As of the end of 2011, although it doesn't really change much. I'm pretty consistent with these choices, I'm not one of these guys who changes their mind every five minutes - one minute Pink Floyd are the best band ever and then the next day the Backstreet Boys are, I've never quite gotten that... I should probably listen to more stuff to be honest, I'd much rather whack one of these albums on than listen to something that I've never heard before... just to be safe, y'know? Wouldn't want to waste 45 minutes listening to something new when I could just hear something that I've heard 100 times before, right...? Yeah, these albums have been in and around my top five for quite some time now... they're all pretty old now - each is at least ten years old, only one was released post-millennium and one was actually released before me... so to speak. I don't dislike modern music; I personally think that 2011 has produced a number of brilliant albums; but I'd definitely say that music from around the 1990's was far superior, and I do find it quite difficult to put an album in my 'all-time top five' when it's only been out for a few months. I'm just silly and quirky like that, it might change eventually, who knows. :)
I'll uh, go into a bit of detail on them all I guess, saying what it means to me and how good it is and how it saved humanity, etcetera etcetera. I'll even say my 'highlights' because I'm THAT nice, my favourite three songs off the album. I really recommend all of these if you're quite into rock music, I doubt you'll be disappointed. :)
Right, here goes. Grab your popcorn and a nice drink guys, this is going to be absolutely thrilling.
Okay, starting with number five...
5. The Stone Roses (The Stone Roses, 1989)
First things first, the title. Don't name an album after yourselves. Weezer have done it about five times, it's confusing, lazy and generally looks a bit rubbish. Could they really not think of anything better? Even if it is a début album, surely just naming it after a song or something would've been a better last resort? I mean, look at that above, I felt a right idiot writing the same thing twice. Is the first one the album title or the band? YOU'LL NEVER KNOW. Sorry, pet hate.
And that's pretty much where my criticism of this album ends, now I can praise it to the high heavens. Held in the highest regard to this day by critics as one of the finest albums of all time, almost everything about this album is absolutely glorious. For a start, look at the cover - I have no idea what the significance of those lemons is, but lemons just generally appeal to me. It's one of my favourite album covers ever, it's so iconic and just generally a great piece of art, and the fact that lead guitarist John Squire actually painted it himself really says something about how much effort was actually put into this album - it actually took the band quite some time to make this, a number of demo tracks from the mid-eighties have since been released that were not deemed good enough for inclusion on the album by the band - they didn't want to release the album until they thought it was practically perfect. It is.
From the instantly-recognisable bassline of "I Wanna Be Adored" kicking the album off to the famous guitar outro of "I Am The Resurrection" finishing things off, it's classic after classic. There are a few odd songs on the album - "Don't Stop" is essentially just the previous track "Waterfall" played backwards and "Elizabeth My Dear" isn't even a minute long, but there certainly isn't a bad track on the album and I don't ever find myself skipping any - each track compliments each other and has its own unique charm and appeal, and despite an obvious consistency in Ian Brown's iconic vocals no two songs really sound same. Pretty much every track on the album could be considered one of the band's 'best' - as of today they've only ever released two full studio albums so even lesser hits such as "Made of Stone" and simple album tracks like "This Is The One" are held in the highest regard by fans, and rightly so.
Right, I'm going to try and not write too much, I'm far too good at chatting bubbles. With the recent Stone Roses reunion announcements you can be expecting to hear songs off this album to death in the coming months, so you might as well just familiarise yourself with it in the first place... come on, you know you want to. I could go through the album track-by-track telling you how great it is, but it'd be a far better use of my time and yours if you just listened to it and saw for yourself... come on, I've still got four more albums to do yet, argh.
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| Come on, they just wanna be adored. |
My highlights from this album are opening track "I Wanna Be Adored", fan favourite "Made Of Stone" and epic eight-minute closing anthem "I Am The Resurrection".
4. Dizzy Up The Girl (The Goo Goo Dolls, 1998)
Wait, no, come back! I'm not going to rattle on about the cover art more than the actual album this time, promise...
