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[Flynn]

Sorry for stealing two of your records good sir. If it makes you feel better Flynn has three of mine I was planning on getting.

Also: I'm kind of amazed at the amount of Love for Love around here.

 

[AlternativeUlster]

Also: I'm kind of amazed at the amount of Love for Love around here.

I actually didn't start getting around to Love until I saw Calexico on some HBO show whose name escapes me at the time and then I got way into Calexico so I went into Yesterday Discs (a record store in Wichita) and bought all that I could. The guy at the store game me a copy of Forever Changes for free and told me it was better than all of those Calexico records I was holding. Well, sure, it was but those Calexico records were great too.

 

[tekumseh]

Here is my pick #5:

Derek & the Dominoes - Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs

 

[n0b]

#5:
Amon Düül II - Yeti

 

[Meliorism]

Marvin Gaye - What's Going On

 

[Flynn]

I actually didn't start getting around to Love until I saw Calexico on some HBO show whose name escapes me at the time and then I got way into Calexico so I went into Yesterday Discs (a record store in Wichita) and bought all that I could. The guy at the store game me a copy of Forever Changes for free and told me it was better than all of those Calexico records I was holding. Well, sure, it was but those Calexico records were great too.

That's a great story.

I got into Love when I moved to Los Angeles. Arthur Lee played the Silverlake Street Fair every year for a while -- there was a sort of local love for the guy and his work. The Weekly was always writing about him and how important his work was. So it was really hard not to gain an appreciation.

 

[DataStream]

The United States of America - The United States of America

 

[Kevtones]

Dis plan - emergency and I

My first blackberry pick

FUCK NO! I was going to pick this yesterday




Oh well, back up plan time:

The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin

 

[Vox-Pop]

Iggy Pop The Idiot

 

[Karma Kramer]

Oh well, back up plan time:

The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin

Hmm I don't know how I feel about this going up against my Yoshimi considering how much more universally praised Soft Bulletin is.

GOD DAMN YOU KEVTONES!!!!

 

[AlternativeUlster]

The United States of America - The United States of America

Now this is a great classic rock record. I completely forgot about this one. I used to listen to Stranged in Time on repeat nonstop just because it was only a 2 minute track. Did you know that some of the people who were in United States of America went on to do a lot of music for the Peanuts movies that came out in the 70s?

 

[Vox-Pop]

Love - Forever Changes

I actually prefer Da Capo over Forver Changes but that's just me.

I can't seem to find any Love-Da Capo songs on youtube, weird.

 

[Kevtones]

Hmm I don't know how I feel about this going up against my Yoshimi considering how much more universally praised Soft Bulletin is.

GOD DAMN YOU KEVTONES!!!!

:lol blame Swoon for stealing Emergency & I and someone else for taking Richard D. James

 

[AlternativeUlster]

#5:
Amon Düül II - Yeti

While you aren't supposed to edit, I am just going to assume it was because you wanted to get the right marks over the "u"s which I don't know what they are called. I actually haven't heard of this Amon Düül II record. I have only listened to Tanz Der Lemmings actually. I think it is on one of my externals though so I will put it on later tonight.

 

[AlternativeUlster]

I actually prefer Da Capo over Forver Changes but that's just me.

I can't seem to find any Love-Da Capo songs on youtube, weird.

Da Caop is a great record too but Forever Changes just feels life changing.

That is odd about not finding any Da Capo songs on YouTube. The Move's cover of Stephanie Knows Why is pretty good though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ-P4rSWWYY

 

[Karakand]

I can't seem to find any Love-Da Capo songs on youtube, weird.

WMG

 

[AlternativeUlster]

Iggy Pop The Idiot

Oh yes, it is good to see some Iggy Pop solo love even though it goes back and forth for me between The Idiot and Lust for Life for my favorite of his. I actually like them both than any of the Stooges records but Flynn did pick my favorite Stooges record.

 

[Vox-Pop]

Straight Outta Compton - N.W.A

Great pick, I hope I don't lose street-cred with my Hip Hop pick.

The Stooges -- Raw Power

I had a hard time choosing between the Stooges-Stooges or Iggy Pop-The Idiot, I think I made the right pick. The first two Iggy Pop records far surpasses his Stooges career imo.

