yarkitude-blog

[yarkitude-blog]

10 Albums

I’ve limited myself to one album per band, because why not, and I have tried to avoid hitting the same ones that my fb friendios have hit, because the point is to try something new, right?

1) Dulcinea, Toad the Wet Sprocket

It’s a tough call which of Toad’s albums was going in here, but this one won by a hair over Fear. If you never gave Toad a chance, you have a lovely discovery ahead of you.

Crowing is a triumph. How does that song even exist, it is too good for this world.

2) Happiness Is Not a Fish You Can Catch, Our Lady Peace

Look, most of OLP’s best stuff is spread across their albums quite evenly, so I could easily put Clumsy or Naveed in here too... but Happiness has Thief, which is the most devastatingly accurate song about dementia I have ever heard.

3) Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, The Flaming Lips

Yoshimi is pretty popular in and of itself, but I have a special place in my heart for it after zoning out on an interminable flight back from India with this album playing something like eight times over. Fight Test and Do You Realize?? are highlights, but the whole thing is simply divine. IMHO, it is much better than the critical darling The Soft Bulletin that preceded it.

Also, without this album, the robots would eat me, and that’s not okay.

4) Pontiac, Lyle Lovett

Go ahead and put aside the brutal and haunting title track. Seriously, go ahead. I’ll wait.

The rest of it is still great. There is nothing wrong with having a sense of humor while you break your audiences’ hearts.

5) Paul Simon, Paul Simon

Paul Simon has written so very many great songs. I seriously don’t have time to itemize them all. My assertion is that this album has the highest quality density of all. Even the throwaway tracks are classics.

I mean, I could be wrong, and he could have a better album. He’s that good.

6) Eyes That See in the Dark, Kenny Rogers

“Okay, John, now you’re just messing around. Kenny Rogers? Not even with The First Edition, just solo? Nope.”

You’re wrong. This album was heavily written and produced by The Bee Gees, and it feels like it in every nook and cranny. Seriously, think about that for a moment -- maybe you think Rogers is pure schmaltz, but he still has a set of pipes. And the Gibbs Brothers were some of the most creative, innovative, and flat out hooky songwriters of all time. Together, it’s silk. There are probably five tracks on this album that should have been bigger hits than they were, and Islands in the Stream was on this collection and lit up the charts like nobody’s business. Give it a listen.

7) Oranges and Lemons, XTC

All the XTC fans out there are shaking their heads sadly at my lack of taste, I can feel it. Go on, git out of here. Harass someone else.

The Mayor of Simpleton is sublime, with Small People (they ain’t got no reason to live, you know) levels of misinterpretation (IMHO) plaguing it throughout its venerable radio career. President Kill and Scarecrow People are as relevant as ever. Garden of Earthly Delights is still poppy genius.

It’s good, and if you don’t like it, it’s okay, but you’re not right.

8) Wood, Moxy Fruvous

Fuck you, Jian Ghomeshi, for tainting this band’s legacy with your abusive relationships that got sunlight long after Christine and I attended every Fruvous show we could. But you know what? It was Mike Ford, Dave Matheson and Murray Foster who were the songwriters who wrote the stuff that stuck around long after your hooky but shallow lyrical slights-of-hand faded away.

This album is great, and I am still angry.

9) In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Neutral Milk Hotel

Okay, listen to this album.

Now: listen to it again.

Ready? Listen to it a third time.

If you still don’t like it, there’s nothing I am going to say to convince you that you are wrong.

10) Learning to Flinch, Warren Zevon

I can’t choose one album by Zevon, so have this live set that features a version of Piano Fighter that should be in the Hall of Fame. I don’t even know which Hall of Fame. Make one.

Honorable Mentions

Little Earthquakes, Tori Amos (My sister Lesley stole this one)

The Stranger, Billy Joel

Flood, They Might Be Giants

Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, Elton John

Rift, Phish

Brothers in Arms or Making Movies, Dire Straits

Deluxe or Friction, Baby, Better than Ezra

Plans, Death Cab for Cutie

The Division Bell, Pink Floyd (Yup, I went there)

...and tons more I am sure I am forgetting.