Post by captblicero on Dec 27, 2012 19:14:34 GMT -6
In 2012, celebrating their 15-year anniversary, Pitchfork let users pick their top albums from that time period and then aggregated the results. I participated, obviously, but after putting together this labor of love I thought I’d share it to all you beautiful people as a way to express my opinions on some music (which I’ve always wanted to do more often) and to introduce it to new fans. First of all, this is a list of my favorite albums, not what I’d consider the best objectively. I’ve also had a few blind spots for some of these years and some bands that I should have listened to because I was, for example, too busy digging through the late 70’s music scene. I tried to minimize the number of multiple albums from the same band to maximize the variety of the acts, and there were a few albums from my favorite artists that really should have been included but I thought it was more interesting to have different acts.
When the decade started, critics were discussing how music had lost its inventiveness and everything had been tried before – every permutation of sounds and instruments, especially in the rock genre. It was a common refrain that no new classics would be added to the canon, and in fact for most of the 90's the well had been dry. I didn't prescribe to this theory, and I wanted to prove that my generation, my peers were capable of delivering amazing, daring, creative music, even though decades of rock and pop had been mined, not to mention classical, Jazz, experimental, etc. I wanted to dig through the archives. I wanted to find these hidden classics of the modern era.
This is rediscovery for me, as I hadn't listened to some of these in years, and it's a way to organize and reassess my favorites. Writing about music (or dancing about architecture) is also a good exercise in writing, because the moments we remember from music are ineffable, so hard to describe that we strain with the limits of language. I try to recapture my favorite moments in songs, and hopefully by doing so I can convince people to listen to what I have come to love. The first ten or fifteen albums aren't exactly my favorites but they’re notable in some way. The real fun actually begins at album 60 or so; those are the ones I adore.
I included sample songs via youtube (and sometimes another source) with a link. I strongly recommend listening to those, if anything else. If you have trouble finding some of this music, let me know and I can try to help. Also let me know when a link dies and I'll update the post.
100:Pan Sonic – Kesto (234:48:4)
I’ll start off the list with a two and a half hour Finnish experimental electronic album scattered across four discs where each one is a summation of their style and influences. Even though the music is steeped in industrial and electronic music, there’s a strange concordance with physics and the Earthly world. There are tracks translated roughly as “Centralforce”, “Gravity”, “Groundfrost-Being”, and “Sewageworld”. The first disc starts with a brief, chaotic burst of sound (the big bang?) and follows with a clattering of harsh sounds (see Mayhem I below). With each subsequent disc the songs lengthen and the styles change; the last one is a single track more musique concrete in nature. It’s a band that seems to be attempting to summarize themselves as well as the creation of the universe in one truly sprawling album – and welcome to my list.
Rähinä I (Mayhem I)
Arktinen (Arctic)
Mutaaattori (Mutator)
99: Fucked Up – David Comes to Life
Another genre I’m not too keen on, hardcore, I have to nonetheless tip my cap to these gentlemen – it's a 18 song concept album. I’m immediately reminded of Husker Du’s Zen Arcade, a 23-song punk album that also became a touchstone for 80's and 90's alternative by making punk more melodic and, somehow, accessible. Now even Canada is jumping into the hardcore zoo, and even though it’s a genre that’s been trod upon well enough there’s still room to add to the canon if you do it well and with all the energy you have.
To make things worse, it all goes so fast
And we try to hold on as they go past.
We need a Peter, we get a Paul;
At least Judas had some balls.
To make a move on these building doubts
About how this messiah thing would shake out,
I feel the nail against my skin,
Wait for the hammer to drive it in.
It can't be comfortable when the whole thing's about to fall - “The Other Shoe”
Queen of Hearts
A Little Death
And for fun here’s a Husker Du song:
Standing by the Sea
98: Black Tape for a Blue Girl – Remnants of a Deeper Purity
For better or worse, they’re stalwarts of goth music, and this album is the zenith of the darkwave music genre, which is such an arbitrary genre label I had to finally track this album down recently and listen to it. I’m sticking it at the end of the list because it’s intriguing but I’m not sure where to place it yet. It’s dark, neoclassical, meandering, bombastic, and has song titles like “For You Will Burn Your Wings upon the Sun”. It’s the sort of music you’d make for an empty stone church next to a graveyard. But music is music, and this is some interesting stuff and near the best in its class. This is certainly not something you’ll see on Pitchfork’s lists, but music is about discovery.
time seems to bring us together again
a decade later and another face
are you the girl I've been dreaming of?
you look like her smell like her
that raven-haired beauty of another time
a rush of memories washing over me
I've always been waiting for someone to set me free - "Remnants of a Deeper Purity"
Fin de Siecle
Remnants of a Deeper Purity (live: other versions aren't available)
I Have No More Answers
97: Dalek – Absence
Continuing my streak of genres I totally don’t dig but, hey, that’s what the end of the list is for anyway, here’s one of the very few hip-hop albums included. I like it for the music behind the rapping, which is why I don’t care for hip-hop in general because it’s more about the rap and rhymes than the music. Dalek are called an alternative hip-hop band partly because of who they’re associated with: they did a split with the semi-obscure Krautrock band Faust, for Pete’s sake (and their name is a reference to Doctor Who). But their lyrics are political and deal with the very real threats to urban life and black people from excessive incarceration to generations passing down their problems, inhibiting social mobility, and the rapping is set against a harsh background of industrial sounds.
This beast caged in the heart of the city
Circumvents common speech
Gutter tongue kept filthy
Histories passed in handshakes
Wisdom achieved
Victory's always fleeting for these pseudo MC's
Trapped by narrow minds
Eyes blinded
Political prisoners terrorized in confinement
Confirms what we learned of US police state
Asphyxiate the people they claim to liberate
Distorted Prose
Culture for Dollars
A Beast Caged
96: Paik – Satin Black
This is music that I had lost for years and I only have access to it right now through streams like youtube. It’s post-rock, a genre I dearly enjoy, with the sorts of majestic crescendos that are so common within the style. “Tinsel and Foil” in particular has a beautiful section starting at around the 1:30 mark. The genre post-rock is a nebulous term; they have pieces of shoegazing, drone, and space rock, depending on who you ask. It’s music that’s texture driven, instead of lyrics or melodies. Supposedly, the band is named after a term for a swift punch to the gut, which aptly describes the feeling when listening to one of the climaxes of their searching dirges, and I have memories that evoke the wide, austere horizons on Oregon farmlands. There's something really spiritually peaceful about their music.
Tinsel and Foil
Jayne Field
Dirt for Driver
95: Meshuggah – Nothing
There’s nothing like a Swedish experimental/progressive metal band dabbling with polyrhythms and Jazz fusion to cure your headache. As you can probably tell, metal isn’t my favorite genre, but Meshuggah earned a place on my list because of their complex music and aggressive rhythms. I honestly can’t stand most metal, but I’m fine with these Swedes because their music is interesting in how they chug along with weird time signatures built around the more simpler metal song, still writhing in fury. I’m not terribly sold on the album because too much of it sounds the same to me, but there are fun lyrics like these!
A twisting visual overload--Explosions of terror and beauty
Colors of fear and pain within clash into unanything
A spectra-organic frenzy setting fire to the neuro-highways of mind
Revolving me away from time. A soul now reentered unassigned.
"Closed Eye Visuals"
Straws Pulled at Random
Spasm
94: Lisa Germano – Slide
Now we swing to the other side of the extreme with a female songwriter who seemingly specializes in writing songs about physical abuse in relationships. She’s a violinist born to classical musicians in Indiana who’s worked as a session musician for years, but her real talents are crafting emotional, elegiac songs. This isn’t my favorite album from Germano though, and it’s not even close. Even with what I would consider an inferior version of her music it’s still good enough to be listed. The compositions are delicate and meticulously placed, the singing is soft and alluring, and there’s an atmosphere she crafts that’s present on every disc she has, but she’s done better elsewhere. This is a good place to hijack the mini-review and talk about an album that wasn’t released from 1996 to 2011: her album Geek the Girl is stunning, deeply personal, beautiful, and haunting. I would definitely recommend it to anyone searching for new singer-songwriter music, and I’ve included the title track from the album (the other two are from Slide) although I would also recommend “Cancer of Everything”, “…A Psychopath” (which uses a real 9-1-1 recording), and … well, every song on the album.
Perfect and dull decorate, perfect and dull
Keepin' the cool from coming out, yeah
Oh oh, I'm not too cool, oh oh, I'm not too cool
Angry and dumb dominate,
Angry and dumb -“Geek the Girl”
Geek the Girl
Way Below the Radio
Wood Floors
93: Menomena – I Am the Fun Blame Monster
The first relevant fact about this band is that they’re from Portland, Oregon, and that’s my city. It’s really the only reason why I listened to them in the first place, but there’s so much more. The actual process of their songwriting is intriguing because it’s something that could only happen in the 21st century and it’s, as the band describes, democratic. They use a music program a band member wrote where they set the tempo, include some drums, and then build the song by passing around the mic and adding layers and sections. It’s basically cut and paste music with a background in indie rock. The music wanders as the song develops, but it’s usually in an interesting path with different tones, melodies, new instruments, and diversions. It’s like taking a traditional song and instead of the mind-numbing repetitions usually inherent you use do something different every few seconds. That’s not trivial either; it’s an entirely innovative approach to music (and yes I realize this has been done for decades like with the Silver Apples). I think it’s better when songs progress, when they shift moods, when they take exciting turns, not when they repeat the chorus with the same instrumentation. Maybe that’s just me. Back in the early 2000’s I thought cut and paste music would be the future, but for the most part we’re still stuck in our ways.
