22. The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band "Horses in the Sky"
The album opens with "they put angels in the electric chair" being repeated over violins and steadily builds into a gypsy influenced stomp getting louder and louder, then it stops. You hear childlike vocals placed over the piano and then people start chanting louder and louder "When the world is sick / Can no one be well / But I dreamt we were all beautiful and strong." The impression this song leaves is they're angry, but hopeless. Caring but apathetic.
God Bless Our Dead Marines, the opener track for this album sets the mood perfectly through the rest of the record. It immediately gives you a sense of political unrest, as well as a sense of being defeated. Horses in the Sky proves to be a fine example of what politics can do to the human mind. Tracks like Ring Them Bells and Teddy Roosevelt's Guns sum up the album perfectly with lines like "Canada, O Canada, I've never been your son".
Favorite Song: God Bless Our Dead Marines
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21. The Beach Boys "Pet Sounds"
It was very hard to decide between this and Love You as my favorite Beach Boys album, but I went with this because God Only Knows is one of the most beautiful songs i've ever heard. This album never really struck me as anything more then a fantastic collection of great pop songs until a few months ago when I was really listening to it. Brian Wilson's refinement of Spector's Wall of Sound and his interesting and unorthodox arrangements really do create for a beautiful listen, it's so subtle and done so well its hardly noticeable.
Anyway this album holds a ridiculous amount of memories for me, from my childhood all the way to recent times getting through a rough break up. Pet Sounds is kind of odd, I never thought much of Brian Wilson lyrically (and to be honest I wouldn't go around saying he was genius even now) but he manages to illustrate feelings in a manner thats much more simple and honest then your overly poetic or flowery way. Sometimes lines like "I soon found out my lonely life wasn't so pretty" are much more needed then "sitting in the darkness of a room, watching the shadows dance in the light, wishing for someone by my side." Pet Sounds is the perfect pop album, from the slightly anthemic Sloop John B, to the simple pop love song of Wouldn't It Be Nice to the tear inducing beautiful God Only Knows.
Favorite Song: God Only Knows
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