You might not have heard of the Goo Goo Dolls, but don't be put off by the admittedly rubbish band name - they're awesome. Well, you've probably heard of "Iris", the eleventh track of the album, from X Factor or something, and while it is a great song it is generally the only Goo Goo Dolls song that's well known, kind of like their "Creep" or "Bitter Sweet Symphony" or "Smells Like Teen Spirit". That's another pet hate of mine, when bands are just known for one really typical song that generally isn't even their best song... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. That's me being mad.
This is probably the only album on this list that includes songs that I don't really care for - "Bullet Proof" and "Full Forever" really don't interest me that much, but most of the other songs make up for it. A fine collection of poppy alternative rock songs makes for a good cheerful album, as the don't tend to drag on and are all pretty catchy, and bassist Robby Takac providing punk-style lead vocals on a few tracks adds some welcome variation. Something that I really love is when an album ends well - while the majority of the album's singles are located at the front end of the track listing, closing track "Hate This Place" is certainly worthy of a mention, my personal favourite song of theirs. There's a nice difference in styles too, ranging from fast paced rock songs such as "Dizzy" and "Amigone" to slower acoustic numbers such as "Acoustic #3". It's a bit different to other things that I like, less technical and softer, but it's definitely worth a look if you fancy something a bit easy on the ears. Hey, I'm all for soppy love songs. Sometimes.
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| They won't be winning any awards for hair any time soon, but at least they know how to make a good album. |
For me, the best tracks are hit single "Slide", shortest track "Acoustic #3" and the aforementioned closing track, "Hate This Place".
3. The Bends (Radiohead, 1995)
I'm not even going to start on the cover art of this one, it's always freaked me out a bit actually. I'm also already getting worried about having to pick only three favourite tracks off this one, give me a minute?
If you listen to modern day Radiohead and then listen to The Bends, you'd be shocked that it was the same band. Whilst I'm still a huge fan of the 'new', more experimental and electronic-influenced Radiohead that has been present since 2000's Kid A (another brilliant album that I highly recommend), I'd have to say that their earlier, more 'rocky' work present on The Bends and 1997's OK Computer is my favourite style of Radiohead. Incidentally, it was very tough to choose between this and OK Computer, but I think this just about wins for me. My excessive use of italics in this paragraph might just about summarise how much I like Radiohead. You might think they're weird, and you're not far off, but give them a bit of time and soon enough you'll love them. Probably.
After their début album Pablo Honey (1993) failed to impress on a large scale, The Bends was the album that really established Radiohead as a force to be reckoned with in the 1990's alternative rock scene. While songs from their first album were quickly discarded by the band, hits from this effort such as title track "The Bends" and emotional closing track "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" still appear in the band's setlists to this day as well as their 2008 'best of' collection. An exciting and varied range of calm acoustic numbers such as "(Nice Dream)", heavier rock songs like "My Iron Lung" and the more typical Radiohead style songs mixing in computerised elements like "Planet Telex" makes an extremely enjoyable listening experience, constantly illuminated by front man Thom Yorke's terrifying vocal range. It's one of those albums that you could listen to every day for a week and probably not bored of. I mean, I'm not promising anything, but The Bends is certainly a masterpiece that is well worth your time.
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| Again, they won't be winning many awards for looks, but I'm sure the knowledge that they've produced some of the most critically acclaimed music of all time makes up for it a bit.
Do I have to pick? Ugh... uh, can you not come back in a few days? Okay okay okay okay, my three favourite tracks from The Bends are title track "The Bends", slower number "Black Star" and yet again I'm going for the closing track of an album, this time with the fantastic "Street Spirit (Fade Out)".
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2. Origin of Symmetry (Muse, 2001)
That is some mighty fine cover art. I think it's supposed to be an alien planet ruled by technology or something, I remember reading it somewhere... whatever, it looks cool.