This old frame once was beautiful
The proof is on the shelf
This old frame once was beautiful
Close your eyes if it helps
Your hands used to work miracles
Skin on skin
I blush
Your hands used to work miracles
For me alone - “E. Is Stable”
Cough Coughing
Strongest Man in the World
Sorry, wrong one…
Strongest Man in the World
Monkey’s Back
92: Ghost – Hypnotic Underworld
This is another one of those albums I’ve lost. It’s pretty easy to describe their music even though it’s a bit avant-garde: it’s a Japanese psychedelic, space-rock band with titles to songs like “God Took a Picture of His Illness on the Ground.” More specifically, they use Japanese folk music, ambiance, Jazz, and various instruments to craft the sorts of sounds you’d expect to hear in a Japanese underworld. A cover of Syd Barrett’s “Dominoes” is telling; that’s the kind of stratosphere they reside in. The aforementioned “God…” song is part of a four-part song cycle I have linked below. The first one is slower and more ambient, the second (Medina) is Jazzier but still modestly paced, the third is their approximation of rock and weird Japanese folk music, and the last, well, that’s a surprise. The other linked song, "Piper", opens with a flute, but it's also their closest approximation to a rock song with an excellent guitar solo and catchy singing despite my inability to tell whether or not he's even singing in English.
God Took a Picture of His Illness on the Ground
Escaped and Lost Down in Medina
Aramaic Barbarous Down
Leave the World
Piper
91: Dinosaur Jr. – Beyond
Dinosaur Jr. has one of my favorite albums of all-time (You’re Living All Over Me), but unfortunately for this list that was made in the 80’s. Truthfully, this album got buried at the time under different ones because I thought of it as too much of a reunion tour, but listening to it again I found its value. However, it’s not perfect: too many songs are similar and it’s too long for a Dinosaur Jr. album. Beyond was, however, their first one since the 90’s (and the last time with the original lineup was 1988), and its inclusion on the list is because of J. Mascis’ guitar theatrics, approximating Neil Young and the noise/punk of bands like Sonic Youth. It’s more than a simple reunion album where the band members are cashing in on their indie cred years later; songs like “Pick Me Up” (see below) are incendiary, where the soft and lazy melodies of 80’s alternative are drowned in blistering, heavy solos. I know I’m over-describing here, but there’s something about his guitar playing that locates bits of my cold, cold soul; I think it has something to do with his mumbling, passive singing countered by bursts of music with completely different energy.
Pick Me Up (live)
Back to Your Heart
And for fun here’s a song from one of my favorite albums ever You’re Living All Over Me
Sludgefeast
90: Yamantaka //Sonic Titan – YT//ST
A band I had only recently heard, let’s have them explain who they are: YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN are a psychedelic noh-wave opera group fusing noise, metal, pop and folk music into a multidisciplinary hyper-orientalist cesspool of 'east' meets 'west' culture clash in giant monochrome paper sets. So, how’s that sound? It’s actually not an atonal mess though; there are plenty of beautiful little movements, quiet sections, and airy, enigmatic vocals. Noh-wave is a reference to the Nôh theater and the no-wave movement in the late 70’s and early 80’s in New York City. Part of what made the band intriguing to me is the no-wave reference because it’s a completely insane genre with a tiny half-life where the songs are short but still more infused with energy and noise than an entire album from Led Zeppelin. (See James Chance – I Can’t Stand Myself and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks – Orphans.) Ignoring their vegan feminist politics and the recently released drag rock opera in theaters, this is an intriguing band from a musical perspective because there aren’t too many that sound like them and they fuse a number of styles. It’s loud, abrasive, weird, and changes genres with little warning – in other words, it’s the perfect music for me. It also makes perfect sense that Japanese culture and music is so prevalent, not just because of the shared Asian-Canadian heritage of core members, but because, well, that’s Japan for you.
(Note: no lyrics found online and some appear to be in Japanese … or something.)
Queens
Reverse Crystal
A Star Over Pureland
89: Modest Mouse – The Lonesome Crowded West
I’m assuming people already know this band, but I’ll go ahead and quickly explain their sound. Their genre is indie rock – but that doesn’t fucking mean anything, so it’s a traditional three-piece rock lineup with various musicians added when needed with Isaac Brock’s odd yelp-singing and their catchy, quirky, jerky songs with lyrics that sometimes move in circles and are usually pretty clever, concerned with topics from rural life in a modern world to God with pseudo-philosophical ruminations (a good comparison is the Pixies, but if you know the Pixies then you know Modest Mouse, so whatever.) I prefer Lonesome Crowded West to the Moon and Antarctica because it’s less overly melodramatic without losing much passion or the sprawling theme, in this case “Lonesome Crowded West,” whose paradoxical title is making a point about our insular and lonely modern world. Songs like “Trailer Trash” are beautiful in a depressing sort of way, while ones like “Doin’ the Cockroach” and “Convenient Parking” are full little romps. There’s also the awesome 11-minute travelin’ song “Trucker’s Atlas”, which reminds you that songs about the road have a great tradition in modern music (last century) for a reason. Now it’s years after they broke through with “Float On”, and I expect Modest Mouse to retain a piece in music history; these songs have held onto their value. Oh and of course I also have to mention that it’s a Pacific Northwest band. Suck it, rest of the world.
My brain's the weak heart, and my heart's the long stairs
Inland from Vancouver shore
The ravens and the seagulls push each other inward and outward
Inward and outward
In this place that I call home
My brain's the cliff, and my heart's the bitter buffalo
My heart's the bitter buffalo
We tore one down, and erected another there
The match of the century, absence versus thin air
On the way to god don't know
My brain's the burger and my heart's the coal
On this life that we call home
The years go fast and the days go so slow - Heart Cooks Brain
And I need to mention this fun simile:
Opinions were like kittens
I was giving them away
Trailer Trash
Heart Cooks Brain
Doin’ the Cockroach
88: Lebanon – Sunken City
Israeli post-rock from a band with a band sense of geography, Lebanon adds to the considerable depth for the genre in the 1996-2011 era with pristine, beautiful music and soft, ambient spoken word clips in the background. There’s also an extensive use of a guitar technique where it’s played up and down the scale with the same note or tiny variations. Most post-rock is about the textures and tone of the music, not the melody or the words, which are not common in the genre and besides the weird spoken word sections that occasionally appear aren’t present in Sunken City (i.e. no singing.) A song title is often a good indication of what the music is like, and in the case of “Ghost Head Nebula” you can tell the band is more forward thinking, progressive where the music itself is searching, and introspective. The heavenly expanses of the night and the incredible sights that have been found in the infinite expanse are a great visualization of this type of music. I realize that’s the typical kind of obtuse music review writing you’d find online, but it honestly is an album you’d listen to while gazing at the starry night.
Ghost Head Nebula
Bicycle
High School
87: Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Yanqui U.X.O.
Godspeed are one of the most famous post-rock bands, and you can tell a whole lot about the band from their name. It’s a Montreal collective known for music that is more compositional in form, especially their album F#A$&#∞, and utilizes many field recordings. The difference between Lebanon and Godspeed’s approach to spoken word is that in Godspeed it’s in the foreground, not the background. This album, however, is based more on long form instrumental music. (And I would actually say relying on a recorded speech you found for dramatic tension is arguably lazy.) It’s also as political as anything they’ve done where the cover has bombs falling from the sky and the liner notes show the connections between major labels and the military industrial complex (um, cool?) Additionally, U.X.O. is an abbreviation for unexploded ordinance. But the reason this particular album is on the list versus any other Godspeed one is the track “Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls,” a 20-minute behemoth that starts with an ominous guitar and slowly develops into a thunderous crescendo with each instrument added one at time from the violin to the drums where the buildup is most of the song. As the tension is built alongside the military-esque rhythm, small sections and movements are organically added in ebbs and flows before the song explodes. This is post-rock, so if a long song like this doesn’t appeal to you, then it’s not the right genre. And it’s the only song I need to link.
Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls
86: cLOUDDEAD – Ten
Simply put, this is hip-hop from a white group amid a psychedelic, hazy atmosphere with surreal lyrics. Does the white part matter? Well, not totally, but you know the chances are low that the subject matter is about being black in an urban center, and no, there’s nothing wrong with learning about that, but there’s also nothing wrong with a variety of style. Rather than just an exploration of all the different ways you can rap, it’s an exploration of sound from the unnerving ambiance of “Our Name” to “Rhymer’s Only Room”, which is a room with a 90% chance of being filled with smoke from some combination of drugs based on the hallucinatory music. That’s not to say the rapping is worthless; both rappers are adept at the game and Doseone in particular is notable for his high speed, nasal raps (the other rapper is Why? complete with the question mark.) Odd Nosdam provides most of the background music, and at their best the two worlds collide like at the end of “Physics of a Unicycle” where an aggressive verse wanders into the fog of the music. The lyrics are scattered with rhymes about the end of the world where the ever-present electronic psychedelia washes over the strange, foreboding words. And how can you not love a band with lyrics like, “In Da Vinci’s bike accident; an outer-space whodunit?”
a spider spitting web on a styrofoam snowman’s head.
car salesmen asleep in their cars on lunch-break under the highway onramp.
the x-ray of someone’s tumored skull left to scream doom from the gutter
with all the other preventative waste, no name no face.
all the oil drills on some sick sedated rhythmic robot.
rape mode like brain-washed flies at a carcass.
the highway shoulder dead dog’s fly devoured eyeballs,
as garnish to a four lane state road.
and all the southern Cali orange trucks headed to somewhere there’s winter.
one armed men changing tires in the shoulder
for pretty ladies and their well-dressed daughters;
engine oil boiling, undercarriage eaten by a billion ants of rust,
bacteria gang-banging in the window cracks. - “Rifle Eyes”
Rifle Eyes
Son of a Gun
Physics of a Unicycle
85: Soft Moon – Soft Moon
Soft Moon revive a sound from the late 70’s/early 80’s – post-punk, the variety closer to a band like Suicide with dark overtones and an almost gothic (but not in the sense of silly teens dressing to impress) atmosphere. It’s a one-man band though – Luis Vasquez with the help of a studio and elements like a drum machine. One distinctive attribute is the whispered vocals, which certainly doesn’t change the impression that the music is basically a soundtrack to a serial killer who murders through heavy synth. It’s claustrophobic music and industrial, meaning it’s more of an artificial construction mirroring an urban wasteland than something built from more organic components like an acoustic guitar. Before the album is too repetitive, “When It’s Over” offers a new angle on the music with a softer sound and an uncomfortable buzzing that overrides everything – closer to shoegazing than industrial – causing an uneasy pain to grow in the pit of your stomach from the loneliness and paranoia of the song. That in fact is reminiscent of the entirely of Luis’ music, hearkening back to the days of the early industrial scene in New York. There may not be a lot of new things you to try in music, but one thing a musician can do is execute an idea really well – and that’s Soft Moon.
