My Favorite Albums Ever: Part III

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4.) The Beatles (The White Album)-The Beatles

From a literal point of view, The White Album isn't really a Beatles album at all. It's more like two solo albums, one for John and one for Paul, and two EPs for George and Ringo. Only on two songs ("Birthday" and "Cry Baby Cry") does the band share vocals. Nevertheless, it is 30 songs. 30 frigin' songs! And that's what ultimately makes The White Album so great. It gives all four Beatles the freedom to make the music they want to make with very few limits.

And, boy, did they take advantage; The White Album is easily the Beatles' most eclectic release. Of course, the diversity on this album is enormous, allowing listeners to hear every great brand of the Beatles' music. Lennon's "Julia" and McCartney's "Martha My Dear" are simple and incredibly beautiful love songs. "Birthday," "Helter Skelter," and the Beach Boys-influenced "Back In The U.S.S.R." are rollicking rockers, bringing to mind the Beatles' earlier works. And "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill," Harrison's "Long, Long, Long" and "Wild Honey Pie" are subtle and almost avant-garde, demonstrating the Beatles' evolution from mop-topped rock and roll stars to innovative and progressive pop artists. The White Album may be a mess, with little organization and group dynamic, but it's a pretty damn beautiful mess.

3.) Thriller-Michael Jackson

You know that old phrase "music is the universal language of mankind?" No where does that better apply than Michael Jackson's Thriller. Not even with the Beatles. How else to explain that, even without a hit song in almost 15 years and a hit album in almost 20, and sexual abuse charges and bizarre behavior damaging his public image during that time, MJ was treated as a hero when he died last summer? In the end, it all comes down to Thriller.

During a time when Linkin Park, Black Eyed Peas, and other garbage dominated my playlists, I purchased Thriller at my local Barnes and Noble solely based on its legend. One listen through, and I was hooked like a fish on a rod. "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" and "P.Y.T." are dance-pop at its most irresistible. The ballads "Human Nature" and "The Lady In My Life" are tender and poignant. And "Beat It" and "Billie Jean" are, well, perfect. Michael Jackson literally sounds on top the world on Thriller; there's no rhythm he can't handle and no note he can't hit.

2.) Vitalogy-Pearl Jam

For the longest time, Pearl Jam has been my favorite band, and it even feels a bit sacrilegious not putting them at #1. And also for the longest time, I considered PJ's Vs. to be my favorite album. And then there's, of course, Ten, the magical album that that introduced me, like so many others, to the band in the first place.

As of today, at least, I consider Vitalogy to be the groups greatest effort. It's the perfect balance between the epic and emotional intensity of Ten and Vs. and the more subtle beauty of their later work, like No Code and Yield. Vitalogy is also Pearl Jam's most uncompromising album to date, a quality that may be off-putting at first but ultimately rewarding in the end. After only a few listens, fierce punk-rockers like "Whipping," "Not For You" and "Spin The Black Circle" sound exhilarating. But for every song that requires patience ("Tremor Christ" and "Satan's Bed," additionally), Eddie Vedder and Co. toss in tender and gorgeous gems like "Nothingman," "Immortality," and especially "Better Man" that demonstrate Vedder at his songwriting best.

1.) OK Computer-Radiohead

Like I've done for every other album on this list, I listened to Radiohead's OK Computer a full way through in preparation for this post. Still, I couldn't find the capacity to conjure up words for an album, and band, I became infatuated with two winters ago. Then I listened to it again. And again. And again. Four times through OK Computer, and I still had nothing. But I sure enjoyed every second of it.

Maybe that's the real beauty of a record like OK Computer. I can listen to it in its entire length, multiple times through, and not even think about it. As I find it, OK Computer is as mentally and psychologically dominating as anything I've ever heard. This isn't an album you can multi-task to.

The palpable paranoia in Thom Yorke's voice on "Climbing Up The Walls" and "Karma Police;" Jonny Greenwood's sweet, delicate guitar tones on "Subterranean Homesick Alien" and "No Surprises;" the band's thrilling transitions between musical sections on "Paranoid Android." It may sound like an old cliche by now, but OK Computer enraptures you. Call me old-fashioned, but in our culture of iPhones, Twitter and 24-hour news cycles, I find nothing more tranquil than lying in my bed, listening to music, staring into space, and allowing the sounds and words coming out of my headphones to take over. And for those occasions, I know the one album I can always go to.




My Favorite Albums Ever: Part II

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7.) Sound of Silver-LCD Soundsystem

If David Bowie and David Byrne traveled back to the year 1979 and gave birth to a child, they would have James Murphy. Murphy, LCD's central man, has an extraordinary, god-given ability to fuse dance music, rock, new wave and punk into epic compositions of sound and rhythm. Nowhere is that better demonstrated than on 2007's Sound of Silver, LCD's best album to date and one of modern electronic music's true masterpieces.

