jasonverlaine

I did a posting about my top ten favorite albums of all time recently for another forum and I thought I'd share it in my blog thingy since I don't post much. I have trouble writing about things that I have stopped being objective about, so I decided to do this more as a snapshot of what music I would pick to sum up my taste at age 26 and tell a little bit about how I first heard the album and what it meant to me at the time... so without further ado, here are my top ten favorite albums as of March 2007:


10. Bob Dylan - Highway '61 Revisited

This was the first Dylan album I owned and I bought it because it had
"Like a Rolling Stone" on it and I had always been particularly fond
of that song. I think I must have been a sophomore in High School and
I still had a narrow idea of 1960s music that mostly only had room for
The Beatles and Bob Dylan. I have since bought or stolen all of his
other albums and while I also adore BLONDE ON BLONDE and BLOOD ON THE
TRACKS, this still remains my favorite.

Best Moment/Thing: (0:26 into "Ballad of a Thin Man") The little laugh
from Dylan when he says "You try so hard but you don't understand"
that shows itself for only an instant but always makes me smile.

9. Joanna Newsom - Ys

I got this when it leaked last August when it leaked on the internet
and I came to love it more than Newsom's previous THE MILK-EYED MENDER
and anything this current decade.

Best Moment/Thing: (9:30 into "Only Skin") The music suddenly turns
sad and lonely when Joanna sings "Back on the patio, watching the bats
bring night in"

8. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Pavement was always the band that I knew I would love whenever I got
around to really listening to all their work but it took me quite a
few years to get past the noisy masterpiece SLANTED & ENCHANTED and
into the even more brilliant CROOKED RAIN, CROOKED RAIN, Pavement's
answer to MORE SONGS ABOUT BUILDINGS AND FOOD and the creative coma
that comes after a successful work.

Best Moment/Thing: (2:40 into "Range Life") The ache in Malkmus'
delivery of "I want a range life, If I could settle down, If I could
settle down, than I would settle down."

7. Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over the Sea

Credit to my friend Zach for turning me onto this one. I was
downloading stuff from SoulSeek and somehow Zach found out I hadn't
heard any NMH stuff and insisted that I listen to this album
immediately (it must've been 2003ish). Thanks bud.

Best Moment/Thing: (4:48 into "Two-Headed Boy Part 2) "And don't hate
her when she gets up to leave." Followed by him setting down his
guitar and walking out, THE END.

6. Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left

This was an essential College album for me and I can hardly listen to
it now without being overwhelmed with nostalgia for Santa Cruz and my
friends that I made while I was at school. It is a sad record and I
am guaranteed a huge variety of emotions while listening to it.

Best Moment/Thing: (3:28 into "Man in a Shed") The happy piano
highlighting that Drake is reaching out to his listeners to try and
invite them into his life before undercutting everything with the
terribly sad pessimism of "Fruit Tree."

5. David Bowie - Hunky Dory

After High School I discovered The Velvet Underground and they really
opened me up to a lot of music from the 1970s including especially
Glam Rock and Proto-Punk acts that followed in their footsteps. I
love a great number of them but this one has always struck the deepest
chord with me and has the most consistently awesome collection of
songs. I also really love the way Bowie embraces his idols in the
second half of the record (Reed, Dylan, Warhol and his brother).

Best Moment/Thing: (0:02 into "The Bewlay Brothers") I love the
rocking sound beneath the guitar and how it implies intimacy and a
past time in his life before some of his most personal lyrics.

4. The Beatles - Abbey Road

This is not the first Beatles album I owned and was not my favorite
until I got to college (it was always SGT PEPPERS LONELY HEARTS CLUB
BAND, which I still admire tremendously) and my roommate Jake pointed
out how carefully constructed the album was which caused me to go
deeper into the album than I had ever gone before and I noticed how
all the musical motifs and chords of the first half returned in the
second half.

Best Moment/Thing: (0:53 into "The End") The Beatles (thinking this
would be their last album as a unit) pass the guitar to each member
for a solo to close out the awesome song cycle.

3. Radiohead - OK Computer

I was obsessed with this album during my last two years of high school
and telling all of my friends to listen to them. It actually lead me
towards seeking out critical input when selecting which music to
listen to (mostly in the form of Allmusic.com) and eventually lead me
to The Pixies and The Velvet Underground.

Best Moment/Thing: (3:33 into "Paranoid Android") After the kick-ass
guitar solo we get the descending mellow "Rain Down, Rain Down" one of
the all-time great LoudQuietLoud moments.

2. Love - Forever Changes

This was on a list of all time great albums but I can't remember which
one. The write up was intriguing and I was quite into baroque pop at
the time so I decided to check it out. I love the marriage of Lee's
doomed perspective with the 60s hippie optimism and the way cynicism
will turn over into something bittersweet and unexpected.

Best Moment/Thing: (2:25 into "You Set the Scene") where the song
changes over and the horns blow triumphantly for Lee to sing "This is
the time and life that I am living and I'll face each day with a
smile. For the time that I've been givens such a little while and the
things that I must do consist of more than style. There are places
that I am going" which always breaks my heart.

1. Television - Marquee Moon

Before VH1 became the rest home for fallen celebrities they actually
ran some cool documentary and music list shows that I would watch
religiously (we're talking late 90s) and when they counted down the
top albums they included MARQUEE MOON which I had never heard but
since the interviewed subjects were Elliott Smith and Michael Stipe I
decided to give it a listen and I don't think I took it out of my CD
player for the next year. MARQUEE MOON is my favorite album and my
favorite song. I love it so much.

Best Moment/Thing: (8:42 into "Marquee Moon") The conclusion of my
favorite guitar solo is a series of high pitch sirens sounds from the
guitar that sound like fireworks exploding magnificently across the
sky and then the rhythm kicks in and the hustle of life takes over
from the sublime.