tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60141702011-07-07T16:44:22.343-07:00Paul Allennoreply@blogger.comBlogger201100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014170.post-1091027930823303422006-08-02T08:00:00.000-07:002009-08-13T06:58:05.457-07:00

This album is a desert island disc if there ever was one. It generates enough beauty, regret, nostaliga, loss, and hope in 12 songs to sustain a lifetime of musical enjoyment.If there's anyone in your life who still labors under the illusion that The Beach Boys only sang about cars, surfing and women-as-objects, please do them a favor. Sit them down and play this record for them. Let them hear

Paul Allennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014170.post-1091027258162859052006-08-02T07:50:00.000-07:002009-08-13T07:01:50.580-07:00

To start off, it's got a great title. This is the Beasties most consistently enjoyable and listenable record. It's also what every music nerd hopes to see, that is, an intelligent, expectations-subverting follow-up to a massively-successful-but-vacuous record. Add in the fact that it was underappreciated at its time, and you've got greatness.We start with a bizarre shout out to all sorts of girls

Paul Allennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014170.post-1091027459834727612006-08-02T07:40:00.000-07:002009-08-13T07:14:16.159-07:00

The Beatles' final work together (though released before Let It Be, this was chronologically the final album they recorded) is a doozy. The hit singles are there: Something, Come Together, Here Comes The Sun (the fact that two of these are George Harrison compositions show that he had come into his own as a songwriter), but the treat is the side two medley that runs from the gorgeous 3-part

Paul Allennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014170.post-1154553255941059552006-08-02T07:30:00.000-07:002009-08-13T07:27:22.744-07:00

As a greatest hit collection, it's imperfect (no A Kind Of Hush or Let Me Be The One) but you won't find another Carpenters' album or compilation with this sort of consistency. And though their reputation is that of sappy balledeers, the title of this CD is somewhat subversive since roughly half of these songs are about the negative side of love.Fave Song: I Need To Be In Love

Paul Allennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014170.post-1154553391787265672006-08-02T07:15:00.000-07:002009-08-13T07:25:56.936-07:00

Read a full review here.I know it's kinda bold to put such a recent release on an all-time list, but two years on and I have yet to sicken of these songs. I've seen the Twin Cities supergroup in concert 10 times and would still go if they were playing somewhere tonight. The disc itself contains ten crackerjack power pop songs that latch onto your brain and don't let go. From an extended story

Paul Allennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014170.post-1154552900983985452006-08-02T07:10:00.000-07:002009-08-13T07:31:04.576-07:00

There was a time when I thought this album brought me luck. It always seemed to be on the stereo when I received good news. Maybe there was some mystical connection, or maybe I just played it all the damn time!Fave Song: Lucky Denver Mint

Paul Allennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014170.post-1154552655190029392006-08-02T07:05:00.000-07:002009-08-13T07:34:32.100-07:00

You'd be hard-pressed to find an album with a higher percentage of hits than this blockbuster from Mr. Joel. Five of the nine songs (Movin' Out, The Stranger, Just The Way You Are, Only The Good Die Young and She's Always A Woman) were bonafide hits and 3 others (Vienna, Scenes From An Italian Restaurant and Get It Right The First Time) deserved to be (the overlong closer Everybody Has A Dream

Paul Allennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014170.post-1091028080270787242006-08-02T07:00:00.000-07:002009-08-13T07:35:53.344-07:00

This is one of two albums (James Taylor's Greatest Hits being the other) on the list that my mom introduced me to. Though it never got much play on Saturday morning cleaning sessions (that was saved for Greatest Hits), Captain Fantastic was always a object of childhood fascination for me.The record is about Elton (the Captain) and lyricist Bernie Taupin (the Cowboy) and their early days trying

Paul Allennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014170.post-1091029396128679542006-08-02T06:55:00.000-07:002009-08-13T07:36:43.227-07:00

This is the best greatest hits collection ever released. I have a few preferences when it comes to best ofs: 1) make it chronological (or at least put serious thought into flow and pacing) and 2) only include new songs if they're up to snuff. There are several other rules, but these are the most important. The thing about TIM is that it blatantly breaks one of the rules and still manages to

Paul Allennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014170.post-1154530125207460212006-08-02T06:50:00.000-07:002009-08-13T07:42:58.952-07:00

