Favorite Albums: 84 - 83

Hot damn. Staying on schedule.

84. Hi, How Are You Today? by Ashley MacIsaac (1995)

Went to see a Crash Test Dummies concert back in the day, and the opening act was Ashley MacIsaac. My girlfriend at the time and I were both like, "Who is this chick?" Yeah, it's a dude, and he was outright awesome. He's from Eastern Canada (Nova Scotia, I believe) and plays Celtic folk songs in a more updated rock type way, as well as some original songs. He was also one of the violin players during the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Olympics in the sweet ass segment they did.
Anyway.
So, yeah, this album is the only one of his that I own, and I absolutely love it. It has a great mix of updated traditional songs and contemporary songs, plus some humor thrown in for good measure. It starts off with "Beaton's Delight", a rocked out traditional song. Super high energy, super fun. "Sleepy Maggie" is another traditional song, and the woman singing on it (Mary Jane Lamond) has an outstanding voice. She also sings in Gaelic, which just rules. Slower tempo, but a very cool song. "Rusty-D-Con-Struck-Tion" takes three traditional songs and mashes them together, and has some of the best violins on the album. "The Devil In the Kitchen" has the best violins on the album, hands down. Extremely fast paced, energetic, and outstanding. Great song. "MacDougall's Pride" is a very slow song, very beautiful. We had it played during dinner at our wedding reception, along with a couple others from this album. "Spoonboy" is a cool tune, basically the violin, someone playing spoons, a little piano and a simple beat tapped out on the floor with a foot. Not fancy, but very well executed. "What An Idiot He Is" is the only song where Ashley MacIsaac actually sings. (Most of the songs are instrumentals.) It's a really funny song about how big of an asshole some guy is. "Sophia's Pipes" is another frantic song, also one of the best on the album. very cool. "Sad Wedding Day" was another one played at our reception, a very slow, very moving number with Mary Jane Lamond singing again also in Gaelic. "Wing-Stock" is another slow song, mostly piano, also pretty. "Hills Of Glenorchy" is a slower paced yet driving song. Kicks ass. The final song is "Brenda Stubbert", a brilliant song where the violin almost sounds like bagpipes. This album may not be for everybody. Some may find it boring, some may find it annoying. I love it, though. It's a great album to relax to, even with how chaotic and frantic some of the songs are. Just a wonderful album.
5 Best Songs:
5. "Beaton's Delight"


4. "Sad Wedding Day"


3. "Sleepy Maggie"


2. "MacDougall's Pride"


1. "Sophia's Pipes"


83. Pop!: The First 20 Hits by Erasure (1992)

This serves as both a singles collection and Greatest Hits album. It covers every single from the first album to the ABBA-Esque tribute EP, also from '92. It also serves as a Greatest Hits, though, because almost all of the songs here made it into the Top 40 in the U.K., and over half of them were Top 10. Kind of funny, really. They were wildly successful in Britain, yet over here, few people know anything by them other than "Chains Of Love" and "A Little Respect". The songs are here chronologically, making it a nice way to see how Erasure evolved over their first five albums. "Who Needs Love (Like That)" starts it off with an extremely high falsetto vocal before settling into a more natural voice for the rest of the song. Not a great song, but okay. "Heavenly Action" is a bit better, and the video is hilarious, with Andy Bell singing a poppy love song to a puppy. "Oh l'Amour" is the first really good song on the album. It starts off with a beautiful slow intro before blowing up into a fast pop song. Very cool. "Sometimes" and "It Doesn't Have To Be" are the next two, and they are kind of similar both in style and theme. Both are decent, though. "Victim Of Love" is an upbeat song about not wanting to get your heart broken. "The Circus" is a decent song, but kind of annoying. "Ship Of Fools" is the first slow song on the album, but it's also probably the worst. Never really been a fan of this song. "Chains Of Love" is next, followed by "A Little Respect". These were their two biggest hits in the U.S., by far, but they were never really able to capitalize on that success. Damned shame. "Stop!" was the first of five singles off the next album, and honestly I like all five of them better than "A Little Respect" or "Chains Of Love". "Stop!" is an insanely addictive and catchy song. Absolutely love it. "Drama" is another bad ass song, basically saying "I don't need your drama, take it elsewhere." "You Surround Me" is another slow song, amazingly beautiful. "Blue Savannah" is the song that pretty much made me fall in love with Erasure. Just an outstanding song, I think. "Star" is the fifth and final single from Wild!, and even though it's the weakest of the five, it's still pretty good. "Chorus" is another of my favorite Erasure songs, off my second favorite album by them, also named Chorus. Great tune. "Love To Hate You" is kind of blah, probably my second least favorite song here. Just never really cared for this one, either. "Am I Right?" is, without question, my favorite Erasure song. Just so damned sad, yet trying to be hopeful. Tons of emotion in this song. "Breath Of Life" is a definite dance song, not great, but not bad. "Take a Chance On Me" from the ABBA-Esque EP is the final song, a great cover of the Abba classic. That whole EP, actually, was pretty great, but this was the only song of the four that was a single, so it's the only one here. Basically... If you like electronic dance pop, but aren't sure if you'd like a whole Erasure album, get this. It's a great collection, and even the few songs I don't like are, to a lot of people, quite enjoyable, and some of their more popular songs. Great compilation.
5 Best Songs: (I'll take one from each album represented on this disc. Just going chronologically, not by preference.)
5. "Oh l'Amour" (From Wonderland)


4. "Sometimes" (From The Circus)


3. "A Little Respect" (From The Innocents)


2. "Blue Savannah" (From Wild!)


