Without this assemblage, paradise turns out to be a booorrrrre.
Aug 09 '01
The Bottom Line Take me to your paradise…where we both can enjoy alone the music.
Times are changing, and so is my music collection. From the last posting here I have bought many more CDs. Plenty of which, earn placement here – the best 10 albums.
Of course some albums won’t be known on epinions, as the majority are British led bands, a proud fact for my British self. You might not agree, but the albums below are the best the world of music has given. Included is a link to the reviews – if I haven’t written a review, it’s because the album isn’t there or I haven’t got around to do it – however if it is on the site there’s a link to the page.
® = My Review
10. Amnesiac : Radiohead
Link: http://mikeelectrical.epinions.com/musc_mu-409952
Tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
Key Tracks: You & Whose Army Knives Out Pyramid Song, Life In A Glasshouse.
Statement:
Either Thom Yorke's lyrics are better this time, or the comparative voluptuousness of the vocal performances make it easier to tune in, or we've finally grasped what he's been getting at since abandoning OK Computer's more straightforward man-vs-society musings. Accidentally, perhaps, Amnesiac is an incremental, song-by-song construction of a dream realm full of implied horror, reinforced by nursery rhyme, kiddie phrases and musical irony. Indicative of the latter is Pull Pulk Revolving Doors, where Yorke's treated voice struggles against hard, ragged-edged beats to deliver what at first seems a banal list. "There are sliding doors and there are secret doors," he monotones. "There are doors that lock and doors that don't, there are doors that let you in and out but never open, but there are trapdoors..." At which the bottom falls out of the music and we are left plummeting through space.
They've deconstructed their rock bandness and their appeal is becoming more selective. Maybe this will make them happy. Meanwhile, Yorke sounds as bereft as Bono at the end of Pop or Ian Curtis at the end of Closer. In Amnesiac, he has built a vision of hell: numb, petty, desolate and with no obvious escape route.
9. Know Your Enemy : Manic Street Preachers
Link: ® http://mikeelectrical.epinions.com/content_33086869124
Tracks: 16
Rating: 3/5
Key Tracks: Found That Soul, Intravenous Agnostic, So Why So Sad, Let Robeson Sing, Royal Correspondent, Baby Elian.
Statement:
A sixth instalment of an inspirational series, Know Your Enemy has some of the most morally motivated and historically evocative songs an album could ever have. Such grand references in such songs as Let Robeson Sing are extremely powerful, however this mixed with some unnecessary songs are to its own downfall. However ignorance will help because most track on this impressive album will regain some merits, and its those great songs which are why Manic Street Preachers are one of the greatest bands to date: Found That Soul, So Why So Sad, and Freedom Of Speech Won’t Feed My Children and it is these songs and a six-some more which make this the best album they might have produced, if it weren’t have been for the 4, 5 or maybe 6 others.
8. This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours : Manic Street Preachers
Link: ® http://mikeelectrical.epinions.com/content_34035568260
Tracks: 14
Rating: 5/5 (W/O)
Key Tracks: The Everlasting, If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next, You Stole The Sun From My Heart.
Statement:
As the fifth album, the band seem to have a great rhythm of upholding the standards. There is no track on this album which feels underdone. Each song included has a purpose, and possibly influential background. The words are key: each one jem of a song has a selective message, screaming to be heard, the band are in top form. However the music is somewhat laid back – more acoustic than before, and slightly more bluesy and jazzy. Still it has power and essence any album should have.
7. Renegades : Rage Against The Machine
Link: ® http://mikeelectrical.epinions.com/content_32473452164
Tracks: 12 +2 live
Rating: 4/5
Key Tracks: Kick Out The Jams, Beautiful World, I’m Housin’, How I Could Just Kill A Man.
Statement:
RATM are a Heavy Metal band, no questions asked. What is quite strange for this set, is that many of the songs included are not their own talented originality. Relying on past-timers to give them some new samples to remake – Rage style. But, the gang have done a pretty good job to cover up the tracks with some boastful guitar slashes and drum beats. This sort of music is a real change from the rest of the pack here. There are numerous replica bands which follow in RATM’s footsteps, such as the new breed At The Drive In and perhaps Muse who both indulge in the addictive demolishment of their kit while performing live.
The CD includes two bonus tracks – live of course. The rest is of originality and variety- from Kick Out The Jams to I’m Housin’. Even these tracks are far-flung from themselves – from ‘Metal, to hip hop/rap and even into ballad with spooky Beautiful World. For a guy who has only the final instalment of a great band, this sounds pretty good. It’s a pity the band has split.
6. Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants : Oasis
Link: http://mikeelectrical.epinions.com/content_35103411844
Tracks: 10
Rating: 4/5
Key Tracks:
Statement:
Oasis are seemingly never going to split, though have had some close shaves in the past. From the get go the band have been popular with the fans, from the UK TV show the word - who hosted this Manchester born lot for the very first time live - the band have become increasingly popular. However the critics weren’t persuaded by the mass crowds or Liam and Noel’s obvious brawls. Throughout the years their work had disintegrated, and determined to beat back at the critics Noel got his bro and band mates together to produce what some have called their best work in years.
