My Favorite Albums Evar: 50-41

Episode 50-41

100-91 / 90-81 / 80-71 / 70-61 / 60-51

It feels good to break into the Top 50, you guys. I’m getting excited, are you? Come on and follow the jump!

50 Flaming Lips – Soft Bulletin (1999)

I think as these get closer to 100, I’m going to have less prolific ways to describe how I relate to them. With Soft Bulletin, I found myself surprised to not be hearing about aliens, spaceships and the various uses for Vaseline, but I was welcomed to a sensitive, orchestral and big gorgeous hug of an album that I don’t wait to be topped: I don’t want it to be.

49 Wire – Pink Flag (1977)

Have you been keeping up with how many of these albums were released in 1977? Quite a few, and I can only wonder if its an accident that it’s the year of my birth. But regardless of that, what is there to say about Wire? Brief, essentials-only British punk, short shotgun blasts of songs, stomping past you quickly and steadily. All that, and no frills – real punk rock, real bare, electric and incredible punk rock.

48 Public Enemy – It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988)

Because I’m black and I’m proud. A bitch slap of a record, this one changed the game. Well, as far as this honkey can tell.

47 Red House Painters – Songs for a Blue Guitar (1996)

Since Kozelek is such a weird OCD perfectionist, it’s hard to listen to songs like “Make Like Paper” and his brilliant rendition of “Silly Love Songs”, and their intricate and seemingly off-the-cuff guitar solos and keep whatever you previously thought of Kozelek straight in your mind. The word on the street is that this record was done differently on purpose, with new musicians and unfinished songs being worked on in a group setting, instead of Kozelek writing and instructing everyone else. Aside from that, this album revealed some Kozelek moments that introduced us to the side of him that is a huge Angus Young fan, the side of him that has earned his spot as one of the greatest songwriters of our time, and the part of him that understands what makes other people’s songs great, as well. The Cars cover (“All Mixed Up”) is one of his greatest moments ever, and if you can forgive his sometimes hokey lyrics (even he must realize that rhyming ‘nice’ with ‘nice’ is kinda lame), this album is a stand-out and relative masterpiece.

46 Yes – Fragile (1972)

Constantly surprising arrangements, brilliant melody and flawless performances make this album a classic. Don’t argue, mkay?

45 The Beatles – White Album (1968)

Um, it’s the White Album, y’all. I could go into the filler, and give you my “Back in the USSR” speech, or I could tell you the story about Rocky, or I could even tell you the story about losing my virginity to some mixtape and realizing how I could make sense of “Happiness is a Warm Gun”, or how about how my French tutor in college sang “Blackbird” to our graduating class with his acoustic in McDowell, but what’s the point of all that?

44 Television – Marquee Moon

So you’re my friend, right? And we’re hanging out and I’m talking about Malkmus, and you’re fine with that because I can tend to do that, but what you’re surprised by is my on-going semi-thesis on how this one album is probably more responsible for everything I loved about Pavement than anything else in the world, and that’s saying a lot because I consider Malkmus to be quite the genius, and totally capable of creating masterwork after masterwork without the influence of anyone else. Yet, my Pavement attachment aside, no one can deny Marquee Moon of its place in history, and Tom Verlaine is my boyfriend when we’re all dead and hanging out in heaven.

43 Rollerskate Skinny – Horsedrawn Wishes (1996)

It’s really no surprise that a Shields brother was once in this band, and while this album’s constant comparisons to Loveless aren’t unfounded, I do hold it distinct in my mind from MBV and their work. It’s hard, when a band is constantly being compared to something else and that something else happens to be a benchmark for a genre – you’re doomed to never be appreciated for how incredible you might be, and if you ever change your sound to break out of that mold, you’re a disappointment to people waiting to hear more records by the band you were originally compared to. Any of this making sense? It’s like having the misfortune of being in a band that someone with some influence compares to Radiohead. You poor, poor shmuck. Anyway, if you like the orchestral shoe-gazing genre but lean more towards the Mercury Rev / Flaming Lips side of things, you’ll probably really love this. But don’t download listen to just one song, do it as an album, for cryin’ out loud.

42 Palace Songs – Hope (1996)

Crawling out from behind the disguise of hillbilly crooner with a heart of gold (and some potentially dangerous internal dialogues), Will Oldham let a full band, backing vocals and the rich mixture of his unconventional but strong singing voice and his poetic lyrics present a playful (“Winter Lady”, a Leonard Cohen cover) but loving (“Christmastime in the Mountains” is one of the most beautiful songs ever) collection of six beautiful, timeless songs. He’s prolific and constantly calling himself something else, but if you’re in need of an Oldham introduction, this would be a great place to start.

41 Led Zeppelin – II (1969)

I interviewed a band a few weeks ago for a freelance job and was talking about finding time to write new material, and I casually mentioned that it must be hard, if you’re coming up with new material or leave for a tour with a few beginnings of songs, then have to sort of put them on the back burner to play songs that you’ve probably been playing for a year or two, every night. The interviewee made a point of telling me how impossible it was to even think about coming up with new stuff while on the road, carefully explaining how busy tours are, how there’s no way to do anything remotely different or new on the road. And while I can wrap my brain around that, having spent a few summers in a van myself, I spent the entire conversation thinking, “I wonder if this kid knows that II was recorded in the middle of a tour, in short bursts here and there.” And I also wonder if he knew that “Lemon” was about getting your blls drained, and I also wonder if he ever listened to “Ramble On”, and if he had, could he still consider himself a rock star?