[Some of] My Favorite Albums (Part 1 of 3)

This list is by no means complete or accurate, but it is a fair reflection of my favorite albums. You will disagree. That's fine. Just remember that I have a bigger dick, and that I am probably correct about the music too. Winky face.

Starting at the bottom of the list:

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#13.
NIRVANA: UNPLUGGED IN NEW YORK (1994)

Now don't let the position of this album on the list fool you, it is a great album. On beautiful acoustic and piano riffs, Nirvana rolls through some of their own hits, and does some really really good covers of songs that you otherwise never would have heard of. Cobain compliments the smooth rolling jams with soft vocals, instead of his typical throaty grunge voice. It is also significant because it was the first Nirvana album released after Kurt Cobain's death, in a way marking the end of the grunge period.

Favorite Lyrics: "Where do bad folks go when they die? They don't go to heaven where the angels fly. They go to a lake of fire and fry." - Lake of Fire.

Album Cover: Average. When I was young I also remember studying the album cover, looking at all of the instruments and people. There's a lot going on on that album cover.

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#12.

NEIL YOUNG: AFTER THE GOLDRUSH (1970)

This is an album filled with great songs. "Southern Man," "Don't Let it Bring You Down," "Tell Me Why," and of course, "After the Goldrush" make this album very memorable. Generally a slow album, it has a contemplative feel to it. He writes about castles, knights and days of yore -- which I'm sure are metaphors to modern day life, but the drug-induced translation is lost on me. Neil Young's peculiar voice and slow acoustic, along with a hard snare makes this a very balanced album. It has classic songs and a folksy feel.

Favorite Lyrics: "Thinkin' about what a friend had said, and I was hopin' it was a lie." - After the Gold Rush. "Don't let it bring you down, it's only castles burning." - Don't Let it Bring You Down.

Album Cover: Forgettable. Black and white inverted, and walking in front of a fence? Wtf.

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#11
GUNS N ROSES: USE YOUR ILLUSION II (1991)

This album opens up with the very epic song "Civil War." It tells the story of miscommunication and tragedy, with sweeping guitar riffs and heavy percussion. The album rolls into "14 Years" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." It goes through some harder songs, and in my opinion hits its apex with "Estranged" -- one of my favorite songs. It is a long song, an epic, not sure exactly what it's about, but it has really good piano thrown in. This album came out in the latter years of Guns N Roses' existence. They had put out Appetite for Destruction (1987) already, which is their hallmark album. In my opinion it is their more mature material, and marks the end of their time as a major force in hard rock.

Favorite Lyrics: "When I find out all the reasons, maybe I'll find another way, find another day, with all the changing seasons of my life, maybe I'll get it right, next time." - Estranged

Album Cover: Average/good. It contrasts with Use Your Illusion I (1991), which is the exact same cover but yellowish/orange. It's identifiable as the counterpart to the two-part series of albums which were released at the same time (and a true fan knows that this is the better one). I like the vertical text.

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#10
AC/DC: HIGHWAY TO HELL (1979)

Note: We are now in the top ten, strap on your seat-belts everybody. AC/DC's Highway to Hell was their last album with singer Bon Scott. They were about to explode onto the 1980's scene, but were met with tragedy. This didn't stop them from still being amazing. They picked up singer Brian Johnson and put out Back in Black (1980), a tribute to Bon Scott. It is the second highest selling album of all time in the world, behind Thriller (1982) by Michael Effin' Jackson. But anyway, back to Highway to Hell. This album is a fun rock album, including the songs "Touch too Much," "Shot Down in Flames," "Walk All Over You," and "Highway to Hell." It is the perfect album for cruising down the highway with the windows down on a warm day, or while grilling up hot dogs and hamburgers and playing football in the backyard with Brett Favre and blue-jeans. America.

Favorite Lyrics: "No stop signs, speed limit, nobody's gunna slow me down. Like a wheel, gunna spin it, nobody's gunna mess me around. Hey Satan, paid my dues, playin' in a rockin' band. Hey momma, look at me, I'm on my way to the promised land." - Highway to Hell.

Album Cover: Weird and amusing, especially after knowing that they are all basically midgets (all hovering around the 5' 0" range).

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Bollocks. I was going to do the list in one giant post, but I'm lazy and this is taking awhile. I'll complete it in two more installments. You will have to wait to find out the genius album selections I make, and not like them (probably). Until then, sex.


Post comments below, and please follow this sexy-ass blog. It goes to eleven.

The Arcade Fire

Simply put: The Arcade Fire. You don't need adjectives like "awesome" or "amazing" or "bonerific" to describe this band. These words, and more, are intrinsic to the name Arcade Fire. They are one of my favorite bands, and they should be one of your favorites too. (at least in your top five, like me)

This is a good playlist: We Used to Wait, 

Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains),

The Suburbs, Neon Bible, and Wake Up

Arcade Fire has released one EP and three LPs. The EP is called simply "The Arcade Fire EP" (2003). And the three LPs are Funeral (2004), Neon Bible (2007), and The Suburbs (2010). I recommend checking out these albums in their entirety, because they are all really that good. I'll provide a few details below.

Funeral (2004)

Favorite songs: Wake Up, Haiti, and Rebellion (Lies). 

If you are thinking about buying an Arcade Fire album, I'd go with this one first. I think it's a good starting place. Rolling Stone magazine ranked the album #6 on the list of greatest albums of the decade (2000s), beat out only by a bunch of garbage (i.e. Radiohead's Kid A, The Strokes' Is This It, Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Jay-Z's The Blueprint, and the White Stripes' Elephant). This critic refers to those albums as garbage, garbage, garbage, garbage, and garbage, respectively.

It was also ranked #8 in a book titled The Top 200 Canadian Albums by Bob Mersereau. It ranked high in the mix, near the top with albums like Harvest (#1) and After the Goldrush (#3) by Neil Young, and Moving Pictures (#9) and 2112 (#17) by RUSH. This was quite an impressive feat considering the monster-legacy and mega-epicness of those artists.

Neon Bible (2007)

Favorite songs: Intervention, Windowsill, and Keep the Car Running. 

This was my first Arcade Fire album. I was introduced to Intervention and Keep the Car Running while laying on the floor of my dorm room during sophomore year of college. I was really drunk and watching SNL. They were the guest band and really stood out. During that time of my life they had a big impact on me. Thanks for being you Arcade Fire.

The Suburbs (2010)

I think they released the album with

multiple different covers, which is unique.

Favorite songs: The Suburbs, We Used to Wait, and Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains).

This is their newest album, and I think it is my favorite album of theirs. I think I read somewhere that when they mixed the CDs, they took the sound off of records to try and give that "vinyl sound" too it. I'm not sure if that actually works, but I appreciate the effort regardless. Either way, the album sounds great. I picked up a copy on vinyl too, and that makes me feel special, so yay.

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I was fortunate enough to see Arcade Fire this year in Madison Square Garden with my good buddy Eric Sedler. We lucked out and saw them the second night of their performance, which they were filming for the "Unstaged" series of music videos. The entire concert was filmed. It was awesome. You can find the videos on Youtube.

I can't really say enough good things about this band. I really suggest checking them out. Their only downside is that they are Canadian (just like RUSH and Neil Young). What's that all aboot? I'm just glad that they don't sell their CDs with gravy on them. Whatever, I still love them (you too RUSH and Neil Young). xoxo