Note: couldn’t find lyrics and I can’t understand them. Or maybe I’m afraid to know what he’s singing.
Breathe the Fire (The artist himself uploaded the video.)
When It’s Over
Sewer Sickness
84: Kayo Dot – Dowsing Anemone with a Copper Tongue
I think this will scare most people reading this, but this project from Toby Driver and friends is a fusion of metal, modern classical, and chamber music. There’s also a free jazz component, and the album was released on John Zorn’s label. Is that whetting your appetite yet? In all honesty, it’s not an inaccessible mess and the harsh sounds of metal or jazz are removed. It’s more like free-form poetry, connecting segments of music together with a variety of instruments from violin to clarinet to euphonium. Toby Driver acts as the band leader; he studied music at Amherst under the respected jazz composer Yusef Lateef, who was noted for his eastern influences and autophysiopsychic music, which is as kooky as it sounds – music that comes from your mental, physical, and spiritual self. The album has five gargantuan tracks that wander through an alternate world, not really sounding like 99.5% of anything out there. There are some moments, however, where the metal background is heard like parts of “__On Limpid Form”, but it’s contrasted by softer, contemplative moments as in the closing track “Amaranth the Peddler”. I like my alternate world metaphor because it does operate like a soundtrack of a frightening, strange alien world. But beyond the bursts of noise and neoclassical forms are passages of pure beauty, the ecstasy reached after the chaos.
I bring to thee an orchid I picked
Once as a human from my spiral garden
I held the holy tripod and all the nothing held it's breath
Gemini solemnly split themselves
The world closed its eyes
Supreme love in the opposite
The world hid in clouds
From a severed two came one
The world quaked in fear
Galaxies slow and ammonites
The foe e'en trembled in his darksome cave - Gemini Becoming the Tripod
Gemini Becoming the Tripod
Amaranth the Peddler
83: Queens of the Stone Age – Rated R
This is simply a fun album. If I were doing a list of the “best” albums in this time period rather than favorites, it wouldn’t make the cut. The band’s name was apparently manufactured to endorse big, dumb, riff-heavy rock with the “Stone Age” (also a nod to their stoner metal past) and the soft, sweeter sounds to lure in tasty babes who could be used in some sort of cherry pie video with “Queens”. Speaking of stoner music, Josh Homme and Oliveri came from the band Kyuss, who if they qualified would have landed an album nearer to my number one spot with Blues for a Red Sky, which captures the feel of the intense heat of the southern California desert with punishing guitar riffs and space-y music that approximates a shimmering mirage. The guitar was plugged into a bass amp, creating a unique, signature sound. Queens incorporated some of what Kyuss was, and you can see it in the masterpiece of “I Think I Lost My Headache”, which is like the Fantasia of stoner rock where it starts out as a hazy, confused fun little song and turns into a paranoid mess complete with horns and the audio equivalent of pink elephants. Most of the songs, however, are accessible and structured around a powerful guitar riff. But it’s not a faded mess of generic rock like a lot of popular bands – “In the Fade”, for example, with one of my favorite singer-songwriters Mark Lanegan, moves forward with a quirky, bouncy rhythm before the chorus washes over in stoner rock riffs (“Lost Art … “ follows the same formula.) Within the 11 songs there’s enough variety to keep anyone interested while simultaneously being original and enjoyable.
Literally the entire set of lyrics for the song:
Nicotine, valium, vicadin, marijuana, ecstasy, and alcohol
C-C-C-C-C-Cocaine
(Repeat many, many times) - “Feel Good Hit of the Summer”
Well I've got a secret, I cannot say
Blame all the movement to give it away
You've got somethin', I understand
Holding it tightly, caught on command
Leap of faith, do you doubt?
Cut you in, I just cut you out
Whatever you do
Don't tell anyone
Whatever you do
Don't tell anyone
Look for reflections, in your face
Canine devotion, time can't erase
Out on the corner, locked in your room
I never believe them and I never assume
Still can't believe there is a lie
Promises promise, an eye for an eye
We've got something to reveal
No one can know how we feel - “Lost Art of Keeping a Secret”
Lost Art of Keeping a Secret
In the Fade
I Think I Lost My Headache (It’s not as good live though.)
And here’s Kyuss, the superior incarnation:
Thumb
82: Spiritualized – Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space
Spiritualized are known as a space rock band, and while that’s not a particularly attractive designation for people who don’t get high every other day and stare deeply into space, man (the stereotypes that go along with the drug culture are intertwined with its accompanying music scene), Ladies and Gentlemen… is not mired in aimless noodling, annoying noises, or pointless experimentation; it’s an album celebrating beautiful melodies, love songs, and sweet sounds. The lead singer and songwriter had actually just broken up with his girlfriend who also doubled as the keyboard player; he had more on his mind than just the Andromeda galaxy and the sea of tranquility. The band was formed out of the ruins of Spacemen 3, a key modern psychedelic band, and their roots can still be detected in songs like “No God No Religion” or the 17-minute “Cop Shoot Cop”, a behemoth track whose excess is common in the psych world, but in this case it’s justified: it’s a groovy, cool-edged song that features the legendary Dr. John. The music, however, spans a variety of styles too from gospel influences where they use the London Community Gospel Choir and dream pop, whose name describes itself pretty well. They use a wall of sound effect but more like the Beach Boys would than, say, an abrasive industrial band, and Jason Pierce’s soft, comfy voice is often overwhelmed by a sudden rush of noise. And the themes of the album – love, religion, space – all tie together in that burst of ecstasy that one must feel in true love, in seeing God, in comprehending the vast reaches of space.
All I want in life's a little bit of love to take the pain away
Getting strong today, a giant step each day
I've been told only fools rush in, only fools rush in
But I don't believe, I don't believe- I could still fall in love with you
I will love you till I die, and I will love you all the time
So please put your sweet hand in mine, and float in space and drift in time
All my time until I die, we'll float in space just you and I
So please put your sweet hand in mine, and float in space and drift in time - “Ladies and Gentlemen…”
And how the album got its name:
Only philosophers embark on this perilous expedition to the outermost reaches of language and existence. Some of them fall off, but others cling on desperately and yell at the people nestling deep in the snug softness, stuffing themselves with delicious food and drink. 'Ladies and Gentlemen,' they yell, 'we are floating in space!' But none of the people down there care. - Jostein Gaarder – Sophie’s World
Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space
Stay With Me (live)
Cop Shoot Cop
81: Jesu – EP: Silver
Think of this album as the silver to Spiritualized’s gold. Jesu is a project from Justin Broadrick, an English musician who started with the extreme sounds of death metal and grindcore in Napalm Death, as well as the industrial band Godflesh. Attempting to conquer another extreme, he attacked shoegazing (sometimes the music is called “sludge” metal or experimental, but those labels aren’t descriptive or useful), which are a slower brand of (typically) guitar-based rock drenched in noise and reverb, aiming for beauty rather than aggression through all the layers of distortion. It’s a four song EP, but together it’s nearly 30 minutes and almost instantly became one of my favorite EPs ever, which is an admittedly short list. The tracks are searching, yearning, and carefully laid out. While a song like “Wolves” can be unnerving and a little depressing, “Silver” is absolutely beautiful with soft, plaintive singing over these titanic yet lovely riffs. There’s also something very soothing hearing him repeat, “Silver’s just another gold”, again and again.
Who are they
Are they a threat to our beliefs
So we descend upon them
Just like vengeful wolves
Bitter daylight
Hangs above us with the rain
What is this that tells you
I am right or wrong
I'm not saying... - “Wolves”
Silver
Wolves
80: Mono – You Are Here
I was exploring post-rock for a while a few years back, explaining why the genre has been so prevalent in this list, but there was a resurgence of the style in the 2000’s. This is the prototypical post rock with spacious music and patient musical segments, building slowly with a full variety of instruments and two guitar players who weave in and out together. The album opens with a track where a quiet sound emerges from the ether at a plodding pace. The tracks are more “epic” in nature, as titles like “Flames Beyond the Cold Mountain” and “Yearning” indicate, where the mood is more contemplative and searching (those words aren’t used in allmusicguide’s “album moods” but I think they’re more fitting than druggy since it’s not psychedelic or menacing, which makes it sound aggressive when it’s more passive.) Nonetheless, there are moments of intensity, but think of it more like a modestly-paced HBO drama or the reality of war: nothing is happening most of the time, but every so often there’s a loud, explosive section like a the end of “Flames…” or during “Yearning”. Even with the big crescendo moments, the totality of the music is still fairly subdued. The Japanese band are not lacking with beautiful music either; it’s not the emotionless, cerebral type of post-rock. The short, “Remains of the Day,” is a fuzzy, warm song, but the ultimate one is the closing track – “Moonlight”, which conjures the band Sigur Ros and redeems the glacial yearning of the album, acts as the paradise at the end of the adventure with lush bursts of sound.
