The most involved Internet Meme I might have ever done
20 ALBUMS
1. Beautiful Midnight – Matthew Good Band (1998) – I remember buying this album. I had seen the video for “Hello Time Bomb” and liked what I heard (especially the bizarre guitar pedal solo) so I walked down to the local Music World and picked up “Big Shiny Tunes 4” which prominently featured the track. I got home, slipped on the headphones and found that MuchMusic, in its infinite wisdom, had decided to censor the word “shit” from one of the verses. So I marched myself back to the same Music World and exchanged it for a proper copy of the album. I have listened to the CD so many times that it probably suffered laser damage. It’s dark motifs and epic, airy musical styling sound exactly like the titular midnight. This album will forever be linked in my mind with staying out late, exploring abandoned buildings, solitude, and explosive fun with friends in places we shouldn’t have been.
Favourite song: Running for Home
Favourite Lyrics:
- Got laid by a golf course / That I never went to / Well, it’s not a real sport.
- My devil’s on sugar smacks / Down at the Radio Shack / They’re turning shit into solid gold
- I turn the light on and there’s nothing left redeeming
2. Funeral – Arcade Fire (2004) – This album opened the door to independent music for me (especially from Canadian artists). Before I heard of the Arcade Fire (and consequently Final Fantasy, Broken Social Scene, Stars, Metric, Feist, Wolf Parade, et al) my experience with Canadian music was that of Celine and Nickelback, which is enough to make anyone shudder. I have Win, Regine and the family to thank not only for opening up my country’s musical identity, but also for ushering in an era of sincere, passionate music which is as enjoyable as it is profoundly cathartic. Funeral came about at a time when I was starting to give up on the idea of an “album,” focusing instead on individual songs or samplings from across a band’s career (ie/ my White Stripes mix-tapes). It was also one of those albums that EVERYONE has and enjoys. My brother likes it. I did not see that one coming.
Favourite Song: In the Backseat
Favourite Lyrics:
- I’ve been learning to drive, my whole life
- Come on Alex / You can do it! / Come on Alex / There’s nothing to it!
- If my parents are crying / then I’ll dig a tunnel from my window to yours
3. Navy Blues – Sloan (1998) – This is either the first or the second CD I ever bought (the other one in contention being “Stunt” by the Barenaked Ladies), and consequently, because the band is made up of two guitar players, a bass player and a drummer, this is what I grew up thinking rock music sounded like. Which was lucky. I very easily could have fallen into the dreadful frat sludge and bubblegum pop that came about in the years following this album’s release. Through Sloan, I back-tracked to The Beatles, seeing a through line in music history from “the greatest band ever” to “what I was listening to” which on some level gave me the confidence to pursue slightly off-path musical choices (no one else my age was listening to Sloan). This album has been described as “pop-rock,” but I despise that title. I’d like to see Simple Plan or some other teeny-bopper pull off a guitar solo lie in “Money City Maniacs.” I missed out on the chance to see Sloan perform during this era, and I still salivate at the idea of getting to see them perform songs from this album.
Favourite Song: Money City Maniacs
Favourite Lyrics:
- I thought I was the type of guy to never put out, but I’m not.
- I’m kind of level headed too.
- What you took you can give back / But I never kept track / I guess I never thought I’d have to.
4. The Wall – Pink Floyd (1979) – To my mind, popular music has never been as theatrical as “The Trial” from this album. This is the song that I put on mix tapes which inevitably got me strange looks from the recipients. The strange paradox of this album is that the themes are so clearly about isolation and alienation and solitude, and yet most of the songs are explosive, bombastic, and very, very showy. I love listening to this album all the way through, and the songs in fact seem slightly out of place when played separately or on some kind of greatest hits compilation. This album is self-contained (almost as by some form of barrier!) and feels very complete which, to an adolescent trying to find meaning in the ever-changing and ever-confusing world, feels very important.
Favourite Song: Is There Anybody Out There?
Favourite Lyrics:
- But in the town, it was well known / When they got home at night, their fat and psychopathic wives / would thrash them within inches of their lives
- Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?
- Since, my friend, you have revealed your deepest fear / I sentence you to be exposed before your peers / Tear down the wall!
