Top 25 albums - sort of.

In no discernible order......

1. Malamute "Breathe Deeply, Horse" - the best music to surface out of Mississippi since the blues of the early twentieth century. I've never heard an album like this - so much flavour, so much passion and sonic fire! The initial bludgeoning of the album's first half is life-affirming, and then it takes on a softer shape as it folds to a close, having just as significant an impact on the senses. The best album I bought in all of 2008, without a doubt. Acerbic Noise Development is going to get a couple of nods from me in this list!

2. bert "Big Box Schwing" - I adore the Quiet Positive Pump disc, and I have since the day I first heard it. BUT, I always felt like Big Box Schwing had a more unified purpose and the appropriate 'muscle' was captured on tape by Steve Albini, in Alabama no less! Another southern triumph of epic proportions and a cd that has served as a soundtrack to many phases of my life over the last twelve years. Still attempting (with Jeff's blessing) a rendition of 'Human Redundancies' that fails my expectations, set so incredibly high by the original recording itself. One day......

3. Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 - while Control contains just as many pivotal songs from the most potent quotient of Janet's recording career, Rhythm Nation slams a lot harder, wears it's idealism on it's album sleeve (outdated format pun) and never fails to bring back so many fantastic memories of the larger 2/3 of my life so far. It's a shame she never hit this highlight again in the studio. She got the best of what Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis had to offer, and was no slouch herself as an instrumentalist and conceptualist at this point. Once the focus became her sex appeal, the music suffered immediately, but that doesn't diminish a thing about this powerful collection of song and social consciousness!

4. Van Halen "Fair Warning" - it's the darkest of the VH records, if you don't count VH3, which is mostly dark because the band is publicly collapsing from it's foundation more than ever before. But Cherone rants aside, Fair Warning delivers the goods, non-stop, and it's hardly a one-dimensional affair, sonically or compositionally. But the hellish combination of 'Sunday Afternoon In The Park/One Foot Out The Door' stays with the mind and spirit longer than any closer on any rock album from this era that I can think of. I've always felt like the congruent genius of this record was an accident on the band's part, and I feel their blatant attempts at 'genius' since this record are a good case for that argument. This was the moment before they started trying too hard, and it's every bit as vital now as it was in 1981. Brown sound indeed!

5. Red Hot Chili Peppers "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" - yeah, I question my motivations for posting this amongst my top 25 so far or whatever this list is supposed to be but..........again, the sentimental quotient and the affect it had on my musicality can't be denied. There are some truly beautiful moments all across this 17 song cycle about being completely lost in excess, particularly 'Breaking The Girl', 'I Could Have Lied' and if the opener 'The Power Of Equality' doesn't stir up something inside of you, check your pulse. This is the closest they came to being the band they could have been. Another situation where a band keeps making albums LONG after it's purpose has been served. I gave One Hot Minute a fair shake in the nineties. Can't say it's carried over to 2009 very well, but Blood Sugar Sex Magik is mighty and earthy enough to survive all changes in culture. Truth is truth.

6. Frank Zappa "Apostrophe" - he wrote better songs in his career than those that appear on this album, and there are live collections that sum up his intentions as a composer/player/phenomenon more directly, but there's a certain vibe about this recording that no other FZ disc carries with it. I got the Apostrophe/Overnite Sensation 2-fer in the late nineties, and immediately enjoyed it, though I didn't understand the songs on a real level until later. Still, the humour, the tasteful orchestration on EVERY moment, the quality of the vocals (Frank, George, Tina, Napoleon, the whole lot), the editing........universal goodness! The Nanook/St. Alphonso storyline, spanned out over four tracks, sets an amazing tone - to combine the absurd and the divine into such a delicious package so effortlessly should be the goal of every musician. Yeah right! There's a reason Frank's work stands out amongst those of his generation, and even more so since his absence - no one is doing ANYTHING that competes with Frank's best work. NO ONE!

7. The Arcade Fire "Funeral" - Dustin, you were right. This album changed the way I heard music, and the way I felt it. This is the complete sound of the human heart.

8. David Bowie "LOW" - another situation where an artist has done better work in individual songs and short concepts on other albums, but the strength and quality of LOW is unique amongst Bowie's work and sets the bar pretty high for all of his followers, especially those who dared to replicate this album, bit by bit (guilty as charged). Even the man himself has said that he considers LOW, 'Heroes' and Lodger to be his DNA, captured on tape. I believe it fully, every time I listen to it. Thirty-two years after it's release and ten years after I first added it to my collection, this record speaks to my core on levels that still unnerve me.