Iggy Pop The Idiot
Nightculbbing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3OaMZojJRg

Massproduction (Awesome ending):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjeoaOxx_Ec

The very Lou-like Tiny Girls:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loPgARPaHY0

Da Caop is a great record too but Forever Changes just feels life changing.

That is odd about not finding any Da Capo songs on YouTube. The Move's cover of Stephanie Knows Why is pretty good though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ-P4rSWWYY

I was trying to find Orange Skies but couldn't.

I guess Da Capo can be best described as a "summer record," while Forever Changes has a more album-dept feel.

WMG

 

[n0b]

While you aren't supposed to edit, I am just going to assume it was because you wanted to get the right marks over the "u"s which I don't know what they are called. I actually haven't heard of this Amon Düül II record. I have only listened to Tanz Der Lemmings actually. I think it is on one of my externals though so I will put it on later tonight.

Actually it was because I just copied the text from my directory and for some reason it had 2 instead of II. I was like what is going on here when I looked at my post.

Its my favorite album of theirs though.

 

[Flynn]

I had a hard time choosing between the Stooges-Stooges or Iggy Pop-The Idiot, I think I made the right pick. The first two Iggy Pop records far surpasses his Stooges career imo.

It's like, "do you like what Bowie saw in him or do you like what Bowie did with him?"

 

[AlternativeUlster]

It's like, "do you like what Bowie saw in him or do you like what Bowie did with him?"

:lol

 

[Vox-Pop]

It's like, "do you like what Bowie saw in him or do you like what Bowie did with him?"

Yeah true, David Bowie was the genius behind Iggy Pop's greatest albums, I doubt Iggy by himself could ever accomplish something so good. Does anyone know if Brian Eno was involved in The Idiot or Lust for Life?

With all this Iggy talk, I should note that my favorite Iggy song has to be Punkrocker. Damn WMG really killed youtube. Found a video! http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2pwgg_teddybears-feat-iggy-pop-punkrocker_music

 

[muttyeah416]

FUCK NO! I was going to pick this yesterday




Oh well, back up plan time:

The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin

damn you i was deciding between this and slanted & enchanted, and i went with the latter

 

[AlternativeUlster]

Hey Cosmic, I finally got around to finishing that Lift to Experience album. It is pretty epic and dense. I like it a lot. I am burning a copy for my roommate who listens to Downward is Heavenward a lot. Good stuff.

 

[AlternativeUlster]

Actually it was because I just copied the text from my directory and for some reason it had 2 instead of II. I was like what is going on here when I looked at my post.

Its my favorite album of theirs though.

I just finished listening to it. I enjoyed it throughly and it made me want to listen to a lot of krautrock. I think my favorite track was Eye Shaking King. I am not sure how I like it compared to Tanz since it has been a couple of years since I have listened to it. What is your favorite Guru Guru record?

 

[Wes]

Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory?

 

[DataStream]

Now this is a great classic rock record. I completely forgot about this one. I used to listen to Stranged in Time on repeat nonstop just because it was only a 2 minute track. Did you know that some of the people who were in United States of America went on to do a lot of music for the Peanuts movies that came out in the 70s?

The lead singer teaches music in the east bay somewhere... I've always been tempted to try and hunt her down and see if she'd be willing to sing on a track.

Its a fantastic record. I highly reccomend anyone who hasn't heard it to hunt it down. Hugely influential to krautrock, stereolab, broadcast, and so much more.

 

[Squirrel Killer]

The Replacements - Let It Be

 

[AlternativeUlster]

The Replacements - Let It Be

Well, that narrows down my 6th round pick....

 

[DieNgamers]

Shit! I need to read the rules. This sounds interesting!
Edit: Alright! I can choose 5 albums now, right???! (If it's not too late for me, of course...just tell me!)

