sleepy jack

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
MySpace.com - A Silver Mt. Zion - CA - Experimental - www.myspace.com/asilvermtzion


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
MySpace.com - The Beach Boys - US - Classic Rock / Surf / Pop - www.myspace.com/thebeachboys

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The Dave

Woot, finally some more that I've actually listened to . My dad is a huge Beach Boys fan so I constantly listened to that album when I was younger, granted it meant I wasn't cool like all the other kids with their Spice Girls and 98 Kelvins, but I didn't care.

Wayfarer

sleepy jack

20. Belle and Sebastian "Dear Catastrophe Waitress"


I've always been kind of intrigued by Belle and Sebastian but prior to hearing this album i'd only like a handful of songs from what i'd heard. It was sad because it seemed like they had it in them to create a great pop album because they did create great pop songs but they just didn't (keep in mind I hadn't heard If You're Feeling Sinister or Push Barman To Open Old Wounds).

After hearing this release my view on them completely changed. Stuart Murdoch, who's always been a big attraction to me for them, seems on top of his game lyrically with songs like Piazza, New York Catcher and If She Wants Me which were clever as they were beautiful and the songs were just irresistibly catchy, they were slightly baroque popish at times and undeniably twee, but with an edge.
Favorite Song: Piazza, New York Catcher
MySpace.com - Belle & Sebastian - UK - Indie / Pop - www.myspace.com/thebandbelleandsebastian


19. Linda Perhacs "Parallelograms"


What do you get if Joni Mitchell did more drugs? You get Linda Perhacs. Parallelograms takes the heavenly bliss of Vashti Bunyan and expands and experiments with it by creating beautiful folk songs inspired by psychadelic music. This album when I heard it blew me away because of how painful and real it is and the thing that shocked me was how pretty much no one had heard of it, not even the obscure elitist folk fans who would orgasm all over tracks like Paper Mountain Man. This album could've been extremely influential if it had received more attention and lately it sort of has with the recent psych-folk revival which encouraged Vashti to dust off her guitar and thank god it encouraged Perhacs to do so too (she's working on a new album now.)
Favorite Song: Hey, Who Really Cares?
MySpace.com - Linda Perhacs - Los Angeles, US - Folk - www.myspace.com/lindaperhacsdeliciousrain

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Tiago

Your list is more than indietastic my love. <3

Jonz

Pretty good list you've constructed here. Nice choice for No. 20 too

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sleepy jack

I decided i'd post two more since it's friday and i'm bored.

18. Morrissey "Viva Hate"


Popular 80s band breaks up, singer goes solo, bad idea? WRONG! Viva Hate not only proved (thanks to Suedehead) to be more succesful then the Smiths but it proved to be on par with some of their best work. While there's alot of haters for Morrissey's solo stuff (hate I frankly don't understand) it really is amazing stuff and it is much more versatile then the Smiths (not that that's a dig at the smiths) and that's all pretty seeable in just this one release. Morrissey kept the jangle pop (I just learned what that is today ) sound of the Smiths but branched off to do other things like the Joni Mitchell inspired ballad Late Night, Maudlin street, the string Driven Angel, Angel Down We Go Together all the way to the slow and hateful closer Margaret On The Guillotine. Oh and I want to note that Vini Reilly is often uncredited but it should be said he shines on this album. Anyone who can fill Johnny Marr's shoes the way he did on the more Smithsy tracks deserves praise. Viva Hate was the first Morrissey solo album I heard and I think it's my favorite. Though it's very hard to pick a favorite album because when he's solid, he's solid and it should be said that my favorite is off of Your Arsenal.