The Flames Beyond the Cold Mountain
Moonlight
79: DJ Spooky – Songs of a Dead Dreamer
This is another case of an artist’s name describing the music well. I don’t care for hip-hop, but I do love some instrumental hip-hop, and in this case it’s more specifically called turntablism, where it focuses on soundscapes and dissects rhythms rather than on lyrics and rhymes. The term illbient was also manufactured – a portmanteau of ill and ambient – to describe hip-hop’s equivalent of ambient, although it works as background music it’s also dynamic enough for your full attention. This is what I thought the 21st century would lead to: music created by studios and manipulations, not a quartet strumming out the same types of songs that have been covered repeatedly the past century, where the complete liberation of sound from source would usher in a creative golden age. That’s not exactly what happened, but I’ll appreciate DJ Spooky and his kind for what they produced. With the word “dead” in the title and spooky in the artist’s name, there is definitely some more ghostly qualities to his music, but it’s more atmospheric and the obsession appears to be with space, not spookiness (one song is called “Galactic Funk” and another “The Terran Invasion of Alpha Centauri Year 2794”.) The futurism is present in the tracks, yet it’s far from gimmicky. The space theme isn’t random either; the songs sound like they were distorted and intercepted from another planet with the way the beats and clips are deconstructed on something like “Anansi Abstract”. The album is distantly related to electronica, drum ‘n’ bass, trip hop, and ambient, but operates on a completely different plane, as a soundtrack to a movie where aliens invade but there’s no way to hear, see, or detect them.
Phase Interlude
Galactic Funk (Tau Ceti Mix)
Juba
78: Titus Andronicus – The Monitor
If there was ever an ideal partner for an American punk band in academic textbooks, it’s a civil war. Now that the obvious statement out of the way, Titus Andronicus, named after a Shakespeare play with a cycle of revenge in the twilight of the Roman Empire, are a modern punk band not afraid to craft seven-minute songs. More accurately, they’re a hybrid of Bruce Springsteen (the band is also from New Jersey) and some of the American political bands from the 80’s like Bad Religion. The album is a display of the power of rock when done appropriately: there are anthem ready songs but they’re not stupid, energy is unleashed for a real purpose of approximating the violence of war, and nearly every song has urgency. The word “pub” is thrown around a lot in reviews of the album because the music does feel like it was recorded in a dingy pub on the east coast after a few too many drinks, not to mention the song titled, “Theme from ‘Cheers’ “. Rather than the brash, quick songs of the Ramones, it’s punk in spirit, as the songs are more epic in scale (four are 7-8 minutes and another is 14). And as I’ve said before, if you’re going to redo a style that’s been done plenty of times, you’d better leave your fucking blood on the guitar strings; any effort less can result in a set of songs that doesn’t rise above the innumerable albums that have already been released. This is worth listening to. And as Titus Andronicus says, you will always be a loser.
'From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some transatlantic giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe and Asia could not, by force, take a drink from the Ohio River or set a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we will live forever, or die by suicide.
(Abraham Lincoln, address to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, IL, January, 1838)''
There'll be no more counting the cars on the garden state parkway
Nor waiting for the Fung Wah bus to carry me to who-knows-where
And when I stand tonight, 'neath the lights of the Fenway
Will I not yell like hell for the glory of the Newark Bears?
Because where I'm going to now, no one can ever hurt me
Where the well of human hatred is shallow and dry
No, I never wanted to change the world, but I'm looking for a new New Jersey
Because tramps like us, baby, we were born to die
Fuck I'm frustrated, freaking out something fierce
Would you help me, I'm hungry, I suffer and I starve
Oh I struggle and I stammer 'till I'm up to my ears
In miserable quote unquote awe.
But however since our forefathers came on this land
We've been coddling those we should be running through
Please don't wait around for them to come and shake hands
They're not gonna be waiting for you
'Cause these humans treat humans like humans treat hogs
They get used up, coughed up, and fried in a pan
But I wasn't born to die like a dog,
I was born to die just like a man
I was born to die just like a man!
It's still us against them
And they're winning - "Four Score and Seven"
A More Perfect Union
A Pot in Which to Piss
Theme from ‘Cheers’
77: Roy Montgomery – And Now the Rain Sounds Like Life is Falling Down Through It
Roy Montgomery is the modern John Fahey of New Zealand. I have not seen any genre or other easy descriptions that are accurate, so let me try: it’s heavily guitar-based music, mostly instrumental but with some singing hidden here and there, and it’s spiritual in nature. It’s more new age than rock but never falling into stereotypes or clichés, and stays comfortable above the surface of the minimalism of Steve Reich. Even though Roy has a past in rock music, I see his solo albums as disconnected from that vein of music into true neo-classical/avant garde/experimental territory; but his music is still accessible. Other albums are often regarded more highly, but “And Now the Rain…” became my favorite due to its shorter songs and the masterpiece, 11-minute penultimate track. One shorter song, “Kafka Was Correct”, is prototypical of the album: it’s washed over in the reverb-heavy guitar with whispered vocals repeating a vague refrain and strange studio flourishes that pierce their way into the song. He’s a master guitarist and unique in his approach with a droning, wavering guitar, and bizarre additions like the callous murder of “Entertaining Mr. Jones”. Then there’s the title track, an experimental piece with what sounds like either rain sticks or tin cans clattering. But everything pales in comparison to the behemoth song “Ill at Home” – it’s 11 minutes of anxiety, nightfall, tension, mysteriously muffled lyrics, the simple but eviscerating guitar lines, and a patient but devastating buildup.
No lyrics found online, but I tried transcribing with lots of help from the user SomethingQuirky:
Vibration in a painting from the ground beneath the feet
A humble accusation, which the friend would not repeat
The figure in the distance with his... for neon bows
The part(blood/blunt?) of tear-stain(?) where rumour has it nothing grows
A day where light would bleach out all the contents of your head
A night where pain prohibits you from sleeping in your bed
The almost falling over in the middle of the road
The pairing futile with this diva(?) violent at this...
A quote by former lover of a long forgotten place
... countless well-known faces that you can't begin to name
The abiding sins then more from you they might've changed their mind
A... of you... for which you're clearly not design
... just a picture to...to...
And never leave the house
You are so so ill at home. - "Ill at Home"
Down from that Hill and up to the Pond
Kafka Was Correct
Ill at Home
76: Comets on Fire – Avatar
(Note: this album was titled before the crappy 3D movie.)
I have to think people saying rock died in the 2000’s just weren’t digging hard enough. Comets on Fire is one of my favorite band names ever, and it beautifully describes their sound – it’s an intense burst of music, it’s powerful, psychedelic, and awe-inspiring. When the band was formed, the core members stated they wanted to create rhythmically and sonically intense music with no regard to categorization. Nonetheless, it’s basically a fusion of Hawkwind and MC5, and if you don’t know those bands that means it’s a nexus of psychedelic rock and hard, aggressive blues rock. Those labels will scare off many people, so please let me reiterate they really don’t have a genre and take the best aspects from hard and psychedelic rock without their excesses (at least on this album.) Muscular blasts of music are common, but it’s as groovy as anything recorded in rock in the past decade: “Sour Smoke” in particular is like a dance song from a different dimension. Modern rock has lost that killer butt-moving, foot-taping groove, but Comets on Fire revived it, and they armed it with riffs that make metal look silly. This is, however, their most accessible album, and instead of a raging, churning, overrun river you get the trickling pace of “Lucifer’s Memory”, which is supported structurally by an underrated, overlooked singer and stylish guitar. But the best of Comets on Fire is when their proverbial comet careens into the Earth and obliterates everything in a bright flash – the opener “Dogwood Rust” would be a radio staple if radio hadn’t become a corporate tool to promote bland music decades ago, and there’s the chaos of “Holy Teeth”. This is rock music at its best, with full colors, rhythm that seeps into every part of your body, and power unequaled at its peak.
(Lyrics may not be completely accurate.)
Standing on the years crooked as a loon
Just beyond the rusted metal gates
I feel that the fallen like a stone
From the good grace of the Sun
I believe I have seen two eyes
hanging in the gutted dusk for a thousand miles
Upon a path of ruin that pines and calls
for the snapping hooves of the dawn
So if not strange the way we fade?
From each other’s thoughts
Reduced to orphaned memories
that I let stray too far…
Is if not strange that we once loved?
but let of slip away
Like the sun that falls into the sea
It hisses down and gone is the day
While bluebirds sing
and Dogwood leaves call the rain
you don't have to run from the cold
but you can never go home… - “Dogwood Rust”
Dogwood Rust
Jaybird
Hatched Upon the Age
100: Pan Sonic – Kesto (234:48:4)
99: Fucked Up – David Comes to Life
98: Black Tape for a Blue Girl – Remnants of a Deeper Purity
97: Dalek – Absence
96: Paik – Satin Black
95: Meshuggah – Nothing
94: Lisa Germano - Side
93: Menomena – I Am the Fun Blame Monster
92: Ghost – Hypnotic Underworld
91: Dinosaur Jr. – Beyond
90: Yamantaka Sonic Titan – YT // ST
89: Modest Mouse – The Lonesome Crowded West
88: Lebanon – Sunken City
87: Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Yanqui U.X.O
86: cLOUDDEAD – Ten
85: Soft Moon – Soft Moon
84: Kayo Dot – Dowsing Anemone with a Copper Tongue
83: Queens of the Stone Age – Rated R
82: Spiritualized – Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space
81: Jesu – Silver EP
80: Mono – You Are Here
79: DJ Spooky – Songs of a Dead Dreamer
78: Titus Andronicus – The Monitor
77: Roy Montgomery – And Now the Rain Sounds Like Life Is Falling Down Through It
76: Comets on Fire – Avatar
When the decade started, critics were discussing how music had lost its inventiveness and everything had been tried before – every permutation of sounds and instruments, especially in the rock genre. It was a common refrain that no new classics would be added to the canon, and in fact for most of the 90's the well had been dry. I didn't prescribe to this theory, and I wanted to prove that my generation, my peers were capable of delivering amazing, daring, creative music, even though decades of rock and pop had been mined, not to mention classical, Jazz, experimental, etc. I wanted to dig through the archives. I wanted to find these hidden classics of the modern era.
