15. “Elliott Smith” by Elliott Smith – This album opens with “Needle in the Hay” which is a personal favorite of mine. Surprisingly, it is not my favorite song on this album. Smith is my favorite singer/songwriter and this album has a lot to offer lyrically, emotionally, and vocally. It has a nice folksy feel to it as well.
14. “F♯A♯∞” by Godspeed You! Black Emperor -
“The car is on fire, and there’s no driver at the wheel
And the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides
And a dark wind blows”
These opening lines are spoken by an elderly hopeless sounding man. Despite the silly band name and infinity symbol in the album title, Godspeed You! Black Emperor is a serious bunch of post-rockers. The band’s use of field recordings and sprawling classical ambience set them apart from many other bands.
13. “This Is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About” by Modest Mouse – Either this or Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” was the album to get me away from music I now hate like Linkin Park, Shinedown, Disturbed, etc. For the sake of this review I’ll say it was “Long Drive.” I’ve always thought that with each new album Modest Mouse has gradually slipped into a more poppy/commercial direction, so logically this debut is my favorite. This album is sixteen songs long and not one of them is even close to being bad. It sucks you in with “Dramamine” and then the long drive starts…
12. “Endtroducing….” by DJ Shadow – “Endtroducing….” is a purely sampled hip hop album that has some incredibly unique beats and interesting song structures. DJ Shadow samples all sorts of other music from Bjork to Loudon Wainwright III. He really gets it all to come together in the end though.
11. “And the Weathermen Shrug Their Shoulders” by The Ex + Tom Cora – The Ex’s art punk and Tom Cora’s cello return for one glorious sixteen song album. The heavenly female backing vocals suit the cello playing and contrast the punk music. The guys even use oriental instruments in my personal favorite song, “Okinawa Mon Amour.”
I’m curious by what you said for #13. Why did Modest Mouse and Radiohead stop you from liking Linkin Park, Shinedown, and Disturbed. I find it odd that liking one band could stop you from liking another.
Hey John. Good question. I didn’t have enough space to explain the process in full detail. I used to like a lot of bands similar to the three I listed above, but I also had Modest Mouse’s “Good News For People Who Love Bad News.” It was one of my favorite albums at the time, but I heard somewhere that MM’s earlier albums were better, so I bought “Long Drive.” I liked it a lot better than any other album I’d ever heard. It opened my eyes to how good music could sound. The albums I used to like seemed worse as I continued to expand my musical interests. I got “In Rainbows” for free using Pepsi points (they don’t exist anymore), and it was my new favorite album. The entire change was a lot more gradual than it sounds like above.