Mal's
List (Will include descriptions shortly)
Smashing Pumpkins -- Siamese
Dream
Kyuss -- Blues For The Red Sun
Jeff Buckley -- Grace
Doves -- Lost Souls
Nirvana -- Unplugged In NY
Faith No More -- Who Cares A Lot
Soundgarden -- Superunknown
Queens Of The Stone Age -- R
Muse -- Showbiz
Pearl Jam -- Ten
Weezer -- Self titled (the
blue album)
Radiohead -- OK Computer
Tool -- Undertow
Fun Lovin' Criminals -- 100% Columbian
Mik's
List:
Cake -- Fashion Nugget: The
album that really got me interested in music. Like everyone else, I heard
The Distance first, but this album deserves so much more respect than it
receives. Each song is perfect pop, basically, there isn't a dud on the
album, it features some fine work from Vince Di Flore on the trumpet, and
while some of the lyrics are silly at best, there are a few tracks which
strike a real emotional chord. I'd probably put Cake's first album
Motorcade
of Generosity in a top ten list as well, but in the interests of diversity
I'll leave it out of this.
Pixies -- Doolittle: The album that's been playing
non-stop on my player for about four months now. Hard to listen to at first,
but this album grows on you if you give it half a chance. Excellent guitar
parts in particular from Joey Santiago. If you're into indie/alternative
music, then basically you can thank The Pixies. They did it all first.
Don't believe me? A couple of quotes from people you might have heard of:
"The
reason we stopped using guitars so much was because there's only so many
Pixies albums you can copy." -- Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead
"I
was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip
off the Pixies. I have to admit it [smiles]. When I heard the Pixies for
the first time, I connected with that band so heavily I should have been
in that band - or at least in a Pixies cover band. We used their sense
of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard." -- Kurt
Cobain on Smells Like Teen Spirit.
Go
buy it.
Nirvana -- Unplugged In NY: I never really hooked into the
whole Nirvana thing, but this album just sounds right from start to finish.
Slower, almost folky songs beautifully performed and recorded. One of the
few live albums that actually works, the set closes with four of the best
songs you'll ever hear.
Jackie Brown Soundtrack: I shit you not, by far the best
Tarantino soundtrack currently available. Much more laid back than Pulp
Fiction and nowhere near as folky as Reservoir Dogs, the Jackie
Brown Soundtrack covers a wide range of styles from pop to country
to hip-hop, but at it's core are five or six soul classics from the likes
of Bobby Womack, The Delfonics and Randy Crawford. Very smooth, indeed.
Radiohead -- The Bends: The album that got me through the
HSC. For reasons I can't really work out, it took me a long time to get
into The Bends. Apart from standout tracks like High and Dry
and
Just,
I didn't really get it. I was stupid. This album has all the brilliance
of OK Computer, but without all the wanky pretensions. As far as I'm concerned,
The Pixies recorded five albums and Radiohead have recorded three rock
albums: if the reason Radiohead stopped using guitars was because there's
only so many Pixies albums they can copy, why don't they drop all the ambient
sounds shit for a while and go finish off The Pixies back catalogue.
Pulp -- Different Class: Songs even I'll sing along to. Jarvis
Cocker is the ultimate rock star, as far as I'm concerned: He wears big,
thick glasses; sports a primary school haircut; and looks uneasy wherever
where he goes. Instead of getting all pathetic and whiny, though, he just
lays into those he doesn't like. He writes some of the sharpest lyrics
going around and hooks them up with some kick-ass tunes on almost every
track on Different Class.
Fun Lovin' Criminals -- 100% Columbian: Even though they
cancelled at The Metro without giving any fucking notice whatsoever, there's
no way I could leave this off a list of my favourite albums. Simple beats,
smooth vocals and perfect guitar lines, other than when they get all weird
and country on you, the FLC basically have the perfect pop formula. Includes
absolutely my favourite song of all time, We Are All Very Worried About
You.
Radio Birdman -- Radios Appear (Overseas Version): I'm unsure
what impresses me most: That a little known Australian band were able to
write punk songs with melodies, or that they were doing it three years
before the whole punk phenomenon broke with the Sex Pistols. This album
just rocks like no other album I've heard. So ahead of their time it is
incredible. If anything like this came out nowadays the music press would
all over each other trying to tell you how good they are.
Violent Femmes -- Self titled: Like Fashion Nugget,
this album is just perfect pop. There's nothing else that needs to be said
about it.
Marvin Gaye -- What's Going On: Tracks everyone has heard,
even if they don't realise. Timeless soul music, impossible not to like.