Desert Island Discs

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

So, you're cruising along with all your CDS stacked next to you for some reason when suddenly your luxury cruise ship smashes into a rogue iceberg/whale/David Walliams and starts to sink.

In your panic you manage to grab your new top secret solar powered CD player and, as the water starts to encircle your neck, you manage to rifle through your CD collection and clasp five to your chest before kicking your way out of the sinking vessel and towards a nearby desert island.

Stupidly for you you forgot all about your ipod in the panic (doesn't matter anyway as it's not solar powered so would die within a day or two) so, as you make an undignified, spluttering landing onto the white sun-baked bridge, you look at the last of your posessions in your hands, remembering that you're a purist who doesn't include "Best Of" albums or compliations.

The five CD albums that you would have grabbed are:

and why?

Edited January 30, 2008 by ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster

[Benji]

"Out of Exile" by Audioslave

Not just for ironic purposes, but because it's a fantastic all round album, it's one of those albums that really makes you understand your own failings and bad feeling but still compliments the human spirit, it's a genuine masterpiece to me and is probably Chris Cornell and the boys' finest hour seperate or together.

"Audioslave" by Audioslave

Where Out of Exile is the Yin, Audioslave is the Yang, where OoE is the thoughtful and powerful album with careful beat planning and beautiful lyrics, Audioslave is the big loud knock you off your feet album. Both are loud and both are introspective, but they compliment each other by being what the other is less of.

"Warning" by Green Day

Often cited as one of their poorer performances, Warning is the album that most reminds me of society as a whole, it's a deep, dark and yet silly compilation of songs which shows Green Day at their most experimental and best.

"Bleed American/Self-Titled" by Jimmy Eat World

This is an album not on there for any reason other than being a great listen, it's a potent series of songs that really make you want to rock out.

"Brushfire Fairytales" by Jack Johnson

A beautiful and peaceful album, the album has obvious connotations, I'd love to use it to fall asleep to (which I do often anyway). Everyone loves the 'island lull' that comes with this album and I'm no exception

"Lullabies To Paralyze" by Queens of the Stone Age

Those deep seated moments you embrace your loneliness are all in this album, it's the sickest of human nature in instrumental form, and Homme's deep dark vocals really accentuate a great feeling within a depression.

"One Hot Minute" by Red Hot Chili Peppers

Tribal, pure, again, an album most people see as one of the bands worst, I think it's very human and feels like it's an album of modern instrumentation done at the dawn of man.

"BloodSugarSexMagik" by Red Hot Chili Peppers

If you're going for the best a band has made, this is as close as you're going to get, I often switch between Californication and BSSM as their best album, but on an island Californication would remind me too much of the society I'm missing and wouldn't comfort me.

"Billy Talent" by Billy Talent

Raw, energetic and brash modern punk, the definition of what a punk album should be to me. It's narrative devices are so well played out.

"I-Empire" by Angels and Airwaves

Hope in an album, this is the one I'd listen to when I felt completely lost and desperate, strong and inspired, the instrumentals aren't fantastic, but that's not what you should look for in this album.

EDIT: Just noticed you said five instead of ten, in which case it's the Audioslave albums, I-Empire, Lullabies... and One Hot Minute

Edited January 30, 2008 by Benji

[YI]

RULES ARE THERE FOR A REASON!

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

These aren't necessarily my fave five albums, just the ones that I think will keep me sane and feel less lonely. Electro will generally be out cos I can't see myself being in the mood on a desert island miles from nowhere...Except for beautiful summer vibes.

I'm gonna surprise myself I think...

"Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea" by PJ Harvey

WHY: This would be the first thing I grabbed. It makes me happy. When this goes on at work, all the stress of the day vanishes with the very first strains of Big Exit. Polly Jean can keep me company while I wait for rescue. It mixes feel good female songwriting (Good Fortune), edgy attitude (Whore's Hustle) with some of the most haunting beauty (We Float) in one near-perfect package. PJ has a sex voice. "We Float" may well lead me to orgasm just by listening to it after a few weeks on my own.

BEST TRACKS: Good Fortune, Whores Hustle And The Hustlers Whore, This Mess We're In, You Said Something, We Float.

WHAT I'LL SOMETIMES SKIP: Beautiful Feeling.

