Day 10 - Paul's Boutique by The Beastie Boys

Day 10 of 10 – My all time favorite albums that are STILL in rotation, in no particular order. This was tough. Limiting my list to ten meant some great records would be left out, some feathers would be ruffled, and some feelings hurt. I grappled with a number of options for this slot, including the 1994 gem “Parklife” by Blur, Public Enemy’s “It Takes a Nation of Millions…”, “Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches” by the Happy Mondays, “Mali Music” by Damon Albarn, "Marquee Moon" by Television, the debut from Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner’s Electronic as well as albums by Wire, Super Furry Animals, Guided by Voices, Pavement and the New Pornographers, all of which have played major roles in my listening life. But ultimately, they all finished on the outside looking in. That’s because when I really thought about albums I love, albums that have stayed with me over the years, albums I still listen to, albums I still know all the words to, albums that inhabit strange corners of my brain, the choice was clear: It’s 1989’s Paul’s Boutique by Beastie Boys.

Much like yesterday’s choice, this is a repeat pick – John Cari included it earlier on his list. But in keeping with the spirit of this exercise, I figured that cannot and should not be grounds for excluding it from mine. But like a lot of people, I ignored Paul’s Boutique when it first came out, foolishly relegating the Beasties to one hit wonder status after the unprecedented commercial success of License to Ill. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Five years later, I picked up a used cassette of Paul’s Boutique at a record store (that’s no longer there) in Auburn, Alabama. (Why Auburn? I was driving around the South looking for my first job in television news.) And all it took was the opening drum roll of “Shake Your Rump” to hook me: Paul’s Boutique never left my cassette deck of my ’87 Honda Accord for the rest of my trip.

There are so many things that make Paul’s Boutique great. The wordplay and name-checking show Ad-Rock, Mike D and MCA at their fun-loving best. (Where else can you find references to Sadaharu Oh, Chuck Woolery and Vincent Van Gogh? And that’s just on “Hey Ladies”). The stew of pop culture references presaged our post-modern culture – for better or worse. But what makes this record really stand out is that it can never be done again: The Beasties and their producers the Dust Brothers sampled more than a hundred songs, sounds and snippets to create this sonic masterpiece. Two years later, a landmark copyright case would change sampling rules forever. The rich sound collage that provides the backbone of Paul’s Boutique would become unattainable to future hip hop artists. 

Day 9 - Ocean Rain by Echo and the Bunnymen

Day 9 of 10 in no particular order: My 10 all-time favorite albums that are STILL in my regular rotation. As I've gone through this process I realized my choices -- while in no particular order -- are in tiers. And there are about four records that I could rightfully include in the 9 or 10 slots, which means -- much to John Cari's chagrin -- I will be forced to exclude some great albums. I toyed with the idea of getting crazy with this pick, but I have approached this exercise honestly, and with that in mind, my choice today is Ocean Rain by Echo and the Bunnymen. Darius Gambino offered a nice write-up on the album in one of his earlier posts -- it certainly was a record that he and I bonded over back in the day. But it's stayed with me from the 80s and it still gets more play on my turntable than any other Bunnymen record. Maybe that's because it's just so warm and lush -- maybe it's because the songs are like old friends. Maybe it's because every time I've seen Echo and the Bunnymen in concert, the songs I looked forward to hearing are ones from this album: "Seven Seas", "The Killing Moon", "Silver", "Crystal Days" and, of course, perennial set closer "Ocean Rain". I was even lucky enough -- along with Kate Premo -- to see Echo and the Bunnymen play Ocean Rain in its entirety at Radio City Music Hall in 2008, complete with a 16-piece orchestra. We got our credit card scammed by our cab driver on the way home to Brooklyn, but that was a small price to pay for an album as good as Ocean Rain.

Day 8 - London Calling by The Clash

Day 8 of 10, and nearing the finish line of my 10 all-time favorite albums that are STILL in rotation, even if only now and again. John Cari and Darius Gambino have offered a couple of surprises along the way, but my offering today will come as no surprise. It's "London Calling" by The Clash. Predictable? Yes. Worthy? Absolutely. It's been a favorite of mine since my brother brought it home in the early 80s. Hearing the Clash for the first time was like lightning had struck the Harson household, which until then was dominated by 1970s progressive rock. London Calling veers from punk to reggae, ska and dub -- offering a suburban kid like me an early entree into those genres.

London Calling is a sprawling double-album, something of an oddity for the get-to-the-point ethos of punk rock. But right off the bat, the point is made -- sharply and loudly -- with a martial beat and searing guitars building into a full frontal assault against war, police brutality, nuclear power, even climate change on the title track before it peters out with a Morse code signal spelling "S.O.S." The album's second track, a cover of 1959's "Brand New Cadillac", introduces rockabilly and by the end of side one -- the classic "Rudie Can't Fail", we're full on into ska.