#1 Black Sabbath: Master of Reality (1971) <--click on HQ, otherwise...
#2 Pantera: Cowboys From Hell (1990)
#3 Jethro Tull: Aqualung (1971)
#4 David Bowie: Station to Station (1976) <--this is my favourite David Bowie Album
#5 The Who: Tommy (1969)

 

[AlternativeUlster]

Lifetime - Hey Bastards

In the surprisingly crowded world of pop-punk, Lifetime is a rare find. They've got the right amount of energy, attitude, and teenage empathy to create music straight from the heart, and they've also got the ability to cram said music into perfect two-minute capsules. Like a heavier version of Weston or a more serious answer to the Bouncing Souls, Lifetime's straight-outta-Jersey punk anthems are the perfect soundtrack to disaffected youth. From skewered takes on love like "I'm Not Calling You" and "I Like You OK" to the "let's get drunk and listen to the Clash"sentiments expressed in "Irony Is for Suckers," Hello Bastards stands as the benchmark for high-speed pop-punk in the 1990s. Vocalist Ari Katz only bothers to pronounce every third word or so, but it's still enough to get the point across, and the rest of the group's talents at throwing in quick stops and catchy choruses effortlessly drives the message home. Lifetime made their career out of playing honest music about real life, and their presentation is as fun as it is serious. This is the record that really set the group on the path to becoming underground local heroes, and like much of the influential punk that it bases itself on, it has already shown the ability to stand the test of time.

Song Sample: Rodeo Clown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-mwmIVfc1I

Scott Walker - 4

Walker dropped out of the British Top Ten with his fourth album, but the result was probably his finest '60s LP. While the tension between the bloated production and his introspective, ambitious lyrics remains, much of the over-the-top bombast of the orchestral arrangements has been reined in, leaving a relatively stripped-down approach that complements his songs rather than smothering them. This is the first Walker album to feature entirely original material, and his songwriting is more lucid and cutting. Several of the tracks stand among his finest. "The Seventh Seal," based upon the classic film by Ingmar Bergman, features remarkably ambitious (and relatively successful) lyrics set against a haunting Ennio Morricone-style arrangement. "The Old Man's Back Again" also echoes Morricone, and tackles no less ambitious a lyrical palette; "dedicated to the neo-Stalinist regime," the "old man" of this song was supposedly Josef Stalin. "Hero of the War" is also one of Walker's better vignettes, serenading his war hero with a cryptic mix of tribute and irony. Other songs show engaging folk, country, and soul influences that were largely buried on his previous solo albums.

Song Sample: The Old Man's Back Again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DpDxT2q9QE

Velocity Girl - Simpatico

The problem with Copacetic was the dingy production, so for Simpatico, Velocity Girl hooks up with the Smiths' first LP producer John Porter. Flaw corrected. Perhaps too much? Some have expressed the opinion that Porter has neutered them somewhat, and indeed, the rawer edges have largely been relinquished, but so what? They sound great now, much tighter, more convincing, more together. Constant touring has obviously toughened and synchronized them, so credit them for a lot of thankless, hard work. Simpatico, at the least, is a three-times-better version of their first LP, which is the small flaw now — they don't seem to have enlarged their scope much, still clinging to the chiming guitar version of the Wedding Present meets the Shangri-La's they started with long ago — remember when My Forgotten Favorite was on so many of our turntables? And the problem with narrow scopes is that some of the songs just aren't going to click as much as the better versions of the same thing. But if they aren't going to change their sound, or to a lesser extent, their style; at least they can keep getting better at it, and that is the case, so there are more big delights. "Drug Girls" has a sharp chorus, and the best song, "Rubble," adds a New Order bass and acoustic. "Hey You, Get Off My Moon" at least attempts a slow ballad, and "What You Left Behind" and the single "Sorry Again" are big-time hooky. Porter seems to have worked Sarah Shannon into singing stronger and more firmly. It's time to move on, but for now, there's plenty to enjoy.

Song Sample: Sorry Again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaMrivLS8bU

Jedi Mind Tricks - The Psycho-Social, Chemical, Biological, and Electro-Magnetic Manipulation of Human

The debut LP from Jedi Mind Tricks (though it appeared on CD only five years later), The Psycho-Social, Chemical, Biological, and Electro-Magnetic Manipulation of Human Consciousness was recorded in the duo's native Philadelphia but bears all the hallmarks of Long Island phantoms Wu-Tang Clan and their masterpiece of dense macabre, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). Jedi Mind Tricks producer Stoupe shares with RZA and Scotty Hard the talent of making the unsampleable sound downright catchy, whether it's water drops and warped guitar (for "Chinese Water Torture") or soundtrack music caught halfway between the Italian underworld and a medieval Japanese drama ("The Winds of War"). The rappers, including Stoupe's partner, Ikon, as well as guests like fellow Philly flowmasters Lost Children of Babylon, prove up to the challenge of these difficult productions; it's high praise indeed that they never fail to convince and entertain, even when discussing interstellar spacecraft probes, biochemical molecular structure, or the minutiae of obscure Occidental mythology. It's clear that an earlier CD edition or, at the least, wider distribution upon its original release would've broken Psycho-Social with ease and vaulted the duo beyond the dozens of metaphysical rappers clogging the rap racks during the late '90s.