1. "Am I Right?" (From Chorus)


Bonus:
"Take a Chance On Me" (From ABBA-Esque)

Favorite Albums: 86 - 85

86. Brothers In Arms by Dire Straits (1985)

I actually used to hate this album. I bought the cassette years ago, because "Walk Of Life" is just such a bad ass song, but other than that I didn't really care for the rest of the album. Then, I let myself actually listen to it, and started to actually enjoy it. It starts off with "So Far Away", a smooth jazzy song (but not, like, smooth jazz. just smooth and jazzy) that has become one of my favorite on the album. The next song was the wildly popular "Money For Nothing", which had one of the first computer animated videos, if not the first. "Walk Of Life" is next, my absolute favorite Dire Straits song. "Your Latest Trick" is another jazzy song, with an awesome saxophone part. Unfortunately, after this song, the rest of the album gets kind of boring. "Why Worry" is a little too easy listening, and at over 8 minutes just drags, "Ride Across the River" has some good music, but isn't really anything special, "The Man's Too Strong" sounds like a Bob Dylan or Neil Young outcast, and "One World" is just boring. The final song, "Brothers In Arms", is pretty good, but paired with the four preceding songs it just kind of gets forgotten, because by the time I get to it I just want the album to be over. If they had taken "Brothers In Arms" and put it on the first half of the album, I would listen to it a lot more, because then I wouldn't have to sit through the other 4 songs. As it is, though, it's a good album to listen to when I'm painting, especially the second half, because I don't focus on the music, just what I'm working on. So, yeah, even the four crap songs have merit.
5 Best Songs:
5. "Brothers In Arms"


4. "Money For Nothing"


3. "Your Latest Trick"


2. "So Far Away"


1. "Walk Of Life"


85. The Head On the Door by The Cure (1985)

This was the first truly radio friendly Cure album. They decided to give pop a try, and had pretty good success, both on college radio and MTV. "Inbetween Days" kicks things off, an insanely catchy pop song that is just flat out addictive. "Kyoto Song" was my favorite Cure song for a long time, probably 6 or 7 years. Don't know what it is about this song, I just absolutely love it. "The Blood" sounds like it's got a bit of Spanish influence to the guitars. Not a great song, but I dislike it less than I used to. "Six Different Ways" is another catchy ass pop song. It starts off somewhat chaotic, but then it comes together magnificently after the intro. "Push" is one of my all time favorite songs. It has an awesome build up, great music, and even though he's only singing for about a quarter of the song, it conveys tons of emotion from start to finish. Just an outstanding song. "The Baby Screams" is a bit of a psychedelic song. Not really a fan. "Close To Me" was, at the time, The Cure's biggest single, reaching #24 in the U.K., #97 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100, and also reaching #32 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot Dance Music list. Personally, I like the album version better than any of the single versions or remixes, all of which add in a horn section. Like it without the horns much better. "A Night Like This" is one of the few moody songs on this album, and it's still rather upbeat itself. Great song. "Screw" is without a doubt my least favorite song on this album. Can't stand it. "Sinking" closes what is, for the most part, a pretty upbeat album on a major down note. Emotionally, that is. It's one of the best songs on the album, without a doubt, and was very good live when they still had a keyboard player. Actually, most of the songs on this album translate very well to being played live. Definitely a must-have album for any Cure fan, one of only a few by them that I would actually say that about, to be honest. Tell you the others later.
5 Best Songs:
(I am going to use versions from the In Orange concert video as much as possible, because The Cure are insane about not letting their videos be shared once posted, plus this concert was from the tour for this album.)
5. "Inbetween Days"


4. "Six Different Ways"


3. "Sinking"


2. "Kyoto Song"


1. "Push"

Favorite Albums: 88 - 87

Almost didn't think I was going to get to this one today, because Sebastian actually slept like 10 hours last night, so he hasn't taken a nap yet today. Just put him in his jumper thing so I could get this done, though, so he will probably be asleep before I finish the first album, because that thing knocks him right out.