Side Two may be the most accessible -- kicking off with "Spanish Bombs", a pop-rocker about the lingering effects of the Spanish Civil War. The swinging "The Right Profile" is about the troubled life of Montgomery Clift, while the poppy "Lost in the Supermarket" is the first Mick Jones contribution to the album. The side finishes strong -- and darkly -- with "Clampdown", another song that sounds right at home in the almost authoritarian era of 2018. The side closes with the reggae-tinged "The Guns of Brixton", penned and sung by bassist Paul Simonon.

All that and we're only halfway through.

The headliner on Side Three is "Death or Glory", about rock stars who swore they would die before growing old. Ironically, Joe Strummer ended up with that lot -- dying suddenly in 2002 at the age of 50. And the final side features "I'm Not Down" and "Train in Vain", two more radio-friendly offerings from Mick Jones.

London Calling clearly needs no introduction: It is a bona fide classic that has topped many a reviewer's best of list. It has played a major role in my life -- from childhood to college and into adulthood. And -- perhaps most importantly and most sadly -- the themes it dealt with in 1979 are just as relevant today.

Day 7 - Let England Shake by PJ Harvey

Day 7 of 10: My all time favorite albums that are STILL in rotation. And now things are getting interesting. I promised John Cari and Darius Gambino a surprise, and today I'm going with a choice that might not be familiar to a lot of people. It's 2011's stunning album "Let England Shake" by PJ Harvey. I can honestly say it's easily my favorite record of the last decade (if not longer) and it rightfully belongs on this list as I continue to listen to it and absorb its mastery regularly. 

"Let England Shake", Harvey's eighth studio album, is a dramatic yet mature effort, steeped in influences ranging from folk, rock, world and dance music and chock full of arresting moments that have the potential to shock the listener into silence. Harvey handles serious themes like war and the effect it has on society, and the result is jaw-droppingly good.

Harvey's eerie vocals on the title track set the tone for the album, and - with the opening words of "The Last Living Rose", the album's magnificent second track - you know you're witnessing something extraordinary. When I first heard this track I played it something like 30 times in a row and kept discovering more. And yet it's just an appetizer: The track's tortured vocals hint that something is seriously amiss in Harvey's England, and as the album soldiers on, more and more clues are revealed.

Mike Williams of NME wrote: "Francis Ford Coppola can lay claim to the war movie. Ernest Hemingway the war novel. Polly Jean Harvey, a 41-year-old from Dorset, has claimed the war album." And that's evident by track three, "The Glorious Land", whose call to arms is punctuated by a bugle's call.

There are so many highlights here: The sad beauty of "England", with its other-worldly horns and chant; the haunting "In the Dark Places" straightforward rock of "Bitter Branches"; the ambitious "Written on the Forehead" convincingly mixes Middle-eastern themes with gospel. The album culminates with "The Color of the Earth", on which Harvey and her bandmates join together for a traditional-sounding folk song about a soldier's tragic end during the Gallipoli campaign of World War I, a stark reminder -- nearly a century later -- of the reality of war.

As I revisit the tracks on this album for this post, I just keep muttering to no one in particular "Damn this is incredible." Harvey has managed to paint a rich picture of her home country -- a nation born, consumed and ravaged by battle -- at a critical moment in history; it's a powerful statement ten years after the start of the war in Afghanistan. But despite the horrors contained within, this is a deeply rewarding record and I encourage everyone to give it a listen. 

PS - "Let England Shake" is a visual album -- so much so that the filmmaker Seamus Murphy supplied a short film for all 12 tracks and they're worth watching too!

Day 6 - Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division

Day 6 of 10: My all time favorite albums that are STILL in rotation. It's "Unknown Pleasures" by Joy Division. There's a reason you still see people wearing t-shirts with the cover art of this album everywhere you go: It's because musically and culturally, this album represented a major shift. Joy Division - previously Warsaw - started out as just another punk band when they formed in 1976. But from the first thwack of Stephen Morris's drums to that high, compact bass riff from Peter Hook, the opening track "Disorder" represented something alien for the times. Add in Bernard Sumner's crisp guitar line and then -- boom -- Ian Curtis arrives with a line that spoke to a generation of lost souls: "I've been waiting for a guide to come and take me by the hand." A musical revolution was born, thanks in no small part to the production of the mercurial genius Martin Hannett. (For reference, see this scene in 24 Hour Party People https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90j6V8EjSuI or the story of how Hannett forces Morris to record one drum strike at a time in order to make his beat.)