Song Sample: The Winds of War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1auNG-dMAEs

The Oblivians - Soul Food

On Soul Food, Jack Oblivian, Eric Oblivian, and Greg Oblivian trade off on guitars and drums (no bass) in a 30-minute album of guitar chicken scratching with bent note solos, some church organ, spitting vocals, and thud-and-crash drumming. The songs are delivered like a fire-and-brimstone preacher who dabbles as Mr. Hyde on weekends, full of spirit and depravity. Few bands sound as possessed by the belief in the power of rock & roll. Like similarly veined groups the Cramps, Tav Falco, and the Gories, the Oblivians often sound deranged in their preservation of the raw shaking beat of pre-Elvis manic and dark blues. The Oblivians honor the same canon of musicians, opening the record with a stomping cover of Lightnin' Hopkins' "Vietnam Blues." A legacy to the past is established but the party has just begun. The lonely screaming anthem "No Reason to Live" elicits both sympathy and a pumping fist in the listener. No one wants Greg Oblivian to end it all, but it sure is fun to bomp around to this track. Testimonials of faith in the culture and music that they love continue in "Never Change" and "Static Party." "Sunday, You Need Love" and "And Then I Fucked Her" would have some people looking for dust on the needle if it wasn't a CD. The bare-bones live production heightens the urgency; the Oblivians are desperate to get these songs off their souls. The Oblivians ignore the speed, grunge, and artsy angles bands pass off as the next stage of rock. They are dedicated to a sound: "Never Change" declares, "Like a broken record/I play the same sad song." Production and perfect playing are overrated; Soul Food's greatness is found in emotion and devotion.

Song Sample: Vietnam War Blues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-89Kii9cHKU

 

[AlternativeUlster]

Shit! I need to read the rules. This sounds interesting!
Edit: Alright! I can choose 5 albums now, right???! (If it's not too late for me, of course...just tell me!)

#1 Black Sabbath: Master of Reality
#2 Pantera: Cowboys From Hell
#3 Jethro Tull: Aqualung
#4 David Bowie: Station to Station
#5 The Who: Tommy

You are in dude.

 

[Ford Prefect]

Iggy Pop The Idiot

awesome album.


shit... I totally need to think of something right now off the top of my head... uh,

Sagittarius - Present Tense

And with an album this intense, you can't NOT post the cover art:

 

[vatstep]

Hmm I don't know how I feel about this going up against my Yoshimi considering how much more universally praised Soft Bulletin is.

GOD DAMN YOU KEVTONES!!!!

Yeah, The Soft Bulletin would get my vote. I kind of hate Yoshimi. I just ultimately prefer the early-90's Lips albums to everything else.

 

[Chamber]

Such a downer my top two Lips' albums went in the same round. My shortlist of albums I wanted to draft is getting thin.

 

[Karma Kramer]

Yoshimi is far better in my opinion, soft bulletin seems very repetitive in comparison.

 

[n0b]

Its kind of annoying to try to hype my list when two of my album choices aren't listenable anywhere.

Round One: Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica: Veteran's Day Poppy (no links)
Round Two: Miles Davis - Kind of Blue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEC8nqT6Rrk
Round Three: Slint - Spiderland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoH5MPIgM7c
Round Four: The Doors - The Doors: Soul Kitchen (no links)
Round Five: Amon Düül II - Yeti: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlMwX9LxHcg

I just finished listening to it. I enjoyed it throughly and it made me want to listen to a lot of krautrock. I think my favorite track was Eye Shaking King. I am not sure how I like it compared to Tanz since it has been a couple of years since I have listened to it. What is your favorite Guru Guru record?