Ronnie Milsap is a blind, piano-playing country singer who doesn't write his own songs. He has had (as evidenced by the efficient title) 40 number one country hits, but there are actually 43 songs on these two discs. Yes, it's country, but never have I heard such soulful country. The songs are simple, but never fail to hit emotional highs and lows, thanks to Ronnie's brilliant interpretive

Paul Allennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014170.post-1091028510373036822006-08-02T06:46:00.000-07:002009-08-13T07:45:48.807-07:00

I recently saw a quote where lead singer Bryan Ferry admitted to the band being on copious amounts of drugs when this was recorded. Big surprise. This album is like the aural equivalent of a trippy dream.The cover features an armor-clad warrior and his hawk looking out over a vast body of water, with the clouds reflecting in it. It seems like a lost scene from an early Ridley Scott movie, and it

Paul Allennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014170.post-1154553464243886392006-08-02T06:45:00.000-07:002009-08-13T07:48:43.518-07:00

Read a full review here.In the grand tradition of singer-songwriter divorce albums comes Hearts And Bones. Being a divorce album the theme is, of course, heartbreak and loss. In Allergies likens falling in love to an allergic reaction. When Numbers Get Serious, Song About The Moon, and Cars Are Cars are all bouncy tunes that stretch metaphorically. They are respectively about divorce settlements

Paul Allennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014170.post-1091029050291914272006-08-02T06:40:00.000-07:002009-08-13T07:48:13.311-07:00

When I first bought this record (in high school) it sounded completely alien to my ear, and I was scandalized by the fact that there was actually a song called Silverfuck. So it took awhile to get through to me, but once it clicked I couldn't imagine anything more powerful or beautiful.This is a record that I love so much I bought it again when they re-released it with expanded liner notes. Liner

Paul Allennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014170.post-1091028711392322202006-08-02T06:30:00.000-07:002009-08-13T07:57:05.067-07:00

My freshman year of college I discovered/re-discovered The Police, and so when Sting came out with a new album I had to get it. I knew some of his solo hits, but this was the first CD of his that I owned, and it will always be my favorite.It starts with the words of the title, and ends with them as well. You've gotta love that. In between there are gentle, catchy songs about various states of

Paul Allennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014170.post-1154553085884571002006-08-02T06:25:00.000-07:002009-08-13T08:23:58.597-07:00

Matthew Sweet always seemed to have a Beach Boys fixation, but he goes all out on this album, even recording some songs with the same musicians who played on Pet Sounds. The results are gorgeous, with walls of sound, choirs of Matthews and brilliant melodies.Fave Song: Untitled

Paul Allennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014170.post-1154553510697129952006-08-02T06:20:00.000-07:002009-08-13T08:05:41.210-07:00

Fave Song: What A Day That Was

Paul Allennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014170.post-1154552937455105912006-08-02T06:15:00.000-07:002009-08-13T08:06:16.454-07:00

Fave Song: Mexico

Paul Allennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014170.post-1091028833955453932006-08-02T06:10:00.000-07:002009-08-13T08:20:34.180-07:00

I found this on vinyl in my college radio station's collection, borrowed it, became obsessed and then decided to "borrow" it permanently. This was 'Til Tuesday's third and final album and featured Aimee Mann's songwriting skills coming into full blossom (along with some famous help: Matthew Sweet and Elvis Costello both have writing credits).Every song is about love, and since it's Aimee Mann,

Paul Allennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014170.post-1091028274058765692006-08-02T06:05:00.000-07:002009-08-13T08:22:46.367-07:00

I wasn't much educated on pop music in 1994, but I did work in the K-Mart electronics department. One of my co-workers bore an uncanny resemblance to Rivers Cuomo in the Buddy Holly video. Another co-worker recognized this, taped it, and brought it into work.At first I watched it just for lookalike factor, then because the video was so damn clever, and then because I couldn't get the song out of

Paul Allennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014170.post-1091027562531463422006-08-02T06:00:00.000-07:002009-08-13T08:13:45.521-07:00

When I first got Nonsuch I was still an XTC novice and I mistook it for a best of collection. That's how good it is, from the cryptic opener The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead to the elegiac closer Books Are Burning. In between there are songs about monkeys being smarter than men, jealousy, unfair romantic relationships, falling in love, a girl playing on a toy horse, and war-mongering.This was the

Paul Allennoreply@blogger.com