Favorite Albums: 70 -69

70. No Jacket Required by Phil Collins (1985)

Yep, yet another album from 1985. I think once this is over I am going to tally up what year each album was from, and I can almost guarantee 1985 will have the most. Only one I can think of that might come close is 1987, but that's highly doubtful. Anyway. This one starts off with "Sussudio", a pretty popular tune that helped catapult this album up the charts. (Yes, I feel like a douche for typing that sentence.) "Only You Know and I Know" is next, a decent song but kind of forgettable. "Long Long Way To Go" is very pretty ballad that has Sting sharing the vocal duties. Good song. "I Don't Wanna Know" is easily the worst song on the album. Just an overload of keyboards and no substance whatsoever. "One More Night" is one of Collins' signature ballads, a really pretty song that is heard at every school dance ever. "Don't Lose My Number" was a pretty big hit back in the day, but it really isn't played much any more because, well, it hasn't really stood the test of time. Still a decent tune if you only hear it once or twice a year, but just sounds too dated if it's played too often. "Who Said I Would" is okay, but kind of blah. "Doesn't Anybody Stay Together Anymore" is a surprisingly good song. Just kind of creeps up on you, and before you know it you're sitting there tapping your foot and humming along. Nice tune. "Inside Out" is a good song, but it seems like he couldn't decide if he wanted it to be a ballad or not. Kind of stuck in some sort of off-tempo limbo. Like it though. The final song is, in my opinion, the best one on the album. "Take Me Home" is just a bad ass song that I can listen to any day. Such a cool tune. Overall, this is a decent album. Probably shouldn't be this high on the list, but... It's here, so it's staying. Some good stuff, some bad stuff, but most of it is worthwhile.
5 Best Songs:
5. "Long Long Way To Go" (Horrid fan video using clips from a soap opera, but only one I found with a clean album version of the song.)


4. "Doesn't Anybody Stay Together Anymore"


3. "One More Night"


2. "Inside Out"


1. "Take Me Home"


69. Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me by The Cure (1987)

The Head On the Door was The Cure's first real attempt at making a pop album. Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me took the parts that worked and made them even better. But they also experimented quite a bit, which is why Kiss Me ended up being an 18 song double album full of awesomeness. "The Kiss" starts the album off, and other than "Plainsong" on Disintegration it's my favorite album opening song from any Cure album, and top 5 for any album in general. Just a kick ass song. The anger of "The Kiss" leads into the very sweet "Catch", a very nice little song about love, loss, and regret. "Torture" swings back toward angry, but not quite as angry as "The Kiss". "If Only Tonight We Could Sleep" is a very pretty song, very calm and warm, really. Good tune. "Why Can't I Be You?" is an extremely catchy and addictive song. One of the best pure pop songs The Cure has ever done. "How Beautiful You Are..." is kind of a funny song. It sounds all sweet and stuff, except that the lyrics are actually about how much he hates some woman for being so conceited. Good stuff. "The Snakepit" sounds like it should have been on an earlier album, especially The Top. Would have fit perfectly there, but seems a bit out of place here. "Hey You!" is just a quick little song that is usually only on the cassette version of the album. Fun little song. "Just Like Heaven" is just, like, awesome. I absolutely love this song still, and will never get sick of it. "All I Want" is decent, but it's my least favorite track on the album, I think. Maybe second least favorite, but up there either way. "Hot Hot Hot!!!" is another catchy pop song, and while it is pretty good, it's not quite at the same level as "Why Can't I Be You?" or "Just Like Heaven". Actually, compared to those two, it's pretty weak. "One More Time" changes the mood yet again, to a more sad, longing, "wish we could be together" kind of vibe. Very pretty song. "Like Cockatoos" is more of a narrative, weird but cool song. "Icing Sugar" is a very fast crazy song, very cool. "The Perfect Girl" should have been a single. It's a very good, very catchy song, and if they had released more songs like this, they wouldn't have been pigeonholed into the "depressing goth blah blah blah" labels they've been stuck with forever. Great song. "A Thousand Hours" is the prettiest song on the album, and probably the saddest. Mostly instrumental, the lyrics are just filled with pain, loss, and longing. Great great song. "Shiver and Shake", on the other hand, goes back to the "I hate you get out of my life" vibe that is all over the album. Not great, but not bad. "Fight" is the final song, a good tune about standing up for yourself, pretty much. This album just rules. really thought I had it higher up on the list, but apparently not. Great album, and a must have if you're a Cure fan.
5 Best Songs:
5. "Like Cockatoos"


4. "The Perfect Girl"


3. The Kiss"


2. "A Thousand Hours"


1. "Just Like Heaven"

Favorite Albums: 76 - 75

Hot damn! After these two, we are officially at the half way point! Why didn't I start this at 100 again? Oh well. Not going to get done any faster sitting here bitching.

