20 Fave Albums

[Mike Boom]

Aladdin Sane


The guitars are even chrunchier than on Ziggy, and with Mick Ronson playing them thats really something, and the out of control piano playing of Mike Garson make this my favourite Bowie record.

Don Juans Reckless Daughter



Joni Mitchells forgotten record - some of her very very best stuff and with Jaco Pastorius on bass its a treat for the ears. The lengthy jazz piano piece Paprika Plains actually works beautifully - a rich and rewarding record with Otis and Marlena, Dreamland and Talk to Me, some of her greatest songs.

Meat is Murder


Im feeling this is a stronger set of songs than even the mighty Queen is Dead these days - Headmaster Ritual could be the Smiths very finest.

On The Beach


Neil drives head first into the gutter - bleak but beautiful, mostly about his break up with Carrie Snodgrass, brilliant acoustic tracks like Ambulance Blues , a vicious electric Revolution Blues and the electric piano ballad See The Sky About to Rain along with the single Walk On are highlights.

Smile


The only way this could have been better is if it had been finished in 68 and hence retaining the spooky mad edge of the original recordings - that after all these years they made it again and its this great is frankly a miracle. A landmark and a benchmark for genius.

Brighten the Corners


A more laid back record than normal for Pavement and the melodies shine thru. Full of strange charm and gentle sunny epics like Starlings in the Slipstream and Fin along with the pop of Stereo and Shady Lane. Brilliantly inventive and casually stunning.

Nowhere


Layer upon layer of tangled guitars ,heavenly vocal harmonies and the tunes to wrap it all around. Not a weak track on the album. Beware - if your stoned and listen to this record at loud volume it WILL take the top of your head off and send you into orbit.

The Black Sea


XTC before their pastoral adventures. Respectable Street, Sgt Rock, Living Thru Another Cuba, Towers of London - a great record finishes with the huge drums of Travels in Nihilon. I thought I was sick of this record but listened to it again recently and it sounded fantastic and fresh - the best records just keep on giving!

Human Amusements At Hourly Rates


Yes, its a best of, but Im still working my way around the Guided By Voices discography.
This is so full of so many great songs with big big pop hooks that it makes you quite dizzy. Pollard is amazingly amazingly prolific and a great singer. Master of the short sharp rock song.

The Guess Who Live at the Paramount


THE best record ever made to get drunk too. Rock n Roll fun. A definite desert island disc for me. Its been remastered and expanded since the original too so now you can get the whole concert. If I had a time machine and could go back to one concert this would be it. Great great songs played with inspiration.

The Slider


The first record i ever brought and still one of , if not THE best. It has the songs, the production, the voice , the x factor in spades. Get the remastered version with the bonus
"Alternative Slider" second disc of acoustic versions and demos .

...to be continued

[Otis Westinghouse]

Wow, Chrille's list was good, but this is fascinating. I like your penchant for the 'not most obvious choice'. Aladdin over Ziggy (I can almost sympathise, but could never go there myself, Ziggy every time!); Don Juan is very bold - not at all obvious, must hear it again, it's been decades; I've never had Meat Is Murder, I really should remedy that (I'm not sure I dare confess it - the only Smiths I don't have, though of course I've heard it some. I think the title put me off too much, and the stupid equation of war with carnivorism on the cover); On The beach - yes, yes, yes; never heard the Pavement record; who is Nowhere by?; Black Sea - another good one, though it's Drums and Wires for me; The Guess Who?; and the remastered Slider with bonus is a new high entrant on my groaning 'must haves' list.

Respect!

[Mike Boom]

Otis

Nowhere is the first album by the 90's Oxford band Ride.

http://www.rideox4.net/nowhere.html

For Trainspotters : Ive always loved the way the Seagull, the Mast and the Moon form the letters XTC on the cover of Black Sea - which wasnt why I chose it , but it IS a nice detail.

[Who Shot Sam?]

Great stuff Mike. Brighten The Corners and Black Sea are two of my all time faves. I think my favorite Joni album is Hejira, but Don Juan's Reckless Daughter is a hell of an album too.

[guidedbyvoices]

Human Amusements At Hourly Rates


Yes, its a best of, but Im still working my way around the Guided By Voices discography.
This is so full of so many great songs with big big pop hooks that it makes you quite dizzy. Pollard is amazingly amazingly prolific and a great singer. Master of the short sharp rock song.

If you ever need help around the Bob Pollard canon, I'm your man. I'm one of the insane who actually owns everything he's put out plus unreleased stuff and bootlegs. This is a great site to help too:
http://www.gbvdb.com

[Mike Boom]

Hey GBV , yeah, I have a couple of bootlegs that are amazingly good, and are what got me interested in the band - I had heard of them before but never actually checked them out. I have Under the Bushes and Under the Stars and the best of. I know Alien Lanes and Bee Thousand are supposed to be the classics so will check them out. Whats Pollards Compound Eye like? Thanks for site - looks great and Pollard definitely needs a database!

I also like the sound of Universal Truths and Cycles and Half Smiles of the Decomposed - are they any good?