Haven't really listened to Guru Guru enough to say, and I wouldn't really call myself a fan of what I've heard. Nobody really recommended them strongly while I was getting into krautrock.

 

[Cyan]

Bad Religion - No Control

Ok, time to hype up someone else's selection.

You
I Want to Conquer the World

 

[BioHazard]

Oh wow I totally forgot about that rule about not having more than one album from the same artist. :lol

In that case:


Back in Black - AC/DC

 

[Flynn]

Velocity Girl - Simpatico

A review of this record is one of the first clips I ever scored outside of the high school newspaper.

 

[Mason]

Outkast - Aquemini

 

[hXc_thugg]

Daniel Johnston - Hi, How Are You?

 

[Vox-Pop]

I'm going for another 00's pick tonight.

 

[AlternativeUlster]

Daniel Johnston - Hi, How Are You?

:lol while this isn't my favorite Daniel Johnston record, I do have a tattoo of it on my right arm.

 

[AlternativeUlster]

Its kind of annoying to try to hype my list when two of my album choices aren't listenable anywhere.

Round One: Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica: Veteran's Day Poppy (no links)
Round Two: Miles Davis - Kind of Blue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEC8nqT6Rrk
Round Three: Slint - Spiderland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoH5MPIgM7c
Round Four: The Doors - The Doors: Soul Kitchen (no links)
Round Five: Amon Düül II - Yeti: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlMwX9LxHcg

Haven't really listened to Guru Guru enough to say, and I wouldn't really call myself a fan of what I've heard. Nobody really recommended them strongly while I was getting into krautrock.

You should upload some stuff on ZShare.

As for Guru Guru, here is their first UFO which is OOP:
http://www.cilicus.blogspot.com/2008/02/guru-guru-1-1970-ufo.html

Here some other good OOP kraut / psych blogs:
http://prognotfrog.blogspot.com/ (actually go through and click on a bunch of their links to find an infinite amount of music)
http://krautrockgermanrock.blogspot.com/ (hasn't been updated in like 3 years but links are still active as far as I can tell)

 

[AlternativeUlster]

A review of this record is one of the first clips I ever scored outside of the high school newspaper.

That's awesome. Do you still have your review? I was completely in love with Velocity Girl when I was a kid ever since I had the Clueless soundtrack with Forgotten Favoritie. I couldn't find my favorite track from the record on YouTube which was Rubble.

 

[Flynn]

That's awesome. Do you still have your review? I was completely in love with Velocity Girl when I was a kid ever since I had the Clueless soundtrack with Forgotten Favoritie. I couldn't find my favorite track from the record on YouTube which was Rubble.

I'm not sure if the clip survived all the moves I've made since college. It was for an independent weekly in Orlando -- my first freelance gig out of college. I think I made $15 per review (plus the free CD). Also reviewed Tuscadero and Guided By Voices in the same issue.

I hate to imagine what I wrote.

 

[AlternativeUlster]

