Every CD I own . . .

lasermonkey

I've alway thought that the first four REM were their best work (along with the Chronic Town EP). After that, they turned into an increasingly "straight" rock band, IMHO. I love the production on Pageant. Some of my favourite guitar sounds are on that album, not to mention some of my favourite songs.

ICBM

lasermonkey said:

I've alway thought that the first four REM were their best work (along with the Chronic Town EP). After that, they turned into an increasingly "straight" rock band, IMHO. I love the production on Pageant. Some of my favourite guitar sounds are on that album, not to mention some of my favourite songs.

I think I like Document best, which is the crossover between those two periods. It certainly has possibly my favourite ever recorded guitar tone on - The One I Love, although Buck says that's a Les Paul and a Marshall rather than his Rick and AC30 or Twin, which does rather prove the point that they were going 'rock'. Life's Rich Pageant has Cuyahoga on though, which is also one of my favourites.

(I'm also quite a fan of the very late albums, but that's getting a bit into thread creep…)

lasermonkey

Cuyahoga is one of my favourite songs of all time and definitely one of my top 5 basslines. I think I learnt more about playing guitar and bass from that band than anyone else.

Paul_C

CD#69 Max Richter - Songs From Before

Strings, piano, synths and spoken word (Robert Wyatt reading Haruki Murakami) mixed with scraps of short wave radio and rainfall. Ambience but with purpose, restful but also thought provoking.

UnclePsychosis

There's no accounting for taste.

Souljacker, Pet Sounds, and Life's Rich Pageant are all astoundingly good records. I insist you reappraise them.

Paul_C

apart from one or two stand out songs, they're all mostly filler.

how's that?

Bucket

Sorry - a couple of questions about Silver Sun:

1) How can the chorus of "Lava" be so good

2) What in fuck's name do any of the words in "Lava" mean

3) How were they not famous, they're fucking awesome

Paul_C

Day 16 (on the way to Exmouth)

CD#69 Fischer Z - Red Skies Over Paradise

Their last album first time round, and my favourite. Battalions of Strangers was one of the first bass lines I ever learned to play.

CD#70 Elvis Costello - Get Happy !!

Another from his best period, 20 songs on one album with barely a drop in quality, great lyrics, great playing - brilliant.

CD#71 XTC - Drums and Wires

Neck and neck with Black Sea for my favourite XTC album this is another winner (I was driving for four hours so picked favourites to listen to rather than ones I have less than utter joy for).

CD#72 Suede - Coming Up

Despite the loss of Bernard Butler this is great fun, though the lyrics are amusingly dreadful in places. 
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Day 17 - bought more CDs

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Day 18 (driving back from Exmouth)

another car journey so more favourites, including:

CD#73 R.E.M. - Out Of Time

One or two strange tracks, but mostly really good.

CD#74 Marillion - Misplaced Childhood

I like all the Fish era albums for different reasons and Steve Rothery once sat on my sofa, so there.

CD#75 Kate Rusby - Awkward Annie

A beautiful voice singing songs about love, loss, sailors and death, plus a Kinks cover that was the theme tune for Jam and Jerusalem.

CD#76 The Decemberists - What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World

Unusually this is my favourite album despite it being their most recent, as I'm mostly all about the "I prefer their early work" school of fandom.

lasermonkey

I've only heard a few Decemberists songs, but they have all been really good. I definitely need to investigate further.

EricTheWeary

There has been listening to Graham Parker and Sheryl Crowe on the back of all this. I could hardly remember the content of Tuesday Night is Weight Watchers but I find it a bit too polished and doesn't seem to get going. Graham Parker I might keep dipping back to, reminds me of Elvis Costello (although I guess he predates him) which is good and Springsteen, which is less good. Like with Crowe you are very aware that these are songwriters and you are supposed to admire the craft whereas at times I just want something a bit more abandoned.

Paul_C

Day 19

First up today is a new one, brought back from Exmouth yesterday.

CD#77 Husky Rescue - Ghost Is Not Real

Wiki says they're a Finnish ambient pop band. They're not bad, nothing earth-shattering but nice enough to chill out with.

CD#78 Iggy Pop - The Idiot

There are lots of people out there that love this album, I prefer Lust For Life.

CD#79 Pink Floyd - Endless River

Another new one, bought as part of a 3 for £10 deal, which is probably about right - it's not rubbish and good for a relaxing Sunday morning, but lacks a little something compared to the better bits of Pink Floyd.  

CD#80 Blondie - Plastic Letters

I like this period Blondie as much as I like the later, more slick version, Clem Burke's drumming is magnificently mad in places and the lyrics are definitely more random. 

CD#81 Sam Phillips - Fan Dance 

Not easy to characterize, Sam writes and performs some wonderfully quirky songs, I first discovered her around the time of the album Don't Do Anything, this is a couple of albums earlier but very much cut from the same cloth.

ICBM

Paul_C said:

CD#75 Kate Rusby - Awkward Annie

A beautiful voice singing songs about love, loss, sailors and death, plus a Kinks cover that was the theme tune for Jam and Jerusalem.

She's great, I must get this album.

