TONS I haven't heard yet, but here's my top, let's say 25, as of Dec. 1.
1. Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud
2. Jessie Ware - What's Your Pleasure?
3. Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin Kynsi
That's three 10s off the top. Those things are hard to call the year of, but I couldn't deny them. What's most astonishing is that with two of the artists, I never really cared for their work previous, and with the third - Waxahatchee - I enjoyed, but assumed had a lower ceiling. She shattered it with this one.
4. RTJ - RTJ4
5. Pinegrove - Marigold (sorry, I still roll with Pinegrove)
6. Jeff Rosenstock - No Dream
7. Gulch - Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress
8. Westside Gunn - WHO MADE THE SUNSHINE (West's best)
9. Jeff Parker - Suite For Max Brown
10. Ben Seretan - Youth Pastoral
11. Daniel Romano - "How Ill Thy World Is Formed"
12. Potion - Cemetary EP (just heard it yesterday, but what the hell, I'm putting it here)
13. Lydia Loveless - Daughter (the best Neko Case album not made by Neko Case)
14. 2nd Grade - Hit To Hit
15. Jay Electronica - A Written Testimony
16. Code Orange - Underneath (so wonderfully dumb)
17. CHIKA - INDUSTRY GAMES
18. Adrianne Lenker - songs/instrumentals
19. Coriky - Coriky
20. DRAIN - California Cursed
21. Those Dirty Projectors EPs
22. Elder - Omens (the vocals are meh, but man the band do some incredible things here)
23. Mil-Spec - World House (a nice space filler when waiting for a new Propagandhi)
24. Sam Hunt - SOUTHSIDE (sometimes I love it)
25. Fiona Apple - Fetch The Bolt Cutters (Fiona never came naturally to me...I'm still working on it).
Great story. I had my own emotional SD story from just the last week. It was my birthday last Sunday and my 10-year-old came up to me and told me that he had learned a song on the piano for my birthday. I had no idea he was doing this. He sat down at the piano and told me to turn around so I couldn't see his sheet music. He then started playing "Peg." I recognized it immediately, obviously. I watched in tears as my son, who's 10 and should not be thinking "I want to learn a Steely Dan song for my dad's birthday," hunkered down and beautifully played this fucking HARD song. I literally wept.
I'm 38 too!
I started with Thrill and Aja and worked toward the middle (which meant it took me much longer to get into Gaucho). But I think going chronologically is a good way of not being overwhelmed by the encroaching jazz elements. The first album is smart classic rock, but it's relatively straight. Each subsequent album adds a subtle wrinkle before the scales start to tip the other way on Katy Lied. Enjoy one album at a time and by the time you get to Aja you might not even realize you've become an insufferable audiophile.
Pretzel Logic has some absolutely classic cuts, but it seems a little padded out with old cuts, blues vamps and the Ellington cover. I love it like I love ever Dan album of this era, but it feels the least inspired.
"Deacon Blues" is killer and a very definitive song for the Dan, but even on Aja I think I've only got it in fifth place. Though that's more of an indicator of that album's incredible strength.
OK, read the list. Half of mine made it, pretty good. "Doctor Wu," "Black Cow" and "Babylon Sisters" are also splendid choices. "Black Friday" is good too, but by the time Katy Lied gets to its third perfunctory blues cut, the opener's quality is sort of compromised. Love that Gaucho came in at No. 1, even if my 1 and 2 are possibly the greatest songs anyone anywhere has written. If you only know the hits, please check out "Sign In Stranger" and "Your Gold Teeth II," two of the most inexplicably overlooked songs in the Dan's catalogue.
Skipped the article and went straight to the comments to express that I know this list is going to break my heart. They just have too many great songs. So before I go back and read, here is my list of *gulp* just 10:
1. Sign In Stranger
2. Your Gold Teeth II
3. Peg
4. Aja
5. My OId School
6. Gaucho
7. Kid Charlemagne
8. Kings
9. Any Major Dude
10. FM
Worst songs (classic era):
1. Do It Again
2. Daddy Don't Live In New York City No More
3. Chain Lightning
4. East St. Louis Toodle-oo
5. Pretzel Logic
I only feel comfortable talking about Norm in this thread because he was Billy Joe's best friend, but yeah, NML is the best podcast in the world and I hate having to scour the dark web for episodes.
Also, Norm stole Shaver's "old chunk of coal" routine.
Oh man, RIP to a real one. Sorry, THE real one. Honkey Tonk Heroes is essential and Shaver's own work is damn integral to the outlaw country movement.
Watch his episode of Norm Macdonald Has A Show right now. It's incredible.
I mean, yeah, they were kind of a schlocky band, but they had some SONGS - "Runnin' With The Devil," "Panama," "Ain't Talkin' Bout Love," "Jamie's Cryin'"
The first album alone is just stacked with hits. It's a 10.
Start with the peak of his Smog era - which is Knock Knock and Dongs of Sevotion. Then feel free to move around from there. His albums under his own name are all very good, but Apocalypse and Dream River are the best.
Tej leo(?), Rx/pharmacists - 3
Tyranny - 9
Hearts of Oak - 8
Shake the sheets - 10
Living with the living - 5
Brutalist Bricks - 8
The Both - 8
The Hanged Man - 6
No, I'm with you. It's a far more dynamic album, less conservative than the first two. Maybe it's just that plain-ass doom records bore the hell out of me, but Heartless felt like an adventurous step in a new direction.
Here's something weird about me: Heartless is the ONLY Pallbearer album I like. I think I just tire of doom metal for doom metal's sake. I found Heartless much more dynamic. Interested to see where this new one goes.
Welcome to the "Actually, Dolly Parton Was A Total Albums Artist" thread.
Here are my top 10 Parton albums:
1. New Harvest...First Gathering (1977) - Dolly's first pop crossover and her masterpiece. An absolute 10.
2. Coat Of Many Colors (1971) - The best of early country Dolly. A fabulous collection of songs.
3. Just Between You and Me (1968) - the first with Porter. Includes some of the most sad-ass songs Dolly ever penned.
4. Jolene (1974) - You've got the two pillars, but the rest is a delight too.
5. Just Because I'm A Woman (1968) - Fixes everything that didn't quite work on her debut. Some seriously sad-ass songs.
6. Trio (1987) - Devastating harmonies with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt
7. All I Can Do (1976) - The last Dolly solo effort to involve Wagoner. You can see the underpinnings of her pop crossover momentum. An underrated gem.
8. My Tennessee Mountain Home (1973) - Dolly at peak mythmaking.
9. 9 To 5 And Odd Jobs (1980) - The big hit, but choice deep cuts as well.
10. Dolly Dolly Dolly (1980) - Dolly's yacht rock album. Jeff Baxter, Lenny Castro, Abe Laboriel, Jay Graydon - in a certain set of eyes, this is a legendary album.
dadguitar is right. Is This It is very good, but Room On Fire improves on it in every regard. The only thing Is This It has over Room On Fire is the sense of newness and hype. But anyone coming to The Strokes for the first time now would probably find more to like on Room On Fire.
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