I've just completed another playlist of twenty-five albums. As usual, they were shuffled so the order is arbitrary. Some are familiar favorites, others new discoveries for me - a majority being the latter this time (especially strong in the first half). My favorite discovery was probably the proto-ambient Sonic Seasonings. Covers, titles, and favorite tracks are featured below. You can also follow my listenings on Twitter, scan my last playlist or look at all previous round-ups on this blog.
The Sky's Gone Out (1982) - Bauhaus
Favorite track: "In the Night" (no video)
Days of Speed (2001) - Paul Weller
Favorite track: "English Rose"
Sonic Seasonings (1972) - Wendy Carlos
Favorite track: "Winter" (no video)
Ghost Riders (1981) - Suicide
Favorite track: "Dream Baby Dream"
A Ghost is Born (2004) - Wilco
Favorite track: "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" (no video)
Vanishing Point (1997) - Primal Scream
Favorite track: "Kowalski"
Chelsea Girl (1966) - Nico
Favorite track: "These Days"
Solid State Survivor (1979) - Yellow Magic Orchestra
Favorite track: "Behind the Mask"
My Aim is True (1977)
Favorite track: "Alison"
Is This Real? (1979) - The Wipers
Favorite track: "Is This Real?"
Reproduction (1979) - The Human League
Favorite track: "Zero as a Limit"
Aftermath (1966) - The Rolling Stones
Favorite track: "Under My Thumb"
Disintegration (1989) - The Cure
Favorite track: "Pictures of You"
Black Sea (1980) - XTC
Favorite track: "No Language in Our Lungs"
Live/Dead (1969) - The Grateful Dead
Favorite track: "The Eleven"
Freedom of Choice (1980) - Devo
Favorite track: "Whip It"
Looking for St. Tropez (1978) - Telex
Favorite track: "Victime de la Société"
The Score (1996) - The Fugees
Favorite track: "Killing Me Softly"
The Stone Roses (1989) - The Stone Roses
Favorite track: "I Wanna Be Adored"
The Who By Numbers (1975) - The Who
Favorite track: "Blue, Red and Grey" (no video)
Thriller (1982) - Michael Jackson
Favorite track: "Billie Jean"
It Was Written (1996) - Nas
Favorite track: "If I Ruled the World"
Cerebral Caustic (1995) - The Fall
Favorite track: "Don't Call Me Darling" (no video)
Brotherhood (1986) - New Order
Favorite track: "Every Little Counts" (no video)
3 comments:
Fugees- The Score: What a boring album! The only song I remember from it, after listening to it through 3 times is Killing Me Softly With His Song, and that's probably because it's a Lauryn Hill solo track. Wyclef Jean is really irritating and I guess there's another guy in the group but I don't remember anything standing out about him. The beats were really flat and just dull. I don't get how it's revered as a classic, some even go as far to say it's the last golden era rap album, well in that case the era didn't go out with a bang at all.
Nas- It Was Written: I used to be biased against this album because I thought Nas was biting the style of Mobb Deep and other Queensbridge hardcore/Mafioso acts of the time, which is true to a certain extent, but now I actually like the album. It's a step in a different direction from Illmatic, and proves that Nas will never achieve the crossover success of, say, Jay-Z or Notorious B.I.G., nor will he ever achieve the critical acclaim of his legendary debut again, but for what it is I enjoy it. I still vastly prefer Mobb Deep's Hell on Earth and The Infamous, Kool G Rap's 4,5,6, and Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, all of which Nas makes an appearance on, ironically.
I actually favor several songs on this album that KMS is the most iconic; Ready or Not and Fu-Gee-La are tracks I can play on repeat and I liked How Many mics too. As for Pras, he didn't have a career to compare with Lauryn Hill's or Wyclef's but I do like the one-off single Ghetto Superstar quite a bit.
Nas is one of the more underlistened-to artists on my iPod, and Illmatic will definitely be on upcoming #iPodAlbumPlaylist as I've never given it a real attention-paying spin. I'm not familiar with any of the others albums you mention and don't think I have them but you've piqued my curiosity. My knowledge of hip-hop history is spotty at best; I mostly listened to rap in high school and very early college when I knew music mostly by song rather than album and didn't explore much. When that phase of my listening career began, it was mostly with rock music, alas.
Illmatic is something of a Citizen Kane in hip-hop. There were great albums before, and would be after, but it was such a huge game changer, and set the bar for intelligent rhymes, hardcore mixed with socially conscious themes, multi layered productions and complex rhyme schemes. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it (it's much better than It Was Written in my and, well, everyone else's humble opinion). From there Nas's discography is very hit and miss. The Lost Tapes is pretty good, and his latest was entertaining. I HATE Untitled and Stillmatic is overrated. Like Welles, he never reached the heights of his massive debut...
As for the other albums I mentioned, the most accessible is probably Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, especially since you are already acquainted with some early Wu-Tang. The others are all great, but would probably take some getting used to.
One day I will delve into rock. I do have a little bit of Jazz on my iPod (A Love Supreme is my most recent obsession) and various film scores.
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