Emily's Albums A to Z

Listened: Tuesday May 18

I got into Pink Floyd really late. It happened only quite recently, after seeing Roger Waters and his huge Obama checkbox pig at Coachella 2008, which relates directly to this album. Before then, I liked the music, but dismissed it as something stoners listened to (which, after all, is not an incorrect characterization) and I wasn’t a stoner, therefore… but recently I have tried to get over what I think I should like (which can be the major mindset amongst music nerds) and just get busy liking what I like. It’s worked so far!

Listened: Tuesday May 18

Amnesiac era songs always remind me of puking all over my best friend’s car, on the way to their show. I had felt ill all day, but there was no way I wasn’t going to their show. I thought I could ride out the waves of nausea, but no dice. I feel bad to this day about subjecting 3 other people to my vomit, instead of just doing a controlled hurl out the window like I should have.

Funnily enough, after vomiting and heading back home to clean up the mess, I felt fine and we headed back to the show without further incident! The quality of the show plus the unfortunate events leading up to it make that something I probably will never forget.

Listened: Tuesday May 18

Lily Allen doesn’t seem like someone I could hang out with, at all. Her image to me is that of an insecure, partying rich kid with questionable taste.

That said, Lily Allen’s lyrics crack me up. A supremely British sense of humo(u)r coupled with a youngster’s knack for uncomfortably accurate bluntness really does it for me. Whether she’s discussing her brother’s weed habit, unattractive men’s unsuccessful advances, or the wonders of her neighbo(u)rhood, which includes a “pimp and his crack whore”, I have a smile on my face.

That said, she can also really poignantly get across things like regret that a relationship is over (Littlest Things).

This was a crazy-good debut album, I must say.

Listened: Monday May 17

I have to thank my co-worker Jim for turning me on to this band recently. The music is ragged garage rock and Erika Wennerstrom is a force of nature. The album art is also a favorite of mine.

This CD was part of the soundtrack to a crazy house party in the not so distant past. And that worked – really well.

Listened: Monday May 17

I remember having this on in the background during college when my Indian-American roommate pointed out the “Hare Rama, Hare Krishna” lyrics in My Sweet Lord, which I don’t think I understood or noticed before then.

She laughed at a white British dude singing that. Poor George can’t catch a break!

Also – sacrilege alert – I think I like George’s version of If Not for You better than Bob Dylan’s original.

Listened: Monday May 17

It’s like Zooropa and Pop never happened – it’s the old U2 from the Achtung Baby days.

In fact, I would say this album is a grown up version of Achtung Baby. Still singing about love and hope, but from a higher level of understanding.

Listened: Monday May 17

All Night Cinema is Just Jack’s latest. He’s not really known here in the US, but by way of an introduction, he’s like The Streets, but less hard-living and ambitious. He’s a regular guy who has a way with words, storytelling, and catchy hooks.

Goth in the Disco is an amusing portrait of exactly what the title says. What would happen if a goth stumbled into a cool-people disco? And The Day I Died is classical Just Jack – poignant and detail oriented without being sappy or corny at all.

Listened: Monday May 17

I saw their album was $1.99 on amazon as a one-day promotion and I knew they would be at Coachella 2010 so I bought it. Funnily enough, they played so early in the day that we didn’t see them after all.

All I know about them is that they are British and I think one of their songs is in a commercial. I wouldn’t be surprised if they find their groove and are huge someday, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if they release a couple albums and fade away either. Only time will tell.

Listened: Monday May 17

I confess – I don’t actually own any other MMJ records. Every time I do a test listen of their stuff, I can’t seem to get into a whole album of it.

But somewhere I heard Bermuda Highway and I had to have it. Jim James’ voice is beautiful and even though the line “Don’t let your silly dreams fall in-between the crack of the bed and the wall” seems like it’s been purposely crafted to make English majors swoon, I must admit it worked.

Listened: Monday May 17

Another appropriately momentous album appearing early in the process. I actually got into U2 before the Beatles – early high school. They were the first band I fell hard for. And to this day I have never been to one of their shows. Someday I should change that.

This album is – for lack of a better phrase – dead sexy. With amazing lyrics.

“I’m only hangin’ on to watch you go down, my love.”

“Love is clockworks, and cold steel, fingers too numb to feel.”

“Who’s gonna ride your wild horses? Who’s gonna drown in your blue sea?”

“One life, you’ve got to do what you should.”