This is rediscovery for me, as I hadn't listened to some of these in years, and it's a way to organize and reassess my favorites. Writing about music (or dancing about architecture) is also a good exercise in writing, because the moments we remember from music are ineffable, so hard to describe that we strain with the limits of language. I try to recapture my favorite moments in songs, and hopefully by doing so I can convince people to listen to what I have come to love. The first ten or fifteen albums aren't exactly my favorites but they’re notable in some way. The real fun actually begins at album 60 or so; those are the ones I adore.
I included sample songs via youtube (and sometimes another source) with a link. I strongly recommend listening to those, if anything else. If you have trouble finding some of this music, let me know and I can try to help. Also let me know when a link dies and I'll update the post.
100:Pan Sonic – Kesto (234:48:4)
I’ll start off the list with a two and a half hour Finnish experimental electronic album scattered across four discs where each one is a summation of their style and influences. Even though the music is steeped in industrial and electronic music, there’s a strange concordance with physics and the Earthly world. There are tracks translated roughly as “Centralforce”, “Gravity”, “Groundfrost-Being”, and “Sewageworld”. The first disc starts with a brief, chaotic burst of sound (the big bang?) and follows with a clattering of harsh sounds (see Mayhem I below). With each subsequent disc the songs lengthen and the styles change; the last one is a single track more musique concrete in nature. It’s a band that seems to be attempting to summarize themselves as well as the creation of the universe in one truly sprawling album – and welcome to my list.
Rähinä I (Mayhem I)
Arktinen (Arctic)
Mutaaattori (Mutator)
99: Fucked Up – David Comes to Life
Another genre I’m not too keen on, hardcore, I have to nonetheless tip my cap to these gentlemen – it's a 18 song concept album. I’m immediately reminded of Husker Du’s Zen Arcade, a 23-song punk album that also became a touchstone for 80's and 90's alternative by making punk more melodic and, somehow, accessible. Now even Canada is jumping into the hardcore zoo, and even though it’s a genre that’s been trod upon well enough there’s still room to add to the canon if you do it well and with all the energy you have.
To make things worse, it all goes so fast
And we try to hold on as they go past.
We need a Peter, we get a Paul;
At least Judas had some balls.
To make a move on these building doubts
About how this messiah thing would shake out,
I feel the nail against my skin,
Wait for the hammer to drive it in.
It can't be comfortable when the whole thing's about to fall - “The Other Shoe”
Queen of Hearts
A Little Death
And for fun here’s a Husker Du song:
Standing by the Sea
98: Black Tape for a Blue Girl – Remnants of a Deeper Purity
For better or worse, they’re stalwarts of goth music, and this album is the zenith of the darkwave music genre, which is such an arbitrary genre label I had to finally track this album down recently and listen to it. I’m sticking it at the end of the list because it’s intriguing but I’m not sure where to place it yet. It’s dark, neoclassical, meandering, bombastic, and has song titles like “For You Will Burn Your Wings upon the Sun”. It’s the sort of music you’d make for an empty stone church next to a graveyard. But music is music, and this is some interesting stuff and near the best in its class. This is certainly not something you’ll see on Pitchfork’s lists, but music is about discovery.
time seems to bring us together again
a decade later and another face
are you the girl I've been dreaming of?
you look like her smell like her
that raven-haired beauty of another time
a rush of memories washing over me
I've always been waiting for someone to set me free - "Remnants of a Deeper Purity"
Fin de Siecle
Remnants of a Deeper Purity (live: other versions aren't available)
I Have No More Answers
97: Dalek – Absence
Continuing my streak of genres I totally don’t dig but, hey, that’s what the end of the list is for anyway, here’s one of the very few hip-hop albums included. I like it for the music behind the rapping, which is why I don’t care for hip-hop in general because it’s more about the rap and rhymes than the music. Dalek are called an alternative hip-hop band partly because of who they’re associated with: they did a split with the semi-obscure Krautrock band Faust, for Pete’s sake (and their name is a reference to Doctor Who). But their lyrics are political and deal with the very real threats to urban life and black people from excessive incarceration to generations passing down their problems, inhibiting social mobility, and the rapping is set against a harsh background of industrial sounds.
This beast caged in the heart of the city
Circumvents common speech
Gutter tongue kept filthy
Histories passed in handshakes
Wisdom achieved
Victory's always fleeting for these pseudo MC's
Trapped by narrow minds
Eyes blinded
Political prisoners terrorized in confinement
Confirms what we learned of US police state
Asphyxiate the people they claim to liberate
Distorted Prose
Culture for Dollars
A Beast Caged
96: Paik – Satin Black
This is music that I had lost for years and I only have access to it right now through streams like youtube. It’s post-rock, a genre I dearly enjoy, with the sorts of majestic crescendos that are so common within the style. “Tinsel and Foil” in particular has a beautiful section starting at around the 1:30 mark. The genre post-rock is a nebulous term; they have pieces of shoegazing, drone, and space rock, depending on who you ask. It’s music that’s texture driven, instead of lyrics or melodies. Supposedly, the band is named after a term for a swift punch to the gut, which aptly describes the feeling when listening to one of the climaxes of their searching dirges, and I have memories that evoke the wide, austere horizons on Oregon farmlands. There's something really spiritually peaceful about their music.
Tinsel and Foil
Jayne Field
Dirt for Driver
95: Meshuggah – Nothing
There’s nothing like a Swedish experimental/progressive metal band dabbling with polyrhythms and Jazz fusion to cure your headache. As you can probably tell, metal isn’t my favorite genre, but Meshuggah earned a place on my list because of their complex music and aggressive rhythms. I honestly can’t stand most metal, but I’m fine with these Swedes because their music is interesting in how they chug along with weird time signatures built around the more simpler metal song, still writhing in fury. I’m not terribly sold on the album because too much of it sounds the same to me, but there are fun lyrics like these!
A twisting visual overload--Explosions of terror and beauty
Colors of fear and pain within clash into unanything
A spectra-organic frenzy setting fire to the neuro-highways of mind
Revolving me away from time. A soul now reentered unassigned.
"Closed Eye Visuals"
Straws Pulled at Random
Spasm
94: Lisa Germano – Slide
Now we swing to the other side of the extreme with a female songwriter who seemingly specializes in writing songs about physical abuse in relationships. She’s a violinist born to classical musicians in Indiana who’s worked as a session musician for years, but her real talents are crafting emotional, elegiac songs. This isn’t my favorite album from Germano though, and it’s not even close. Even with what I would consider an inferior version of her music it’s still good enough to be listed. The compositions are delicate and meticulously placed, the singing is soft and alluring, and there’s an atmosphere she crafts that’s present on every disc she has, but she’s done better elsewhere. This is a good place to hijack the mini-review and talk about an album that wasn’t released from 1996 to 2011: her album Geek the Girl is stunning, deeply personal, beautiful, and haunting. I would definitely recommend it to anyone searching for new singer-songwriter music, and I’ve included the title track from the album (the other two are from Slide) although I would also recommend “Cancer of Everything”, “…A Psychopath” (which uses a real 9-1-1 recording), and … well, every song on the album.
Perfect and dull decorate, perfect and dull
Keepin' the cool from coming out, yeah
Oh oh, I'm not too cool, oh oh, I'm not too cool
Angry and dumb dominate,
Angry and dumb -“Geek the Girl”
Geek the Girl
Way Below the Radio
Wood Floors
93: Menomena – I Am the Fun Blame Monster
The first relevant fact about this band is that they’re from Portland, Oregon, and that’s my city. It’s really the only reason why I listened to them in the first place, but there’s so much more. The actual process of their songwriting is intriguing because it’s something that could only happen in the 21st century and it’s, as the band describes, democratic. They use a music program a band member wrote where they set the tempo, include some drums, and then build the song by passing around the mic and adding layers and sections. It’s basically cut and paste music with a background in indie rock. The music wanders as the song develops, but it’s usually in an interesting path with different tones, melodies, new instruments, and diversions. It’s like taking a traditional song and instead of the mind-numbing repetitions usually inherent you use do something different every few seconds. That’s not trivial either; it’s an entirely innovative approach to music (and yes I realize this has been done for decades like with the Silver Apples). I think it’s better when songs progress, when they shift moods, when they take exciting turns, not when they repeat the chorus with the same instrumentation. Maybe that’s just me. Back in the early 2000’s I thought cut and paste music would be the future, but for the most part we’re still stuck in our ways.