88. Invisible Touch by Genesis (1986)

I know I'll take some heat for this one, but that's fine. This is one of only two Genesis albums that I like all the way through. I like a lot of their music, but there's also a lot that I don't like. This one, though, I like every song on. The title track starts things off, and it is probably the weakest song on the album, although it isn't bad at all. In fact, it is the only #1 song Genesis has ever had in the United States. "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" is next, an extremely atmospheric song about trying to score some weed. (Seriously.) "Land Of Confusion" had one of the coolest videos of its time, all the puppets of world leaders and stuff. It's basically a protest song about nuclear arms and corrupt governments. "In Too Deep" is one of the two ballads on the album, and while it's good, the other one's better. "Anything She Does" is one of only two songs on this album that didn't get any radio exposure. It's not a bad song, but it's a tad too generic to be anything special. "Domino" is the next song, split into two parts. It is basically telling of the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. The first half is "In the Glow Of the Night", a slow beautiful song that I completely forgot about when I was doing my favorite songs list, because it really should have been on there. The second half, "The Last Domino", is a much more fast tempo song, and much angrier and more cynical. ("Now you never did see/ Such a terrible thing/ As was seen last night on the TV./ Maybe if we're lucky/ They will show it again/ Such a terrible thing to see.") Even though this song was never released as an actual single, and despite the fact that when both parts are played consecutively it has a running time of 10 minutes 44 seconds, it still managed to reach number 29 on the Mainstream Rock Charts in the UK. "Throwing It All Away" is the other ballad, far superior to "In Too Deep" I think. Just a killer song. The final song is the other song that never got any air play, the instrumental "The Brazilian". It is more of an artsy, experimental song, much like the band created when Peter Gabriel was the lead singer. It is a very cool song, although it does get a bit repetitive after a while. Overall, this was just a great album. Loved it then, still love it now.
5 Best Songs:
5. "Land Of Confusion"


4. "In Too Deep"


3. "Throwing It All Away"


2. "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" (Starts around the 1:45 mark)


1. "Domino: Pt 1 - In the Glow Of the Night/Pt 2 - The Last Domino"
Pt 1 (Starts at 2:17 but the intro part is amusing) (Saw this tour, in '92, and the video screen behind them was amazing in person, especially on part 2 of this song. Only concert I ever saw at the original Cleveland Stadium.)

Pt 2



87. 101 Damnations by Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine (1990)

This could not be any more different from the album above if it tried. Carter USM (as they were forced to be known in the US after their second album, 30 Something) were just two guys (Jim Bob and Fruitbat) with some samplers, a drum machine, a keyboard, and a couple guitars. I first heard them when they were opening for EMF. Should have been the other way around, because they blew EMF out of the water. 101 Damnations was their debut, and it was just a bad ass album. It starts off with "Road To Domestos", a quick little intro, basically, only about 50 seconds long, just people singing what sounds like a hymn. "Everytime a Churchbell Rings" is the first proper song, about several people killing themselves for various reasons, except the narrator, who ends up walking away at the end. "24 Minutes From Tulse Hill" is any insanely paced song about a demonic runaway train. "An All-American National Sport" is a disturbing little number about two guys burning a homeless man alive. Sheriff Fatman" is about the worst possible slum lord you could ever think of, just a total scum bag. "The Taking Of Peckham 1... 2... 3..." is next. The title is a play on The Taking Of Pelham 123 (the original version, obviously) but that's the only relation it has to the movie. It is basically about a bunch of crimes committed in a shitty neighborhood. LOVE this song. "Crimestoppers A-Go-Go" is an instrumental track. They put one on every album, and while none of them are that great, none are that bad, either. "Good Grief Charlie Brown" is about the correspondence between the mother and son in a highly dysfunctional family, and is just a phenomenal song. "Midnight On the Murder Mile" is probably the most forgettable song on the album. It seems like a cross between several of the other songs here, and never really gets its own identity. "A Perfect Day To Drop the Bomb" tries too hard to take on too many issues, many of which aren't even understood outside of the UK, but the driving music and passion with which it's sung make it an enjoyable song regardless. The final song is "G.I. Blues", an obvious anti-war song. It is just a great song, told from the perspective of an injured soldier (First line: "Both my arms and legs are torn to shreds."), and how he doesn't want his loved ones seeing him as the mangled mess he's become. Love this album. Really need a CD version, because my cassette is kind of warped after 20 years.
5 Best Songs:
5. "Sheriff Fatman"


4. "Everytime a Churchbell Rings" With a full choir on stage for "Road to Domestos")


3. "Good Grief Charlie Brown"


2. "G.I. Blues"


1. The Taking Of Peckham 1... 2... 3..."
Only one version on YouTube, and embedding is disabled. Here's the link. Hope it works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CNgRKKNT6s
Gotta do the copy and paste thing. Hope it works. If not... sorry.

Favorite Albums: 90 - 89

Hot damn! I am actually posting on time and staying caught up! Yay!

