How 2 <3
Thesis
It's getting late. But when you start a blog post like this at 3 AM, maybe it's more so getting early. A blog post like this meaning a blog post that seems Important to me. Meaning a list! Yes, fam! It's a late-summer list like you've never seen!
MY TOP 10 FAVORITE ALBUMS
For whatever reason, I've been turning this particular list over in my head. I haven't published something as silly as this since those high school Facebook notes I'd like to forget. I'm noticing a surprising amount of overlap between the albums on this list and the ones from way back when. Some music just sticks with you, y'know.
Anyway, I love this list because each of these albums is the Best Album Of All-Time. They are ordered alphabetically by album name. I love lists.
Aquemini [1998]
by Outkast
It still sounds ahead of its time. From the unexpected opener "Hold On, Be Strong" to the twisted thump of closer "Chonkyfire," Aquemini redefines the parameters of hip-hop. As it turns the Dirty South on its head, the record remains both soulful and silly, bumpin and serious. 3k and Big Boi are at the top of their collective game here. Don't get me started on the instrumentals. It's a #RARE experience, an album busting at the seams with invention. Also notable for containing the only funny rap skits ever.
Daughters [2010]
by Daughters
I'm already retconning. Yes, this 2010 release was nowhere to be found in my Best Albums Of The Year list. But when I published that list I was still afraid of how Daughters made me feel. Which is dangerously volatile and amazed and enraged and emo/human. This is abrasive, alienating music (their first record blasts through 10 songs and countless riffs in just over 11 minutes). This one lasts twice as long and makes twice of an impression. Grindcore or math punk or whatever you want to call it, Daughters is a gut-wrenching listen where each song feels absolutely critical. Like every second counts.
Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill [2008]
by Grouper
Liz Harris is an artist on another level. Probably my favorite artist (certainly my most listened to). Her body of work is a gorgeous mess of tape-loop experiments and vocals distorted to hell, guitars made into static waves and piano strikes made alien. And yet: Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill. Pretty, singer-songwritery guitar ballads and relatively clear and angelic singing. This was my introduction to the black-and-white slow-motion dreamworld of Grouper, and it remains my favorite. My favorite because of the cozy-in-bed mood, my favorite because of the reverb, my favorite because of "Stuck." This is the same Liz that summoned "Second Wind / Zombie Skin," but it's also a rare Liz that seems to be recording after snoozing in a comfy chair with some hot chocolate.
Feels [2005]
by Animal Collective
Avey, Panda, Deeks, and Geo are my bros. They're the band I've spent more time loving than any other. I fondly remember every time I've seen them live, every time I've cuddled up in bed with them in my headphones, every time I've sat down and listened to them with friends. True love, fam. AnCo aren't that cool anymore, but one listen to the bubbling guitars of "Did You See The Words" or the sneaky violin of "Bees" reminds you how good they will always be. I've at one point or another declared each and every AnCo release to be their finest, but Feels is the loveydovey summer record of my teens, and for this I'll cherish it forever.
The Golden River [2003]
by Frog Eyes
Something about the way he sings and the way he plays guitar. Carey Mercer, y'all. His words, his crazed eyes, his off-kilter stomp, his spit. Can you hear the menace, the insanity lurking in the ridiculous 3 minutes of "Time Destroys Its Plan At The Reactionary Table"? I can. It's terrifying. It's glorious. There's some lucid lunacy in the spiraling keyboards and crashing cymbals and jagged guitars running all through this album. My favorite recurring nightmare.
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea [1998]
by Neutral Milk Hotel
What was a naive freshman in high school supposed to do with something as brutally honest as this masterwork? Drive down country roads and sing it loudly as possible, I guess. At this point, the album is including almost by default on Best Of lists. It's indie canon of the highest order. But for some reason its reputation did nothing to tarnish the immediate and personal connection I felt to this music. You know it's great, I know it's great. We've both cried to "Two Headed Boy Part 2" like a hundred times in our driveways. And we can all belt "Holland, 1945" like we wrote it ourselves. But despite its legacy and its legend, it still feels like I'm discovering it for the first time when I hear that dun-dun-dun da-da-da-da da-dun.
Live At Leeds [1970]
by The Who
I still remember this record as the one that blew a pre-teen me out of the water. I still remember the band as my idols, my first rock stars. Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle, and Keith Moon. I would draw pictures of them, write their names like prayers in my notebooks. A weird, cliche sort of obsession justified by Live At Leeds, which is still to these aged and experienced ears the best live album ever. To borrow a word from my then-soulmate William Miller: incendiary. Also, I'm convinced The Who were the first noise band and the first metal band. Just listen to that 15-minute "My Generation." My my.
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy [2010]
by Kanye West
Exhaustion sets in as I try to think of different words to write about the album that has refused to leave this blog alone. Let's just say: it endures. "POWER" still feels like way too much. "Monster" still feels like a monster. "Runaway" still feels self-loathing and -empowering. "Lost In The World" still feels like my most-played song. Yeezy continues to teach me well.
On The Beach [1974]
by Neil Young
"What Would Neil Young Do?" The best poster ever, which proudly hung in my dorm room freshman year (and fell to its untimely and crumpled death before I moved out). When I talk about music, I say a lot about favorite this and that. But I also tend to say that Neil Young is the objective Best artist. You can't deny "Cowgirl In The Sand" or "Powderfinger" or "After The Gold Rush" or "Thrasher." If you do, you deny yourself the Best music. On The Beach in particular is that undeniable music. Emotional unrest brews beneath the choppy surface of this doomed and bluesy album. It breaches as harmonica wails.
Purple Rain [1984]
by Prince & The Revolution
So, the sort of album that has a Wikipedia page for each of its songs. The sort of album that makes it into magazine lists. It's fun. It's arty. It's decadent. It's pop. It's Important. It's a movie! "The Beautiful Ones" is The Prettiest Song. "I Would Die 4 U" is the Most Fun Song. "Purple Rain" is the Best Song Ever. It's an album that can only be spoken of in hyperbole! A fitting end to
#METASWAG's Top 10, I say.
Conclusions
A list was a perfect way to end the day! Tomorrow night (tonight?) I'll be reunited with some long lost friends. We're gonna party like it's 1999. Anyway, all of this writing has really set the mood for some heavy sleep. Goodnight, y'all. Until next time:
John Carpenter's