This old frame once was beautiful
The proof is on the shelf
This old frame once was beautiful
Close your eyes if it helps
Your hands used to work miracles
Skin on skin
I blush
Your hands used to work miracles
For me alone - “E. Is Stable”
Cough Coughing
Strongest Man in the World
Sorry, wrong one…
Strongest Man in the World
Monkey’s Back
92: Ghost – Hypnotic Underworld
This is another one of those albums I’ve lost. It’s pretty easy to describe their music even though it’s a bit avant-garde: it’s a Japanese psychedelic, space-rock band with titles to songs like “God Took a Picture of His Illness on the Ground.” More specifically, they use Japanese folk music, ambiance, Jazz, and various instruments to craft the sorts of sounds you’d expect to hear in a Japanese underworld. A cover of Syd Barrett’s “Dominoes” is telling; that’s the kind of stratosphere they reside in. The aforementioned “God…” song is part of a four-part song cycle I have linked below. The first one is slower and more ambient, the second (Medina) is Jazzier but still modestly paced, the third is their approximation of rock and weird Japanese folk music, and the last, well, that’s a surprise. The other linked song, "Piper", opens with a flute, but it's also their closest approximation to a rock song with an excellent guitar solo and catchy singing despite my inability to tell whether or not he's even singing in English.
God Took a Picture of His Illness on the Ground
Escaped and Lost Down in Medina
Aramaic Barbarous Down
Leave the World
Piper
91: Dinosaur Jr. – Beyond
Dinosaur Jr. has one of my favorite albums of all-time (You’re Living All Over Me), but unfortunately for this list that was made in the 80’s. Truthfully, this album got buried at the time under different ones because I thought of it as too much of a reunion tour, but listening to it again I found its value. However, it’s not perfect: too many songs are similar and it’s too long for a Dinosaur Jr. album. Beyond was, however, their first one since the 90’s (and the last time with the original lineup was 1988), and its inclusion on the list is because of J. Mascis’ guitar theatrics, approximating Neil Young and the noise/punk of bands like Sonic Youth. It’s more than a simple reunion album where the band members are cashing in on their indie cred years later; songs like “Pick Me Up” (see below) are incendiary, where the soft and lazy melodies of 80’s alternative are drowned in blistering, heavy solos. I know I’m over-describing here, but there’s something about his guitar playing that locates bits of my cold, cold soul; I think it has something to do with his mumbling, passive singing countered by bursts of music with completely different energy.
Pick Me Up (live)
Back to Your Heart
And for fun here’s a song from one of my favorite albums ever You’re Living All Over Me
Sludgefeast
90: Yamantaka //Sonic Titan – YT//ST
A band I had only recently heard, let’s have them explain who they are: YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN are a psychedelic noh-wave opera group fusing noise, metal, pop and folk music into a multidisciplinary hyper-orientalist cesspool of 'east' meets 'west' culture clash in giant monochrome paper sets. So, how’s that sound? It’s actually not an atonal mess though; there are plenty of beautiful little movements, quiet sections, and airy, enigmatic vocals. Noh-wave is a reference to the Nôh theater and the no-wave movement in the late 70’s and early 80’s in New York City. Part of what made the band intriguing to me is the no-wave reference because it’s a completely insane genre with a tiny half-life where the songs are short but still more infused with energy and noise than an entire album from Led Zeppelin. (See James Chance – I Can’t Stand Myself and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks – Orphans.) Ignoring their vegan feminist politics and the recently released drag rock opera in theaters, this is an intriguing band from a musical perspective because there aren’t too many that sound like them and they fuse a number of styles. It’s loud, abrasive, weird, and changes genres with little warning – in other words, it’s the perfect music for me. It also makes perfect sense that Japanese culture and music is so prevalent, not just because of the shared Asian-Canadian heritage of core members, but because, well, that’s Japan for you.
(Note: no lyrics found online and some appear to be in Japanese … or something.)
Queens
Reverse Crystal
A Star Over Pureland
89: Modest Mouse – The Lonesome Crowded West
I’m assuming people already know this band, but I’ll go ahead and quickly explain their sound. Their genre is indie rock – but that doesn’t fucking mean anything, so it’s a traditional three-piece rock lineup with various musicians added when needed with Isaac Brock’s odd yelp-singing and their catchy, quirky, jerky songs with lyrics that sometimes move in circles and are usually pretty clever, concerned with topics from rural life in a modern world to God with pseudo-philosophical ruminations (a good comparison is the Pixies, but if you know the Pixies then you know Modest Mouse, so whatever.) I prefer Lonesome Crowded West to the Moon and Antarctica because it’s less overly melodramatic without losing much passion or the sprawling theme, in this case “Lonesome Crowded West,” whose paradoxical title is making a point about our insular and lonely modern world. Songs like “Trailer Trash” are beautiful in a depressing sort of way, while ones like “Doin’ the Cockroach” and “Convenient Parking” are full little romps. There’s also the awesome 11-minute travelin’ song “Trucker’s Atlas”, which reminds you that songs about the road have a great tradition in modern music (last century) for a reason. Now it’s years after they broke through with “Float On”, and I expect Modest Mouse to retain a piece in music history; these songs have held onto their value. Oh and of course I also have to mention that it’s a Pacific Northwest band. Suck it, rest of the world.
My brain's the weak heart, and my heart's the long stairs
Inland from Vancouver shore
The ravens and the seagulls push each other inward and outward
Inward and outward
In this place that I call home
My brain's the cliff, and my heart's the bitter buffalo
My heart's the bitter buffalo
We tore one down, and erected another there
The match of the century, absence versus thin air
On the way to god don't know
My brain's the burger and my heart's the coal
On this life that we call home
The years go fast and the days go so slow - Heart Cooks Brain
And I need to mention this fun simile:
Opinions were like kittens
I was giving them away
Trailer Trash
Heart Cooks Brain
Doin’ the Cockroach
88: Lebanon – Sunken City
Israeli post-rock from a band with a band sense of geography, Lebanon adds to the considerable depth for the genre in the 1996-2011 era with pristine, beautiful music and soft, ambient spoken word clips in the background. There’s also an extensive use of a guitar technique where it’s played up and down the scale with the same note or tiny variations. Most post-rock is about the textures and tone of the music, not the melody or the words, which are not common in the genre and besides the weird spoken word sections that occasionally appear aren’t present in Sunken City (i.e. no singing.) A song title is often a good indication of what the music is like, and in the case of “Ghost Head Nebula” you can tell the band is more forward thinking, progressive where the music itself is searching, and introspective. The heavenly expanses of the night and the incredible sights that have been found in the infinite expanse are a great visualization of this type of music. I realize that’s the typical kind of obtuse music review writing you’d find online, but it honestly is an album you’d listen to while gazing at the starry night.
Ghost Head Nebula
Bicycle
High School
87: Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Yanqui U.X.O.
Godspeed are one of the most famous post-rock bands, and you can tell a whole lot about the band from their name. It’s a Montreal collective known for music that is more compositional in form, especially their album F#A$&#∞, and utilizes many field recordings. The difference between Lebanon and Godspeed’s approach to spoken word is that in Godspeed it’s in the foreground, not the background. This album, however, is based more on long form instrumental music. (And I would actually say relying on a recorded speech you found for dramatic tension is arguably lazy.) It’s also as political as anything they’ve done where the cover has bombs falling from the sky and the liner notes show the connections between major labels and the military industrial complex (um, cool?) Additionally, U.X.O. is an abbreviation for unexploded ordinance. But the reason this particular album is on the list versus any other Godspeed one is the track “Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls,” a 20-minute behemoth that starts with an ominous guitar and slowly develops into a thunderous crescendo with each instrument added one at time from the violin to the drums where the buildup is most of the song. As the tension is built alongside the military-esque rhythm, small sections and movements are organically added in ebbs and flows before the song explodes. This is post-rock, so if a long song like this doesn’t appeal to you, then it’s not the right genre. And it’s the only song I need to link.
Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls
86: cLOUDDEAD – Ten
Simply put, this is hip-hop from a white group amid a psychedelic, hazy atmosphere with surreal lyrics. Does the white part matter? Well, not totally, but you know the chances are low that the subject matter is about being black in an urban center, and no, there’s nothing wrong with learning about that, but there’s also nothing wrong with a variety of style. Rather than just an exploration of all the different ways you can rap, it’s an exploration of sound from the unnerving ambiance of “Our Name” to “Rhymer’s Only Room”, which is a room with a 90% chance of being filled with smoke from some combination of drugs based on the hallucinatory music. That’s not to say the rapping is worthless; both rappers are adept at the game and Doseone in particular is notable for his high speed, nasal raps (the other rapper is Why? complete with the question mark.) Odd Nosdam provides most of the background music, and at their best the two worlds collide like at the end of “Physics of a Unicycle” where an aggressive verse wanders into the fog of the music. The lyrics are scattered with rhymes about the end of the world where the ever-present electronic psychedelia washes over the strange, foreboding words. And how can you not love a band with lyrics like, “In Da Vinci’s bike accident; an outer-space whodunit?”
a spider spitting web on a styrofoam snowman’s head.
car salesmen asleep in their cars on lunch-break under the highway onramp.
the x-ray of someone’s tumored skull left to scream doom from the gutter
with all the other preventative waste, no name no face.
all the oil drills on some sick sedated rhythmic robot.
rape mode like brain-washed flies at a carcass.
the highway shoulder dead dog’s fly devoured eyeballs,
as garnish to a four lane state road.
and all the southern Cali orange trucks headed to somewhere there’s winter.
one armed men changing tires in the shoulder
for pretty ladies and their well-dressed daughters;
engine oil boiling, undercarriage eaten by a billion ants of rust,
bacteria gang-banging in the window cracks. - “Rifle Eyes”
Rifle Eyes
Son of a Gun
Physics of a Unicycle
85: Soft Moon – Soft Moon
Soft Moon revive a sound from the late 70’s/early 80’s – post-punk, the variety closer to a band like Suicide with dark overtones and an almost gothic (but not in the sense of silly teens dressing to impress) atmosphere. It’s a one-man band though – Luis Vasquez with the help of a studio and elements like a drum machine. One distinctive attribute is the whispered vocals, which certainly doesn’t change the impression that the music is basically a soundtrack to a serial killer who murders through heavy synth. It’s claustrophobic music and industrial, meaning it’s more of an artificial construction mirroring an urban wasteland than something built from more organic components like an acoustic guitar. Before the album is too repetitive, “When It’s Over” offers a new angle on the music with a softer sound and an uncomfortable buzzing that overrides everything – closer to shoegazing than industrial – causing an uneasy pain to grow in the pit of your stomach from the loneliness and paranoia of the song. That in fact is reminiscent of the entirely of Luis’ music, hearkening back to the days of the early industrial scene in New York. There may not be a lot of new things you to try in music, but one thing a musician can do is execute an idea really well – and that’s Soft Moon.
