My Pick Album #2: Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons Paint That Shit Gold [Hip Hop, Alt Hip Hop] 2008

This was the first album I heard from the group Atmosphere.  I saw the music video for the track Guarantees and fell in love.  I don't know how many times I have listened to this album, but its safe to say that it is probably too much.  I like this style of hip hop where its smart, not all about how good you are at rhyming or what you are doing at the club.  Each song is a look into someone's life, sometimes his own, sometimes a child, sometimes a single mother.  It really shows the struggles people go through on a daily basis.  Slug is great at creating lyrics that convey that story and really paint a picture.  Ant makes some really great beats in this that are very different than a lot of other stuff out there.  I got really into this group for a while this year, but have still missed what a lot consider to be their best album "Lucy Ford" which is on my list much later on.  I can't wait to come that one.


Favorite track: In Her Music Box or Guarantees
Spotify: Atmosphere – When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold - Standard Edition
If you like this, then try these: Blackalicious – A2G EP, Aesop Rock – None Shall Pass

Album #10: Okkervil River - The Stage Names [Indie Rock] 2007

I had no idea what to expect going into this one.  The name was a little strange, the album art was a little strange, but I really like the music.  This type of music is one of those that I always enjoyed, but never really listened to for some reason.  I loved the song Plus Ones.  You Can't Hold The Hand of a Rock and Roll Man is a close second.  I like the folk sounding rock bands a lot, and this is no exception.  I am not really sure what else to say about this one, other than I think people should give this one a chance.

Favorite track: Plus Ones
Spotify: Okkervil River – The Stage Names
If you like this, then try these: Bright Eyes – Cassadaga (not my favorite Bright Eyes album, but the most like this)

Album #9: Modest Mouse - This is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About [Alt Rock, Indie Rock] 1996

Another Modest Mouse Album.  Had I thought this through a little more I wouldn't have randomized the list of albums just so that this didn't happen.  This album blended in with The Lonesome and Crowded West, but I think that it just because I listened to them so closely to each other.  The one track that did stand out to me was Lounge.  I liked the guitar riff and bass groove combo a lot.  The vocal style of that track is cleaner than usual, but still very much Modest Mouse which I like.  The fact that the bad switched up instruments to record Dog Paddle is pretty cool.  Overall this album is pretty depressing to me.  I know that is what it is supposed to be, but I just feel bummed after listening to it.  And that's saying something since I really like "emo" styled music.  I was reminded a lot of Arcade Fire listening to this though and I didn't really get that from Lonesome.

Favorite track: Lounge
Spotify: Modest Mouse – This Is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About
If you like this, then try these: Arcade Fire – Funeral

Album #8: Beatles - Abbey Road [Rock] 1969

One of the classic albums of all time.  I had heard this one before, but really wanted to sit down and just listen to it. There are so many classic songs off of this album so I'm just going to talk about the few that really struck me for some reason or another.  Maxwell's Silver Hammer is one of those songs that I never really got.  It doesn't really fit in with the rest of the album and after doing some research, I found out it was supposed to be but on the White Album, but was pushed off due to time constraints.  Octopus's Garden is another fun one as it is one of the few songs written by Ringo.  The Side A/Side B transition is really interesting to me.  Side A ends with She's So Heavy building up to a very powerful feeling to a sudden cut leaving you feel very uneasy.  When Side B starts up with Here Comes the Sun, its almost as if they are trying to bring you out of the depression they just put you in.  Carry That Weight is another really solid track that I feel really belongs in this album (and no other). 

Favorite track: Come Together
Spotify: Too bad Spotify is dumb with The Beatles and all the fun copyrights.
If you like this, then try these: Any other Beatles Album, just pick one.

Album #7: Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West [Indie Rock] 1997

The extent of my listening to Modest Mouse is Float On, so I was excited to hear something from the band but earlier in there career.  As with a few albums on this list, this is not what I was expecting.  I went in expecting something a little poppier, but got garage indie rock at its core.  I wish I could have heard this album back when it was released and watch this band evolve.  They have a very cool sound to them and I feel like I should listen the other later albums to see where they took this sound (besides Float On).  Shit Luck had to have been my favorite track off of the album.  The simplistic lyrics and driving rhythm are things that I love in songs and I felt like that would have fit perfectly in the sound track to Scott Pilgrim vs The World.

