Emily's Albums A to Z

Listened: Friday April 29

I love The Stone Roses’ first album. I liked it when I was a teenager (sadly, I really was too young to remember it when it originally came out in 1989), but in the last couple of years I have fallen deeply and madly in love with it. I could listen to it literally thousands of times and not get bored.

The guitar, the drumming, the singing and the lyrics are all brilliant. The magic contained therein simply oozes from the speakers. One can tell it’s not a modern-made album, but at the same time it’s not dated yet it reminds me of a time that’s definitely past. Nostalgia and longing washed over me as I fell in love with it. Without this album I’m sure Britpop would never have happened and many diverse bands would never have gotten together or created anything of substance. Every song makes me want to crank the volume just a little louder.

Do lyrics get any better than “I can feel the earth begin to move. I hear my needle hit the groove and spiral through another day”?  Waterfall is in up there in my Top 100 Songs Ever list. I love the way it morphs backwards into Don’t Stop, too. This Is The One is probably also on that list. Strangely for a British band they reference driving quite a bit. This album definitely makes me drive fast, and just the sound of it makes me imagine someone driving down a freeway. The momentum holds on and doesn’t let go.

For the longest time I didn’t look super-closely at the album cover and I thought the green black and white spatters were some kind of green-tinted road map of a dense city. Which kind of works with the lyrics “Don’t these times fill your eyes, when the streets are cold and lonely and the cars, they burn below me.” I imagine someone in a tall block of flats looking down on the city’s patchwork of streets.

Listened: Friday April 29

Au Revoir Simone’s music makes me imagine understated sexy librarians crooning in the stacks. At times, they remind me of a non-comedic Garfunkel & Oates. I downloaded their album cheaply from Amazon during a sale, and I’m glad I did.

I love that their name references Pee Wee’s Big Adventure – obviously they have a sense of humor. The album cover is also really pretty. Everything about it screams “indie”.

Listened: Friday April 29

Stairs and Elevators is like a self-help or motivational book in rocking album form.

“I march my feet to a different drum”

“My new resolution is to be someone who does not care what anyone thinks of me”

“I really want to live”

“Don’t forget to quench your own thirst”

“I just gotta swallow my pride and let things fall naturally. Just be who I am”

“I will never fit into a mold. I know me better than you will ever know”

Then, oddly, after all these feel-strong aphorisms, the irrepressible Erika busts out with:

“I can’t do the things I used to, ’cause I feel old.”

I guess everyone’s allowed their moment of weakness, even a badass take-no-prisoners rocker.

Listened: Friday April 29

Spoon and Rafter is another very beautiful album from Mojave 3. Like Excuses for Travellers, Spoon is very mellow, but still very pretty and engaging. I think I prefer Excuses for Travellers, but Spoon and Rafter doesn’t fail to entrance me with its gentle melodies.

Listened: Friday April 29

Imogen Heap is another artist I’m so sorry I missed when this album came out. My friend Leslie suggested we check her out at Coachella 2006, and it was a great performance, despite sound issues that clearly upset her, but she soldiered on with the proverbial stiff upper lip. Even after this though, I still didn’t really get into her album until the album blogging project.

After finally really absorbing this album, I don’t understand how she didn’t become wildly famous in 2006. Her music seems so interesting, yet very accessible. I think she might have been ahead of her time; if Speak For Yourself was released today I think things would have been different. But maybe it’s better this way; she really seems like someone who does art for art’s sake, and that might be trampled upon if given too much attention all at once.

I need to pick up her new one, Ellipse, and see where she’s taken herself.

Listened: Friday April 29

It’s only fitting that there’s a dog on the front of Spanish Dance Troupe – I can’t help but get down to “Poodle Rockin'” every time I listen to this album, even though it’s a totally bizarre song. The entire album is much more cohesive and pop oriented than previous releases, which in some ways is less fun, but is still really well done.

When SDT came out in 1999, I was in college, and naturally I went to an in-store performance of theirs at Mod Lang. It was pretty hilarious to see all 5 or 6 of the band members crammed into the infamously pack-ratty space, trying to play their instruments. I still have (analog) pictures of this, which are some of my earliest pictures of a show. My copy of SDT is also autographed!

Listened: Thursday April 28

How did I miss LCD Soundsystem the first time around? Maybe the reeky whiff of hipster scared me off.

Then I happened to hear Someone Great somewhere, and the dark creepy groove drew me in like a tractor beam. As soon as I heard the album all the way through, I knew I should forget my hipster biases.

And he’s not just a groovehound, he’s also sensible when he says “Sound of silver, talk to me, makes you want to feel like a teenager, until you remember the feelings of a real live emotional teenager, then you think again.” Preach on, brother!

Listened: Thursday April 28

Something to Remember Me By is a very important album from my teenage years, one I haven’t listened to in quite a while. I loved Grandpaw Would and Noise Addict already, and then Ben dropped this amazing album in 1997.

This album is what got the attention of a more mainstream audience, and it’s easy to see why. Every song here has special meaning to me, but I especially love Eight Years Old and Daisy for their sweet, simple imagery and feeling. If he was a grown man singing such things, it wouldn’t be as touching, but it’s the words of a lovesick 18-year-old, something which I hope most people can understand, even just a little.

Also, amusing to a kid of the 80s, he shouts out tons of 80s sitcom stars on Household Name. It’s not all songs about puppy eyes and saying goodbye!

Listened: Thursday April 28

Perhaps I have a more dispassionate reaction, being too young to remember the Beatles breaking up, but I think Yoko Ono gets way too much crap, from everyone. She is a total badass, and I think she is due a lot of props.

However, that doesn’t mean I enjoy all of her music. In fact, I enjoy very little of it. Listening to Don’t Worry Kyoko all the way through (16 minutes of it) about killed me. However, Sisters, O Sisters, Born in a Prison, and We’re All Water are decent songs that I can get into, both musically and lyrically.

The Yoko disclaimer out of the way, I think Some Time in NYC is very underrated. This album epitomizes the theory that John Lennon started as a rocker and mutated into a folk singer (while Bob Dylan started as a folk singer and mutated into a rocker).

Woman is The Nigger of the World is a very ballsy song to write, and is somewhat offensive and true at the same time. Attica State, New York City, Sunday Bloody Sunday, The Luck of The Irish, John Sinclair, and Angela are all very rocking and poignant political folk songs. The 70s saxophone can be very cheesy in many other situations, but for some reason it works to great effect in John Lennon songs. He had some kickass musicians working with him here.

Except for the aforementioned Yoko screams punctuating too many of the songs, the live jam with Frank Zappa is very funky as well, and seems like an awesome show to have attended. Who doesn’t want to scream “Scumbag” while dancing their butt off to amazing music?

Listened: Thursday April 28

Every Roots of Orchis album takes me to a beautiful alien planet. Some Things Plural is no different. I love the opening of Roll The Dice Man, Baby Needs A New Ellipsis with the turntable scratching sounding very much like an audio ellipsis.

Throughout the album, the electronica and guitars mixes effortlessly into soundscapes that relax me and keep me moving at the same time. Too bad they couldn’t stay a band forever!