9. Stevie Wonder "Songs In The Key Of Life" - Innervisions is the best album he ever released, but Songs In The Key Of Life is the best double album he ever released, and by my math, that makes this twice the album that Innervisions could ever be. Flawed logic, sure. It's just that Stevie is one of the few guys that got away with releasing this much material at once, under one thematic umbrella at least. I love EVERY song on this record. EVERY song! It's my dream to perform it in it's entirety. After seeing him at the White House this week, seeing how he CLEARLY still has the goods, I wish (ha!) that I could perform it with him in some capacity. "Joy Inside My Tears" never fails to inspire me. Same goes for "All Day Sucker", "Sir Duke" and "Village Ghetto Land". One of the finest writers of our time, at his pique!

10. WIRE "Chairs Missing" - Tyson Platt saw me purchasing some questionable used cutout trash one day when he recommended that I toss out what I had my hands on and instead purchase a copy of Chairs Missing that someone had just brought into The Buzz. Having never steered me wrong, I took his advice and brought this icy masterwork home. From the first full verse/'chorus' of 'Practice Makes Perfect', I knew it resonated, especially the light touches of Mike Thorne's synthesiser, juxtaposing with the bold guitar and drum choices made by the band. That music like this was made at all, let alone in 1978, blew my mind! WIRE never sounded like this again, though 154 is nothing to sneer at. This is one of those albums you could play side by side with those of a few acts that you probably think of as wickedly subversive and original and would find that every one of them owe something to the music found here. "Marooned", "Another The Letter" and "Mercy" are personal favourites. I would include "Outdoor Miner", but the extended and keyboard-heavy version from On Returning trumps this version!

11. Weak Music For Thomas "The Fire" - seeing this band in concert as often as I did was always a privilege. They always brought their A game, and if Brandon had enough room to move around, he would play his SG in such a way that made you feel that you might be run through by the sheer force of his rock. And did they have the goods in the studio? Oh hell yeah! I might dare say that they have been the most consistent act from Montgomery when it comes to getting their essence across on disc. There is no wasted space, no filler, no reason to question their ferocity. As much as I like the material they're working on since the reunion last year, I really feel like Brian Carroll's contributions were a large component of their sonic success, and The Fire is evidence of that, from the first riff of "Answering Machine Head" to the sweet close of "A Prelude To Falling Upwards". The thoughtful artist amongst the soldiers of war, if you like. Incredible dynamics!

12. The Chameleons UK "Strange Times" - I don't know much about the band as a whole, and I haven't found any of their material anywhere NEAR as compelling as Strange Times (though Script Of The Bridge comes close). There is a point in this album where you forget that there is other music in the world. For me, it's usually a few minutes into "Caution" or the first chorus of "Tears". I look at them as the Love of the eighties, if a comparison must be made. Like many bands on this list, they never made the impact on the world at large that they fully deserve(d), but the music itself doesn't suffer for the lack of media attention. Beautiful tracers from nightmares and hallucinations, opinionated shadows hovering over your stereo as you get lost in the universe of Strange Times.

13. Killing Joke "Extremities, Dirt and Various Repressed Emotions" - first purchased a cassette of this at Amoeba Records in Hollywood, during a period where I'd all but eschewed anything this heavy from my current cd/cassette/vinyl rotation. But I'd heard so much about Killing Joke, I wanted to know what the experience truly entailed. I still feel like I started at the right place, considering their arc as recording artists. There is a fury that threatens to swallow you whole from Jaz' first phlegm-laden eruption to the moment Geordie's infamous guitar creeps into the hellish stomp of "Money Is Not Our God". I knew Martin Atkins could play the drums, but I didn't know he could play drums like this. Easily the best drummer they could have had for this approach to the death and resurrection show. Another one of those great angst-ridden tirades that never lets up. Even the pseudo-ballad, "Solitude" and the soundscape of "Kaliyuga" cannot dampen the intensity of the otherwise bombastic affair. I'm not big on one-dimensionally heavy albums, even if it's black metal we're talking about, and I think that's why this one's stuck with me for so long - the heaviness is not in the orchestration or production alone - there is a living breathing monster lurking behind every iota of sonic space Extremities takes up. Later, I read about the turmoil that poor Jaz was going through (put himself through, most likely) at the time and I hear the damage all too well. Makes for captivating songwriting and performances! They touched on this power once more as a band before Paul Raven's faint heart gave out on him in 2007. The Jesters still miss you sir!

