I’ve always had a thing for lists, but lately I’ve been into really short lists. Don’t ask me why. So my question for today asks you for a short list. If you are cast away to a deserted island with just a record/CD player and you are only allowed to bring 3 albums to get you through the rest of your days, which 3 albums would you bring? I say 3 albums because it is kind of an uncomfortable number. You don’t get the luxury of the usual top 5, but it’s not as much all out pressure as picking only 1. So think about it for a bit...3 albums to listen to for the rest of your life. Mine would have to be...
Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker
I always rely on this record to keep me grounded. It reminds of my roots…of where I’m from. It lets me know that it’s okay to hurt sometimes or to be vulnerable sometimes. It is a beautiful album thanks in large part to its sheer simplicity. The album possesses a certain honesty that has kept me listening to it year after year. It always seems to evoke some sort of emotion from me, and it changes with nearly every listen.
Wilco – Summerteeth
This is kind of the opposite end of the spectrum from Heartbreaker. It is full of quirks and bells and whistles. But they all seem to come together so effortlessly and eloquently. It doesn’t make me forget about all of life’s hardships or problems, but it does sort of move them into a room with different lighting so that I can get a new perspective on them. I seem to hear something new every time I hear this album, so I think it would be a natural choice to take with me.
Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
This album would give me hope for a change. This is one that has remained completely refreshing and unique for a decade now. Whenever I hear Jeff Mangum singing on this record, I feel like he is really saying something. I’m not always sure what it is that he is saying, but it is a voice that demands to be heard. This one kind of runs the full gauntlet of emotions, but leaves you fulfilled in the end. I think this album would make me feel like it’s okay that I’m on a deserted island.
So...what are your three?
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Sunday, February 24, 2008
Throw From Your Window Your Record Collection
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12 comments:
Those are some great albums and three is an incredibly pesky number, but if I had to choose, here are mine and I'll have to get back to you with the actual order:
Arcade Fire-Funeral: Maybe no album captures the gamit of emotions for me like this album. It's incredibly moving and I still remember the first time I ever listened to "Wake Up". Since the inauguaral listen, I've never found so much from one recording as I have from this. A lot is made about "Soundtracks to our lives," but if you played this to the gripping moments of my life, I could not keep it together. Simply beautiful and art at its finest.
Radiohead-The Bends: In the mid-90's I hadn't even become a teenager and was absolutely as innocent as that sounds. And while not crafted in the same way as 'that other' great album put forth by this band, this one still jerks my emotions in every single way. Sheer rock at times and the feeling that I get from listening to "Fake Plastic Trees" or "Street Spirit" in context of the album is indescribable. If I had to pick an album to listen to forever, I'd have to pick this one because to this point, I almost have and it has held up famously.
Ryan Adams-Heartbreaker: I echo your sentiments about the sense of home, because to turn a phrase, this album just feels like home. I fell in love with this album during my first semester away and still remember thinking to myself, that this is the best thing I have ever heard. I'll never understand what people from California get from this record, but they love it just the same. It is so genuine, sincere and heartfelt that you almost feel a certain almost love-sickness when listening to some songs. Lyrically and musically, a gem.
1.) The Indigo Girls: 12:00 Curfew
2.) Lionel Ritchie: Truly: The Love Songs
3.) Johnny Cash: The box set.
If you say that the JC box set can't count as one album, then this is a stupid game.
K-Po
P.S. Spaz will be embarrassed by this list.
do greatest hits count? what about soundtracks? i guess these aren't really albums, but i was just wondering.
Kathy:
1. I would have never pegged you for an Indigo Girls fan. Maybe it's because you actually have a feminine haircut or maybe because you married a man and not a woman. Either way, I wouldn't have guessed it.
2. I can get behind some Lionel Ritchie. But there really wouldn't be much lovin' goin' on on a deserted island.
3. A box set is such a cop out! Technically, it is supposed to be 3 albums. But it is your island, I suppose, and since it is Johnny Cash, I'm willing to let it slide. And if you are gonna make baby Drew listen to any of these, I would want him to hear the JC box set.
Jenni:
Yes, I believe that soundtracks definitely count. I'm kinda iffy on a greatest hits album, but I suppose if you can bring a box set, you can bring a greatest hits album. At least it is only on one CD. I think pretty much anything is fair game, I'm just curious as to what people would listen to for the rest of their lives.
