Funeral to Finish

  It's unclear if this is actually a Big Star album or even an album at all, but it's still one of the most underappreciated and revelatory albums of all time.  In 1974, after having little or no success with Big Star's first two albums, Alex Chilton and drummer Jody Stephens went into the studio in Memphis and recorded a bunch of stuff with a number of studio musicians.  As Chilton's mental state deteriorated, the sessions finally ended and there was a bunch of tape with nowhere to go.  The songs were eventuyally collected and released a number of times on different labels and under different names.  The version that appears on this list appears to be the 1978 PVC Records release, although Rolling Stone's blurb says that "Kanga Roo" closes the album when "Thank You Friends" was actually the final song on that version.   (Some of the tapes were labeled "Sister Lovers," probably because Chilton and Stephens were dating sisters at the tim...

  What the fuck? No. Oh, do I need to elaborate?  There are no circumstances under which this is a Top 500 album, much, much less number 286.  There is no world in which this is a better album than Mr. Tambourine Man or Let It Be or, for the love of god, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea .  This is a mid-range Red Hot Chili Peppers album, which is to say it is utterly predictable, lyrically hilarious, and occasionally memorable.  The fact that this album is on the list and Purple by Stone Temple Pilots, to take a random example, is not, is completely unfair. Those lyrics.  The first song, "Around the World," finds Anthony Kiedis idly flipping through an atlas and finding what places he can rhyme with.  Thus: Bonafide ride Step aside my johnson Yes I could In the woods of Wisconsin Wake up the cake Its a lake shes kissin me As they do when When they do in Sicily LOL.  The oddly titled "Emit Remmus," reportedly written about Kiedis's brief romance wi...

  "These songs all sound exactly the same," my wife said when we were listening to this in the car yesterday and you know what?  She kinda has a point.  When you push a 12-string Rickenbacker up to the highest thing in the mix on every song, yeah, they're all gonna sound the same.  "That's called having a distinctive sound, honey," I replied, and then she pushed me out of the car.  I'm dead now.   We all know that cover songs are popular, and that in the 60's it was trendy to cover songs that had literally just come out like a week earlier, but this album goes beyond.  Not only are more than half the songs covers, most of those are covers of Dylan songs, including the title track.  But, no question, the Byrds gave that song their own spin, changing the key and the arrangement and adding that 12-string, instantly making a classic sound that influenced thousands of bands, including R.E.M., Tom Petty, and the entire Paisley Underground movement ...

  The Modern Lovers, and this album in particular, are perhaps best known for that classic song "Roadrunner."  Even today, almost 50 years later, it still has a propulsive force that just doesn't quit: Oh wait, wrong "Roadrunner."  Although this one (written and sung by Barbara Cameron) also bangs.  No, no, this is the one we want, originally recorded in 1972, with this cool vintage video of cars driving through what I understand is probably mid-60's Boston: Some claim this is the first punk song.  Or maybe the first new wave song?  Whatever it is, it is surely one of the great rock and roll songs of all time.  Young Jonathan Richman, growing up in Natick, Mass., became so enamored of the Velvet Underground that he moved to NYC just to be closer to them.  Amazingly, this cockamamie plan worked and he even got to open for them.  Back in Boston, he put together the Modern Lovers, which would eventually include Jerry Harrison on keys, who would ...

  I had a really interesting (and unusual, for this project) experience with this album, which I had never listened to all the way through before.  The first time I listened to it, I noted the standouts, like "Army of Me," the album opener, which I had heard before and liked quite a bit, and "It's Oh so Quiet," which I had also heard and did not like, specifically its Gap-ad brassiness.  The rest of the album, eh, not so much.  There was some interesting trip-hoppy kind of stuff, and some just avant-weird shit that turned me off. Then I went to bed and then I listened to it again today and I have changed my mind.  This is an excellent, fascinating album.  Maybe I just needed to pay better attention!  In fact, I'm listening to it again right now and I think I like it even better every time.  Everyone knows Bjork has a magical voice, but it's really put to great effect here, really all over the place in the interest of illuminating the songs.  ...

  By 2003, Outkast was already properly regarded as one of the most important rap duos in history.  They had already released Stankonia , which featured "B.O.B.," a single Pitchfork named the best song of the 2000's, and "Ms. Jackson," an instant classic.  How do you follow that up?  With this sprawling, 2-disc collection, almost 40 songs over two hours.  To the extent the Grammys count for anything, this was Album of the Year (and Rap Album of the Year, which I guess naturally follows). The original plan was for two solo albums, one by Big Boi and one by Andre 3000, but they decided to join their work.  Big Boi's half, "Speakerboxxx," is more pop-funky, clearly influenced by New Orleans sounds.  Take "Bowtie," for example, one of the best songs on the album.  It starts off with a blast of horns and a bright chorus of voices.  It literally sounds like a party.  "The Rooster" also sounds like a party, but turns out to be about fa...

  I put this on last night while we were making dinner and I guess I was mildly surprised to find my wife dancing around the kitchen and singing along.  She was absolutely astonished that I had never heard this album before.  "Seriously?" she said.  "You don't know 'Bills, Bills, Bills?'" she asked.  I did not.  I gather this was a popular song!  "Where do you know it from?" I asked her.  The club, of course!  Specifically, she guessed, WPLJ's in Walnut Creek , which now appears to be closed.  (Not entirely surprising, based on the Yelp reviews.)  We were all young once. So no, I didn't know "Bills, Bills, Bills," but that's what you get when you silo yourself musically like I did in the late 90's/early 00's.  It's an interesting song, with a harpsichord-sounding backing track and a complicated, swooping melody, along with the exquisite harmonies that wrote Destiny's Child's checks. She also knew "...