Note: couldn’t find lyrics and I can’t understand them. Or maybe I’m afraid to know what he’s singing.
Breathe the Fire (The artist himself uploaded the video.)
When It’s Over
Sewer Sickness
84: Kayo Dot – Dowsing Anemone with a Copper Tongue
I think this will scare most people reading this, but this project from Toby Driver and friends is a fusion of metal, modern classical, and chamber music. There’s also a free jazz component, and the album was released on John Zorn’s label. Is that whetting your appetite yet? In all honesty, it’s not an inaccessible mess and the harsh sounds of metal or jazz are removed. It’s more like free-form poetry, connecting segments of music together with a variety of instruments from violin to clarinet to euphonium. Toby Driver acts as the band leader; he studied music at Amherst under the respected jazz composer Yusef Lateef, who was noted for his eastern influences and autophysiopsychic music, which is as kooky as it sounds – music that comes from your mental, physical, and spiritual self. The album has five gargantuan tracks that wander through an alternate world, not really sounding like 99.5% of anything out there. There are some moments, however, where the metal background is heard like parts of “__On Limpid Form”, but it’s contrasted by softer, contemplative moments as in the closing track “Amaranth the Peddler”. I like my alternate world metaphor because it does operate like a soundtrack of a frightening, strange alien world. But beyond the bursts of noise and neoclassical forms are passages of pure beauty, the ecstasy reached after the chaos.
I bring to thee an orchid I picked
Once as a human from my spiral garden
I held the holy tripod and all the nothing held it's breath
Gemini solemnly split themselves
The world closed its eyes
Supreme love in the opposite
The world hid in clouds
From a severed two came one
The world quaked in fear
Galaxies slow and ammonites
The foe e'en trembled in his darksome cave - Gemini Becoming the Tripod
Gemini Becoming the Tripod
Amaranth the Peddler
83: Queens of the Stone Age – Rated R
This is simply a fun album. If I were doing a list of the “best” albums in this time period rather than favorites, it wouldn’t make the cut. The band’s name was apparently manufactured to endorse big, dumb, riff-heavy rock with the “Stone Age” (also a nod to their stoner metal past) and the soft, sweeter sounds to lure in tasty babes who could be used in some sort of cherry pie video with “Queens”. Speaking of stoner music, Josh Homme and Oliveri came from the band Kyuss, who if they qualified would have landed an album nearer to my number one spot with Blues for a Red Sky, which captures the feel of the intense heat of the southern California desert with punishing guitar riffs and space-y music that approximates a shimmering mirage. The guitar was plugged into a bass amp, creating a unique, signature sound. Queens incorporated some of what Kyuss was, and you can see it in the masterpiece of “I Think I Lost My Headache”, which is like the Fantasia of stoner rock where it starts out as a hazy, confused fun little song and turns into a paranoid mess complete with horns and the audio equivalent of pink elephants. Most of the songs, however, are accessible and structured around a powerful guitar riff. But it’s not a faded mess of generic rock like a lot of popular bands – “In the Fade”, for example, with one of my favorite singer-songwriters Mark Lanegan, moves forward with a quirky, bouncy rhythm before the chorus washes over in stoner rock riffs (“Lost Art … “ follows the same formula.) Within the 11 songs there’s enough variety to keep anyone interested while simultaneously being original and enjoyable.
Literally the entire set of lyrics for the song:
Nicotine, valium, vicadin, marijuana, ecstasy, and alcohol
C-C-C-C-C-Cocaine
(Repeat many, many times) - “Feel Good Hit of the Summer”
Well I've got a secret, I cannot say
Blame all the movement to give it away
You've got somethin', I understand
Holding it tightly, caught on command
Leap of faith, do you doubt?
Cut you in, I just cut you out
Whatever you do
Don't tell anyone
Whatever you do
Don't tell anyone
Look for reflections, in your face
Canine devotion, time can't erase
Out on the corner, locked in your room
I never believe them and I never assume
Still can't believe there is a lie
Promises promise, an eye for an eye
We've got something to reveal
No one can know how we feel - “Lost Art of Keeping a Secret”
Lost Art of Keeping a Secret
In the Fade
I Think I Lost My Headache (It’s not as good live though.)
And here’s Kyuss, the superior incarnation:
Thumb
82: Spiritualized – Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space
Spiritualized are known as a space rock band, and while that’s not a particularly attractive designation for people who don’t get high every other day and stare deeply into space, man (the stereotypes that go along with the drug culture are intertwined with its accompanying music scene), Ladies and Gentlemen… is not mired in aimless noodling, annoying noises, or pointless experimentation; it’s an album celebrating beautiful melodies, love songs, and sweet sounds. The lead singer and songwriter had actually just broken up with his girlfriend who also doubled as the keyboard player; he had more on his mind than just the Andromeda galaxy and the sea of tranquility. The band was formed out of the ruins of Spacemen 3, a key modern psychedelic band, and their roots can still be detected in songs like “No God No Religion” or the 17-minute “Cop Shoot Cop”, a behemoth track whose excess is common in the psych world, but in this case it’s justified: it’s a groovy, cool-edged song that features the legendary Dr. John. The music, however, spans a variety of styles too from gospel influences where they use the London Community Gospel Choir and dream pop, whose name describes itself pretty well. They use a wall of sound effect but more like the Beach Boys would than, say, an abrasive industrial band, and Jason Pierce’s soft, comfy voice is often overwhelmed by a sudden rush of noise. And the themes of the album – love, religion, space – all tie together in that burst of ecstasy that one must feel in true love, in seeing God, in comprehending the vast reaches of space.
All I want in life's a little bit of love to take the pain away
Getting strong today, a giant step each day
I've been told only fools rush in, only fools rush in
But I don't believe, I don't believe- I could still fall in love with you
I will love you till I die, and I will love you all the time
So please put your sweet hand in mine, and float in space and drift in time
All my time until I die, we'll float in space just you and I
So please put your sweet hand in mine, and float in space and drift in time - “Ladies and Gentlemen…”
And how the album got its name:
Only philosophers embark on this perilous expedition to the outermost reaches of language and existence. Some of them fall off, but others cling on desperately and yell at the people nestling deep in the snug softness, stuffing themselves with delicious food and drink. 'Ladies and Gentlemen,' they yell, 'we are floating in space!' But none of the people down there care. - Jostein Gaarder – Sophie’s World
Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space
Stay With Me (live)
Cop Shoot Cop
81: Jesu – EP: Silver
Think of this album as the silver to Spiritualized’s gold. Jesu is a project from Justin Broadrick, an English musician who started with the extreme sounds of death metal and grindcore in Napalm Death, as well as the industrial band Godflesh. Attempting to conquer another extreme, he attacked shoegazing (sometimes the music is called “sludge” metal or experimental, but those labels aren’t descriptive or useful), which are a slower brand of (typically) guitar-based rock drenched in noise and reverb, aiming for beauty rather than aggression through all the layers of distortion. It’s a four song EP, but together it’s nearly 30 minutes and almost instantly became one of my favorite EPs ever, which is an admittedly short list. The tracks are searching, yearning, and carefully laid out. While a song like “Wolves” can be unnerving and a little depressing, “Silver” is absolutely beautiful with soft, plaintive singing over these titanic yet lovely riffs. There’s also something very soothing hearing him repeat, “Silver’s just another gold”, again and again.
Who are they
Are they a threat to our beliefs
So we descend upon them
Just like vengeful wolves
Bitter daylight
Hangs above us with the rain
What is this that tells you
I am right or wrong
I'm not saying... - “Wolves”
Silver
Wolves
80: Mono – You Are Here
I was exploring post-rock for a while a few years back, explaining why the genre has been so prevalent in this list, but there was a resurgence of the style in the 2000’s. This is the prototypical post rock with spacious music and patient musical segments, building slowly with a full variety of instruments and two guitar players who weave in and out together. The album opens with a track where a quiet sound emerges from the ether at a plodding pace. The tracks are more “epic” in nature, as titles like “Flames Beyond the Cold Mountain” and “Yearning” indicate, where the mood is more contemplative and searching (those words aren’t used in allmusicguide’s “album moods” but I think they’re more fitting than druggy since it’s not psychedelic or menacing, which makes it sound aggressive when it’s more passive.) Nonetheless, there are moments of intensity, but think of it more like a modestly-paced HBO drama or the reality of war: nothing is happening most of the time, but every so often there’s a loud, explosive section like a the end of “Flames…” or during “Yearning”. Even with the big crescendo moments, the totality of the music is still fairly subdued. The Japanese band are not lacking with beautiful music either; it’s not the emotionless, cerebral type of post-rock. The short, “Remains of the Day,” is a fuzzy, warm song, but the ultimate one is the closing track – “Moonlight”, which conjures the band Sigur Ros and redeems the glacial yearning of the album, acts as the paradise at the end of the adventure with lush bursts of sound.