Favorite track: Shit Luck
Spotify: Modest Mouse – The Lonesome Crowded West
If you like this, then try these: Various Artists – Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Album #6: The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico [Psychedelic Rock, Alt Rock] 1967

Velvet Underground is one of those bands that I have always heard of, but for some reason I had never listened to.   This was a bit different than I was expecting.  Surprisingly this is a very relaxing album.  I found myself just getting into a groove listening and just sitting back.  I do have to say though, that I didn't really like Nico in there.  I did however really connect with the track Heroin.  That track will stick around on some playlists for a while.

Favorite track: Heroin
Spotify: The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico 45th Anniversary
If you like this, then try these: The Clash – Combat Rock

My Pick Album #1: La Dispute - Wildlife [Post-hardcore, Prog Rock, Spoken Word] 2011

La Dispute is a post hardcore band from Grand Rapids Michigan.  The lyrics are more poetry than lyrics and are sung with so much emotion that you can feel the music throughout your body.  To this day (having heard this album 50+ times) I still get chills and goosebumps several times throughout this album.  According to the band this album is"a collection of unpublished "short stories" from a hypothetical author, complete with the author’s notes and sectioned thematically by the use of four monologues."  The stories in this album are gut wrenching and make you really see people in life altering situations, whether they deal with them positively or negatively, from different points of view.  The best example of this is the song King Park.  In this a drive by shooting takes the life of an innocent bystander, a young child, and looks that the situation from the points of view of the police, neighbors, family members, and the shooter.  It really gives you every side of the story and builds to an insanely powerful ending showing raw human emotion.  This style of music and writing may not be for everyone, but I want you guys to give it a chance.  If you can't listen to the music for one reason or another I think you should at least read through the lyrics of this album.

This is one of the most moving albums I have ever heard.  I would actually love to see a short filmed with this album as the narration/dialog.  A hardcore opera of sorts.  With the right filming it could be one of the most emotion tearing videos ever made.

Give this one a chance, and let me know what you guys think in the comments below.  Is it as moving as I think it is?  Does it not hit the same notes with you?

And if you have heard this album before, try hearing them live and the passion they have while performing these songs:

Favorite track: Safer In The Forest/Love Song For Poor Michigan
Spotify: La Dispute – Wildlife
If you like this, then try these: MeWithoutYou – Catch For Us The Foxes, La Dispute – Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair

Album #5: Devin Townsend - Terria [Prog Metal, Prog Rock, Alt Rock] 2001

I was told going into this album by a coworker not to take Townsend seriously.  I didn't understand until the song Earth Day started and I couldn't help but laugh.  With lyrics like "Eat your beets, recycle...recycle... Don't eat your beets, recycle...recycle" who wouldn't laugh a little.  All I could think of was The Beets from Doug went metal.  Other than the ridiculousness of the lyrics at times, this is a great album.  Awesome technical guitar and drums with someone who can sing classic metal.  There were a few times were I felt like it was overly proggy, but that's the style of the album and I can't fault it for that.  At one point during The Fluke I thought to myself that this is what it would sound like if Dethklok sang and covered Kilroy Was Here by Styx.  Why do I make these weird connections?  I don't know, but that's what came to mind.  I really like Nobody's Here, which is weird because its very ballad like and that's not normally my style.

Favorite track: Nobody's Here
Spotify: Devin Townsend – Terria
If you like this, then try these: Dream Theater – Octavarium

Album #4: Tears for Fears - The Hurting [New Wave, Dark Wave, Synthpop, Post-Punk] 1983

Another one of those albums that defines the genre.  This is pure New Wave to me.  To this day anytime I hear New Wave, I can't help but think of this clip from the movie SLC Punk:

On the the album itself and away from my previous biases......erhmm.  This was good.  I liked it a lot.  I knew the song Mad World from before, but mostly from the Gary Jules version in Donnie Darko.  Other than Mad World the rest of the album sounds pretty similar to the rest of it.  I did really like the song Pale Shelter, but those two were the only ones that really stood out to me.  I had listened to most of the album before I realized it and had to actually go back and relisten to tracks that had just slipped by me.  This album makes great background music and can really make time slip away from you if you aren't paying attention.  It's a good album, but I don't think I'm going to keep this one around much.

