Emily's Albums A to Z

Listened: Monday September 13

I’m kind of shocked how much more I enjoy Mellon Collie than when it originally came out. At the time, I wasn’t a big Smashing Pumpkins fan and I couldn’t yet handle “harder” music (yes, I know Smashing Pumpkins aren’t that hard on the scale of things, but they are very guitar heavy). I remember touring the dorms at Cal as a prospective freshman and seeing a sticker of the album cover on someone’s door. Not sure why I remember that so vividly.

All the famous songs like 1979 (which I did always really like), Tonight, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Zero, are all great for nostalgia purposes. I discovered I really like Here Is No Why, Cupid De Locke, Muzzle, and Thirty-Three too. Even though this album probably could have been trimmed down to one album, for a double album, there isn’t a lot of filler.

Listened: Friday September 10

Noise Addict was Ben Lee‘s first band. Meet the Real You is a really fun album written and performed by teenagers, for a teenage audience. For being so adolescent, this album’s pretty good both musically and lyrically. This album was released when I was 16, so the lyrics of the song 16 were pretty apt:

You told me 16 had a girl
16 had a car
16 made me wise
But now I’m 16 and I see that’s all wrong
But now I’m 16 and I see that’s all wrong
At 16 I’m just lucky to be alive

I regret not going to their only American tour, but I seem to recall they played a small club the size of Bottom of the Hill, but at the time I was too wimpy to go to such a small venue, and who knows if I would even have been allowed to by my parents. I assume it was an all ages show, but I don’t remember.

Wow, I can’t believe my excellent memory. This is a review of that show I’ve just googled. I vaguely recall reading it at the time. The web page definitely looks that old.

Listened: Friday September 10

For a long time I didn’t realize one of the double-exposures on the front cover of Meddle is an ear. I thought the earhole was the blurry head of a camel or something and the light was coming from a point behind it. And I swear I wasn’t on drugs!

Meddle is a little ambient for me. I don’t listen to it much at work. I love Fearless though; it’s a great example of Pink Floyd’s ability to rule.

Listened: Friday September 10

As the album cover hints, Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust (With a Buzz in Our Ears We Play Endlessly) is a lot more free and easy than previous Sigur Ros albums. The other albums are beautiful, but are very serious about their art. This album lets go a little and lets the light in. There’s less opera and more pop. The song Festival is a good example of this; it’s a momentous, positive, dramatic ray of light.

Some of the songs are a little slow for work momentum, but they’re all beautiful and affecting. If you couldn’t quite get into Sigur Ros’ earlier records, I encourage you to check Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust out.

Listened: Friday September 10

The Man Who is an important album from my college years. Why Does It Always Rain on Me is a brilliant pop song. Though it amazes me that apparently people used to ask Fran (Travis’ singer) what he lied about when he was 17.  Hello? I’m sure it’s not specific! Who didn’t lie about something when they were 17?? I never once thought he was referring to a specific event.

I remember taking Amtrak to Davis from Berkeley to stay with my friend Leslie so we could go see Travis at the Crest in Sacramento. To this day, it’s one of my fondest memories and most fun concerts I’ve ever been to. We also got to meet the band and get autographs (and a hug and a kiss on the cheek from Fran) afterward behind the theater when they came out, which had never happened to us before. It was only a group of about 30 or so people waiting there, so it was mellow and fun. It seems so innocent and unlikely to happen these days, even though it was only 10 years ago; I wonder if bands still do that without anyone being obnoxious?  I wish we had thought to bring a camera!

Listened: Thursday September 9

After the Green Album, I fell out of love with Weezer. Mostly due to attending a Weezer show when I was 22 and being surrounded by asshole teenagers who made the show very unpleasant for everyone around them. I thought “The Blue Album came out when I was 15, how am I still surrounded by high school Weezer fans after all this time?” Also, it seemed to be the “cool kids” at the show versus the nerds, who were the fans originally.

I half-heartedly bought Maladroit, but I hadn’t listened to it much. Now that I’m further away from that time, it sounds a little better to me then it did then. At the time I thought they had gone too far over the RAWK cliff. And they might have, but I can deal with it more now.

Blue, Pinkerton, and Green still have a special place in my heart because of their teenage appeal, but I think the love story stops there.

Listened: Thursday September 9

The modern-day sound of Idlewild is like Green Day and REM had a baby. The vocals are REM-like, but the music can be very pop-punk.

I keep expecting Idlewild to fizzle out or release a less than stellar record, since they are growing up and having families now, which can derail bands with naturally youthful sound. However, they keep releasing great music like Make Another World.

There are fewer anthemic ballads on MAW than previous records The Remote Part or Warnings/Promises, but the classic Idlewild sound is still here. It makes me happy they keep exceeding my (admittedly low) expectations!

Listened: Thursday September 9

Even though Magical Mystery Tour is masquerading as a crazy circusy album, I’ve always found some of it to be quite dark. The Fool on the Hill is a beautiful song, but it’s so bizarre – he’s a loner on drugs! Blue Jay Way is also very creepy musically; it makes me think of drug paranoia. Maybe those songs are the scary freakshow part of the circus. I Am The Walrus is definitely the fun house.

I’ve always been annoyed that Flying is such a short song. It’s such an infectious groove, I just want it to keep going.

Listened: Thursday September 9

I haven’t listened extensively to all the Black Keys albums my former co-worker Jim has loaned to me, but I think Magic Potion is my favorite one so far. It’s excellent dirty bluesy rock, obviously very influenced musically by Led Zeppelin, and vocally by Creedence and the like. The propulsive grooves encourage my work to move along!

Listened: Thursday September 9

The Magic Numbers are yet another band in the tradition of “music sounds very American, but the band is actually British” (see Mojave 3). The band is also known as being “unglamorous” in the British press – the members don’t wear snazzy clothes and they aren’t toned, tanned, and made up, but they aren’t consciously grunging it up either; they’re just regular schlubs.

I See You, You See Me is a brilliant male-female duet. I love when duets work really well. This is also another album that makes me think of sun and Coachella. I remember sitting in a shade tent relaxing as their music wafted to me from the main stage.