76. Bloodflowers by The Cure (2000)

For some reason this album took me a long time to start enjoying. Like, four or five years. And I really don't get why I disliked it so much, because this album sounds closer to Disintegration than anything else they've recorded, and I love that album. Anyway. "Out Of This World" is the opener, a very slow, somber song, very pretty. Not necessarily the best song to start an album with, but not the worst by any means. "Watching Me Fall" is a bit more up tempo, with very biting lyrics, and clocks in at over 11 minutes. Really good song. "Where the Birds Always Sing" is good, but a little bland. Could have been better. "Maybe Someday" is bad ass, very driving, even though it's slower paced. Really well done song. "The Last Day Of Summer" is one of the more upbeat songs on the album, musically, at least. Pretty somber lyrics, but very pretty music. "There Is No If..." is amazing. Very understated music, very powerful lyrics, and the only song on the album under 5 minutes. Great song. "The Loudest Sound" is one of my absolute favorite Cure songs. It's just an insanely sad song, about two lovers who have nothing left to say to each other. Just a brilliant song. "39" is a very very angry song. Really hate filled. Good tune. "Bloodflowers" closes out the album. It's slow, but keeps that angry vibe, but throwing in the faintest hint of hope. Overall, this album is one of the more solid albums The Cure have recorded. There really aren't any bad spots, just a very even, steady album. Two thumbs up.
5 Best Songs:
5. "Out Of This World"


4. "Maybe Someday"


3. "39"


2. "There Is No If..."


1. "The Loudest Sound"


75. Gordon by Barenaked Ladies (1992)

The official debut album by Barenaked Ladies is one of the best debuts by any band not named Nirvana or Smashing Pumpkins. It kicks off with "Hello City", which right off the bat introduces BNL's signature harmonies. "Enid" and "Grade 9" are both pretty much trying to be high school anthems of a sort, the former about not getting the girl of choice, the latter about not fitting in. Both are pretty good. "Brian Wilson" is one of BNL's most beloved songs, and for good reason. Just a great song. "Be My Yoko Ono" took a while to grow on me, and I'm still not a huge fan of it, but it's pretty well written overall. "Wrap Your Arms Around Me" is an extremely pretty song that I forget about sometimes. Good tune. "What a Good Boy" is fantastic, one of their best songs. "The King Of Bedside Manor" is probably the funniest song on this album. All sorts of innuendos and double meanings and such. Pretty good. "Box Set" uses the idea of a musical box set being used to describe a failed relationship from beginning to end, with each "disc" being a chapter in the relationship. Pretty clever, but kind of a rip off of "Every Day I Write the Book" by Elvis Costello. Still a good song, though. "I Love You" is a funny jazzy little number, a fun listen. "New Kid (On the Block)" is kind of blah. Tries to be funnier than it is, and just comes out sounding somewhat forced. "Blame It On Me" is another slow pretty song, with some pretty funny lines. Good tune, but could have been better. "The Flag" is a surprisingly sad song on an otherwise extremely up beat album. Very very good song. "If I Had $1,000,000" is, well, the trademark song of Barenaked Ladies. If you don't know this song, shame on you. Shame. Ha ha. "Crazy" closes out the album on a fun note, very cool song. This is just a great album. Very mellow, very good to just throw on while your reading a book, or if you want to dance around. Nice balance of styles and rhythms. Good times.
5 Best Songs:
5. "Crazy"


4. "The Flag"


3. "I Love You"


2. "Brian Wilson"


1. "What a Good Boy"

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: 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: 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: 110 - 109

110. Automatic by The Jesus and Mary Chain (1989)

I know that Psychocandy is their best album, but I don't own it, so Automatic gets the nod. I've loved this album since it came out, even if it is, at times, a bit repetitive and monotonous. The drums are all done by drum machine, and the bass is all done on keyboards, somewhat limiting the sound throughout the album. I mean, you can only use the same exact beat on so many songs before it starts getting old, right? Regardless, it is still a pretty good album. "Here Comes Alice" is a nice opener, giving a good idea what the rest of the album is going to sound like. "Coast To Coast" and "Blues From a Gun" are both great songs, two of the best on the album. "Between Planets" and "UV Ray" are decent, but not great. "Her Way Of Praying" is... I don't know. Sometimes I like that song, other times can't stand it. Just depends on my mood, I guess. "Head On" is probably the only Jesus & Mary Chain song a lot of people have heard, one of the few singles they ever released, plus the Pixies did a pretty bad ass cover version of it a few years later. "Take It" is the only song on the album that feels like filler, but it's an okay song, so it's not too out of place. "Half Way To Crazy" is a stellar song, and should have been in my favorite songs list. Just yet another one I forgot about. "Gimme Hell" is another decent but nothing special song. "Drop" is absolutely gorgeous, a great great song. "Sunray" closes out the album on a pretty brief but chaotic note. All in all, I think this album doesn't get the credit it deserves. It got compared to Psychocandy so much that it ended up not having a prayer of being successful, but it really is a good album.
5 Best Songs:
5. "Blues From a Gun"
4. "Head On"
3. "Coast To Coast"
2. "Half Way To Crazy"
1. "Drop"