Otis - you wont be dissapointed with Meat is Murder - Well I Wonder and Rusholme Ruffians are stella!

[Otis Westinghouse]

Rusholme Ruffians I know, but fortunately not from my visit to Rusholme and the curry mile, or whatever they call it. Well I Wonder I don't recall at all. Seemed to me that it was the weakest of all their LPs song-wise, but I will check it out soon.

Ride - from the 'shoegazer' era. Know next to nothing about them.

GBV I don't know at all, other than as a board member!

[guidedbyvoices]

I have Under the Bushes and Under the Stars and the best of. I know Alien Lanes and Bee Thousand are supposed to be the classics so will check them out. Whats Pollards Compound Eye like? Thanks for site - looks great and Pollard definitely needs a database!

I also like the sound of Universal Truths and Cycles and Half Smiles of the Decomposed - are they any good?

Otis - you wont be dissapointed with Meat is Murder - Well I Wonder and Rusholme Ruffians are stellar!

First, as in my best of list, I wholly concur with Meat Is Murder. Well I Wonder is Morrissey's best at taking Marr's mood and really saying so much with so little.

GBV - Like most bands, the best of is a good place to start, but a lot of better songs are on the albums. If you like the stuff from Alien Lanes & Bee Thousand from the Best Of, go for it. I've found that most GBV albums, at first nothing hits me, and then after a few listens, a lot grabs me, then months (or years later) still other songs that I originally dsimissed as crap pop out as really good too.

Bee Thousand is more tightly focused. Bob intended it to be like Abbey Road - a fake greatest hits on Side A and some weirder stuff on Side B, but so many of these songs are GBV classics - Echoes Myron, Tractor Rape Chain, Buzzards & Dreadful Crows, Smothered In Hugs, I Am A Scientist. It's garage 4 track Bob at his finest.

Alien Lanes, I like better, it's still 4 track lo fi, but there's a lot of great pop gems here too - Game of Pricks, As We Go Up We Go Down, Motor Away, My Valuable Hunting Knife. What I like better about Alien Lanes is it's a little more diverse, more 20 second songs that work as good segues to the creamy pop songs, and just feels more complete. Typically, lifelong GBV fans who debate which is better (AL vs B000), their favorite tends to be what they bought first.

Universal Truths - I like it OK, but like most Bob albums (other than AL & B000), the songs are either great or just OK. I'd get Half Smiles or even Earthquake Glue before it.

Half Smiles is a really strong finale, and I'd recommend it over UT&C. There's a couple duff songs, but for GBV in their big studio phase, it's really strong.

From A Compound Eye - a lot of the old die hard fans went nuts over it, saying it was his best ever, but for me, it's like most Bob stuff good, but a bit long and some filler. It's 28 songs long or whatever, so you get your money's worth, and there are about 5 great songs, and 5 more pretty good songs. Worth owning? Yes, but I'd get Alien Lanes, B000, or Half Smiles before it, unless he's coming to your town and you want to become familiar with the new stuff first.

Other GBV stuff worth checking out. Bob's first solo album, Not In My Airforce, is as good as B000 & AL, and mixes bigger studio stuff with great lo fi short songs. Some days I think this his best album. Propeller is Bob's best pre-Bee Thousand album. Isolation Drills is Bob's last big studio album where he was trying for bigger things, and has some great big rock songs and anthems.

http://www.gbv.com/multimp3.html still has a bunch of older songs up for you (or anyone else) to check out. Raincloud from Half Smiles is great, as is the acoustic I'll Replace You With Machines (I like the album version too). For other newbies, I'd suggest Everywhere With Helicopter, Their Biggest Win, My Impression Now (acoustic), My Valuable Hunting Knife (live), Choking Tara, Teenage FBI (though I prefer the shorter radio version than the Do The Collapse version that Ric Ocasek put too many keyboards on), Now To War, and maybe a b side like Big School or Do The Earth. That's a pretty good free sampling.

Sorry for going on too long about them. I saw them live 13 times, Just saw Bob live at SXSW. There's something very cool about seeing someone in his late 40s, an ex teacher, and playing rock & roll for the fun of it, writing insanely catchy songs like the Who meets The Beatles with psych & post punk mixed in for some edginess, and instead of acid being fueled by beer. 3.5 hour shows with 50 songs setlists (or more), substance over style, just renewed my faith in what rock should be. FUN.

[Mike Boom]

Thanks GBV.
Yeah, I have all those downloads and they are all great, especially Choking Tara. I also love Matter Eating Lad which I downloaded from somewhere , Do the Earth too.
I would have loved to have seen them live - couldnt agree more that it is inspiring to see what he's done, and a fellow beer lover to boot!!

[guidedbyvoices]

I would have loved to have seen them live - couldnt agree more that it is inspiring to see what he's done, and a fellow beer lover to boot!!

This pretty much sums up Bob live -


seeing a 47 year old average guy doing kicks, Daltrey mic twirls, Jagger lips, jumps, just having a ball, that's the kind of stuff that really inspired me. tie that in with his overwhelming prolificness, and ability to write a ton of amazingly catchy songs, and that's how I got obsessed.

one of the things that kills me though - their episode of Austin City Limits really has some bad song selections, and I don't think will convert a whole lot of fans. They played a full 3 hour set and ACL took a really random sampling of songs, a few that I really rank low on my list, with only one or two "hits".

