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 148 - 147

There are a lot of greatest hits albums and singles collections at this end of the list. Here are the first two.

148. Disc One: All Their Greatest Hits (1991-2001) by Barenaked Ladies (2001)

Barenaked Ladies actually used their Greatest Hits album to help change their status from novelty comedy act to serious musicians. While the obvious funny songs are here - "If I Had $1,000,000," "Brian Wilson," "One Week," and "Pinch Me," the other 15 tracks show that they are, indeed, fine musicians who write some very good songs. "Brian Wilson" and "What a Good Boy" are both live versions, as the band wanted to showcase their real strength, which is their live shows. It has a good balance of hit singles and some of the better album tracks. One of the cool things about this collection is that they actually had the fans vote on which songs were included. Otherwise, some of the stronger songs, such as "Jane," "Shoe Box," and "Lovers In a Dangerous Time" (one of the few cover songs by the band) may not have made it onto the disc. Overall, it's a very solid showcase of the band's first decade.
The flow of the music is very good from start to finish on this album. Not too many slow songs grouped together, bogging it down, and the "silly" songs are spread over the whole album. The two new songs on the album are "It's Only Me (The Wizard Of Magicland)" which would fit more in the "silly" category, and the extremely beautiful closing track, "Thanks That Was Fun."
5 Best Songs:
5. "Falling For the First Time"
4. "Jane"
3. "Lovers In a Dangerous Time"
2. "The Old Apartment"
1. "What a Good Boy"

"Lovers In a Dangerous Time"


"The Old Apartment"


"What a Good Boy"


147. ...Hits by Phil Collins (1998)

This is probably one of the more incomplete Greatest Hits albums around, simply because there is so much left off of it. While the really huge songs are here, like "Sussudio," "One More Night," and the biggest hit of Collins's career, "In the Air Tonight," there are some other pretty big hits missing, most notably "Don't Lose My Number," "I Missed Again," and "I Don't Care Anymore." The omission of that last song alone, at the expense of the previously unreleased cover of "True Colors" by Cyndi Lauper, gives the album a bit of a bad taste. In the end, though, it is a decent album. Great? Not by any means. But good.
One of the big problems with this album is that the Phil Collins solo music and the Phil Collins as member of Genesis music sounds so similar. You keep expecting to hear certain songs, only to realize that they are, in fact, Genesis songs. Also, starting the album off with "Another Day In Paradise" just seems like a bad idea. I mean, really, who wants to hear this depressing ass song right when you put the album on? And if you do want to start off with a slow depressing song, why not put "In the Air Tonight" first instead of burying it as the second to last track? Other than that, the songs flow very well, since they aren't in chronological order, just logical order, for the most part. "Easy Lover" and "You Can't Hurry Love" go together very well, as do "Separate Lives" and "Both Sides Of the Story," and "Take Me Home" is a pretty obvious choice as the closing track. Overall, a solid album but not as good as it could have been.
5 best songs:
5. "Both Sides Of the Story"
4. "Against All Odds (Take a Look At Me Now)"
3. "I Wish It Would Rain Down"
2. "In the Air Tonight"
1. "Take Me Home"

"I Wish It Would Rain Down"
Never actually saw this video. The part at the beginning about him being the drummer in a "pretty good band" then taking over after the singer left is pretty funny.


"In the Air Tonight"


"Take Me Home"


I just realized how much I have bitched about 2 of the 4 albums I've done so far. You'd think I was doing a list of my least favorite albums. Ha ha. It'll get better, I promise.