"Takk" by Sigur Ros

WHY: I thought I might take () or Agaetis Byrjum but ended up siding with Takk just because of the sheer might of the album. It flows, it's beautiful, it's hypnotic. I'll spend one minute navel gazing and the rest staring up at the stars or out to sea crying my little eyes out at the beauty of my predicament. "Takk" as a first track is horribly underrated as a lead in to Glosoli which is the most magnificent piece of cathartic and epic music there is. Hoppipolla is good, Med Blednasir is perfectly choiral for it's position on the album, Se Lest is towering music box and haunting melody throughout and then...BRASS BAND! (Perhaps one my my favourite collisions of sound) and then...then....OH MAH GAWD Saeglopur! No more beautiful piece of music has ever been written....So by then I'm crying like a new born baby and I'm only half way through the album...With Milano up next (exquisite vocals). Actually, listening through again quickly, this is the greatest album ever.

BEST TRACKS: The aforementioned first six tracks...Couldn't be better.

WHAT I'LL SOMETIMES SKIP: The second half, but not cos it's any less than wonderful, but because I'll be worn out.

"Absolution" by Muse

WHY: Cos it's Muse at their best and grandest. While I would miss out on a few other Muse tracks from other albums that I love, this has enough to keep me going and I think that I'd struggle on the island without a good bit of Muse from time to time. It's got epic(ish) covered (Apocalypse Please), slightlier "rockier" covered (Stockholm Syndrome which I love mostly for the piano in the chorus), and beautiful balladeering (Falling Away With You)

BEST TRACKS: Apocalypse Please, Stockholm Syndrome, Falling Away With You, Hysteria.

WHAT I'LL SOMETIMES SKIP: Blackout.

"Fever To Tell" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

WHY: Cos it's an album of high powered 2-4 minute pop punk stuff with a fantastic female vocalist. It also happens to have "Modern Romance" on it which makes it even better....Oh and "Pin" which I have a strange love for. Karen O can get me through the boring days.

BEST TRACKS: Pin, Modern Romance, Black Tongue, Rich, Date With The Night....Okay Maps as well.

WHAT I'LL SOMETIMES SKIP: Cold Light.

"Funeral" by Arcade Fire

WHY: Cos it's a bloody good album that binds together and yet allows you to listen in for little nuggets as well. An album I could listen to from start to finish OR dip into as I wanted.

BEST TRACKS: Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels), Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out), Wake Up, Rebellion (Lies), In The Backseat (boo on you, haters)

WHAT I'LL SOMETIMES SKIP: Neighbourhood #4 (7 Kettles).

Albums that would slip through my fingers:

"Talkie Walkie" by Air (nearly on the island cos of Run and Venus - two phenominal tracks)

"Mr Beast" by Mogwai (nearly on the island cos of Auto Rock, Friend Of The Night and the beachie summer vibes of the first few tracks)

"Dummy" by Portishead.

"Homogenic" by Bjork (magnificent but not solo desert island listening)

"Gran Turismo" by The Cardigans (seriously)

"OK Computer" by Radiohead.

[Skummy]

"Rain Dogs" by Tom Waits

As far as "complete" albums go, this is it. There's no one track on here I'd name as one of my favourite songs, or even one of my favourite Tom Waits songs, nor would I listen to most of them on their own....but as a whole, this album flows so perfectly. Sometimes it feels like a drunken sea-shanty, sometimes it's the old storyteller at the end of the bar that you lean in intently to hear, sometimes it's an old friend whispering in your ear....sometimes it's all at once, and sometimes it's like nothing you've ever heard. If I ever want to listen to one album in its entirety for the rest of my life, it would be this.

"The Drift" by Scott Walker

So far, the finest album of the 21st century, bar none. As far as creativity and originality goes, this is lightyears ahead of anything else in "popular" music...unique lyrics, nigh-on impenetrable music, lush string sections, the strangest arrangements this side of Stockhausen, LaMonte Young or Varese, while never sounding utterly unlistenable or avant-garde for avant-garde's sake. And THAT voice....dripping with the same melodrama he crooned with in the '60s, but now in his '60s it's world-weary, it's tortured, and it's downright spooky. Nobody sings like Scott Walker, nobody writes like Scott Walker. Now, there is nobody LIKE Scott Walker. Simple as that.