"Coast To Coast"


"Halfway To Crazy"


"Drop"


109. The Top by The Cure (1984)

This is probably one of the most uneven albums on this list. It was recorded while Robert Smith was bouncing back and forth between The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees, plus he and Laurence Tolhurst were pretty much the only two actual members of The Cure at the time. Throw in lots of drugs and alcohol on top of a shit load of stress, and this is what you get. As much of a mess as it was, though, The Top served as a bridge between the "goth" depressing music of Pornography, Seventeen Seconds, and Faith, to the more pop focused radio friendly The Head On the Door and Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me. It had elements of both styles of the band - what they were and what they were becoming - and it actually turned out a lot better than it should have. "Shake Dog Shake" kicks things off, one of the most aggressive songs The Cure has ever recorded. It doesn't let up at all from start to finish, just assaulting you with guitars the whole way. "Bird Mad Girl" follows, and could not be much more different, very keyboard driven and poppy. "Wailing Wall" is a very somber and atmospheric song, and it is one of the most unappreciated Cure songs ever, I think. It could have fit in on almost any Cure album ever released. "Give Me It" is another aggressive song, and one of my favorite from this era of the band. Just a good tune. "Dressing Up" is next, and is another keyboard heavy song, just a fluffy little "I love you" type song. "The Caterpillar" is next, and I've already said a bunch about this song in both lists, so moving forward... "Piggy In the Mirror" is a pretty groovy tune, another one that may be a bit under appreciated. "The Empty World" has one of the cooler drum beats in any early Cure album, and the drums pretty much take center stage, with the other instruments being somewhat toned down. "Bananafishbones" is a bit reggae influenced, but not really. Kind of a weird song. "The Top" closes out the album, a slow methodical song that just drips with emotion. Very good song. This album really had no right being as good as it was, nor did it have any right being as ignored as it was. The Top and Pornography are the only two Cure albums ever that have only produced one single each, and in both cases there were at least one or two other songs that could have been hits. I really dig this album, and am going to go throw it on, since I haven't listened to it in a while. Peace out.
5 Best Songs:
5. "The Empty World"
4. "Shake Dog Shake"
3. "Wailing Wall"
2. "Give Me It"
1. "The Caterpillar"

(I am putting the videos for songs 2 - 4 since "Caterpillar" was already on the singles collection entry a couple entries ago.)

"Shake Dog Shake"


"Wailing Wall" (Plus "The Empty World". It's the best version of "Wailing Wall" I could find, so... Bonus!)


"Give Me It"

Favorite Albums: 112 - 111

112. Mixed Up by The Cure (1990)

This was basically a filler album, killing time between Disintegration and Wish. It is just remixes of ten songs, plus one new song, "Never Enough." Four of the remixes are from Disintegration ("Lullaby" "Pictures Of You" "Lovesong" and "Fascination Street") and none of the four are that ambitious, compared to the rest of the songs. They are basically just extended versions, no major changes. "Pictures Of You" gets a new funky beat, "Lullaby" just gets a bit repetitive, and "Lovesong" nearly becomes an instrumental. "Fascination Street" is the most radically reworked of the four, and is actually a bit more interesting on Mixed Up than on Disintegration. The real value of this album comes in the reworking of the older material. "Close To Me (Closer Mix)" is the first of the older songs to appear, and while it isn't significantly different from the original version, the new drums added in, as well as the addition of a horn section, give it a much different feel than the original. "The Walk (Everything Mix)" is almost a disco song, with a little bit of attitude thrown in. "A Forest (Tree Mix)" has some extra bits thrown in that make it pretty fun and interesting, extra keyboards and drums and such. "Hot Hot Hot!!! (Extended Mix)" Doesn't change much from the original either, just gets some longer instrumental sections added and, again, new drum parts. "The Caterpillar (Flicker Mix)" is amazing, easily the best song on the album. The original was very peppy and up beat (see the last post for a live version.) The "Flicker Mix" is completely different, extremely slow and somber. The lyrics are exactly the same, but they completely change tone and feeling between the two versions. "In Between Days (Shiver Mix)" becomes almost unrecognizable from the original. The original version was one of the best pop songs The Cure ever recorded. The remix is a techno laced near instrumental that just begs to be danced to. "Never Enough" closes out the album, a nifty new song that has become a staple in The Cure's live shows. While this is definitely not a "must have" album, it is good for what it is. It also started a trend where every Cure single released for Wish and Wild Mood Swings ended up having remixes on them, some of which ("Just Like Heaven" and "Primary" especially) should have gone on this album.
5 Best Songs:
5. "Pictures Of You (Extended Dub Mix)"
4. "Close To Me (Closer Mix)"
3. "Never Enough (Big Mix)"
2. "A Forest (Tree Mix)"
1. "The Caterpillar (Flicker Mix)"

