Paige, over at Flux-Rad just finished up a series of posts where she listed her favorite top 100 albums evar. And she did such a fine job of it, that I'm going to shamelessly, brazenly and completely, rip off the way she did it !
And so, without further addoo, here are the first ten, #100-91, of my 2006 Top 100 Favorite Albums Of All Time.
100. Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger (1991)
Let's kick this off with a bang. Loud and heavy, with those crazy time signatures, heavy heavy riffing, and Chris Cornell's amazing vocals. The first half of this is pure handbanging goodness. The second half gets a little tedious, but that's what the Eject button is for.
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99. Jane's Addiction : Nothing's Shocking (1988)
I saw the Mountain Song video on MTV and was joyous - hair metal hadn't killed rock yet! Deep underground, some people were still making straightforward guitar-based music that didn't suck ! And then I heard the rest of the record and was all like ... "WTF? These guys are all over the place. This is even more fun than I expected! Yay!"
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98. U2 : War (1983)
Sunday, Bloody Sunday has been played to death, but it's still the best track, with its martial, marching snare drum intro, to kick off this record. The rest of the songs continue that marching feel, in varying degrees, until finally giving way to the calm, raised-lighter ending of 40 - ahh, preach to me Bono. A couple of the songs are a bit weak, but the highlights are great.
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97. Cowboy Junkies : Lay It Down (1996)
They stick to their trademark sound, but they turn up the volume on many of the songs, giving it a harder and even darker edge than their previous records.
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96. Black Sabbath : Paranoid (1971)
War Pigs, Iron Man, Paranoid, Fairies Wear Boots. Yeah baby. It's almost a caricature now, but that's OK.
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95. Alison Krauss & Union Station : Every Time You Say Goodbye (1992)
Wow, what a voice. And what a great bunch of songs. While I knew all the old bluegrass standards from my father, it wasn't until this album that I started paying attention to its current practitioners. Of course this isn't strictly old-time bluegrass, it's more of a pop/country/bluegrass hybrid. But whatever you call it, it's good stuff.
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94. Pixies : Doolittle (1989)
Reminds me of my first summer off from college - this, The Sugarcubes, 10,000 Maniacs, The Cure's "Disintegration", The The's "Mindbomb", etc.. Here Comes Your Man is the song that introduced me to the Pixies, and I'll always be thankful.
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93. Modest Mouse : The Moon & Antarctica (2000)
One of those bands that makes you think, when you hear them for the first time, "Wow. That's, err, different." Then you have to decide if you like it. Sometimes their nervous, scattered lo-fi energy is tough to take, especially their early records. But they tone down the skittishness on this one, and the major-label production is smooth and shiny, making this fairly accessible. I remember getting this one afternoon and not being able to stop listening to it, even as my wife stood by the door, tapping her foot, trying to get us to the restaurant in time for our anniversary dinner reservations. The fucking risotto can wait - he's singing about dogs!
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92. The Cure : Standing On A Beach (1986)
This is the cassette version of their "Staring At The Sea" greatest hits collection. The reason I include this is not for the singles, but for the flip side of the tape, which is a great collection of B-sides. Though mostly from The Cure's darkest period, they're not quite as gloomy as the songs they back - which is probably why they didn't make the albums. They're quirky and unpolished, often goofy. One at a time as B-sides, they're probably pretty forgettable. But, when they're all together like this, they seem to work as a whole. They should've released them as an album, the way REM did with their B-sides and outtakes record, "Dead Letter Office". Up until 2004, and the release of their "Join The Dots" collection, the only place to find these altogether was on that cassette, so I went a long time without hearing them. Now that I have them on CD, I can build the album they wouldn't build for me.
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91. Van Halen - Van Halen (1979)
I know this is totally uncool, but, what can I say. It's just a fun record. It's defintely VH's most consistent early record (they wouldn't stack an album anywhere nearly as full until "1984", David Lee Roth's final VH album - and even then, meh). But this is almost 100% great. Sure, they were over-the-top. But if you can believe that they were in on the joke and simply having fun with it all, you can have fun right along with them.
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Stay tuned for the next thrilling installment, on Monday, where I will pay a visit to Chapel Hill, NC, circa 1992!