Unknown Pleasures travels through this alien soundscape and includes more dystopian classics like "Shadowplay" and "She's Lost Control". The sad triumphalism of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" would come later in the band’s tragically short lifetime, as would its metamorphosis to experimentation in electronica as New Order after Curtis's suicide. But Unknown Pleasures signaled a singer -- and a band -- with something different to say -- something echoed through the decades that followed in other post-punk and goth bands.

Unknown Pleasures shows that music could be paradoxically bleak and beautiful, all while lacking none of the ferocity and power of hard rock. You'd be forgiven if you were inclined to meekly play this in a dark basement somewhere, but Unknown Pleasures sounds best and deserves to be played loud.

Day 5 - The Queen is Dead by The Smiths

Day 5 of 10: My all time favorite albums that are STILL in rotation. And that's the key, really. And that's why this one is a no brainer. It's 1986's "The Queen is Dead" by The Smiths... perfect then... and perfect today. John Cari and Darius Gambino I look forward to your next choices. Was there some sort of wedding in London this morning or something?

(Originally posted on May 19)

Updated July 25

The Queen is Dead deserves far more than a quick Facebook post on the day of the Royal Wedding. After all, The Smiths are perhaps the singular band of the 1980s, their influence felt -- and heard -- in the three decades (!) that followed. Johnny Marr is still making compelling music; unfortunately the same can't always be said about Morrissey. In any event, 1986's The Queen is Dead marked the band's high-water mark.

Side 1 kicks off with the title track, which begins with a head fake -- the World War I era music hall singalong  "Take Me to Dear Old Blighty". It lasts all of seventeen seconds, just long enough to hold your interest before being blown away by Mike Joyce's driving drumbeat of the "The Queen is Dead", the most rocking song in the Smiths' catalog. For six minutes, those drums Marr's guitars are over the top with while Morrissey takes aim on the Royal Family and all the things he finds tiring about Britain.

"Frankly Mr Shankly", the album's second real track is vintage Smiths: A bouncy Marr bouncy guitar riff providing a counterpoint to Morrissey's snarky lyrics. The song is an assault on poseurs everywhere, and - as expected - Morrissey pulls no punches: "Frankly Mr Shankly since you ask/You are a flatulent pain in the ass" and "I didn't realize you wrote poetry/I didn't realize you wrote such bloody awful poetry". The song also amplfies Morrissey's worldview, especially in lines like "I'd rather be famous than righteous or holy any day, any day, any day".

"I Know It's Over" starts dark and quiet -- with Morrissey crooning "Oh mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head" and lamenting about sleeping alone, not even finishing the thought: "And as I climb into an empty bed/Oh well, enough said." As the song progresses, the music swells but the lyrics don't get any brighter. In my mind, "I Know It's Over" is kind of a companion piece to the next track "Had No One Ever", something of a dirge about the despair of being alone. Luckily, the guitar work from Marr keeps this one from getting too bogged down.

Things cheer up immensely on the misspelled "Cemetry Gates", the final song on the side. To Morrissey, it may be a "dreaded sunny day", but he manages to skewer plagiarists while among the gravestones of his favorite poets: "Keats and Yeats are your side/While Wilde is on mind".

Side 2 starts with one of the band's funniest songs, "Bigmouth Strikes Again". Morrissey defends his acerbic wit with fabulous lines like  "Sweetness I was only joking when I said/You shouldn't be bludgeoned in your bed".

"The Boy With the Thorn in His Side" was initially a single released nearly a year before the album and it was included here because it's just that good, while the rockabilly inspired "Vicar in a Tutu" feels like a throw-in amid the strength of the album's other tracks,

But it all comes full circle on what may be the Smiths' finest song. "There is a Light That Never Goes Out" is an homage to a songwriting duo that - against all odds - became one of the greatest of all time. Morrissey sounds his most human and vulnerable singing sublime lines like "And if a double decker bus crashes into us/To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die" while Marr's arrangement of overdubbed guitars and strings is a thing of absolute beauty,

The album could have ended there, but there's room for one more. "Some Girls are Bigger than Others" again showcases the intricate riffs that made Marr the greatest guitarist of his generation... and the volume drop in the song's first measures is deliberate.

The Smiths would spectacularly disband just a year and a half later, and while Morrissey went on to a successful solo career and Marr played with everyone from The Pretenders to Modest Mouse to The Cribs before launching a solo career of his own, there is very little hope that these two larger-than-life figures will ever decide to share a stage or recording studio again. But the five years they spent together yielded a catalog of songs that most artists wouldn't be able to match if given decades.

Day 4 - Demon Days by Gorillaz

Day 4 of 10: My all time favorite albums that are STILL in listening rotation. Today is Friday, so part of me wants to go easy and pick one of my less controversial records. And John Cari and Darius Gambino each have named a record that may well wind up on my list too. But in lieu of naming one of those aforementioned LPs, I'm once again going my own way.