I remember when I bought this, it was a long drive to California and I was given 50 dollars and told to go buy albums because i'd left everything at home except like a dozen albums or so which wasn't enough. We pulled into the truck stop and the optimistic side of me was hoping maybe they'd have some cheap Johnny Cash compilation. INSTEAD I found a bunch of bad, cliche or cheesy (take your pick) 80s album and I thought "hmm, this'll be fun" amongst those bad 80s albums was Viva Hate and I thought "well the smiths are good, this can't be too bad." I ended up loving it, particularly Everyday is like Sunday since we drove through a variety of coastal towns and it felt like Morrissey had written the song about each and everyone of them. He is right too, there is something strangely depressing about a seaside town out of season.
Favorite Song: Late Night, Maudlin Street
MySpace.com - Morrissey - Alternative / Indie / Rock - www.myspace.com/morrissey


17. Panda Bear "Younger Prayer"


There's beauty in simplicity and this album is a testament to that. It's essentially Noah and his acoustic guitar, creating mellow and ghostly ambient music and I never really know what to say about these sort of albums, especially this one without getting too personal but it just came to me at the right time. I remember several nights just playing it on repeat in my room. It's essentially a eulogy from a son to a father.
Favorite Song: Untitled 6
MySpace.com - panda bear - NEW YORK, New York - Dub / Pop - www.myspace.com/rippityrippity

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mermaid

great choice for #17! i'm enjoying this thread, i'll definitely be checking some of these albums out.

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fool on the hill

Crowquill, good to see CODY is your favourite Mogwai album too-- there are some other good Mogwai songs scattered on their other albums, but that one is solid thru & thru.

Got to see them in Nashville in 2006 (the Mr. Beast tour) and it was pure bliss! One of the best shows I've seen.

~ josh

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sleepy jack

16. The Cure "Disintegration"


When I first heard this album I was a little kid and I liked it alot but after a few years of having to listen to 80s music obsessively I drifted away and kind of tuned out whenever my parents would put something like this on. However a few years after drifting out in my teens for some reason I don't remember, I think I got dumped or something, I had put on Disintegration because sometimes the New York Dolls just don't cut it.

I was amazed by what i'd heard, I was familiar with the album but for some reason the shimmering guitar lines, soulful vocals and breathtaking lyrics were just enchanting and seductive in a way they never were before. The music itself was something that was amazing to me too even without Robert Smith fronting them they could've still evoked feelings which is impressive and they managed to get me to be able to listen to songs that were over five minutes long, another impressive feat. In fact I think the later half of the album is my favorite and all those songs are pretty lengthy. It became my favorite album for awhile after hearing it that night. In closing: Disintegration touched me more than my father ever did. Yes, that's right, I ended this with an incest joke.
Favorite Song: Disintegration
MySpace.com - The Cure - LONDON OR LOS ANGELES, UK - Other / Other / Other - www.myspace.com/thecure


15. Sigur Ros "()"


Sigur Rós's 2002 album often gets called pretentious. Now that isn't just because its post-rock. For one, the tracks are all untitled as is the album. This icelandic bands lyrics aren't there, in fact the vocals consist of a nonexistent language consist of rather repetitive syllables. While that is considered pretentious on it's own I find it to be quiet honest. Taking away the pretty words and using the voice as an instrument, something thats rarely seen. The only problem with this is, its held back by as I stated earlier repetitive noises. Vocally the noises are all the same 'words' just placed in different ways, if you pay too much attention to the vocals the album is apt to annoy you. Now the booklet is just blank pages for listeners to write their interpretation in, pretentious? Yes, but since when has the album art ever really meant that much?

() has two different sides to it, a lighter first half and a darker second half. The first half is more atmosphere focused, full of pianos and ambiance. They spend more time creating textures instead of melodies. Its best not too focus too much on this music and let it play in the background making an easy soundtrack for you to lose yourself in. The second half, is my favorite part. It focuses on building and they create very interesting moments musically. They create this experience when they climax and they form all these spacey moments to some of the most intense guitar work Sigur Ros has ever done.

This album is often hailed as a disappoint, especially after following Ágætis Byrjun. Personally I feel it was a progression, they've managed to be less melodramatic musically. Their climaxes and builds are better executed. The soundscapes can be so warm in songs and so cold in others.
Favorite Song: Untitled VIII (Popplagið)
MySpace.com - Sigur Ros - ReykjavÃ*k - Visual - www.myspace.com/sigurros

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