{"id":1142,"date":"2006-08-04T01:22:03","date_gmt":"2006-08-04T05:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cleek.lunarpages.com\/blogs\/?p=1142"},"modified":"2006-08-04T01:22:03","modified_gmt":"2006-08-04T05:22:03","slug":"the-list-2006-40-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/?p=1142","title":{"rendered":"The List, 2006, #40-31"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Getting bigger. Getting stronger. <\/p>\n<hr>\n<div style=\"margin-left:30px; margin-right:100px\">\n<p>40. <strong>Led Zeppelin : Physical Graffiti (1975)<\/strong><\/p>\n<table border=0>\n<tr>\n<td valign=top>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/covers\/ledzep_pg.jpg\" style=\"margin-left:10px\" align=right><br \/>\nAbout 1\/4 of this is filler (all on the second disc), but the rest is great. There's classic Zeppelin blues rock, a few epics, lots of Jimmy Page guitar goodness, and plenty of Robert Plant doing his rock god thing, and ... <i>Kashmir<\/i>!\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>39. <strong>Yo La Tengo : Electr-O-Pura (1995)<\/strong><\/p>\n<table border=0>\n<tr>\n<td valign=top>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/covers\/yolatengo_eop.jpg\" style=\"margin-left:10px\" align=right><br \/>\nMy first YLT record, and their last before they started down the road to electronica and lounge music. Among other good tunes, it has my favorite YLT song, <em>Tom Courtenay<\/em> - even though I have no idea what the lyrics are about... something about Julie Christie.\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>38. <strong>Jimi Hendrix : Are You Experienced (1967)<\/strong><\/p>\n<table border=0>\n<tr>\n<td valign=top>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/covers\/jimi_aye.jpg\" style=\"margin-left:10px\" align=right><br \/>\nJust look at that song list : <em>Purple Haze, Manic Depression, Hey Joe, The Wind Cries Mary, Fire, Foxey Lady<\/em>, etc.. And of course, guitar heroics that leave all other guitar players slack-jawed.\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>37. <strong>Slint : Spiderland (1991)<\/strong><\/p>\n<table border=0>\n<tr>\n<td valign=top>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/covers\/slint_s.jpg\" style=\"margin-left:10px\" align=right><br \/>\nThis came out the same year as Nirvana's \"Nevermind\", and like Nirvana, Slint gets a lot of use out of extreme changes in volume. And, the same guy produced this record as produced Nirvana's \"In Utero\", Steve Albini. But that's where the similarity ends, because while Nirvana was writing pretty much straightforward rock songs, Slint wrote complex, coldly atmospheric songs, with icy, angular guitars and vocals that were barely more than spoken stories. All the songs share a feeling of cold menace; and it's a record best heard start to finish, (alone, in the dark, if possible) to get the full benefit of its beautiful cold astringency.\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>36. <strong>Pink Floyd : Animals (1977)<\/strong><\/p>\n<table border=0>\n<tr>\n<td valign=top>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/covers\/pinkfloyd_a.jpg\" style=\"margin-left:10px\" align=right><br \/>\nEasily the least popular of all the albums from their golden age. Unlike the other Floyd records in this era there aren't any singles here - the parts don't separate from the whole nicely, so it's hard for radio to handle. But taken as a whole, the album is great - it's dark, moody, atmospheric and cynical as anything. I used to listen to this a lot on the Greyhound bus ride from Rochester to Albany. It's bleak, pessimistic tone seemed perfect for watching central NY silde by, on cold winter's nights.\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>35. <strong>The Beastie Boys : Ill Communication (1994)<\/strong><\/p>\n<table border=0>\n<tr>\n<td valign=top>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/covers\/beastie_ic.jpg\" style=\"margin-left:10px\" align=right><br \/>\nMy favorite rap album, by a mile. Great beats, great samples, funny, self-effacing lyrics and some fun instrumentals. Q-tip makes a nice appearance. It's a long album, but one that works for me start to finish.\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>34. <strong>The Beatles : Revolver (1966)<\/strong><\/p>\n<table border=0>\n<tr>\n<td valign=top>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/covers\/beatles_r.jpg\" style=\"margin-left:10px\" align=right><br \/>\nThis sits just on the late side of the early\/late divide. This is where they started to get into psychedelia and where songs about things besides girls were no longer oddities - where they started to get <em>interesting<\/em>, instead of just a really good pop band. One of my bands did a passable version of <em>She Said She Said<\/em>.\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>33. <strong>Sonic Youth : Sister (1987)<\/strong><\/p>\n<table border=0>\n<tr>\n<td valign=top>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/covers\/sonicyouth_s.jpg\" style=\"margin-left:10px\" align=right><br \/>\nThe individual songs are much more focused than songs from previous records; the traditional SY guitar freak-outs feel deliberate and not just open-ended improvisations, and there's a lot less noise for noise's sake. Many of the songs are truly catchy and, for early Sonic Youth, accessible. For a long time this was my favorite SY album since, unlike \"Daydream Nation\", this doesn't feel like a monolithic epic, and I don't feel bad not giving it my full attention.\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>32. <strong>A Tribe Called Quest : Midnight Marauders (1993)<\/strong><\/p>\n<table border=0>\n<tr>\n<td valign=top>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/covers\/atcq_mm.jpg\" style=\"margin-left:10px\" align=right><br \/>\nThis is the other rap album on my list. ATCQ avoids a lot of the cock-grabbing nonsense that defines the rest of rap. Well, they <em>mostly<\/em> avoid it... well, maybe not even mostly. They <em>often<\/em> avoid it? Whatever, they still get into it, but it's not all they got. They're funny, crude, clever and often brilliant. The samples are slick, the words are smart, and the attitude is smooth and laid-back. I've been looking for years for rap that compares favorably to this album, and haven't found it yet.\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>31. <strong>The Beatles : The Beatles (white album) (1968)<\/strong><\/p>\n<table border=0>\n<tr>\n<td valign=top>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/covers\/beatles_wa.jpg\" style=\"margin-left:10px\" align=right><br \/>\nIt's huge and varied and full of goodness, greatness,  goofiness and godawfulness. But the good parts outweight the bad, and the great parts outweigh everything else - even <em>Revolution #9<\/em>.\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<hr>\n<p>Tune in Monday for the next part.<\/p>\n<p>Previous <a href=\"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/?p=1125\">100-91<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/?p=1126\">90-81<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/?p=1130\">80-71<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/?p=1131\">70-61<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/?p=1134\">60-51<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/?p=1140\">50-41<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Getting bigger. Getting stronger. 40. Led Zeppelin : Physical Graffiti (1975) About 1\/4 of this is filler (all on the second disc), but the rest is great. There's classic Zeppelin blues rock, a few epics, lots of Jimmy Page guitar goodness, and plenty of Robert Plant doing his rock god thing, and ... Kashmir! 39. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-list-06"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ok-cleek.com\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}