5. Amnesiac – Radiohead (2001) – I was at a small, but quite rowdy party in high school when one of my most respected friends pulled out this album and said she “just had to put it on.” She then sat down by the stereo, closed her eyes and listened to the whole thing all the way through, every so often saying something like “Oh god, that trombone… man…” She brought me over to the stereo and put “Life in a Glass House” on repeat, but I was a little too distracted by the goings on of the party to really take it in. I figured there must be something to it, so I borrowed the album from her and put it on the next night to give it a proper listen. On the first go around I didn’t get too much out of it, but it kept getting played at parties and gatherings and I found it creeping into my subconscious until I was playing it over and over in my head. It took about three years before I enjoyed it on the same level as my friend, but to this day I always think “Oh god, that trombone…. man…”
Favourite Song: I Might be Wrong
Favourite Lyrics:
- I might be wrong / I could have sworn / I saw a light coming on
- Once again I’m in trouble with my only friend
- You and whose army? / You and your cronies / Come on, come on / Holy Roman Empire
6. Chutes Too Narrow – The Shins (2003) – This is one of those albums that I, and all my friends, attempted to sing along to, but we just didn’t quite have the range. “Chutes Too Narrow” quietly found its way into the subconscious of the people I was hanging out with at the time. Everyone seemed to have a copy of this album, and it was always being played in the background at get-togethers, so much so that when I would hear “Turn a Square” or “Pink Bullets” on its own, I would wonder where I knew it from, despite having heard it just the night before (that was a huge run on sentence, by the by). I got to feeling that this album knew me better than I knew it, which was strange, yet comforting on some level. I still can’t tell you what any of the songs are about, but I guess it doesn’t really matter.
Favourite Songs: Saint Simon
Favourite Lyrics:
- You told us of your new life there / You’ve got someone coming round.
- Mercy’s eyes are blue / When she places them in front of you
- Over the ramparts you tossed / The scent of your skin and some foreign flowers.
7. Elephant– The White Stripes (2003) – This is an album I bought expecting to only like the lead single, “Seven Nation Army.” I had seen the video, which was a rare occurrence, because this was 2003 when MuchMusic had all but abandoned videos, let alone freaky-deaky videos like “Seven Nation Army.” So I went out and bought the album, put it in my car’s CD player expecting to hear the name famous “bass” line, but due to a strange programming glitch with the player, the second song, “Black Math” came on instead. Usually I would just reach for the button and correct the mistake, but I remember thinking “Wow, this is really good. Like, really good!” I ended up listening to the rest of the album all the way through, so that when it repeated, “Seven Nation Army” was effectively the last song I heard. Elephant opened my eyes up to a new world of low-fi, do-it-yourself music which was just as good, if not much, much better than what was being put out there by bigger bands like U2. I was definitely an indie-rock fan at this point.
Favourite Songs: Seven Nation Army
Favourite Lyrics:
- Don’t want to hear about it / Every single one’s got a story to tell
- Is the problem you’re allergic to a well familiar name? / Do you have a problem with this one if the re-sults are the same?
- And I know that you feel it too / When my skin turns into glue
8. Ys – Joanna Newsom (2006) – I remember reading a glowing review of this album online which included a line about how the worst possible thing that could happen to Ys would be for the listener to approach it in the same bored, lazy manner as a high school student approaches Shakespeare. I thought “This sounds like my kind of album!” So I went out and purchased a copy (which, more than a little surprisingly, was available at Music World), and had my first involved listen in a long time. It had been a while since I read the lyrics as the music played and I had almost forgotten how much I enjoyed the experience. The only previous experience I’d had with Joanna Newsom was repeat viewings of the video for “The Sprout and the Bean,” and I was expecting something similar. It was like expecting short stories and instead getting novels. These songs are so rich and complex that they demand active listening, but once I had this on repeat for a few weeks the narratives became more and more natural and understandable. It wasn’t long after that I found myself humming the melody to “Monkey & Bear” as I waited for the bus. The album had taken up residence in my mind.
Favourite Songs: Monkey & Bear
Favourite Lyrics:
- And the little white dove / made with love, made with love / made with glue and a glove and some pliers
- So my bride / Here is my hand, where is your paw?