14. Killing Joke "Hosannas From The Basement Of Hell" - after the marketing strategies in America regrettably failed to push the 2003 self-titled release (great as it was, complete with Dave Grohl giving the performance of a lifetime on every track!), the Joke retreated to Prague (and other inspired locations when necessary) to make the definitive KJ record, for audience and band alike. Also to be their last with bassist Paul Raven, who shines GLORIOUSLY, a beacon of rich mud amongst the damaged elegance of songs like "Universe B" (a b-side that should have served as the lead single), "Implosion", "Majestic" and the title track! Geordie stuck to one guitar take, one channel for each song, and how he sounds so rich and full without overdubs, I'll never know. As a singer, Jaz hasn't lost any depth, but his throaty cackle and growl techniques have all but killed off the sweetness he once conveyed on albums like Night Time and Brighter Than A Thousand Suns. So be it. This is the madman/guru/preacher/charlatan at his manic best, going so far as to write a song about how a deranged fan of Killing Joke nearly decides to set the world on fire before stumbling upon the band in a small basement (in hell, presumably) and then decides that all is well, dropping his band's name in the first verse! BALLS!!!!!! Not every band can pull off being their own biggest fans the way KJ has for so long, and it's part of the draw, the ruse, the passing of the collection plate. This band can have my last cent and my last cigar for all I care, so long as they never stop making music like this! With Big Paul and Youth back in the studio with Jaz and Geordie, anything's possible.

15. Helmet "Strap It On" - at this point, my feeling is that if you don't know why this record is on this list (or that it exists), there's nothing I can say or do to convince you why it belongs here. If you have it, listen to it again, and if you don't have it, dig deep and locate it in a store, online, whatever it takes - submit your eardrums to the thirty minutes of paint-peeling madness, offset somehow by John Stanier's infinitely impressive/totally appropriate drumming and what sounds like twenty guitars trying to play twenty different solos at the same time, while buried under what very well could be the English language, barked at full volume without care for your questions about what the lyrics mean. Mean is a good word for this album. To quote Page, it's really more Rude than anything else. Everyone loves Meantime, and it's great in it's own right, without a doubt. But it's a formula, played out to it's logical conclusion. This album, on the other hand.............is a gift to the human race.

16. Faith No More "Angel Dust" - I really want to put The Real Thing on this list, so much! While it served as the catalyst for my love affair with Faith No More's career, that album hasn't called out to me the way Angel Dust continually does. Honestly, Mark Prindle's attitude towards Angel Dust is one that I share almost completely (check this out: http://www.markprindle.com/faithnomore.htm#angel). The grotesque allure of this album is that you can't get close to it. It's a purely selfish affair, under the guise that you're receiving a follow-up to a hit record that should feel at least a little familiar. In truth, it's more like the material from the self-titled release on Mordam from 1985 in some spots. In others, it's Mike Patton taking the reins for his own design. The truly magnificent moments are when the band (give or take Jim Martin) combine all they had to give collectively at the time and you wind up with "Everything's Ruined", "Jizzlobber", "Kindergarten" and "Smaller And Smaller" - this is top shelf Faith No More, never to be repeated. Having noted those songs, I'm still in love with "Caffeine" and "Malpractice", as it birthed the Mike Patton that seems to show up on most of his post-FNM albums. Also, as much as I adored Billy Gould's bass sound on The Real Thing (a Peavey cabinet on it's last leg, using the natural decay of the parts to his sonic advantage - genius!), he created another tone on Angel Dust that works just as well. Forced him to expand as a player too.

17. Faith No More "King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime" - there are those who feel that the band could have stopped at Angel Dust and they'd have been happy. But to deny the desperation and razor-sharp attitude of KFAD........that would be a mistake. Written without a guitarist, to a point, it slams in all the right spots, proving that you can write for a rock band from a bass guitar, at least when you're Billy Gould. Patton took more chances as a singer (ok, as a yeller) and Bordin branched out as a drummer for this one. Not a lot of keyboards, so Roddy's involvement could be minimal, or he could be doubling on guitar. Anyway, for a band that shouldn't have been able to make an album at this stage of their career, what an even more amazing accomplishment that songs like "King For A Day", "Ricochet", "Just A Man", "Cuckoo For Caca" and "The Gentle Art Of Making Enemies" even exist, let alone on the same song cycle. They were certainly forced out of their own liberally-designed comfort zones and it paid off on all fronts. This is probably the Faith No More album that gets my attention the most when digging through the old cassettes (I'm old school, so what?!). With maybe one exception, everything here holds up as well in 2009 as it did in 1995. At some point this same year, another fantastic piece of architecture was being constructed......

18. Mr. Bungle "Disco Volante" - it must be heard to be believed. Warner Brothers still can't believe they released this album, and even put some money behind it, as if it stood a chance of being accepted by the mainstream. HA! Each song feels like another body murdered, the remains toyed with out of obsession or compulsion, paintings made from blood and shit, hilarious saxophones, sound collage, klezmer moshpits, good/bad ideas, and some of the more unique melodies I've ever heard. Play it at a party, I fucking dare you! Anyone who sticks around through the end of "Nothing" is either your best friend and/or was someone sent to do a thing for a guy which could involve your chopped remnants in his trunk. One of the finest albums ever made.