"The Queen Is Dead" by The Smiths

The Smiths are one of my all-time favourite bands, and this is the most complete example of why. The epitome of the self-loathing melodrama that made them, "I Know It's Over" - possibly the most perfectly written song this side of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", which is actually the best song ever written. The anthemic "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out", boasting the best chorus out there, and the finest way of avoiding the words "I love you" that I have ever come across. The humour to prove, despite evidence to the contrary that they weren't just miserable bastards - "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others", "Vicar In A Tutu", parts of "There Is A Light..." and the title track. Speaking of the title track, the incredible drum intro to show that they were never just a two-man band. Every track would be considered a classic by almost any other band, the fact that something so sublime as "Never Had No One Ever" can be thought of as filler in comparison to other tracks on here just shows how strong this album really is. Bliss.

"Altar" by SunnO))) & Boris

I need a degree of drone in my life, and this is the most accessible variety out there, as well as the most beautiful. "The Sinking Belle" is one of the most jaw-droppingly gorgeous songs I've ever heard, and the likes of "N.L.T." are as stunning as they are desolate, while never seeming overly bleak.

"Unknown Pleasures" by Joy Division

Speaking of overly bleak.....you're stuck on a desert island for the rest of your life. You're going to be fucking miserable. Why NOT listen to Joy Division? >_>

[Hobo]

Transcendental Blues - Steve Earle

It's probably my favorite Steve Earle album, I bought it about two years after it came out, maybe three. It's probably the zenith of his long recording streak that started when he got back in to music following his 'Vacation in the Ghetto' (or to put it simply heroin addiction and a prison sentence with some other things added for flavor). It is everything Steve Earle is, country rock, pure rock, bluegrass, even a little politics it all makes it in there. Much to my chargin The Galway Girl, one of the masterpieces of the album has been bastardized to the hilt by a few Irish artists, most popularly Mundy along with Sharon Shannon (who played on Earle's version)... But it's not the same unless you hear it on this album preceded by Steve's Last Ramble and following into Lonelier Than This in a triple whammy of songs about being in love, getting screwed over and then feeling the heartache that comes afterward. I can't think of anything more perfectly country yet not country at the same time.

New Skin For The Old Ceremony - Leonard Cohen

It's like Cohen's middle period between his acoustic guitar and jews harp days and the Spector treatment that came with Death of a Laidesman. The songs are typical Cohen sex, sex, sex and more sex but written about in such a beautiful manner that you can forgive him. With songs like beautiful but slightly detached love ode Chelsea Hotel #2 (or as I like to think of it the 'Janis Joplin Blowjob Song'), the anti-Marriage songs Is This What You Wanted and There Is A War, which just are anthems against monogamy. A Singer Must Die is almost like Cohen admitting to faking an orgasm and wanting to be punished for it. There are enough songs on this of sheer beauty to keep me going for a while.

World Gone Wrong - Bob Dylan

Probably not one of his classics, but certainly one of Dylan's best as far as I'm concerned. The second of two acoustic folk albums from the early/mid 1990s (the other being Good As I Been To You). There is something mesmerizing about Dylan's voice which by this point sounds like a rusty gate swinging back and forth in a gale and his solo accompaniment on guitar and harmonica. None of the songs are his too, they're mostly traditional folk songs with a Blind Willie McTell (Broke Down Engine) song and a Doc Watson (Lone Pilgrim) song thrown in to the mix. The songs combined with the music and the mans voice are entrancing, I can't really say much more than that about it.

American Recordings Vol III: Solitary Man - Johnny Cash

To me this is the best of the American Recordings, it didn't have the same impact and isn't talked about as much as American Recordings or American IV (which is mostly due to Hurt) but it probably has the strongest songs over all the albums. It was this album, not the next one or the next one that was assumed to be Cash's last hurrah. And it kicks off with a defiant I Won't Back Down, with Tom Petty singing backing. Neil Diamond's Solitary Man is next continuing the trend. With the knowledge that Cash is going to fight on despite dehabilitating illness in our minds we get the slightly more mournful That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day) and then Cash knocks you for six singing U2's One which gets onto levels Hurt would later eclipse. Will Oldham joins to sing his 'I See A Darkness' with Cash, which has him staring death in the face, then The Mercy Seat does the 'killing' in typical Man in Black fashion. The rest of the album is like a goodbye, 'Would You Lay With Me (In A Field of Stone) is so poignant, 'Field of Diamonds' puts you in your place, 'Country Trash' follows suit. Then 'I'm Leaving Now' and 'Wayfaring Stranger' take you out the door and into the afterlife. The album is a welcoming of death, but it's no way depressing... It's just fantastic.

