My Favorite Albums Evar: 20-11

Episode 20-11

100-91 / 90-81 / 80-71 / 70-61 / 60-51 / 50-41 / 40-31 / 30-21

I haven’t been watching everyone’s Lastfms, but I’m going to assume you’ve had a nice long weekend full of Smooth Island, and you’re ready to get back to business. I, on the other hand, am starting to get not just a little worried about my dedication to the smoothitude. No, over the weekend I slipped a little farther into the abyss, finding myself saying things like, “Wow, McDonald looks really good in that t-shirt and white pants” and “Hey, Kenny Loggins was a pretty tall guy, and look at that beard!” While I find myself sort of terrified by these revelations (I was stone cold sober when I said that McD looked “hott”, btw), I’m also sad that it took me this long to find my inner crush on the dude who sings “Pooh Corner”.

In other news, I’m only regretting getting bangs a little bit. Part of me is really happy with it, and happy to have something new, and part of me is looking around for all the smart, sensible girls that were shaking their heads saying “Um, wtf Paige?” when I mentioned it a while back. I’m far too impulsive for my own good sometimes, but at least it’s just hair, not anything life threatening.

Anyway, enough with my weekend recap bore-a-thon and on to the albums. As usual, follow the jump and let me know I’m a crazy person in the comments.

20 Liz Phair – Exile in Guyville (1993)

It might seem weird for me to list this record so high, but it’s impossible for me to pretend it didn’t have the impact on me it did. The album, which stands as (essentially) a really well-produced lo-fi masterpiece, isn’t the song-by-song response to Exile on Main Street you might have heard it is, but it is patterned after it, with its rusty tamborines and clunky transitions ever mocking the male ego. That is, when its not mocking Phair’s own ego. Ultimately this album, all the hype and talk and geeky girl w/guitar fantasies aside, would never be matched by Phair or any of her copycats. It’s also one of those that will take me right back to 1993. Or 1997. Or New Year’s Eve, 1998. Or summer of 2000. Or even now.

19 Chicago – Chicago Transit Authority / II (1969, 1970)

I know a few of you will think it’s pretty hilarious, but I fucking love Chicago. And back then, they kicked ass. “I’m a Man”, anyone? Jazz, rock n’ roll, ballads, you name it. Just let me pretend the 80′s never happened to them, ok?

18 Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde (1966)

The rock n roll album Dylan would never duplicate again – from “Rainy Day Women” to “I Want You”, this one is practically perfect. A friend once told me that there are two kinds of Dylan fans – those that obsess, own everything, know every word, and sort of concentrate more on his poetry, his influence as a wordsmith and story-teller, and there are those that know what they like and don’t mess with all the heavy shit. Well, I definitely fall into that second category. I’ll leave the poetry to Cohen (not to knock Dylan’s talent), and the incredible songwriting to Dylan, this album.

17 Talking Heads – Remain in Light (1980)

I don’t know, I just like it. I like polyrhythms. I like “Crosseyed and Painless”. I like 1980.

16 The Rolling Stones – Exile on Main Street (1972)

My favorite rock songs are the ones that form a dense cloud of weight, bleak layers and a real sort of feeling (not some fake, ‘hey we’re playing the blues’ feeling) over the sound itself. Plenty of people have written about this record in a much more careful and memorable way, so it’s hard to get my point in with one or two sentences, but you have to understand, this album has every genre, every emotion, every sound you ever heard.

15 Beach Boys – Pet Sounds (1966)

When music geeks sit around and talk about great production, layered tracks and even when they move into ambient and electronic stuff, they owe a big wave and jelly donut to Wilson and this album. Not only did it set a creative and technical bar at its time, its an album comprised of fucking excellent songs, performed flawlessly.

14 Led Zeppelin – IV (1971)

Man, how lucky was everyone in the 70′s? It’s such a fucking shame that even intelligent people talk about the music of the 70′s like it was some big coke-fueled dance party. Um, duh ppl. Yes, this is the one with “Stairway”. But you know what, fuck that – it’s not even the first track, it’s not even the closing track. And you know what? Fuck it if it was, “Stairway” is fucking great. But even if you have a problem with the song’s over-exposure, don’t dismiss this album as its device: “Black Dog”, “When the Levee Breaks” and “Battle of Evermore” are all incredible, the whole album is, top to bottom.

13 The Modern Lovers – The Modern Lovers (1976)

For not being too crazy of a Velvet Underground fan, I sure do like a lot of groups influenced by them. Jonathan Richman is right at the forefront of that gang of chaps, and his Modern Lovers (who recorded the album with John Cale in ’73) presented 1976 with a style of New England geek punk that took minimalistic riffs, real emotion and the comedic abstract and packaged them up so nicely, they earned a spot in my heart foreverz. My favorite song? “Girl Friend”.

12 Fleetwood Mac – Tusk (1979)

This album plays like a golf match with an elephant, and I fucking love it. It’s another one of those albums with lofty aspirations that are met (with fucking fantastic results) at times, and at others leaves you scratching your head with your wtf finger. Never the less, “Save Me a Place”, “Tusk”, “What Makes You Think You’re the One” and “Walk a Thin Line” stand out as incredible manifestations of Buckingham’s dominance and the girls’ balancing act between their more mellow roots and their need to keep up with him.

11 Euphone – Euphone (1997)

I tell you and I tell you and I tell you that I love percussion and innovation and showing the fuck off when you’ve got talent, and you just nod and grin like I’m a silly school girl who gets excited about white gravy in the lunch line. No, I really fucking mean it, and this album is the epitome of what I love about skillz. There are so many wonderful albums out there, so many great songwriters, but once in a while, you need a great composition and a man with 9 arms.

Mmm, a man with nine arms.