Go Let It Out and Who feels Love are what prepared the nation for the paramount forthcoming album Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants. This album retains more modern work, rather than the general work in past efforts. Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants is the sound of wealthy rock stars making a valiant and for the most part successful attempt to rediscover their musical cool. Lead-off track F_uckin' In The Bushes proves that Oasis can still come up with the duffest of song titles (Digsy's Dinner, anyone?), yet this psychedelic instrumental sets the poles for the band's new sound. A gene-splice between Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song and Spencer Davis Group's I'm A Man, it has a pounding groove, thanks to Alan White's John Bonhamesque recreation of a drum loop culled from The Jimi Hendrix Experience's BBC Sessions, nicely augmented by a sample lifted from the Isle Of Wight Festival film, and raga-ish sitar flourishes (courtesy of scally pal/chief loopmeister Mark Coyle) that sound as if they've been cribbed from an edition of Ready Steady Go! circa 1966.
5. Ash : Free All Angels
Link: N/A
Tracks: 13
Rating: 4/5
Key Tracks: Burn Baby Burn, Someday, Shark, Nicole.
Statement:
Now here’s something new. A young band, barely past their teens and producing such marvellous and talented work, and what most amazing is how most tracks the lead singer himself writes. This four-piece band – three guys and a gal – have some of the most impressive lyrics ever in a song. There is much a hormonal instinct in many of these songs, its somehow tolerable but done so in such a subtle way: Songs have a meaning or direct influences to how people feel about the band, becoming more personal and even make sense humorously too; Submission: “Sink into warm flesh/ I want to taste your skin/ Want to see you undressed/ and see you shake your thing/ Your bound and helpless/ and burning from within/ there for the taking/ I want to hear you sing” – which follows with the chorus; “you turn me on…”. Walking Barefoot “Your beauty took my breath away/ in awe all day/ Your company was so relaxing/ easygoing ways/ We swathe first signs of summer and/ springtime change/ Walking barefoot along the sand”. Pacific Palisades “You were standing on the shore/ listening to the ocean roar/ Sea breeze tangled in your hair/ Immortal, young and free or cares/ you let the night lull you away/ to dark pacific palisades/ yeah/ Wait for the summer/ It will come round again”. You see the album is full of interesting story-told lyrics; most of them are from Tim Wheeler a guitarist, vocalist and songwriter.
The only shortcoming is that musically they haven’t the combination to give cohesion, to make the lyrics stand tall as they are on their own; despite that the music is of a high quality, dynamic and psychedelic guitars and drums and vocals.
4. The Bends : Radiohead
Link: http://mikeelectrical.epinions.com/musc_mu-183459
Tracks: 12
Rating: 4/5
Key Tracks: Just, Nice Dream, High And Dry.
Statement:
Shunned by a fickle music press after releasing their debut Pablo Honey album in February 1993, Radiohead quietly and determinedly went about their business, touring non-stop in America and ultimately shifting a stunning one million albums worldwide. If the spotlight is bound to be more focused for this release, everything about The Bends is well up to scrutiny. It's a powerful, bruised, majestically desperate record of frighteningly good songs. Singer Thom Yorke's vocal mix of weary angst and strained bewilderment remains bewitching, while the charismatic, shuddering musical storm brewed up by his band is often intoxicating. Such songs here are full of life, spiritually captivating and impressive in many ways, the five-piece band haul their emotions through Just and Planet Telex to the deadly, gripping delicacy of Nice Dream and High And Dry.
3. Stiff Upper Lip : AC/DC
Link: http://mikeelectrical.epinions.com/musc_mu-352593
Tracks: 12
Rating: 4/5
Key Tracks: Can’t Stand Still, Hold Me Back, safe In New York City.
Statement:
In every sense of the word, five years is a long time, in AC/DC terms the last album, Ballbreaker, was released five years before its unpredictable sequel. In traditional AC/DC fashion it hit high in charts, reaching the usual high Top Ten pole. Despite a behemoth of a sound that has barely changed since their 1975 debut, High Voltage, they are not as other bands. For a moment imagine a missing link in the chain, in AC/DC terms a dead lead singer – to be soon replaced with soundalike; Angus Young, an (allegedly) 41-year-old man dressing up as a schoolboy was once quite funny but now it's simply creepy, and they're as elusive as wriggly eels, releasing just two albums in the '90s, although it seemed like more. The crunchy Stiff Upper Lip sees George Young, brother to guitarist Malcolm and Angus, ex-Easybeat and once half of '80s mavericks Flash & The Pan, return as producer. It's his influence which courses through the moments where AC/DC are more than a selection of skullbusting riffs behind a cloth-capped (ie balding) screecher. Three consecutive songs, Hold Me Back, Safe In New York City and the astonishing Can't Stand Still with its insidious guitar motif, display a gall, invention and power that must make Metallica weep, softly. Elsewhere, it's business as usual, but what a mighty business this is. The only negative is that it is still AC/DC same as always.