Lee Dorsey - Yes We Can
picked by CosmicBus in Round Five

For all but the most dedicated record collector, Lee Dorsey's terrific singles for Amy — including the hits "Workin' in a Coalmine" and "Ride Your Pony" — are all anybody knows about Lee Dorsey's collaboration with Allen Toussaint. Those were the recordings that were the hits, those were the recordings that were played on oldies radio, and those were the recordings that were reissued on CD, while the two albums Dorsey and Toussaint made in the '70s seemed lost, never reissued and rarely mentioned in either's discography or biography. That's not to say that the first of their '70s efforts, 1970's Yes We Can, didn't have an impact. Several of the cuts were covered by major artists throughout the decade — the Pointer Sisters had a hit with the title track, Robert Palmer covered "Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley" for the title track of his 1974 debut, Ringo Starr cut "Occapella," and the Meters' loose-limbed, eclectic groove set the pace for a lot of rock and funk for the '70s (most notably Little Feat, who did a faithful cover of Dorsey's 1971 non-LP single "On Your Way Down"). So while it was possible to hear the reverberations of this album, it was impossible to easily hear this music until it finally saw the light of day on Raven's 2005 two-fer Yes We Can/Night People (which also included "On Your Way Down" and another non-LP single, "When Can I Come Home?," as bonus tracks). Musically, Yes We Can is closer to Toussaint's solo LPs for Warner — collected on Rhino Handmade's excellent 2003 two-disc set The Complete Warner Recordings — than Dorsey's '60s sides, but it's the best overall album Dorsey ever made and one of the greatest soul albums of the '70s. Here, Dorsey, Toussaint, and the estimable supporting band of the Meters are at an absolute peak. Song for song, this is Toussaint's strongest writing and it's given lively, imaginative interpretations from the Meters. Hardly just a routine collection of New Orleans funk, Yes We Can dips into rampaging Stax-Volt soul on "When the Bill's Paid," diamond-hard funk on "Gator Tail," stylish updates of Dorsey's Amy sound on "O Me-O, My-O" and "Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley," smoky nighttime grooves on "Riverboat," and utterly modern protest soul on "Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further?" while ending on the hilarious standup comedy riff of "Would You?" Not only is there a great variety of styles, sounds, and moods here, but Dorsey, Toussaint, and the Meters all make it sound easy, when it really was the most sophisticated funk and soul of its time. Maybe that sly sophistication is why the album sank commercially in 1970, maybe it's because the music was at once too earthy and elegant to compete with the sound of either Hi or Philadelphia International, maybe it just didn't get the right promotion, but the years have been nothing but kind to Yes We Can, which stands as one of the great soul albums.

Song Sample: Yes We Can
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqITJFGyq4s

Sagittarius - Present Tense
picked by Ford Prefect in Round Five

All 11 tracks from the 1968 LP, with the addition of seven previously unreleased items and a couple cuts from non-LP singles. Although the production is beautiful and the songwriting melodic, the material is really too cloying to qualify this as a lost classic. When there's even a bit of a serious or melancholic edge — as on the graceful opening track "Another Time," or Gary Usher's strange and stunning slice of psych-pop, "The Truth Is Not Real" — it's much more memorable. Otherwise, this is kind of like the lesser fairy-tale, sing-songy British psychedelia of the time, but with state-of-the-art L.A. '60s production. The bonus cuts are similar to the album, highlighted by the gorgeous instrumental "Sister Marie," although the non-LP single "Hotel Indiscreet" is silly fluff. The version of "My World Fell Down" that appeared on Present Tense was brutally edited, but fear not: one of the bonus cuts is the classic original single version, all of its glory (and avant-garde bridge of found noise) intact.

Song Sample: My World Fell Down
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs-oGEhDP0E
personal note: Check this out, a marvel of production in my opinion


Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run[/QUOTE]
picked by Vatstep in Round One

Bruce Springsteen's make-or-break third album represented a sonic leap from his first two, which had been made for modest sums at a suburban studio; Born to Run was cut on a superstar budget, mostly at the Record Plant in New York. Springsteen's backup band had changed, with his two virtuoso players, keyboardist David Sancious and drummer Vini Lopez, replaced by the professional but less flashy Roy Bittan and Max Weinberg. The result was a full, highly produced sound that contained elements of Phil Spector's melodramatic work of the 1960s. Layers of guitar, layers of echo on the vocals, lots of keyboards, thunderous drums — Born to Run had a big sound, and Springsteen wrote big songs to match it. The overall theme of the album was similar to that of The E Street Shuffle; Springsteen was describing, and saying farewell to, a romanticized teenage street life. But where he had been affectionate, even humorous before, he was becoming increasingly bitter. If Springsteen had celebrated his dead-end kids on his first album and viewed them nostalgically on his second, on his third he seemed to despise their failure, perhaps because he was beginning to fear he was trapped himself. Nevertheless, he now felt removed, composing an updated West Side Story with spectacular music that owed more to Bernstein than to Berry. To call Born to Run overblown is to miss the point; Springsteen's precise intention is to blow things up, both in the sense of expanding them to gargantuan size and of exploding them. If The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle was an accidental miracle, Born to Run was an intentional masterpiece. It declared its own greatness with songs and a sound that lived up to Springsteen's promise, and though some thought it took itself too seriously, many found that exalting.

