10- The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
I didn't believe my friend that I would love this album, and here I am today, loving every minute. It always wraps me up and assures me that growing up doesn't have to mean growing old, though for many it's inevitable. I love it to death. Now if I can just get it in LP...
9- David Bowie- Low
Anytime I have roughly half an hour in-between things, I pop the first side on my record player and let it spin. It's vibrant but not shallow, and powerful. Side Two is a completely different beast, but I love the record for all it is.
9- Jim Guthrie - Now, More than Ever
As the first independent album I bought and still own, Now, More than Ever defines a landmark in my life. It's songs are grooving with folk and strings and strange lyrics. Eventually it all explodes in the title track and you can't help but think that some fantastic music is happening at the time.
7- Sufjan Stevens - Come on Feel the Illinoise!
I've recently understood what this album does. It's 22 tracks and over an hour long, but there's something fantastic happening between the first and final tracks. If you pay attention and, eventually, when all the landmarks are second knowledge to you, the album will shoot by you everytime and you'll love the hell out of it.
6- Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Definitely an acquired taste. These are pop songs wrapped up and spun about in mad, psychedelic electronica. It will rattle your brain as you try to come to grips with the fact that you've never heard anything like it.
5- The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
Though Pet Sounds did all of this forty years earlier, The Soft Bulletin still feels fresh and relevant. There are anthems here, some are party songs, and some are definite tear jerkers. No matter the mood, The Soft Bulletin will pick you right up and tell you it knows as your day brightens to the sound of "Race for the Prize."
4- Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand
Oh. My. God. If you get it, if you develop the ear for it, Bee Thousand will thrill you in ways you never hoped. I rocked out, I know I teared up, and in the end I sat on my chair and thought, "holy ****!"
3- Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
A classic of our generation and we don't even feel it yet. The triumphant story of its birth is subject enough for a book biography, but behind the story is some of the most wonderful music around. This is the record we'll be telling our kids about when we are god knows how old and complaining that the music in those days just isn't the same, but somehow our kids will love it the way we love Paul Simon's Graceland with our parents. It's just that powerful.
2- My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
There are four stages to loving Loveless:
#1: "Huh? It's just noise, **** it"
#2: "Alright, song 6 is pretty catchy. Still not for me, though"
#3: "That last track isn't bad. Guess I'll listen to the whole thing, then"
And then it hits you. The moment you know exactly what's happening is the moment you feel the most confused, the most head-over-heels, the most... everything. You will love AND hate the hell out of Loveless, until you can't hate it no more and you are wrapped in its blanket. It's another one of those "you'll get used to it" kind of albums, but I can safely say your life will change somewhat if you get it.
1-Neutral Milk Hotel- In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
All I can say is that this album changed my life: It changed the way I listen to music, watch movies, read books, write books, and overall the way I experience entertainment.
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