"Never Enough (Big Mix)"


"A Forest (Tree Mix)"


"The Caterpillar (Flicker Mix)" (pretty quiet... turn it up)


111. Songs From the Big Chair by Tears For Fears (1985)

This was one of the first cassettes I ever bought, and I still have the original copy. My cousin had it when he was living with us, and when he moved out, I had to have it. Now, twenty some years later, I still have to have it. This is just a really great album, start to finish. It kicks off with "Shout," one of the great '80s anthems. "The Working Hour" follows, a beautiful saxophone driven tune. Next is "Everybody Wants To Rule the World," which you all know. "Mothers Talk" is next, and should have been a single as it is one of the best songs n the album. "I Believe" is the only song on the album that I don't care for. It's just a little too much, and really doesn't go well with the rest of the album. "Broken" is next, and is basically a two minute intro to "Head Over Heels." Both songs play off each other, and "Broken" is even reprised in a live version at the end of "Head Over Heels." The final song, "Listen," is just a nice mellow tune to kind of wrap everything up in a nice neat package. Unlike Mixed Up, this is a "must have" album. It is one of the signature albums of the '80s, and for good reason.
5 Best Songs:
5. "The Working Hour"
4. "Everybody Wants To Rule the World"
3. "Head Over Heels"
2. "Mothers Talk"
1. "Shout"

"Head Over Heels"


"Mothers Talk"


"Shout"

Favorite Albums: 114 - 113

So, yeah, I said in the last post that the Greatest Hits and singles collections and stuff were going to be farther apart. There was one in the last post, two in this one. Go me.
I am still amazed that Bat Out Of Hell got zero comments, by the way. Amazed.

115. Standing On a Beach - The Singles (And Unavailable B-sides) by The Cure (1986)

This collection included all The Cure's singles from Three Imaginary Boys through The Head On the Door. The cassette version was called Standing On a Beach, and included all the b-sides to all the singles. Every other version was called Staring At the Sea and only had the singles. I am going with the cassette version, because some of the b-sides are just as good as a lot of the singles.
All the singles are here, in chronological order, from "Killing An Arab" through "Close To Me." It is a pretty definitive collection of The Cure's first decade, with nothing at all missing. Throwing the b-side collection in just makes it that much more fulfilling. "Happy the Man," "The Exploding Boy," "New Day," "Stop Dead" and "A Few Hours After This," all b-sides, rival many of the songs The Cure ever put on any album up to this point. I'm really not going to get into much detail about the singles, because most of the albums the songs are off of appear in this list at one point or another, so it would be a bit redundant. Just... Go get this album. It is well worth it.
5 Best Songs (Singles):
5. "Primary"
4. "A Night Like This"
3. "10:15 Saturday Night"
2. "Boys Don't Cry"
1. "The Caterpillar"

5 Best Songs (B-sides):
5. "Happy the Man"
4. "New Day"
3. "Stop Dead"
2. "The Exploding Boy"
1. "A Few Hours After This"

"10:15 Saturday Night"


"Boys Don't Cry"


"The Caterpillar"



113. Who's Better, Who's Best by The Who (1988)

This is, for some reason, the only Who album I own. But damn is it good. I used to listen to this all the time, but kind of burned myself out on it, and haven't listened to it in nearly a year. Basically every Who song worth a damn is on here. The only real complaint I have is the version of "Won't Get Fooled Again" that is on here. It says it's the "extended version," yet there are parts completely cut out, and it is shorter than the actual album version by a full 5 minutes. I can understand not wanting to put an 8 minute song on here, but it ends up being so chopped up that it's annoying as hell. Actually, I do have one other complaint, and that is that "Behind Blue Eyes" isn't on here. Love that song. There are a few songs on here, like "I'm a Boy" and "See Me, Feel Me" that I would have put "Behind Blue Eyes" in place of, but for the most part this is a really good collection. They got all the main hits on here, so that's what matters most in the end, right?
5 Best Songs:
5. "Magic Bus"
4. "Squeeze Box"
3. "Happy Jack"
2. "You Better, You Bet"
1. "I Can See For Miles"

"Happy Jack"


"You Better, You Bet"


"I Can See For Miles"