Favorite Albums: 64 - 63

I really have to get back into doing this silly thing. Just been a bad couple weeks.

64. Shaking the Tree: Sixteen Golden Greats by Peter Gabriel (1990)

This is one of the most complete yet incomplete collections I've ever bought. It was basically a filler between Gabriel's two biggest albums, So and Us. So was already 4 years old at this point, and Us would not be released for another 2 years, so this collection was thrown out there to keep him on the scene, more or less. It starts off with "Solsbury Hill", one of P.G.'s biggest hits. "I Don't Remember" is next, a groovy, somewhat crazy track. "Sledgehammer" follows, Gabriel's biggest hit at the time, if not ever. Not the greatest song, but awesome video. "Family Snapshot" is a very pretty song about the Kennedy assassinations. Love it. "Mercy Street" is another really pretty song, but not really sure why it's here in place of "In Your Eyes", which the year before had been on the soundtrack of the film Say Anything... and became Gabriel's second biggest single behind "Sledgehammer", yet is nowhere to be seen on this album. Odd. "Shaking the Tree" is the only new song on this album, and while it's not great, it is pretty good, and has become a staple of Gabriel's live shows. "Don't Give Up" is a gorgeous duet with Kate Bush. One of my favorite Peter Gabriel songs. "San Jacinto" is yet another slow pretty song, this one being about a Native American man seeing his culture overrun by white Europeans. Good tune. "Here Comes the Flood" continues the slow trend. This was a new recording of an older song, making it more sparse, with just vocals and piano. Great great song. "Red Rain" finally picks the pace back up, an environmentally charged song, referring to either acid rain or nuclear fallout, depending on which interpretation you read. Good tune. "Games Without Frontiers" is next, one of the best songs of Gabriel's early solo career. It is very much a political song, comparing nationalism, diplomacy, and war to children's games. Great song. "Shock the Monkey" comes next, another pretty popular song that is pretty good. Gabriel has described it as a "love song that examines how jealousy can release one's baser instincts." Umm... Sure. I thought it was about electric shock therapy in a nut house, but, hey, that's obviously wrong. Ha ha. "I Have the Touch" is next, and is a really kick ass song that has been in quite a few movies. Kick ass. "Big Time" follows, yet another hit from So. Not as catchy as "Sledgehammer", but still a pretty good tune. The next song is "Zaar" from Passion: Music For The Last Temptation Of Christ. It was originally the soundtrack for the movie, then ended up becoming a full album on its own. It is mostly instrumental, and was the first album where Gabriel really leaned heavily on African music and musicians. This song seems out of place here, though, because it's such an obscure song. This one definitely should have been replaced with "In Your Eyes" because it would have given the album a phenomenal 1 - 2 punch to close the album. The final song is "Biko", a very political song about a man named Stephen Biko who was a political prisoner in South Africa in the '70s and killed in jail by guards. Awesome awesome song. This is a pretty good collection, but leaving "In Your Eyes" out, as well as not including anything from his second album, such as "On the Air" or "D.I.Y.", really hurts it overall and makes it incomplete. Other than those glaring omissions, it's a pretty good collection.
5 Best Songs:
5. "Solsbury Hill"


4. "Here Comes the Flood"


3. "Don't Give Up"


2. "Games Without Frontiers"


1. "Biko"


63. Every Breath You Take: The Singles by The Police (1986)

This album was released a few years after The Police broke up, and the original plan called for new versions of all their hit songs. In the end, they could only tolerate being around each other long enough to record one of the songs they were supposed to do, so this became a singles collection instead. It starts off with "Roxanne", unquestionably the most instantly recognizable Police song. "Can't Stand Losing You" comes next, one of their more overlooked songs, I think. Good tune. "Message In a Bottle" follows, and this song always drives my dad nuts because of the repetition at the end. Personally I think it's one of their best songs. "Walking On the Moon" is a slow song, kind of boring. "Don't Stand So Close To Me '86" is the one song the band was able to re-record, and damn I wish they hadn't. It is so shitty compared to the first one it's not even funny. Such a shit song. "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" is next, one of the silliest titles in music. Bad ass song though. "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" is also kick ass, just a great song. "Invisible Sun" is another pretty under rated song. Never hear this one, but it is a really good song. "Spirits In the Material World" is probably the weakest song on here, at least, the weakest of the ones that are in their original forms. It's a decent song, just kind of boring. "Every Breath You Take" is probably the most beloved Police song, and for good reason. This song is just outstanding. Love it. "King Of Pain" is also outstanding, probably my personal favorite Police song ever. Great tune. The final song is "Wrapped Around Your Finger", yet another great song. I know, repeating myself, but can't help it. These three songs are just awesome. Overall, this is a really good record. The only things I would change would be to include the original version of "Don't Stand So Close To Me" instead of the shitty remake, and include "Synchronicity II" and "So Lonely", which are both missing for some absurd reason. Other than that, it's a very solid, very complete collection.
5 Best Songs:
5. "Invisible Sun"


4. "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da"


3. Wrapped Around Your Finger"


2. "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic"


1. "King Of Pain"

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.