#230: The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East (1971)

Zack: I had an argument with a coworker about how awesome the Allman Brothers are. He said he tends to get bored pretty early on in those 20-minute jam songs, which I took as enough reason for him to get on Ritalin because, seriously, focus up there’s some major awesomeness going on in there. But the one thing we both agreed on is that Duane Allman is the greatest slide guitar player of all time. I mean the guy just does some ridiculous stuff. Even though he isn’t a fan of the Allman Brothers, that fact was enough to get him to put Duane in the top 5 of greatest guitarists (although not as high as I had him). And that, I think, is the most important part of the Allman Brothers’ legacy. Whether you’re into what they’re doing or not, everyone has to admit that every member – Duane most specifically – was a freaking incredible musician. They just played with so much seemingly freestyling whimsy. They’d fly all over the place, but never lose control. I’ve listened to a lot of the Allman Brothers studio albums, and they’re some great ones. But nothing comes close to hearing them play live. It’s clear to anyone that this was their natural environment.

Favorite Tracks: Whipping Post; Statesboro Blues; In Memory of Elizabeth Reed

Emily: It's not surprising that the Allman Brothers' breakthrough was a live album. Their freewheeling style lends itself to improvisation with each musician feeding off each other and the audience. That just can't be done when each musician records their own parts, alone, in an empty studio save for a few producers. At Fillmore East captures their live energy and excitement. Simple rock tracks are turned into explorations of rock guitar sounds, stretched to as long as 25 minutes. I know I complain sometimes when artists do this, but here it makes total sense. These songs aren't meant to be restrained into hooks, choruses, and 30 second solos. They're more of a journey, and I'm glad the Allmans recorded them live so we can all go on the journey with them.

Favorite Tracks: You Don't Love Me; Done Somebody Wrong; In Memory of Elizabeth Reed

#229: Jah Wobble - Rising Above Bedlam (1991)

Emily: What a great day to come to this album. One of my coworkers found an auxiliary cord to hook up to our gift shop sound system, so we're now free to listen to iPods and phones as we please. Well, some music is probably best left out of the museum, but Jah Wobble was a perfect fit to my afternoon at work. It's a true foray into world music. As I listened, I picked up on reggae, Latin, Caribbean, and rock influences - some all in the same song. Bilingual lyrics - Spanish and English, as far as I could tell - add to the global feeling. I also enjoyed the change in tone throughout the album. The beginning was bright and upbeat, while later tracks were darker and moodier (especially Soledad and Sweet Divinity). The mood picked up again with the aptly named Wonderful World. All in all this was an enjoyable album, and a definite addition to my gift shop rotation.
Favorite Tracks: Relight the Flame; Sweet Divinity; Visions of You

Zack: I don’t really know what to say about this album other than it was quite good. There were some elements of world music mixed in, but I thought it was done better than on the recently listened-to Graceland. I’d never heard of Jah Wobble before or even Public Image Ltd, the band he originally rose to pseudo-prominence from (although I did know they have 2 albums on the list). So I had no idea what to expect, but Visions of Love immediately put me at ease. It’s a really catchy song with an awesome bass section. The next song, Relight the Flame, was different but equally as good. While those first two songs remained my favorites, there were several other tracks that I really enjoyed as well. I probably won’t go back and relisten to this entire album at any point, but you can bet that a few songs will probably be somewhere in my iTunes most played in a few months.

Favorite Tracks: Visions of You; Relight the Flame; Everyman’s an Island

#228: Arrested Development - 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of... (1992)

Zack: I’m going to go out on a limb and say that not many of the hip-hop albums released in 1992 had a 1:43 track mostly comprised of a flute and birds chirping. Which is a shame because Dr. Dre’s The Chronic or Ice Cube’s The Predator really could have used exactly that. It’s exactly that sort of tranquility that made Arrested Development stick out in a sea of gangstas. They are reminiscent of A Tribe Called Quest (Low End Theory, their biggest album, came out the year before), although most of their beats aren’t quite as funky. They do a few different things, but most rely on heavy bass lines as opposed to the typically drum-heavy West Coast stuff of the era. Lyrically, they’re inventive and just sort of positive in a way that really matches with the beats. Overall, I thought the album started out kind of slow, but by the time Raining Revolutions hits, the album turns into a seminal hip-hop classic.