Paul_C said:

CD#77 Husky Rescue - Ghost Is Not Real

I also love this band. First time I've come across anyone else who's heard of them!

Paul_C said:

CD#79 Pink Floyd - Endless River

Another new one, bought as part of a 3 for £10 deal, which is probably about right - it's not rubbish and good for a relaxing Sunday morning, but lacks a little something compared to the better bits of Pink Floyd.  

I thought it was entirely composed of recycled outtakes of Wish You Were Here and a few other things that weren't good enough to have made it onto an album before - ironic when Gilmour criticised Waters for exactly that with The Final Cut, wrongly in my opinion - it's that the songs didn't fit properly on The Wall rather than because they weren't good enough.

The Endless River does indeed lack something - Water(s) .

quarky

Paul_C said:
CD#79 Pink Floyd - Endless River

Another new one, bought as part of a 3 for £10 deal, which is probably about right - it's not rubbish and good for a relaxing Sunday morning, but lacks a little something compared to the better bits of Pink Floyd.  

One of yours (besides Led Zep, everyone owns Led Zep) that I actually own! It veers pretty damn close to the line with passable on oneside and rubbish on the other. Division Bell and AMLOR are incredible so I don't think Waters was essential, but Endless River just seems a bit plain and dull really. I bought it when it came out and it just hasn't grabbed me. Still, not a bad book end to a discography perhaps.

Paul_C

ICBM said:

Paul_C said:

CD#77 Husky Rescue - Ghost Is Not Real

I also love this band. First time I've come across anyone else who's heard of them!

I only know of Husky Rescue because someone off-loaded their album, this is why I like buying randomly sometimes, though I do tend to go for unusually-packaged CDs so I'm far less likely to pickup a standard CD case with a name on I have never heard of at all.
The Of Montreal CD unfolds into a weirdly painted sculpture (not my picture but you get the idea of it)



 CD#82 Crowded House - Crowded House

I've got their second album on vinyl and this one on CD, and that's all, which is a surprise because I like a lot of their work (though I like Split Enz a lot more, especially the crazier stuff).

CD#83 of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping

see above

Paul_C

CD#84 Feist - Metals

One of my top 10 YouTube videos is a live performance of a Ron Sixsmith song, which she sings beautifully, with characteristic vocal mannerisms that are all over this album, great singing and some cool tunes.

CD#85 Grandaddy - The Broken Down Comforter Collection

This has a Neil Young/Flaming Lips feel to it. It's got some great song titles if nothing else, like "Sikh in a Baja VW Bug", "Kim You Bore Me to Death" and "For the Dishwasher".

CD#86 Big Star - # 1 Record

Critically acclaimed and poorly served by the record company this was never a hit, and I find it a bit hit and miss. There are some strong tunes on here though, my favourite being Ballad Of El Goodo, which Counting Crows do a great cover of.

CD#87 Homespun - Homespun

Written/played by Dave Rotheray from The Beautiful South and sung by the wonderful Sam Brown, lovely.

Paul_C

Day 21

CD#88 Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns

I've got quite a few Joni Mitchell albums, without ever being a huge fan. Having said that they're always interesting lyrically and always have some nice playing on them, so while they rarely make my heart leap they're definitely worth spending time with.

CD#89 The Strokes - Is This It

It needs a question mark, but otherwise the title sums it up nicely.

CD#90 McAlmont & Butler - The Sound of . . .

A little overblown in places perhaps, but nevertheless huge fun.

CD#91 Voice of the Beehive - Honey Lingers

I saw them at a local venue around the time of the first album and despite seeing many punk gigs in the past this was the only gig where I encountered any violence - for reasons I still can't explain some random bloke punched me in the back of the head - twice - during one of the songs - I retreated to the back of the room and my unknown assailant left me alone from then on - weird.

CD#92 Julie Fowlis - Cuilidh

This is a collection of songs from Julie's home of North Uist, sung in Gaelic - no idea what the songs are about but the singing is wonderful and the accompaniment superb, so who cares?

CD#93 Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!

Possibly the first example of me buying random music because of the packaging, I bought the vinyl version of this on picture disc from a shop somewhere in London because it looked a bit mad. It is, wonderfully mad.

lasermonkey

#1 Record is one of my absolute favourites. I'm glad I got to see the re-formed Big Star a fair few times before Alex died.

ICBM

Paul_C said:

CD#82 Crowded House - Crowded House




I've got their second album on vinyl and this one on CD, and that's all, which is a surprise because I like a lot of their work (though I like Split Enz a lot more, especially the crazier stuff).

You really need to get Woodface and Together Alone. Both brilliant - Woodface is quirkier and slightly patchy but has some of the best-known songs, and Together Alone is simply one of the greatest albums ever made.

RocknRollDave

Not a Sheryl Crow fan myself, but I love her song "My Favourite Mistake". One for my setlist in my blusey/ rock/ jam band that I dream of putting together once I'm done with being the wedding singer.

sticker

lasermonkey said:

#1 Record is one of my absolute favourites. I'm glad I got to see the re-formed Big Star a fair few times before Alex died.

I've only just discovered this album , downloaded it last month and it's been on constantly all month . Cracking stuff!