ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster's Top 20 albums of his insignificant life

[gunnar hendershow]

Air would definitely be on a "top 20 acts" list for me. And OK Computer would without a doubt be on any list of albums for me, closer to the top though. If not at the top for that matter, I've been listening to it for years and still going strong.

[RPS]

Air are an amazing band. I'm a bigger fan of Moon Safari, but really any of their work is top notch and a severely overlooked band in North America (like most of their French counter-parts).

Radiohead are one of the bands that everyone and their mother has an opinion on their best album. I'm of the belief that their top 3 albums are Kid A, OK Computer and In Rainbows, so any inclusion of OK Computer is fine by me. Paranoid Android is one of those epic songs that gives me goosebumps to this day.

Great list so far, CSAMH.

[Cactus Drags]

I have only come up with 5, this is bloody difficult. I'm not a big fan of any of the albums so far (a lot of them I prefer other albums from the artist though), liking the reasoning though (Y)

[METALMAN]

I like most of these albums very much actually.

Fitter Happier should have been a Grrr though. I like The Tourist a bit.

Edited January 8, 2009 by metalman

[GA!]

As far as Muse's Absolution goes, Endlessly is a great song. The Small Print on the other hand is not. A bland rock number that doesn't really fit the grand nature of the album in my opinion. Plus it was chosen to go on the album over one of their best songs Fury.

[Jook]

As far as Muse's Absolution goes, Endlessly is a great song. The Small Print on the other hand is not. A bland rock number that doesn't really fit the grand nature of the album in my opinion. Plus it was chosen to go on the album over one of their best songs Fury.

^ this. I hate TSP, it's duff.

As for not liking The Tourist, CSAMH... tsk. Not even the 'ding' right at the end of the track?

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

As far as Muse's Absolution goes, Endlessly is a great song. The Small Print on the other hand is not. A bland rock number that doesn't really fit the grand nature of the album in my opinion. Plus it was chosen to go on the album over one of their best songs Fury.

^ this. I hate TSP, it's duff.

As for not liking The Tourist, CSAMH... tsk. Not even the 'ding' right at the end of the track?

To be honest The Tourist is only there cos I needed a grrrr track

[METALMAN]

FITTER HAPPIER!

[gunnar hendershow]

Fitter Happier is an Interlude, hardly a track.

[Jook]

It's still GRRR though. One of only two or three things Radiohead have done that I can't stick.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

11: LONDON CALLING by The Clash

Released in 1979.

Expect it higher in my list?

London Calling is another album pretty much always in those top album lists, praised across the boards. Interestingly, however, it only reached number 9 in the UK charts and 27 in the US. Combat Rock, their fifth album was more successful chart-wise but lacks some of the feeling that puts London Calling forward as my favourite Clash album.

It's unsurprising really that the album is in my top twenty but the reason it doesn't make my top ten is because it's just a little too baggy around the waist. London Calling, like Sandinista is an extended album (in this case a double album) featuring 19 tracks. In that case it was always bound to have a few songs included that weren't quite up to the very best standard of The Clash - at least in my opinion.

However it DOES have my favourite Clash song - Rudie Can't Fail (If the album had been 18 tracks of random countryside noise and Rudie Can't Fail it would probably have just made my top 20 albums!) and plenty about it to rightly place it as one of the best albums made ever. Of course The Clash were always entwined in debate about politics, world music and so on but for me that improved them as a group, showing they had much more depth and willingness to look outside themselves compared to some of the other punk acts of the period that shone brightly very briefly before imploding in on themselves. London Calling owes as much to reggae and ska as it does to punk.

HIGHLIGHTS: Rudie Can't Fail, London Calling, Spanish Bombs, Hateful, The Guns Of Brixton, Train In Vain, Revolution Rock

GRRR: Jimmy Jazz

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

10: RICHARD D. JAMES by Aphex Twin

Released in 1996.

So here we go crashing into the top ten and bah gawd if it isn't Aphex Twin showing us all that musical rules are there to be messed with.

The difficulty with Aphex Twin is that the lad Richard releases a plethora of singles, EPs, differently named maxis, more EPs, remixes and surprisingly few albums BUT quite rightly this is seen as pretty much the central hub of his career from which everything else he does spins out in ludicrous rotations.

