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.
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