90. Wither Blister Burn + Peel by Stabbing Westward (1996)

You have to love it when the first words on an album, before there is even any music, are, "I'm such an asshole. God, I'm such a stain. I just keep fucking up again and again." That's how "I Don't Believe" starts, before erupting in a massive attack of guitars and synths. "Shame" is a very Nine Inch Nails inspired song about a stalker and his target, one of the two big singles from this album. "What Do I Have To Do?" is the other one, and the one most people know. "Why" is a very dark slow song, very cool. "Inside You" sounds more like the bastard child of Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails than anything else on the album, but it's not a bad thing. "Falls Apart" is kind of a dull song compared to the rest of the album, pretty much the only weak spot. "So Wrong" is a really good song, one of the hardest rockers on the album. "Crushing Me" is another pretty dark song musically, a great lead in to "Sleep", which is the darkest song lyrically on the album. It is about a friend of lead singer Christopher Hall who was constantly being raped by her father, and it is pretty much the best song on the album. The final song is "Slipping Away", and it seems a bit out of place, because it is more guitar driven than anything else on the album, and it's a bit long at just over six minutes. This is a good, but not great, album. It seems that they are trying to mesh too many genres and influences together, but it's still a good listen.
5 Best Songs:
5. "Shame"


4. "What Do I Have To Do?"


3. "Why" (Wasn't used in The Crow, but goes well with it.)


2. "So Wrong"


1. "Sleep"


89. Boys Don't Cry by The Cure (1980)

In '79 The Cure released their debut album, Three Imaginary Boys, to little fanfare and even less notice. The next year, they released Boys Don't Cry, which was basically Three Imaginary Boys with a couple songs moved around. Dropped were the less than stellar "Meat Hook", "It's Not You", "So What" and their cover of "Foxy Lady". In their places were three of the band's first four singles, which for whatever reason weren't on Three Imaginary Boys: "Boys Don't Cry", "Killing An Arab" and "Jumping Someone Else's Train". Everything else appears on both albums. "Boys Don't Cry" starts the album off, one of the band's trademark songs. "Plastic Passion" has some very effects-heavy vocals, and it just dawned on me that the opening 5 or 6 seconds sounds like Hole ripped off the guitar riff for their song "Violet". Kind of funny. "10.15 Saturday Night" was the other early single, relying mostly on a steady medium beat on the cymbals and very sparse guitars before between and after the verses. "Accuracy" follows, a decent song but nothing special. "Jumping Someone Else's Train" is a cool song about being a nonconformist, the sound and pace of the music (especially the drums and bass) giving the impression of listening to a train pass. "Subway Song" is a kind of creepy quick little song about a woman being attacked in a subway station. The music and Robert's vocals set the perfect mood on this track. "Killing An Arab" caused a lot of controversy for the band. One of the Cure's most misinterpreted songs, "Killing an Arab" was inspired by the Albert Camus novel The Stranger. It is an homage to the book, in which the hero pointlessly murders an Arab man he did not even know, during a moment of existential confusion caused or exacerbated by desert heat. However, it was usually interpreted as an anti-Arab anthem, and caused the band problems not only when it was originally released in '78, but when it was included on Staring At the Sea - The Singles in '86 as well. When that album was released, it included a sticker on the front proclaiming that "Killing An Arab" was not a song of hate, or something to that effect. The guitars on "Fire In Cairo" sound like they were written by R.E.M. It sounds a lot more like one of their songs than a Cure song, but it's still a really good song, reluctantly catchy. "Another Day" is one of the few slow songs on this album, actually the slowest, if I remember correctly. It's also one of the few where Robert lets his voice flex a little muscle, hinting at what it would become on later albums. "Grinding Halt" is another really catchy pop song that probably could have had some success as a single. It wouldn't have been a huge hit, but it would have been successful. "Three Imaginary Boys" is the final song, the only truly "goth" song on one of the albums always labeled as a "goth" classic. Stupid ass music critics. Overall, this album still kicks ass 30 years after it was released. Yes, it all sounds dated and sounds like it was recorded in a cramped basement, but it's one of those albums that will never really get old.
5 Best Songs:
5. "Three Imaginary Boys" (This is faster than the album version and he screws up the words in a couple spots, but it's the best one I could find.)


4. "Grinding Halt" (Odd version, but whatever. It is nearly impossible to find album versions of Cure songs on YouTube, and even when you do the embedding is disabled. Sigh.)


3. "Subway Song"


2. "10.15 Saturday Night"


1. "Boys Don't Cry" (Thank God I at least found this video... LOVE this video.)

Favorite Albums: 92 - 91

I am finally caught up after these two albums, and it's going to be harder and harder from here on out to only pick 5 songs from each album that I consider the best. But, those are the rules I set, so those are the rules I'm sticking to, at least until I get to the top 10. Then it will most likely change.

