam. I’ve been meaning to go back and relisten to The Stone Roses but have had trouble convincing myself to do so. I don’t foresee any such problem with Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches.

Favorite Tracks: Loose Fit; Bob’s Yer Uncle; Grandbag’s Funeral 

#233: Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction (1987)

Zack: Like most adolescent males, I went through a Guns N’ Roses phase sometime that coincided with puberty. My dad had their greatest hits and, as seems to be a running theme to this blog, I raided his CD collection one day and found it. As such, I’m pretty familiar with all the major GNR songs. Tragically, my favorite GNR song isn’t on this album. Which is a shame since anytime is November Rain time. Neither is my second favorite GNR tune, Civil War. But Appetite for Destruction does have Welcome to the Jungle, Sweet Child O’ Mine and Paradise City, so it’s not all bad. Those three songs are basically pillars in the temple of hard rock, and they’re spaced pretty far apart in the album. Which is great, since they all rock you like an air-guitar inducing hurricane and you need a few songs in between to help recover. The other songs ranged from pretty good to meh, but none of them really stood out to me. Although I’m sure they sound great in  head-to-head comparison against Chinese Democracy.

Favorite Tracks: Welcome to the Jungle; Sweet Child O’ Mine; Paradise City

Emily: I listened to this album last night and didn't have much to say. So I decided to sleep on it, maybe give it another spin, and see if the thoughts came pouring out. Surprise: that didn't happen. This album just didn't make much of an impression on me. The two main singles, Welcome to the Jungle and Sweet Child O' Mine (of course), are great examples of '80s hair metal done right. The rest of it, however, is pretty forgettable. Not bad, but just not that exciting. Guns N' Roses are definitely on the better end of hard rock bands from this era, but to me it wasn't worth it to look past the singles.
Favorite Tracks: Welcome to the Jungle; Sweet Child O’ Mine; Paradise City