Song Sample: Backstreets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RS7mObS8a8

King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
picked by Chamber in Round Five

This reissue of King Crimson's debut, In the Court of the Crimson King (1969), renders all previous pressings obsolete. In the late '90s, Robert Fripp remastered the entire Crimson catalog for inclusion in a 30th anniversary edition. Nowhere was the upgrade more deserved (or necessary) than on this rock & roll cornerstone. Initially, King Crimson consisted of Robert Fripp (guitar), Ian McDonald (reeds/woodwind/vibes/keyboards/Mellotron/vocals), Greg Lake (bass/vocals), Michael Giles (drums/percussion/vocals), and Peter Sinfield (words/illuminations). As if somehow prophetic, King Crimson projected a darker and edgier brand of post-psychedelic rock. Likewise, they were inherently intelligent -- a sort of thinking man's Pink Floyd. Fripp demonstrates his innate aptitude for contrasts and the value of silence within a performance, even as far back as "21st Century Schizoid Man." The song is nothing short of the aural antecedent to what would become the entire heavy alternative/grunge sound. Juxtaposed with that electric intensity is the ethereal noir ballad "I Talk to the Wind." The delicate vocal harmonies and McDonald's achingly poignant flute solo and melodic counterpoint remain unmatched on an emotive level. The surreal and opaque lyrics are likewise an insight to Peter Sinfield's masterful wordplay, which graced their next three releases. The original A-side concludes with the powerful sonic imagery of "Epitaph." The haunting Mellotron wails, and Fripp's acoustic -- as well as electric -- guitar counterpoints give the introduction an almost sacred feel, adding measurably to the overall sinister mood. Giles' percussion work provides a pungent kick during the kettle drum intro and to the aggressive palpitation-inducing rhythm in the chorus. "Moonchild" is an eerie love song that is creepy, bordering on uncomfortable. The melody is agile and ageless, while the instrumentation wafts like the wind through bare trees. Developing out of the song is an extended improvisation that dissolves into a non-structured section of free jazz, with brief guitar lines running parallel throughout. The title track, "In the Court of the Crimson King," completes the disc with another beautifully bombastic song. Here again, the foreboding featured in Sinfield's lyrics is instrumentally matched by the contrasting verbosity in the chorus and the delicate nature of the verses and concluding solos. Of course, this thumbnail appraisal pales in comparison to experiencing the actual recording. Thanks to Fripp and company's laborious efforts, this 30th anniversary edition sports sound as majestic as it has ever been within the digital domain. Frankly, the HDCD playback compatibility even bests the warmth and timbre of an original 1-A vinyl pressing. This is especially critical during the quieter passages throughout "Moonchild" and "I Talk to the Wind."

Song Sample: In the Court of the Crimson King
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSe_A3VQXso

Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe Express
picked by Flynn in Round Three

Although Autobahn was a left-field masterpiece, Trans-Europe Express is often cited as perhaps the archetypal (and most accessible) Kraftwerk album. Melodic themes are repeated often and occasionally interwoven over deliberate, chugging beats, sometimes with manipulated vocals; the effect is mechanical yet hypnotic. Thematically, the record feels like parts of two different concept albums: one a meditation on the disparities between reality and image ("Hall of Mirrors" and "Showroom Dummies" share recurring images of glass, reflection, illusion, and confused identities, as well as whimsical melodies), and the other the glorification of Europe. There is an impressive composition paying homage to "Franz Schubert," but the real meat of this approach is contained in the opening love letter, "Europe Endless," and the epic title track, which shares themes and lyrics with the following track, "Metal on Metal." The song "Trans-Europe Express" is similar in concept to "Autobahn," as it mimics the swaying motion and insistent drive of a cross-continent train trip. What ultimately holds the album together, though, is the music, which is more consistently memorable even than that on Autobahn. Overall, Trans-Europe Express offers the best blend of minimalism, mechanized rhythms, and crafted, catchy melodies in the group's catalog; henceforth, their music would take on more danceable qualities only hinted at here (although the title cut provided the basis for Afrika Bambaataa's enormously important dancefloor smash "Planet Rock").

Song Sample: Showroom Dummies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVtT8xsiXBQ

 

[Eric WK]

My first 00's pick tonight, I think.

 

[AlternativeUlster]

My first 00's pick tonight, I think.

Tonight is going to be my first pick by an artist who has already has an album or two in the draft.