(#5 on the Alfred Top 25)

Opeth "Watershed"
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2008 was a great year for music, and one of the standouts of the year was of course, Opeth's Watershed. In a year with as many standouts as 2008, it's very hard to lay claim to album of the year. Unfortunately, Watershed was not album of the year (despite what I used to think about the album). But it is still a huge, monstrous, epic album that definitely puts up a fight for the title. Let's investigate the beast that is Watershed.

The album begins off with a sad, beautiful acoustic track called Coil. Mikael Åkerfeldt and female vocalist Nathalie Lorichs take turns singing on this gorgeous piece, and it works quite well. Putting the album on randomly, you might expect to hear classical guitar and dueling genders for the duration...

...but that is not to be. After the last notes of the acoustic guitar on Coil fade away, something completely different and just as magnificent enters the ears. This is the sound of Heir Apparent. A complex death metal track that is sure to please any headbanger. Clocking at almost nine minutes and featuring a number of changes in mood, tempo, and instrumentation, this is the sound everyone has come to expect from Opeth, and displays the heavier side of Opeth wonderfully. It's a brutal piece of music that, at its heaviest could put many heavier bands to shame. Åkerfeldt's growls sound as clear and guttural as they have ever sounded, and the instrumentation is as tight as possible.

The mid-range in Opeth's sound is shown off with the gloomy single Burden. It's soulful, emotional, and oddly catchy. Åkerfeldt's vocal performance is outstanding, and the accompanying lead guitar greatly adds to the level of emotion present throughout the song. The case is similar for the following single, Porcelain Heart. While the lyrics aren't the strongest, a lot of enjoyment is to be had throughout the song. With verses that sound similar to what was heard on Coil, and choruses consisting of sorrowful, yet catchy "ahhhhh's", this is the most accessible Opeth song you'll find. Nice touches like the electric guitar fading into the chorus make for a solid and engaging listening experiance.

What Opeth has demonstrated on Watershed is that they can be varied. They can combine just about every sound they've tried into one album and have it make sense and fit together. Soft, medium, brutal, it's all here. One moment, Opeth verges on a ballad, the next they're sharp and technical.

Watershed used to be my favorite Opeth album, without a doubt, but I find myself constantly debating whether that title belongs to Ghost Reveries. Either way, Opeth created an all-around solid album that just falls short of excellence. It's nothing that the band did wrong, it's just that at certain times, they may not hold your interest or you find yourself saying "I heard this before!". I feel that some of the heavier parts have been done better on previous albums, which is a shame because Watershed would be the ultimate Opeth album if not for this reason alone.

This little complaint aside, Watershed is the ideal album to listen to if you have never listened to Opeth before. It's soft, brutal, emotional, all rolled into one fifty five minute long engaging listen. Recommended.

85%
Awesome

(#4 on the Alfred Top 25)

Pink Floyd "The Dark Side Of The Moon"
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Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of The Moon is a generic choice on any critic's list of the greatest albums of all time. But unlike other painfully boring albums (Sgt. Pepper, I'm looking at you), there is a very good reason why this is such a popular selection.

I didn't realize how great of an album this was until I sat in the car one day with my portable CD player, staring out the window, so focused on the music. It dawned on me how wonderful this album is. Never in the history of music has an album been so perfectly laid out and produced. This album demands to be listened to, from beginning to end with all of your attention directed at the strange, pleasing sounds flowing through your ears. Otherwise you simply won't understand its greatness.

The album plays out like a movie, with the mood changing as the album progresses, and even an intermission. The first four tracks of the album warm you up to a (almost) cheery sound. Money acts as an intermission in that it doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the tracks. It's a straight-up classic rock number with a great guitar solo to boot. From there, a gloomier, grander Pink Floyd play out, and the race to the end of the album begins. Us and Them is dreamy, almost heavenly, and as I review this, I want to fall asleep in its magical musical... okay I'm getting off track here. The point is, it's truly a wonderful listening experience.

But the greatest part of the package is its gripping, accelerating ending. The joint songs Brain Damage and Eclipse are beautiful, melodic, sick, and dark all at the same time. Just as a final dramatic, maybe even action-packed scene in a movie should be executed, The Dark Side Of The Moon holds your attention up until it's last note.

I am a very big fan of Pink Floyd, and having heard many of their albums, it is easy to see why Dark Side Of The Moon stands out as their best. The other albums are all great in their own ways, but Dark Side Of The Moon was Pink Floyd getting everything right. It was the album they were destined to make, and they nailed everything. The production is timeless, the mood shifts, the instruments are layered just as you should expect from Pink Floyd. This is a masterpiece in every sense of the word, and any self-respecting fan of music must hear this album. Thank you Mr. Waters, Mr. Mason, Mr. Gilmour, and Mr. Wright. You have created a timeless work of art. A true staple of the medium.

95%
Masterpiece

(#3 on the Alfred Top 25)

The Wallflowers "Rebel, Sweetheart"
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The Wallflowers were all over the radio in 1996, the year their quadruple platinum album "Bringing Down The Horse" came out. Everyone knew the hits "One Headlight", "Three Marlenas", "The Difference", and "6th Avenue Heartache". But over the years they fell out of the public eye, not that I can really object. In 2000 you had the incredibly soft album "Breach" and in 2002 you had the overly poppy "Red Letter Days". Unfortunately, by the time The Wallflowers released their masterpiece in 2005, no one gave a shit. The Wallflowers were old news. Has-beens.

And maybe they realized that. Maybe they decided that they weren't in it for the money anymore, that they weren't going to make another Bringing Down The Horse. And as a result, they made Rebel, Sweetheart, a poetic, jangly, solid album. The first album I fell in love with, back when I was about eleven or twelve years old.

I remember putting this album in the CD player for the first time, so excited at hearing more songs from the only rock band I was allowed to listen to. The lazy riff of the incredibly catchy opener Days Of Wonder filled my ears and I laid down on my bed and listened to the whole thing. And then I listened to it a few more times after that. It was awesome.

And it's still awesome to this day. This is not an album that merely holds sentimental value with me, this is an album whose art I can still appreciate. It's a solid listen from start-to-finish, not a bad song on the CD. From the bright, upbeat rock songs to the poetic, gloomy folk rock, to the beautiful acoustic tracks, this is the band's most varied and well-produced album to date. It's always catchy but never seems to be commercial. Organic is the word.

In case you don't know, lead singer Jakob Dylan is the youngest son of Bob Dylan. As with his father, he's a great lyricist, but on Rebel, Sweetheart, his songs are more abstract than his father's. A favorite selection of mine from Nearly Beloved:

Compared to other albums, Jakob sacrificed his band's radio appeal for his best songwriting to date (solo album included).

My copy of Rebel, Sweetheart sits downstairs on top of a dresser with the rest of my CDs. It's definitely one of my most prized CDs because not only is it the first one I ever fell in love with, but it's incredibly rare to find one of these (I had to order online). The only Wallflowers album that sees the store shelves is Bringing Down The Horse, and you're lucky if you find it. I would definitely call Rebel, Sweetheart a lost, overlooked gem. It's a truly magnificent album.

93%
Masterpiece