What ultimately defines this album is the way Murphy layers his music, creating a sense of progressive build-up during songs and allowing them to remain fresh and exhilarating after multiple listens. The development of "All My Friends" from a simple, uneven piano chord to a massive wall of sound is simply thrilling. And "Someone Great," possibly my favorite song of the new millennium, beautifully balances Murphy's personal lyrics of love and loss with an extraordinary blend of distorted sound and pulsing beats. Speaking of Bowie.....

6.) Station to Station-David Bowie

Picking my favorite David Bowie album is always tough, and for good reason. There are just so many reincarnations of the man that pretty much defines the phrase "musical chameleon." You have your glam Bowie (Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane), your poppy folk Bowie (Hunky Dory), your Philly soul Bowie (Young Americans), and your new wave, Berlin Trilogy Bowie (Low, "Heroes," Lodger).

But if you asked me today, I would pick Station to Station. It's Bowie's single album as the Thin White Duke, the drug-fueled crooner who fused funk and soul with new wave influences that would surface further on his future work. What makes Station to Station so remarkable to me is actually its general ambiguity; you never get a genuine feel for who the man behind the music really is. On upbeat tracks like "Golden Years" and "Stay," Bowie sounds almost robotic or artificial, creating a sharp contrast between the vocals and music. Then, on a track like "Wild Is The Wind," we hear Bowie in his most human state, singing lines like "Give me more than one caress, satisfy this hungriness" with a deeply tragic and mortal tone in his voice. Station to Station may not be Bowie's most celebrated work, but it may be his most representative, epitomizing one of rock's most mysterious figures.

5.) Purple Rain-Prince

Prince seems to get a bad rap from the under-30 crowd today. Today, he produces mediocre albums, on which he tries and fails to emulate Jimi Hendrix. Today, he refuses to allow his videos onto YouTube and criticizes, of all things, the Internet. Today, his apparent fondness for Jehovah's witness has stripped all the fun and authenticity out of his music. But back in the day, Prince was, arguably, the most brilliant musician alive.

And Purple Rain is his magnum opus, a collection of music that sounds both timeless and representative of '80s pop music. Purple Rain revolves around its center point, "When Doves Cry," a song both brilliantly innovative (a dance song with no bass line) and widely popular (top-selling single of 1984). But what makes Purple Rain so special to me is the specific moments that remain as beautiful and powerful as, well, pretty much anything you'll hear anywhere. Prince's haunting screams of "I want you!" in the last minute of "The Beautiful Ones;" the extended guitar solo during the second half of "Purple Rain;" when Prince screams "Niiiikkkkkiiiiiii!!" at the 2:23 point on "Darling Nikki." Front to back, Purple Rain is as emotionally powerful and captivating as any pop album ever produced. As Charlie Murphy once said, "That cat could ball, man."




My Favorite Albums Ever: Part I

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10.) Exile on Main Street-The Rolling Stones

Alongside #4 on this list, this is one of the two greatest double albums ever released. Loose and ambitious at the same time, Exile demonstrates a band on the top of its game, effortlessly delving into New Orleans blues ("Rip This Joint"), psychedelic soul ("I Just Want To See His Face"), country ("Torn & Frayed") and even gospel ("Shine A Light"). Beginning to end, this is the Stones' magnum opus, a work that sounds stunning on the first listen and still manages to grow on you on every conditional spin.

9.) Elephant-The White Stripes

No album blew me away on the first listen quite like Elephant. Maybe because it's just so damnheavy. Of course, there's "Seven Nation Army," the rock anthem of the new millennium. But there's so much more to Elephant: the blues-rock epic "Ball and Biscuit" is as explosive as anything you'll hear from a rock band today, as is the Burt Bacharach cover "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself" and the paranoid "Little Acorns." And when you think it might be hard rock overkill, Jack White gets all tender on your ass (see: "You've Got Her In Your Pocket"). If White Blood Cells and was their breakthrough, this is their confirmation: Elephant establishes the White Stripes as one of the most electrifying acts in rock music today.

8.) Houses of the Holy-Led Zeppelin

The highlights stick out immediately: the amazing boogie rock of "Dancing Days," the band's unique take on reggae on "D'yer Mak'er," and "The Ocean," one of Jimmy Page's greatest moments as a guitarist. But what perhaps makes Houses of the Holy so remarkable is what each band member brings to the table, supporting my belief that Led Zeppelin is the single most talented collection of rock musicians to ever play together. John Paul Jones' haunting arrangements on "No Quarter," Page's work on "The Ocean," John Bonham's insanely complicated drumming on "The Crunge," and Robert Plant's vocals on "D'yer Mak'er" are prime examples.Fans and critics often call Led Zeppelin IV/ZOSO the band's greatest work, but I beg to differ. Houses of the Holy is not only Led Zeppelin's most eclectic album, but also, I find, their most rewarding.