Top Five Albums: Birthday Edition

With birthday monies, I purchased five new albums. Remarkably I contribute to a blog that uses the exact same number as an arbitrary boundary for listing things I like. How perfect. Here's a look at what I bought and how they stack up.

5.
Laughing Stock by Talk Talk
Sample Track: "Ascension Day"

Talk Talk started their career in the guise of a new wave band that produced memorable, but hardly trail blazing tracks (see this). They then reinvented themselves and started composing more experimental tracks that begun to introduce orchestral overtones (think ELO, but way more ethereal... like this). Laughing Stock however, took their experiments a step further, and the album sounds a little like a subdued cross between Classical, Ambient, and the New Romantic movements. I'm still digesting it and, though it will probably reward with additional listens and extended attention, I haven't felt the need to dive too far into it.

4.
Maxinquaye by Tricky
Sample Track: "Black Steel"

Cool album from one Massive Attack's first collaboraters. It's a much messier trip hop album than anything Massive Attack ever put together and, at its best, it's scattered-brained mash up of Mezzanine. At its worst, its merely enjoyable. The most intriguing part of the album is the plethora of appearances by Tricky's cohort, a sexy-but-dangerous siren named Martine.

3.
Entroducing... by DJ Shadow
Sample Track: "What Does Your Soul Look Like, Pt. 4"

I don't even know how to describe this album. From what I've read, DJ Shadow assembled this album out of old hooks and breaks from vintage/forgotten records as well as the occasional newscast. It creates a dense (but often beautiful) sound that is a sort of hip-hop meets Brian Eno meets Primal Scream. Can that even happen? All postmodernist bullshit aside, I think it does here.

2.
Nowhere by Ride
Sample Track: "Vapour Trail"

This album is oft cited as the second best shoegazing album of all time (the best being My Bloody Valentine's Loveless). If that sounded totally greek to you, let me explain: shoegazing was a flash-in-the-pan genre that is characterized by a swirling guitar, white-noise-induced sound that somehow retains its pop sensibilities (think of what the logical progression of the Jesus and Mary Chain would be into the 90s). The term "shoegazing" apparently has to do with the onstage personnas of most these bands, who would often stare at the ground while they played. Dumb, but whatever. At any rate, this album is fantastic and, if I dare say, better than the aforementioned Loveless, if only because it counters its own sweeping sonic chaos with moments of delicate, cinematic sound scape. It's not for everyone, but if Echo and the Bunnymen makes you go from six to midnight, these guys are worth checking out.

1.
Almost Killed Me by The Hold steady
Sample Track: "The Swish"

Killer guitar riffs, chunky bass lines, and stream of conscious lyrics about partying too hard. That is the most efficient way to summarize this album. It's a fantastic voyage of the highs and lows of living too fast and it's all half-sung/half-spoken by Craig Finn, the group's songwriter and lead singer (who sounds like a badass version of the Barenaked Ladies frontman). Listen to this album. It's worth your time.