Thirteen Things for Thursday
My roommate and friend of at Activists of Apathy put together a little weekly meme list called “Thirteen Things for Thursday”, and today is the very first edition. Without further ado, I bring you
Thirteen Things for Thursday
Theme: 13 albums every person should be issued at birth
Al Green - Greatest Hits
This is one of my all time favorite soul/r&b albums every made. I put it on when I’m happy, I put it on when I’m sad, and I especially put it on when I’m with a lady. (Hahaha)
Al Green is a genius. The man doesn’t sing his songs, he cries them. You can hear his SOUL in every word he belts out, and to his credit he’s still got it today. I would put him above Marvin Gaye by only the number of songs I like by Al vs Marvin’s. Any really soulful music like Al, Marvin, Barry White, or Sly and the Family Stone is cool with me; the Reverend Al Green is just top knotch in my book.
The Beatles - Abbey Road
In a deleted scene of Pulp Fiction, Mia (Uma Thurman) is interviewing Vincent (John Travolta) about the quality of his character and states this interesting theory:
“For instance, there’s two kinds of people in this world, Elvis people and Beatles people. Now Beatles people can like Elvis. And Elvis people can like the Beatles. But nobody likes them both equally.”
I am very much a Beatles person. I do like Elvis, but I friggin LOVE The Beatles. Abbey Road is on this list because it was the first full album by them I really listened to from start to finish.
Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever Amen
This is where my Ben Folds obsession began. Self-described as “Nerd Rock”, Ben’s lyrics and tongue-and-cheek subject matter (Brick is excluded) is the highlight of his talent, plus the frantic piano playing doesn’t hurt either.
Whatever and Ever Amen is the best album he put out to date, with gems like Steven’s Last Night In Town, Kate, and of course The Battle of Who Could Care Less which was one of their biggest radio hits. Even more somber fare like Smoke and Brick were handled with grace that broke up any further expectations that he was only capable of the “funny” songs.
Cake - Fashion Nugget
When I listen to Cake, I can’t help but smile and wiggle in my office chair a little bit. John McCrea and his band never cease to disappoint on each and every record they’ve put out of the years, from this one to Comfort Eagle and onward.
Fashion Nugget by far is the most outstanding. You can’t beat songs like Daria or Italian Leather Sofa, and you cannot deny the awesomeness that is the cover of I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor.
The Clash - Story of the Clash
This double disc set features the very best of the band that influenced so many of today’s more recent artists. Bands like No Doubt, Sublime, 311, The Strokes, and many more would be nothing if The Clash had never existed.
Sharing the early 80s punk revolution with The Sex Pistols & The Ramones, The Clash stood out in the mainstream with early hits Should I Stay Or Should I Go, Rock The Casbah, and I Fought The Law, and hooked em in with deeper but less popular tracks like Armagideon Time and my personal favorite, Train In Vain.
The Cure - Wish
Most people would consider Disintegration as the best Cure album, and on many levels I would agree, however this album (much like Abbey Road) was the first full album by The Cure that I heard. At the time I had only marginally liked the band, but after hearing album-only tracks From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, End, and Doing the Unstuck did I truly appreciate the band.
Of the whole album, A Letter to Elise not only stands out as my favorite track, but also as my favorite song by The Cure.
Fiona Apple - When The Pawn..
The album holding the title in the Guiness Book of World Records for “longest album title” (the length of which would be longer than most of this article), it also shares the title as my favorite Fiona Apple album.
While Tidal had Criminal and Shadowboxer, as a whole this sophomore album had a much more deeper and refined sound. Her growth as an artist and a person showed in tracks like Fast As You Can, Limp, A Mistake, and the standout track Paper Bag.
Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
I think I have owned maybe six copies of this album through the years, each one either lost or taken from me (mostly in high school). I heard this album at the beginning of my teenage adolescent years and it has never left my playlist ever since.
Trent Reznor has adapted and refined his sound over the years since, but never again would he achieve such glory as this album. Even The Downward Spiral, which outsold PHM by millions of copies, simply couldn’t compare to the twisted and original sound produced all by Trent’s lonesome. No particular song is better or worse than the one before it, as the album is meant to be listened to start to finish while Trent tells the story of his young fractured life.
Radiohead - The Bends
The British alt-rock powerhouse Radiohead followed up its lackluster first album with a diamond in the rough. This album is simply amazing, and only because of its sheer number of radio hits does it beat its followup OK Computer on this list.
Fake Plastic Trees, High and Dry, and Just were only the beginning of the best parts of this album, and of this band. It began my obsession of Radiohead and since then I have rarely been disappointed by anything they put out, and I’m even counting the worst parts of Kid A.
Self - Gizmodgery
People that know me have been introduced to Self either by choice or by force, whichever I deem is the most necessary. Self is Matt Mahaffey, a quick witted musician that can play just about any instrument and it really shows on this album.
Gizmodgery is a collection of songs incorporating children’s toys as musical instruments. Either pulling from children’s rhymes like in Pattycake, reminiscing about ELO or Danzig in Trunk Fulla Amps, or doing the absolute best cover of The Doobie Brothers What A Fool Believes, Self never seems to disappoint.
Go to www.selfies.com for several free downloads of Self’s unpublished material (over five full albums, including some of his best work).
They Might Be Giants - They Might Be Giants
Two guys named John following in the footsteps of Devo and Dr. Suess put together a collection of songs that can be described as bizarre from some and genius from many others. This album is pre-Instanbul (Not Constantinople) & Particle Man. The only track to see the light of day on the radio was Don’t Lets Start, and that’s only because it’s the most normal-sounding song on the record.
Don’t get the wrong idea though, if you can wrap your brains around songs like Boat of Car or 32 Footsteps, you are a special human being that I respect. If you’ve even heard of those songs before this article, you automatically get 100 awesome points from me.
Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
Ahh.. the beginning of the best. EVERYONE has heard Blister in the Sun, but can you sing every word to Add It Up, or Kiss Off? How about Gone Daddy Gone? Does that song make you want to grow your hair over your eyes and do the 90’s ska dance? What is it about listening to Gimme the Car that reminds me of being a teenager?
For a special treat, check out Gnarls Barkely’s cover of Gone Daddy Gone on his album St. Elsewhere (which only barely got pushed out of this list).
Weezer - Weezer (The Blue Album)
Last and certainly not least Weezer’s “Blue Album”, which also falls in line with Ben Fold’s coined genre “Nerd Rock”. This album lived in my CD player for my entire Senior year in high school.
Undone (The Sweater Song), Surf Wax America, The World Has Turned and Left Me Here, and the popular hit Say It Ain’t So come to mind as the best of this album, but that list shuffles around as randomly as my music tastes.
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