I could just copy the first paragraph for the previous album really and change a few words, it's practically the same thing. Like The Bends this is Muse's second album, the one that got them the attention of the world after their less impressive début (Showbiz, 1999, is actually a great album). It's also quite different from their modern work and yes, I prefer the earlier, heavier Muse to the more recent Twilight soundtracks and stuff. The new stuff is still brilliant, but I'd like to see them try and better Origin of Symmetry - it's pretty special.
Considered by many to be the definite Muse album, Origin of Symmetry spawned a number of classics that are still very much staples of the band's sets in the present day including the unique "Bliss", fan favourite "Plug In Baby", and a fabulous version of Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley's "Feeling Good". Again, the album provides a varied listening experience as the band experiment with a number of different styles and instruments, ranging from the atmospheric piano intro of opening track "New Born" quickly exploding into an electrifying guitar riff to the slow pipe organ-based closing track, "Megalomania".
The album was also made with live performances in mind, supporting the views of many that Muse remain one of the greatest live bands. I was lucky enough to be near the front of the crowd at the 2011 Leeds Festival where Origin of Symmetry was played in its entirety for the first time ever and while I may have lost a few brain cells and picked up a fair few bruises that night, it was an unforgettable experience and I seriously urge anyone to see Muse live should they ever be presented with the opportunity. Every song sounded even better than it does on the album, and I can pretty much assure you that after just a few listens you'll be completely in love with Origin of Symmetry. It's also the only reason I know how to spell 'symmetry', which I'm quite grateful for. Two 'm's, who would've thought.
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| Doing their thing on stage at Leeds - they even had those uh, big... fork... things from the album cover on the stage with them! Ps. I was there, hah hahahahah haha ha haha hah. |
Right, my three favourite tracks from Origin of Symmetry are opening track "New Born", probably "Space Dementia", and the colossal seven-minute "Citizen Erased" which has always been my favourite Muse track.
Drum roll please...
1. Definitely Maybe (Oasis, 1994)
Toniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggggghhhhttttt, I'm a rock and roll staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrr...
I adore Oasis. They're my favourite band, have been for ages, and always will be. I could literally listen to this album on a constant loop for a week and not get bored of it. In fact...
Constantly heralded as the greatest début album of all time, I'd actually go one further and say it's the best album of all time, end of. Every track oozes charm and character, and after just a few listens you'll be humming along to impossibly catchy songs like "Columbia" or "Digsy's Dinner" on the bus for the rest of the week. While their following album (What's The Story) Morning Glory? (1995) produced the band's most hits and is admittedly practically perfect in itself, I'd say that Definitely Maybe just about beats it. In all honesty, (What's The Story) Morning Glory? is probably deserving of a place on this list too, but I agreed that I wouldn't do more than one album from the same artist, to avoid bias and all that.
While more recent years saw the admittedly more talented Noel Gallagher take lead vocals on a number of tracks, Definitely Maybe really does capture the best of younger brother Liam before all of the issues within the band were as public. Each of the eleven tracks flows together perfectly as Liam Gallagher's vocals range from the high-pitched chorus of anthem "Live Forever" to the intense, passionate "Slide Away". There's also a variation on the playing too which keeps the album interesting and appealing to listen to, with Noel Gallagher's compositions ranging from the raw, acoustic "Married With Children" to the T-Rex inspired "Cigarettes & Alcohol". It's songwriting at it's very best, and any track of this album could've easily been put out as a successful single due to the tried-and-tested formula adopted by Gallagher to craft a number of classic British rock songs that makes for a great 52 minutes of music. You'll almost certainly know at least a few songs off this album, and I strongly urge you to listen to the entire thing. And then when you're finished, listen to it again. And again.
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| You and I are gonna live forever... where did it all go wrong? |
My three highlights of Definitely Maybe are the incredible "Live Forever", my favourite song ever "Supersonic" and "Slide Away"; easily one of the most underrated songs of all time.
And that concludes my list for now, hope you've enjoyed reading it. :)
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