92. So by Peter Gabriel (1986)

This album has steadily dropped in my favorite albums list I keep in my head. At one time, probably from around '89 until '94 or so, this was pretty much my second favorite album, definitely top 5. Now? I just like too much of his other stuff better, let alone stuff by other people. It's not that I like this album that much less, I just like a lot of other stuff a lot more. Like James, for instance. I didn't start listening to them until '94 or so, and didn't really become an enormous fan of them until '98 or so. So, because of bands like that, this album has sunk. Sorry, I'm babbling. I'll stop. The album starts off with "Red Rain" which is pretty much anthemic stadium rock at its best. The extremely popular (at the time) hit "Sledgehammer" is next, one of Gabriel's most famous videos and songs. "Don't Give Up" is an absolutely beautiful duet with Kate Bush. "That Voice Again" seems very urgent, but not rushed, not an easy trick to pull off. "In Your Eyes" was only a minor hit until it was used in the movie Say Anything..., after which it became hugely popular. "Mercy Street" is probably the prettiest song on the album, just a slow sadly beautiful song. "Big Time" was the other big single, almost as big of a hit as "Sledgehammer". The final two songs, "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)" and "This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)" are more experimental chants than actual songs, but both are pretty decent. This was Gabriel's fifth solo album, but it was the first one that was really strong and consistent from start to finish. A very good album, one that really should be higher on this list, in all honesty, and would have been if I'd done this a few years ago.
5 Best Songs:
5. "That Voice Again"


4. "Red Rain"


3. "Don't Give Up"


2. "Mercy Street"


1. "In Your Eyes"


91. Paris by The Cure (1993)

During the tour for Wish, The Cure recorded material for two live albums, Show and Paris. Show relied heavily on the three most recent albums, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me (one song, "Just Like Heaven"), Disintegration (three songs) and, especially, Wish (eight songs) plus "Never Enough" from Mixed Up. So out of that album's 17 tracks (18, if you count the intro) only four songs are from the first two thirds of the band's career up to that point. Paris, on the other hand, was much more evenly distributed between older and newer songs, and consequently a lot more interesting of an album. 8 of the 12 tracks were prior to Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, and no album has more than three songs here, the only one having three being Seventeen Seconds. Most of the songs on Paris are slow and dark, which, with The Cure, 9 times out of 10 means good to great. (Note: I am only going to really get into the songs from albums that aren't going to be on the list.) "The Figurehead" and "One Hundred Years", both from Pornography, start things off. Both are very good live, especially "One Hundred Years". Two of the three songs from Seventeen Seconds follow. First is "At Night", a very dark and brooding song, and one of the best songs from that album. "Play For Today" is next, one of the two singles from Seventeen Seconds. It is one of the few fast paced songs on Paris, and very good live. Next is "Apart" from Wish, one of my favorite songs from that album. It is very sad and depressing, and also one of the prettiest songs they've done. "In Your House" is the final song from Seventeen Seconds, and easily the weakest of the three. "Lovesong" is the sole song from Disintegration here, and it's surprising that it isn't on Show, since most of the songs on that one were the popular singles, besides the stuff from Wish. "Catch" from Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me is also its album's sole song, and while the music is more upbeat, it's a quite sad song, lyrically. "Dressing Up" from The Top is next, an odd choice, as it's one of the weaker songs on that album. "A Letter To Elise" from Wish is next, easily my favorite song on that album, and one of my favorite Cure songs ever. Since the first time I heard this song I've been in love with it. The non-album single "Charlotte Sometimes" follows, and is one of my least favorite Cure songs. Just never got into it. "Close To Me" from The Head On the Door closes the album on a high note, one of the best live songs The Cure performs. Overall, this is a pretty dark and depressing album, especially for a live album, but in the end it works because of the quality of both the music and the recording. Would have been more interesting had they combined the two albums into a double album, which would have made it possible to spread out the songs from Wish a little better, but in the end, it is a very good album, and worth checking out.
5 Best Songs:
5. "One Hundred Years"


4. "Apart"


3. "Play For Today"


2. "At Night"


1. "A Letter To Elise"
(I couldn't find an older live version, and the new ones suck because they don't have a keyboard player anymore.)


Wow, this post ended up being a lot longer than I expected. Hope I didn't bore you. See you tomorrow, because I plan on staying caught up from now on.

Favorite Albums: 94 - 93

I am still 2 albums behind where I want to be, so depending on how quickly these two go, I may post the next two later. If not, most likely tomorrow.
I'm also changing the way the top 5 songs and their videos are posted, a little bit. Nothing major, just eliminating some of the repetitive stuff.