Favorite Tracks: Give a Man a Fish; Dawn of the Dreads; Tennessee

Emily: Needless to say, hearing the name Arrested Development automatically makes me think of the great and ridiculous sitcom of Fox and Netflix, not the hip-hop band of the same name. I love the show and its antics, but I know next-to-nothing about early-'90s Afrocentric alternative rap. I was a bit disappointed that Arrested Development's debut album didn't feature a George Michael wood block solo or Tobias' Fantastic 4 musical medly or anything that could spark a Bluth chicken dance, but that didn't prevent me from enjoying it. The album has a laid-back feel from unique instrumentation and samples (like the flutes and birds Zack mentioned) that's perfect for summer listening. Unlike other rap of the era, it's peaceful instead of angry, rhythmic instead of staccato, and just positive and fun. While some of their more experimental choices fall flat, overall Arrested Development's debut is a unique spin on hip-hop from a time when almost everyone was doing the same gangsta thing. And you can always add your own chicken dance.

Favorite Tracks: Raining Revolution; Fishin' 4 Religion; Natural

#227: King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)

Emily: Prog tends to go a few ways of me. Its influence can add a rambling, experimental quality to pop or rock music. However, when that quality becomes the main focus of an album it can become too long and overwrought, perhaps requiring the listener to take part in the drugs that were taken to make the music happen. King Crimson's debut, though theoretically a wholly prog rock album, doesn't fall into that trap. Its five tracks, ranging from 6 to 12 minutes in length, keep listeners' attention by playing with sound and style. Jazz influences add an element of improvisation with a slight rock edge peeking through in the vocals and instrumentation. The result is unique and surprisingly modern - though released in 1969, it could be from the '80s or even this decade. King Crimson's influence on prog rock and rock in general can't be ignored, and this debut is worth a listen to find out why.
Favorite Tracks: 21st Century Schizoid Man; The Court of the Crimson King; Moonchild

Zack: I didn’t know much about King Crimson prior to today other than what I’d read on a few “Best Prog-Rock Band Lists” (don’t ask) and the sample on Kanye’s POWER. But those two things were enough to get me excited. This album, overall, was sort of backward in the best possible ways. The concluding track – The Court of the Crimson King – sounds a hell of a lot like an opener. And the first two tracks may start out relying predominantly on traditional rock instruments, but halfway through they let other instruments – horns in 21^st Century Schizoid Man, a flute in I Talk to the Wing – drive the songs instead of accentuating. Everything seemed to be constructed in a counterintuitive manner, and I loved that about it. The album seemed to lag a bit in the middle, but the beginning and end were cool, enjoyable and just downright infectious.

Favorite Tracks: 21^st Century Schizoid Man; The Court of the Crimson King; I Talk to the Wind

#226: Paul Simon - Graceland (1986)

Emily: Paul Simon's musical style can best be described as "troubadour." He learns stories of people, places, emotions, and events, and retells them in song. He did it with Garfunkel by keeping the music minimalistic so the listener could focus on the story in the lyrics. Here, in his mid-'80s solo career, he takes a slightly different path. Inspired by apartheid-era South African township music, Simon broadens the scope of both his lyrics and his music. He draws from African pop music and instrumental styles and incorporates them with American pop and rock, creating a unique sound that tells a global story.
Favorite Tracks: Graceland; You Can Call Me Al; Crazy Love, Vol. II

Zack: This album featured not only Paul “I’m involved in 6 albums on this list” Simon, but a bunch of people who make appearances in the world genre of the 1001 Albums You Must Listen to Before Your Time on This Earth Ends. Because of that, I could see it being a great intro for someone who wants to get into sub-Saharan music but doesn’t just want to jump right in with some Fela Kuti. Considering it sold only like a billion copies, it clearly must be pretty accessible to Western audiences. But, for me, it was kind of underwhelming. I think a large part of that is that we play the lead single – You Can Call Me Al – at work so I’ve heard it enough times to like the song and then develop a burning hatred of it. Not even Chevy Chase could redeem this song in my ears. I probably need to listen to the album again to digest the lyrical complexities that Paul Simon is known for, but after a first listen I was kind of unimpressed.

Favorite Tracks: Graceland; All Around the World or the Myth of Fingerprints; Under African Skies

#225: Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory (2000)

