95. Kick Out the Jams – MC5

Most known for the title track, this is actually not just one of the best songs, but one of the best albums I’ve listened to. My one true love is garage rock, and the MC5 are the grandfathers and granddaddies of garage rock. Referenced to as “protopunker” because this record was released before the calendrial advent of punk, incorrectly placed on the time line of music, it should be referenced to as “proto-awesome”.

Recorded live, the energy infuses the records as it starts and never lets go. Falsetto vocals – check. Crunching guitars – check. Blatant profanity – check. Controversy and  true rock ‘n roll response – check.

From “Ramblin’ Rose”, the falsetto first track, through the well-known and appreciated “Kick Out the Jams”, and over a little dip into “Rocket Reduced No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa), it’s one of the best rides of all time, and it’s just half way there! While the last part of the album might not be as strong, it is on the whole a performance with swagger and tight pants. Doesn’t get much better live than this, and Kick Out the Jams is number 95. on my list of the 100 best albums I’ve listened to.

Go ahead and check out Kick Out the Jams at Amazon.com.

 

96. Sonic Youth – Dirty

While some albums have aged in my collection like fine claret, I can’t say that “Dirty” is better with the years. While it hasn’t turned to vinegar, far from it, it is clear to me that it has lost some of its punch. Now, like Kim Gordon, it’s still cool, but I have more respect than love for it.

The album is a sampling of splendid noise, with Gordon, Moore, Ranaldo and Shelley wrenching, purring, and distorting their way through 15 songs. It is the album that turned me on to noise-rock, and the collision of hard and soft, rough and gentle is masterful. Produced by Butch Vig, more than a little of the same approach can be detected in Garbage albums later on.

The album is at its best when listened to as a whole, rather than in parts. However, “100%”, “Créme Brûlèe”, “Youth Against Fascism”, “Sugar Kane”, and “Drunken Butterfly” are some of my personal favorites. The contrast from song to song is what makes this album great, so spring for the whole package if you can.

You can get Dirty here (at amazon for those with filthy minds in need of a postscript)

 

97. Pet Sounds – The Beach Boys

This would probably be the least surprising inclusion so far for many. Pet sound has for the last 40 years or so been ranked as one of the best, if not the best album of all time. The influences of this album are far to numerous to mention (i.e. I can’t be bothered to google all of them, but you can go ahead if you want), and like modern philosophy can be construed as a thesis/antithesis to Socrates, much modern pop music has been made trying to better Brian Wilson’s masterpiece. Few, if any, have succeeded.

And yet, there is no way to get around gushing about the pure wonder of this album. If the object of art is to move us toward emotions, even to evoke certain emotions independently of our own experiences, this album is art at its finest. The beauty of the arrangements and harmonies are simply out of this world, the happiness and sadness conveyed wondrous.

“Caroline, No”, “God Only Knows”, and “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder) get me misty just thinking about them. If you have ever listened to an artist or an album so much that you can go through it in about three minutes, you can relate. And the rest are just as good. So go, if you don’t own this album, get it, listen to it. If it doesn’t appeal to you now, come back in a year or two years. It will.

Pet Sounds at amazon.com

 

98. Wilco – Summerteeth

Ok, it might not be the Wilco album that grabbed all the headlines. It sold about 200,000 copies, which wasn’t a lot. And it is a deeply personal album, several songs concerning Jeff Tweedy’s marriage and relationship with his wife. So perhaps I’m influenced by where I was in my life when I first experienced this album.

But still, I will always put on the song “Nothing’severgonnastandinmyway(again)” whenever I’m feeling down and powerless. “Via Chicago” reminds me of good times in the Second City and breaking up with my girlfriend (again). And the pure beautiful of “She’s a Jar”, “A Shot in the Arm” and “I’m Always in Love” can’t be argued against.

It might be an overproduced album to some fans of Wilco. It isn’t produced by my favorite, Jim O’Rourke. Sure, “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” and “A Ghost is Born” received more media hype and sold more. And they’re not bad albums by any standard, but “Summerteeth” is the most beautiful, the most accessible and my personal favorite.

Get Summerteeth at amazon.com

 

99. Queens of the Stone Age – Rated R

Well, it might not be one of the 100 greatest albums ever made, or even one of the 100 qualitywise best I’ve heard, but there’s one reason this makes my list of the 100 best albums I’ve listened to. That one reason, my friends, is awesomeness.

There are some wierd songs on here, one repeated twice briefly, but the core of this album is pure and unadulterated raw rock – rawk if you will – with the mindset that this is the best thing ever. And it might be.

‘Songs for the Deaf’ might have a better drummer and stronger songs on the whole, but ‘Rated R’ has the two songs I will never stop listening to – ‘The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret’ and ‘Quick and to the Pointless’. Mark Lanegan and some other guy from Screaming Trees show up on the record to, which is important to some people, but it is the combination of Homme/Oliveri/insanity that makes this record blow my mind.

Whenever I need something to put me in a good mood, this album is the first I reach for.

You can get Queens of the Stone Age – Rated R from amazon.com. Or you can save your cash for something better.

 

100. Pixies – Doolittle

100. Pixies – Doolittle. It’s time for the 100 best albums I have ever listened to, in no particular order. And clocking in at number 100, it’s the Pixies. What can I say, wow.

This is one of the few albums that blew my mind. I mean, it absolutely left me speechless. From the opening of “Debaser” to the closing og “Gouge Away” I was absolutely riveted. When it was finished I got up, walked over to the CD-player, and pressed play to hear it again. Almost as good the second time around. Absolutely fantastic and unforgettable.

For me it is a masterpiece, not only from the lyrics – which allows me to namedrop Salvador Dali and pals – or the bass, or the guitar, or even just the noise. It is a tapestry of sound that predates grunge by so many years it’s not even funny. Black Francis doesn’t sound like any other singer, the music isn’t complicated, which doesn’t mean it can’t be complex and interwoven.

It contains one of my absolute favorite songs of all time – No. 13 Baby  (what, you thought “Here Comes Your Man”?) – and for all lovers of not-so-mainstream this is an absolute treat of structured insanity. Listen to the lyrics, then listen to the bass, then listen to the guitar, then listen to it all. Perfection.

All in all it is one of the most exciting experiences I have ever had, and I can recommend this album to all others, even if you just get one fifth of what I got from it. At number 100, “Doolittle” by the Pixies.

If you like, you can get this from amazon.com: DOOLITTLE. Or any other place that sells quality music.