The Flames Beyond the Cold Mountain
Moonlight
79: DJ Spooky – Songs of a Dead Dreamer
This is another case of an artist’s name describing the music well. I don’t care for hip-hop, but I do love some instrumental hip-hop, and in this case it’s more specifically called turntablism, where it focuses on soundscapes and dissects rhythms rather than on lyrics and rhymes. The term illbient was also manufactured – a portmanteau of ill and ambient – to describe hip-hop’s equivalent of ambient, although it works as background music it’s also dynamic enough for your full attention. This is what I thought the 21st century would lead to: music created by studios and manipulations, not a quartet strumming out the same types of songs that have been covered repeatedly the past century, where the complete liberation of sound from source would usher in a creative golden age. That’s not exactly what happened, but I’ll appreciate DJ Spooky and his kind for what they produced. With the word “dead” in the title and spooky in the artist’s name, there is definitely some more ghostly qualities to his music, but it’s more atmospheric and the obsession appears to be with space, not spookiness (one song is called “Galactic Funk” and another “The Terran Invasion of Alpha Centauri Year 2794”.) The futurism is present in the tracks, yet it’s far from gimmicky. The space theme isn’t random either; the songs sound like they were distorted and intercepted from another planet with the way the beats and clips are deconstructed on something like “Anansi Abstract”. The album is distantly related to electronica, drum ‘n’ bass, trip hop, and ambient, but operates on a completely different plane, as a soundtrack to a movie where aliens invade but there’s no way to hear, see, or detect them.
Phase Interlude
Galactic Funk (Tau Ceti Mix)
Juba
78: Titus Andronicus – The Monitor
If there was ever an ideal partner for an American punk band in academic textbooks, it’s a civil war. Now that the obvious statement out of the way, Titus Andronicus, named after a Shakespeare play with a cycle of revenge in the twilight of the Roman Empire, are a modern punk band not afraid to craft seven-minute songs. More accurately, they’re a hybrid of Bruce Springsteen (the band is also from New Jersey) and some of the American political bands from the 80’s like Bad Religion. The album is a display of the power of rock when done appropriately: there are anthem ready songs but they’re not stupid, energy is unleashed for a real purpose of approximating the violence of war, and nearly every song has urgency. The word “pub” is thrown around a lot in reviews of the album because the music does feel like it was recorded in a dingy pub on the east coast after a few too many drinks, not to mention the song titled, “Theme from ‘Cheers’ “. Rather than the brash, quick songs of the Ramones, it’s punk in spirit, as the songs are more epic in scale (four are 7-8 minutes and another is 14). And as I’ve said before, if you’re going to redo a style that’s been done plenty of times, you’d better leave your fucking blood on the guitar strings; any effort less can result in a set of songs that doesn’t rise above the innumerable albums that have already been released. This is worth listening to. And as Titus Andronicus says, you will always be a loser.
'From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some transatlantic giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe and Asia could not, by force, take a drink from the Ohio River or set a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we will live forever, or die by suicide.
(Abraham Lincoln, address to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, IL, January, 1838)''
There'll be no more counting the cars on the garden state parkway
Nor waiting for the Fung Wah bus to carry me to who-knows-where
And when I stand tonight, 'neath the lights of the Fenway
Will I not yell like hell for the glory of the Newark Bears?
Because where I'm going to now, no one can ever hurt me
Where the well of human hatred is shallow and dry
No, I never wanted to change the world, but I'm looking for a new New Jersey
Because tramps like us, baby, we were born to die
Fuck I'm frustrated, freaking out something fierce
Would you help me, I'm hungry, I suffer and I starve
Oh I struggle and I stammer 'till I'm up to my ears
In miserable quote unquote awe.
But however since our forefathers came on this land
We've been coddling those we should be running through
Please don't wait around for them to come and shake hands
They're not gonna be waiting for you
'Cause these humans treat humans like humans treat hogs
They get used up, coughed up, and fried in a pan
But I wasn't born to die like a dog,
I was born to die just like a man
I was born to die just like a man!
It's still us against them
And they're winning - "Four Score and Seven"
A More Perfect Union
A Pot in Which to Piss
Theme from ‘Cheers’
77: Roy Montgomery – And Now the Rain Sounds Like Life is Falling Down Through It
Roy Montgomery is the modern John Fahey of New Zealand. I have not seen any genre or other easy descriptions that are accurate, so let me try: it’s heavily guitar-based music, mostly instrumental but with some singing hidden here and there, and it’s spiritual in nature. It’s more new age than rock but never falling into stereotypes or clichés, and stays comfortable above the surface of the minimalism of Steve Reich. Even though Roy has a past in rock music, I see his solo albums as disconnected from that vein of music into true neo-classical/avant garde/experimental territory; but his music is still accessible. Other albums are often regarded more highly, but “And Now the Rain…” became my favorite due to its shorter songs and the masterpiece, 11-minute penultimate track. One shorter song, “Kafka Was Correct”, is prototypical of the album: it’s washed over in the reverb-heavy guitar with whispered vocals repeating a vague refrain and strange studio flourishes that pierce their way into the song. He’s a master guitarist and unique in his approach with a droning, wavering guitar, and bizarre additions like the callous murder of “Entertaining Mr. Jones”. Then there’s the title track, an experimental piece with what sounds like either rain sticks or tin cans clattering. But everything pales in comparison to the behemoth song “Ill at Home” – it’s 11 minutes of anxiety, nightfall, tension, mysteriously muffled lyrics, the simple but eviscerating guitar lines, and a patient but devastating buildup.
No lyrics found online, but I tried transcribing with lots of help from the user SomethingQuirky:
Vibration in a painting from the ground beneath the feet
A humble accusation, which the friend would not repeat
The figure in the distance with his... for neon bows
The part(blood/blunt?) of tear-stain(?) where rumour has it nothing grows
A day where light would bleach out all the contents of your head
A night where pain prohibits you from sleeping in your bed
The almost falling over in the middle of the road
The pairing futile with this diva(?) violent at this...
A quote by former lover of a long forgotten place
... countless well-known faces that you can't begin to name
The abiding sins then more from you they might've changed their mind
A... of you... for which you're clearly not design
... just a picture to...to...
And never leave the house
You are so so ill at home. - "Ill at Home"
Down from that Hill and up to the Pond
Kafka Was Correct
Ill at Home
76: Comets on Fire – Avatar
(Note: this album was titled before the crappy 3D movie.)
I have to think people saying rock died in the 2000’s just weren’t digging hard enough. Comets on Fire is one of my favorite band names ever, and it beautifully describes their sound – it’s an intense burst of music, it’s powerful, psychedelic, and awe-inspiring. When the band was formed, the core members stated they wanted to create rhythmically and sonically intense music with no regard to categorization. Nonetheless, it’s basically a fusion of Hawkwind and MC5, and if you don’t know those bands that means it’s a nexus of psychedelic rock and hard, aggressive blues rock. Those labels will scare off many people, so please let me reiterate they really don’t have a genre and take the best aspects from hard and psychedelic rock without their excesses (at least on this album.) Muscular blasts of music are common, but it’s as groovy as anything recorded in rock in the past decade: “Sour Smoke” in particular is like a dance song from a different dimension. Modern rock has lost that killer butt-moving, foot-taping groove, but Comets on Fire revived it, and they armed it with riffs that make metal look silly. This is, however, their most accessible album, and instead of a raging, churning, overrun river you get the trickling pace of “Lucifer’s Memory”, which is supported structurally by an underrated, overlooked singer and stylish guitar. But the best of Comets on Fire is when their proverbial comet careens into the Earth and obliterates everything in a bright flash – the opener “Dogwood Rust” would be a radio staple if radio hadn’t become a corporate tool to promote bland music decades ago, and there’s the chaos of “Holy Teeth”. This is rock music at its best, with full colors, rhythm that seeps into every part of your body, and power unequaled at its peak.
(Lyrics may not be completely accurate.)
Standing on the years crooked as a loon
Just beyond the rusted metal gates
I feel that the fallen like a stone
From the good grace of the Sun
I believe I have seen two eyes
hanging in the gutted dusk for a thousand miles
Upon a path of ruin that pines and calls
for the snapping hooves of the dawn
So if not strange the way we fade?
From each other’s thoughts
Reduced to orphaned memories
that I let stray too far…
Is if not strange that we once loved?
but let of slip away
Like the sun that falls into the sea
It hisses down and gone is the day
While bluebirds sing
and Dogwood leaves call the rain
you don't have to run from the cold
but you can never go home… - “Dogwood Rust”
Dogwood Rust
Jaybird
Hatched Upon the Age
100: Pan Sonic – Kesto (234:48:4)
99: Fucked Up – David Comes to Life
98: Black Tape for a Blue Girl – Remnants of a Deeper Purity
97: Dalek – Absence
96: Paik – Satin Black
95: Meshuggah – Nothing
94: Lisa Germano - Side
93: Menomena – I Am the Fun Blame Monster
92: Ghost – Hypnotic Underworld
91: Dinosaur Jr. – Beyond
90: Yamantaka Sonic Titan – YT // ST
89: Modest Mouse – The Lonesome Crowded West
88: Lebanon – Sunken City
87: Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Yanqui U.X.O
86: cLOUDDEAD – Ten
85: Soft Moon – Soft Moon
84: Kayo Dot – Dowsing Anemone with a Copper Tongue
83: Queens of the Stone Age – Rated R
82: Spiritualized – Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space
81: Jesu – Silver EP
80: Mono – You Are Here
79: DJ Spooky – Songs of a Dead Dreamer
78: Titus Andronicus – The Monitor
77: Roy Montgomery – And Now the Rain Sounds Like Life Is Falling Down Through It
76: Comets on Fire – Avatar