50 Albums you must hear before you buy a house 5.0 (5)

I went down to the demonstration to get my fair share of abuse, goin’ as much with the river as not:

DOK
Artist Album Year 2013
15 The Beatles Rubber Soul 1965 22
14 The Band The Band 1969 3
13 Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here 1975 14
12 The Beach Boys Pet Sounds 1966 15
11 The Rolling Stones Let It Bleed 1969 *
GvZ
Artist Album Year 2015
15 Radiohead Kid A 2000 26
14 The Beatles The Beatles (White Album) 1968 22
13 The Doors The Doors 1967 *
12 Genesis The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway 1974 4
11 The Rolling Stones Let It Bleed 1969 9
RKH
Artist Album Year 2015
15 Bob Dylan Blonde on Blonde 1966 4
14 Van Morrison Veedon Fleece 1974 20
13 Radiohead In Rainbows 2007 11
12 Van Morrison Astral Weeks 1968 3
11 Pink Floyd The Dark Side of the Moon 1973 14

Shuffle of the week #57

1. Bob Dylan – Visions of Johanna (Live 1966: The ‘Royal Albert Hall’ Concert, 1998) [singlepic id=335 w=80 h=50 float=left]

Famous live sounds of the master, from probably rock music’s most famous bootleg. As a result of his motorcycle accident that followed 2 months after finishing this world tour, it was one of Dylans last live perfomances until 1974. Dylan was backed by the Hawks, who kept him company during Dylans recovery in Big Pink and lined up again (as The Band) in that following tour of ’74, which was released on Before The Flood, another geat live album.

2. The Beatles –Yer Blues (White Album, 1968) [singlepic id=137 w=80 h=50 float=left]

The best way to bypass your insecurity about something still remains acting like everything you’re doing is just one big parody, and before you can realize it everything you did ends up to be a smashing masterpiece. The combination of the ‘I want to die’ lyric with the oompah sounds and the terrific guitar solo makes this track one of Lennon’s most fascinating contributions to the White Album, on which it resides perfectly in all its nudity.

3. The Smashing Pumpkins – Thru The Eyes of Ruby (Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness, 1995) [singlepic id=332 w=80 h=50 float=left]

Bombastic Pumpkins at their asolute peak, with Mellon Collie being the ultimate cocktail of riff & melody.  Luckily, and as always on this double album, the guitars dominate the second part of this song. Not very surprising by the way, as approximately 70 guitar tracks were used on this song. Quarrels with your bandmates seem inevitable at some point.

4. Bruce Springsteen – Further On (Up the Road) (The Rising, 2002) [singlepic id=418 w=80 h=50 float=left]

Uptempo drums-driven intro, ultimate stadium voice: the striking come-back of The Boss. Springsteen had been on a 7 year hiatus and it was his first collaboration with the E-Street Band in 18 years. The Rising was Springsteen’s response to 9/11, but in fact it was just the next episode in the whole Springsteen-saga, in which the high priest repeatedly offers hope to his most dedicated followers during gigantic mass gatherings. Good album (just a little too much fillers?).

5. The White Stripes – I’m Slowly Turning Into You (Icky Thump, 2007) [singlepic id=284 w=80 h=50 float=left]

From their sixth and final album: a rough song, with screaming guitars and a pumping organ. According to Jack White himself, an album about ‘being really happy’. What is there to add?

6. Fleet Foxes –  Sun Giant (Sun Giant, 2008) [singlepic id=60 w=80 h=50 float=left]

Must have been the greatest contrast in clearness the shuffle could come up with. Both fans of Dylan and Neil Young, Robin Pecknold and Kyler Skjelset joined forces to start one of the best things that happened to popular music during the last decade. They delivered two very strong albums, treated us on some really marvelous folk classics (like ‘Drops in the River’ on this EP) and easily equalize the sound of some of the seventies’ most famous Westcoast choirs. Pecknold apparently suffers from social anxiety, and the fact he only hangs out with his bandmates offers us hope regarding the release of that long expected third album.

7. Cloud Nothings – Wasted Days (Attack On Memory, 2012) [singlepic id=419 w=80 h=50 float=left]

Kings of Leon guitar intro? Green Day drums riff? Foo Fighters maybe? Wait, and your patience will be rewarded when echoes of Ride are coming through and it all turns into one big power trip. It all stems from the brain of Dylan Baldi, who made up numerous fictitious bands to place ‘their’ music on MySpace and find out whether or not somebody would appreciate it. One of those bands was Cloud Nothings, so just like Tame Impala and the early Grizzly Bear, it also started as a one guy project, that would only consist of a full band when playing live. This album (produced by Steve Albini), was the first one recorded with that live line-up.