[guidedbyvoices]

Nowhere


Layer upon layer of tangled guitars ,heavenly vocal harmonies and the tunes to wrap it all around. Not a weak track on the album. Beware - if your stoned and listen to this record at loud volume it WILL take the top of your head off and send you into orbit.

I'm familiar with a bunch of your albums, but who's this by? I'm drawing a blank.

[Chrille]

Otis

Nowhere is the first album by the 90's Oxford band Ride.

http://www.rideox4.net/nowhere.html

So far, the only album on this list I've heard is Aladdin Sane.

[guidedbyvoices]

You know, I even read that and it didn't click! Guess all my getting carried away about GBV blinded me.

[Mike Boom]

GBV - Yes, Ive seen some GBV live clips on YouTube, most entertaining, and I see there is the DVD of the farewell concert which looks a must have.

[Mike Boom]

...continued from above.

The Notorious Byrd Brothers


Experimental, lots of different styles of tracks , even different styles within tracks, but still a resounding success. "Draft Morning" , which always reminds me of a blueprint for Floyds Dark Side of the Moon 5 years later, complete with war/explosive sound effects, and "Tribal Gathering" with its change of pace from laid back hippy musings to frantic heavy rock are highlights of a record full of highlights. Ahead of its time and a stone cold classic.

Quadrophenia


A concept record that actually makes sense and says something. Has some of the Who's most powerful songs ever like 5:15 and The Real Me.

Sister Lovers (Third)


The last Big Star record, after Chris Bell left and Alex was left to his own devices. Starts out with Kizza Me and Chilton exclaiming desperately "I WANT TO WHITE OUT!"
And things get stranger as you go - has their been a more bleak song than Holocaust? Kangaroo is astounding, acoustic guitar,vocal and wailing mellotron (?) feedback. Stroke It Noel is charming as is the rather sarcastic Thank You Friends. The strings used on various songs are stunning, the songwriting fearless, honest and moving. There are a few covers, Femme Fatale, a fucked up version of Till The End of the Day and a beautiful version of Nature Boy and a couple of acoustic gems like Nightime and Take Care - the latter is especially beautiful and very moving - a startling album that sounds like everythings about to fall apart at any minute but manages to hold together - JUST.

Heaven Tonight


The LOUDEST concert Ive ever been to was Cheat Trick at Auckland Town Hall , ear bleeding volume. Greatest opening song ever in Surrender, this album rocks hard from start to finish without a false step on the way. The druggy woozy title track and the mental Auf Weidersehen are highlights. Inspired songs played with conviction and elan.

Tusk


I love this record, beautiful harmonies, brilliant production that strips any unnecessary gloss from the sound - Lindsay Buckingham steering the gazillion dollar solid gold Californian Rumours sound of Fleetwood Mac into a sprawling Beach Boys/ New Wave inspired double album with his frenzied fuzz guitar on The Ledge and Not That Funny like nothing Ive ever heard before or since. Also contains the beautiful and haunting Thats All for Everyone and Save Me A Place. Stevie Nicks' and Christine Mcvie's songs are all top notch too - Storms , Beautiful Child in particular. The remastered version sounds great but the demos etc arent of any particular interest, all though the cover of Brian Wilsons Farmers Daughter is gorgeous.

Marquee Moon


The brilliant wiry guitar sounds of Tom Verlaine and Richard Loyd wrap around and play off eachother , especially on the classic title track, and the songs are strong all the way through. Every song on this record is a killer from the the driving guitar groove of See No Evil to the exquisite Guiding Light with its celestial guitar solo.

Parade


Uniformly and effortlessly brilliant across songs of great variety - funky, psychedelic, pop, ballads. Not a weak song on the record and containing a lot of his very best songs - Kiss, Anotherloverholeinyohead ,Mountains and Sometimes it Snows in April.

XO


The first Elliott Smith record I got , and his first excursion into a fuller production style. Needless to say I was blown away and I still am. Baby Britain, Bled White are fantastic pop songs and ending with the brilliant Beach Boys harmonies of I Didn't Understand. Amazing song writing beautifully produced

Songs For Beginners


Contains song writing of the very highest quality, Military Madness, Change the World, Chicago, I Used To Be A King. Jerry Garcia plays beautiful haunting steel guitar on I Used To Be A King, a song EC could do a nice cover of, and Nash's singing throughout the album is strong, rich and heartfelt. Every track is beautifully played , arranged and produced.

Disclaimer - I didnt include any Beatles, Dylan or EC to make things more interesting

[Otis Westinghouse]

My god there's no stopping you! Well I've heard of all the people this time, but don't know most of them. However, Sometimes It Snows In April is one of my favourite songs ever, so lovely to see that mentioned.

[Mechanical Grace]

Sometimes It Snows In April

It did here today!

Have been thinking about a tops-list of my own-- very difficult!