Zack: Along with Sum 41’s seminal All Killer, No Filler, Hybrid Theory was one of the first albums I ever got. I forget if they were birthday or Christmas gifts, but that is where my musical voyage began. So, yeah, there’s a bit of sentimental value here. Realistically, I may have listened to this album more than any other….ever. I was that big of an 11-year-old Linkin Park fan. I don’t think I’d listened to it in like 5 years before today, but you best believe I knew every word. And I think it’s important to know that I first gravitated to them when I heard Crawling (the second single), not In the End (the fourth) like all the other 11-year-old posers. It’s also probably important to mention that I continued listening to Linkin Park up until like my junior year of high school, when I would listen to Minutes to Midnight and play Final Fantasy X, which I’m telling you solely because writing about how dated things are is fun. For fuck’s sake, I had Reanimation, the album where they just remixed all the songs on Hybrid Theory and drifted a bit more towards the rap portion of the rap-rock chimera they professed to be. Ultimately, my point here is to make it clear that I can’t possibly critique it. There’s just too strong a bond. It was hard not to just give every song 5 stars out of sheer echoes of childhood wonder at what I was hearing. Honestly, this is not a great album. It might not even be a good album, and I assume it’s only on this list because…okay I’m not even sure why. Because they sold a lot of copies? Because it’s like a super mainstream form of Rage Against the Machine? I really don’t know. But this is my childhood right here. If you want to listen to something tangentially related to Linkin Park that is actually worth checking out, get The Rising Tied by Fort Minor (Mike Shinoda’s side project). It’s got some crazy Machine Shop beats and a lot of really great guest spots, including Common, Lupe Fiasco, John Legend and Black Thought. Seriosuly. But Hybrid Theory is best left as a memento of a bygone era where people thought that Linkin Park were legitimately cool to listen to.

Favorite Tracks: Crawling; A Place for My Head; In the End

Emily: Linkin Park fans tend to be adolescent or teenage boys full of angst and/or anger. The person I most associate with the band is a kid who was on my bus in middle school and high school who fucking loved them. He went to multiple concerts and tried to get his other friends on the bus to go with him (seemingly to no avail). This kid wasn't particularly angsty or angry, but perhaps he was just suffering from the general state of teendom. Female preteens and teenagers going through the same thing had different musical heroes in the early '00s (hello, Avril Lavigne), so I personally never really got in to Linkin Park beyond their singles (though I do really enjoy Numb and its subsequent mashup with Jay-Z's Encore). Hybrid Theory makes clear why Linkin Park was so successful and revered by music-buying teen boys. It's one of the most accessible albums of the early rap-rock era with its arena guitars, scream-sung lyrics filled with anger and emotion, and interwoven rap verses. While I found it inconsistent, the singles are strong examples of alternative metal and signal Linkin Park's potential - a potential fulfilled through millions of albums sold.

Favorite Tracks: In the End; Crawling; One Step Closer

#224: Lynyrd Skynyrd - (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd) (1973)

Zack: We have a system for picking albums that essentially works with me picking a whole bunch of possible albums and Emily deciding on the final batches. For some reason, she decided to double down on the southern rock subgenre, as we will be listening to The Allman Brothers Band At Fillmore East sometime within the next two weeks or so. I’ve already listened to that album like a dozen times, and I’m super excited to talk about what a perfect example of southern/jam rock it is. And I think the comparison with Skynyrd will be interesting. But it brought me to this larger question of where Skynyrd ranks as far as southern rock goes. The almighty Wikipedia begins the list of influential southern rock bands with – in order – Allman Brothers, Skynyrd, and ZZ Top. Now, at their best, ZZ Top are ridiculously cheesy, which is what I thought about a few songs of this album (and what I think about Sweet Home Alabama in general, but that’s a discussion for another day). But when the Allman Brothers are at their best, what could conceivably be a short song gets whipped up into an extended slide guitar jam session, freewheeling around in perfectly synchronized chaos. Sounds a lot like Free Bird, doesn’t it. And that’s what I came away with. This album was inconsistent enough that it flipped between being reminiscent of these other two bastions of southern rock. And I’ll stand by that assessment for every track, except Simple Man. That song, I maintain, is damn near perfect while still being stripped down (at least compared to Free Bird). In Simple Man, I hear a lot of influence for a more modern southern rock-influenced band that I love, My Morning Jacket, especially their earlier works. Simple Man is, for me, more than enough reason to appreciate Skynyrd.

Favorite Tracks: Simple Man; Free Bird; Tuesday’s Gone

Emily: Lynyrd Skynyrd is known for a few things in my mind. One, that half of the band died in a plane crash. Two, that Sweet Home Alabama has become a Southern anthem of sorts. And three, Free Bird has become the universal sign of douchebaggery when yelled for at a concert - especially one that's completely unrelated to the genre (though it was kinda funny when a guy held a Free Bird sign from his balcony hundreds of feet away from a free Switchfoot concert we went to last summer). These don't exactly combine up to fandom in my mind, and after listening to Skynyrd's entire debut I'm still not all that into it. Southern jam rock just isn't my thing - I prefer my songs on the shorter end, minus the oft-repetitive musical interludes. Perhaps I'll like the Allman Brothers better though; we'll find that out in a few days.

Favorite Tracks: Free Bird; Tuesday's Gone; Simple Man