8. The Kinks – Fancy (Face To Face, 1966) [singlepic id=294 w=80 h=50 float=left]

Hypnotizing song full of eastern influences and the ultimate sixties voice of Ray Davies, somehow resembling Bowie and even a mopish Robert Plant here. Face to Face was the beginning of a dazzling period for the band, thanks to Davies’ nervous and physical breakdown preceding its release, as a lot of new songs that ended up on the album were written during his recuperation. Davies however continued to struggle, as that very new album (well, and the alcohol I prudently suppose) delivered him another bunch of headaches. Davies was not allowed by the record label to connect the songs with various sound effects as he intended and the psychedelic looking album sleeve was not at all to his satisfaction. Absolute fan.

9. Neil Young – Shock and Awe (Living with War, 2006) [singlepic id=420 w=80 h=50 float=left]

Another old god with some more recent work, another anti-war one. Young’s lyrics and musical note are however not at all comparable to those of Springsteen: Neil is not here to give you hope, he wants to pour the incovienenth truth down your throath and asks you how it tastes. It’s an approach I appreciate,  just like the way Young offered his album: it was released on the internet, but only as a whole, not as separate tracks. No direct and easy to digest consumption, but only the complete message.

10. Brian Eno – Another Green World  (Another Green World, 1975) [singlepic id=230 w=80 h=50 float=left]

This title track of Brian Eno’s third album, with a soft, rippling piano in the background, is the perfect soundtrack for that first spring morning. The window cautiously opens itself a little bit.

Shuffle of the week #54

1. Steve Earle – Goodbye’s All We’ve Got Left (Guitar Town, 1986) [singlepic id=144 w=80 h=50 float=left]

Although sounding like the Bakersfield sound with a small touch of Elvis Costello, it’s a real Texan singing here. Steve Earle spent his youth following his idol Townes Van Zandt throughout the Lone Star State and seemed to remain dubious about whether to stay there or move to Nashville, Tennessee for the rest of his life. This hesitation was translated into his music as being a mix of pure country and a rather raw Springsteenesk sound (Earle was in fact the working man people thought Springsteen was: having a daytime job and playing music at night). 1986 finally brought Earle his break-through with this debut album, recorded in Nashville and delivering two country hits (title track and this song). Later Earle received a Grammy for his anti-Iraq war album The Revolution Starts Now, with the title track being used for a TV commercial of… General Motors.

2. Sonic Youth – Tuff Gnarl (Sister, 1987) [singlepic id=79 w=80 h=50 float=left]

Same era, same country, totally different planet. Founded in 1981 after Thurston Moore joined his later wife Kim Gordon’s band, quickly accompanied by guitarist Lee Ranaldo. Like often, the position of the drummer would remain unstable for a few years, on the noisy and experimental debut album Confusion Is Sex (1983, moderate success in Europe) as well as the dark and gloomy Bad Moon Rising (1985). Not coincidentally, they are finally recognized in their home country with their third album EVOL (1986), after Steve Shelley had become the unchallenged drummer and Sonic Youth definitely opts for alternative rock with a melodic touch. This fourth album, which I consider not a highlight, was recorded during EVOL’s supporting tour. However, everything (even the introduction of a loose concept) pointed to the fact that the band was working his way towards another peak, which was released the next year.

3. Sufjan Stevens – Out of Egypt, into the Great Laugh of Mankind, and I Shake the Dirt from My Sandals as I Run (Illinois, 2005) [singlepic id=407 w=80 h=50 float=left]

Beta Band, Broken Social Scene? It’s the instrumental closing track of Sufjan Stevens’ most notorious album, in contrast with the works of his mentioned indie-colleagues containing a serious dose of pop and baroque. Illinois is full of affluent pop arrangements, shaping the musical background for lots of places, people and historic events that took place in that state, and all composed with instruments played by the prodigy himself. Already on his debut album (A Sun Came, 2000), he brings together 14 instruments. After giving electronic influences a try on his second album, he starts his so-called ‘Fifty States Project’, an ambitious idea that (just like Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley-plan) quickly goes through the shredder. Instead, after Michigan (2003) and Illinois, Stevens accepts an even greater challenge by trying to appreciate Christmas. Can’t call him a coward.

4. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Our House (Déjà-Vu, 1970) [singlepic id=10 w=80 h=50 float=left]

Third single from the album after ‘Woodstock’ (Mitchell) and ‘Teach Your Children’ (Nash), another super soft song from Nash written when he lived with Joni Mitchell in LA’s Laurel Canyon. Contrary to the other album tracks, which were rerecorded numerous times until the four excellences considered them good enough to release them (this way easily lifting the total studio recording time over 500 hours), this song was written in about an hour according to Nash.

5. Simon & Garfunkel – Bookends Theme (Bookends, 1968) [singlepic id=406 w=80 h=50 float=left]

Another couple of flawless harmonies, in the version that closes side A on this record. The album is often called the most ‘intellectual’ one from the duo, and the sober, nerdy album cover is completely in line with that idea. Paul Simon was struck by a writer’s block after the release of Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (1966), but came back with this half concept-album, depicting the course of life from childhood till old age on side A. It became a musical triumph especially for Simon, who, thanks to outdated contract terms (the label paid for the sessions, assuming that a folk duo will never cost that much) chose to push all limits. Completely in CSNY-style, Simon brought the recordings to perfection, not shying away from spending 50 studio hours on a barely two minutes lasting song. Still, because of the two different sides, the album sounds a little incoherent: why not use both sides for the concept? Did the label want ‘Mrs. Robinson’ to be on it to earn back the high production costs?

6. Led Zeppelin – The Battle of Evermore (Led Zeppelin IV, 1971) [singlepic id=249 w=80 h=50 float=left]

Third song from the excellent fourth album, with a Celtic touch due to the mystical intro (folky Plant with mandolin). It will always remain the only Led Zeppelin song featuring a guest vocalist, Sandy Denny from Fairport Convention, in duet with Robert Plant. Led Zeppelin didn’t end up coincidentally with her, as she was considered an authority in the field of traditional British folk back then. The fact that Led Zep moved from London to a Victorian cottage in East Hampshire for the recordings of this record, will without any doubt have to do something with this revived interest in traditional folk.

7. Bruce Springsteen – Something in the Night (Darkness on the Edge of Town, 1978) [singlepic id=404 w=80 h=50 float=left]

Characterizing bells and piano-intro, followed by a howling scream of the master himself: this is the real Springsteen. Just like Led Zeppelin on Headley Grange and Bob Dylan in the basement of Big Pink, Springsteen withdrew to a farm in New Jersey after the success of Born to Run and the lingering conflict with his former manager Mike Appel. That’s why it lasted three years before Springsteen came up with the successor of his big break-through album, which was considerably less bombastic (as reflected by the sober album cover). Most of the material from the sessions by the way didn’t end up on the album, but was lent out to other artists or released on The River (1980). Luckily this third track was not rejected, as it remains one of his unrivalled classics.

8. The Beatles – Rocky Racoon (White Album, 1968) [singlepic id=137 w=80 h=50 float=left]

Of course The Beatles also withdrew to distant places now and then, like in 1968: it was down in Rishikesh, India where most of the material for the White Album was written. Just like Simon & Garfunkel’s Bookends, this album meant the beginning of the end for them. The unlimited studio time in London took away all the pressure to play together and the constant discontentedness with each other’s songs led to the point of Ringo leaving the band. In that point of view, it may not be surprising that the four of them are only heard on 16 of the total of 30 tracks. This song is obviously one from McCartney (‘Gideon’s Bible’…), about a triangular relationship that seems to stem directly from the Deadwood script.

9. Nick Drake – Place to Be (Pink Moon, 1972) [singlepic id=405 w=80 h=50 float=left]

A guy that was later imitated by numerous less authentic and less talented songwriters. Also a guy that liked to withdrew himself, as Drake locked himself in his sober house in London after the poor reviews of his previous album, Bryter Layter (1970). This album became as sober as the environment it was written in, without backing band and with only Drake himself on vocals and acoustic guitar. Despite the legends that rose afterwards, Drake would have been very proud of the album, which was nevertheless followed by his suicide two years later, at the age of 26.

10. The Twilight Sad – Cold Days from the Birdhouse (Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters, 2007) [singlepic id=408 w=80 h=50 float=left]

Contagious Scottish vocals from indie rockers The Twilight Sad, consisting of the trio Graham (responsible for the accent), MacFarlane (walls of sound, also producer of the album) and Devine. This is the opening track of their debut album, that was (contrary to some work mentioned above) recorded in only three days. Cheers.