- When you ate I saw your eyelashes / Saw them shake like wind on rushes
9. Knives Don’t Have Your Back – Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton (2006) – I was getting more and more into Metric during this period, and just starting to expand into the Broken Social Scene-iverse, so I was seeing all these bands, singers, and musicians as part of a collective pool of talent. And then it was announced that Emily Haines would be releasing a solo album. “Neato!” thought I. “A chance to further expand the pool!” So I visited the official website where “Our Hell” was streaming. There are very few instances where on first listen/viewing/wearing I realize that I have a new favourite song/film/shirt, but this was definitely one of those moments. I visited that website constantly until the album was released, then listened that disc into the ground. Knives is the kind of elegant, self-assured melancholy that many will fail to achieve. The songwriting is incredibly personal, chronicling Haines’ difficulties with success, the passing of her father, and the life of a traveling musician, yet the album is very accessible and adds a new depth of personality to the Metric frontwoman who could have been written off as a Karen O wannabe.
Favourite Songs: Our Hell
Favourite Lyrics:
- With all the luck you’ve had / Why are your songs so sad?
- Don’t elaborate like that / You’ll frighten off the frat boys / Use your baby talk
- What’s bad? We’ll fix it / What’s wrong? We’ll make it alright
10. Live at Luther – Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds (1999) – I haven’t billed myself as a Dave Matthews fan in years, but in high school, I was all about DMB. I have seen this band in concert 5 times, head and shoulders above any other band to date. While recently, Dave and the fellas have become a bloated, lazy touring hog, back in the early days he was just an incredibly goofy guy who happened to write and play some interesting songs. Even today I will admit that the early stuff is very good, if not the stuff of legend, as many hardcore fans (including myself, eight years ago) will claim. This album is only Dave and frequent collaborator Tim Reynolds on two acoustic guitars (Tim’s heavily moded with numerous pedals), and I prefer these versions to many of the full band arrangements. This album is the reason I started playing guitar, the reason I like acoustic versions of songs, and the reason I bought the lukewarm “Live at Radio City” that Dave and Tim released in 2007. I can anticipate every guitar lick and solo as it happens (even in “Stream,” and really, who needs to do that?) but rather than becoming boring, it’s invigorating. In the early days, this music was really something special. I suppose that’s a lesson for what happens when you stop trying.
Favourite Songs: #41
Favourite Lyrics:
- I will go in this way / And I’ll find my own way out
- Reckless mind / Don’t throw away your playful beginnings
- Who’s got their claws in you, my friend?
11. Untitled #1 EP – Sigur Ros (2003) – Helllllooooo post rock! I used to listen to this EP before going to sleep, but rather than making me zonk out (as it rightfully should have done, soothing as it is), I found myself staying awake until it ended every time. I had never heard anything like this before. It was slow moving, yet catchy. It had no lyrics, yet the vocals were engaging. While technically having some sort of gobbledygook (*wink*) vocal structure to it, this EP counts as instrumental. I had never gotten into music that didn’t have identifiable lyrics before, but suddenly instrumental bands were interesting! Without this EP, I would have never found Mogwai, Do Make Say Think, Holy Fuck, et al, all bands which deserve attention. Plus this music is as emotionally affecting as anything out there, despite the fact that 99% of people who listen to it have no idea what it means. Sigur Ros have tapped into something primordial here, as close to the collective unconscious as we’ve gotten. Plus, the fourth track (waves of sinisterly slowly pulsing sound) was my theme music when I played Edmund in King Lear, so y’know… bonus.
Favourite Songs: Untitled 9 B
Favourite Lyrics:
- Yaa aa aa Yooo aa aa Yooeeeee
- ?
- ?!
12. Under the Pink – Tori Amos (1994) – In the early 2000’s I was mired in a lot of mid-nineties rock, still really into Dave Matthews Band, Sloan, Matthew Good Band, etc. I had NO female artists on my roster. Thanks to Jenny Hazelton, that changed! Tori Amos was the first female artist I listened to and felt challenged by. Her music was deep, beautiful, passionate, enraged, and a lot of fun to listen to. This album, because it was the first I listened to, made the deepest impression on me, much more than the infinitely-cited Little Earthquakes. Amos’ blatant sexuality (“Icicle” is about masturbating in a church, “Cloud on my Tongue” focuses on blowjobs) was intriguing to a young gentleman in his first year at university, and the confrontation with the subject matter really opened my mind up. I’m not 100% sure what my opinions on sex, women, religion, and personal exploration were before this album, which s shows just how influential it was. Plus, “Waitress” is about murdering an annoying coworker. Nice.