2. The Hour of Bewilderbeast : Badly Drawn Boy
Link: http://mikeelectrical.epinions.com/musc_mu-390976
Tracks:
Rating:
Key Tracks: Camping Next To Water, Bewilder, The Shining.
Statement:
Oasis imploding, dance music running into it’s own self and teen moppets blasting us with tedious pop. Still Badly Drawn Boy are here, burdened with the usual lo-fi pop which is not quite popular for much the reason it’s a rock band – not boy band. Hour Of The Bewilderbeast comes complete with 18 bittersweet mini-symphonies: songs of love, innocence, ambition and fatalistic slacker futility that strive to reach for the stars while still content to be, as one song admits, P_issing In The Wind. Humble acoustic work from the group, no I mean band are the entrance for quite a set, The Shining which shines bright with all its delicacy, and rare soul. Quirky and curious and inescapably beautiful and shows this Brit band at their best. Delicate high treble jangling help along a modest outlay of lyrical work, and the sympathetic content may have some people open up in wonder. Rhythmically it’s reminiscent of such mobs as Blur and many other eminent bands. This is a happy and sad album that offers plenty for the avid listener.
1. OK Computer : Radiohead
Link: ® http://mikeelectrical.epinions.com/content_35103411844
Tracks: 12
Rating: 6/5
Key Tracks:
Statement:
“Ignorance is bliss” a maxim from The Matrix, and to much revelation it comes true in Ok Computer. Released in late ’97 this album is possibly the best that Radiohead will do for a long time now. When it comes to outright performance the whole album is set to stun. Starting from beginning to end you finds the medium; how moved you are with each song. At most times the surrounding world is only a distraction – you are part of the music, part of the band, its an uplifting experience no-one can escape.
The recording performance has you gasping for air – the no.2 track Paranoid Android - like the majority on this album – will rise dynamically to a point it’s a surprise; the music is only predictable the third or fourth listening. The change in volume from tuneful acoustic guitar to raw electric guitar thrash is awe-inspiring; it has an effect where your wondering how much louder it will get. The most important thing of all is that the whole album is like this, filled with raw passion and is as much exhilarating as moving. The band are on top form, the musical talent is awesome, and is such displayed in a way that you wonder why we listen to those pop moppets.
Bass heads, drum ‘n’ bass nuts, or whatever your particular like will be in this album, not standing out as a common song, but more of originality and flair, Radiohead are the best at producing the most perplexing music ever. The grand scale of the album will be more than enough to do battle with so-loved bands of the past. Track no.6 Karma Police will have you dancing while the concluding line-ups will set your heart alit with captivated emotion.
Never have I heard such brilliance from a band; proudly displayed as the best that Britain can give. That is coupled to a voice of such prominence from Thom Yorke- who plays out as a superb singer, having an extended play throughout – the lyrics in the booklet are the way they are sung, lots of this: Paranoid Android “aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaambition makes you look very ugly/ kicking screaming Gucci little piggy/ you don’t remember/ why don’t you remember my name / off with his head./ off with his head man” and so on its not the greatest line in the album I know- but it does sound great.
Evaluation
As it turns out the greatest songs I have ever bought. You may sneer the way I have the ratings out of order, but that is done intentionally. The way I want you people to see this is this: Each album up until the No.1 has a set of good and bad points, ending with the most consistent for the finals.
To start of with you have Amnesiac a very good example of good music, however the album is not completely so, as OK Computer is. Next Know Your Enemy a perfect example of an album so good the band over did it, leading to unnecessary gimmicked and ill-performed added tracks. Following in the flow – the older album is better, in this case This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, which is clearly better than the latest release.
The following albums from Oasis Rage Against The Machine and Ash each show what music is all about – RATM have a good blend of musical input – little originality though and little lyrical innovation, however Ash and Oasis have very good lyrics, yet don’t hit the spots in music terms.
Next along the line is AC/DC, Radiohead and Badly Drawn Boy each showing more cohesion to the musical and lyrical side of things – however the lack of originality form AC/DC’s Stiff Upper Lip, the almost seamless – except for one or two tracks Radiohead The Bends and the pretty good Badly Drawn Boy – which is not as extended to feelings as OK Computer is.
The feelings in OK Computer are expanded to such a point that the whole album has it all – fear, energy, excitements, emotion, horror, and plenty more which depends on your persona. Lyrically the album is a big hit, though doesn’t come to the message in a bottle from This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, but pouts in a good fuse with the excellent music.
One other merit that Radiohead deserves to be acquitted with is their no-use of swearwords – all other bands here use them.
Each album here deserves to be bought, however most deserving is OK Computer by Radiohead, in my opinion the best album of all time
[Copyright 2001 MichaelHatton]
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Epinions.com ID:
MichaelHatton
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Location: Darlington, England
Reviews written: 192
Trusted by: 59 members
About Me:
Retired
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