19. Prince and the Revolution "Purple Rain" - on a slightly less tortured note, Prince put together nine of his best songs and even recorded some of them with other humans for a change. The effect is monstrously grand - the album demands that you listen, that you absorb, that you dance, that you LIVE already! That it was a soundtrack to an unapologetically masturbatory movie isn't the point. Ok, I love the movie too, but the music stands on it's own is my point. Prince has released quite a few records that speak to me, at least in pieces. There was a time when I listened to all three discs of Emancipation on a weekly basis. Exhausting! The Batman soundtrack got quite a few spins back in the day. But Purple Rain has the songs, and the humble beginnings of Prince as a guitar master are not to be underestimated. I won't pretend that the man can never reach music like this again, if he chose to, but maybe perfect is enough the first time.

20. Beach Boys "Pet Sounds" - are you surprised to find this here? Anyone that's heard it knows if they love it or hate it almost instantly. I loved it instantly and I still do. I'd love to give Smile the nod it deserves here, but as I have no idea what version of Smile that I've listened to is THE official version that should have been, Pet Sounds is the closest anyone could get to the imagination of Brian Wilson if they wanted to. His ideas always astound me, and the sweet pillowy layers of white-boy overdub choir never feel ill-placed. It's also the finest work Carol Kaye ever did as a bassist! To have been the guy who recorded the field noises for this album would have been worth the effort, just to be involved with one of the greatest pieces of music ever recorded.

21. Charles Mingus "The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady" - renders me speechless, every time. Where does one man find the wavelength this music comes from? I'm struggling just to touch on the surface of why this symphony speaks to me so clearly. Just go out and get it and get back to me. If when you hear this gorgeous music you make the mistake an ex-girlfriend of mine made and refer out loud to the low brass as 'oom-pah-pah', don't bother getting back to me. You've missed the point completely.

22. The Wedding Present "Seamonsters" - David Gedge is a miracle amongst men. Steve Albini did his best work as the engineer for this direct hit to the gut. Not punk, not pop, not grunge, not noise. Just ten really amazing songs, played with urgency and sung from the heart. I'm especially fond of the all the violent bits that pop up at random. Sorry, it's getting late and I'm two hours into this post, but really, this album doesn't need flowery language to convey it's strengths. Another one you should just get for yourself and experience on your own terms.

23. Guided By Voices "Under The Bushes, Under The Stars" - is it their best album ever? I'm asking. There's so much in my music collection that is either an official GBV release or somehow very directly affiliated with Robert Pollard, it has all become as one long anthem to my memory banks. What a frustrating messy wonderful band they were too. At present, UTBUTS serves up the best of the second-phase GBV aesthetic (staticy, warm and fuzzy sweaters of bizarro pop loveliness with the occasional baroque rewrite) and it's the sort of record that could have fifty songs on it and it still wouldn't be enough for the diehard like myself. The secret weapon here is Tobin Sprout and his whopping four songs - I'm not kidding - the offset from Pollard's vibe is most effective.

24. Pixies "Trompe Le Monde" - thank God they didn't actually make another album when they reunited. This is the perfect swan song! Incredible writing, and such a mass of guitar power...........I'll just stop before I get teary-eyed. "The Sad Punk", "Motorway To Roswell", "Bird Dream Of The Olympus Mons", "Alec Eiffel". I'm just a fool for songs like these. They shake their child-bearing hips and it's all over but the crying! Frank hit on this level again with his Teenager Of The Year album and if I could do a top 50 list without losing the feeling in my hands, I'd be talking about that next, but......

25. faith hope love by king's x - changed my life from the inside out. I listen to self-titled, Dogman and Gretchen more often, but there is no denying the power I felt in 1991 when I first heard faith hope love and the journey it's taken me on in the years since. If I could fuck Dug Pinnick's voice, I'd do it. It is the most gorgeous sound uttered by a man, ever. Period.


Ok, so awkward confessions and wtf's aside, that's my 25. I really need a full day and a ceiling of about 60-75 albums to talk about EVERY album I laud on this level, but these are the first 25 that came to mind. No Beatles, no Jesus Lizard, no Who, no Kinks, no Tricky, no Steely Dan, no Tori Amos, no Juliana Hatfield, no Tin Machine, no Wu Tang Clan, no Elvis Costello?!? Yeah, I'm bummed too. Oh well.

The gift of music.

Ask me how I know that it is indeed a gift? Because I've had it taken away at different stages of my life and I've been an insufferable mess without it's presence in my world.

I've learned that it cannot be taken for granted.

Every time I hear Charles Mingus, Esperanza Spalding, Allan Holdsworth, Frank Zappa, King Crimson, Doug Gillard, Juliana Hatfield................I know they never take the gift for granted, and it reminds me to be grateful for the opportunity to hear what I hear, write what I write and play what I play, no matter who is or isn't around to listen.