Today's pick is 2005's "Demon Days" by Gorillaz, an album that's dark and weird in all the best ways. It's one of the first records to effectively capture the post-apocalyptic struggle of living after the horror of 9/11, and it topped the virtual band's 2001 debut. This time out, Damon Albarn teamed with Danger Mouse to reach his creative peak. (There may still be room on this list for Blur -- stay tuned.)

Albarn, along with graphic artist Jamie Hewlett, devised the cartoon band in the late 1990s, but by 2005 the novelty needed something more substantial. Albarn found it in the unease many felt in the early 21st century. And right from the jump, "Demon Days" brings a sense of foreboding -- eerie sounds and sirens tell the listener that something horrible has happened. On track two -- Albarn asks the question "Are we the last living souls?" -- a theme repeated throughout the album -- over a series of electro beats and blips. But it's not all grim -- and, like a microcosm of the record itself -- the darkness gives way to a lovely chorus -- trademark Albarn with melancholy vocals accompanied simply by acoustic guitar and piano.

The album sticks to the theme, but this is far from a dirge: "Kids with Guns" borrows a Salt n Pepa riff to illuminate an issue society can't seem to shake. The album veers from dark to light, getting bright and upbeat at times as Albarn taps into a vast arsenal of influences and musical styles -- including gospel, Hip hop and world music.

For me, the high point comes on two stellar tracks: De La Soul join the party on the infectious single "Feel Good Inc", which to this day I sing along with birds -- much like this guy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXHCZdZkEQE (and I thought I was the only one!) 

The other highlight is the dancey track "DARE", on which Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder takes lead vocals, playing up his image as a Mancunian thug. There's also a spoken word track featuring Dennis Hopper before the album's climactic and hopeful end. Overall, it's about the most fun you could have thinking about humanity's end and the destruction mankind has wrought on the world. Enjoy!

Day 3 - The Stone Roses

Day 3 of 10 of my all time favorite albums that are still in regular rotation -- in no particular order. I've enjoyed reading the lists from  fellow Discordants John Cari and Darius Gambino and I'm pleased to share my latest entry: It's 1989's debut album by Manchester's Stone Roses. 

The band had kicked around the Manchester scene for a few years before their debut, almost losing their drummer Reni to The Who (Pete Townshend recruited him, calling him the most naturally gifted drummer since Keith Moon). Lucky for us, The Who's loss is music's gain: Reni's dance-influenced beats combined with Mani's bass grooves laid the foundation for John Squire's psychedelic guitars and Ian Brown's larger-than-life vocals. And the result was a transcendent album that took cues from the past but blazed the way for the future -- defining Madchester and ushering in rave culture and Britpop.

Every track on this album is a gem, starting with the slow burn of "I Wanna Be Adored" (one of the greatest intros ever), the triumphant "She Bangs the Drums", the lovely "Waterfall", through my personal favorite "Made of Stone" and ending with the messianic "I am the Resurrection".

Ultimately, the Stone Roses are a cautionary tale -- a band that would never again match the dizzying heights of their debut. 

I first got into this record in 1991, when it formed the soundtrack to a summer I spent in Los Angeles. In 2016 I was lucky enough to see the Stone Roses at Madison Square Garden -- and it ranks as one of the best live shows I've ever seen: 20,000 people dancing, singing, practically worshipping before four lads from Manchester.

And by the way, Pete Townshend is right -- Reni is an incredible drummer. Look him up on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br7W6qwmYeU

Day 2 - Autobahn by Kraftwerk

Day 2. The critics of my first pick can rest assured -- today's entry is a bonafide classic. The band that single-handedly created synth and techno -- all while Rolling Stones fans were getting fed "It's Only Rock and Roll (but I like it)". My choice for Day 2 of my all time favorite albums that are still in my rotation is 1974's groundbreaking album "Autobahn" by Kraftwerk. And I'll give you BOTH album covers. I'm keeping it real... auf Deutsch.

Greatest Albums of All Time - Still in Rotation

A few months back, Facebook was awash with everyone's ten greatest albums of all time. The catch was the records had to STILL be in regular rotation, even if only once in a while. I had such a good time doing this exercise that I am posting my list here, on The Discordants. 

Day 1 of 10 in no particular order: 10 of my all-time favorite albums (do the kids still say "albums"?) that are still in my regular rotation, even if only now and again. John Cari thanks for nominating me. I have a lot more than ten that I can think of, but I'll give it a go. (And I think I'll spare others the nominating process, but encourage anyone who wants to weigh in with their selections.)

I'm starting off with the album that I've listened to night after night on my basement turntable lately, 1986's "Big Shot Chronicles" by Game Theory. Schizophrenic power pop, at times aggressive, at times awkward. Clever chord structures, intelligent lyrics and great production from Mitch Easter. An underrated gem.