94. Greatest Hits by The Cars (1985)

This album has some of the most popular music of the '80s on it, like it or not. The Cars were pretty much everywhere in the first half of the decade, and these are most of the reasons why. I could go through song by song like I usually do, but this would be one of those albums where I'm calling every song "kick ass" or a "classic" or "awesome" so I won't bore you with that redundancy. You have all the popular MTV songs, "Just What I Needed", "Shake It Up", "Magic" and, of course, "You Might Think". There are the wonderful ballads, "Drive" and "I'm Not the One". There are the radio staples of "Since You're Gone", "Touch and Go", "Tonight She Comes" (the only new song on the album), "Let's Go" and "My Best Friend's Girl". Plus the very underrated "Heartbeat City". The only two songs I can think of that are missing from this album are "Hello Again" and "You're All I've Got Tonight". Had they been included, this would have been the definitive Cars collection, but instead it is just a tad incomplete. Very good album, though, and probably owned by most of the people reading this.
5 Best Songs:
5. "You Might Think"


4. "Heartbeat City"


3."Tonight She Comes"


2. "Drive"


1. "I'm Not the One"


93. Fear by Toad the Wet Sprocket (1991)

This is going to be one of those albums where it's going to be extremely difficult to only pick five songs from. Two songs I know won't be in the top 5? "All I Want" and "Walk On the Ocean". They were the two big hits from this album (along with "In My Ear" which was a close third) but they were both so over played that I can't stand either of them anymore. "In My Ear" I still like, though. Good tune. There really aren't any weak songs on this album, it is just very strong from start to finish. "Walk On the Ocean" starts it, and it's a shame this song got so played out because I really did like it at first. Nice simple music telling a nice simple story. "Is It For Me" is basically about a group of kids trying to peek into the windows of a supposed haunted house, then one of them breaks his leg and the rest get in trouble, more or less. "Butterflies" is a nice nifty song. It's kind of hard to describe, though. At just over two minutes "Nightingale Song" is by far the shortest song on the album, a simple little acoustic number. "Hold Her Down" is about a group of guys raping a woman, supposedly about someone the band knows. "Pray Your Gods" is basically a song questioning faith, and has one of my favorite lines from any song: "I feel my body weakened by the years/ As people turn to Gods of cruel design./ Is it that they fear the pain of death?/ Or could it be they fear the joy of life?" The last half of the song is a couple women singing what sounds like Gaelic, but not sure. Just a fantastic song. "Before You Were Born" is another bad ass song, with more stellar lyrics. "Something To Say" is really the only song that seems to drag, but it is still a pretty good song despite that. "In My Ear" brings the pace back up from the three preceding slower songs, a nice change of pace. "All I Want" is next, and like "Walk On the Ocean" I used to like this song until it got played hourly on every damned station in town. "Stories I Tell" is a pretty haunted sounding song. I think they were going for haunting, but didn't quite make it. "I Will Not Take These Things For Granted" closes the album, and although it could have come out very cheesy and insincere sounding, it is actually one of the strongest tracks on the album. Overall, this is just a great album. Even with the two songs that shall not be named, it is a very enjoyable album, and even those two songs are becoming more bearable again, after almost 20 years.
5 Best Songs:
5. "Is It For Me"


4. "Before You Were Born"


3. "Hold Her Down"


2. "I Will Not Take These Things For Granted"


1. "Pray Your Gods"

Favorite Albums: 96 - 95

Comment from Heather on the last post. It's things like this that make me think I'm not wasting my time on this list:

Heather said...
"Love Social Distortion. Mark proposed to me at a Social D show, during "Ball and Chain." It's our unofficial wedding song (can't really dance to that song, ya know?).

You know, you have musical taste. In my opinion."

Not fishing for compliments by any means, just thought that was a cool comment. Just nice to connect with someone like that when it's not expected.

This is going to be another crap post probably, because I only got 2 hours of sleep last night and I am a bit brain fried at the moment. (So for those keeping count, I have gotten 8 hours sleep total since Tuesday.) I'll try to make it better than the last one, but no promises.

96. Pornography by The Cure (1982)

For a long long time I didn't like this album. Just couldn't get into it. Finally gained a real appreciation when The Cure released the Trilogy DVD a few years ago. It was simply Pornography, Disintegration, and Bloodflowers played consecutively from beginning to end, and it's just phenomenal. It changed my opinion not only of Pornography, but Bloodflowers as well. (Granted, I already liked Bloodflowers, for the most part.) Pornography was the album that really gave The Cure their whole gloom and doom image. "One Hundred Years" starts the album with an assault on drums, then a searing guitar, then one of the bleakest lines from any Cure song: "It doesn't matter if we all die." This song is just awesome, plain and simple. "A Short Term Effect" is next, a machine gun drum part accompanied by some very dreary guitars and bass. Decent tune, but could have been better. "The Hanging Garden" was one of the two singles from this album, and is a very good song with one of my favorite drum parts from any Cure song. "Siamese Twins" is probably the most depressing song ever written about a guy losing his virginity. The whole act is made to seem more like torture than pleasure, yet this is probably the most musically beautiful song on the album. Awesome awesome song. "The Figurehead" is nearly seven minutes of beautiful misery. As long as it is, it never feels like it drags at any point, partially because of all the hatred in the lyrics, partially because the music is just nice and steady and soothing. "A Strange Day" was the other single from this album, another bad ass song. It has some of my favorite Cure lyrics ever. "Cold" has some of the best keyboards of any early Cure song. The lyrics are blah, and the drums are pretty simplistic, but it's a decent song. "Pornography" closes the album in a spiral of chaos and absolute desperate desolation. It is almost three minutes into the song before Robert Smith starts singing, and once he does, his voice is full of alienation and self loathing. Not necessarily a great song, but definitely a very emotionally charged and emotionally draining song. I still don't really know why it took me so long to enjoy this album. I don't really consider anything on it bad, which is actually rare for me on a Cure album. As much as I like the band, there is usually at least one song per album that I flat out hate, but Pornography might actually be the exception to that. It's not their best album, but for a lot of Cure fans it is their favorite. For me, that came seven years later.
5 Best Songs:
5. "The Hanging Garden"
4. "The Figurehead"
3. "A Strange Day"
2. "Siamese Twins"
1. "One Hundred Years"