Favorite track: Pale Shelter
Spotify: Tears For Fears – The Hurting
If you like this, then try these: All I can think of is Duran Duran and A Flock Of Seagulls, but I haven't listened to a lot of New Wave so I don't have much to compare it to.

Album #3: Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral [Industrial Rock, Industrial Metal, Alt Rock] 1994

I have definitely heard Nine Inch Nails songs before, but as with many albums on this list have never listened to an album straight.  This one was an interesting journey.  The Downward Spiral is a perfectly fitting name as the album shows someone getting more and more psychotic/neurotic and eventually just crashing.  Many songs show the hard rock portion very well such as March of Pigs, while others (Heresy and The Beginning) are perfect examples of what Industrial music is and should be.  To me, this is the album that perfected the genre.  Hearing Hurt at the end of the album was bittersweet for me.  I have always loved this song, but really think it became Johnny Cash's once he sang it. There are a few songs in history that have become another artist's after a cover was performed (Respect by Ottis Reading/Aretha Franklin, All Along the Watchtower by Bob Dylan/Jimi Hendrix and Cum On Feel The Noize by Slade/Quiet Riot) and this was one of them.  I love Reznor's tone in that song, but Cash took that song to a level that even Reznor couldn't have imagined for it.

Favorite track: I Do Not Want This
Spotify: Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral
If you like this, then try these: Korn – See You On The Other Side (this may not be a popular opinion, but I think it really fits)

Album #2: Ataxia - Automatic Writing [Experimental Rock, Art Rock, Electronica, Avant-Garde] 2004

This was a strange album for me.  There were moments that I really liked what I was listening to and others where I wish they would have just finished the part they were on and moved on.  Many of the songs seem to drag on and on.  However, I do enjoy the fact that each song seems to have its on "acts" of sorts.  Many albums will have up and downs and flow, however this is the first time where every song on the album is its own "mini-album".  The music is sound, but a bit too abstract at times for my tastes.  Most songs lack much of a structure.  I do really enjoy the track "The Sides" most likely do to the fact that it is one of the shorter songs, the vocals are more clear, and it has a great structure to it.  The fact that this group consisted of Joe Lally the bassist from Fugazi, John Frusciante formally of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Josh Klinghoffer who replaced Frusciante in RHCP is awesome.  Overall though, I don't think this is one I would listen to often.

Favorite track: The Sides
Spotify: Ataxia – Automatic Writing
If you like this, then try these: Nurse (This is the only thing I can think of right now and its a tiny little local band I saw once or twice 7 or 8 years ago.  Listen to the song Revolver though)

Album #1: Rx Bandits - ...And The Battle Begun [Alt Rock, Ska Punk, Prog Rock] 2006

 

This was not my first listen to the band Rx Bandits.  In a similar project to this one, someone suggested that I listen to Mandala.  This was the first time hearing anything off of this album however.  The first track starts off with an echoing acapella verse.  I was really thrown for a loop with that.  Not what I was expecting, but it was very soothing.  Then it goes to the title track and its back to the Rx Bandits I was expecting coming into this.  The first thing that came to mind is that this is what I felt Incubus was going for on Anna Molly but didn't hit.  It's a great track that shows how well this band can layer sounds without it getting too busy.  In Her Drawer is next, and I liked this even more than the last track.  The chorus is a great upbeat driving sound that drives the song forward.  At this point the album only seems to be going uphill.  As I hit the song 1980 the intro makes a little more sense as it is echoed in this song.  One Million Hours An Hour, Fast Asleep does come off as a point where there can be a few too many things going on, but just barely.  This band does a great job at stacking elements on top of each other, but keeping them all distinct and blended at the same time.  The next track slows it down a bit to ease you out of the whirlwind you just came out out of.  The rest of the album gives you the sound you would have come to expect from this band.

Favorite track: In Her Drawer
Spotify: Rx Bandits – …And The Battle Begun
If you like this, then try these: Incubus – Light Grenades, Big D & The Kids Table – Strictly Rude, Forrest Day – Forrest Day

Getting Geared Up to Start

Hey everyone.  Excuse the look for a little bit while I work out some of the details with this blog.  I have the list of albums ready to go and should be starting tomorrow.  Grab some headphones and listen along.