1.) Snow - 12 Inches of Snow
2.) Falco - Rock Me Amadeus
3.) Anything by Rappin' Granny
--Spaz
Haha. The rest of your days on this island would be funky as hell.
Lately, I've kind of been into the short list myself. I don't know why either, but I think it's because it demands so much thoughtfulness. This is one hard list, but here goes.
1. David Byrne, Look Into the Eyeball: This album means a lot to me, not just because Talking Heads and lead singer David Byrne is one of my favorite artists; it means a lot because it reminds me of the most fun I've ever had in my life and that was my junior year in college. I discovered this album when I was at my best, socially, physically and intellectually. Driving down Euclid Avenue on a sunny Monday afternoon to the crappy house on Kentucky Court while the funky tracks on this album blared through the speakers of my shitty, maroon Dodge Sprint is a memory I don't want to forget. Friends were waiting when I arrived.
2. The Rentals, Return of the Rentals: This one is weird I know. The obvious backlash is that The Rentals are gimmicky and that anyone who had this album on an island would get sick of it. That's probably true for most people who don't have the memory associations that I have. This record reminds me of a nice time in my life. This was the album of the next to last summer that I spent at home with my family. I believe it was just prior to sophomore year in college. Everything was OK and I was working at Readmore Bookstore in Pikeville. My father was still alive and my friends were close. There were a lot of late nights spent drinking beer that we bought illegally behind a house that my neighbors couldn't sale. Actually Clyde, I remember you were working at Sykes and practically lived at my house that summer. get lost whenever I hear this album and that's what I'd want on the beach.
3. Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense - Because even on a desert island, you just gotta dance, sing and shout.
i do admit, i can be a more song-oriented gal than an album-oriented one. this is blasphemy, i knoe, in the world of true music connoisseurs. maybe it's my limited attention span or my constant mood changes, both of which are unsatisfied by an entire album with a cohesive theme- in short, the good albums; hence this list was a labor for me. consider it a bit of insight into the mind of the novice- a lover of music with admittedly quotidian taste.
(you say soundtracks count, so...)
1. the forrest gump soundtrack. i know it's incredibly "i-bought-this soundtrack-for-my-dad" but even the youngest of us can't deny aretha, ccr, simon and gargunkel, and the doors. if i needed something to keep me sane, keep me socialized, and to remind me of the world i left behind, this would be it. if you lose touch with "repsect," then you might as well just die on the island, i say. you don't have to love it, but the civilized world might seem a tiny bit closer if you can still jam to "sugar pie honey bunch" (or hurriedly skip that track, your choice).
2. spoon- ga ga ga ga ga. i don't have an intellectual excuse for this one. it always puts me in a good mood. and it's pulsing and constant and would be completely inappropriate for a slow, slow death.
3. radiohead- "ok computer." sorry kelly. this BARELY edged out "the bends" for me. i knew i had to pick a radiohead album because i wasn't going to pull an "et tu, brutus?" on my favorite band. so i chose methodically: what radiohead songs are my absolute favorites and which album has the most of them? in the end, "street spirit" and "high and dry" were outnumbered by "paranoid android," "exit music" and "let down."
[sorry this comment was so long- i was thoroughly intrigues by the topic. can we do movies or books sometime?]
BTW, there's a typo in my post that could be misconstrued, I meant to say that "I get lost whenever I listen to this album." I reread the sentence after reading Jen's post and realized that it could've been read to mean that I meant for Clyde to get lost. I just wanted to clarify.
Also, Jen - I would go with OK Computer over The Bends as well, but just barely. I know Kelly and know he genuinely likes The Bends more, but with other people, I sense a sort of stigma with OKC b/c it was the band's blowup album. Of course, that doesn't mean it's not a masterpiece, just that the cliched notion that anything popular can't be good has gained way too much traction within our generation.
I love OKC and Kid A was close to being on this list as well. As far as The Bends over OKC, I guess it ultimately just came down to what I listen to more now. For me, it was The Bends and can only be jealous that someone out there is listening to OKC on their island. If I could just have some non-Amnesiac Radiohead on my island I would be fine. Maybe even Amnesiac, I'm not sure.
Yeah, Amnesiac is really the dog album in their collection, although there are some good songs on it. I've always been a fan of the first track on the record.
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