"The Hanging Garden"


"The Figurehead"


"A Strange Day"


"Siamese Twins"


"One Hundred Years"


95. Sailing the Seas Of Cheese by Primus (1991)

Wow, kind of burned myself out on Pornography, so this may very well be the worst review I've ever written for an album I actually like. Here goes nothing. "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver" was the song that really introduced Primus to most people who've heard them. It was their first video played on MTV (back when MTV did that sort of thing) and even though it isn't really that great of a song, it was good enough to get people interested. "Here Come the Bastards" and "Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers" are, in my opinion, the two best songs on the album. Both kick ass big time. "Tommy the Cat" is one of the band's most famous songs, a nifty little narrative about a horny alley cat. "Sgt. Baker" and "Is It Luck?" are also pretty kick ass, as is "American Life". "Eleven" is okay, but nothing special. "Fish On" is part of a series of songs Les Claypool wrote about fishing, and is probably the best song of that series. The rest of the album is little filler tracks, none more than a minute and a half long,except the closer, "Los Bastardos", which just uses what sounds like outtakes from "Here Come the Bastards". This album, like the two yesterday, is a lot better than I am making it sound, but... well... sorry. 8 hours of sleep in nearly 4 days will do that.
5 Best Songs:
5. "American Life"
4. "Tommy the Cat"
3. "Is It Luck?"
2. "Here Come the Bastards"
1. "Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers"

"American Life"


"Tommy the Cat"


"Is It Luck?"


"Here Come the Bastards"


"Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers"

Favorite Albums: 98 - 97

This isn't going to be the best post, because I have only gotten about 6 hours sleep combined the past 2 nights, but I wanted to at least get something done, because these should have been up Monday, and I still have yesterday's to get to at some point. My guess? next two tomorrow, then two more sometime over the weekend to get caught up. At any rate, here we go...

98. Mania by The Ramones (1988)

30 songs of pure awesomeness. Okay, maybe they aren't all awesome, but the vast majority of them are. I'm not going to get into each song, because for a lot of them it would take me longer to write about the song than the song actually is. The highlights of this collection are "Beat On the Brat", "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker", "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend", "Bonzo Goes To Bitburg", "Needles and Pins", and "Howling At the Moon". Of course the drunk frat boy anthem is here ("I Wanna Be Sedated") as is the "I'm cool because I know a Ramones song other than "I Wanna Be Sedated" track, "Blitzkrieg Bop". The only really weak songs are "Commando" and "Warthog", not because they are bad songs, but just because they aren't very memorable and don't really stand out, and "The KKK Took My Baby Away" and "Indian Giver" because they are bad songs. Other than those four, pretty much everything else on this album kicks some ass and makes this album a must have.
6 Best Songs: (I know, I'm cheating, but they're short.)
6. "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend"
5. "Needles and Pins"
4. "Howling At the Moon (Sha-La-La)"
3. "Bonzo Goes To Bitburg"
2. "Beat On the Brat"
1. "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker"

"I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend"


"Needles and Pins"


"Howling At the Moon"


"Bonzo Goes To Bitburg"


"Beat On the Brat"


"Sheena Is a Punk Rocker"


97. Social Distortion by Social Distortion (1990)

This is just a fun album, aside from the few parts where it gets rather preachy about drugs. Yeah, we get it, you were an addict and now you're sober, and want everyone else to be as well. Whatever. This album has one of my all time favorite cover songs on it. Their version of Johnny Cash's "Ring Of Fire" is awesome. Takes it from rockabilly to pure rock. "Ball and Chain" was the first song I heard off this album (Thank you, 120 Minutes!) and I went out that week and got the album because of it. I don't usually buy an album off the strength of one song, but this was one of those few exceptions. I remember the first time I listened to this album, "Story Of My Life" came on, and I ended up playing it for like an hour straight, just that song, until my dad came downstairs and told me to either play another song or just go outside. Good times. "Sick Boys" and "Drug Train" are kind of blah, the former just kind of boring, the second a tad too preachy. "So Far Away" and "A Place In My Heart" are killer tunes, good solid rock, as are "Let It Be Me" and "It Coulda Been Me". This is really just a nice solid album. No wimpy ass ballads or anything, just straight up L.A. rock. Love it.
5 Best Songs:
5. "Let It Be Me"
4. "So Far Away"
3. "Story of My Life"
2. "Ring Of Fire"
1. "Ball and Chain"

"Let It Be Me"


"So Far Away"


"Story Of My Life"


"Ring Of Fire"


"Ball and Chain"

Favorite Albums: 100 - 99

Woo hoo! Cracking the top 100! About damned time!