His early work is much more of the electronic techno stuff that was all the rage in the early 90s thanks to the mighty Future Sound Of London and similar groups but, desiring to push the boundaries, RDJ flipped out and turned left at the signpost of normality taking drum n bass, techno and electronica and feeding it through a blender. I find it hard not to warm to a guy who can build images of himself into his music and who , at the age of 11, managed to get sound out of a ZX81 (with no hardware to actually MAKE sound in it) to win a competition.

This album is great cos it's really important for electronica. It's astounding even today over ten years later and it still stands up (much more than some of his older sounding earlier work). Brilliance and genius rolled into one, not bad for a ginger lad from Cornwall.

HIGHLIGHTS: To Cure A Weakling Child (ignore the stupid video!), Girl/Boy Song, Fingerbib, 4, Peek 824545201, Yellow Calx

GRRR: Goon Gumpas

Edited January 10, 2009 by ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster

[Cactus Drags]

Am I the only person who heard so much about London Calling and was then quite disappointed when I finally got to hear it?

[VerbalPuke]

Probably not, it's a good album but I've always believed the Clash's self-titled to be their best work. London Calling has some great songs, but much of it is a bit too slow for my tastes. I do agree with CSAMH about Jimmie Jazz being the "grr" selection, it's a fairly weak song.

I like London Calling, but consider it to be on the overrated side.

[METALMAN]

London Calling certainly does have a lot of filler. Hateful and Rudie Can't Fail are fantastic though. Two of the Clash's best three songs in my opinion.

[gunnar hendershow]

The Clash are hit-and-miss for me, and as I've listened to them more they become more miss. I don't like to sound like "that guy" but when I want punk I'm going with Crust Punk and little else.

Aphex Twin = <3. I'm not sure what album I'd peg as my favorite, but Richard D. James definitely got heavily listened to back in high school for a good year or two.

[GoGo Yubari]

Am I the only person who heard so much about London Calling and was then quite disappointed when I finally got to hear it?

Nah, I was pretty disappointed with it as well. It has some fantastic songs, but a lot of boring shit too. Their self-titled is definitely The Clash's best work.

[IAceI]

It's always decent to have someone else with musical tastes that differ to mine. While I don't particularly love most of this stuff, there are a few things I haven't heard and will be looking to check out. I may also have to delve into getting a bit of a Blur collection put together - as they do have some fantastic songs.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

9: Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust by Sigur Rós

Released in 2008.

I shan't say much about Sigur Ros here (for obvious and hardly-spoilery reasons) so I'll focus on the album, released last year to the usual acclaim.

In many ways it's more chirpy and "mainstream" than their previous releases (which meandered beautifully between melancholic and operatic) but there's still the usual lengthy, evolving pieces and some quieter, more thoughtful moments. It starts with the wonderfully happy Gobbledigook, heads into the beautiful up-tempo strings, horns and driving drums of Inní mér syngur vitleysingur (providing the first "big build to a climax" of the album) and chills down into the dreamy Góðan daginn...Providing more scope in the first three tracks than most albums can achieve in their whole running time. For me this isn't their best album, despite being excellent in it's own right, purely because it nearly loses it's way sometimes....But then a Sigur Ros dropoff is better than most bands can hope for at their very best.

HIGHLIGHTS: Gobbledigook, Inni mer syngur vitleysingur, Festival, Við spilum endalaust, Ara Batur, Fljótavík

GRRR: Illgresi

Edited January 24, 2009 by ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

8: MEZZANINE by Massive Attack

Released in 1998.

In 1998 an electronic (trip hop) album came out which wasn't afraid to mix lo-fi brooding unease with chilled out bliss. It's also my second favourite electronic album evah. Mezzanine is that bloody good.

With two jazzier albums behind them, Massive Attack turned everything on its head for their third, layering rich, sometimes harsh and abstract, rhythms and melodies to make an album utterly different to what they'd released before. When an album starts with such intensity in the shape of the magnificent "Angel" you know you're in for an experience. The album is perhaps best known for its' third track "Teardrop" which had THAT multi-award winning baby-in-a-womb video. Video or not, the track itself is utterly utterly beautiful with the drums providing a perfect heartbeat to the song with hauntingly sung lyrics. Utter bliss.

The other personal highlight for me is Inertia Creeps, another falling into the "uneasy" camp.

Another reason for my love of the album is that this is the album that was playing when my wife and I first had sex. So yeah, I'm biased.

HIGHLIGHTS: Teardrop, Angel, Inertia Creeps, Dissolved Girl, Man Next Door, Exchange

GRRR: Group Four