Favourite Songs: Pretty Good Year
Favourite Lyrics:
- They say you were something in those formative years
- God, sometimes you just don’t come through / Do you need a woman to look after you?
- I think it’s perfectly clear / We’re in the wrong band / Oh no
13. Weezer (The Blue Album) – Weezer (1994) – In my last year of high school, my friends and I had a scavenger hunt, and one of the items on the list was a copy of the Blue Album. Only one of us came back with an incense burner, but everyone had a copy of the Blue Album. This was the ultimate in accessibility. This was music made by nerdy kids at a time when people pulling off blistering solos like these seemed to have been handed talent by Thor or someone. Clearly Rivers Cuomo got this good by not going outside. I remember hearing “In the Garage” and recalling a time, not long before when I had converted a corner of the garage into a sort of clubhouse (there was only room for me). Whether or not I knew it, that corner of the garage was a sort of refuge from the world, and now I knew that it wasn’t just me that wanted to get away from it all. And the fact that EVERYONE had a copy of that album made me feel a lot more in touch with my peers. It feels like a great unrecognized generational thing: Everyone has this album. It’s just not a question.
Favourite Song: No One Else
Favourite Lyrics:
- Hey Brah! Oh man, I’m so glad we’re all back together again!
- Somebody’s Heinie is crowdin’ my icebox
- What’s with these homies dissin’ my girl?
14. Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone? – The Unicorns (2003) – The Unicorns made me kiss traditional song structure goodbye. By the time I heard this album I was deep into Sigur Ros territory, so I was getting familiar with experimental songwriting, but even Sigur Ros songs have a fairly recognizable arc. With the Unicorns, you really had to pay attention, really enjoy riffs, choruses, verses as they came because they just wouldn’t be coming back. Many songs are completely unrecognizable from beginning to end (case in point: “Tuff Ghost”), and yet the whole album is cohesive and follows a trajectory. It makes for an intriguing listen, and I have been able to follow records much more closely since tuning my ear to this way of hearing songs and albums. Why did these guys ever break up?
Favourite Song: Tuff Ghost
Favourite Lyrics:
- I lift weights but I don’t sweat / I go for a swim, but I don’t get wet
- I don’t want to die in the ocean
- Hey, let’s get known / If we work real hard we can buy some matching clothes
15. MaryAnn Meets the Gravediggers and Other Short Stories – Regina Spektor (2005) – Regina Spektor’s vocal eccentricities make my knees weak. Previously, my only experience with someone who had as much fun with words was Tori Amos’ vowel stretching, but Regina took to a whole new level, making the vocals as important an element to the song as the instruments, melody, or lyrics. Spektor’s songwriting carries something Bohemian in every aspect, a kind of do-it-yourself mysticism, self-reliant and self-confident. Her gender-bending (in the album’s first line, she describes herself as a “son”) is intriguing and engaging, and indicative of her ability to inhabit the characters the songs revolve around. Are these people imaginary, or facets of her own personality? It’s true that this album is something of a refresher for newbie’s unfamiliar with her first three albums, but the songs coalesce so easily that it’s hard to imagine them as ever having been separate from each other. In any case, whoever selected the tracklist made incredibly informed choices, and the songs benefit from their individual positions on the roster. Overall, this album conjures up everything I like about non-traditional lifestyles; deep beauty, psychosis, verbal wizardry, and more than a fair share of joy.
Favourite Song: Oedipus
Favourite Lyrics:
- They made a statue of us / And the put it on a mountain top / Now tourists come and stare at us / Blow bubbles with their gum / Take photographs of us / Have fun
- Yes I put a boulder to my ear / but I still can’t hear / What’d’you think I was an amateur / playing with my tempra-cha-cha-cha-cha-ture
- Cause MaryAnn’s a bitch / MaryAnn’s a Bi-i-itch
16. He Poos Clouds – Final Fantasy (2006) – Owen Pallett won the first Polaris Prize, and NO ONE saw that coming. The years in between have proven that a wise choice, as the abominably titled He Poos Clouds is a constantly surprising listen; A musical onion if you will. On all levels, this album just shouldn’t work. Pallett’s voice is by his own admission, high, thin, and reedy, the music is centered around violin, and the lyrics are all (apparently) about different stages of Dungeons & Dragons. And yet, somehow it all falls into place. The songs are all completely unique, each one painting an intriguingly disturbing picture, as though they are paintings in a gallery. Every media outlet that has referred to Final Fantasy since this record’s release has deferred from calling this an “album,” instead preferring “project” or “experiment.” I think this is because the album transcends a normal listening experience, requiring participation from the listener. To this date, I’m still not sure what exactly is expected of me, but when I play this album I feel like I’m in an art installation. There is just nothing else like this out there. This is a complete anomaly. Too weird to live, too rare to die.