Across The Boarderline - Willie Nelson

Willie Nelson and Don Was team up to bring an awesome album out. I can listen to this one all day and all night. Willie's voice is on top form for American Tune (which Paul Simon has musical impact on as with Graceland later on the album), you get your standard Willie Nelson duet songs 'Getting Over You' with Bonnie Raitt and Peter Gabriel's 'Don't Give Up' with Sinead O'Connor. As well as 'Heartland' with Bob Dylan, then Willie covering Dylan with 'What Was It You Wanted', which is one of the oddest songs on the album. It's mostly covers but Willie makes them all his own with that voice that Frank Sinatra once marveled at and proves he can sing anything and make it great. I listen to this whilst studying too, because it just seems to help.

Hon. Mention:

Peaks and Valleys - Colin Hay

Acoustic solo work from the former Men At Work frontman. Apparently each track recorded in a single take, no matter how they came out. A lot of the songs are either re-recordings or appear again on later albums but there is something special about Colin Hay and just an acoustic guitar. 'In To The Cornfields' is a beauty about the beauty of the American south and the darkness of it's past. She Keeps Me Dreaming is a poignant piece about separation, Can't Take This Town is about the craziness of L.A, Walk Amongst His Ruins is about following in Dylan's steps. Sometimes I Wish has Hay yearning to live various different times but finding that they all seem to end the same way. The songs on this one really just flow into each other and I just can't help but enjoy it.

Edited January 31, 2008 by The Lonesome Hobo

[ROC]

I'm assuming that being harbored on this desert island, I will have many emotions, mostly anger, and so all of my picks are more emotion-based.

Rage Against The Machine - Evil Empire

This is the quintessential "feel angry at a lot of various things at once" record. Feel angry at the government for their apparent lack of good boating patrol and pickup of people on deserted islands. Feel angry at the sun for being so burning hot. And other various bits of anger. Zach has probably one of my favorite vocal styles in rock as he's not ridiculous enough to completely rap and is more or less shouting, but the shouting is still somehow melodic and isn't nearly as pithy (that is to say, really whiny) as a lot of bands I've heard who have shouty singers. Oh, and that whole Morello is God thing.

Battles - Mirrored

After this, frankly, it's time to go insane. Might as well listen to the most batshit thing I can find, in which case I'll go with Battles' Mirrored CD because by this point, something insane just fits the scenario. Need a modern rock song essentially put in 2x speed ("Ddiamondd") or a n 8-minute long centering around carnival-like instruments ("Rainbow")? This album's got it! Plus, it goes from odd as hell to normal after a few listens, which helps justify odd as hell things like cannibalism that become normal on an island in a few days.

LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver

After the insanity and anger and such, eventually you pine for the things you cherish most. Like being with all your friends or imagining the great people that are gone...or even thinking it's time to get away from the island so you could watch the tapes of those 1997 WCW Nitro episodes you've always wanted to see again. Ah well, guess you just have to get innocuous instead.

Tool - 10,000 Days

It's a chill out night on this massive island and you've gotta listen to something again because Rage is starting to turn more into Slight Anger and Battles is more like Minor Conflict. So put on 10,000 Days, rock with the stories of a stoned man who fucks with his fans for fun and be moved and impressed. Or maybe get drunk and play "Rosetta Stoned" on loop for five hours as you run around the island naked. Your choice.

Muse - Absolution

Because hey, it's the end of the world for you.

[RPS]

Totally did this with my friend the other day.

Bloc Party - Silent Alarm

There are tracks for the lovers, there are tracks for the dancers, there are trackers for the rockers. Works out for everyone.

The Clash - London Calling

In the same vein of Bloc Party, there is a number of different styles represented on this album that enable you to listen to it nunerous times. It doesn't ever get boring.

Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds

Top heavy on the dance, but it gets sentimental at the end. Pure pop classic.

Junior Senior - D-d-d-don't Stop the Beat.

It was either this or Scissor Sisters. Campy, pure fun, mindless stuff.

Blur - Think Tank

An album I can think about all day. Just a mind blowing CD.

[Bushmeister]

Whoah, this was actually much harder than what I thought. First of all, most of my metal records would be right out. Hardly the best music to listen to while starving to death amidst the wreckage.

