It's hard to pick your favorite music of all time. But I'll try. Scott Ze Reader inspired me to think about the music from my past, the stuff I grew up listening to, the music that was with me during good times & crappy times.
U2 - The Joshua Tree: Best. Album. Ever. - Not a bad song in the bunch, from "Where Streets Have No Name...." to "Exit" to "Mothers Of the Disappeared" to every other tune on this, amazing. "Running To Stand Still." Chills. The first album that made me realize the true power of music.
Radiohead - It's hard to pick my favoreite album, it's either The Bends or OK Computer. I lean toward The Bends because of Blackstar, Fake Plastic Trees & Street Spirit, then again OK Computer has their most amazing song ever (Let Down). Both albums are near perfect.
James - Damn us Americans for failing them every time. They were huge in the UK for their anthems like "Sit Down" but every album that came out here bombed. I'm torn between Seven & Laid as their best, leaning toward Seven because of the song, well, "Seven." Awesome stuff.
New Order - They've had so many great songs over the years. Bizarre Love Triangle is my fave from them, but Your Silent Face, Love Vigilantes, 1963, Temptation, and a slew of others are simply amazing.
Moby - Play: On one of my first trips to California, I bought this album and loved every second of it, had the disc playing as I drove around town, it was like my Los Angeles soundtrack.
Depeche Mode (also known as Depressed Mood in NJ): Music For the Masses. Wow. "Nothing" "Behind The Wheel" and my fave from them, "Never Let Me Down." Runner-up is Violator. One word - "Halo." Need more proof that this album amazes - "Clean." Need another? Go buy it.
**Fun Fact! Violator was playing back in 1991 when I got in a pretty nasty car accident. Ok, I hit a tree. But it was rainy, dark, and I was going way too fast down the mountainous road of Mount Joy, PA. "Enjoy The Silence" was playing when I made contact with the tree (then the steering wheel). Ouch!
INXS - Kick. Great album, every song, from "Guns In The Sky" to "Kick." they never matched this album, now with their new goofy lead singer, they never will. That "Vegas" song is a travesty. It ain't pretty.
Coldplay - Parachutes is a great album, but when I loaded A Rush Of Blood To The Head and the earth-shattering "Politik" began, I was blown away.
10,000 Maniacs - Our Time In Eden - "My How You've Grown" will make you weep, and "Our time In Eden" is simply a beautiful, beautiful song. The whole album is terrific.
REM - Fave album? It's tough. Green came at an important time of my life (high school). "World Leader Pretend," "Hairshirt" and "The Wrong Child" are classics. But Life's Rich Pageant is my fave album from these guys. Check out "Superman" & "Cuyahoga" & "Fall On Me." Automatic For The People is a close 2nd.
The Innocence Mission - From Lancaster, PA. Umbrella is the album to get, has one of my favorite songs EVER on it, "Now In This Hush." Their follow-up, Glow, was another great album. Check them out.
I wonder how my list would change in 10 years. Would bands I'm listening to lately (Youth Group, Arcade Fire, Snow Patrol, Secret Machines, Interpol) make the cut?
How about you guys? What albums/songs have stuck with you?
9 comments:
Soul Asylum's Grave Dancer's Union and Nirvana's Unplugged Album remind me of middle/high school.
The Innocence Mission is one of the bands I tend to listen to when writing.
I want somebody to shove. Great song.
Yeah, Inoocence Mission is certainly inspirational to write to. They're mellow, though, so I'd likely be writing some sort of depressing drama while listening to them.
I often have listened to music and it has inspired a tone, or an ambient setting upon which ideas have flowed-
David bowie & Trent Reznor's 'I'm afraid of Americans' spawned my comic book and a subsequent script (the only baby which will not be touched and the only script I've had offers on and refused)
Radiohead's "Streets" played while I whitled away the first piece of work that got any recognition from anyone, and the first script that I was able to look at and say "this is what I want to do"
I grew up with nirvana, but have never found myself writing with them.
Pink Floyd and Tool in collaboration have enveloped me for countless hours of writing, but usually not scripts.
And Danny Elfman has perhaps brought on the one side I so often stray away from with writing- but that I'll keep to myself.
The last script was all about Cash playing in the background....
God...where would we be without great musicians...
James
Don't listen to music when I write, but I just picked up the soundtrack to "Wicker Park." Never seen the movie, but the bands on it are awesome. Snow Patrol is on there with probably my favorite track.
You forgot the McGuire Sisters and their hit "Bikini Wax Heartache"
Get with it, PJ.
Rock-n-Roll is dead!
System Addict, Street Spirit is amazing sutff there.
Scriptweaver, it was probably their song "Run." Awesome tune. Their new album is good also (just came out).
Go away Enzio, you're boring.
And no, Rock 'N roll isn't dead, thanks.
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Joshua Tree is definitely a desert island pick (1987 represents my year of soul searching)... I still fall back on the classics: Who's Next, Let It Bleed, Rocks and how about from left field April Wine "Nature Of The Beast"
As good as Joshua Tree is, I will always find myself preferring 'Achtung Baby'... 'The Bends' and 'Ok Computer' are amazing...most anything by Steve Earle and Dwight Yoakam (still have never quite figured that one out)...'The Matrix' soundtrack...'Lost Highway' soundtrack...
Some oldies...Van Morrison's 'Astral Weeks' blew me away first time and still moves me...Stones 'Some Girls' and 'Tattoo You' are embedded in memory and culmanated in driving down to Boulder Colorado to see them live... Zeppelin's 'Presence' wasn't their best but defined a time in my life...Costello's 'My Aim Is True'....'Reggatta De Blanc' by the Police ("walking back from your house...walking on the moon")...and Clash's 'London Calling' completed an era of experiencing punk...
could go on and on...
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