Favourite Song: This Lamb Sells Condos
Favourite Lyrics:
- Shields Up! Shields Up! / Bar the door and put your dukes up!
- I wanna learn from my mistakes / Before they scare me away from all the drugs
- He’s slapped up a portrait / And yes, it is his own.
17. Velvet Underground and Nico – The Velvet Underground (1967) – This album has everything. Literally. There is just nothing more an indie music fan could ask for. I remember giving this album to someone and not realizing that I was testing them at the time. When they didn’t like it, I stopped talking to them about music, because we just clearly didn’t see eye to eye on the subject. The more I listen to modern music, the more I realize how much I have to thank this album for. For that reason, it’s a little difficult to find an occasion to actually listen to it all the way through. It’s become such a part of my subconscious that I’m hearing it all the time. I don’t need to put the record on to listen to this album.
Favourite Song: Heroin
Favourite Lyrics:
- Shiny shiny / Shiny boots of leather / Whiplash girlchild in the dark
- You see her walking down the street / Look at all your friends she’s gonna meet / You’d better hit her
- I Feel just like Jesus’ son / And I guess, but I just don’t know
18. Abbey Road – The Beatles (1969) – This was the first time I ever considered the concept of an “album.” Having grown up in the mix-tape generation, everything I listened to in the car (which was the only place I listened to music) was part of some compilation or another. I just assumed that Abbey Road was a greatest hits compilation. I remember listening to this on CD (a big deal back then) in my Dad’s office. I would mostly skip back and forth between “Octopus’ Garden” and “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” because I was a kid and they were the goofiest songs available to me. Sooner or later I put it together that these songs and the rest of the album was a cohesive whole, even going so far as to hold an argument that Abbey Road was technically a “concept album” because of the recurring musical motifs. Clearly I was out of my depth, but I won the argument. Many of the Beatles songs over the years have become separated from their albums due to the over-greatest-hits-ification of the band’s catalogue, but for me, Abbey Road will always be about the big picture.
Favourite Song: Octopus’s Garden
Favourite Lyrics:
- Joan was Quizzical / Studied metaphysical science in the home
- You never give me your money / You only give me your funny paper
- Well you should see Polythene Pam / She’s so good looking but she looks like a man
19. Pink Moon – Nick Drake (1972) – My first long-term girlfriend introduced me to Nick Drake a few months before the Volkswagon commercial came out and exploded him into my generations consciousness. It was the first time I realized two things: 1) Being “in-the-know” about bands, musicians, and types of music was something that was important to me, and 2) that music is something sacred. Nick Drake’s music comes from a place so intimate and ancient that it’s still hard to reconcile the fact that he only lived to be as old as I am now. I can’t imagine delving that deeply into myself to create what he created. The reverence that I found upon listening to this album has continued to this day and still acts as a high-water mark for quality and emotional involvement in works of musical art.
Favourite Song: Pink Moon
Favourite Lyrics:
-You can take the road that takes you to the stars now / I can take the road that will get me through
- Saw it written and I saw it say
- Day once dawned and it was beautiful
20. Monty Python Sings – Monty Python (1989) – Do I really need to explain why an album that has the songs “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” “Medical Love Song,” “Henry Kissinger,” “I’ve Got Two Legs,” “The Philosopher’s Song” and “Eric the Half a Bee” is influential?
Favourite Song: How could I choose?
Favourite Lyrics:
- Is this wretched demi-bee / half asleep upon my knee / some freak from a menagerie? / No! It’s Eric the half-a-bee
- Inflammation of the foreskin reminds me of your smile
- Life’s a piece of shit / when you look at it
posted by Phinneas Q Jacksmith @ 11:14 a.m.
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