In that case, here we go:

Alamaailman Vasarat - Maahan

What in a what now? Basically, Alamaailman Vasarat play a very frantic style of instrumental music, combining jazz, blues and elements of rock n' roll into a mixture that is played pretty much entirely on acoustic instruments save for the bass (also, no guitars whatsoever, acoustic or electric). There are at least a dozen kinds of horns, flutes and pipes used throughout the album, on top of the bassist and two percussionists. It is catchy, dirty and a perfect soundtrack to a night of drunken swaying on top of a moss-covered rock holding a half-tin of my very best moonshine.

Steve Roach & Vida Obama - Spirit Dome

Slow, meandering ambient music. This would be my album for meditation, for relaxing and for just clearing my mind of everything that is pressing on it. There is no decipherable rhythm or melody to the music, but instead it is designed to merely soothe you and make your moods flow as smooth as possible. There are a number of other Steve Roach records I could have picked here, but the Spirit Dome has (as the name suggests) just a hint of a more spiritual approach to the whole shebang.

Summoning - Dol Guldur

Yeah, yeah, I said I'd throw my metal records out of the window. Well, not this one (or the next one either ). Summoning has an amazing relaxing effect on me, and the presence of dark forests and immense, cold mountain ranges would definitely be something I'd appreciate on some tropical nights. It was a hard time choosing a single record from Summoning, really, but in the end "Dol Guldur" strikes the greatest balance between its more black metal-oriented predecessor "Minas Morgul" and its spiritual follow-up the "Nightshade Forests"-EP, which takes Summoning's sound far further away to the symphonic direction.

Pelican - The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw

Seriously, is there NO way I couldn't just slip the "March Into The Sea"-EP into the case along with the original CD? I have often said and will say again that the full-length rendition of "March Into The Sea" is easily in the top 3 of the best songs I have ever heard, and even after four years of continuous play I still find myself enjoying the epic journey. However, "The Fire In Our Throats..." holds other great Pelican tracks such as the acoustic "-", "Aurora Borealis" and "Sirius", as well as a 10-minute version of "March..." I am torn, really - does one song trump an entire album in the end? Grudginly, I'd give up the EP for this album. Half of an amazing song paired off with a load of great ones is nothing to sneer at.

Cowboy Bebop OST - Knockin' On Heaven's Door

This is the double-disc soundtrack to the Cowboy Bebop movie "Knockin' On Heaven's Door", and one I'd choose for several reasons. First, two discs give it nice length and longevity. Second, there is a fine mix of music in here, jazz and blues dominating of course but with a few odder songs thrown in, and a few ambient works that I love to bits. And thirdly, all songs are top-notch quality. When listening to these CDs I might skip a song or two because of my mood, but never because I feel that a particular song is not worth listening to.

There we go... Although as an afterthought, a lot of people seem to be putting in gloomy CDs to remind themselves that this is all they'll have from now on. So in that vein, a honorable mention:

Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Altered States Of America

I'd happily go insane to the tune of this album. Lucky I already haven't.

[TheRyno]

Dir en grey - Withering To Death

I'm pretty much a sucker for anything Japanese and cool but Dir en grey transcends all of that to me and proves that music is a universal language. Hell, I try to sing along to the music all the time and I don't know a lick of Japanese. If I could have a cop out answer, I'd bring along my burnt mp3 CD of their discography, if only to add their "Vulgar" album to the list.

HIM - Razorblade Romance

Arguably the best album from my favorite-est band of the past few years. So there.

Mr. Bungle - California

Mike Patton is a musical god and this album is his finest hour. If I had a fraction of his talent, I'd exploit the shit outta myself.

Mindless Self Indulgence - Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy

If I had any rhythm at all, this disc would make me shake my ass off and seduce some savage island girl with a bone in her nose into doing me. Then we could lick toads.

Patton Oswalt - Feelin Kinda' Patton

Gotta have some comedy and I haven't laughed as hard at a comedy album than this one. However, if I can score the 2+ hour cut that this album was edited from, that would be even better. My friends and I endlessly quote this one with gems such as "I will have an apple...and some COCK!"

[cram]

RHCP - Blood Sugar Sex Magik - c'mon, do i have to explain myself? Mellowship slinky in B major, Sir Psycho Sexy, Funky Monks. The list goes on. This album is awesome!

Tool - Lateralus - For while i make Lost-esque theories on the island to Schism's "i know the pieces fit, cuz i watched them fall away"

The Mars Volta - Deloused in the commatorium - Definately need this for when i discover the weed stashes on the island and have me a big ass deserted smoke up.

Pink Floyd - Dark side of the moon - see Deloused

RATM - Self Titled - for my anger at everything, mainly being deserted