100. 9 by Public Image Ltd. (1989)

I've never been a huge PiL fan, but I've always liked this album. Every song feels completely different than every other song, yet as a whole they all seem to fit together nicely. "Happy?" opens it up on a pretty stellar note, a really good song. "Disappointed" was one of PiL's biggest hits in the U.S. and is an awesome song about someone screwing over their friends, basically. "Warrior" is okay, not bad, not good, just there. "U.S.L.S. 1" is a nice mellow song, almost an instrumental with very subdued vocals, and a very good song. It's also a very creepy song. It's about the Pan Am flight that was blown up by terrorists over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten... Lead singer of PiL) and his wife were supposed to be on that flight but missed it. "Sand Castles In the Snow" is just a stupid goofy song. Worthless. "Worry" has a nice throbbing beat, and is one of the catchier songs on the album. "Brave New World" and "Like That" are more filler, it seems, than anything else. Decent, but both could have been better. "Same Old Story" is a good song, but also seems like it could have been a bit better if given more time to develop. "Armada" closes the album, another decent but not great song. Overall, it's a pretty good album. Not a classic, like Album was, but still a good listen. Again, it is a lot better than I am making it sound. Ah well. What can you do, right?
5 Best Songs:
5. "Armada"
4. "Worry"
3. "Happy?"
2. "U.S.L.S. 1"
1. "Disappointed"

"Armada"


"Worry"
No video. Really?

"Happy?"


"U.S.L.S. 1"


"Disappointed" (Not the best quality and there's an interview at the beginning, but it's the only one I could find that I could embed.)



99. The Best Of James by James (1998)

If you ever wanted to get a James album just to get a taste of what they are like, this would be the perfect starting point. While it does ignore the band's first two albums, Stutter and Strip-Mine, neither of them are missed because, well, neither was very good. It is also an extremely balanced album. There are 2 new songs and one early single that was previously unavailable on an album. The other 15 songs are divided almost perfectly between the four preceding albums: Gold Mother, Seven and Laid get four songs each, Whiplash gets three. And since Seven and Laid will be featured later in the list, I'll stick to talking about the songs not from those two albums. The two new songs are "Runaground" and "Destiny's Calling". Both are very mellow and very good, especially "Runaground". "Hymn From a Village" was the band's first single, and while it's not the best song it's not too bad, either. The four songs from Gold Mother are kind of uneven. "Come Home" is a good song, but can get annoying at times. "Sit Down" is one of the band's trademark songs and usually closes their shows, and is a phenomenal song. "Lose Control" is the worst song on this album as well as one of the worst on Gold Mother. Just a crap song. "How Was It For You?" is a pretty superb song, even if it was used in Melrose Place a few times. (It's even included on the Melrose Place soundtrack. Ghastly.) The Whiplash songs are a lot more even. "She's a Star" is a great tune, good lyrics and vocals and great music. "Tomorrow" is one of my favorite James songs. It originally appeared on Wah Wah in a very raw form then got polished up for Whiplash. Although I like the raw version better, the Whiplash version is still a great song. "Waltzing Along" is the weakest of the three songs from Whiplash, but is still a really good song. Screw it, I'm going with the songs from the other two albums, as well. The four songs from Seven are all awesome. "Born Of Frustration" was the first James single that really got noticed in the U.S., in 1992, 7 years after "Hymn From a Village" was released. "Seven" is one of the most hopeful songs James has recorded, a really pretty song. "Sound" and "Ring the Bells" are two more of my all time favorite James songs. Both of them are outstanding and I can listen to them daily and never get sick of them. Finally, the songs from Laid. "Laid" is obviously here, the biggest hit the band has had in the States. "Say Something" and "Sometimes" are both very good, and "Out To Get You" is just an amazing, awesome song. While there are a few songs that could have been included here when talking about "Best Of", it in no way feels like an incomplete collection. Plus, it just makes you hungry for more, instead of giving you everything in one sitting, so it serves its purpose there, too. Awesome Best Of album.
5 Best Songs (excluding Laid and Seven):
5. "Runaground"
4. "She's a Star"
3. "How Was It For You?"
2. "Sit Down"
1. "Tomorrow"

"Runaground"


"She's a Star"


"How Was It For You?"


"Sit Down"


"Tomorrow"